Woodrow Wilson

by John Milton Cooper, Jr.

  34. WW shorthand diary, entry for June 9, 1876, PWW, vol. 1.

  35. Jessie Wilson Sayre, interview by RSB, Dec. 1, 1925, RSBP, box 121; WW to EA, Oct. 11, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  36. WW shorthand diary, entry for July 4, 1876, PWW, vol. 1.

  37. WW to Albert Bushnell Hart, June 3, 1889, PWW, vol. 6.

  38. “W” [WW] to Princetonian, Jan. 25, 1877, PWW, vol. 1. About the Witherspoon Gang, Wilson later said, “He [Bridges] and Charlie Talcott and Hiram Woods were the real friends whom college life gave me for an inspiring possession; and if I keep any friends, I shall, before all others keep them.” WW to EA, Nov. 20, 1884, PWW, vol. 3.

  39. Robert H. McCarter, interview by HWB, July 15, 1940, HWBC; Princetonian editorials, Jan. 30, 1879; Feb. 6 and 27, 1879, PWW, vol. 1, 461. Also, in contrast to his successor, Fine, Wilson had nothing to say about the place of science in the curriculum. See the cited editorials.

  40. “Junius” [WW], “Some Thoughts on the Present State of Public Affairs,“PWW, vol. 1.

  41. William F. Magie, interview by HWB, June 12, 1940, HWBC. For speculation on why Wilson was not elected to a class officership, see HWB, Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (Cambridge, Mass., 1967). See also Editorial Note, “Wilson’s Refusal to Enter the Lynde Competition,” PWW, vol. 1.

  42. WW draft to William M. Sloane, [ca. Dec. 5, 1883], PWW, vol. 2.

  43. WW, “Cabinet Government in the United States,” PWW, vol. 1.

  44. WW, “Cabinet Government,” PWW, vol. 1.

  45. On the composition and its influences, see Editorial Note, “‘Cabinet Government in the United States,’” PWW, vol. 1.

  46. WW to EA, Oct. 30, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; RB, Wilson. In 1913, when the two men met shortly after Wilson’s inauguration as president, Wilson told Lodge, “Senator, … a man never forgets the first editor who accepts one of his articles. You were the first editor who accepted an article written by me.” HCL, The Senate and the League of Nations (New York, 1925).

  47. WW to EA, Oct. 30, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  2 WOODROW

  1. Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time, vol. 1, Jefferson the Virginian (Boston, 1948) WW to RB, Nov. 7, 1879, PWW, vol. 1.

  2. WW, “Self Government in France,” [ca. Sept. 4, 1879], PWW, vol. 1; WW, “Congressional Government,” [ca. Oct. 1, 1879], PWW, vol. 1.

  3. WW, “John Bright,” PWW, vol. 1.

  4. William Cabell Bruce, Recollections (Baltimore, 1936); WW to EA, May 14, 1885, PWW, vol. 4.

  5. Jefferson Society debate, Apr. 2, 1880, PWW, vol. 1; Braxton Gibson, recollection to HWB, ca. Dec. 1941, HWBC.

  6. Richard Heath Dabney, interview by HWB, Mar. 22, 1941, HWBC; Samuel B. Woods to HWB, Jan. 15, 1942, HWBC; WW to Cordell Hull, Sept. 12, 1922, PWW, vol. 68.

  7. WW to Charles Talcott, Dec. 31, 1879, PWW, vol. 1; WW to RB, Feb. 15, 1880, PWW, vol. 1; Joseph R. Wilson to WW, Dec. 22, 1879, PWW, vol. 1.

  8. Harriet Woodrow Welles to RSB, Sept. 28, 1925, RSBP, box 124.

  9. WW to RB, Jan. 1, 1881, PWW, vol. 2; WW, “Stray Thoughts from the South,” PWW, vol. 2. See also Editorial Note, “Wilson’s Withdrawal from the University of Virginia,” PWW, vol. 2.

  10. WW to Harriet Woodrow, Jan. 15, 1881; Apr. 22, 1881; May 10, 1881, PWW, vol. 2.

  11. WW to Harriet Woodrow, [Sept. 25, 1881], PWW, vol. 2; WW to EA, Oct. 11, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; on the incident in Chillicothe, see also Editorial Note, “Wilson’s Proposal to Hattie Woodrow,” PWW, vol. 2.

