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Preparedness Movement

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The Preparedness Movement was a campaign led by former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army , Leonard Wood , and former President Theodore Roosevelt to strengthen the U.S. military after the outbreak of World War I . Wood advocated a summer training school for reserve officers to be held in Plattsburgh , New York .

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137-764: The movement was at first opposed by President Woodrow Wilson , who believed the United States should be in a position of neutrality in order to broker a compromise peace in Europe. Several organizations were formed around the Preparedness Movement and held parades and organized opposition to Wilson's policies. After the Lusitania was sunk by German U-boats on May 7, 1915, and Pancho Villa launched his raid against Columbus, New Mexico , Wilson's attitude changed. The United States Congress passed

274-468: A U.S. Senator from California . From 1885 to 1888, Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr College , a newly established women's college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania , outside Philadelphia . Wilson taught ancient Greek and Roman history, American history, political science, and other subjects. At the time, there were only 42 students at the college, nearly all of them too passive for his taste. M. Carey Thomas ,

411-585: A metonymical reference to this kind of ethnicity descriptor, and "dropping the hyphen" referred to full integration into the American identity. Some contemporary critics of this concept, such as Randolph Bourne in his criticism of the Preparedness Movement , accused America's White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite of hypocrisy , Anglophilia , mimicry of the British upper class , and showing

548-907: A third party campaign as the "Bull Moose" Party nominee. The fourth candidate was Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party . Roosevelt had broken with his former party at the 1912 Republican National Convention after Taft narrowly won re-nomination, and the split in the Republican Party made Democrats hopeful that they could win the presidency for the first time since the 1892 presidential election . Roosevelt emerged as Wilson's main challenger, and Wilson and Roosevelt largely campaigned against each other despite sharing similarly progressive platforms that called for an interventionist central government. Wilson directed campaign finance chairman Henry Morgenthau not to accept contributions from corporations and to prioritize smaller donations from

685-647: A band of four dozen southern Democrats in Congress who took control of the House Military Affairs Committee. Wilson, in deep trouble, took his cause to the people in a major speaking tour in early 1916, a warm-up for his reelection campaign that fall. Wilson seems to have won over the middle classes, but had little impact on the largely ethnic working classes and the deeply isolationist farmers. Congress still refused to budge, so Wilson replaced Garrison as Secretary of War with Newton Baker ,

822-504: A bill that would ban several anti-competitive practices such as discriminatory pricing , tying , exclusive dealing , and interlocking directorates . As the difficulty of banning all anti-competitive practices via legislation became clear, Wilson came to back legislation that would create a new agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to investigate antitrust violations and enforce antitrust laws independently of

959-640: A brief attempt at establishing a law firm in Atlanta in 1882. Though he found legal history and substantive jurisprudence interesting, he abhorred the day-to-day procedural aspects of the practice of law. After less than a year, Wilson abandoned his legal practice to pursue the study of political science and history. In late 1883, Wilson enrolled at the recently established Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for doctoral studies in history, political science, German , and other fields. Wilson hoped to become

1096-741: A challenger. Clark found support among the Bryan wing of the party, while Underwood appealed to the conservative Bourbon Democrats , especially in the South. In the 1912 Democratic Party presidential primaries , Clark won several of the early contests, but Wilson finished strong with victories in Texas, the Northeast, and the Midwest. On the first presidential ballot of the Democratic convention, Clark won

1233-621: A close election approaching. In 1916, after intense campaigns by the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) and the National Consumers League , the Congress passed the Keating–Owen Act , making it illegal to ship goods in interstate commerce if they were made in factories employing children under specified ages. Southern Democrats were opposed but did not filibuster. Wilson endorsed the bill at

1370-658: A controlling interest in the system was placed in a central board filled with presidential appointees. Wilson convinced Democrats on the left that the new plan met their demands. Finally the Senate voted 54–34 to approve the Federal Reserve Act . The new system began operations in 1915, and it played a key role in financing the Allied and American war efforts in World War I. Having passed major legislation lowering

1507-606: A coup led by Victoriano Huerta . Wilson rejected the legitimacy of Huerta's "government of butchers" and demanded Mexico hold democratic elections. After Huerta arrested U.S. Navy personnel who had accidentally landed in a restricted zone near the northern port town of Tampico , Wilson dispatched the Navy to occupy the Mexican city of Veracruz . A strong backlash against the American intervention among Mexicans of all political affiliations convinced Wilson to abandon his plans to expand

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1644-743: A de facto protectorate, and the U.S. stationed soldiers there throughout Wilson's presidency. The Wilson administration sent troops to occupy the Dominican Republic and intervene in Haiti , and Wilson also authorized military interventions in Cuba , Panama , and Honduras . Wilson took office during the Mexican Revolution , which had begun in 1911 after liberals overthrew the military dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz . Shortly before Wilson took office, conservatives retook power through

1781-473: A debate team. In February 1890, with the help of friends, Wilson was appointed Chair of Jurisprudence and Political Economy at the College of New Jersey (the name at the time of Princeton University), at an annual salary of $ 3,000 (equivalent to $ 101,733 in 2023). Wilson quickly earned a reputation at Princeton as a compelling speaker. In 1896, Francis Landey Patton announced that College of New Jersey

1918-586: A declaration of war against Germany in response to its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare that sank American merchant ships. Wilson concentrated on diplomacy, issuing the Fourteen Points that the Allies and Germany accepted as a basis for post-war peace. He wanted the off-year elections of 1918 to be a referendum endorsing his policies, but instead, the Republicans took control of Congress. After

2055-524: A dramatic expansion of the Navy. Congress passed the Naval Act of 1916 , which encapsulated the planning by the Navy's professional officers to build a fleet of top-rank status, but it would take several years to become operational. Wilson, less fearful of the navy, embraced a long-term building program designed to make the fleet the equal of the Royal Navy by the mid-1920s. "Realism" was at work here;

