Presidents and Their Cabinets: Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson's election to the Presidency in 1912 ended a drought for the Democratic Party that lasted for 16 years. Republicans had won the presidency in the past four elections, and when Wilson took office, there were scores to settle and Democrats to appoint to key posts. After the election Wilson took a brief vacation in Bermuda, and came back energized and combative, writing to a friend that the presidency was an office "in which a man must put on his war paint". He had scores to settle, not just with Republicans, but with the business community as well, which had become a traditional Republican base. In Chicago, he addressed the Commercial Club where some of the most powerful industrial and financial leaders of the Midwest gathered and he told his audience that they had to account for their malpractices in business affairs. In his inaugural address Wilson laid out his agenda, which called for lower tariffs and banking reform, as well as aggressive trust and labor legislation.
Knowing how previous presidents had seen their energy zapped by those wanting to be on the government payroll, Wilson immediately announced that office seekers were not permitted to visit the White House. Wilson's chief of staff ("Secretary") was Joseph Patrick Tumulty. He filled many different roles for Wilson including press secretary, public relations manager, campaign organizer for the Catholic and Irish vote, and adviser for some patronage appointments. His relationship with Wilson soured over his opposition to Wilson's marriage in December 1915 to Edith Bolling Galt only a few months after the death of Wilson's first wife. After that their relationship was never again as close. Tumulty provided Wilson with a political buffer and intermediary with the press.
In selecting his cabinet, Wilson looked to party elder statesman William Jennings Bryan for Secretary of State. Secretary of State. Bryan had supported Wilson in his bid for the Democratic Party's nomination in 1912. While in office, Wilson consulted with Bryan, but was really his own Secretary of State, making all the major foreign policy decisions from the White House. Bryan was a pacifist who kept busy between 1913 and 1915, negotiating 28 treaties that promised arbitration of disputes before war broke out between the signatory countries and the United States. He made several attempts to negotiate a treaty with Germany, but ultimately could not succeed. Bryan resigned in 1915, troubled over how the United States was being drawn into war with Germany. Even the sinking of the Lusitania was not justification for aggression against Germany according to Bryan. Despite this, he campaigned for Wilson's re-election in 1916.
Wilson's Treasury Secretary was also his son-in-law, although the cabinet appointment occurred first. William Gibbs McAdoo had been the president of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company and had served as the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee. McAdoo worked on Wilson's successful 1912 presidential campaign and served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1913 to 1918. He married Wilson's daughter, Eleanor, in 1914. His first wife had died in 1912. At the time McAdoo was 50, Eleanor was 25, and Woodrow Wilson was not very happy about the marriage. As Treasury Secretary, McAdoo presided over the establishment of the Federal Reserve System and helped prevent an economic crisis after the outbreak of World War I. After the U.S. entered the war, McAdoo also served as the Director General of Railroads.
Wilson's first Secretary of War was Lindley M. Garrison, a New Jersey lawyer who worked with then Governor Wilson. Garrison and Wilson did not work well together. Garrison wanted to intervene militarily in the Great War, while Wilson was initially more reluctant. Garrison urged American intervention into the Mexican revolution to restore order but was once again overruled by his president. Garrison proposed a standing army of 140,000 and a national, volunteer reserve force of 400,000 men, Wilson disagreed. Garrison resigned in February 1916 over their differences.
James Clark McReynolds was an lawyer and judge from Tennessee who was the first Attorney General under Wilson. He was known for his open anti-semitism and had served as the Assistant Attorney General during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, where he showed great skill in antitrust cases. He was only Attorney-General for a year. In 1914 Wilson successfully nominated McReynolds to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Associate Justice Horace Harmon Lurton.
One of Wilson's more controversial appointments was Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson, one of the most reactionary politicians to have served in that office. He is considered to be one of the worst appointees to hold this post. At a cabinet meeting on April 11, 1913, just over one month into Wilson's first term his, Burleson proposed that the new administration segregate the railway mail service, a policy which which Wilson adopted. He also recommended segregated federal workplaces, which Wilson instituted, requiring separate lunchrooms and restrooms. Since the Reconstruction era, the workplaces had been integrated and African Americans served in numerous positions in the civil service. With Wilson's approval, Burleson instituted racial discrimination in hiring, getting around the civil service merit system by requiring photos of applicants. Burleson fired African-American postal workers in the South. After the United States entered the war, Burleson ordered local postmasters to send to him any illegal or suspicious material that they found. The distribution by mail of major radical pamphlets, such as Emma Goldman's Mother Earth and Max Eastman's The Masses, was halted and a period of heavy censorship of the mail followed. Burleson banned antiwar material from being delivered by Post Office personnel.
