Henry Morgenthau ( / ˈ m ɔːr ɡ ən t aʊ / ; April 26, 1856 – November 25, 1946) was a German-born American lawyer and businessman, best known for his role as the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I . Morgenthau was one of the most prominent Americans who spoke about the Greek genocide and the Armenian genocide of which he stated, "I am firmly convinced that this is the greatest crime of the ages."
148-545: Morgenthau was the father of the politician Henry Morgenthau Jr. His grandchildren include Robert M. Morgenthau , District Attorney of Manhattan for 35 years, and Barbara W. Tuchman , a historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for her book The Guns of August . Morgenthau was born the ninth of 11 living children, in Mannheim , Baden (present-day Baden-Württemberg , Germany ), in 1856 into an Ashkenazi Jewish family. He
296-463: A U.S. Senator from California . From 1885 to 1888, Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr College , a newly established women's college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania , outside Philadelphia . Wilson taught ancient Greek and Roman history, American history, political science, and other subjects. At the time, there were only 42 students at the college, nearly all of them too passive for his taste. M. Carey Thomas ,
444-780: A cerebral hemorrhage , in New York City , and was buried in Hawthorne, New York , at the age of 90. His son Henry Morgenthau Jr. was a Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to July 1945. His daughter, Alma Wertheim, had married banker Maurice Wertheim in 1909 and was the mother of historian Barbara Tuchman . His daughter Ruth Morgenthau was married to banker George W. Naumburg (son of Elkan Naumburg ), and then John Knight. Morgenthau published several books. The Library of Congress holds some 30,000 documents from his personal papers, including: In Terry George 's 2016 drama The Promise , set in
592-892: A third party campaign as the "Bull Moose" Party nominee. The fourth candidate was Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party . Roosevelt had broken with his former party at the 1912 Republican National Convention after Taft narrowly won re-nomination, and the split in the Republican Party made Democrats hopeful that they could win the presidency for the first time since the 1892 presidential election . Roosevelt emerged as Wilson's main challenger, and Wilson and Roosevelt largely campaigned against each other despite sharing similarly progressive platforms that called for an interventionist central government. Wilson directed campaign finance chairman Henry Morgenthau not to accept contributions from corporations and to prioritize smaller donations from
740-579: A "farmer." On October 30, 1931, along with then Gov. Franklin Roosevelt, Morgenthau became a member of Tri-Po-Bed Grotto in Poughkeespie, NY, an appendant body of Freemasonry. Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States , serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat to serve as president during
888-593: A "harsh peace" for Germany. Ultimately though, the policy was adopted of reintegrating a fully industrialized and de-Nazified modern Germany into Europe, as idealized in Frank Capra 's influential 1945 short film "Here is Germany". Morgenthau was first appointed by the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as temporary President of the Bretton Woods Conference , which established the Bretton Woods system ,
1036-555: A "potato field". General George Marshall complained to Morgenthau that German resistance had strengthened. Hoping to get Morgenthau to relent on his plan for Germany, Roosevelt's son-in-law, Lt. Colonel John Boettiger , who worked in the United States Department of War , explained to Morgenthau how the American troops had had to fight for five weeks against fierce German resistance to capture Aachen and complained to him that
1184-472: A balanced regular budget, and an "emergency" budget for agencies, like the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Public Works Administration (PWA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), that would be temporary until full recovery was at hand. He fought against the veterans' bonus until Congress finally overrode Roosevelt's veto and gave out $ 2.2 billion in 1936. In the 1937 "Depression within
1332-494: A bill that would ban several anti-competitive practices such as discriminatory pricing , tying , exclusive dealing , and interlocking directorates . As the difficulty of banning all anti-competitive practices via legislation became clear, Wilson came to back legislation that would create a new agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to investigate antitrust violations and enforce antitrust laws independently of
1480-630: A brief attempt at establishing a law firm in Atlanta in 1882. Though he found legal history and substantive jurisprudence interesting, he abhorred the day-to-day procedural aspects of the practice of law. After less than a year, Wilson abandoned his legal practice to pursue the study of political science and history. In late 1883, Wilson enrolled at the recently established Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for doctoral studies in history, political science, German , and other fields. Wilson hoped to become
1628-577: A cabinet-level position, but the new president had other plans for him. Like other prominent Jewish Americans ( Oscar Straus and Solomon Hirsch before him), Morgenthau was appointed as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire . Wilson's assumption that Jews somehow represented a bridge between Muslim Turks and Christian Armenians rankled Morgenthau; in reply, Wilson assured him that the Porte in Constantinople "was
SECTION 10
#17328631817711776-713: A challenger. Clark found support among the Bryan wing of the party, while Underwood appealed to the conservative Bourbon Democrats , especially in the South. In the 1912 Democratic Party presidential primaries , Clark won several of the early contests, but Wilson finished strong with victories in Texas, the Northeast, and the Midwest. On the first presidential ballot of the Democratic convention, Clark won
1924-649: A close election approaching. In 1916, after intense campaigns by the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) and the National Consumers League , the Congress passed the Keating–Owen Act , making it illegal to ship goods in interstate commerce if they were made in factories employing children under specified ages. Southern Democrats were opposed but did not filibuster. Wilson endorsed the bill at
2072-604: A co-founder of Lehman Brothers ; they had three children — Joan Elizabeth Morgenthau Hirschhorn, married to Fred Hirschhorn Jr.; Henry Morgenthau III , and Robert M. Morgenthau . In 1913, Morgenthau purchased a farm in Hopewell Junction, New York , naming it Fishkill Farms . The farm still belongs to the Morgenthau family. And despite his nearly life-long political career, Morgenthau insisted on identifying himself, and listing his occupation on his passport and tax forms, as
2220-636: A controlling interest in the system was placed in a central board filled with presidential appointees. Wilson convinced Democrats on the left that the new plan met their demands. Finally the Senate voted 54–34 to approve the Federal Reserve Act . The new system began operations in 1915, and it played a key role in financing the Allied and American war efforts in World War I. Having passed major legislation lowering
2368-597: A coup led by Victoriano Huerta . Wilson rejected the legitimacy of Huerta's "government of butchers" and demanded Mexico hold democratic elections. After Huerta arrested U.S. Navy personnel who had accidentally landed in a restricted zone near the northern port town of Tampico , Wilson dispatched the Navy to occupy the Mexican city of Veracruz . A strong backlash against the American intervention among Mexicans of all political affiliations convinced Wilson to abandon his plans to expand
2516-719: A de facto protectorate, and the U.S. stationed soldiers there throughout Wilson's presidency. The Wilson administration sent troops to occupy the Dominican Republic and intervene in Haiti , and Wilson also authorized military interventions in Cuba , Panama , and Honduras . Wilson took office during the Mexican Revolution , which had begun in 1911 after liberals overthrew the military dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz . Shortly before Wilson took office, conservatives retook power through
