Wilson, Woodrow (1856-1924), led the United States through World War I and gained lasting fame as a champion of world peace and democracy. Wilson was one of the most remarkable men in American history. Before reaching the height of popularity as a world statesman, he had achieved success in two other careers. First, as a scholar, teacher, and university president, he greatly influenced the course of education. Then, as a political leader, he brought successful legislative reforms to state and national government. Wilson would have won a place in history even if he had been active in only one of his three careers.
Wilson was first of all a scholar. Even his physical appearance was like the popular idea of a scholar. He was thin, of medium height, and wore glasses. His high forehead, firm mouth, and jutting jaw all gave signs of thoughtfulness and strength. He was also a strong leader as a teacher, university president, and statesman.
Wilson was a man of firm beliefs. When he made up his mind or felt his principles were at stake, he could be a difficult opponent. In his letters, he often said he was not able to establish close friendships. But in truth, he had a great capacity for warm friendship. His energy, magnetic personality, and high ideals won for him the loyalty of many friends and political supporters.
Historians consider Wilson one of the three or four most successful presidents. They agree that, as a spokesman for humanity in a world crisis, he stood for integrity, purity of purpose, and responsibility. Not even Wilson’s enemies suggested he was weak or stupid. They knew he was honest, and that not even friendship could turn him aside from what he thought was right.
A minority of the voters elected Wilson to the presidency in 1912. That year the Republicans split their votes between President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1916, the people reelected Wilson, partly because “He kept us out of war.” Three months later, German submarines began unrestricted attacks on American ships. Wilson went before Congress and called for war. After the war ended in 1918, the president fought for a peace treaty that included a League of Nations. Wilson saw his dream of U.S. leadership of the League crumble in 1920 when Warren G. Harding was elected president. Harding opposed American membership in the new organization.
In many ways, the Wilson era separated an old America from the modern nation of today. In 1910, when Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey, Americans drove fewer than 500,000 automobiles. By 1920, toward the end of Wilson’s presidency, more than 8 million cars, many of them Model T Fords, crowded the highways. Throughout this brief period of 10 years, the speeding-up in the nation’s way of life could be seen in many ways. The electrical industry grew rapidly, skyscrapers rose in large cities, machinery revolutionized farm life, and good roads began to crisscross the country.
The period also brought further development of the great social changes that had been building in the nation since the late 1800’s. After the Civil War ended in 1865, immigrants began pouring into the United States, especially from southern and eastern Europe and from Asia. Many settled in urban areas, causing cities to grow dramatically. Between 1910 and 1920, city-dwellers became a majority in the United States for the first time. The nation also was becoming increasingly industrialized, with large corporations accumulating tremendous wealth and political power. In universities, the relatively new fields of sociology and psychology exposed serious social problems and explored human thought and behavior. Examples of changes in popular culture were the development of motion pictures and the popularity of jazz music, which first appeared on phonograph records in 1917. World War I revolutionized social life. It began a wave of such far-reaching changes as the prohibition of liquor, giving women the right to vote, and the migration of blacks from the South to the North.
Early years
Childhood.
Woodrow Wilson was probably born on Dec. 29, 1856, at Staunton, Virginia. Confusion exists over the date because the family Bible shows it as “12 3/4 o’clock” at night on December 28. Wilson’s mother said he was born “about midnight on the 28th.” Wilson himself used December 28. He was the third of the four children of Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Janet “Jessie” Woodrow Wilson. The Wilsons named their first son Thomas Woodrow for his maternal grandfather. As a child, he was called “Tommy,” but he dropped the name Thomas soon after he graduated from college.
Wilson’s father, a Presbyterian minister, had grown up in Ohio. James Wilson, his grandfather, was a Scotch-Irish immigrant who had become a well-known Ohio newspaperman and legislator. Wilson’s mother was born in Carlisle, England, near Scotland. Her Scottish father, also a Presbyterian minister, brought his family to the United States when Janet was 9.
