#18 Ulysses S Grant: Failed Businessman, Brilliant General, Mediocre President --Part 2

“Grant” by Ron Chernow, 2017.

Grant’s brilliant victory at Vicksburg may have been the turning point of the war.  He followed this by taking charge of a stalemate/siege at Chattanooga, which ended in another Union victory.  Lincoln called Grant to Washington DC and promoted him to commander in chief of the Union army and gave him the rank of Lieutenant General, a title previously only held by George Washington.  Lincoln and Grant had a good working relationship and deeply respected each other.  Lincoln was pretty hands off with Grant, even though Lincoln had fired several prior commanders.  However, he knew Grant was a man of action, unlike his predecessors.

 Grant immediately outlined his basic strategy for simultaneous major offensives.  Sherman would march through Georgia and capture Atlanta.  Phil Sheridan would strike the Shenandoah Valley and Grant would personally launch the attack against Lee in Virginia.  The northern Union army, called the Army of the Potomac, had suffered so many defeats against Lee that the men were convinced he could not be beat.  But when Grant took charge, that attitude changed.  Grant made slow progress through Virginia but some brutal battles at the Wilderness and Cold Harbor had massive casualties.  Cold Harbor showed an unusually cold-hearted side of Grant.  Neither he nor Lee would agree to a truce, an indication that the other man had won, and so injured men were left on the battlefield, suffering and dying in the heat for two days.  Over 400 additional men died this horrible death.

Eventually Grant settled into a prolonged siege of Lee’s forces near Petersburg.  While this lack of progress frustrated him, Lincoln and the public, it kept Lee from reinforcing the other two fronts.  Sherman and Sheridan both used a total warfare, scorched earth approach, destroying food, crops, factories, railroads, bridges and anything of value to the south.  Sherman captured Atlanta in September, just in time to

ensure a reelection victory for Lincoln.  He then continued on to Savannah, Charleston and then turned north to the Carolinas.  Sheridan also had similar success.

As Lee’s troops began to starve and desert in massive numbers, Grant had forced him to stretch his line so thin, that he was able to breakthrough.  Lee abandoned Richmond as well and tried to retreat to find supplies for his men.  Sheridan cut off his path and took his supplies.  With no hope of food, supplies and a rapidly shrinking army, Lee was forced to surrender on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.  Lee was dressed to the nines when he came to sign the papers but Grant, who had been racing around the country coordinating the battles, was in his dirty field cloths.  Lee was stiff and formal while Grant chatted with Lee and his men.  Grant’s terms for the confederate men allowed them to maintain their dignity and guaranteed they would not be held prisoner or prosecuted.  Grant refused to let his men mock or denigrate any of the southern soldiers, reminding them that they were once again all Americans.

Grant headed to Washington to outline the final days of the war with Lincoln and massive celebrations began.  Lincoln invited Grant and Julia to go with him and Mrs. Lincoln to a play at Ford’s theater but at the last minute, they changed their plans because Julia disliked Mrs. Lincoln.  The conspiracy that included John Wilkes Booth, was designed to kill Grant at the play as well as Lincoln, also attempting to kill the Sec of State Seward, (who actually only got wounded).  Grant and Julia actually saw Booth starring angrily at their carriage as they left town, heading to their home in Burlington, New Jersey.

Grant said Lincoln was the best leader he ever knew and worried that the new president Andrew Johnson would not be aligned with his and Lincoln’s plan for the south and protect the rights of the “freedmen”.  Johnson soon showed that he preferred a south that was continued to be run by wealthy whites and would not agree to any civil rights for blacks.  Johnson also tried to prosecute Lee and other confederate military leaders, counteracting the conditions that were agreed to at Appomattox.  Grant had to threaten to quit to get Johnson to back off.   Johnson also freely used Grants name and immense popularity to push an agenda that Grant did not support.  Grant and Johnson came into major conflict and he resigned from Johnson’s cabinet in protest.  Grant became the obvious choice for the republican nomination and he won in 1968.

