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Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on December 28, 1856, at 18–24 North Coalter Street (now the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library), of Scots-Irish descent.[11] He was the third of four children of Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822–1903) and Jessie Janet Woodrow (1826–1888).[12] Wilson's paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland (now Northern Ireland), in 1807. His mother was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, the daughter of Rev. Dr. Thomas Woodrow from Paisley, Scotland, and Marion Williamson from Glasgow.[13] Wilson's father Joseph Ruggles Wilson was originally from Steubenville, Ohio, where his grandfather published a pro-tariff and anti-slavery newspaper, The Western Herald and Gazette.[14] Wilson's parents moved south in 1851 and identified with the Confederacy. His father defended slavery, owned slaves and set up a Sunday school for them; the parents cared for wounded soldiers at their church, and his father briefly served as a chaplain to the Confederate Army.[15] Woodrow Wilson's earliest memory, from the age of three, was of hearing that Abraham Lincoln had been elected and that a war was coming. Wilson would forever recall standing for a moment at Robert E. Lee's side and looking up into his face.[15] Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) in 1861 after it split from the northern Presbyterians. He served as the first permanent clerk of the southern church's General Assembly, was Stated Clerk from 1865 to 1898 and was Moderator of the PCUS General Assembly in 1879. He became minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, and the family lived there until young Wilson was 14.[16][16] Wilson himself in 1873 formally became a member of the Columbia First Presbyterian Church and remained a member throughout his life.[17] Education and marriage Wilson's reading began at age ten, possibly delayed by dyslexia; he later blamed the lack of schools in the post bellum South. As a teen he taught himself the Graham shorthand system to compensate, and achieved academically with self-discipline, studying at home with his father, then in classes at a small Augusta school.[18] During Reconstruction, Wilson lived in Columbia, South Carolina from 1870 to 1874, while his father was professor at the Columbia Theological Seminary.[19] Wilson attended Davidson College in North Carolina for the 1873–1874 school year, cut short by illness, then transferred to Princeton as a freshman when his father began teaching at the university. He graduated in 1879, a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. In his second year, he studied political philosophy and history, was active in the Whig literary and debating society, and wrote for the Nassau Literary Review.[20] He organized the Liberal Debating Society[21] and later coached the Whig–Clio Debate Panel.[22] In the hotly contested election of 1876, Wilson declared his support for the Democratic Party and its nominee, Samuel J. Tilden.[23] In 1879, Wilson attended law school at the University of Virginia for one year; he was involved in the Virginia Glee Club and was president of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society.[24] While there, he enjoyed frequent trips to his birthplace Staunton where he visited with cousins, and fell in love with one, Hattie Woodrow, though his affections were unrequited.[25] His health became frail and dictated withdrawal, so he went home to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he continued his law studies.[26] Wilson was admitted to the Georgia bar and made a brief attempt at law practice in January 1882; he found legal history and substantive jurisprudence interesting, but abhorred the day to day procedural aspects, and after less than a year abandoned the practice to pursue his study of political science and history. Both parents expressed misplaced concern over a potentially premature decision.[27] Ellen Axson Wilson (1883) In the fall of April 1883, Wilson entered Johns Hopkins University to study history, political science and the German language.[28] Three years later he completed his doctoral dissertation, "Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics",[29] and received a Ph.D..[30] In late spring of 1883 Wilson was summoned to Rome, Georgia to assist in the settlement of his maternal uncle William's estate which was being mishandled by a brother-in-law. While there he met and fell in love with Ellen Louise Axson, the daughter of a minister from Savannah, Georgia; he proposed to her and they became engaged in Asheville.[31] Wilson's marriage to Ellen was delayed by traumatic developments in her family; In late 1883 Ellen's father Edward, suffering from depression, was admitted to the Georgia State Mental Hospital, where in 1884 he committed suicide. After closing the family home in Rome, Georgia and recovering from the initial shock, Ellen advanced her artistic interests by gaining admission to the Art Students League of New York; post graduation, she pursued portrait art and received a medal for one of her works from the Paris International Exposition. Nevertheless she happily agreed to sacrifice further independent artistic pursuits in order to keep her marriage commitment, and In 1885 she and Wilson married.[32] Wilson was an automobile enthusiast, and took daily rides while he was President in his favorite car, a 1919 Pierce-Arrow.