An atmosphere of religious piety and scholarly interests dominated Wilson’s early years. From the time of his birth, he lived among people who were deeply religious, believed in Presbyterian doctrines, and stressed the importance of education. Before Wilson was 2, his family moved to Augusta, Ga., where his father became pastor of a church. Between the ages of 4 and 8, Wilson lived in an atmosphere colored by the Civil War. His earliest memory was of a passer-by shouting in great excitement that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president and that war would follow. Years later, Wilson wrote about General William Sherman’s famous march through Georgia saying, “I am painfully familiar with the details of that awful march.” During the war, Joseph Wilson, a strong Southern sympathizer, turned his church into a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers.
Education.
Wilson did not begin school until he was 9, mainly because the war had closed many schools. Also, it seems likely that Wilson suffered from a type of dyslexia (reading disability) that he eventually outgrew. But Wilson’s father taught the boy much at home. On weekdays, the minister would take him to visit a corn mill, a cotton gin, or some other plant. During the war, they visited ammunition factories and iron foundries. After these trips, Wilson always had to discuss what he had seen, because his father believed the exact expression of ideas was necessary for clear understanding. At home, the Wilsons read the Bible together every day, and gathered to sing hymns on Sunday evenings.
In 1870, Wilson’s father became a professor in the Presbyterian theological seminary at Columbia, South Carolina. Three years later, when Wilson was 17, he entered Davidson College at Davidson, North Carolina. The school still suffered from the effects of the war. Davidson students had to carry their own water and firewood, as well as perform other chores. Wilson did well, and he enjoyed his freshman year at Davidson. But that year, his father was involved in a bitter dispute at the seminary. When he lost the fight, he resigned to serve as a minister in an important church in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Wilson family moved to Wilmington, and Woodrow stayed at home for a year. During that year, he decided to enter Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey). He spent his time at home reading, learning shorthand, and preparing for his studies at Princeton.
In September 1875, Wilson enrolled in the college at Princeton. While there, he practiced public speaking, became a leader in debating, and read the lives of great American and British statesmen. During his senior year, he served as managing editor of the college newspaper, the Princetonian. In 1879, Wilson graduated 38th in a class of 106. He planned a career in public life.
In October, Wilson entered the University of Virginia Law School at Charlottesville, Virginia. He felt that law would provide the best path to the career he desired. Wilson took an active part in the university’s debating societies. He withdrew from school in 1880 because of ill health.
Beginning career
Lawyer.
In 1882, Wilson established a law office in Atlanta, Ga. He attracted few clients, and spent much of his time reading, writing newspaper articles, and studying political problems. By the spring of 1883, Wilson realized that he was not suited to be a lawyer. He decided to become a college teacher, and began graduate study in history and political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Graduate student.
At Johns Hopkins, Wilson came into contact with brilliant, thoughtful men. He worked hard to improve his writing style and to master history and political science. In 1885, Wilson published his first book, Congressional Government, A Study in American Politics. Educators, lawmakers, and students praised his analysis of the federal government and of American legislative practices. Wilson later presented this study as his doctoral thesis, and Johns Hopkins awarded him the Ph.D. degree in June 1886.
Wilson’s family.
In 1883, Wilson made a business trip to Rome, Ga. There he met Ellen Louise Axson (May 15, 1860-Aug. 6, 1914), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. They were married on June 24, 1885. 
Mrs. Wilson became the most influential person in her husband’s life. She appreciated his talents and greatness, and sympathized with his ideals. Mrs. Wilson had many literary and artistic interests. But she devoted most of her time to making a comfortable home where her husband could relax from the cares of his work.
The Wilsons had three daughters: Margaret Woodrow Wilson (1886-1944), Jessie Woodrow Wilson (1887-1933), and Eleanor Randolph Wilson (1889-1967). Wilson was tender and affectionate, and enjoyed nothing more than rollicking with his children or telling them stories at the dinner table. Like his father, Wilson spent many evenings reading the works of British authors Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, or William Wordsworth aloud to his family. He often played charades with his daughters, and once dressed up in a velvet curtain, feather scarf, and one of his wife’s hats to look like an old lady.
