ullified." Just because it lay nearest Wilson's heart, it was the
article against which the most virulent attacks of the "die-hards" were
directed.

The President denounced the reservation on Article X, as a "knife-thrust
at the heart of the covenant," and its inclusion in the ratifying
resolution of the Senate, spelled the defeat of ratification. On the eve
of voting he wrote to Senator Hitchcock, leader of the Democratic forces
in the Senate, "I assume that the Senators only desire my judgment upon
the all-important question of the resolution containing the many
reservations of Senator Lodge. On that I cannot hesitate, for, in my
opinion, the resolution in that form does not provide for ratification
but rather for nullification of the treaty. I sincerely hope that the
friends and supporters of the treaty will vote against the Lodge
resolution of ratification." The "mild reservationists" led by McCumber
voted with the Lodge group for the resolution; but the "bitter-enders,"
combining with the supporters of the original treaty, outnumbered them.
The vote stood thirty-nine in favor of the resolution and fifty-five
against. When a motion for unconditional ratification was offered by
Senator Underwood, it was defeated by a vote of fifty-three to
thirty-eight.

The Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee had succeeded far
beyond the hopes of their leaders in August. They had killed the treaty,
but in such an indirect fashion as to confuse the public and to fix upon
the President the blame for delaying the peace. It was easy to picture
the obstinacy of the President as the root of all the evil which
resulted from the political and economic uncertainty overhanging our
European relations. So widespread was this feeling among his natural
opponents, that the Republican Senators began to assume a far loftier
tone, and to laugh at the tardy efforts of the Democrats to arrange a
compromise. When Senator Pomerene, after consultation with Administration
leaders, proposed the appointment of a "committee of conciliation," to
find a basis of ratification that would secure the necessary two-thirds
vote, the motion was killed by forty-eight to forty-two. Senator Lodge
announced that he would support the resolution suggested by Knox, which
would end the war by congressional resolution and thus compel Wilson to
negotiate a separate treaty of peace with Germany.

Intelligent public opinion, however, was anxious that the quarrels of