  12. WW to RB, Mar. 15, 1882, PWW, vol. 2. Wilson and Hattie later became friends again. In 1894, on his first trip to the West, he visited her and her husband, Eddie Welles, at their home in Colorado. In 1913 and 1917, Harriet Woodrow Welles attended Wilson’s presidential inaugurations, and she visited him and his family in the White House several times. Many years later, after Wilson’s and Welles’s deaths, one of her grandsons married one of his granddaughters. See Helen Welles Thackwell, “Woodrow Wilson and My Mother,” Princeton University Library Chronicle, Autumn 1950.

  13. WW, “Government by Debate,” PWW, vol. 2. See also Editorial Note, “‘Government by Debate,’” PWW, vol. 2.

  14. WW to editor, International Review, [ca. Apr. 30, 1881], PWW, vol. 2.

  15. WW to RB, Oct. 28, 1882, PWW, vol. 2.

  16. WW testimony, Sept. 23, 1882, PWW, vol. 2; New York World, Sept. 24, 1882.

  17. Joseph R. Wilson to WW, Aug. 14 and 20, 1882, PWW, vol. 2; WW to RB, Oct. 28, 1882, PWW, vol. 2; WW to Hiram Woods, May 9 [10], 1883, PWW, vol. 2; WW to Richard Heath Dabney, May 11, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  18. WW to RB, May 12, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; WW to EA, Oct. 30, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  19. WW to EA, Oct. 30, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; WW to RB, Feb. 24, 1881, PWW, vol. 2.

  20. Joseph R. Wilson to WW, Feb. 14, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; James Woodrow to Jessie Woodrow Wilson, Mar. 13, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  21. On this typewriter, see Editorial Note, “Wilson and His Caligraph,” PWW, vol. 2. The editors of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson speculate that Wilson purchased this model rather than its rival, the Remington 2, which was simpler and faster, because it cost $40 less.

  22. WW to EA, Oct. 11, 1883, PWW, vol. 2. See also Editorial Note, “Wilson’s Introduction to Ellen Axson,” PWW, vol. 2, and Frances Wright Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson: First Lady between Two Worlds (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1985).

  23. WW to EA, Oct. 11, 18, and 23, 1883, PWW, vol. 2, 481, 485. See also Editorial Note, “Wilson’s Early Courtship of Ellen Axson,” PWW, vol. 2, and Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson.

  24. EA to WW, Nov. 5, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; Rosalie Anderson to Ellen Axson, July 5, 1877, WWP, microfilm ed., reel 4. On her “man-hater” reputation, see Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson.

  25. Rosalie Anderson to EAW, June 29, 1877, WWP, microfilm ed., reel 4. On the Axson family and Ellen Axson’s early years, see Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson.

  26. On Axson’s mother’s death and her father’s depression, see Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson.

  27. WW to EA, July 16, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; WW to RB, July 26, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  28. EA to WW, Sept. 21, 1883, PWW, vol. 2. On this encounter, see Editorial Note, “The Engagement,” PWW, vol. 2, and Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson.

  29. WW to EA, Nov. 27, 1883, PWW, vol. 2. On the founding and early years of Johns Hopkins, see Hugh Hawkins, Pioneer: A History of the Johns Hopkins University, 1874–1889 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1960), esp.

  30. WW to EA, Oct. 30, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; minutes of the seminary of history and political science, Apr. 18, 1884, PWW, vol. 2. Taking the opposing side was John Dewey, who cited statistics to show that illiteracy was rising in the South. Long afterward, the dry, understated Dewey could still recall Wilson’s “vigorous attack” on the bill, “not exactly on old southern states rights lines, but against anything looking toward ‘encroachment.’” John Dewey to HWB, July 14, 1941, HWBC.

  31. WW to EA, Oct. 16 and 30, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  32. WW to EA, Nov. 27, 1883; Jan. 1, 1884, PWW, vol. 2.

  33. WW to EA, Sept. 18, 1883, PWW, vol. 2; EA to WW, Sept. 21 and 25, 1883; June 21, 1885, PWW, vol. 2; vol. 4. Their youngest daughter later published a collection of these letters. See WW, The Priceless Gift: The Love Letters of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson, ed. Eleanor Wilson McAdoo (New York, 1962).

  34. WW to EA, Oct. 30, 1883, PWW, vol. 2.

  35. WW to EA, Oct. 16, 1883; Jan. 1, 1884, PWW, vol. 2. On the beginning of the new book, see Editorial Note, “Congressional Government,” PWW, vol. 4.

  36. For the writing of this book, see the chronology provided in Editorial Note, “Congressional Government,” PWW, vol. 4.

