A return to peace was at stake, and peace was the supreme need of the world, the universal appeal of all peoples.

I could not conscientiously assume the responsibility of placing any obstacle in the way of a return to peace at the earliest possible moment.

It would have been to do the very thing which I condemned in the President when he prevented an early signing of the peace by insisting on the acceptance of the Covenant of the League of Nations as a condition precedent.
Whatever the consequence of my action would have been, whether it resulted in delay or in defeat of ratification, I should have felt guilty of having prevented an immediate peace which from the first seemed to me vitally important to all nations.

Personal feelings and even personal beliefs were insufficient to excuse such action..