Woodrow Wilson | Presidency, Policy & Death (1856-1924)

Woodrow Wilson Summary

Woodrow Wilson (1913–21) was the 28th President of the United States of America. He graduated from Johns Hopkins Institution with a law degree before going on to complete his Ph.D. At Princeton College, he was a liberal arts instructor (1890–1902). He enacted several improvements while serving as its president (1902–10). He won the election for the governorship of New Jersey despite the help of liberals. His reform initiatives gained widespread notice, and in 1912, he was nominated for president by the Democratic Establishment.

He ran on a revolutionary New Freedom platform, winning the presidency against William H. Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. As president, he signed laws that bolstered labor unions, created the Major Federal Authority, reduced taxes, and formed the Central Banking System.

He advocated for the Philippines’ self-rule and worked to keep the bloody Mexican conflict under control on the international stage. He upheld American independence during World War I beginning in 1914 and offered to reach an agreement and start peace talks. Just after it sank Lusitania or other unprotected ships in early 1915, he convinced Germany to end its undersea operations.

He nearly defeated Charles Evans Hughes for reelection in 1916 by running on the platform of having “held us away from conflict.” Wilson requested an outbreak of war in April 1917 in response to Germany’s resumption of torpedo assaults on cruise liners without weapons. He proposed the Fourteen Proposals in an ongoing effort to broker a peace deal (1918). He led the American mission to the Peace Conference in Paris.

The Conservative congress, headed by Henry Cabot House, opposed the Versailles Treaty inside the congress. Wilson started a cross-country publicity campaign to gather votes for the pact and its clause establishing the Nations League, but he passed out halfway through. As soon as he returned to Washington, D.C., he had a severe attack that left him essentially disabled. His spouse Edith restricted his accessibility in the following weeks, assumed considerable decision-making authority, and planned a cover-up about his illness.

He fiercely resisted any efforts to undermine his interpretation of the United Nations. He pushed his supporters to vote against ratifying the treaty in the Senators, which they did in 1920, leading to its demise. He received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize.

Facts about Woodrow Wilson

Born	December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia, in the Americas.
Death	February 3, 1924, Woodrow Wilson Residence in Washington, D.C.
Spouse	Ellen Axson Wilson > Edith Bolling Galt Wilson
Parents	Janet Woodrow > Joseph Ruggles Wilson

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Woodrow Wilson Early Life

Woodrow Wilson’s parents, Janet Woodrow, a Presbyterian leader’s child who’d been raised in England from Scottish ancestry, and Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian pastor who’d already relocated to Virginia through Ohio, were both Presbyterians.

Following Andrew Jackson, even Wilson served as president and was the child of immigrants. Understandably, “Tommy” Wilson‘s childhood was strongly influenced by the Protestant church.

His dad had pastorates throughout Augusta, Georgia, and Wilmington, Carolina, respectively, and he lectured at the Columbian Divinity School throughout Carolina.

Thus the family moved out of Virginia before Daniel turned two. James Woodrow, his uncle, would have been the dean of the theological staff. After graduating from college, the young person changed his moniker to “Woodrow Wilson” to stress the ancestral link and also because he believed it looked more respectable. His dad was a Confederate military priest who fought throughout the Revolutionary War, and his chapel in Augusta was converted into a battlefield hospital. The atrocities of the war left a lasting impression on little Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson, who is believed to have been dyslexic from a young age, never learned to read before the age of ten and never developed his reading speed. He did, however, grow fervent talents in both government and poetry. Before enrolling in what is today Princeton Institute in 1875, he spent a year studying at Davidson Institute in the Charlotte, Carolina, area.

He developed intellectually while attending Princeton, reading much, participating in discussions, and managing the student newspaper. He wrote a scientific comparison of the American and British legislative systems of government when he was a student, which he later expanded upon in his first novel and used to inform his political future.

Wilson attended the College of Virginia to study law after graduating from Princeton in 1879, hoping this would contribute to a career in politics. After two years of routine legal work in Atlanta, he became disillusioned. He gave up his legal profession to pursue graduate studies in politics and literature at John Hopkins Institute, where he obtained a Ph.D. in 1886, becoming the first president to accomplish this goal.

Woodrow Wilson’s doctoral dissertation, Congressional Legislature: A Research through American Politics (1885), was famous. He also expanded on his correlation between the American and legislative assembly systems. He recommended changes to start making the American framework more effective and responsive to public sentiment, which was also his initial manuscript. 

