The Peace Negotiations; A Personal Narrative

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1921. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good. vi, [2]. 328 pages. Chronology. Illustrations. Appendices. Index. Discoloration inside boards, boards scuffed, Small spine tears and some foxing to text. The author served as Secretary of State from 1915 to 1920. In 1919 he became the nominal head of the U.S. Commission to the Paris Peace conference. Because he did not regard the League of Nations as essential to the peace treaty, Lansing began to fall out of favor with President Wilson. Wilson was disturbed by Lansing's independence, and Lansing resigned in 1920 at Wilson's request. Robert Lansing (October 17, 1864 - October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson from 1915 to 1920. A conservative pro-business Democrat, he was a strong advocate of democracy and of the United States' role in establishing international law. He was an avowed enemy of German autocracy and Russian Bolshevism. Before U.S. involvement in the war, Lansing vigorously advocated freedom of the seas and the rights of neutral nations. He later advocated U.S. participation in World War I, negotiated the Lansing-Ishii Agreement with Japan in 1917 and was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919. However, Wilson made Colonel House his chief foreign policy advisor because Lansing privately opposed much of the Treaty of Versailles and was skeptical of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination. Excerpt from The Peace Negotiations These words are taken from the letter which President Wilson wrote to me on February II, 1920. On the following day I tendered my resignation as Secretary of State by a letter, in which I said: Ever since January, 1919, I have been conscious of the fact that you no longer were disposed to welcome my advice in matters pertaining to the negotiations in Paris, to our foreign service, or to international affairs in general. Holding these views I would, if I had consulted my personal inclination alone, have resigned as Secretary Of State and as a Commissioner to Negotiate Peace. I felt, however, that such a step might have been misinterpreted both at home and abroad, and that it was my duty to cause you no embarrassment in carrying forward the great task in which you were then engaged. The President was right in his impression that, while we were still in Paris, I had accepted his guidance and direction with reluctance. It was as correct as my statement that, as early as January, 1919, I was conscious that he was no longer disposed to welcome my advice in matters pertaining to the peace negotiations at Paris.