[33] His enjoyment of motoring made him an advocate of funding for public highways.[34] Wilson was an avid baseball fan, and in 1915 became the first sitting president to attend, and throw out the first ball at, a World Series game. Wilson had been a center fielder during his Davidson College days and was the Princeton team's assistant manager.[35] He cycled regularly, including several cycling vacations in the English Lake District.[36] Wilson later took up golf.[37] Academic career Dtrs. Jessie & Margaret Dtr. Eleanor After lecturing at Cornell University in 1886–1887, and joining the Irving Literary Society, Wilson worked at Bryn Mawr College from 1885 until 1888, teaching ancient Greek and Roman history; while there he refused offers from the Universities of Michigan and Indiana.[38] When Ellen was pregnant with their first child in 1886, the couple decided that Ellen should go to her Aunt Louisa Brown's residence in Gainesville, Georgia to have their first child; she arrived just one day before the baby, Margaret, was born in April 1886. Their second child, Jessie, was born in August 1887.[39] In 1888 Wilson left Bryn Mawr for Wesleyan University, in a controversial decision, since he had signed a three-year contract with Bryn Mawr in 1887; both parties claimed contract violations and the matter subsided.[40] At Wesleyan, he coached the football team and founded the debate team, which bears his name. Shortly after the birth of their third child, Eleanor, in October 1889, Ellen suffered a foot injury, and Wilson added babysitting to his duties.[41] In February 1890, with the help of friends, Wilson was elected by the Princeton board to the Chair of Jurisprudence and Political Economy at a salary of $3000.[42] He continued a previous practice of reserving time for a six-week course in administration at Johns Hopkins.[43] He was also a faculty member of the short-lived coordinate college, Evelyn College for Women. Additionally, Wilson became the first lecturer of Constitutional Law at New York Law School where he taught with Charles Evans Hughes.[44] Representing the American Whig Society, Wilson delivered an oration at Princeton's sesquicentennial celebration (1896) entitled "Princeton in the Nation's Service", which was the origin for the school's motto.[45] Wilson became annoyed that Princeton was not living up to its potential, complaining "There's a little college down in Kentucky which in 60 years has graduated more men who have acquired prominence and fame than has Princeton in her 150 years."[46] Political science author U.S. democratic republic and British parliament contrast Wilson, a disciple of Walter Bagehot, saw the United States Constitution as cumbersome and open to corruption. Wilson favored a parliamentary system for the United States and in the early 1880s wrote, "I ask you to put this question to yourselves, should we not draw the Executive and Legislature closer together? Should we not, on the one hand, give the individual leaders of opinion in Congress a better chance to have an intimate party in determining who should be president, and the president, on the other hand, a better chance to approve himself a statesman, and his advisers capable men of affairs, in the guidance of Congress."[47] Wilson's first political work, Congressional Government, published in 1885, advocated a parliamentary system, and provided a critical description of America's government, with frequent negative comparisons to Westminster. Critics contended the book was written without the benefit of the author observing any operational aspect of the U.S. Congress, and supporters asserted the work was the product of the imagination of a future statesman. The book reflected the greater power of the legislature, relative to the executive, during the post-bellum period.[48] Wilson later became a regular contributor to the Political Science Quarterly.[49] Wilson's second publication in 1890 was a textbook, entitled The State, used widely in college courses throughout the country until the 1920s. He argued that government should not be deemed evil and advocated the use of government to alay social ills and advance society's welfare.[50] in 1889 Wilson contributed to a U.S. historical series, covering the period from Pres. Jackson through Reconstruction. The result was his third publication, entitled Division and Reunion, published in 1893 and considered an outstanding contribution to American historical writing.[51] Wilson's fourth publication, a five volume work entitled History of the American People, was the culmination of a series of articles written for Harper's, and was published in 1902.[52] Wilson believed that America's system of checks and balances complicated American governance. If government behaved badly, Wilson queried, "How is the schoolmaster, the nation, to know which boy needs the whipping?"[53] Wilson singled out the United States House of Representatives for particular criticism, saying, "... divided up, as it were, into forty-seven seignories, in each of which a Standing Committee is the court-baron and its chairman lord-proprietor. These petty barons, some of them not a little powerful, but none of them within reach [of] the full powers of rule, may at will exercise an almost despotic sway within their own shires, and may sometimes threaten to convulse even the realm itself.