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Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Arthur S. Link
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Extract

Few Presidents in American history established so complete and far-reaching a control over his party as did Woodrow Wilson during the first years of his tenure in the White House.* Indeed, before the end of his first term he had become almost the absolute master of his party, able to effect revolutionary changes in party policy without the previous knowledge and consent of Democratic leaders in Congress and the country. He attained this stature in part by his methods of public leadership—his bold representation of public opinion and his incomparable strategy in dealing with the legislative branch. He won this position of authority also through less obvious and more subtle means—a systematic use of the immense patronage at his command as an instrument by which to achieve effective and responsible party government. Confronted by no entrenched national party organization and no body of officeholders loyal to another man, he was able to build from the ground up and to weld the widely scattered and disparate Democratic forces into something approximating a national machine. Let us see how he used his power to mold the character of his party, and with what consequences.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , April 1956 , pp. 146 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1956

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References

* This article is drawn in part from the author's forthcoming Wilson: The New Freedom, which will be published by the Princeton University Press during the coming autumn.

1 New York Times, 01 14, 1913.Google Scholar

2 R. S. Baker, interview with A. S. Burleson, March 17–29, 1927, the Ray Stannard Baker Collection of Wilsonia, Library of Congress.

3 Breckinridge, Desha to McCombs, William F., 03 7, 1914Google Scholar, the Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Library of Congress.

4 Desha Breckinridge, editorial in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald, 03 7, 1914Google Scholar; see also McAdoo, W. G. to Wilson, Woodrow, 09 29, 1913Google Scholar, Wilson Papers, enclosing a letter from Leigh Harris, editor of the Henderson (Ky.) Daily Journal.

5 H. St. G. Tucker to Carter Glass, August 27, 1913, the Papers of Carter Glass, University of Virginia Library.

6 Pollard, J. G. et al. to Wilson, Woodrow, 01 5, 1914, Wilson Papers.Google Scholar

7 For a general protest, see Horace Hood, editor of the Montgomery Journal and a leader of the progressive wing, to Bryan, W. J., 10 11, 1913Google Scholar, the Papers of William Jennings Bryan, the National Archives.

8 Jelks, W. D. to Wilson, Woodrow, 03 19, 1913Google Scholar, Wilson Papers.

9 Glass, F. P. to Wilson, Woodrow, 03 20, 1913Google Scholar, ibid.

10 Wilson, W. to Glass, F. P., 04 16, 1913Google Scholar, ibid.

11 Wilson, W. to Bryan, W. J., 06 25, 1913Google Scholar, ibid.

12 Wilson, W. to Wise, S. S., 06 4, 1914Google Scholar, ibid.

13 Wilson, W. to Burleson, A. S., 04 4, 06 2, and 07 28, 1913Google Scholar, ibid.

14 This appointment, incidentally, stirred a controversy all over the West and drew protests from Thomas J. Pence, secretary of the National Committee, Senator Key Pittman of Nevada, and many Californians. See Pence, T. J. to Wilson, W., 05 29, 1913Google Scholar, the Papers of Albert S. Burleson, Library of Congress; Wilson, W. to Burleson, A. S., 05 29 and 06 2, 1913Google Scholar, Wilson Papers. Burleson wrote at the bottom of the original of Wilson's letter of June 2, 1913, in the Burleson Papers, the following: “Stood by Fox and put him over. Sacramento went for Wilson in 1916 election and saved the state for Wilson.”

15 Wilson, W. to Burleson, A. S., 10 7, 09 26, and 03 30, 1913, Wilson Papers.Google Scholar

16 Wilson, to Burleson, A. S., 11 25, 1913Google Scholar, ibid.

17 New York World, 12 18, 1912.Google Scholar

18 McGrath, James F. to Martine, Senator J. E., 05 16, 1914, Wilson PapersGoogle Scholar

19 Wittpenn, H. O. to Tumulty, J. P., 05 7, 1914Google Scholar, ibid.

20 Kerney, James, The Political Education of Woodrow Wilson (New York, 1926), pp. 471–472.Google Scholar

21 R. S. Baker, interview with Burleson, A. S., 03 17–19, 1927, Baker Collection.Google Scholar