2192-643: A facile instrument in the hands of private interests." By late May 1913, House Majority Leader Oscar Underwood had passed a bill in the House that cut the average tariff rate by 10 percent and imposed a tax on personal income above $ 4,000. Underwood's bill represented the largest downward revision of the tariff since the Civil War. It aggressively cut rates for raw materials, goods deemed to be "necessities," and products produced domestically by trusts, but it retained higher tariff rates for luxury goods. Nevertheless,

2329-478: A full-fledged progressive . 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 65,000 votes. Democrats also took control of the general assembly in the 1910 elections , though the state senate remained in Republican hands. After winning

2466-586: A group of influential Americans drawn primarily from upper-class lawyers, bankers, academics, and politicians of the Northeastern US , committed to a strand of Anglophile internationalism. A representative leader was Paul D. Cravath , one of New York's foremost corporation lawyers. For Cravath, in his mid-fifties when the war began, the conflict served as an epiphany, sparking an interest in international affairs that dominated his remaining career. Fiercely Anglophile, he strongly supported US intervention in

2603-627: A historian and was an early member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters . He was also an elected member of the American Philosophical Society in 1897. In June 1902, Princeton trustees promoted Professor Wilson to president, replacing Patton, whom the trustees perceived to be an inefficient administrator. Wilson aspired, as he told alumni, "to transform thoughtless boys performing tasks into thinking men." He tried to raise admission standards and to replace

2740-470: A nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic ... There

2877-480: A plurality of delegates; his support continued to grow after the New York Tammany Hall machine swung behind him on the tenth ballot. Tammany's support backfired for Clark, as Bryan announced that he would not support any candidate that had Tammany's backing, and Clark began losing delegates on subsequent ballots. Wilson gained the support of Roger Charles Sullivan and Thomas Taggart by promising

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3014-543: A political refugee in the United States , both the English only movement and, "the expectation that one should overcome any non-British ancestral origins, still held sway as a prerequisite to entering the sphere of genuine Americanness". Both authors also singled out the role of Woodrow Wilson and his Pueblo speech in the lengthy survival of these concepts for special criticism. The term "hyphenated American"

3151-461: A potential candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election . 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. Wilson agreed to accept

3288-433: A powerful bureaucracy charged with regulating large corporations, instead favoring the break-up of large corporations in order to create a level economic playing field. Wilson engaged in a spirited campaign, criss-crossing the country to deliver numerous speeches. Ultimately, he took 42 percent of the popular vote and 435 of the 531 electoral votes . Roosevelt won most of the remaining electoral votes and 27.4 percent of

3425-542: A pro- tariff and anti-slavery newspaper, The Western Herald and Gazette . Wilson's maternal grandfather, the Reverend Thomas Woodrow, moved from Paisley, Renfrewshire , Scotland, to Carlisle, Cumbria , England, before migrating to Chillicothe, Ohio , in the late 1830s. Joseph met Jessie while she was attending a girl's academy in Steubenville, and the two married on June 7, 1849. Soon after

3562-482: A professor, writing that "a professorship was the only feasible place for me, the only place that would afford leisure for reading and for original work, the only strictly literary berth with an income attached." Wilson spent much of his time at Johns Hopkins University writing Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics , which grew out of a series of essays in which he examined the workings of

3699-797: A push for what is now called the Special Relationship between the United States and the British Empire , as particularly demonstrated by Roosevelt, Wilson, John R. Rathom and other leaders of the demand to only tolerate White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture and the English language in the United States . A prime example of this criticism, which argued that there is no contradiction between preserving ancestral heritage languages and American patriotism may be seen in Bishop John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti 's 21 September 1892 "Sermon on

3836-455: A rapid three-year buildup of all classes of warships. A new weapons system, naval aviation, received $ 3.5 million, and the government was authorized to build its own armor-plate factory. The notion that armaments led to war was turned on its head: refusal to arm in 1916 led Berlin to make war on the U.S. in 1917. The very weakness of U.S. military power encouraged Berlin to start its unrestricted submarine attacks in 1917. It knew this meant war with

3973-410: A region or culture of origin paired with American . Examples: The hyphen is occasionally but not consistently employed when the compound term is used as an adjective. Academic style guides (including APA, ASA, MLA, and Chicago Manual ) do not use a hyphen in these compounds even when they are used as adjectives. The linguistic construction functionally indicates ancestry , but also may connote

4110-490: A run for political office. Prior to the 1908 Democratic National Convention , Wilson dropped hints to some influential players in the Democratic Party of his interest in the ticket. While he had no real expectations of being placed on it, Wilson left instructions that he should not be offered the vice presidential nomination. Party regulars considered his ideas politically and geographically detached and fanciful, but

4247-459: A spread and such a hardening of antipreparedness attitudes within his party and across the nation that when he came in at late last to his task, neither Congress nor the country was amenable to much persuasion." In July 1915, Wilson instructed the Army and Navy to formulate plans for expansion. In November, he asked for far less than the experts said was needed, seeking an army of 400,000 volunteers at

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4384-541: A third term in office but had a stroke in October 1919 that left him incapacitated. His wife and his physician controlled Wilson, and no significant decisions were made. Meanwhile, his policies alienated German- and Irish-American Democrats and the Republicans won a landslide in the 1920 presidential election . Scholars have generally ranked Wilson in the upper tier of U.S. presidents, although he has been criticized for supporting racial segregation . Thomas Woodrow Wilson

4521-400: A time when European armies were 10 times as large. Congress ignored the proposal and the Army remained at 100,000 soldiers. Wilson was severely handicapped by the weaknesses of his cabinet. According to Blum, his Secretaries of the Navy and War displayed a "confusion, inattention to industrial preparation, and excessive deference to peacetime mores [that] dangerously retarded the development of

4658-612: A training agency. This proposal ultimately failed, but it fostered the Plattsburg Movement , a series of summer training camps that in 1915 and 1916 hosted some 40,000 men largely of elite social classes, and the later Citizens' Military Training Camps that trained some 400,000 men from 1921 to 1940. The Socialist Party was a bulwark of opposition to the preparedness movement. Antimilitarists and pacifists —strong in Protestant churches and women's groups—protested

