ABSTRACT
As Theodore Roosevelt set the pattern for the twentieth-century fighting election, so Woodrow Wilson put in place the century's model of the politics of conscience. His Presidency left a legacy of principle and practical achievement, and then, in the end, of the tragedy that can result when particulars are invested with ultimate moral meaning. Wilson the moralist first came to Presidential power in a conflict election, the incredible Donnybrook of 1912, as an accidental President who never would have made it had not the opposition Republicans split their forces wide open. Taking power, Wilson called Congress into special session and proceeded to ram through in eighteen months of hard legislative labor a remarkable program of reform, the New Freedom. Wilson narrowly avoided war with Mexico when American troops crossed the border to pursue Pancho Villa, who had raided New Mexico; Wilson insisted on a negotiated settlement.