Teacher.
In the autumn of 1885, Wilson began a three-year period as associate professor of history at Bryn Mawr College, a woman’s school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He then became professor of history and political economy at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Wilson also coached football at Wesleyan, and developed one of the school’s greatest teams. He told his players: “Go in to win. Don’t admit defeat before you start.” In 1889, Wilson published The State, one of the first textbooks in comparative government. In 1890, Princeton University invited him to become professor of jurisprudence and political economy.
University president
At Princeton, Wilson’s reputation as a scholar and teacher grew steadily. He worked constantly to express his thoughts precisely in writing. He also became a popular and distinguished lecturer. On June 9, 1902, the Princeton trustees unanimously elected Wilson president of the university. Never before had anyone but a clergyman held this position. As soon as Wilson took office, he announced his intention to change Princeton from “a place where there are youngsters doing tasks to a place where there are men thinking.” But his belief that “the object of a university is simply and entirely intellectual” met with opposition from some students devoted largely to social events and athletics.
Wilson helped reorganize the university’s undergraduate course program. He introduced a new method of teaching which he called the Preceptorial System. He believed that this system, using individual instruction by tutors, would bring students and teachers into a closer relationship. He also believed it would help students organize scattered information from their undergraduate programs and from general reading.
Wilson’s educational reforms won high praise from the few who understood them. But what brought the president of Princeton to public attention was his fight to reform the eating clubs. These organizations somewhat resembled the fraternities of other schools. Wilson felt that the clubs were undemocratic and detracted from the intellectual life of Princeton. Some people considered them to be centers of snobbery. Wilson wanted to replace the clubs by rebuilding the university with separate colleges, each arranged in a quadrangle around a central court. Each college would have its own dormitories, eating hall, master, and tutors. Wilson felt this arrangement, which became known as the Quad Plan, would stimulate intellectual life.
At first, many Princeton students, including members of the clubs, approved Wilson’s idea. But the alumni disliked it because they enjoyed coming back to their clubs at reunions and football games. Bitter feelings were aroused. Finally, the board of trustees asked Wilson to withdraw his proposal. Twenty years later, Harvard and Yale both adopted a form of Wilson’s Quad Plan. Princeton itself adopted the plan by the 1980’s.
Wilson suffered a second defeat in the development of plans for Princeton’s graduate school. He tried to integrate this school with the undergraduate college. He believed such a move would make the graduate school more responsive to his authority and establish it as the center of intellectual life on the campus. Andrew West, Dean of the Graduate College, opposed Wilson’s plan. The two men even battled over the location of a proposed new building for the graduate school. The bitter fight ended in defeat when a graduate died and left a sum thought to be several million dollars to the graduate school on condition that West remain in charge.
Wilson’s struggles at Princeton attracted wide public notice. Newspapers reported the argument over the Quad Plan as a fight by Wilson for democracy and against snobbery. He was pictured as a man who favored the common people against the rich and powerful. Such a picture was too simple, but it made him politically appealing.
Governor of New Jersey
James Smith, Jr., the Democratic Party boss in New Jersey, began to think of Wilson as a possible candidate for governor. The party’s record was so bad that it needed a candidate whose honesty was above question. Colonel George B. M. Harvey, a party leader and the editor of Harper’s Weekly, also became interested in Wilson. Smith and Harvey together could almost control the nomination, and they offered it to Wilson.
They timed their offer well. Because of his disappointments at Princeton, Wilson was ready to change careers. As a scholar in the field of government, he knew the facts of machine politics. He suspected that Smith planned to use him for some purpose of his own. But Wilson wanted to run for governor as the first step toward the White House, and Smith badly needed Wilson.