4795-403: Is a new England!" Some groups recommend dropping the hyphen because it implies to some people dual nationalism and the inability to be accepted as truly American. The Japanese American Citizens League is supportive of dropping the hyphen because the non-hyphenated form uses their ancestral origin as an adjective for "American". By contrast, other groups have embraced the hyphen, arguing that

4932-520: Is a new England!" Furthermore, in June 1917, anti-war essayist Randolph Bourne also raised the possibility that the Preparedness Movement may have been one of the multiple covert operations used by both French and British Intelligence propagandists in order to bring America into the war against the Central Powers , "The nerve of the war feeling centered ... In the richer and older classes of

5069-410: Is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all ... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be

5206-409: Is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else. President Woodrow Wilson regarded "hyphenated Americans" with suspicion, saying in his Pueblo speech : "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready." In

5343-827: The 'Federalist' papers ." In 1883, Wilson met and fell in love with Ellen Louise Axson . He proposed marriage in September 1883; she accepted, but they agreed to postpone marriage while Wilson attended graduate school. Axson graduated from Art Students League of New York , worked in portraiture, and received a medal for one of her works from the Exposition Universelle (1878) in Paris. She agreed to sacrifice further independent artistic pursuits in order to marry Wilson in 1885. Ellen learned German so she could help translate German-language political science publications relevant to Woodrow's research. In April 1886,

5480-842: The Allied victory in November 1918, Wilson attended the Paris Peace Conference . Wilson successfully advocated for the establishment of a multinational organization, the League of Nations , which was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles that he signed, but back home he rejected a Republican compromise that would have allowed the Senate to ratify the Versailles Treaty and join the League. Wilson had intended to seek

5617-653: The Cajun people , the Irish language , and Scottish Gaelic . Furthermore, in a letter published on July 16, 1916, in the Minneapolis Journal , Edward Goldbeck, a member of Minnesota 's traditionally very large German-American community, sarcastically announced that his people would, "abandon the hyphen", as soon as English-Americans did so. Meanwhile, he argued, "Let the exodus of Anglo-Americans start at once! Let all those people go who think that America

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5754-636: The Colorado Coalfield War , one of the deadliest labor disputes in American history. In 1916 he pushed Congress to enact the eight-hour work day for railroad workers, which ended a major strike. It was "the boldest intervention in labor relations that any president had yet attempted." Wilson disliked the excessive government involvement in the Federal Farm Loan Act , which created twelve regional banks empowered to provide low-interest loans to farmers. Nevertheless, he needed

5891-531: The National Defense Act of 1916 in June 1916 to authorize an increase in the size of the U.S. Army from 100,000 men in 1916 to 200,000 on active duty and 400,000 in the U.S. National Guard , by 1921. It also padded a large long-term increase in the U.S. Navy . In 1915, a strong "preparedness" movement emerged. It argued that the United States needed to immediately build up strong naval and land forces for defensive purposes; an unspoken assumption

6028-566: The National Monetary Commission , had put forward a plan for a central bank that would give private financial interests a large degree of control over the monetary system. Wilson declared that the banking system must be "public not private, [and] must be vested in the government itself so that the banks must be the instruments, not the masters, of business." Democrats crafted a compromise plan in which private banks would control twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks , but

6165-631: The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, and was active in the Whig literary and debating society . He was also elected secretary of the school's football association, president of the school's baseball association, and managing editor of the student newspaper. In the hotly contested presidential election of 1876 , Wilson supported the Democratic Party and its nominee, Samuel J. Tilden . After graduating from Princeton in 1879, Wilson attended

6302-606: The Southern United States during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era . After earning a Ph.D. in history and political science from Johns Hopkins University , Wilson taught at several colleges prior to being appointed president of Princeton University , where he emerged as a prominent spokesman for progressivism in higher education. Wilson served as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, during which he broke with party bosses and won

6439-525: The United States Supreme Court , all of whom were confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In 1914, Wilson nominated sitting Attorney General James Clark McReynolds . Despite his credentials as an ardent trust buster, McReynolds became a staple of the court's conservative bloc until his retirement in 1941. According to Berg, Wilson considered appointing McReynolds one of his biggest mistakes in office. In 1916, Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis to

6576-495: The United States Virgin Islands . Immigration from Europe declined significantly once World War I began and Wilson paid little attention to the issue during his presidency. However, he looked favorably upon the "new immigrants" from southern and eastern Europe, and twice vetoed laws passed by Congress intended to restrict their entry, though the later veto was overridden. Wilson nominated three men to

6713-475: The University of Virginia . At Princeton University, Wilson published several works of history and political science and was a regular contributor to Political Science Quarterly . Wilson's textbook, The State , was widely used in American college courses until the 1920s. In The State , Wilson wrote that governments could legitimately promote the general welfare "by forbidding child labor, by supervising

6850-721: The University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia , where he was involved in the Virginia Glee Club and served as president of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society . Poor health forced Wilson to withdraw from law school, but he continued to study law on his own while living with his parents in Wilmington, North Carolina . Wilson was admitted to the Georgia bar and made

6987-500: The conservation of natural resources, banking reform, tariff reduction, and better access to raw materials for farmers by breaking up Western mining trusts. Wilson introduced these proposals in April 1913 in a speech delivered to a joint session of Congress, becoming the first president since John Adams to address Congress in person. Wilson's first two years in office largely focused on his domestic agenda. With trouble with Mexico and

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7124-487: The " Special Relationship " and for tolerating only the English language in the United States . In a letter published on 16 July 1916 in the Minneapolis Journal , Edward Goldbeck, a member of Minnesota 's traditionally very large German-American community, announced that his people would, "abandon the hyphen ", as soon as English-Americans did so. Meanwhile, Goldbeck argued, "Let the exodus of Anglo-Americans start at once! Let all those people go who think that America

