The Extraordinary Career of Woodrow Wilson

The Extraordinary Career of Woodrow Wilson

Louis Seibold

WWP16534

1924 February 4

Louis Seibold writes a biographical article on Woodrow Wilson published the day after Wilson's death.

Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia

English

By LOUIS SIEBOLD

Former Washington correspondent of the Post-Dispatch and New York World, and the first correspondent to interview the President after his long illness. This interview was published in the Post-Dispatch in June 18, 1920, attracting country-wide attention.
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(Reprinted from the special edition of the Post-Dispatch yesterday, announcing the death of Mr. Wilson.)

WOODROW WILSON was not like any other of the men that held the office of President of the American Republic. Contrasted with Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a log cabin chinked with mud and whose education was of pathetically rudimentary character, to be elected President of the United States. He was the first man to follow the profession of teacher to be elected to that office.

And he was withal a strange and at times an incongruous figure in American life. He was actually known to few people. He was given to seclusion and introspection. Yet in his dealings with men he was frank and positive, even to the point of stubborness. He was charitable to an amazing degree that at times rendered him blind to the faults of others which were obvious to both friends and critics.

Prejudiced in Dislikes.

He was frequently intolerant of the views of others. His critics bitterly denounced him because of his tendency to ignore individual service upon which he founded his political fortunes. He ignored the personal claims of such men for the larger benefits of the whole people. He did not hold the friendship of men through the epochal periods of his unusual career. He was intensely prejudiced in his likes and dislikes.

His judgment as to men was severely criticised and attacked, and not always unjustly, but never his motives or conclusions regarding measures or affecting the purity of his ultimate purposes.

This was Woodrow Wilson, the one dominant, overshadowing figure of his time, that embraced the greatest period in the history of the world.

The Wilson family room which the twenty-eighth President of the United States came was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. James Wilson, who came from the County Down, Ireland in 1807, was the first of the Wilsons to arrive. He hired out to William Duane, who ran what would now be described as a muckraking newspaper in Philadelphia. James Wilson dropped journalism after a few years and went to Ohio, where he dabbled in literature, journalism, was a Justice of the Peace and a member of the Ohio State Legislature. He was the father of 10 children.

One of these was Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a scholar, who was graduated from the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa., which he left a licensed preacher. Joseph Ruggles Wilson married Miss Janet Woodrow, who lived at Chillichooche. She was the daughter of a famous Presbyterian clergyman. Joseph Ruggles Wilson was called to the Presbyterian Church at Staunton, Va., and it was there on Dec. 28, 1856, that Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born.

Two years later the Wilson family moved to Augusta, Ga., and Joseph Ruggles Wilson became a famous clergyman in that State. Woodrow Wilson spent his childhood in Georgia. One of his earliest recollections was that he saw Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, being taken under guard to Fortress Monroe.Was Mischievous Boy.The boyhood companions of Woodrow Wilson remember him as a little bundle of nervous energy, vitally alive and very mischievous. He spent his summers at the house of his uncle James Bones who had married Miss Marion Woodrow, a sister of his mother. He went to school at Augusta and one of his mates, was Joseph R. Lamar, afterwards an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

At that time the future President was called “Tom Wilson.” In 1870 Joseph Ruggles Wilson became a professor in the Southern Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Columbia, S. C. It was here that the real education of Woodrow Wilson began. While he was an apt student under his father’s tuition he was somewhat of a dreamer, possessed a vivid imagination and was gifted as a mimic. He organized bands of pirates, wrote fiction for the entertainment of his playmates but he was never permitted to take his mind off his studies by his exacting parent.

His first venture into higher education was at Davidson College at Davidson, N. C. which was rigidly and thoroughly Presbyterian. His first nickname among the students at Davidson College was “Mutton.” He was a lively, precocious youngster up to 1875, when he reached Princeton as a junior. At the head of the college was Dr. James McCosh, and the faculty included Arnold Guyot, the distinguished geologist, and Charles A. Young, the astronomer.More than half the students of Princeton at that time were from Southern States and most of them brought their war prejudices with them. Woodrow Wilson had two fights on account of this. He won one and lost the other. His fellow students regarded him as a conscientious student, though he barely scratched through as an honor man in the graduating class. He possessed great concentration, however, and applied himself to the study of English to the exclusion of other subjects.

Strong at Argument.

He refused to compete for literary prizes because it involved memorizing long selections of Shakspeare and Ben Johnson. But he was great in argument and would keep up a verbal battle as long as anybody remained to talk it out. Until Witherspoon Hall was established young Wilson lived at the house of Mrs. Wright, which was raided by a monitor one night on suspicion that a card game was in progress in his room. The monitor found young Wilson reading the Bible.

The future President was fond of limericks even in his early days. He conducted a department on the Princetonian and contributed several bits of doggerel that amused his fellow students. When he was 22 years old he wrote an article for the International Review entitled “Cabinet Government in the United States,” which bore the signature of “Thomas W. Wilson.” He advocated open debates and urged that Cabinet members be permitted to participate in them.

His article attracted great attention and he was urged to study law. He essayed to do so entering the University of Virginia which was founded by Thomas Jefferson, and became a leader among the students and gained distinction for his application to his legal studies. But he was rather more celebrated as a member of the Glee Club. He possessed a tenor voice of fairly good quality.

