History of president woodrow wilson

The most important foreign policy advisor and confidant was "Colonel" Edward M. House until Wilson broke with him in earlyfor his missteps at the peace conference in Wilson's absence. Marshall of Indiana, played little role in the administration. Wilson fervently believed that public opinion ought to shape national policy, albeit with a few exceptions involving delicate diplomacy, and he paid close attention to newspapers.

Press secretary Joseph Patrick Tumulty proved generally effective until Wilson's second wife began to distrust him and reduced his influence. They were modestly effective, though the president prohibited his being quoted and often made purposely vague statements. Wilson had a mixed record with the press. Relations were generally smooth, but he ended weekly meetings with the White House correspondents after the Lusitania sinking in He also sharply restricted access during the peace conference.

In both cases, Wilson was afraid that publicity would interfere with his quiet diplomacy. Journalists such as Walter Lippmann found a workaround, discovering that Colonel House was both highly talkative and devious in manipulating the press to slant its stories. A major problem facing the administration was that 90 percent of the major newspapers and magazine outside the South had traditionally favored Republicans.

The administration countered this by quietly collaborating with favorable reporters who admired Wilson's leadership in the cause of world peace; their newspapers printed their reports because their scoops made news. The German-language press was vehemently hostile to Wilson, but he used this to his advantage, attacking hyphenates as loyal to a foreign country.

Wilson appointed three men to the United States Supreme Court. He appointed James Clark McReynolds in ; he was an arch-conservative who served until Wilson wanted to appoint Louis Brandeis to his Cabinet inbut he was too controversial then and instead served privately as Wilson's chief legal advisor. InWilson nominated Brandeis to the Courtsetting off a major debate over Brandeis's progressive ideology and his religion; Brandeis was the first Jew named to the Supreme Court and anti-semitism was rampant in upper-class circles.

But Brandeis had many friends who admired his legal acumen in fighting for progressive causes. They mounted a national publicity campaign that marginalized anti-semitic slurs in the legal profession. In Wilson appointed John Hessin Clarkea progressive lawyer who resigned in after bitter disputes with McReynolds. In addition to his three Supreme Court appointments, Wilson also appointed 20 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals and 52 judges to the United States district courts.

With the support of the Democratic Congress, Wilson introduced a comprehensive program of domestic legislation at the outset of his administration, something no president had ever done before. Democrats had long attacked high tariff rates as equivalent to unfair taxes on consumers, and tariff reduction was the first priority. After weeks of hearings and debate, Wilson and Secretary of State Bryan managed to unite Senate Democrats behind the bill.

The Revenue Act of reduced the average import tariff rates from 40 percent to 26 percent. Congress adopted an income tax in the s, but that tax had been struck down by the Supreme Court before taking effect. Approximately three percent of the population was subject to the income tax. Union Pacific Railroad Co. Baltic Mining Co. Facing the need for further revenue due to an arms build-up, in the Wilson administration called for the passage of another major revenue bill.

President Wilson and congressional allies like Congressman Claude Kitchin rejected proposal to increase tariff rates, instead favoring increased taxes on high earners. Nonetheless, the policies of the Wilson administration had a durable impact on the composition of government revenue, which after the s primarily came from taxation rather than tariffs.

President Wilson did not wait to complete the Revenue Act of before proceeding to the next item on his agenda—banking. Britain and Germany had strong financial controls through government-run central banksbut the United States had not had a central bank since the Bank War of the s. Under conservative Republican Senator Nelson Aldrich 's leadership, the National Monetary Commission had put forward a plan to establish a central banking system that would issue currency and provide oversight and loans to the nation's banks.

However, many progressives led by Bryan distrusted the plan due to the degree of influence bankers would have over the central banking system. Relying heavily on the advice of Louis Brandeis, Wilson sought a middle ground between progressives such as Bryan and conservative Republicans like Aldrich. Owen crafted a compromise plan in which private banks would control twelve regional Federal Reserve Banksbut the ultimate control of the system was placed in a central board filled with presidential appointees.

The system of twelve regional banks was designed with the goal of diminishing Wall Street 's influence. Wilson convinced Bryan's supporters that the plan met their demands for an elastic currency because Federal Reserve notes would be obligations of the government. Wilson convinced just enough Democrats to defeat an amendment put forth by bank president Frank A.

Vanderlip that would have given private banks greater control over the central banking system. The Senate then voted 54—34 to approve the Federal Reserve Act. Wilson signed the bill into law in December While power was supposed to be decentralized, the New York branch dominated the Federal Reserve as the "first among equals. Next on the agenda was antitrust legislation to supplant the Sherman Antitrust Act of Roosevelt and Taft had both escalated antitrust prosecution by the Justice Department, but many progressives desired legislation that would do more to prevent trusts from dominating the economy.

