And on sundays book tv brings you the latest on nonfiction books and authors funding for cspan two comes from these television companies, and more. Including comcast. Oh, you think this is just a Community Cent . No, its way more that. Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers to create wifi enabled lift zones of students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Comcast, along with these television companies, support cspan 2 as a public service. Good evening, my name is nancy keegan smith, i would like to welcome you as the Vice President to tonights program. Thank you to our partner, American University school of public affairs, who has been so supportive of our endeavor. And, to our institutional members rider university, White House Historical association, massachusetts historical society, the gerald r. Ford president ial foundation, and our two newest institutional members, the National First Ladies Library and the center for president ial history at Southern Methodist university. Our program tonight is called taking a new look at edith wilson. It should be a fascinating discussion of ediths influence on the role of first lady. The Panel Moderator is dr. Catherine sibling, professor of history and director of american stories at saint joseph university. The panelists in order, i think, our doctor Mary Stockwell retired professor of history and our Department Chair at lawrence university. Who writes on the american west, 20th century politics, and, especially, Woodrow Wilson. Our second panelist will be rebecca roberts, curator of programming at planet word, a museum of words and language in washington, d. C. And our third panelist will be doctor stacy a. Cordery who holds the Denison Johnson chair in Theodore Roosevelt studies at Dickinson University in north dakota. More biographical information on each panelist is available on the flare website at flarenet. Org. We will be taking questions at the end of the program, which should be emailed to first ladies 2021 at gmail. Com. Now, with great pleasure i turn over the program to my friend and scholar, dr. Catherine sibling. Thank you so much, what a lovely introduction of our exciting panel this evening, it is so lovely to have you all here. Thank you for coming, it is my great pleasure to open up with our first presenter, dr. Mary stockwell, i am so excited to hear what you have to say about edith wilson. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me, thank you for everyone at flair and for the support, the technical support. I want to say a lot about edith wilson but what i want to do tonight is to give you overview and make three points about her that i have found fascinating, next, please. I do not know if you have had this experience about edith wilson, but when i say that i am writing about Woodrow Wilson, i often get hit with a negative response. I say she has got what i call negative charisma. There are some people in history, no matter what you do, who cannot fight the ring of darkness they seem to always have. There is something mysterious and dark, mentioning alexander hamilton. One of my favorite people when i was growing up. People thought terribly of him no matter what you said, you couldnt say anything nice about hamilton. Thanks to lin manuel miranda, who has brought him out of the darkness now. He is a hero in america. Unless edith gets a musical i do not know if it will ever happen for her. Heres what people tell me, she was a femme fatale, she lured wilson into a second marriage when his wife was barely dead, she was a lady mcbath behind the throne, manipulating him when he had a stroke. I hear more now that she was a racist, a family of slave holders, a lover of robert e. Lee, and anti feminist because she did not want a constitutional amendment for women to have the right to vote. Next, please . Well i have discovered is a much more complex edith wilson. I wrote a book for Woodrow Wilson for a series on a president s, i discovered a wilson i did not. I am discovering who edith really is. Her memoir is fascinating, and ive gone to the library of congress and read her papers. So far as ive put this no more together and learn a lot from all of this. Next, please. All right, my first point, you cannot understand edith wilson if you do not understand Woodrow Wilsons attitude towards women. This is a very sensitive topic, if i say wilson and women most people will say, like that wonderful picture, that he is kaiser wilson, he was against the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, at least for a long time when he was president. This makes you think that wilson is a dour figure who hates women, does not want them to succeed, has nothing to deal with them or nothing good to say about them. But, i have discovered nothing could be further from the truth. I cannot think of another president for whom women were so important. They were his advisers and counselors from the time he was a little boy all the way up through his wives and children. He looked at women as intelligent, supportive, and he needed not just their adoration, not just their support, he needed them working with him when he was a student, when he was a professor, and when he was president. Next, please. This is just a short list of the women who played a key role in his wife. Wilson comes through most of his biographies as dour, dark. Sigmund freud wrote a horrible portrait of him as a woman hating, man worshipping person. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. All of these people in his life mattered to him, and he turned to women for council, help, support, and especially once he was president. Both of his wives, first ellen and then edith, were closer to him than they were advisers. They were helping, this might be a stretch. Sometimes i think of them the way Valerie Jarrett was in the white house helping obama, they did a lot more than a typical thing she would think a woman should do in that position. That includes, again, being a supporter, helping with speeches, even helping make policy decisions. Edith is going to fit right into this need, and this love wilson has of women. When she becomes the first lady, again, it happens right after wilsons wife has died. He meets her through his doctor, she has brought into the white house, she is a washington widow, to help Margaret Wilson and the cousin who are broken hearted. Wilson falls in love with her and before they are even married she begins to help him. Im not saying make policy decisions but she listens to his troubles, his speeches, and begins to help him craft a lot of his ideas. The Amazing Things she will do what she has at the white house, they first, she is the decoder. She will decode and code all the secret messages going back and forth to europe in world war i. She will also handle a thing called the box. Wasnt put all of his papers from everybody who knew latest sitting on a box on his desk. At night he went through them, he would tape his answers, she was right there with him. She always said he was someone to bounce ideas off of me. Next, please. In october, 1919 wilson has a stroke, the nation is in a crisis. These are the man i can think of, who are in a crisis of either illness or assassination. They had a few days, weeks, hours to live, i also thought of Zachary Taylor who had five days to live. Nobody had really been in a position like wilson, where he was mentally sound from a stroke, but he was physically weak. What should have been done . Think of yourself. Be edith wilson and figure out what you would do at this time. What if you are wilsons daughter. One of wilson had had a son and Something Like this had happened . Whats should have been done to help this president . Next, please. She makes a decision, and this is the second thing ive discovered of her. She takes on the role of chief of staff. She took on the role of chief of staff, it is almost identical to the definition of chief of staff that you can find in the chris whipples book, the gatekeeper, where he shows how men created this role in nixons presidency that was exactly what edith wilson was doing 50 years before. The doctors encouraged her to do exactly what she did before. Sitting with wilson and helping him make decisions, just watching him make decisions. She decided, yes, i will do what they are recommending. Everything will come to me first. If it is something that is department or senator can decide i will send it back. If wilson must decided i will type it up and i will show it to him. He will make the decision, i will make sure the decision is implemented. Again, she never used the term gatekeeper, she never used the term chief of staff. But, when you put her against what is coming 50 years down the road that is exactly what she did. Next, please. Why did she do it . To save her husband, the doctors tell her. He needed something to live for, meaning the presidency, he will survive. She also believe completely in his agenda. He wanted to stop republicans like henry lodge who are out to destroy what he wanted on both a national and international stage. They lost the fight for the league of nations, they lost the fight for the treaty of versailles, but they tried. She also said he made two more important decisions that were forgotten when she was the chief of staff. He stopped all leases for oil on government land, he said that is going to lead to corruption, which it does in the next presidency. Hey also veto the volstead act, he did not want prohibition. His decision was overturned but he kept trying to do the progressive things he thought were necessary. Things like keeping the doors of emigration open. He said if i can serve in this position to help him win his agenda that is what i will do, next, please. I would recommend historians dont just look at edith wilson or the chief of staff position, look at people in the next 50 years who did a similar thing to her, and judge her against them or a value it her very creative role she played against them. There was another woman under fdr who active as a chief of staff. Again, de facto, informal. Especially in his second term, she was a gatekeeper, she helped to push so much legislation through. Two minutes, i see it, we often think of her as well. This is what she wore, this was her dress, she was bubbly person. No, she was a chief of staff. Next, please. It might be a stretch, but there is a relative in the future who stepped in in a crisis as an acting chief of staff. Robert kennedy stepped in after the be a pegs and began the real gatekeeper and councilor, somebody jfk could trust. Performing a similar role to what edith did. Next, please. I think the person she was most like i would compared to admiral william leahy, especially in fdrs final year of office. Fdr was much thicker than wilson was. He helps make major decisions about the presidency, for the president in that critical final year of office. He is doing the same thing, informally, he is considered a great hero but edith is suspect for what she did. Next, please. My final thing, i will wrap this up fast, she dismisses everything she does. She dismisses it, i did not do anything that important, i did not do anything that critical, i just stepped in like any wife would, and the first lady would, but she created a role that has been going to become much more important as 20th century goes on. Historians have dismissed her. I learned about this, you see that writing tablet. She filled writing tablet after writing tablet with her memoirs and out of that will come her autobiography. Next, please. In her autobiography she is under immense pressure to prove her femininity, this is the most shocking thing i learned about all the publicity materials for the publisher. You keep saying your feminine, you keep saying youre just a good, sweet woman. To be chief of staff you have to be tough, so she is always in this position of denying what she did. We still, as historians, follow that instead of saying what did she do to become a real leader at a critical time in American History . Next, please. My two final slides. I began to realize there is a rhetoric to the chief of staff position, i learned this because, again, working with molly who is a professor of rhetoric. She is putting together this great book on first ladies and their memoirs. Theres a big book on william leahy, peter bakers book on james baker as a chief of staff. I began to hear it is emailing job for manly man, a manly president. All of these things are great because they are such man. Like linebackers protecting the quarterback. They are like bouncers throwing drugs out of a bar. This land damages our view of edith because she is a woman. She