After the election, Wilson chose William Jennings Bryan as Secretary of State, and Bryan offered advice on the remaining members of Wilson's cabinet. William Gibbs McAdoo, a prominent Wilson supporter who married Wilson's daughter in 1914, became Secretary of the Treasury, and
James Clark McReynolds, who had successfully prosecuted several prominent antitrust cases, was chosen as Attorney General. Publisher
Josephus Daniels, a party loyalist and prominent white supremacist from North Carolina, was chosen to be Secretary of the Navy, while young New York attorney
Franklin D. Roosevelt became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Wilson's chief of staff ("secretary") was
Joseph Patrick Tumulty, who acted as a political buffer and intermediary with the press. The most important foreign policy adviser and confidant was "Colonel"
Edward M. House; Berg writes that, "in access and influence, [House] outranked everybody in Wilson's Cabinet."
New Freedom domestic agenda address in 1913 before a joint session of
Congress, which initiated the modern practice of the State of the Union being given in person before all members of Congress Wilson introduced a comprehensive program of domestic legislation at the outset of his administration, something no president had ever done before. He announced four major domestic priorities: the
conservation of natural resources, banking reform,
tariff reduction, and better access to raw materials for farmers by breaking up Western mining trusts. Wilson introduced these proposals in April 1913 in a speech delivered to a joint session of Congress, becoming the first president since
John Adams to address Congress in person. Wilson's first two years in office largely focused on his domestic agenda. With trouble with Mexico and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, foreign affairs increasingly dominated his presidency.
Tariff and tax legislation Democrats had long seen high tariff rates as equivalent to unfair taxes on consumers, and tariff reduction was their first priority. By late May 1913, House Majority Leader
Oscar Underwood had passed a bill in the House that cut the average tariff rate by 10 percent and imposed a tax on personal income above $4,000. Nevertheless, the passage of the tariff bill in the Senate was a challenge. Some Southern and Western Democrats wanted the continued protection of their wool and sugar industries, and Democrats had a narrower majority in the upper house. Wilson met extensively with Democratic senators and appealed directly to the people through the press. After weeks of hearings and debate, Wilson and Secretary of State Bryan managed to unite Senate Democrats behind the bill. The Revenue Act of 1913 reduced tariffs and replaced the lost revenue with a federal income tax of one percent on incomes above $3,000, affecting the richest three percent of the population. The policies of the Wilson administration had a durable impact on the composition of government revenue, which now primarily came from taxation rather than tariffs.
Federal Reserve System Wilson did not wait to complete the Revenue Act of 1913 before proceeding to the next item on his agenda—banking. By the time Wilson took office, countries like Britain and Germany had established government-run
central banks, but the United States had not had a central bank since the
Bank War of the 1830s. In the aftermath of the
nationwide financial crisis in 1907, there was general agreement to create some sort of central banking system to provide a more elastic currency and to coordinate responses to financial panics. Wilson sought a middle ground between progressives such as Bryan and conservative Republicans like
Nelson Aldrich, who, as chairman of the
National Monetary Commission, had put forward a plan for a central bank that would give private financial interests a large degree of control over the monetary system. Wilson declared that the banking system must be "public not private, [and] must be vested in the government itself so that the banks must be the instruments, not the masters, of business." Democrats crafted a compromise plan in which private banks would control twelve regional
Federal Reserve Banks, but a controlling interest in the system was placed in a central board filled with presidential appointees. Wilson convinced Democrats on the left that the new plan met their demands. Among the
bill's critics was U.S. Representative
Charles August Lindbergh, who argued that it would create an "invisible government" of the
monetary power and concentrate economic control into a "purely profiteering group." The Senate voted 54–34 to approve the
Federal Reserve Act. The new system began operations in 1915, and it played a key role in financing the Allied and American war efforts in World War I.