The State: Components of Chronological and Functional Politics (1889), a nation’s history, Separation and Reuniting, 1829-1889, the five-volume A Background of the American People, and Parliamentary Democracy in America (1908) are some of his later writings. In the latter, Wilson skillfully outlined the contemporary perception of the head of state as “the spokesperson of no electorate, however of the entire people.” When speaking as himself, he does not have any particular agenda.

Wilson engaged Ellen Louise Axson (also known as Ellen Wilson), a Presbyterian leader’s child near Rome, Georgia, around 1885. They were the parents of 3 children: Margaret, Jessica, then Eleanor. Despite Wilson’s short adulterous liaison with Marie Allen Peck but also Ellen’s depressive episodes, the relationship was loving and joyful. Wilson was inconsolable after Ellen died around August 1914; his sadness didn’t subside until he discovered and loved Edith Bolling Galt, those who he remarried around December 1915.

Prior to becoming president, Woodrow Wilson worked for a significant scholar. He started his educational journey around 1885 and attended Bryn Mawr College before moving to Wesleyan Institute in Connecticut in 1888.

He moved to Princeton 2 years later, at which point he soon rose to the position of most favored and highest-paid university professor. He received unanimous approval to lead Princeton’s new president through 1902. Wilson sought extensive changes in both college and graduate training, and he improved the institution academically and economically. He implemented a few of his programs, but he was forced to relinquish a few of his signature proposals when his proposals for reorganizing and decentralizing the institution met with resistance from affluent benefactors and conservative academic members.

While this was going on, Wilson’s popularity as Princeton’s president grabbed the eye of Democratic Presidential conservative powerbrokers, who proposed his candidacy for the governorship of New Jersey by 1910.

Wilson left the college and ran a lively, liberal contest for governor, cleverly flipping the screws on his backers. After being in power, he used his prior theories on legislative procedures to carry out a comprehensive reform agenda that earned him national recognition and placed him in the running for the Presidency candidate.

Wilson joined an intriguing three-way presidential contest after winning the 1912 conference following a tough battle against more established candidates. Theodore Roosevelt’s defection to the Radical (Moose) Organization had splintered the powerful Republican Base, allowing Wilson to win with just 42% of the public election; however, a landslide victory of 435 votes inside the election system against Roosevelt’s 88 plus William eight votes.

Wilson responded to Roosevelt’s appeal for a “Modern Nationality” in that election and his own, just as a powerful vision of such a “New Freedom.” Since the Civil Revolution, Wilson became the first president who was raised in the South.

Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency Tenure (1913–1921)

Woodrow Wilson appointed Sir James McReynolds as solicitor general and William Jennings Bryant as minister of the nation. As a parliamentary bastion and journalistic liaison, Joseph Patrick Tumulty served. “Captain” Edward Home served as the most significant confidante and counselor in terms of foreign strategy, according to Berg; in terms of access and power, House surpassed among Cabinet ministers.

Woodrow Wilson’s Local Goals for New Freedom

Following John Adams, Woodrow Wilson was the first to address a joint legislative session personally. His four main domestic concerns were the preservation of natural assets, bank regulation, a decrease in tariffs, and an improved supply of raw commodities for farmers. With issues involving Mexico and the start of Great War I around 1914, international policy took on greater importance under his administration.

Woodrow Wilson Tax and Tariff Regulations

In May 1913, the State legislature approved a measure that reduced the median import tariff by about 10% and levied an additional tax on anyone earning more than $4,000 per year. Charges for raw resources, items designated “basic needs,” and commodities made nationally by trusts were drastically reduced. However, it kept the higher import duties for expensive items.

By October 3, 1913, Wilson officially enacted the Taxation Law of 1913 (also known as the Underwood Tax). The measure affected the top 3% of the population and substituted customs with a federal revenue tax of 1% on earnings over $3,000. It had a long-lasting effect on how government money was distributed, with taxes taking precedence over tariffs currently.

Woodrow Wilson System of the Central Reserve

The United Fund Agreement from 1913, having created a monetary system in the U.S., was Governor Woodrow Wilson’s signed act. But since the events of the 1907 economic meltdown, there have been proposals for the creation of a banking system. The new method went into effect in 1915 and was crucial in helping to fund American military activities during the First World War.

