Thomas Woodrow Wilson died 90 years ago,
on February 3, 1924. It has been
said that “the world we’re all living in today was essentially created by
President Woodrow Wilson during his Presidency.” Certainly, he is a man well worth
remembering.
Wilson was born in December 1856 and called Tommy until
adulthood. Woodrow was his mother’s maiden name.
Like many children who later became people of note, Tommy
was a PK. At the time of his birth, his father, Joseph, was pastor of the
Presbyterian Church in Staunton, Virginia. (The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library
and Museum is now located in Staunton.)
In July 1912, Wilson was nominated for President on the 46th
ballot of the Democratic Convention, after William Jennings Bryan, who had been
the Democratic candidate for President three times (and most recently in 1908),
threw his support to Wilson.
Having defeated William Howard Taft (R), the incumbent President,
former President Teddy Roosevelt (who ran this time on the Progressive, “Bull
Moose,” ticket), and Eugene Debs (who ran for the fourth time as the Socialist Party’s
candidate), Wilson was inaugurated POTUS in March
1913.
Soon after his
election, Wilson reportedly said, “God ordained that I should be the next
president of the United States.” Commenting on that statement in his 2003
book on Wilson, H.W. Brands remarks, “Though Wilson had chosen a different
career from his father, he was as orthodox a Presbyterian as the Reverend
Wilson.”
In December 1913,
Wilson became the first President in over 100 years to deliver the State
of the Union address to Congress in person—and largely for that reason an article in the
Washington Post recently called it the fifth best of
all time.
One of the early
accomplishments of the Wilson administration was the enactment of a national
income tax. (The original tax was quite modest, though: 1% on incomes over
$4,000 and rising to 2% on incomes over $20,000.)
In another
influential act that is prominent yet today, Wilson led in the establishment of
the Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”) in December 1913. The following year, he
pushed the founding of the Federal Trade Commission, which, again, is still a
valuable agency in American society.
Wilson “rewarded”
Bryan with the premier cabinet appointment: Secretary of State. But Bryan, who
embraced a “biblically inspired pacifism,” left that position in 1915, partly
because of disagreement with the President over the “Great War” in Europe.
Still, for two years after World War I began, Wilson preserved
the neutrality of the United States. The slogan, “He kept us out of war,” helped
him to be re-elected, narrowly, in 1916. The following year, however, he decided
that entering the war was unavoidable.
In January 1918 Wilson articulated a 14-point peace plan,
and that was the basis of the war-ending armistice in November. The last point
was an appeal for what came to be called the League of Nations (about which I
will write again soon).
Wilson’s efforts for peace, including his call for the founding
of the League of Nations, led to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1919.
His greatest political disappointment, though, was the
opposition of the U.S. Senate, which refused to approve the Treaty of
Versailles and the League of Nations.
Presidents sometimes have goals and ideals that exceed the
capacity of Congress to legislate or the general populace to support. That was
certainly true for Wilson.
And that may well be true for the current President, who
perhaps has more in common with Wilson than any other previous President.
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Comments from Thinking Friend Temp Sparkman:
ReplyDelete"An erudite man. I understand he was behind the curve on the role of women. I appreciate this reminder of this president and your assessment that president Obama is from the same mold."
Thanks, Temp.
DeleteOn Sept. 30, 1918, Wilson gave a speech before Congress in support of guaranteeing women the right to vote. That finally came about in 1920, his last full year in office.
Unfortunately, Woodrow Wilson was a racist when judged by today's standards. His administration expanded racially segregationist policies from what they had been previously. He was a product of his Virginian background.
ReplyDeleteClif, thank you for pointing out one of Wilson's greatest faults.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that he was, in fact and unfortunately (as you wrote), a racist--as were most Southerners and most Democrats at that time. At the time of his elections (1912 and 1916) African-Americans were not even allowed in the Democratic Party. (They didn't get that "privilege" until 1924.)
Every historical personage has weaknesses and faults, especially as judged by contemporary standards. That is the reason the totality of what a person believed and did must be taken into consideration--along with a consideration of the thoughts and ideas of other people of the same time period.
In spite of his racism, I still think Wilson was an outstanding President. I also think that if he had lived a hundred years later, his attitude toward African-Americans would have been greatly different from what it was early in the 20th century.