October 18 1921, Washington–Despite multiple attempts, the Treaty of Versailles had failed to reach the required two-thirds majority for ratification in the US Senate.  The Harding Administration negotiated and signed new treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, dropping American participation in the League of Nations or most other international commitments from Treaty of Versailles.  Nonetheless, there was still determined opposition to the new treaties, and it was no means clear that the new treaties would not meet the same fate.  Wilson, now living in DC, attempted to organize Democrats against the treaty, while a few die-hard irreconcilables opposed the treaty as they feared any recognition of any aspect of the Treaty of Versailles would lead to the United States joining the League of Nations in the future.  Ultimately, however, the treaty with Germany was ratified by a wide margin, 66-20, with more than half of the Senate Democrats voting in favor.  The other treaties were ratified by a similar margin.  Wilson, fuming at this final defeat, called the treaty’s supporters “the most partisan, prejudiced, ignorant, and unpatriotic group that ever misled the Senate of the United States.”

August 25 1921, Berlin–Republican objections to the League of Nations had prevented American ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, and Harding’s election to the presidency in 1920 sealed its fate.  This, however, left the United States still officially at war with Germany.  On July 2, 1921 the United States officially declared that the state of war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary was over, but a formal peace treaty still needed to be signed.  This came on August 25, with a brief treaty signed in Berlin.  This effectively was the United States ratifying the Treaty of Versailles with extreme reservations:

• The United States would not join the League of Nations or the International Labour Organization.
• The United States would not concern itself with Germany’s borders or other strictly European matters agreed to in the treaty.
• The United States did not recognize the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles considering German concerns outside Europe (apart from the surrendering of her colonies); in particular, this included the handover of Shantung to the Japanese.
• The United States would not attempt to conduct war crimes trials of the Kaiser or other German war criminals.
• The United States would not join the International Labour Organization.
• The United States would not be compelled to participate in any commission called for by the Treaty of Versailles.

In the same week, similar treaties were signed with Austria and Hungary; the United States never declared war on Bulgaria or the Ottoman Empire.

The house in Washington DC where Woodrow Wilson lived out his retirement, purchased less than two weeks after the awarding of the Peace Prize.

December 10 1920, Kristiania [Oslo]–The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize had largely been suspended during the largest war Europe had seen in centuries; the exception being the 1917 prize, which was awarded to the Red Cross.  With peace largely concluded in Europe, in December1920 the Nobel committee awarded the 1919 and 1920 prizes.  One was given to Léon Bourgeois, first President of the League of Nations and a long-time advocate for an international criminal court and the formation of an organization similar to (if not even broader in scope than) the League.  The other was given to President Wilson, for his efforts in the creation of the League.  The American ambassador to Norway accepted the prize on his behalf, and read a short statement by Wilson:

In accepting the honor of your award, I am moved by the recognition of my sincere and earnest efforts in the cause of peace, but also by the very poignant humility before the vastness of the work still called for by this cause….

I am convinced that our generation has, despite its wounds, made notable progress, but it is the better part of wisdom to consider our work as only begun.  It will be a continuing labor.  In the definite course of the years before us there will be abundant opportunity for others to distinguish themselves in the crusade against the hate and fear of war.

To the great disappointment of Wilson (and the world), the United States had not joined the League of Nations, and would never do so; the awarding of the Peace Prize swayed few minds.

The $29,000 in prize money was highly welcome in the Wilson household, and was a not-insubstantial increase to his savings.  His term as President would end in a few months without a pension, and his health problems limited his potential to earn an income.  Less than two weeks later, Wilson would purchase a house in Washington DC for his retirement–even with the prize money, his friends had to put up two-thirds of the $150,000 purchase price.

Sources include: Barbara O’Toole, The Moralist.  Image Credit: By APK - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

November 15 1920, Geneva–The League of Nations General Assembly convened for the first time in its Geneva headquarters (later to be named the Palais Wilson after the President’s death in 1924), with representatives from 42 states.  More notable, however, with the absences.

The United States, having never ratified the Treaty of Versailles, was not present, and did not even send an observer to the proceedings.

None of the defeated states–Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, or Turkey–were League members, though Austria and Bulgaria would join the next month.

Russia was not present, as the Allies did not recognize the Soviet government and the Whites had largely been defeated.  Apart from Poland, the states that had broken off from the Russian Empire were also absent: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the embattled Armenia and Georgia—though Finland would be admitted the following month.

Some other states were also not present, due to oversights or because they were not in any way part of the Allies: Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Luxembourg, Albania, and Ethiopia, along with European microstates such as Andorra.  British dominions (including India but not Newfoundland) each had their own representation in the League.

Harding Wins in a Landslide

The 1920 Presidential Election results, with red for Republican Harding, and blue for Democrat Cox.  Darker shades indicate states won by larger margins.

November 2 1920, Marion–Campaigning on a “return to normalcy” after the war, the Red Scare, the Red Summer, and economic upheaval, Republican Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio won the presidential election on November 2 in a landslide of unprecedented scale.  His 60.35% of the vote was the largest share of the vote won since the last uncontested election in 1820, and his 26.2% margin over Democrat James Cox is still the largest in a US presidential election.  Cox only won Kentucky and 10 of the 11 states in the former Confederacy (Harding won Tennessee), the largest electoral college landslide since Reconstruction.  Winning 3.41% of the vote (down from 5.99% in his 1912 run) was Socialist Eugene Debs, who ran his campaign from a prison cell.  Harding’s popular vote total was over 75% larger than Wilson’s winning vote total four years earlier, a testament both to his landslide and the many new women voters enfranchised by the 19th Amendment.

Apart from usual Republican strongholds like Vermont, Harding’s win was biggest in the Upper Midwest: North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan all gave him over 70% of the vote.  Hughes had won most of these states four years earlier, but he had won Minnesota by less than 400 votes and Wilson had won North Dakota.  The war and Wilson’s handling of the German peace terms had apparently destroyed Democratic chances with German voters in the area.  Wilson had hoped the campaign would be a referendum on the League, but Harding was noncommittal on the issue, and Cox eventually backed reservations on Article 10.  On October 27, Wilson gave his first speech since his stroke, in support of the League, in front of an audience of 15 who still struggled to hear his words; he did not mention Cox at all.  Wilson’s mishandling of the Senate had doomed the United States’ chance to enter the League long before, and Harding’s election heralded the United States’ general withdrawal from world affairs.

Sources include: Patricia O’Toole, The Moralist. Image credit: uselectionatlas.org