This comradeship of his which began on this campus had a strong hold on him always. It included all kinds of men on the campus and diverse interests. He never lost the joy of it – and I know it often lightened his burdens.

It was this sort of thinking that to me explains much in his reconstruction of Princeton’s educational work and life. When he entered upon the presidency of this University, he found a long accumulated confusion in its curriculum, and in its teaching administration. The elemental simplicity of his thinking made his first accomplishment the reform of this into a simplicity that disclosed the rational value in the studies and the rational privilege in the teaching of them.

It is interesting to note that in the year 1878-9, as a Senior, he could be seen on the Princeton campus with a bright-eyed Freshman in the person of President Hibben, so that idealism and pragmatism were in company.

“It is the greatest process of international conference and of international discussion ever conceived, and that is what we are trying to substitute for war. …In other words, the only way we can prevent the unspeakable thing from happening again is that the nations of the world should unite and put an irresistible force behind peace and order.” - Woodrow Wilson ’79

The ride from the Capitol to the White House at the head of the inaugural parade was a spectacle of color, predominant in it all being the orange and black of Princeton. All along the line, the buildings were fairly hidden with people.

“The lesson of this election is a lesson responsibility. I believe that a great cause has triumphed, but a cause can not go forward by the activities of a single man or a single Congress, it must be done by prolonged efforts.” - President-elect Woodrow Wilson ’79