FREE ESSAY ON BITTER RIVALS: HENRY CABOT LODGE AND WOODROW WILSON

BITTER RIVALS: HENRY CABOT LODGE AND WOODROW WILSON

Bitter Rivals: Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge
Political rivalries define American government. The dual-party system by nature sets up
partisan rivalries between members of all three branches of our government - rivalries
that have at times pushed our government to progress and at other times slowed it to a
grinding halt. The contrasting backgrounds and resulting political ideologies of Woodrow
Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge created a modern rivalry that defined American foreign
policy in the twentieth century.
Woodrow Wilson's religious background and academic pursuits shaped his personality into
one characterized by impatience. Born in Virginia in 1856, Wilson grew up around strict
Calvinist doctrine in the Presbyterian church (Lafeber 269-270). This theology served as
the foundation for all of Wilson's endeavors, as he believed he was "guided by God's
will" (Lafeber 270). The future President's first career path was law, but Wilson's
inability to excel in the field bred in him distaste for the profession. Wilson hastily
abandoned any thoughts of being a lawyer and pursued an academic career in political
science. His refusal to give his law profession time to prosper represents a larger trend
in Wilson's behavior of acting rashly when faced with adversity. Despite this impatience,
he quickly rose to a high level of respect as a political scientist while attending
Princeton University (Lafeber 269). Wilson's faith in God, bred from his Calvinist
upbringing, further fueled his impatient personality as he believed that God would
eventually guide him in the right direction if he "made efforts to improve" (Lafeber
270). This impatience defined most of Wilson's political philosophies and foreign
policies. 
Like Wilson, Henry Cabot Lodge's educational background shaped his views toward American
foreign policy. His family instilled in Lodge conservative values that melded the Senator
as a man "whose nature and upbringing disposed him to be out of step with his times". His
fiery personality that emerged during Lodge's tenure as a Senator was most likely a
direct result of this conservative environment during his formative years. He would not
budge from political positions he believed to be morally just, even though those terms
manifested themselves in strictly conservative legislation in foreign policy (Widenor
44-47).
Lodge had another concern over his career as a politician besides being a fierce advocate
for conservatism in US foreign policy. While Lodge had to fight the "silver-spooned boy"
stereotype on the Senate floor and on the campaign trail, he felt immense responsibility
to the citizens of Massachusetts who elected him to his seat (Widenor 49). The rapid
increase of industrialization within the United States, as well as increased immigration
"brought new values and interests" to New England, made Lodge's job of representing
Massachusetts in the Senate a much tougher task (Widenor 45). The threat of the
increasing difficulty in pleasing all of Massachusetts' many peoples forced Lodge to be
steadfast in his own. If his constituents ever had complaints with Lodge, he never wanted
them to be able to truthfully say he did not stand up for what he believed was right.
Lodge's background and uncertainty of future social standing lit a fire within him and
led to his fiery temperament over key Senate issues that was Lodge's trademark for many
years.
The different backgrounds from which Wilson and Lodge arose to attain political power led
them both to support American entry into World War I but pushed them away from one
another in terms of foreign policy after the war's conclusion. Wilson's devout Calvinist
beliefs sparked within the President a sense of Americanism - he believed that God would
be on America's side, and thus America was innately superior to other nations. In
Wilson's War Message of 1917, Wilson re-assured the American people of this divine
guidance: "to such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes ... and the peace
which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other." (Paterson and Merrill
537) Similarly, Henry Cabot Lodge's ideas of "duty and sacrifice" that stemmed from his
conservative background pushed him toward Americanism and toward advocating US
intervention in World War I (Widenor 221).
After World War I, however, the two politicians renewed their rivalry as their visions of
post-war Americanism in foreign policy repeatedly conflicted. Wilson's Americanism in the
aftermath of World War I manifested itself in Wilson's "14 Points" as he pushed for
America's superiority to be used to prevent future war. Wilson's desire to create a
"League of Nations" that would form "a general association of nations" (Paterson and
Merrill 539) arose from his belief that America could force compliance with such a
league. Wilson's idealistic visions of a pacifistic society of nation-states existed only
under the implication that America was strong enough to create such a world. 
In sharp contrast, Lodge's Americanism in foreign policy after World War I was based on
revenge. Both men wanted to prevent future war (Widenor 298), but Lodge wanted United
States foreign policy to prevent it by crippling the nations that caused World War I.
Lodge believed that Germany had to remain demilitarized and should receive ample
punishment for its role in the first world war, and drew his anti-League stance primarily
from his opinion that any league of nations would be unable to restrict Germany
sufficiently (Widenor 294). In Lodge's view, Wilson focused too much on generalized ideas
of a peaceful world that more than likely would never exist (Widenor 298). Lodge's
Americanized foreign policy after the war had one issue of importance - keeping Germany
at peace - and all other foreign policy issues posed a threat to the execution of the
singular goal.
These varying approaches to Americanism within post-World War I diplomacy created another
point of foreign policy conflict between Lodge and Wilson. Lodge felt neutrality
"depended on military preparedness" and generally perceived America as needing an active
role in maintaining neutrality on a global scale (Widenor 198-199). The Senator's belief
in "armed neutrality", while perfectly justified in his own mind, did not gain momentum
until after the sinking of the Lusitania in May of 1915 (Widenor 200). Lodge, after
failing to gain popular support for armed neutrality, hated Wilson more as "the issue of
preparedness became symbolic of their different philosophical approaches to foreign
policy" (Widenor 202). Wilson's version of neutrality focused on a weaponless idealistic
peace held together with economic interdependence and the new 
"superpower" status of the United States (Lafeber 314). Lodge grouped Wilson and
Jefferson together in their mutual willingness "to keep peace ... at all hazards"
(Widenor 203). While Lodge may have been correct in his argument that Wilson needed to
back up American neutrality with some use of force, Wilson's interpretation of American
neutrality leading up to World War I kept America from war as long as possible without
compromising American national interests of trade and security. 