has to just be the first lady, she stepped in the breach of a terrible tragedy and kept wilsons presidency going for at least a year. I think if she was a man she would be admired for it. Had she been thomas Woodrow Wilson jr. She probably would have had great books about her. The chief of staff is a manly thing, she sees the position of helping the president. My last slide, please. This is a famous picture, i have always seen it when historians write critically about her. That she was this lady mcbath behind the throne. Kind of telling the drowling Woodrow Wilson want to do. This is in her memoir, she was proud of this picture. She said this is me, this is 1920, i like to think hes vetoing the volstead act right now. She thought of this as helping but still at the quality of she should not be doing this. This person behind the throne. Next, please. Take a look at this picture, we would never think anything negative about james baker, james baker, i am sorry, james baker and his role of chief of staff for reagan and the bushes. He was there to help not to get in the way of reagan. He was there to make sure that his agenda was fulfilled. He was the gatekeeper to do that. My theory is edith was the first. Whether you think she should do it or should not have, whether we will see her again but probably not with the 25th amendment and the anti nepotism act. She was a much more important person than we give her credit for being. Thank you, thank you so much for that really enlightening presentation. And, now, it is my pleasure, and keep your questions in your heads because you will get a chance to ask some questions later on. Now it is my great pleasure to introduce rebecca roberts, who will continue our discussion of edith wilson, thank you. Thank you so much, i will say i came to edith wilson, i have a biography of her coming out next year because i have written a couple books about suffrage. Whenever i give talks about suffrage people ask me about edith. There was some narrative out there that maybe she was whispering in wilsons ear to make him finally, reluctantly support the 19th amendment which is totally untrue, as mary said she was about against federal suffrage. There is this notion out there that she was, you can call her lady mcbath, some kind of manipulative power behind the throne. If you do not think that of her than you think she is this sort of country bumpkin who did not have much education, who won the president s heart because she was so pretty. Who had no Business Holding the power that she did when wilson had a stroke. Lets be clear, she did have no Business Holding that power, no one elected edith to anything. Whether she did it well or not, it is still, or whether she had good intentions or not, it was still unconstitutional, and probably not the best thing for the office of the presidency. But, as mary said, one of the reasons everyone is so surprised that this lovely little edith wilson took on a roll like that is that she very much wanted it that way. She cultivated that image of herself as this extremely feminine, extremely background person who is just doing everything she could to support her brilliant husband. How many things, while fascinating, is not always true. She says an embroidery is some things, we have some things out that are demonstrably wrong. She very much curated her image as this feminine person as opposed to the strong, ambitious person. We should be forgiven for getting her wrong but if you do a tiny bit of research into edith you shouldnt be surprised of what she did it all. She telegraphed over and over again what kind of person she was. Starting from her childhood in virginia, this is a picture of her on the back porch of the family house, where she was in charge of caring for her grandmothers canaries, who she actually hated. Her grandmother was formidable, terrifying in some ways edith was a six of nine children. Seven of 11 born, six of nine surviving, she was in the middle pack of a big family. After the civil war they lost their plantation and move to the story from. And she was this grandmother favorite. And so even though she did not have a lot of formal schooling. Which is not unusual for a woman of her class and status, and time period. She was educated, she was not some bumpkin. Her grandmother, her fathers mother very much taught her to trust her own confidence and trust her own got. And bolster this idea that she was capable, and that she was independent. There was a conflicting message from her other grandmother and her mother, herself, who were deep into the cult of true womanhood. Do not let your back hit the back of the chair and be submissive and pious at all times. I think a lot of the conflict we see later is that she was actually the strong presence her grandmother believed to be, but she had to pretend that she was this family and help me that her mother wanted her to be. I think that is the underlying story of edith she is in, she goes to school twice, neither was a huge success. After her second year of school she wanted to go back but she had three younger brothers who were due to go to school. There was not enough money to educate a daughter. She goes to washington, in washington d. C. Right now, one of her older sisters had married a man. She goes to washington in 1890. In 1890, washington was gilded age booming. It was an interesting place to reinvent yourself that is what you wanted to do, and she did. She did not have any money but she had social status and she had enough of a veneer of sophistication that she was at the opera all the time, she met interesting people and learned to be fashionable. She became what she thought she wanted to be. And she ended up marrying a man named norman gault. Her sisters husbands cousin. And, next picture please. This picture is from this time period. I love this picture because she is so confident and beautiful. She is just owning here she is. I think of, and this is from the 1890s, this is edith of becoming herself. Getting out of her little appalachian town and becoming herself. On her own, to a large degree. As mary said, if she were a man this would be a very different story. Including the up her boot straps American Dream that she would have been giving credit for if she were a man. She has shown that she can grab an opportunity. She has shown that she can be