[54] In his last scholarly work in 1908, Constitutional Government of the United States, Wilson said that the presidency "will be as big as and as influential as the man who occupies it". By the time of his presidency, Wilson hoped that Presidents could be party leaders in the same way British prime ministers were. Wilson also hoped that the parties could be reorganized along ideological, not geographic, lines. He wrote, "Eight words contain the sum of the present degradation of our political parties: No leaders, no principles; no principles, no parties."[55] Public administration Wilson also studied public administration, which he called "...government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of government, and is of course as old as government itself".[56] He believed that the study of public administration could enable officials to increase governmental efficiency.[57] He faulted political leaders who focused on philosophical issues and the nature of government and dismissed the critical issues of government administration as mere "practical detail". He thought such attitudes represented the requirements of smaller countries and populations. By his day, he thought, "...it is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one."[58] He thought it time "...to straighten the paths of government, to make its business less unbusinesslike, to strengthen and purify its organization, and it to crown its dutifulness".[59] He summarized the growth of such foreign states as Prussia, France, and England, highlighting the events that led to advances in administration. By contrast, he thought the United States required greater compromise because of the diversity of public opinion and the difficulty of forming a majority opinion; thus practical reform to the government was necessarily slow. Yet Wilson insisted that "...administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics"[60] and that "...general laws which direct these things to be done are as obviously outside of and above administration."[61] He likened administration to a machine that functions independent of the changing mood of its leaders. Such a line of demarcation is intended to focus responsibility for actions taken on the people or persons in charge. As Wilson put it, "...public attention must be easily directed, in each case of good or bad administration, to just the man deserving of praise or blame. There is no danger in power, if only it be not irresponsible. If it be divided, dealt out in share to many, it is obscured..."[62] Essentially, the items under the discretion of administration must be limited in scope, as to not block, nullify, obfuscate, or modify the implementation of governmental decree made by the executive branch. President of Princeton University Wilson – Princeton's president (1902) Wilson had in the past been offered the presidency at the University of Illinois in 1892, and at the University of Virginia in 1901, both of which he declined.[63] The Princeton trustees promoted Professor Wilson to president of in June 1902, replacing Francis Landey Patton, whom the Trustees perceived to be an inefficient administrator.[63] Although the school's endowment was barely $4 million, Wilson sought $2 million for a preceptorial system of teaching, $1 million for a school of science, and nearly $3 million for new buildings and salary increases. As a long-term objective, Wilson sought $3 million for a graduate school and $2.5 million for schools of jurisprudence and electrical engineering, as well as a museum of natural history.[64] He increased the faculty from 112 to 174, most of whom he selected himself on the basis of their records as outstanding teachers. The curriculum guidelines he developed proved important progressive innovations in the field of higher education.[65] Wilson also made biblical studies a scholarly pursuit, appointed the first Jew and the first Roman Catholic to the faculty and helped liberate the board from domination by conservative Presbyterians.[66] To emphasize the development of expertise, Wilson instituted academic departments and a system of core requirements where students met in groups of six with preceptors, followed by two years of concentration in a selected major. He tried to raise admission standards and to replace the "gentleman's C" with serious study. Wilson aspired, as he told alumni, "to transform thoughtless boys performing tasks into thinking men".[67] In 1906 Wilson awoke to find himself blind in the left eye, the result of a blood clot and hypertension; modern medical opinion surmises Wilson had suffered a stroke—he later was diagnosed, as his father had been, with hardening of the arteries; he took a Bermuda vacation. He began to exhibit his father's traits of impatience and intolerance, which would on occasion lead to errors of judgment .[68] In 1896 Wilson had, somewhat prophetically, described his problem, in the sesquicentennial speech at Princeton: "...your thorough Presbyterian is not subject to the ordinary laws of life, is of too stubborn a fiber, too unrelaxing a purpose, to suffer mere inconvenience to bring defeat".[66] Prospect House, Wilson's home on Princeton's campus When Wilson began vacationing in Bermuda in 1906 he met a socialite, Mary Hulbert Peck, and their visits together became a regular occurrence on his return. Wilson in his letters home to Ellen openly related these gatherings as well his others social events. According to biographer Heckscher, Ellen could sense a problem and it became the topic of frank discussion between them. Wilson Historians have not conclusively established there was an affair; nevertheless, Wilson did on one occasion write a musing in shorthand—on the reverse side of a draft for an editorial: "my precious one, my beloved Mary".;[69] Wilson also sent very personal letters which would be used by his adversaries later.