Thomas Woodrow Wilson - 28th President of the United States- born December 28, 1856 in Strawton (Virginia), died February 3, 1924 in Washington, DC. President of the United States from March 4, 1913 to March 4, 1921.
In the gallery of American presidents, after Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson rises as an exception. While they tended to come from professional politicians, lawyers, or leading economic groups, Wilson originally belonged to the university-academic stratum of his country. In addition, unlike most presidents of that era, he was from the southern states. His childhood memories included the Civil War. He was born December 28, 1856, the son of Presbyterian pastor and teacher Joseph R. Wilson and his wife Janet, in Stockton, Virginia, and was in no way destined for the profession of politics. He, of course, inherited from his father the talent of an orator and organizer. But in his parental home he was brought up in a strict Calvinistic faith, and at first everything indicated that he would follow the profession of his father. It turned out differently: as a freshman and a popular student representative at Princeton University, he became more and more interested in a political career. His ideal was the English Christian-liberal statesman William Gladstone.
By studying the sciences of law, he seemed to be heading straight for his goal. But the legal sciences did not satisfy him. A few months of work as a lawyer in Atlanta (Georgia) were enough for him. Meanwhile, what attracted him more was political and journalistic writing. Here he more and more discovered his real talent. He wanted to influence the public with it. To improve his qualifications, in 1883, as having a degree, he enrolled in a course in political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which already then belonged to the leading American universities. He completed his degree with a book that immediately made him famous outside the university world: Congressional Government (1885). It was a convincing critique of the ineffective for the public, in the end, ill-democratic way of working the American people's representation. More and more engaged in the comparative study of constitutions and for this he learned to read German. After a number of small writings, in 1899 the main fruit of his studies appeared, the work "The State", a comparative doctrine of government. Meanwhile, he made himself an academic and journalistic name. In 1890, Princeton University invited him to the law department. What he did teach with increasing success was more in the realm of political science. But even outside the walls of the university, his popularity grew. More and more he expressed his views on the topics of current politics in polished, wide-ranging essays. In 1902, Princeton University named him its president. It seemed that at the age of 46 he reached the pinnacle of his life - he was very respected at the university and outside the university, he was economically secure, he lived in a happy marriage with his wife Helen, with whom he had three daughters.
The experience accumulated as president of the university, in a peculiar way, predetermined the future career of Wilson as a politician.
Successes in fundamental reforms of academic teaching were opposed by total collapse at the end of his presidency. In his missionary zeal for reform, he made some of Princeton's academic notables (such as the classical philologist Andrew F. West) his enemies. Fully quarreled with his university, with poor health, he surrendered in 1910 and resigned. But he had almost no time for disappointment and disappointment. University conflicts took place before the eyes of the entire public and made him known throughout the country as a policy of higher education. Already in 1906, his name appeared in the conservative wing of the Democratic Party as a possible candidate for the presidency. Wilson offered himself to the Democratic party leaders, who raised him to the shield, as a descendant of one of the families of the southern states and as a publicist, thinking conservatively in economic matters. A year after the break at Princeton in November 1910, he was elected governor of New Jersey. During the election campaign, and even more so during his tenure, he disappointed his conservative political sponsors. For the first time, a reproach of disloyalty was heard behind his back, since, in order to improve his chances in the elections, he openly went over to the camp of progressivism. This reformist movement, gaining more and more supporters in both big parties, agitated for the democratization of political practice, for social-state measures, environmental protection and for economic reforms that would stop the formation of such concentrations of power as cartels and monopolies, and were no longer subject to the free development of the market. In the spirit of his program, Wilson held a primaries in New Jersey for internal party election of candidates and a number of social laws (for example, workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known outside of one region. In the second phase of his tenure as governor, his legislative business was thoroughly confused, but this in no way diminished his authority. In 1912, he was elected as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate against William Bryan, the eloquent populist mouthpiece, above all for the agrarian reform interests of the American West. By the time he was nominated, his and the Democratic Party's chances for the presidency couldn't have been better, as the Republican rival party was bogged down in controversy and controversy. A new progressive party entered the race with former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt as the candidate. Republican voters are split. Wilson entered the campaign trail with his party's traditional call for free trade and a progressive economic reform agenda that emphasized the self-regulating forces of the economy rather than state control, as demanded by his opponent Roosevelt. He won the election on November 3, 1912, with a clear, albeit relative, majority.
On March 4, 1913, accompanied by the expectations of American reformers, he entered the White House. It would be "ironic," he declared, if he, fully concentrated on the interests of domestic policy, had to deal with foreign policy a lot in the future.
This time, Wilson did not disappoint his supporters. The system of reforms, which he, under the slogan "New Liberty", carried through Congress with great skill within one year after his election, was realized: American duties were reduced, banking and the monetary system were radically modernized and subordinated ( which did not exist before) to the central government (Federal Reserve Board); finally, in the interests of preventing distortions of competition, federal-state control over industrial concerns was transformed and strengthened through the creation of a federal trade commission. However, in order to ensure that this law was passed by Congress, Wilson had to pay a price to conservative Democrats. Among other things, this included, which was not difficult for representatives of the southern states, the temporary restoration of the provisions of apartheid in some Washington federal bodies.
Earlier than expected, the progressive democratic principles of his "New Freedom" were questioned from outside. Not recognizing himself as a real foreign politician, Wilson cherished the idea that democracy outside the United States also contributes to peaceful progressive development. He dissociated himself from the imperialistically motivated "dollar diplomacy" of his predecessor Taft and canceled, for example, American participation in an international consortium for the development of China. But the honesty of his outwardly directed hopes for democratization was only really tested in the neighboring country of Mexico. Here he established the didactic position still in force on the problem of the humane-democratically inspired intervention policy of a developed country in relation to a “third world” country. In Mexico, at the beginning of 1913, as a result of a putsch, General of Indian origin Victoriano Huerta came to power, should he be recognized diplomatically? The European powers, above all England and Germany, demanded this just as much as American oil interests. Wilson resisted, he wanted to recognize only a democratically legitimate Mexican government, and provided military assistance to Huerta's internal opponents under the leadership of the reform-oriented politician Venustiano Carranza. The United States itself was drawn into the war that had thus become inevitable in April 1914. Wilson had a double experience: even a progressively understood intervention in another country exposes its initiator to the reproach of intervention, such an intervention is quite easy to start, but infinitely difficult to finish. It wasn't until the end of 1916 that the last parts of the US left northern Mexico. But Wilson achieved his goal: Huerta was overthrown, Carranza took the helm, elections and the constitutional development of Mexico were secured.
Meanwhile, a war broke out in Europe, which demanded wider action from Wilson as a foreign policy figure. The first months of the war passed for him in the shadow of a personal family crisis. In early 1914, his deeply revered wife died. However, he could not, even if he wanted to, ignore the effects of the world war on his country. Like all the great European wars before it, this one also urgently demanded observance of American neutrality. Despite his personal attachment to Great Britain and its spiritual life (his ancestors were from Scotland, and he himself traveled many times in England), Wilson tried to honestly and dispassionately stay neutral. Given the minority in the United States, he had no other choice. Despite this, in early 1915, American relations with the German Empire rapidly deteriorated. The reason for this was the so-called unrestricted war of submarines, i.e. the decision of the non-German naval military leadership to sink without warning all merchant ships, whether neutral or not, inside the military zone declared by him, which runs around England. The American ship incidents and loss of life were thus already programmed. The disaster occurred on May 7, 1915. A German submarine torpedoed the British passenger ship Lusitania in the military zone in front of Ireland. Most of the passengers - more than 1,000 men, women and children - drowned, including 124 Americans. In the United States, such terrorism at sea has caused a wave of indignation. For the first time, it was about the war with Germany. Wilson insisted in relation to the German government on the conduct of submarine warfare according to the rules of cruiser warfare, that is, to spare the lives of neutrals. After further incidents, finally torpedoing the French steamship Sussex, on April 18, 1916, he reinforced his demand with an ultimatum. His tough stance towards Germany already in 1915 led to a rupture between him and his pacifist Foreign Minister Bryan. His successor was Robert Lansing, a longtime British legal expert in the US Foreign Office.
Subsequently, critics claimed that it was Wilson who chose the course of clashes with Germany, taking into account the interests of weapons. There is no evidence for this. But Wilson persistently, even harshly defended the current international law and the prestige of the United States as a great power. Economic motives were taken into account by him only when, at the end of 1914, the beginning conjuncture of the American economy was largely dependent on the flow of goods from the United States to the European Western powers. Wilson understood this. If he wanted to prevent the country from falling into the stagnation that it experienced before the war, he could not allow the German war under water to stifle these exports.
