...And what of Woodrow?

cpip

Gone Fishin'
If Woodrow Wilson were not to win the Presidency in 1912 -- either because he fails to win the Democratic nomination or due to some sort of miracle victory by Roosevelt at the polls -- what may become of him?

He presumably finishes his term as Governor of New Jersey (which ends in January of 1914). That's at least one solid year of being in the political wilderness before he gets a shot at going back at the White House in 1916, even assuming he wishes to do so. There wouldn't be a Senate seat up for election in New Jersey until 1916 either, so he cannot go the then-traditional route of Governor to Senator, should he wish to keep his hand in politics. To move from Governor to Congress would perhaps be too demeaning for a man as proud as Wilson.

He's not a lawyer, so he cannot do as other politicians did and return to the practice of law.

Does he return to academia? Surely any university with progressive (if not Progressive) views looking for a new leader would leap at the chance to have Wilson there; it seems unlikely, having headed up Princeton, that he could settle to be a mere professor again.

If it is a different Democrat who defeats Wilson in 1912 (probably Champ Clark), would they offer him anything he would be willing to accept? My view of Wilson's character would not suggest he'd accept a Vice Presidency or a Cabinet position, but might he accept an Ambassadorial post somewhere prominent?
 
If Woodrow Wilson were not to win the Presidency in 1912 -- either because he fails to win the Democratic nomination or due to some sort of miracle victory by Roosevelt at the polls -- what may become of him?

He presumably finishes his term as Governor of New Jersey (which ends in January of 1914). That's at least one solid year of being in the political wilderness before he gets a shot at going back at the White House in 1916, even assuming he wishes to do so. There wouldn't be a Senate seat up for election in New Jersey until 1916 either, so he cannot go the then-traditional route of Governor to Senator, should he wish to keep his hand in politics. To move from Governor to Congress would perhaps be too demeaning for a man as proud as Wilson.

He's not a lawyer, so he cannot do as other politicians did and return to the practice of law.

Does he return to academia? Surely any university with progressive (if not Progressive) views looking for a new leader would leap at the chance to have Wilson there; it seems unlikely, having headed up Princeton, that he could settle to be a mere professor again.
If it is a different Democrat who defeats Wilson in 1912 (probably Champ Clark), would they offer him anything he would be willing to accept? My view of Wilson's character would not suggest he'd accept a Vice Presidency or a Cabinet position, but might he accept an Ambassadorial post somewhere prominent?

Supreme Court Justice perhaps?

Mind you he'd probably be a maverick one and deliver quite a few dissenting opinions.
 
William Jennings Bryan didn't seem beforehand to be the type of man who would accept a cabinet position, either - but, he'd also lost 3 Presidential bids so perhaps that had humbled him a lot. Wilson might figure it was a good place from which to remain in the public eye for a Senate bid. However, having him as Justice instead of McReynolds in 1914 sounds plausible, too, and wouldn't be make things any worse since McReynolds was notoriously racist, too.
 
My guess is a return to academia. If I recall the more recent Wilson biographies (Heckscher, Berg) correctly, he had unfinished business at Princeton (don't have them handy; I vaguely recall something about graduate programs) that he probably would have wanted to implement elsewhere starting with a clean slate. He'd need a fairly forward-looking school to do so: perhaps Johns Hopkins? From there I could see a jump to (heaven help us all) governorship of MD. Getting to the top spot would be a bit challenging from there: to this day MD has never had a serious contender for the presidency apart from Albert Ritchie in 1932.
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
Supreme Court Justice perhaps?

Mind you he'd probably be a maverick one and deliver quite a few dissenting opinions.

Especially since he would be one of the few Justices to have no prior legal training or experience. I'm certain his dissents would make for interesting, if sometimes dry, reading, albeit preachy as all hell. Of course, if he doesn't get named in 1914 to replace Lurton, it's not necessarily that McReynolds will be either (A) Attorney General for whoever succeeds him or (B) named to the Supreme Court when Lurton dies... but that's a wholly different set of discussions.

My guess is a return to academia. If I recall the more recent Wilson biographies (Heckscher, Berg) correctly, he had unfinished business at Princeton (don't have them handy; I vaguely recall something about graduate programs) that he probably would have wanted to implement elsewhere starting with a clean slate. He'd need a fairly forward-looking school to do so: perhaps Johns Hopkins? From there I could see a jump to (heaven help us all) governorship of MD. Getting to the top spot would be a bit challenging from there: to this day MD has never had a serious contender for the presidency apart from Albert Ritchie in 1932.

Johns Hopkins did bring in a new President right in 1914, as did UNC, after a cursory scan. The President of the University of Virginia was also quite ill at this time with tuberculosis; perhaps he steps down to recover and turns the university over to Wilson. These would all bring him back closer to the South.

I question if he'd be willing to return to politics at all, truthfully, but it might be interesting. If he does manage to become Governor of another state, that'd put him in the history books regardless; the only other person to do that was Sam Houston.
 
I like that bit about Virginia a lot. That would bring Wilson back to within shouting distance of his birthplace (Staunton, VA) while providing him with the academic post he clearly enjoyed. Now you have the stage set for an eventual run at the governorship of VA, probably billed as a Virginian coming home and all that. However, that would be where it ends. You won't have a candidate from a former Confederate state getting the nod for the top slot until the 1960s--and that only came because Lyndon Johnson succeeded Kennedy. Still, Wilson would replicate Houston's feat of the governorship of two states in one's lifetime.

Then of course you'd have a flurry of AHCs asking what would happen if somehow Wilson did get the nomination again...
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
I like that bit about Virginia a lot. That would bring Wilson back to within shouting distance of his birthplace (Staunton, VA) while providing him with the academic post he clearly enjoyed. Now you have the stage set for an eventual run at the governorship of VA, probably billed as a Virginian coming home and all that. However, that would be where it ends. You won't have a candidate from a former Confederate state getting the nod for the top slot until the 1960s--and that only came because Lyndon Johnson succeeded Kennedy. Still, Wilson would replicate Houston's feat of the governorship of two states in one's lifetime.

Then of course you'd have a flurry of AHCs asking what would happen if somehow Wilson did get the nomination again...

And reading a bit more about Edwin Alderman, the aforementioned President of the University of Virginia, he was actually a close friend of Woodrow Wilson dating back to their childhood years -- Alderman's father was an official in the church where Wilson's father was minister. So if Wilson's looking for work, Alderman's sick (and by the accounts I'm reading, was never the same after his battle with tuberculosis, which is unsurprising)... Alderman hands it off to Wilson knowing he can trust that it's in the best possible hands.

I don't think any butterflies could save his wife from passing in 1914 from kidney disease, but at least if Wilson is in Charlottesville she's a bit closer to home and family; his depression surely follows, and perhaps he's brought out of it by the notion of tilting at the windmills of corruption again: Wilson in Virginia will see the Martin/Byrd Democratic machine as just as despicable as the New Jersey Democratic machine he battled there; it may not take much to rouse him from his stupor by 1918. For the sake of argument we can say he wins, though I'm not sure he would.

Now, of course, the question must be asked if the stresses of running for office and then becoming Governor of Virginia might not trigger his stroke -- but then it might also be argued that being Governor is less stressful than leading the United States for 6 years through war and a tumultuous peace conference; perhaps he can make an effort to be nominated again for the Presidency at the 1920 convention.
 
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