Who Was The President During World War One Who Was The President During World War One Who Was The President During World War One ? When World War One was going on, the US president was Woodrow Wilson, who wanted the US to stay neutral. Wilson tried everything possible for 2 years to prevent the US from entering the war. Even when the German U-boat sunk the liner, Lusitania, and caused the death of 124 Americans, the US stayed out of the war. Then, in the year 1916, Wilson was re-elected as the US president by a narrow margin. It is believed that Woodrow Wilson won the re-election because he promised to keep the US out of the war and had succeeded for 2 years. After being re-elected as the president, Wilson tried to mediate between the Allies and the Central Powers to no effect. And, then the Germans returned to submarine warfare that sunk many American merchant ships. This was the last straw for Wilson, who requested the US Congress on 2nd April 1917 to declare war against Germany. On 6th April 1917, the Congress passed a resolution to declare war.

After this, the US started conscription and this allowed the US to increase its army strength to 4 million in 18 months. Out of these, 2 million soldiers were sent to Europe. Wilson claimed that the US entry into the First World War was a war to end the war. He did not want revenge, but was looking for peace. On 8th January 1918, Woodrow Wilson announced his famous 14 Points for a peace settlement. On 11 November 1918, the war came to an end with surrender of the German forces. At the same time, the Germans put forth their proposal for peace. This occurred during the US Congressional elections and Woodrow Wilson asked the people to support his policies by electing the Democrats. However, the Democrats lost and the Republicans gained control of the Congress. This did not stop Wilson from attending the peace conference held at Paris and he tried to defend his 14 Points program. The peace conference went on for a week and the English, Italians and French were determined to have their way. The peace agreement did have many of the points suggested by Woodrow Wilson and he was also instrumental in getting the nations to agree to form the League of Nations.

On return to the US, Wilson tried to get the US Congress to approve the US joining the League of Nations. However, the Congress did not support it. Wilson then toured the country to get support from the people. This exhausted him and in late September 1919, Wilson suffered a stroke that paralyzed him. It was just strong will that kept him going. Wilson continued to fulfill his duties as the president of the US, but his illness did not allow him to take part in the 1920 presidential elections which was won by the Democrat James M Cox. More Articles : Woodrow Wilson - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com Google Woodrow Wilson’s Early Years Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia . (Because his mother said he arrived around midnight, some sources list Wilson’s birthday as December 29.) His father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822-1903), was a Presbyterian minister, and his mother, Janet Woodrow Wilson (1826-1888), was a minister’s daughter and originally from England.

Tommy Wilson, as he was called growing up, spent his childhood and teen years in Augusta, Georgia , and Columbia, South Carolina . During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Wilson’s father served as a chaplain in the Confederate army and used his church as a hospital for injured Confederate troops. Did You Know? Woodrow Wilson, who had an esteemed career as an academic and university president before entering politics, did not learn to read until he was 10, likely due to dyslexia. Wilson graduated from Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey ) in 1879 and went on to attend law school at the University of Virginia. After briefly practicing law in Atlanta, Georgia, he received a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. (Wilson remains the only U.S. president to earn a doctorate degree.) He taught at Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan College before being hired by Princeton in 1890 as a professor of jurisprudence and politics. From 1902 to 1910, Wilson was president of Princeton, where he developed a national reputation for his educational reform policies.

In 1885, Wilson married Ellen Axson (1860-1914), a minister’s daughter and Georgia native. The couple had three daughters before Ellen died of kidney disease in 1914, during her husband’s first presidential term. The following year, Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt (1872-1961), a widow whose husband had owned a Washington , D.C., jewelry business. Woodrow Wilson’s Rise in Politics In 1910, Woodrow Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey, where he fought machine politics and garnered national attention as a progressive reformer. In 1912, the Democrats nominated Wilson for president, selecting Thomas Marshall (1854-1925), the governor of Indiana , as his vice presidential running mate. The Republican Party split over their choice for a presidential candidate: Conservative Republicans re-nominated President William Taft (1857-1930), while the progressive wing broke off to form the Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party and nominated Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), who had served as president from 1901 to 1909.

With the Republicans divided, Wilson, who campaigned on a platform of liberal reform, won 435 electoral votes, compared to 88 for Roosevelt and eight for Taft. He garnered nearly 42 percent of the popular vote; Roosevelt came in second place with more than 27 percent of the popular vote. Woodrow Wilson’s First Administration At the age of 56, Woodrow Wilson was sworn into office in March 1913. He was the last American president to travel to his inauguration ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage. Once in the White House , Wilson achieved significant progressive reform. Congress passed the Underwood-Simmons Act, which reduced the tariff on imports and imposed a new federal income tax. It also passed legislation establishing the Federal Reserve (which provides a system for regulating the nation’s banks, credit and money supply) and the Federal Trade Commission (which investigates and prohibits unfair business practices). Other accomplishments included child labor laws, an eight-hour day for railroad workers and government loans to farmers. Additionally, Wilson nominated the first Jewish person to the U.S. Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), who was confirmed by the Senate in 1916.