Antitrust legislation cartoon with Wilson addressing the economy by pumping it full of tariff, currency, and antitrust laws Having passed major legislation lowering the tariff and reforming the banking structure, Wilson next sought antitrust legislation to enhance the
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Sherman Antitrust Act barred any "contract, combination ... or conspiracy, in restraint of trade", but had proved ineffective in preventing the rise of large business combinations known as
trusts. An elite group of businessmen dominated the boards of major banks and railroads, and they used their power to prevent competition by new companies. With Wilson's support, Congressman
Henry Clayton, Jr. introduced a bill that would ban several anti-competitive practices such as
discriminatory pricing,
tying,
exclusive dealing, and
interlocking directorates. As the difficulty of banning all anti-competitive practices via legislation became clear, Wilson came to back legislation that would create a new agency, the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to investigate antitrust violations and enforce antitrust laws independently of the Justice Department. With bipartisan support, Congress passed the
Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, which incorporated Wilson's ideas regarding the FTC. One month after signing the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, Wilson signed the
Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which built on the Sherman Act by defining and banning several anti-competitive practices.
Labor and agriculture Wilson thought a child labor law would probably be unconstitutional but reversed himself in 1916 with a close election approaching. In 1916, after intense campaigns by the
National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) and the
National Consumers League, the Congress passed the
Keating–Owen Act, making it illegal to ship goods in interstate commerce if they were made in factories employing children under specified ages. Southern Democrats were opposed but did not filibuster. Wilson endorsed the bill at the last minute under pressure from party leaders who stressed how popular the idea was, especially among the emerging class of women voters. He told Democratic Congressmen they needed to pass this law and also a workman's compensation law to satisfy the national progressive movement and to win the 1916 election against a reunited GOP. It was the first federal child labor law. However, the
U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law in
Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918). Congress then passed a law taxing businesses that used child labor, but that was struck down by the Supreme Court in
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (1923). Child labor was finally ended in the 1930s. He approved the goal of upgrading the harsh working conditions for merchant sailors and signed LaFollette's
Seamen's Act of 1915. During his political career, Wilson commissioned members of the
Fraternal Order of Eagles to study old age pension laws overseas to determine whether such laws could be adopted in the United States. Pensions for civil servants employed by the federal government were introduced during Wilson's final year in office. Wilson called on the Labor Department to mediate conflicts between labor and management. In 1914, Wilson dispatched soldiers to help bring an end to the
Colorado Coalfield War, one of the deadliest labor disputes in American history. In 1916 he pushed Congress to enact the
eight-hour work day for railroad workers, which ended a major strike. It was "the boldest intervention in labor relations that any president had yet attempted." Wilson disliked the excessive government involvement in the
Federal Farm Loan Act, which created twelve regional banks empowered to provide low-interest loans to farmers. Nevertheless, he needed the farm vote to survive the upcoming 1916 election, so he signed it.
Territories and immigration Wilson embraced the long-standing Democratic policy against owning colonies, and he worked for the gradual autonomy and ultimate independence of the
Philippines, which had been acquired in 1898. Continuing the policy of his predecessors, Wilson increased self-governance on the islands by granting
Filipinos greater control over the Philippine Legislature. The
Jones Act of 1916 committed the United States to the eventual independence of the Philippines, and granted Filipinos further autonomy with the establishment of a Filipino
Senate and
House of Representatives, replacing the American-run
Philippine Commission and Filipino-run
Philippine Assembly, respectively. In 1916, Wilson
purchased by treaty the
Danish West Indies, renamed as the
United States Virgin Islands. Immigration from Europe declined significantly once World War I began and Wilson paid little attention to the issue during his presidency. However, he looked favorably upon the "new immigrants" from southern and eastern Europe, and twice vetoed laws passed by Congress intended to restrict their entry, though the later veto was overridden.
