WOODROW WILSON THE MAN, HIS TIMES AND HIS TASK BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE Author of Stratagems and Spoils, A Certain Rich Man 1 The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me, In the Heart of a Fool WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Cambridge CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ix PART ONE THE BUGLE-CALL OF YOUTH I. THE MIRACLE OF HEREDITY 3 II. THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT 28 III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH 42 IV. WHEN THE EVIL DAYS COME NOT 68 V. LAGGING ON THE ACADEMIC STAGE 89 VI. OUR HERO WAITS FOR OPPORTUNITY 104 VII. MR. WILSON TAKES HIS PEN IN HAND 120 PART TWO THE CONFLICT VIII. THE LECTURER BECOMES THE ADMINISTRATOR 139 IX. GOING THROUGH THE FlRST FlRE l6o X. IN WHICH WE SHIFT THE SCENE 195 XL A THREAD OF DESTINY is WOVEN 217 XII. THE LIBERAL LEADER ARRIVES 244 XIII. AN EVIL MESSENGER COMES 272 XIV. A LIBERAL LEADERS TRIAL BALANCE 292 PART THREE THE VICTORY XV. OUR FIRST NATIONAL LIBERAL VICTORY 311 XVI. How THE MAGICIAN WON THE WAR 343 XVII. UNCLE SAM DISGUISES AS A PHILOSOPHER 368 GUY MO. 6514329 vi CONTENTS XVIII. THE PATH OF GLORY ENDS 388 XIX. PRESIDENT WILSONS SECOND EUROPEAN VENTURE 412 XX. How WILSON LOST THE PEACE 436 XXI. WAITING FOR THE CURTAIN 461 XXII. REVIEWING A DOZEN YEARS 469 XXIII. THE ASSESSMENT 485 APPENDIX A. THE WAR MESSAGE 491 B. THE FOURTEEN POINTS 501 C. CORRESPONDENCE ON THE Cox DINNER EPISODE 504 D. LETTER FROM A. S. BURLESON TO NEWTON D. BAKER 512 INDEX 517 ILLUSTRATIONS WOODROW WILSON Frontispiece From a photograph taken in 1918 by Harris Ewing, Washington ANN ADAMS WILSON, GRANDMOTHER OF WOODROW WILSON 6 REV. JOSEPH R. WILSON 16 By courtesy of Rev. Dr. Sevier, of Atlanta JANET WOODROW WILSON 16 HOUSE BUILT BY JOSEPH R. WlLSON IN COLUMBIA, SOUTHCAROLINA 48 THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE PRINCETONIAN, 1878-1879 76 By courtesy of Mr. Robert Bridges ELLEN Lou AXSON 96 GROUP OF THE WILSON FAMILY IN THE EARLY NINETIES TAKEN AT THE HOUSE OF DR. GEORGE HOWE IN Co-LUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA 126 GOVERNOR WILSON IN HIS STUDY AT PRINCETON, WITH MRS. WILSON 242 THE PRESIDENT-ELECT WITH HIS FAMILY AT SEAGIRT, N. J. 270 EDITH BOLLING WILSON 286 LLOYD GEORGE, CLEMENCEAU, AND WILSON 388 PRESIDENT WILSON ON HIS RETURN FROM FRANCE, 1919, READY TO GO ASHORE AT HOBOKEN 412 WOODROW WILSON SPEAKING FROM THE PORCH OF HIS HOUSE, ARMISTICE DAY, 1923 466 INTRODUCTION THIS book will try to tell the story, as simply as it may be told, of a man, his time, and his task. The story will disclose no new events nor details nor cir cumstances in the life of Woodrow Wilson, but per haps the arrangement of our biographical material may help his contemporaries to a better understand ing of him and his work. His partisans have ideal ized his virtues and so have sought to create a super man some sort of Heaven-sent Messiah to redeem a wicked world from its iniquity. His enemies alas, they have seen his weakness through the green and red glasses of envy and hate, and a fine old striped devil they have made of him. He was neither God nor fiend, but in his political career rather a shy, middle-aged gentleman with the hoar frost of the cloister upon his public manner, with an academic respect for facts and with a Calvinistic addiction for digesting the facts into his own God given truth. On the surface he was half or two thirds Irish, and so turned to his friends a gay and lovely face. But the dour Scot, big and dominant inside him, turned to his adversaries a cold andimplacable heart that transformed even the most x INTRODUCTION amiable of his opponents into ardent foes with a lust for torture. So he went his way through a crisis in the life of our civilization. He took leadership in great days, and put into his leadership all the power outside him self that lay in the hearts of his countrymen yearn ing for righteousness...