When World War I broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914, Wilson was determined to keep the United States out of the conflict. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the British ocean liner Lusitania , killing more than 1,100 people (including 128 Americans). Wilson continued to maintain U.S. neutrality but warned Germany that any future sinkings would be viewed by America as “deliberately unfriendly.” In 1916, Wilson and Vice President Marshall were re-nominated by the Democrats. The Republicans chose Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) as their presidential candidate and Charles Fairbanks (1852-1918), the U.S. vice president under Theodore Roosevelt, as his running mate. Wilson, who campaigned on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” won with a narrow electoral margin of 277-254 and a little more than 49 percent of the popular vote. Woodrow Wilson’s Second Administration: World War I Woodrow Wilson’s second term in office was dominated by World War I.

Although the president had advocated for peace during the initial years of the war, in early 1917 German submarines launched unrestricted submarine attacks against U.S. merchant ships. Around the same time, the United States learned about the Zimmerman Telegram, in which Germany tried to persuade Mexico to enter into an alliance against America. On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, stating, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” America’s participation helped bring about victory for the Allies, and on November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed by the Germans. At the Paris Peace Conference, which opened in January 1919 and included the heads of the British, French and Italian governments, Wilson helped negotiate the Treaty of Versailles . The agreement included the charter for the League of Nations, an organization intended to arbitrate international disputes and prevent future wars. Wilson had initially advanced the idea for the League in a January 1918 speech to the U.S. Congress in which he outlined his “Fourteen Points” for a postwar peace settlement.

When Wilson returned from Europe in the summer of 1919, he encountered opposition to the Versailles treaty from isolationist Republicans in Congress who feared the League could limit America’s autonomy and draw the country into another war. In September of that year, the president embarked on a cross-country speaking tour to promote his ideas for the League directly to the American people. On the night of September 25, on a train bound for Wichita, Kansas , Wilson collapsed from mental and physical stress, and the rest of his tour was cancelled. On October 2, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Wilson’s condition was kept largely hidden from the public, and his wife worked behind the scenes to fulfill a number of his administrative duties. The Senate voted on the Treaty of Versailles first in November 1919 and again in March 1920. Both times it failed to gain the two-thirds vote required for ratification. The treaty’s defeat was partly blamed on Wilson’s refusal to compromise with the Republicans. The League of Nations held its first meeting in January 1920; the United States never joined the organization.

However, in December 1920, Wilson received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to include the Covenant of the League of Nations in the Treaty of Versailles. Woodrow Wilson’s Second Administration: Domestic Issues Woodrow Wilson’s second administration saw the passage of two significant constitutional amendments. The era of Prohibition was ushered in on January 17, 1920, when the 18th Amendment, banning the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol, went into effect following its ratification one year earlier. In 1919, Wilson vetoed the National Prohibition Act (or Volstead Act), designed to enforce the 18th Amendment; however, his veto was overridden by Congress. Prohibition lasted until 1933, when it was repealed by the 21st Amendment. Also in 1920, American women gained the right to vote when the 19th Amendment became law that August; Wilson had pushed Congress to pass the amendment.

That year’s presidential election–the first in which women from every state were allowed to vote–resulted in a victory for Republican Warren Harding (1865-1923), a congressman from Ohio who opposed the League of Nations and campaigned for a “return to normalcy” after Wilson’s tenure in the White House. Woodrow Wilson’s Final Years After leaving office in March 1921, Woodrow Wilson resided in Washington, D.C. He and a partner established a law firm, but poor health prevented the president from ever doing any serious work. Wilson died at his home on February 3, 1924, at age 67. He was buried in the Washington National Cathedral, the only president to be interred in the nation’s capital. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today. Tags Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Women received the right to vote with the passing of the 19th Ammendment. The Federal Reserve System was established. Income tax was initiated with the birth of the Internal Revenue System. World War I broke out in Europe between 1914 and 1918.

Sheep grazed on the White House lawn to help the Red Cross raise wool for the war effort. The national observance of Mother's Day was established. Image is on the $100,000 bill although it is no longer in circulation Woodrow Wilson was the first president to... Personally deliver what is known today as the "State of the Union Address". Hold regular news conferences. Cross the Atlantic Ocean while in office. Was the first president to attend the Major League Baseball Fall Classic. He saw the debut of a young 20 year old pitcher by the name of George Herman "Babe" Ruth. Woodrow Wilson and the Great War When Europe was thrust into war in 1914, Woodrow Wilson, who believed in neutrality, saw America's role as that of peace broker. "The Great War", as contemporaries called it, was without precedent, involving many countries in a vast and gruesome battlefield. The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany and the news of the Zimmermann telegram were part of a long process that persuaded Wilson to ask for a declaration of war. Rarely does one event precipitate a decisive reaction from a thoughtful and deliberate individual such as Wilson.

The Russian Revolution and the French Army mutiny convinced the United States that Russia and France would pull out of the war leaving the way open for a German victory. This was unacceptable to the Wilson administration. These two events, combined with the numerous sinking of ships, the increasingly belligerent communications from the Germans, the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, and the Zimmermann telegram, drove Wilson’s decision. In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war, only the second declaration of war in U.S. history. President Wilson was best remembered for his leadership during World War I and his vigorous attempt to establish the League of Nations. The war came to an end on November 11, 1918. At the Paris Peace Conference, Wilson proposed "Fourteen Points" as the basis for the peace treaty. The final Treaty of Versailles included many of Wilson's ideas. Unfortunately, the U.S. Congress did not support the Treaty. Consequently, the United States never joined the League of Nations. In 1920, Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of the League of Nations. Visit the links listed below for an insightful journey into the history of The Great War.