2664-443: A dear family friend of Henry's, in the purchase of Longacre Square in 1902. The site became Times Square with a new building there for the newspaper (1903-05). A second highlight is Robert Simon's purchase of Carnegie Hall from Louise Whitfield Carnegie in 1925. Ownership was retained until Lincoln Center's Philharmonic /Avery Fisher/ now David Geffen Hall construction was agreed upon and soon opened. Coupled with those changes, were
2812-468: A debate team. In February 1890, with the help of friends, Wilson was appointed Chair of Jurisprudence and Political Economy at the College of New Jersey (the name at the time of Princeton University), at an annual salary of $ 3,000 (equivalent to $ 101,733 in 2023). Wilson quickly earned a reputation at Princeton as a compelling speaker. In 1896, Francis Landey Patton announced that College of New Jersey
2960-569: A declaration of war against Germany in response to its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare that sank American merchant ships. Wilson concentrated on diplomacy, issuing the Fourteen Points that the Allies and Germany accepted as a basis for post-war peace. He wanted the off-year elections of 1918 to be a referendum endorsing his policies, but instead, the Republicans took control of Congress. After
3108-634: A facile instrument in the hands of private interests." By late May 1913, House Majority Leader Oscar Underwood had passed a bill in the House that cut the average tariff rate by 10 percent and imposed a tax on personal income above $ 4,000. Underwood's bill represented the largest downward revision of the tariff since the Civil War. It aggressively cut rates for raw materials, goods deemed to be "necessities," and products produced domestically by trusts, but it retained higher tariff rates for luxury goods. Nevertheless,
SECTION 20
#17328631817713256-497: A farm named Fishkill Farms near the Roosevelt estate in upstate New York, specializing, like FDR, in growing Christmas trees. He was concerned about distress among farmers, who comprised over a fourth of the population. In 1922, he took over the American Agriculturalist magazine, making it a voice for reclamation, conservation, and scientific farming. In 1929, Roosevelt, as Governor of New York , appointed him chair of
3404-472: A full-fledged progressive . Though Republican William Howard Taft had carried New Jersey in the 1908 presidential election by more than 82,000 votes, Wilson soundly defeated Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivian M. Lewis by a margin of more than 65,000 votes. Democrats also took control of the general assembly in the 1910 elections , though the state senate remained in Republican hands. After winning
3552-607: A historian and was an early member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters . He was also an elected member of the American Philosophical Society in 1897. In June 1902, Princeton trustees promoted Professor Wilson to president, replacing Patton, whom the trustees perceived to be an inefficient administrator. Wilson aspired, as he told alumni, "to transform thoughtless boys performing tasks into thinking men." He tried to raise admission standards and to replace
3700-471: A plurality of delegates; his support continued to grow after the New York Tammany Hall machine swung behind him on the tenth ballot. Tammany's support backfired for Clark, as Bryan announced that he would not support any candidate that had Tammany's backing, and Clark began losing delegates on subsequent ballots. Wilson gained the support of Roger Charles Sullivan and Thomas Taggart by promising
3848-461: A potential candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election . Having lost the last five gubernatorial elections, New Jersey Democratic leaders decided to throw their support behind Wilson, an untested and unconventional candidate. Party leaders believed that Wilson's academic reputation made him the ideal spokesman against trusts and corruption, but they also hoped his inexperience in governing would make him easy to influence. Wilson agreed to accept
3996-433: A powerful bureaucracy charged with regulating large corporations, instead favoring the break-up of large corporations in order to create a level economic playing field. Wilson engaged in a spirited campaign, criss-crossing the country to deliver numerous speeches. Ultimately, he took 42 percent of the popular vote and 435 of the 531 electoral votes . Roosevelt won most of the remaining electoral votes and 27.4 percent of
4144-526: A pro- tariff and anti-slavery newspaper, The Western Herald and Gazette . Wilson's maternal grandfather, the Reverend Thomas Woodrow, moved from Paisley, Renfrewshire , Scotland, to Carlisle, Cumbria , England, before migrating to Chillicothe, Ohio , in the late 1830s. Joseph met Jessie while she was attending a girl's academy in Steubenville, and the two married on June 7, 1849. Soon after
4292-474: A professor, writing that "a professorship was the only feasible place for me, the only place that would afford leisure for reading and for original work, the only strictly literary berth with an income attached." Wilson spent much of his time at Johns Hopkins University writing Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics , which grew out of a series of essays in which he examined the workings of
4440-586: A real estate mogul and diplomat. His parents were born in Germany. He had three sisters. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy , later transferring to the Dwight School . And though he never earned a high school diploma, he studied architecture and agriculture at Cornell University . However, struggling to concentrate and read, he twice left school and also never received a college degree. In 1913, he met and became friends with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt . He operated
4588-405: A result of Morgenthau's investigations. Morgenthau believed in balanced budgets , stable currency, reduction of the national debt , and the need for more private investment. The Wagner Act regarding labor unions met Morgenthau's requirement, because it strengthened the party's political base and involved no new spending. Morgenthau accepted Roosevelt's double budget as legitimate — that is,
Henry Morgenthau Sr. - Misplaced Pages Continue
4736-482: A run for political office. Prior to the 1908 Democratic National Convention , Wilson dropped hints to some influential players in the Democratic Party of his interest in the ticket. While he had no real expectations of being placed on it, Wilson left instructions that he should not be offered the vice presidential nomination. Party regulars considered his ideas politically and geographically detached and fanciful, but
4884-615: A successful career as a lawyer. During his life he served as a leader of the Reform Jewish community in New York. He began his career as a lawyer, but he made a substantial fortune in real estate investments. In 1898, he acquired 41 lots on New York's Lower East Side from William Waldorf Astor for $ 850,000. A few years later, he led a syndicate that bought a swath of undeveloped land in Washington Heights around 181st Street, anticipating
5032-536: A third term in office but had a stroke in October 1919 that left him incapacitated. His wife and his physician controlled Wilson, and no significant decisions were made. Meanwhile, his policies alienated German- and Irish-American Democrats and the Republicans won a landslide in the 1920 presidential election . Scholars have generally ranked Wilson in the upper tier of U.S. presidents, although he has been criticized for supporting racial segregation . Thomas Woodrow Wilson
5180-457: Is Our Problem , in which he described and motivated the Morgenthau plan in great detail. Roosevelt had granted permission for the book the evening before his death, when dining with Morgenthau at Warm Springs . Morgenthau had asked Churchill for permission to also include the text of the then still secret "pastoralization" memorandum signed by Churchill and FDR at Quebec but permission was denied. In November 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower ,
5328-525: Is buried in Mount Pleasant, New York . His son Robert M. Morgenthau was the District Attorney of New York County from 1975 to 2009. The 378-foot (115 m) United States Coast Guard Hamilton -class cutter USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722) was named in his honor. The ship was sold to Vietnam Coast Guard as CSB-8020. He was married to Elinor Lehman Fatman , granddaughter of Mayer Lehman ,