On Oct. 20, 1910, Wilson resigned from Princeton to campaign for governor. The power and eloquence of his campaign speeches stirred voters throughout the state. He was elected by the largest majority received by a Democrat in New Jersey up to that time.
Political reformer.
Wilson at once made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with the political practices of the Democratic machine headed by Smith. Smith, who had previously served in the U.S. Senate, decided to run for that office again. At that time, senators were elected by the state legislatures. If no candidate received a majority of the votes in each house of a legislature, both houses met in joint session to elect a senator. Wilson’s victory had given the Democrats a majority in the joint session of the New Jersey legislature. When Smith refused to withdraw, Wilson endorsed a rival candidate who won. A reporter wrote that Wilson had “licked the gang to a frazzle.”
Meanwhile, Wilson was pushing a series of reforms through the legislature. These laws changed New Jersey from one of the most conservative states into one of the most progressive. During its first session, the legislature enacted the most important proposals of Wilson’s campaign. It passed a primary-election law, a corrupt-practices act, a public-utilities act, an employers’ liability law, various school-reform laws, and a law permitting cities to adopt the commission form of government. Wilson did not hesitate to break long-established customs. He hired a superintendent of schools from outside the state. He frequently asked the advice of members of the legislature, and turned up unexpectedly at some of their private meetings. He sometimes appealed directly to the people, to influence public opinion and put pressure on legislators and other officials.
Presidential candidate.
Wilson’s reforms in New Jersey brought him national attention at an opportune time. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party was seeking a presidential candidate to replace William Jennings Bryan, who had been defeated three times. By 1911, Wilson had clearly become a candidate for the nomination. He started speaking on national issues throughout the country, and progressive Democrats began to support him. Most importantly, Wilson won the confidence of Bryan, the party’s official leader.
The Democratic national convention met at Baltimore in June 1912. Champ Clark of Missouri, Speaker of the House of Representatives, received a majority of the delegates’ votes on the 10th ballot. Not since 1844 had a candidate who had gained a majority failed to go on and receive the two-thirds vote then necessary for nomination. But Wilson’s followers stayed with him. On the 14th ballot, Bryan swung his support to Wilson. The old progressive rose dramatically in the crowded convention hall to explain his vote. He pointed out that Charles Francis Murphy, the boss of New York City’s Tammany Hall machine, had thrown his support to Clark. He said he could never vote for Clark as long as the Speaker had Tammany’s support. From this point on, Wilson gained slowly until the 46th ballot, when he won the nomination. The convention nominated Governor Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana for vice president.
Wilson’s nomination meant almost certain election, because the Republican Party was badly split. Conservative Republicans had renominated President William Howard Taft. Progressive Republicans then formed a new Progressive Party that nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt. In a series of campaign speeches, later published as The New Freedom, Wilson stirred the public with his understanding of national problems.
The popular vote, overwhelmingly for Wilson and Roosevelt, was a clear endorsement of a liberal reform program. Wilson received 435 electoral votes; Roosevelt, 88; and Taft, 8.
Wilson’s first administration (1913-1917)
Inauguration.
During his inauguration on March 4, 1913, Wilson noticed that a wide space had been cleared in front of the speaker’s platform. He motioned to the police holding back the crowd and ordered: “Let the people come forward.” His supporters said the phrase expressed the spirit of his administration.
Loading the player...Woodrow Wilson's inauguration
In his inaugural address, the President accepted the challenge of the November landslide that had also swept a Democratic Congress into office. “No one can mistake the purpose for which the nation now seeks to use the Democratic party,” he declared. “It seeks to use it to interpret a change in its plans and point of view.” Among the laws that needed to be changed, Wilson named those governing tariffs, industry, and the banking system.
Wilson was the last President to ride to his inauguration in a horse-drawn carriage. Neither he nor his wife liked large social affairs, so the Wilsons did not give an inaugural ball. On March 15, only 11 days after his inauguration, Wilson held the first regular presidential press conference. He felt that the people were entitled to reports on the progress of his administration.
