The first of many erroneous mistakes made by Wilson in his attempts to have the Treaty of Versailles ratified by Congress, he blatantly refused the involvement of any Republican representative in his delegation for the Paris Peace talks. He decision to do so put him at great odds with most Republicans, no more so than in the case of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. An esteemed member of Congress, Lodge, the scholar of Washington prior to the arrival of Wilson, was overqualified for a spot in the Paris delegation with his service as chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations during the war. Another promising candidate for the delegation was former president Howard Taft, a long-time supporter of a League of Nation, whose presence would