While Roosevelt believed that trusts could be separated into "good trusts" and "bad trusts" based on their effects on the broader economy, Wilson had argued for breaking up all trusts during his presidential campaign. In DecemberWilson asked Congress to pass an antitrust law that would ban many anti-competitive practices. A month later, in Januaryhe also asked for the creation of an interstate trade commission, eventually known as the Federal Trade Commission FTCthat would preside over the dissolution of trusts but would play no role in antitrust prosecution itself.

The bill also allowed individuals to launch antitrust suits, and it limited the applicability of antitrust laws on unions. President Taft had established the Commission on Industrial Relations to study labor issues, but the Senate had rejected all of his nominees to the commission. Upon taking office, Wilson nominated a mix of conservatives and progressive reformers, with commission chairman Frank P.

Walsh falling into the latter group. The commission helped expose numerous labor abuses throughout the nation, and Walsh proposed reforms designed to empower unions. The company rejected the Labor Department's attempts to mediate, and a militia controlled by the company attacked a miner's camp in what became known as the Ludlow Massacre.

At the Governor of Colorado's request, the Wilson administration sent in troops to end the dispute, but mediation efforts failed after the union called off the strike due to a lack of funds. In mid, a major railroad strike endangered the nation's economy. Congress passed the Adamson Actwhich incorporated the president's proposed eight-hour work day for railroads.

As a result, the strike was then canceled. Wilson took credit in the fall campaign for averting a national economic disaster. Business-oriented conservatives denounced it as a sellout to the unions and the Republicans made it a major campaign issue. The Adamson Act was the first federal law that regulated hours worked by private employees, and it was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Wilson thought a child labor law would probably be unconstitutional but reversed himself in with a close election approaching. It became 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 female 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 election against a reunited GOP. It was the first federal child labor law. However, the U. Supreme Court struck down the law in Hammer v. Dagenhart 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 Child labor was finally ended in the s. Wilson also commissioned Members of the Fraternal Order of Eagles to study old age pension laws overseas to see if such laws could be introduced in the United States. In Marcha bill was passed in the House of Representatives providing for a bureau of occupational safety and health in the Department of Labor, and that same month a bill was also passed in the House that allowed states to ban the entry of convict labor-made goods.

However, opposition in the Senate prevented both bills from being passed. President Wilson's agricultural histories of president woodrow wilson were heavily influenced by Walter Hines Pagewho favored a reorganization of the U. Department of Agriculture to put less focus on scientific research and more emphasis on using the department to provide education and other services directly to farmers.

Houston presided over the implementation of many of Page's proposed reforms and worked with Congressman Asbury Francis Lever to introduce the bill that became the Smith—Lever Act of This act established government subsidies for a demonstration farming program allowing farmers to voluntarily experiment with farming techniques favored by agricultural experts.

Proponents of the Smith—Lever Act overcame many conservatives' objections by adding provisions to bolster local control of the program. Local agricultural colleges supervised the agricultural extension agents, and the agents were barred from operating without county governments' approval. Bythree-quarters of the agriculture-oriented counties in the United States took part in the agricultural extension program.

The slogan was "Get America Out of the Mud! Wilson disliked the excessive government involvement in the Federal Farm Loan Actwhich created twelve regional banks empowered to provide low-interest loans to farmers. Nevertheless, he needed the farm vote to survive the upcoming election, so he signed it. Wilson embraced the long-standing Democratic policy against owning colonies, and he worked for the gradual autonomy and ultimate independence of the Philippineswhich had been acquired from Spain in the Spanish—American War.

The final phases of the Philippine—American War were still ongoing during the first several months of Wilson's history of president woodrow wilson, with the American victory at the Battle of Bud Bagsak in June bringing an end to nearly 15 years of anti-American resistance on the islands. Inheriting the Philippine policy of his predecessors, Wilson increased self-governance on the islands by granting Filipinos greater control over the Philippine Legislature.

The House passed a measure to grant the Philippines full independence, but Republicans blocked this proposal in the Senate. The Jones Act of committed the United States to the eventual independence of the Philippines; independence took place in The act, which superseded the Foraker Actcreated the Senate of Puerto Ricoestablished a bill of rights, and authorized the election of a Resident Commissioner previously appointed by the president to a four-year term.

The act also granted Puerto Ricans U. Immigration was a bitterly contested issue before the World War, but President Wilson gave the matter little attention, even though he came from immigrant roots himself. The Japanese government protested strongly, and Wilson sent Bryan to California to mediate. Bryan was unable to get California to relax the restrictions, and Wilson accepted the law even though it violated a treaty with Japan.

The law bred resentment in Japan which lingered into the s and s. As America entered the war, many Irish and German Americans were alienated—they did not want to help Britain or fight Germany. These Irish and German " Hyphenated American " elements repulsed Wilson because he believed that they were motivated to help the goals of Ireland and Germany, not to the needs and values of the United States.

