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 Who was president of the United States during World War I? A. Theodore Roosevelt B. William Taft C. Franklin Delano Roosevelt D. Woodrow Wilson You have new items in your feed. Click to view. Question and answer Who was president of the United States during World War I? A. Theodore Roosevelt B. William Taft C. Franklin Delano Roosevelt D. Woodrow Wilson D. Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States during World War I. Get an answer 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 : The United States and World War I - LewRockwell The United States and World War I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan's poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before . . . ~ States' 1917 entry into World War I represents one of the crucial turning points in American history. Its significance, however, scarcely exceeds modern America's collective ignorance of it. The war began for corporate America long before it started for the common man. Within two months of the conflict's August 1914 beginning, Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel, one of the world's largest arms merchants, took a profitable trip to London. There, he secured orders from the British government for millions of artillery shells, as well as ten 500-ton submarines.

Though the construction of such foreign vessels broke the law, Bethlehem proceeded with it and the Wilson administration did not stop them. The company earned $61 million in 1916, more than its combined gross revenues for the previous eight years. "The Bethlehem story is a pithy summary of the evolution of the United States into a branch of the British armament industry during the thirty-two months of its neutrality," writes historian Thomas Fleming in his powerhouse book The talked – and talked and talked – about neutrality and apparently convinced himself that he was neutral. But the United States he was supposedly running was not neutral, in thought, word or deed, thanks to Wellington House (the engine of British government propaganda) – and the international banking firm of J. P. Morgan in New York." time America declared war on Germany, Morgan was having a bang-up war of its own. The company had already loaned Britain and France $2.1 billion (around $30 billion by 2004 standards), and had cleared $30 million – around $425 million in 2004 dollars – in profit.

summarizes a very effective partnership: "As British and French orders for ammunition and other war materiel filled the books of U.S. companies, the pressure for financial assistance to pay for them grew more and more acute." In other words, the more intense the fighting, the more arms, ordnance, and supplies the British and French ordered from American manufacturers, and the more money they borrowed from American banks. WAR DRUMS May, 1915, German sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania is typically cited as one of a series of outrages to which President Woodrow Wilson reacted with restraint and patience. Eventually, so the story goes, even Wilson, a devout, peace-loving man, was forced to make war upon the Germans in order to protect the people and land of America. Yet few in America at the time suggested the nation should go to war because of the sinking of "a British ship flying a British flag." In fact, that British ship carried over four million rifle cartridges and 1,250 cases of shrapnel shells — destined for use against German soldiers. "A ship carrying contraband should not rely on passengers to protect her from attack," wrote Wilson's own Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan.

"It would be like putting women and children in front of an army." Bryan presciently feared that Wilson's orders to balloon the size and firepower of the American military would multiply the chances of the country finding a war in which to involve them. to note what was and what was not told the American passengers who perished on the Lusitania, which embarked from New York. They were told by the Germans, in full page newspaper ads in the New York Times and elsewhere, that boarding a British ship heading into the war zone would place them at risk. They were not told by the British that the ship was a virtual floating munitions dump. least one British leader, losses such as the sinking of the Lusitania were perhaps no great tragedy in the larger context of the war. "It is most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores in the hope especially of embroiling the United States with Germany," First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wrote. The more neutral "traffic" the better, he insisted, and "If some of it gets into trouble, better still." It was the first of two World Wars in which Churchill would exert the full strength of his being to drag America into the conflict in order to preserve victory for the British.

Overlooked by most "popular" historians is the brutal toll taken on the men, women, children, and aged of Germany by actions given the antiseptic term "naval blockade." Hundreds of thousands of Germans starved to death or perished due to other malnutrition-related maladies during the war because Britain and her allies would not let supplies and food into Germany or even into Europe in many cases. Hundreds of thousands of others suffered serious or debilitating illnesses. This was the context in which the Germans launched their submarine warfare against ships traveling into British waters. NON-INTERVENTIONISTS else is lost in traditional American histories. That is the vigorous, often eloquent attempts of citizens and statesmen from every part of the country to keep America out of what they saw as a war fought by other nations for their own purposes, and the inevitable threat to Constitutional liberties they posed. Texas Congressman James H. "Cyclone" Davis accused governmental and industrial titans of "forming cabals to force upon the country a stupendous program of military preparedness, hoping to put in the White House a dictator to execute it." Concerning "the unhappy nations of Europe," Davis declared that "‘The wages of sin is death' applies to nations the same as to individuals.