sophisticated. She marries norman gault, it is not a love story for the ages. He is secure and his fast budget way, he adores her but she thinks he will do just fine. And then, have a nice life here in washington. They have one child who does not survive more than three days, and then no more children. She becomes a woman about town in this picture. Shea becomes the first woman and washington to get a drivers license. She tooled about town in what she called her electric run about which was sort of a golf cart with a tailor, top speed of about 13 miles an hour but a symbol of independence. She, with our fabulous hat, always beautifully dressed would tool around town, the traffic cops knew her. Other washington hostesses knew her. She was a person who had made that of herself. And then, when norman died she inherited his money. He ran the tiffanys of washington. It was this highend jewelry and silver business, throughout washington history president s and society justices, and rich people had bought their silver and jewelry, and commemorative blacks. It had been a place that marked the passage of society, washington. Edith inherits it completely in the earliest part of the 20th century. Which is unusual. Womens property acts had not been around that one. The fact that she did not have children, and normans only brother was an invalid. There was not really a man who could have contested it and made a play for the business. And the business was profitable. But, when edith inherited it there was some debt because norman had bought out his partners. He had yet paid off that investment. So, she struggled with, do i sell it, do i bring on a partner . She decides to keep the business and when it. She had plenty of help, she did not run it singlehandedly. But, this is a woman who just decide i can do this. I can do this on my own, i can make this work and learn what i need to learn, i do not care that i dont see a lot of other Women Business owners, i did not cause i did not have a college degree, i am just going to make this work. And she did. When her father died and it became vital that she had this business, her three younger brothers all worked at gaults, her widow mother moves to washington, they all support bertha in this business. And it is all on edith. It is not on her older brothers, some of whom were doing quite well. She takes on this role of supporting everybody, helping everybody. She really relishes it, really enjoys being the person everyone depends on. Shes already shown as she is incredibly confident, she can walk into any situation and trust her instincts to get through, that she is willing to reinvent herself if that is what it takes. She really is not going to wait for permission from anybody to do anything that is necessary for herself. She is as wealthy women about town, she does not have to answer to anybody, this is a unique position in early 20th Century America because she does not have children, a husband, a chaperone. She has means, she can do whatever she wants at a time and place when women could not do whatever they wanted. She travels, she becomes a fashion plate. When she describes this era in her memoir she definitely shades the truth in this as well. She describes a european trip with her sister, bertha. She neglects to mention there were two men along on that trip and that the whole thing was kind of an extended double date. She is curating who she was at the time. And this is the moment when she meets Woodrow Wilson. There are letters back and forth are amazing. First of all, they are very racy, or at least his are often racy. He is saying you are so beautiful, wonderful, i want to kiss your eyelids she is saying, are you really going to fire William Jennings bryan . So what is going on in mexico. Have you written a response to the germans . She is asking him to get much more involved in his work. He is waxing eloquent about her beautiful form and how much he wants to kiss her on the lounge in the house and she is writing back saying, i really want to know what your doing. Finally she says all right, i love your romantic letters, any woman would, but i love is when you tell me what youre working on me and any woman would. She starts sending her huge packets. Correspondence, legislation, and she can keep up with what he is doing. She always claimed to not be political, which is laughable, but she is really interested and really smart. She really wants him to value her for her brain not just her looks. As mary mentioned, wilson was a man who depended on the council of women, and so he is desperate for her to play that role. And one more stroke where she telegraphed what she is doing, during the negotiations over the treaty of versailles they both go to paris. Unprecedented. No president had been gone more than to the panama canal to check on the progress, no first lady had gone out of the country while in office, ever. They were in paris for the better part of six months. She is not there as a plus one, she is in all of the pictures with the queen of england, with the leaders of the european nations. She elevates the role of first lady on an international stage. Wilson is shy and self conscious enough that he does not like walking into situations where he does not know what to do, and what the protocol is. She is happy to do all of that. She will wander in and ask, do we wear gloves with dinner . How do i address soandso . She speaks very eccentric french because of her grandmother taught it to her and her grandmother was self taught. She does not mind, she is happy to barrel in there and do what needs to be done. She is so charming and delightful and people respond to her. And the press of that visit, she is absolutely adored. You will hear more about her in the press in a minute. We now say that this is a woman who is smart, confident, willing to hide the truth of that is useful to her, fiercely, fiercely loyal to the people that she loves. And, willing to wander into a situation she knows very little about, whether it is running a Jewelry Store or being the first lady, and just trust herself to figure it out on the fly. So, when wilson collapses from a stroke in october of 1919 should not be expressed anybody. She hides the illness from the public, protects him at all costs, she said overtly i was fighting for my husband first, and then the president of the United States. She decides that she can figure out what legislation he needs to see, she can make the decisions about what needs to go to him and what does not. There are huge stacks of unopened mail discovered years later, stuff she decided to ignore. Which, of course, had its own consequences. She telegraphed who she was, fascinating, very smart, very complicated. That is why i am delighted that she is getting her do as a real, three dimensional person. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, that was fascinating. Wonderful pictures and a great discussion. So, now it is my turn to introduce our last, but certainly not least speaker. Stacy corderry, i would also like to invite everyone to participate in the email. First ladies 2021. First ladies, 2021, at gmail. Com. So, read an email, thank you so much. Hello, thank you for joining us and thank you to everyone who made this possible. My task today was to speak about edith wilson and the press. So, i would like to begin by suggesting that when edith became first lady in 1915, i do not think we can assume that she knew a great deal about what that meant. She wrote in her memoir the politics was not her strong suit and when she met wilson she had to bone up on her understanding of government. Today, incoming first spouses consider the history of first ladies and apparently most do to help them understand how to best take advantage of this unique position and tradition. Given Edith Wilsons lack of interest in politics, the relatively short time between when she met and married president wilson, the resources among the memoirs, it is highly unlikely that she knew much about how former first lady dealt with the crushing presence and expectations of the press. For example, she probably did not know that lucretia garfield, back in 1881, gave an interview to a press on a political topic. Instead, Edith Wilsons southern upbringing, her position as the widow of a prestigious Washington Store owner, plus, the gendered expectations of the progressive era, governed her relationship to the press. Which, as we know, did not end very well. I do not think it began very well either, as news leaked out that the widow gault and the president were getting serious, whispers swept around washington. But it was not until the engagement was announced in the fall of 1915 that the newspaper reporters pounced. Every first lady complaints about the on the presence of the media, they swift catapult to fame, and the loss of privacy. Edith wilson felt that way as well, when the notice of the official engagement was published she called it that day of readjustment to a new life. It would have taken her less than 24 hours to know, firsthand, that she had zero control over what the press wrote about her. In front of you are descriptions of edith galt. She is just past 40, it did not matter that she was almost 43 at the time, it was really nervy other newspapers. They will start to call her 38 years old within days. She is by no means small, this is another way to say that she was often said, which is that she was plump. She bears a striking resemblance to the first mrs. Wilson. Ouch, just ouch. She has unusual character. What does that even mean . Mrs. Galt was considered beautiful when a young girl. What about today . She has simple tastes, she likes baseball, although she does not really understand it very well, and she is not a society leader. There were certainly many nice things said about her as well, but these lightly stung and may not have given her the warm and fuzzy feeling about the press. Which may have been the genesis of this, from the Washington Post there fell on her the glare of the searchlight of the nation, and she is shrinking from it like a child afraid of a storm. When she encountered journalist she smiled a lot, she bowed to them, waved her bouquets at them, she appeared friendly but dependent upon and old understanding that women where private people, as opposed to man who were Public People the. This meant she did not expect the press to ask her opinion, nor did she believe she should give it. Times were changing and there were a number of women who wanted to be quoted by the newspapers, active in suffrage. But not mrs. Galt. Early on she said, i am of no importance and the less the newspapers print about me in the present time, the more i will appreciate their kindness to me, and so, i am sure, will the president. And, apparently, the wilsons were serious. Because, during their honeymoon this sentence was given in the Washington Post. Warning has been given today that the publication of snapshot secured of the president and mrs. Wilson will be published by abrogation of white house privileges. As we know, edith once married to wilson, fiercely protective his health. This is partly why she accompanied him when he traveled. And, when she did so the press covered her dress, her actions, and, in an elaborate exercise in semiotics, tried to read her for what they could glean about the president she did travel with him, both before and after the United States became involved in world war i. So much so that she was, according to the Washington Post, a more Constant Companion to the president than the wife of any chief executive hitherto. She was always with him, golfing nearly every morning, driving together every afternoon, attending the theater several times a week. The first couple reviewed the preparedness. They laid cornerstones and wreaths, they attended official events, this was all part of her taking care of wilsons health. Which was a natural and expected part of being a wife in that era. She was a positive press coverage for things like standing beside the president when he took the oath of office, riding with him to the capitol during the 1916 inaugural parade. And another first lady first, she attended press coverage in new york and chicago with the president. When she took to the campaign trail along with wilson no journalists complained. They were used to seeing the pair together. When the United States joined the first world war, edith wilson made admiring headlines for her red cross work, sewing sheets and pajamas, standing at the president s side to review a red cross parade or attend a wet red cross ball. There was also very good press for her autographing a baseball which was auctioned off to