The Senate and the League of Nations

"My purpose in writing the ensuing pages is to give an account of the opposition and consequent debate which arose in the Senate of the United States when that body was asked by President Wilson to give their advice and consent to the Treaty of Versailles containing the Covenant of the League of Nations." With those words, Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge begins his account of a contentious period in U.S. history as the Senate was called upon to exercise the treaty ratification responsibilities specified in Article II, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.