April 5, 1919

The effect of the Colonel’s visit has been magical. Every paper in Paris, at least all that have come to our notice, print eulogies of the President this morning and of House, “that loyal friend of France.” What a press it is! With the Colonel’s permission I am destroying the file of recent press attacks, but as I do so I come across the record of the almost delirious praise with which his arrival on these shores but a few short weeks ago was hailed. Excerpts from two of these I place in my diary. I begin with that of Henri Lavedan of the French Academy in L’Illustration. It reads:

We have seen him; we have admired him; our descendants in their turn will wonder at it all, and the work of President Wilson will remain one of the legends of history. President Wilson will appear in the poetry of the coming ages, like unto that Dante whom he resembles in profile. Future generations will see him guiding through the dangers of the infernal world that white-robed Beatrice whom we call Peace. … It was for peace and justice that he went to war. This man of law, this jurist of Sinai, this Solomon of Right and Duty, has never failed to subordinate his conduct, and that of the States of which he was the absolute representative, to the dominant sentiment of Justice. He was possessed by it as by a good demon. Nothing was to be desired, nothing was to be done—but Justice. …

The time will come when we shall see statues of him in those United States of Europe whose union he strengthened in the teeth of the perils and necessities of war. And these statues, whether they be in France, Italy or England will not show him in military habit or booted and spurred like Washington and Lafayette but will present him as a student, a humanitarian. …

But before he is made memorable in bronze and marble, let us salute in our hearts, in the temple of our gratitude, the image of this forever memorable man. Honor to President Wilson, High Priest of the Ideal, Leaguer of the Nations, Benefactor of Humanity, Shepherd of Victory and Legislator of Peace.

And now for a few of the trumpet notes that came from Romain Rolland.

You alone Mr. President are endowed with an universal moral authority. All have confidence in you. Respond to the appeal of these pathetic hopes! Take these outstretched hands, help them to clasp each other. Help these groping peoples to find their way, to establish the new Charter of enfranchisement and of union whose principles they are all passionately if confusedly seeking.

Descendant of Washington, of Abraham Lincoln! take in hand the cause, not of a party, of a people, but of all! Summon to the Congress of Humanity the representatives of the peoples! Preside over it with all the authority which your lofty moral conscience and the powerful future of immense America assures to you! Speak! speak to all! The world thirsts for a voice which shall leap over the frontiers of nations and of classes. Be the arbiter of the free peoples! And may the future greet you by the name of Reconciler!