Woodrow Wilson: Fourteen Points

About the Author

Woodrow Wilson, born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia, grew up in a religious Presbyterian home. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1879. After earning a law degree from the University of Virginia, he embarked on a brief legal practice but then returned to school, earning a doctoral degree in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. A successful scholar, Wilson published several books, including Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics (1885) as well as the five-volume History of the American People (1902), a popular and well-regarded textbook. He taught political science at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan College, and Princeton University, where he served as president from 1902 to 1910. Having established a reputation as a reformer in higher education, Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey in 1910 and president of the United States in 1912. As president, Wilson established the Federal Reserve System to oversee the nation's banks and pushed a number of other progressive reforms through Congress, including the Clayton Antitrust Act, which strengthened business regulations, prohibited monopolies, and protected labor unions.

Wilson's progressive values influenced his approach to foreign policy. He refused to recognize the government of General Victoriano Huerta, who had come to power in Mexico through a violent coup, and supported Huerta's democratic opponents. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Wilson sought to negotiate a peaceful settlement and maintain American neutrality. He was reelected in 1916 on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” but Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in the opening months of 1917 forced Wilson to act. After German submarines sank several American merchant ships, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war, which Congress granted on April 6.

Confident of military victory, Wilson sought to establish the outlines of a peace settlement before the war ended, and he presented his Fourteen Points proposal, which won wide acclaim, on January 8, 1918. With the help of American troops, Allied armies turned back a German offensive and then pushed the German troops back. Germany, with its armies in retreat, appealed for peace and agreed to an armistice. In November 1918 Wilson joined other world leaders in Versailles, France, to negotiate the peace treaty. While he was forced to compromise on many of his Fourteen Points, the final treaty showed their influence and created the League of Nations. Unfortunately, the political tide had turned against Wilson during his six-month absence in France. Several prominent Republicans, who dominated the Senate after the 1918 election, opposed the treaty and U.S. membership in the League of Nations. Hoping to rally public support for the Treaty of Versailles, Wilson embarked on a nationwide speaking tour. His collapse following a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, and his subsequent stroke ended his vigorous fight for the treaty, which the Senate failed to ratify. Despite his fragile health, Wilson completed his term as president. He died three years after leaving office on February 3, 1924.