This is the Woodrow Wilson house in washington d. C. , the home of our 28 president and former first Lady Edith Wilson after they left the white house in 1921, youll see more of that over the next two hours as we tell the story of the story of the two Woodrow Wilson first ladies, edith and allen. Ellen and woodrow met in their twenties and their love was reflected in passionate letters. And passioned artists and an intellectual companion, she adopted causes and set an example for future first ladies. Ellen wilson died in the white house a year and a half into the president s term. The grieving president soon met washington businesswoman edith galt through a mutual friend. They married after a series secret courtship, and she served as first lady for more than five years. Her unprecedented role in managing the president s affairs after the president s stroke remains one of the most controversial elements of any first lady. Welcome to the continuing series, first ladies, influence and image. Tonight, the story of the wilson administrations two first ladies allen and edith. We have to terrific guests to hear. Kristie miller is a biographer of two first ladies, her book is allen in edith which will since first ladies. Donaldson cooper as which are wilsons biographer. Mr. Cooper, thanks for being with us. What blake break president a little bit. Weve been telling these stories chronologically but everyone knows about it will send managing the white house, as it is described after her husband suffers a stroke. We thought we would tell that story first because so many people really want to know what happened. So, john cooper, lets start with you. Win in the president S Administration did he suffer the stroke . More than halfway through the second term. It was in october 1919. He just returned from a whirlwind speaking tour, he was trying to sell the country on ratifying the peace treaty and going into the league of nations. He really had worn himself out on that and his doctors had actually aboard the tour and he suffered this massive stroke. The story of the stroke itself is very dramatic. Tell us briefly about what happened in the white house that night. There are some conflicting reports about what happened, but i think the most accurate portrayal is that he got up in the morning, edith has been going into check on him during the night, and she found him slumped to the floor and could not move his left side. She went out into the corridor to use the telephone that did not go through the switchboard. She did not want this universally known, and she asked the chief assured to call the doctor from this other phone. And the doctor came in and they helped him into bed, but he was paralyzed on his left side. A character thats going to be a big part of the story is carey grayson, who was he . He was a navy doctor. He had made that his career after he finished met school, and then shortly, kathy introduced him to his successor, wilson, and and it was during the inauguration wilson sister found down, and grayson treated her and did a good job. Also, he was a very charming man, of virginia to, which helped with wilson. His role with the president s medical condition after the stroke was what . He was the white house physician. He was the one who treats him. Id say that was just everything he did was that. He called in various consultants specialists, but grayson was the one treating wilson. You told us the president was paralyzed, but what was the extent of his condition . How badly did affect . Him he had a blockage in an artery leading to his brain, this is usually not a fatal stroke. But it did immobilize him for a while. He probably would have recovered thoroughly rapidly had he not, about ten days later, suffered a second medical condition. He had prostate trouble and he had a urinary tract infection with a very high fever. Of course, they did not have antibiotics at that time. They debated whether to operate, but the specialists felt that to operate on a 62yearold man with high Blood Pressure and a stroke would have been very unwise. So they just try to let nature takes its course, and eventually he recovered. But it really zapped his vitality and his one, to punch did him in for about a month. I would think, and kristie may disagree with this, but the worst effect of the stroke on wilson was on his emotional balance. And his judgment. His intellect was not impaired, his speech was not impaired so he could function in that way. But so much more goes into being a leader, being a president than just being smart and able to do these things. Another thing is, partly because of the other illness that you just talked about. They isolated him. And that is when you keep him away from any stress or whatever, and now neurologists say that is the wrong thing to do. What you want to do with the president has had a stroke is get them back into social interaction and everything as soon as you can. So, for the best of intentions, they were doing the wrong thing. Doctor Carrie Grayson flutters are part of the collections of the Woodrow Wilson president ial library, which is in stanton, virginia. Two hours away from washington. And we visited their. Of course we are going to figure out more about the history that grayson captures in his letters. We have a letter in this box from henry morgan thaw who wanted to write a book about his experiences, so hes asking grayson if he can use certain information. He wants to use the information you gave me about president wilson, and your having come to the conclusion that he should resign. And how he was influenced by mrs. Wilson to give up this plan. So mrs. Wilson was very concerned that her husband would not get better if he did not have something to engage his mind, that he would just deteriorate if he was forced out of the presidency. While president wilson was ill, it has been speculated among historians that mrs. Wilson essentially became the president. We have one document here that