Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson's First Ladies

5. The Regent

c h a p t e r f i v e 172 } { On the morning of April 28, while Wilson was signing letters, his handwriting suddenly deteriorated. As the day went on, he appeared to write with “extreme exertion.” During the next two weeks, his writing “grew increasingly awkward, became more heavily slanted to the right, was more and more heavily inked, and became almost grotesque,” the editors of his papers later observed. Wilson quite possibly had had a small stroke.1 After this episode, Grayson reported, came “terrible days for the president physically and otherwise.” He was uncharacteristically irritable , rigid, and illogical. He had difficulty remembering things. On May 3, Grayson noted, Wilson asked him to tell Baker what had happened during the day. Edith reported a spell during which Woodrow could not seem to remember Italy, when speaking of France and Belgium and the other countries. His stenographer, Charles Swem, corrected the president’s omissions in reports before they were released. Of course, Wilson’s symptoms may simply have been the result of fatigue. But in light of later events, they seem ominous.2 About this time, the relationship between Edith and Colonel House broke down completely. Edith had read a reprint of an editorial that had appeared earlier in the European press. The editorial portrayed Wilson as a bungler and House as a master statesman. THE REGENT The Regent 173 } { Edith was angry, suspecting House of using his son-in-law, Gordon Auchincloss, to feed the colonel’s ideas to the press.3 Edith could not refrain from telling House exactly what she thought of him. Cary Grayson, writing to Altrude, reported that Miss Edith “had a talk with the colonel and spoke very frankly and plainly to him, telling him that she was full aware of all that he was doing to boost his own Dr. Cary Grayson, 1919. Woodrow Wilson House, a National Trust Historic Site, Washington, D.C. self at the expense of the President. She is on to him; and also to the son-in-law. Believe, me, she is smart. She has a keen sense of intuition . The Colonel has not been around since her conversation with him.”4 Her growing animosity toward House no doubt sealed his fate where Wilson was concerned. Finally, on May 7, the treaty was formally presented to the Germans at Versailles. Edith longed to see this ceremony, too, but Woodrow was adamantly opposed. Edith Benham noted that it was unusual for Woodrow to resist his wife’s pleadings: “His mind has to be fully made up.” It was not certain that the Germans would sign the treaty. Weeks passed. News from the United States continued to be disturbing. Although Wilson had not released the terms of the treaty, senators were already threatening to attach amendments before they would agree to ratify it.5 As they waited, Edith tried to help Woodrow regain his health. He was still enduring severe headaches. She coaxed him to exercise by walking and, occasionally, by playing golf with him. Edith’s secretary was full of admiration for the first lady, writing in her diary on May 12: “If the President’s work does come to anything, how much Mrs. Wilson has done to make it possible. She is the most wonderful wife in the world to a man who needs love and care more than any I have ever seen. Without it I don’t believe he could live—certainly his work would be greatly crippled. She never leaves the house now, in these days when he is so busy, if she thinks there is the slightest chance of his going for a walk. It is her constant care which keeps him so well.” Edith encouraged her husband to accept a few social engagements, such as a dinner given for the president of Brazil, writing her mother, “Even if he is tired, I think such things [really] help him.”6 Edith herself was on crutches due to an infected foot. This, however , did not prevent her from attending Memorial Day services at the American military cemetery at Suresnes. It was a beautiful day, she later recalled. But the “endless rows” of crosses, bedecked with flowers and American flags, were a sobering sight. Her husband rose to speak, his head bared. “How white the hair had grown those last few months,”she observed. His body tense with emotion, Wilson...