You may judge, then, how confident he was at that supreme moment.
He could brush aside a great mistake lightly. Someone asked him,
"What about the freedom of the seas?"

"The freedom of the seas!" he answered, "I must tell you about
that. It's a great joke on me. I left America thinking the freedom
of the seas the most important issue of the Peace Conference. When
I got here I found there was no such issue. You see the freedom of
the seas concerns neutrals in time of war. But when we have the
League of Nations there will be no neutrals in time of war. So, of
course, there will be no question of the freedom of the seas. I
hadn't thought the thing out clearly."

From that moment the decline began. Mr. Wilson had unwisely chosen
to have his victory first and his defeats afterward, always bad
generalship.

Compromise followed compromise, each one destructive. The fourteen
points were impaired until Mr. Wilson hated to be reminded of them
by Lloyd George, in the case of Dantzig and the Polish corridor.
The dawn of a better world grew dubious. The ardor of mankind
cooled. They were at first incredulous, then skeptical.

The President saw only slowly the consequences of that chaffering
to which Mr. Lloyd George and M. Clemenceau led him. He was a poor
merchant. He dealt in morals and could cast up no daily balance. He
was busy with details for which his mind had no sufficient
curiosity or energy. Mr. Keynes, in his remarkable description of
Mr. Wilson making peace, says that his mind was slow.