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Lot #147
Woodrow Wilson

Written a day before the Treaty of Versailles

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Estimate: $300+
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Description

Written a day before the Treaty of Versailles

TLS as president, one page, 7 x 8.75, embossed presidential letterhead, June 27, 1919. Written from Paris, a letter to Major Douglas Johnson, in full: "I have your letter of yesterday with the accompanying memorandum, and find myself in substantial agreement with all that you urge. I have recently sent a brief memorandum to my colleagues of the American Peace Delegation which is substantially along the same lines, through perhaps even a little more drastic and uncompromising. I am going to send your memorandum to Mr. Lansing as a commentary and am sure it will be most useful. Thank you very much." In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.

The fruition of President Wilson's Fourteen Points famously established the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, with the League's charter later incorporated into the conference's WWI-dissolving Treaty of Versailles. Representatives of each country signed the treaty in June 1919, but for the United States to accept its conditions, it had to be ratified by Congress. The Senate majority leader, Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican from Massachusetts, opposed the treaty, specifically the section regarding the League of Nations, and argued that the United States would give up too much power under the League of Nations. As a response, Lodge drafted fourteen reservations—to match President Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Wilson's opposition to any amendments or reservations of the treaty subsequently concluded with its final rejection on March 19, 1920.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autographs and Artifacts
  • Dates: #597 - Ended December 09, 2020





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