Woodrow Wilson the Antitrust Laws

The statute had failed to stop the emergence of powerful corporate alliances called trusts. Henry Clayton submitted a measure that would outlaw anti-competitive actions, including exclusive trade and overlapping directorate generals having Wilson’s backing.

The Clayton Antitrust Agreement from 1914, which expanded on the Sherman Convention by identifying and outlawing many anti-competitive acts, was approved by President Wilson. He approved the Consumer Protection Act, establishing a separate organization to look into and punish antitrust breaches, a month after he approved the Clayton Conduct.

Woodrow Wilson Agricultural and Employment

The Keating-Owen Act was approved by congress in early 1916, following extensive lobbying by the National Working Children Council (NWCC) and the Nationwide Customers Association. It was the initial national law prohibiting child work. Nevertheless, when Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), the United States Supreme Council overturned the legislation and later overturned a law penalizing enterprises that exploited child labor. It eventually abolished child labor in the 1930s.

Wilson persuaded congress to pass the eight-hour labor day for railway workers, effectively ending a significant walkout. He objected to the National Federal Loan Agreement, which established twelve financial institutions with the authority to make low-interest credit to farmers. Nonetheless, he required farm support to prevail in the election in 1916, so he approved it.

Woodrow Wilson First Term of International Policy

Latin America

Woodrow Wilson aimed to depart from the imperialist international relations of his forebears. Nicaragua became a de facto dominion as a result of the 1914 Bryan-Chamorro Convention, and the United States maintained a military presence there during Woodrow Wilson’s administration. Wilson ordered military incursions in Cuba, Panama, and Honduras and sent soldiers to invade the Dominican States and interfere in Haiti. Wilson abandoned his intentions for military involvement in Mexico after facing a fierce outcry from Mexicans from all parts of the political spectrum who opposed American involvement.

Numerous Americans were killed or injured during Pancho Villa’s invasion of Columbus, Mexico. Colonel John Pershing, with 4,000 soldiers, was sent by Wilson over the frontier to seize Villa. Once Mexico consented to free a number of American inmates, hostilities decreased, and bilateral talks started.

World War I Independence

In July 1914, the Two Superpowers (German, Austria-Hungary, the Holy Roman Empire, and eventually Bulgaria) and the Western Forces started World War (Russia, Britain, Serbia, France, and several other countries). The Eastern Line in France saw extremely high fatalities as the conflict entered a protracted stalemate. Wilson also House received commitments to arbitrate a resolution of the disagreement, but both sides declined.

Germany conducted a submarine attack against commercial ships in the waters of the British Isles throughout Great War One. President Woodrow Wilson urged Germany to action in order to prevent future occurrences similar to the drowning of the Lusitania. Bryan left the government because he thought Wilson prioritized impartiality over protecting American economic rights. Wilson obtained a promise to limit torpedo combat to battleship warfare norms.

The National Military Agreement from 1916, which Woodrow Wilson enacted, enlarged the Federal Troops and formed the Volunteer Leaders’ Development Corps. The measure was enacted after Governor Bryan’s retirement due to the Lusitania disaster. Congress also enacted laws in 1916 authorizing a significant fleet buildup.

Woodrow Wilson Remarriage

Following their meeting at a White House luncheon, President Woodrow Wilson wedded Edith Bolling Galt in December 1915. They got married around September 1915 after he asked her back in May 1915. These two were the 3rd and 4th governors to think while being in service. Only two previous presidents—John Tyler and Grover Cleveland—have accomplished similarly. In August 1914, Ellen Wilson passed away from Bright’s illness, leaving her spouse devastated by her loss.

Woodrow Wilson 1916 Presidential Race

Republicans attacked Prime minister Woodrow Wilson’s Newfound Power programs, deriding them as “division warfare.” The Republicans worried that a Democratic win would result in a conflict with Germany and ran their campaign under the theme “He Saved Us Away from Conflict.” The Republican Team decided on Charles Evans Hughes as its candidate in an effort to reconcile its conservative and reformist elements.

Woodrow Wilson was elected by capturing votes which Roosevelt and Debs received in 1912. Hughes prevailed in most Northern Central and Midwestern counties but dominated the Deep South for all except a few Parts of the West. Wilson was re-elected, making him the only Liberal to achieve this since Jackson (in 1832).

