Ellen’s death in August 1914 devastated Wilson with grief, which lifted only when he met and courted Edith Bolling Galt (Edith Wilson), whom he married in December 1915. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Woodrow Wilson spent time after 1919 criss-crossing America trying to ‘sell’ the idea of the League. Woodrow Wilson Presidency Wilson was the 28th president of the United States, serving two terms from 1913 to 1921. (Don Linky, former chief counsel and director of the Governor’s Office of Policy and Planning under Governor Brendan Byrne, wrote this analysis while he was a senior policy fellow at the Center on the American Governor from the program’s inception until 2011.). He attended Davidson College near Charlotte, North Carolina, for a year before entering what is now Princeton University in 1875. Wilson left a legacy of peace, social and financial reform, and statesmanship with integrity, which lives on at the many schools and programs named after him, most notably the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and his old alma mater, Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Since the Republican party already had their candidate in Taft, Roosevelt ran as a Progressive (also know as the Bull Moose Party). Before his inauguration Wilson prevented Smith’s election to the United States Senate by the state legislature. African Americans in the film (played mostly by white actors in black face) were portrayed as brutes. In several departments including Treasury, the Navy, and the Post Office, Jim Crow policies were implemented, instituting segregated toilets, cafeterias and even some “whites only” buildings. In that campaign, Wilson answered Roosevelt’s call for a “New Nationalism” with his own equally compelling vision of a “New Freedom.” Wilson was the first Southern-born president elected since the Civil War. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the President of the United States between 1913 and 1921. The first was incumbent William Howard Taft, the hand-picked successor of Teddy Roosevelt. https://www.biography.com/us-president/woodrow-wilson. Though never advocating these practices, Wilson did not oppose them either. After months of debate within the Black community, trust in Woodrow Wilson grew. Wilson’s doctoral thesis was also his first book, Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics (1885), which further developed his comparison between the American and parliamentary government and suggested reforms that would make the American system more efficient and more answerable to public opinion. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, led America through World War I and crafted the Versailles Treaty's "Fourteen Points," the last of which was creating a League of Nations to ensure world peace. The election of 1912 pitted Woodrow Wilson against two worthy opponents. In 1885 Wilson married Ellen Louise Axson (Ellen Wilson), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister from Rome, Georgia, with whom he had three daughters, Margaret, Jessie, and Eleanor. A warm, studious and devout household, the family lived all over the South, moving from Staunton, Virginia, to Augusta, Georgia, in Wilson's first year. As President of the United States, Wilson appointed a number of Southern Democrats to his Cabinet. When the war was over, nearly a year and a half later, Americans were perceived as heroes. The couple moved on from the incident, however, and remained together. Perhaps the most telling account about Wilson’s racist attitude came from his own lips. He presided over ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote, and laws that prohibited child labour and that mandated an eight-hour workday for railroad workers. The 1912 election also featured the Socialist Party campaign headed by Eugene V. Debs. The thick papers for his speech that Roosevelt carried in his breast pocket had a bullet hole through them, apparently helping to slow the bullet enough to save Roosevelt’s life. I want to look at him”, and then continued inside to give his speech, speaking for an hour before collapsing and being taken to the hospital. Roosevelt won primaries in nine states that elected delegates, while Taft won only one election. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Woodrow-Wilson, America's Story from America's Library - Biography of Thomas Woodrow Wilson, New Georgia Encyclopedia - History and Archaeology - Biography of Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars - Biography of Woodrow Wilson, The White House - Biography of Woodrow Wilson, The History Learning Site - Biography of Woodrow Wilson, FirstWorldWar.com - Biography of Woodrow Wilson, The Nobel Prize - Biography of Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Woodrow Wilson - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), presidency of the United States of America. Once in office he put his earlier ideas about parliamentary practices to work in implementing a sweeping reform program that gave him a national reputation and made him a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. Our latest podcast episode features popular TED speaker Mara Mintzer. “Your tone, sir, offends me,” Wilson shot back at Trotter. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, promoted Atoms for Peace at the United Nations General Assembly in order to ease Cold War tensions. When Taft was selected as the nominee, the progressive backers of Roosevelt marched out of the convention. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died. But after the election Wilson concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. Political ambitions and university politics had transformed Wilson into a social Democrat, and he was tapped for the governorship of New Jersey in 1910. © 2020 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. On election day, Wilson received over 6 million votes, Roosevelt over 4 million, and Taft over 3 million. He was a member of the Democratic party. This split the Republican vote, ensuring Wilson's win. In a speech before the Senate in January 1918, Wilson publicly endorsed a woman’s right to vote. Inaugurated on Jan. 17, 1911, the new governor maintained such heavy pressure on the legislature at Trenton that he won enactment of most of his program in one session: direct primaries; effective state regulations of public utilities; workmen’s compensation; municipal reform; and reorganization of the school system. The party leaders controlling the majority of delegates overwhelmingly preferred Taft’s conservative, pro-business leanings over Roosevelt’s more progressive positions seeking to curb business monopolies and improve workplace conditions. Woodrow Wilson created the League of Nations after World War I (1914–18). The marriage was warm and happy, although it was shadowed by Ellen’s bouts of depression and Wilson’s brief extramarital affair with Mary Allen Peck. New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8557 One new law prohibited child labor; another limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day. “You have spoiled the whole cause for which you came.” Trotter tried to get the meeting back on track, saying, “I am pleading for simple justice.” If his tone seemed contentious, Trotter said, he had been misunderstood. When New York City’s Tammany Hall forces shifted from Harmon to Clark, Colonel House helped to persuade the reluctant Bryan to throw his support to Wilson, slowing the move of delegates toward Clark. governors@eagleton.rutgers.edu, By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Eagleton Institute of Politics, 191 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu. Wilson was the only president since Andrew Jackson to have a foreign-born parent. Wilson’s “ New Freedom” Though his election in 1912 was largely attributable to the formation of the Bull Moose Party (officially, the Progressive Party) from the Republican Party’s more liberal elements and the subsequent split in voting, Wilson’s first term was marked by a raft of popular progressive legislation that left him well positioned to win a second term. His father served during the Civil War as a chaplain with the Confederate army, and his church in Augusta was turned into a military hospital. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920 for his efforts. Wilson’s campaign focused on staying out the European war, but cautiously preparing for the war just in case. Irwin H. Hoover, “Taft Out — Wilson In: A Typical Inauguration Day” in Hoover’s published memoir, Forty-two Years in the White House (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1933; reprint, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974), pp. True helpmates, Wilson entrusted Edith with a secret code that accessed highly confidential war documents, and she often sat with him during Oval Office meetings. Wilson didn’t take too kindly to the criticism. American football quarterback Russell Wilson led the Seattle Seahawks to victory in Super Bowl XLVIII. Living in the South and witnessing the ravages of the Civil War up close, Wilson's father, a Northern transplant, adopted the Confederate cause. The split among Republicans occurred when former President Roosevelt challenged the nomination of his former Cabinet officer and hand-picked successor as president, William Howard Taft.