The nations, now drunk on blood, rioting in ruinous war, are paying the death penalty because their sins have found them out. Given over to ravenous greed, with a riotous aristocracy living in luxury and lust, ruling in rapacity . . . they are now reaping the harvest of their sowing." Another Congressman called the war "a war of kings against kings." Other Congressmen also fought tenaciously against the forces, domestic and foreign, that sucked America toward war. Texan James Slayden called it "a conspiracy to force our country into a war with Germany" and reminded his audience of "the sound advice of George Washington" in Washington's farewell address regarding foreign entanglements and attachments. Slayden exhorted other leaders to mobilize the American public "against the majority of the newspapers and great commercial interests." it seemed as though these and other opponents of America's involvement in the Europeans' war had an ally in President Woodrow Wilson.

He was berated for his supposed caution by Republicans like Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge; after their roles in America's imperialistic adventures with Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, these men – with evident disregard for the Constitution and the Monroe Doctrine alike – considered it a disgrace for America not to throw its weight into the much-larger fracas of World War I. Wilson went so far as to campaign for re-election in 1916 with the slogan, "He kept us out of war." Less than ninety days after beginning his second term, however, he called upon Congress for a declaration of war against Germany in order to "make the world safe for democracy." of American manhood to that declaration was underwhelming. Weeks afterward, only 73,000 men out of a pool of 10 million had volunteered for the army. Part of the problem may have been that Congress and the American public in general were led by the government to believe that even though the country was now at war, it would never have to send an army of its own people to fight that war!

Well they should hope not, when considering historian Jackson Spielvogel's sobering outline of the effect of the war on its belligerents: "increased centralization of government powers, economic regimentation, and manipulation of public opinion to keep the war effort going." These led, Spielvogel writes in his Western Civilization , to a situation in which, "Throughout Europe, wartime governments expanded their powers over their economies. Free market capitalistic systems were temporarily shelved as governments experimented with price, wage, and rent controls, the rationing of food supplies and materials, the regulation of imports and exports, and the nationalization of transportation systems and industries. Some governments even moved toward compulsory employment. In effect, to mobilize the entire resources of their nations for the war effort, European nations had moved toward planned economies directed by government agencies." fails to mention is that these same pathologies swept the U.S., in some ways even more dramatically than the Europeans because of America's heritage of more limited government. Mercantilism and an authoritarian central government colossus superseded the Founding Fathers' vision of a limited, Federated, check-and-balanced system of Constitutional Republican government with enumerated powers.

WOODROW to grasp with clarity American history during the World War I era without accurately apprising President Woodrow Wilson, just as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, respectively, must be understood to in order interpret the War Between the States and World War II. Mainstream American historiography typically portrays Wilson as a pious, greathearted leader with a watershed vision for God using America as a sort of chosen nation to light the way to freedom and prosperity for the benighted nations filling the rest of the world. Indeed, prior to World War I, Wilson had already loosed the American military on a controversial series of forays against Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico. In the latter case, he sided with one faction during a murderous civil war, but managed to draw the contempt and hatred of both sides. The late conservative scholar Robert Nisbet wrote that Wilson “was an ardent prophet of the state, the state indeed as it was known to European scholars and statesmen…. He preached it….

From him supremely comes the politicization, the centralization, and the commitment to bureaucracy of American society during the past seventy-five years.” Noted contemporary conservative historian Paul Johnson describes Wilson as having “…a self-regarding arrogance and smugness, masquerading as righteousness, which was always there and which grew with the exercise of power.” Historian Donald Miller writes that Wilson intended to transform America as well as the other nations: "From a domestic and economic standpoint, as with his foreign policy, he wanted to expand the power of government to effect a revolution in society. He sought to increase both the size and scope of government. He said that he wanted to put government u2018at the service of humanity.'" Miller points out that it was during Wilson's two terms as president, from 1913–1921, that Congress passed bills creating the Federal Reserve System (1913); the Federal Income Tax (Amendment 16, ratified in 1913); the Federal Trade Commission (1914); the Federal Farm Loan Act (1916); and the Prohibition of alcohol (Amendment 18, ratified in 1919).

