Thomas Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States. A leading intellectual of the progressive era, he served as president of Princeton university from 1902 to 1910, and then as the governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. With Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft dividing the Republican Party vote, Wilson was elected president as a democrat in 1912.

In his first term, Wilson persuaded a democratic congress to pass the Federal Reserve act, federal trade commission, the Clayton antitrust act, the federal farm loan act and America's first-ever federal progressive income tax in the revenue act of 1913. Wilson brought many white southerners into his administration, and tolerated their expansion of segregation in many federal agencies.

Narrowly re-elected in 1916, Wilson's second term centered on world war I. he based his re-election campaign around the slogan "he kept us out of the war", but U.S. neutrality was challenged in early 1917 when the German government proposed to Mexico a military alliance in a war against the U.S., and began unrestricted submarine warfare, sinking without warning every American merchant ship its submarines could find. Wilson in April 1917 asked congress to declare war.

He focused on diplomacy and financial considerations, leaving the waging of the war primarily in the hands of the army. on the home front in 1917, he began the united states' first draft since the us civil war, raised billions in war funding through liberty bonds, set up the war industries board, promoted labor union growth, supervised agriculture and food production through the lever act, took over control of the railroads, enacted the first federal drug prohibition, and suppressed anti-war movements. National women's suffrage was also achieved under Wilson's presidency.

In the late stages of the war, Wilson took personal control of negotiations with Germany, including the armistice. He issued his fourteen points, his view of a post-war world that could avoid another terrible conflict. He went to Paris in 1919 to create the League of Nations and shape the treaty of Versailles, with special attention on creating new nations out of defunct empires. Largely for his efforts to form the league, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1919, during the bitter fight with the republican-controlled senate over the U.S. joining the League of Nations, Wilson collapsed with a debilitating stroke. He refused to compromise, effectively destroying any chance for ratification. The League of Nations was established anyway, but the United States never joined. A Presbyterian of deep religious faith, he appealed to a gospel of service and infused a profound sense of Moralism into Wilsonianism. Wilson's idealistic internationalism, now referred to as "Wilsonianism", which calls for the united states to enter the world arena to fight for democracy, has been a contentious position in American foreign policy, serving as a model for "idealists" to emulate and "realists" to reject ever since.

First term as president, 1913–1917

Wilson is the only president to hold a PhD. degree and the only president to serve in a political office in new jersey before election to the presidency. He was the first person identified with the south to be elected president since Zachary Taylor and the first southerner in the white house since Andrew Johnson left in 1868. Wilson had a strong base of support in the south. He was the first president to deliver his state of the union address before congress personally since John Adams in 1799. Wilson was also the first democrat elected to the presidency since Grover Cleveland in 1892 and only the second democrat in the white house since the civil war.

Wilson addressing the U.S. congress, April 8, 1913in resolving economic policy issues, he had to manage the conflict between two wings of his party, the agrarian wing led by Bryan and the pro-business wing. With large democratic majorities in congress and a healthy economy, he promptly seized the opportunity to implement his agenda. Wilson experienced early success by implementing his "new freedom" pledges of antitrust modification, tariff revision, and reform in banking and currency matters. He held the first modern presidential press conference, on March 15, 1913, in which reporters were allowed to ask him questions.

Wilson's first wife Ellen died on august 6, 1914 of bright's disease. In 1915, he met Edith Galt. They married later that year on December 18.

Second term as president, 1917–1921

Decision for war, 1917

Before entering the war in 1917, the U.S. had made a declaration of neutrality in 1914. During this time of neutrality, President Wilson warned citizens not to take sides in the war in fear of endangering wider U.S. policy. in his address to congress in 1914, Wilson states, "such divisions amongst us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend."

The U.S. maintained neutrality despite increasing pressure placed on Wilson after the sinking of the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania with American citizens on board. this neutrality would deteriorate when Germany began to initiate its unrestricted submarine warfare threatening U.S. commercial shipping. When Germany started unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, despite the promises made in the Arabic pledge and the Sussex pledge, and attempted to enlist Mexico as an ally (see Zimmermann telegram), Wilson took America into World War I as a war to make "the world safe for democracy". He did not sign a formal alliance with the United Kingdom or France but operated as an "associated" power. He raised a massive army through conscription and gave command to General John J. Pershing, allowing perishing a free hand as to tactics, strategy and even diplomacy.

Woodrow Wilson had decided by then that the war had become a real threat to humanity. Unless the U.S. threw its weight into the war, as he stated in his declaration of war speech on April 2, 1917, western civilization itself could be destroyed. His statement announcing a "war to end all wars" meant that he wanted to build a basis for peace that would prevent future catastrophic wars and needless death and destruction. This provided the basis of Wilson's fourteen points, which were intended to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade and commerce, and establish a peacemaking organization. Included in these fourteen points was the proposal of the League of Nations.