Considering the Complexity of Human Beings: The Case of Woodrow Wilson

So, what do you think about the presidential election of ’16? Actually, there have been three elections in ’16, the first being in 1816 when James Monroe was elected POTUS. And then in the election of 2016 you know who was elected for four tumultuous years.

In between, in the election 105 years ago on Nov. 7, 1916, Woodrow Wilson was elected for a second term as POTUS. Thus, for four more challenging years the U.S. was to be led by a complex man.

The Making of Pres. Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, called Tommy until adulthood, was born in 1856 in Staunton, Virginia, where his father was pastor of the Presbyterian church in that small (under 4,000 residents) northeast Virginia town where the Wilson Presidential Library and Museum is now located.

Tommy became a well-educated man, graduating in 1879 from the College of New Jersey (which became Princeton University in 1896) and then earning a Ph.D. in political science and history at Johns Hopkins University in 1886.

Wilson served as president of Princeton U. from 1902 to 1910, then in November 1910 he was elected governor of New Jersey with about 54% of the vote. He resigned as governor as of March 1, 1913, after being elected POTUS.

In the presidential election of 1912, Wilson defeated the incumbent, Republican William Howard Taft, former president Theodore Roosevelt, who came in second running for the Progressive Party, and Eugene Debs, the Socialist candidate who received 6% of the popular vote.

The Positives and Negatives of Pres. Wilson

According to this American history website, “Wilson brought a brilliant intellect, strong moral convictions, and a passion for reform to his two terms as president.”

Commendably, Wilson had a strong belief in peace and international cooperation. Consistent with that belief, he appointed William Jennings Bryan, a pacifist, as his Secretary of State at the beginning of his first term.

President Wilson campaigned for re-election in 1916 under the slogan “He has kept us out of war”—and he was narrowly elected to a second term. 

Ironically, the following month after his March 1917 inauguration, the complex Wilson addressed Congress and emphasized the need for the U.S. to enter the war in Europe. Among other things, he said U.S. participation in the “Great War” was necessary “to make the world safe for democracy.”

In January 1918, though, Wilson proposed a 14-point peace plan, the last point being the creation of the League of Nations—and for that proposal he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1919.

In spite of this and other very positive aspects of Wilson’s presidency, there were negatives as well—the main one being his well-documented racism, which was seen during his years as the president of Princeton U. as well as after he entered the White House.

Because of Wilson’s obvious racism, in June 2020 the Princeton University board of trustees decided to delete Wilson’s name from the university’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The trustees stated that Wilson’s "racist thinking and policies” made him “an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students, and alumni must stand firmly against racism in all its forms."

The Point

As perhaps can be said about every human being, Woodrow Wilson was a complex person. As indicated above, there are ample reasons to admire him—and certainly many more could have been included.**

There are also sufficient reasons to find fault with him, although most are minor compared to his unfortunate racism.

What was true of Woodrow Wilson is true of everyone. Human beings are complex; everyone is a mixture of good and bad traits, ideas, and actions. Thus, perhaps no one deserves to be put on a pedestal and publicly honored in perpetuity.

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** For helpful information about key, and mostly positive, events from Wilson’s election in 1912 until the end of his presidency in 1921, click on this link.

The Rebirth of the KKK

As I mentioned in an article earlier this year, the Ku Klux Klan was first formed 150 years ago. It was mostly suppressed, however, during the first term of President Ulysses S. Grant as the Ku Klux Act of 1871 gave the President the power to impose heavy penalties against terrorist organizations and to use military force to suppress the KKK.

A novel and a movie

Over thirty years later, though, Thomas Dixon, a pastor from North Carolina, glorified the Klan’s activities during the first years of Reconstruction. His 1905 novel was titled The Clansman, and I found it quite fascinating when I read earlier this fall.

Dixon’s book largely about the mistreatment of Southern whites after the Civil War is skillfully written. By the time I finished it I momentarily felt like saying, “Thank God for the KKK!” Of course I knew better, and knew more than what was portrayed in a novel. 

In the years following the publication of Dixon’s book, however, there were those who didn’t seem to know better. One such person was William Joseph Simmons, who became the founder of the second Ku Klux Klan. 

Simmons (1880-1945) decided to rebuild the Klan in 1915 not long after he had seen it favorably depicted in the newly released film “The Birth of a Nation,” which was based on Dixon’s novel.

That over-three-hour silent movie was the first movie to be shown in the White House. Woodrow Wilson was the President in 1915, and he was a Southerner (born in Virginia) and perhaps more racist than any his predecessors all the way back to Andrew Johnson (from Tennessee).