[70] While Wilson was vacationing solo in the British Isles, Ellen journeyed to Connecticut where she was able to join the household of coveted artist Florence Griswold to further pursue her own past time.[71] During his time at Princeton he attempted to curtail the influence of social elites by abolishing the upper-class eating clubs and proposed moving the students into colleges, also known as quadrangles. Wilson's Quad Plan was met with fierce opposition from Princeton's alumni. Wilson persisted, saying that giving in "would be to temporize with evil".[72] In October 1907, due to the intensity of alumni opposition, the Board of Trustees withdrew its support for the Quad Plan and instructed Wilson to withdraw it.[73] Not long afterwards, Wilson suffered a recurrence of his 1906 ailment; as before, a vacation was prescribed and proved beneficial.[71] Late in his tenure, a confrontation ensued between Wilson and Andrew Fleming West, Dean of the graduate school, and also West's ally ex-President Grover Cleveland, who was a trustee. Wilson wanted to integrate a proposed graduate school building into the campus core while West preferred an extended campus site. In 1909 Wilson's final year at Princeton began with a gift made to the graduate school campaign subject to the graduate school being located off campus; the acceptance of this condition by the board was a pivotal defeat for Wilson.[74] The national press covered the confrontation as a battle between the elites, represented by West, versus the populace, represented by Wilson. From its outset, resistance to Wilson's recommendations at Princeton had spawned disenchantment, and invigorated Wilson's rumination of future political leadership. Prior to the Democratic presidential nominating convention in 1908, Wilson had even dropped hints to some influential players in the Democratic Party of his interest in the Democratic ticket. While he had no real expectations of being placed on the ticket, he did leave instructions that he not be offered the vice presidential nomination—before leaving for a vacation in Scotland; his ideas at the time were thereby considered politically as well as geographically detached and fanciful. Nevertheless, the seeds had been sewn.[75] Wilson later commented that politics was less brusk than university administration.[76] Wilson was elected president of the American Political Science Association in 1910, but soon decided to leave his Princeton post and enter New Jersey state politics.[77] McGeorge Bundy in 1956 described Wilson's contribution to Princeton: "Wilson was right in his conviction that Princeton must be more than a wonderfully pleasant and decent home for nice young men; it has been more ever since his time".[78] Governor of New Jersey Gov. Wilson, 1911 In January 1910 Wilson had drawn the attention of New Jersey's U.S. Senator James Smith, Jr. and George Harvey as the potential Democratic standard bearer in the upcoming gubernatorial election, and on July 12, 1910 he was introduced to New Jersey's power players at the Lawyers Club in New York, including James Richard Nugent, Robert S. Hudspeth, Millard F. Ross, and Richard V. Lindabury. The bosses had chosen their man, but his nomination was not a given—many, including organized labor, felt Wilson was an inexperienced newcomer.[79] Nevertheless, the bosses marshaled their forces at the party convention, and on September 14 Wilson was nominated; this, despite his endorsement of the local option on the liquor issue—in opposition to the political machine. He submitted his letter of resignation to Princeton on October 20.[80] Wilson's opponent in the general election was the Republican candidate Vivian M. Lewis, the State Commissioner of Banking and Insurance. Wilson's campaign focused on his promise that if elected he would not be beholden to party bosses. Wilson quickly shed his professorial style for more emboldened speechmaking, and presented himself as a full-fledged progressive.[81] He soundly defeated Lewis by a margin of more than 650,000 votes, although Republican William Howard Taft had carried New Jersey in the 1908 presidential election by more than 82,000 votes.[82][83] Historian Edmund Morris called Wilson in the Governor's race a "dark horse" and attributed his and others' success against the Taft Republicans in 1910 in part to the emergent national progressive message enunciated by Theodore Roosevelt in his post-presidency.[84] In the 1910 election, the Democrats also took control of the General Assembly, though the State Senate remained in Republican hands. Wilson appointed Joseph Patrick Tumulty as his private secretary, a position he held throughout Wilson's political career.[85] He began formulating his reformist agenda, intending to ignore the demands of party machinery. In fact, after Wilson's election, political boss U.S. Senator Smith asked Wilson to endorse his own reelection bid in the state legislature; Wilson refused, and endorsed Smith's opponent James E Martine. When Martine became the victor, Wilson had manifestly positioned himself as a new leader in the party in that state.[86] Wilson concentrated on four major state reforms—changes in the election laws. a corrupt practices act, Workmen's Compensation and the establishment of a commission to regulate utilities. The Geran bill, drafted by Del. Elmer H Geran expanded public participation in primaries for all offices including party officials and delegates; it was thus directed at the power of the political bosses, and it passed the assembly, albeit by a narrow margin. The corrupt practices law and Workmen's Compensation statute soon followed.