5476-808: The 'Federalist' papers ." In 1883, Wilson met and fell in love with Ellen Louise Axson . He proposed marriage in September 1883; she accepted, but they agreed to postpone marriage while Wilson attended graduate school. Axson graduated from Art Students League of New York , worked in portraiture, and received a medal for one of her works from the Exposition Universelle (1878) in Paris. She agreed to sacrifice further independent artistic pursuits in order to marry Wilson in 1885. Ellen learned German so she could help translate German-language political science publications relevant to Woodrow's research. In April 1886,
5624-803: The Allied victory in November 1918, Wilson attended the Paris Peace Conference . Wilson successfully advocated for the establishment of a multinational organization, the League of Nations , which was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles that he signed, but back home he rejected a Republican compromise that would have allowed the Senate to ratify the Versailles Treaty and join the League. Wilson had intended to seek
5772-488: The American Civil War and Reconstruction era . After earning a Ph.D. in history and political science from Johns Hopkins University , Wilson taught at several colleges prior to being appointed president of Princeton University , where he emerged as a prominent spokesman for progressivism in higher education. Wilson served as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, during which he broke with party bosses and won
5920-617: The Colorado Coalfield War , one of the deadliest labor disputes in American history. In 1916 he pushed Congress to enact the eight-hour work day for railroad workers, which ended a major strike. It was "the boldest intervention in labor relations that any president had yet attempted." Wilson disliked the excessive government involvement in the Federal Farm Loan Act , which created twelve regional banks empowered to provide low-interest loans to farmers. Nevertheless, he needed
6068-780: The International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank ). During the inaugural plenary session on July 1, 1944, the head of the Mexican Delegation, Eduardo Suarez , nominated him as Permanent President of the Conference. This motion was seconded by the Brazilian Head Delegate, Arthur de Souza Costa, and widely supported by several other delegations such as
Henry Morgenthau Sr. - Misplaced Pages Continue
6216-593: The Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany, calling for Germany to lose its heavy industry, and the Ruhr "should not only be stripped of all presently existing industries, but so weakened and controlled that it can not in the foreseeable future become an industrial area". Germany would keep its rich farmlands in the east. However Stalin insisted on the Oder-Neisse border , which moved those farming areas out of Germany. Therefore,
6364-554: The National Monetary Commission , had put forward a plan for a central bank that would give private financial interests a large degree of control over the monetary system. Wilson declared that the banking system must be "public not private, [and] must be vested in the government itself so that the banks must be the instruments, not the masters, of business." Democrats crafted a compromise plan in which private banks would control twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks , but
6512-612: The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, and was active in the Whig literary and debating society . He was also elected secretary of the school's football association, president of the school's baseball association, and managing editor of the student newspaper. In the hotly contested presidential election of 1876 , Wilson supported the Democratic Party and its nominee, Samuel J. Tilden . After graduating from Princeton in 1879, Wilson attended
6660-582: The Progressive Era when Republicans dominated the presidency and legislative branches . As president, Wilson changed the nation's economic policies and led the United States into World War I . He was the leading architect of the League of Nations , and his stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism . Born in Staunton, Virginia , Wilson grew up in the Southern United States during
6808-514: The United States Supreme Court , all of whom were confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In 1914, Wilson nominated sitting Attorney General James Clark McReynolds . Despite his credentials as an ardent trust buster, McReynolds became a staple of the court's conservative bloc until his retirement in 1941. According to Berg, Wilson considered appointing McReynolds one of his biggest mistakes in office. In 1916, Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis to
6956-483: The United States Virgin Islands . Immigration from Europe declined significantly once World War I began and Wilson paid little attention to the issue during his presidency. However, he looked favorably upon the "new immigrants" from southern and eastern Europe, and twice vetoed laws passed by Congress intended to restrict their entry, though the later veto was overridden. Wilson nominated three men to
7104-469: The University of Virginia . At Princeton University, Wilson published several works of history and political science and was a regular contributor to Political Science Quarterly . Wilson's textbook, The State , was widely used in American college courses until the 1920s. In The State , Wilson wrote that governments could legitimately promote the general welfare "by forbidding child labor, by supervising
7252-409: The University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia , where he was involved in the Virginia Glee Club and served as president of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society . Poor health forced Wilson to withdraw from law school, but he continued to study law on his own while living with his parents in Wilmington, North Carolina . Wilson was admitted to the Georgia bar and made
7400-448: The conservation of natural resources, banking reform, tariff reduction, and better access to raw materials for farmers by breaking up Western mining trusts. Wilson introduced these proposals in April 1913 in a speech delivered to a joint session of Congress, becoming the first president since John Adams to address Congress in person. Wilson's first two years in office largely focused on his domestic agenda. With trouble with Mexico and
7548-461: The "gentleman's C" with serious study. Wilson instituted academic departments and a system of core requirements to emphasize the development of expertise. Students were to meet in groups of six under the guidance of teaching assistants known as preceptors . To fund these new programs, Wilson undertook an ambitious and successful fundraising campaign, convincing alumni such as Moses Taylor Pyne and philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie to donate to
SECTION 50
#17328631817717696-442: The "turning point in Morgenthau's political career". His role in American politics grew more pronounced in later months. Although he did not gain the chairmanship of Wilson's campaign finance committee, Morgenthau was offered the position of ambassador to the Ottoman Empire . He had hoped for a cabinet post as well, but was not successful in gaining one. As an early Wilson supporter, Morgenthau assumed that Wilson would appoint him to
7844-442: The Allies' interests in Constantinople , since they had withdrawn their diplomatic missions after the beginning of hostilities. As Ottoman authorities began the Armenian genocide in 1914–1915, the American consuls residing in different parts of the Empire flooded Morgenthau's desk with reports nearly every hour, documenting the massacres and deportation marches taking place. Faced with the accumulating evidence, he officially informed
7992-441: The Canadian and Soviet ones. In 1945, when Harry S. Truman became president, Morgenthau insisted on accompanying him to Potsdam by threatening to quit if he was not allowed to; Truman accepted his resignation immediately, after he privately said he would refuse to send "any of [FDR's advisor] "Jew boys" to Potsdam. Years later Truman also referred to him as a "block head, nut" who "didn't know shit from apple butter." He devoted
8140-403: The Civil War, the first Democratic president since Grover Cleveland left office in 1897, and the first and only president to hold a Ph.D. After the election, Wilson chose William Jennings Bryan as Secretary of State, and Bryan offered advice on the remaining members of Wilson's cabinet. William Gibbs McAdoo, a prominent Wilson supporter who married Wilson's daughter in 1914, became Secretary of
