Two Presidents: A Study of Similarities Between Woodrow Wilson ’79 and James Madison ’71

Princeton graduates have occupied the office of President of the United States for a longer period of time than the graduates of any other university.

Harvard has furnished three Presidents – John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt. John Adams was elected by the people, served one term of four years, and was not re-elected. John Quincy Adams was elected, not by the people but by the House of Representatives. He served on term of four years and was not re-elected. Theodore Roosevelt stepped from the Vice-President’s to the President’s chair on the assassination of President McKinley. He served throughout the unexpired term and was then elected by the people. He was not re-elected. His total service was seven years, six months, and twenty days. The total service of Harvard men in the White House has been fifteen years, six months, and twenty days. But only twice have Harvard men been elected to the Presidency by the people.

Yale has furnished one President in the person of William Howard Taft, the present distinguished Chief Justice of the United States. He was elected by the people and served four years, but was not re-elected.

Princeton has contributed two Presidents to her country, James Madison and Woodrow Wilson. Each was elected by the people, was re-elected and served eight years, making a total service of sixteen years. And thus the people of the United States have sent Princeton men to occupy the highest office in the land four times.

It is interesting to compare the lives of these distinguished alumni and to note the similarities that appear in their careers. Both were born in Virginia; Madison in Port Conway, King George County, and Wilson in Staunton. A little more than a century separates their graduation. Madison was of the Class of 1771; Wilson of the Class of 1879. Both of these Classes had distinguished members. 1771 – though there were only twelve in it – had Gunning Bedford, member of the Continental Congress and of the Constitutional Convention, Representative in Congress, Attorney General of Delaware and Judge of the United States District Court; Hugh Brackenridge, Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; Charles McKnight, Surgeon in the Revolution and Professor of Anatomy at Columbia and Samuel Spring, founder of Andover Seminary. In 1879, among others, were Mahlon Pitney, Representative in Congress, Judge of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Chancellor of New jersey, and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Robert H. McCarter, Attorney General of New Jersey; Robert R. Henderson, States Attorney, Allegany County, Maryland, and Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Maryland; Professor John D. Davis of Princeton Seminary; and Professor William F. Magie of the University.

Both Madison and Wilson were members of the American Whig Society and active in its proceedings. Indeed Madison was one of its founders, and included in its constitution ideas and principles which were adopted and elaborated in the Constitution of the United States; and strangely enough it was Wilson who revised the Whig Constitution during his own undergraduate days. Each was a literary and scholarly man. Madison remained at Princeton after his graduation, taking a post-graduate course and acting as tutor in President Witherspoon’s family. Wilson took post-graduate courses at Johns Hopkins University. Each was connected with university life after graduation. Madison was Rector of the University of Virginia, one of the visitors of William and Mary College, and a Trustee of Hampden Sidney College. Wilson’s career as an educator is well known – as Professor at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan, and as Professor and President of Princeton.

Both of these men were writers on political economy. Madison contributed at least twenty papers to the Federalist, that remarkable commentary on the Constitution of the United States, which is conceded to be the greatest exposition of that immortal document ever written, and which has been used freely by the United States Supreme Court in its interpretation. Among Wilson’s contributions to literature on the science of Government may be mentioned Congressional Government, The History of the American People, and The State. The name of each is identified with a great historic document vitally affecting the welfare of the world. Madison’s influence largely shaped the form and final draft of the Constitution of the United States, under which has grown up a great republic and which has served for over a century as a model to all people seeking to be free. Wilson’s ideal was the League of Nations, the most remarkable of all the direct results of the World War. Coming years will have to estimate its value, and its efficacy in checking or eliminating the age-long curse of war; yet its nobleness of purpose and unselfish striving for the right, few even now deny.

In reading the lives of these two Presidents, it is clearly evident that they were primarily lovers of peace and deprecated the horror of international strife with its consequent loss of life and property, the retarding of progress toward universal brotherhood, and the check on the advance of civilization. Yet by a strange irony the administration of each was occupied by the events of war. Madison was at the national helm during the war with England in 1812, and Wilson headed the nation during the World War.

Madison had a larger political service. Beside his membership in the Legislature of his native state and in the various conventions, which sought to stabilize the unformed government of that day, he was a member of Congress and Secretary of State of the United States. Wilson’s only office other than the Presidency was the distinguished one of Governor of New Jersey.

However, when we study the lives of these two men and analyze them, which in a brief sketch it would be impossible to do fully, we are struck with their similarity. They both represented in the highest sense the scholar in politics. It is their knowledge, their learning, and their profound insight into the principles of government, which impress us, and which are clearly shown in their writings and speeches as well as in their deeds.

What splendid service to the Nation did these men give! Madison’s place in history is fixed – the chief creator of the masterly document, under which this government still lives and thrives. It is too early to view the career of Wilson in impartial perspective. Yet both men were mighty and their names will long endure. Princeton should be proud to realize that in her halls were first developed the ideals which ripened later into careers of such tremendous consequences to mankind.

This was originally published in the March 18, 1927 issue of PAW.