the war neared its end, Marshall became the first vice president to conduct cabinet meetings; Wilson left him with this responsibility while traveling in Europe to sign the Versailles treaty and to work on gathering support for his League of Nations idea. Wilson became the first president to deliver a treaty to the Senate in person when he presented it to Marshall during a morning session. Morrison Marshall's wife, Lois, was heavily involved in charitable activities in Washington and spent considerable time working at the Diet Kitchen Welfare Center providing free meals to impoverished children. In 1917 she became acquainted with a mother of newborn twins, one of whom was chronically ill. The child's parents were unable to get adequate treatment for their son's condition. Lois formed a close bond with the baby, named Clarence Ignatius Morrison, and offered to take him and help him find treatment. She and Marshall had been unable to have children, and when she brought the baby home, Marshall told her that she could "keep him, provided he did not squall". Marshall grew to love the boy and wrote that he "never walked the streets of Washington with as sure a certainty as he walked into my heart", and, as the boy grew older, that he was "beautiful as an angel; brilliant beyond his years; lovable from every standpoint". The Marshalls never officially adopted Morrison because they believed that to go through the procedure while his parents were still living would appear unusual to the public. Wanting to keep the situation private, they instead made a special arrangement with his parents. President Wilson felt obliged to acknowledge the boy as theirs and sent the couple a note that simply said, "With congratulations to the baby. Wilson". Morrison lived with the Marshalls for the rest of his life. In correspondence they referred to him as Morrison Marshall, but in person they called him Izzy. Lois took him to see many doctors and spent all her available time trying to nurse him back to health, but his condition worsened and he died in February 1920, just before his fourth birthday. His death devastated Marshall, who wrote in his memoir that Izzy "was and is and ever will be so sacred to me". Succession crisis President Wilson experienced a mild stroke in September 1919. On October 2, he was struck by a much more severe stroke that left