Judicial appointments Wilson nominated three men to the
United States Supreme Court, all of whom were confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In 1914, Wilson nominated sitting attorney general
James Clark McReynolds. Despite his credentials as an ardent trust buster, McReynolds became a staple of the court's conservative bloc until his retirement in 1941. According to Berg, Wilson considered appointing McReynolds one of his biggest mistakes in office. In 1916, Wilson
nominated Louis Brandeis to the Court, setting off a major debate in the Senate over Brandeis's progressive ideology and his religion; Brandeis was the first
Jewish nominee to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, Wilson was able to convince Senate Democrats to vote to confirm Brandeis, who served on the court until 1939. In contrast to McReynolds, Brandeis became one of the court's leading progressive voices. When a second vacancy arose in 1916, Wilson appointed progressive lawyer
John Hessin Clarke. Clarke was confirmed by the Senate and served on the Court until retiring in 1922.
First-term foreign policy Latin America entering
Mexico in 1916 to punish Pancho Villa with Uncle Sam saying, "I've had about enough of this." Wilson sought to move away from the foreign policy of his predecessors, which he viewed as imperialistic, and he rejected Taft's
Dollar Diplomacy. Nonetheless, he frequently intervened in
Latin America, saying in 1913, "I am going to teach the
South American republics to elect good men." The 1914
Bryan–Chamorro Treaty converted
Nicaragua into a
de facto protectorate, and the U.S.
stationed soldiers there throughout Wilson's presidency. The Wilson administration
sent troops to occupy the
Dominican Republic and
intervene in
Haiti, and Wilson also authorized military interventions in
Cuba,
Panama, and
Honduras. Wilson took office during the
Mexican Revolution, which had begun in 1911 after liberals overthrew the military dictatorship of
Porfirio Díaz. Shortly before Wilson took office, conservatives retook power through a coup led by
Victoriano Huerta. Wilson rejected the legitimacy of Huerta's "government of butchers" and demanded Mexico hold democratic elections. After Huerta arrested U.S. Navy personnel who had accidentally landed in a restricted zone near the northern port town of
Tampico, Wilson
dispatched the Navy to occupy the Mexican city of
Veracruz. A strong backlash against the American intervention among Mexicans of all political affiliations convinced Wilson to abandon his plans to expand the U.S. military intervention, but the intervention nonetheless helped convince Huerta to flee from the country. A group led by
Venustiano Carranza established control over a significant proportion of Mexico, and Wilson recognized Carranza's government in October 1915. Carranza continued to face various opponents within Mexico, including
Pancho Villa, whom Wilson had earlier described as "a sort of Robin Hood."
Neutrality in World War I World War I broke out in July 1914, pitting the
Central Powers (Germany,
Austria-Hungary, the
Ottoman Empire, and later
Bulgaria) against the
Allied Powers (Britain,
France,
Russia,
Serbia, and several other countries). The war fell into a long stalemate with very high casualties on the
Western Front in France. Both sides rejected offers by Wilson and the House to mediate an end to the conflict. From 1914 until early 1917, Wilson's primary foreign policy objectives were to keep the United States out of the war in Europe and to broker a peace agreement. He insisted that all U.S. government actions be neutral, stating that Americans "must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another." As a neutral power, the U.S. insisted on its right to trade with both sides. However, the powerful British Royal Navy imposed a
blockade of Germany. To appease Washington, London agreed to continue purchasing certain major American commodities such as cotton at pre-war prices, and in the event an American merchant vessel was caught with contraband, the Royal Navy was under orders to buy the entire cargo and release the vessel. Wilson passively accepted this situation. In response to the British blockade, Germany launched a
submarine campaign against merchant vessels in the seas surrounding the British Isles. In early 1915, the Germans sank three American ships; Wilson took the view, based on some reasonable evidence, that these incidents were accidental, and a settlement of claims could be postponed until the end of the war. In May 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the British ocean liner
RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 passengers, including 128 American citizens. Wilson publicly responded by saying, "there is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right". Wilson demanded that the German government "take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence" of incidents like the sinking of the
Lusitania. In response, Bryan, who believed that Wilson had placed the defense of American trade rights above neutrality, resigned from the Cabinet. In March 1916, the
SS Sussex, an unarmed ferry under the French flag, was torpedoed in the English Channel and four Americans were counted among the dead. Wilson extracted from Germany a pledge to constrain submarine warfare to the rules of cruiser warfare, which represented a major diplomatic concession. Interventionists, led by Theodore Roosevelt, wanted war with Germany and attacked Wilson's refusal to build up the army in anticipation of war. After the sinking of the
Lusitania and the resignation of Bryan, Wilson publicly committed himself to what became known as the "
preparedness movement", and began to build up the army and the navy. In June 1916, Congress passed the
National Defense Act of 1916, which established the
Reserve Officers' Training Corps and expanded the
National Guard. Later in the year, Congress passed the
Naval Act of 1916, which provided for a major expansion of the navy.