7261-461: The "gentleman's C" with serious study. Wilson instituted academic departments and a system of core requirements to emphasize the development of expertise. Students were to meet in groups of six under the guidance of teaching assistants known as preceptors . To fund these new programs, Wilson undertook an ambitious and successful fundraising campaign, convincing alumni such as Moses Taylor Pyne and philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie to donate to

7398-661: The 1920s, the Wall Street Journal condemned "hyphenates" who were said to be among the supporters of the Progressive Party 's Robert M. La Follette Jr. . A vocal source of criticism of Roosevelt and Wilson's "anti-hyphen" ideology and particularly to their demands for "100 percent Americanism" came, quite understandably, from America's enormous number of White ethnic immigrants and their descendants. Criticism from these circles occasionally argued that "100 percent Americanism" really meant Anglophilia and

7535-412: The American identity is compatible with alternative identities and that the mixture of identities within the United States strengthens the nation rather than weakens it. " European American ", as opposed to White or Caucasian , has been coined in response to the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the United States, as well as to this diversity moving more into the mainstream of the society in

7672-679: The Americans and accused them of a punitive invasion, leading to several incidents that nearly led to war. Tensions subsided after Mexico agreed to release several American prisoners, and bilateral negotiations began under the auspices of the Mexican-American Joint High Commission. Eager to withdraw from Mexico due to tensions in Europe, Wilson ordered Pershing to withdraw, and the last American soldiers left in February 1917. Hyphenated Americans In

7809-456: The Atlantic seaboard, and was keenest where there were French or English business and particularly social connections. The sentiment then spread out across the country as a class-phenonemon, touching everywhere those upper-class elements in each section who identified themselves with this Eastern ruling group... In every community, it was the least liberal and least democratic elements among whom

7946-403: The Civil War, the first Democratic president since Grover Cleveland left office in 1897, and the first and only president to hold a Ph.D. After the election, Wilson chose William Jennings Bryan as Secretary of State, and Bryan offered advice on the remaining members of Wilson's cabinet. William Gibbs McAdoo, a prominent Wilson supporter who married Wilson's daughter in 1914, became Secretary of

8083-399: The Confederacy during the American Civil War. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) following its 1861 split from the Northern Presbyterians. He became minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, and the family lived there until 1870. From 1870 to 1874, Wilson lived in Columbia, South Carolina , where his father

8220-484: The Court , setting off a major debate in the Senate over Brandeis's progressive ideology and his religion; Brandeis was the first Jewish nominee to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, Wilson was able to convince Senate Democrats to vote to confirm Brandeis, who served on the court until 1939. In contrast to McReynolds, Brandeis became one of the court's leading progressive voices. When a second vacancy arose in 1916, Wilson appointed progressive lawyer John Hessin Clarke . Clarke

8357-441: The Democratic mayor of Cleveland and an outspoken opponent of preparedness. (Garrison kept quiet, but felt Wilson was "a man of high ideals but no principles.") Congress reached a compromise in May 1916. The army was to double in size to 11,300 officers and 208,000 men, with no reserves, and a National Guard that would be enlarged in five years to 440,000 men. Summer camps on the Plattsburgh model were authorized for new officers, and

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8494-400: The Democrats were rooted in localism that appreciated the National Guard, and the voters were hostile to the rich and powerful in the first place. Working with the Democrats who controlled Congress, Wilson was able to sidetrack the preparedness forces. Army and Navy leaders were forced to testify before Congress to the effect that the nation's military was in excellent shape. Wilson had to resist

8631-475: The Justice Department. With bipartisan support, Congress passed the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 , which incorporated Wilson's ideas regarding the FTC. One month after signing the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 , which built on the Sherman Act by defining and banning several anti-competitive practices. Wilson thought a child labor law would probably be unconstitutional but reversed himself in 1916 with

8768-546: The Mother and the Bride", which is a defence of German-Americans desire to preserve their ancestral culture and to continue speaking the German language in the United States , against both the English only movement and accusations of being Hyphenated Americans. Zardetti's argument is further supported and strengthened by the fact that Francis Scott Key 's lyrics to the U.S. national anthem , The Star-Spangled Banner , have seen multiple literary translations into immigrant languages that are able to be successfully sung to

8905-426: The Philippine Legislature. The Jones Act of 1916 committed the United States to the eventual independence of the Philippines, and granted Filipinos further autonomy with the establishment of a Filipino Senate and House of Representatives , replacing the American-run Philippine Commission and Filipino-run Philippine Assembly , respectively. In 1916, Wilson purchased by treaty the Danish West Indies , renamed as

9042-468: The Preparedness and later the war sentiment was found." While defenders of the Movement retorted that military "service" was an essential duty of citizenship, and that without the commonality provided by such service the nation would splinter into antagonistic ethnic groups. One spokesman promised that UMT would become "a real melting pot , under which the fire is hot enough to fuse the elements into one common mass of Americanism." Furthermore, they promised,

9179-421: The Senate election helped Wilson position himself as an independent force in the New Jersey Democratic Party. 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. Wilson and his allies quickly won passage of the Geran bill, which undercut

9316-417: The Treasury, and James Clark McReynolds , who had successfully prosecuted several prominent antitrust cases, was chosen as Attorney General. Publisher Josephus Daniels , a party loyalist and prominent white supremacist from North Carolina, was chosen to be Secretary of the Navy, while young New York attorney Franklin D. Roosevelt became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Wilson's chief of staff ("secretary")

9453-459: The U.S. military intervention, but the intervention nonetheless helped convince Huerta to flee from the country. A group led by Venustiano Carranza established control over a significant proportion of Mexico, and Wilson recognized Carranza's government in October 1915. Carranza continued to face various opponents within Mexico, including Pancho Villa , whom Wilson had earlier described as "a sort of Robin Hood." In early 1916, Pancho Villa raided