Grant’s biggest success as president may be his staunch defense of the rights of blacks (or “freedman” as he called them).  Grant knew that if the south was allowed to be readmitted to the union without guaranteeing their rights, then all the Union soldiers had fought for would be in vain.  Grant valiantly fought against groups like the Klu Klux Klan, made up primarily of ex confederate soldiers.  I was shocked to read that thousands of southern blacks and hundreds of white southern republicans, were murdered, abused

and harassed constantly during reconstruction. Almost none of the crimes was every prosecuted by corrupt southern states.  Those that were prosecuted ended when witnesses were scared off by the clan and the accused went free.  Grant created the Justice Dept in order to ensure southern states protected blacks.  Grant did not hesitate to send in federal troops into states like Mississippi and Louisiana which were basically under either federal martial law or Klan rule. 

The reason for Grant’s low presidential ranking by historians is based primarily on the corruption in his cabinet and appointments.  While Grant himself accepted three mansions and many other extravagant gifts from wealthy donors, primarily while he was a general, he did not seem to grant undue favoritism to them.  Grant developed a great admiration for the “robber barons” of the day, probably because he was such a failure at business his whole life.  He tended to appoint personal friends, family members or military comrades, regardless of their qualifications. And when one of them was mired in a scandal, he tended to defend them until it was so blatant that he was wrong.  He rarely asked for advice from anyone on his appointments, a style that worked as a general but not as president.  Grant was pretty gullible and always shocked by the repeated scandals.

Grant also developed an obsession with adding Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic today) to the United States as a territory then eventually a state.  He thought it would be a place the blacks could move to if the were unhappy in the south.  This idea was supported by almost no one in congress and Grant wasted so much time and political capital on this.

The economy began to struggle due to a gold crisis (caused by one of his wealthy cronies, Jay Gould) and a panic in 1873.  Grant’s pro big business approach led the Republican party to become more oriented toward business interests and less concerned with reconstruction and black rights.  The Republican party of abolition became the conservative party of big business thanks to Grant’s admiration of the gilded age robber barons.

While he was still personally popular, Grant probably could not have won a third term.  The country was weary of the constant battle to keep blacks and southern states under control.  When Hayes came into office in 1876, he undid most of the hard work Grant had done for blacks and the “Jim Crow” era began. 

Grant and family decided to go on a mammoth worldwide tour, lasting two and a half years. He was received all around the world as a celebrity and much of his tour was a gift from countries or donors. He went to Europe, the middle east, Japan and many more, meeting Queen Victoria and all the famous world leaders as they circled the globe.  He also worked as an unofficial ambassador for the US.

After returning home from this expensive tour, Grant’s wealthy friends bought him a mansion in New York City.  Grant, who had sacrificed his military pension when he became president, invested all his money in an investment company run by one of his son’s and a man named Ward.  Ward basically ran a Ponzi scheme to attract investors with false high returns, and many of Grants military friends invested based on his advice. Eventually this scheme failed in 1885 and Grant and his family were left destitute.

Grant’s health had also begun to decline and the financial stress made it worse.  Grant, who had consumed almost 20 cigars a day during the war, was diagnosed with cancer in his throat.  He immediately began to write his memoirs in an attempt to leave his family financially solvent.  The cancer progressed rapidly but Grant refused to use many pain killers has he raced to finish writing.   His autobiography, published by Mark Twain, was finished about two weeks before he died and  it set up Julia financially for the rest of her life.  It only covers his life until the end of the war but is regarded as the finest presidential autobiography ever written.  His funeral was observed by 1.5 million people in New York City and his tomb is there today.

#18 Ulysses S Grant: Failed Businessman, Brilliant General, Mediocre President --Part 1

“Grant” by Ron Chernow, 2017.

 Rarely does achieving the presidency decrease an individual’s prestige in the annals of history. Yet the presidency of Ulysses S Grant teaches us that the qualities that make a great general, do not always make a great president.    Such an honest, forthright, almost gullible man really was out of his depth in Washington during the Reconstruction.  This lengthy biography is amazingly well written and is supposed to be turned into a movie by Steven Spielberg.  In fact, Grant’s biography requires a two-part blog post due to the length of the book and a need to completely explore his Civil War exploits.  I have never enjoyed reading about battle field tactics, but this book really brings them alive!

