Wilson graduated from Princeton University in 1879. He then studied law at the University of Virginia and opened a law office in Atlanta, Georgia. He abandoned law practice to study government and history at Johns Hopkins where he took his PhD in 1886. He was appointed professor of jurisprudence and political economy at Princeton around 1890 and was elected president of the University in 1902. He resigned this position in 1910 over issues with the Dean of the Graduate School. With the backing of the Democrats, Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey in 1910 and established an enviable record while in that office. He was nominated for the presidency in 1912 and easily defeated a split Republican party. During his administration, the Underwood Tariff Act was passed which reversed the previous protectionist policies, the Federal Reserve System was established (1913), the Federal Trade Commission was set up (1914), the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was passed (1914) and the Federal Farm Loan Act (1916) was passed. The eight hour day was established in industry by the Adamson Act in 1916. He initiated a punitive expedition against Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1916. Although he avoided getting into the war in Europe in 1914, the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 stimulated the population into demanding action. He won re-election in 1916 and continued to keep America out of the war, but in April 1917, after Germany had resumed submarine warfare, he called for action. Wilson proposed his famous Fourteen Points in January, 1918, as the basis for peace and which paved the way for the establishment of the League of Nations, and headed the delegation in December, 1918 to the Versailles Peace Conference. He was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize for Peace. By that time, Congress had become Republican and again isolationist. The Treaty of Versailles was not ratified by Congress and Wilson went on a nationwide tour to gather support. During this tour, he suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered. |
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