World War I Links A Call to Service Wilson asks soldiers to undertake a great duty On May 4, 2007 the 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, historically known as the Stonewall Brigade, mustered and shipped out from the Thomas D. Howie Memorial Armory in Staunton, Virginia for service in Iraq. This unit traces its lineage back to 1742 but became the 116th Infantry Regiment when it was called upon to join the fight on the Western Front in World War I. Two days after the soldiers of the Stonewall Brigade were drafted into Federal Service and only weeks before they would become part of the 29th "Blue and Gray" Division that saw battle in the trenches of France, President Wilson sent this message to the soldiers he had charged "to show all. . . not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are. . .

and set a standard so high that it will be a glory to live up to it." View the letter in the eLibrary Wilson and Censorship of the Press: President Wilson hopes the press will observe a "patriotic reticence" Wilson's position on censorship following the United States' entrance into the Great War was a complicated one. He could "imagine no greater disservice to the country than to establish a system of censorship that would deny to the people . . . their indisputable right to criticize their own public officials," but he also felt strongly that his administration should have the power to censor information in the interest of national security. The letter to Representative Webb represents Wilson's argument for the inclusion of a censorship provision in the Espionage Act that would prohibit the dissemination of information deemed "to be useful to the enemy" in times of national emergency. An amendment to that effect passed in the House but did not make it into the Espionage Act voted into law on June 15, 1917. In May of 1918, Wilson was successful in getting the Sedition Act passed as an amendment to the Espionage Act.

It became a crime to "utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane...or abusive language" about the United States government or to disagree with its actions abroad. The act was repealed in 1921. A President's Illness Kept Under Wraps: Woodrow Wilson's Deteriorating Health Detailed in Doctor's Correspondence By Michael Alison Chandler Washington Post Photo Saturday, February 3, 2007 STAUNTON, Va. While U.S. troops were fighting in World War I in the summer of 1918, President Woodrow Wilson underwent treatment for a breathing problem in a hushed episode that foreshadowed worse health troubles to come. The White House doctor, Cary T. Grayson, later recounted the incident to his wife in one of a slew of newly public documents that show how far Wilson's innermost circle went to conceal his frail condition amid major world events. "The patient is progressing most satisfactorily, so far, and I have good reasons to hope for a most beneficial result. It has been a big undertaking. . . .

No one knows anything about it except Miss E., Miss Harkins, Hoover -- It is one secret that has been kept quiet, so far, and I think it is safe all right now," the doctor wrote Alice Grayson in a July 16 telegram. The episode, which caused Grayson great anxiety, most likely involved an operation to remove polyps from the president's nose, according to Michael Dickens, a Charlottesville physician familiar with Wilson's medical history and the telegram. Historians say the telegram indicates that the procedure was then known only to Grayson; the president's wife, Edith Wilson; a nurse; and a White House usher. Grayson's account was revealed to the public recently through a cache of personal files his family donated to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library here in the Shenandoah Valley. The letters, photographs and other documents had been stored for decades at a family home in Fauquier County. The papers offer new insight into the 28th president's fragile health and how those around him tried to keep it quiet.

Although historians have known for years about Wilson's debilitating stroke in late 1919 and his poor health beforehand, including previous possible strokes, the estimated 10,000 documents in the Grayson collection offer fresh and intimate details about the president's mental and physical condition from a man whom several Wilson biographers call an extraordinary eyewitness: his personal physician. "He literally had his finger on the pulse of the president," said historian A. Scott Berg, who has been studying the Grayson papers for a forthcoming Wilson biography. "Dr. Grayson enjoyed a unique position in Woodrow Wilson's life as both his personal physician and a personal friend." The Grayson documents are the first major donation to the eight - year-old Wilson library, which unveiled them in late December on C-SPAN. The documents are drawing historians to this city two hours southwest of the Washington area where Wilson was born to a Presbyterian minister and his wife 150 years ago. Researchers say about 15 percent of the documents have been explored so far. Grayson, born in Culpeper County in 1878 to a well-connected Virginia family, was a naval surgeon who rose to the rank of rear admiral.

At the family home in Upperville, Cary T. Grayson Jr. is surrounded by black-and-white photos of his father in an impeccable Navy uniform posing with his "number one patient," as the elder Grayson sometimes called the president. The younger Grayson, now 87, lives there with his wife, Priscilla. He said the papers reveal that the doctor-patient relationship was about much more than health. In the doctor's weekly planners, now at the library, Grayson chronicled frequent golf games, automobile rides and nights of theater with the president. From inauguration day in 1913, when they met, to the Sunday morning in February 1924 when Wilson died, Grayson was an almost constant companion. He stayed often at the White House, traveled with Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and was one of a few people who saw him regularly after his stroke that October. The stroke was a turning point for Wilson's presidency and, many argue, the world. Wilson collapsed Oct. 2 in the White House after a national tour seeking support for the Treaty of Versailles and America's entrance into the League of Nations. He went into seclusion for the remainder of his presidency.