Hiram Ulysses Grant was the first child born in Ohio to Jesse

Grant, a fairly successful tanner/merchant and Hannah Grant, a modest quiet woman.  Jesse was a huge figure in Grant's life.  Loud, self-promoting, and pushy, he was always the first to criticize Ulysses when he was down but quick to ride his son’s coat tails when he was doing well. Jesse was also a vocal abolitionist in the Whig party. Ulysses was a decent student who did well in mathematics but he hated working in the tannery with his father.  Since his greatest joy and talent as a kid was with horses, he made deliveries for his father’s business.    Other kids liked him because even though he was fairly small, he would always stick up for

Grant at West Point

weaker kids. Jesse secured an appointment for his quiet, self-effacing son to West Point- who did not really want to go.  Due to a clerical error, he was listed on the roll as “Ulysses S Grant” and the name stuck but his friends called him Sam. At West Point, his class was literally a who’s who of the greatest military leaders of the Civil War.  Grant excelled at mathematics and was the undisputed best horseman but graduated middle of his class. He was not really interested in a military career but wanted to teach mathematics at West Point when he was done.

His roommate introduced Grant to his sister, Julia Dent.  Her father, Colonel Dent, owned slaves and had a small plantation in Missouri.  Colonel Dent did not think Grant was good enough for his only daughter, despite the fact that she was quite plain and had crossed eyes. She had almost no other suitors and was somewhat spoiled, not learning how to keep house since slaves did most of the work. Grant’s abolitionist father hated the Dent family as well.  Colonel Dent was almost as loud and overbearing as Grant’s own father.  He insisted that Julia and Grant wait to marry, leading to a four-year engagement.  Meanwhile, Grant joined the military to try to prove he could provide a good life for Julia.  Throughout their life Julia would be completely devoted to Grant and always thought he could do anything. Her positive attitude and friendly personality with everyone helped compensate for his quiet, sometimes withdrawn nature.

The Mexican American War erupted in 1845 and Grant was sent to

the front. Serving with the unit of General Zachary Taylor, Grant mainly worked as a regimental quartermaster but when allowed to participate in the fighting, was a good leader, very caring toward injured comrades and always supremely calm when under fire.  He gained renowned by assembling a howitzer in a church bell tower to shell Mexican troops. He was promoted to brevet captain and returned from the war to marry Julia.

After the war, the Grants were stationed in Michigan but when Julia became pregnant she returned to Missouri to have their first son, Fred.  Grant’s separation from Julia led to depression and heavy

drinking, a pattern that would repeat itself frequently in his life. However, upon her return he would completely abstain from drinking.  Then in 1852 Grant’s unit was ordered to the west coast to tame the area undergoing the gold rush. Julia was seven months pregnant with their second child and the naval journey then long trek through Panama would be impossible for her.  So she stayed with her father  in Missouri again.  Also, Grant could just not afford to bring her and the kids west.   The journey was a nightmare- malaria and cholera, leading to the death of almost every woman and child who had gone with the soldiers.

Arriving at his new post in Columbia, Oregon, Grant was

 surrounded by people touting get rich quick schemes.  Grant was

desperate to raise money to bring Julia and the kids out.  Consistently, Grant would trust someone with an idea and lose lots of his money.  His ice exporting scheme failed when the shipping was stalled and it all melted.   His chicken importing venture failed when they all died along the way. His potato farm was flooded and they all rotted.  He tried to start a retail business with a partner then the man took his money and left. Grant’s depression about his failed businesses and loneliness for Julia lead to massive alcohol problems and he was quietly asked to resign from the army.  Grant was so broke he had to borrow money from several people just to get home.

