e churches and colleges support of the League commanded an
overwhelming majority.

Convinced that the people were behind him against the Senate, or would
be behind him if they understood the issue, the President left
Washington on September 3 for another appeal to the country. Declaring
that if America rejected the League it would "break the great heart of
the world," he went to the Pacific Coast on a long and arduous speaking
tour, another request, in effect, for a vote of confidence for his work
as Premier. The effort was too much; he broke down at Wichita, Kan., on
September 26, and was hurried back to the White House, where for weeks
he lay disabled by an illness whose nature and seriousness were
carefully concealed at the time, and even yet but imperfectly
understood. Meanwhile the treaty had been reported out of committee,
and the offering of a multitude of amendments, all of which were
defeated, led eventually to the drawing up of the "Lodge reservations,"
finally adopted on November 16.

Nobody knew how sick the President was, but Senator Hitchcock, who had
led the fight for the treaty in the Senate, saw him on November 18 and
was told that in the President's opinion the Lodge reservations
amounted to nullification of the treaty. So the Democrats voted against
the treaty. Lodge's refusal to accept Wilson's treaty was as unshakable
as Wilson's refusal to accept Lodge's treaty. When the special session
ended and the regular session began the President eventually yielded a
little and consented to interpretative reservations proposed by Senator
Hitchcock. But this would not satisfy the Republicans; and on March 20
the rejected treaty was finally sent back to the White House.

_The Closing Year, 1920-1921_

The President's recovery was slow, and the first incidents of his
return to the management of public affairs were rather startling, in
view of the abrupt manner with which he resumed the direction of
executive policy. During his illness the Cabinet had met from time to
time and in a fashion had carried on the routine work of the executive
department. Had it not done so, had the gravity of the President's
illness been generally known, the demand which was heard for an
explanation of the constitutional reference to the "disability of the
President" and an understanding of the circumstances under which the
Vice-President might assume the office would have been much stronger.
There was a good deal of apprehensio