Woodrow Wilson

Wilson, looking at dirty German sympathizers.

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Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was the 28^th President of the United States. Though generally viewed as a Northerner, he was born in Virginia to a slave-holding family that supported the Confederacy.^[3] This had an unfortunate impact on his views on race. Although he is most known for Wilsonianism, an ideology which supports spreading democracy abroad and fighting for all people's self-determination, these ideals didn't stand a chance against Wilson's more powerful instincts for anticommunism, authoritarianism, and racism. The Wilson administration ferociously suppressed dissent both during and after World War One, invaded Latin America more often than at any other time in US history,^[4] and pushed through fanatical segregationist reforms in the federal government.

However, Wilson was also a progressive in some significant ways. A devout Presbyterian, Wilson governed his personal life according to principles of austerity and temperance, in line with the era's progressive fashions. He was responsible for some modest progressive reforms in economic regulation and taxation, including the creation of the Federal Reserve System, the United States' first progressive income tax,^[5] and the League of Nations — but America never joined, and the League was ultimately a failure. He also worked to end child labor, signing the Keating–Owen Act in 1916, which limited children's working hours, and banned the sale in interstate commerce of goods produced by factories that employed children under 14, mines that employed children younger than 16 (although this was later struck down by the Supreme Court).^[6] He also opposed requiring literacy tests for immigrants, vetoing the Immigration Act of 1917, the most sweeping restriction on immigrants until that time (athough this veto was overriden by Congress anyway). These reforms allowed Wilson to win the support of white Northern progressives who might not *necessarily* agree with his rabid segregationist views but who supported his economic agenda, arguably helping to establish the Democratic party's modern identity as one of economic reform, while the Republican party became increasingly conservative.

Wilson ended up being arguably the worst case of a presidential disability, as he was nearly completely incapacitated by a stroke two years before the end of his second term. This, in part, led to the creation of the 25^th Amendment which deals with presidential succession. During his incapacitation, his wife Edith effectively ran the country by deciding who could and could not meet with the president,^[7] and it was during this time that the 19^th Amendment was passed, which gave women the right to vote. President Wilson was actually at best ambivalent and at worst hostile to the concept of women's suffrage.^[8]

"Bad Neighbor" policy[edit]

One of the defining, yet surprisingly little known aspects of Wilson's foreign policy were his frequent military interventions in Latin America. He presented this as an ongoing mission to build democracies in the region, saying in 1913: "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men."^[9] Despite what he said, however, it should be clear to anyone that Wilson's Latin America policies were motivated by the same cold, hard, capitalistic greed that spurred his predecessors. These invasions and occupations were deeply unpopular even at the time, and Wilson's successors, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Roosevelt all publicly renounced the need for US military presence in Latin America^[10][11][12] By the time of the Hoover administration, their renunciation of American interventionism towards Latin America became known as the "Good Neighbor policy," an ironic echo of what Wilson had earlier claimed as his goal.^[13]

The US published this image of a dead Haitian rebel leader as a warning but created a rallying cry instead.

Invasion and occupation of Haiti[edit]

Fearing that chaos in Haiti would create an opportunity for Europeans to expand their economic interests there at America's expense, Woodrow Wilson used the 1915 assassination of Haiti's president as an excuse to order the United States Marines to invade the country.^[14] One of the first things Wilson did at the start of the occupation was to move Haiti's financial reserves to the US and rewrite their constitution to give foreigners, as in US businessmen, land-owning rights.^[14] After manipulating the nation's elections to install a pro-US president, the Americans then forced him to permanently dissolve the legislature after meeting resistance to the new constitution.^[15] The occupying Americans enforced segregation policies and used forced labor to build infrastructure.^[16] During the occupation, US Marines killed 15,000 Haitians in their attempts to brutally suppress resistance.^[14] The occupation frequently featured indiscriminate murders, robberies, and massacres perpetrated by American marines.^[17] After killing a prominent Haitian rebel, the US Marines circulated the image of his corpse as a warning. Instead, they created a martyr.^[18] President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally ended the occupation in 1934, although the US still had control of Haiti's finances until 1947.^[19]

Invasion and occupation of the Dominican Republic[edit]

For much the same reason as with Haiti, Woodrow Wilson ordered Marines into the Dominican Republic in 1916 to hijack the nation's finances.^[20] The influx of arrogant foreign invaders predictably birthed a resistance movement, and the US military government responded by censoring communications and fighting an eight-year guerrilla war against the Dominicans.^[21] American troops also collected on the Dominican Republic's debt by collecting tariffs on the nation's imports.^[22] In the course of ruling the nation, the United States created institutions that would go on to be used during the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.^[23] This intervention was also notorious for American troops' brutal tactics.^[24]

Invasions of Mexico[edit]

That hat isn't an invention of the cartoonist. Pancho Villa really wore that.

