# Woodrow Wilson: the New Freedom, the war, and the myths

The progressive president who gave America the Federal Reserve, took it into the Great War, and dreamed of the League of Nations: his adviser Colonel House, the segregation of the government, the hidden presidency after his stroke, and the myths that later grew around him.

## 1913 — Colonel House, Wilson's silent partner

Edward M. House, a Texan who held no office and went by the honorary title Colonel, became Wilson's closest adviser and personal envoy, shaping foreign policy and the peace talks. His novel Philip Dru imagined a benevolent dictator remaking America, which later writers seized on; his real power, though, was simply that of a trusted confidant.

## 1913 — The myth of Wilson the Freemason

Woodrow Wilson is often listed among Masonic presidents, but he was not a Freemason. A devout Presbyterian and the son of a minister, he held no Masonic membership; the claim is a persistent and documented error.

## 1913 — Wilson segregates the federal government

Soon after taking office, Wilson's administration segregated federal offices and workplaces and pushed Black civil servants out of their posts. He also screened the pro-Klan film The Birth of a Nation at the White House. It was among the darkest parts of a self-styled progressive presidency.

## 23 December 1913 — Federal Reserve Act signed

President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act, creating a central bank for the United States. The new system underpins the dollar's rise to global dominance.

## 1916 — The fabricated Federal Reserve regret

A quote widely shared online has Wilson lamenting that he had unwittingly ruined his country by creating the Federal Reserve. It is a fabrication, stitched from unrelated passages of his 1913 book The New Freedom, which never mentioned the Fed. Wilson recorded no such regret.

## 8 January 1918 — Wilson's Fourteen Points

President Woodrow Wilson set out fourteen principles for peace in an address to Congress, including open diplomacy, free trade, and a general association of nations. His wartime rhetoric of a world made safe for democracy shaped the postwar settlement.

## October 1919 — Wilson's stroke and the hidden presidency

A severe stroke left Wilson partly paralysed and secluded for the rest of his term. His wife Edith decided who and what reached him and effectively managed the flow of government, a genuine hidden presidency the public was never told about.

## 10 January 1920 — Founding of the League of Nations

The Covenant of the League of Nations enters into force with the Treaty of Versailles, creating the first world organization dedicated to collective security and peace, headquartered in Geneva.