Edith Bolling Galt Wilson - Unofficial Acting Presidency

Unofficial Acting Presidency

Following his attendance at the Paris Peace Conference which began in January 1919, Wilson returned to campaign for Senate approval of the peace treaty and the League of Nations Covenant. However, his health failed in October, when 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. This is attributed to the facts that isolationist sentiment was strong and some of the articles in the League's charter conflicted with the United States Constitution.. Wilson was also unwilling to compromise on his position over the League of Nations, with Senator Lodge.

His constant attendant, Edith Wilson took over many routine duties and details of government. She carefully screened all matters of state and decided which were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. "I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators," she wrote later of her role, "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."

Edith also strongly opposed allowing Vice President Thomas R. Marshall to assume the powers of the presidency. She selected matters for her husband's attention and let everything else go to the heads of departments or remain in abeyance. 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. Most historians disagree with her version of events. Historian Phyllis Levin wrote that Edith Wilson was "a woman of narrow views and formidable determination".