Many reacted by voting against the Democrats in and Migration from Europe, or return thereto, ended inas European nations closed their borders during World War I. Wilson vetoed the Immigration Act ofbut Congress overrode the veto. The act's goal was to reduce unskilled European immigration by requiring literacy tests. It was the first U.

With the American entrance into World War I in AprilWilson became wartime leader of a poorly prepared nation with fresh manpower and the world's largest industrial and financial base. He set up the War Industries Boardheaded by Bernard Baruchto set war manufacturing policies and goals. It took many months to get it working right. Herbert Hoover came back from his famous rescue work in Belgium to quickly lead the Food Administration to provide food for home and for the Allied coalition, whose younger farmers were in the armies.

A new United States Fuel Administrationrun by Harry Augustus Garfieldintroduced daylight saving time and rationed fuel supplies so as to send more oil to Europe. William McAdoo took 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. Wilson delegated a large degree of authority over the home front to his subordinates.

He largely left military matters to his War and Navy departments [ ]. The great majority of labor unions, including the AFL and the railroad brotherhoods, supported the war effort, and were rewarded for their efforts with high pay and access to Wilson. Unions saw enormous growth in membership and wages during the war, and strikes were rare.

Wilson's labor policies continued to stress mediation and agreement on all sides. Not included are the much larger eventual totals for veterans benefits and interest. The United States had by far the best financial performance of any country in the war. That meant that civilian spending was shifted into the future when the bonds came due. Taxes were raised, especially on income taxes for the rich and on corporate profits, as well as luxuries, tobacco, and liquor.

The new Federal Reserve System expanded the money supply, and prices doubled. People on fixed incomes suffered a sharp drop in purchasing power; the economic resources they no longer used were diverted to war production. That is, inflation was a hidden tax that was in addition to the obvious taxes. The government made sure that farmers and war workers enjoyed higher incomes—a strong incentive to switch from the civilian to the munitions sectors.

The financing of the war was broadly successful. Later generations of taxpayers absorbed about half the economic cost of the war, and the people at the time the other half. The foreign loans stabilized the Allied economies and strengthened their ability to fight and to produce weapons, and thus helped the American war effort. By the end of the war, the United States had become a creditor nation for the first time in its history.

The Revenue Act of raised the top tax rate to 77 percent and further increased other taxes. He set up divisions in his new agency to produce and distribute innumerable copies of posters, pamphlets, newspaper releases, magazine advertisements, films, school campaigns, and the speeches of the Four Minute Men. CPI volunteers also spoke at churches, lodges, fraternal organizations, labor unions, and even logging camps.

Creel boasted that in 18 months his 75, volunteers delivered over 7. To counter disloyalty to the war effort at home, Wilson pushed through Congress the Espionage Act of and the Sedition Act of to suppress anti-British, pro-German, or anti-war statements. In response to concerns over civil liberties, the American Civil Liberties Union ACLUa private organization devoted to the defense of free speech, was founded in Wilson called on voters in the mid-term elections to elect Democrats as an endorsement of his policies.

However the Republicans won over alienated German-Americans and took control. Prohibition developed as an unstoppable reform during the war, but Wilson and his administration only played a minor role in its passage. By January 16,the Eighteenth Amendment had been ratified by 36 of the 48 states it needed. Wilson felt Prohibition was unenforceable, but his veto of the Volstead Act was overridden by Congress.

Wilson privately opposed women's suffrage as late as because he felt women lacked the public experience needed to be good voters. Looking at the actual evidence of how female 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.

A win for suffrage in New York state, combined with the increasingly prominent role women took in the war effort in factories and at home, convinced Wilson and many others to fully support national women's suffrage. In a January speech before Congress, Wilson for the first time endorsed 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?

While the vast majority of Republicans favored the amendment, Southern Democrats stood opposed. The requisite number of states ratified the Nineteenth Amendment in August Gardener to a seat on the United States Civil Service Commissionthe highest position a woman had ever held in the federal government up to that time. Wilson's leadership in domestic policy in the aftermath of the war was complicated by his focus on the Treaty of Versailles and opposition from the Republican-controlled Congress.

It ended in late with his incapacity. Instead, Wilson favored the prompt dismantling of wartime boards and regulatory histories of president woodrow wilson. Demobilization of the army was chaotic and violent; four million soldiers were sent home with little planning, little money, few benefits, and vague promises. A wartime bubble in prices of farmland burst, leaving many farmers deeply in debt after they purchased new land.

Major strikes in the steel, coal, and meatpacking industries disrupted the economy in Following the October Revolution in the Russiasome in America feared the possibility of a Communist -inspired agitation. These fears were inflamed by the United States anarchist bombingswhich were conducted by the anarchist Luigi Galleani and his followers.

