Not very many people have had the courage to object to the trend among Democratic Party activists to erase the names of former heroes like Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson from official events on account of their views (and practices) regarding race. Rejection of our ancestors because of their failure to achieve perfection is, of course, a sign of cultural arrogance likely to be exposed before long, and also shows a distinct lack of both charity and appreciation for those who, whatever their flaws, did great service to our nation and culture. That said, being no fan of either imperial Presidents or the Democratic Party, I see little need to speak up where others, who actually belong to what sadly has become the party of the pure left, feel constrained from speaking.
There is another prominent Democrat who recently has come in for some “revising” in terms of his historical role. Woodrow Wilson for many years was the patron saint of “Progressive” (read, “social democratic”) Americans on account of his success in taking the first steps toward establishing a centralized administrative state, as well as his mentoring of our only President-for-life, Franklin Roosevelt, and his injection of chiliastic fantasy into foreign policy. There has been a minority voice on the left that noted his disdain for black Americans, of course, but only very recently have we seen any movement toward rethinking Wilson’s legacy. As recently as 2014, A. Scott Berg published a fawning biography of Wilson that attempted to blame a couple of “Southerners” in Saint Woodrow’s cabinet for the radical step of segregating the federal service.
I choose the term “radical” with care, here, because it makes clear an important distinction between Wilson and earlier figures like Jefferson and Jackson. The earlier Presidents had been men of their times, engaging in practices (principally slave-ownership) we now recognize as morally objectionable. But neither of them, certainly not the rhetorically anti-slavery Jefferson, but also not Jackson, who stated that slavery was on a natural road to extinction, innovated in significant fashion in favor of slavery. Whatever one makes of the practical results of various political compromises made during this era between states in which slavery was and was not legal, their purpose was not, on either side, innovation, but rather maintenance of the union in a manner politically advantageous for one or the other interested parties. Such may not be the stuff of grand morality plays. It may be morally ambiguous, or worse. But it was a matter of practical politics taking place across an economic and cultural divide of growing extent with the goal of preventing catastrophe.
Such was not the case with Wilson and the civil service. Wilson took power at a time when racial issues had a low place on the national agenda. Black Americans continued to struggle for advancement, but in a climate that lent their concerns scant urgency in the minds of the broader public. Debates among black Americans over how best to seek betterment within American society went largely unheeded among white Americans. Still, there was at least one realm in which race relations had developed in a positive manner, namely the federal civil service.
By the time Wilson took office, the federal civil service had been racially integrated for decades, with a merit system for hiring and promotion inaugurated under Chester Arthur. Wilson did not seek “Progress” in this area. Nor did he take the “stand pat,” superficially conservative attitude of leaving well enough alone. Instead, Wilson chose to innovate in favor of overt, de jure racial discrimination by de-integrating a powerful institution with great influence.
The federal civil service was significant in terms of the numbers and status of those affected by it. Though much smaller than today, this institution provided upward mobility and the kind of day-to-day interaction from which racial mixing might breed toleration and, eventually, respect. Certainly it had afforded a number of black Americans the opportunity to secure employment and promotions to positions of responsibility and even some visibility. Wilson actively and intentionally put a stop to and indeed reversed this ongoing practice.
Mr. Berg, like most of Wilson’s hagiographers, seeks to dismiss his subject’s racial program by blaming it on others in his cabinet. Even those who admit the obvious, that Wilson, as President, was in charge of such policies, distance their hero from his actions by chalking them up to his southern heritage. Such a strategic move is unwarranted. The “southern” Wilson had spent the bulk of his adult life in New Jersey (to be sure, the culturally southern Princeton area), had travelled to England, considered himself on the leading edge of human morality, and had long since declared that sectionalism was buried with the dead in the Civil War. His principles were self-consciously cosmopolitan, yet Wilson chose to change the long-established practice of federal employment in order to disadvantage black Americans.
How could such a forward-thinking, noble-minded, justice-pursuing President as Woodrow Wilson take the radical step of segregating the public service? Properly considered, the question answers itself. Wilson was convinced that his wisdom, intelligence, learning, and conscience all were superior to that of those around him—some more than others, of course. In answering those who complained of his segregation policy, he made noises about society not being “ready” for greater equality, yet his oft-noted personal views regarding the basic inferiority of black Americans show he was dubious as to whether they could “earn” the right to compete for positions of responsibility. Like most paternalistic politicians of the Progressive left, Wilson thought he knew better than those he governed how they ought to be governed. This meant that the decades-long policies (which had been in place during Democratic as well as Republic administrations) for him had no call on his deference.
As with so many things, Wilson imposed his will on the nation in regard to its civil service policies. His will in this area was governed by racial prejudice rather than his more commonly active prejudice in favor of enforcing equality (through, for example, confiscatory taxation), or his will that the world be made “safe for democracy” through massively punitive and meddling treaty provisions ending World War I. But all of Wilson’s prejudices were manifested in high-handed actions and policies undermining the natural flow of social life. And, while prejudices, by which I mean merely unthinking beliefs, may be good or bad, they are not in and of themselves policies. It is the act, not the unthinking belief that turns a prejudice into a policy. It is the high-handed, radical act, cut loose from the moorings of customary practice and standards of decency as well as charity, that harms individual persons and does significant damage to entire societies and traditions.