Second marriage The health of Ellen Wilson declined after her husband entered office, and doctors diagnosed her with
Bright's disease in July 1914. She died on August 6, 1914. President Wilson was deeply affected by the loss, falling into depression. On March 18, 1915, Wilson met
Edith Bolling Galt at a White House tea. Galt was a widow and jeweler who was also from the South. After several meetings, Wilson fell in love with her, and he proposed marriage to her in May 1915. Galt initially rebuffed him, but Wilson was undeterred and continued the courtship. Edith gradually warmed to the relationship, and they became engaged in September 1915. They were married on December 18, 1915. Woodrow Wilson joined
John Tyler and Grover Cleveland as the only presidents to marry while in office.
Presidential election of 1916 Wilson was renominated at the
1916 Democratic National Convention without opposition. In an effort to win progressive voters, Wilson called for legislation providing for an eight-hour day and six-day workweek, health and safety measures, the prohibition of child labor, and safeguards for female workers. He also favored a minimum wage for all work performed by and for the federal government. The Democrats also campaigned on the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War", and warned that a Republican victory would mean war with Germany. Hoping to reunify the progressive and conservative wings of the party, the
1916 Republican National Convention nominated Supreme Court justice
Charles Evans Hughes for president; as a jurist, he had been completely out of politics by 1912. Though Republicans attacked Wilson's foreign policy on various grounds, domestic affairs generally dominated the campaign. Republicans campaigned against Wilson's New Freedom policies, especially tariff reduction, the new income taxes, and the
Adamson Act, which they derided as "class legislation". The election was close and the outcome was in doubt with Hughes ahead in the East, and Wilson in the South and West. The decision came down to California. On November 10, California certified that Wilson had won the state by 3,806 votes, giving him a majority of the electoral vote. Nationally, Wilson won 277 electoral votes and 49.2 percent of the popular vote, while Hughes won 254 electoral votes and 46.1 percent of the popular vote. Wilson was able to win by picking up many votes that had gone to Roosevelt or Debs in 1912. He swept the
Solid South and won all but one Western state, while Hughes won most of the Northeastern and Midwestern states. Wilson's re-election made him the first Democrat since
Andrew Jackson (in 1832) to win two consecutive terms. The Democrats kept control of Congress.