Grant returned to Julia and the kids in Missouri at the Dent

plantation at the age of 32 with no money and no idea how to support them.  Julia’s father had given her a small piece of land and a few slaves. Grant tried his hand at farming but ended up making ends meet by selling firewood on street corners. When given his own slave by Colonel Dent, Grant freed him even though he really

Grant's Farm in Missouri

needed the money, while Julia kept her four slaves.  After farming failed him, Grant sold the land and cabin they had been living on but was once again swindled and had to sue for several years to get the money owed.  Grant and his family packed up and moved to Galena, Illinois for him to take a job as a store clerk working for his younger brother at a tannery there.

Meanwhile, the Civil War was looming and now that he was back

in Illinois, Grant became more outspoken in favor of the Union and against slavery.  When Illinois began a volunteer regiment, Grant had to work very hard to get an appointment as a colonel. He took his raw recruits and quickly turned them around, participating in some small skirmishes in Missouri.  Thanks to the support of an Illinois congressman named Washburne, who just happened to be close friends with Lincoln, Grant was promoted to brigadier general and stationed at Cairo, Illinois.   He hired Colonel John Rawlins as his chief of staff and he became the man to help control Grant’s drinking when Julia was not around and the most loyal friend Grant ever had.

Winning small battles in Paducah and Belmont, Grant longed to push forward to seize the Mississippi River area but was frustrated by the cautious bureaucracy of higher generals.  But he eventually won larger battles at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson with a lot of support from naval gun boats. Since the Union was doing poorly almost everywhere else at this time, Grant’s victories brought a lot of press and attention from those higher up- including Lincoln.  It also increased his confidence and the size of command.

Grant’s troops planned to attack a major southern stronghold on the Mississippi River called Corinth.  But he paused at a small church called Shiloh with his 25,000 troops to await an additional reinforcement of 18,000 from Gen. Buell.  Gen. William T. Sherman, had a large amount of the 25k troops that were “green”- some literally just were given their rifles that day.  (Sherman was Grant’s stalwart friend and most consistent subordinate general during the war.) Grant wanted to use this pause to train these new troops and so discouraged them from “digging in” with defensive postures.   The Confederacy launched a surprise assault on April 6, 1862.  Grant’s new troops and lack of planning made the first day of battle a mass slaughter as Union troops fled.  However, Grant knew 18k of Buell’s reinforcements would arrive during the night and the second day of the battle allowed the Union to regain the ground it had lost -technically a Union victory. However, casualties at Shiloh (14k Union troops and 10k Confederate troops) were the largest of the war to date and more than the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 combined . 

The nation was horrified by the scale of death and people began referring to Grant as a “butcher”, an insult that followed him throughout the war.  Rumors about his drinking became rampant. (Although he had a few drunken episodes, none ever interfered with his command.) Grant was removed to more of a desk job while Halleck, his supervisor, proceeded to capture Corinth after a painfully slow assault that allowed the Confederates to strip the town of everything then just abandon it.  Lincoln recalled Halleck to Washington since the Union troops continued to lose major battles to Lee in Virginia.  Therefore, Grant was restored to command.

Grant went on the offensive, seizing, Iuka and walling off Tennessee.  Grant had a major superstition about retreating or

going backwards and constantly pushed his troops. However, as he

moved further into the south, he became overwhelmed by the number of escaping slaves seeking the protection of the Union troops.  At first, he did not know what to do with them and just plopped them into large camps.  But then he began using their labor to build fortifications, cook  etc  and eventually became a leading

proponent of allowing them to serve in the Union Army.  Grant’s embrace of “colored” troops endeared him to Lincoln and also removed the possibility of the Confederacy forcing their slaves to function as troops or labor support and crippling the plantation economy.  Grant became impressed by the freed slave’s enthusiasm and hard work- making him a vehement supporter of black rights for the rest of his life. Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation in January 1863, increased the flood of escaping slaves and forced Julia Grant to free her own four slaves as well.