Mitchell Palmer convinced Wilson to delay amnesty for those who had been convicted of war-time sedition, and he launched the Palmer Raids to suppress radical organizations. Vardaman or Benjamin R. Tillmanbut he was insensitive to African-American feelings and aspirations. Wilson's only weapons during those months were moral pressure and the influence that inhered in his power to extend recognition or to withhold it.

Thus, he recalled Henry Lane Wilson and, in Augustsent John Lind, a former Democratic governor of Minnesotato Mexico City to offer what amounted to de facto recognition and Washington's approval of a large loan to the Mexican government if Huerta would agree to hold an "early and free" election. The American president also asked for an immediate armistice in the civil war that had begun soon after Huerta's coup, when a large group of Madero's followers, called Constitutionalists, had taken to the field under Venustiano Carranzagovernor of the state of Coahuila.

Huerta bluffed and feinted, but by then he had the outright support of the British government and no intention of abdicating. On the contrary, he arrested most of the members of the Chamber of Deputies and instituted an outright military dictatorship on 10 October Huerta's move forced Wilson to adopt a policy that took account of the hard realities of the Mexican situation.

Support of the usurper was simply not an option with Wilson. There was the possibility of cooperation with Carranza, but the First Chief, as he was called, said plainly that he and his followers did not want Wilson's help, had no interest in "constitutional" elections at this time, and were determined to purge Mexico by the sword. Wilson did not shrink from accepting the logic of his implacable opposition to Huerta.

He announced his policy to the powers on 24 November:. The present policy of the Government of the United States is to isolate General Huerta entirely; to cut him off from foreign sympathy and aid and from domestic credit, whether moral or material, and so to force him out. It hopes and believes that isolation will accomplish this end, and shall await the results without irritation or impatience.

If General Huerta does not retire by force of circumstances, it will become the duty of the United States to use less useful peaceful means to put him out. Wilson could write so confidently because he had just forced the British government to withdraw support from Huerta. When the Constitutionalist campaign faltered, Wilson, on 3 Februarylifted the arms embargo against the Constitutionalists that Taft had imposed a year before.

Most important, Wilson accepted the Mexican Revolution upon its own terms. Settlement by a civil war was a terrible thing, he wrote in a circular note to the powers on 31 January"but it must come now whether we wish it or not. There was no choice now for Wilson but to resort to a show of force. But how could he do this without making open war, which Congress and the American people would probably not support and which Carranza would probably resist?

The opportunity came when a Huertista officer arrested the crew of a boat from the USS Dolphin at Tampico on 9 April and the commander of the American fleet in Mexican waters demanded a formal apology and a salute to the American flag with twenty-one guns. When fortunately for the American president Huerta balked at rendering the salute, Wilson, on 21 Aprilordered the fleet to seize VeracruzMexico's largest port.

Wilson expected no resistance because the Huertista commander at Vera-cruz had promised to withdraw from the city before the Americans landed. He did so, but cadets from the Mexican naval academy and others resisted bravely, and Mexicans and 19 Americans died before the Americans secured their control of Veracruz. When Carranza denounced the American invasion as angrily as Huerta, what could Wilson do but launch a strike toward Mexico City?

But he was determined to avoid general war with Mexico. Wilson was saved from this dilemma by Huerta's acceptance of an offer by the ABC powers — Argentina, Braziland Chile — to mediate the controversy. Wilson had no intention of submitting to a genuine mediation; on the contrary, he prolonged the charade at Niagara Falls until the Constitutionalists had beaten the weakened, isolated, and weary Huerta.

The revolutionary forces had divided even before Carranza rode into Mexico City on his white horse. Carranza faced two bitter foes — Francisco "Pancho" Villa, former brigand and now commander of the Division of the North, and Emiliano Zapataleader of a peasant revolt in the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City. Villa and Zapata dominated a convention of revolutionary generals that met at Aguascalientes in October and November It deposed Carranza and installed a puppet regime in Mexico City.

Carranza and the divisions loyal to him retired to Veracruz, which Wilson had recently evacuated. Wilson tried to persuade the two factions to unite; when this effort failed, he simply withdrew from active interference in Mexican affairs and awaited the outcome of the new civil war. Bryan tried to persuade Wilson to recognize the Villa-Zapata government in Mexico City, but Wilson refused to take sides.

Wilson would have nothing to do with them. As the summer wore on and Carranza gained strength, Robert Lansingwho had replaced Bryan in June and who regarded Carranza as a dire threat to foreign interests in Mexico, concocted a scheme to eliminate the First Chief through Pan-American mediation of the Mexican civil war. Wilson turned Lansing's scheme aside and accorded de facto recognition to the Carranza regime on 19 October Villa, who had retreated northward with a small but loyal force, retaliated against Wilson's recognition of Carranza by murdering sixteen Americans in northern Mexico on 11 January When this act failed to provoke Wilson into military intervention, Villa struck at an army camp at Columbus, New Mexicoon 9 Marchburning the town and killing nineteen inhabitants.