Legislative program.
Wilson called Congress into special session on April 7, 1913, to consider a new tariff bill. For the first time since the presidency of John Adams, the President personally delivered his legislative requests to Congress. In October, Congress passed Wilson’s first important reform measure, the Underwood Tariff Act. This law lowered rates on imports, and removed all of the tariffs from wool, sugar, iron ore, steel rails, and many other items. After signing the bill, Wilson remarked: “I have had the accomplishment of something like this at heart ever since I was a boy.”
On June 23, as Congress debated the tariff bill, Wilson presented his program for reform of the banking and currency laws. He spoke of this reform as “the second step in setting the business of this country free.” Representative Carter Glass of Virginia introduced a bill to establish a central banking system. It was designed to provide a new currency and to help the flow of capital through 12 reserve banks, under the direction of a Federal Reserve Board. Congress debated the bill hotly for six months. In December, it passed the Federal Reserve Act basically in the form the President had recommended. Amendments also provided for exclusive governmental control of the Federal Reserve Board and for short-term agricultural credit through the new reserve banks. This act is regarded as the most far-reaching banking and currency bill in the nation’s history. See Federal Reserve System.
Wilson also asked for a series of other reforms. In 1914, Congress established the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and stop unfair trade practices (see Federal Trade Commission ). That same year, it passed the Clayton Antitrust Act, which increased the power of the federal government to police unfair practices of big business. In 1916, Wilson led Congress in adopting a series of reform measures. The Adamson Act established the eight-hour working day for railroad employees. The Child Labor Act, which limited children’s work hours, began a new program of federal regulation of industry. Heavy taxes were placed on wealth. A tariff commission was established to “take the tariff out of politics.” Other programs were started to improve rural education and rural roads.
Foreign affairs
demanded much of the President’s attention. He persuaded Congress to repeal the Panama Tolls Act, which had allowed American ships to use the Panama Canal toll-free when sailing between U.S. coastal ports. Wilson believed this law violated a treaty with the United Kingdom. The president also refused to approve a bankers’ loan to China, and put himself on record against “dollar diplomacy.” Wilson insisted that his party live up to its campaign promise of preparing the Philippines for independence. In 1916, Congress passed the Jones Bill, which greatly increased Philippine self-government and made many reforms in the administration of the islands.
Crisis in Mexico.
Relations between the United States and Mexico were frequently troubled during Wilson’s first administration. In 1913, the President told Congress that there could be no peace in Mexico while Victoriano Huerta ruled as dictator. Wilson declared that the United States “can have no sympathy with those who seek to seize the powers of government to advance their own personal interests or ambition.” Wilson tried unsuccessfully to negotiate for Huerta’s retirement. Then the President permitted the dictator’s enemies, who had begun a revolution, to obtain arms in the United States. Wilson let the Mexican groups fight it out for a while. But when Huerta’s forces arrested 14 American sailors who had gone ashore at Tampico, Mexico, the president struck hard. He refused to accept Huerta’s apology, and demanded that Huerta publicly salute the American flag in Tampico. When Huerta refused, Wilson in April 1914 ordered American forces to occupy the Mexican port of Veracruz. Eighteen Americans were killed in the action.
At this point, Wilson accepted an offer of the ABC powers (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) to arbitrate the dispute. A peaceful settlement was worked out. Huerta fled from Mexico, and Venustiano Carranza, the leader of the anti-Huerta rebels, became acting president of Mexico. Pancho Villa, one of Carranza’s chief generals, then quarreled with his leader and led a revolution against him. Carranza’s soldiers drove Villa into northern Mexico. From there, Villa’s troops raided Columbus, New Mexico. Many Americans called for war, but Wilson would not yield to their pressure. “Watchful waiting” became his policy. He sent troops under General John J. Pershing to patrol the border. Then, in 1916, he ordered Pershing to pursue Villa deep into Mexico. Carranza warned that he would resist any further invasion. Fighting did occur, and only a series of dramatic events in the late spring of 1916 averted open war. In 1917, Wilson officially recognized the government that had been established by a new constitution. But relations were never cordial with Mexico during the rest of the Wilson era. See Mexico (The revolution of 1910) (The constitution of 1917) .
