onally presented the treaty to the Senate with an earnest appeal
for prompt ratification. The Committee on Foreign Relations, to which
the treaty was referred, proceeded with great deliberation, and on July
31 began a series of public hearings which lasted until September 12.
The Committee called before it Secretary Lansing and several of the
technical advisors to the American delegation, including B. M. Baruch,
economic adviser, Norman H. Davis, financial adviser, and David Hunter
Miller, legal adviser. The Committee also called before it a number of
American citizens who had had no official connection with the
negotiations but who wished to speak in behalf of foreign groups,
including Thomas F. Millard for China, Joseph W. Folk for Egypt, Dudley
Field Malone for India, and a large delegation of Americans of Irish
descent, who opposed the League of Nations on the ground that it would
stand in the way of Ireland's aspiration for independence. The rival
claims of Jugo-Slavs and Italians to Fiume, the demand of Albania for
self-determination, the claims of Greece to Thrace, and arguments for
and against the separation of Austria and Hungary were all presented at
great length to the Committee. On August 19 the President received the
Committee at the White House, and after submitting a written statement
on certain features of the Covenant, he was questioned by members of
the Committee and a general discussion followed.

Meanwhile, the treaty was being openly debated in the Senate. The
President had been an advocate of publicity in diplomacy as well as in
other things, and the Senate now undertook to use his own weapon
against him by a public attack on the treaty. Although the opposition
to the treaty was started in the Senate by Lodge, Borah, Johnson,
Sherman, Reed, and Poindexter, it was not confined to that body.
Throughout the country there were persons of liberal views who favored
the League of Nations but objected to the severe terms imposed on
Germany, and charged the President with having proved false to the
principles of the Fourteen Points. There were others who did not
object to a severe peace, but who were bound fast by the tradition of
isolation and thought membership in the League of Nations would involve
the sacrifice of national sovereignty. The main object of attack was
Article X, which guaranteed the territorial integrity and political
independence of all the members of the League. President Wilson