Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-03-22
Had Presidency in Mind
When He Consented to
Make Governors Race,
Letter to Intimate Reveals
BY DAVID LAWRENCE

- ~
Copyright, 1924, by the George II. Doran
company in the United States, Canada, South
America. World publication rights reserved
by Current News Features, 1ncorporated.)
CHAPTER XI
VIZ OODROW WILSON'S rise in
w the political world has so
often been described as acct
dental that undisputed evidence
showing the deliberate nature of his
departure from Princeton university
is now available to refute that the
Dry.
For many years it has been con-
tended by those who disliked Mr.. Will
sons administration of affairs at
Princeton university that he was
forced out. The author is in posses
sion of a copy of a letter which has
never been published and which
proves cOnclusively that Mr.. Wilson
left of his own volition and put his
fate in the hands of group of eight
friends who had supported him in
the fight at Princeton.
The letter not only discloses that
when Mr.. Wilson left Princeton he
had in mind running for the presi
dency of the United States, but it
reeval also that he was offered the
nomination for the governorship OF
New Jersey without pledges of any
kind, a fact which is important to
bear in mind in view of the charge :
that he had pledged himself to sup
port former United States Senator
James Smith for another term in
the senate. Mr.. Wilson'S failure to
support Mr.. Smith has been referred
to often as the first instance of his
ingratiude.
The letter in question was sent
from Lyme, Conn, and was dated
July II, 1910, just a month after the
famous Wyman bequest at Prince
ton had made it appear that the
graduate school project which Mr..
Wilson favored would be superseded
by that of Dean Andrew f. West.
Mr.. Wilson's letter was addressed TO
Henry b. Thompson, of Wilmington
Del. a member of the class of 1891
in Princeton, and a trustee of the
university, who had supported Mr..
Wilson's viewpoint in the graduate
school controversy.
Letter Only Record
Mr.. Thompson had gone to ,Eu-
rope so the letter written him is th@
only actual record which Mr.. Wilson
made of the famous conference
which was the turning point in his
career. 1t reads:
| my Dear Thompson:
II would have given great deal
hOf
t,v for | have needed your counsel
very greatly and have had to decide
4 very important matter without let
ting you know even that 1t was
pending.
II have been asked by the men
most influential in the Democratic
marty in New Jersey whether L
would accept the nomination for gov
ernor next autumn if it came to me
unsought, unanimously, and without
pledges of any kind, and have telt
Obliged to say that / would. THIS
is lust the duty 1 have preached
to nv classes all my life, and the
men T was able to consult dodge,
Sheldon, Mccormick, the Joneses,
Jacobus, McIlvaine) have all SAID
what the Chicago men put into this
telegram:
"'All four concur unreserVedly IN
the opinion that no obligation what
ever exists on your part, either 10
any individual supporter or to the
university as a whole, which should
deter you from following your own
inclination Question what you had
better do is largely personal to your
self. We do not feel sufficiently
clear on the subject we advise. we
appreciate your perplexity and our
sympathies are and will continue to
be with you. Whatever your con-
clusion may be you can rely on our
hearty support in any field of serY-
ice you may enter upon
"Surely a more generous telegram
was never sent! l had said to them
that | felt myself so deeply their
debtor that l was ready and willing
to accept any conclusion they might
arrive at as to my obligations to
them and to Princeton and. of
course, 1 should have included you
il you had been within reach of
conference.
Presidency in Mind
"Of course the men who are plan
ming my nomination for the govern
orship look forward to putting me
up for the presidential nomination
later; and there have been some
rather extraordinary indications
that that is what Democrats in other
parts Of the country want. The
suggestion came from the middle
west. But I have not allowed that
part of the program to form my
opinions as to my duty in the mat
ter of the governorship. l wish a
letter were an adequate medium for
setting forth the whole matter; but
it is not. or course, I am giving
you the bare bulk of the thing be-
| cause I want you TO learn of this
from me, and because it gives me an
opportunity to tell you how happy
and proud l have been to win your
friendship and support, how deeply
1 have admired the firmness. the
good feeling, the courage. and the
1