9590-438: The United States had not had a central bank since the Bank War of the 1830s. In the aftermath of the nationwide financial crisis in 1907 , there was general agreement to create some sort of central banking system to provide a more elastic currency and to coordinate responses to financial panics. Wilson sought a middle ground between progressives such as Bryan and conservative Republicans like Nelson Aldrich , who, as chairman of

9727-399: The United States, but it could discount the immediate risk because the U.S. Army was negligible and the new warships would not be at sea until 1919 by which time the war would be over, with Germany victorious. Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States , serving from 1913 to 1921. He was

9864-603: The United States, the term hyphenated American refers to the use of a hyphen (in some styles of writing) between the name of an ethnicity and the word American in compound nouns , e.g., as in Irish-American . Calling a person a "hyphenated American" was used as an insult alleging divided political or national loyalties, especially in times of war. It was used from 1890 to 1920 to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or ancestry and who displayed an affection for their ancestral heritage language and culture. It

10001-449: The admirals were Mahanians and they therefore wanted a surface fleet of heavy battleships second to none—that is, equal to Britain. The facts of submarine warfare (which necessitated destroyers, not battleships) and the possibilities of imminent war with Germany (or with Britain, for that matter), were simply ignored. The Administration's proposals touched off a firestorm of antiwar protest. Secretary of War Lindley Garrison adopted many of

10138-484: The age of three, when he heard a passerby announce in disgust that Abraham Lincoln had been elected and that a war was coming. Wilson was one of only two U.S. presidents to be a citizen of the Confederate States of America ; the other was John Tyler , who served as the nation's tenth president from 1841 to 1845. Wilson's father identified with the Southern United States and was a staunch supporter of

10275-414: The armed services." Even more, Wilson was constrained by the traditional American non-interventionism . Wilson believed that a massive military mobilization could only take place after a declaration of war, even though that meant a long delay in sending troops to Europe. Many Democrats felt that no American soldiers would be needed, only American money and munitions. Wilson had more success in his request for

10412-539: The bill. The Senate voted 44 to 37 in favor of the bill, with only one Democrat voting against it and only one Republican voting for it. Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1913 (called the Underwood Tariff) into law on October 3, 1913. The Revenue Act of 1913 reduced tariffs and replaced the lost revenue with a federal income tax of one percent on incomes above $ 3,000, affecting the richest three percent of

10549-604: The cadre of a wartime officer corps. Suggestions by labor unions that talented working-class youth be invited to Plattsburgh were ignored. The preparedness movement was distant not only from the working classes but also from the middle class leadership of most of small town America. It had had little use for the National Guard, which it saw as politicized, localistic, poorly armed, ill trained, too inclined to idealistic crusading (as against Spain in 1898 ), and too lacking in understanding of world affairs. The National Guard on

10686-533: The campaign. Prior to the 1912 Democratic National Convention , Wilson made a special effort to win the approval of three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, whose followers had largely dominated the Democratic Party since the 1896 presidential election . Speaker of the House Champ Clark of Missouri was viewed by many as the front-runner for the nomination, while House Majority Leader Oscar Underwood of Alabama also loomed as

10823-405: The chief warmongers were New York bankers (like J. P. Morgan) with millions at risk, profiteering munition makers (like Bethlehem Steel , which made armor, and DuPont , which made powder) and unspecified industrialists searching for global markets to control. Antiwar critics such as Wisconsin's Republican Senator La Follette blasted them, saying there was an unnamed "world-wide organization" that

10960-491: The civilian market, such as food, horses, saddles, wagons, and uniforms were always purchased from civilian contractors. Peace leaders like Jane Addams of Hull House and David Starr Jordan , president of Stanford University, redoubled their efforts, and now turned their voices against Wilson because he was "sowing the seeds of militarism, raising up a military and naval caste." Many ministers, professors, farm spokesmen and labor union leaders joined in, with powerful support from

11097-582: The couple's first child, Margaret , was born. Their second child, Jessie , was born in August 1887. Their third and final child, Eleanor , was born in October 1889. In 1913, Jessie married Francis Bowes Sayre Sr. , who later served as High Commissioner to the Philippines . In 1914, their third child Eleanor married William Gibbs McAdoo , U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under Woodrow Wilson and later

11234-482: The dean, was a staunch feminist, and Wilson clashed with her over his contract, resulting in a bitter dispute. In 1888, Wilson left Bryn Mawr College and was not given a farewell. Wilson accepted a position at Wesleyan University , an elite undergraduate college for men in Middletown, Connecticut . He taught graduate courses in political economy and Western history , coached Wesleyan's football team, and founded

11371-482: The demands for preparedness because there was a powerful anti-preparedness element of the party, led by William Jennings Bryan , women, Protestant churches, the American Federation of Labor , and Southern Democrats such as Claude Kitchin , chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. John Morton Blum , a biographer of Wilson, wrote: "Wilson's long silence about preparedness had permitted such

11508-641: The discipline and training would make for a better-paid work force. The hostility to military service was so strong at the time it is difficult to imagine such a program winning approval; indeed, even in World War II , when Stimson as Secretary of War proposed a similar program of universal peacetime service, he was defeated. Underscoring its commitment, the preparedness movement set up and funded its own summer training camps (at Plattsburgh, New York, and other sites) where 40,000 college alumni became physically fit, learned to march and shoot, and ultimately provided

11645-440: The election, Wilson appointed Joseph Patrick Tumulty as his private secretary, a position he held throughout Wilson's political career. Wilson began formulating his reformist agenda, intending to ignore the demands of his party machinery. Smith asked Wilson to endorse his bid for the U.S. Senate, but Wilson refused and instead endorsed Smith's opponent James Edgar Martine , who had won the Democratic primary. Martine's victory in

11782-463: The establishment of free dental clinics and enacted a "comprehensive and scientific" poor law . Trained nursing was standardized, while contract labor in all reformatories and prisons was abolished and an indeterminate sentence act passed. A law was introduced that compelled all railroad companies "to pay their employees twice monthly," while regulation of the working hours, health, safety, employment, and age of people employed in mercantile establishments

