Papers of Woodrow Wilson
66 total works
This volume opens with Wilson's speech of August 7, 1912, accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, and ends with his election as President of the United States on November 5, 1912. All of Wilson's significant extant personal and political correspondence and all significant incoming correspondence for this period is published, most of it for the first time. The most important contents of this volume are the texts of Wilson's campaign speeches. A few have been omitted, and some are excerpted to avoid undue repetition. Most of his speeches are included, however, not only because they are essential to understanding his political philosophy and oratorical style, but also because all previous editions were found to be both incomplete and defective. The major accomplishment of this volume is the textual restoration of the great New Freedom speeches to their original majestic language and form. Altogether, they constitute one of the great oratorical accomplishments in modern history. Complete texts or substantial portions are provided of forty major addresses and many short speeches and remarks.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's.
The opening of this volume finds Wilson President-elect of the United States. After a post-campaign vacation in his beloved Bermuda, he plunges into New Jersey politics in an effort to achieve completion of his state reform program. With a large legislative majority, he achieves passage of stringent antitrust laws, ratification of the federal income tax amendment, a new grade crossings measure, and a host of other legislation. Meanwhile, he is busy choosing a Cabinet and conferring with Democratic leaders in Congress about a legislative program. In his eloquent Inaugural address, Wilson calls for new directions in domestic and foreign policies. During the following months, he oversees the writing of the Underwood tariff and Federal Reserve bills. He also repudiates the "dollar diplomacy" of the Taft administration in Latin America and the Far East. Virtually all of the documents in this volume are published for the first time. They shed bright new light on Wilson as party and parliamentary leader and diplomatist. Numerous personal letters, also published for the first time, reveal his warmth and capacity for friendship.
The opening of this volume finds Wilson facing domestic and international problems nearly as complex and urgent as those he had faced in Paris a month before. His main task is to assure the Senate's approval of the Treaty of Versailles, but his abilities are severely compromised by what was almost certainly a "small" stroke on July 19. Most Democrats in the Senate will follow Wilson's lead in the controversy over ratification, so his most important potential allies against Senator Lodge are Republican leaders like Taft and about twenty Republican senators, who favor ratification with reservations to be attached to the articles of ratification. Wilson is willing to accept certain interpretive reservations, but he insists that these must not be incorporated in the ratification document. A prime factor in this thinking is his angry reaction to what he perceives to be the continued atavistic imperialism of the Entente Powers and the resulting conviction that only the unqualified leadership of the United States can create a reformist and democratizing League. A pro-League coalition of two thirds of the Senate and victory on nearly all of Wilson's terms are now in sight.
Yet, in a fit of anger, he decides on August 25 to embark on a month-long speaking tour on behalf of the League. As this volume ends, Wilson is still struggling with important domestic problems, and he and his party leave for what, in light of his precarious health, will be a journey with disastrous consequences.
Yet, in a fit of anger, he decides on August 25 to embark on a month-long speaking tour on behalf of the League. As this volume ends, Wilson is still struggling with important domestic problems, and he and his party leave for what, in light of his precarious health, will be a journey with disastrous consequences.
As this volume opens, Wilson faces new serious crises at the Paris Peace Conference: Italy demands not only territory along the Dalmatian littoral, but also sovereignty over the Adriatic port of Fiume, while Japan insists on the fulfillment of secret treaties that award her complete control of the Chinese province of Shantung. Achievement of these ambitions would in Wilson's opinion grossly violate the letter and spirit of the Fourteen Points. Debates in the Council of Four over Fiume reach a pitch of high emotion, and the victorious Western alliance seems on the verge of dissolution. Wilson issues an appeal to the Italian people for a fair and just settlement of the Adriatic problem. In response, the Italian leaders withdraw from Paris, and Italy's imperial ambitions continue to be the chief stumbling block to Western accord. Meanwhile, Wilson accepts a compromise that gives only Germany's former economic rights in Shantung to the Japanese and requires of them a promise to return Shantung to the full political control of China. In spite of all discord, the Big Four submit a preliminary peace treaty to the Germans on May 7, 1919.
This begins a six-week period of intense negotiation between the victors and the vanquished.
This begins a six-week period of intense negotiation between the victors and the vanquished.