The German-American conflict, which the Western powers so hoped for, did not take place, because Germany, back in April 1916, with the so-called "Sus-sex Pledges", finally obeyed the American demand and stopped unrestricted submarine warfare. After that, the British blockade practice in relation to the USA led to the tension of British-American relations. Wilson learned how fragile American neutrality was. Through his trusted adviser, Colonel Edward House, he repeatedly tried to mediate between the warring parties - in vain. Wilson ran for the upcoming November 1916 presidential election with the slogan "Not kept us out of the war" ("He did not let us get involved in the war"). To this tactic he owed, at least in part, his victory by an extremely narrow margin over the newly cohesive Republican candidate, Charles E. Hughes.
In confirmation of his tenure as president, Wilson decided to intensify his efforts to promote peace. To make the allies more accommodating to the world, he was not even afraid to apply financial pressure. On December 18, 1916, Wilson publicly offered American mediation to the belligerents, but was refused by both sides. Unwaveringly, he continued his secret probes and his public campaign for a "world without victory." The German government at first gave the appearance of a certain readiness to meet halfway, but then destroyed all hopes for peace and completely undermined its credibility when, on January 31, 1917, it announced that it would return to unrestricted submarine warfare in the following days. If Wilson did not want to lose his face, then after his ultimatum of April 18, 1916, he could do nothing more than break off diplomatic relations with Berlin. After the sinking of the first American ships by German submarines, the American government declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, with the almost unanimous approval of Congress. Wilson could count on the loyalty of his compatriots, especially since even the inhabitants of the American West felt threatened. In January 1917, the German government offered Mexico an alliance with the so-called Zimmermann Note and promised to return to it the areas from Texas to Arizona, which had been ceded to the United States in the 19th century. The British Secret Service intercepted the note and provided it to Wilson. He published it on March 1, 1917 and caused a sensation.
Wilson was deeply aware of the gravity of the step the United States had taken in declaring war on Germany. He predicted an outbreak of war hysteria and brutality in his own country as well - the end would be peace on onerous terms. However, he did not see another way out after the German government provoked the United States as a world power and defender of international law. Now a concession, he believed, would damage the credibility of the United States as a mediator. Now the United States, by virtue of its contribution to the victory over the countries of Central Europe, had to create the prerequisites for a progressive world in the American sense. The question was how such a world should look like. Wilson was conscious of the fact that his new European partners were in no way pursuing the "progressive" as well as overtly imperialist war aims they had stipulated in numerous secret agreements. In order not to involve the United States in such interests, Wilson called his country only "part of the association" (not "ally") of the Entente. Such a diplomatic distinction was all the more necessary because the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in the fall of 1917 and hastily published secret Allied treaties in order to discredit the Western powers as imperialist conquerors in the eyes of their own populations. When at the end of 1917, precisely as a militarist branded Germany, entered into peace negotiations with Russia, there was an acute danger of a severe crisis of confidence within the allied countries, primarily in the sphere of the political left, a crisis that threatened to harm the will of the entire population of the Entente countries to hold out to the end and thereby thereby put the victory of the Western powers in question. In order to counteract this, at the same time to oblige the European "members of the association" to a specifically progressive-American program of war aims, in order, moreover, to push Russia towards the return to the Western alliance and to mobilize the left factions among the enemies against their governments, January 8, 1918 Wilson proclaimed his famous Fourteen Points as the leading line in the struggle for a progressive world. The future world, as the president declared before the solemnly assembled Congress, must rest on the principles of open diplomacy, world free trade, general disarmament, and the drawing of borders according to the map of nationalities. The peoples of the Habsburg monarchy must enjoy wide autonomy, the new Russia must be given all the advantages of such a progressive world. In paragraph 14, Wilson called the creation of a union of peoples the most important guarantee of peace. As for Germany, she must compensate for the injustice inflicted on France by the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, restore the sovereignty of Belgium and compensate for the damage and finally give Poland free access to the sea. Wilson added that he would only talk about such a peace with the German government, which relies on the majority (center and left) in the Reichstag, and not with the German imperialist "war party".
First of all, it was necessary to defeat the German military power. To do this, Wilson mobilized the entire American economy. Key branches of industry were put under state control during the war. The money needed to finance the war was obtained through war loans, as well as taxes, which were imposed primarily on high-income segments of the population. The overwhelming majority of Americans supported their government with unconditional enthusiasm. Potential critics, primarily among the German minority or among American socialists and pacifists, were intimidated or silenced by postal censorship. Since the beginning of 1918, an ever-increasing stream of American soldiers has rushed to Europe - in the fall there were 1.2 million of them. In order for the European Western powers to hold out, the moral, material and military contribution of the United States to the joint conduct of the war was necessary. This, finally, was of decisive importance in the offensive on the Western Front, to which the Western powers passed in July 1918 in France. On October 3, 1918, it was all over: in the face of imminent defeat, Germany asked for an end to hostilities and peace on the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points. The world-wide political influence of the American president has reached its highest point. It fell to him to decide on war and peace. Germany gave him the opportunity to formally bind the European Western Powers to his peace program as well. The readiness for this was the higher, the less the military defeat of Germany in the eyes of the Western European allies seemed to be established in reality. That is why Wilson exchanged notes with Germany. However, as a prerequisite for an armistice (and thus for avoiding capitulation) and for the "Peace of Wilson", he demanded that the German people abandon their old military system. What was meant by this specifically, the question remains open. After difficult negotiations, he, through his emissary, Colonel House, got the European allies in Paris to comply with the German request - and thus simultaneously, albeit with certain reservations, accepted his peace program. And in November 1918, a truce was signed. After more than four years of war, which gradually developed into a world war, the guns fell silent.
In the fact that peace was achieved in the spirit of his Fourteen Points, Wilson saw a decisive test of his abilities as a statesman and, at the same time, the fulfillment of a world-historical mission. Therefore, he insisted that this peace be concluded even with his European partners. The enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the people of London, Paris and Rome awakened in him the wildest hopes. In fact, he and his advisers were thoroughly prepared for the substantive issues ahead - the notion of Americans having no idea about European affairs at the 1919 peace conference is legendary. What Wilson underestimated were the real difficulties of making peace and the lack of willingness to compromise - and that means: insufficient respect for his "Fourteen Points" on the part of Europeans, as soon as it came to their national interests.
Thus, the Paris Peace Negotiations of the victors (January-May 1919) became a nerve-wracking test of patience for Wilson. One of the negotiating partners repeatedly threatened to withdraw: in turn France, Japan, Italy and, finally, Great Britain. Every attempt at a solution ruled out the problem of Russia, where a civil war raged between the Bolsheviks and the "White Guards" and the allied (also American) troops kept strategically important zones occupied, primarily ports - by and large, of course, a limited intervention, which, however, in political and military aspects was meaningless after the armistice and which did not prevent the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1919 from establishing themselves politically in Central Europe (among others in Hungary). Wilson himself took to heart the development of a charter for the union of peoples (according to the Scottish-biblical tradition, he spoke of the Covenant). This was already possible in the first weeks of the conference. The ingenious arbitration system was supposed to avoid the outbreak of military conflicts: if this did not work out, then categorical sanctions were provided. Treaties or provisions no longer up to date, the observance of which threatened the peace, had to be checked for possible modification. The Charter of the League of Nations, as Wilson understood it, was supposed to establish the Treaty of Versailles on all counts, not for all time. Germany was initially denied membership in the League of Nations. She lost her colonies, for which the mandates of the League of Nations were envisaged.
For some of the most important points of contention, more or less unstable compromises were found, such as for the Rhineland, which politically remained part of Germany, was at the same time occupied for a long time by the Western powers and demilitarized. The League of Nations was ultimately and differently responsible for the Saarland and Danzig. Other questions remained more or less open, such as the Italian-Yugoslav frontier or the amount of reparations to be borne by Germany as one of the powers responsible for starting the war. The new German government was forced under massive pressure to sign the Treaty of Versailles. This happened on June 28, 1919. Wilson was convinced that the treaty was in the spirit of the "Fourteen Points," for which he insistently advocated at secret conferences with his allies. However, this was not entirely true, as was understood by some contemporaries also among the victorious powers, and later by the famous national economist John Maynard Keynes. First of all, it failed completely to make Germany and the new Russia the loyal bearers of the new world order.