Entering World War I In January 1917, the
German Empire initiated a new policy of
unrestricted submarine warfare against ships in the seas around the British Isles. German leaders knew that the policy would likely provoke U.S. entrance into the war, but they hoped to defeat the Allied Powers before the U.S. could fully mobilize. In late February, the U.S. public learned of the
Zimmermann Telegram, a secret diplomatic communication in which Germany sought to convince Mexico to join it in a war against the United States. After a series of attacks on American ships, Wilson held a Cabinet meeting on March 20; all Cabinet members agreed that the time had come for the United States to enter the war. The Cabinet members believed that Germany was engaged in a commercial war against the United States, and that the United States had to respond with a formal declaration of war. On April 2, 1917, Wilson addressed the
U.S. Congress, asking for a declaration of war against Germany, saying that Germany was engaged in "nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States." He requested a military draft to raise the army, increased taxes to pay for military expenses, loans to Allied governments, and increased industrial and agricultural production. He stated, "we have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion... no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and freedom of the nations can make them." The
declaration of war by the United States against Germany passed Congress with strong bipartisan majorities on April 6, 1917. The United States later
declared war against Austria-Hungary in December 1917. With the U.S. entrance into the war, Wilson and Secretary of War
Newton D. Baker launched an expansion of the army, with the goal of creating a 300,000-member
Regular Army, a 440,000-member
National Guard, and a 500,000-member conscripted force known as the "
National Army". Despite some resistance to conscription and to the commitment of American soldiers abroad, large majorities of both houses of Congress voted to impose conscription with the
Selective Service Act of 1917. Seeking to avoid the draft riots of the Civil War, the bill established local draft boards that were charged with determining who should be drafted. By the end of the war, nearly 3 million men had been drafted. The navy also saw tremendous expansion, and Allied shipping losses dropped substantially due to U.S. contributions and a new emphasis on the
convoy system. s and their empires in 1914
Fourteen Points Wilson sought the establishment of "an organized common peace" that would help prevent future conflicts. In this goal, he was opposed not just by the Central Powers, but also the other Allied Powers, who, to various degrees, sought to win concessions and to impose a punitive peace agreement on the Central Powers. On January 8, 1918, Wilson delivered a speech, known as the Fourteen Points, wherein he articulated his administration's long term war objectives. Wilson called for the establishment of an association of nations to guarantee the independence and territorial integrity of all nations—a
League of Nations. Other points included the evacuation of occupied territory, the establishment of an independent
Poland, and
self-determination for the peoples of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.
Course of the war Under the command of General Pershing, the
American Expeditionary Forces first arrived in France in mid-1917. Wilson and Pershing rejected the British and French proposal that American soldiers integrate into existing Allied units, giving the United States more freedom of action but requiring for the creation of new organizations and supply chains. Russia exited the war after signing the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, allowing Germany to shift soldiers from the
Eastern Front of the war. Hoping to break Allied lines before American soldiers could arrive in full force, the Germans launched the
Spring Offensive on the
Western Front. Both sides suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties as the Germans forced back the British and French, but Germany was unable to capture the French capital of
Paris. There were only 175,000 American soldiers in Europe at the end of 1917, but by mid-1918 10,000 Americans were arriving in Europe per day. Meanwhile, French and British leaders convinced Wilson to send a few thousand American soldiers to join the
Allied intervention in Russia, which was in the midst of a
civil war between the Communist
Bolsheviks and the
White movement. By the end of September 1918, the German leadership no longer believed it could win the war, and Kaiser
Wilhelm II appointed a new government led by
Prince Maximilian of Baden. Baden immediately sought an armistice with Wilson, with the Fourteen Points to serve as the basis of the German surrender.
House procured agreement to the armistice from France and Britain, but only after threatening to conclude a unilateral armistice without them. Germany and the Allied Powers brought an end to the fighting with the signing of the
Armistice of 11 November 1918. Austria-Hungary had signed the
Armistice of Villa Giusti eight days earlier, while the Ottoman Empire had signed the
Armistice of Mudros in October. By the end of the war, 116,000 American servicemen had died, and another 200,000 had been wounded.
