In 1856, Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born to Joseph Wilson and Janet Woodrow. Because he was the son of a Presbyterian minister, the moral ideology of Woodrow Wilson had its foundation early in his life. It is this moral approach to politics that shaped American foreign policy for a great part of the twentieth century.
             Wilson was elected president in 1910, as a result of Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose split from the Republican Party. The idealistic governor from New Jersey believed that the time had come for him to instate moral politics on the American people. Wilson had little experience in the arena of international politics, this is quite ironic of Wilson's presidency because, Wilson himself would be chiefly remembered as a world diplomat, and, his domestic policy would not be long cherished.
             To understand Woodrow Wilson's take on politics, one must first review his childhood and background. Born in the age of slavery, Wilson grew up as a racist. His parents both came from families of strong Presbyterian influence. Growing up his father would quiz him on the Bible as well as the orations of men such as Daniel Webster and Charles Lamb. It was also a result of his Scottish-Irish ancestry that Wilson began to inspect the British form of government, a government from which he would later try to incorporate ideas into American democracy. It was here, in his childhood, which the brickwork was laid for America's leader in World War I. (Walworth 14)
             After attending Princeton University, Wilson became the president of the University. He instituted many reforms including the defeat of the quadrangle system and a development of a graduate school. His belief was that Princeton was to transform boys performing meaningless tasks into thinking men. This goal was to be achieved by using the British model of the preceptorial program . After hearing about this new method of instruction, many vigorous young t...