On a railroad car named “Mayflower,” headed to California in September 1919 for a presidential speaking tour, first lady Edith Bolling Galt Wilson felt trapped. She was loyal to President Woodrow Wilson’s mission to rally the American people for his League of Nations proposal after World War I. On the other hand, her husband’s health was noticeably failing, and she feared for his life.
Loyalty was a strong character trait Mrs. Wilson had consistently displayed throughout the years with her family, including an invalid grandmother that she helped care for each day. Her fortitude was put to the test again when her first husband, Norman Galt, died suddenly in January 1908 in his early 40s and left his business and debts to his widow. The Galts were an affluent family in Washington, D.C., owners of the Galt & Bro. jewelry business and considered one of the most prominent families in the capital city.
The new widow became a business owner in a day and time when women didn’t even have the right to vote. She was faced with the decision to continue the business alone, take on a partner, or close the doors on the popular shop that had served notable customers such as Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Alexander Graham Bell.
Brokering World Peace
Although President Wilson’s health and stamina were visibly diminished in his second term, the 63-year-old politician and former educator decided to take to the rails on a speech-making tour to the West. He had placed himself in the self-appointed position of trying to broker world peace after the Great War, and he and the first lady, who was always at his side, had already spent a grueling six months in Paris negotiating the Treaty of Versailles for the victorious Allies.The president relied heavily on his second wife and had taken her into confidence with most every aspect of his job, including reading dispatches from around the world together. Mrs. Wilson wrote in her memoir that he would clarify each problem for her and then outline the way he planned to meet it. She not only was a confidante but also took on the duty of decoding top secret memorandums.
Mrs. Wilson, along with the president’s private secretary Joseph Tumulty and his personal physician Dr. Cary Grayson, was not in favor of the Western speaking tour to rally national support for the League of Nations proposal, which was receiving pushback and opposition from the Senate. However, even prior to his political career as president of Princeton University, Wilson was extremely set in his opinions, thought his ideas were the best, and set out to enforce them at any cost. At the university, he butted heads with the students, the administration, and the traditions. He did not like compromise and would sacrifice overall success if his ideas were not carried out in every particular detail. He wouldn’t hear of canceling the speaking tour and trying to override the Senate’s opposition to his world peace plan.
The President’s Health Takes a Turn
President Wilson began to experience excruciating headaches on the trip. His breathing became difficult, and he experienced fits of choking. He tried to sleep by being propped up with pillows in a chair. His supporters began to fear that he would collapse at any moment. Early one morning near Wichita, Kansas, Dr. Grayson called the speaking tour off. The president could hardly breathe, muscles in his face were twitching, and he was extremely nauseated. The first lady knew they were facing something terrible, and the night was the longest and most heartbreaking of her life. The next day, Tumulty announced to the press that President Wilson had suffered a severe nervous attack. Orders were flashed to clear the train tracks, and the Mayflower began to speed back to Washington, D.C.An air of secrecy and seclusion began, with Dr. Grayson and Mrs. Wilson working together to provide a shield for the president. She knew after the long night on the train that life would never be the same. Something broke inside her, and she decided from that hour forward to not reveal the truth to the public or her husband, as she didn’t want him to know how ill he was. She decided, as she did many times in her past, that she would be the one to carry on. The doctor believed that only a complete, extended rest would cure President Wilson and allow him to resume charge of the nation. Dr. Grayson was determined to keep the president at the White House, and he announced that the first lady would be in complete charge of nursing her husband. She began to screen his visitors and correspondence and answer queries when she didn’t want to bother the president, even telling a secret agent of the British government with important news for the president that she would receive it for him and never allowing a meeting between the two men.
Within a few weeks of returning to the White House, President Wilson suffered a stroke in the early morning of October 2, 1919. Doctors swarmed in, but no information leaked out. Ike Hoover, chief usher (head of the household staff and operations), said this was the beginning of the deception of the American people. He had been outside the bedroom door when Dr. Grayson emerged after examining his patient and cried out, “My God, the president is paralyzed.” The doctor transformed the White House into a hospital and fashioned news releases to shield the president’s true medical condition and the severity of it.
Mrs. Wilson’s ‘Stewardship’
Dr. Francis X. Dercum, a leading neurologist and consulting physician, leaned toward Mrs. Wilson and confided his faith in her to be able to solve the challenge. He suggested that everything come to her and she decide the importance of each matter—to consult with the respective heads of all the departments and see what could be solved without bothering the president. She felt the gravity of the situation and thought it better that President Wilson resign and let the Vice President, Thomas R. Marshall, assume the presidency. The doctor disagreed, feeling that a resignation by the president would have a bad effect on the country and her husband. Dr. Dercum reminded the first lady that her husband had the utmost confidence in her.She was aware of public affairs and had studied history and politics. At the doctor’s urging, Mrs. Wilson began what she called her “stewardship.” She claimed to have never made a single decision herself, although her critics accused her of assuming power. Their calls and pleas to Vice President Marshall went unanswered, as he and the president had never worked closely together, and Marshall believed his office was not politically significant. He wrote in his autobiography that he “was of no importance to the administration beyond the duty of being loyal to it” and “chose what I thought to be the better part: to acknowledge the insignificant influence of the office.”
Vice President Marshall also wrote that the months were not pleasant during President Wilson’s illness. “The standing joke of the country is that the only business of the vice-president is to ring the White House bell every morning and ask what is the state of health of the president. … I never have wanted his shoes,” he said.
And so, first lady Edith Bolling Galt Wilson continued her “stewardship.” The White House Archives documents that after President Wilson suffered a severe stroke, she prescreened all matters of state, functionally running the executive branch of government for the remainder of Wilson’s second term. It wasn’t until February 1967, however, that Congress ratified the 25th Amendment to address presidential disability and succession. Section 3 calls for the vice president to assume the powers of presidency.
This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