This volume begins coverage of that period of the Paris Peace Conference usually neglected by historians of the subject. It sees the lively interchange between the German government and the Council of Four over all aspects of the preliminary treaty of peace, but particularly over the Saar Basin, responsibility for the war, the fate of former German territory awarded to Poland, German membership in the League of Nations and the International Labour Organization, and reparations. The question of Italian acquisitions in the Adriatic area, still unresolved, further embitters relations between Wilson, Clemenceau, and Lloyd George, on the one side, and Orlando and Sonnino on the other. Other issues in which Wilson is deeply involved are the terms of the postwar occupation of the Rhineland, the protection of Jews and other minorities in the successor states, self-determination for Ireland, and growing opposition at home to American membership in the League of Nations. As this volume ends, a new crisis--over softening the terms of the peace treaty--is developing.
This volume opens with Wilson's tour of the Middle West and West to generate popular support for the League of Nations and to force the Senate to consent to the ratification of the Versailles Treaty without any significant reservations to the League Covenant. After the first speech of the tour, in Columbus, Ohio, Wilson travels to Missouri and Minnesota, the Northwest, California, and into the central Rocky Mountain states. His already dangerous hypertension escalates due to his punishing schedule, and he suffers increasingly from headaches, difficulties in breathing, and periods of cardiac arrest. After a stroke warning on September 26, his doctor cancels the remaining speeches, and the presidential special train returns to Washington. Wilson does suffer a stroke on October 2 and nearly dies from a urinary obstruction two weeks later. As he lies ill during October and early November, Tumulty and members of the cabinet carry on the domestic business of the country and deal with a nationwide coal strike. But Wilson will not permit Lansing to take any action on important foreign policy matters. The nation's state of affairs is parlous as the volume ends.
This volume begins with President Wilson's first Annual Message to Congress on December 2, 1913, and ends on May 5, 1914, the eve of his acceptance of the A.B.C. offer of mediation of the Veracruz incident. The documents gathered here richly illustrate the way in which the decision-making process worked, in both domestic and foreign policies, during these five months. They reflect Wilson's concerns at this time about the early formulation of the administration's antitrust program, the violence that intensified in the Colorado Coal Strike, the appointment of the Federal Reserve Board, and the controversy over alleged racial segregation in several federal departments. Wilson's campaign against the military dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta in Mexico and his support of the Constitutionalists provide the main theme of this volume. His determination to assist the revolutionary movement reaches its climax in his decision to occupy Veracruz as a means of cutting of Huerta's revenues. This action raised the threat of war with Mexico, and Wilson's ability to contain the operation and prevent general conflagration shows clearly through these documents.
The opening of this volume finds the Big Four in the midst of the gravest crisis of the peace conference set off by the British cabinet's demand for drastic softening of the terms of the peace treaty to be concluded with Germany. In response to a wave of appeasement sweeping through the British Isles, Lloyd George says that he cannot and will not sign the peace treaty unless his colleagues agree to negotiate sympathetically with the Germans on their reparations obligations, their early admission to the League of Nations, and other matters. For the entire period covered by this volume, the atmosphere of the Council of Four is supercharged by bitter debates and recriminations. Wilson and Clemenceau try to hold to the terms of the preliminary treaty. As the bitterness of the debates in the Council of Four grows in intensity, Wilson, weakened by a small stroke just before the eruption of the crisis, gradually loses the will and strength to oppose Lloyd George. Throughout, Wilson tries to play the role of peacemaker between Lloyd George and Clemenceau but ends by capitulating to Lloyd George's demands.
The result is that the final peace treaty taking shape constitutes the first step in the appeasement of Germany.
The result is that the final peace treaty taking shape constitutes the first step in the appeasement of Germany.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's.
The period spanned by this volume was in many ways one of the most crucial of Wilson's career. After the New Jersey legislature adjourned in late April, Wilson set out upon a speaking tour that carried him through the Middle West, up the West Coast, back into the Middle West, and then into the South. This tour was the trial run of the preconvention campaign, and strongly favorable public reaction encouraged Wilson to think seriously about seeking the democratic nomination. Wilson's speeches on this first great nation tour are printed in full or are represented by extensive news reports. They show the rapid development of Wilson's political thought and his emergence as a great progressive leader of his day. Returning to New Jersey in early June of 1911, Wilson addressed himself to important local problems in speeches, a number of which are included here. This volume also provides major speeches given during the last half of the year, when Wilson's candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination became increasingly promising.
