American Presidents

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: As both Governor of New York and President, Cleveland had a reputation as a corruption fighter and political independent. He was the only United States President elected to two nonconsecutive terms in 1884 and then again in 1892 and the first Democrat in the White House since James Buchanan in 1856. Under the President who served between Cleveland's terms, Benjamin Harrison, Congress had passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Western farmers were in favor of this believing that with more money in circulation, loans would be cheaper and life easier for the average American. The problem was that the government had to buy silver with treasury gold causing reserves to drop below the $100,000,000 required by law. People panicked and began to demand gold in exchange for paper money. Banks failed in this the so-called Panic of 1893 and the country was thrown into a short but violent economic depression.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: As America’s involvement in World War I escalated in 1917, Wilson began a grand escalation of government control over the means of production and distribution; to bring those parts of the economy into support for the war effort. The President, however, was not content to simply subordinate the marketplace to his schemes. It was not just military or foreign affairs over which Wilson desired control. He went after American’s minds as well. He said, “There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life. Such creatures…must be crushed out.”

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Except for a brief period in the 1790s and during the Civil War, the power of the American President, almost limitless in theory, had been restrained by universal fear of executive abuse, tradition, habit, and a very powerful Congress. During times of national emergency, however, if not restrained, and depending on the nature of the threat, the President in theory at least, can assume almost dictatorial powers over every area of life, not just foreign or military affairs. If the people and their representatives let it happen, the President will do it. Woodrow Wilson proved it. His inclination toward increased executive power, firmly established in his first term, saw exponential growth with the Declaration of War in 1917.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Considering his roots, Thomas Woodrow Wilson would hardly have seemed a champion of overweening Presidential power. Born in Staunton, Virginia in the years before the Civil War, he emerged from the Jefferson/Jackson tradition which placed high value upon state sovereignty, limited government, and confirmed trust in the wisdom of the people and its representatives in Congress.