His best song was “She Sleeps, My Lady Sleeps,” and his next, “Speed Away.” Once when he and his fellow warblers serenaded a girl near Charlottesville and her father threw a wash boiler full of water on them. In 1880 he wrote an article on John Bright and another on Gladstone for the University magazine. Young Wilson was one of the star performers in the Jeffersonian Debating Society and he won a couple of prizes for oratory.

The serious side of young Wilson’s legel education was in the capable hands of Dr. John G. Miner of very forceful personality.

Taken Sick at College.

Late in 1880 the future President was afflicted with a stomach ailment and compelled to return to the home of his parents, which was then in North Carolina. He continued the reading of the law, and in May, 1882, he went to Atlanta to practice that profession, with Edward Ireland Renick as his partner. The firm did not prosper, and young Wilson took up political writing. It was at this time that he met Miss Ellen Louise Axen, his future wife, while on a visit to his uncle, Mr. Bones.Convinced that the law held little for him, young Wilson went to Johns Hopkins University to study the science of government and Miss Axen moved to New York to study art. While at Johns Hopkins he wrote and published a book on Congressional government. It bore the signature “Woodrow Wilson,” and served to introduce him to the notice of lawyers and scholars. In 1885 he went to Bryn Mawr as associate professor in history of political economy and at the same time married Miss Axen.

For several years Woodrow Wilson led the usual life of the conscientious student and cultivated delightful companionship—years spent in reading, research, healthy diversion and the rearing of his family of three daughters. In 1888, much against his inclination, he accepted the chair of history and politcal economy at Wesleyan College. Middletown, Conn., and he remained there for two years, during which his contributions to public discussion and growing reputation as a public speaker attracted much attention throughout the country. His advancement resulted in the offer and acceptance of the Chair of Jurisprudence and Politics at Princeton University made vacant by the death of Dr. Alexander Johnson.

Chosen Head of Princeton

Slowly but surely the new professor in jurisprudence in politics began to impress the trustees of Princeton as a man of unusual capacity. So it was that, in 1902, when Francis Landey Patton retired from the presidency, Prof. Wilson was chosen as his successor. From the very first the new president inaugurated changes that provoked bitter controversies.

He established the preceptional system organizing associations for study outside of the classrooms. Constant personal contact between the student and faculty was the capstone of his new plan.

At the end of five years criticism assumed concrete form. A committee of seven trustees were appointed to investigate the system inaugurated by the President, who was accused of “trying to ruin the university.” The students, as well as members of the faculty, split into groups. Old time friends quarrled like schoolboys over the merits of the Wilson plan and the old method.

President Wilson stood his ground, however, and fought his enemies with courage and stubborness. He made a speech on April 7, 1910, at Pittsburg which brought a storm of disapproval about him. His enemies called on him to resign and proposed several men to succeed him. It was just at this time that the Democratic party of New Jersey was looking for a candidate for Governor.

There are two versions regarding the influences that induced the Democratic State organization of New Jersey to nominate Woodrow Wilson for Governor in 1910. The one most generally accepted is that the organization, which was in control of the Smith-Nugent clique, realized that it could not elect a machine man. The chief reason that influenced this belief was that the Republican organization had the support of the corporations, without which, at the time, no party could hope to win.Mr. Wilson was pretty well known throughout the State as a fearless and ardent advocate of Democratic rule, as well as a vigorous opponent of corporation control. Consequently the Democratic organization seized upon him as the most available man to propose for the governorship. This is the more probable of the two versions advanced to explain his selection by the Democratic State organization, which was not a bit purer in motives or different in methods from the Republican State machine.

Story of Trustees’ “Deal.”

The other version of Mr. Wilson’s selection is of apocryphal origin, or more correctly origins, since none fofthe alleged chief actors in the transaction agrees on essential details. There seems no reason to set aside the statement that Col. George Harvey, then the editor of Harper’s Weekly, and at the time a personal friend and admirer of Mr. Wilson, first proposed him as Governor to the leaders of the Democratic State machine. But according to some of the controversialists a deal was negotiated between a few wealthy trustees of Princeton College and the Democratic machine, under the terms of which these trustees were to finance the political ambitions of Mr. Wilson in return for the service to be rendered by the Democratic machine in ridding Princeton of him.Some of the authorities for this statement have since said that these trustees feared the consequences of an open fight to depose Mr. Wilson as President of Princeton. His own political aspirations, coupled with the Democratic organizations’s lack of a suitable candidate, rendered it comparatively easy (according to more or less reliable information) to consummate the deal.In accepting the nomination he said: “If I should be chosen Governor of New Jersey the people of the State will be the boss. I will be your leader, I will be your councillor, your mouthpiece, your policeman, your searchlight. Tell me what you want done in the State and if that thing isn’t done there will be a big fight coming and you will know all about it.”The Republicans nominated Vivian Lewis He did not make much of a campaign because of the supreme confidence of the leaders of his party that he would win without much of a struggle. The Democratic leaders were generally inclined to take the same view. But they didn't know their candidate. He refused to be regarded as a joke. He played game with the machine leaders, but he own platform and devised the issues oparty without regard for their preference eelings.

The campaign conducted by him was ble for the sincerity of Mr. Wilson’s pl and his frank appeal to independent voters to throw off the shackles of party control. was elected by a majority of 49,000, and t is pretty conclusive evidence that he was supported by many thousands of the “new idea” Republicans, like Everett Colby and George L. ecord.

