070524 John P Cole

Episode Transcript

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Go my friend's second hour of today'sprogram, and as always, this hour
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l a k y, and youcan private message me on all of those
platforms, and I do my bestto read and respond as necessary. Glad
to have you here on the show. I want to step into a moment
of history here with you with historianJohn Cole John P. Cole as History
and Extraordinary. I thought about playingthe music from Masterpiece Theater because it felt

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very dramatic, but I decided notto do that, but please welcome with
a topic of conversation. I wantedto dive into that I think parallels greatly
to where we're at today with arumors and speculation about is how involved is
Jill Biden. Let's go back toAmerican history and talk about Edith Wilson.

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A historian John Cole on the hotline, John, Good morning, sir,
how are you, Jilly? Goodmorning, and thanks for having me.
It's good to be here. Alot of speculation talk parlor intrigue of Jill
Biden and how much control she hasor doesn't have in the White House,
or at least what her advice isto Joe Biden. But let's step away

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from the Biden So let's go backin history to the presidency of Woodrow Wilson,
where there was a lot of parlorintrigue and the history has written a
pretty interesting tale about what was happeningin the wood in the Woodrow Wilson White
House. Oh absolutely, I actuallythink this situation that we're going through today
with Joe Biden and the Woodrow Wilsonsituation, there are numerous parallels. You

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start with questions about health and competencyof both men. You question just how
far the wife was willing to goto protect and cover for their husbands in
both Jill and Edith. And thenthere's also talk today of the prospect of
the first female president, when anumber of historians believe that Edith actually acted

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as the president in the last seventeenmonths of Woodrow Wilson's presidency. But I
think to talk about we have toknow a little more about Woodrow because a
lot of people may not know abouthim. Actually was fairly new to politics
when he became the president. Bornprior to the Civil War, he grew

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up in Southern States, Georgia andSouth Carolina, which in my opinion kind
of influenced a lot of his lifestyleand his approaches and thoughts when he became
an adult and as president as well. But became president of Princeton. He
was an academician, very progressive,constitutionally knowledgeable, but gained a lot of

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notoriety as president of Princeton, tothe point where even in nineteen oh eight
his name was mentioned in quieter tonesas a prospect for running for president,
but it was William Jennings Bryan thatyear. But in nineteen twelve, there
was a split in the Republican party. And prior to that, in nineteen

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ten, Wilson became the governor ofNew Jersey, so he became a nationally
known figure. And so in nineteentwelve, the country was looking for a
change, as they had gone sinceeighteen ninety six with Republican presidents McKinley,
Roosevelt and Taft. Country was readyfor change and ready for more. I

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guess progressivism is what you'd call whatWilson was, and so he split the
Republicans won the presidency with only fortytwo percent of the popular vote. However,
he went about eighty plus percent ofthe electoral votes. So came into
office very strong. Had been marriedto his wife Ellen for a couple of

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decades, but as his presidency progressed, Ellen became ill, and unfortunately in
nineteen fourteen, while in his firstin his first term as president, she
passed away. Well, in thosedays, generally, you you know,
widows and widowers gave about a yearbefore they started going out and meeting women

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or men to ending on the situation, and a lot of speculation that Edith
Golf, who had been a Washingtonsocialite, for many years. She had
married the son of a prominent Washingtonjeweler by the name of Norman Golf,
who was about eight years her senior. Well, they were married for about

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twelve years, and in nineteen oheight, Norman Golf passed away but left
his widow Edith not only single,but very wealthy. So she became a
socialite in Washington, well known,traveled numerous times to Europe, became very
fashionable in her style and her approach. Not terribly well educated. One story

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has it that she left college inpart because her college dorm room was too
cold, So not formally educated perse. But there's one story that says
that either nineteen fourteen, I believeit was nineteen fourteen, Wilson, who
by the way, had the firstpresidential limousine, was in the limousine with

