Woodrow Wilson

president thomas woodrow wilson
twenty-eighth president of the united states  

interesting facts  
Woodrow Wilson tried to unite many countries in the League of Nations - for all practical purposes, it failed.

quote  
"No one but the President," he said, "seems to be expected ... to look out for the general interests of the country."

biography
Thomas Woodrow Wilson, born in Stauton, Va., on December 28, 1856 was profoundly influenced by his devoutly religious father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson and his mother Janet Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson (he dropped the 'Thomas' from his name is 1879) attended Davidson College from 1873-1874 and later went to the College of New Jersey (or Princeton University). He then studied at the University of Virginia Law School and soon thereafter, at The John Hopkins Univerity where he studied political science. He soon wrote his book Congressional Government in 1885. It was highly acclaimed and earned Wilson the fame to later become President.  

Success in New Jersey made him a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. Although Wilson entered the 1912 Democratic National Convention a poor second to Speaker of the House Champ Clark, his strength increased as Clark's faded, and he won the nomination after 46 ballots. Offering a program of reform that he called the New Freedom, Wilson ran against a divided Republican party. In November, with only 42 percent of the popular vote, he won 435 electoral votes to 88 for Progressive candidate Theodore Roosevelt and 8 for the Republican candidate, President William Howard Taft.  

By presenting his program personally before the Democratically controlled Congress, he passed The Underwood Tariff Act in 1913, the first reduction in duties since the Civil War, which also established a modest income tax. The Federal Reserve Act also in 1913 provided for currency and banking reform. Antitrust legislation followed in 1914, when Congress passed the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. In 1915, Wilson supported the La Follette Seamen's bill, designed to improve the working conditions of sailors. The following year he signed the Federal Farm Loan Act, providing low-interest credit to farmers; the Adamson Act, granting an 8-hour day to interstate railroad workers; and the Child Labor Act, which limited children's working hours.  

In foreign policy, Wilson was faced with greater problems than any president since Abraham Lincoln. He attempted to end U.S. dollar diplomacy(which was Taft's policy - Dollar Diplomacy) and promote the mediation of disputes. He approved the efforts of Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan to minimize the danger of war through a series of "conciliation treaties" and joined him in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a Pan-American pact guaranteeing the integrity of the Western Hemisphere. In attempting to deal with revolutionary Mexico, Wilson first sought to promote self-government by refusing to recognize the military usurper Victoriano Huerta and forcing him to allow free elections. When Huerta resisted, Wilson tried to force him out by ordering (April 1914) limited American intervention at Veracruz and by supporting constitutionalist Venustiano Carranza. Mediation by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile helped to prevent a general conflict and led to Huerta's resignation in July 1914.  

After the outbreak of the European war in August 1914, Wilson struggled with considerable success to fulfill the obligations of neutrality, to keep trade channels open (in World War II, FDR struggled to do the opposite), in the face of the British blockade of Germany and the latter's introduction of submarine warfare. He warned Germany in February 1915 that it would be held to "strict accountability" for the loss of American lives in of neutrality, to keep trade channels open, and to pr Lusitania was sunk in May 1915 (with the loss of 128 Americans), he negotiated with such firmness that Secretary Bryan, fearing a declaration of war, resigned in protest. In September 1915, Wilson won pledges from Germany to provide for the safety of passengers caught in submarine attacks, and in May 1916 the Germans agreed to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare.  

Running on his record of reform and with the slogan "He kept us out of the war," Wilson sought reelection in 1916 against Republican Charles Evans Hughes. The president won a narrow victory, receiving 277 out of 531 electoral votes.  

Germany renewed an all-out submarine warfare in 1917, and Wilson severed diplomatic relations. In April, while asserting "The world must be made safe for democracy", he asked Congress for a declaration of War.

As war president, Wilson made a major contribution to the modern presidency as he led Americans in a spectacular mobilization of the nation's resources. Establishing a series of war agencies, he extended federal control over industry, transportation, labor, food, fuel, and prices. In May 1917 he forced through Congress a Selective Service bill under which 2.8 million men were drafted by war's end. He sought and received legislative delegation of increased powers, thus leaving for his successors the precedents and tools to meet future crises.  

From 1914, Wilson had sought ways to mediate the conflict. In 1915 and 1916 he sent his advisor and confidant, Col. Edward M. House, to Europe to work toward a negotiated peace and postwar cooperation. In the spring of 1916, Wilson joined the call for a postwar association of nations; on Jan. 22, 1917, he called for a peace without victory and reaffirmed his support for a league of nations.  

With the United States in the war, Wilson hoped to have a stronger influence on the peace settlement. On Jan. 8, 1918, he presented his Fourteen Points, a statement of war aims. It became at once a war weapon and a peace program, inspiring the peoples of the Allied powers while undermining the confidence of the Germans. Germany made its peace overture in the hope of obtaining just treatment under Wilson's proposals.  

Wilson headed the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. He erred seriously, however, by not developing bipartisan support for his peace plans, that is, he didn't promote any Republicans in the four-member delegate group. Most contests were decided on local issues, and when Republicans captured both houses of Congress, his leadership seemed repudiated.  

Parades, and celebrations declared Wilson a hero among Europeams. However, Wilson was not so successful at the conference. At the conference (January-June 1919) Allied leaders Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd George, and Vittorio Orlando favored a traditional settlement. Wilson worked tirelessly for a peace along the lines of his Fourteen peace along the lines of his Fourteen Points; only his shrewd bargaining prevented even harsher Wilson characterized the Versailles Treaty as the best obtainable compromise and put his hopes in the League of Nations, an integral part of the treaty, as the institution through which inequities could be later rectified.  

A week later Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially incapacitated for the remainder of his life. From his bed he continued to oppose severe restrictions to the League. The Senate, meanwhile, rejected the treaty in November 1919 and March 1920. Wilson urged that the 1920 presidential election be a referendum on the League. Republican Warren G. Harding, who had established a reputation as an opponent of the League, won in a landslide.  

In December 1920, Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for 1919. The former president and his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, whom he married in 1915, after the death of his first wife, continued to make their home in Washington, D.C. Wilson died there on Feb. 3, 1924.