Caribbean problems.
Both Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan spoke out against taking more land for the United States by the use of force. But their policies toward many small nations of Latin America and the Caribbean area did not differ much from those of previous presidents. In 1914, Wilson and Bryan took over most of the control of revolution-torn Nicaragua. They sent troops in 1915 to occupy Haiti. A year later, the Dominican Republic was placed under American military government.
World War I begins.
In August 1914, the outbreak of World War I stunned people everywhere. Most Americans joined in a single cry: “Let’s stay out of it.” Wilson proclaimed the neutrality of the United States. He said the nation “must be neutral in fact as well as in name … we must be impartial in thought as well as in action.”
But neutrality became easier to think about than to maintain. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing 128 Americans. This incident enraged some Americans, but Wilson remained calm. He began negotiations with the Germans and got them to order their submarines not to attack neutral or passenger ships. Angry people called Wilson “a human icicle” who did nothing to avenge the loss of American lives. But most Americans approved the president’s fight for peace and neutrality.
Life in the White House.
With the help of her three daughters, Mrs. Wilson put her greatest efforts into making the White House as much like a private home as possible. She devoted herself to welfare work and to small groups interested in literature and art.
Then the Wilsons’ family life changed radically. Within an eight-month period, from November 1913 to July 1914, two of the president’s daughters were married, and Mrs. Wilson became ill. After a short illness, the president’s wife died on Aug. 6, 1914. Wilson was so saddened by his wife’s death that he nearly lost his will to live. Wilson’s unmarried daughter, Margaret, and his first cousin, Helen Woodrow Bones, became hostesses for the president.
Remarriage.
In March 1915, Wilson met Edith Bolling Galt (1872-1961), widow of a Washington jeweler. He fell in love with her almost at once, and sent long letters and flowers to her every day. They were married in her home in Washington on Dec. 18, 1915. 
The second Mrs. Wilson was an intelligent and strong-minded woman. Wilson again found the happiness and security he had known with his first wife.
Election of 1916.
In June 1916, the Democrats renominated Wilson and Marshall. The Republicans had healed the split in their party, and chose a ticket of Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes and former Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. The war in Europe overshadowed all other issues in the campaign. Democrats sought votes for Wilson with the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” Wilson himself appealed to those who favored peace, but he also stressed the reforms his administration had accomplished.
On election night, the outcome was confused because of delays in receiving the election returns. Wilson went to bed believing Hughes had won. Many newspapers carried stories of Wilson’s “defeat.” But the final count in California gave the state to Wilson by about 3,400 votes. This insured his reelection.
Wilson’s second administration (1917-1921)
Declaration of war.
During the next three months, Wilson devoted all his efforts to halting the fighting in Europe. But in February 1917, the Germans began unlimited submarine warfare against all merchant shipping, including American ships. The president immediately broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. Later that month, British agents uncovered a German plot to start a war between Mexico and the United States. German submarines began to attack U.S. ships without warning in March, and enraged Americans demanded war. 
Wilson decided the United States could no longer remain neutral. On the evening of April 2, the president drove to the Capitol with an escort of cavalry. As he stepped before a joint session of Congress, his face was tense and white. He spoke in a voice heavy with feeling. He said actions by Germany were “in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States.” Thunderous applause greeted the president’s words. Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, declaring that “the world must be made safe for democracy.”
Four days later, on April 6, 1917, Congress passed a joint resolution declaring war on Germany. For a complete discussion of the United States in the war, see World War I (The United States enters the war) .
War leader.
