Primary Sources: U.S. Presidents

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1913

"The 1912 presidential election featured four candidates: Republican incumbent William Howard Taft, Democratic Governor Woodrow Wilson, former President Theodore Roosevelt representing the breakaway Bull Moose party, and Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs, who was making his fourth run for President. All four presidential candidates appealed directly to working-class voters, who proved pivotal to the outcome. Voter interest, already piqued by the unusual campaign and the candidates’ slashing attacks on one another, was further heightened by the availability of sound recordings of campaign addresses and, for the first time, film footage of the candidates on the campaign trail. In this campaign speech, Wilson argued against a minimum wage for women workers and called for the end of business monopolies. Wilson was the eventual winner, with over six million popular and 435 electoral votes."

"On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to seek a Declaration of War against Germany in order that the world “be made safe for democracy.” "

"In 1912 Woodrow Wilson probably received more black votes than any previous Democratic presidential candidate, but his administration proved to be a bitter disappointment to African Americans. Black voters had abandoned William Howard Taft, Wilson’s Republican predecessor, in part because he had appointed or retained a mere thirty-one black officeholders. But Wilson made only nine black appointments, and eight of these were Republican carryovers. Worse still, Wilson extended and defended segregation in the federal civil service. Black workers were forced to use inferior and segregated washrooms, and screens were set up to separate black and white workers in the same government offices. African Americans protested Wilson’s policies. One of the most famous protest delegations was led in 1914 by Monroe Trotter, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard and Boston newspaper editor. Wilson found Trotter’s manner “insulting” and dismissed the delegation. The encounter made front-page news, and subsequent rallies protested Wilson’s poor treatment of Trotter. But the segregation of the federal service continued."

"The Peace Prize for 1919, reserved in that year, was awarded in 1920 to Woodrow Wilson in recognition of his Fourteen Points peace program and his work in achieving inclusion of the Covenant of the League of Nations in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Since President Wilson was not present at the award ceremony on December 10, 1920, Albert G. Schmedeman, United States minister in Oslo, accepted the prize in his behalf. "

Film - President Wilson, his wife Edith, and mother-in-law, Mrs. W. H. Bolling, arrive in New York on Sept. 27, 1918.

8 January, 1918
Speech before Congress to justify the war.

MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1917

Materials related to Wilson's inauguration provided by the Library of Congress.

Materials related to Wilson's inauguration provided by the Library of Congress.

Contains a selection of digital images, photos, and audio and video related to Wilson and his wives.

"... collections consist of primary and secondary texts, periodicals, scholarly journals and the institutional records of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Foundation." Selected items have been digitized.