With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Wilson faced another major task: according to the American constitution, the treaty must be approved by a two-thirds majority in the US Senate before it can be ratified by the US. Specifically for Wilson, this meant that he had to win a part of the Senate faction of the Republican Party for his system of peace. This was all the more difficult because the Republicans emerged victorious from the November 1918 midterm elections. Since the Republicans, for their part, were not unanimous in their position on the treaty, Wilson's chances of winning the vote were not so bad. Republican criticism did not concern at all those parts of the treaty that applied to Germany, but to a large extent the charter of the League of Nations, which was a single integral part of the entire treaty, here outweighed the concern that the United States, as a member of the League of Nations, in the foreseeable future will be obliged to observe the Versailles peace order and that they can simultaneously be involved automatically in all conceivable military conflicts of the Earth. This criticism is clearly exaggerated, since the main and primarily disputed Article 10 of the Charter of the League of Nations was only advisory in nature, but concerned the main question of whether the United States, as a world power, was ready, and to what extent, to allow in any way a world organization curtail their own sovereign freedom of decision, i.e., their ability to declare war. The criticism leveled against the League of Nations was fundamentally nationalist, but provided additional food for Wilson's disillusioned supporters from the realm of the left factions, who completely rejected the Versailles treaty system as "imperialist". From the point of view of Wilson's opponents, these debates were the most important, because they concerned the constitutional and legal competences of the Congress, and above all, the right to declare war. Finally, the Republican opposition was stimulated by the desire of many Americans who are tired of the "great time" to return to normal life. The inflationary tendencies in the American post-war economy, the resulting social conflicts, the political opposition of the radical left, and not least Wilson's own secrecy during the world conference and his intractability did not alleviate the presidency. His inclination to agree with the republican desires to amend Article 10 of the Charter of the League of Nations did not increase in the least under the impression of this criticism and these difficulties.
In this uncertain position, he decided on a long trip around the country in order to personally convey his aspirations to the American people and thus put pressure on the Senate. For tactics aimed at excluding critical senators, the American constitution offered no way, since each senator was practically invulnerable during his six-year mandate. Wilson's doctors also warned him against the health burden associated with his intention. They knew that the already peaceful conference had undermined the resistance of the president's body. However, despite these doubts, Wilson insisted on his own. Like the biblical prophet, he was deeply imbued with his destiny, to promote the success of a good work for the future of the whole world. With moving eloquence he campaigned in the great cities of the Middle and Far West for his system of the world. If the US stays out of it, the next world war will soon break out, he predicted. However, all his speeches, in the end, had no success and impact: when delivering a speech in Pueblo (Colorado), he suddenly began to have severe headaches and nausea. Although he was immediately taken back to Washington, there he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on October 2, 1919. He recovered slowly and incompletely. Thus, the oversight of government affairs fell into the hands of his wife, Wilson married in 1915 the widow Edith Bolling Gault, an attractive representative of the Washington business world, who, without thinking about politics, had only one desire - to protect her husband from all unrest that put his health at risk. Based on this humanly understandable interest, she decided what to say to the patient and what not.
No other situation could be more fatal to the defense of the Versailles Treaty in the US than this. Since Wilson's actual illness was kept secret, wild rumors swirled about his mental condition that discredited him and his cause.
The conflict in the Senate reached its climax in November 1919. Wilson refused to make any concession to his political opponents, led by the Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, which, in his understanding, contradicted the main goals of the League of Nations charter. Attempts to reach an agreement between pro-Wilson Democratic senators and moderate Republicans ready to make concessions failed because of the stubbornness of the ailing president. “It should not be forgotten,” he wrote on March 8, 1920, “that this article (10 of the Charter of the League of Nations) represents a renunciation of the misleading ambition of the strong nations with which we were allies in the war ... As for me, then I am as intolerant of the imperialist intentions of other nations as I am intolerant of the same intentions of Germany.” In two votes - November 19, 1919 and March 19, 1920 - the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles in the form presented. The USA refused to be the guarantor of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. The Anglo-American guarantee agreed in Paris to maintain the demilitarized status of the Rhineland also turned out to be invalid. However, Wilson's contribution to the content of the treaty was still not in vain, since, after ratification by other counterparties, it entered into force in an unchanged form even without the United States.
However, Wilson took the Senate's decision as a bitter personal defeat. Although half paralyzed, he did not want to accept such an end to his political career. I secretly thought about running for president again. Realizing how far he goes from reality, the serious politicians of his party did not even take this desire into account. Wilson now hoped for an overwhelming victory for his party in the next election, in which he saw a "great and solemn referendum" on the charter of the League of Nations. But these hopes were shattered, and thoroughly. The Democrats in the November 1920 presidential election suffered the worst defeat in their history. The American people have already turned their backs on their prophet. Wilson's political career had a tragic end, for him not entirely undeserved. The ex-president has a few years left, marred by a chronic illness and growing loneliness. He died on February 3, 1924. He found his last rest in the neo-Gothic National Cathedral in Washington.
Regardless of his final downfall, Wilson is one of the great American presidents who gave the development of the United States a new turn. Starting with him and thanks to him, the United States became a nation turned towards Europe, interested in the fate of the non-American world as a whole. This was true even after leaving the presidency, when his successors still did not understand the scope of America's role as a world power in Europe, in terms of security policy. But already nine years after his death, the new American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, after initial hesitation, joined his legacy. The idea of an internationally organized world experienced a triumphant awakening also in the USA during the Second World War and found expression in the charter of the United Nations. The European Allies owe their victory in World War I, or at least the magnitude of that victory, to the United States, led and inspired by Wilson. Even here he showed himself as a morally impeccable, incorruptible and materially disinterested reformer, imbued with deep and strict religiosity, perhaps not always personally accessible to outsiders, not always completely frank, but nevertheless, a clear mind that captivates an orator, an outstanding organizer and, last but not least, a passionate, sometimes adamant fighter for what he considered a good deed. Despite his seeming downfall, his political successes have moved the United States significantly forward on the path to greater modernity and greater openness to the world.
In preparing the material, an article by Klaus Schwabe "Crusade for Democracy" was used.
Staunton, Virginia
Washington DC
Edith Hals Wilson (2nd wife)
Thomas Woodrow Wilson(English) Thomas Woodrow Wilson, usually without the first name - Woodrow Wilson; December 28th ( 18561228 ) , Strawton, Virginia - February 3, Washington, DC) - 28th President of the United States (-). Also known as a historian and political scientist. Winner of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to him for peacekeeping efforts.
Origin
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton (Virginia) in the family of Doctor of Divinity Joseph Wilson (-) and Janet Woodrow (-). His family is of Scottish and Irish ancestry, his grandparents emigrated from Strabane, Northern Ireland, while his mother was born in Carlisle to Scottish parents. Wilson's father was from Steubenville, Ohio, where his grandfather was the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper. His parents moved to the South in 1851 and joined the Confederacy. His father defended slavery, ran a Sunday school for slaves, and also served as a priest in the Confederate army. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church Society after it broke away from the Northern in 1861.
Childhood, youth
Thomas Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until about 12 years of age, he experienced learning difficulties. He mastered shorthand and made considerable efforts to compensate for the lag in his studies. He studied at home with his father, then at a small school in Augusta. In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina, then entered Princeton University in 1879. Starting from the second year of study, he was actively interested in political philosophy and history. He was an active participant in the informal discussion club, organized an independent Liberal Debating Society. In 1879, Wilson attended law school at the University of Virginia, but he did not receive a higher education there. Due to poor health, he went home to Wilmington (North Carolina), where he continued his independent studies.
Legal practice
In January 1882, Wilson decided to start a law practice in Atlanta. One of Wilson's classmates at the University of Virginia invited Wilson to join his law firm as a partner. Wilson joined the partnership in May 1882 and began practicing law. There was fierce competition in the city with 143 other lawyers, Wilson rarely handled cases and quickly became disillusioned with legal work. Wilson studied law with the goal of entering politics, but realized that he could continue his academic research and practice law at the same time to gain experience. In April 1883, Wilson applied to Johns Hopkins University in order to study for a Ph.D. in the history of political science, and in July 1883 left the practice of law to embark on an academic career.
Governor of New Jersey
In November 1910, he was elected Governor of New Jersey. As governor, he did not follow the party line and decided for himself what he needed to do.
Wilson introduced primaries in New Jersey to elect candidates within the party and a number of social laws (such as workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known outside of one region.
1912 presidential election
Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination while serving as Governor of New Jersey. His candidacy was put forward by the Democratic Party as a compromise in Baltimore at a meeting on June 25 - July 2, after a long internal party crisis.
In the election, Wilson's main rivals were the then 27th US President William Taft from the Republican Party and the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, who, after his resignation, broke off relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party. Roosevelt and Taft competed for the Republican vote, causing division and confusion in the camp of their supporters, which greatly facilitated the task of Democrat Wilson. According to American political scientists, if Roosevelt did not participate in the elections, Wilson would hardly have won against Taft. In addition, U.S. Vice President James Sherman died on October 30, 1912, leaving Taft without a vice presidential candidate.