One of the first consequences of Woodrow Wilson’s election was the announcement by former Senator James Smith Jr. that he would be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator. New Jersey had just passed a direct primary law, which Mr. Wilson had indorsed. Mr. Smith refused to enter the primary, but attempted to disqualify the law. He sought the support of Gov. Wilson. The Governor’s reply was: “Were he to seek the Senatorship while I am Governor I shall oppose him. He represents everything repugnant to my convictions.”This statement provoked open war between the Governor and the Smith-Nugent machine. In the primary contest James E. Martine received 54,000 of the 73,000 party votes cast. Gov. Wilson did not urge the nomination of Martine, but he did oppose that of Smith. The Smith-Nugent machine never became reconciled to the new leader, but Joseph Patrick Tumulty, who had been a regular organization Democrat, took his stand squarely with the new Governor, and in that way began the close and affectionate association that he continued throughout Mr. Wilson’s term as President of the United States.Nugent was Deposed.

As Governor of New Jersey Gov. Wilson consulted with Republican as well as Democratic leaders. Whenever he quarreled with the Legislature he appealed directly to the people of the State. The Smith-Nugent combination openly accused him of ingratitude and opposed his legislation. The Governor requested an invitation to a conference of Democratic legislators which was called to repudiate the primary bill. He delivered a three-hour speech and the conference made it a party measure instead of repudiating it.

Some idea of the bitterness of feeling against Mr. Wilson was revealed by an incident that occurred at a dinner given by Nugent at Avon. The host asked his guests to join him in a toast. They arose to do so.“I give to you,” he said, “the Governor of New Jersey—a liar and an ingrate.”Mr. Nugent drank the toast alone. The next day a special meeting the State Committee was called and Edward W. Grosscup, a supporter of President Wilson, was elected to succeed Nugent.

The record made by Mr. Wilson as Governor of New Jersey centered the attention of the country on him. In the summer of 1911, William F. McCoombs, a graduate of Princeton, and for 20 years an intimate friend of Mr. Wilson, conceived the idea of promoting a campaign to bring the Democratic presidential nomination. He invited to co-operate with him the late Walker Hines Page, afterward Ambassador to England; Walter McCorkle, a New York lawyer, and William Bibbs McAdoo, a New York lawyer and promoter.

These four man mapped out a plan to introduce the country to Mr. Wilson. They arranged a tour to cover most of the important Northern States. McCoombs was in active charge of this work, and despite the later estrangement between the between the two men, there is little question that McCoombs was more than any other single individual was responsible for the growth of the Wilson boom.

The Democratic primaries early in 1912 developed the fact that Democratic party sentiment was divided between Gov. Wilson, Speaker Champ Clark, Senator Oscar W. Underwood and Judson Harmon of Ohio. The contest between these men became extremely spirited. It was about this time that Col. E. M. House, who achieved some success in Texas politics, came to New York. He favored the nomination of W. J. Gaynor, the Mayor of New York, until McCoombs introduced him to Gov. Wilson. After that Mr. House became an ardent supporter of the New Jersey Governor. proposing a constructive program which had for its chief feature the restoration of the Government to the people and the abolition of special interests. He devoted little attention personally to either of the opposing candidates, Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt, who indulged in acrimonious denuciation of each other. By the election Mr. Wilson carried 40 of the 48 States, his electoral vote being 435. Col. Roosevelt carried six States, with an electoral vote of 88 and Mr. Taft two states, Utah and Vermont, with eight electoral votes. Mr. Wilson received a popular majority over Col. Roosevelt of 2,173,538 and a total vote of 15,034,800.

When the next presidential election rolled around in 1916 the Progressive party collasped and Charles E. Hughes was nominated by the Republicans, and afterward supported by the Roosevelt following. The Democrats did not even consider any one than Mr. Wilson. He was given a renomination at St. Louis by acclamation and made his fight on the record of his party with particular reference to a rigid observance of the laws of neutrality in the European war.

The campaign made by Mr. Hughes was one of negation and criticism. He had not affirmative or definite issue. The Democratic slogan (which by the way was never used by Mr. WilsonWoodrow Wilson himself) was “He kept us out of war.” Mr. Hughes realized the force of this argument and did not dare to advocate the violation of the neutral position adopted by the Wilson administration nor yet to approve of it.As a matter of fact the voters of the country were never quite clear as to what Mr. Hughes did advocate in connection with the war. He charged the Wilson administration with sectionalism, the abandonment of American principles, incompetency, timidity and other undesirable qualities.The Result of 1916.

The contest was the closest that ever characterized a presidential election, with the exception of the Hayes-Tilden fight in 1876. Mr. Wilson carried 30 States with an electoral vote of 277 and Mr. Hughes 18 States with an electoral vote of 254. Mr. Wilson’s popular plurality was 579,304 in a total of 18,521,625. It required four days’ recanvassing of the votes of California, Minnesota and New Hampshire to finally determine the result. The vote of California eventually gave Mr. Wilson the electoral vote of that State by 3733, while Hiram Johnson, Republican candidate for Senator, won by more than 300,000.There was some disappointment when Mr. Wilson announced his first Cabinet. For Secretary of State he selected William Jennings Bryan, who held the office until conditions growing out of the war in Europe disclosed his unsuitability for that place. To succeed Mr. Bryan the President appointed Robert Lansing. He served until January, 1920, when he was invited to resign by the President under dramatic circumstances. Mr. Lansing was succeeded by Bainbridge Colby, who proved to by one of the most capable Foreign Ministers that ever served the country.