support the red cross, although i have to tell you that the first ladys baseball only garnered 1400 dollars, and the president s got over 5000. She was also praised reliving sheep graze on the white house grounds so that they could be shorn, and their fleece auctioned off to help the red cross. Being a Constant Companion included her going overseas with wilson as he took it upon himself the peace treaty negotiations she was only the third first lady to leave the country, and the first one to go to europe. She was much lauded for her appropriate wartime frugality regarding what she spent on her gowns. And for taking gowns made in america with her. And, once in europe, for visiting american soldiers in the red cross hospitals, and blind soldiers in the American Hospital in paris, for distributing sweets to orphans. For presenting flowers to american canteen workers in france. And, for meeting with royalty etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Of course, it would have been unpatriotic to print anything bad about the first lady during that long and important trip. Overall, and despite an imperfect beginning, it is fair to say that Edith Wilsons press coverage was extremely positive. Journalist kept their unspoken bargain of the era, not insisting on interviews, not quoting her, focusing their stories on her good works and her role as wilsons Constant Companion. And she kept her, she did not expect to be interviewed or quoted, and she was gracious as she accompanied the president. Right now pointed to step out of that decades traditional, gendered role. She had no cause, as first lady, beyond her husband, and she never spot the spotlight or used her position as a bully pulpit. Is when the wilsons return to the United States and embark upon a trip to drum up support on the treaty of versailles in 1919 that Edith Wilsons relationship with the press began to diminish. It did so because it was connected to the role she had always played. The private and Constant Companion who guarded her husbands health. After his Health Failed on that western trip, the first lady remain silent about his initial collapse. As wilsons doctor suggested, they returned to washington early. There, wilson suffered a severe stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Edith wilson then made a series of other decisions that were controversial in that day, and remain so today. She made the decision that he should not resign, even when his illness lengthen from days, to weeks, to months. She kept silent about the gravity of his illness, telling as a public, nor congress, nor even wilson himself. She decided not to tell the press much at all about the status of the president s health, and, when it had to be mentioned it must be minimized. As his Constant Companion, solely on the lookout for what his best interest was, she felt she was doing the right thing and was unapologetic about it in her memoir. She never broke out of that gendered, traditional relationship with the press. She was not a suffragist, she was not used to speaking to reporters. Despite the fact, the very clear fact that she was dealing with an emergency of enormous proportions, and global impact. She did not step across that private public line. She did not provide updates on wilsons health, and consistently stated his condition as if it were only a private issue this, after she stood next to him as he had been awarded and fawned over by europe. It is not like she, who had been with him every step of the way, did not know the International Status and importance. Edith wilsons insistence to keep him and all americans, indeed, all of the world in the dark was what wilsons biographer, john milton cooper, labeled a coverup. According to ediths biographer, christy miller, wilsons declining health cost behavioral disturbances that would have huge implications in the league of nations. Im not an apologist for edith wilson, but her not engaging with or speaking to the press was completely in keeping with how she had dealt with the press from the very beginning. Why would she change . Of course, the reason to change is because it was absolutely an emergency situation. Prioritizing her husbands health over the countrys welfare, and her reluctance to speak out, have been interpreted as a power grab. It was, at the very least, a terrible series of decisions for the country. Christine miller found that Edith Wilsons actions had a long influence, including the 1967 passage of the 25th amendment, detailing that the Vice President and no one else would govern if the president is incapacitated. Why . Why did edith wilson lie to the press . To conclude, i will suggest three reasons, although there are undoubtedly more. First, edith and Woodrow Wilson were products of their times. A lady did not engage with the third state second, unlike first couples, edith did not have the deep understanding of politics that nearly all other first ladies had, by virtue of a long marriage and a shared political march toward the white house. Edith knew arguably less than any other first lady than Young Frances cleveland because they had been married only three years in summer months before his illness began. Third, edith and woodrow married late and life and for the second time. They were still pretty much in their honeymoon phase, her focus never wavered from protecting him. The repercussions from her decisions touch how we view the action of the first lady, and act as a warning to every first lady down to our own day. Power, and the first lady, have been and uncomfortable pairing ever since edith wilson. Of course, first ladies are neither elected nor appointed. But, Many Americans are made uncomfortable by the proximity of family members to the president. While he, the president , is grateful for the support of family members that he can trust, and ideally he can and will tell him honestly when something he is contemplating is a bad idea, it is simultaneously true that those same family members have the most to protect, the most to lose, the most reasons to forego transparency, and the greatest likelihood of making terrible decisions, even if, out of an abundance of love. Thank you. Thank you so much, stacey. Such a set of enlightening and enjoyable presentations. We have a whole new sense of edith wilson thanks to the wonderful research of our