In 1913, 56-year-old Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated president of the United States. He came to the job with little practical experience. Still, he arrived in Washington confident and determined to change America.
Easton Press editions
Woodrow Wilson - 2 volume set - Arthur Walworth - 1978
Vol. 1 - American Prophet
Vol. 2 - World Prophet
Day of Dedication: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Woodrow Wilson - 1988
Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era 1910-1917 - Arthur S. Link - 1988
Woodrow Wilson A Biography - August Heckscher - 1997
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This man is one of the great legislative presidents in all American history. His only competitors in the 20th century are Franklin Roosevelt with the New Deal and Lyndon Johnson with the Great Society. But just over a year after he assumed office, World War I swept across Europe, and Wilson committed to not just changing the United States but to changing the world.
Wilson was a firm believer in the power of ideas, and he thought that an idea could move individuals, an idea could move nations. Wilson held out to the American people a vision of what domestic democracy could be, and then what American democracy could mean to the world.
“No peace can or ought to last which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Woodrow Wilson's ideas were filled with right and wrong and purpose, almost divine purpose. He saw this country in a way that many people want to see it.
Although Woodrow Wilson didn't live long enough to see his dream of lasting international cooperation become reality, decades after his death in the aftermath of World War II, his ideals once again took center stage.
On December 4th, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson boarded the USS George Washington and left New York Harbor bound for Paris. Three weeks earlier, World War I—the Armageddon that had turned much of Europe into a wasteland—had come to an end.
In Paris, the Allies were gathering to discuss the future and shape the peace. Wilson had written the Fourteen Points that were the basis for that peace.
“There must be not a balance of power but a community of power. Only a peace between equals can last.”
However, Wilson’s priorities were not shared by everyone. For the Europeans, the war was almost the end of civilization as they knew it. An entire generation of young men had been decimated in Britain, France, and Germany.
For the United States, as important as the war was while it lasted, it was always “somebody else’s story.”
There is always a question of whether Wilson should have gone to Paris at all. Some people criticized him for going. Wilson simply did not believe there was anyone else who would fight as hard for his vision.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was born in 1856. He grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He did not become a minister, though for a while he may have thought he would. Even after becoming president, he remained convinced that God had a plan for the world.
When he went to Princeton, the story is that he wrote to his father saying he had made an amazing discovery: he had a mind. That was when he began to love study and was set on the path toward becoming an academic.
For years, Professor Wilson taught politics and government. The more he studied politics, the more he was drawn to great political figures. Eventually, he decided he could do it himself.
After serving as president of Princeton University for eight years and gaining a national reputation as a reformer, he was approached in 1910 to run for governor of New Jersey. He served two years as that state’s chief executive, but this was only a stepping stone.
As a candidate for president in 1912, Wilson, a Washington outsider, faced two formidable opponents: William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.
Across the country, inequality and corporate power were under increasing scrutiny. Wilson campaigned as a friend of the common man.
If out of our average men we cannot get our great men, then we have destroyed the very springs of renewal in America.
He said he was for the man on the make, not the man who is already made. His example was Abraham Lincoln, showing that anyone could rise to the top.
On March 4th, 1913, Wilson was sworn in as the 28th president of the United States.
“This is not a day of triumph, it is a day of dedication.”
Even those who disagreed with him were moved by the power of his words. Wilson’s agenda focused on reform.
To help finance his programs, he pushed for the 16th Amendment creating the income tax. He also helped create the Federal Reserve System, shifting control of interest rates from bankers to Washington. He later established the Federal Trade Commission.
Not everyone supported him. African Americans and women saw hypocrisy in his policies. Women protested for the right to vote, while Wilson resisted. At the same time, his administration supported segregation in federal offices.
In 1914, World War I began after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Wilson maintained American neutrality, urging the country to remain neutral in fact and name.
During this period, his wife Ellen Wilson fell ill and died, leaving him deeply depressed. Later, he married Edith Bolling Galt, who became an influential presence in his life and presidency.
In 1915, the sinking of the Lusitania, which killed nearly 1,200 people including Americans, shocked the United States.
In the 1916 election, Wilson ran on the implicit promise that he had kept the United States out of war and won reelection.
In 1917, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, and the United States entered World War I. Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war “to make the world safe for democracy.”
Wilson developed his Fourteen Points, a plan for postwar peace and international cooperation, including the creation of the League of Nations.
In 1918, the war ended. Wilson traveled to Europe for the peace negotiations in Paris, where he was initially hailed as a hero.
However, he faced resistance from European leaders, who prioritized punishment of Germany. Wilson compromised on several issues, including reparations and colonial territories, to secure support for the League of Nations.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919, but Wilson faced opposition in the U.S. Senate.
He launched a nationwide speaking tour to build public support, but during the tour he suffered a stroke that left him severely disabled.
