Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, President Wilson’s second wife, is considered by some as the first woman to run the government after she essentially controlled the executive branch for the last two years of her husband’s second term. After President Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1919, Edith Wilson pre-screened all matters of state and actively hid the state of her husband’s health from the public.
At the time, the 25th Amendment, which provided a much more specific means of transfer of power in the case of a president’s death or disability, had not yet been ratified. The only legislation regarding transfer of presidential power in the case of a president’s illness was Clause 6 of Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution, which stated that the vice president would assume office if the president died, resigned, or was unable to serve. President Wilson was not dead and would not resign, and Mrs. Wilson and his physician (Dr. Grayson) never signed resolutions deeming him unable to serve. Without the signed resolutions, Vice President Thomas Marshall refused to assume the presidency. For the remainder of her life, Edith Wilson stuck by the story that President Wilson served all of his duties throughout his term. She wrote in her memoir that she was nothing more than a “steward” during this period, but historians have revealed that her role was much more than that of a steward--she was the first de-facto woman president.
As de-facto president, Edith Wilson acted as the sole conduit between the President and his cabinet; she determined which matters were important and required her husband’s attention. As she was unable to broker a compromise on the WWI resolution, Wilson’s hopes of getting the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and join the League of Nations were dashed.
Through running a disinformation campaign and misleading Congress about President Wilson’s condition, First Lady Edith Wilson headed the executive branch for the last two years of her husband’s term and left a controversial legacy as the “first woman to run the government.”
Some questions for reflection: how do you think Edith Wilson’s de-facto tenure affected the public’s image of women, their characters, and their abilities to take on leadership positions? Do you think this would happen again if a modern-day president became incapacitated?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/woodrow-wilson-stroke
https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/first-ladies/edithwilson
http://www.history.com/topics/first-ladies/edith-wilson
http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=29
Karina, very interesting post. I had never heard about this before and thought it was a pretty cool thing. However, the fact that I never heard of this probably suggests that the average American was unsuspecting of Edith's de-facto leadership, meaning that she had little impact on the public's opinion about women. As for if this could happen again, I would highly doubt it. Because there are more regulations now about when the vice president should assume control, I think it would be difficult for someone not in the line of presidential succession (vice president, speaker, etc.) to gain that kind of power. Also, because the media is far more pervasive and powerful than back then, it would be very difficult to hide such a prominent and obvious illness. In fact, in 1985, George Bush, who was vice president at the time, assumed the presidency for eight hours while President Reagan was undergoing colon cancer surgery.
ReplyDeleteI think it is so interesting that Edith Wilson practically ran the executive branch by herself for such a long period of time without anyone taking realizing or being angry and that she was able to hide President Wilson's stroke successfully; I was fascinated to read about these things in the blog post. These days, I think people would definitely become suspicious about the health of the president if they did not see him for a long period of time, and the Congress would wonder why the First Lady was speaking to them instead of the President. With this being such an amazing step for women and feminism, I was surprised in further reading to find a New York Post article saying she did a terrible job with her attempt to run the country. Apparently, she made rash decisions quickly and at times never even consulted Wilson when she made her decisions- at one time she passed 28 laws in this manner within 10 days, never speaking to her husband. She also failed to fill the positions of Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of the Interior, which sat unfilled for periods of time. She even turned away a British ambassador trying to help the US join the League of Nations (one of Wilson's primary goals) due to a personal grudge.
ReplyDeletehttp://nypost.com/2016/11/05/edith-wilson-was-americas-first-female-president-and-it-didnt-go-so-well%E2%80%8B/
I think she did ok with her situation but all she was trying to do is mourn her husband passing. I think people overreact because it's not like Edith was trying to pass legislature and use the power of the actual in any way they just wanted it to stay personal to the family for a little bit.
ReplyDelete