According to the election results, Woodrow Wilson received 41.8% of the vote, Theodore Roosevelt - 27.4%, William Taft - 23.2%. Woodrow Wilson won most states and subsequently received 435 of 531 electoral votes. Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States.
Woodrow Wilson became the first Southern president since Zachary Taylor, who was elected in 1848. He was the only U.S. president with a doctorate and one of only two presidents, along with Theodore Roosevelt, who was also president of the American Historical Association.
First presidential term (1913-1917)
During the first term of Woodrow Wilson, as part of the New Freedom policy, he carried out economic reforms - the creation of the Federal Reserve System, banking reform, antitrust reform, took a neutral position in foreign policy, trying to keep the country from entering the First World War.
Foreign policy
During 1914-1917, Woodrow Wilson kept the country from entering the First World War. In 1916, he offered his services as an intermediary, but the warring parties did not take his proposals seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, criticized Wilson for his peace-loving policies and unwillingness to create a strong army. At the same time, Wilson won the sympathy of the pacifist Americans, arguing that the arms race would lead to the United States being drawn into the war.
Wilson actively opposed the unrestricted submarine warfare that Germany had unleashed. As part of unrestricted submarine warfare, German naval forces destroyed ships entering the zone adjacent to Great Britain. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania, killing over 1,000 people, 124 of them Americans, causing outrage in the US. In 1916, he issued an ultimatum against Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare, and also dismissed his pacifist Secretary of State, Bryan. Germany agreed with Wilson's demands, after which he demanded that Great Britain limit the naval blockade of Germany, which led to the complication of Anglo-American relations.
1916 presidential election
In 1916, Wilson was re-nominated as a presidential candidate. Wilson's main slogan was "He kept us out of the war." Wilson's opponent and Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes argued for a greater focus on mobilization and preparation for war, and Wilson's supporters accused him of dragging the country into war. Wilson came out with a fairly peaceful program, but put pressure on Germany to stop unrestricted submarine warfare. In the election campaign, Wilson emphasized his achievements, refraining from direct criticism of Hughes.
Wilson narrowly won the election, the counting of votes lasted several days and caused controversy. Thus, in California, Wilson won by a narrow margin of 3,773 votes, in New Hampshire by a margin of 54 votes, and lost to Hughes in Minnesota by a margin of 393 votes. In the electoral vote, 277 votes were cast for Wilson and 254 for Hughes. It is believed that Wilson won the 1916 election mainly due to voters who supported Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene Debs in 1912.
Second presidential term (1917-1921)
In his second term, Wilson focused his efforts on World War I, which the United States entered on April 6, 1917, a little over a month after Wilson's second term began.
The decision on the participation of the United States in the war
When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, Wilson made the decision to bring the US into World War I. He did not sign allied agreements with Britain or France, preferring to act independently as an "associated" (rather than allied) country. He raised a large army through conscription and put General John Pershing in command, leaving him considerable discretion in matters of tactics, strategy, and even diplomacy. He called for "declaring war to end all wars" - which meant that he wanted to lay the foundations for a world without wars, to prevent future catastrophic wars that sow death and destruction. These intentions served as the basis for Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were developed and proposed with the aim of resolving territorial disputes, securing free trade, creating a peacekeeping organization (which later became the League of Nations). Woodrow Wilson by that time decided that the war had become a threat to all mankind. In his declaration of war speech, he stated that if the United States had not joined the war, the entire Western civilization could have been destroyed.
Economic and social policy at the beginning of the war
To quell defeatist sentiment at home, Wilson passed the Espionage Act (1917) and the Mutiny Act (1918) through Congress to suppress anti-British, anti-war or pro-German sentiment. He supported the socialists, who in turn supported participation in the war. Although he himself had no sympathy for the radical organizations, they saw great benefits in the increase in salaries under the Wilson administration. However, there was no price regulation, and retail prices rose sharply. When the income tax was increased, knowledge workers suffered the most. War bonds issued by the Government were a great success.
Wilson created a Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, which disseminated patriotic anti-German appeals and carried out various forms of censorship, popularly called the "Creel Commission" ("basket committee").
Fourteen Points of Wilson
In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson formulated his theses on the goals of the war, which became known as the "Fourteen Points".
Fourteen Points of Wilson (Summary):
- I. Exclusion of secret agreements, openness of international diplomacy.
- II. Freedom of navigation outside territorial waters
- III. Freedom of trade, removal of economic barriers
- IV. Disarmament, reducing the armament of countries to the minimum level necessary to ensure national security.
- V. Free and impartial consideration of all colonial questions, taking into account both the colonial claims of the owners of the colonies and the interests of the population of the colonies.
- VI. The liberation of Russian territories, the solution of its issues based on its independence and freedom to choose the form of government.
- VII. The liberation of the territory of Belgium, the recognition of its sovereignty.
- VIII. The liberation of the French territories, the restoration of justice in relation to Alsace-Lorraine, occupied in 1871.
- IX. Establishing the borders of Italy on a national basis.
- X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.
- XI. The liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, the provision of Serbia with a reliable outlet to the Adriatic Sea, guarantees of the independence of the Balkan states.
- XII. The independence of the Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey), along with the sovereignty and autonomous development of the peoples under Turkish rule, the openness of the Dardanelles to the free passage of ships.
- XIII. Creation of an independent Polish state, uniting all Polish territories and with access to the sea.
- XIV. Creation of a universal international association of nations in order to guarantee the integrity and independence of both large and small states.
Wilson's speech caused a mixed reaction both in the United States itself and among its allies. France wanted reparations from Germany, since French industry and agriculture had been destroyed by the war, and Great Britain, as the most powerful naval power, did not want freedom of navigation. Wilson made compromises with Clemenceau, Lloyd George and other European leaders during the Paris peace negotiations, trying to ensure that the fourteenth point was still fulfilled and the League of Nations was created. In the end, the agreement on the League of Nations was defeated by the Congress, and in Europe only 4 of the 14 theses were put into practice.
Other military and diplomatic actions
From 1914 to 1918, the United States repeatedly intervened in the affairs of Latin American countries, especially Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The US moved troops into Nicaragua and used them to support one of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates, then forced them into the Bryan-Chamorro agreement. American troops in Haiti forced the local parliament to elect a Wilson-backed candidate and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.
After the October Revolution took place in Russia and she withdrew from the war, the Allies sent troops to prevent the Bolsheviks or the Germans from appropriating weapons, ammunition and other supplies that the Allies carried out in aid of the Provisional Government. Wilson sent expeditions to the Trans-Siberian Railway, to the key port cities of Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok, to intercept supplies for the Provisional Government. Their task was not to fight the Bolsheviks, but several clashes with them took place. Wilson withdrew the main force effective April 1, 1920, although separate formations remained until 1922. At the end of World War I, Wilson, along with Lansing and Colby, laid the foundations for the Cold War and the policy of containment.
Peace of Versailles 1919
Robert Murphy, an American diplomat who worked in Munich in the first half of the 1920s, wrote in his memoirs: “From everything I saw, I had great doubts about the correctness of the approach of Woodrow Wilson, who tried to solve the issue of self-determination by force. His radical ideas and superficial knowledge of the practical aspects of European politics led to even greater European disintegration.
"Council of Four" at the Versailles Peace Conference
After the end of the First World War, Wilson participated in the negotiations at which the issues of the statehood of the oppressed nations and the establishment of an equal world were resolved. On January 8, 1918, Wilson delivered a speech to Congress in which he announced his peace theses, as well as the idea of a League of Nations to help preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of nations large and small. He saw in his 14 theses the way to end the war and achieve an equitable peace for all nations.
Wilson spent six months in Paris, attending the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Europe in office. He constantly worked to advance his plans, achieved the inclusion of the provision on the League of Nations in the Versailles agreement.
Wilson received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his peacekeeping efforts (a total of four US presidents have received the Nobel Peace Prize). However, Wilson was unable to get Senate ratification of the League of Nations agreement, and the United States did not join it. The Republicans, led by Domik Henry, were the majority in the Senate after the 1918 election, but Wilson refused to allow the Republicans to negotiate in Paris and rejected their proposed amendments. The main disagreement was whether the League of Nations would restrict the power of Congress to declare war. Historians have recognized the unsuccessful attempt to enter the League of Nations as the greatest failure of the Wilson administration.
End of the war
Wilson paid insufficient attention to the problems of demobilization after the war, the process was poorly managed and chaotic. Four million soldiers were sent home with little money. Soon there were problems in agriculture, many farmers went bankrupt. In 1919 there were unrest in Chicago and other cities.
After a series of attacks by radical anarchist groups in New York and other cities, Wilson sent Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to put an end to the violence. It was decided to arrest internal propagandists and expel external ones.
In recent years, Wilson broke off relations with many of his political allies. He wanted to run for a third term, but the Democratic Party did not support him.