Before he was elected president, federal government spending never exceeded three percent of the Gross Domestic Product, except during the War of 1812 and the War Between the States. It rose to more than twenty per cent of GDP during Wilson's two terms as president. WIDESPREAD especially those related to building America's military juggernaut, could not occur quiescently, not amidst a citizenry still largely hostile to central government growth and intrusion into their lives. Examples of Wilson Administration–spearheaded governmental repression of the Constitutional rights of its citizens, across the country, in nearly every walk of life during World War I are numberless. Some corporations and political leaders used sedition laws to crush trade unions with whom they were contending before the war started. Historian Walter Karp recalled a woman who wrote to a newspaper during the war that “I am for the people and the government is for the profiteers” received a ten-year prison sentence. Federal agents seized a motion picture, The Spirit of '76, because the “portrayal of the American Revolution had cast British redcoats in an unfavorable light.” That film's producer, too, received ten years in prison.

and Irish-Americans, in particular Irish Catholics, faced harsh treatment by a galaxy of government agencies. They were widely distrusted because both Germany and Ireland were at odds with England. They often faced worse from the public, which had imbibed a years-long stream of pro-British, anti-German propaganda, much of it generated by the British themselves. Patriotic, longtime German-language newspapers were shut down, the German language was disallowed from being taught or, in places, even spoken, and musical performances by German composers such as Beethoven were outlawed. Not even dissenting elected leaders were immune to unconstitutional repression from the Wilson Administration. Wisconsin Congressman Robert D. LaFollette had credited Wilson's expansion of military expenditures to the influence of "the glorious group of millionaires who are making such enormous profits out of the European war." A Congressional committee investigated LaFollette, and for months he was in jeopardy of prison, though no official charges were ever filed against him.

any fair reading of the period, there was probably more real freedom of speech in Germany and in the German Reichstag in the same years than in the u2018home of the free' or the World's Greatest (and Least) Deliberative Body," writes historian Joseph Stromberg. Miller does not place all the blame on the United States government. "The (American) people's participation in suppressing their own rights, so to speak, calls to mind the radical phase of the French Revolution. There," he writes, "everyone who was not a republican zealot was thought of as an u2018enemy' to be guillotined. In the American variation, the Rousseauian form of republicanism, in which the people force particular individuals u2018to be free,' held hands with Americans' notion of their natural goodness as u2018natural men' produced by the frontier experience." to Karp, “The official repression drove millions of independent-minded Americans deep into private life and political solitude.

Isolated, they nursed in private their bitterness and contempt.” The final count of America's World War I battlefront casualties, meanwhile, listed nearly half-a-million men ultimately dead to war-related wounds and/or diseases, and hundreds of thousands more wounded. It is a staggering toll unknown to contemporary Americans. FOLLOWING the end, drove Woodrow Wilson to stake his career and his nation's liberties on an all-out effort in World War I? Perhaps Wilson himself best answered that when he said, in regards to his vision for American-inspired democratic post-war global peace and harmony: "as head of a nation participating in the war, the president of the United States would have a seat at the peace table, but . . . if he remained the representative of a neutral country, he could at best only u2018call through a crack in the door.'" Woodrow Wilson's frequent proclamations against his domestic critics grew harsher and shriller the longer the war lasted, and after the war. Still, his greatest hopes remained. He had crafted the Fourteen Points, a plan designed to insure a fair and lasting peace, and a "League of Nations" to work among themselves to preclude future wars.

Too late did Wilson learn the British and French had long possessed "peace" plans of their own, and they contained little concern for fairness. The wily British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George and the vengeful French Premier Georges Clemenceau repeatedly outflanked and outfoxed Wilson in their post-war peace negotiations. "I never saw a man talk more like Jesus Christ and act more like Lloyd George," Clemenceau mocked Wilson behind his back. of Versailles officially ended the war in May 1919. The crushing effect of this "peace treaty" on an already-reeling Germany is as staggering as it is forgotten. The defeated nation lost nearly one-third of its total land area, along with millions of German citizens. Its foreign colonies were divvied out to the victorious Allies. The brazen and humiliating requirement for the Germans to admit all responsibility for the war – when Serbia, Austria, Russia, and France all held equal or greater roles for its inauguration – set the stage for the half-starved nation to pay financially for the whole war as well, to the tune of $7.5 trillion in today's dollars.

This, along with later punitive actions taken by France, set the Germans on a course of runaway inflation, Communist uprisings, economic ruin, social chaos, moral breakdown, and Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. personal level, the German nation itself faced the danger of mass starvation. Between the November 11, 1918 armistice, which stopped fighting, and the signing of the Versailles treaty, the British and French insisted on continuing the strangling naval blockade of Germany. Future U.S. President Herbert Hoover arranged for the delivery of hundreds of millions of tons of free American food to the malnourished Germans, only to have the French, Italians, and British disallow it and accuse the Americans of selfish ulterior motives for the act. During this time, eight hundred adults were dying of starvation every day in northern Germany alone. By the final tally, hundreds of thousands of Germans had starved. One disgusted British journalist visiting a Cologne, Germany hospital described "rows of babies feverish from want of food, exhausted by privation to the point where their little limbs were like slender wands, their expression hopeless, and their faces full of pain." Back in America, President Wilson campaigned across the country to generate support for the League of Nations.

But after he pushed himself to exhaustion, his speeches grew confused and his treatment of hecklers surly. The scale and passion of his opposition, which wanted nothing to do with roping America's future to Europe's, frustrated and angered him. Finally, he suffered a devastating cerebral thrombosis. His wife Edith then orchestrated a scheme that kept from the American people for the last eighteen months of Wilson's second term the fact that their President, in the words of White House Chief Usher Ike Hoover, had changed mentally "from a giant to a pygmy." Wilson had little knowledge of the issues and events transpiring outside his sealed-off little world. By then, the upshot of Lloyd-George and Clemenceau's outmaneuvering of Wilson in their strategic peace talks – the shredding of the Fourteen Points – had led the United States Senate, controlled by members of Wilson's own Democratic Party, to reject membership in the League of Nations because they feared its toll on American political sanctity. Bitterness and hatred toward his foes consumed Wilson the final years of his life, until his death in 1924.

REQUIEM I killed nearly ten million people, The United States's "retreat" from involvement in European affairs following that bloodbath had "dire consequences" according to Jackson Spielvogel. Our belated pursuit of the Founding Fathers' admonitions against foreign entanglements and permanent treaty alliances "forced" the French to "stand alone" and take "strong actions against Germany that only intensified German resentment," according to Spielvogel. the dire consequences were generated by the French and the gaggle of other European nations who engineered The Great War.

These included the aforementioned consequences for Germany that led ultimately to the Gtterdmmerung of that nation in 1945; the fall of Christian Russia to the mendacious Bolshevik strain of Communism, which led to Stalin's slaughter of between ten and forty million of his own countrymen in the 1930s, and to the half-century enslavement of ten Christian countries in Eastern Europe to atheistic Communism; the millions of deaths that meant the loss forever of the flower of British and French manhood and the greatness of their nations; and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of America's bravest young men, broad and deep growth of our nation's central government, and the sacrifice of many of its Constitutional liberties, some permanently. ”The blunt fact is that when [under Wilson] America was introduced to the War State in 1917, it was introduced also to what would later be known as the total, or totalitarian, state," wrote Robert Nisbet. In the final accounting, the Great War was only the opening chapter of a new Thirty Years War. That war climaxed more than fifty million deaths later with the incineration of hundreds of thousands of Japanese men, women, and children.

And it launched a bitter half-century Cold War involving triumphant Bolshevism. Perhaps the Los Angeles Times said it best after World War I and its "peace" were concluded: "It is quite impossible to tell what the war made the world safe for." January America in the First World War [ushistory.org] 45. America in the First World War "In Flanders fields the poppies blow/ Between the crosses, row on row..." -John McCrae memorialized his comrades who died in the Battle of Ypres in this most famous poem of World War I. Isolation was a long American tradition. Since the days of George Washington, Americans struggled to remain protected by the mighty oceans on its border. When European conflicts erupted, as they frequently did, many in the United States claimed exceptionalism. America was different. Why get involved in Europe's self-destruction? When the Archduke of Austria-Hungary was killed in cold blood, igniting the most destructive war in human history, the initial reaction in the United States was the expected will for neutrality. As a nation of immigrants, The United States would have difficulty picking a side.

Despite the obvious ties to Britain based on history and language, there were many United States citizens who claimed Germany and Austria-Hungary as their parent lands. Support of either the Allies or the Central Powers might prove divisive. In the early days of the war, as Britain and France struggled against Germany, American leaders decided it was in the national interest to continue trade with all sides as before. A neutral nation cannot impose an embargo on one side and continue trade with the other and retain its neutral status. In addition, United States merchants and manufacturers feared that a boycott would cripple the American economy. Great Britain, with its powerful navy, had different ideas. A major part of the British strategy was to impose a blockade on Germany. American trade with the Central Powers simply could not be permitted. The results of the blockade were astonishing. Trade with England and France more than tripled between 1914 and 1916, while trade with Germany was cut by over ninety percent. It was this situation that prompted submarine warfare by the Germans against Americans at sea. After two and a half years of isolationism, America entered the Great War.

The War Times Journal Burned-out German Zeppelin in a field in England The contributions of the United States military to the Allied effort were decisive. Since the Russians decided to quit the war, the Germans were able to move many of their troops from the eastern front to the stalemate in the West. The seemingly infinite supply of fresh American soldiers countered this potential advantage and was demoralizing to the Germans. American soldiers entered the bloody trenches and by November 1918, the war was over. Contributions to the war effort were not confined to the battlefield. The entire American economy was mobilized to win the war. From planting extra vegetables to keeping the furnace turned off, American civilians provided extra food and fuel to the war effort. The United States government engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to raise troops and money. Where dissent was apparent, it was stifled, prompting many to question whether American civil liberties were in jeopardy. In the end, the war was won, but the peace was lost. The Treaty of Versailles as presented by President Wilson was rejected by the Senate. Two dangerous decades of political isolationism followed, only to end in an ever more cataclysmic war.

First Hand Accounts, The Soldier's Experience, Life on the Homefront, The Arts. This megasite boasts several essays in these categories and many more, all illustrated, all outstanding. If you visit only one site, make this the one. Milestones: 1914–1920 - Office of the Historian Milestones: 1914–1920 U.S. Entry into World War I, 1917 On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany. Wilson cited Germany’s violation of its pledge to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as well as its attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States, as his reasons for declaring war. On April 4, 1917, the U.S. Senate voted in support of the measure to declare war on Germany. The House concurred two days later. The United States later declared war on German ally Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917.

World War I Trenches in France Germany’s resumption of submarine attacks on passenger and merchant ships in 1917 became the primary motivation behind Wilson’s decision to lead the United States into World War I. Following the sinking of an unarmed French boat, the Sussex, in the English Channel in March 1916, Wilson threatened to sever diplomatic relations with Germany unless the German Government refrained from attacking all passenger ships and allowed the crews of enemy merchant vessels to abandon their ships prior to any attack. On May 4, 1916, the German Government accepted these terms and conditions in what came to be known as the “Sussex pledge.” By January 1917, however, the situation in Germany had changed. During a wartime conference that month, representatives from the German Navy convinced the military leadership and Kaiser Wilhelm II that a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare could help defeat Great Britain within five months. German policymakers argued that they could violate the “Sussex pledge” since the United States could no longer be considered a neutral party after supplying munitions and financial assistance to the Allies. Germany also believed that the United States had jeopardized its neutrality by acquiescing to the Allied blockade of Germany.

German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg protested this decision, believing that resuming submarine warfare would draw the United States into the war on behalf of the Allies. This, he argued, would lead to the defeat of Germany. Despite these warnings, the German Government decided to resume unrestricted submarine attacks on all Allied and neutral shipping within prescribed war zones, reckoning that German submarines would end the war long before the first U.S. troopships landed in Europe. Accordingly, on January 31, 1917, German Ambassador to the United States Count Johann von Bernstorff presented U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing a note declaring Germany’s intention to restart unrestricted submarine warfare the following day. German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg Stunned by the news, President Wilson went before Congress on February 3 to announce that he had severed diplomatic relations with Germany. However, he refrained from asking for a declaration of war because he doubted that the U.S. public would support him unless he provided ample proof that Germany intended to attack U.S. ships without warning. Wilson left open the possibility of negotiating with Germany if its submarines refrained from attacking U.S. shipping.

Nevertheless, throughout February and March 1917, German submarines targeted and sank several U.S. ships, resulting in the deaths of numerous U.S. seamen and citizens. On February 26, Wilson asked Congress for the authority to arm U.S. merchant ships with U.S. naval personnel and equipment. While the measure would probably have passed in a vote, several anti-war Senators led a successful filibuster that consumed the remainder of the congressional session. As a result of this setback, President Wilson decided to arm U.S. merchant ships by executive order, citing an old anti-piracy law that gave him the authority to do so. While Wilson weighed his options regarding the submarine issue, he also had to address the question of Germany’s attempts to cement a secret alliance with Mexico. On January 19, 1917, British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. The “Zimmermann Telegram” promised the Mexican Government that Germany would help Mexico recover the territory it had ceded to the United States following the Mexican-American War. In return for this assistance, Germany asked for Mexican support in the war.

The “Zimmermann Telegram” Initially, the British had not shared the news of the Zimmermann Telegram with U.S. officials because they did not want the Germans to discover that British code breakers had cracked the German code. However, following Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in February, the British decided to use the note to help sway U.S. official and public opinion in favor of joining the war. The British finally forwarded the intercepted telegram to President Wilson on February 24. The U.S. press carried the story the following week. Despite the shocking news of the Zimmermann Telegram, Wilson still hesitated asking for a declaration of war. He waited until March 20 before convening a Cabinet meeting to broach the matter—almost a month after he had first seen the telegram. The precise reasons for Wilson’s decision to choose war in 1917 remain the subject of debate among historians, especially in light of his efforts to avoid war in 1915 after the sinking of the British passenger liners Lusitania and Arabic, which had led to the deaths of 131 U.S. citizens. However, by 1917, the continued submarine attacks on U.S.

merchant and passenger ships, and the “Zimmermann Telegram’s” implied threat of a German attack on the United States, swayed U.S. public opinion in support of a declaration of war. Furthermore, international law stipulated that the placing of U.S. naval personnel on civilian ships to protect them from German submarines already constituted an act of war against Germany. Finally, the Germans, by their actions, had demonstrated that they had no interest in seeking a peaceful end to the conflict. These reasons all contributed to President Wilson’s decision to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. They also encouraged Congress to grant Wilson’s request and formally declare war on Germany. 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. 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 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 First World War.com - Who's Who - Woodrow Wilson What's New Who's Who - Woodrow Wilson Like Roosevelt before him, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) 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." Sponsored Links 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. ( Click here to read Wilson's 1913 inauguration speech.) Wilson manoeuvred 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 labour; 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. ( Click here to read Wilson's 1917 inauguration speech.) 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.

( Click here to read Wilson's conscription proclamation of May 1917) Massive American effort slowly tipped the balance in favour 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?" ( Click here to read Wilson's views on the League of Nations.) 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. Feature: Woodrow Wilson's Administration Click here to read Wilson's views on the 1914 Tampico Incident. Click here and here to read Wilson's ultimatums to the German government on the subject of the Lusitania. Click here , here and here to read Wilson's ultimatum's to Germany on the subject of the U-boat war. Click here to read Wilson's speech urging "peace without victory" in 1917. Click here to read Wilson urge the American people to "do their bit" following the declaration of war with Germany. Click here and here to read Wilson's views of the armistice agreement of 11 November 1918. Click here to read Wilson's opening address at the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919. Click here and here to listen to audio records featuring Wilson. Sponsored Links Saturday, 22 August, 2009 Michael Duffy A "Bangalore Torpedo" was an explosive tube used to clear a path through a wire entanglement. - Did you know?

Question: Who was president of the USA during World War I?
Answer: Woodrow Wilson