Background

Henry Cabot Lodge was born on May 12, 1850, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of John Ellerton Lodge, a merchant involved in the China trade, and Anna Cabot. Lodge grew up on Boston's Beacon Hill and spent part of his childhood in Nahant, Massachusetts, where he witnessed the 1860 kidnapping of a classmate and gave testimony leading to the arrest and conviction of the kidnappers.

Education

Henry graduated from Harvard College in 1872. In 1874, he graduated from Harvard Law School. After traveling through Europe, Lodge returned to Harvard, and in 1876, became one of the first recipients of a Ph.D. in history and government from Harvard.

Career

Given his intellectual and familial background, it is no surprise that Lodge turned his attention to politics. Briefly joining with Independents, Lodge ultimately found a political home within the Republican Party. His first years in politics included membership in the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature. Serving in the secretary of the state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention during the 1884 presidential contest initiated Lodge’s friendship with fellow Harvard graduate Theodore Roosevelt. In that election, both men remained true to the party when many deserted its ranks as a result of candidate James G. Blaine’s connection to financial corruption. This decision fatefully impacted both Lodge and Roosevelt. Lodge’s loyalty bore fruition when he successfully won election first to the House of Representatives in 1886 and then to the Senate in 1892. Lodge remained in the Senate for the remainder of his life. For Roosevelt, his adherence to the Republican Party in 1884 served as a step towards the White House. In the years ahead, their partnership played an active role in shaping American foreign relations.

Almost immediately upon his ascension to the Senate in 1893, Lodge demonstrated his ability to navigate the waters of Congress, establishing himself as a dedicated and respected – though not always well-liked – spokesman for both his home state and the nation. Lodge’s particular passion centered on United States foreign policy and he began serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1896. For Lodge, the timing was perfect, as his engrained sense of superiority coupled with a romanticized notion of American destiny made him a strong believer in imperialism. Lodge shared the beliefs of his friend Roosevelt and newly elected Republican president William McKinley. They understood the United States to have a special world mission and responsibility, due to the country’s technological and economic wealth. Lodge and his fellow imperialists emphasized the need for military preparedness. The senator spoke of the importance in maintaining a large and powerful navy, as well as development of military strategy policies regarding bases in the Pacific. Lodge’s fight for such measures proved significant, as the United States gained possession of numerous territories between 1898-1902 and experienced a growth in naval power under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

The grand plans regarding America’s future, meticulously fostered by Lodge and Roosevelt, seemingly shattered in 1912 with the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. From the beginning, the Massachusetts senator had taken umbrage with the new president. He had defeated Roosevelt, who ran on the Progressive Party ticket, and the Republican candidate. Even worse, he appeared "soft" on the United States military preparedness following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. In advocating American involvement, Lodge condemned Germany as sole instigator of the war and called for the unconditional surrender of the Central Powers. American entry into the war in 1917 provided further ammunition for Lodge, as he openly criticized the President’s call for "peace without victory" and the Fourteen Points peace plan.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lodge further challenged Wilson over the League of Nations and ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. A defender of imperialism, Lodge did not oppose an organization that would support peace with force. His primary contention lay with Article X of the league covenant, a provision Lodge believed had the potential to usurp Congress’ power to declare war. In his twelve reservations, Lodge reasserted American authority and control over its relations with other nations. This did not reflect all Republicans, despite Lodge’s unofficial position as Senate Majority Leader. Isolationists, in staunch opposition to the war since 1914, spoke adamantly against any league, with or without reservations. Men known as "irreconcilables" also refused compromise, rejecting the league outright. That Lodge capitalized on such divisions is a testament to his intellectual skill and political power.

Correctly understanding the political folly of outright Republican opposition to a peace treaty, Lodge created a scenario whereby Democrats would have to approve a treaty with Republican mandated reservations or reject it completely. In subsequent Congressional votes between 1919-1920, Lodge’s strategy achieved success; the Senate failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and Wilson’s Democrats received the blame, with the president and his party losing in overwhelming numbers in the election of 1920.