Incapacity of the President (1919-1921)
In 1919, Wilson actively campaigned for the ratification of the agreement on the League of Nations, traveled around the country with speeches, as a result of which he began to experience physical overstrain and fatigue. After one of his speeches in support of the League of Nations in Pueblo (Colorado) on September 25, 1919, Wilson became seriously ill, and on October 2, 1919 he suffered a severe stroke, as a result of which he was paralyzed on the entire left side of his body and he was blind in one eye. For several months he was able to move only in a wheelchair, later he was able to walk with a cane. It remains unclear who was responsible for executive decision-making during Wilson's period of incapacity, it is believed that it was most likely the first lady and presidential advisers. The inner circle of the president, headed by his wife, completely isolated Vice President Thomas Marshall from the course of presidential correspondence, signing papers and other things, Marshall himself did not dare to take responsibility for accepting the powers of the acting president, although some political forces urged him to do so.
Wilson was almost completely incapacitated until the end of his presidential term, but this fact was hidden from the general public until his death on February 3, 1924.
After resignation
In 1921, Woodrow Wilson and his wife left the White House and settled in Washington in the Embassy Quarter (Embassy Row). In recent years, Wilson was hard pressed by the failures in the creation of the League of Nations, he believed that he had deceived the American people and in vain dragged the country into the First World War. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924 and was buried in Washington Cathedral.
Hobbies
Woodrow Wilson was a passionate car enthusiast and made daily car trips even as president. The president's passion also influenced the financing of public road construction. Woodrow Wilson was a baseball fan who played on the college team as a student, and in 1916 became the first sitting U.S. president to attend the Baseball World Cup.
Display in art. Memory
Woodrow Wilson is featured on the $100,000 bill, the largest in the country's history.
| Cabinet Woodrow Wilson | ||
|---|---|---|
Staunton, Virginia
Washington DC
Edith Hals Wilson (2nd wife)
Thomas Woodrow Wilson(English) Thomas Woodrow Wilson, usually without the first name - Woodrow Wilson; December 28th ( 18561228 ) , Strawton, Virginia - February 3, Washington, DC) - 28th President of the United States (-). Also known as a historian and political scientist. Winner of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to him for peacekeeping efforts.
Origin
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton (Virginia) in the family of Doctor of Divinity Joseph Wilson (-) and Janet Woodrow (-). His family is of Scottish and Irish ancestry, his grandparents emigrated from Strabane, Northern Ireland, while his mother was born in Carlisle to Scottish parents. Wilson's father was from Steubenville, Ohio, where his grandfather was the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper. His parents moved to the South in 1851 and joined the Confederacy. His father defended slavery, ran a Sunday school for slaves, and also served as a priest in the Confederate army. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church Society after it broke away from the Northern in 1861.
Childhood, youth
Thomas Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until about 12 years of age, he experienced learning difficulties. He mastered shorthand and made considerable efforts to compensate for the lag in his studies. He studied at home with his father, then at a small school in Augusta. In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina, then entered Princeton University in 1879. Starting from the second year of study, he was actively interested in political philosophy and history. He was an active participant in the informal discussion club, organized an independent Liberal Debating Society. In 1879, Wilson attended law school at the University of Virginia, but he did not receive a higher education there. Due to poor health, he went home to Wilmington (North Carolina), where he continued his independent studies.
Legal practice
In January 1882, Wilson decided to start a law practice in Atlanta. One of Wilson's classmates at the University of Virginia invited Wilson to join his law firm as a partner. Wilson joined the partnership in May 1882 and began practicing law. There was fierce competition in the city with 143 other lawyers, Wilson rarely handled cases and quickly became disillusioned with legal work. Wilson studied law with the goal of entering politics, but realized that he could continue his academic research and practice law at the same time to gain experience. In April 1883, Wilson applied to Johns Hopkins University in order to study for a Ph.D. in the history of political science, and in July 1883 left the practice of law to embark on an academic career.
Governor of New Jersey
In November 1910, he was elected Governor of New Jersey. As governor, he did not follow the party line and decided for himself what he needed to do.
Wilson introduced primaries in New Jersey to elect candidates within the party and a number of social laws (such as workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known outside of one region.
1912 presidential election
Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination while serving as Governor of New Jersey. His candidacy was put forward by the Democratic Party as a compromise in Baltimore at a meeting on June 25 - July 2, after a long internal party crisis.
In the election, Wilson's main rivals were the then 27th US President William Taft from the Republican Party and the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, who, after his resignation, broke off relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party. Roosevelt and Taft competed for the Republican vote, causing division and confusion in the camp of their supporters, which greatly facilitated the task of Democrat Wilson. According to American political scientists, if Roosevelt did not participate in the elections, Wilson would hardly have won against Taft. In addition, U.S. Vice President James Sherman died on October 30, 1912, leaving Taft without a vice presidential candidate.
According to the election results, Woodrow Wilson received 41.8% of the vote, Theodore Roosevelt - 27.4%, William Taft - 23.2%. Woodrow Wilson won most states and subsequently received 435 of 531 electoral votes. Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States.
Woodrow Wilson became the first Southern president since Zachary Taylor, who was elected in 1848. He was the only U.S. president with a doctorate and one of only two presidents, along with Theodore Roosevelt, who was also president of the American Historical Association.
First presidential term (1913-1917)
During the first term of Woodrow Wilson, as part of the New Freedom policy, he carried out economic reforms - the creation of the Federal Reserve System, banking reform, antitrust reform, took a neutral position in foreign policy, trying to keep the country from entering the First World War.
Foreign policy
During 1914-1917, Woodrow Wilson kept the country from entering the First World War. In 1916, he offered his services as an intermediary, but the warring parties did not take his proposals seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, criticized Wilson for his peace-loving policies and unwillingness to create a strong army. At the same time, Wilson won the sympathy of the pacifist Americans, arguing that the arms race would lead to the United States being drawn into the war.
Wilson actively opposed the unrestricted submarine warfare that Germany had unleashed. As part of unrestricted submarine warfare, German naval forces destroyed ships entering the zone adjacent to Great Britain. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania, killing over 1,000 people, 124 of them Americans, causing outrage in the US. In 1916, he issued an ultimatum against Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare, and also dismissed his pacifist Secretary of State, Bryan. Germany agreed with Wilson's demands, after which he demanded that Great Britain limit the naval blockade of Germany, which led to the complication of Anglo-American relations.
1916 presidential election
In 1916, Wilson was re-nominated as a presidential candidate. Wilson's main slogan was "He kept us out of the war." Wilson's opponent and Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes argued for a greater focus on mobilization and preparation for war, and Wilson's supporters accused him of dragging the country into war. Wilson came out with a fairly peaceful program, but put pressure on Germany to stop unrestricted submarine warfare. In the election campaign, Wilson emphasized his achievements, refraining from direct criticism of Hughes.
Wilson narrowly won the election, the counting of votes lasted several days and caused controversy. Thus, in California, Wilson won by a narrow margin of 3,773 votes, in New Hampshire by a margin of 54 votes, and lost to Hughes in Minnesota by a margin of 393 votes. In the electoral vote, 277 votes were cast for Wilson and 254 for Hughes. It is believed that Wilson won the 1916 election mainly due to voters who supported Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene Debs in 1912.
Second presidential term (1917-1921)
In his second term, Wilson focused his efforts on World War I, which the United States entered on April 6, 1917, a little over a month after Wilson's second term began.
The decision on the participation of the United States in the war
When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, Wilson made the decision to bring the US into World War I. He did not sign allied agreements with Britain or France, preferring to act independently as an "associated" (rather than allied) country. He raised a large army through conscription and put General John Pershing in command, leaving him considerable discretion in matters of tactics, strategy, and even diplomacy. He called for "declaring war to end all wars" - which meant that he wanted to lay the foundations for a world without wars, to prevent future catastrophic wars that sow death and destruction. These intentions served as the basis for Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were developed and proposed with the aim of resolving territorial disputes, securing free trade, creating a peacekeeping organization (which later became the League of Nations). Woodrow Wilson by that time decided that the war had become a threat to all mankind. In his declaration of war speech, he stated that if the United States had not joined the war, the entire Western civilization could have been destroyed.
Economic and social policy at the beginning of the war
To quell defeatist sentiment at home, Wilson passed the Espionage Act (1917) and the Mutiny Act (1918) through Congress to suppress anti-British, anti-war or pro-German sentiment. He supported the socialists, who in turn supported participation in the war. Although he himself had no sympathy for the radical organizations, they saw great benefits in the increase in salaries under the Wilson administration. However, there was no price regulation, and retail prices rose sharply. When the income tax was increased, knowledge workers suffered the most. War bonds issued by the Government were a great success.
