2. • Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3,
1924) was an American statesman and academic who served as
the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A
member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the
President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and as
Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, before winning
the 1912 presidential election. As president, he oversaw the
passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until
the New Deal in 1933. He also led the United States during
World War I, establishing an activist foreign policy known as
"Wilsonianism." He was one of the three key leaders at the
1919 Paris Peace Conference, where he championed a new
League of Nations, but he was unable to win Senate approval
for U.S. participation in the League.
3. • Born in Staunton, Virginia, to a slaveholding family, Wilson
spent his early years in Augusta, Georgia, and Columbia, South
Carolina. His father was a leading Southern Presbyterian and
helped to found the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
After earning a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins
University, Wilson taught at various schools before taking a
position at Princeton. In 1910, Democratic leaders recruited
him to run for the position of Governor of New Jersey. Serving
from 1911 to 1913, Wilson broke with party bosses and won
the passage of several progressive reforms. Wilson's success in
New Jersey gave him a national reputation as a progressive
reformer, and his Southern roots helped him win favor in that
region.
4. • In late spring of 1883, Wilson was summoned to Rome,
Georgia, to assist in the settlement of his maternal uncle
William's estate, which was being mishandled by a
brother-in-law. While there he met and fell in love with
Ellen Louise Axson, the daughter of a minister from
Savannah, Georgia; he proposed to her and they became
engaged in Asheville.
5. • In January 1910 Wilson had drawn the attention of New
Jersey's former U.S. Senator James Smith, Jr. and George
Harvey as the potential Democratic standard bearer in the
upcoming gubernatorial election. On July 12, 1910 he
was introduced to New Jersey's power players at the
Lawyers Club in New York, including James Richard
Nugent, Robert S. Hudspeth, Millard F. Ross, and
Richard V. Lindabury. The bosses had chosen their man,
but his nomination was not a given—many, including
organized labor, felt Wilson was an inexperienced
newcomer.
