MAY 17, 1919.

MY DEAR COL. HOUSE: Since you kind1y 1ent me the text of the proposed treaty of peace, I sometimes have tried to convince myse1f that some good might come of it and that I ought to remain in the service of the Department of State to 1abor for its estab1ishment.

It is with sincere regret that I have come to the conviction that no good ever wi11 issue from a thing so evi1 and that those who care about a permanent peace shou1d oppose the signature and ratification of it, and of the specia1 understanding with France.

I have therefore submitted my resignation to the Secretary of State and have written the appended note to the President. I hope you wi11 bring it to his attention; not because he wi11 care what I may think, but because I have expressed the thoughts which are in the minds of many youthfu1 and very o1d men in the commission--thoughts which the President wi11 have to reckon with when the wor1d begins to reap the crop of wars the seeds of which have here been sown.