Eventually, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi was Vicksburg, a massively fortified town overlooking a bend in the river.  Impossible to attack from the river or north, Grant decided on a risky move to use riverboats to move troops past Vicksburg- literally right beneath their cannons. Then he circled around cutting off the city from any support, capturing Jackson as well.  Grant also employed a new strategy of “living off the land” – taking whatever was needed from confederate farms and cities. Grant

knew that until the confederacy could no longer rely on food and supplies, the populace would continue to rebel. He also began to destroy southern crops, businesses and towns- a strategy perfected by Sherman in his march to the sea.  By early May 1863, he completely encircled Vicksburg and settled into a siege, constantly shelling the town. Julia and the kids even came down to join him. By June half of the people in Vicksburg were ill or starving to death. On July 4, the town and 25K confederate troops surrendered and the Mississippi fell completely under Union control, splitting the Confederacy in half.  Vicksburg is the most brilliant campaign that Grant completed and he became a national hero- leading to promotion and eventually the presidency.

Part 2- Commander in Chief, President, Scandals, World Traveler, Financial Desperation

#13 Millard Fillmore: Memorable Name for a Forgotten President. (July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853)

“Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President” by Robert Rayback 1959

“To even discuss Millard Fillmore is to overrate him” said one historian.  Undeserving criticism for a man who went from a dirt-poor farming family to the presidency.  Granted that his actual term as president showed some poor judgment and indecision, but from what I can tell he seemed to be a decent fellow with good intentions.  Since it was almost impossible to find a recent book on Fillmore, you will notice that it is a pretty old one- and a boring one as well.  And in the interest of full disclosure, it was published by the Buffalo Historical Society which was founded by Fillmore in his hometown.

MF's doppelganger is Alec Baldwin?

Or is it Trump?

Millard Fillmore was born to a very poor tenant farmer in upstate New York.  He was named Millard for his mother’s maiden name and his family was so poor they could not afford to give him a middle name. (HAHA) As the oldest child, he had to work very hard on the farm and did not even get to go to school until age 10.  Even then he only went a couple of months each year.  At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a clothing mill and hated it.  He would read everything he could get his hands on and so his father helped him to get a chance to study law with a local lawyer in Aurora, New York. He constantly read and took adult learning classes as well, meeting his wife Abigail who was one of his teachers.

Abigail, teacher and big fan of education

  He also began teaching some classes. They became engaged for many years until he passed the bar. Abigail shared his obsession with books, starting the first White House library.  They had a son and daughter, who actually did a lot of the work as first lady since Abigail was in poor health by that time.

Millard opened a law practice that seemed to specialize in title and land issues- eventually moving his family and practice to Buffalo. He did well and became pretty involved in the community.  When he met a newspaper editor and political party boss named Thurlow Weed, Millard joined the Anti-Masonic party- a group obsessed with getting Masons out of office (a totally weird political

platform).  New York had a lot of unusual small parties then, like the Labor party, Native Party, and the beginning of the Republican party.  Millard was elected to the state legislature for a few years. Meanwhile the Anti-Masonic party sort of got folded into the Whig party along with the Republicans and Labor party.

Millard Fillmore was elected to US congress from Buffalo in 1832. The Whig party continued to expand nationwide with Thurlow Weed’s newspaper and political scheming leading their way. Fillmore did a solid job as the chairman of the Ways and Means committee- successfully revising the tariff system.  Fillmore started challenging Weed’s machinations within the Whig party and this made Weed try to undercut Fillmore for the rest of his life.   After four terms. Fillmore was tired of bucking Weed and went home to Buffalo to work on his law practice and stump for other Whig candidates. Eventually he was elected comptroller for the state of New York.

For the presidential election of 1848, the Whig party was in chaos and trying to take the White House back from the Democrats under James K. Polk.  Trying to find a winning candidate, they selected Zachary Taylor, the victorious general from the Mexican War and a southern slave owner.  To balance the ticket, the Whigs picked Fillmore as vice president to ensure that they carried the state of New York. While he personally disliked slavery, Fillmore felt it was protected by the constitution.

