was read at the Jackson Day dinner in
Washington, in which he refused to accept the decision of the Senate as
final and said: "There can be no reasonable objection to
interpretations accompanying the act of ratification itself. But when
the treaty is acted upon, I must know whether it means that we have
ratified or rejected it. We cannot rewrite this treaty. We must take
it without changes which alter its meaning, or leave it, and then,
after the rest of the world has signed it, we must face the unthinkable
task of making another and separate kind of treaty with Germany." In
conclusion he declared: "If there is any doubt as to what the people of
the country think on this vital matter, the clear and single way out is
to submit it for determination at the next election to the voters of
the nation, to give the next election the form of a great and solemn
referendum, a referendum as to the part the United States is to play in
completing the settlements of the war and in the prevention in the
future of such outrages as Germany attempted to perpetrate."

During the last week of January a compromise was discussed by an
informal by-partisan committee, and the President wrote a letter saying
he would accept the Hitchcock reservations, but Lodge refused to accept
any compromise. On February 9 the Senate again referred the treaty to
the Committee on Foreign Relations with instructions to report it back
immediately with the reservations previously adopted. After several
weeks of fruitless debate a fifteenth reservation, expressing sympathy
for Ireland, was added to the others, by a vote of 38 to 36. It was as
follows: "In consenting to the ratification of the treaty with Germany
the United States adheres to the principle of self-determination and to
the resolution of sympathy with the aspirations of the Irish people for
a government of their own choice adopted by the Senate June 6, 1919,
and declares that when such government is obtained by Ireland, a
consummation it is hoped is at hand, it should promptly be admitted as
a member of the League of Nations."

With a few changes in the resolutions previously adopted and an
important change in the preamble, the ratifying resolution was finally
put to the vote March 19, 1920. The result was 49 votes for and 35
against. On the following day the secretary of the Senate was
instructed by a formal resolution to return the treaty to the President
and to inform him that the Senate