The treaty he had so strongly championed was rejected by the Senate in March 1920. "This is the worst instance of presidential disability we've ever had," said John Milton Cooper, a Wilson scholar at the University of Wisconsin. "We stumbled along . . . without a fully functioning president" for a year and a half, he said. The public was largely left in the dark about Wilson's condition. The official White House line was that the president was suffering from "nervous exhaustion." Other presidents have also concealed health problems, historians say, but the secrecy that enveloped Wilson's illness seems difficult to imagine today. Grayson died in 1938. Years ago, his family gave Arthur S. Link, a preeminent Wilson scholar, access to his diary. Much of it was published in Link's collection of Wilson papers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, offering historians an in-depth look at the troubled end of Wilson's presidency and how his health could have affected major events. Link's grandson is one of the historians now sifting through the Grayson papers to see what else they reveal about the president.

Arthur Link III and other researchers were struck by this letter from Grayson to his wife dated Aug. 19, 1915: " My number one patient in this house had an accident last night with one of his eyes -- the good one, which is bad now. I am hurrying off to Philadelphia with him at six o'clock tomorrow morning to consult an eye specialist. We are going by motor. I think we can make the trip less noticeable in this way -- . . . [T]he papers will read something like this: The President made his annual visit to the oculist etc etc." The letter was written during Wilson's first term at a time when many historians believe he was relatively healthy. During Wilson's second term, Grayson wrote another letter to his wife Sept. 7, 1918, that may be of historical note. It appears to refer to a second operation, similar to the previous one that Grayson probably performed that year on Wilson's nose. Researchers were also struck by two photographs that experts say show Wilson at his last Cabinet meeting in 1921. In one photo, he is holding a cane; in the other, the cane appears to have been erased.

"They were flying by the seat of their pants, doing damage control," Link said. "It's fun to watch." Historians say the documents help shed light on what can happen when a president falls ill. The 25th Amendment spells out how a vice president can become acting president in the event of a presidential disability. But that amendment was ratified in 1967, nearly a half-century after Wilson left office. A letter Grayson sent from Europe to his friend Samuel Ross on April 14, 1919, shows that Wilson's doctor knew the stakes: "The president was suddenly taken violently sick with the influenza at a time when the whole of civilization seemed to be in the balance. And without him and his guidance Europe would certainly have turned to Bolshevism and anarchy. From your side of the water you can not realize on what thin ice European civilization has been skating. I just wish you could spend a day with me behind the scenes here. Some day perhaps I may be able to tell the world what a close call we had." Now the papers are gone from the Grayson family basement, attic and closets. But Cary Grayson Jr. still has family stories to share.

He recalled how his older brother Gordon went with their father to the White House to cheer the president after the 1919 stroke, sitting at Wilson's feet while they watched Western movies. Sometimes they went for drives with him. Grayson himself had a stroke in August. He used a cane as he walked around the wooded hills where his father used to go fox hunting. He said he is relieved that the papers have a place in history. View a Grayson letter from the eLibrary detailing secret. Click here. Sections Wartime Presidents POTUS Portraits Wartime Presidents American Presidents and their wars. The wars they served in, the wars they presided over as Commander-in-Chief and the Presidents Military facts of service. There are only Thirteen American Presidents in History who have never served in the Military. Presidential Military Facts George Washington was the first President to become a prisoner of war. Washington was captured during the French and Indian War at Fort Necessity in 1754. Andrew Jackson was also a prisoner of war at the very young age of 13. The British captured him during the American Revolution, along with his brother. John F. Kennedy is the only President in history to have earned a Purple Heart.

He received the medal for being wounded in battle while commanding a Patrol Torpedo boat after the attack of Pearl Harbor. George H. W. Bush was shot down during World War II by a Japanese anti-aircraft. Rescued by a submarine, George Bush was honored by the U.S. Military with the "Distinguished Flying Cross" for bravery in action. President George W. Bush is the longest Wartime Commander-in-Chief to preside over a declaration of war. The war on terror is ongoing today in the current administration of Barack Obama. If President Barack Obama finishes out his second term he will likely be the new record holder. Theodore Roosevelt is the only President in American History to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor. The long thought over due recognition, was given on January 16, 2001 by President Bill Clinton and Proudly accepted by Tweed Roosevelt on his great grand father's behalf. The Military award is the only award presented to the recipient by the United States President. Theodore Roosevelt was the first President in history to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for drafting to treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War.

Three other American Presidents also received the Nobel Peace Prize: Woodrow Wilson in 1919 for establishing the League of Nations; Jimmy Carter in 2002 for his post Presidency work on promoting democracy, human rights, economic and social development; Barack Obama in 2009 for strengthening international diplomacy. Theodore Roosevelt's son, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was one of two President's sons to receive the medal of honor. Roosevelt Jr. for his service in World War II and Webb Cook Hayes for his action in the Philippines American Presidents and The Wars They Served In Continental Army - Highest rank Commander-in-Chief French and Indian War Virginia Militia, mostly administrative, no combat - Highest rank Colonel American Revolution Virginia Militia - Highest rank Colonel American Revolution Continental Army - Highest rank of Major Served in the American Revolution Served in the U.S. Army - Highest rank General American Revolution U.S. Army - Highest rank Major General Indian wars U.S. Army - Highest rank Captain War of 1812 U.S. Army - Highest rank Major General War of 1812 U.S.

