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As the head of the government of the United States, the president is arguably the most powerful government official in the world. The president is elected to a four-year term via an electoral college system. Since the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted in 1951, the American presidency has been limited to a maximum of two terms.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Overview
- Wilson’s “New Freedom”
- The campaign and election
United States presidential election of 1916, American presidential election held on November 7, 1916, in which Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson defeated Republican Charles Evan Hughes in the electoral college 277–254.
Though his election in 1912 was largely attributable to the formation of the Bull Moose Party (officially, the Progressive Party) from the Republican Party’s more liberal elements and the subsequent split in voting, Wilson’s first term was marked by a raft of popular progressive legislation that left him well positioned to win a second term. The Underwood Tariff Act of 1913 reduced the rates set by the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 from 40 percent to 25 percent, greatly enlarged the list of untaxed goods, and included a modest income tax. Also in 1913 he shepherded the Federal Reserve Act through Congress, creating the Federal Reserve System in order to mobilize banking reserves and issue a flexible new currency—federal reserve notes—based on gold and commercial paper. A third victory came with passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914), which strengthened existing laws against anticompetitive business actions and gave labour unions relief from court injunctions. Accompanying this act was one creating the Federal Trade Commission, intended to prevent unfair business practices.
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Wilson further augmented this “New Freedom” package in 1916 with several pieces of legislation that were intended to attract defectors from the disintegrating Bull Moose Party in his upcoming reelection bid. Among them were laws to create an agency to regulate overseas shipping, to make the first government loans to farmers (a move that marked a reversal of his previous position), to prohibit child labour (later ruled unconstitutional), to raise income and inheritance taxes, and to mandate an eight-hour workday for railroad workers. Wilson was renominated without issue by the Democrats at their convention in St. Louis in June, as was his vice president, Thomas Marshall.
Wilson, who authored the Democratic platform himself, campaigned on the record of his previous administration, particularly stressing the fact that he had maintained a neutral foreign policy in respect to World War I, which had broken out in July 1914. Though as an incumbent he kept with the tradition of “front porch” campaigning, a range of surrogates traveled the country on his behalf, trumpeting his accomplishments through speeches and the distribution of massive quantities of campaign literature. (“He kept us out of war” was a favoured slogan.) His attempts to court African American voters, to whom he had promised a “fair deal” in 1912 before endorsing segregation after attaining office, were nominal at best. He also refused to support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing woman suffrage.
Hughes waged a highly active campaign, but his wooden presence failed to excite the electorate. He criticized Wilson’s neutrality on the conflict in Europe despite the fact that the public sentiment was decidedly antiwar. The Republican also harped on Wilson’s failed efforts to overthrow the military dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta in Mexico and his acquiescence to Philippine autonomy as spelled out in the Jones Act of 1916. Unlike his opponent, Hughes did endorse woman suffrage. Political record aside, the Republicans did not hesitate to impugn Wilson’s moral fibre; they called attention to his swift remarriage following his first wife’s death in August 1914. Hughes’s failure to galvanize his party was not only due to his tepid personality. He did not court the progressive members of his party who had returned, notably snubbing Hiram Johnson, governor of California, when he campaigned there.
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Wilson ultimately prevailed, though the election was much closer than anticipated. (It was so close, in fact, that in the event of a Republican victory, Wilson had planned to appoint Hughes secretary of state and then resign along with Marshall so that Hughes could immediately accede to the presidency.) Wilson garnered 49.4 percent of the popular vote and 277 electoral votes. Hughes trailed with 46.2 percent of the popular vote and 254 electoral votes. For all his protestations of neutrality, Wilson was unable to forestall the entry of the United States into World War I and asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917.
For the results of the previous election, see United States presidential election of 1912. For the results of the subsequent election, see United States presidential election of 1920.
- Richard Pallardy
Jul 25, 2023 · Presidential Election of 1916: A Resource Guide. Woodrow Wilson was reelected president in 1916, defeating Republican challenger Charles Evans Hughes. This guide provides access to digital materials at the Library of Congress, links to external websites, and a print bibliography.
The 1916 United States presidential election was the 33rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1916. Incumbent Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeated former associate justice of the Supreme Court Charles Evans Hughes , the Republican candidate.
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Woodrow Wilson’s second term and the First World War. Wilson ran unopposed in the Democratic primaries for the 1916 presidential election, on a platform emphasizing Progressive goals such as better protections for female workers, the elimination of child labor, and the establishment of a minimum wage.
Issues of the Day: World War I (U.S. Neutrality) Results of the presidential election of 1916, won by Woodrow Wilson with 277 electoral votes.
Apr 13, 2020 · The Presidential Election of 1916 was the closest electoral election in United States history at the time. Woodrow Wilson narrowly won a 2nd term.
