Woodrow Wilson How Did Woodrow

Woodrow Wilson How did Woodrow Wilson exemplify neutrality, expansionism and exceptionalism? "Too proud to fight" juxtaposed with "making the world safe for democracy." While perhaps being "too proud to fight" or too "peace-loving to fight," the events in the world caught up with Woodrow Wilson, as they do with all U.S. presidents. In February 1913, a year into his first administration, a Mexican military outlaw Victoriano Huerta, murdered the president of Mexico, liberal Francisco Madero, and seized power.

Wilson, who had campaigned for president on the platform of Americans taking a fresh look at their own culture and workplace issues, and their own need for reform - and for being neutral in world conflict wherever possible (and in other words, staying at home) - felt he was not able to remain neutral in this issue. He needed to save the Mexicans and make their nation safe for democracy. To wit, minds change when injustice is done to cultures America identifies with or respects greatly.

That Wilson change of mind away from neutrality in this instance was because some 40,000 U.S. citizens lived in Mexico, and also Wilson was repulsed by the bloodshed associated with Huerta's power grab so close to the U.S. border. The situation turned out to be more complicated than it had appeared to be at the outset, as a bloody civil war ensued with General Pancho Villa fighting the Mexican leader (Venustiano Carranza) that Wilson had supported as successor to the military usurper Huerta.

The bottom line here was that Villa slipped across the New Mexico border and "executed about 17 U.S. citizens at Santa Isabel" (www.britannica.com)- in effect challenging Wilson. The president then sent a military expedition into Mexico, which did not succeed in finding Villa, but did succeed in angering Mexicans and the Carranza government. The U.S. forces actually were engaged in fighting our allies, the Mexican forces under Carranza.

Moreover, during his tenure as president, this man known for being anti-imperialistic and for wanting to maintain a neutral stance on wartime issues elsewhere, "Intervened militarily more often in Latin America than any of his predecessors" (Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia).

Two: "Too proud to fight" juxtaposed with "making the world safe for democracy." President Wilson did his best to keep America out of WWI, partly because he was a man that found war repugnant and he had campaigned as a presidential candidate for neutrality and against involvement - and also because he had campaigned against the increasing incidence of U.S. imperialism that he had witnessed under previous administrations.

And he knew going into his first term, Americans were in no mood to get involved in a war on European soil. Politicians who know how to get elected find issues that match those issues the voters hold dear. When it was time to run for his second term, Wilson used the campaign phrase, "He Kept Us Out of War," and though he barely won, he nevertheless was re-elected in 1916. But war in Europe came knocking on America's door, as the U.S.

And the British government went head-to-head over the English blockade Germany. The U.S. was technically neutral, but Germany was buying food and supplies from the U.S.; and when the British blockaded American ships - even though the British paid American back for seized goods - it caused serious friction between two allies. Things got even heavier for Wilson and the U.S. when Germany used its submarine warfare to sink unarmed ships, including the British liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915.

Aboard that liner were 128 Americans, all of whom perished in the attack. There were other attacks by German submarines on British and American ships, and try as he might, Wilson could not use his clout at U.S. president and his power of intellect and persuasion to negotiate an accord with Germany. The war had a momentum that even the powerful Wilson could not bring to a halt.

Making things worse and putting still more pressure on Wilson, the Germans had sought a treaty with Mexico - attempting to align our neighbors south of the border with a European nation that was seen as the main aggressor in WWI. So, the man who wanted to remain neutral, Wilson, went to Congress for authorization to declare war on Germany, and, in effect, "make the world safe for democracy" and rid the world of tyrannical despots. In 1917, Congress voted in a landslide vote to declare war on Germany.

This of course forced Wilson to abandon much of his planned domestic agenda, in order to lead the mobilization for war with Germany. Instead of the lofty domestic reforms he alluded to in his First Inaugural address, Wilson was leading the nation in ways such as taking over the private railroads, instituting huge airplane and shipbuilding programs, and training troops to be shipped overseas for the brutal battles that were yet to be fought.

Nationalism - which is extreme patriotism - was the message of the day, and the brilliant intellect that had a vision for peace became the cheerleader for war. He had no choice. Events were bigger than his ideas. Why is Wilson an icon for what is right and wrong with America? Woodrow Wilson indeed preached the gospel of democracy, perhaps more so than any president before him and more than any president subsequent to his administration.

His democracy sermons were many and varied, but his "First Inaugural Address" has to be considered among the more memorable ones. On March 4, 1913, Wilson told the assembled audience that his election - and the election of sufficient Democrat members of the House of Representatives and the U.S.

Senate to give his party a majority - was not so much the success of a party, but a "change in...plans and point-of-view" (http://millercenter.virginia.edu).The speech went on to suggest that it was time not only for a political change, but for a new way of looking deep into the heart of the United States as a culture of people. His love of democracy included a passion for honesty and truthfulness, always presented in scholarly, soaring rhetoric.

"With riches has come inexcusable waste," he preached in his inaugural. He had a way of painting a picture of what democracy in his intellectual mind should expect to be, juxtaposed with what democracy has become. He invoked the burdens brought on to the working person by the Industrial Revolution as a way of introducing ideas and legislation he would pursue as president, laws against child labor and laws protecting the rights of merchant sailors.

As a way of getting to his point that day, Wilson said Americans have been "proud of our industrial achievements," but the nation has not stopped "thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken...the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children..." And then he hit the nail on the head with his best hammer, his intellect and skill with the language: "The groans and agony of it all had not yet reached our ears...coming up out of the mines and factories, and out of every home..." He did what was right for American in his eyes; he set out an agenda that was based on the suffering of American people (called "New Freedom"); and yes, he exemplified the ideals of neutrality at the same time in terms of his international vision.

He believed being neutral would leave plenty of time and energy to mend domestic fences and heal domestic wounds that were caused by the booming Industrial Revolution and government's insensitivity to the hurt that the little people, and the children, were suffering due to insensitivity in the workplace. It's hard to argue that Wilson was not effective domestically, notwithstanding his need to turn away from his agenda and put his emphasis on the world at war in Europe, and in other places.

He understood democracy and was progressive in his administration of democracy. He was the first president in 113 years (according to the www.pbs.orgprogram "The American Experience: Woodrow Wilson, a Portrait") to personally address a joint session of Congress; and what's more he wrote his own speech on a typewriter.

His legislative successes were impressive: the Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act (1913); the Federal Reserve Act (1913); Seventeenth Amendment (direct election of senators); Federal Trade Commission Act (1914); Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) protecting trade unions, allowing peaceful strikes; Seaman Act (1915) said to be "The Magna Carta of American seamen"; Farm Loan Act (1916); Keating-Owen Child Labor Act (1916) regulated child labor; Adamson Act (1916) made an 8-hour workday for railroad employees; Workingmen's Compensation Act (1916) federal employees hurt on the job received financial help; Eighteenth Amendment (1919) prohibition; and the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) giving women the right to vote.

Why is he an icon for what is wrong with America? Wilson was hip-deep in the creation of the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which outlawed.