Army - Highest rank Brigadier General Mexican-American War Pennsylvania State Militia - Highest rank Private War of 1812 Illinois State Militia - Highest rank Captain Black Hawk War U.S. Army - Highest rank Brigadier General American Civil War U.S. Army - General of the Army Mexican War U.S. Army - Highest rank Major General Amrican Civil War U.S. Army - Highest rank Major General American Civil War NY. State Militia - Highest rank Brigadier General American Civil War U.S. Army - Highest rank Brevet Major American Civil War U.S. Army - Highest rank Colonel Spanish-American War U.S. Army - Highest rank Colonel World War I U.S. Army - General of the Army World War II U.S. Navy - Highest rank Lieutenant World War II U.S. Navy Reserve - Highest rank Commander World War II U.S. Navy Reserve - Highest rank Commander World War II U.S.

Navy Reserve - Highest rank Lieutenant Commander World War II Texas Air National Guard - 1st Lieutenant Did not serve in the Vietnam War Presidents Who Never Served in the Military American Presidents Military Decorations & Service Medals George Washington Army Distinguished Service Medal(4 oak leaf clusters) Navy Distinguished Service Medal World War I Victory Medal American Defense Service Medal European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign (9 service stars) World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal (Germany clasp) National Defense Service Medal (1 service star) John F. Kennedy Navy and Marine Corps Medal Purple Heart Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (3 bronze stars) World War II Victory Medal Lyndon Johnson Asiatic-Pacific Campaign (2 service stars) World War II Victory Medal Gerald Ford World War II Victory Medal George H. W. Bush War with Native Americans in Ohio Thomas Jefferson War between the United States and Britain lasting from (1812-1815) James Monroe Early stages of the American Civil War Abraham Lincoln End stages of World War I Franklin D.

Roosevelt End stages of World War II Korean War End stages of the Korean War John Kennedy Woodrow Wilson in World War I Woodrow Wilson in World War I NEXT Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was the 28th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1913-1919. As president of Princeton University and later as governor of New Jersey, Wilson was a leading Progressive, arguing for a stronger central government and fighting for anti-trust legislation and labor rights. As president of the United States, he passed important legislation on those and many other issues, narrowly winning reelection in 1916 after pledging to keep America out of World War I. Wilson's foreign policy was noted for its idealistic humanitarianism; his Fourteen Points—a statement of national objectives that envisioned a new international order after World War I—ultimately failed, but was one of the clearest expressions of interventionist American values. Wilson suffered a severe strokes during his second term in office and died in 1924.

Though he pledged to keep America out of World War I, Wilson was obliged to declare war on Germany after the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917. He was relatively uninterested in military affairs, but was able to organize the American economy to provide the food and munitions the army needed to fight in France. At the end of the war, Wilson became the first American president to leave the country during his administration when he sailed for Paris to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Most of Wilson's Fourteen Points advocating for human and democratic rights were not adopted in the treaty, due to France and Britain seeking punishment for Germany. However, the most important of the Fourteen Points—the creation of the League of Nations—was adopted. Wilson proved unable to get the Treaty of Versailles ratified by the U.S. Senate, and ironically, America never joined the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson, a leader of the Progressive Movement, was the 28th President of the United States (1913-1921).

After a policy of neutrality at the outbreak of World War I, Wilson led America into war in order to "make the world safe for democracy." Like Roosevelt before him, Woodrow Wilson regarded himself as the personal representative of the people. "No one but the President," he said, "seems to be expected ... to look out for the general interests of the country." He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership in building a new world order. In 1917 he proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy." Wilson had seen the frightfulness of war. He was born in Virginia in 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister who during the Civil War was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during Reconstruction a professor in the charred city of Columbia, South Carolina. After graduation from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School, Wilson earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and entered upon an academic career. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise Axson. Wilson advanced rapidly as a conservative young professor of political science and became president of Princeton in 1902.

His growing national reputation led some conservative Democrats to consider him Presidential timber. First they persuaded him to run for Governor of New Jersey in 1910. In the campaign he asserted his independence of the conservatives and of the machine that had nominated him, endorsing a progressive platform, which he pursued as governor. He was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states' rights. In the three-way election he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral vote. Wilson maneuvered through Congress three major pieces of legislation. The first was a lower tariff, the Underwood Act; attached to the measure was a graduated Federal income tax. The passage of the Federal Reserve Act provided the Nation with the more elastic money supply it badly needed. In 1914 antitrust legislation established a Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices. Another burst of legislation followed in 1916. One new law prohibited child labor; another limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day. By virtue of this legislation and the slogan "he kept us out of war," Wilson narrowly won re-election.

But after the election Wilson concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany. Massive American effort slowly tipped the balance in favor of the Allies. Wilson went before Congress in January 1918, to enunciate American war aims--the Fourteen Points, the last of which would establish "A general association of nations...affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." After the Germans signed the Armistice in November 1918, Wilson went to Paris to try to build an enduring peace. He later presented to the Senate the Versailles Treaty, containing the Covenant of the League of Nations, and asked, "Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world?" But the election of 1918 had shifted the balance in Congress to the Republicans. By seven votes the Versailles Treaty failed in the Senate. The President, against the warnings of his doctors, had made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died.

Tenderly nursed by his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, he lived until 1924. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. Learn more about President Wilson's first wife, Ellen Axson Wilson, who died during her term. World War One Woodrow Wilson World War One, WOODROW WILSON The president who led the nation through the hard years of World War I was Woodrow Wilson. He was probably the only president who was a brilliant student and teacher as well as a statesman. He had been a college professor, president of Princeton University, and the author of books on American government. He had also been governor of New Jersey. Woodrow Wilson worked out his political beliefs in the classroom. Then he entered politics to put his theories of government into practice. Appearance and Personality Wilson was a slender man, about five feet eleven inches tall. He had a high forehead, high cheekbones, long, thin nose, and long jaw, thrust forward in a stubborn line.

