President Woodrow Wilson left office a broken and defeated man. Unable to gain Senate support for America's participation in the post-war League of Nations, Wilson exhausted himself, suffered a massive stroke, and for the last 17 months of his term was an invalid, seeing no one except his doctors and wife Edith. Despite everything, though, President Wilson left behind a remarkable legacy and an enviable contribution to the country he served with zeal and dedication.

Before he became president, Wilson's only previous political experience was as governor of New Jersey. A transplanted southerner, Wilson's background was strictly academic. He was the first U.S. President to hold a doctorate degree, and he once served as President of Princeton University. Nevertheless, as governor, Wilson accumulated a remarkable record of reform and political improvements in his state. He instituted campaign finance reform and a new worker's injury compensation program. Tired of watching party bosses choose political candidates, he also signed his state's first primary law allowing voters to select candidates.

Wilson's continuing success in New Jersey political reforms brought him to the attention of national Democrat party leaders. Wilson won the presidency in 1912 defeating a divided Republican party. As President, his first, and greatest, achievement was the passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. This law created a system that today still regulates banks, credit, and our economy's money supply.

Unable to keep the United States out of the European war, Wilson shifted his efforts to mobilizing U.S. industry in support for the war effort. Wartime domestic legacies of Wilson include the new Income Tax and government bonds to pay for the war. America also increased industrial production by 20 percent, instituted daylight savings time to save fuel, and the government took over much of the transportation and shipbuilding system.

When U.S. troops turned the tide of battle against the Germans, Wilson decided to head the U.S. delegation to Paris. Wilson's vision was a fourteen-point post-war peace plan, which he believed would prevent future wars. His victorious allies saw things differently, and the result was the Treaty of Versailles, which in Wilson's view was better than nothing, since it did include a new League of Nations.

What broke Woodrow Wilson's heart and spirit was the resurgence of American isolationism and his inability to get the Senate to ratify the treaty. It was his direct appeal to the American voters during an arduous speaking tour that caused him to collapse with exhaustion and suffer the stroke that incapacitated him for the last year and a half of his term.

Woodrow Wilson's legacy, nevertheless, endures. Twenty-five years after Wilson's time, the United Nations built its headquarters in New York. The U.N. building is, in its fashion, a tangible memorial to Wilson. But his legacy is not confined to foreign policy. His 1918 speech in support of women's suffrage was instrumental in the quick passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. His progressive domestic programs also helped put a human face on a growing American industrial system. He also succeeded in transforming the American presidency into the intellectual and political center of our government, enabling our country to deal effectively with the challenges and threats of the modern world.

Learn more about this author, Jerry Curtis.
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