[87] Presidential Election of 1912 Main article: United States presidential election, 1912 Democratic nomination Wilson's prominence as governor and in the national media induced his presidential campaign in 1912. Wilson committed himself to try for the Democratic nomination in March of the prior year when he spoke at an Atlanta meeting of the Southern Commercial Congress; afterwards he said : "I was given a dinner, breakfast and reception, and on every possible occasion was nominated for the presidency!"[88] While Wilson was in Atlanta, his wife Ellen, alert that key Democrat William Jennings Bryan was visiting Princeton, and recalling Wilson's opposition to him in 1896, invited him for dinner upon Wilson's return. Indeed, the establishment of rapport with Bryan, the most recent standard bearer of the party, was a success.[89] Champ Clark, Wilson's foremost opponent for the Democratic nomination William Jennings Bryan shifted his support from Clark to Wilson and ushered in the nomination Wilson began a truly public campaign for the nomination in the south, with a speech to the Pewter Platter Club in Norfolk, Va.. While he was received enthusiastically, the speech, reformist in nature, was considered provocative and radical by the conservative audience, making the visit on the whole less than positive.[90] With Wilson the first Southerner to have a serious chance at the White House since 1848 however, Southern Democrats in general strongly supported Wilson's campaign for the nomination in 1912.[91] More of Wilson's support came from young progressives in that region, including intellectuals, editors and lawyers. Wilson managed to maneuver through the complexities of local politics. For example, in Tennessee the Democratic Party was divided over prohibition; Wilson was progressive and sober, but not 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.[92] After Norfolk, Wilson then proceeded westward to Kansas, Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington; he favored voting reforms which empowered the populace, such as the initiative, the referendum and the recall (excepting judges).[93] In California Wilson was asked about his views on women's suffrage and though he was firmly opposed, he evasively said that it was a matter for the states to decide.[94] in July 1911 Wilson brought William Gibbs McAdoo and Edward Mandell House in to manage the campaign.[95] The 1912 Democratic convention in Baltimore was one of the most dramatic conventions in American history; only the Republican conventions of 1880 and 1940, and the Democratic convention of 1952 are comparable.[96] William F. McCombs who helped Wilson win the governorship served as convention Chairman. The Republicans at their convention had set the stage a week earlier, nominating incumbent William Howard Taft, with Theodore Roosevelt stalking out, to launch an independent campaign to split the party vote.[97] Wilson was convinced that the Baltimore convention should be allowed to work its will without his interference—so he went golfing and motoring. As for his assistant Tumulty, he "nearly collapsed" under the strain[98] The convention deadlocked for over forty ballots—no candidate could reach the two-thirds vote required. The leading contender was House Speaker Champ Clark, a prominent progressive, strongest in the border states. Other less charismatic contenders were Governor Judson Harmon of Ohio, and Representative Oscar Underwood of Alabama. Publisher William Randolph Hearst, a leader of the left wing of the party, supported Clark. William Jennings Bryan, the nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908, played a critical role in his declared opposition to any candidate supported by "the financiers of Wall Street". Indeed, on the tenth ballot New York's delegation went unanimously to Clark, and the battle lines were clearly drawn between the bosses and the rank and file delegates.[99] Bryan then announced on the fourteenth ballot that his vote for Clark would be withheld due to the New York vote. Wilson's tally began to climb steadily, and he initially topped Clark's vote on the thirtieth ballot.[100] Bryan announced for Wilson, who ultimately won the nomination on the 46th ballot.[101] Wilson chose Indiana Governor Thomas R. Marshall as his running mate[102] General election Wilson directed Chairman of Finance, Henry Morganthau not to accept contributions from corporations and to prioritize smaller donations from the widest possible quarters of the public, and Morgenthau succeeded admirably. In order to further embolden Democrats, especially in New Jersey and New York, Wilson set out to ensure the defeat of local candidates supported by machines, who were running for re-election—James Smith Jr. (U.S. Senate in New Jersey) and John Dix (Governor of New York). He succeeded in both of these efforts and thereby weakened arguments that party control resided with political bosses.[103] Speeches in Buffalo and New York City exemplified the pattern of Wilson's speechmaking. His oratory style was, "right out of my mind as it is working at the time". He maintained towards his primary opponent Roosevelt a tone of humorous detachment, describing the Bull Moose party as "the irregular Republicans, the variegated Republicans". Wilson shunned the stump speech campaign routine, and initially was reticent to conduct an extensive campaign tour, but this changed after Roosevelt went on the offensive.