For Secretary of the Treasury Mr. Wilson selected Mr. McAdoo, who later married his daughter. Mr. McAdoo resigned in 1919 and was succeeded by Carter Glass, now a Senator from Virginia. The Secretary of the Treasury in the Wilson administration was David F. Houston.Mr. Wilson was served by three Attorney-Generals—J. F. McReynolds, now Supreme Court Justice; Thomas Watt Gregory, a Texas lawyer, and A. Mitchell Palmer, a former member of Congress from Pennsylvania.

Two men served Mr. Wilson as Secretary of War—Lindley Garrison, a former Chancellor of New Jersey, and Newton Baker, who had once been the Mayor of Cleveland. Mr. Garrison resigned because of the division of opinion over the merits of the plans to reorganize the army.

Josephus Daniels, Albert S. Burleson and W. B. Wilson held the offices of Secretary of the Navy, Postmaster-General and Secretary of Labor respectively through both Wilson administrations.

Franklin W. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, served until the last year of the Wilson Administration and was succeeded by John Barton Payne, the Chicago lawyer.William C. Redfield served as Secretary of Commerce for six years and gave place to dge Alexander of Missouri.

Mr. Houston was Secretary of Agriculture until he moved over to the Treasury, when he was succeeded by W. H. Meredith of Iowa.

Choice of Men Critized.It is a significant fact that a very large amount of the criticism directed against Mr. Wilson was due to his selection of men for important offices. Mr. Burleson was the source of perpetual disturbance, and Mr. Daniels came or a great deal of denunciation early in the Wilson administrations, but regained public favor for his management of the Navy Department after the United States became involved in the war.

Mr. Wilson stubbornly refused to heed criticism of his subordinates, and even his most ardent defenders were at times compelled to assent to the popular view that he was a “bad judge of men.” Another complaint against Mr. Wilson was that after he had become President he had held himself aloof from men with whom he had previously been intimate. His political enemies charged him with being an “autocrat,” “self-centered,” “stubborn,” “vain,” an “intense egotist.” Charges of this sort continued throughout his administration. If they made any impression on him the President did not show any signs of wavering in the polices he had established for himself.

The war started by the Prussian Kaiser, which was to bring Woodrow Wilson greater fame throughout the world than had ever been achieved by any other American President, startled the people of America no less than those of any other nation.The war problems forced President Wilson in the European conflict were concededly more difficult than those that had ever confronted any other AMerican executive. Up to the outbreak of the Kaiser war of Aug. 1, 1914, his only experience that called for the employment of military force related to Mexico. The unfriendly attitude of the various belligerents revolutionary groups fighting for the control of the Republic to the south of the United States resulted in many complications affecting the interests of the country and its citizens.Repeated affronts against the honor of the United States were committed by murderous bands of Mexican revolutionists fighting for the supremacy. The notorious Huerta had declared himself President in defiance of the constitutional law of the country. He openly flouted the United States and his military leaders insulted its flag, compelling the dispatching of a naval expedition to Vera Cruz to demand an apology.

An apology was made, though it was so insincere that Mr. Wilson was criticised for accepting, or at least condoning it. In effecting a landing at Vera Cruz, 13 marines were killed, and probably several hundred Mexicans. President Wilson never recognized Huerta and the latter was compelled to flee Mexico, leaving the Carranza and Villa forces to fight it out. The United States refused to recognize either of these men until Carranza had established a constitutional government, and even that has not saved the United States from repeated insults.The refusal of President Wilson to intervene in Mexico brought upon him widespread criticism. One of the incidents that provoked the United States into sending an expeditionary force into Mexico was the raid across the American border in 1916, by the bandits of Villa. Gen. John J. Pershing, afterward commander in chief of the American expeditionary forces in France, headed that expedition.

When Great War Came.When the European war broke out, the comparatively unimportant Mexican complications were entirely forgotten, though there have recurred at periods little outbreaks directed against the United States. Germany began its coercive methods to compel the United States to guarantee to deliver war material, which was prevented by the blockade established by the British around German ports. The United States did, in fact, protest against the maintenance of this blockade on the ground that it was merely a paper proposition and was “illegal and indefensible.” It has never renounced that declaration.England and France clamored for help at the very outset of the hostilities. They were permitted to purchase in this country war material for which they could not pay. Every other country in Europe centered upon the United States as the one country that could supply its demands.

The German secret service attempted to inaugurate a reign of terror in the United States, intended to influence public sentiment on the side of the Kaiser. The New York World and the Post-Dispatch exposed the plotting of these agents and it is only proper to say at this time that, in doing so, the writer was assisted by President Wilson.The European view of the United States during the period of neutrality that continued from August, 1914, to April 2, 1917, was not flattering. America was derided and burlesqued by the leading statesmen and newspapers of Germany, Great Britain, France and even in some of the neutral countries. We were described as a “nation of money grabbers” without honor. The pro-German element in the United States openly declared politcal warfare on the United States Government. This continued up to the very moment that the United States declared a state of war to exist with the Kaiser’s Government.

Theodore Roosevelt and other Republican leaders vigorously denounced President Wilson for failing to espouse the cause of the countries fighting Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania. Another element organized by Sinn Fein influences charged Mr. Wilson with being an Anglomaniac. The German element was, of couse, notoriously bitter in denouncing him for his refusal to assist the Kaiser.