The president proved himself as great a leader in war as he had been in peace. His many speeches in support of the American and Allied cause stirred free people everywhere. Wilson stated the great issues of the war, and defined the aims for which the democracies fought. He also pointed out the necessity of making a better world after the war. The American people rallied with great loyalty and patriotism. A crusading spirit, almost hysterical in its intensity, swept the nation. People sang “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Over There,” and other popular war songs. Well-known film stars, such as Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin, drew huge crowds to purchase Liberty bonds at rallies.
The Fourteen Points.
Wilson delivered his most important speech on Jan. 8, 1918. In this address to Congress, he named Fourteen Points to be used as a guide for a peace settlement. Five of the points established general ideals. Eight points dealt with immediate political and territorial problems. The fourteenth point called for an association of nations to help keep world peace. The Fourteen Points are summarized as follows:
1. Open covenants of peace openly arrived at, with no secret international agreements in the future.2. Freedom of the seas outside territorial waters in peace and in war, except in case of international action to enforce international treaties.3. Removal of all possible economic barriers and establishment of equal trade conditions among nations.4. Reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.5. Free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims.6. Evacuation of German troops from all Russian territory, an opportunity for Russia independently to determine its own political development and national policy, and a welcome for Russia into the society of free nations.7. Evacuation of German troops from Belgium and the rebuilding of that nation.8. Evacuation of German troops from all French territory and the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France.9. Readjustment of Italian frontiers along the clearly recognizable lines of nationality.10. Limited self-government for the peoples of Austria-Hungary.11. Evacuation of German troops from Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro, and independence guaranteed for the Balkan countries.12. Independence for Turkey, but an opportunity to develop self-government for other nationalities under Turkish rule, and guarantees that the Dardanelles be permanently opened as a free passage to ships of all nations.13. Independence for Poland.14. “A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.”
Wilson’s speech did much to undermine German morale during the final months of the war. It also gave the Germans a basis upon which to appeal for peace. On Nov. 9, 1918, only 10 months after the president had stated his Fourteen Points, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave up control of the German government. Two days later, an armistice that was negotiated by Wilson was proclaimed.
The peace settlement.
After the armistice had been signed, Wilson decided to lead the United States delegation to the peace conference at Paris. He wanted to make certain that his Fourteen Points would be carried out. The president also thought the United States should be represented by its political leader, as were the United Kingdom, France, and the other powers. Wilson appointed a peace delegation that included no member of the U.S. Senate and no influential Republicans. He was criticized for this, and later it helped cause the Senate to reject the treaty agreed upon at Paris. 
Wilson knew the United States would be the only country represented at the peace table that wanted nothing for itself. He also believed he would be the only representative of the great powers who really cared about establishing an association of nations to prevent war. The president was determined to use his power and prestige to have the final peace settlement include a plan for a League of Nations.
Wilson was the first president to cross the Atlantic Ocean while in office. He landed at Brest, France, on Dec. 13, 1918, and the next morning rode through the streets of Paris. Never had the people of Paris given a king or emperor such a joyous reception. Banners welcomed “Wilson le Juste.” From France, Wilson went to England, where he stayed at Buckingham Palace. In Rome, he met with Pope Benedict XV and became the first president to talk with a pope while in office. Everywhere he went in Europe, great crowds cheered him as the hope of humanity.
At the Paris Peace Conference, held from January to June, Wilson obtained only part of the treaty provisions he wanted. In order to win support for the League and other provisions in the Fourteen Points, he compromised on several major issues. Wilson’s concessions weakened his moral position in the eyes of the world, though they insured establishment of the League of Nations. See World War I (The peace settlement) ; League of Nations ; Versailles, Treaty of.
Opposition to the League.
In February 1919, Wilson returned to the United States briefly to discuss the League and the peace treaty with the Senate. The Constitution required two-thirds approval by the Senate for the United States to adopt the treaty, which included the League. The president also hoped to quiet rising criticism throughout the country. Wilson’s position was no longer strong politically. He had asked for the election of Democrats to Congress in 1918 as an indication of personal trust. But the voters had chosen more Republicans than Democrats.
