Woodrow Wilson
Electable or not?
Early Life
Career before becoming President
Campaign Slogans
- "It Takes time to remove Grime" 1912
- "He proved the pen mightier than the sword." 1916
Elections
The presidential election of 1912 in the U.S. was a contest between four candidates. President William Howard Taft, the incumbent at the time, was nominated again by the Republican Party. The former president Theodore Roosevelt was one of the candidates. Eugene Debs was the fourth contender during the said United States presidential elections. It was an easy election victory for Wilson, the Democratic Party nominee, after a bitter campaign. The presidential bid of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 was supported by an unprecedented number of African Americans. These so called black Americans deserted the Republican Party to support a Democratic nominee for the White House. Despite that, there seemed to be an unofficial racial segregation in federal civil service positions during the administration of former President Wilson.
The United States presidential election in 1916 was held when Europe was being devastated by war. Charles Evans Hughes of the Republican Party challenged incumbent Woodrow Wilson in the presidential election. Wilson narrowly defeated Hughes banking on the policy of neutrality in the European war. Wilson presidential initiative for mediation was ignored by the warring groups.
Life After Presidency
In virtually complete seclusion in the White House following his stroke in 1919, Wilson left office on March 4, 1921, after riding to the Capitol with his successor, Warren G. Harding. He did not stay for the inaugural, however, and rarely appeared in public from that day until his death three years later. He retired to his recently purchased home at 2340 S Street in Washington, D.C., where he formed a short-lived law partnership with his former secretary of state, Bainbridge Colby, which was dissolved when it became obvious Wilson was unable to do the work. Although he was nearly blind and remained partially paralyzed, he fantasized about running for a third term in 1924 to seek a referendum from the American people on the League. In August 1923, he published a brief plea for a more enlightened foriegn policy entitled "The Road Away from Revolution," and in November he labored through a short Armistice Day address on a nationwide radio network, but he could not manage any real public role. He died quietly at his home on February 3, 1924, and is buried in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Wilson's last home, on S Street in Washington, which was filled with mementos of his public career and kept largely unchanged by Edith Wilson until her death in the 1960s, is now a museum maintained by the National Trust. His birthplace in Staunton, Virginia, has been a museum for many years and will become the basis of the planned Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. Other family homes, in Augusta, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina, are also open to the public.
Major Accomplishments
- Passed a slew of domestic reforms, including the Federal Reserve Act (creating the Federal Reserve), Federal Trade Commission Act (stopping unfair trade practices), Clayton Antitrust Act (making certain business practices illegal), Federal Farm Loan Act (providing issuance of low-cost long-term mortgages to farmers), Adamson Act (imposing 8-hour workdays for railroads) and an income tax
- Became a major advocate for women's suffrage
- Led the US into WWI (the Great War) in 1917
- Passed the Espionage Act and Sedition Act to shore up wartime support and suppress anti-war opinion.
- Frequently exercised military force in Latin America, including seizing the port of Veracruz to aid Mexican counterrevolutionaries and maintaining troops in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
- Sponsored the League of Nations following WWI and introduced his Fourteen Points address outlining an organization with a stated goal of helping to preserve territorial integrity and political independence among large and small nations alike
Major Failures
Wilson failed to convince the U.S. to join the League of Nations, which he helped establish.
As president of Princeton, Wilson refused to admit black students.
Wilson was an avid supporter of segregation in the federal government.
Wilson promised to ask Britain to give Ireland its independence. He did not full-fill this promise, which angered Irish-Americans.
Wilson was suspicious of all immigrants, especially those from Ireland. He felt they were not fully loyal to the U.S.
Cabinet Members
Secretary of State William J. Bryan, 1913 Robert Lansing, 1915 Bainbridge Colby, 1920
Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, 1913 Carter Glass, 1918 David F. Houston, 1920
Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison, 1913 Newton D. Baker, 1916
Attorney General James C. McReynolds, 1913 Thomas W. Gregory, 1914 A. Mitchell Palmer, 1919
Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson, 1913
Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, 1913
Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, 1913 John B. Payne, 1920
Secretary of Agriculture David F. Houston, 1913 Edwin T. Meredith, 1920
Secretary of Commerce William C. Redfield, 1913 Joshua W. Alexander, 1919
Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, 1913