  37. WW to EA, Nov. 28, 1884, PWW, vol. 3; EA to WW, Jan. 24, 1884 [1885], PWW, vol. 4.

  38. WW to RB, Nov. 19, 1884, PWW, vol. 3; WW, Congressional Government, PWW, vol. 4, 17, 40. The entire book is reprinted in PWW, vol. 4. The original edition runs to 333 pages.

  39. WW, Congressional Government, PWW, vol. 4, 111, 114.

  40. Ibid.

>   41. Ibid.

  42. Gamaliel Bradford review, [Feb. 12, 1885], PWW, vol. 4. For other reviews, see PWW, vol. 4. On later criticisms, see HWB, Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (Cambridge, Mass., 1967).

  43. A. Lawrence Lowell, interview by HWB, May 23, 1939, HWBC; WW, “Responsible Government and Constitutionalism,” PWW, vol. 5.

  44. Lowell, interview by HWB, May 23, 1939, HWBC; WW to EA, Feb. 24, 1885, PWW, vol. 4.

  45. WW to EA, Feb. 13, 1885, PWW, vol. 4. Wilson’s friend and faculty colleague Winthrop Daniels made a similar observation. See Winthrop M. Daniels memoir, summer 1924, RSBP, box 105.

  46. WW to EA, May 17, 1884, PWW, vol. 3; Joseph R. Wilson to WW, May 17, 1884, PWW, vol. 3. On Edward Axson’s condition, see Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson.

  47. WW to EA, May 1, 1884, PWW, vol. 3; EA to WW, June 5, 1884, PWW, vol. 3; SA, Brother Woodrow: A Memoir of Woodrow Wilson (Princeton, N.J., 1993).

  48. SA to RSB, RSBP, box 100; WW to EA, June 29, 1884, PWW, vol. 3.

  49. WW to EA, Mar. 27, 1885, PWW, vol. 4; EA to WW, Mar. 28, 1885, PWW, vol. 4.

  50. WW to EA, Nov. 8, 1884, PWW, vol. 3. On the collaboration with Richard Ely, see Editorial Note, “Wilson’s Research for a ‘History of Political Economy in the United States,’” PWW, vol. 3, and Editorial Note, “Wilson’s ‘History of Political Economy in the United States,’” PWW, vol. 4. Wilson’s section is reproduced in PWW, vol. 4.

  51. EA to WW, Nov. 28, 1884, PWW, vol. 3; WW to EA, Dec. 1, 1884, PWW, vol. 3.

  52. WW to EA, Nov. 9, 1884; Mar. 3 and 14, 1885, PWW, vol. 3; vol. 4.

  53. WW to EA, Mar. 21, 1885, PWW, vol. 4.

  54. For descriptions of the wedding, see Savannah Morning News, June 25, 1885, PWW, vol. 4, and Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson.

  3 PROFESSOR

  1. On the founding of Bryn Mawr, see Edith Finch, Carey Thomas of Bryn Mawr (New York, 1947); Cornelia Meigs, What Makes a College? A History of Bryn Mawr (New York, 1956), esp.; and Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, The Power and Passion of M. Carey Thomas (New York, 1994), 163–65, 183–91.

  2. Mary Tremain to RSB, Jan. 26, 1926, RSBP, box 116; Effie S. Spalding to Satie Leslie, Jan. 10, 1926, RSBP, box 115; Helen A. Scribner to RSB, Mar. 13, 1926, RSBP, box 115; WW to RB, Nov. 30, 1887, PWW, vol. 5; WW to Richard Heath Dabney, Jan. 25, 1887, PWW, vol. 5; WW journal, entry for Oct. 20, 1887, PWW, vol. 5.

  3. WW to Charles Talcott, Nov. 14, 1886, PWW, vol. 5; Lucy Maynard Salmon to RSB, Jan. 6 and 15, 1925, RSBP, box 121.

  4. For the story of Wilson’s shaving his mustache, see SA, Brother Woodrow: A Memoir of Woodrow Wilson (Princeton, N.J., 1993). On the births of the first two Wilson daughters and the family’s domestic arrangements, see Frances Wright Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson: First Lady between Two Worlds (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1985).

  5. WW to EAW, May 29, 1886, PWW, vol. 5; WW talk, Mar. 23, 1886, PWW, vol. 5. See also Editorial Note, “Wilson’s ‘First Failure’ at Public Speaking,” PWW, vol. 5.

  6. WW journal, entry for Oct. 20, 1887, PWW, vol. 5. Wilson was not the only person at Bryn Mawr who entertained such thoughts. At the time of his appointment, Dean Martha Carey Thomas had rejected the idea of hiring a woman to teach history and political science, sneering, “How can a political zero teach politics, an ineligible statesman, statecraft?” Quoted in Horowitz, Power and Passion.

