Typed Letter Signed, as U.S. Senator, Washington, D.C. October 20, 1919, to Rev. Henry Hubert Smythe, Falmouth, Massachusetts

quarto, one page, plus original mailing envelope, formerly folded, else in very good, clean condition.

"…There is no doubt in my mind that the League in its present form is full of serious dangers, not only to the cause of peace but to the rights and interests of the American people, and I feel most strongly that we must have strong and effective reservations to be made a part of the ratifying resolution…."

Lodge did not oppose America joining the forerunner of the United Nations but insisted on legislative amendments to protect American sovereignty. President Wilson himself was unable to effectively champion his dream because a month before this letter was written, he had suffered a stroke which left him "unbalanced". One month later, Lodge and the Republicans he led in the Senate formed a coalition with Democrats who favored the Treaty of Versailles that would establish the League with reservations, but Wilson, his judgment "warped" by his illness, rejected the compromise on which they had agreed. In the end, the United States did not sign the Treaty and never joined the League - which later failed to prevent the aggressive conquests of Hitler and Mussolini and the march of the dictators toward another World War.