During the early stages of the submarine war President Wilson addressed many notes of protest against it which were met by excuses and apologies. Finally he warned Germany that if it sunk any more passenger ships like the Sussex, United States would regard the act as tantamount to a declaration of war.In the spring on 1916, pro-German sympathizers caused to be introduced in the lower House of Congress by Representative Jeff McLemore of Texas a resolution warning American citizens to refrain from taking passage on ships of belligerent nations under penalty of forfeiting the protection of this Government. This dishonorable proposal was in a fair way of being adopted when President Wilson openly attacked it and charged the promoters of it with an attempt to besmirch the honor of the United States. After a very dramatic battle the McLemore resolution was defeated and the entire country rallied to the support of the President.Put Aside Peace Proposal.With the approach of 1917, Germany initiated an effort to negotiate a satisfactory peace with its enemies. It enlisted the co-operation of the Pope. The President declined to be a party to the transaction because of the manifest insincerity of the German proposal.

In a speech delivered to the Senate in January, 1917, the President laid the foundation for the acceptance of the 14 points finally proposed by him and unofficially accepted by all of the other nations as a foundation upon which to negotiate honorable peace, but never completely covered in the peace treaty. This address, coming as it did at a time when Germany was most desperate in both a military and economic sense, provoked a storm of denunciation and protest from the heads of all the Allied Governments.That address was described by some of the Allied European statesmen as the “Peace Without Victory Speech.” The President’s critics asserted that it was the natural corollary of an address made by him in Philadelphia the year before, in which he is reputed to have said: “We are too proud to fight.” This phrase was given a meaning that was not in the mind of its author. However, it served the purpose of encouraging bitter denunciation of him.

He maintained a dignified silence while this verbal castigation for his “Peace Without Victory Speech” continued at home and abroad. But when the time came to move, as it did, on the very last day of that month, his critics revised their disagreeable judgment of him. On the day Germany, despairing of dividing its enemies and reduced to a low state of economic vitality, sent broadcast the famous submarine decree that actually brought the United States into the war.Under the terms of the decree Germany served notice that in future she would disregard every pledge to exempt neutrals from the operation of her submarine policy, and sink any ships that did not sail in accordance with the conditions imposed by the German Admiralty.

It gave notice that it would permit the United States, for instance, to send but one ship a week to England from its ports.

This decree was recognized at once as a challenge to the entire world. President Wilson accepted it. Three days later he appeared before the two houses of Congress in joint session, recited the criminal acts of Germany agaist the neutrals of the world, and said he had instructed the State Department to return the passports of Count von Bernstorff, the Imperial Ambassador from Germany, and to notify him to leave the country at once.

The President then set about providing methods for the protection of the marine trade interests of the United States. He caused to be introduced in Congress a resolution declaring a state of armed neutrality to exist in the United States, and authorizing the Government to arm its ships for purposes of defense. That resolution was talked to death by a filibuster organized by 12 Senators representing both parties on the last day of the President’s first term.

Denounced the “Wilful 12.”

The President issued a statement in the White House that night in which he attributed the defeat of the measure to the opposition of “a little group of wilful men representing no opinions but their own.” These 12 men were Senators La Follette, Kenyon, Clapp, Norris, Cummins and Jones of Washington, Republicans, and O’Gorman, Kirby, Stone, Hardwick and Lane, Democrats. The action of these Senators provoked a great storm of denunciation throughout the country. An old law was found which permitted the Government to arm its ships. Germany continued her submarine activites so that there was no surprise when the President called Congress in extraordinary session on April 2, 1917, and in the meantime active preparations for war already were under way.

Appearing before Congress on the night that it assembled under circumstances perhaps more dramatic than any other in the annals of the country, the President revealed information that made it necessary for this country to participate in the war. One period of his memorable address on that night was as follows:With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the action I am taking, and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that Conress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the Government and the people of the United States. That it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it, and that it take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense, but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the German Empire to terms and end the war.
The President impressively pointed out the tremendous obligations and sacrifices that the role of belligerent would compel the people of the country to make, but he expressed the fullest confidence in their ability and willingness to do so. He made it very clear that in his view the people of the United States had no quarrel with the German people.“We have no feeling toward them,” he said, “but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their Government acted in this war. It was not with their previous knowledge or approval.”Fight for Democracy.

The closing utterances of the President were as follows:

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trail and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance.
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—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, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free people as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth, and and happiness, and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her she can do no other.

Four days later the two Houses of Congress passed and sent a resolution to the President declaring a state of war to exist between the United States and the Imperial German Government. On the same day he signed it. Almost overnight the United States became a war camp. Immense credits of money were supplied and voted to the army and navy; loans authorized to belligerent Governments finally, aggregating $9,600,000,000; unnnaturalized citizens of Germany were interned or placed under surveillance; a selective draft law was passed and 10,000,000 of men registered for military and other service; conservation measures were adopted to protect the resources of the country and guarantee the support of its associates; every national resource was co-ordinated and pledged to the support of the Government and Pershing was sent abroad to direct the operations of more than 2,000,000 men that were sent to fight against Germany.

While there was no open resistance to the recommendations of the President, legislation favored by him was loaded down with riders. Two notable instances were the Prohibtion rider to the Food Control Bill and an amendment to the Army Reorganization Bill authorizing Col. Roosevelt to recruit two divisions for military service abroad. The last was defeated.

Senator Harding, the successor of Mr. Wilson in the White House, introduced a resolution creating a War Committee of Congress to “co-operate” with the executive departments in the operation of the war. It was to be just such a committee as that created by Congress in 1861 and which greatly embarrassed President Lincoln. President Wilson vigorously opposed the Harding resolution and it was finally dropped.