Wilson did the least that he could in the circumstances: he sent a force of some seven thousand men under General John Joseph Pershing to capture Villa and bring him to justice. Before he sent Pershing into Mexico, Wilson thought that he had obtained Carranza's tacit consent to the entry of what was called the Punitive Expedition.

The problem was the wily Villa, who eluded Pershing and drew him miles southward into Mexico. Carranza, who probably would have been very glad if Pershing had captured Villa, now had to deal with a Mexican public opinion outraged by Pershing's move into the heart of Mexico. Wilson did withdraw the expedition to the northernmost part of Mexico, but fighting broke out on 21 Junewhen an American cavalry force attacked a detachment of Mexican regulars at Carrizal.

First reports told of a treacherous ambush by the Mexicans, and Wilson wrote an address in which he asked Congress for authority to occupy all of northern Mexico. But both Carranza and Wilson desperately wanted to avoid war. Wilson cried out in a speech on 30 June "Do you think the glory of America would be enhanced by a war of conquest? Do you think that any act of violence by a powerful nation like this against a weak distracted neighbor would reflect distinction upon the annals of the United States?

Carranza, on 4 July, proposed that a joint high commission be appointed to investigate and recommend, and Wilson jumped at the chance to seek a diplomatic solution. The commission met at various places in the United States from 6 September to 15 Januarywhen it broke up because Carranza would accept no agreement that did not provide for the complete withdrawal of all of Pershing's force on a specific date, a promise the Americans were unwilling to make.

Wilson, determined to escape from the Mexican imbroglio, called the Punitive Expedition back to the United States on 18 January Through all the confused period in Mexican-American relations from toWilson prevented any counterrevolutionary movements from being hatched on American soil and kept a close watch over American bankers and businessmen who, he suspected, wanted to take advantage of a helpless nation.

Over and over, Wilson insisted that the Mexican people had the right to solve their problems in their own way. Ironically, the man who provoked Mexican ill will by his occupation of Veracruz and the dispatch of the Punitive Expedition was in fact the chief defender and guardian of the Mexican Revolution. With the outbreak of a general war in Europe in early Augustthe great majority of Americans gave thanks for the Atlantic Ocean.

Wilson and his advisers acted quickly to establish formal neutrality and to meet the rude shocks caused by the total disorganization of world markets and trade. In addition, Wilson, on 17 Augustappealed to his "fellow countrymen" to be "impartial in thought as well as in action. Wilson then turned his attention to British encroachments against neutral trade with Germany and Austria-Hungary the Central Powers.

He first tried to persuade the British to adhere to the Declaration of London ofwhich purported to codify existing international law and was extremely protective of neutral commerce. But the British were determined to use their overwhelming sea power to cut Germany off from life-giving supplies, and Wilson had no recourse but to fall back upon ambiguous international law to protect American trading rights.

This he did in a note to the British Foreign Office on 26 December The European theater of war was in delicate balance by the end of The British controlled the seas, and the French and British armies had repelled a German advance toward Paris. German armies in the east were on the move in Polandbut they were still far from their main eastern enemy, Russia.

In these circumstances of stalemate, American neutrality seemed secure. The announcement by the German government on 4 February that it would thereafter use its small submarine fleet to sink all Allied ships within a broad war zone without warning posed a grave threat to American neutrality, since the Germans also said that, because submarine commanders would sometimes find it impossible to discriminate between enemy and neutral ships, neutral ships would not be safe from torpedoes.

Wilson, on 10 February, sent a conventional warning to Berlin to the effect that the United States would hold Germany to a "strict accountability" for the destruction of American ships and lives on the high seas. What that warning meant in practical terms, no one, including the leaders in Washington, knew. For example, when a submarine sank a British passenger ship without warning off the coast of Africa on 28 March and caused the death of one American, Wilson decided not to act or even to protest.

However, it was impossible to do nothing when a submarine sank the great British liner Lusitania without warning on 7 Maycausing the death of more than 1, noncombatants, including Americans. Wilson was in a dilemma worse than the one occasioned by his occupation of Veracruz. It was obvious that the American people wanted him to defend their right to travel in safety upon the seas; it was also obvious that a majority of Americans and of the members of Congress did not want to go to war to vindicate this right.

Moreover, the cabinet and Wilson's advisers in the State Department were about evenly divided over a wise and proper response to the sinking of the Lusitania. Secretary of State Bryan pleaded with Wilson to acquiesce in the submarine blockade by warning Americans not to travel on Allied ships. Robert Lansing, then second in command of the State Department, pressed Wilson to send a peremptory demand to Germany for an apology, a disavowal, and a promise that submarines in the future would obey international law — that is, commanders would have to warn ships and permit passengers and crews to escape before the ships were sunk.

