FDR book: Woodrow Wilson, a former academic and governor of New Jersey, runs for USA presidency and wins the 1912 election

Last updated on 20th Sept. 2019

Over the past few days, in the book FDR by Jean Edward Smith, I have been reading about Woodrow Wilson, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson, running for USA presidency in 1911-12, winning the 1912 presidential election, and becoming president in early 1913. It also covers FDR's role in Wilson's campaign, and later appointment as Asst. Secretary for the Navy in the Wilson presidential administration, which was FDR's first national level (political) administration post. [FDR refers to Franklin D. Roosevelt, former president of USA.]

I then looked up the wiki page for Woodrow Wilson.

I would like to share some points from the book account I have read so far, and Wilson's wiki page, that I found noteworthy.

1. Wilson was an academic! I found that to be very interesting. An academic becoming president of USA! He was a Political Science Ph.D. He taught at two educational institutions before being elected to the "Chair of Jurisprudence and Political Economy" at Princeton university. It is not clear when exactly he acquired the academic title of Professor - before Princeton or after joining Princeton.

2. Wilson authored many works on political science and history besides contributing to academic political science journal(s). His first political book, "Congressional Government" was published in 1885. In his second book (a textbook), "The State" (published between 1885 and 1893), Wilson wrote that the state could promote welfare "by forbidding child labor, by supervising the sanitary conditions of factories, by limiting the employment of women in occupations hurtful to their health, by instituting official tests of the purity or the quality of goods sold, by limiting the hours of labor in certain trades, [and] by a hundred and one limitations of the power of unscrupulous or heartless men to out-do the scrupulous and merciful in trade or industry." [Ref: Clements (1992)]. Wilson published his last major scholarly work, "Constitutional Government of the United States" in 1908.

3. In June 1902 Professor Wilson was made President of Princeton University. Wilson attempted to bring in many changes in Princeton and was successful in some. But he later became disenchanted with the job of President of Princeton university due to resistance he faced for (some) recommendations. The FDR book states on page 85, '("The reason academic politics are so vicious is because the stakes are so small" is often attributed to Wilson)'.

4. Wilson dropped hints to Democratic Party about his interest in running for political office (at national level) prior to 1908 Democratic National Convention. In 1910 some New Jersey Democratic Party leaders considered him as a good unconventional candidate for Governor of New Jersey (NJ). Wilson's wiki page states:
Having lost the last five gubernatorial elections, New Jersey Democratic leaders decided to throw their support behind Wilson, an untested and unconventional candidate. Party leaders believed that Wilson's academic reputation made him the ideal spokesman against trusts and corruption, but they also hoped his inexperience in governing would make him easy to influence.[Ref: Berg (2013), pp. 181–182] Wilson agreed to accept the nomination if "it came to me unsought, unanimously, and without pledges to anybody about anything."[Ref: Berg (2013), pp. 192–193]
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The Democratic Party bosses of NJ ensured that Wilson won the nomination for the gubernatorial  election (election for governor). Wilson resigned from Princeton.

5. From Wilson's wiki page:
Wilson's campaign focused on his promise to be independent of party bosses. He quickly shed his professorial style for more emboldened speechmaking and presented himself as a full-fledged progressive.[Ref: Heckscher (1991), p. 214.] Though Republican William Howard Taft had carried New Jersey in the 1908 presidential election by more than 82,000 votes, Wilson soundly defeated Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivian M. Lewis by a margin of more than 650,000 votes.[Ref: Heckscher (1991), p. 215.]
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6. From Wilson's wiki page:
By the time Wilson took office, New Jersey had gained a reputation for public corruption; the state was known as the "Mother of Trusts" because it allowed companies like Standard Oil to escape the antitrust laws of other states.[Ref: Berg (2013), pp. 189–190] Wilson and his allies quickly won passage of the Geran bill, which undercut the power of the political bosses by requiring primaries for all elective offices and party officials. A corrupt practices law and a workmen's compensation statute that Wilson supported won passage shortly thereafter.[Ref: Heckscher (1991), pp. 225–227] For his success in passing these laws during the first months of his gubernatorial term, Wilson won national and bipartisan recognition as a reformer and a leader of the Progressive movement.[Ref: Berg (2013), pp. 216–217]
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7. Wilson entered the race for Democratic Party candidate for President in the 1912 presidential elections. Wilson had earned the support of progressives with his work as NJ governor but which created a lot of enemies for him in NJ Democratic party and elsewhere. The favourite for this nomination was Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

8. FDR supported Wilson for the Democratic Party nomination for President though the majority of the Democratic Party delegates in his state of New York did not support Wilson. This led to meetings between FDR and Wilson. Wilson was 55 years old then and FDR was twenty nine. The FDR book characterises Wilson as "a dour Presbyterian academic born to southern privilege who believed God was guiding his every step." [Page 86].

