ed, and on the great issue of the campaign they were never very
clearly known until after the election, when it was too late. He had
strong opinions on Democratic misgovernment and maladministration and
outspoken opinions on Mexico, but whenever he tried to say anything
about the war in Europe he used up most of his energy clearing his
throat. A large element in the American people, which was influential
out of proportion to its numbers because it included most of the
intelligent classes and most of the organs of public opinion, felt that
the President had been too weak in the face of German provocation. To
this element, chiefly in the East, Colonel Roosevelt appealed with his
denunciation of German aggression and of the President's temporizing
with Germany; but Colonel Roosevelt was not running for President.
There was another minority, considerably smaller and far less
reputable, which consisted of bitter partisans of the German cause.
This minority was fiercely against the President because he had dared
to challenge Germany at all; and though Mr. Hughes gave it no
particular encouragement, it supported him because there was nobody
else to support.

So, in the Eastern States, where anti-German sentiment was strongest,
the Democrats advocated the re-election of Wilson as the defender of
American rights against foreign aggression, while in the West he was
praised as the man who had endured innumerable provocations and "kept
us out of war." When Hughes swept everything in the East, it was
confidently assumed on election night that Wilson had been repudiated
by the country; but later reports showed that the East was no longer
symptomatic of the country's sentiment. For three days the election was
in doubt. It was finally decided by California, where the Republican
Senator whom Hughes had snubbed was re-elected by 300,000 majority,
while the Democratic electoral ticket won by a narrow margin. Wilson
had carried almost everything in the West. Those parts of the country
which lay further away from Europe and European interests had
re-elected him because he had "kept us out of War."

_Mediation Efforts, 1916-1917_

It has been stated by Count von Bernstorff that, if Hughes had been
elected, President Wilson would immediately have resigned, along with
the Vice President, after appointing Hughes as Secretary of State, in
order to give the President-elect an opportunity to come into office at
once and meet the urgent proble