Hail to the Chiefs Part XXVIII: Lucky Thirteen
Then there's Woodrow Wilson. When I compare him to the other 7 game changers, I picture him singing his own version of "Mr. Cellophane" from the show "Chicago." Somehow, despite his numerous accomplishments, we seem to look right through him.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born December 28, 1856 in Staunton, Virginia. To date he is the last president to be born in Virginia. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister, who was originally from Ohio, and an ethnic Scottish immigrant from England. Wilson spent most of his youth in Columbia, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia. His parents were never slave owners, but it was common at the time for a congregation to lease slaves for their ministers. Somehow the idea of renting slaves is even more repulsive to me than the idea of owning them. I think it further drives home the point that human beings were being held in the same regard as a piece of land or a tractor. When the Civil War started, Wilson's father sided with the Confederacy. This caused a permanent estrangement between him and his relatives in the North.
One thing unexpected from someone with a future as an academic: Wilson took a long time to learn how to read. He didn't learn his letters until he was 9, and wasn't comfortable reading on his own until he was 12. (Interesting contrast with his successor Warren Harding who has the reputation of being pretty and dumb....he was reading at age 4.) As an adult, Wilson once complained to his brother-in-law: "I wonder if I am the slowest reader in the world." Slow reader though he might have been, he was an avid one. He was no slouch in the writing department either. His first book "Congressional Government", first published in 1885, is still in print today.
Despite the fact that Wilson spent his formative years in the South, he is more identified with northern states. Early on he consciously made an effort to lose his Southern accent. As an undergrad he transferred from a college in North Carolina to Princeton.
One of the most enjoyable parts about learning about Woodrow Wilson is his life story doesn't remotely resemble the usual "born in a log cabin, became a lawyer, paid my dues in Congress, then became President" narrative that kept repeating itself in the 19th century. Wilson did become a lawyer, but it didn't suit him. Wilson briefly tried a law practice in Atlanta, surrendered to his inner geek and realized he was far better suited to be a professor, and went to graduate school. He is the only U.S. president to get a PhD. Although there have been other geek presidents before and since. (I have an image in my head of Wilson, Garfield and Obama all hanging out at Comicon....)
Wilson's first long term professorial gig was at the all women's college Bryn Mawr. He was a well-liked professor, and for the most part enjoyed his job. However, women at the time still didn't have the right to vote, so he sometimes felt like it was a futile effort teaching them about politics. "Lecturing to young women of the present generation on the history and principles of politics is about as appropriate and profitable as it would be lecturing to stone-masons on the evolution of fashion and dress." At the time he did not believe in women's suffrage. However, Wilson had a deep respect for women. For the most part, he got along with them better than with men. He also had three strong-willed intelligent daughters at home challenging his beliefs. By the end of his presidency, he did support the cause.
Wilson's main goal as President of Princeton was to transform it into a world class university. He decided there needed to be a department to teach advanced engineering. He worked tirelessly to improve the quality of the faculty. He often broke with tradition getting professors that weren't Princeton alumni, and weren't Presbyterian. Some were even....GASP....Catholics and Jews. For a while, he was quite effective. Eventually though, he was stymied by a political issue of where the dorm for the graduate students should be. This seemingly minor issue was majorly divisive among the Princeton administration, and ultimately made it very difficult for Wilson to accomplish anything else he wanted to.
So, thoroughly tired of the politics of academia....Wilson decided to go for actual politics. He ran for Governor of New Jersey and won. This is a definite departure from the typical presidential biography. Most of them at this point would have gradually worked their way up to senator or governor.....instead of taking a radical turn in their career and saying "Screw this! I'm running for governor!"
Wilson wasted no time. Right from the get go he took on a political boss, and won. He worked his tail off as governor and had a great time. He soon established a reputation as someone who could get things done, and as a progressive. New Yorkers looked over the border with envy and commented that they could use Wilson in their state too. Before long, it was the fateful 1912 presidential election and Wilson was the democratic candidate.
So for the third time we come to that fateful election between Roosevelt, Wilson....and oh yeah, Taft, the incumbent. One thing I learned studying it from the Wilson angle was Wilson thought the perception of Roosevelt as being the passionate one, and Wilson being the cool calculating one, was actually backwards. Wilson felt that Roosevelt was the more calculating candidate. He also felt that he was the passionate one. Although with his usually calm professorial demeanor, that is not the impression he gave the public. He also definitely had his goofy side. He actually played tag with his daughter Nell in the White House.
