Essay/Term paper: Woodrow wilson

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biography Term Papers

Wilson, Woodrow







Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States (1913-21), secured a



legislative program of progressive domestic reform, guided his country



during WORLD WAR I, and sought a peace settlement based on high moral



principles, to be guaranteed by the LEAGUE OF NATIONS.











Early Life and Career







Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Va., on Dec. 28, 1856. He was



profoundly influenced by a devoutly religious household headed by his



father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister, and his mother,



Janet Woodrow Wilson, the daughter of a minister. Woodrow (he dropped the



Thomas in 1879) attended (1873-74) Davidson College and in 1875 entered the



College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), graduating in 1879.



Wilson studied (1879-80) at the University of Virginia Law School, briefly



practiced law in Atlanta, and in 1883 entered The Johns Hopkins University



for graduate study in political science. His widely acclaimed book,



Congressional Government (1885), was published a year before he received



the doctoral degree. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise Axson; they had three



daughters.







Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr College (1885-88) and Wesleyan University



in Connecticut (1888-90) before he was called (1890) to Princeton as



professor of jurisprudence and political economy. A popular lecturer,



Wilson also wrote a score of articles and nine books, including Division



and Reunion (1893) and his five-volume History of the American People



(1902). In 1902 he was the unanimous choice of the trustees to become



Princeton's president. His reforms included reorganization of the



departmental structure, revision of the curriculum, raising of academic



standards, tightening of student discipline, and the still-famous



preceptorial system of instruction. But Wilson's quad plan--an attempt to



create colleges or quadrangles where students and faculty members would



live and study together--was defeated. Opposed by wealthy alumni and



trustees, he also lost his battle for control of the proposed graduate



college.







The Princeton controversies, seen nationally as a battle between



democracy and vested wealth, propelled Wilson into the political arena.



George Harvey, editor of Harper's Weekly, with help from New Jersey's



Democratic party bosses, persuaded Wilson to run for governor in 1910.



After scoring an easy victory, he cast off his machine sponsors and



launched a remarkable program of progressive legislation, including a



direct-primary law, antitrust laws, a corrupt-practices act, a workmen's



compensation act, and measures establishing a public utility commission and



permitting cities to adopt the commission form of government.







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.







 



Progressive as President







By presenting his program personally before the Democratically



controlled Congress, employing personal persuasion as well as patronage,



and appealing to the American public with his stirring rhetoric, Wilson won



passage of an impressive array of progressive measures. The Underwood



Tariff Act (1913), the first reduction in duties since the Civil War, also



established a modest income tax. The Federal Reserve Act (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



and promote the mediation of disputes. He rejected a loan to China on the



grounds that it impaired Chinese sovereignty, and he helped thwart Japanese



designs on the Chinese mainland. He approved Secretary of State William



Jennings BRYAN's efforts 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.







A year later, Wilson recognized Carranza's provisional government, and



in 1916 he intervened again after Carranza's rival, guerrilla leader Pancho



VILLA, had raided a town in New Mexico, killing several Americans. In 1915



and 1916 he reluctantly sent troops to Haiti and Santo Domingo to establish



U.S. protectorates.







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, and to prevent any abridgement of



U.S. rights, all 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 the sinking of neutral or passenger ships. After the



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.







 



Wartime Leader







When Germany renewed all-out submarine warfare in 1917, Wilson severed



diplomatic relations. In April he asked Congress for a declaration of war,



asserting that "the world must be made safe for democracy."







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.











Wilson the Peacemaker







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 comprehensive 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; he did not appoint a prominent Republican to the delegation,



and he called on voters to reelect a Democratic Congress in 1918 as a vote



of confidence. Most contests were decided on local issues, and when



Republicans captured both houses of Congress, his leadership seemed



repudiated.







Wilson was hailed as a hero upon his arrival in Europe. 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 Points; only



his shrewd bargaining prevented even harsher terms from being imposed on



Germany. 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.







Senate Republicans, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, refused to approve the



peace treaty without significant modifications of the U.S. commitment to



the League. Wilson accepted some compromise but then turned to the people.



In a national speaking tour he eloquently defended the League and U.S.



membership as essential to lasting world peace. Long months of exhausting



labor had weakened the president, however, and he collapsed on Sept. 25,



1919, following a speech in Pueblo, Colo.







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.











Bibliography: Baker, Ray S., Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters,



8 vols. (1927-39; repr. 1968); Bell, Herbert C. F., Woodrow



Wilson and the People (1945); Blum, John M., Woodrow Wilson and



the Politics of Morality (1956); Bragdon, Henry W., Woodrow



Wilson: The Academic Years (1967); Cooper, John M., The Warrior



and the Priest (1983); Ferrell, Robert H., Woodrow Wilson and



World War I: Nineteen Seventeen to Nineteen Twenty-one (1986);



Heckscher, August, Woodrow Wilson (1991); Latham, Earl, ed.,



The Philosophy and Policies of Woodrow Wilson (1975); Levin, N.



Gordon, Woodrow Wilson and World Politics (1968); Link, Arthur



S., Wilson, 5 vols. (1947-65), Woodrow Wilson: A Brief



Biography (1963), and Woodrow Wilson and a Revolutionary World,



1913-1921 (1982); Hirst, David W., et al., eds., The Papers of



Woodrow Wilson, 55 vols. (1966-86); Walworth, Arthur, Woodrow



Wilson, 3d ed. (1978).











NAME: Woodrow Wilson







28th President of the United States (1913-21)







Nickname: "Schoolmaster in Politics"







Born: Dec. 28, 1856, Staunton, Va.







Education: College of New Jersey (now Princeton University;



graduated 1879)







Profession: Teacher, Public Official







Religious affiliation: Presbyterian







Marriage: June 24, 1885, to Ellen Louise Axson (1860-1914);



Dec. 18, 1915, to Edith Bolling Galt (1872-1961)







Children: Margaret Woodrow Wilson (1886-1944); Jessie Woodrow



Wilson (1887-1933); Eleanor Randolph Wilson (1889-1967)







Political Affiliation: Democrat







Writings: George Washington (1896); A History of the American



People (5 vols., 1902); Constitutional Government in the United



States (1908); Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1966- ), ed. by Arthur



S. Link, et al.







Died: Feb. 3, 1924, Washington, D.C.







Buried: National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.







Vice-President: Thomas R. Marshall







Cabinet Members:^ Secretary of State: William J. Bryan



(1913-15); Robert Lansing (1915-20); Bainbridge Colby (1920-21)



Secretary of the Treasury: William G. McAdoo (1913-18); Carter



Glass (1918-20); David F. Houston (1920-21) Secretary of War:



Lindley M. Garrison (1913-16); Newton D. Baker (1916-21)



Attorney General: James C. McReynolds (1913-14); Thomas W.



Gregory (1914-19); Alexander M. Palmer (1919-21) Postmaster



General: Albert S. Burleson Secretary of the Navy: Josephus



Daniels Secretary of the Interior: Franklin K. Lane (1913-20);



John B. Payne (1920-21) Secretary of Agriculture: David F.



Houston (1913-20); Edwin T. Meredith (1920-21) Secretary of



Commerce: William C. Redfield (1913-19); Joshua W. Alexander



(1919-21) Secretary of Labor: William B. Wilson