Wilson, taking high humanitarian ground, addressed two appeals to the German government to abandon the entire submarine campaign, at least against unarmed and unresisting liners and merchantmen. When the German government refused, Wilson, on 21 July, sent a third note, which admitted that it was possible to conduct a submarine campaign in substantial accordance with international law.

But the note ended with the warning that the United States government would hereafter regard ruthless attacks on merchant ships and liners, when they affected American citizens, as "deliberately unfriendly" — that is, as an act of war. Wilson desperately wanted to avoid war. At the very time that he was writing the Lusitania notes, he sent two moving appeals to the German government to join him in a campaign to establish real freedom of the seas — that is, to force the British to observe international law.

Wilson also planned to rally the other neutrals to win the same objective. But the civilian leaders in Berlin were engaged in a desperate struggle with military and naval leaders over submarine policy and could not return a positive response to Wilson's overtures. Had they done so, the outcome of the war might well have been very different. Bryan resigned as secretary of state on 8 June rather than continue a correspondence that he said might eventuate in hostilities with Germany.

Wilson, somewhat reluctantly, appointed Lansing to succeed Bryan. Wilson continued to maintain close personal control over important foreign policies, but it was hard to do this with Lansing in command at the State Department because the new secretary, bent on war with Germany, tried at critical points to thwart or undermine Wilson's diplomacy.

Lansing was also, by Wilson's standards, legalistic and reactionary. The crisis with Germany came to a sudden head when the commander who had sent the Lusitania to the bottom sank another large British liner, the Arabicwithout warning on 19 Augustwith forty-four casualties, including two Americans. Wilson did not resort to public correspondence, but he made it clear to the German government that he would break diplomatic relations if it did not disavow the sinking of the Arabic and promise that submarines would thereafter warn unarmed passenger ships and provide for the safety of their passengers and crews before sinking them.

Kaiser Wilhelm II finally hardened his courage and, on 30 Augustordered his naval commanders to cease the submarine campaign against all passenger ships. Under instructions from his superiors, the German ambassador in Washington, Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, informed Lansing on 1 September, "Liners will not be sunk by our submarines without warning and without safety of the lives of noncombatants, provided that the liners do not try to escape or offer resistance.

Americans hailed the so-called Arabic pledge as a great triumph for their president. Actually, what Wilson had done was to narrow the submarine dispute to the sole issue of the safety of unarmed passenger ships. Submarines were still free to prowl the seas and sink merchantmen without warning. The kaiser called all submarines back to their bases temporarily, in order to avoid any further incidents.

But the Germans had not renounced the important aspects of the underseas campaign — the war against merchant shipping — and Wilson had in effect withdrawn his demand that they do so. The submarine controversy with Germany and disputes with Great Britain over neutral trade convinced Wilson and many other Americans that the world was a jungle, a place where force was more powerful than reason and law, and that the United States, with its limited armed forces, was unable to protect its own security, to say nothing of its worldwide interests.

The administration's plan to strengthen the army was devised by Secretary Garrison and the General Staff. It provided for a ,man reserve force, called the continental army, and for a modest increase in the regular army. In contrast, the plan for naval expansion proposed a five-year building program, aimed obviously at Great Britain and Japan, to give the United States a two-ocean fleet capable of challenging the former and overwhelming the latter.

Wilson opened the campaign for these programs in New York on 4 November Opposition from antimilitarists, histories of president woodrow wilson, labor organizations, and Socialists developed very quickly. To complicate matters further for Wilson, the House Military Affairs Committee adamantly opposed the plan for the continental army, mainly because it would replace the National Guard as the first line of defense.

Wilson set out upon a speaking tour in the Middle West in late January to stir up public support for his program. He returned to Washington to find congressional Democrats as stubbornly opposed as ever to the continental army. Wilson was not committed to any single plan to strengthen the land forces; hence, he scuttled the continental army plan and accepted the House committee's demand that the National Guard be greatly strengthened and brought under comprehensive federal control.

Garrison's resignation on 10 February, in protest against Wilson's move, cleared the way for easy passage of the revised Army Reorganization Act, signed by Wilson on 3 June. Wilson's great personal achievement was passage of the Naval Appropriations Act, signed by him on 29 August It provided for the completion of the Navy Department's building program in three, rather than five, years.

The failure of Wilson and Lansing to coordinate their foreign policies during the early months of led to confusions and crises that nearly caused Wilson to lose control of foreign policy to Congress. Wilson sent Colonel House to Europe in early January to work out a plan for Anglo-American cooperation for peace. House went through the formalities of talking with French and German leaders, but he spent most of his time in London.

His peace plan stipulated that Wilson should convoke a peace conference in the near future. If the Germans refused to attend, the United States would probably enter the war on the side of the Allies. If a peace conference met and Germany refused to accept a "reasonable" settlement, the United States would probably enter the war on the Allied side.

