|
|
|
Are you tired of searching for the term paper you so much need? Look no further! A group of experienced writers will produce any term paper you request in a matter of hours. All papers are written from scratch on an individual basis. For only $12.95 a page you will receive an exclusive custom term paper.
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
Word Count: 2011
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
