Woodrow Wilson Papers
President Wilson to the Special Representative ( House )
15. Your 10710 upsets every plan we had made. I infer that French and English leaders desire to exclude me from the Conference for fear I might there lead the weaker nations against them. If I were to come to the seat of the Conference and remain outside I would be merely the centre of a sort of sublimated lobby. All weak parties [Page 135] would resort to me and there would be exactly the same jealousy that was excited by the Germans addressing themselves exclusively to me. I play the same part in our government that the prime ministers play in theirs. The fact that I am head of the state is of no practical consequence. No point of dignity must prevent our obtaining the results we have set our hearts upon and must have. It is universally expected and generally desired here that I should attend the conference, but I believe that no one would wish me to sit by and try to steer from the outside. I am thrown into complete confusion by the change of programme. The programme proposed for me by Clemenceau, George, Reading, and the rest seems to me a way of pocketing me. I hope you will be very shy of their advice and give me your own independent judgment after reconsideration.