Home front in October 1918 , in 1918 With the American entrance into World War I in April 1917, Wilson became a war-time president. The
War Industries Board, headed by
Bernard Baruch, was established to set U.S. war manufacturing policies and goals. Future President
Herbert Hoover led the
Food Administration; the
Federal Fuel Administration, run by
Harry Augustus Garfield, introduced
daylight saving time and rationed fuel supplies; William McAdoo was in charge of war bond efforts;
Vance C. McCormick headed the War Trade Board. These men, known collectively as the "war cabinet", met weekly with Wilson. Because he was heavily focused on foreign policy during World War I, Wilson delegated a large degree of authority over the home front to his subordinates. In the midst of the war, the federal budget soared from $1 billion in
fiscal year 1916 to $19 billion in fiscal year 1919. Seeking to avoid the high levels of inflation that had accompanied the heavy borrowing of the
American Civil War, the Wilson administration raised taxes during the war. The
War Revenue Act of 1917 and the
Revenue Act of 1918 raised the top tax rate to 77 percent, greatly increased the number of Americans paying the income tax, and levied an
excess profits tax on businesses and individuals. Despite these tax acts, the United States was forced to borrow heavily to finance the war effort. Treasury Secretary McAdoo authorized the issuing of low-interest war bonds and, to attract investors, made interest on the bonds tax-free. The bonds proved so popular among investors that many borrowed money in order to buy more bonds. The purchase of bonds, along with other war-time pressures, resulted in rising inflation, though this inflation was partly matched by rising wages and profits. To shape public opinion, Wilson in 1917 established the first modern propaganda office, the
Committee on Public Information (CPI), headed by
George Creel. Wilson called on voters in
the 1918 off-year elections to elect Democrats as an endorsement of his policies. However the Republicans won over alienated
German-Americans and took control. Wilson refused to coordinate or compromise with the new leaders of House and Senate—Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge became his nemesis. In November 1919, Wilson's attorney general,
A. Mitchell Palmer, began to target anarchists,
Industrial Workers of the World members, and other antiwar groups in what became known as the
Palmer Raids. Thousands were arrested for incitement to violence, espionage, or sedition. Wilson by that point was incapacitated and was not told what was happening.
Aftermath of World War I .
Paris Peace Conference on May 27, 1919, following the end of
World War I with Wilson standing next to
Georges Clemenceau on the right gather to welcome Wilson. After the signing of the armistice, Wilson traveled to Europe to lead the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, thereby becoming the first incumbent president to travel to Europe. Although Republicans now controlled Congress, Wilson shut them out. Senate Republicans and even some Senate Democrats complained about their lack of representation in the delegation. It consisted of Wilson, Colonel House, Secretary of State
Robert Lansing, General
Tasker H. Bliss, and diplomat
Henry White, who was the only Republican, and he was not an active partisan. Save for a two-week return to the United States, Wilson remained in Europe for six months, where he focused on reaching a peace treaty to formally end the war. Wilson, British Prime Minister
David Lloyd George, French Prime Minister
Georges Clemenceau, and Italian Prime Minister
Vittorio Emanuele Orlando made up the "
Big Four", the Allied leaders with the most influence at the Paris Peace Conference. Wilson had an illness during the conference, and some experts believe the
Spanish flu was the cause. Unlike other Allied leaders, Wilson did not seek territorial gains or material concessions from the Central Powers. His chief goal was the establishment of the League of Nations, which he saw as the "keystone of the whole programme". Wilson himself presided over the committee that drafted the
Covenant of the League of Nations. The covenant bound members to respect
freedom of religion, treat racial minorities fairly, and peacefully settle disputes through organizations like the
Permanent Court of International Justice. Article X of the League Covenant required all nations to defend League members against external aggression. Japan proposed that the conference endorse a
Racial Equality Proposal; The chairman, Woodrow Wilson, overturned it by saying that although the proposal had been approved by a clear majority, the particular matter had strong opposition manifest itself (despite the lack of any actual votes against the proposal) and that on this issue, a unanimous vote would be required. French delegate Ferdinand Larnaude [la; sv] immediately stated that "a majority had voted for the amendment." Meanwhile, the Japanese delegation wanted the transcript to show that a clear majority had been voted for the amendment. The Covenant of the League of Nations was incorporated into the conference's
Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war with Germany, and into other peace treaties. Aside from the establishment the League of Nations and solidifying a lasting world peace, Wilson's other main goal at the Paris Peace Conference was that self-determination be the primary basis used for drawing new international borders. However, in pursuit of his League of Nations, Wilson conceded several points to the other powers present at the conference. Germany was required to permanently cede territory, pay war reparations, relinquish all of her overseas colonies and dependencies and submit to
military occupation in the Rhineland. Additionally, a
clause in the treaty specifically named Germany as responsible for the war. Wilson agreed to allowing the Allied European powers and Japan to essentially expand their empires by establishing
de facto colonies in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia out the former German and Ottoman Empires; these territorial awards to the victorious countries were thinly disguised as "
League of Nations mandates". The Japanese acquisition of German interests in the
Shandong Peninsula of China proved especially
unpopular, as it undercut Wilson's promise of self-government. Wilson's hopes for achieving self-determination saw some success when the conference recognized multiple new and independent states created in Eastern Europe, including
Albania,
Czechoslovakia,
Poland, and
Yugoslavia. The conference finished negotiations in May 1919, at which point the new leaders of
republican Germany viewed the treaty for the first time. Some German leaders favored repudiating the peace due to the harshness of the terms, though ultimately Germany signed the treaty on June 28, 1919. Wilson was unable to convince the other Allied powers, France in particular, to temper the harshness of the settlement being leveled at the defeated Central Powers, especially Germany. For his efforts towards creating a lasting world peace, Wilson was awarded the 1919
Nobel Peace Prize.
