Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson
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28th President of the United States
Term of office March 4, 1913 - March 4, 1921
Political party	Democratic
Vice President	Thomas R. Marshall
Preceded by	William Howard Taft
Succeeded by	Warren G. Harding
Born	December 28, 1856 Staunton, Virginia
Died	February 3, 1924 Washington, D.C.
Spouse	Ellen Axson Wilson Edith Galt Wilson
Religion	Presbyterian

Woodrow Wilson (born Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 1856 - 1924), a Democrat, was elected as the 28th President of the United States of America, and reelected in 1916, serving from 1913 to 1921. An intellectual leader of the Progressive Movement, Wilson demonstrated his mastery over Congress by creating the Federal Reserve System, lowering the tariff, and revising the antitrust laws. Trying repeatedly and failing to broker peace during World War I, Wilson in 1917 led the United States into the war. He set up a draft and trained millions of soldiers, sending the American Expeditionary Forces to France under the command of General John J. Pershing. Wilson played a dominant role in ending the war with his Fourteen Points and played the central role at the Versailles Conference that set the peace terms in 1919. He failed to obtain Senate approval for the Versailles treaty because it required American entry into the League of Nations.

Wilson's idealistic foreign policy, called "Wilsonianism" sought to end militarism as a force in world affairs, vigorously promote national self determination, create international bodies to head off serious disputes, and use American resources to promote democracy. Wilsonianism (and "idealism" generally) is opposed to "realism" in foreign policy, which stresses a concern for American self-interest, especially in economic and military terms. Wilsonianism has been a major feature of the foreign policy of George W. Bush (2001-2009).

Family

Wilson's father Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822-1903), born in Ohio, was a Presbyterian minister of Scotch Irish descent. Woodrow's mother Jesse was born in Carlisle, England, to a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister; her family moved to Canada in 1835 and to Ohio in 1837. Woodrow's parents moved South in 1851, owned house slaves, and identified themselves with the culture and political values of the South. The father Joseph Wilson was a theologian, defended slavery and soon emerged as a leader of the Southern Presbyterian Church and an avid supporter of the Confederacy.

Wilson's grandfather (Joseph Wilson's father) was James Wilson, who immigrated to the United States from northern Ireland in 1807 and was first an editor of the Jeffersonian Republican newspaper the Aurora in Philadelphia, and later published Whig newspapers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Since his father had been ostracized by the northern relatives, Woodrow had no contact with his grandfather or uncles, who were active in antislavery Republican politics in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Woodrow grew up in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction his father was a chaplain for the Confederate army. Woodrow saw the humiliation, economic ruin and shame that the loser of a war experiences and the hatred that grows from this, as well as the rampant corruption during Reconstruction in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina.

In 1885 Wilson married Ellen Louise Axson (1860 – 1914), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister in Savannah, Georgia. She was an accomplished painter and a successful hostess; they had three daughters.

Education

Woodrow studied at Davidson College in North Carolina in 1873-1874 and at Princeton University from 1875 to 1879. he proved a exceptional student, primarily interested in debate and politics. He was an editor of the Princetonian and wrote his senior thesis on "Cabinet Government in the United States;" it was later published. The essay stressed the superior qualities of the British cabinet system and said it ought to be tried in the United States. After graduation in 1879 he studied law at the University of Virginia; he was admitted to the bar and practiced in Atlanta, in 1882. Wilson's interest in scholarship led him in 1883 to enter the new Johns Hopkins University graduate school where he studied government and history, taking a PhD in 1885.. In 1885 he published his influential treatise Congressional Government, based on his PhD dissertation. It set a new standard in analyzing the actual workings of the federal government with striking clarity and thoroughness. Although Wilson had never visited Congress, his emphasis on the centrality of committees in Congress was a major contribution to the study of political science.

Academic leader

In 1885 Wilson was appointed instructor in in history at Bryn Mawr College, an elite Quaker school near Philadelphia, as a salary of $1500 a year (which was enough to hire a servant). In 1888 he moved to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. His reputation as an outstanding leader in political science brought him a professorship of jurisprudence and political economy at Princeton University in 1890. For the next twelve years he taught at Princeton, popular alike with students and faculty; he became the president of the school in 1902.