Credit for Ending War.

However much they subsequently criticised Mr. Wilson, the leading statesmen of the world accorded to him the credit for having brought the war with Germany to an end. He refused to treat with the Imperial German Government as long as the Hohenzollerns were at the head of it, and the war ended when the Hohenzollerns fled. As a preliminary to peace negotiations, President Wilson proposed and all of the belligerent nations subscribed to the Fourteen Points with which his name will always be associated in the history of the World War. These Fourteen Points were intended to provide the foundation for the permanent peace treaty which followed. They were:

1. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding of any kind.

2. Absolute freedom of navigation of the seas outside of territorial waters, alike in peace and war.

3. The removal as far as possible of all economic barriers and an establishment of equality trade conditions among all nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

4. Adequate guarantees given and taken that armaments be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.

5. A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims based upon a strict obvservance of the principle of self-determination.

6. The evacuation of all Russian territory, and such settlement of all questions affecting Russia that will secure the best and freest co-operation of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrased opportunity for the independent development of her own Government and national policy.

7. The evacuation and restoration of Belgium.

8. The restoration of the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine to France.

9. The readjustment of the frontiers of Italy along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

10. The freest opportunity for the autonomous development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.

11. The evacuation and restoration of Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro, with access to the sea for Serbia-Jugo-Slavia.

12. The emancipation of peoples held subject to the Turkish Empire And the opening of the Dardanelles as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantee.

13. The creation of an independent Polish State, with proper guarantees for its political and economic independence and territorial integrity.

14. A general association of nations formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

Even before the armistice President Wilson initiated preliminary steps to the organization of the Peace Conference. He sent to represent him Col. House. He also requested Frank I. Cobb, the editor of the New York World, to proceed to Europe and discuss with the statesmen of the chief nations certain fundamentals that he insisted should be entertained in approaching the task of securing permanent peace throughout the world.

Peace Delegation Assailed.

The President’s decision to personally head the American delegation of peacemakers to the Paris Conference provoked a storm of criticism. He selected as his associates Secretary of State Lansing, Col. E. U. House, Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, U. S. A., and Henry White, former Ambassador to France. Republican leaders criticised the Presidentfor not recognizing their party in selecting representatives of this Government.On the day after Congress assembled in 1918 the President sailed for France. His arrivals at Brest and Paris were made the occasions for great ovations. The French Government provided the famous Murat Palace as a residence for him. He was showered with attention such as was never offered any other American.

He journeyed to London, where he was accorded a royal welcome, and was the house guest of King George and Queen Mary for several days. He made a speech at the Guildhall in an atmosphere that suggested a combination of the opera “Aida” and the operetta of “Robin Hood.” The city of Manchester gave him a two-pound key and a tremendous reception.

He later journeyed to Rome, where he was the guest of Italy’s King, and was publicly acclaimed by the advocates of a republic for that country as the leader of democracy throughout the world and the champion of Socialism. He addressed the Roman Senate under circumstances almost as thrilling as those that characterized the memorable address of Marc Anthony. He was followed by frenzied mobs through the streets of Rome, Milan, Turin and Genoa, and feted and lionized such as no other public man had ever been since the days of Caesar.

The President then returned to Paris to settle down to the task of co-operation in the formulation of the Peace Treaty. On the day that that conference convened at the Quai d’Orsay he was one of the three imposing figures, the other two being Clemenceau and Lloyd George. The first obstacle encountered by him was his undertaking to reveal to the public the trend of the deliberations of the conference. At least that was the explanation given by the American commissioners.

Within a few days the President had established with Lloyd George, the British Premier; Signor Orlando, the Italian Premier, and Georges Clemenceau, the French Premier, complete domination over the peace conference. These men, in fact, became and continued to constitute the “Big Four” that finally passed upon all proposals written into the treaty.

Early in February the President returned to Washington to perform his constitutional functions at the close of the last Congress. On the night that Congress adjourned he made a speech at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in which he described the character of his efforts to compel the peace conference to write such a treaty as the people of the United States demanded.Linked League and Treaty.

It was in that speech that he uttered a sentiment that was interpreted by his Republican critics as a challenge. Substantially it was that when he returned from Paris he would bring with him the peace treaty and that they (the members of the Senate) would find in it the covenant of the League of Nations so intricately interwoven that it could not be separated without impairing the validity of the entire document. No statement made by an American President ever aroused such intense resentment and acrimonious denunciation as that one. Even some of the President’s warmest supporters said it was “indiscreet.”

Returning to Paris, the President threw himself body and soul into the framing of the treaty that would embody the ideals of America and the spirit of the 14 points enunciated by him and accepted by the other belligerents. His vigorous protest against the consummation of the Pact of London, under the terms of which the allied Governments guarantee the control of the Adriatic (including Fiume) to Italy, provided the bitterest discussion of the peace treaty.

The favorable reception given to him in Italy was entirely obliterated by the angry frenzy of the Italians when he instanced his opposition to the consummation of the compact. He was nenouced by Italian statesmen and newspapers. Mobs in the chief cities of Italy tore up American flags and shrieked offensive epithets at the men wearing the American uniform.