Wilson soon discovered that he could not win Senate ratification of the League without some amendments to satisfy his critics at home. He went back to Paris in March 1919, and the conference delegates accepted several of these provisions. Wilson returned to the United States early in July with the text of the treaty. He found public debate on the peace terms in full swing, with mounting congressional opposition to the treaty and the League of Nations.
American opinion on the treaty was split into three groups. The isolationists, led by Senators William E. Borah, Hiram W. Johnson, and James A. Reed, stood firmly against any League. They argued that the United States should not interfere in “European affairs.” The second group consisted of Wilson and his followers, who urged that the treaty be ratified with no important changes or compromises. The men in the largest group, led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, took a middle ground between Wilson and the isolationists. They were ready to ratify the treaty with important changes. Some of these men, including Lodge, demanded changes that would reduce or eliminate America’s obligations to the League.
Wilson’s collapse.
The president decided to take his case for the League to the American people—the method that had worked successfully for him in the past. On September 4, Wilson began a speaking tour through the Midwest and the West. His doctor had advised him against the trip, because his strenuous labors over the past several years had weakened his health. On September 25, Wilson spoke at Pueblo, Colo., urging approval of the League. That night, as his train sped toward Wichita, Kans., Wilson collapsed from fatigue and nervous tension. He canceled the remainder of his tour and returned to Washington. On October 2, the president suffered a paralytic stroke. Wilson had suffered strokes even before he became president. But in each case, he made a nearly complete recovery and almost no one knew of his condition.
Wilson was an invalid for the rest of his life, but he did not give up the presidency. The Constitution did not then state clearly who inherits executive power when a president becomes severely ill but does not die or resign. After October, Wilson left his bed only for simple recreation or for purely formal tasks. These greatly taxed his strength, and his wife guided his hand when he signed official documents. Wilson did not call a meeting of the Cabinet until April 13, 1920. Before that, the Cabinet met unofficially and carried on much of the routine work of government during Wilson’s long illness.
From his sickbed, the president helplessly watched the losing fight for his treaty. Senator Lodge, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, presented the treaty for vote in November 1919. He and his committee had added 14 reservations. The most important one declared that the United States assumed no obligation to support the League of Nations unless Congress specifically approved by joint resolution. Claiming that this reservation would destroy the League, Wilson instructed Senate Democrats to vote against approval of the treaty containing the Lodge reservations. As a result, the treaty failed to win two-thirds approval. The treaty came up for vote again in March 1920, but it failed.
Wilson insisted that the treaty and the League should be the chief issue of the 1920 presidential campaign. The Democratic platform endorsed the League, and the Republican platform opposed it. In the election, Warren G. Harding, the Republican nominee, overwhelmingly defeated James M. Cox, his Democratic opponent. As far as the United States was concerned, the League of Nations was dead.
On Dec. 10, 1920, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in founding the League of Nations and seeking a fair peace agreement.
Last years
For almost three years after his term ended in March 1921, Wilson lived in quiet retirement in Washington. He formed a law partnership with Bainbridge Colby, his third secretary of state. Although Wilson had regained partial use of his arms and legs, his physical condition did not permit any actual work. He saw an occasional movie or play, listened to books and magazines read aloud to him, and sometimes invited friends for lunch.
Wilson was confident that future events would prove him correct regarding the League and the peace terms. In his last public speech, to a group of friends outside his home on Armistice Day, 1923, he said: “I cannot refrain from saying it: I am not one of those who have the least anxiety about the triumph of the principles I have stood for. I have seen fools resist Providence before and I have seen their destruction, as will come upon these again—utter destruction and contempt. That we shall prevail is as sure as that God reigns.”
Wilson continued to bear the crushing blows of defeat with dignity and calm. But he told his friends he was “tired of swimming upstream.” On Feb. 3, 1924, he died in his sleep. Two days later, Wilson was buried in Washington National Cathedral. He is the only president interred in Washington, D.C.