In 1920, the Senate rejected U.S. participation in the League of Nations.
Wilson spent his final years largely incapacitated and died on February 3rd, 1924, at the age of 68.
Initially, he was largely forgotten. However, after World War II, his ideas influenced the creation of the United Nations and shaped modern American foreign policy, often referred to as Wilsonianism.
Wilson believed ideals are like stars we navigate by: they guide direction, but are not destinations.
Wilson was a firm believer in the power of ideas, and he thought that an idea could move individuals, an idea could move nations. Wilson held out to the American people a vision of what domestic democracy could be, and then what American democracy could mean to the world.
“No peace can or ought to last which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Woodrow Wilson's ideas were filled with right and wrong and purpose, almost divine purpose. He saw this country in a way that many people want to see it.
Although Woodrow Wilson didn't live long enough to see his dream of lasting international cooperation become reality, decades after his death in the aftermath of World War II, his ideals once again took center stage.
On December 4th, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson boarded the USS George Washington and left New York Harbor bound for Paris. Three weeks earlier, World War I—the Armageddon that had turned much of Europe into a wasteland—had come to an end.
In Paris, the Allies were gathering to discuss the future and shape the peace. Wilson had written the Fourteen Points that were the basis for that peace.
“There must be not a balance of power but a community of power. Only a peace between equals can last.”
However, Wilson’s priorities were not shared by everyone. For the Europeans, the war was almost the end of civilization as they knew it. An entire generation of young men had been decimated in Britain, France, and Germany.
For the United States, as important as the war was while it lasted, it was always “somebody else’s story.”
There is always a question of whether Wilson should have gone to Paris at all. Some people criticized him for going. Wilson simply did not believe there was anyone else who would fight as hard for his vision.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was born in 1856. He grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He did not become a minister, though for a while he may have thought he would. Even after becoming president, he remained convinced that God had a plan for the world.
When he went to Princeton, the story is that he wrote to his father saying he had made an amazing discovery: he had a mind. That was when he began to love study and was set on the path toward becoming an academic.
For years, Professor Wilson taught politics and government. The more he studied politics, the more he was drawn to great political figures. Eventually, he decided he could do it himself.
After serving as president of Princeton University for eight years and gaining a national reputation as a reformer, he was approached in 1910 to run for governor of New Jersey. He served two years as that state’s chief executive, but this was only a stepping stone.
As a candidate for president in 1912, Wilson, a Washington outsider, faced two formidable opponents: William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.
Across the country, inequality and corporate power were under increasing scrutiny. Wilson campaigned as a friend of the common man.
If out of our average men we cannot get our great men, then we have destroyed the very springs of renewal in America.
He said he was for the man on the make, not the man who is already made. His example was Abraham Lincoln, showing that anyone could rise to the top.
On March 4th, 1913, Wilson was sworn in as the 28th president of the United States.
“This is not a day of triumph, it is a day of dedication.”
Even those who disagreed with him were moved by the power of his words. Wilson’s agenda focused on reform.
To help finance his programs, he pushed for the 16th Amendment creating the income tax. He also helped create the Federal Reserve System, shifting control of interest rates from bankers to Washington. He later established the Federal Trade Commission.
Not everyone supported him. African Americans and women saw hypocrisy in his policies. Women protested for the right to vote, while Wilson resisted. At the same time, his administration supported segregation in federal offices.
In 1914, World War I began after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Wilson maintained American neutrality, urging the country to remain neutral in fact and name.
During this period, his wife Ellen Wilson fell ill and died, leaving him deeply depressed. Later, he married Edith Bolling Galt, who became an influential presence in his life and presidency.
In 1915, the sinking of the Lusitania, which killed nearly 1,200 people including Americans, shocked the United States.
In the 1916 election, Wilson ran on the implicit promise that he had kept the United States out of war and won reelection.
In 1917, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, and the United States entered World War I. Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war “to make the world safe for democracy.”
Wilson developed his Fourteen Points, a plan for postwar peace and international cooperation, including the creation of the League of Nations.
In 1918, the war ended. Wilson traveled to Europe for the peace negotiations in Paris, where he was initially hailed as a hero.
However, he faced resistance from European leaders, who prioritized punishment of Germany. Wilson compromised on several issues, including reparations and colonial territories, to secure support for the League of Nations.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919, but Wilson faced opposition in the U.S. Senate.
He launched a nationwide speaking tour to build public support, but during the tour he suffered a stroke that left him severely disabled.
In 1920, the Senate rejected U.S. participation in the League of Nations.
Wilson spent his final years largely incapacitated and died on February 3rd, 1924, at the age of 68.
Initially, he was largely forgotten. However, after World War II, his ideas influenced the creation of the United Nations and shaped modern American foreign policy, often referred to as Wilsonianism.
Wilson believed ideals are like stars we navigate by: they guide direction, but are not destinations.
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