After Fillmore was elected vice president, Weed once again tried to minimize Fillmore’s power and influence.  But all that changed when Zachary Taylor died after only a year in office. The nation was really struggling with the issue of slavery in regards to the admission of new states- specifically California which wanted to come in as free state. Congress created the Compromise of 1850 which allowed them to come in as a free state but gave the south a tough new Fugitive Slave Law. 

Fillmore signed these, alienating both extreme anti-slavery and slavery factions in his own party and the nation.   He did not really accomplish much else with his presidency.

As the Whig party was becoming more divided on this issue as well, it started splintering and eventually anti-slavery Whigs started the Republican party.   Fillmore did not really pursue a second term in 1852 and the Whigs were too disorganized by then to be any sort of threat.  He was the last Whig president. Thurlow Weed continued to be a jerk to Fillmore and then wrote a scathing biography of him, really the only book about

Fillmore for many years and the source of much of the mistaken historical criticism of him.

Fillmore’s wife Abigail died three weeks after leaving the White House, weakened by exposure to extreme cold when she attended the inauguration of Franklin Pierce. His daughter died shortly after.  A heartbroken Fillmore moved back to Buffalo but did not think a former president should have to work for a living.  He went on a big tour of the south and west US and was unexpectedly popular. Meanwhile another new weird party arose in New York called the American or “Know Nothing” party. 

Its platform was anti-immigrant and anti-catholic.  It actually gained some political power and in 1856 Fillmore accepted their nomination for President, even though he really did not believe in their platform.  In order to avoid having to support their ideas, he did not campaign but left the country for a big trip to Europe- meeting Queen Victoria and, ironically, the Pope.

Fillmore's 2nd Wife, Caroline

In the 1856 election, he finished third with only 22% of the vote and considered his political career over.  He became very involved in local charities and helped found the University of Buffalo. He remarried to a wealthy widow who put him on an allowance. During the civil war, he raised money for local troops and was a staunch Union supporter.   He is buried in Buffalo.

Millard Fillmore committed political suicide by not only signing the Fugitive Slave Act but strongly enforcing it as well.  He truly believed that the constitution protected slavery so the federal government should as well.  He also thought it would avoid the south seceding, something they were already threatening during his presidency.  While this may have postponed the civil war a while, it galvanized abolitionists and lead to the formation of the Republican party and ultimately the election of Lincoln.

#28 Woodrow Wilson: Paralysis in Mind and Body (1913-1921)

“Wilson” by A. Scott Berg 2013

Woodrow Wilson may have been our most intelligent, educated, morally driven president but his arteries hardened just a quickly as his idealism.  Both lead to a man who had amazing ideals but the inability to achieve many of them.  However, his popular image as a cold, unbending man does not at all match the driven, passionate man portrayed in this book.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Virginia in 1856 to a Presbyterian minister father and mother from a well to do Ohio family.  The family moved to several different southern cities as he was growing up, spending the majority of his years in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. He was the favorite child in his family and constantly told how God had great plans for him. He was a slow learner, unable to read until age 10 due to dyslexia.  However, upon learning shorthand he was able to write and read much faster.  Using a typewriter much of his life also compensated for this issue. His father helped him compensate by emphasizing his oral skills, having him recite famous speeches over and over.

 Wilson headed to Princeton for college and just blossomed there.  He became involved in many clubs- becoming editor of the school paper and one of the best debaters on campus.  While there he developed a desire to get into politics. However, he was a bit lost after finishing his undergrad degree and went to Virginia law school for a year before passing the bar in Georgia.  His brief attempt to start a law practice was a failure and he headed back to school at Johns Hopkins to earn a doctorate in history and political science in 1886.  His incentive to earn a good living as a college teacher was driven by his desire to marry and support a family.

Ellen Axson Wilson

Woodrow met Ellen Wilson in 1883 in Georgia.  Her father was a minister who had mental problems and she was having to raise all her siblings.  Ellen was a very talented and educated artist who had sold paintings and had exhibitions in New York and Paris.  But after they married in 1885, she put all of her art ambitions aside as they had 3 daughters in the first four years of their marriage.    If you read their love letters, the physical and emotional passion and total connection of their lives was amazing.  Ellen struggled with depression off and on much of her life but usually tried to hide it from her family.  Her painting was a source of release for much of her emotional issues.  Honestly, Woodrow Wilson would never have become president without her guidance, advice and support.  Fascinating woman.