Sir Edward Greythe British foreign secretary, on 22 February initialed a memorandum that embodied the plan, but he stipulated that the British, in agreement with the French, should decide when the House-Grey Memorandum was to be implemented. Meanwhile, Lansing had launched an initiative that threatened to wreck House's negotiations.

On 18 January the secretary of state proposed to the Allies that they disarm their merchant ships in return for a pledge by Germany that submarines would sink merchantmen only after warning them and providing for the safety of their crews. As Grey said, the Allies were being asked to permit submarines to sink their entire merchant fleets. The secretary of state announced on 15 February that the administration would follow customary rules and require submarines to warn defensively armed merchant ships before attacking them.

The intimation that the United States might break relations or go to war with Germany over the safety of armed ships set off a panic among Democrats in Congress, who threatened to take control of foreign policy by approving resolutions warning Americans against traveling on any armed ships. Wilson responded with his usual boldness, and the Senate and House tabled the resolutions on 3 March and 7 March, respectively.

Actually, the safety of armed ships never became an issue between the American and German governments. When a submarine torpedoed the packet Sussex without warning in the English Channel with heavy loss of life on 24 MarchWilson decided to use the incident to force the submarine issue to a clear resolution. He went before a joint session of Congress on 19 April and read the terms of an ultimatum he had just sent to Berlin: if the Germans did not at once abandon their ruthless submarine campaign, he would break diplomatic relations with the German government.

The Germans did not yet have enough submarines to conduct a successful blockade; consequently they replied on 4 May that submarines would thereafter observe the rules of visit and search when they attacked merchant ships. Maintenance of this pledge would be contingent upon the success of the United States in forcing Great Britain to observe international law in matters of trade.

Relations with Germany were almost cordial following the so-called Sussex pledge, and Americans could turn undistracted attention to the forthcoming national conventions and presidential campaign. The Democrats of course renominated Wilson. Repeated demonstrations for peace rocked the Democratic convention hall, and the Democrats adopted a platform plank that hailed Wilson because he had preserved national honor and "kept us out of war.

In the campaign, Hughes appeared petty, legalistic, and quarrelsome. Wilson, in contrast, was never better as a campaigner. Highlighting the themes of progressivism and peace, he kept Hughes on the defensive. Bryan joined other Democrats in trumpeting the cry "He kept us out of war" through the Middle West, the Plains states, and the Far West.

In the election on 7 NovemberWilson carried New HampshireOhio, the Southand virtually all trans-Mississippi states for a narrow victory — in the electoral college. Wilson's increase in popular votes in of nearly 50 percent over his popular vote in was one of the great electoral achievements in American history. Grey adamantly refused, and Wilson abandoned all hope of peace through Anglo-American cooperation.

This development and others embittered Anglo-American relations and caused Wilson to believe that the British were prolonging the war for conquest and revenge. Ever since the outbreak of the war, Wilson had hoped to bring it to an end. By latethe conflict seemed about to destroy the very fabric of European society; moreover, Wilson knew that both sides would intensify their efforts to end the bloody struggle, and intensification of the war at sea would probably force the United States into the conflict.

To bring peace to the world and to avert the possibility of American participation, Wilson appealed to the belligerents on 18 December to disclose the terms upon which they would agree to end the fighting. The Germans refused to divulge their terms. The Allies — emboldened by Lansing's assurances, made secretly to the French and British ambassadors, that Wilson was pro-Ally — announced terms that could be achieved only by complete defeat of the Central Powers.

Undaunted, Wilson opened secret negotiations with the German government. He was, he told Berlin, prepared to be an independent and impartial mediator, and he could force the Allies to the peace table because they were now totally dependent upon American credit and supplies. While he waited for a reply from Berlin, Wilson went before the Senate on 22 January to describe the kind of a peace settlement that the United States was prepared to work for and support.

It had to be a "peace without victory," he said, one without indemnities and annexations. Above all, it had to be based upon a league of nations to preserve peace. The Germans were as much determined upon total victory as the Allies. They abhorred the idea of Wilson's mediation and believed that their now large fleet of long-range submarines could bring the British to their knees long before the United States could send a single soldier to France.

Hence, they rejected Wilson's hand of friendship, accepted the prospect of war with the United States, and announced on 31 January that they would begin, the following day, a ruthless submarine campaign against all merchant shipping in European waters. Wilson was stunned, and he broke diplomatic relations with the German Empire on 3 February.

Even so, he said that he hoped that no German aggressions against American ships would force the United States to take sterner measures of protection. American ships refused to enter the war zone, and the nation waited expectantly. Then, in late February, the British disclosed a telegram from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German minister in Mexico.