8288-399: The Confederacy during the American Civil War. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) following its 1861 split from the Northern Presbyterians. He became minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, and the family lived there until 1870. From 1870 to 1874, Wilson lived in Columbia, South Carolina , where his father
8436-484: The Court , setting off a major debate in the Senate over Brandeis's progressive ideology and his religion; Brandeis was the first Jewish nominee to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, Wilson was able to convince Senate Democrats to vote to confirm Brandeis, who served on the court until 1939. In contrast to McReynolds, Brandeis became one of the court's leading progressive voices. When a second vacancy arose in 1916, Wilson appointed progressive lawyer John Hessin Clarke . Clarke
8584-416: The Depression", Morgenthau was unable to persuade Roosevelt to desist from continued deficit spending . Roosevelt continued to push for more spending, and Morgenthau promoted a balanced budget. In 1937, however, Morgenthau successfully convinced Roosevelt to focus on balancing the budget through major spending cuts and tax increases; Keynesian economists have argued that this new attempt by Roosevelt to balance
8732-475: The Justice Department. With bipartisan support, Congress passed the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 , which incorporated Wilson's ideas regarding the FTC. One month after signing the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 , which built on the Sherman Act by defining and banning several anti-competitive practices. Wilson thought a child labor law would probably be unconstitutional but reversed himself in 1916 with
8880-419: The Middle East, and later worked with war-related charitable bodies, including the Relief Committee for the Middle East, the Greek Refugee Settlement Commission and the American Red Cross . In 1919, he headed the United States government fact-finding mission to Poland, which produced the Morgenthau Report . In 1933, he was the American representative at the Geneva Conference . Morgenthau died in 1946 following
9028-575: The Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone , approved the distribution of 1,000 free copies of the book to American military officials in occupied Germany. Historian Stephen E. Ambrose draws the conclusion that, despite Eisenhower's later claims that the act was not an endorsement of the Morgenthau plan, Eisenhower both approved of the plan and had previously given Morgenthau at least some of his ideas on how Germany should be treated. Following his resignation in 1945, Morgenthau, along with other prominent liberals such as Eleanor Roosevelt , called for
SECTION 60
#17328631817719176-435: The Morgenthau Plan was "worth thirty divisions to the Germans". In late 1944, Roosevelt's election opponent, Thomas E. Dewey , said it was worth "ten divisions". Morgenthau refused to relent. On May 10, 1945, Truman signed the U.S. occupation directive JCS 1067 . Morgenthau told his staff that it was a big day for the Treasury, and that he hoped that "someone doesn't recognize it as the Morgenthau Plan". The directive, which
9324-403: The NY Philharmonic's transferred location to the new hall (1962). So, Robert E. Simon Jr. then sold Carnegie Hall in 1960. He substantially reduced the price of the Carnegie Hall sale, [by $ 500,000] to help Issac Stern's committee and NYC purchase and save the building. Simon then used the funds yielded to buy and construct Reston, VA - [name came from / Robert E. Simon's town] Reston pioneered
9472-500: The New York State Agricultural Advisory Committee and to the state Conservation Commission. In 1933, Roosevelt became President and appointed Morgenthau governor of the Federal Farm Board . Morgenthau was nonetheless involved in monetary decisions. Roosevelt adopted the idea of raising the price of gold to inflate the currency and reverse the debilitating deflation of prices. The idea came from Professor George Warren of Cornell University. Morgenthau wrote in his diary: Saturday — Went to
9620-441: The Ottoman Empire in 1913, he served in this position until 1916. Although the safety of American citizens in the Ottoman Empire, mostly Christian missionaries and Jews, loomed large early in his ambassadorship, Morgenthau said that he was most preoccupied by the Armenian Question . After the outbreak of war in 1914, the U.S. remained neutral, so the American Embassy – and by extension Morgenthau – additionally represented many of
9768-509: The Ottoman Interior Minister Talaat Pasha , stating: "Our people will never forget these massacres." As the massacres continued unabated, Morgenthau and several other Americans decided to form a public fund-raising committee to assist the Armenians – the Committee on Armenian Atrocities (later renamed the Near East Relief ) – raising over $ 100 million in aid, the equivalent of $ 1 billion today. Through his friendship with Adolph Ochs , publisher of The New York Times , Morgenthau also ensured that
9916-426: The Philippine Legislature. The Jones Act of 1916 committed the United States to the eventual independence of the Philippines, and granted Filipinos further autonomy with the establishment of a Filipino Senate and House of Representatives , replacing the American-run Philippine Commission and Filipino-run Philippine Assembly , respectively. In 1916, Wilson purchased by treaty the Danish West Indies , renamed as
10064-421: The Senate election helped Wilson position himself as an independent force in the New Jersey Democratic Party. By the time Wilson took office, New Jersey had gained a reputation for public corruption; the state was known as the "Mother of Trusts" because it allowed companies like Standard Oil to escape the antitrust laws of other states. Wilson and his allies quickly won passage of the Geran bill, which undercut
10212-455: The Treasury Department alone) were uncoordinated in their efforts; efforts to create a super-agency were stalled by J. Edgar Hoover , who feared his FBI would be overshadowed. Nevertheless, Morgenthau created a coordinator for the Treasury agencies; although the coordinator could not control them, he could move them to some cooperation. Former head of IRS' criminal investigators Elmer Lincoln Irey , who had directed major investigations including
10360-417: The Treasury, and James Clark McReynolds , who had successfully prosecuted several prominent antitrust cases, was chosen as Attorney General. Publisher Josephus Daniels , a party loyalist and prominent white supremacist from North Carolina, was chosen to be Secretary of the Navy, while young New York attorney Franklin D. Roosevelt became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Wilson's chief of staff ("secretary")
10508-613: The Treasury, he played the central role in financing United States participation in World War II. He also played an increasingly major role in shaping foreign policy, especially with respect to Lend-Lease , support for China, helping Jewish refugees, and proposing (in the " Morgenthau Plan ") measures to deindustrialize Germany. Morgenthau was the father of Robert M. Morgenthau , who was district attorney of Manhattan for 35 years; Henry Morgenthau III , an American author and television producer; and noted pediatrician Dr. Joan Morganthau Hirschhorn. He continued as Treasury secretary through
10656-671: The U.S. government of the activities of the Ottoman government and asked Washington to intervene. The American government however, not wanting to get dragged into disputes, remained a neutral power in the conflict at the time and voiced little official reaction. Morgenthau held high-level meetings with the leaders of the Ottoman Empire to help alleviate the position of the Armenians, but the Turks waived and ignored his protestations. He famously admonished
10804-555: The U.S. military intervention, but the intervention nonetheless helped convince Huerta to flee from the country. A group led by Venustiano Carranza established control over a significant proportion of Mexico, and Wilson recognized Carranza's government in October 1915. Carranza continued to face various opponents within Mexico, including Pancho Villa , whom Wilson had earlier described as "a sort of Robin Hood." In early 1916, Pancho Villa raided