Painting by Ellen Axson Wilson

After receiving his doctorate, Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr then back to Princeton to teach history, political science, and economics. He constantly guest lectured at other colleges and civic groups, along with writing essays and books on government and history, all to bring in extra income for his growing family and to increase his exposure.  Wilson’s skills as a speaker were phenomenal.  He was constantly voted the best teacher at Princeton, getting standing ovations after his lectures. 

In 1892, Wilson was named president of Princeton University and immediately began to enhance the academic rigor, expand its program offerings, and build new facilities.  His ability to schmooze money from rich alumni and his popularity in the community helped this process.  One of the other teachers was his best friend, but when he confronted Wilson about his most drastic desired change at the college, Wilson cut him off completely, feeling betrayed and never speaking to the man again. This set a pattern with Wilson of his taking any criticism very personally from those close to him and his ability to hold a grudge for life.

 Wilson’s struggled to establish a graduate school and then in 1906 he had a stroke which left him temporarily blind in one eye.  He was diagnosed with very high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries.  This condition can be linked to his increasing emotional swings and irritability. To recover from this, he took a vacation to Bermuda where he met a married woman named Mary Peck.  While their letters reveal a passion and closeness, it is unknown if it became a physical affair.  However, it did upset Ellen and so Wilson ended it.  In later years Mary Peck was used by political opponents as a scandal.  However, Mary Peck never released her letters from him until after his death even though she was offered a huge amount of money for them by republicans.

Every college kid needs this poster size in his room.

Wilson returned to Princeton and became disenchanted with the resistance to his ideas.  His inability to compromise was becoming an issue and his desire to eliminate the socially elite clubs at Princeton caused conflict with wealthy, snooty donors.  State democratic leaders convinced him to run for governor, thinking that his political inexperience would make him a perfect puppet for the party bosses in New Jersey.  Wilson accepted the nomination but after winning he immediately cut off contact with the corrupt party bosses and instituted laws that eliminated their control in New Jersey.  His progressive changes in the state led to national exposure and after just two years as governor, he was asked to run for president.

Would have made a great campaign picture. 

The Democratic convention of 1912 was full of drama as William Jennings Bryan (a two time loser for president) and Champ Clark from Missouri were also battling for the nomination.  Bryan was never going to be selected so eventually he swung his support to Wilson. (Ellen invited Bryan over for dinner without telling her husband and got the two men to discuss their differences.  If she had not done this, who knows how history would have turned out!) On the 46^th ballot, he got the Democratic nomination.

The election of 1912 was historic because the republican vote was split when Theodore Roosevelt started his own Bull Moose party and the incumbent republican president Taft also ran.  TR was a progressive with ideas very similar to Wilson, but their personalities were totally opposite.  Wilson was seen as academic and cold while TR was passionate and hot headed.  The main difference was their views on monopolies and tariffs.  Wilson felt they needed restrictions and Roosevelt was much friendlier to monopolies.  Wilson’s appeal to the common man and support by labor, women and blacks helped him squeak by and win.

During his first term in office Wilson lowered tariffs, created the Federal Reserve system, began the income tax, created child labor laws, and passed an anti-trust act.   He was totally hands off with his cabinet leaders and their departments, a move which allowed him a pretty cushy daily work schedule and time for 9 holes of golf every day.  The official presidential doctor, Dr Grayson, encouraged lots of exercise for his high blood pressure but in times of stress Wilson would get massive headaches, a sure sign of problems.

 Wilson knew nothing about foreign affairs when he came to office and stumbled in dealing with the Mexican Revolution.  William Jennings Bryan was his secretary of state and they frequently clashed on issues.  Wilson began relying on an “unofficial adviser” named Colonel House and they became very close.  As the First World War began in Europe in 1914, Wilson struggled to keep the US neutral, especially after the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915.