Wilson created a Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, which disseminated patriotic anti-German appeals and carried out various forms of censorship, popularly called the "Creel Commission" ("basket committee").
Fourteen Points of Wilson
In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson formulated his theses on the goals of the war, which became known as the "Fourteen Points".
Fourteen Points of Wilson (Summary):
- I. Exclusion of secret agreements, openness of international diplomacy.
- II. Freedom of navigation outside territorial waters
- III. Freedom of trade, removal of economic barriers
- IV. Disarmament, reducing the armament of countries to the minimum level necessary to ensure national security.
- V. Free and impartial consideration of all colonial questions, taking into account both the colonial claims of the owners of the colonies and the interests of the population of the colonies.
- VI. The liberation of Russian territories, the solution of its issues based on its independence and freedom to choose the form of government.
- VII. The liberation of the territory of Belgium, the recognition of its sovereignty.
- VIII. The liberation of the French territories, the restoration of justice in relation to Alsace-Lorraine, occupied in 1871.
- IX. Establishing the borders of Italy on a national basis.
- X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.
- XI. The liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, the provision of Serbia with a reliable outlet to the Adriatic Sea, guarantees of the independence of the Balkan states.
- XII. The independence of the Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey), along with the sovereignty and autonomous development of the peoples under Turkish rule, the openness of the Dardanelles to the free passage of ships.
- XIII. Creation of an independent Polish state, uniting all Polish territories and with access to the sea.
- XIV. Creation of a universal international association of nations in order to guarantee the integrity and independence of both large and small states.
Wilson's speech caused a mixed reaction both in the United States itself and among its allies. France wanted reparations from Germany, since French industry and agriculture had been destroyed by the war, and Great Britain, as the most powerful naval power, did not want freedom of navigation. Wilson made compromises with Clemenceau, Lloyd George and other European leaders during the Paris peace negotiations, trying to ensure that the fourteenth point was still fulfilled and the League of Nations was created. In the end, the agreement on the League of Nations was defeated by the Congress, and in Europe only 4 of the 14 theses were put into practice.
Other military and diplomatic actions
From 1914 to 1918, the United States repeatedly intervened in the affairs of Latin American countries, especially Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The US moved troops into Nicaragua and used them to support one of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates, then forced them into the Bryan-Chamorro agreement. American troops in Haiti forced the local parliament to elect a Wilson-backed candidate and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.
After the October Revolution took place in Russia and she withdrew from the war, the Allies sent troops to prevent the Bolsheviks or the Germans from appropriating weapons, ammunition and other supplies that the Allies carried out in aid of the Provisional Government. Wilson sent expeditions to the Trans-Siberian Railway, to the key port cities of Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok, to intercept supplies for the Provisional Government. Their task was not to fight the Bolsheviks, but several clashes with them took place. Wilson withdrew the main force effective April 1, 1920, although separate formations remained until 1922. At the end of World War I, Wilson, along with Lansing and Colby, laid the foundations for the Cold War and the policy of containment.
Peace of Versailles 1919
Robert Murphy, an American diplomat who worked in Munich in the first half of the 1920s, wrote in his memoirs: “From everything I saw, I had great doubts about the correctness of the approach of Woodrow Wilson, who tried to solve the issue of self-determination by force. His radical ideas and superficial knowledge of the practical aspects of European politics led to even greater European disintegration.
"Council of Four" at the Versailles Peace Conference
After the end of the First World War, Wilson participated in the negotiations at which the issues of the statehood of the oppressed nations and the establishment of an equal world were resolved. On January 8, 1918, Wilson delivered a speech to Congress in which he announced his peace theses, as well as the idea of a League of Nations to help preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of nations large and small. He saw in his 14 theses the way to end the war and achieve an equitable peace for all nations.
Wilson spent six months in Paris, attending the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Europe in office. He constantly worked to advance his plans, achieved the inclusion of the provision on the League of Nations in the Versailles agreement.
Wilson received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his peacekeeping efforts (a total of four US presidents have received the Nobel Peace Prize). However, Wilson was unable to get Senate ratification of the League of Nations agreement, and the United States did not join it. The Republicans, led by Domik Henry, were the majority in the Senate after the 1918 election, but Wilson refused to allow the Republicans to negotiate in Paris and rejected their proposed amendments. The main disagreement was whether the League of Nations would restrict the power of Congress to declare war. Historians have recognized the unsuccessful attempt to enter the League of Nations as the greatest failure of the Wilson administration.
End of the war
Wilson paid insufficient attention to the problems of demobilization after the war, the process was poorly managed and chaotic. Four million soldiers were sent home with little money. Soon there were problems in agriculture, many farmers went bankrupt. In 1919 there were unrest in Chicago and other cities.
After a series of attacks by radical anarchist groups in New York and other cities, Wilson sent Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to put an end to the violence. It was decided to arrest internal propagandists and expel external ones.
In recent years, Wilson broke off relations with many of his political allies. He wanted to run for a third term, but the Democratic Party did not support him.
Incapacity of the President (1919-1921)
In 1919, Wilson actively campaigned for the ratification of the agreement on the League of Nations, traveled around the country with speeches, as a result of which he began to experience physical overstrain and fatigue. After one of his speeches in support of the League of Nations in Pueblo (Colorado) on September 25, 1919, Wilson became seriously ill, and on October 2, 1919 he suffered a severe stroke, as a result of which he was paralyzed on the entire left side of his body and he was blind in one eye. For several months he was able to move only in a wheelchair, later he was able to walk with a cane. It remains unclear who was responsible for executive decision-making during Wilson's period of incapacity, it is believed that it was most likely the first lady and presidential advisers. The inner circle of the president, headed by his wife, completely isolated Vice President Thomas Marshall from the course of presidential correspondence, signing papers and other things, Marshall himself did not dare to take responsibility for accepting the powers of the acting president, although some political forces urged him to do so.
Wilson was almost completely incapacitated until the end of his presidential term, but this fact was hidden from the general public until his death on February 3, 1924.
After resignation
In 1921, Woodrow Wilson and his wife left the White House and settled in Washington in the Embassy Quarter (Embassy Row). In recent years, Wilson was hard pressed by the failures in the creation of the League of Nations, he believed that he had deceived the American people and in vain dragged the country into the First World War. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924 and was buried in Washington Cathedral.
Hobbies
Woodrow Wilson was a passionate car enthusiast and made daily car trips even as president. The president's passion also influenced the financing of public road construction. Woodrow Wilson was a baseball fan who played on the college team as a student, and in 1916 became the first sitting U.S. president to attend the Baseball World Cup.
Display in art. Memory
Woodrow Wilson is featured on the $100,000 bill, the largest in the country's history.
| Cabinet Woodrow Wilson | ||
|---|---|---|
Woodrow (Thomas) Wilson, US President
(1856–1924)
The first US president, under whom America began to exert a decisive influence on the course of events in Europe, Woodrow (Thomas) Wilson, was born on December 28, 1856 in the town of Stanton (Virginia), in the family of a very wealthy pastor Joseph Rugles Wilson, where he was the third child. Due to poor health, Thomas was forced to receive his primary education at home. Only at the age of 13 did he enter the Deri School in Augusta (Georgia). Two years later, the family moved to Columbus (South Carolina), where he graduated from a local private school. As a student, Thomas was not very diligent, preferring to play baseball. At the end of 1873, Wilson entered Davidson College in North Carolina, where ministers of the Presbyterian church were trained, but in the summer of 1874 he left classes due to illness. In 1875, Wilson entered Princeton College, where he majored in government and paid special attention to the biographies of great British politicians: Disraeli, William Pitt the Younger, Palmerston, and others. His article on the US government was awarded the Princeton medal.
In 1879, Wilson entered the law school of the University of Virginia, but the following year fell ill and returned to Wilmington, North Carolina, where his father had a wealthy parish. Here he independently studied the history, law and politics of England and the USA for three years. While still a student at the University of Virginia, Wilson fell in love with his cousin Henrietta Wood, but she refused to marry him because of too close a relationship. In memory of his beloved, Wilson adopted the new name Woodrow in 1882. That same year, in Atlanta, he successfully passed the exam for the right to practice law at a local university. Together with a friend at the University of Virginia, Edward Resnick, they opened the Resnick and Wilson law firm, but they quickly went bankrupt.
In 1883, Wilson entered the graduate school of Johns Hopkins University. In 1885, his voluminous monograph The Government of Congress: A Study in American Politics was published. There he, in particular, argued: “The fall in the reputation of presidents is not a reason, but only an inevitable evidence of the fall of the presidential office. This high office has fallen into disrepair as the power associated with it has faded. And it has faded because the power of Congress has come to predominate.” For this work, Wilson was awarded a special prize from the Johns Hopkins University. In the same year he married Elden Exxon, a beautiful and intelligent girl. In 1899, Wilson's main work, The State, was published, where a comparative analysis of government systems in different countries was made.
