🎓Woodrow Wilson

28th President · 1913–1921 · Democratic

Woodrow Wilson was the only Ph.D. ever to serve as president and the first Southern-born president since the Civil War. His two terms passed major progressive legislation (the Federal Reserve, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the income tax, the 19th Amendment), led the country through World War I, and ended with his debilitating stroke and the Senate's defeat of the Treaty of Versailles and U.S. participation in the League of Nations.

Academic to President

Wilson was a political scientist and historian, president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. The 1912 Republican split between Taft and Roosevelt opened the door to a Democratic presidency, and Wilson won with only 42% of the popular vote.

New Freedom

Wilson's first-term legislative program, the "New Freedom," produced the Federal Reserve Act (1913) creating the modern central banking system, the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914), the Federal Trade Commission, the first federal income tax (following ratification of the 16th Amendment), and the Adamson Act establishing the 8-hour workday for rail workers.

World War I

Wilson kept the United States out of World War I through his first term and won re-election in 1916 on the slogan "He kept us out of war." Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram (proposing a Mexican-German alliance against the United States) led him to ask for a declaration of war in April 1917. The U.S. entry tipped the balance, and the Allies won in November 1918.

League of Nations and Stroke

Wilson personally led the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and pushed hard for the League of Nations — the first permanent international organization dedicated to preventing war. The Senate, led by Republican Henry Cabot Lodge, rejected the Treaty of Versailles, and the U.S. never joined the League. Wilson campaigned across the country for Senate ratification and suffered a massive stroke on October 2, 1919. His wife Edith and his physician covered up the severity of his condition; effectively, Edith ran the White House for the final 17 months.

Race and Legacy

Wilson's racial record is dark. He was the first Southern president since Johnson and resegregated the federal civil service, which had been integrated since the Civil War. He screened the pro-Ku Klux Klan film The Birth of a Nation at the White House. His reputation has declined sharply among historians in recent decades — Princeton removed his name from its School of Public and International Affairs in 2020.

Wilson Trivia

• Wilson was the only president to earn a Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins, 1886).
• He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his role in creating the League of Nations.
• The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, was ratified during Wilson's presidency in 1920.
• He is the only president buried in Washington, D.C., at the National Cathedral.

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