11919-464: The farm vote to survive the upcoming 1916 election, so he signed it. Wilson embraced the long-standing Democratic policy against owning colonies, and he worked for the gradual autonomy and ultimate independence of the Philippines , which had been acquired in 1898. Continuing the policy of his predecessors, Wilson increased self-governance on the islands by granting Filipinos greater control over

12056-468: The federal government. In 1886, Wilson was awarded a Ph.D. in history and government from Johns Hopkins University, making him the only U.S. president in the nation's history to possess a Ph.D. In early 1885, Houghton Mifflin published Wilson's Congressional Government , which was well received, with one critic calling it "the best critical writing on the American constitution which has appeared since

12193-419: The government was given $ 20 million to build a nitrate plant of its own. Preparedness supporters were downcast, the antiwar people were jubilant. The United States would now be too weak to go to war. Colonel Robert L. Bullard privately complained: "Both sides [Britain and Germany] treat us with scorn and contempt; our fool, smug conceit of superiority has been exploded in our faces and deservedly." The House gutted

12330-418: The hyphen between the two names; some, including The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), recommend dropping the hyphen even for the adjective form. On the other hand, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage allows compounds with name fragments ( bound morphemes ), such as Italian-American and Japanese-American , but not "Jewish American" or "French Canadian". The first term typically indicates

12467-646: The hyphen", but only if "Anglo-Americans" did so first. Contemporary studies and debates refer to Hyphenated-American identities to discuss issues such as multiculturalism and immigration in the U.S. political climate; however, the term "hyphen" is rarely used per the recommendation of modern style guides. In their 2018 biography of Dominican-American poetess Rhina Espaillat , who is known for encouraging both bilingualism and American patriotism among younger people who speak immigrant languages , Nancy Kang and Silvio Torres-Saillant criticized how, in American political discourse for decades after Espaillat's 1938 arrival as

12604-425: The last minute under pressure from party leaders who stressed how popular the idea was, especially among the emerging class of women voters. He told Democratic Congressmen they needed to pass this law and also a workman's compensation law to satisfy the national progressive movement and to win the 1916 election against a reunited GOP. It was the first federal child labor law. However, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down

12741-523: The latter half of the twentieth century. The term distinguishes whites of European ancestry from those of other ancestries. In 1977, it was proposed that the term "European American" replace "white" as a racial label in the U.S. census, although this was not done. The term "European American" is not in common use in the United States among the general public or in the mass media, and the terms "white" or "white American" are commonly used instead. Modern style guides, such as AP Stylebook , recommend dropping

12878-759: The law in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918). Congress then passed a law taxing businesses that used child labor, but that was struck down by the Supreme Court in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (1923). Child labor was finally ended in the 1930s. He approved the goal of upgrading the harsh working conditions for merchant sailors and signed LaFollette's Seamen's Act of 1915. Wilson called on the Labor Department to mediate conflicts between labor and management. In 1914, Wilson dispatched soldiers to help bring an end to

13015-545: The left eye, the result of a blood clot and hypertension. Modern medical opinion surmises Wilson had had a stroke; he later was diagnosed, as his father had been, with hardening of the arteries . He began to exhibit his father's traits of impatience and intolerance, which would on occasion lead to errors of judgment. In 1906, while vacationing in Bermuda , Wilson met Mary Hulbert Peck, a socialite. According to biographer August Heckscher II , Wilson's friendship with Peck became

13152-596: The movement showed that America's 100,000-man army, even augmented by the 112,000 National Guardsmen, was outnumbered 20 to one by the German Army , which was drawn from a smaller population. Reform to them meant UMT or "universal military training", i.e. conscription . Preparedness backers proposed a national service program under which the 600,000 men who turned 18 every year would be required to spend six months in military training, and afterwards be assigned to reserve units. The small regular army would primarily serve as

13289-464: The naval plans as well, defeating a "big navy" plan by 189 to 183, and scuttling the battleships. The Battle of Jutland (May 31/June 1, 1916) saw the German fleet nearly sunk by the stronger British fleet. Only brilliant seamanship and luck allowed it to escape. Arguing this battle proved the validity of Mahanian doctrine, the navalists took control in the Senate, broke the House coalition, and authorized

13426-463: The nomination if "it came to me unsought, unanimously, and without pledges to anybody about anything." At the state party convention, the bosses marshaled their forces and won the nomination for Wilson. On October 20, Wilson submitted his letter of resignation to Princeton University. 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

13563-543: The only Democrat to serve as president during the Progressive Era when Republicans dominated the presidency and legislative branches . As president, Wilson changed the nation's economic policies and led the United States into World War I . He was the leading architect of the League of Nations , and his stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism . Born in Staunton, Virginia , Wilson grew up in

13700-459: The other hand was securely rooted in state and local politics, with representation from a very broad cross section of American society. The National Guard was one of the nation's few institutions that (at least in some northern states) accepted African-Americans on an equal footing with whites. The Democratic Party saw the preparedness movement as a threat. Roosevelt, Root and Wood were prospective Republican presidential candidates. More subtly,

13837-401: The outbreak of World War I in 1914, foreign affairs increasingly dominated his presidency. Democrats had long seen high tariff rates as equivalent to unfair taxes on consumers, and tariff reduction was their first priority. He argued that the system of high tariffs "cuts us off from our proper part in the commerce of the world, violates the just principles of taxation, and makes the government

13974-450: The passage of several progressive reforms. Wilson defeated incumbent Republican William Howard Taft and third-party nominee Theodore Roosevelt to easily win the 1912 presidential election , becoming the first Southerner to do so since 1848 . During his first year as president, Wilson authorized the widespread imposition of segregation inside the federal bureaucracy and his opposition to women's suffrage drew protests. His first term

14111-440: The passage of the tariff bill in the Senate was a challenge. Some Southern and Western Democrats wanted the continued protection of their wool and sugar industries, and Democrats had a narrower majority in the upper house. Wilson met extensively with Democratic senators and appealed directly to the people through the press. After weeks of hearings and debate, Wilson and Secretary of State Bryan managed to unite Senate Democrats behind