10952-577: The US for good. The Morgenthau family immigrated to New York in 1866. There, despite considerable savings, his father was not able to re-establish himself in business. His development and marketing of various inventions, as well as his investments in other enterprises, failed. Lazarus Morgenthau staved off failure and stabilized his income by becoming a fundraiser for Jewish houses of worship. Henry attended City College of New York , where he received his BA , and later Columbia Law School . Morgenthau initially built
11100-655: The United States War Refugee Board (WRB) in January 1944. The board sponsored the Raoul Wallenberg mission to Budapest and allowed an increasing number of Jews to enter the U.S. in 1944 and 1945; as many as 200,000 Jews were saved by the board. Hurwitz (1991) argues that in late 1943, the Treasury Department drafted a report calling for the creation of a special rescue agency for European Jewry. At
11248-488: The United States had not had a central bank since the Bank War of the 1830s. In the aftermath of the nationwide financial crisis in 1907 , there was general agreement to create some sort of central banking system to provide a more elastic currency and to coordinate responses to financial panics. Wilson sought a middle ground between progressives such as Bryan and conservative Republicans like Nelson Aldrich , who, as chairman of
11396-603: The War Refugee Board: Had begun to fulfill Morgenthau's high expectations. His experience in getting the board established and in helping to oversee its operations constituted his signal wartime success to that date in nurturing humanitarian purpose in American foreign-policy. As for the top Germans, Morgenthau at one point in summer 1944 suggested to Roosevelt that the top 50 or 100 German "arch-criminals" should be shot upon capture. He changed his mind and by early 1945 proposed formal trials. In 1944, Morgenthau proposed
11544-546: The White House and met Jones there. I said to the President that we did not buy any gold last night. He said, "That is right. Harrison called up and spoke to Jesse." I could not make out whether he also spoke to the President. Then Harrison urged that inasmuch as Saturday was only half a day that they should not buy any gold. Both the President and Jones said that they thought they made a mistake by agreeing with Harrison. I believe it
11692-476: The age of three, when he heard a passerby announce in disgust that Abraham Lincoln had been elected and that a war was coming. Wilson was one of only two U.S. presidents to be a citizen of the Confederate States of America ; the other was John Tyler , who served as the nation's tenth president from 1841 to 1845. Wilson's father identified with the Southern United States and was a staunch supporter of
11840-480: The arts & music - married investment banker, art collector and philanthropist Maurice Wertheim . His daughter Ruth married banker and philanthropist George Washington Naumburg She was also a civic leader supporting the arts and music. Ruth founded Fountain House, a home in NYC to assist those with schizophrenia and men leaving jail. It was a residence that pioneered providing psychological counseling to people, and developed
11988-525: The bill. The Senate voted 44 to 37 in favor of the bill, with only one Democrat voting against it and only one Republican voting for it. Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1913 (called the Underwood Tariff) into law on October 3, 1913. The Revenue Act of 1913 reduced tariffs and replaced the lost revenue with a federal income tax of one percent on incomes above $ 3,000, affecting the richest three percent of
12136-692: The blood of nearly a million human beings." He published his conversations with Ottoman leaders and his account of the Armenian genocide in Ambassador Morgenthau's Story , which appeared in the end of 1918. In June 1917 Felix Frankfurter accompanied Morgenthau, as a representative of the War Department, on a secret mission to persuade the Ottoman Empire to abandon the Central Powers in the war effort. The mission had as its stated purpose to "ameliorate
12284-502: The budget created the recession of 1937–1938 . On November 10, 1937, Morgenthau gave a speech to the Academy of Political Science at New York's Hotel Astor , in which he noted that the Depression had required deficit spending, but that the government needed to cut spending to revive the economy. In his speech, he said: We want to see private business expand. ... We believe that one of
12432-525: The campaign. Prior to the 1912 Democratic National Convention , Wilson made a special effort to win the approval of three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, whose followers had largely dominated the Democratic Party since the 1896 presidential election . Speaker of the House Champ Clark of Missouri was viewed by many as the front-runner for the nomination, while House Majority Leader Oscar Underwood of Alabama also loomed as
12580-573: The condition of the Jewish communities in Palestine". In 1918 Morgenthau gave public speeches in the United States warning that the Greeks and Assyrians were being subjected to the "same methods" of deportation and "wholesale massacre" as the Armenians, and that two million Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians had already perished. Following the war, there was much interest and preparation within the Jewish community for
12728-696: The construction of the first subway through the area. In 1899 he left his law practice and became president of the Central Realty, Bond & Trust Company . He was president of the Henry Morgenthau Company from 1905 to 1913. Morgenthau married Josephine Sykes in 1882 and they had four children: Helen , Alma , Henry Jr. and Ruth. His daughter Helen - a noted garden writer who broadcast on radio & television and lectured on horticulture - married Mortimer J. Fox an architect, banker and landscape artist. His daughter Alma - an art collector and patron of
12876-516: The couple's first child, Margaret , was born. Their second child, Jessie , was born in August 1887. Their third and final child, Eleanor , was born in October 1889. In 1913, Jessie married Francis Bowes Sayre Sr. , who later served as High Commissioner to the Philippines . In 1914, their third child Eleanor married William Gibbs McAdoo , U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under Woodrow Wilson and later
13024-476: The dean, was a staunch feminist, and Wilson clashed with her over his contract, resulting in a bitter dispute. In 1888, Wilson left Bryn Mawr College and was not given a farewell. Wilson accepted a position at Wesleyan University , an elite undergraduate college for men in Middletown, Connecticut . He taught graduate courses in political economy and Western history , coached Wesleyan's football team, and founded
13172-595: The deficit he argued for increased taxes, particularly on the wealthy. We have never begun to tax the people in this country the way they should be ... I don't pay what I should. People in my class don't. People who have it should pay. Once confronted by the Holocaust , the Allied Powers reacted slowly. In 1943, Morgenthau's Treasury Department approved the World Jewish Congress ' plan to rescue Jews through
13320-440: The election, Wilson appointed Joseph Patrick Tumulty as his private secretary, a position he held throughout Wilson's political career. Wilson began formulating his reformist agenda, intending to ignore the demands of his party machinery. Smith asked Wilson to endorse his bid for the U.S. Senate, but Wilson refused and instead endorsed Smith's opponent James Edgar Martine , who had won the Democratic primary. Martine's victory in
13468-463: The establishment of free dental clinics and enacted a "comprehensive and scientific" poor law . Trained nursing was standardized, while contract labor in all reformatories and prisons was abolished and an indeterminate sentence act passed. A law was introduced that compelled all railroad companies "to pay their employees twice monthly," while regulation of the working hours, health, safety, employment, and age of people employed in mercantile establishments
13616-458: The farm vote to survive the upcoming 1916 election, so he signed it. Wilson embraced the long-standing Democratic policy against owning colonies, and he worked for the gradual autonomy and ultimate independence of the Philippines , which had been acquired in 1898. Continuing the policy of his predecessors, Wilson increased self-governance on the islands by granting Filipinos greater control over