Wilson was also very distracted because Ellen was dying of Bright’s Disease, a kidney ailment.  After her death in August 1914, he fell into a deep depression until Dr. Grayson introduced him to a wealthy widow named Edith Galt in Feb 1915 and he fell deeply in love.  He would write her 2 or 3 love letters a day and proposed soon after they met, even though it had not been long since his wife’s death.  They tried to keep it hidden but people actually spotted them necking in the presidential car and so they finally married in a small ceremony in her house in Washington DC in December 2015.

When running for reelection in 1916, Wilson emphasized that “He Kept Us Out OF War” and won a very close race.  However, after the discovery of the Zimmerman telegram in which Germany tried to get Mexico to attack the US, Wilson knew it was time to go to war. In April 1917 congress declared war and Wilson pushed through several controversial acts to suppress opposition in the press or other groups.  This led to jailing thousands of writers, labor leaders, German immigrants and others- the worst violations of civil rights in American history.   The government also quickly seized railroads and controlled almost all factory and food production.  By 1918 the Yanks had landed in Europe and along with the British and French quickly defeated the Germans. 

Europe treated Wilson like a rock star.

Clemenceau was very stubborn

Wilson came up with “Fourteen Points” which would allow the Germans to lose with dignity and prevent future world wars by a creation of a League of Nations. The Germans surrendered with the assumption that a treaty would be based on this.   Wilson was hailed as a hero in Europe. But when Wilson went to Paris for the 1918 peace talks, he was constantly blocked by French President Georges Clemenceau, who wanted vengeance and the destruction of Germany.  Wilson had to return to Washington briefly to deal with republican opposition to his ideas and by the time he returned to Paris, his friend and adviser Colonel House had compromised on many of Wilson's ideas and the League of Nations.  Wilson was furious and struggled to win back his points from the allies, eventually only succeeding in clinging to his League idea and letting most of the other points go.   He never forgave House and soon stopped speaking to him forever.

Carefully staged pictures to hide his disability

When Wilson returned to the US to get the Treaty of Versailles ratified, the republicans had taken control of the house and senate. He was exhausted and in poor health with blinding headaches, unpredictable mood swings and an obsession about his beloved League of Nations becoming his legacy to the world.  The republicans, who felt left out of the peace talks, blocked all attempts to ratify it so Wilson decided to sell it directly to the people by doing a massive national train and speaking tour.  He was very popular at all his speeches but towards the end of the tour in Pueblo, Colorado he had a stroke.  He immediately returned to Washington where he had a massive stroke four days later in October of 1919.  His left side was paralyzed, left eye completely blind and minimal vision in his right eye even though his mind was fairly sharp apart from wild mood swings and depression.  His wife and Dr. Grayson, hid him from the world for weeks as she filtered the information and access to him.  Wilson eventually recovered enough to walk a bit with a cane and attend cabinet meetings.   For the remainder of his presidency, he was essentially a lame duck and many claim his wife Edith was actually in charge. This inability of anyone to force a president to resign for being incapacitated eventually led to the passage of the 25^th Amendment to the constitution.

After the presidency, Wilson and his wife Edith bought a house in Washington DC but he lived a pretty secluded life.  He tried to practice law briefly or write a book but both were just too much physically or mentally.  He was seen each week at a local theater in Washington and gave his last brief speech in 1923 on Armistice Day.  He continued to deteriorate physically and never recovered emotionally from the loss of his League of Nations… which the US never joined.  After his death he was buried in the National Cathedral in Washington DC and his Washington home is now a museum.

History has not been kind to Woodrow Wilson.  The massive violation of civil rights during the war was pretty horrible. However, Wilson also claimed he would help blacks in order to get their votes in 1912, but he did nothing for them. In fact he tolerated segregation in his own administration and ignored Jim Crow laws. He was known to view blacks and women as intellectually inferior, making derogatory comments about both.   He offered minimal support for women’s suffrage and only finally supported it when it would obviously pass.  A sad legacy for a man who thought his ideas would end war forever.