During the Mexican Revolution, the US military was on edge due to the chaos down south. In 1914, Mexico's then-government had several unarmed US marines arrested and detained for about an hour in response to their landing in a restricted area.^[25] An angry Wilson demanded that the Mexican president issue an official apology and deliver a 21-gun salute to the American flag.^[25] The Mexicans offered the apology but refused the salute. Meanwhile, Wilson also learned that a German ship was planning to deliver arms to the Mexican government through Veracruz, in violation of a US arms embargo.^[25] Wilson ordered the attack and seizure of Veracruz, occupying the city for six months.^[25]

In 1915, the US finally recognized the government of Venustiano Carranza after Mexico's previous president stepped down due to his quarrels with Wilson. Infuriated by this, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa launched several attacks across the US-Mexico border, culminating in a violent raid on Columbus, New Mexico.^[26] This provocation led Wilson in 1916 to prepare the US Army for an expedition into Mexico to hunt and kill Villa in retaliation for the raids.^[27] The invasion was a logistical nightmare, and the few skirmishes actually fought between the US and Villa's forces were inconclusive at best.^[28] Despite the American alliance with President Carranza, the invasion caused tensions between the two governments to skyrocket. Carranza's forces began teaming up with Villa's to push out the Americans. This show of universal hostility finally convinced America's generals to order a withdrawal from Mexico.^[29]

Invasion and occupation of Cuba[edit]

In 1917, a disputed election in Cuba led to an insurgency. Fearing that the civil strife would endanger American landowners' sugar harvest, the Wilson administration dispatched troops to protect the crops.^[30] The US government later agreed to purchase a quota of Cuban sugar at above-market prices in exchange for a free trade agreement.^[31] The presence of US marines again stirred anger amongst the Cuban populace, resulting in anti-American protests and instances of violence.^[30] Marines established bases around Cuba to patrol the countryside and the cities.^[30] The occupation ended in 1922.

American troops near a Nicaraguan railroad.

Occupation of Nicaragua[edit]

Wilson inherited a lengthy occupation of Nicaragua from the Taft administration, which had begun when a previous Nicaraguan president threatened to expel US financial interests.^[32] A secondary objective was to prevent any nation other than the United States from building a Nicaraguan Canal; to this end, the Americans installed a conservative puppet president and ordered him to sign the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty which made Nicaragua a de-facto protectorate of the United States.^[33] US forces also clashed violently with Nicaraguan insurgents who had risen against both the American occupation and against the Nicaraguan government.^[34] In 1926, a civil war would erupt against the puppet president, prompting the US to reinforce its occupation force to deal with the revolutionaries.^[35] The US occupation would finally end in the 1930s when the US suddenly had bigger fish to fry.

Racism and segregation[edit]

Wilson infamously had black activist Monroe Trotter thrown out of the White House.

How racist presidential leadership...[edit]

Domestically, Wilson's racial policies were a disgrace to the office he held. While his Republican predecessors (it was a different party then) routinely appointed blacks to low-level national offices and allowed them access to party conventions,^[36] Wilson began an extensive series of policies designed to curtail African-American civil rights. Additionally, he was a supporter of eugenics.^[37]

Surprisingly enough, in 1912 Wilson became the first Democratic candidate to win the black vote. This was done through pretending to support racial equality and anti-lynching laws, winning the support of black leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois. In a letter to a prominent black spokesman, Alexander Walters, head of the National Colored Democratic League (N.C.D.L.) and a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in which he promised that "should I become President of the United States they [black Americans] may count on me for absolute fair dealing and for everything by which I could assist in advancing the interests of their race in the United States." this was helped by Taft's seeming apathy on civil rights, and the perception that the GOP had taken the black vote for granted. Theodore Roosevelt had also badly damaged his ties with the black community in 1912, when the Progressive party endorsed segregation and Jim Crow at its 1912 convention (it also didn't help that Roosevelt was arguably more vocal in his support for eugenics than Wilson). After his election, most black Americans had viewed Wilson with a sense of hope and optimism, civil rights activist Monroe Trotter even claimed Wilson was viewed as the "second coming of Abraham Lincoln." However, many African-Americans who staked his reputation on supporting Wilson would soon be bitterly disappointed after he assumed office and revealed his true colors on the matter.^[38]