Even as he orchestrated the League’s defeat, Lodge believed strongly in America’s right to influence world affairs. Unfettered by "entangling alliances", the United States could move freely in asserting its economic and political interests abroad, uninhibited by the broken nations of Europe. Lodge’s continued importance in foreign affairs is reflected in his appointment by President Warren G. Harding as a delegate to the Washington Naval Conference in 1922. The conference resulted in several arms reduction treaties while maintaining American national sovereignty and naval superiority.

Ironically, Lodge’s victory over Wilson marked the end of his command of the Senate. Narrowly winning re-election in 1922, the elder statesman remained in office until his death in 1924.

Achievements

• Henry Lodge is best remembered for his conservative politics and for his conflict with President Woodrow Wilson over the Treaty of Versailles. The failure of that treaty ensured that the United States never joined the League of Nations.

Works

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  • The Senate and the League of Nations 1925
  • The Senate of the United States and Other Essays and Addresses, Historical and Literary 1921
  • Two Commencement Addresses 1915
  • The democracy of the Constitution: and other addresses and essays 1915
  • Early Memories 1913
  • A Frontier Town and Other Essays 1906
  • The war with Spain 1899
  • Certain Accepted Heroes and Other Essays in Literature and Politics 1897
  • Speeches By Henry Cabot Lodge 1892
  • Historical and Political Essays 1892
  • Boston 1891
  • Studies in History 1884
  • Life and Letters of George Cabot 1877
  • The Democracy of the Constitution: And Other Addresses and Essays 1915
  • Alexander Hamilton 1882
  • The Story of the Revolution 1898
  • George Washington 1889
  • Hero Tales from American History 1895
  • Daniel Webster 1883

Politics

As a congressman for 6 years and a senator for 30, Lodge was a curious mixture of reformer and conservative. He was a strong and consistent supporter of civil service reform, the protective tariff, and "sound" currency. Partly because he hoped to build up the Republican party in the South, he tried to protect the African American man's right to vote through the so-called Force Bill of the 1890s. Though always solicitous of legitimate business interests, he helped draft the momentous Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. He supported most of the other regulatory measures of the Progressive era, including the Pure Food and Drug Act. In 1906, he drafted the "pipe line amendment" to the Hepburn Act, which put private oil lines under the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

In common with other imperialists, Lodge believed that American expansion was necessary for economic progress. Accordingly, he gave vigorous support to a strong navy, territorial acquisition, and power politics. He endorsed President Grover Cleveland's hard line against Great Britain in the Venezuela crisis of 1895, trumpeted for the annexation of Hawaii, became a leading advocate of war in 1898, and urged annexation of the Philippines at the end of the Spanish-American War. Thereafter he consistently supported the assertive Caribbean policy of his friend Theodore Roosevelt.

Views

Quotations: "I would rather see the United States respected than loved by other nations."

"True Americanism is opposed utterly to any political divisions resting on race and religion."

"The independence of the United States is not only more precious to ourselves but to the world than any single possession."

Membership

Henry Cabot Lodge was a member of the American Antiquarian Society, Delta Kappa Epsilon, the Porcellian Club, and the Hasty Pudding Club.

Personality

Henry Lodge was intelligent, informed, and agile, but he lacked warmth and spontaneity. His letters reveal a man as calculating in the small things as in the large and predisposed to read the meanest motives into others. Yet he had an overview, and though he assiduously cultivated his constituents' interests, he also fostered the national interest as he understood it. Also he was selfish and rather vain, and he could be bitterly sarcastic in debate and harsh and vindictive toward political opponents.

Connections

In 1871, Henry Cabot Lodge married Anna "Nannie" Cabot Mills Davis, daughter of Admiral Charles Henry Davis. They had three children: Constance Davis Lodge, George Cabot Lodge and John Ellerton Lodge.

Father:

John Ellerton Lodge

Mother:

Anna Cabot Lodge

Spouse:

Anna Cabot Mills Davis Lodge

Daughter:

Constance Davis Lodge

Son:

George Cabot Lodge

Son:

John Ellerton Lodge

Friend:

Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

References

• First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power
  2004
• Henry Cabot Lodge
  1967
• Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy
  2008
• Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biography
  1953
• Contemporary Authors
  2008