Woodrow Wilson

I

Introduction

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th president of the United States (1913-1921), enacted significant reform legislation and led the United States during World War I (1914-1918). His dream of humanizing “every process of our common life” was shattered in his lifetime by the arrival of the war, but the programs he so earnestly advocated inspired the next generation of political leaders and were reflected in the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wilson's belief in international cooperation through an association of nations led to the creation of the League of Nations and ultimately to the United Nations. For his efforts in this direction, he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize for peace. More than any president before him, Wilson was responsible for increasing United States participation in world affairs.

A political novice who had held only one public office before becoming president, Wilson possessed considerable political skill. He was a brilliant and effective public speaker, but he found it difficult to work well with other government officials, from whom he tolerated no disagreement. He was, in private, a warm, fun-loving man who energetically pursued his ideals. But the strain of years in office, a tragic illness, and the public's disillusionment following World War I transformed Wilson's image to that of a humorless crusader for a feeble League of Nations.

II

Early Life

Wilson was born to religious and well-educated people, mainly of Scottish background. His grandparents on both sides emigrated to America in the 19th century and settled in Ohio. Wilson's father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, studied for the clergy at the Presbyterian-directed College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. He married Janet Woodrow, and early in the 1850s the Wilsons moved to Virginia, where Joseph Wilson taught at Hampden-Sydney College. In 1855 he became the minister of a church in Staunton. His first son and third child, Thomas Woodrow, was born there on December 28, 1856.

A

Civil War

When Woodrow was three years old the family moved to Augusta, Georgia. His early boyhood was happy but somewhat sheltered by the close family ties of the Wilsons. Wilson had a good singing voice and played the violin. When he had a family of his own, he carried on the tradition he had inherited of common prayer and sessions of music and song. The Civil War (1861-1865) was difficult for the Wilsons. Dr. Wilson was an ardent Confederate sympathizer, and young Wilson witnessed the ruthless behavior of federal troops who, under General William T. Sherman, invaded Georgia and South Carolina. Wilson believed all his life that the South had “absolutely nothing to apologize for,” so far as its secession from the Union was concerned. He believed further that the South's willingness to shed its blood “rather than pursue the weak course of expediency” had preserved its self-respect. Wilson remained a Southerner throughout his life.

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B

Early Education

Wilson was educated partly at home and partly at private schools in Augusta and, after 1870, in war-ravaged Columbia, South Carolina, to which the Wilsons moved. In 1874 they moved again, to Wilmington, North Carolina.

Like his father, young Wilson had great admiration for English letters and history. Also like his father, he held William Gladstone, the British Liberal prime minister, to be the greatest 19th-century statesman. The young Wilson took a moral and religious attitude toward society. His critical view of post-Civil War society as materialistic and ungracious agreed with that of such Southern poets as Henry Timrod and Sidney Lanier.

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