When I watched “The Birth of a Nation” on my computer this fall, I was surprised to see that after the intermission, the second part begins with three screens showing statements by Wilson.

The movie is different from the novel in several ways—but it equally glorifies the Klan. And based on the inspiration gained from seeing D.W. Griffith’s blockbuster movie, Simmons recruited 34 men to become his first Knights of the KKK.

A fiery cross

On November 25, which was Thanksgiving Day in 1915, Simmons and 19 of his Knights marched up Stone Mountain (near Atlanta) and lit a cross on fire. That marked the rebirth of the Klan, which grew rapidly and peaked with over four million members in 1924.

The reborn Klan was dedicated to keeping the country white and Protestant and to saving America from domestic and foreign threats—and one can’t help but wondering if the same kind of thinking is not behind you-know-who’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”

In his book The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America (1987), Wyn Craig Wade links the Klan to the religious fundamentalism of the 1920s—and to the Christian Right of the 1980s. Now in 2016 we see many evangelical Christians, perhaps inadvertently, linked to rejuvenation of the KKK—or at least of its main emphases.

And now . . .

It is no secret that the KKK and other white nationalist groups are ardent supporters of the President-elect’s and of his selection of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist.

Recently, Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid, said: “It is easy to see why the KKK views Trump as their champion when Trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of White Supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide.”

Admittedly, things may not turn out as bad as many fear—but they may also turn out a lot worse that many others think. It is troubling that 145 years after the first KKK was suppressed by the President, current Klan members are now cheering the President-elect.

 Two more resource books worth noting:

Baker, Kelly J. Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930 (2011)

Rawlings, William. The Second Coming of the Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s (2016)

Remembering Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson died 90 years ago, on February 3, 1924. It has been said that “the world we’re all living in today was essentially created by President Woodrow Wilson during his Presidency.” Certainly, he is a man well worth remembering.

Wilson was born in December 1856 and called Tommy until adulthood. Woodrow was his mother’s maiden name.

Like many children who later became people of note, Tommy was a PK. At the time of his birth, his father, Joseph, was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Staunton, Virginia. (The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum is now located in Staunton.)

In July 1912, Wilson was nominated for President on the 46^th ballot of the Democratic Convention, after William Jennings Bryan, who had been the Democratic candidate for President three times (and most recently in 1908), threw his support to Wilson.

Having defeated William Howard Taft (R), the incumbent President, former President Teddy Roosevelt (who ran this time on the Progressive, “Bull Moose,” ticket), and Eugene Debs (who ran for the fourth time as the Socialist Party’s candidate), Wilson was inaugurated POTUS in March 1913.

Soon after his election, Wilson reportedly said, “God ordained that I should be the next president of the United States.” Commenting on that statement in his 2003 book on Wilson, H.W. Brands remarks, “Though Wilson had chosen a different career from his father, he was as orthodox a Presbyterian as the Reverend Wilson.”  

In December 1913, Wilson became the first President in over 100 years to deliver the State of the Union address to Congress in person—and largely for that reason an article in the Washington Post recently called it the fifth best of all time.

One of the early accomplishments of the Wilson administration was the enactment of a national income tax. (The original tax was quite modest, though: 1% on incomes over $4,000 and rising to 2% on incomes over $20,000.)

In another influential act that is prominent yet today, Wilson led in the establishment of the Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”) in December 1913. The following year, he pushed the founding of the Federal Trade Commission, which, again, is still a valuable agency in American society.

Wilson “rewarded” Bryan with the premier cabinet appointment: Secretary of State. But Bryan, who embraced a “biblically inspired pacifism,” left that position in 1915, partly because of disagreement with the President over the “Great War” in Europe.

Still, for two years after World War I began, Wilson preserved the neutrality of the United States. The slogan, “He kept us out of war,” helped him to be re-elected, narrowly, in 1916. The following year, however, he decided that entering the war was unavoidable.

In January 1918 Wilson articulated a 14-point peace plan, and that was the basis of the war-ending armistice in November. The last point was an appeal for what came to be called the League of Nations (about which I will write again soon).

Wilson’s efforts for peace, including his call for the founding of the League of Nations, led to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

His greatest political disappointment, though, was the opposition of the U.S. Senate, which refused to approve the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.

Presidents sometimes have goals and ideals that exceed the capacity of Congress to legislate or the general populace to support. That was certainly true for Wilson.

And that may well be true for the current President, who perhaps has more in common with Wilson than any other previous President.