Wilson soon emerged as the nation's foremost academic, in heavy demand in elite circle for his brilliant speeches.

At Princeton he rejected the Germanic model of the PhD-oriented research university in favor of the "Oxbridge" (Oxford and Cambridge) model of intense small group discussions and one-one-one tutorials. He hired 50 young professors, called preceptors, to meet with students in small conferences, grilling them about their reading. He failed to get approval for his plan to build Oxford-style colleges where students and faculty would eat and talk together. Instead Princeton was dominated by "eating clubs" in which students ate with each other and ignored the professors.

Wilson promote the leadership model, whereby the college focused on training a small cadre of undergraduates for national leadership, "the minority who plan, who conceive, who superintend," as he called them in his inaugural address as the university's president. "The college is no less democratic because it is for those who play a special part."

Political theory

Wilson made significant contributions to political science. In his book Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics (1885), noting how the Constitution's separation of powers had been eroded since the Civil War by the increasing power of Congress, he suggested a remedy for this in a cabinet-style government of the variety proposed by Walter Bagehot in Britain. By criticizing the Constitutionalist and Federalist traditions that had characterized American politics for a century, and showing their faults, Wilson sought to open a serious debate on the political changes in the United States in the intervening century and whether the Constitution remained an adequate regulator of these. By the time he wrote Constitutional Government in the United States (1908), Wilson was advocating the need for constitutional reform that would make Congress and president more representative and, above all, the need for a strong president who could influence Congress rather than submit to it.

Public administration

Wilson was a founder of the study of public administration by political scientists. Wilson believed in a strong, active role for the central government and as president succeeded in establishing legislation that significantly enlarged its regulatory powers. With the publication of Congressional Government in 1885, Wilson established himself as a leader of the political reform movement of the day. The book was the first of its kind to analyze policymaking by the central government and to provide recommendations for changing the process. Wilson was one of the three most prominent public administrationists of the 1880's and 1890's. As an academician, he promoted a separate department for the study of public administration and wrote 'The Study of Adminstration' (1887), the first published essay by a university scholar on the subject, established Wilson as the leading authority in the field. During the next year he inaugurated a course in public administration at Johns Hopkins University, providing three 6-week lecture series arranged in a 3-year cycle. In 1889, Wilson published a textbook, The State, and, in 1891, he began at Hopkins a new 3-year course which was a further significant step in the development of the study of administration. He was one of the first scholars to realize fully that all government was ultimately to be administration.

Football

Wilson as president of Princeton, and Theodore Roosevelt as president of the United States, took an intense interest in the controversy over the reform of college football. In the 1890s and early 1900s, college football faced sharp of criticism over injuries and the role of athletics in college life. Roosevelt and Wilson, loyal followers of Harvard and Princeton, had defended football in the 1890s. In the fall of 1905, however, President Roosevelt called a conference of football experts at the White House to discuss brutality and unsportsmanlike conduct. Thereafter, Roosevelt worked behind the scenes to bring about sufficient reform to preserve football and insure that it would continue to be played at Harvard. In the years 1909-10, when college football again faced an injury crisis, Wilson worked with the presidents at Harvard and Yale to make reasonable reforms. Both Roosevelt's and Wilson's approaches were consistent with their strategies for national political change. In the years that followed the reforms on the gridiron, football evolved rapidly into the 'attractive' game that Wilson had advocated and a far less brutal game than the unruly spectacle that Roosevelt had tried to control.

Reform governor

By 1910 when internal politics at Princeton meant that the research university became dominant. Frustrated, Wilson moved into state politics, winning the governorship of New Jersey as a Democrat in 1910, supported by the party bosses. He immediately broke with the bosses and launched a reform administration that was a model of Progressive Era state government. Wilson by 1912 had emerged as the leader of the Progressive Movement in the Democratic Party.

Election of 1912

William Frank McCombs, a New York lawyer and a a friend from college days, instigated and managed Wilson's campaign for president in 1912. Much of Wilson's support came from the South, especially from young progressive professionals. Wilson managed to maneuver through the complexities of local politics. For example, in Tennessee the Democratic Party was divided on the issue of prohibition. Wilson was progressive and sober, but not a dry, and appealed to both sides. They united behind him to win the presidential election in the state, but divided over state politics and lost the gubernatorial election.