13764-463: The federal government. In 1886, Wilson was awarded a Ph.D. in history and government from Johns Hopkins University, making him the only U.S. president in the nation's history to possess a Ph.D. In early 1885, Houghton Mifflin published Wilson's Congressional Government , which was well received, with one critic calling it "the best critical writing on the American constitution which has appeared since
13912-553: The final years of the Ottoman Empire, Morgenthau is played by James Cromwell . Henry Morgenthau Jr. Henry Morgenthau Jr. ( / ˈ m ɔːr ɡ ən θ ɔː / ; May 11, 1891 – February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt . He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal . After 1937, while still in charge of
14060-482: The first few months of Harry Truman 's presidency, and from June 27, 1945, to July 3, 1945, following the resignation of Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr. , was next in line to the presidency . Morgenthau was also the first Jew to be in the presidential line of succession. Henry Morgenthau Jr. was born into a prominent Jewish family in New York City, the son of Josephine (Sykes) and Henry Morgenthau Sr. ,
14208-471: The forthcoming Paris Peace Conference , by groups both supportive and opposed to the concept of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In March 1919, as President Woodrow Wilson was leaving for the Conference, Morgenthau was among 31 prominent Jewish Americans to sign an anti-Zionist petition presented by U.S. Congressman Julius Kahn ; he and many other prominent Jewish representatives attended the Conference. Morgenthau served as an advisor regarding Eastern Europe and
14356-489: The inventive use of shared open space, and it explored a breaking of the mold and formulaic approach for suburban development, up to that time. Morgenthau's career enabled him to contribute handsomely to President Woodrow Wilson 's election campaign in 1912. He had first met Wilson in 1911 at a dinner celebrating the fourth anniversary of the founding of the Free Synagogue society and the two "seem to have bonded", marking
14504-425: The last minute under pressure from party leaders who stressed how popular the idea was, especially among the emerging class of women voters. He told Democratic Congressmen they needed to pass this law and also a workman's compensation law to satisfy the national progressive movement and to win the 1916 election against a reunited GOP. It was the first federal child labor law. However, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down
14652-736: The law in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918). Congress then passed a law taxing businesses that used child labor, but that was struck down by the Supreme Court in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (1923). Child labor was finally ended in the 1930s. He approved the goal of upgrading the harsh working conditions for merchant sailors and signed LaFollette's Seamen's Act of 1915. Wilson called on the Labor Department to mediate conflicts between labor and management. In 1914, Wilson dispatched soldiers to help bring an end to
14800-540: The left eye, the result of a blood clot and hypertension. Modern medical opinion surmises Wilson had had a stroke; he later was diagnosed, as his father had been, with hardening of the arteries . He began to exhibit his father's traits of impatience and intolerance, which would on occasion lead to errors of judgment. In 1906, while vacationing in Bermuda , Wilson met Mary Hulbert Peck, a socialite. According to biographer August Heckscher II , Wilson's friendship with Peck became
14948-531: The massacres continued to receive prominent coverage. The New York Times published 145 articles in 1915 alone. Exasperated with his relationship with the Ottoman government, he resigned from the ambassadorship in 1916. Looking back on that decision in his memoir Ambassador Morgenthau's Story , he wrote he had come to see the Ottoman Empire as "a place of horror. I had reached the end of my resources. I found intolerable my further daily association with men, however gracious and accommodating…who were still reeking with
15096-463: The most important ways of achieving these ends at this time is to continue progress toward a balance of the federal budget. His biggest success was the new Social Security program; he reversed the proposals to fund it from general revenue and insisted it be funded by new taxes on employees. Morgenthau insisted on excluding farm workers and domestic servants from Social Security because workers outside industry would not be paying their way. He questioned
15244-463: The nomination if "it came to me unsought, unanimously, and without pledges to anybody about anything." At the state party convention, the bosses marshaled their forces and won the nomination for Wilson. On October 20, Wilson submitted his letter of resignation to Princeton University. Wilson's campaign focused on his promise to be independent of party bosses. He quickly shed his professorial style for more emboldened speechmaking and presented himself as
15392-908: The novel concept of looking after the community's mental health. She was also a board member of the Manhattan School of Music, and there she established a fund to assist troubled students at the school, which still operates. In Pound Ridge, NY she co-founded the town's library and gave it an additional reading room, and then at her death, she donated the Henry Morgenthau Preserve, Pound Ridge, NY, in her father's memory. A nephew of Henry's, Robert E. Simon, (1877-1935) [1] worked directly with Morgenthau, prior to and in his real estate business [Henry Morgenthau & Co] for fourteen years (1905-1919). But his work in real estate, with Henry & others, continued until his early death. Highlights include when Henry & Robert advised and assisted Adolph Ochs,
15540-610: The original Morgenthau plan had to be dropped, Weinberg argues, because it was "too soft on the Germans, not too hard as some still imagine". At the Second Quebec Conference on September 16, 1944, Roosevelt and Morgenthau persuaded the initially very reluctant British prime minister Winston Churchill to agree to the Morgenthau Plan, likely using a $ 6 billion Lend-Lease agreement to do so. Churchill chose however to narrow
15688-401: The outbreak of World War I in 1914, foreign affairs increasingly dominated his presidency. Democrats had long seen high tariff rates as equivalent to unfair taxes on consumers, and tariff reduction was their first priority. He argued that the system of high tariffs "cuts us off from our proper part in the commerce of the world, violates the just principles of taxation, and makes the government
15836-450: The passage of several progressive reforms. Wilson defeated incumbent Republican William Howard Taft and third-party nominee Theodore Roosevelt to easily win the 1912 presidential election , becoming the first Southerner to do so since 1848 . During his first year as president, Wilson authorized the widespread imposition of segregation inside the federal bureaucracy and his opposition to women's suffrage drew protests. His first term
15984-440: The passage of the tariff bill in the Senate was a challenge. Some Southern and Western Democrats wanted the continued protection of their wool and sugar industries, and Democrats had a narrower majority in the upper house. Wilson met extensively with Democratic senators and appealed directly to the people through the press. After weeks of hearings and debate, Wilson and Secretary of State Bryan managed to unite Senate Democrats behind
16132-479: The plan was leaked to the press, there was public criticism of Roosevelt. The President's response to inquiries was to deny the press reports. As a consequence of the leak, Morgenthau was in bad favor with Roosevelt for a time. German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels used the leaked plan, with some success, to encourage the German people to persevere in their war efforts so that their country would not be turned into
16280-546: The point at which the interest of American Jews in the welfare of the Jews of Palestine is focused, and it is almost indispensable that I have a Jew in that post". Though no Zionist himself, Morgenthau cared "fervidly" about the plight of his co-religionists. He initially rejected the position, but following a trip to Europe, and with the encouragement of his pro-Zionist friend Rabbi Stephen Wise , he reconsidered his decision and accepted Wilson's offer. Appointed as U.S. Ambassador to