14248-577: The plan would make the United States resemble Germany , which required two years' compulsory military service from every male citizen. Another source of criticism of the Preparedness Movement and particularly its demands for "100% Americanism" came, quite understandably, from those increasingly dubbed Hyphenated Americans ; America's enormous number of White ethnic immigrants and their descendants. Criticism from White ethnic circles occasionally argued that "100% Americanism" really meant Anglophilia , as particularly demonstrated by escalating demands for both

14385-509: The popular vote, one of the strongest third party performances in U.S. history. Taft won 23.2 percent of the popular vote but just 8 electoral votes, while Debs won 6 percent of the popular vote. In the concurrent congressional elections , Democrats retained control of the House and won a majority in the Senate . Wilson's victory made him the first Southerner to win a presidential election since

14522-530: The population. The policies of the Wilson administration had a durable impact on the composition of government revenue, which now primarily came from taxation rather than tariffs. Wilson did not wait to complete the Revenue Act of 1913 before proceeding to the next item on his agenda—banking. By the time Wilson took office, countries like Britain and Germany had established government-run central banks , but

14659-501: 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. 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. Republicans took control of

14796-401: The private domain and "made the imperative legal duty of the whole," a position which, according to historian Robert M. Saunders, seemed to indicate that Wilson "was laying the groundwork for the modern welfare state." His third book, Division and Reunion (1893), became a standard university textbook for teaching mid- and late-19th century U.S. history. Wilson had a considerable reputation as

14933-406: The proposals of the preparedness leaders, especially their emphasis on a large federal reserves and abandonment of the National Guard. Garrison's proposals not only outraged the localistic politicians of both parties, they also offended a strongly held belief shared by the liberal wing of the progressive movement. They felt that warfare always had a hidden economic motivation. Specifically, they warned

15070-472: The same divided loyalty in pushing for the "Special Relationship" that they refused to tolerate in others. Other contemporaries, like Bishop John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti , argued eloquently that there is no contradiction between American patriotism and loyalty to one's ancestral culture, religion, and heritage language . In a 1916 letter to the Minneapolis Journal , one Minnesota German-American suggested that his own people would willingly "abandon

15207-795: The same melody. In 1861, very likely to help encourage German-American military service in the Union Army and the Navy during the American Civil War , the lyrics were translated into the German language in the United States and widely circulated in pamphlet form. The Library of Congress also has record of a Spanish-language version from 1919. It has since been translated into Hebrew and Yiddish by Jewish immigrants, Latin American Spanish (with one version popularized during immigration reform protests in 2006 ), Louisiana French by

15344-442: 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." He also wrote that charity efforts should be removed from

15481-503: The school. Wilson appointed the first Jew and the first Roman Catholic to the faculty, and helped liberate the board from domination by conservative Presbyterians. He also worked to keep African Americans out of the school, even as other Ivy League schools were accepting small numbers of black people. Philosophy professor John Grier Hibben had known Wilson since they were undergraduates together. They became close friends. Indeed, when Wilson became president of Princeton in 1902 Hibben

15618-438: The seeds of interest had been sown. In 1956, McGeorge Bundy described Wilson's contribution to Princeton: "Wilson was right in his conviction that Princeton must be more than a wonderfully pleasant and decent home for nice young men; it has been more ever since his time." By January 1910, Wilson had drawn the attention of James Smith Jr. and George Brinton McClellan Harvey , two leaders of New Jersey's Democratic Party , as

15755-474: The state assembly in early 1912, and Wilson spent much of the rest of his tenure vetoing bills. He nonetheless won passage of laws that restricted labor by women and children and increased standards for factory working conditions. A new State Board of Education was set up "with the power to conduct inspections and enforce standards, regulate districts' borrowing authority, and require special classes for students with handicaps." Before leaving office Wilson oversaw

15892-479: The support of Princeton alumni such as Cyrus McCormick and Southerners such as Walter Hines Page , who believed that Wilson's status as a transplanted Southerner gave him broad appeal. Though Wilson's shift to the left won the admiration of many, it also created enemies such as George Brinton McClellan Harvey , a former Wilson supporter who had close ties to Wall Street . In July 1911, Wilson brought William Gibbs McAdoo and "Colonel" Edward M. House in to manage

16029-627: The tariff and reforming the banking structure, Wilson next sought antitrust legislation to enhance the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Sherman Antitrust Act barred any "contract, combination...or conspiracy, in restraint of trade," but had proved ineffective in preventing the rise of large business combinations known as trusts . An elite group of businessmen dominated the boards of major banks and railroads, and they used their power to prevent competition by new companies. With Wilson's support, Congressman Henry Clayton, Jr. introduced

16166-431: The topic of frank discussion between Wilson and his wife, although Wilson historians have not conclusively established there was an affair. Wilson also sent very personal letters to her, which were later used against him by his adversaries. Having reorganized Princeton University's curriculum and established the preceptorial system, Wilson next attempted to curtail the influence of social elites at Princeton by abolishing

16303-518: The upper-class eating clubs . He proposed moving the students into colleges, also known as quadrangles, but Wilson's plan was met with fierce opposition from Princeton alumni. In October 1907, due to the intensity of alumni opposition, Princeton's board of trustees instructed Wilson to withdraw his plan for relocating student dormitories. Late in his tenure, Wilson had a confrontation with Andrew Fleming West , dean of Princeton University's graduate school and his ally, ex-President Grover Cleveland , who

16440-444: The vice presidency to Governor Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana. and several Southern delegations shifted their support from Underwood to Wilson. Wilson finally won two-thirds of the vote on the convention's 46th ballot, and Marshall became Wilson's running mate. In the 1912 general election, Wilson faced two major opponents: one-term Republican incumbent William Howard Taft, and former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt , who ran

