Overview

Born: December 28, 1856 in Staunton, Virginia...

1902-1911
President of Princeton University

1911 – 1913

Progressive Governor New Jersey

1913-1920 

President of the United States

Wilson was the first president since John Adams to address a joint session of Congress in person.

Displaying a potent intellect and a bold vision of expanded presidential influence, Wilson successfully refined the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government.

A passionate defender of pacifism and America's official neutrality during the first three years of World War I, he found himself drawn into an intervention in Mexico and U.S. participation in the Great War.

He also sought, and failed, to rally his countrymen toward a spirit of international cooperation in its aftermath.  Wilson’s burning idealism—especially his desire to reform ever-present wickedness—drove him forward faster than lesser spirits were willing to go.

His found compromise difficult; black was black, wrong sense of moral righteousness was such that he often was wrong, and one should never compromise.