Woodrow Wilson Joining the Battle

Woodrow Wilson requested a declaration of war against Germany from Parliament in 1917. Regarding the administration and individuals of the United States, he claimed, Germany was waging “nothing short of warfare.” Eventually, America proclaimed war on Austria-Hungary. Wilson asked for conscription to enlarge the military, more taxes to cover war costs, loans to the administrations of the Allies, and expanded manufacturing and agricultural output.

Woodrow Wilson but also Defense secretary Newton D. Baker started a U.S. army enlargement in 1917. Regional selection committees were created as a result of the Military Draft Legislation of 1917, and their job was to decide who must be recruited. The conclusion of the conflict had recruited nearly three million soldiers. The navy also experienced significant growth, and Allied maritime losses significantly decreased.

A List of Fourteen Criteria

Woodrow Wilson urged the formation of an alliance of nations to protect the sovereign borders of every country. The departure of occupying power and the right of the citizens of Austria-Hungary, plus the Ottomans, to self-determination, were discussed. In a comes straight as the 14 Principles, Wilson laid out the long-term military goals of his government in 1918.

The War’s Progress

Midway through World War One’s European Front, the American Revolutionary Troops initially landed in France. The British but also French suggestion that American troops join already-existing Allied forces was rejected by Colonel Pershing. There have been 116,000 American military fatalities and 200,000 injuries. The Armistice on November 11, 1918, was signed between the United States and the Allies.

House Front

During fiscal season 1919, the national budget increased from $1 billion to $19 billion. Massive loans from Wall St and the government to the Allies helped pay for Europe’s and France’s military campaigns.

Woodrow Wilson’s 1917 Military Tax Reform act boosted the highest rate of taxation to 77 percent, substantially expanded the proportion of Americans who paid income taxes, and imposed a windfall profits penalty on both firms and people. Wilson formed the Council on Public Data in 1917, the original modern media organization, under the leadership of George Thread. Inflation grew as a consequence of buying war supplies and other military stresses, albeit growing salaries and earnings somewhat offset this hyperinflation.

In 1917, Woodrow Wilson urged Liberals to seize power in congress, but the Conservatives managed to win over enraged German-Americans and take power. During what became famous as the Palmer Invasions, Wilson’s solicitor, general A. Mitchell Palmer, started pursuing revolutionaries, IWW militants, or other insurgent organizations. For spying, sedition, or threatening riots, it detained hundreds of individuals.

Woodrow Wilson Following World War I

Peace Summit in Paris

President Woodrow Wilson accompanied the American mission to the Peace Conference following World War One. Wilson spent the whole six months in Europe, with the exception of a brief two-week visit to the U.S., where he concentrated on forging a peace agreement. Several experts assume that the Spanish flu brought on Wilson’s sickness throughout the meeting.

In contrast to other Allied forces, Woodrow Wilson did not ask the Axis Powers for financial or territory sacrifices. The founding of something like the League of Nations, which he considered the “central pillar of the entire scheme,” was his main objective. The League Accord obligated all regions to protect Leaguemates from external assault.

Woodrow Wilson made a number of concessions to the various countries in attendance to support achieving their League of Nations objectives. Germany was forced to give up all of its territories and dependents abroad, pay reparation payments, irreversibly cede terrain, and be subject to military control in the Rhineland. Wilson consented to let the Combined European Forces and Japan extend their kingdoms by setting up de facto territories in the Mideast, Africa, and Asia inside the erstwhile German and Ottoman Turks.

Somewhere at Peace Conference in 1919, Woodrow Wilson received the Award in recognition of his attempts to build long-lasting global cooperation.

Ratification Discussion and Failure

Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to address the battle or its consequences with Conservatives infuriated them, and a bitter political fight ensued in the senate. Wilson could obtain approval since several Republicans wanted to ratify the pact with minor adjustments.

It primarily focused the discussion around the pact on America’s place in the post-World War II international community. There were three primary subgroups of lawmakers: “irreconcilables,” “reservationists,” and “conservation groups.”

By March 19, 1920, Wilson coerced his followers to vote “Nay,” putting an end to the debate over if the United States would establish the Federation. Article X of a Compact required Leaguemates to defend one another from external assault in an effort to establish a framework of mutual defense. Wilson’s deed is referred to by Thomas A. Bailey called “the greatest act of murder.”

