First Inaugural Address

Summary

Woodrow Wilson took the oath on the East Portico on 4 March 1913, the first Democrat inaugurated since Grover Cleveland in 1893. He had won the 1912 election against a Republican Party split between William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive campaign, and his party now controlled both houses of Congress as well. He opens by asking what the "change of government" means and answers that it means more than "the mere success of a party." The speech moves from praise to confession. American life is great in wealth, in energy, in voluntary charity, and in a system of government long admired abroad. "But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded." Waste of natural resources, the "human cost" borne in mines and factories, and a government "too often" used for private and selfish purposes are named in turn. Wilson then itemizes what he means to change: the tariff, the banking and currency system, an industrial order that restricts labor and squanders resources, neglected agriculture, and untended forests and waterways. He insists these are matters of justice, not sentiment: "The firm basis of government is justice, not pity." Sanitary laws, pure food laws, and laws on conditions of labor belong to "the very business of justice." Yet the method is to "restore, not destroy," working "step by step" on the economy as it actually is. The close lifts the program into a vow: "This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication." Wilson summons "all honest men" to his side and ends, "God helping me," with a promise not to fail them. Readers can weigh his confidence that federal power can serve justice against older republican fears of concentrated authority.

Plot or Argument

• What the change means

  Wilson asks what Democratic control of the presidency and both houses of Congress signifies and answers that the nation is using a party to interpret a change in its own outlook.

• Greatness and its costs

  He praises American wealth, energy, charity, and government, then names inexcusable waste, the human cost of industry, and government bent to private purposes.

• The itemized program

  Tariff, banking and currency, industrial organization, agriculture, conservation, and laws on health and labor are listed as matters of justice to be handled step by step.

• A day of dedication

  Reform is cast as a task that searches the nation's heart; Wilson summons honest and forward-looking citizens and vows, God helping him, not to fail them.

Lessons

• Counting the human cost

  Wilson's central confession is that Americans measured production and forgot the lives "snuffed out" and energies "overtaxed and broken" in mines and factories. The lesson is moral bookkeeping: national greatness must be weighed by what it costs persons, not only by output.

  • Which costs does Wilson list, and from what places does he say the "groans and agony" had not yet reached the nation's ears?
  • Why does he begin with praise of American greatness before naming its evils?
  • Is counting the human cost a duty of government, of citizens, or of both, according to the speech?

• Justice, not pity

  Wilson refuses to call health and labor laws charity. He grounds them in justice: society must not "crush or weaken or damage its own constituent parts." Students can examine whether this argument changes the meaning of reform or only its label.

  • What is the difference between a policy grounded in pity and one grounded in justice?
  • How does Wilson connect equality of opportunity with protection from industrial processes individuals cannot control?
  • Why does he insist on keeping "the old-fashioned, never-to-be-neglected, fundamental safeguarding of property"?

• Restoration, not revolution

  The program promises to "restore, not destroy" and to deal with the economy as it is, not as if writing on "a clean sheet of paper." That claim invites comparison with older republican cautions about federal power and with what Wilson's first term actually enacted.

  • What does Wilson mean by a "work of restoration," and what is being restored?
  • Where does the speech guard against haste, and where does it welcome a large expansion of federal responsibility?
  • Would Jefferson in 1801 have recognized Wilson's claim that "the first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves"?

Context

Wilson came to office after two decades of muckraking journalism, labor conflict, and state-level reform. The Sixteenth Amendment, permitting a federal income tax, had been ratified in February 1913, and the Seventeenth, providing for direct election of senators, followed in April. Within his first term Congress passed the Underwood Tariff, the Federal Reserve Act, and the Clayton Antitrust Act, carrying out much of the inaugural's list.

Composition

Wilson, who drafted his own speeches, delivered the address on the East Portico of the Capitol on 4 March 1913 after Chief Justice Edward Douglass White administered the oath. The text stored here follows the Project Gutenberg transcription (#4938).

Reception

The address is often cited as a summary of the New Freedom program and for its contrast between triumph and dedication. Assessments of the reforms it announced, and of the administration's record in other areas, belong to the histories of his presidency.

