Patricia O’Toole - The Moralist

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Copyright 2018 by Patricia OToole

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition April 2018

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Interior design by Lewelin Polanco

Maps by David Lindroth

Jacket design by Lauren Peters-Collaer

Map of Europe by David Rumsey Map Collection

www.davidrumsey.com / Payot Libraire Woodrow Wilson by John Christen Johansen (18761964), Oil on Canvas, C. 1919, Gift of an Anonymous Donor, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: OToole, Patricia, author.

Title: The moralist : Woodrow Wilson and the world he made / by Patricia OToole.

Other titles: Woodrow Wilson and the world he made

Description: New York : Simon & Schuster, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018006628| ISBN 9780743298094 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780743298100 (trade pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501130021 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924. | Presidents--United States--Biography. | United States--Politics and government--1913-1921. | United States--Foreign relations--Moral and ethical aspects.

Classification: LCC E767 .O95 2018 | DDC 973.91/3092 [B] --dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018006628

ISBN 978-0-7432-9809-4

ISBN 978-1-5011-3002-1 (ebook)

For the Squad:

Hilary OToole, Randy Hartwell, Chris Milenkevich, Tara Smith, Val Monroe, Bridget Potter, and Sarah Perry

If it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.

William Shakespeare, Henry V

The idea of writing a biography of Woodrow Wilson grew out of my longstanding interest in World War I and a conversation with Alice Mayhew, my editor at Simon & Schuster. I originally imagined that I would focus on Wilson as commander in chief, but Alice encouraged me to follow the trail wherever it led. It forked while I was looking at the index of Presidential Greatness by the historian Thomas A. Bailey. To my surprise, Wilson took up more space than any other major president. I soon understood why: he was the most controversial of the lot because his triumphs as well as his defeats were so large and lasting.

Struck by the intensity of the praise and condemnation that Wilson has aroused since his first days in the White House, I wanted to know the cause. Was it the dissonance between his old-fashioned social ideas and his modern notions of what government should do? Was it the era, with its constant clash between the status quo and the progressive push for reform? Several possibilities came to mind, but for me, the one that stood out was a personal qualityhis great sense of moral responsibility. While admirers have treated it as a virtue and a political asset, critics have often seen it as arrogance. Both camps agree that morality was a conspicuous feature of his character and a hallmark of his presidency. And both say that it left an unusually big mark on the country and the world.

The depth of Wilsons moral concern is almost always traced to the fact that he was the son and grandson of Presbyterian ministers. The precepts of the Judeo-Christian tradition did permeate his boyhood, and he remained a devout Christian all his life. But he was not a zealot. Nor did he claim to know Gods will. His religion was a largely private matter, a source of comfort in the face of adversity and unfathomable events.

Ultimately I came to see the moral ideals of President Wilson as more secular than religious, the effect of his long formal education in history, government, and law. As Professor Wilson (of Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan, and Princeton), he lectured and wrote extensively on government. Democracy was a frequent theme, and his faith in democracy ran as deep as his faith in God. Because democracy rests on the consent of the governed, he thought it the most moral form of government, and like many Americans before and since, he believed that the success of the American democratic experiment made the United States a morally superior nation. Wilson also believed in the power of moral force, by which he meant the power of ideas and actions aligned with commonly accepted moral principles. In his judgment, the greatest power of the United States was not its wealth but the moral force of its democracy.

In Wilsons first term, his moral sensitivity served him and the country well. He persuaded Congress to enact a substantial program of economic reform by arguing that his course was morally right and that doing the right thing would pay off politically and materially. In short order he won the creation of the Federal Reserve Board, the income tax, the Federal Trade Commission, and an antitrust law designed to prevent monopoly.

No previous president and only two of his successors (Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson) compiled legislative records as impressive as Wilsons. But moral force was not the only force in play. The reforms were long overdue, his party controlled both houses of Congress, and two persuasive members of his cabinet lobbied unceasingly for his demands. Yet I think it fair to say that the moral force of Wilsons case mattered. Set forth in a series of speeches, it won broad public support for his legislative agenda and made it difficult for Congress to oppose him without sounding morally deficient.