Pueblo speech
The Pueblo speech was an address in favor of the League of Nations, given by US President Woodrow Wilson on the afternoon of September 25, 1919. This was the last such address he gave due to ill health. It was held in Pueblo, Colorado.
Background
In the wake of the settlements agreed at the Paris Peace Conference President Wilson set about the task of convincing the United States Congress to ratify both the treaty and to approve American participation in Wilson's own invention, the League of Nations. This task was then considered impossible due to a majority of the Congress being Wilson's political enemies. Wilson embarked on a tour of the country to canvass support in favor of both treaty and League, until illness forced him to return home after the Pueblo speech. The United States never joined the League of Nations.
Speech
Wilson gave the speech in Pueblo, Colorado, on the afternoon of September 25. He had delivered another speech that morning in Denver.[1] That day, Wilson "could hardly see" because of a bad headache. He told Cary T. Grayson, his aide, that "this will have to be a short speech" shortly before delivering it. However, the delivery was lengthy.[2] Wilson gave his speech in front of the Pueblo Memorial Auditorium to a "good crowd".[3]
Wilson urged the audience to "sweep aside all this language of jealousy" and echoed Theodore Roosevelt by saying "we have got to adopt or reject it [the Covenant of the League of Nations]. There is no middle course." He warned the audience of how militarized America might become if it didn't join the League and ended by proclaiming that America has seen "the truth of justice and of liberty and peace. We have accepted that truth, and we are going to be led by it, and it is going to lead us, and, through us, the world out into pastures of quietness and peace such as the word has never dreamed of before."[2]
Legacy
Although Wilson was scheduled to speak at least five more times on the tour, after delivering his speech in Pueblo he was described as "very tired and suffering".[4] He collapsed at 10 p.m. that night[3] and remainder of the tour was cancelled upon his doctor's orders.[5] The Pueblo speech was the last speech Wilson delivered and the last time he publicly spoke to the American people. Historian John Milton Cooper notes that the speech represents "the closing lines of one of the greatest speaking careers in American history."[4] The United States never joined the League of Nations.[3]
Cooper considered the Pueblo speech to be "one of his best performances of this part of the tour." The politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote that it was "as moving as anything in the language of the American presidency" and "[a] speech from the cross."[6]
References
- ^ Cooper 2001, p. 185.
- ^ a b Cooper 2001, pp. 186–187.
- ^ a b c London, Nell. "100 Years Ago, Woodrow Wilson Visited Pueblo and Rocky Ford. It Was The Last He Was Seen Before A Shadow Presidency Took Hold". Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
- ^ a b Cooper 2001, pp. 187–188.
- ^ Stone 1970, p. 130.
- ^ Cooper 2001, p. 186.
Bibliography
- Cooper, John Milton (2001). Breaking the Heart of the World. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80786-9.
- Stone, Ralph A. (1970). The irreconcilables; the fight against the League of Nations. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-1199-5.
Further reading
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