With trouble
brewing between the great nations of Europe, Thomas Woodrow Wilson takes office
as the 28th president of the United States on this day in 1913, in Washington,
D.C.
The
Virginia-born son of a Presbyterian minister, Wilson became president of
Princeton University in 1902; he resigned the post in 1910 to run successfully
for the governorship of New Jersey. Two years later, he won a tight race for
the Democratic nomination for president, aided by a split in the Republican
Party and the third-party candidacy of former president Theodore Roosevelt.
After a
vigorous campaign on a reformist platform dubbed New Freedom, Wilson outpolled
both Roosevelt and the Republican incumbent, William Howard Taft, though he failed
to capture a majority of the popular vote.
At his
inauguration ceremony on March 4, 1913, Wilson made clear his vision of the
United States and its people as an exemplary moral force: “Nowhere else in the
world have noble men and women exhibited in more striking forms the beauty and
the energy of sympathy and helpfulness and counsel in their efforts to rectify
wrong, alleviate suffering, and set the weak in the way of strength and hope.”
Wilson s first term as president would be dedicated to pushing through
ambitious domestic programs—including the Federal Reserve Act and the creation
of the Federal Trade Commission; his second, which began in 1916, would be
marked irrevocably by the First World War.
Though Wilson
won reelection in 1916 on a platform of strict neutrality, he would soon give
himself over completely to his vision of the United States as a powerful moral
force that should play an important role in shaping international affairs.
German aggression—best exemplified by its policy of unrestricted submarine
warfare—provided an impetus for this vision, pushing the president and his
country towards entrance into the war. Wilson asked Congress for a declaration
of war on April 2, 1917; the U.S. formally entered the war four days later.
Wilson s famous
Fourteen Points—presented in a speech to Congress in January 1918 and his plan
for an international organization dedicated to regulating conflicts and
preserving peace between nations became the basis, after the armistice, for the
Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. In the face of tough opposition
from conservative opponents in Congress, Wilson was unable to push through
ratification of either the treaty or the League in his own country, which
greatly lessened its efficacy in the post-war era.
Awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1920, an exhausted Wilson suffered a stroke soon after that nearly
killed him. He left office in 1921 and died three years later.
Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/woodrow-wilsons-first-inaugural-address
[04.03.2015]
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