After receiving his doctorate, Wilson went to teach history. He went through several schools before settling at Princeton College as a professor of political science. Here Wilson made a successful career and in 1902 became rector of Princeton University. He tried to undertake a number of reforms at the university, but they were blocked by the reactionary professors. In 1910, Wilson tied his political fate with the Democratic Party and became the governor of New Jersey. In this state, he passed a series of laws on the social insurance of workers and thereby gained all-American fame.
In 1912, Wilson won the presidential elections under the slogans of "new democracy" and "new freedom". As president, during his first three years, he secured a series of laws that ensured freedom of competition and the liberty and security of the individual. In 1913–1914, Wilson implemented tariff and banking reforms and enacted antitrust laws. He declared that from now on the president should not be almost exclusively concerned with domestic affairs, as was the case before in American history. Wilson sincerely believed that "if the world really wants peace, then it must follow America's moral precepts."
Wilson tried to create a league of countries in the Western Hemisphere, whose members would undertake to resolve all disputes peacefully, mutually guarantee each other territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs and a republican form of government. In December 1914, a draft agreement was sent to all the governments of Latin America. The idea of a Pan-American non-aggression pact was supported by most states. However, due to the opposition of Chile, which did not want to return the territory recently taken from Peru, the treaty was never concluded.
Wilson proclaimed the principle of democracy in politics and the free market in economics. At the same time, he made five military interventions in Central America to protect the lives and property of American citizens, twice in Mexico, where there was a civil war.
In early 1914, the president's beloved wife died. This was a real tragedy for Wilson.
With the outbreak of World War I, the United States declared neutrality. Wilson stated that the United States must be neutral not only in word but also in deed, remaining "impartial in thought and action" and avoiding steps that could be seen as supporting one side in the struggle against the other.
By the summer of 1915, Wilson had established himself with his idea that it was necessary to create an international organization that would establish the rules of international community and take care of the preservation of peace. In this organization, he assigned the United States the role of an arbitrator in resolving international disputes. On May 27, 1916, speaking in New York to members of the Peace Enforcement League, the President spoke of America's new role in the world: “The United States is not an outside observer. We are concerned about the end of the war and the prospects for the post-war world. The interests of all nations are our own interests." He proclaimed the basic principles that America would uphold in international affairs: the right of any people to freely choose their own government; equality of rights of large and small states; respect for the rights of all peoples. Wilson promised that the United States would join any organization whose goal was to maintain peace and promote the principles he proclaimed.
The president ran the 1916 election campaign under the slogan "He kept us out of the war." Wilson played the role of an impartial arbiter, to whom both warring coalitions would sooner or later have to turn. However, during the war years, the United States could maintain trade relations only with the Entente countries, since nothing could be brought into blockaded Germany.
On December 12, 1916, Germany proposed to start peace negotiations. Wilson decided it was time to launch a diplomatic offensive. A week later, he issued a note urging the belligerents to make their war aims public. Germany, in a rather insulting manner, rejected the American proposal and refused to recognize the possible role of the United States as an intermediary. After that, the Entente powers gave Wilson the most favorable answer, knowing full well that after the negative reaction of Berlin, there would still be no peace negotiations. Wilson was supported by neutral countries: Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Encouraged by the success, Wilson called in the Senate on January 22, 1917, for a "peace without victory." He also outlined the American conditions for a future world: equality of nations, freedom of the seas and trade, a world without annexations and indemnities.
The “unrestricted submarine warfare” introduced by Germany in January 1917, from which American ships suffered the most, became a pretext for declaring war on Germany, quite convincing to millions of Americans. Now the principle of "freedom of the seas" - the freedom of merchant shipping - has come to the fore. After Germany rejected the US demand to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson declared war on Germany on April 2, 1917.
Having entered the war, the United States did not join the Entente, but only associated with it. Thus, Wilson emphasized the independent role of America, which in the future was to become the leading force in the anti-German coalition. On January 8, 1918, Wilson unveiled the American program for the post-war world - the famous "Fourteen Points". They proclaimed public diplomacy, the obligatory publication of treaties, freedom of the seas and trade, the limitation of armaments, the application of the "principle of nationalities", according to which peoples and national minorities can choose in which state they live. Wilson also insisted that Russia should be returned to the family of civilized states and be free to choose its own form of government. The last paragraph spoke of the future League of Nations - "a general association of nations for the purpose of providing mutual and equal guarantees of the independence and integrity of large and small states."
After the capitulation of Germany, the Fourteen Points were formally laid the foundation for the work of the Paris Peace Conference. At this conference, Wilson, along with Lloyd George and Clemenceau, played a leading role. In particular, he achieved that instead of a simple division of the German colonies and Turkish possessions, the institution of mandated territories was formed, which the powers ruled under the mandate of the League of Nations and under its control. This administration was temporary in nature and was intended to prepare the respective territories for gaining political independence. The United States itself did not take a single mandated territory.
Wilson, along with Lloyd George, confronted Clemenceau on the issue of continuing intervention in Russia. Unlike the French leader, they insisted that it was necessary to start negotiations with the Bolsheviks.
Wilson sincerely believed that he was acting "according to the will of God." In Paris, he repeatedly found himself against the united front of Lloyd George and Clemenceau and was forced to retreat. At times, the American president was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He considered his main victory to be the adoption at the Paris Conference of the Charter of the League of Nations. On February 14, 1919, Wilson declared that, through the Charter of the League of Nations, “we make ourselves dependent primarily on one great power—the moral power of world public opinion—on the purifying, clarifying, and coercive influence of glasnost… The forces of darkness must perish under the all-penetrating light of the unanimous condemnation of the whole world... The veil of mistrust and intrigues has been lifted, people look at each other and say: we are brothers, we have a common goal... This is our agreement of brotherhood and friendship.” But the real post-war political reality had very little in common with this beautiful declaration.
The greatest tragedy for Wilson was that, having convinced European politicians of the need for the League of Nations, he could not convince the American people of its usefulness for US interests. He never managed to win the necessary two-thirds of the votes in the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. And the point about the League of Nations became a stumbling block. Many Americans feared that by participating in this organization, the United States would be too closely involved in European affairs.
Wilson rejected these demands. He did not give up and undertook a number of campaign trips around the country, defending the idea of the League of Nations. But in September 1919, in Pueblo, Colorado, the president suffered a stroke and was paralyzed. However, the bedridden president continued to fight. He spoke on the radio arguing that the League of Nations was necessary to prevent another war. All in vain. The only consolation was the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the creator of the League of Nations in November 1919. Chairman of the Norwegian Parliament A.I. Buen, announcing the decision, thanked the laureate for bringing "the fundamental law of humanity" into world politics. The American ambassador to Norway, who accepted the award, read Wilson's address. There, in particular, it was said: “Humanity has not yet got rid of the inexpressible horror of war ... I believe that our generation has taken a significant step forward. But it would be wiser to consider that the work has just begun. It will be a long job."
Wilson's most important domestic political undertaking, Prohibition, introduced in 1919 as Volstead's law to implement the 18th amendment to the constitution, ended in complete collapse. However, its implementation in practice proved impossible. Alcohol smuggling in the United States has reached unprecedented proportions. Off the American coast, there was a huge flotilla of ships with smuggled alcohol from Canada, which was constantly brought ashore by thousands of boats, yachts and boats. The American mafia consolidated on the trade in illegal alcohol, smuggled and produced in America. The Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment were repealed only in 1933 through the 21st Amendment to the Constitution already under President Franklin Roosevelt. Wilson, based on Christian values, tried to rebel against human nature and was defeated.
February 3, 1924 Woodrow Wilson, who survived the collapse of many of his undertakings, died. Under Wilson, America was recognized as a great power, made a decisive contribution to the victory of the Entente in the First World War, turned into the only creditor of war-weary Europe, and laid the foundations of a new international system.
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Thomas Wilson was born December 28, 1856 in Stockton, Virginia. He was the third child of Presbyterian pastor Joseph Rugles Wilson. From his father, he inherited the talent of an orator. Thomas was named after his grandfather.
Due to poor health, the boy received his primary education at home. Thomas only at the age of 13 entered the Derry School (Academy) in Augusta, Georgia. Two years later, his family moved to Columbia (South Carolina), where the boy continued his studies at a private school. He did not shine with success. The boy's favorite pastime was playing baseball.
At the end of 1873, Joseph Wilson sent his son to study at Davidson College (North Carolina), which trained ministers of the Presbyterian church. In the summer of 1874, Thomas left college due to illness and returned to his family, who now lived in Wilmington.