16577-430: The village of Columbus, New Mexico , killing or wounding dozens of Americans and causing an enormous nationwide American demand for his punishment. Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing and 4,000 troops across the border to capture Villa. By April, Pershing's forces had broken up and dispersed Villa's bands, but Villa remained on the loose and Pershing continued his pursuit deep into Mexico. Carranza then pivoted against

16714-422: The war and hoped that close Anglo-American cooperation would be the guiding principle of post-war international organization. The preparedness movement had a "realistic" philosophy of world affairs—it believed that economic strength and military muscle were more decisive than idealistic crusades focused on causes like democracy and national self-determination . Emphasizing the weak state of national defenses,

16851-663: The wedding, Joseph was ordained as a Presbyterian pastor and assigned to serve in Staunton. His son Woodrow was born in the Manse , a house in the Staunton First Presbyterian Church where Joseph served. Before he was two years old, the family moved to Augusta, Georgia. Wilson's earliest memory of his early youth was of playing in his yard and standing near the front gate of the Augusta parsonage at

16988-479: The widest possible quarters of the public. During the election campaign, Wilson asserted that it was the task of government "to make those adjustments of life which will put every man in a position to claim his normal rights as a living, human being." With the help of legal scholar Louis Brandeis , he developed his New Freedom platform, focusing especially on breaking up trusts and lowering tariff rates. Brandeis and Wilson rejected Roosevelt's proposal to establish

17125-475: Was Joseph Patrick Tumulty , who acted as a political buffer and intermediary with the press. The most important foreign policy adviser and confidant was "Colonel" Edward M. House ; Berg writes that, "in access and influence, [House] outranked everybody in Wilson's Cabinet." Wilson introduced a comprehensive program of domestic legislation at the outset of his administration, something no president had ever done before. He announced four major domestic priorities:

17262-528: Was "stimulating and fomenting discord in order that it may make profit out of the furnishing of munitions of war." The only road to peace was disarmament, reiterated Bryan, speaking for the antiwar Democrats. Garrison's plan unleashed the fiercest battle in peacetime history over the relationship of military planning to national goals. In peacetime, War Department arsenals and navy yards manufactured nearly all munitions that lacked civilian uses, including warships, artillery, naval guns, and shells. Items available on

17399-448: Was a Princeton trustee. Wilson wanted to integrate a proposed graduate school building into the core of the campus, but West preferred a more distant campus site. In 1909, Princeton's board accepted a gift made to the graduate school campaign subject to the graduate school being located off campus. Wilson became disenchanted with his job as Princeton University president due to the resistance to his recommendations, and he began considering

17536-679: Was a theology professor at the Columbia Theological Seminary . In 1873, Wilson became a communicant member of the Columbia First Presbyterian Church ; he remained a member throughout his life. Wilson attended Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina in the 1873–74 school year but transferred as a freshman to the College of New Jersey, which is now Princeton University , where he studied political philosophy and history , joined

17673-487: Was being renamed Princeton University; an ambitious program of expansion for the university accompanied the name change. In the 1896 presidential election , Wilson rejected Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan as too far to the left and instead supported the conservative " Gold Democrat " nominee, John M. Palmer . Wilson's academic reputation continued to grow throughout the 1890s, and he turned down multiple positions elsewhere, including at Johns Hopkins University and

17810-459: Was born to a family of Scotch-Irish and Scottish descent in Staunton, Virginia. He was the third of four children and the first son of Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Jessie Janet Woodrow. Wilson's paternal grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Strabane , County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1807, and settled in Steubenville, Ohio . Wilson's paternal grandfather James Wilson published

17947-476: Was carried out. Shortly before leaving office, Wilson signed a series of antitrust laws known as the "Seven Sisters," as well as another law that removed the power to select juries from local sheriffs. Wilson became a prominent 1912 presidential contender immediately upon his election as Governor of New Jersey in 1910, and his clashes with state party bosses enhanced his reputation with the rising Progressive movement. In addition to progressives, Wilson enjoyed

18084-612: Was confirmed by the Senate and served on the Court until retiring in 1922. Wilson sought to move away from the foreign policy of his predecessors, which he viewed as imperialistic, and he rejected Taft's Dollar Diplomacy . Nonetheless, he frequently intervened in Latin America , saying in 1913, "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men." The 1914 Bryan–Chamorro Treaty converted Nicaragua into

18221-416: Was his chief advisor. In 1912 Hibben stunned Wilson by taking the lead against Wilson's pet reform plan. They were permanently estranged, and Wilson was decisively defeated. In 1912, two years after Wilson left Princeton, Hibben became president of Princeton. Wilson's efforts to reform Princeton earned him national fame, but they also took a toll on his health. In 1906, Wilson awoke to find himself blind in

18358-593: Was largely devoted to pursuing passage of his progressive New Freedom domestic agenda. His first major priority was the Revenue Act of 1913 , which began the modern income tax , and the Federal Reserve Act , which created the Federal Reserve System . At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the U.S. declared neutrality as Wilson tried to negotiate a peace between the Allied and Central Powers . He narrowly won re-election in 1916 against Charles Evans Hughes . In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress for

18495-399: Was most commonly used during World War I against Americans from White ethnic backgrounds who favored United States neutrality during the ongoing conflict or who opposed the idea of an American military alliance with the British Empire and the creation of what is now called the " Special Relationship ", even for purely political reasons. In this context, the term "the hyphen" was

18632-422: Was published by 1889, and was common as a derogatory term by 1904. During World War I , the issue arose of the primary political loyalty of ethnic groups who retained close ties to their relatives in Europe, especially German Americans . In 1915, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in speaking to the largely Irish Catholic Knights of Columbus at Carnegie Hall on Columbus Day, asserted that, There

18769-537: Was that the United States would fight sooner or later. General Leonard Wood (still on active duty after serving a term as Chief of Staff of the Army), ex-president Theodore Roosevelt , and former secretaries of war Elihu Root and Henry Stimson were the driving forces behind the preparedness movement, along with many of the nation's most prominent bankers, industrialists, lawyers and scions of prominent families. There emerged an " Atlanticist " foreign policy establishment,

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