Ratification debate and defeat on
USS George Washington, as she steamed up
New York Harbor on July 8, 1919; the
Weimar National Assembly in Germany formally ratified the treaty the following day in a vote of 209 to 116. Ratification of the Treaty of Versailles required the support of two-thirds of the Senate, a difficult proposition given that Republicans held a narrow majority in the Senate after the
1918 U.S. elections. Republicans were outraged by Wilson's failure to discuss the war or its aftermath with them, and an intensely partisan battle developed in the Senate. Republican Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge supported a version of the treaty that required Wilson to compromise. Wilson refused. The remaining group of senators, known as "reservationists", accepted the idea of the League but sought varying degrees of change to ensure the protection of American sovereignty and the right of Congress to decide on going to war. Wilson consistently refused to compromise, partly due to concerns about having to re-open negotiations with the other treaty signatories. When Lodge was on the verge of building a two-thirds majority to ratify the Treaty with ten reservations, Wilson forced his supporters to vote Nay on March 19, 1920, thereby closing the issue. Cooper says that "nearly every League advocate" went along with Lodge, but their efforts "failed solely because Wilson admittedly rejected all reservations proposed in the Senate."
Thomas A. Bailey calls Wilson's action "the supreme act of infanticide". He adds: "The treaty was slain in the house of its friends rather than in the house of its enemies. In the final analysis it was not the two-thirds rule, or the 'irreconcilables,' or Lodge, or the 'strong' and 'mild' reservationists, but Wilson and his docile following who delivered the fatal stab."
Health collapses To bolster public support for ratification, Wilson barnstormed the Western states, but he returned to the White House in late September due to health problems. On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a serious stroke, leaving him paralyzed on his left side, and with only partial vision in the right eye. He was confined to bed for weeks and sequestered from everyone except his wife, his physician,
Cary Grayson, and consulting neurologist
Francis Xavier Dercum. Bert E. Park, a neurosurgeon who examined Wilson's medical records after his death, writes that Wilson's illness affected his personality in various ways, making him prone to "disorders of emotion, impaired impulse control, and defective judgment." Anxious to help the president recover, Tumulty, Grayson, and the First Lady determined what documents the president read and who was allowed to communicate with him. For her influence in the administration, some have described Edith Wilson as "the first female President of the United States." Link states that by November 1919, Wilson's "recovery was only partial at best. His mind remained relatively clear; but he was physically enfeebled, and the disease had wrecked his emotional constitution and aggravated all his more unfortunate personal traits. Throughout late 1919, Wilson's inner circle concealed the severity of his health issues. By February 1920, the president's true condition was publicly known. Many expressed qualms about Wilson's fitness for the presidency at a time when the League fight was reaching a climax, and domestic issues such as strikes, unemployment, inflation and the threat of Communism were ablaze. In mid-March 1920, Lodge and his Republicans formed a coalition with the pro-treaty Democrats to pass a treaty with reservations, but Wilson rejected this compromise and enough Democrats followed his lead to defeat ratification. No one close to Wilson was willing to certify, as required by the Constitution, his "inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office." Though some members of Congress encouraged Vice President Marshall to assert his claim to the presidency, Marshall never attempted to replace Wilson. Wilson's lengthy period of incapacity while serving as president was nearly unprecedented; of the previous presidents, only
James Garfield had been in a similar situation, but Garfield retained greater control of his mental faculties and faced relatively few pressing issues.