speakers tonight. I am looking forward to your thoughts, those of you who are listening with us tonight if you would like to send in your questions if you have not already. We have about ten minutes and we would love to entertain them and we will also probably have some questions amongst ourselves. So, i would love to hear if there are any questions, we would certainly like to consider them for the speakers. Hold on a second, i think i have a text message. Shall i ask a question when you are looking for that, nancy . Now, actually, i will ask a question to you all if you will allow me, historians say that because edith controlled access to Woodrow Wilson, she did not really allow the Vice President to have much access to wilson. That she facilitated the defeat of the league of nations i am interested in the panelists thoughts, is that an unfair assessment . How do you feel about that . I think it is, i think the cards were stacked against wilson. You cant just look at what she did, or wilson, as i see her in her role as chief of staff. She told the Vice President , you know. You have pretty much the hostess, you on life can take over that functional i will do the rest in my opinion, in my opinion the treaty of versailles and lake of nations was going down no matter what. It was a question of, i think, lodge leading both republican supporters in lockstep. And also, progressive democrats who were tired of war and violence. It was going down and he had lost the whole congress. It had gone republican, i think wilson takes a chance and edith wilson supports it. If you are so strong, maybe you will break the opposition. I think the tide was turning against him. The Progressive Movement american on the world stage. She stepped in and said she thought he could compromise. She came forward and said, i think he should. The more i study, the air that is coming and that continued battle between lodge and his philosophy, which will donate much of the twenties and wilson. I do not think it was totally his fault, i do not think it would have passed. That is my considered opinion after the study these many years. I totally agree with mary but to be fair the Vice President wanted no part of it. Thomas marshall was put on the ticket to get the Electoral College votes of indiana. He was a bit of a clown, he was great with a one liner and super charming at parties. He wanted no part of the presidency and he certainly wanted no part of being seen as a usurper. Before the 25th amendment, when it was so muddy about what happened with an incapacitated president , he was in danger of being seen as taking power that he was not titled to. So, he made it clear from the very beginning that he and let me know if you will see as that death stormed one need to take over the presidency, please keep me in the loop, and they were great about that because the thought he was a clown. It is not like Thomas Marshall was stepping up and saying give me the responsibility, i will take it. Yes, just to buttress that point, remember Theodore Roosevelt who was chomping at the bit to be president for my fairly young age, when mckinley was assassinated. He was scarce, he did not appear in buffalo until the president was at that store. The Vice President and Wilsons Administration high tough road ahead that way. And, i always say if i could write about these three man not fdr, teddy roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and henry gavel lodge. I know it is very dramatic in the twilight of the gods, this was a colossal battle in American History. I hope now, with the suffering in ukraine, we understand it was not just isolated in 1960 and the 1920s. It is a battle of what is americas role on the world stage. Wilson has made that colossal jump to, we have to get out there, it sounds so tinny, make the world safe for democracy but it is happening right now. There was a Great Movement in American History not to go in that direction. He was wrong and he had gone away past what an american president should do. That is the lodge end of things. It was a colossal battle. I keep thinking about both of my fellow historians must know this. When johnson comes to the white house to do the painting of wilson and he is entertained by edith, and woodrow, they said, what is wrong with him, he is acting crazy. He has been sent in by henry lodge to paint something demonic and animallike in wilsons portrait. He goes back to lodge and goes, there is nothing animal like or dark or evil about this man. That is the level of visceral hatred on all sides in this. We have certainly seen visceral hatred as grown women. Im going to jump in if i can, thank you, i just want to make sure that if we had any questions from the audience we can hear those, nancy . I also just wanted to mention before you go on the people are, and i know we are running close on time, if people are interested in learning more about edith and other southern first ladies, this book is a wonderful resource and several of our panelists are involved with it. I hope very much you will consider. It is probably backwards. Anyway, thank you. A question that we have, to what changing ideas about women over the course of the past 100 years shaped or reshaped our view of edith wilson . That is a really interesting question. I think there are a couple of things there. I think we are more willing to admire her ambition, rather than downplay her ambition. I guess i think that in general, and i applaud this, we are all getting away from the hall of fame model of history right that it is just the gray in the good. It is very malecentric, they were the ones that were able to hold the offices that let you into this hall of fame. Also, it is really bad history you know . Thinking of these people plus, its kind of boring. Saints are boring i think the idea of a flawed, complicated, wellintentioned making bad mistakes with large consequences is a story we want to hear more of. We are less driven to just put our historical figures up on pedestals. I hope that is the case. Can i say quickly, i dont know and things have changed that much . I dont i see female leaders, i think of nancy pelosi pummeled and not given the credit that she is due. She does more than anybody else and she is at the bottom of the heat. Right across the border from governor whitmore. We have militiamen trying to