Josephus Daniels was a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina who became Secretary of the Navy under Wilson. He was a close friend and supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served as his Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Like many of Wilson's cabinet, Daniels was a blatant racist who was highly influential in his state legislature's passage in 1900 of a bill that effectively disenfranchised most African-Americans in the state, excluding them from the political system for decades until the late 20th century. They were also excluded from juries and subject to legal racial segregation. As Secretary of the Navy, Daniels handled policy and formalities in World War I while his top aide Franklin Delano Roosevelt, handled the major wartime decisions. He was a powerful supporter of the Ku Klux Klan although never a member.
Wilson chose Franklin Knight Lane s United States Secretary of the Interior. He had beenthe Democratic nominee for Governor of California in 1902, losing a narrow race in what was then a heavily Republican state. Lane was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in what was then a British colony but is now part of Canada, and in 1871, his family moved to California. Lane's record on conservation was poor. He supported the controversial Hetch Hetchy Reservoir project in Yosemite National Park, which flooded a valley prized by many conservationists of the time.
David Houseton was Wilson's Secretary of Agriculture from 1913 to 1920, when he became the Secretary of the Treasury until 1921. He was a Harvard Graduate who was born in North Carolina and was a university professor at the University of Texas. As Agriculture Secretary many important agricultural laws were passed by the U.S. Congress, including the Smith-Lever Act, the Farm Loan Act, the Warehouse Act, and the Federal Aid Road Act.
As Secretary of Commerce, Wilson chose William C. Redfield, a U.S. Representative from New York from 1911 to 1913 who was also an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for the vice presidency in 1912. The remaining member of the Wilson cabinet was Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, a Scottish-born American labor leader and progressive politician, who was the first person to hold this cabinet position. He had served as international secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America from 1900 to 1908. He served three terms in the US House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and was chairman of the United States House Committee on Labor during the Sixty-second Congress.
Wilson held press conferences in the White House twice a week, but he prohibited reporters from quoting him. In 1913, he became the first president to deliver the State of the Union address in person since 1801, as Thomas Jefferson had discontinued this practice.
Wilson defended his administration's segregation policy in a July 1913 letter responding to Oswald Garrison Villard, publisher of the New York Evening Post and founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He told Villard that segregation removed "friction" between the races. His policy changes drew protests in the form of letters, mass meetings, newspaper campaigns and official statements by church groups. Wilson's African-American supporters, who had crossed party lines to vote for him, were extremely disappointed.
Knowing how previous presidents had seen their energy zapped by those wanting to be on the government payroll, Wilson immediately announced that office seekers were not permitted to visit the White House. Wilson's chief of staff ("Secretary") was Joseph Patrick Tumulty. He filled many different roles for Wilson including press secretary, public relations manager, campaign organizer for the Catholic and Irish vote, and adviser for some patronage appointments. His relationship with Wilson soured over his opposition to Wilson's marriage in December 1915 to Edith Bolling Galt only a few months after the death of Wilson's first wife. After that their relationship was never again as close. Tumulty provided Wilson with a political buffer and intermediary with the press.
In selecting his cabinet, Wilson looked to party elder statesman William Jennings Bryan for Secretary of State. Secretary of State. Bryan had supported Wilson in his bid for the Democratic Party's nomination in 1912. While in office, Wilson consulted with Bryan, but was really his own Secretary of State, making all the major foreign policy decisions from the White House. Bryan was a pacifist who kept busy between 1913 and 1915, negotiating 28 treaties that promised arbitration of disputes before war broke out between the signatory countries and the United States. He made several attempts to negotiate a treaty with Germany, but ultimately could not succeed. Bryan resigned in 1915, troubled over how the United States was being drawn into war with Germany. Even the sinking of the Lusitania was not justification for aggression against Germany according to Bryan. Despite this, he campaigned for Wilson's re-election in 1916.
Wilson's Treasury Secretary was also his son-in-law, although the cabinet appointment occurred first. William Gibbs McAdoo had been the president of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company and had served as the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee. McAdoo worked on Wilson's successful 1912 presidential campaign and served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1913 to 1918. He married Wilson's daughter, Eleanor, in 1914. His first wife had died in 1912. At the time McAdoo was 50, Eleanor was 25, and Woodrow Wilson was not very happy about the marriage. As Treasury Secretary, McAdoo presided over the establishment of the Federal Reserve System and helped prevent an economic crisis after the outbreak of World War I. After the U.S. entered the war, McAdoo also served as the Director General of Railroads.
