By Scott A. Grant
mail@floridanewsline.com
In October 1919, President Woodrow Wilson had a massive stroke. The stroke was not his first, but it was his worst. It left the president, who had intended on seeking a third term in office, largely debilitated for the last 17 months of his tenure in the White House. Many believe that during those last months in office, the duties of the presidency fell upon Wilson’s second-wife, Edith Bolling Wilson.
Wilson, the former governor of New Jersey and president of Princeton University, sought to keep his disability a secret as he had done with at least two other prior strokes. Those first strokes caused him to lose sensation in his fingertips and the sight in his left eye. He experienced frequent pain in first his right and then his left arm. Some say it also caused a substantial change in his personality.
Observers at the time and since have suggested that Edith Wilson was a “secret President” and the first woman to run a government. The first lady denied she was in charge and suggested she was acting as a mere “steward.” She acted as a gatekeeper, deciding what items required the president’s attention. She would then consult with him privately, presenting the question in a condensed form before emerging from the president’s study to announce, “Mr. Wilson says….”
In her biography, Edith Wilson, who married Woodrow during his first term after the death of his first wife, Ellen, stated; “I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband.”
Historians have increasingly suggested that Edith Wilson acted as more than a mere steward, that she was, in fact, acting as chief executive of the nation from October 1919 until the end of her husband’s second term in March 1921.
At the time, it became increasingly obvious that President Wilson was having severe problems. There was a clamoring for Wilson to resign or be replaced by Vice President Thomas Marshall of Indiana. Marshall, who is perhaps best remembered for his wit, had joked upon assuming the second highest office in the land that “once there were two brothers: one ran away to sea, the other was elected vice-president and nothing was ever heard from either of them again.”
Now he refused to assume office unless Edith Wilson and the president’s doctor certified Wilson’s “inability to discharge the powers and duties of said office.” That language comes out of Article 2 of the Constitution. At the time, there was no way for outsiders to enforce that clause. It was not until 1967, with the passage of the 25th Amendment, that a procedure for removing a president against his or her will was adopted. That procedure has never been used. It remains unclear what the threshold for “inability” might be.
Woodrow Wilson first became president following the election of 1912, when the Republican vote was split between incumbent William Howard Taft and former president and national hero, Teddy Roosevelt, who was running as a third-party candidate. Wilson received less than 42 percent of the popular vote, but won in an electoral landslide over Roosevelt and Taft, who split 51 percent of the popular vote between them.
The final months of his presidency were bitter. He had pushed for and helped establish a League of Nations after World War I. The League was founded, but the United States refused to join. The Senate did not ratify the treaty.
The Wilsons retired in Washington and the former president died less than three years later. His final words were “Edith.”
Scott A. Grant is a local author and historian. By day, he is president of Standfast Asset Management, LLC. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com.
