The year 1885 also found Wilson at Bryn Mawr College as an associate professor. Wilson was not happy while at Bryn Mawr College. He later accepted a teaching job at Wesleyan University in 1888. Wilson was a huge success at Wesleyan. While there, he published The State and coached football. Although he was happy at Wesleyan, in 1890 Wilson couldn’t turn down an opportunity to teach at Princeton. In 1902, he became the first layman to become president at Princeton (Link 1).
Wilson impressed many people with his leadership at Princeton, and in 1910, he accepted the Democratic nomination for governor of New Jersey, running against James Smith. On November 8, Wilson won the election by a landslide. He was inaugurated on January 17, 1911. Wilson made such an impact on the legislature that he won most of his demands: direct primaries, effective state regulations of public utilities, workman’s compensation, municipal reform, and reorganization of the school system. He was awarded his last important request in 1913, an antitrust legislation to drive industrial monopolies out of New Jersey (2).
Because of his achievements as the governor of New Jersey, Wilson was nominated as a Democratic candidate for the 1912 presidential election. He ran against Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft, and won. Wilson only won 41.85 percent of the popular vote, but he won 435 electoral votes (“Woodrow Wilson” 2).
As president, Wilson had a list of things he wanted to accomplish. First, on his last was lowering the tariff rates. In October 1913, Wilson signed the Underwood Tariff, which significantly lowered taxes on imported goods. In 1914, a bill for the Federal Reserve System was passed. It served as a bank for the government and the banking community. It also helped stabilized the national banking system. The Federal Trade Commission was also established in 1914. It ensured that one company wouldn’t control an entire industry. Some other new legislations passed during Wilson’s presidency were: an act improving working conditions for sailors, the Federal Farm Act, the Warehouse Act, and the Adamson Act (7).
Aside from improving working conditions and passing new legislations, during Wilson’s term as president, war broke out in Europe. In 1914 a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Francis Ferdinand, and his wife. This started a conflict between the two nations that escalated to involve 32 countries and became the first world war. Wilson decided at the start of the war that the United States was to remain neutral. Wilson’s personal feelings were with the Allies, but he did not want his own feelings to influence his decisions (8).
The year 1914 was hard on Wilson for another reason. Not only did war break out in Europe, but his beloved wife, Ellen, passed away. A year later, while he was still mourning Ellen’s death, Wilson met Edith Bolling Galt. He took an instant liking to Edith. They were married privately on December 18, 1915. Edith was important in Wilson’s life. She helped him after he suffered a stroke and earned the nickname “Secret President,” (“Edith Bolling Galt Wilson” 1).
Shortly after Wilson’s small marriage, on February 4, 1915, the Germans announced that British waters would now be considered a war zone. This meant that any neutral ships passing through would be attacked. On May 7, a German U-boat attacked the British liner Lusitania, sinking it and killing more than 1100 people, 128 of which were Americans. Wilson responded to the event by emphasizing the need for fair warnings that would save lives.
The nation liked Wilson’s views on the war and his effort to remain neutral, so when the election for presidency in 1916 came around, Wilson was nominated for a second term. Wilson ran against Charles Evans Hughes. It looked like Hughes was going to win, but as the last of the California votes came in, it showed that Wilson had won the state by 1,983 votes (“Woodrow Wilson” 11). Though his slogan for his reelection was, “he kept us out of the war,” Wilson wasn’t able to do so for much longer.
Wilson’s dream of staying out of the war was destroyed when the British presented the Zimmermann Note to Wilson, a secret message they had intercepted and decoded. The note advised the German minister to seek a German-Mexican alliance against the United States. In one of the most famous of American declarations of war, Wilson denounced the German campaign as “a war against all nations” and called for military action “for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations,” (12). On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
As the war came to its end in 1918, President Wilson became the first president to leave the United States while in office. On December 4, 1918, Wilson sailed to Paris to take part in the peace conference. The Peace Conference opened on January 18, 1919, in Paris. All major decisions were made by the Big-4: Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd- George, Georges Clemenceau, and Vittorio Orlando. While in Paris, Wilson explained the League of Nations and its importance. The Peace Conference lasted until June 28, 1919 (Link 3).
On September 25, 1919, Wilson was in Colorado giving a speech informing Americans about the League of Nations. On his way home, he suffered a stroke in Kansas (“Woodrow Wilson” 17). He never fully recovered.
Even with his physical setback, Woodrow Wilson led an amazing life. As a president, he accomplished many things. In 1920, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in seeking peace after World War I and supporting the League of Nations. While in office, there were three amendments added to the U.S. Constitution: the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth (“President Thomas Woodrow Wilson” 2).
After Wilson left office, he retired with his wife in a house in Washington D.C. He lived the remainder of his life almost secluded from the public, with Edith to care for him. He died February 3, 1924. Wilson’s last words were “I am a broken piece of machinery. When the machinery is broken…I am ready.” He is the only president buried in Washington D.C. (“Thomas Woodrow Wilson” 1).
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Works Cited
“Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.” 1 Feb. 2001.
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/ew28-2.html>.
“Ellen Louise Axson Wilson.” 1 Feb. 2001.
<http://www. whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/ew28-1.html>.
Link, Arthur S. “Woodrow Wilson.” 2 Feb. 2001
<http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/bios/28wils.html>.
“President Thomas Woodrow Wilson.” 5 Feb. 2001
<http://library.thinkquest.org/12587/contents/personalities/wwilson/ww.html>.
“Thomas Woodrow Wilson.” 1 Feb. 2001
<http://www.geocities.com/presfacts/wilson.html>.
“Woodrow Wilson.” 2 Feb. 2001
<http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=0166B000>.
“Woodrow Wilson: Twenty-Eighth President.” 1 Feb. 2001
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ww28.html>.