Health Deteriorates

According to Doctor Bert E. Parks, a neurologist who reviewed Wilson’s health history following his passing, Wilson’s disease had various psychological effects on him. A few have referred to Edith Wilson being “the inaugural female U.S. president” due to her prominence in the government.

Perhaps James Garfield had experienced a more extended infirmity during acting as president before Wilson, making Wilson’s prolonged illness almost unheard of. Numerous people questioned Wilson’s suitability for the presidency when internal problems like strikes, unemployment, and hyperinflation were all on the rise. It pushed Vice Chairman Marshall to declare his candidacy for the presidency by certain congress representatives. However, he never made a bid to succeed Wilson.

Demobilization

1920 saw a dramatic decrease in farm produce prices and a rise in joblessness to 12 %, which led to a significant economic downturn.

Palmer Invasions and the Red Terror

They murdered one individual, but it discovered most of the 38 explosives anarchists sent to well-known Americans during April 1919. State Attorney Palmer started the Palmer Invasions in November 1919 and continued them through January 1920 in an effort to dismantle radical groups. Almost 10,000 persons were detained, and 556 immigrants, notably Emma Goldman, were eventually expelled. Earlier in 1920, the Wall St explosion dated September 16—the most significant terrorist act on American territory to that point—killed 40 people and left dozens of others wounded.

Women’s Empowerment and Restriction

Banning became inevitable throughout wartime, although the Wilson government had little influence. In 1919, the legislatures approved the 18th Amendment after Congress had approved it. Wilson rejected the Townshend Acts, a piece of legislation intended to implement Restriction, in early October 1919. However, Parliament overrode his veto.

Woodrow Wilson strongly opposed female rights around 1911 since he thought they lacked the necessary civic engagement to make informed decisions as voters. They persuaded him that women might actually be good voters after seeing proof of how they voted in western areas. The Republican Party’s stance that voting was indeed a local affair was his only public statement on the subject, partly due to the fierce resistance to the Black right to vote inside the white South.

Woodrow Wilson publicly supported universal freedom to vote on the first occasion in a 1918 address to The nation: “In this battle, we have rendered the women our allies. Should we only accept them into a relationship of pain, misery, and labor rather than one of luxury and privilege?” The House approved a change in the law granting women universal voting but failed in the Senators. Wilson pushed congress to approve the resolution repeatedly, telling lawmakers that doing so was necessary to win the campaign. The 19th Amendment was ultimately enacted by congress in early June 1919, as well as a necessary lot of states confirmed this in August 1920.

Woodrow Wilson Campaign of 1920

Due to health issues, President Woodrow Wilson could not execute for a second term in 1920. Democratic politicians declined to support him and nominated a ticket that included State Secretary of something like the Naval Franklin Roosevelt and Senator James M. Cox. Congressman Warren G. Harding, a Conservative, ran on a platform opposing Wilson’s programs and promised a “continuation of the status quo.” Wilson remained out of the race even though he decided to support Cox and the United States’ participation in the Allied powers. Harding triumphed comfortably with more than 60% of the public election and victory throughout every region save the South.

Wilson received the 1919 Nobel Prize For peace on December 10, 1920, “for his contribution as the creator of the Allied powers.” Theodore Roosevelt was the first sitting American president to win the Peace Prize before Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson’s Death and the Last Years (1921-1924)

Woodrow Wilson and his spouse relocated and left the White Office to something like a condominium in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., following the conclusion of his reelection campaign in 1921. As General Harding and the Congressional Majority rejected joining the Federation, lowered taxes, and imposed tariffs, he continued to pursue government. Together with the former attorney general Bainbridge Colby, Wilson established a legal firm in 1921. Wilson attended the inaugural day but did not return, although, by the conclusion of 1922, the office was shut. Wilson endeavored to write, and after much struggle, he published a few brief articles that “represented a tragic end to a once magnificent published author.”

While he refused to write recollections, Raymond Stannard Baker, who authored a three-volume history of Wilson and had it released in 1922, interacted with him regularly. Wilson went to the burial of Warren Harding, his replacement, in August 1923. Wilson delivered his final nationwide statement on November 10, 1923, through a brief Armistice 24-hour radio broadcast from his apartment’s study.

After stepping down, Wilson’s condition would not improve much and started to deteriorate quickly in January 1924. On February 3, 1924, Wilson died suddenly of 67. He was cremated in Washington Metropolitan Cemetery to be the only leader whose burial place is in the capitol.

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