[104] 1912 Electoral Vote Map A notably progressive speech In Minneapolis included the following: "that property as compared with humanity, as compared with the vital red blood in the American people, must take second place, not first place".[105] Wilson frequently sought out Louis D. Brandeis for advice on economic policy—that corporate trusts be regulated by the government. His campaign then increased its focus upon the elimination of monopoly in all forms. Wilson also concluded that major reforms in banking and a lower tariff were needed to eliminate the spheres of entrenched interests which distorted the functioning of the free-market.[106] In Indianapolis he said that for the next president "there will be no greater burden in our generation than to organize the forces of liberty… And to make conquest of a new freedom for America". This serendipitous comment spawned the title of Wilson's policy of "New Freedom", emphasizing the lower tariffs and limited federal government–albeit with increased anti-trust law enforcement and creation of a new banking regulator, the Federal Reserve System.[107] When Roosevelt was wounded by an assassin, Wilson restricted his events to those already scheduled and limited his criticism to the regular Republicans. It was evident by this time that the Wilson movement would not be checked.[108] The GOP split between Taft and Roosevelt enlarged Wilson's success in the electoral college. Wilson appealed to African Americans and promised to work for them, gaining some support among them in the North at the expense of the Republicans. Wilson took 41.8% of the popular vote and won 435 electoral votes from 40 states.[109] It is not clear if Roosevelt extracted more support from fellow Republican Taft, or fellow progressive Wilson.[110] Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921 and leader of the Progressive Movement. He served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910 and was Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. He led his Democratic Party to win control of both the White House and Congress in 1912. Wilson induced a conservative Democratic Congress to pass a progressive legislative agenda, unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933.[1] This included the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act and an income tax. Child labor was temporarily curtailed by the Keating–Owen Act of 1916. Wilson also averted a railroad strike and an ensuing economic crisis through passage of the Adamson Act, imposing an 8-hour workday for railroads.[2] At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Wilson maintained a policy of neutrality. Narrowly re-elected in 1916 around the slogan "He kept us out of war", Wilson's second term was dominated by American entry into World War I. That year he proclaimed June 14 as Flag Day in a patriotic speech that bore out the nation's anti-German sentiment.[3] In April 1917, when Germany persisted with submarine warfare, Wilson asked Congress to declare war in order to make "the world safe for democracy." The United States conducted military operations with the Allies, without a formal alliance. During the war, Wilson focused on diplomacy and financial considerations, leaving military particulars in the hands of the Army. He loaned billions of dollars to Britain, France and other Allies, allowing them to finance their own war effort. On the home front in 1917, he began the first large-scale draft and borrowed billions of dollars in war funding through the newly established Federal Reserve Bank and Liberty Bonds. He set up the War Industries Board, promoted labor union cooperation, supervised agriculture and food production through the Lever Act and assumed control of the railroads. He also suppressed anti-war movements with the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, a crackdown which broadened and intensified to include real and suspected anarchists and communists during the First Red Scare of 1919–1920. In 1918 after years of opposition, Wilson was pressured to change his position on women's suffrage, which he then advocated as a war measure.[4] Though he sought and received support from many in the black community, he permitted racial segregation of the Post Office, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the Navy.[5][6] Wilson took personal control of negotiations when an armistice was requested by Germany, and in 1918 he issued his principles for peace, the Fourteen Points. In 1919 he went to Paris to promote the formation of a League of Nations and concluded the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson then suffered a severe stroke, and was unable to secure Senate ratification of the Treaty. By 1920 his disability had diminished his power and influence, and the Democratic party ignored his tentative plan to run for re-election. A devoted Presbyterian, Wilson infused a profound sense of moralism into his internationalism, now referred to as "Wilsonian"—a contentious position in American foreign policy which obligates the United States to promote global democracy.[7][8][9] For his sponsorship of the League of Nations, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize.[10] Wilson has consistently been ranked by scholars and the public as one of the top ten presidents. |
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