His blue-gray eyes, behind rimless nose glasses, had a way of narrowing when he talked, giving him a stern, almost grim expression. He could be cold and disagreeable with men he felt were not sympathetic to him. In fact his greatest fault was his inability to work with those who were not willing to follow his lead completely. He had absolute confidence in his own judgment. His family and his many close friends knew him as a totally different kind of man--affectionate, charming, generous, and full of fun. He might have been a successful vaudeville actor. He could dance a jig and the cakewalk. He told delightful stories in black, Scottish, and Irish dialects and wrote nonsense jingles. His friends went into gales of laughter over his imitations of mutual acquaintances. He sang well and he had a beautiful speaking voice. Above all, he loved good conversation. Clever, well-bred people who understood him brought out the best qualities of his brilliant and witty mind. His friends made up a very important part of his life. Once a friendship with him was broken, however, he could never again resume it.

A Family of Ministers and Educators Woodrow Wilson was born into a family of Presbyterian ministers and teachers. His grandfather, James Wilson, migrated to the United States from Ulster, Ireland, in 1807. He married an Irish girl, Anne Adams, who came on the same ship. James Wilson became a newspaper publisher in Steubenville, Ohio. One of his sons, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, was Woodrow Wilson's father. He became a Presbyterian minister. Wilson's mother was Janet (Jessie) Woodrow. She was born in Carlisle, England, just across the border from Scotland. Her father, Thomas Woodrow, was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. In 1836 he brought his family to the United States. In time he settled in Ohio, and there his daughter and Joseph Ruggles Wilson were married. Childhood and Schooling Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born Christmas week, Dec. 28, 1856, in Staunton, Va., where his father was minister of the First Presbyterian Church. He had two older sisters, Marion and Anne. A brother, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, Jr., was ten years younger.

Tommy, as he was called in his childhood, was a year old when the family moved to Augusta, Ga. He remembered as a child of four standing beside the garden gate and hearing a man say in great excitement that Mr. Lincoln was elected and there was to be war. He ran into the house to ask his father what it meant. He was to see a great deal of the destruction and waste of war in the South and to learn to hate it. The Wilson family was happy and affectionate. Tommy and his father were unusually close. The boy did not go to school until he was 13. Until then his father had been his only teacher. Dr. Wilson took the boy on visits to the neighboring cotton gin, corn mill, iron foundry, and ammunition plant and explained how they operated. He taught him to look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary and to repeat them until he could use them easily. He taught him how to write simply and express his meaning exactly. This skill with words helped make Wilson famous. Tommy's interest in parliamentary law began when he was a boy. He organized and made himself president of a club, the Lightfoots, which played baseball and engaged in various secret and adventurous activities.

They met in the hayloft of Dr. Wilson's barn. Tommy wrote a constitution for the club and conducted its meetings according to 'Robert's Rules of Order'. The boys were impressed with their leader. They would have been more impressed if they could have known that this tall, thin boy with spectacles, big ears, and a pale face would one day write the constitution for the League of Nations. In 1870, when the boy was 14, the family moved to Columbia, S.C. It was a lonely period, and he amused himself by studying nautical terms and writing a fanciful yarn of the sea. He imagined himself to be Admiral Wilson of the United States Navy, whose fleet destroyed a nest of pirates in the South Pacific. The story took the form of daily reports, directed to the Navy Department at Washington, D.C. He began to read books on the science of government. A picture of William Gladstone hung over his desk. He explained to his cousin: "That is Gladstone, the greatest statesman that ever lived. I intend to be a statesman too." The College Student In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina. He was badly prepared for college.

By the end of the term his health broke down from overwork. After 15 months of studying by himself he entered Princeton, then known as the College of New Jersey. Here he discovered the fine qualities of his mind and gained a confidence in himself which he never lost. He studied the art of public speaking and was active in the college debating society. In his senior year he wrote a brilliant essay on "Cabinet Government in the United States." He dropped the name Thomas and signed himself "Woodrow Wilson." After his graduation from Princeton in 1879 he entered the University of Virginia to study law. He took his law degree in 1882 and entered into a partnership, Renick and Wilson, in Atlanta, Ga. A brief struggle to build up a practice convinced him that he would never make a successful lawyer. He returned to the "advantages and delights of study" in 1883. This time he spent two years at Johns Hopkins University studying history and political science. For all his brilliance, Wilson never stood at the top of his class. He refused to study subjects that bored him, and he had great contempt for the pursuit of high marks and academic degrees.

He took his degree of doctor of philosophy from Johns Hopkins only at the insistence of friends who pointed out that it meant a higher salary as a teacher. He submitted as his dissertation a book on 'Congressional Government', which was published in 1885, a year after he left the university. In this penetrating study he made the point that congressional government, as practiced in the United States, divides responsibility and thus lends itself to inefficiency and corruption. The College Professor When he was 29 years old he started on his career as an educator. He was associate professor of history at Bryn Mawr College (for women) (1885-88) and then professor of history and political economy at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. (1888-90). In 1890 he returned as professor of jurisprudence and political economy to the College of New Jersey. In the next 20 years he was to see it grow into the great Princeton University. For eight years (1902-10) he was president of the university. Year after year the Princeton students elected him their most popular professor. He was an inspiring teacher.