Wilson's election victory made him the first Southern president since 1868. This event saw ecstatic celebration from supporters of the Old South and the Confederacy, many of whom would be subsequently elevated to positions of power in the government that they would keep for generations.^[39] Wilson was also a child of the Old South who regretted the outcome of the American Civil War and hoped to use his office to reverse some of its consequences.^[39]

This executive program to destroy what little hard-won social progress blacks had achieved began with the federal government's segregation. He allowed his Postmaster General and Treasury Secretary to introduce segregation into their departments; W.E.B. DuBois even noted in a letter to the president that a black clerk had been made to work in a literal cage, as the nature of his work prevented him from being moved to a different building.^[40] Other segregation policies used by the Postal Service included forcing blacks to use separate lunchrooms and toilets and forcing them to work hidden away behind screens.^[41] Wilson also began dismissing black people from leadership positions in the federal government and refused to appoint any more.^[42] He even began requiring applicants to federal jobs to provide photographs of themselves to ensure that only whites could get interviews.^[43] To justify all of this, Wilson's officials publicized complaints by white women of alleged sexual harassment by black men.^[42]

A delegation of black civil rights leaders led by Monroe Trotter appeared at the White House to appeal these policies. Still, Wilson argued back that "Segregation is not humiliating, but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen."^[44] Trotter retorted that "it is untenable, in view of the established facts, to maintain that the segregation is simply to avoid race friction, for the simple reason that for fifty years white and colored clerks have been working together in peace and harmony and friendliness," and Wilson retaliated by having him thrown out of the White House on the basis that his tone and demeanor were offensive.^[44][45]

Wilson's cameo in the stunningly racist film, Birth of a Nation.

...inspires like-minded public response[edit]

All around the country, state governments followed Wilson's example and began dismissing or segregating their black employees. A particularly egregious example of this comes from the Georgia state IRS, which fired all blacks and released a statement saying that: "There are no government positions for Negroes in the South. A Negro's place [is] in the corn field."^[42]

Filmmaker D.W. Griffith based his infamous film Birth of a Nation on a book which quoted Wilson's negative views on Reconstruction.^[46] The film was a celebration of the Ku Klux Klan and helped lead to its resurgence. Wilson symbolically aligned himself with the film by ordering a private screening. He allegedly sang its praises, which contributed to its popularity.^[47] The revived Klan exploded in popularity, becoming a public institution with membership in the millions by the 1920s.^[48]

The racism oozing from the White House inspired and inflamed numerous race riots, with 26 happening in 1919 alone, a period known as Red Summer.^[49]

American police state[edit]

War propaganda[edit]

Despite Wilson's claims that he was bringing America into World War One to "make the world safe for democracy,"^[50] the Wilson administration quickly began attacking one of the core pillars of it: free speech. Almost immediately after the declaration of war in 1917, Wilson ordered the creation of the Committee on Public Information (CPI),^[51] which was responsible for producing propaganda to demonize America's enemies and encourage young men to enlist in the military.^[52]

The CPI did not stop at making posters and films; it also began to expand its control over what Americans and others around the world saw and watched. For instance, the CPI banned the export of any film which showed Americans in a negative light, such as Westerns or crime dramas, and strove to fill the market with ideological slush that portrayed America as the beacon of freedom the government loves to claim to be.^[53] It also pressured Hollywood's foreign contacts to stop showing German films.^[53]

Repression of "hyphenated Americans"[edit]

"Why should I let these freaks cast whole votes when they are only half American?"

Wartime propaganda has become infamous for stoking prejudice towards white ethnic groups, virtually anyone who wasn't a WASP. This led to the popularization of the concept of the Hyphenated American, an epithet used against Americans who had ancestral ties to other nations as a way to insinuate that they were disloyal. Wilson himself got in on the hysteria, saying:^[54]

The American populace responded to this rhetoric with a wave of repression directed towards white minorities, especially German-Americans. In public schools, teachers were forced to sign pledges declaring loyalty to the United States. At the same time, German language classes were discontinued or banned in a whopping 38 states.^[55] Meanwhile, public libraries stopped distributing German-language materials, a prudent measure since there were instances of German books being publicly burned in patriotic ceremonies.^[56] This period also saw campaigns to change the names of towns that sounded too German and campaigns to ban German music such as Wagner and Beethoven's compositions.^[57]

Censorship[edit]