murder her. There is still a dark cast in america thinking that women cannot be leaders. We somehow still have to be feminine, good, and sweet i think it haunts all of us to this day. Until i started thinking about edith wilson, i didnt realize how much it affected all of us. I hope that it changes, i hope it is changing over the next hundred years. I wanted to bring up something. May i ask a question, nancy . Absolutely just to build on what you said, i would love to hear what you have to say about this, all of our panelists. You had alluded to this, briefly, mary, in your presentation i think, rebecca, what you are saying as well builds on this. It is looking at these first ladies not necessarily in a hagiographic way but as complicated people. I see this with florence harding, she definitely had some flaws, as people do. Edith hated it. [laughs] one of the issues that came up was of course the background. You can qualify this, edith as a southern woman. From a girl to a teenager to the robert e. Lee statue being raised in richmond. She continued to have real problematic views her whole life. I wondered if anyone wanted to comment on that. This is obviously a topic that is very much in our minds. I appreciate hear what you said. Certainly, it is not all that she is but it is a piece i would love to hear, maybe start with you if you could, stacey, to hear what you think about that. Or anyone else, of course join in. I will be quiet until you tell me to talk. [laughs] stacy, you are muted. Sorry, sorry. I am muting only to say that i dont have a lot to say on the topic. So, go ahead rebecca, mary. I would say that not only was she a southern woman, she was a southern woman raised during reconstruction. That is vital to understanding who she was. She, her family, we were a plantation slave owning. Descended from pocahontas. First families of virginia. That james river basin well see planters when they lost the civil war and they had to pay their labor they lost their plantation and they came down in the world. Not only did she have a southern sensibility in terms of how she was raised, all of these lost cost narratives that she was absolutely raced with. She believed that she deserved into her childhood than she had. That becomes clear, very clear in her memoirs. It is not just the region, it is the time, as well. You cringe at her description of how the happy slaves were well taken care of and how distraught they were after they were freed. She wrote her memoir in 1938, right . She was a rebel confederate in sensibility until the very end. One thing that surprised me about her, this is something we had to remember, her time period the three hated groups where the blacks, catholics, and jews. She hated catholics. That is another southern thing. We now think white people are all happy together, no, they werent there were different kinds of white. She was the good why. The way that was just describing, coming from that english anglosaxon purity. She cannot contain her dislike of the catholic church. She hates all of these are with catholics. Wilson is brought into his administration, she doesnt like the are with catholic secret serviceman. She will not go near the pope i am not meeting the pope she laughs at the french and the belgian soldiers with their root faces. She is taking around all the catholic cathedrals that are destroyed and she just shakes her head, she doesnt care she has to change. She has to change because wilson helps the catholics in central europe, the jews and catholics in europe, the armenians, he helps everybody after he dies, she is exhausted. She goes to a great catholic monument, over to mount st. Michel. She will spend much of the saint of her life saying i am irish on one side, poland czech on the other. They love wilson to this day. She had to go listen to all these catholic people who loved him for saving their nation. To her credit, she came around to alphas candidacy in 1928. She thought how antique it all says them against him was bigoted and unfair. She did evolve. She evolves but its so terrible to say blacks were hated, jews were hated, catholics were hated. Hatred is always so much wider than one group. I think at the end of her memoir i was like, i have to put this down just as you described it, that world she came out of, catholics were hated. She had to grow out of that the way wilson had to grow out of hating catholics. Bringing catholics and jews into his administration. And desegregating washington d. C. Whats interesting to me is the relationship between the first lady and the president. Who influences who . Which way does it go . What role does edith upbringing, as rebecca and you have described it, play in wilsons own actions in allowing for the resegregation of washington d. C. This is interesting. This is why i like studying both parts of the couples to understand how that happens. One question, i keep saying to myself, was it edith or was it . Lets not forget ellen. Policy started before edith. Go to that wilson house in washington d. C. , there is a wonderful lady who does a wonderful tour. She struggles with all of these questions. I took the tour in october, she was stunning go there, they are doing all these displays on edith and racism and stuff. Thank you, thank, you these are wonderful recommendations. I am still thinking about the stuff do we need to wrap things up . I do. It has been a wonderful panel. I know i have so enjoyed it. I learned so much she is such a divisive person in terms of how people feel aut her. I think that you helped set the record straight. American history tv, saturdays on cspan two, exploring the people and events who tell the american story. At 8 pm eastern, on lectures in history, kermit roosevelt, university of pennsylvania law professor and descendant of Theodore Roosevelt, argues that modern america traces its political sentiments to lincoln and the reconstruction area rather than the founding fathers. At 9 30 pm eastern on the presidency, historian david petruso looks at depression era america during the his 1936 landslide election with his book roosevelt sweeps the nati. Exploring the amican story. Watch American History tv saturdays on cspan two. Find a full schedule on your Program Guide or watch online anytime at cspan. Org slash history
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