nably be defeated, but I wonder if they
will ever understand what it lets them in for.'" (Senate Doc. 106,
66th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1276.)

It does not seem an unwarranted conjecture that the President believed
that this statement, which was asserted by Mr. Bullitt to be from a
memorandum made at the time, indicated that I had been unfaithful to
him. He may even have concluded that I had been working against the
League of Nations with the intention of bringing about the rejection of
the Covenant by the Senate. If he did believe this, I cannot feel that
it was other than natural in the circumstances, especially if I did not
at once publicly deny the truth of the Bullitt statement. That I could
not do because there was sufficient truth in it to compel me to show
how, by slight variations and by omissions in the conversation, my words
were misunderstood or misinterpreted.

In view of the fact that I found it impossible to make an absolute
denial, I telegraphed the President stating the facts and offering to
make them public if he considered it wise to do so. The important part
of the telegram, which was dated September 16, 1919, is as follows:

"On May 17th Bullitt resigned by letter giving his reasons, with
which you are familiar. I replied by letter on the 18th without any
comment on his reasons. Bullitt on the 19th asked to see me to say
good-bye and I saw him. He elaborated on the reasons for his
resignation and said that he could not conscientiously give
countenance to a treaty which was based on injustice. I told him that
I would say nothing against his resigning since he put it on
conscientious grounds, and that I recognized that certain features of
the Treaty were bad, as I presumed most every one did, but that was
probably unavoidable in view of conflicting claims and that nothing
ought to be done to prevent the speedy restoration of peace by
signing the Treaty. Bullitt then discussed the numerous European
commissions provided for by the Treaty on which the United States was
to be represented. I told him that I was disturbed by this fact
because I was afraid the Senate and possibly the people, if they
understood this, would refuse ratification, and that anything which
was an obstacle to ratification was unfortunate because we ought to
have peace as soon as possible."

It is very easy to see how by making a record of one side of this
conversation