(December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States. A devout Presbyterian and leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as president of Princeton University then became the reform governor of New Jersey in 1910. With Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft dividing the Republican vote, Wilson was elected President as a Democrat in 1912. He proved highly successful in leading a Democratic Congress to pass major legislation including the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Underwood Tariff and the Federal Farm Loan Act.
Re-elected in 1916, his second term centred on World War I. He tried to negotiate a peace in Europe but when Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare against American shipping he called on Congress to declare war. Ignoring military affairs, he focused on diplomacy and finance. On the home front he began the first effective draft in 1917, raised billions through liberty loans, imposed an income tax on the wealthy, set up the War Industries Board, promoted labour union growth, supervised agriculture and food production through the Lever act, took over control of the railroads, and suppressed left-wing anti-war movements. He paid surprisingly little attention to military affairs, but provided the funding and food supplies that made Allied victory in 1918 possible. He went to Paris in 1919 to create the League of Nations and shape the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson collapsed with a debilitating stroke in 1919, as the homefront saw massive strikes and race riots, and wartime prosperity turn into postwar depression. He refused to compromise with the Republicans who controlled Congress after 1918, so the Senate failed to ratify the Versailles Treaty. It went into effect anyway, but the U.S. never joined the League of Nations. The consensus of presidential experts ranks him in the first or second tier of best presidents, in a 1982 poll it ranked him sixth out of thirty six presidents, and in a 2000 poll it ranked him sixth again out of forty one presidents.
Wilson Returning From the Versailles Peace Conference 1919.
After World War I, Wilson participated in negotiations with the stated aim of assuring statehood for formerly oppressed nations and an equitable peace. On January 8, 1918, Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations, an organization with a stated goal of helping to preserve territorial integrity and political independence among large and small nations alike. Wilson, a staunch opponent of anti-Semitism was sympathetic to the plight of Jews, especially in Poland. He acquiesced in the British Balfour Declaration regarding a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but did not endorse Zionism (which was highly controversial among American Jews.)
Wilson intended the Fourteen Points as a means toward ending the war and achieving an equitable peace for all the nations. He spent six months at Paris for the 1919 Paris Peace Conference (making him the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office). He worked tirelessly to promote his plan. The charter of the proposed League of Nations was incorporated into the conference's Treaty of Versailles.
For his peacemaking efforts, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. However, Wilson failed to win Senate support for ratification and the United States never joined the League. Republicans under Henry Cabot Lodge controlled the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to give them a voice at Paris and refused to agree to Lodge's proposed changes. The key point of disagreement was whether the League would diminish the power of Congress to declare war. Historians generally have come to regard Wilson's failure to win U.S. entry into the League as perhaps the biggest mistake of his administration, and even as one of the largest failures of any American presidency
Re-elected in 1916, his second term centred on World War I. He tried to negotiate a peace in Europe but when Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare against American shipping he called on Congress to declare war. Ignoring military affairs, he focused on diplomacy and finance. On the home front he began the first effective draft in 1917, raised billions through liberty loans, imposed an income tax on the wealthy, set up the War Industries Board, promoted labour union growth, supervised agriculture and food production through the Lever act, took over control of the railroads, and suppressed left-wing anti-war movements. He paid surprisingly little attention to military affairs, but provided the funding and food supplies that made Allied victory in 1918 possible. He went to Paris in 1919 to create the League of Nations and shape the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson collapsed with a debilitating stroke in 1919, as the homefront saw massive strikes and race riots, and wartime prosperity turn into postwar depression. He refused to compromise with the Republicans who controlled Congress after 1918, so the Senate failed to ratify the Versailles Treaty. It went into effect anyway, but the U.S. never joined the League of Nations. The consensus of presidential experts ranks him in the first or second tier of best presidents, in a 1982 poll it ranked him sixth out of thirty six presidents, and in a 2000 poll it ranked him sixth again out of forty one presidents.
Wilson Returning From the Versailles Peace Conference 1919.
After World War I, Wilson participated in negotiations with the stated aim of assuring statehood for formerly oppressed nations and an equitable peace. On January 8, 1918, Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations, an organization with a stated goal of helping to preserve territorial integrity and political independence among large and small nations alike. Wilson, a staunch opponent of anti-Semitism was sympathetic to the plight of Jews, especially in Poland. He acquiesced in the British Balfour Declaration regarding a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but did not endorse Zionism (which was highly controversial among American Jews.)
Wilson intended the Fourteen Points as a means toward ending the war and achieving an equitable peace for all the nations. He spent six months at Paris for the 1919 Paris Peace Conference (making him the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office). He worked tirelessly to promote his plan. The charter of the proposed League of Nations was incorporated into the conference's Treaty of Versailles.
For his peacemaking efforts, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. However, Wilson failed to win Senate support for ratification and the United States never joined the League. Republicans under Henry Cabot Lodge controlled the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to give them a voice at Paris and refused to agree to Lodge's proposed changes. The key point of disagreement was whether the League would diminish the power of Congress to declare war. Historians generally have come to regard Wilson's failure to win U.S. entry into the League as perhaps the biggest mistake of his administration, and even as one of the largest failures of any American presidency
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