The incoming letters amply illustrate public recognition of the new leader, and Wilson's personal letters describe his family life and his reactions to political events and personalities.
The incoming letters amply illustrate public recognition of the new leader, and Wilson's personal letters describe his family life and his reactions to political events and personalities.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's. Volume 13 contains Contents and Index, Volumes 1 to 12.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's.
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson is the first comprehensive edition of the documentary record of the life and thought of the twenty-eighth President of the United States and the first full-scale edition of the papers of any modern American president. Volume 12, covering the years 1900-1902, marks the end of Wilson's early career and the beginning of the next important stage in his life, the presidency of Princeton University. Its climax is a series of letters and documents revealing in startling, day-to-day details the eruption of a crisis in the university's presidential leadership during the springer of 1902. The unexpected denouement, President Patton's resignation and Wilson's election as thirteenth president, may be seen in extracts from the papers of Cyrus H. McCormick (a leader of the anti-Patton trustees) and other sources as well as Wilson's own papers. At the turn of the century, Wilson was deeply involved in a series of articles for Harper's Magazine, which he revised and published as A History of the American People in 1902.
Correspondence with the publisher chronicles nearly every stage of his work, while his letters to scholars and to the illustrator, Howard Pyle, yield considerable evidence of his methods of work and attention to detail. While growing in maturity as an historian, Wilson for the first time was thinking broadly about American historical writing and what further work needed to be done. His growing eminence in the profession is reflected in invitations from Johns Hopkins University to succeed Herbert Baxter Adams as Professor of American and Institutional History, and from Albert Bushnell Hart to contribute to the "American Nation Series" being planned for Harper and Brothers. The documents in this volume also disclose a man come to national stature in affairs, affirming America's civilizing mission as a great power while ardently defending the right of anti-imperialists who disagreed with him to speak and be heard. They show a leader of the faculty and a teacher idolized by students, and they shed much light, as earlier volumes have done, upon life in Princeton and the Wilson household.
Correspondence with the publisher chronicles nearly every stage of his work, while his letters to scholars and to the illustrator, Howard Pyle, yield considerable evidence of his methods of work and attention to detail. While growing in maturity as an historian, Wilson for the first time was thinking broadly about American historical writing and what further work needed to be done. His growing eminence in the profession is reflected in invitations from Johns Hopkins University to succeed Herbert Baxter Adams as Professor of American and Institutional History, and from Albert Bushnell Hart to contribute to the "American Nation Series" being planned for Harper and Brothers. The documents in this volume also disclose a man come to national stature in affairs, affirming America's civilizing mission as a great power while ardently defending the right of anti-imperialists who disagreed with him to speak and be heard. They show a leader of the faculty and a teacher idolized by students, and they shed much light, as earlier volumes have done, upon life in Princeton and the Wilson household.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's.
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson is the first comprehensive edition of the documentary record of the life and thought of the twenty-eighth President of the United States and the first full scale edition of the papers of any modern American president. The period from September 1894 through August 1896, covered in this ninth volume, reveals Wilson reaching the height of his powers as an undergraduate teacher, a public lecturer, and a writer. Wilson's lecture notes for his Princeton courses on public law and the history of law, printed here for the first time, demonstrate his skill as a teacher and his mastery of the subject. Other documents illustrate his increasing involvement in the life of the college through leadership in the faculty, numerous addresses to undergraduate organizations, supervision of college athletics, and frequent speeches on the alumni circuit. Wilson's outstanding ability as a public speaker was now nationally recognized, and his book contains many of his speeches.
In lectures on political liberty, morality, and expediency, we are given his prescriptions for a society still in the throes of a national crisis of confidence in the wake of the Pullman railroad strikes of 1894. With his delivery of "The Course of American History" in May 1895, and its publication later that year, Wilson emerged as a general interpreter of American history. In an address at the University of Virginia in June 1895, we find Wilson's first self-identification as a Southerner. He also continued his series of lectures on administration at the Johns Hopkins University in 1895 and 1896. Other speeches and documents present his reaction to events on the national and international scene well into the presidential campaign of 1896. During this period, Wilson engaged in a creative collaboration with Howard Pyle, the distinguished American illustrator, while writing the biography, George Washington.