At the convention deadlock went on for over 40 ballots as a two-thirds vote was needed. A leading opponent was House Speaker Champ Clark, a prominent progressive strongest in the border states. Other contenders were Judson Harmon of Ohio, and Oscar Underwood of Alabama. They lacked Wilson's charisma and dynamism. Clark was supported by publisher William Randolph Hearst, a leader of the left-wing of the party. The critical role was played by William Jennings Bryan, the nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908, who blocked the nomination of any candidate who had the support of 'the financiers of Wall Street.' He finally announced for Wilson, who won on the 46th.

Wilson enjoyed the support of many black leaders including W.E.B. DuBois (a liberal at the time). Wilson's speeches and letters expressed the sentiments of a defender of the underprivileged. However the rejoicing over Wilson's victory was short-lived among blacks as segregationist white Southerners took control of Congress and many executive departments.

In the campaign Wilson promoted the "New Freedom," emphasizing limited federal government and opposition to monopoly powers--positions that he reversed on coming to office.

President William Howard Taft defeated ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in a bitter contest for the Republican nomination, but Roosevelt walked out of the Republican convention and ran as a third party candidate. Wilson's success in the electoral college was assured, despite his 41.8% of the popular vote..

Wilson was the first southerner elected president since Zachary Taylor in 1848, and much of his political base came from young progressives in that region, especially intellectuals, editors and lawyers.

President: 1913-21

First term

Domestic policy

Woman suffrage

In the 1910s, suffragists campaigned for the passage of a federal constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote. They argued it would purify politics because the new voters would be far lessliable to corruption and saloon influences. The movement was led by Protesntant northern women, many of whom were active in the prohibition movement at the same time. Both the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the National Women's Party (NWP) used symbolic representations of President Wilson, conferring on him real or symbolic images of presidential power. In practice Wilson hedged, realizing that male Democrats in the bg city machines in the North and in the rural South were hostile to woman suffrage. The meaning of democracy was at issue: the NWP portrayed Wilson as a tyrant, the NAWSA depicted him as a champion of freedom. Both organizations played essential roles in the passage of the 19th Amendment. After 1919, the absence of a common goal was a contributing factor to the subsequent divisions within the woman's rights movement, as was the loss of a unique adversary.

Wilson and religion

Wilson, imbued with the Social Gospel, was a Presbyterian elder and the son of a leading theologian. Wilson read the Bible daily; he felt 'sorry for the men who do not read the Bible every day.' The Bible, he argued, was 'the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life.' Wilson was prone to make explicitly Christian claims about his nation, even excluding the word Judeo from his characterization of the nation's religious heritage. 'America was born a Christian nation,' he explained in a speech on "The Bible and Progress" in 1911: "America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."

He held that the Bible "is the one supreme source of revelation, the revelation of the meaning of life, of the nature of God and the spiritual nature and need of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation."

Religion was central in Wilson's life and thought. His Presbyterian upbringing influenced his belief in following God's guidance. He exemplified traditional American optimism and considered the United States a Christian nation destined to lead the world. He was a prophet and a postmillenarian whose idealism clashed with reality.

China policy

Wilson’s discussions with Presbyterian missionaries visiting Princeton shaped his diplomacy toward China. Wilson viewed Christianity as a unifying force in the world and the Chinese Revolution of 1911 as the first step toward the spread of Christianity and democracy for China. Wilson gained the admiration of the missionaries and Chinese when he prohibited US participation in a European loan to China. He moved to recognize the government of Yuan Shih-k'ai, hoping that that regime could bring stability to China favorable to the introduction of Christianity. He sought to appoint an ambassador to China who could express Christian values. During World War I, missionaries successfully urged Wilson's opposition to Japanese demands on China. Although the war and its aftermath diverted Wilson from Chinese problems, his foreign policy continued to be influenced by missionaries, particularly Dr. Samuel I. Woodbridge and the Reverend Charles E. Scott.

