Today Woodrow Wilson bashing is commonplace, with different ideological groups having their reasons to despise him. So this makes me wonder, why did the American public elect Wilson in 1912? Yes, its true that there was a divided GOP split between supporting Roosevelt and Taft and that mattered, but Wilson also won reelection in 1916. There was something else to this, and that was the one time before he held political office.

Woodrow Wilson was an academic although he had plenty to say and write about the politics of his day. For instance, his 1887 essay, “The Study of Administration”, is considered a foundational work for the establishment of Public Administration as a subject of study in the United States. However, it was his reformist tenure as Princeton’s president that got him a good public reputation. As its president, he strengthened academic standards, hired the first Jewish and Catholic professors, and created the preceptor system for education in small groups (Benbow). He also attempted to end fraternal eating clubs, which Wilson saw as elitist. In his eight years as Princeton’s president, he elevated the liberal arts college to the status that it has today as one of the top universities, which to me makes the removal of his name from the public policy school and a residential college excesses of the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, and I’m not a Wilson fan!

By 1910, the Democratic Party in New Jersey hadn’t been doing well; the state had not voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1892, they had lost the last five gubernatorial races, and they hadn’t elected a senator from the state since James Smith Jr. in 1893. Thus, Smith, who was Newark’s political boss and Colonel George Harvey, the editor of Harper’s Weekly, approached Wilson in 1910 for a gubernatorial run. This timing was fortuitous for Wilson, who had dreamed of being president, and this presented an opportunity for him to have the public office necessary for a springboard. He agreed to do so, but on the condition that it came with “no strings attached” (Ambar). Smith and Harvey accepted this condition, as the Democrats had really needed to make a comeback, they wanted someone who was not attached to scandals of Democratic political machines, and Smith believed that since he was new to electoral politics that he could easily be influenced. Wilson pledged to be an “unconstitutional” governor of the State, in the sense that he would not abide by the status quo of the governor’s role, which was weak (Ambar). Once he won the primary, Wilson declared independence from political bosses. On the campaign trail, Wilson was charismatic and he contrasted positively with the Republican candidate Vivian M. Lewis, who was connected to several scandals, and he won by around 11 points.

After he won the election, Wilson went to battle against political machines, including that of James Smith Jr. Smith had wanted to return to the Senate, but Governor Wilson announced his support for outsider James Martine, and pushed the Democratic legislators to back him. Martine won the vote, and Smith’s political career came crashing down over the next few years. Ironically, Wilson would later be quite displeased with Martine for his independence from him as president. Colonel Harvey would also turn against Wilson during his first term.

As governor, Wilson was different from his predecessors. He would personally visit the legislature to individually lobby legislators to vote for his preferred legislation and through this method he succeeded in getting most of what he wanted in the fairly short time he was governor. Wilson succeeded in getting the Geran Act passed, which instituted primaries, thus political bosses could no longer choose nominees. He also signed into law a worker’s compensation bill, education reform, a bill regulating public utility rates, and a campaign finance law. As one of his last acts as governor, Wilson signed into law what was popularly known as the “Seven Sisters Law”, which effectively abolished trusts in New Jersey. The state had previously been a haven from anti-trust laws and Standard Oil had moved there after Ohio instituted an anti-trust law in 1892. Although this law was repealed under the next Republican governor, it helped further the trend of businesses moving to Delaware to incorporate. Wilson was thus seen as both a progressive and highly effective governor. His experiences at Princeton seemed to prepare him for his role as governor, as he reflected, “The bunch of New Jersey politicians I have been dealing with are neophytes in the arts of intrigue compared with some of these Princeton politicians” (Blackwell). The American public at the time was tired of the Old Guard of the Republican Party and quite interested in progressivism. After all, this was the time in which the Utopian novel was still a popular genre…people dreamed big, and they dreamed of government improving society. His closest possible competition in the Democratic Party was Speaker of the House Champ Clark of Missouri, and it took 40 ballots at the Democratic National Convention before Wilson was nominated, and as we all know he would go on to serve two terms as president.

References

Ambar, S. Woodrow Wilson: Life Before the Presidency. UVA Miller Center.

Retrieved from

https://millercenter.org/president/wilson/life-before-the-presidency

Benbow, M. (2020, December 7). Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). Encyclopedia Virginia.

Retrieved from

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/wilson-woodrow-1856-1924/

Blackwell, J. 1913: The president from Princeton. The Trentonian.

Retrieved from

https://www.capitalcentury.com/1913.html

Woodrow Wilson: Governor: 1910-1913. SparkNotes.

Retrieved from

https://www.sparknotes.com/biography/wilson/section5/