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an aid and was driving down thestreet and they happened to see Edith Gald
and Wilson was immediately taken by herlooks. Apparently she was attractive for her
time, and wondered who that womanwas. Well. At a later date,
his cousin actually brought Edith Golf tothe White House for a reception for

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an event and was introduced to Wilsonand by all those around them, there
were immediate sparks. Now that wasgood, and that was also controversial because
then rumors started flying, and sothe rumors in some cases were that Galt
and Wilson actually started seeing each otherprior to his first wife's death. And

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for conspiracy theorists out there, thereis even one rumor that said that they
conspired to expire his first wife Ellen. So there was even those kind of
controversies back then. Anyhow, that'sfascinating. Introduced that John Cole's my guest
history and talking about the life andtimes of Edith Wilson, the wife of

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Woodrow Wilson, our president, oneof her presidents, and also some people
say the first female president of theUnited States, although she was never elected.
And we're catching up age history inJohn Cole parallels to today. Indeed,
all right, John, so youhave President Wilson and now he's starting
to well, he ends up marryingEdith Wilson. The speculation, the rumors

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are that maybe just possibly they offEllen, the first wife, maybe kind
of a Hillary Clinton, maybe theHillary Clinton the other day people just died.
We don't know the truth. Therebut suppose Ellen just passed away.
Now he's with Edith, and takeus from there. Woodrow and Edith the
new couple and the first couple ofthe United States. Absolutely So. Woodrow's

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reelection was coming up in nineteen sixteen, and there was a lot of fear
by his age that the controversy thatEdith was creating would hurt his prospects for
reelection, because everybody knew it wasgoing to be a very close race.
So they actually tried to dispel Edith. The aides did by creating a situation

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that put Wilson actually in a trystwith another woman, a previous woman he
knew by the name of Mary peckWell. Edith would have none of it,
and ultimately Edith and Woodrow married inDecember of twenty or nineteen fifteen.
World War One comes around and Wilsonhas the United States. By the way,

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he barely wins reelection. In fact, it was twelve electoral votes that
was the swing between him and CharlesEvan Hughes, who, by the way,
at that time was a Supreme Courtjustice who had run for president.
But Wilson wins reelection by a theirmargin gets the nation into World War One.

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Well, the United States becomes basicallya savior to numerous countries in World
War One, and World War Oneis won by the Allies in large part
because of the United States getting involved. Wilson creates what's called the Fourteen Points,
which was kind of a blueprint forhow he saw the world in the

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United States going forward, and becomesbasically, to some a messiah of the
world for what we should do goingforward. So he travels to Paris to
help negotiate the Treaty of Versailles,which was the ultimate treaty ending World War
One, and also the creation ofwhat's called the League of Nations. Well,

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he does all these things again grandiosespeculation about how popular he is around
the world, comes home but findsthat a Republican Congress doesn't want anything to
do with either the Treaty of Versaillesor the League of Nations. So he
decides, Wilson that is, totake a United States tour and speak directly

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to the public to try to getthem to influence their congresspeople. Well,
the tour is so stressful and basicallyexhausts Woodrow Wilson to the point that in
September of nineteen nineteen. He here'sour Colorado connection. He is in Pueblo,
Colorado and collapses from exhaustion, andhis doctors immediately tell Edith they must

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get him back to the White House. Well, they get him back to
the White House, and literally aweek later, in early October nineteen nineteen,
he has a massive stroke, whichbasically makes him bedridden for the final
seventeen months of his presidency. Edithis talking to the doctors, and the
doctors say, he must be asstressless as possible. You must kind of

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surround him and protect him from thestresses and the obligations of the job.
So she basically becomes the sole gatekeeperof anything being put in front of Woodrow
Wilson, to the point where evenhis vice president was not allowed to see
him. So she would bring things, I mean literally if they even got

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into the White House. They gotinto the White House, they would go
up to the hallway outside of thebedroom, Edith would meet them, review
the items they brought to her,or listen to their conversations. Literally go
into the president without taking any ofthem in there into the bedroom, comes

