The Democratic Party, Woodrow Wilson, and the New Freedom, 1896-1917 Flashcards
Introduction:
The presidency of Woodrow Wilson was a Democratic interlude in the long years of Republican dominance between 1896 and 1932. Woodrow Wilson’s victory in the 1912 election was made possible by the deep splits within the Republican Party as Theodore Roosevelt undermined his former ally, William Howard Taft. Wilson seized the opportunity to revive the Democratic Party and to establish his own political credentials as a Progressive. Wilson won re-election in 1916 and gained a high reputation as a world statesman during the First World War. ‘Wilsonism’ was eventually rejected in the 1920 election, but Wilson’s years in the White House were important for American domestic politics. Wilson the progressive reformer needs to be remembered alongside Wilson the internationalist
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974):
Walter Lippmann became famous during a long career as a journalist, author, and adviser to presidents. In 1913 he was one of the founders of the Progressive magazine, New Republic. He served in the First World War as an intelligence officer and became an adviser to President Wilson, helping to write the Fourteen Points speech. He was an influential commentator on the New Deal, the Second World War (when he was a speechwriter for Franklin Roosevelt), and the Cold War
Political tensions and divisions: the Democratic Party
The Democratic Party was badly damaged by the divisions that tore it apart in the 1890s. The challenge of the Populists as a separate party soon faded away but the rival wings of the party had little in common. The Republican Party, backed by big business and buoyed by a booming economy, was set for a long period of political dominance. It was only from 1910, with the rise of Woodrow Wilson and with internal strains beginning to divide the Republicans, that a Democratic political revival gathered momentum
The problems of the Democratic Party up until 1908:
The 1896 election revealed both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Democratic Party. William Jennings Bryan was a major political figure, capable of mobilising mass audiences in a moral crusade against perceived injustices. The grass roots rebellion of Populism was a serious challenge to the political establishment. But Bryan divided opinion, and his central theme in 1896, the demand for ‘free silver’, was as likely to alienate voters in the Northeast as it was to enthuse voters in the South and the Great Plains. Having failed to carry the nation at the height on the crest of the Populist wave in 1896, it was unlikely that the same message would succeed in 1900, when the Republicans were benefiting from improved economic conditions and from victory in the war against Spain
Democratic Party divisions were starkly exposed in 1904. It was already unlikely that any Democratic candidate would be able to prevent Theodore Roosevelt’s re-election, and the two most prominent Democrats, William Jennings Bryan and ex-president Grover Cleveland, each faced entrenched opposition from within the party. The nominating convention was dominated by anti-Bryan, pro-business conservatives, and the man who gained the nomination, Alton Parker, was little known - the only man to run for president who never had a biography about him published. Roosevelt won easily
The problems and triumphs of the Democratic Party from 1908-1912:
In 1908 the Democrats turned once again to Bryan, who by this time had adopted more moderate, progressive views - no longer campaigning for ‘free silver’, and trying to appeal to conservative pro-business Democrats as well as his traditional support from the South and West. This approach had little effect. Bryan lost again, failing to win a single state in the Northeast. Bryan thus became the only presidential candidate to run three times and to be defeated every time, Republican dominance seemed unshakable
From 1910, there was a revival in the fortunes of the Democratic Party. This was partly due to the cracks that were beginning to appear in the Republican political machine. President Taft had alienated progressive Republicans (and his political mentor, Theodore Roosevelt) by his shift to more conservative policies and by appointing conservatives to government posts. In the mid-term elections of 1910, the Democrats surprised themselves by winning control of the House of Representatives. This success made many Democrats optimistic about their chances of winning the presidency in 1912; many Republicans saw it as a ‘disaster’
By 1910, the Democrats also had a rising political star to follow. Woodrow Wilson was a political outsider. A Southerner, a pacifist and a progressive idealist, and the son of a minister in the Southern Presbyterian Church, Wilson had a distinguished academic career as a university lecturer and the author of books on public administration and constitutional government. From 1902 until 1910 he was president of Princeton University in New Jersey. This gained Wilson a high reputation for administrative ability and moral authority, but it was an unlikely background for a politician. In 1910, however, leading Democrats in New Jersey persuaded him to run for election as Governor
