(4 of 6)
The growth and complexity of 20th century America seemed to require ever more powerful and centralized administration, and Theodore Roosevelt had already shaken the Senate by doing something nearly unheard-of—he presented his own program, the Square Deal. Following Roosevelt's example, Wilson dared officially to present "Administration" bills. The Senate found itself organized under strong party leadership directed from the White House. In 1917, when a minority balked at the arming of merchantmen and launched a filibuster led by La Follette, Wilson denounced them publicly as "a little group of willful men." Diehard Senators called the statement "little less than an outrage," "unparalleled and unprecedented." But a few days later the Senate voted cloture, curbing general debate for the first time in a century. The Senate had been successfully bullied.
Three years later, in a celebrated confrontation, the Senate got even and rejected U.S. participation in the League of Nations. In the scholarly lexicon, this is the classic example of the malign power of the Senate to "destroy" a U.S. President who had become an idol to all the world. In a sense it was—but not quite. The proposed treaty had been radically altered by the "reservations" added by Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. Still, some thought it would be better to have this treaty than none. Wilson, however, wanted all or nothing, and he instructed the Democratic Senators to vote against it; obediently, they did so. On the first ballot, the treaty was defeated not because the Republicans voted against it—only 13 out of 49 did—but because the Democrats opposed it 42 to 5.
In the post-Wilson era, the Senators slowly discovered that despite the loss of their secure base in the state legislatures, they still had a political base that was independent of the President. A Committee of the Republican Senate all but destroyed the Harding Cabinet with a relatively new weapon—the congressional investigation. The real confirmation of senatorial rights came in the struggle with Franklin Roosevelt over his plan to pack the Supreme Court with a liberal majority that would okay his New Deal measures. Despite Roosevelt's overwhelming popularity, despite his highly organized liaison with the congressional leadership, despite his direct radio appeals to the nation, the individualists of the Senate balked. In the 1938 primaries, Roosevelt appealed to voters to "purge" eight Senators who opposed him; all eight were defiantly re-elected by their constituents.