In 1875, Thomas entered Princeton College, where he paid special attention to the study of government. Wilson's article "Cabinet Rule in the United States" was noted in Princeton's academic circles. Here, for the first time, the idea of a political career occurred to him.
After graduating from university, he worked as a lawyer in Atlanta (Georgia) for only a few months, and then Wilson was attracted to political journalism, where his talent was fully revealed.
In 1879, Wilson continued his education at the University of Virginia Law School. But at the end of the next year, he fell ill and returned to Wilmington, where he studied independently for three years, studying law, history, and the political life of the United States and England.
While attending the University of Virginia, Wilson fell in love with his cousin Henrietta Woodrow. However, Henrietta, citing her close relationship with Wilson, refused to marry him. In memory of his first novel, the young man adopted the name Woodrow in 1882. In the summer of 1882, Wilson arrived in Atlanta, where he soon successfully passed the exam for the right to practice law. Woodrow and his acquaintance at the University of Virginia, Edward Renick, opened the office of Renick and Wilson. Lawyers", but their business failed.
In 1883, Wilson continued his scientific work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which was already considered one of the leading universities in America. In January 1885, his long book The Government of Congress: A Study in American Politics was published. For this work, the author was awarded a special prize from the Johns Hopkins University.
In the summer of 1885 there were changes in his personal life. Wilson married Ellen Axon. A beautiful and intelligent woman was fond of literature and art, drew well, was familiar with the works of philosophers. Wilson once said that without her support, he would hardly have been able to take the presidency in the White House.
After receiving a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, Wilson went to teach history at Bryn Mawr Women's College, near Philadelphia, then moved to Wesleyan University (Connecticut), but did not stay there either. In 1890, the University of Princeton invited Wilson to the law department.
After a series of short writings, in 1899 the main fruit of his research, The State, was published - a comparative analysis of government power.
“In 1902, Wilson took over as rector of Princeton University,” A.A. and M.A. Ostrovtsov. “However, his attempts to fundamentally reform academic teaching failed. Having completely quarreled with the professors of the university, undermining his health, Wilson resigned in 1910.
However, university conflicts made him known throughout the country as a reformer of higher education. Already in 1906, his name sounded from the lips of members of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party as a possible candidate for the presidency. In November 1910, Wilson was elected Governor of New Jersey.
Here he held primary elections for intra-party election of candidates and contributed to the publication of a number of social laws (for example, on workers' accident insurance). Thanks to this, Wilson became known outside the state as a governor.
Wilson won the 1912 presidential election. His domestic policy went down in history as the "new democracy" or "new freedom"; it came down to three points: individualism, freedom of the individual, freedom of competition.
“He was convinced that history is “an era of reforms, but not revolutions,” writes V.V. Noskov. - In his policy, he was guided by the principle: "the state exists for society, and not society for the state." Therefore, he advocated the maximum equality of opportunity for all citizens within the country and for unlimited access to world markets. As part of the program for building a "new democracy", he carried out tariff (1913) and banking (1913) reforms, and achieved the adoption of antitrust laws (1914). He also carried out a number of social transformations in the interests of farmers and wage workers. Wilson is considered to have accomplished more in the legislative field in three years than anyone since President Lincoln."
In foreign policy, Wilson "described the goals, established the methods, and determined the nature of US foreign policy in this century," writes the American historian F. Calhoun. Wilson emphasized that “the president cannot be the domestic figure that he was during such a long period in our history. Our state, both in terms of its strength and resources, has come out on top in the world ... therefore, our president must always represent one of the great world powers ... He must always be at the head of our affairs, his post must be as prominent and influential as whoever takes it."
In the early years of his presidency, Wilson largely adhered to the framework of "dollar diplomacy". Wilson was convinced that "if the world really wants peace, it must follow America's moral precepts."
Wilson pursued an active policy aimed at strengthening American positions in the Caribbean and in Mexico. The President made a lot of efforts to unite the countries of the Western Hemisphere into a kind of Pan-American league, under the auspices of which all disputes would be resolved peacefully, with a mutual guarantee of territorial integrity and political independence under republican forms of government. The idea of a kind of Pan-American non-aggression pact was not implemented because of the position of Chile.
When war broke out in Europe, the US took a position of neutrality. The first months of the war coincided with Wilson's personal tragedy. In early 1914, his deeply beloved wife died.
On August 4, 1914, President Wilson delivered the first of 10 neutrality proclamations to Congress. Two weeks later, he fleshed out his statement, emphasizing that the US should be "neutral in word and deed", "impartial in thought as well as in action, avoid behavior that could be interpreted as supporting one side in its struggle against the other."
He believed that America's special position gave her the right to offer her mediation. Wilson first announced the new role of the United States in world politics, speaking to 2,000 members of an organization called the Peace Enforcement League (PML), who gathered in New York on May 27, 1916: “The United States is not outsiders, they are worried about the end of the war and prospects for the post-war world. The interests of all nations are our own."
Woodrow Wilson's 1916 election campaign ran under the slogan: "He kept us out of the war." But the very next year, the President secured the entry of the United States into the war, intending to acquire a decisive voice in determining the fate of the post-war world. Wilson dreamed of creating a World Association of States in which the United States would play a leading role.
On January 8, 1918, the president delivered the main of his speeches. It contained the American program for the end of the war and the post-war organization of the world - Wilson's famous Fourteen Points. This speech was at odds with the Monroe Doctrine and Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick policy. Wilson's rival T. Roosevelt called them "fourteen pieces of paper" and argued that they foreshadowed "not the unconditional surrender of Germany, but the conditional surrender of the United States."
The Fourteen Points demanded different relations between states, and as a result, an armistice agreement was built on their basis, and Wilson was declared the forerunner of a new political order, the defender of small nations, the leader of liberal and peace-loving forces, the founder of the world community of the League of Nations. The Fourteen Points, in particular, proclaimed public diplomacy, open treaties; freedom of navigation; freedom of trade; reduction of armaments, etc. Paragraph 6 spoke of settling all issues related to Russia in order to ensure her cooperation with other nations, so that she independently decides her own fate and chooses a form of government. The last, 14th paragraph proclaimed the creation of "a general association of nations for the purpose of providing mutual and equal guarantees of the independence and integrity of both large and small states."
“The Charter of the League of Nations, as Wilson saw it, was supposed to establish peace on all counts,” write A.A. and M.A. Ostrovtsov. - At first, Germany was denied membership in the League of Nations. She also lost her colonies, for which the mandates of the League of Nations were envisaged. The Rhineland politically remained part of Germany, but at the same time it was occupied by the Western powers for a long time and had to be demilitarized. The League of Nations was responsible for the Saarland and Danzig, other questions remained open: the Italo-Yugoslav border and the amount of reparations that should have been assigned to Germany as one of the powers responsible for starting the war.
The new German government was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. This happened on June 28, 1919. Wilson was convinced that the treaty was in the spirit of the Fourteen Points, which he strongly advocated for in secret conferences with his allies. However, this was not entirely true, as it failed to make Germany and the new Russia the loyal bearers of the new world order.”
When the question of continuing intervention in Russia was raised during the Paris Peace Conference, Wilson and Lloyd George found themselves in opposition, they demanded an end to it, offered to start negotiations with the Soviets, while Churchill and Clemenceau advocated continued military intervention and an economic blockade.
The President of the United States, confident that he was right, that he was acting "according to the will of God," fought alone, clearly overestimated his capabilities, and in Paris more than once found himself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. On February 14, 1919, he declared: “... Through this instrument (the Charter of the League of Nations), we make ourselves dependent first and foremost on one great power, namely, on the moral power of world public opinion - on cleansing, and clarifying, and the coercive influence of publicity ... the forces of darkness must perish under the all-penetrating light of their unanimous condemnation on a world scale.
As a result, a peace treaty was signed, the charter of the League of Nations - Wilson's favorite brainchild - was adopted. The goal of the President of the United States - at minimal cost to bring the largest economic power to the first roles in world politics, was achieved.
However, the treaty was not ratified by the US Senate. Wilson took the Senate's decision as a personal defeat. In the fall of 1919, as a result of a strong overvoltage, the president was paralyzed. He was forced to stop active state activity.
Nevertheless, Wilson continued to fight. He went on the radio trying to convince Americans that in order to avert another world war, the creation of the League of Nations was a must.
Having accepted the award, US Ambassador to Norway A.G. Schmedemann read out Wilson's address, which said: “Humanity has not yet got rid of the inexpressible horror of war ... I think that our generation has taken a wonderful step forward. But it would be wiser to consider that the work has just begun. It will be a long job."
Wilson remained confident that he was right until the very last day of his life - February 3, 1924.
