Post by men an tol on Aug 16, 2016 21:31:44 GMT -5
We have had a form of a directly active first lady with Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (born October 15, 1872 – December 28, 1961), She was the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson, was First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921. She met the President in March 1915 and they married nine months later.
As President, Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke in October 1919. As the president lay recuperating in a bed in the White House, Edith Wilson began to screen ‘all’ matters of state and decided which were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. In doing so, she de facto ran the executive branch of the government for the remainder of the president's second term, until March 1921. What the country had was an unelected President. Even though it was the responsibility for others in the government to have the President medically checked to see if he could perform his job, she protected him from that examination.
The social aspect of the administration was overshadowed by war in Europe and abandoned after the United States formally entered the conflict in 1917, and she became the first person besides the President to receive permanent full-time Secret Service protection. She accompanied him to Europe when the Allies conferred on terms of peace, the first such trip for a U.S. President while in office.
Following the Paris Peace Conference, President Wilson returned to campaign for Senate approval of the peace treaty and the League of Nations Covenant. In October, a stroke left him partly paralyzed. The United States never did ratify the Treaty of Versailles nor join the League of Nations, which had initially been Wilson's concept.
Edith Wilson took over many routine duties and details of the Executive branch of the government. She decided which matters of state were important enough to bring to the bedridden president.
In later years she wrote of her role "I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators, and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband." One Republican senator labeled her "the Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of the suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man.” In “My Memoir”, published in 1939, she called her role a "stewardship" and insisted that her actions had been taken only because the president's doctors told her to do so for her husband's mental health. Some historians take issue with her version of events, such as journalist Phyllis Lee Levin. She wrote that Edith Wilson was "a woman of narrow views and formidable determination."
As President, Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke in October 1919. As the president lay recuperating in a bed in the White House, Edith Wilson began to screen ‘all’ matters of state and decided which were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. In doing so, she de facto ran the executive branch of the government for the remainder of the president's second term, until March 1921. What the country had was an unelected President. Even though it was the responsibility for others in the government to have the President medically checked to see if he could perform his job, she protected him from that examination.
The social aspect of the administration was overshadowed by war in Europe and abandoned after the United States formally entered the conflict in 1917, and she became the first person besides the President to receive permanent full-time Secret Service protection. She accompanied him to Europe when the Allies conferred on terms of peace, the first such trip for a U.S. President while in office.
Following the Paris Peace Conference, President Wilson returned to campaign for Senate approval of the peace treaty and the League of Nations Covenant. In October, a stroke left him partly paralyzed. The United States never did ratify the Treaty of Versailles nor join the League of Nations, which had initially been Wilson's concept.
Edith Wilson took over many routine duties and details of the Executive branch of the government. She decided which matters of state were important enough to bring to the bedridden president.
In later years she wrote of her role "I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators, and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband." One Republican senator labeled her "the Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of the suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man.” In “My Memoir”, published in 1939, she called her role a "stewardship" and insisted that her actions had been taken only because the president's doctors told her to do so for her husband's mental health. Some historians take issue with her version of events, such as journalist Phyllis Lee Levin. She wrote that Edith Wilson was "a woman of narrow views and formidable determination."
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