16428-501: The popular vote, one of the strongest third party performances in U.S. history. Taft won 23.2 percent of the popular vote but just 8 electoral votes, while Debs won 6 percent of the popular vote. In the concurrent congressional elections , Democrats retained control of the House and won a majority in the Senate . Wilson's victory made him the first Southerner to win a presidential election since
16576-520: The population. The policies of the Wilson administration had a durable impact on the composition of government revenue, which now primarily came from taxation rather than tariffs. Wilson did not wait to complete the Revenue Act of 1913 before proceeding to the next item on his agenda—banking. By the time Wilson took office, countries like Britain and Germany had established government-run central banks , but
16724-495: The power of the political bosses by requiring primaries for all elective offices and party officials. A corrupt practices law and a workmen's compensation statute that Wilson supported won passage shortly thereafter. For his success in passing these laws during the first months of his gubernatorial term, Wilson won national and bipartisan recognition as a reformer and a leader of the Progressive movement. Republicans took control of
16872-401: The private domain and "made the imperative legal duty of the whole," a position which, according to historian Robert M. Saunders, seemed to indicate that Wilson "was laying the groundwork for the modern welfare state." His third book, Division and Reunion (1893), became a standard university textbook for teaching mid- and late-19th century U.S. history. Wilson had a considerable reputation as
17020-710: The remainder of his life to working with Jewish philanthropies, and also became a financial advisor to Israel. Tal Shahar , an Israeli moshav (agricultural community) near Jerusalem , created in 1948, was named in his honor ( Morgenthau (modern spelling: Morgentau ) means "morning dew" in German, as does "Tal Shahar" in Hebrew ). Morgenthau donated his diary of 840 volumes to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum . He died of heart and kidney failure at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York , in 1967, and
17168-465: The same time, several congressmen connected with the "Bergson Group" introduced a resolution also calling for the creation of such an agency. On January 16, 1944, Morgenthau presented Roosevelt with the Treasury report, and the president agreed to create the War Refugee Board, the first major attempt of the United States to deal with the annihilation of European Jews. Blum argues that by mid-1944,
17316-442: The sanitary conditions of factories, by limiting the employment of women in occupations hurtful to their health, by instituting official tests of the purity or the quality of goods sold, by limiting the hours of labor in certain trades, [and] by a hundred and one limitations of the power of unscrupulous or heartless men to out-do the scrupulous and merciful in trade or industry." He also wrote that charity efforts should be removed from
17464-503: The school. Wilson appointed the first Jew and the first Roman Catholic to the faculty, and helped liberate the board from domination by conservative Presbyterians. He also worked to keep African Americans out of the school, even as other Ivy League schools were accepting small numbers of black people. Philosophy professor John Grier Hibben had known Wilson since they were undergraduates together. They became close friends. Indeed, when Wilson became president of Princeton in 1902 Hibben
17612-565: The scope of Morgenthau's proposal by drafting a new version of the memorandum, which ended up being the version signed by the two statesmen. The gist of the signed memorandum was "This programme for eliminating the war-making industries in the Ruhr and the Saar is looking forward to converting Germany into a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character." The plan faced opposition in Roosevelt's cabinet, primarily from Henry L. Stimson , and when
17760-438: The seeds of interest had been sown. In 1956, McGeorge Bundy described Wilson's contribution to Princeton: "Wilson was right in his conviction that Princeton must be more than a wonderfully pleasant and decent home for nice young men; it has been more ever since his time." By January 1910, Wilson had drawn the attention of James Smith Jr. and George Brinton McClellan Harvey , two leaders of New Jersey's Democratic Party , as
17908-474: The state assembly in early 1912, and Wilson spent much of the rest of his tenure vetoing bills. He nonetheless won passage of laws that restricted labor by women and children and increased standards for factory working conditions. A new State Board of Education was set up "with the power to conduct inspections and enforce standards, regulate districts' borrowing authority, and require special classes for students with handicaps." Before leaving office Wilson oversaw
18056-425: The successful prosecution of Al Capone , assumed the position in 1937. Investigations of official corruption caused the fall of political boss Thomas "Big Tom" Pendergast of Kansas City. A Mafia-related shootout and massive official corruption led to successful investigations against Pendergast and the local Mafia head Charles Carrollo . Other officials — as well as gangsters, in a few rare cases — were convicted as
18204-479: The support of Princeton alumni such as Cyrus McCormick and Southerners such as Walter Hines Page , who believed that Wilson's status as a transplanted Southerner gave him broad appeal. Though Wilson's shift to the left won the admiration of many, it also created enemies such as George Brinton McClellan Harvey , a former Wilson supporter who had close ties to Wall Street . In July 1911, Wilson brought William Gibbs McAdoo and "Colonel" Edward M. House in to manage
18352-618: The tariff and reforming the banking structure, Wilson next sought antitrust legislation to enhance the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Sherman Antitrust Act barred any "contract, combination...or conspiracy, in restraint of trade," but had proved ineffective in preventing the rise of large business combinations known as trusts . An elite group of businessmen dominated the boards of major banks and railroads, and they used their power to prevent competition by new companies. With Wilson's support, Congressman Henry Clayton, Jr. introduced
18500-642: The taxes of William Randolph Hearst because FDR was "advised that Hearst was planning to use his newspapers to launch a major attack on the New Deal and its economic policies". Treasury Secretary Morgenthau explained that he examined the taxes of Hearst and actress Marion Davies and "advised FDR to mount a preemptive attack on both her and Hearst". Morgenthau used his position as Treasury chief to investigate organized crime and government corruption. Treasury Intelligence and other agencies (the notoriously fragmented United States federal law enforcement system had five in
18648-431: The topic of frank discussion between Wilson and his wife, although Wilson historians have not conclusively established there was an affair. Wilson also sent very personal letters to her, which were later used against him by his adversaries. Having reorganized Princeton University's curriculum and established the preceptorial system, Wilson next attempted to curtail the influence of social elites at Princeton by abolishing
18796-518: The upper-class eating clubs . He proposed moving the students into colleges, also known as quadrangles, but Wilson's plan was met with fierce opposition from Princeton alumni. In October 1907, due to the intensity of alumni opposition, Princeton's board of trustees instructed Wilson to withdraw his plan for relocating student dormitories. Late in his tenure, Wilson had a confrontation with Andrew Fleming West , dean of Princeton University's graduate school and his ally, ex-President Grover Cleveland , who
18944-978: The use of blocked accounts in Switzerland, but the State Department and the British Foreign Office procrastinated further. Morgenthau and his staff persisted in bypassing State and ultimately confronting Roosevelt in January 1944 with the Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews . Due to incessant highly visible rescue activism by the Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) led Bergson Group and pressure by Morgenthau and some of his staff, President Roosevelt finally acted and created
19092-596: The value of the deficit spending that had not reduced unemployment and only added debt: We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. ... And an enormous debt to boot. To reduce