Democracy

Wilson advocated a new international order founded on self-determination, democracy, unfettered international commerce, and a worldwide organization of states - the League of Nations. Wilson framed American participation in the war as the first step in ending all wars. Although 'Wilsonian nationalism' has been blamed for the nationalistic emphasis on race and territory in Europe during the 1920's and 1930's, Wilson's policies had actually used ethnic and territorial issues to encourage self-determination and the development of democracy in postwar nations.

Woodrow Wilson's most lasting political philosophy was his view that democracy should be installed around the world. As a major player in setting the terms to end World War I, he helped to break up the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to advance his goal of installing democracy for each ethnic subpopulation. Similar independence was granted with the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Many of these new nations were receiving self determination for the first time in centuries. Wilson's view of installing democracy worldwide has since been copied by the neoconservatives. Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to start the League of Nations.

Bibliography

Biography

• Brands, H. W. Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921'’ (2003) excerpt and text search 169pp; good summary by scholar
• Cooper, John Milton. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009), 720 pp. major new biography by leading scholar
• Cooper, John Milton. The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt (1985), fascinating double biography by leading scholar excerpt and text search
• Hofstadter, Richard. "Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal" in The American Political Tradition (1948), ch. 10. influential essay; at ACLS E-books
• Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson" in Henry F. Graff ed., The Presidents: A Reference History (2002) pp 365-388
• Link, Arthur Stanley. Wilson: The Road to the White House (1947), first volume of standard biography (to 1917); Wilson: The New Freedom (1956); Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality: 1914-1915 (1960); Wilson: Confusions and Crises: 1915-1916 (1964); Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace: 1916-1917 (1965), the last volume of standard biography
• Walworth, Arthur. Woodrow Wilson 2 Vol. (1958); Pulitzer prize winning biography vol 1 online

Domestic affairs and ideas

Wilson's image appeared on the now-withdrawn $100,000 bill

• Abrams, Richard M. "Woodrow Wilson and the Southern Congressmen, 1913-1916," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Nov., 1956), pp. 417-437 in JSTOR
• Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992), covers domestic and foreign policies
• Corwin, Edward S. "Woodrow Wilson and the Presidency," Virginia Law Review, Vol. 42, No. 6 (Oct., 1956), pp. 761-783 in JSTOR
• Cuff, Robert D. "Woodrow Wilson and Business-Government Relations during World War I," Review of Politics, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1969), pp. 385-407 in JSTOR
• Curti, Merle. "Woodrow Wilson's Concept of Human Nature," Midwest Journal of Political Science, Vol. 1, No. 1 (May, 1957), pp. 1-19 in JSTOR
• Daniel, Marjorie L. "Woodrow Wilson--Historian," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Dec., 1934), pp. 361-374 in JSTOR
• Dimock, Marshall E. "Woodrow Wilson as Legislative Leader," The Journal of Politics, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Feb., 1957), pp. 3-19 in JSTOR
• Link, Arthur S. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1954), remains the standard history of his first term.
• Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson: The American as Southerner," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Feb., 1970), pp. 3-17 in JSTOR
• Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party," Review of Politics, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1956), pp. 146-156 in JSTOR cover 1913-14
• Livermore, Seward W. Woodrow Wilson and the War Congress, 1916-1918 (1966)
• Lunardini, Christine A.. and Thomas J. Knock. "Woodrow Wilson and Woman Suffrage: A New Look," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 95, No. 4 (Winter, 1980-1981), pp. 655-671 in JSTOR
• Macmahon, Arthur W. "Woodrow Wilson as Legislative Leader and Administrator," American Political Science Review, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Sep., 1956), pp. 641-675 in JSTOR
• Malin, James C. The United States after the World War (1930)
• Pestritto, Ronald J. ed. Woodrow Wilson and the roots of modern liberalism (2005) ISBN: 0742515176' argues Wilson subverted the ideas of the Founders by his progressivism
• Saunders, Robert M. In Search of Woodrow Wilson: Beliefs and Behavior (1998)
• Turner, Henry A. "Woodrow Wilson and Public Opinion," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 1957-1958), pp. 505-520 in JSTOR
• Wolgemuth, Kathleen L. "Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation," The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Apr., 1959), pp. 158-173 in JSTOR
• Weinstein, Edwin A., James William Anderson and Arthur S. Link. "Woodrow Wilson's Political Personality: A Reappraisal," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Winter, 1978-1979), pp. 585-598 at JSTOR
• Wolfe, Christopher. "Woodrow Wilson: Interpreting the Constitution," Review of Politics, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Jan., 1979), pp. 121-142 in JSTOR
• Woodward, Carl R. "Woodrow Wilson's Agricultural Philosophy," Agricultural History, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Oct., 1940), pp. 129-142 in JSTOR

