Theory 2 Action Podcast
Theory 2 Action Podcast
MM#340--Lust For Power? Edith Wilson and the Madam Presidency of 1912
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What if the president couldn't perform his duties, and nobody knew?
Explore the extraordinary, and almost secret, chapter of American history where Edith Wilson effectively became the acting president after Woodrow Wilson's stroke in 1919.
Dive into the fascinating tale of how she controlled the presidency for 18 months, making critical decisions while keeping Vice President Thomas R. Marshall and the public in the dark.
Our guide for this journey is the book written by William Hazelgrove, "Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson"
Tune in for a compelling narrative on how history's hidden chapters can offer valuable insights for our current political climate.
Key Points from the Episode:
- This episode sheds light on Edith's unprecedented role and the profound impact her actions had on both domestic and foreign policies, painting a vivid picture of a time when the First Lady became the most powerful person in America.
- As we inch closer to the 2024 political landscape, there's a crucial lesson to be learned from Edith Wilson's secret presidency.
- Our discussion highlights the importance of having clear processes to prevent any misuse of power and the need to address constitutional ambiguities that could lead to a similar crisis.
- We reflect on the significance of the 25th Amendment and stress the necessity of invoking it when appropriate to maintain the integrity of our democratic institutions.
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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.
Speaker 2:Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. Earlier this week we shared the legacy and outcome of the 1912 election and the radical presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Did you know that Woodrow Wilson had a stroke while in office? Yep, woodrow Wilson's stroke occurred on October 2nd 1919, which had a profound and lasting impact on his presidency and the governance of the United States. The stroke left Wilson severely incapacitated, with paralysis on his left side, impaired vision and significant speech difficulties. This sudden health crisis created an unprecedented situation where the president was physically unable to perform his duties. In fact, let's go to our book of the day, madam President, the Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson, for our first pull quote.
Speaker 2:President Woodrow Wilson lay with his mouth drooping, unconscious. President Woodrow Wilson lay with his mouth drooping unconscious, having suffered a thrombosis on October 2nd 1919, that left him paralyzed on his left side and barely able to speak. The doctors believe the president's best chance for survival was in the only known remedy for a stroke at the time a rest cure consisting of total isolation from the world. His wife of four years, edith Bowling Wilson, asked how a country could function with no chief executive. Dr Durcombe, the attending physician, leaned over and gave Edith her charge. Madam, it is a grave situation but I think you can solve it. Have everything come to you, weigh the importance of each matter and see if it is possible, by consultations with the respective heads of the departments, to solve them without guidance of your husband. To solve them without guidance of your husband. From there, edith Wilson would act as the president's proxy and run the White House and, by extension, the country, by controlling access to the president, signing documents, pushing bills through Congress, issuing vetoes, isolating advisors, crafting State of the Union addresses, disposing of or censoring correspondence and filling positions. She would analyze every problem and decide which ones to bring to the president's attention and which to solve on her own, through her own devices. All the while, she had to keep the fact that the country was no longer being run by President Woodrow Wilson a guarded secret and thus began what would be some 18 months of the United States presidency and the president incapacitated and his wife essentially functioning in place of the president as a proxy.
Speaker 2:Can you believe it? Now the next question, legitimate question anyone would ask did the vice president try to physically see the president? Vice president Thomas R Marshall did not see president Woodrow Wilson after Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. Despite being vice president, marshall was kept in the dark about the severity of Wilson's condition and was blocked physically blocked from visiting him by First Lady Edith Wilson, who took over many of the president's duties during his incapacitation. Marshall finally did see the president for the first time after the stroke, at the inauguration of the newly elected President, warren G Harding in 1921. Unbelievable. Let's go back to the book. A few guessed at the real situation. A frustrated Senator, albert Fall from New Mexico, pounded his senatorial table when he demanded a response from the White House. We have a petticoat government. Wilson is not acting. Mrs Wilson is president.
Speaker 2:Some saw it as a power grab when Edith Wilson kept Vice President Thomas R Marshall from seeing the president and preventing the constitutional transfer of power. But Edith believed the doctor's warning that any stress would kill her husband. To keep her husband alive she would have to shield him from the world and that meant running the country herself. Even before her husband's stroke, edith, as First Lady, had participated in the Wilson administration to an extraordinary degree. Participated in the Wilson administration to an extraordinary degree. She and Woodrow resembled a 21st century political power couple. President Wilson kept her close by his side and clearly valued his wife's input, making her a partner in many political decisions. In this way he had given her hands-on training for her quote stewardship. I tried to arrange my own appointments to correspond with those of the president so we might be free at the same times. She would write later. Woodrow gave Edith presidential access to all his work and she often spent all day with him, as she later wrote breakfast at eight o'clock sharp. Then we both went to the study to look in the drawer. Possibly and possibly if nothing had blown up overnight there was time to put signatures on commissions or other routine papers. These I always placed before my husband and blotted and removed them as fast as possible.
Speaker 2:Edith's participation in the Wilson White House gave her a woman who just four years before had been a widow living alone in Washington, the capacity to deal with the demands of running the United States while nursing her husband to deal with the demands of running the United States while nursing her husband. The impact of the president's death was profound and broad-ranging Domestic problems were on the rise, foreign policy initiatives ground to a virtual standstill and the League of Nations first proposed by Wilson failed to get approved At a point the White House had begun to cease to function. Now, clearly, historians have simply papered over these 18 months when the vice president should have taken over for the president because of his inability to conduct the office of president, to essentially fulfill his duties. And the more you dig into this specific question, the more you might get a sense that there was a lust of power that gripped Edith Wilson. It may be a protective element, sure, and even though Woodrow Wilson was a radical president radical in every sense of the word and historians most of them anyway should have not papered over those 18 months simply to keep Wilson's legacy as considered great at the time. I will say historical context plays a pretty big role when examining this history. We, in 2024, can impose our virtues and values on people in history because that's unfair to them, that is not in keeping with or discovering the truth. So this notion of historical context is pretty big.