After the victory in the election, and the inauguration in March, once again Wilson didn't let any grass grow under his feet. He kept Congress in session for a marathon 18 months straight. That had never happened before, and as far as I've been able to find out, has never happened since. Initially he worked rather well with Congress and managed to accomplish a great deal. The Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission were both created at this time. (Although they are barely recognizable to how the institutions are now.) He also strengthened anti-trust legislation. He lowered tariffs, and implemented the federal income tax. Yeah, not as sexy as a lot of the things Teddy Roosevelt did, but huge impact on the country and how it operates today.
Like his tenure at Princeton, Wilson made some notably diverse appointments during his administration. The most notable was nominating Louis Brandeis for the Supreme Court. Brandeis was the first Jewish justice on the Court, and also one of the most celebrated.
In August of 1914 Wilson was clobbered with two major tragedies at once. The first was the death of his wife Ellen. The well-educated Ellen had a passionate relationship with Wilson, and was also one of his advisers over the years. At the same time this was happening, World War I exploded in Europe. For the first few months afterwards, Wilson was pretty much in shock and barely functioning.
Eventually he got his act together, but was very reluctant to get the United States involved in the conflict. He did his best to keep the country neutral. Although there was more than one member of the Cabinet that had a pro-Allies bias, and would try to maneuver things i that direction. In the meantime, by 1915 he already had a new girlfriend, the widow Edith Galt. The courtship was gossip fodder in D.C. The joke was that when Wilson proposed to her, she was so excited, she nearly fell out of bed. The two were married in December 1915.
Wilson managed to hold off U.S. involvement in World War I until 1917...after he'd already been elected and inaugurated for his 2nd term. The amount of time the United States spent in World War I was just 18 months, our second shortest war. However it was our 3rd greatest amount of fatalities.
Probably Wilson's most famous legacy is for his involvements in the peace negotiations. He had some brilliant ideas, some of which were too ahead of their time. The Allies insisted on extremely punitive measures to the Central Powers, such as being responsible for paying reparations for damages....despite the fact that the Central Powers weren't in particularly good shape themselves. The strain that put on the economy, especially Germany, is seen as one of the major causes for the rise of the Nazis beginning about 10 years later.
Wilson's other big idea at the peace of negotiations was for the League of Nations. He thought there needed to be an international organization to help maintain world peace. The League of Nations was sort of the tester model for what 30 years later would be the United Nations.
Wilson literally nearly killed himself by going on an intensive speaking tour trying to promote the League of Nations. He suffered a massive stroke. He spent the last 18 months of the presidency as an invalid. Edith gets a bad rap for being very protective of Wilson during this time period. She may have made decisions that were crossing the line for what was appropriate for a first lady.
Really, Wilson should have resigned. As Data on Star Trek would say, he was not functioning with established parameters. Besides his memory being in bad shape, a lot of his decisions showed an erratic and rigid quality that was very out of character for the normally thoughtful Wilson. He ultimately botched his campaign for the League of Nations so badly, that some accused him of strangling his own child. The United States never became a member of the League of Nations.
In 1921, when Warren G. Harding was inaugurated, people noticed the stark contrast with the blatantly unhealthy Wilson, who could barely walk....and Harding who went bounding up the Capitol steps. Ironically, Wilson would outlive Harding by over a year. Wilson had a very low opinion of Harding. I keep imagining him saying in a Foghorn Leghorn voice: "That boy ain't right!"
Wilson spent the remainder of his life living in Washington D.C. He died in 1924. There was some debate over where to bury him. Edith certainly didn't want Wilson buried with his first wife in Georgia. Arlington Cemetery was out because, good Southerner that he was, Wilson felt that the land had been taken unjustly from Robert E. Lee. Finally it was decided he'd be buried in the newly constructed National Cathedral, to date the only president to be buried there. (William Howard Taft found this appalling and commented to his wife that when his time came: "Do't let those body snatchers at the Cathedral get me."
I found researching Woodrow Wilson to be a breath of fresh air. He took a unique path to the White House, and his temperament was very different from most of the inhabitants we've had in the White House before or since. For any of you POTUS geeks reading this: this guy is worth a closer look.
Woodrow Wilson isn't exactly the sort of president to come up often in popular culture. So I figured for the youtube clip, this would be the next best thing: