Woodwro Willson Essays - Woodrow Wilson, , Term Papers

Woodwro Willson Wilson, Woodrow Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States (1913-21), secured a legislative program of progressive domestic reform, guided his country during WORLD WAR I, and sought a peace settlement based on high moral principles, to be guaranteed by the LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Early Life and Career Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Va., on Dec. 28, 1856. He was profoundly influenced by a devoutly religious household headed by his father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister, and his mother, Janet Woodrow Wilson, the daughter of a minister. Woodrow (he dropped the Thomas in 1879) attended (1873-74) Davidson College and in 1875 entered the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), graduating in 1879. Wilson studied (1879-80) at the University of Virginia Law School, briefly practiced law in Atlanta, and in 1883 entered The Johns Hopkins University for graduate study in political science. His widely acclaimed book, Congressional Government (1885), was published a year before he received the doctoral degree. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise Axson; they had three daughters. Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr College (1885-88) and Wesleyan University in Connecticut (1888-90) before he was called (1890) to Princeton as professor of jurisprudence and political economy. A popular lecturer, Wilson also wrote a score of articles and nine books, including Division and Reunion (1893) and his five-volume History of the American People (1902). In 1902 he was the unanimous choice of the trustees to become Princeton's president. His reforms included reorganization of the departmental structure, revision of the curriculum, raising of academic standards, tightening of student discipline, and the still-famous preceptorial system of instruction. But Wilson's quad plan--an attempt to create colleges or quadrangles where students and faculty members would live and study together--was defeated. Opposed by wealthy alumni and trustees, he also lost his battle for control of the proposed graduate college. The Princeton controversies, seen nationally as a battle between democracy and vested wealth, propelled Wilson into the political arena. George Harvey, editor of Harper's Weekly, with help from New Jersey's Democratic party bosses, persuaded Wilson to run for governor in 1910. After scoring an easy victory, he cast off his machine sponsors and launched a remarkable program of progressive legislation, including a direct-primary law, antitrust laws, a corrupt-practices act, a workmen's compensation act, and measures establishing a public utility commission and permitting cities to adopt the commission form of government. Success in New Jersey made him a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. Although Wilson entered the 1912 Democratic National Convention a poor second to Speaker of the House Champ Clark, his strength increased as Clark's faded, and he won the nomination after 46 ballots. Offering a program of reform that he called the New Freedom, Wilson ran against a divided Republican party. In November, with only 42 percent of the popular vote, he won 435 electoral votes to 88 for Progressive candidate Theodore Roosevelt and 8 for the Republican candidate, President William Howard Taft. Progressive as President By presenting his program personally before the Democratically controlled Congress, employing personal persuasion as well as patronage, and appealing to the American public with his stirring rhetoric, Wilson won passage of an impressive array of progressive measures. The Underwood Tariff Act (1913), the first reduction in duties since the Civil War, also established a modest income tax. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) provided for currency and banking reform. Antitrust legislation followed in 1914, when Congress passed the Federal Trade Commission Act and the CLAYTON ANTI-TRUST ACT. In 1915, Wilson supported the La Follette Seamen's bill, designed to improve the working conditions of sailors. The following year he signed the Federal Farm Loan Act, providing low-interest credit to farmers; the Adamson Act, granting an 8-hour day to interstate railroad workers; and the Child Labor Act, which limited children's working hours. In foreign policy, Wilson was faced with greater problems than any president since Abraham Lincoln. He attempted to end U.S. dollar diplomacy and promote the mediation of disputes. He rejected a loan to China on the grounds that it impaired Chinese sovereignty, and he helped thwart Japanese designs on the Chinese mainland. He approved Secretary of State William Jennings BRYAN's efforts to minimize the danger of war through a series of conciliation treaties and joined him in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a Pan-American pact guaranteeing the integrity of the Western Hemisphere. In attempting to deal with revolutionary Mexico, Wilson first sought to promote self-government by refusing to recognize the military usurper Victoriano HUERTA and forcing him to allow free elections. When Huerta resisted, Wilson tried to force him out by ordering (April 1914) limited American intervention at Veracruz and by supporting constitutionalist Venustiano CARRANZA. Mediation by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile helped to prevent a general conflict and led to Huerta's resignation in July 1914. A year later, Wilson recognized Carranza's provisional government, and in 1916 he intervened again after Carranza's rival, guerrilla leader Pancho VILLA, had raided a town in New Mexico, killing several Americans. In 1915 and 1916 he reluctantly sent troops to Haiti and Santo Domingo to establish U.S. protectorates. After the outbreak of