Wilson’s term of office as Governor of New Jersey catapulted him into national prominence. He pushed through an energetic programme of reforms and gained respect for his decisive leadership. It was already clear in 1911 that he was likely to run for the presidency, and his chances of gaining the nomination rose steeply when he held a reconciliation meeting with William Jennings Bryan, with whom he had previously clashed over party policy. Wilson entered the 1912 election campaign as a talented leader, capable of uniting the disparate elements of the Democratic Party
The Republican ‘disaster’ of 1910:
The importance of mid-term elections (in between the four-year cycle of presidential elections) is often underrated. But with all seats in the House and one-third of Senate seats up for election, the mid-terms can show political trends, and can affect the authority of the president. The adverse results in 1910 led to bitter recriminations among Republicans, and prompted Theodore Roosevelt into thoughts of returning to active politics to ‘save the party’
Woodrow Wilson (1865-1924):
Woodrow Wilson was a Southerner, born in Virginia. He had a distinguished academic career: he gained a doctorate in political science and was president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910. This led to his election as Governor of New Jersey in 1910. Wilson won the presidency for the Democratic Party in 1912 and instituted many Progressive reforms; he was re-elected in 1916. From April 1917, he led the US through the First World War and the postwar peace, but stress and illness forced him out of politics in 1920
The 1912 election:
The 1912 election was a turning point in American politics, marking an unexpected recovery by the Democrats against a divided Republican Party, and the growing strength of Progressivism. Theodore Roosevelt was leading a rebellion, trying to drag the Republican Party back towards Progressive policies. When he failed to win the Republican nomination, Roosevelt was then willing to split the party by taking over the leadership of the new National Progressive Party to challenge his former political ally, the incumbent President William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson was also pushing forward a Progressive agenda; but, unlike Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson was a unifier. Wilson was also able to attack Taft and the Republicans as the party of big business and high protective tariffs. The election result was a dramatic rejection of Taft and conservative Republicanism. Taft had cruised to a convincing victory over William Jennings Bryan in 1908 and ought to have been strongly placed for re-election in 1912. In the event, he was completely overshadowed by the rival Progressive candidates, Wilson and Roosevelt. It was obvious long before Election Day that Taft would finish a distant third. Theodore Roosevelt’s strong showing as a third-party candidate was not enough to make up for Taft’s 3 million votes, however, leaving Woodrow Wilson the clear winner
The 1912 election has too often been represented as a three-cornered race.
Countless contemporary cartoons depicted the struggle between Wilson and the Democrats on one side, and the divided Republican former allies on the other. In fact there was an important fourth contestant in the race: the socialist Eugene Debs, who won over 900,000 votes - 6% of the total. This was double the number of votes won by Debs when he ran in 1904 and 1908, and it showed how difficult it was for the Democratic Party at that time to win mass support from industrial workers.
Eugene Debs (1865-1926):
Eugene Debs was a railroad worker and trade union activist. He was a founder of the American Railway Union (ARU) and the International Workers of the World (IWW). Debs led the Great Northern Strike of 1893 and the Pullman Strike of 1894, after which he was jailed for six months. He left the Democratic Party and ran for president as a Socialist in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 (winning almost one million votes), and 1920. He was again sent to prison in 1918 because of his opposition to the First World War
Socialism:
The expansion of the industrial economy created the conditions for the rise of socialism. Workers organised into trade unions and strikes became a frequent occurrence; for example, the steel industry Homestead Strike, the railroad industry Pullman Strike in 1894, and the great coal strike in 1902. Many workers were immigrants influenced by socialist ideas from Europe. Socialism was a potentially powerful force but it was divided. Political socialism, led by Eugene Debs, or by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), demanded radical changes to the whole social and economic system. But moderate socialism, represented by trade union leaders like Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), were ready to collaborate with business, as long as the jobs and wages of their members were safeguarded
Socialism remained an important political force and consistently gained significant support in presidential elections; in 1912 almost 1 million people voted for Eugene Debs. The trade unions were influential and gained even more strength during the First World War. But socialism never became a united political movement and it never broke through the stranglehold of the two main political parties in America. It was overshadowed by the strength of the Progressive movement
Samuel Gompers (1850-1924):