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out for however long she needs tobe with him, and gives the decision
to those who were waiting and hadpresented the information. The speculation is that
even if she wasn't making the finaldecisions, she was influencing Woodrow in such
a way that what she felt wasthe right thing to do was actually the

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decisions he was making. Now,was President Wilson did? Does anybody know?
Was was he aware? Was heable to speak? I mean,
we know he was told to rest, but what was his health like behind
those closed doors? Or does anybodyknow? Well, he was definitely bedridden.
He could speak, but not verywell. And again not even age

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or I mean the age came into help feed him and things like that,
but they were basically sworn to notsay anything to anybody. The doctors
obviously could see him, but noone else could see him, so he
could communicate, but not very wellat that time. Wow, how long
did this go on? And what'sthe conclusion here? Edith Wilson maybe making

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the decisions on her own, maybeinfluencing Woodrow. We got a couple more
minutes to finish up here. Seventeenmonths this went on. Seventeen months.
This went on from October nineteen nineteen. Keep in mind, back then the
inaugurations up until Franklin Roosevelt were inaugurationswere in March, not in January as

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they are today. So for seventeenmonths this went on, and to give
you a sense of the influence,she had two situations real Briefly, the
Secretary of State, because Woodrow Wilsoncould not have cabinet meetings, the Secretary
of State at the time, RobertLansing, held a couple of cabinet meetings,
and Edith was so intense that sheconvinced Woodrow to fire in. So

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the Secretary of State was fired,even though he was trying to continue the
process of government. And then secondly, a British ambassador was now allowed to
even present his credentials for Wilson's acceptancebecause an aid of the ambassadors had said

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something bad about Edith, and Edithsaid, either you get rid of the
AID or Wilson will not accept yourcredentials. The British ambassador said, fine,
the hell with it, and henever got his credentials accepted by Wilson
because of Edith's feeling all mad aboutthe aids comments. So Woodrow Wilson finally

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leaves office. Edith goes with him, did anybody or what was the verdict
after that? I mean, howdid this solve the How long did Woodrow
live? And did did Edith maybego and run for office herself? I
guess had no interest. Keep inmind at the time that this was even
prior to women voting, much lessrunning for office. Roosevelt was very anti

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women suffrage. Believe it or not, women protesters who wanted to vote were
protesting outside the White House. Hehad them literally jailed for their protests.
He was a segrega segregationist, Hewas a racist. He barred blacks from
federal jobs. So he lives anotherafter leaving office another three years. He

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dies in twenty or excuse me,in nineteen twenty four, at the age
of sixty seven. He was aboutfifteen years older than Edith. But Edith,
believe it or not, she wenton. She did not remarry,
She did not run for office.She spent the rest of her life pretty
much protecting Wilsonson, trying to promoteWilson's legacy. But she lived until she

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was eighty nine and died in nineteensixty one. It's amazing we guy spent
sixty seconds the cabinet device president thatCongress all seemed to kind of tolerate this
incapacitated president. They don't see him, they don't hear from him, but
they seem to put up with it. Well, keep in mind, there
wasn't the twenty fifth Amendment at thattime, which allowed the vice president today

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to basically said, mister President ormissus president, your incompetence is putting the
nation in a dangerous state. Weneed to remove you by a majority vote
of the cabinet. They didn't havethat back then. The only way they
could have done anything about it isimpeach him, and at the time,
the nation wasn't ready for that.They were still recovering from World War One.

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Well, historian John Cole, John, it's a pleasure, my friends.
I appreciate you hopping on the program. We are short on time,
but there you have it. Thefirst female president, perhaps Edith Wilson,
as she took care of her husbandto hold up in the White House bedroom,
incapacitated from a severe stroke, andfor seventeen months, Edith Wilson was

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the one that saw pretty much thewhole country. I guess it's a fascinating
story, John Cole, thank youvery much. A little lesson in history.
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