1: Woodrow Wilson (28)
“The Man who won the War”
The 1912 election was one of the most fiercely fought elections in United States history. With the Republican Party split between a former president and the incumbent president, Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, would win in an electoral landslide. After surviving an assassination attempt unharmed, former President Theodore Roosevelt went on a whistle-stop tour of the Midwest and Northeast in an attempt to boost his fledgling Progressive party in these regions. This tour was successful enough to win several large states and a few smaller ones outside the Progressives’ western stronghold. The split in the Republican Party meant the President Taft was locked out of the Northeast and had to settle for three small western states. The growing Progressive Party would prove to be a major force in American politics in the years to come.
Democratic: Woodrow Wilson/Thomas Marshall 40.1% 374 EV
Progressive: Theodore Roosevelt/Hiram Johnson 29.8% 146 EV
Republican: William Taft/[James Sherman] 24.1% 11 EV
Socialist: Eugene Debs/Emil Seidel 5.0% 0 EV
Others: 0.9% 0 EV
One of President Wilson’s largest projects was the planning of the Lincoln Memorial Highway System, the trunk of which stretched from Boston to San Francisco, connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, and Denver in between. The passage of the Federal Reserve Act created a new national banking system designed to help prevent the frequent economic downturns that had plagued the country for the last fifty years. Wilson’s presidency also saw the completion of the Panama Canal, which was opened by Wilson’s vice president Thomas Marshall.
Wilson’s presidency is also remembered for large amounts of unrest, both domestic and worldwide. Socialists and Progressives seized upon Wilson’s support for the Colorado National Guard’s killing of 70 strikers and their family members at Ludlow and cast Wilson as a conservative who was unfit to consider himself remotely progressive. The city of Denver experienced a small streak of bombings soon after; these were attributed to radical socialists, three of whom were executed. The deaths of two senators in the B&O Viaduct Disaster were also widely blamed on socialists despite investigations suggesting that it was due to a boiler explosion. While Wilson was more progressive than some of his rivals gave him credit for, he was under attack from three sides, all of whom hoped to succeed him. Wilson’s resegregation of government offices also earned the ire of Black leaders and Progressives, among others.
Less than halfway through Wilson’s term, Europe became embroiled in what would later be known as World War One. While the spark is universally accepted as being the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, historians have argued over the ultimate causes of the war, with many pointing towards rising nationalism in Eastern Europe, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and the complicated system of alliances that connected most of the major European powers. Both the Wilson administration and most of the American people saw neutrality as the best course to take, however, events to the south would render that dream impossible. Emilio Zapata and Pancho Villa’s victory in the Mexican Civil War resulted in a largely socialist government south of the United States border. While Wilson was willing to leave Mexico to its own devices (despite having supported Zapata’s rivals), several crucial events would result in the United States joining the war on February 13th, 1916. After previously leaving American oil companies alone, Zapata decided to nationalize the Mexican oil industry, angering American businessmen and the Wilson administration. Zapata’s comrade in arms, Pancho Villa rode north to Columbus, New Mexico, where he attacked the garrison there. After former President Roosevelt took over command, Villa’s forces were decimated and Villa was killed by Roosevelt himself. The final straw was the leaking of the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany promised to seek the return of several American states if Mexico joined the Central Powers; many Americans saw no choice but to declare war on Mexico; however, many were still weary of becoming too entangled in Europe.
The European War would prove to be the decisive factor of the 1916 presidential election. While the Socialists denounced even the war with Mexico (suggesting that America merely guard its borders), the Republicans and Progressives were split, with hawks and doves in both parties. The Democrats, however, were more uniformly in favor of the war in support of their party’s leader. While the Progressives once again nominated Theodore Roosevelt, there were many supporters who were not as keen on Roosevelt’s hawkishness; this was tempered by the renomination of Hiram Johnson as the Progressives’ vice presidential pick. The Socialist Party also chose its previous nominee; however, Emil Seidel was replaced by author and socialist activist Jack London. The Socialists hoped to throw the election to the House where they could exert more influence over who became president. The Republican National Convention of 1916 was one of the longest conventions in the party’s history. After over fifty ballots, industrialist and isolationist Henry Ford was chosen to provide a fresh alternative and to stop the Republican Party’s hemorrhaging. Former Vice President Charles Fairbanks was chosen to provide some weight to the ticket. The Democrats, like the Progressives, named the same ticket as in 1912, despite some rumblings of replacing Vice President Marshall, who was seen as a gaffe machine.
While Vice President Marshall was mostly kept in Washington, DC, directing the administration’s war effort in Congress, President Wilson toured the East Coast using the Lincoln Highway System (it was noted that he was driven in a Pierce-Arrow). Wilson highlighted the successes of the American armed forces as well as infrastructure improvements, which were vital for transporting troops and equipment to the Southwest, where most of the fighting was occurring. The capture of Baja California and the blockade of Mexico would be among Wilson’s major talking points.
Henry Ford was not known for being progressive in any way, shape, or form, however, he did make attempts to boost his standings among common people by showcasing the working conditions and pay at his factories while speaking out against joining Europe’s war.
Eugene Debs, like Henry Ford, attacked the war effort, especially because Mexico was a socialist country. Debs focused on Midwestern and Rust Belt states, hoping to capitalize on progressive feelings among isolationists.
It would be Theodore Roosevelt, not Thomas Marshall, who would be thought of as a gaffe machine after this election. While most historians believe that it would be unfair to describe Roosevelt as such, these same historians note that Roosevelt’s attack on “hyphenated-Americans” drained his support.
