has come when a frank account of our
differences can be given publicity without a charge being made of
disloyalty to the Administration in power.

The President, in his letter of February 11, 1920, from which the
quotation is made, indicated my unwillingness to follow him in the
course which he adopted at Paris, but he does not specifically point out
the particular subjects as to which we were not in accord. It is
unsatisfactory, if not criticizable, to leave the American people in
doubt as to a disagreement between two of their official representatives
upon a matter of so grave importance to the country as the negotiation
of the Treaty of Versailles. They are entitled to know the truth in
order that they may pass judgment upon the merits of the differences
which existed. I am not willing that the present uncertainty as to the
facts should continue. Possibly some may think that I have remained
silent too long. If I have, it has been only from a sense of obligation
to an Administration of which I was so long a member. It has not been
through lack of desire to lay the record before the public.

The statements which will be made in the succeeding pages will not be
entirely approved by some of my readers. In the circumstances it is far
too much to expect to escape criticism. The review of facts and the
comments upon them may be characterized in certain quarters as disloyal
to a superior and as violative of the seal of silence which is
considered generally to apply to the intercourse and communications
between the President and his official advisers. Under normal conditions
such a characterization would not be unjustified. But the present case
is different from the usual one in which a disagreement arises between a
President and a high official of his Administration.

Mr. Wilson made our differences at Paris one of the chief grounds for
stating that he would be pleased to take advantage of my expressed
willingness to resign. The manifest imputation was that I had advised
him wrongly and that, after he had decided to adopt a course contrary to
my advice, I had continued to oppose his views and had with reluctance
obeyed his instructions. Certainly no American official is in honor
bound to remain silent under such an imputation which approaches a
charge of faithlessness and of a secret, if not open, avoidance of duty.
He has, in my judgment, the right to present the case to the American
people in order that they may decide