Comparisons

• Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt)

  Roosevelt's brief 1905 address speaks of the strains of industrial civilization in general terms; Wilson in 1913 lists specific reforms and calls them matters of justice, showing two Progressive presidents of different parties and voices.

• First Inaugural Address (Jefferson)

  Jefferson's "wise and frugal Government" that restrains men from injuring one another is a useful foil for Wilson's view that "the first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves."

• Inaugural Address (Calvin Coolidge)

  Coolidge in 1925 praises economy and restraint in federal action after a decade of Wilsonian expansion; reading him after Wilson tests both men's claims about what government owes citizens.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening question "What does the change mean?" and how Wilson answers it.
• The sentence "But the evil has come with the good," which turns praise into confession.
• The itemized list of reforms and the claim that they are "matters of justice."
• The closing contrast between triumph and dedication, and the summons to "all honest men."

Key terms and names

New Freedom

Wilson's 1912 program of tariff reduction, banking reform, and antitrust action meant to restore competition.

Tariff

A tax on imports; Wilson argues the existing tariff served private interests and cut the country off from world commerce.

Conservation

Careful use and renewal of forests, water, and minerals; Wilson laments "inexcusable waste."

Pure food laws

Statutes such as the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act regulating the safety of food and medicine, which Wilson counts as part of justice.

Progressive Era

Roughly 1890-1920, when reformers in both parties sought remedies for industrial abuses and political corruption.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What kinds of greatness does Wilson attribute to American life before he names its evils?
2. Comprehension List four items from Wilson's catalogue of things "that ought to be altered."
3. Interpretation Why does Wilson say the Nation is "using" the Democratic Party, and what does that imply about parties?
4. Interpretation How does the image of "the solemn, moving undertone of our life" rising from mines and factories shape the argument?
5. Interpretation What work does the phrase "justice, not pity" do in defending health and labor laws?
6. Big Question Can a government shield citizens from great industrial and social processes without becoming the concentrated power the founders feared?
7. Big Question Wilson pictures justice and mercy reconciled where "the judge and the brother are one." Is that a fitting image for civil government, or only for God?

Faith Connections

• Isaiah 1:16-17 (Scripture)

  Isaiah's summons to "cease to do evil; learn to do well" parallels Wilson's language of cleansing and restoration, though the prophet speaks to a covenant people about their sin before God.

• Psalm 85:10 (Scripture)

  Wilson's image of a place "where justice and mercy are reconciled" echoes the psalm in which mercy and truth meet; students can ask whether a political program can embody what the psalm ascribes to God's salvation.

• Aristotle, Politics I and III (Great Conversation)

  Aristotle's claim that the city exists for living well, not merely for living, gives a classical frame for Wilson's argument that law must keep sound the society it serves.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The 1912 change of government means the nation has seen its life whole, good and evil together; it must therefore restore justice through specific, gradual reforms that protect persons and resources without destroying enterprise or property.

Rhetorical device: antithesis. "This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication," and "We shall restore, not destroy."

Debate: Resolved: that health and labor laws are matters of justice rather than charity, as Wilson argued in 1913.

Memory Work

human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through

That is the question that is uppermost in our minds to-day

Writing Prompts

Essay: Using two quotations, explain how Wilson turns a party victory into a moral summons, and judge whether his list of reforms fits the moral language.

Comparison with Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt): Compare how Roosevelt in 1905 and Wilson in 1913 describe the problems of industrial America and the duties they assign to citizens.

Medical Lens

Presidential inaugurals concern constitutional politics and national crisis; they have no medical content for this library's lens.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Take Wilson's list of things "that ought to be altered" and match each item to a law passed between 1913 and 1916; note any item left without a match.

• Dialogue

  A coal miner's wife and a Pennsylvania mill owner read the "human cost" passage in a newspaper on 5 March 1913 and argue about what Washington should do.

• Essay

  Argue for or against Wilson's claim that "the first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves," using his address and Jefferson's first inaugural.

Further Reading

• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, Avalon Project / GPO

  Parallel official texts for classroom comparison.

• The Rhetorical Presidency, Jeffrey K. Tulis

  A study of how inaugural and other presidential speech reshaped the office.

• Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, John Milton Cooper Jr.

  A full modern life that places the 1913 address within the New Freedom program and the first-term legislation.