What was article x of the treaty of versailles

Harding opposed the policy. This cartoon captures the bitterness of the debate and the campaign. Rejected by the Senate and unpopular with many voters, Article X was an outcast on the run. It is used here in an ironic sense, illustrating the strong feelings about Article X expressed by its opponents during the campaign. This cartoon was drawn by Clifford Berryman, one of Washington, DC's best-known cartoonists in the early to mids.

Berryman drew for the Washington Post and Evening Star newspapers. His cartoons touched on a variety of subjects including politics, elections, and both World Wars.

This primary source comes from the Records of the U. National Archives Identifier: Return to Results Return. Follow us on Twitter:. Follow us on Facebook:. Please enter a valid email address. Share this site:. View our webinars:. Get our iPad app:. And the most effective way to achieve that is through investing in The Bill of Rights Institute.

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The Bill of Rights Institute engages, educates, and empowers individuals with a passion for the freedom and opportunity that exist in a free society. Use this Decision Point at the end of Chapter 10 to allow students to explore the U. Once the United States had been drawn into the conflict in April , their attention turned to debating how best to execute the war and to shape the peace to come after the successful conclusion to the conflict.

During the peacemaking process, the conservative Lodge was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and led the fight against the ratification of the Wilson peace plan, which he viewed as unconstitutional and threatening to American national sovereignty and traditional foreign policy principles. Lodge had to decide whether to obstruct the ratification of the treaty or find areas of compromise with the president.

In May , a German U-boat submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania , killing 1, people, including Americans. In , Wilson spoke at a meeting of the League to Enforce the Peace. In that speech, he articulated a vision of an association of nations that would keep the peace and end warfare. An international body of nations would stop aggression rather than relying on the existing balance-of-power diplomacy and system of alliances among sovereign nations.

Only a week later, Germany announced it would unleash unrestricted U-boat warfare, gambling that it could starve Great Britain and the Allies into submission before the United States entered the conflict. On April 2, the president went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war. Congress obliged by declaring war a few days later. The American Expeditionary Forces were made up of approximately two million troops and helped support the war-weary English and French troops when the United States entered World War I.

Pictured are officers of the AEF c. As American troops fought in Europe, Wilson worked out his vision of a just and peaceful postwar order. In January , he delivered his Fourteen Points speech, in which he argued for freedom of the seas, a reduction in arms, and national self-determination of ethnic minorities. Most important, Wilson developed his idea of a league of nations. Wilson made several blunders preparing for the peace conference in Versailles.

During the midterm congressional elections, he had made blatantly partisan appeals, stating that Republican dissent with administration policies was unpatriotic. Wilson made additional missteps by not inviting any Republicans or senators onto the Versailles peace conference delegation and not consulting with Lodge before he left for Paris.

Yet he needed the support of two-thirds of the Senate for the peace treaty to be ratified. Wilson had a sense of providential destiny about his vision for the League of Nations and his own leadership.

Against the recommendations of his advisors, he decided to be the first president to travel overseas to negotiate a peace treaty, because he believed no one else could achieve his goals. When he arrived in Europe in December , millions celebrated him in Paris, London, and Rome, which fed his vanity and sense of moral purpose. The president briefly returned to the United States in February Lodge sat impassively while the president spoke about a league of nations to keep the peace.

Then he asked Wilson a series of questions. Lodge believed in this constitutional principle and opposed committing U. He and other senators also feared that the League would supersede the Monroe Doctrine, which had asserted American preeminence in the western hemisphere for a century. On the evening of March 2, Lodge worked at his home with two other senators to draft a Senate resolution expressing their opposition to the League of Nations. Thirty-nine Republicans signed it, and even some Democrats supported the measure.

On March 3, Lodge delivered an important speech opposing the League of Nations. When President Wilson returned to the United States that summer, he broke with precedent and on July 10 presented the treaty to the Senate in person while addressing the body. President, can I carry the treaty for you? During committee hearings in August, Lodge repeated his concern that Article X violated the principles of the Constitution.