FDR became chairman of the New York State Wilson Conference, a breakaway group of Democrats from the state, as the majority of Democrats from the state, part of the official group, were not in favour of Wilson. This enabled FDR to attend the 1912 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore.

The FDR book states that this convention was FDR's first exposure to national level politics. He lobbied hard for Wilson at the convention and made vital contacts and friendships.

9. The 1912 Democratic National Convention, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Democratic_National_Convention, was held in Baltimore, Maryland from 25th June to 2nd July 1912. [Ravi: BTW, on a personal note, I recall driving through, or rather over, Baltimore on the freeway, on a few occasions in the second half of the 1980s.]  At that time, the nominee for President of the Democratic Party needed to get two-thirds of the delegates' vote. The first ballot saw Champ Clark receiving 440 (and quarter) vote as compared to 324 for Wilson with total votes being 1088. At the tenth ballot, the New York delegation voted for Clark boosting his vote count but still not taking him to the required two-thirds of the vote.

From the above DNC wiki:
Clark's chances were hurt when Tammany Hall, the powerful and corrupt Democratic political machine in New York City, threw its support behind him. This was the move that gave Clark a majority on the ninth ballot [Ravi: I think it should be tenth ballot and not ninth], but instead of propelling Clark's bandwagon towards victory, the endorsement led William Jennings Bryan to turn against the Speaker of the House. A three-time Democratic presidential candidate and still the leader of the party's liberals, Bryan delivered a speech denouncing Clark as the candidate of "Wall Street".

Up until the Tammany endorsement, Bryan had remained neutral, but once the corrupt machine put itself behind Clark, he threw his support to New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, who was regarded as a moderate reformer. Wilson had consistently finished second to Clark on each ballot, Ironically, Wilson had nearly given up hope that he could be nominated, and he was on the verge of having a concession speech read for him at the convention freeing his delegates to vote for someone else. Bryan's endorsement of Wilson influenced many other delegates, and Wilson gradually gained in strength while Clark's support dwindled. Wilson received the presidential nomination on the 46th ballot.

The 46 ballots were the most cast at a convention since 1860.
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[Ravi: Extraordinary! All this happened over a 100 years ago! "Wall Street" was a target even then among political candidates seeking to gain the popular vote! The New York City Democratic Party political machine (called Tammany Hall, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall) was viewed as corrupt. William Jennings Bryan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan, from Nebraska state, who was a powerful force in Democratic Party politics and was a three time Democratic Party nominee for president (of the USA), switched support from Clark to Wilson as he did not want to be on the side that received the support of Tammany Hall, and made a speech attacking Clark for it! That propelled Wilson, who was close to giving up, to victory in the nomination race.]

10. Wilson won the 1912 presidential election, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_United_States_presidential_election. He defeated incumbent Republican president William Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt (elder cousin of FDR) who ran as a third party candidate (and who was formerly a Republican). Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote making it easy for Woodrow Wilson to sweep the election, carrying 40 states and winning a large majority of the electoral vote.

11. FDR was unanimously nominated to run for his Senate seat in New York state. The FDR book states on Page 92, "But before the campaign commenced, Roosevelt was struck down with a particularly virulent attack of typhoid. Eleanor (Roosevelt's wife), who was also hit, but not as seriously, blamed the drinking water aboard the steamer returning from Campobello." For these statements, the FDR book references ER, Autobiography, 69-70.

FDR who was not able to campaign, got a surrogate (paying for him and his expenses) to campaign for him. The surrogate did an excellent job resulting in FDR wining the Senate seat in New York state. It should be noted that FDR expected to be called to Washington DC to be part of Wilson's presidential administration.

12. Wilson assumed office of President on 4th March 1913. Wilson rewarded supporters with cabinet positions! William Jennings Bryan was made Secretary of State. A newspaper editor, Josephus Daniels, was made Secretary of the Navy. Daniels offered the position of Asst. Secretary of the Navy to FDR, which FDR happily accepted. FDR was recovering from his illness and was fit enough to be in Washington DC to lobby for a position. That was the beginning of FDR's national political administration role (assuming office on 17th March 1913,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt).

[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]