American entry into the war also led to the largest and most sustained assault on free speech ever carried out by the United States government. Wilson warned that there were "millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with a firm hand of repression."^[58] This "firm hand of repression" materialized first as the Espionage Act of 1917, which empowered federal officials to arrest anyone with dangerous opinions and empowered the Post Office to suppress dissident mail.^[59] Wilson even hoped to strengthen the Espionage Act with a provision giving censorship powers to the presidency, but even in the heights of war-fever, Congress wouldn't allow that.^[60] However, Wilson worked with what he had, and his postmaster general gleefully used his new powers to put numerous publications out of business.^[61]

Eager to demonstrate their patriotism, zealous prosecutors became responsible for several egregious suppressions of free speech. A movie producer was sentenced to ten years in prison for fostering anti-British sentiment; he had made a movie about the freaking American Revolution!^[61][62] A Socialist Congressman received twenty years for publishing his antiwar views during his reelection campaign.^[61][63] A random old dude from South Dakota got five years for allegedly calling the war "foolish."^[61] After the Espionage Act was amended by the Sedition Act of 1918, even more people were arrested under the new provisions banning any abusive speech against the United States. This included notable socialist Eugene V. Debs, who eventually had his sentence commuted by President Harding.^[64]

These pieces of legislation came before the Supreme Court in 1918 during the Schenck v. United States case, which resulted in the Court upholding censorship on the basis that speech can be restricted if it presents a "clear and present danger." This was eventually overturned and replaced with the Brandenburg Test.

Wilson's Red Scare[edit]

"Undesirables" awaiting deportation at Ellis Island after the Palmer Raids.

There was no relief from Wilson's authoritarian streak even after the end of the European war. American war fever was quickly replaced with the hysteria of the First Red Scare. This was triggered by the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War. This shift in national attitude became evident in 1919, when dock-workers in Seattle went on strike to gain higher wages after years of WWI wage-controls.^[65] The media seized upon this event, calling it the work of anti-American leftist saboteurs, creating the first great explosion of anti-left hysteria.^[66] Meanwhile, the Senate Overman Committee, formerly tasked with rooting out German sympathizers, found its mandate extended past the war to investigate "any efforts being made to propagate in this country the principles of any party exercising or claiming to exercise any authority in Russia" and "any effort to incite the overthrow of the Government of this country."^[67]

The fears of a communist plot in America intensified after the race riots of 1919. The media and government became convinced that the radical leftist elements in America, as well as the Russian Bolsheviks, were trying to incite blacks to rise up against the United States.^[68][69] There was also a campaign involving mail bombs sent to public officials and business leaders by Italian anarchists in spring 1919. Although only a handful of people were harmed, it was more than enough "proof" for the government and media to sow fear of foreign leftist radicals trying to turn the US into a Communist hellscape. This all led to the Palmer Raids, when Wilson's Attorney General authorized a widespread FBI operation targeting European immigrant communities suspected of harboring leftists; in all of the Palmer raids, the number of arrests greatly exceeded the number of warrants issued, and hundreds of those arrested and deported were not guilty.^[70] Anti-leftist hysteria eventually faded after Palmer warned of a socialist-backed coup attempt against the US government on May Day 1920 which never actually materialized.^[71]

Legacy[edit]

Conspiracy theories about him[edit]

A short excerpt from The New Freedom, a 1913 book compiled from Wilson's presidential campaign speeches, is sometimes quoted out of context by various conspiracy theorists to suggest that Wilson believed in a massive conspiracy. The quote itself is taken from the first chapter of the book, where Wilson rants against corporations and "Big Business" (this is his own term!). Which sounds oddly familiar...

Here is the quote, with the following paragraph to give some context:

Conspiracy theorists usually quote only the bold part, ignoring (or being ignorant of) the context, including the whole platform Wilson campaigned on and the era's political and economic climate. The quote can be found in lists of similar quotes, such as on whale.to^[72] and elsewhere,^[73][74] or in isolation.^[75]

See also[edit]

• Lost Cause of the South — Wilson's work in history was instrumental in promoting this view.^[76]
• Andrew Johnson — His spiritual predecessor who acted authoritarian and racist around his opponents. See how funny these men have something in common?!
• George W. Bush — Let's spread democracy abroad and defend it at home!
• Donald Trump — Another racist and authoritarian president who also did a bad job in handling a health crisis.
• Neoconservatism
• Modern liberalism — Woodrow Wilson claimed to be a progressive, and some liberal policies influenced both American modern-liberals and neoconservatives.
• White supremacy

External links[edit]

• The New Freedom, full text legally available at Project Gutenberg, as the copyright has expired

References[edit]