The rivalry between the two politicians escalated with Wilson's introduction of his 14
Points for Peace after World War I. As Wilson negotiated with other leaders of the
Entente Powers after the war, the President had to contend with fierce skepticism over
the Points at home, particularly from Lodge and his fellow Republicans (Lafeber 321).
Lodge countered the 14 Points with a Republican challenge, as the Senate leader clearly
had more than enough votes to prevent ratification of the Points. Wilson, realizing he
lacked the necessary support at home to get American approval of the 14 Points, returned
to Europe to find a way to force the Senate to accept his proposals (Lafeber 321-322).
When Wilson resumed talks with Entente leaders in February 1919, he was only able to get
US interests protected - a necessity for Senate approval - through massive concessions to
Britain and Japan (Lafeber 321). For Britain, Wilson had to concede on Point 2,
concerning freedom of the seas, to gain their approval. Wilson also had to concede to
make Germany responsible for war reparations and to prevent the country from
demilitarizing to gain French approval of the Fourteen Points (Lafeber 321). With his
health in rapid decline and frustrated with the weakened version of his 14 Points, Wilson
returned home tired but with a renewed dedication not to compromise on the Senate floor.
While Wilson attempted to install his foreign policy ideology into other countries by
means of his 14 Points, Lodge tried to rally support for his foreign policies primarily
through gathering opposition to the 14 Points. In Lodge's mind, the 14 Points would
"weaken the Monroe Doctrine, derogate from the Congress's constitutional power to declare
war, or permit [American] international control over such matters as immigration."
(Widenor 316) Lodge, who was not totally closed off to the idea of a League but would
prevent at all costs infringement on American power abroad, actually suggested a
dual-League system. Such a system would have a League for the Western Hemisphere -
primarily the Americas - and one for Europe (Widenor 316-317). Wilson, already impatient
from his European ordeals, hastily rejected a "halfway" version of his proposal.
Historian William Widenor, in his book Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for American
Foreign Policy, interjects the idea that Lodge had "no true feelings" for the 14 Points
and the League of Nations. Instead of arguing against both on the basis of foreign policy
issues and their implications for the United States domestically, the author asserts the
possibility that Lodge could have rejected Wilson's masterpiece simply because it was
Wilson's (Widenor 324-325). On Lodge, "it has even been suggested that he raised issues
like the fate of Shantung chiefly to make points against Wilson, to show up the flaws in
the armor of the 'great moralist' (Widenor 324). If Lodge did act out of spite against
Wilson and his 14 Points, the result of a newly-intensified personal rivalry was an
intentional act made by Lodge to take power away from the President.
A more likely scenario, however, was that Lodge truly believed that the 14 Points would
severely compromise the United States influence internationally. While Lodge and Wilson
conceived an "idealistic" role for America in the post-war era, Lodge believed America's
"individuality" was a quality only America should strive to maintain - not something for
a President to try to enforce on other countries. As Widenor supports, "Lodge believed
that America had evolved a special, historical individuality and a unique system of
values which were ... the product of propitious circumstance. . . . Though he was
prepared to go to great lengths to defend and preserve that individuality, he did not,
like Wilson, attempt to secure its universal acceptance. (Widenor 326)" Lodge saw these
14 Points - in particular, the "heart of the Covenant (Lafeber 325)" of Article 10
dealing with resolution of international conflicts between members of the League of
Nations- as a form of pre-emptive US intervention abroad (Widenor 325, 328-329). Lodge
was "thoroughly disgusted" with this concept, and while his foreign policies were not
isolationist (Widenor 318), his foreign policy ideology conflicted with Wilson's over the
issue whether America should be "policeman of the world". 
The fierce political rivalry between Wilson and Lodge established the precedent for
future rivalries between elected political officials within the United States during the
twentieth century. The rivalry addressed for the first time the role of Americanism in
foreign policy and whether the United States has innately superior qualities that entitle
it to its large international influence as a world superpower. Similarly, the twentieth
century has been dominated by the question of America's role internationally - as a
"police" watchdog or more concerned strictly with national interests - and Wilson and
Lodge's rivalry was the first to address the issue in detail in a twentieth-century
context. 
Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge, with their seriousness toward achieving their
ideological goals within the government, propelled America into a Golden Age of
superpower status and the luxury of being a strong enough nation to police the globe.
While the role their distaste for one another played in their foreign policies came into
question, their mutual hatred made both of them work harder than they normally would have
to achieve political success. That spirit of competition between rivals pushing for
smarter governmental policy hopefully will continue to be the benchmark of continued
American foreign policy success.
Bibliography
Hunt, Michael H. Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy. New Haven: Yale UP, 1987.
Lafeber, Walter. The American Age: U.S. Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad from 
1750 to the Present. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1994.
Paterson, Thomas G. and Dennis Merrill, eds. Major Problems in American Foreign 
Relations - Volume 1: To 1920. 4th ed. Lexington, Massachusetts: D. C. Heath and Company,
1995.
Widenor, William C. Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign 
Policy. Los Angeles: U of California P, 1980.