Ultimately, Eugene V. Debs got his wish: the Republicans rebounded in their Northeastern stronghold, while the Socialists made strides in the Midwest and prairie states, both at the expenses of the Progressive Party. Wilson would hold the South and won several states, such as Wisconsin, that were not seen as traditionally Democratic due to splits among isolationists and interventionists. Unfortunately for Debs, he had to follow the election in jail after speaking out against the draft. In January, Congress met to decide the election and would, after a couple of House ballots, reelect Woodrow Wilson. Thomas Marshall was confirmed in one Senate ballot, casting the tie-breaking vote in favor of himself. While Marshall’s vote was controversial, the Supreme Court upheld his power to do so in a unanimous decision.
Democratic: Woodrow Wilson/Thomas Marshall 35.8% 264 EV **
Republican: Henry Ford/Charles Fairbanks 31.1% 192 EV
Progressive: Theodore Roosevelt/Hiram Johnson 21.5% 70 EV
Socialist: Eugene V. Debs/Jack London 10.4% 5 EV
Others: 1.2% 0
** (Elected by House and Senate, respectively)
Although he did not have much of a mandate, President Wilson continued to force through bills to contribute to the war effort. However, some of these, mainly those seen as curtailing free speech, were very controversial. Due to comments made by Debs and other party members, virtually all of the party’s newsletters and newspapers were stopped, lowering support for the war and President Wilson even further amongst Socialists. Former Socialist Vice Presidential nominee Jack London’s arrest and subsequent death in prison lead to large riots, which were only pacified when the various state National Guard units were called in to take care of the situation. While the ban on the Socialist Party as enacted in mid-1917 would be found to be unconstitutional in
Debs v. US (issued in 1920), the Socialist Party never regained strength and many labor activists would join the Progressive Party, pulling it slightly further to the left.
Meanwhile, the war dragged on across three continents. Great Britain had been spared from any major damages; Belgium and Eastern France, on the other hand, were marred by nearly six months’ worth of fighting before the Western Front stabilized and soldiers on both sides descended into trenches. On the rare occasions that one side managed catch the other side unaware, the lines might change by a few hundred yards. This situation would continue for several years until the French developed a lightweight treadnought that could go over trenches with ease. On the Eastern Front, Russia was not doing well against the combined armies of the Germans and Austrians, losing many thousands of square miles a year. The only reason why the Russians were not completely collapsing was that the combined forces of Greece, Australia, and New Zealand were keeping many thousands of Ottoman troops tied down in Thrace. In one of Arthur Zimmerman’s other interventions, the Boers of South Africa had revolted, taking and holding Cape Town for nearly a year before they were pushed back towards German Southwest Africa where they met with German colonial troops under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck who had led his own troops across the heart of Africa. While the Boers did not pose much of a threat after their defeat at Cape Town, they continued to be a thorn in the Entente’s side by keeping troops tied down outside of Europe.
By the time of Woodrow Wilson’s second inauguration, the domestic situation in Russia was also looking dire; the deaths of Tsarevich Alexei and his “healer” Grigori Rasputin at the hands of an assassin meant that neither the Tsar nor his wife were truly fit to run a country. Most of the war planning was left to Russia’s bickering generals, whose choices were just as bad as the few that the Tsar made. Russia’s problems would finally boil over in the middle of 1917. Despite the failings of the Bolsheviks and the deaths or exiles of their leaders earlier in 1917, the people of Russia were ready to be rid of the Tsar. After the Tsar was deposed and promptly assassinated by a surviving Bolshevik named Josef Stalin (who himself was promptly killed), Alexander Kerensky, a relatively moderate socialist, took over. While he had been determined to continue fighting the war, several disastrous defeats lead him to sue for peace, losing much of Poland and the Baltic states to Germany; Kerensky’s Russia also lost Finland, which was attempting to gain its independence.
Even though the United States was not prepared for the war, Mexico was even less prepared. Within a couple months of the American declaration of war, the Baja Peninsula was firmly in American hands and Mexico was entirely blockaded. After the British had reinforced British Honduras, Guatemala declared war on Mexico in support of the United States and in the hope that they would receive land that they had given up as lost thirty years prior. Thanks to the Lincoln Highway System, American troops and supplies were able to reach the border with ease. Due to the damage, both in terms of infrastructure and morale, caused by the Mexican Revolution, Mexican troops were relatively poorly supplied and would suffer far more defeats than victories. The combination of American, British, and Guatemalan troops would encircle Mexico City by early 1917. President Emilio Zapata was killed on June 4th, 1917 by his own guards who had been bribed by more moderate leftists under the leadership of Alvaro Obregon. Obregon declared himself to be the new president of Mexico, promising elections after peace was declared. An agreement was reached in which American troops would occupy Mexico until the war was over in Europe, which would be followed by a peace conference to be held in Washington, DC concerning the future of Mexico. Zapata’s Folly would have great consequences of Mexico’s territorial integrity.
The war on the Western Front continued to grind into late 1918; while it was a more mobile war than it had been previously, neither side made too much progress before the Germans attempted to break through to Paris before their industrial machine ground to a halt. The addition of several thousand American troops helped the British and French resist the German advances. The entente led an offensive of its own the following spring. The Spring Offensive would prove to be the downfall of Germany. On July 30th, 1919, representatives of the German Kaiser and the Imperial Army met with representatives of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States to discuss an armistice which would become effective the following day. After four and a half years, the First World War was finally over, allowing Europe to rebuild for a vastly different future.
Shortly following the armistice, the 18th Amendment was ratified, leading to the prohibition of alcohol. The 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote was also ratified, with help from progressives. Before leaving for France to discuss a peace treaty, Wilson went on a cross-country tour to promote his peace plan, the Fifteen Points. However, President Wilson would not make it back to Washington, let alone make it across the Atlantic. After giving a speech in Houston, Texas, the President collapsed while meeting with Robert Todd Lincoln. Wilson was rushed to a hospital where he died of a stroke on November 22nd, 1919.