After the signing of the treaty at Versailles the President returned to his own country. He arrived in New York, on July 8, 1919, and was given a great reception. Two days laer he submitted the peace treaty to the Senate, immediately there began the most bitter fight against it. The President refused to listen to all suggestion to amend the instrument. He even refused to consider reservations that he believed would impair the value of the treaty and League of Nations project, which was incorporated in it.

After a two months’ struggle the President decided to carry his case to the people of the country. He journeyed from Washington to the Pacific. Altogether he made 40 speeches. His last was delivered at Pueblo, Cal., of Sept. 24. On the following day he was compelled to abandon his tour by order of Admiral Grayson, his aide and physician, who became alarmed at his condition. Two days later the President returned to Washington. For several months he was confined to his room and at times was perilously ill.

On the ninth day after his return Admiral Grayson, the President’s naval aide and personal physician, summoned to the White House Dr. Young of Philadelphia and Dr. Fowler of Washington. Although no announcement was made of the fact, it was generally believed the President had suffered from some violent attack that developed unexpectedly.

Admiral Grayson did not deny that the President’s condition was serious, but he insisted that there existed no cause for apprehension. The Admiral refused, however, to make any extended explanation of his patient’s case beyond the statement that the President had drawn too heavily on his physical reserve and that complete isolation and thorough rest were demanded.

A Story of Paralysis.

All sorts of rumors and reports concerning the character of the President’s affliction were circulated daily in Congress, in Wall street and other circles. To these Admiral Grayson paid no attention until Senator Moses of New Hampshire sponsored a report in the Senate cloakroom that the President had become mentally incompetent through paralysis.

When this report found wide circulation, Admiral Grayson, in response to a written inquiry, wrote a letter asserting that the President was not only in full possession of his mental faculties, but predicting that with complete freedom from official worries and partisan nagging, he would be in shape to attend to his official duties within a few months. This positive statement had the effect of discouraging assertions like that made by Senator Moses and other persons.

But it did not affect in any way the bitter controversy over the League of Nations led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, who became the most severe critic of the document constructed and of the President’s participation in the formulation and approval of it by the Paris Peace Conference. The most cruel attacks were directed against the President, and it is quite probable that Admiral Grayson and Mrs. Wilson, who absolutely refused to permit the presentation of any business matters to the President, withheld from him the savage assault of his critic.

The first vote on the League of Nations was taken Nov. 20, 1920, when the Senate rejected the peace treaty with the Lodge amendments. In order to keep it before the Senate, however, a motion was adopted to reconsider the vote by which the treaty failed to receive the necessary two-thirds for ratification. This motion was permitted to lie on the table available at any time the Senate desired to take it up.

Soon after the holidays the President had progressed far enough toward recovery to permit him to consider the more vital matters affected the public welfare, regarding which his Cabinet aids were uncertain. He also began to take an interest in politics and planned to meet the Republican program which was designed to discredit his motives for incorporating in the peace treaty the convenant of the League of Nations.

Jan. 8 the Democratic leaders invited the President to attend the banquet annually held to commemorate the birthday of Andrew Jackson. This function was of unusual interest because it was divided into the groups aggregating more than 2000 of the most important men and women in the party.

In response to the invitation the President sent a letter which was read to the diners. This proved beyond peradventure that reports concerning his mental condition were absolutely without foundation and also established the fact that the illness through which he was even then passing had not modified his earnest determination to insist upon the ratification of the peace treaty and the acceptance by the United States of the obligations voluntarily assumed by the American Commission headed by the President under the League of Nations.

In characteristically vigorous terms the President pointed out to the leaders of his party that it was their duty to insist upon the ratification of the peace treaty in toto as written at Versailles. He urged upon the leaders the acceptance of the Republican challenge to make the League of Nations the paramount issue of the impending political campaign—“a solemn referendum” he described it.Bryan Only Dissenter.

There was but one dissenting voice at the Democratic feast. It was that of William Jennings Bryan, thrice defeated candidate for President. Mr. Bryan emerging from comparative seclusion urged the acceptance of the reservation proposed by Senator Lodge, and declared in pretty broad language that the President’s attitude did not reflect that of the Democratic party.

After the Jackson day dinner both parties subordinated every other consideration to their respective bids for partisan advantage with the League of Nations uppermost. Any recommendation made by the President was contemptuously ignored by the Republican majority in both Houses of Congress. As an example the President vetoed the Volstead prohibition enforcement action on the ground that it perpetuated an obsolete war measure and was furthermore too drastic in terms. The House repassed the bill two hours after the President had vetoed it.

On Feb. 7, 1920, occurred one of the most dramatic incidents in the Wilson administration. It was in the shape of a totally unexpected request by the President to Secretary of State Lansing to resign. The President based his request on Mr. Lansing’s admission that he had frequently called the heads of the executive departments into conference during the most serious states of the President’s illness.

Public comment disclosed the fact that Mr. Lansing had acted wisely in attempting to safeguard the Government while the President was inaccessible. The President was very severely criticised for his dimsissal of Mr. Lansing. He selected Bainbridge Colby of New York as his successor, and after a month’s delay Mr. Colby was confirmed.

Coincident with the Lansing incident, Lord Grey, the British Ambassador to Washington, issued a statement while in England to which President Wilson took umbrage, and which made the distinguished British diplomat persona non grata to the American Government. The substance of Lord Grey’s statement was that it was his impression the American people desired a speedy settlement of the League of Nations controversy between the President and the Senate.