19240-444: The vice presidency to Governor Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana. and several Southern delegations shifted their support from Underwood to Wilson. Wilson finally won two-thirds of the vote on the convention's 46th ballot, and Marshall became Wilson's running mate. In the 1912 general election, Wilson faced two major opponents: one-term Republican incumbent William Howard Taft, and former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt , who ran
19388-430: The village of Columbus, New Mexico , killing or wounding dozens of Americans and causing an enormous nationwide American demand for his punishment. Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing and 4,000 troops across the border to capture Villa. By April, Pershing's forces had broken up and dispersed Villa's bands, but Villa remained on the loose and Pershing continued his pursuit deep into Mexico. Carranza then pivoted against
19536-635: The wedding, Joseph was ordained as a Presbyterian pastor and assigned to serve in Staunton. His son Woodrow was born in the Manse , a house in the Staunton First Presbyterian Church where Joseph served. Before he was two years old, the family moved to Augusta, Georgia. Wilson's earliest memory of his early youth was of playing in his yard and standing near the front gate of the Augusta parsonage at
19684-479: The widest possible quarters of the public. During the election campaign, Wilson asserted that it was the task of government "to make those adjustments of life which will put every man in a position to claim his normal rights as a living, human being." With the help of legal scholar Louis Brandeis , he developed his New Freedom platform, focusing especially on breaking up trusts and lowering tariff rates. Brandeis and Wilson rejected Roosevelt's proposal to establish
19832-475: Was Joseph Patrick Tumulty , who acted as a political buffer and intermediary with the press. The most important foreign policy adviser and confidant was "Colonel" Edward M. House ; Berg writes that, "in access and influence, [House] outranked everybody in Wilson's Cabinet." Wilson introduced a comprehensive program of domestic legislation at the outset of his administration, something no president had ever done before. He announced four major domestic priorities:
19980-448: Was a Princeton trustee. Wilson wanted to integrate a proposed graduate school building into the core of the campus, but West preferred a more distant campus site. In 1909, Princeton's board accepted a gift made to the graduate school campaign subject to the graduate school being located off campus. Wilson became disenchanted with his job as Princeton University president due to the resistance to his recommendations, and he began considering
20128-648: Was a theology professor at the Columbia Theological Seminary . In 1873, Wilson became a communicant member of the Columbia First Presbyterian Church ; he remained a member throughout his life. Wilson attended Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina in the 1873–74 school year but transferred as a freshman to the College of New Jersey, which is now Princeton University , where he studied political philosophy and history , joined
20276-487: Was being renamed Princeton University; an ambitious program of expansion for the university accompanied the name change. In the 1896 presidential election , Wilson rejected Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan as too far to the left and instead supported the conservative " Gold Democrat " nominee, John M. Palmer . Wilson's academic reputation continued to grow throughout the 1890s, and he turned down multiple positions elsewhere, including at Johns Hopkins University and
20424-453: Was born to a family of Scotch-Irish and Scottish descent in Staunton, Virginia. He was the third of four children and the first son of Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Jessie Janet Woodrow. Wilson's paternal grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Strabane , County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1807, and settled in Steubenville, Ohio . Wilson's paternal grandfather James Wilson published
20572-476: Was carried out. Shortly before leaving office, Wilson signed a series of antitrust laws known as the "Seven Sisters," as well as another law that removed the power to select juries from local sheriffs. Wilson became a prominent 1912 presidential contender immediately upon his election as Governor of New Jersey in 1910, and his clashes with state party bosses enhanced his reputation with the rising Progressive movement. In addition to progressives, Wilson enjoyed
20720-594: Was confirmed by the Senate and served on the Court until retiring in 1922. Wilson sought to move away from the foreign policy of his predecessors, which he viewed as imperialistic, and he rejected Taft's Dollar Diplomacy . Nonetheless, he frequently intervened in Latin America , saying in 1913, "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men." The 1914 Bryan–Chamorro Treaty converted Nicaragua into
20868-416: Was his chief advisor. In 1912 Hibben stunned Wilson by taking the lead against Wilson's pet reform plan. They were permanently estranged, and Wilson was decisively defeated. In 1912, two years after Wilson left Princeton, Hibben became president of Princeton. Wilson's efforts to reform Princeton earned him national fame, but they also took a toll on his health. In 1906, Wilson awoke to find himself blind in
21016-507: Was in effect for over two years directed the U.S. forces of occupation to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany". In occupied Germany Morgenthau left a direct legacy through what in OMGUS commonly were called "Morgenthau boys". These were U.S. Treasury officials whom General Dwight D. Eisenhower had "loaned" in to the Army of occupation. These people ensured that JCS 1067
21164-450: Was interpreted as strictly as possible. They were most active in the first crucial months of the occupation, but continued their activities for almost two years following the resignations of Morgenthau in mid-1945, and some time later, of their leader, Colonel Bernard Bernstein , who was "the repository of the Morgenthau spirit in the army of occupation". They resigned when, in July 1947, JCS 1067
21312-583: Was largely devoted to pursuing passage of his progressive New Freedom domestic agenda. His first major priority was the Revenue Act of 1913 , which began the modern income tax , and the Federal Reserve Act , which created the Federal Reserve System . At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the U.S. declared neutrality as Wilson tried to negotiate a peace between the Allied and Central Powers . He narrowly won re-election in 1916 against Charles Evans Hughes . In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress for
21460-399: Was on Friday that we raised the price 21¢, and the President said, "It is a lucky number because it is three times seven." If anybody ever knew how we really set the gold price through a combination of lucky numbers, etc., I think that they really would be frightened. Saturday we increased the price 10¢. I stayed after Jones left and had a good half hour talk in which most of the time Louis Howe
21608-604: Was present. In 1934, when William H. Woodin resigned because of poor health, Roosevelt appointed Morgenthau Secretary of the Treasury ; even conservatives approved. Morgenthau was a strict monetarist . President Roosevelt, Morgenthau, and Federal Reserve Chairman Marriner Stoddard Eccles jointly kept interest rates low during the depression to finance massive public spending, and then later to support rearmament, support for Britain, and U.S. participation in WWII. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Morgenthau to examine
21756-421: Was replaced by JCS 1779 , which instead stressed that "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." Morgenthau's legacy was also seen in the plans for preserving German disarmament by significantly reducing German economic might. (see also Allied plans for German industry after World War II ) In October 1945, Morgenthau published a book titled Germany
21904-428: Was the son of Lazarus and Babette (Guggenheim) Morgenthau. His father was a successful cigar manufacturer who had cigar factories at Mannheim , Lorsch , and Heppenheim , employing as many as 1,000 people (Mannheim had a population of 21,000 during this period). His business suffered a severe financial setback during the American Civil War , due to an 1862 tobacco tariff on imports, which closed German tobacco exports to
#770229