He had small respect for the kind of mind that accumulates facts and dates. He believed in the importance of "developing the mind by using it rather than stuffing it." "The essence of the cultured mind is its capacity for relating knowledge," he declared. They were busy years. In addition to teaching he had published 'Congressional Government' (1885), 'The State' (1889), 'Division and Reunion' (1893), 'George Washington' (1896), 'A History of the American People' (1902), and 'Constitutional Government in the United States' (1908). He wrote many essays and book reviews and was in great demand as a lecturer. He was always overworked and suffered repeated sick spells which required long periods of rest. Historians have suspected that he suffered perhaps as many as three strokes--two minor and one more serious--during the 1890s. In 1906 he was told that he must retire and lead a very quiet life, but he kept on going. Without the help and sympathy of his wife, he could never have accomplished all that he did.

Marriage and Family Life He had married Ellen Axson of Rome, Ga., in 1885. They had three daughters--Margaret (born in 1886), Jessie (1887), and Eleanor (1889). His wife saw that he had quiet for his working hours, freedom from money worries, and the frequent association of intellectual friends. On the small salary of a teacher they managed to help their younger relatives get a college education by opening their home to them. A friend of later years wrote, "The more I am with the Wilsons the more I am struck by their unrivaled home life. I have never dreamed such sweetness and love could be." President of Princeton University As president of Princeton, Wilson launched his first reform crusade--to build a university that would produce leaders and statesmen. The first problem was to get rid of the upper-class eating clubs. "The side-shows are swallowing up the circus," he remarked. The second was to establish a stronger graduate college. He proposed a plan in which graduates and undergraduates should live together in small colleges presided over by teachers and tutors. Students and professors would benefit by the mutual stimulation of cultured, scholarly ideals.

He succeeded in reorganizing the courses of study and in adding to the faculty 47 young scholars, called preceptors. Their duty was individual supervision of the students and the development of small discussion groups. But on the major issues he failed. Students and alumni opposed elimination of social clubs. A group in the faculty was determined to place the graduate college under a separate administration and to house its students in a quadrangle far removed from the undergraduate campus, libraries, and laboratories. Wilson was convinced that such plans reduced the graduate college to little more than an expensive hall of residence. When two alumni willed several million dollars to the graduate college on condition that the opposition's plans be carried out, Wilson was defeated. He felt that the issue was between democracy and the power of money and special privilege. Reform Governor of New Jersey The Princeton battle attracted wide publicity and led to his election as governor of New Jersey in 1910. He showed his independence and his capacity for getting things done. Again, as at Princeton, he plunged into battle with forces he was convinced opposed the public good. New Jersey was run by a group of political bosses who thought they could use Wilson as a respectable front.

He side-stepped the Democratic party machine and appealed directly to the voters for support of his program. In a little over a year he put through a public utility control act, a corrupt political practices act, a workmen's compensation act, and a direct primary act. These bold reforms attracted national attention to the college president turned politician. In 1912 he won the Democratic party's nomination for president of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican party and Wilson won the election. The electoral vote was 435 for Wilson, 88 for Roosevelt, and 8 for Taft. But Wilson won only 42 percent of the popular vote. The combined vote for Roosevelt and Taft exceeded Wilson's by more than 1,300,000. Life in the White House The Wilson family was far from happy about the prospect of going to the White House.

The outgoing president, William Howard Taft, said to them, "I'm glad to be going--this is the lonesomest place in the world." Eleanor Wilson wrote in her memoirs that the day before her father's inauguration she wept until she was exhausted, crying, "It will kill them--it will kill them both." Yet the Wilson family adapted themselves very quickly to life in the White House. Mrs. Wilson made a simple and democratic home, as she had done wherever they went. Two weddings took place in the White House in the first two years. Jessie married Francis B. Sayre on Nov. 26, 1913, and Eleanor married William Gibbs McAdoo on May 7, 1914. Mrs. Wilson's health began to fail early in 1914. Her ability to endear herself to everyone was indicated by an action of Congress. Informed that she was sinking, they hastily passed a bill for slum clearance in Washington, which she had very much at heart, so that she might be told of it before she died, in August of that year. Dependent as he had always been on his wife's companionship, the president became lonely and depressed.

Through his personal physician, Col. Cary Grayson, he met a beautiful and gracious widow, Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt. Wilson and Mrs. Galt were married in December 1915. A Political Reformer in the White House Wilson called his philosophy of government the "new freedom." "What I am interested in is having the government of the United States more concerned about human rights than about property rights," he declared. Convinced that strong executive leadership was necessary for progress, he went further than any other president in forcing his wishes on Congress. He called Congress in extra session early in April 1913 and addressed the two houses in person. This broke a precedent of long standing. From time to time after that he went before Congress with parts of his program. The result was a mass of progressive legislation unequaled in any administration up to that time. Tariff reform. The Underwood-Simmons tariff lowered duties on more than a hundred items. A tariff commission was established in 1916 to study tariffs and make recommendations. Income tax. To offset the loss in revenue from tariff reductions, a graduated income tax law was enacted as authorized by the newly adopted 16th Amendment to the Constitution.