The "Zimmermann telegram" instructed the minister, in the event that the United States entered the war against Germany, to offer to the Mexican government an alliance by which Mexico would go to war against the United States and would receive in return "the lost territory in Texas, New Mexicoand Arizona. Events thereafter led inexorably to war between the United States and Germany.

On 9 March, Wilson announced that the navy would place guns and gun crews on American merchantmen. It soon became obvious that armed neutrality would not suffice to protect American rights, and Wilson, after much agonizing, on 2 April asked Congress to recognize that a state of war already existed between the United States and Germany on account of German aggressions.

In a moving peroration, Wilson declared that the world had to be made "safe for democracy" and freed from the threat of German militarism. Congress complied after a brief debate, and Wilson signed the war resolution on 6 April With only recent British experience to guide him, Wilson led Congress, his administration, and the entire American people in one of the speediest and most successful mobilizations for war in history.

Congress approved a selective service bill on 18 Mayand the War Department set about systematically raising an army of 3 million men. Congress gave Wilson full power over the production, distribution, and prices of food and fuel supplies in the Lever Act of 10 August Food and fuel administrations mobilized and stimulated production to such an efficient degree that there was never any real danger of critical shortages of fuel and food for the American people, the American army, and the Allies.

Through various instrumentalities, but most notably the War Industries BoardWilson maintained a steady supply of raw materials to war industries. Substantial labor peace was maintained in through the Labor Department and in through the National War Labor Board. Wilson launched a large shipbuilding program at the outset of belligerency and, in Decembertook over operation of the railroads.

To persuade the public, still badly divided over the wisdom of participation, Wilson established the Committee on Public Information to undertake a nationwide program to convince Americans that they were fighting for justice, peace, democracy, and their own security in the world. To stamp out active opposition to the war effort, Congress adopted the Espionage Act of 15 June and the Sedition Act of 16 May The direct threat to the American and Allied cause in the spring of was the German submarine campaign, the results of which at first exceeded German expectations.

Against British opposition, Wilson insisted upon the institution of the convoy system. Wilson had his way in July, and the Navy Department suspended construction of capital ships and concentrated upon destroyers and smaller antisubmarine craft. The convoy system brought the submarine menace under control by the autumn of and eliminated it almost entirely by the spring of In addition, pooled American and British shipping transported nearly 2 million American soldiers safely to France and maintained the flow of American supplies to the Allies.

In mid-August, Pershing's First Army, somestrong, joined the British and French in a broad counterattack against the German lines. By late September, Pershing's force numbered 1. American manpower gave the Allied-American armies a predominance ofsoldiers on the western front and turned the tide of battle decisively against Germany. In his war message to Congress, Wilson had declared that the war aims of the United States were the same as the ones he had enunciated in his Peace Without Victory Address of 22 January Thus, from the outset of American belligerency, Wilson dissociated his government from the secret treaties and war aims of the Allies and declared that the United States was an associated, not an Allied, power.

This meant, theoretically, that the United States was free to wage its own war and to conclude a separate peace when it had achieved its ends. Of course, it was not possible to be so disengaged. The United States was also committed to total defeat of Germany if necessary, and the only way to wage a total war in the circumstances was through close cooperation, diplomatic as well as military, with Britain and France.

Wilson responded as warmly as he thought prudent; when Britain and France rebuffed the pontiff, Wilson had to console himself with the thought that the Allies would be in his hands "financially" at the end of the war and that he could force them to accept his own peace terms. Wilson was spurred to an independent peace campaign in response to the Bolshevik takeover in Russia in early November He died in Washington DC on 3 February Search term:.

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Additionally, Wilson nominated the first Jewish person to the U. Supreme CourtLouis Brandeiswho was confirmed by the Senate in Wilson's progressive agenda did not apply to all Americans, however.

History of president woodrow wilson

During his first term, he oversaw the re-segregation of many branches of the federal workforce, including the Treasury, the Post Office, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Navy, the Interior, the Marine Hospital, the War Department and the Government Printing Office. The action reversed hard-fought economic progress made by Black Americans since Reconstruction.

On May 7,a German submarine torpedoed and sank the British ocean liner Lusitaniakilling more than 1, people including Americans. Wilson continued to maintain U. Although the president had advocated for peace during the initial years of the war, in early German submarines launched unrestricted submarine attacks against U. Around the same time, the United States learned about the Zimmerman Telegram, in which Germany tried to persuade Mexico to enter into an alliance against America.

The agreement included the charter for the League of Nationsan organization intended to arbitrate international disputes and prevent future wars. Wilson had initially advanced the idea for the League in a January speech to the U. In September of that year, the president embarked on a cross-country speaking tour to promote his ideas for the League directly to the American people.

On the night of September 25, on a train bound for Wichita, KansasWilson collapsed from mental and physical stress, and the rest of his tour was canceled. On October 2, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Both times it failed to gain the two-thirds vote required for ratification.