  7. WW to James Bryce, Mar. 6, 1888, PWW, vol. 5; WW to RB, Nov. 5, 1887, PWW, vol. 5.

  8. WW to James E. Rhoads, June 7, 1888, PWW, vol. 5; WW to RB, Aug. 26, 1888, PWW, vol. 5.

  9. WW, “The Study of Administration,” [ca. Nov. 1, 1886], PWW, vol. 5.

  10. WW notes, [ca. Dec. 1–20, 1885], PWW, vol. 5; WW, “The Modern Democratic State,” [ca. Dec. 1–20, 1885], PWW, vol. 5; WW to Horace Scudder, May 12, 1886, PWW, vol. 5.

  11. WW to Hiram Woods, Sept. 16, 1886, PWW, vol. 9; WW to EA, Mar. 12, 1885, PWW, vol. 4.

  12. WW, “Socialism and Democracy,” [ca. Aug. 22, 1887], PWW, vol. 5; WW, “The Functions of Government,” [ca. Feb. 17, 1888], PWW, vol. 5.

  13. Ibid.

  14. C. F. Price, quoted in RSB, Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters, vol. 1, Youth, 1856–1890 (Garden City, N.Y., 1927); H. Monmouth Smith to HWB, Mar. 1941, HWBC.

  15. WW to Horace Scudder, Mar. 31, 1889, PWW, vol. 8.

  16. RB to WW, Nov. 5, 1889, PWW, vol. 6.

  17. Frances Landey Patton to WW, Feb. 18, 1890, PWW, vol. 6; WW to Albert Shaw, May 5, 1890, PWW, vol. 6.

  18. WW, “Bryce’s American Commonwealth,” PWW, vol. 6.

  19. WW to Munroe Smith, Jan. 7, 1889, PWW, vol. 6; WW, “Bryce’s American Commonwealth,” PWW, vol. 6.

  20. WW, The State (Boston, 1889), in PWW, vol. 6 (this volume of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson reprints only some of the chapters, not the entire book). One high estimate of The State came from Edward S. Corwin. See Corwin, “Departmental Colleague,” in Woodrow Wilson: Some Princeton Memories, ed. William Starr Myers (Princeton, N.J., 1946). The lead editor of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Arthur S. Link, also told me on several occasions that he considered The State Wilson’s best work.

  21. WW, “Leaders of Men,” [June 17, 1890], PWW, vol. 6.

  22. WW speech, Jan. 30, 1891, PWW, vol. 7; Alfred P. Dennis, Gods and Little Fishes (Indianapolis, 1931); Robert McNutt McElroy, interview by HWB, Nov. 20, 1940, HWBC.

  23. Ernest Poole, The Bridge: My Own Story (New York, 1940); Booth Tarkington, interview by HWB, Nov. 27, 1940, HWBC; Baltimore Sun, Feb. 2, 1894, PWW, vol. 8.

  24. WW, “University Training and Citizenship,” PWW, vol. 7.

  25. WW to Albert Shaw, July 14, 1891, PWW, vol. 7; WW to Patton, Mar. 28, 1897, PWW, vol. 10.

  26. WW to Shaw, Nov. 3, 1890, PWW, vol. 7; WW speech at Chicago, July 26, 1893, PWW, vol. 7.

  27. EAW to WW, June 22, 1892, PWW, vol. 8.

  28. WW to Charles W. Kent, Apr. 22, 1898, PWW, vol. 10; Francis Landey Patton to Cyrus McCormick, Apr. 4, 1898, PWW, vol. 10.

  29. WW to EAW, Mar. 10, 1892; Feb. 12, 1898, PWW, vol. 7; vol. 10.

  30. SA, interviews by RSB, Feb. 8–11, 1925; Mar. 12, 1925, RSBP, box 99; Bliss Perry, And Gladly Teach: Reminiscences (Boston, 1935).

  31. Jessie Wilson Sayre, interview by RSB, Dec. 1, 1925, RSBP, box 115; SA and George Howe, interviews by RSB, Feb. 8–11, 1925, RSBP, box 99.

  32. On the Wilson daughters, see Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, The Woodrow Wilsons (New York, 1937), esp. and Saunders, Ellen Axson Wilson, esp. For the game of tag in the White House, see SA, interviews by RSB, Feb. 8–11, 1925, RSBP, box 99.

  33. Margaret Axson Elliott, My Aunt Louisa and Woodrow Wilson (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1944). On the circle of friends.

