History records that in the summer of 1919....the war is over and recovery is underway, and President Wilson fully intends to run in November 1920 for a third term as President.
It's not something that is openly discussed much by historians...because the 3rd campaign never happened.
Why the stroke? This goes to an interesting problem he had....in getting the Treaty of Versailles passed by the Senate. There was almost no clear discussion between Wilson and the Republicans in the Senate. There was a two-member edge for the Republicans (49-47). Remember....there's not fifty states in existence at this point.
The Republicans simply weren't buying into the Versailles Treaty business.
Wilson decided in mid-summer of 1919....he had to get the Republicans bent over this treaty approval. So a schedule was developed, and he was to tour the western part of the United States over an entire month.
There were nine states with a split situation (1 x Republican and 1 x Democratic Senator). His intention was to put public pressure on these Republicans in these states (California, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Missouri, NM, Wyoming, and Nebraska).
It was a rather warm year, and the trip via the train....with the constant travel and stress....triggered Wilson to arrive back in DC in mid-September....in a weakened state. On 2 October....Wilson had a stroke. From that point on, he would never be at the physical stamina level to accomplish anything. For all practical purposes....Wilson allows his wife to run the meetings and everyone is led to believe 'any day now'....he'd recover (never the truth).
It takes about a hundred days for the Senators to realize the situation.
No one willing to testify or swear of his poor health? Well....this is the odd part of the story. There's not a single person in the inner circle or cabinet who had the guts to make a public statement or swear to anything.
The election came in November 1920, and President Wilson quietly exited....dying in Feb 1924. Physically, he never recovered.
Fixing or resolving the health concerns for the President? People will say that the Constitution changed, but frankly....until you get the inner circle to react....no one will ever be removed because of ill health (mentally or physically).
Had Wilson never gone to this western tour in 1919? Well....you can make the case that without the stress.....he would have been in decent health, run in 1920, and easily won the election. Yes, he would have been President all the way to 1924.
So history has a funny way of taking twists and turns.
ToV was a no-go from the get-go:
ReplyDelete* Devastated Germans lacked the finances to pay anybody... and would not anyway because Germans.
* With their colonies stolen, their industrial capabilities were hindered by restrictions on access to resources.
* The laughable restrictions on a standing army were automatically circumvented by semi-autonomous militias in every village, in every neighborhood... as it always was among the German tribes.
* All the proponents vastly under-estimated the tribal, patriotic, and 'racial' fervour of a bunch of berserkers... barely house-broken from their ransacking days.
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Add to this the wide-spread knowledge of anybody with any sense of history (Germans come to mind...) of the token attention by any American bureaucrats to any treaty with anybody in forever.
Native Americans (aka 'First Nations people')?