In his 1890 essay, “Leaders of Men,” Wilson explained that a “true leader” uses the masses like “tools.” He must inflame their passions with little heed for the facts. “Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader.” “No doubt a lot of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual, and a great deal that was mere sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle,” wrote Wilson, attacking the very individual rights that have made America great. He rejected the principles of “separation of powers” and “checks and balances” that are the foundation of American government: “Government does now whatever experience permits or the times demand….” wrote Wilson in The State.
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Here are several links with short excerpts from each one,,,, Woodrow Wilson’s Constitution by Robert Curry Issue 112 – July 23, 2008. Another great source for background and verification on Woodrow Wilson is: Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism (American Intellectual Culture)
Before going further,,, I should mention Wilson won the Presidency because the Republican vote was split.Teddy Roosevelt dropped out of the Republican party and formed a 3rd party and ran against Taft as well as Wilson. Both Taft and Roosevelt received more votes than did Wilson.
Roosevelt’s agenda had broad support. Despite splitting the Republican vote with Taft, and therefore losing the general election to the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson, T.R. received 88 electoral votes and more than four million popular votes. He soundly defeated Taft; if Taft had not run, and those who had voted for Taft then voted for T.R., Wilson probably would have lost.
Justly revered as our great Constitution is, it could be stripped off and thrown aside like a garment, and the nation would still stand forth in the living vestment of flesh and sinew, warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws . … Woodrow Wilson If you want to understand how the Constitution was rewritten in the 20th century by the Progressive movement, the place to start is with Woodrow Wilson. …Wilson too re-made Princeton, this time on the model of the German university. At a time in which German scholarship was in fashion, he was a champion of Hegelianism, helping to introduce a strain of thought into the American body politic that was fundamentally opposed to the natural rights philosophy of the Founders. Hegel’s historicism—the belief that all thought is historically conditioned—was the intellectual foundation of Progressivism and of Wilson’s belief that the Constitution was an antique absurdity. Wilson championed the idea of “the living Constitution” which enables activist judges to re-write the Constitution according to the Progressive notions of the day.
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American Protective League Formed by A.M. Briggs, a wealthy Chicago businessman, at its zenith the APL had 250,000 dues-paying members in 600 cities of the United States.[1] Authorized to operate by the U.S. Attorney General, Thomas Gregory, the APL assisted the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), the precursor to the FBI. A private organization, the APL nevertheless had a semi-official status; it was officially approved by the Attorney General, who authorized the APL to state on its letterhead, “Organized with the Approval and operating under the direction of the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation.”…. pursued suspects of disloyalty on their own initiative and in their own manner.[ APL members were accused of acting as vigilantes, allegedly violating the civil liberties of American citizens,… A few months after the Armistice was signed, ending World War I, the League disbanded, in part as a result of opposition by the President’s incoming Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer.
• Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online’s editor-at-large, is the author of “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.” excerpts: Washington - I’m thinking of an American president who demonized ethnic groups as enemies of the state, censored the press, imprisoned dissidents, bullied political opponents, spewed propaganda, often expressed contempt for the Constitution, approved warrantless searches and eavesdropping, and pursued his policies with a blind, religious certainty. Oh, and I’m not thinking of George W. Bush, but another “W” – actually “WW”: Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat who served from 1913 to 1921…
Wilson, like the bulk of progressive intellectuals in fin-de-siècle America, was deeply influenced by three strands of thought: philosophical Pragmatism, Hegelianism, and Darwinism. This heady intellectual cocktail produced a drunken arrogance and the conviction that the old rules no longer applied…..Hence Wilson argued that the old “Newtonian” vision – fixed rules enshrined in the Constitution and laws – had to give way to the “Darwinian” view of “living constitutions” and the like. With the intellectuals on their side, Wilson recruited journalist George Creel to become a propaganda minister as head of the newly formed Committee on Public Information (CPI). (about a million strong,, went around giving speeches on street corners, making posters, handing out pamphlets,, a very intimidating group all of it’s own,,, Mike ) Under the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918,Wilson’s administration shut down newspapers and magazines at an astounding pace. Indeed, any criticism of the government, even in your own home, could earn you a prison sentence. One man was brought to trial for explaining in his own home why he didn’t want to buy Liberty Bonds. The APL – a quarter million strong at its height, with offices in 600 cities – carried government-issued badges while beating up dissidents and protesters and conducting warrantless searches and interrogations. Even after the war, Wilson refused to release the last of America’s political prisoners,…
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From Conservative Colloquium:….forbade Americans from criticizing their own government in a time of war. Citizens could not “utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the government or the military. The Postmaster General was given the authority to revoke the mailing privileges of those who disobeyed. …All in all it is estimated that about 175,000 Americans were arrested for failing to demonstrate their patriotism in one way or another.
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From Reason Online : Wilson and racism: It was Inauguration Day, and in the judgment of one later historian, “the atmosphere in the nation’s capital bore ominous signs for Negroes.” Washington rang with happy Rebel Yells, while bands all over town played ‘Dixie.’ Indeed, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who swore in the newly elected Southern president, was himself a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile, “an unidentified associate of the new Chief Executive warned that since the South ran the nation, Negroes should expect to be treated as a servile race.” Somebody had even sent the new president a possum, an act supposedly “consonant with Southern tradition.” This is not an alternate world scenario imagining the results of a Strom Thurmond victory in the 1948 election; it is the real March 4, 1913, the day Woodrow Wilson of Virginia moved into the White House. The details, above and below, are drawn from the work of historian Lawrence J. Friedman, especially 1970’s The White Savage: Racial Fantasies in the Postbellum South…. ….Wilson allowed various officials to segregate the toilets, cafeterias, and work areas of their departments. One justification involved health: White government workers had to be protected from contagious diseases, especially venereal diseases, that racists imagined were being spread by blacks. In extreme cases, federal officials built separate structures to house black workers. Most black diplomats were replaced by whites; numerous black federal officials in the South were removed from their posts; the local Washington police force and fire department stopped hiring blacks. Wilson’s own view, as he expressed it to intimates, was that federal segregation was an act of kindness. In historian Friedman’s paraphrase, “Off by themselves with only a white supervisor, blacks would not be forced out of their jobs by energetic white employees.”
It might be interesting for you to know too, that Wilson was elected because the Republican vote was split. Teddy Roosevelt left the Republican party and formed a 3rd party. Roosevelt and Taft combined received roughly 7 and a half million votes,, while Wilson won the election with over 6 million.
I will leave you with a” few ” words, from Calvin Coolidge’s inaugural address,
(Coolidge replaced Harding after he died suddenly. Wilson had left the nation with, among other things,, a very bad economy. Under Harding, the economy began to improve)
“….Our own country is leading the world in the general readjustment to the results of the great conflict.”….if we wish to continue to be distinctively American, we must continue to make that term comprehensive enough to embrace the legitimate desires of a civilized and enlightened people determined in all their relations to pursue a conscientious and religious life…
… The expression of the popular will in favor of maintaining our constitutional guarantees was overwhelming and decisive…. These questions involve moral issues. We need not concern ourselves much about the rights of property if we will faithfully observe the rights of persons. Under our institutions their rights are supreme. It is not property but the right to hold property, both great and small, which our Constitution guarantees…..America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.”
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