  34. EAW to Anna Harris, June 1, 1895, PWW, vol. 9.

  35. EAW to Frederick Jackson Turner, Dec. 15, 1896, PWW, vol. 10.

  36. For speculation about a stroke, see PWW, vol. 9, n. 2, and Edwin A. Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography (Princeton, N.J., 1981).

  37. WW, “Princeton in the Nation’s Service,” PWW, vol. 10. The entire address is.

  38. EAW to Mary Hoyt, Oct. 27, 1896, PWW, vol. 10. For descriptions of the event and Wilson’s speech, see New York Tribune, Oct. 22, 1896, PWW, vol. 10, and Horace Elisha Scudder diary, entry for Oct. 21, 1896, PWW, vol. 10. On the disappointment of the Princeton presidential aspirant, see George McLean Harper, “A Happy Family,” in Myers, Princeton Memories.

  39. WW to Albert Shaw, July 18, 1893, PWW, vol. 8; WW to EAW, Aug. 3, 1896, PWW, vol. 9.

  40. WW to Caleb Winchester, May 13, 1893, PWW, vol. 8; WW, “Edmund Burke: The Man and His Times,” [ca. Aug 31, 1893], PWW, vol. 8.

  41. WW, “A Calendar of Great Americans,” Feb. 1894, PWW, vol. 8; WW, “Mere Literature,” [Dec. 1893], PWW, vol. 8. See also Editorial Note, “‘Mere Literature,’” PWW, vol. 8.

  42. WW to EAW, Jan. 24, 1894, PWW, vol. 9; WW to Albert Shaw, Feb. 28, 1893, PWW, vol. 8.

  43. WW to EAW, Mar. 15, 1900, PWW, vol. 11; WW speech, Oct. 13, 1899, PWW, vol. 11; EAW to WW
, [July 13, 1902], PWW, vol. 14.

  44. SA, “Mr. Wilson As Seen by One of His Family Circle,” [ca. 1916], RSBP, box 99; SA, interviews by RSB, Feb. 8–11, 1925; Mar. 12, 1925, RSBP, box 99.

  45. WW, “Leaderless Government,” Aug. 5, 1987, PWW, vol. 10; Bliss Perry, interview by RSB, Nov. 12, 1925, RSBP, box 119; SA comments on manuscript of RSB biography of WW, Sept. 1931, RSBP, box 100; Chicago Inter-Ocean, Jan. 14, 1899, PWW, vol. 11.

  46. WW, Introduction, Aug. 15, 1900, PWW, vol. 11; WW, “Democracy and Efficiency,” [Mar. 1901], PWW, vol. 12. On the Wilsons’ fondness for Kipling, see EAW to WW, Feb. 11, 1897, PWW, vol. 10, and WW to EAW, Feb. 14, 1897, PWW, vol. 10.

  47. WW to EAW, Feb. 4 and 17, 1898, PWW, vol. 10, 399.

  48. WW to RB, Jan. 12, 1900, PWW, vol. 11; Edward S. Corwin, interview by HWB, June 6, 1939, HWBC, box 1.

  49. WW to Frederick Jackson Turner, Jan. 21, 1902, PWW, vol. 12.

  50. John Hibben to WW, July 20, 1899, PWW, vol. 11; WW to EAW, July 31, 1899; Mar. 8, 1900, PWW, vol. 11.

  51. Samuel B. Dod to WW, June 25, 1902, PWW, vol. 12.

  52. Annie B. Perry to EAW, June 10, 1902, PWW, vol. 12; EAW to Florence Hoyt, June 28, 1902, PWW, vol. 12; WW speech, June 11, 1902, PWW, vol. 12.

  4 BOLD LEADER

  1. TR to Cleveland H. Dodge, June 16, 1902, in TR, Letters, ed. Elting E. Morison, vol. 3, The Square Deal, 1901–1905 (Cambridge, Mass., 1951). For a description of the inaugural ceremony, see PWW, vol. 14.

  2. WW, “The Making of a Nation,” [July 1897], PWW, vol. 10; Jessie Wilson Sayre, interview by RSB, Dec. 1, 1925, RSBP, box 121; Jessie Wilson Sayre to RSB, [Apr. 25, 1927], RSBP, box 121. The female representatives in the procession were the president of Mount Holyoke, the dean of Radcliffe, and a professor from Wellesley. Neither President M. Carey Thomas nor anyone else from Bryn Mawr was present. Examination of records at Princeton and Bryn Mawr does not reveal whether Thomas received an invitation, but it seems likely that she did.

  3. WW, “Princeton for the Nation’s Service,” PWW, vol. 14.