It was levied according to wealth. Currency and credit reform. The Federal Reserve banking system was established, and a board of control was set up to administer the system. For the first time in American history, finance and credits were placed under government direction. The Federal Farm Loan Act created 12 farm loan-banks to give cheap and easy credit to farmers and tenants. Regulation of business. The Federal Trade Commission was created, with power to forbid unfair business practices. The Clayton Act, designed to strengthen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, defined the methods of competition that the Commission was empowered to forbid. It made officers of corporations liable for illegal acts of those corporations, exempted labor unions from antitrust acts, and forbade the use of labor injunctions except where necessary to protect property. Other social legislation. The La Follette Seamen's bill required better living and working conditions for ocean and lake sailors. The Adamson Act set an eight-hour working day for railroad workers. Diplomacy in Latin America Congress in 1912 had enacted a Panama tolls law that violated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 with Great Britain, guaranteeing equal treatment in the use of the canal.

Wilson persuaded Congress to repeal the act. American businessmen were investing heavily in the mines, railroads, and other resources of Latin America. Wilson announced soon after his inauguration that he would abandon "dollar diplomacy." This meant that investors could no longer expect the United States government to protect their interests. Nevertheless, Wilson permitted United States intervention to restore order in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In 1914 the Marines seized the port of Veracruz, Mexico, when Mexican police arrested several American sailors. Mediation by the "A B C powers" (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) averted war. In March 1916 a Mexican rebel, Francisco (Pancho) Villa, raided Columbus, N. M., killing 17 Americans. With the permission of President Carranza of Mexico, the United States sent an expedition into Mexico under Gen. John J. Pershing. They failed to catch Villa and were withdrawn in January 1917. Wilson and World War I In the summer of 1914 all Europe was plunged into war. Wilson called upon the United States to be neutral "even in spirit," but few Americans were able to remain impartial.

For two years the president made every effort to avoid war. Even after the unarmed British liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine with a loss of almost 1,200 lives including 124 Americans, he argued: "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight." In 1916 he was reelected. He defeated the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes by an electoral vote of 277 to 254. The campaign slogan "He kept us out of war" probably won him more popular votes than any other factor. After the election Wilson tried to end the war by active mediation. The Germans, however, resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. On April 2, 1917, the president asked Congress for a declaration of war. Before a joint session of the two houses he read the solemn words, "The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind. It is a war against all nations. . . . We are accepting this challenge. . . . The world must be made safe for democracy." On April 6, Congress declared war.

In the next 18 months the United States built an army of 4 million men by conscription, sent 2 million men overseas to France, and united the entire population behind the war effort. A vast propaganda machine was created under the title of the Committee on Public Information. The words of Wilson reached the German people by radio for the first time in history. Leaflets were scattered from airplanes, shot from guns and rockets, and smuggled behind the enemy lines. Wilson said that this was a "war to end war." He spoke of "peace without victory" and without revenge. On Jan. 8, 1918, he announced his Fourteen Points as the basis for a peace settlement. They were more than peace terms; they were terms for a better world. He followed this speech with his famous "self-determination" speech on February 11 in which he said: "National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. 'Self determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action. . . . " The Battle for the Peace Treaty The war came to an end on Nov. 11, 1918.

The German proposals for peace came in the midst of the Congressional elections. Wilson appealed to the people to support his policies by returning a Democratic majority to both houses. The party was defeated, however, and with a Republican majority in control he was no longer able to lead the Congress. Against the advice of those close to him, the president decided to attend the peace conference in Paris and fight for his policies in person. He took with him few advisers, and none from the Republican party. On December 13 he arrived in Europe. Probably no man has ever been given such an ovation. Wherever he went enormous crowds gathered, sobbing, cheering, shouting his name. The peace conference dragged on week after weary week. David Lloyd George of England, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, all were experienced and shrewd diplomats and each was determined to have his own way. The endless arguing and the official receptions and banquets frayed Wilson's nerves. He suffered a brief but severe illness. Thereafter he was more tense, nervous, and irritable. The peace as agreed upon in June 1919 did contain many of his ideas.

His greatest success was in writing into the Versailles Treaty the Covenant (constitution) of a League of Nations. On July 10, 1919, he laid it before a hostile Senate, led by Henry Cabot Lodge and a "little group of willful men," as Wilson called them. They were especially opposed to the League of Nations, but Wilson refused to compromise his dream. In search of popular support that would overwhelm the Senate, he toured the country in defense of the League. Exhausted, he collapsed in Pueblo, Colo., late in September. A stroke left him paralyzed. For a month only his wife and his doctor were allowed to see him. Then, with his wife guiding his hand, he placed a wobbly signature on major bills. Only a strong will kept him alive. When Secretary of State Robert Lansing presumed to call Cabinet meetings, Wilson promptly dismissed him. He refused to let his vice-president, Thomas R. Marshall, take charge. In her memoirs Edith Wilson said that the president remained the active head of state, making decisions on the basis of digests that she had prepared. Wilson was unable to participate in the 1920 presidential campaign, and the Democratic candidate, James M.

Cox, was overwhelmingly defeated by the Republican Warren G. Harding. Wilson died on Feb. 3, 1924. He was buried in the National Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Washington, D.C.

Question: Who was the U.S. President during WWI?
Answer: Woodrow Wilson