Foreign policy

• Ambrosius, Lloyd E., “Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush: Historical Comparisons of Ends and Means in Their Foreign Policies,” Diplomatic History, 30 (June 2006), 509–43.
• Bailey; Thomas A. Wilson and the Peacemakers: Combining Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace and Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal (1947)
• Clements, Kendrick, A. Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman (1999)
• Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992), covers foreign policy
• Clements, Kendrick A. "Woodrow Wilson and World War I," Presidential Studies Quarterly 34:1 (2004). pp 62+.
• Davis, Donald E. and Eugene P. Trani; The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations (2002)
• Gaughan, Anthony. "Woodrow Wilson and the Rise of Militant Interventionism in the South ," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Nov., 1999), pp. 771-808 in JSTOR
• Greene, Theodore P. ed. Wilson at Versailles (1957)
• Henderson, Peter V. N. "Woodrow Wilson, Victoriano Huerta, and the Recognition Issue in Mexico," The Americas, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Oct., 1984), pp. 151-176 in JSTOR
• Knock, Thomas J. To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (1995)
• Kimitada, Miwa. "Japanese Opinions on Woodrow Wilson in War and Peace," Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 22, No. 3/4 (1967), pp. 368-389 in JSTOR
• Levin, Jr., N. Gordon Woodrow Wilson and World Politics: America's Response to War and Revolution (1968)
• Link, Arthur Stanley. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1972) sumarizes diplomatic history
• Link, Arthur S.; Wilson the Diplomatist: A Look at His Major Foreign Policies (1957)
• Link, Arthur S.; Woodrow Wilson and a Revolutionary World, 1913-1921 (1982)
• May, Ernest R. The World War and American Isolation, 1914-1917 (1959)
• Sandos, James A. "Pancho Villa and American Security: Woodrow Wilson's Mexican Diplomacy Reconsidered," Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Nov., 1981), pp. 293-311 in JSTOR
• Trani, Eugene P. “Woodrow Wilson and the Decision to Intervene in Russia: A Reconsideration.” Journal of Modern History (1976). 48:440—61. in JSTOR
• Walworth, Arthur. Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 online edition

Historiography

• Clements, Kendrick A. "The Papers of Woodrow Wilson and the Interpretation of the Wilson Era", The History Teacher, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Aug., 1994), pp. 475-489 in JSTOR
• Seltzer, Alan L. "Woodrow Wilson as 'Corporate-Liberal': Toward a Reconsideration of Left Revisionist Historiography," Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 183-212 in JSTOR
• Watson, Jr., Richard L. "Woodrow Wilson and His Interpreters, 1947-1957," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Sep., 1957), pp. 207-236 in JSTOR, summarizes different interpretations
• Extensive essay on Woodrow Wilson and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Primary sources

• Pestritto, Ronald J. ed. Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings (2005)
• Link, Arthur S., ed. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson complete in 69 vol, at major academic libraries. Annotated edition of all of WW's letters, speeches and writings plus many letters written to him
• Tumulty, Joseph P. Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him (1921)] memoir by chief of staff [online edition
• Wilson, Woodrow. The New Freedom (1913) 1912 campaign speeches online edition
• Wilson, Woodrow. Why We Are at War (1917) six war messages to Congress, Jan- April 1917
• Wilson, Woodrow. Selected Literary & Political Papers & Addresses of Woodrow Wilson (3 vol 1918 and later editions)
• Wilson, Woodrow. Messages & Papers of Woodrow Wilson 2 vol (ISBN 1-135-19812-8)
• Wilson, Woodrow. The New Democracy. Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Other Papers (1913-1917) 2 vol 1926 (ISBN 0-89875-775-4
• Wilson, Woodrow. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918).
• full text of Wilson books and messages online

External links

• Nobel Prize biography