On March 19, 1920, the Senate made a last attempt to reach an agreement on the peace treaty. Both parties split over it, and although 21 Democrats combined with the Republicans to support the Lodge reservations, it failed to receive the necessary two-third vote for ratification. Thereupon the President withdrew the treaty and did not again submit it to the Senate.Reservations Favored.

The President’s attitude was not generally indorsed. The leading members of both parties and newspapers favoring the acceptance of the Lodge reservations on the ground that no better terms will be procured. The final attempt to relieve the foreign situation was made on April 9 when Senator Knox introduced a resolution repealing the declaration of war against Germany. The President instantly communicated his determination to veto it, and it was withdrawn.

The Republican national convention that met at Chicago in June nominated Mr. Harding for President on the twelfth ballot, after a deadlock between the forces supporting Gen. Leonard Wood, Hiram Johnson and Gov. Lowden of Illinois, had continued for four days.It was while watching the final ballot in the Republican nominating convention that I received a telegram from Mr. Tumulty requesting me to come to Washington for an interview with the President. This interview had been arranged forJune 1, but at my suggestion it was postponed until after the nomination had been made by the Republican convention.

I went to Washington and on Tuesday, June 15, spent three hours with the President. During those three hours I saw the President transact the important functions of his office with much of his old-time decisiveness, method and keenness of intellectual appraisement.

I heard him dictate his decisions on matters of great Government importance with a facility of expression and directness that convinced me that nine months of courageous battling in an illness that had left its indelible consequences, had not affected in the slightest degree his splendid intellect.

I saw him walk from one apartment to another on this day and on the following one accompanied him as he walked with no help other than a cane from the elevator to his motor car. I could see at a glance that the ravages of illness had exacted a heavy penalty from him. His face was drawn, gray and of extreme pallor.

But there was no disfigurement visible on his face. He walked, of course, with extreme difficulty and some embarrassment, thrusting his left foot forward and lifting it a trifle too high, as if uncertain of the success of each venture.

His left side appared to have been affected by his illness, because he “favored” that and made limited use of his left arm. On the first day that I spent with him I was really alarmed at his appearance; on the second I marvelled at his extraordinary powers of recuperation. But at no time was I permitted to doubt the clarity of his mental vision, the power of mental co-ordination and his perfect control over his decisions.

The interview with the President, which was the first ever accorded by an American President to a writer, naturally created a great sensation, not only in the United States but abroad. It provoked a vigorous controversy among the Democratic party leaders and delegates who were assembling at San Francisco to attend the nominating convention.

None was more interested than William Jennings Bryan. Mr. Bryan quizzed me several times regarding the President’s statements. He seemed to think that some of them might apply to himself. I told him that I had merely been a humble chronicler of an event and had made no attempt to dissect the President’s statements or interpret any possible motive for them. Incidentally, I have never known Mr. Bryan, whom I really like, to be so inquisitive about any subject as he was regarding my interview with the President.

Nomination of Cox.

The Democratic Convention was a very spirited and entertaining affair. More than a dozen aspirants for the presidential nomination were proposed, including Gov. James M. Cox of Ohio, Attorney-General A. Mitchell Palmer of Pennsylvania, former Secretary of Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo, Senator Robert. L. Owen, Oklahoma, Ambassador John W. Davis, West Virginia, Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby of New York and Homer S. Cummings of Connecticut. Gov. Cox was nominated on the forty-sixth ballot. On the following Sunday he journeyed to Washington and spent two hours with President Wilson who hailed him as the new leader of the Democratic Party. Gov. Cox declared his full sympathy with the President’s attitude on the League of Nations. He tourned the country from coast to coast and made the league the issue of his campaign.

Senator Harding conducted a “front porch” campaign until the final stage of the contest, when he made short trips as far east as Buffalo and west to Iowa. His exact position on the league issue was never quite clear. President Wilson issued appeals from the White House to groups of citizens who for alien reasons were against the league.The contest was never in doubt and the Republican party scored a tremendous victory. Mr. Harding recieve 402 of the 531 electoral votes and his party won a majority of 22 in the Senate and 156 in the lower house of Congress. Mr. Harding received a plurality of 1,200,000 in the State of New York alone, and his party broke a hole in the Democratic party in the South by carrying Tennessee and Oklahoma.

Following the election Mr. Wilson recovered his health with surprising rapidity, and while he held pretty closely to his apartments, attended to all of the details of his office as he had done before his illness. In January he attended the theater for the first time in more than a year and a half, and walked to his box with the aid of a cane.

During his illness the President was under the direct care of Admiral Cary T. Grayson and Mrs. Wilson. The President married Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt, the widow of a highly esteemed citizen of the national capital, Dec. 8, 1915, seventeen months after the death of the first Mrs. Wilson. The second Mrs. Wilson had no thought other than the health of the President and his affection for her was one of the most beautiful qualities of his character.

During his two pilgrimages abroad Mrs. Wilson had accompanied him and won the respect and admiration of those who came in contact with her. The closest relatives of Mr. Wilson was a brother, Joseph R. Wilson, and his three daughters by the first Mrs. Wilson. One of these, Elinore, married Mr. McAdoo. Another, Miss Jessie, married FB Sayre, a tutor at Williams College. Miss Margaret, a third daughter, is unmarried.

During the war she participated actively in war work and joined the troops of entertainers that went abroad to sing for the soldiers. She has appeared in public concerts and written articles for Sunday magazines. Mr. Wilson had three grandchildren. Two of them are the daughters of the Sayres, the other is the dauther of Mr. and Mrs. McAdoo.

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