Wilson's first Secretary of War was Lindley M. Garrison, a New Jersey lawyer who worked with then Governor Wilson. Garrison and Wilson did not work well together. Garrison wanted to intervene militarily in the Great War, while Wilson was initially more reluctant. Garrison urged American intervention into the Mexican revolution to restore order but was once again overruled by his president. Garrison proposed a standing army of 140,000 and a national, volunteer reserve force of 400,000 men, Wilson disagreed. Garrison resigned in February 1916 over their differences.
James Clark McReynolds was an lawyer and judge from Tennessee who was the first Attorney General under Wilson. He was known for his open anti-semitism and had served as the Assistant Attorney General during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, where he showed great skill in antitrust cases. He was only Attorney-General for a year. In 1914 Wilson successfully nominated McReynolds to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Associate Justice Horace Harmon Lurton.
One of Wilson's more controversial appointments was Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson, one of the most reactionary politicians to have served in that office. He is considered to be one of the worst appointees to hold this post. At a cabinet meeting on April 11, 1913, just over one month into Wilson's first term his, Burleson proposed that the new administration segregate the railway mail service, a policy which which Wilson adopted. He also recommended segregated federal workplaces, which Wilson instituted, requiring separate lunchrooms and restrooms. Since the Reconstruction era, the workplaces had been integrated and African Americans served in numerous positions in the civil service. With Wilson's approval, Burleson instituted racial discrimination in hiring, getting around the civil service merit system by requiring photos of applicants. Burleson fired African-American postal workers in the South. After the United States entered the war, Burleson ordered local postmasters to send to him any illegal or suspicious material that they found. The distribution by mail of major radical pamphlets, such as Emma Goldman's Mother Earth and Max Eastman's The Masses, was halted and a period of heavy censorship of the mail followed. Burleson banned antiwar material from being delivered by Post Office personnel.
Josephus Daniels was a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina who became Secretary of the Navy under Wilson. He was a close friend and supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served as his Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Like many of Wilson's cabinet, Daniels was a blatant racist who was highly influential in his state legislature's passage in 1900 of a bill that effectively disenfranchised most African-Americans in the state, excluding them from the political system for decades until the late 20th century. They were also excluded from juries and subject to legal racial segregation. As Secretary of the Navy, Daniels handled policy and formalities in World War I while his top aide Franklin Delano Roosevelt, handled the major wartime decisions. He was a powerful supporter of the Ku Klux Klan although never a member.
Wilson chose Franklin Knight Lane s United States Secretary of the Interior. He had beenthe Democratic nominee for Governor of California in 1902, losing a narrow race in what was then a heavily Republican state. Lane was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in what was then a British colony but is now part of Canada, and in 1871, his family moved to California. Lane's record on conservation was poor. He supported the controversial Hetch Hetchy Reservoir project in Yosemite National Park, which flooded a valley prized by many conservationists of the time.
David Houseton was Wilson's Secretary of Agriculture from 1913 to 1920, when he became the Secretary of the Treasury until 1921. He was a Harvard Graduate who was born in North Carolina and was a university professor at the University of Texas. As Agriculture Secretary many important agricultural laws were passed by the U.S. Congress, including the Smith-Lever Act, the Farm Loan Act, the Warehouse Act, and the Federal Aid Road Act.
As Secretary of Commerce, Wilson chose William C. Redfield, a U.S. Representative from New York from 1911 to 1913 who was also an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for the vice presidency in 1912. The remaining member of the Wilson cabinet was Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, a Scottish-born American labor leader and progressive politician, who was the first person to hold this cabinet position. He had served as international secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America from 1900 to 1908. He served three terms in the US House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and was chairman of the United States House Committee on Labor during the Sixty-second Congress.
Wilson held press conferences in the White House twice a week, but he prohibited reporters from quoting him. In 1913, he became the first president to deliver the State of the Union address in person since 1801, as Thomas Jefferson had discontinued this practice.
Wilson defended his administration's segregation policy in a July 1913 letter responding to Oswald Garrison Villard, publisher of the New York Evening Post and founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He told Villard that segregation removed "friction" between the races. His policy changes drew protests in the form of letters, mass meetings, newspaper campaigns and official statements by church groups. Wilson's African-American supporters, who had crossed party lines to vote for him, were extremely disappointed.