Woodrow Wilson: A progressive Democrat who grew up in a confederate family. Wilson served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. As a member of the Democratic party, Wilson was most prominent for leading America through World War 1 and for his efforts in world peace. During World War 1, Wilson’s primary concerns were finding a way to end the war and preventing future wars. Woodrow Wilson led the negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference with his Fourteen Points and founded the League of Nations after World War 1. Wilson’s upbringing played a crucial role in his political ideology. His father, Joseph Wilson, was a Presbyterian minister, supporter of slavery, and identified with the confederacy during the Civil War. “Wilson’s presidency fulfilled much of the progressive reform agenda and laid the foundations of the modern activist presidency” (Ambar)
Woodrow Wilson spent most of his adolescence growing up in Georgia and South Carolina. He was the son in a Conservative household and was taught many religious oriented political views. His father supported the means of the confederacy and made efforts to help the confederate army. “During the American Civil War, Wilson’s father served as a chaplain in the Confederate army and used his church as a hospital for injured Confederate troops.” (Sparknotes Staff) The influence a parental figure can have on their child can affect their whole thought process and life values. Most of Woodrow Wilson’s early education came from his father, who emphasized religion and British history and literature. “Wilson’s father taught his son the justification of the South's secession from the Union, a belief in Providence, predestination, and the importance of daily prayer.” (Ambar) He was led to believe that God is the caring guide for all of humanity and that all events happen in a result of God’s plan. Wilson went on to obtain a Ph.D. in political science from John Hopkins university and later became the president of Princeton University. While he was president of Princeton, Wilson developed a national reputation for his educational reform policies. After many years of political research and study, Wilson published a phD dissertation entitled Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics. In the writings of this book, “Wilson criticized the congressional domination of government and the weak post-Civil War presidency. He argued in favor of replacing the American separation of powers between the president and Congress with the British parliamentary system, in which a prime minister would lead both the government and the majority party in Parliament.” (Ambar) Wilson admired British ideology and believed that the southern reconstruction era was a punishment on the south for causing the civil war. Later in his life, Wilson used his political power to spread spiritual enlightenment while urging the country to public service. Wilson had many concerns on his ability to love and empathize with other people. He was in constant need of affection and adulation, in which he lacked in his private life and found in his political career. After growing up in the south during the civil war and reconstruction era, Wilson had seen first-hand the outcomes and brutality of war. When running for President, Woodrow endorsed a progressive agenda, where his main concern was being the personal representative of the people. “He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership in building a new world order.” (Freidel and Sidey)
At the start of World War 1, Wilson had a very passive and objective attitude towards joining the war. He wanted the United States to remain neutral at all costs. Wilson was more focused on the domestic well-being of the country rather than global affairs. With the world at war, it was inevitable that America would have to help in some way. The U.S sent a flow of supplies to their allies which included food, weapons and munitions. Germany announced that they will use U-boats to attack any ship in the Atlantic and European seas as an effort to block trade and U.S aid. Several days after the announcement, President Wilson ended diplomatic relations with Germany. “His goal was not to fight, but rather to inform the German emperor in the sternest way possible short of war that Germany's actions were unacceptable and risked a confrontation.” (Sparknotes editors, 2005) Tensions between America and Germany kept rising and after many interactions with German forces, Wilson decided to declare war on Germany in 1917. Wilson worked on a way of establishing peace and ending the war, and he came up with the Fourteen Points. “The Fourteen Points speech of President Woodrow Wilson was an address delivered before a joint meeting of Congress on January 8, 1918, during which Wilson outlined his vision for a stable, long-lasting peace in Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world following World War I.”(History.com Staff) Wilson used the Fourteen Points to lead negotiations in ending the war. His most important proposal was a way to prevent any future wars from beginning which was called the League of Nations. “Wilson believed that this League would transform international relations and usher in a new era of world peace.” (Ambar)
President Woodrow Wilson left a long lasting impact on the political ideology of the United States. “His transformation of the basic objective of American foreign policy from isolation to internationalism, his success in making the Democratic Party a “party of reform,” and his ability to shape and mobilize public opinion fashioned the modern presidency.” (Ambar) Wilson’s background and family values shaped his political views in his early life. Throughout his life, Wilson’s views faced transitions and became very complex but were still underlined by his same core values. Wilson represented the ‘greater good’ and thought through all of his decisions as President. His efforts in world peace awarded him the Noble Prize in 1919, shortly before his death in 1924.