Demobilization When the war ended the Wilson Administration dismantled the wartime boards and regulatory agencies. Demobilization was chaotic and at times violent; four million soldiers were sent home with little money and few benefits. In 1919, strikes in major industries broke out, disrupting the economy. The country experienced further turbulence as a
series of race riots broke out in the summer of 1919. In 1920, the economy plunged into a
severe economic depression, unemployment rose to 12 percent, and the price of agricultural products sharply declined.
Red Scare and Palmer Raids Following the
Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia and similar revolutionary attempts in
Germany and
Hungary, many Americans feared the possibility of terrorism in the United States. Such concerns were inflamed by the
bombings in April 1919 when anarchists mailed 38 bombs to prominent Americans; one person was killed but most packages were intercepted. Nine more mail bombs were sent in June, injuring several people. Fresh fears combined with a patriotic national mood sparking the "
First Red Scare" in 1919. Attorney General Palmer from November 1919 to January 1920 launched the
Palmer Raids to suppress radical organizations. Over 10,000 people were arrested and 556 aliens were deported, including
Emma Goldman. Palmer's activities met resistance from the courts and some senior administration officials. No one told Wilson what Palmer was doing. Later in 1920, the
Wall Street bombing on September 16 killed 40 and injured hundreds in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil up to that point. Anarchists took credit and promised more violence; they escaped capture.
Prohibition and women's suffrage Prohibition developed as an unstoppable reform during World War I, but the
Wilson administration played only a minor role. The
Eighteenth Amendment passed Congress and was ratified by the states in 1919. In October 1919, Wilson vetoed the
Volstead Act, legislation designed to enforce Prohibition, but his veto was overridden by Congress. Wilson opposed
women's suffrage in 1911 because he believed women lacked the public experience needed to be good voters. The actual evidence of how women voters behaved in the western states changed his mind, and he came to feel they could indeed be good voters. He did not speak publicly on the issue except to echo the Democratic Party position that suffrage was a state matter, primarily because of strong opposition in the white South to black voting rights. In a 1918 speech before Congress, Wilson for the first time backed a national right to vote: "We have made partners of the women in this war....Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?" The House passed a constitutional amendment providing for women's suffrage nationwide, but this stalled in the Senate. Wilson continually pressured the Senate to vote for the amendment, telling senators that its ratification was vital to winning the war. The Senate finally approved it in June 1919, and the requisite number of states ratified the
Nineteenth Amendment in August 1920.
1920 election presidential nominee
Warren G. Harding defeated Democratic nominee James Cox in the
1920 United States presidential election. Despite his medical incapacity, Wilson wanted to run for a third term. While the
1920 Democratic National Convention strongly endorsed Wilson's policies, Democratic leaders refused, nominating instead a ticket consisting of Governor
James M. Cox and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Republicans centered their campaign around opposition to Wilson's policies, with Senator Warren G. Harding promising a "
return to normalcy". Wilson largely stayed out of the campaign, although he endorsed Cox and continued to advocate for U.S. membership in the League of Nations. Harding won the election in a landslide, capturing over 60% of the popular vote and winning every state
outside of the South. Wilson met with Harding for tea on his last day in office, March 3, 1921. Due to his health, Wilson was unable to attend
the inauguration. On December 10, 1920, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize "for his role as founder of the League of Nations". Wilson became the
second sitting United States president after Theodore Roosevelt to become a
Nobel Peace Laureate. == Post-presidency and death (1921–1924) ==