The injustices of segregation were an important cause of much that ails the United States today. This is true, not only in the sense that it fomented racial tensions, but also in that it, and the extra-legal means (lynching and the intentional perversion of policies like literacy tests for voting) sapped respect for law. Law and civil relations then were further undermined by the sometimes cynical misuse and misrepresentation of law by actors on both sides of the struggle to undo segregation, not to mention the impetus this struggle gave to more revolutionary ideas and more total cynicism regarding the rule of law. The mistakes made by various officials and other public actors, whether form the South or not, were greatly exacerbated by the radical move Wilson made with, in essence, the stroke of his imperial pen. Would that he had heeded the most basic principle of any form of service, to first do no harm. Would that Americans would come to recognize that the power to change so radically, in contempt of due process and the proper forms of law within a constitutional order prioritizing consensus over speed, can produce—indeed is likely to produce—chaos and oppression rather than beneficent “progress.”
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Woodrow Wilson is, of course , a highly respected and much loved American President in Poland and exemplifies admirable Christian political idealism. Woodrow Wilson Plaza is located near the grave of St. Popiełuszko , and is in one of Warsaw’s finer districts . The Woodrow Wilson metro station was voted the most beautiful metro station in the EU a few years prior, demonstrating the care that went into giving a facility named for such a unique man a worthy aesthetic. Given how the Democratic party has been busy self-destructing since 1968, a time may come in the not too distant future when those who wish to find virtues in America’s past Christian statesmen will need to travel abroad. I myself recall with fondness my studies of President Wilson’s words and deeds, and the pleasure of knowing that where he was wrong, it was a charitable error or a hubris born of exceeding virtue unbound by a sense of tragedy perceptible to Europeans, but not Americans .
Warsaw also sports a Herbert Hoover square, though it is far less prominent than Woodrow Wilson plaza.
So, Wilson was one of the first of the Left Wing Elitist Snobs?
I have read that re: League of Nations…..he had fancy rhetoric but no practice ideas. That representatives of other nations were supprised & disappointed with him.
Would you address the truth of this sometime.
Wilson was, simply, a tyrant. Effete and progressive, but a tyrant nonetheless. His so-called “Christian Idealism” led to untold suffering throughout the 20th century. I’m sorry to hear the Polish people have been so thoroughly bamboozled.
It is not a matter of bamboozlement, but mere acknowlegement of historical fact: President Wilson was instrumental in bringing the II Republic of Poland into existence as a legal entity. This pretty much guarantees him eternal gratitude and honor by Poles.
Mr. Rieth, would it be right to think that Hoover has a street named after him because he brought food to Europe?
On Wilson and racism, it’s important to recall that ‘race science,’ eugenics, and so on were part of early ‘progressive’ thinking. Many historians don’t know that, and assume that this is somehow WW’s Southern heritage coming forth. Not necessarily. Thinking based on racial hierarchies wasn’t abandoned by the non-Marxist Left in the U. S. until the generation subsequent to WW–Eleanor Roosevelt, for example.
Let’s be honest, the discrediting and de-legitimization of heroes like Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are all about the cultural left’s campaign to displace and dispossess the historic American nation of our cultural touchstones, our heroes and culture, as well as our country.
Dr. Morrisey, regarding President Hoover he is an honorary citizen of Poland, was granted a PhD by three Polish universities (one of which is now a Ukrainian university) and patron of a few schools. His honors are in recognition of his work as head of the American Relief Agency and the aid to Polish children given following World War I . Marshal Piłsudzki regarded Hoover quite well and there is a famous picture of the two, with Hoover visiting Polish children helped by the United States . (Unless I am “reading” the picture wrong). The ARA had a statue dedicated to it in Grodno , but that city is no longer in Poland. Meanwhile , in Australia , Mr. Hoover is recollected as a clever greedy materialistic money grubber who capitalized on certain business ventures there and was rather unscrupulous in his pursuit of wealth, or so the locals claim.
As for President Wilson, it is interesting that given his racial views, he nevertheless begrudged Polish founder Roman Dmowski’s antisemitism .
Finally, while the Democrats have abandoned Wilson’s Darwinian racial views, they still (I think) hold his Darwinian view of a living Constitution and his view that the Declaration of Independence did not contain permanent moral truths , only Newtonian physics. One could actually make the case that they also still hold his racial views since Affirmativr Affirmative Action is rooted in a presumption of race competition in nature.
I agree with Sam’s comment . But historical ignorance amongst Democrats seems to be rather fresh. Not only Jefferson and Jackson, but aparently Mr. Sanders is rejected despite his lifetime of civil rights activism (I refer to the Black Lives Matter incident). The radicalism of racial policy on the fringes of the left is amazing. I never would have guessed Mr. Sanders would be “erased” this way. Like Wilson, I like some things about Mr. Sanders as well and do not understand how it is possible for people to attack his racial views. Perhaps there is a new egalitarianism now afoot according to which Martin Luther King was a white supremacist?
Yes, the ‘living Constitution’ is alive and well in the minds of Democrats. On your point about Affirmative Action, it is indeed a sort of reverse-side-of-the-coin–in this case, however, based on sociological notions instead of biology.
Hoover’s relief work in Europe was remembered for a long time. In the Thirties he toured the continent and met with just about every head of state. He was one of the few Americans to meet Hitler in those days; even the tyrant felt the need to show some respect.
Hoover volunteered to spearhead another relief effort when WWII began, but FDR refused. As late as 1940 HH entertained presidential ambitions, and FDR was not about to boost his reputation. “I’m not going to resurrect old Herbie,” he is reported to have said.
The National Postal Museum at the Smithsonian Institution has a less tendentious view. Their history of the segregation of the Postal Department and the Railway Mail Service points to its originating with two cabinet members, Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson and Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo. Presidents pick and choose their political battles. I think it is more than likely that personal racial prejudice played a significant part in Wilson’s choosing not to oppose the tide of segregation that had been building since the conclusion of the Civil War, but it does not appear to me to have been his initiative. He had a history dating back to the 1880s of advocating Civil Service reform, not segregation, along with his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt. See the Smithsonian site for some history which I do not believe could be characterized as “hagiography”.