Samuel Gompers was born in London and emigrated in 1863. He became a trade union activist with the Cigarmakers union. He was leader of the American Federation of Labour (AFL) from its founding in 1886 until his death in 1924. Gompers was a Progressive and a moderate who believed in cooperation with business, not conflict; he was opposed to the IWW and to the socialist leader, Eugene Debs. He was a strong supporter of the Spanish American War of 1898 and of America’s involvement in the First World War
The Wilson presidency: Progressivism and the New Freedom
At his inauguration in 1913, Woodrow Wilson was an unknown quantity. He had little experience in politics apart from his brief spell as Governor of New Jersey. His reputation was as an academic of high moral standing, who had often been stubborn and uncompromising as a university president at Princeton. He was also the son and grandson of church ministers, and based many of his speeches and policies on religious principles. This tendency to moralise continued to be evident throughout his presidency; it was sometimes a strength and sometimes a weakness
There was one sense, however, in which Wilson was a traditional Democratic politician. He was a Southerner who relied on the Solid South for his core political support. His high moral principles did not extend as far as campaigning for racial equality. Wilson was also careful to mend fences with William Jennings Bryan and his supporters within the Democratic Party; Bryan was given the prestigious position of Secretary of State in Wilson’s administration
Progressivism and the New Freedom (up until 1914)
Wilson termed his programme of reforms the ‘New Freedom’. His Progressive ideology was different in emphasis from Theodore Roosevelt’s: Wilson believed in a return to freedom for small businesses, and open competition instead of domination by big corporate cartels. ‘The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government power, not the increase of it’, Wilson said in his election campaign. Once in the White House, Wilson moved quickly to implement his reforms
Demands for tariff reform had been a major part of Wilson’s election campaign; he had cleverly depicted conservative Republicans as ‘addicts’ of high protective tariffs. After a long battle with opponents in the House and the Senate in 1913, Wilson forced through the Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act, slashing tariff rates by up to 20%. He also imposed a new income tax to compensate for lost tariff revenues
Another theme of the New Freedom was the need to reform banking and the currency. Wilson brought in a major banking and currency reform with the Federal Reserve Act, establishing a strong central bank which was under public regulation and control. All national banks were compelled to join one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks; in turn these regional banks were supervised by the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. The Federal Reserve system gave a focus to monetary policy in the United States and provided protection against financial panics like those of 1893 and 1907. (20 years later, the Federal Reserve was one of the chief weapons used by Franklin Roosevelt to combat the banking crisis of the Great Depression)
The Federal Reserve:
The plan to create the Federal Reserve originated at a ten-day secret meeting of bankers and politicians held on Jekyll Island, a private resort off the coast of Georgia, in November 1910. The men involved (politicians such as Senator Aldrich of Rhode Island, Treasury officials, and bankers with close links to J.P. Morgan and Co, such as Benjamin Strong) knew there would be outraged opposition if people knew what they were doing. The Aldrich Plan devised on Jekyll Island closely resembled the Federal Reserve Act that Wilson pushed through Congress in 1913
Progressivism and the New Freedom (from 1914)
There was strong support in Congress for further regulation of big business (which had been a major issue for Theodore Roosevelt and the progressive Republicans). In 1914 Wilson set up the Federal Trade Commission to inspect and regulate corporate business methods, and to prevent unfair practices. At the same time (1914), the Clayton Antitrust Act was passed to extend the powers of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. Wilson’s administration enforced the Clayton Act energetically, launching nearly 100 antitrust cases against big businesses
Wilson’s reform agenda also included a range of measures to improve protection for the rights of workers and trade unions:
• he got the backing of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) by preventing strikes, boycotts, and peaceful picketing from being declared illegal by employers as restraint of trade
• in 1916 the Adamson Act used federal powers to regulate inter-state trade to bring in an eight-hour working day for railroad workers
• the Workmen’s Compensation Act provided insurance for workers against injuries at work
• the Federal Highway Act gave federal money to help with the construction of highways
• the Federal Farm Loan Act gave farmers access to long-term loans, enabling them to expand production at a time when there was increased demand because of the war in Europe
Wilson’s Progressive reforms also included four important amendments to the Constitution. In 1913 the Sixteenth Amendment gave Congress powers to impose income tax and the Seventeenth Amendment made it compulsory for all states to elect US Senators by direct popular vote. In 1919 the Eighteenth Amendment enforced Prohibition, and in 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment secured voting rights for women nationwide
The Progressive reforms of Wilson’s New Freedom:
