President Woodrow Wilson

“America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.” – Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was the twenty-eighth president of the United States. President Wilson held office from 1913 to 1921 and led America through World War I.

Born in Virginia in 1856, Wilson graduated from the College of New Jersey and the University of Virginia Law School. Having earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University, he took to academics as a professor of the political sciences.

Political Career

In 1910, Woodrow Wilson was elected as the Democratic Governor of New Jersey.

In 1912, Wilson was elected to his first term as a Democratic president, and developed the major progressive reforms program including the Federal Reserve Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Wilson and World War I

With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, President Wilson declared U.S. neutrality and called for Americans to remain neutral in thought and action. In 1916, President Wilson ran for a second term and his campaign centered on the slogan “He kept us out of war.” President Wilson was reelected, but soon the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare began to challenge America’s neutral stance.

In 1917, America entered World War I as an associated power on the side of the Allies. President Wilson raised a large war fund and concerned himself with matters of international diplomacy. He championed the nations’ right to self-determination.

“Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people.” – Woodrow Wilson

Ideology:

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson presented his Fourteen Points – his vision for a peaceful and just postwar scenario. The Fourteen Points were welcomed by the troops, but Wilson’s European counterparts remained skeptical of the ideology he presented. Consequently, the Treaty of Versailles was divergent in its ends from the Fourteen Points. Germany had negotiated an armistice based on President Wilson’s vision and the Treaty of Versailles was the cause of much embitterment.

Nobel Prize:

The creation of the League of Nations to safeguard international peace and security was also part of President Wilson’s vision for the postwar world. The League of Nations, however, did not receive Congress ratification. For his immense efforts for the cause of world peace, President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

The physical exertion of President Wilson’s efforts to gather support for the Covenant of the League resulted in a collapse on September 25, 1919. He never fully recovered and lived the remainder of his life as an invalid.