Personal letters and other material augment our knowledge of several major events in Wilson's life during these years; the Wilsons planned and built a home of their own in Princeton; Wilson played an important role in a successful reform campaign against an entrenched political machine in Baltimore; he participated in New Jersey politics for the first time; and finally, he suffered a small stroke and made his first trip abroad-to England and Scotland.
In lectures on political liberty, morality, and expediency, we are given his prescriptions for a society still in the throes of a national crisis of confidence in the wake of the Pullman railroad strikes of 1894. With his delivery of "The Course of American History" in May 1895, and its publication later that year, Wilson emerged as a general interpreter of American history. In an address at the University of Virginia in June 1895, we find Wilson's first self-identification as a Southerner. He also continued his series of lectures on administration at the Johns Hopkins University in 1895 and 1896. Other speeches and documents present his reaction to events on the national and international scene well into the presidential campaign of 1896. During this period, Wilson engaged in a creative collaboration with Howard Pyle, the distinguished American illustrator, while writing the biography, George Washington.
Personal letters and other material augment our knowledge of several major events in Wilson's life during these years; the Wilsons planned and built a home of their own in Princeton; Wilson played an important role in a successful reform campaign against an entrenched political machine in Baltimore; he participated in New Jersey politics for the first time; and finally, he suffered a small stroke and made his first trip abroad-to England and Scotland.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's.
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson is the first comprehensive edition of the documentary record of the life and thought of the twenty-eighth President of the United States and the first full-scale edition of the papers of any modern American president. The years 1898-1900 saw the nation's assumption of an active international role. Wilson's reactions to the Spanish-American War and to unfolding events on the national and international scenes are documented in newspaper reports of his speeches during this period. Reluctant to see the United States embark on an imperialistic course, Wilson defended ardently the anti-imperialists' right to dissent, but concluded that America must acquire Puerto Rico and the Philipines and train them in the arduous tasks of self-government. A crystallization of Wilson's political thought is seen in his notes for a new course on constitutional government and for his projected magnum opus, "The Philosophy of Politics."
Equally significant are the materials that illuminate Wilson's rise to first rank among American historians: his articles, "State Rights (1850-1860)" and "The Reconstruction of the Southern States," display his powers of generalization and interpretation and his command of clear and unaffected, yet evocative, historical prose. During this period Wilson was also maturing as a leader among the faculty at Princeton -- this aspect of his life is seen in papers relating to a statement of standards for graduate work and in a search for a new Professor of Politics which, incidentally, led him into interesting correspondences with Theodore Roosevelt. "When a Man Comes to Himself," Wilson's report of his address to the Philadelphian Society of Princeton, and other papers document a significant change in his religious beliefs during these years. Other, more personal documents included in the volume are a pocket record of Wilson's bicycle trip around the British Isles in the summer of 1899 and letters to his wife during two lengthy separations.
Equally significant are the materials that illuminate Wilson's rise to first rank among American historians: his articles, "State Rights (1850-1860)" and "The Reconstruction of the Southern States," display his powers of generalization and interpretation and his command of clear and unaffected, yet evocative, historical prose. During this period Wilson was also maturing as a leader among the faculty at Princeton -- this aspect of his life is seen in papers relating to a statement of standards for graduate work and in a search for a new Professor of Politics which, incidentally, led him into interesting correspondences with Theodore Roosevelt. "When a Man Comes to Himself," Wilson's report of his address to the Philadelphian Society of Princeton, and other papers document a significant change in his religious beliefs during these years. Other, more personal documents included in the volume are a pocket record of Wilson's bicycle trip around the British Isles in the summer of 1899 and letters to his wife during two lengthy separations.
This massive collection includes all important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. The volumes make available as never before the materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. The Papers not only reveal the private and public man, but also the era in which he lived, making the series additionally valuable to scholars in various fields of history between the 1870's and the 1920's.