Speaker 2:The eras at the time, medical and public understanding of strokes and their impact was limited compared to today and what we know, the stigma associated with severe illness and disability, most likely contributed to the decision to keep Wilson's condition as private as possible. Now should have power transferred to the vice president? Absolutely, but again, let's place ourselves in their shoes. At the time, there was no clear constitutional mechanism for determining presidential disability or for transferring power temporarily to the vice president. Remember, the 25th Amendment, which provides a clear process for these situations, was not ratified until 1967, much, much later Now. This lack of clarity created a constitutional crisis, an uncertainty about whether and, more importantly, how, how, vice President Marshall could assume the presidential duties.
Speaker 2:Now, looking back from 1919, if we put ourselves in their shoes, what did the country know about succession of a vice president to a president? Well, if you look back in the history to find out how to do these things, john Tyler, in 1841, he assumed the presidency after the death of President William Henry Harrison. Then we move to 1850. Millard Fillmore became president after the death of Zachary Taylor. Andrew Johnson 1865, assumes the presidency after the assassination of President Lincoln. Chester Arthur becomes president after James Garfield dies from an assassin's bullet in 1881. Theodore Roosevelt, in 1901, assumes the presidency after the assassination of President William McKinley.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what about the times when presidents were incapacitated? Because that would be very close to what Wilson was experiencing after his stroke. Well, history only gives us two times. If we're sitting there in 1919 and looking back, we only have two instances, two examples to go from James Madison in 1813, suffered from a severe fever but remained in office without transferring power. And then James Garfield, in 1881, survived for 80 days after being shot, but he did not transfer power to Vice President Chester Arthur at the time and Chester Arthur hesitated to assume power due to, again, constitutional ambiguities. So you can see, it was not an easy process to transfer power from the president to the vice president. Still, after some time, edith Wilson should have gone to the vice president and told the truth, and then together they could have figured out what to do from there. That would have been the right thing to do. Now, thank God, we now have a formal process in place with the 25th Amendment.
Speaker 2:Now, all that said, one of the worst excuses of historians on this whole episode and period is that of political considerations. These liberal historians make statements such as Wilson was deeply involved in the promoting of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations and acknowledging his inability, from the stroke, to perform his duties could have undermined these efforts. That's not good enough. That just shows your lust of power, plain and simple. And then here's another excuse. Additionally, there was concern about maintaining stability and confidence in the government during this tumultuous period. No, no, no, no, that doesn't cut it. There is right and there is wrong, and you can see. Once you go down the path of trying to play the political game with someone's health and you allow for certain actions to creep in, then you have a full fledged presidential proxy and a stand-in for operating the government and the executive branch and you are way, way out of bounds constitutionally. And that's how bad it got for those 18 months.
Speaker 2:Now let's go back to the book for one last point. Edith Wilson, a woman with only two years of formal education, had to step in. She had to make it up as she went along approving appointments, making foreign policy and domestic policy decisions, orchestrating the cover-up and restricting access to her husband, who at times was totally quote gone. When looking through the papers of Woodrow Wilson, one is struck by how much correspondence from 1919 to 1921 was directed toward Edith. She was on the front lines of issues ranging from the recognition of diplomats to America's entry into the League of Nations. The correspondence of Edith Wilson's years was voluminous, as she wrote to Colonel Edward House, the president's unofficial advisor. My hands now are full, so full that I'd neglect many things, but I feel equal to everything that comes. Now. I see steady progress going on. Americans wouldn't see their president for five months, appointments remain unfulfilled and correspondence piled up. Years later, essential communications to the president that had never been opened in the White House were found in the National Archives. Like someone who didn't have time to get to her bills, edith had simply thrown them in a pile.
Speaker 2:The cover-up has persisted to the present day, in part because of Edith Wilson herself. In her memoir written in 1939, she called her presidency a quote stewardship, effectively downplaying the true significance of her role. But historians have been complicit in the cover-up as well. While many concede that Edith Wilson was almost the president, they also insist that Woodrow Wilson remained in charge, and while some go so far as to claim she acted as president for six weeks at most, they go no further in acknowledging the extent of her presidency. Many Americans are still surprised to learn that President Wilson suffered a massive stroke while in office, but what they find totally inconceivable is that his wife, edith Wilson, was the acting president for almost two years. To acknowledge this would be to diminish Woodrow Wilson's legacy.
Speaker 2:Power is given to those who can wield it, and President Wilson, who remained in bed only to be wheeled out from movies and some fresh air, was virtually powerless. So the end of the Wilson presidency was a dark, dark time when Americans were essentially rudderless as a country without their leader. So in today's Mojo Minute, again, let's thank God we now have a 25th Amendment that was passed in 1967. And now, please pray God, we are not seeing another lust for power in the current president and his wife. Things are getting very dicey and I am on record that we are certainly within 25th Amendment territory Now. Thank God, we have processes in place to avoid such a lust for power. That happened in 1919 and for those 18 months thereafter, and absolutely there's no need for a crisis now in constitutional ambiguities. We know what needs to be done. If we get into that place, the right people must must do the right thing and invoke the 25th Amendment and, most of all, we certainly don't need another Edith Wilson in 2024.
Speaker 1:mojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.