sheds a little bit of light on that, and it is a telegram from henry morgan thaw, who was the ambassador to turkey. And he is writing to doctor Carrie Grayson asking if the president had any objections to a citizens meeting to protest against turks being left in control of constant in a bowl. And morgantown has been asked to speak on this, so he is asking permission, he does not want to embarrass the president. Hes asking for advice. On the bottom of the telegram, there is handwriting that we are familiar with the handwriting to recognize it as such. At the bottom she writes, think it will to postpone speaking on such subjects. What we dont know is did you did take this telegram into wilson and ask his opinion and then write that or did she just come to that conclusion herself . The public was very interested and curious to know the condition of wilsons health. So there were rumors rampant in the papers, even congressman did not know what was going on. They only knew what they knew in the papers. After it was all over, Carrie Grayson wrote a summary of what happened from the time of the stroke until wilson left the white house. And on the last page, the decision was made to announce that wilson was suffering from nervous exhaustion. There were no other details given as to what was wrong with him. Nobody knew the extent of his illness, that he really was not capable of doing anything. I, doctor grayson, not a wise to issue general statements only. Further, mrs. Wilson was absolutely opposed to any other course. They did not want to be known that he was really suffering. Again, she was protecting her husband, she wanted him to be able to fulfill his duties as president. She was worried about his legacy and she was concerned about his health. And she felt that if he left the presidency and the white house, he would just waste away and i. So don cooper, the constitution made no provision for what would happen with the president. So what did official wrestling washington do . How did they react . A couple of different ways. Robert lansing, the secretary of state would have been fired wilson had not had the stroke because they are going to have a bad break, but thats a different story. Lansing tried to get the cabinet and on it and even made some communications with the Vice President , who stayed out of it completely, you just said no. The constitution, this was before the 25th amendment that is not as much of a protection as we thought and the case. So dont talk about disability, the inability of the president to perform his duties, and what does that mean . Usually, it means the president is dead. The Vice President succeeds. But if you have a disabled president , and this is the one time that we really have had a disabled president. How do you deal with that . And edith, i have a lot of sympathy for her. She was scared. This was a very scary thing that she was in and make it up as you go along. On facebook, david welch says what part of personality or and like the best prepared mrs. Edith to take over for the president . And the responsibility that she was taking on. She had two years of former schooling in her entire life. But she had come from a numerous family and she had been chosen by her grandmother to take care of her, to be heard tara giver. And her grandmother was a very opinionated woman for and todd edith that it was good to have opinions and to make decisions. Edith had been widow to relatively young and had inherited galts jewelers, which was like to tiffanys of washington. So she kept the jewelry stored, a manager had a lot of the decisions, but she was used to having everything her way. So she brought this very decided personality. In addition, woodrow had courted her by showing her a lot of secret papers. Henry kissinger used to say that power was the ultimate aphrodisiac, and i think which wilson would have agreed. So he was using this entree to these secret papers as part of his courting and courtship. And she was susceptible to that. So he shared a great deal of what he was doing, really a great deal of what he was doing with her. So that, i think john said that, he absolutely knew as well as anyone what he was doing and what he was thinking, because he was a real lone wolf when it came to being a president. He did not have a lot of close advisers. I have a quote to show you both. Its from edith wilson herself. She had published her memoirs, and in this big controversy about how much power she took upon herself, heres what she said. 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 one to present matters to my husband. Okay, so today we know the gatekeeper to the president is really the most important job. He or she who controls access to the president , to some extent, is president. And as she said, its not just who got to see him they embargoed and nobody got to see. Im but also what the president gets to see. And she would decide what was best for him to see or not. One of the wraps about edith was that shes putting her husbands health ahead of the good of the country and that our priorities were wrong, but thats not why what she did. She knew what he wanted and that if cannot express himself, she knew that he would not want to express himself, and to hang on to this. As kristie said, she knew his mind better than anybody else. So if anybody is going to have to substitute, she was the best person to do. It tiffany on Facebook Says that anyone tried to prevent tried to prevent the first lady from acting on behalf of the president. If so, what happened to them . Grayson and wilsons secretary put a kibosh on that very quickly. Well, there was the smelling. There were two senators who were detailed to come in and assess the condition of wilson because it came out when lansing went up to capitol hill that he had not spoken to the president about it, so they deputized one democrat and one republican and edith and dr. Grayson really staged managed that very well. Again, the accounts differ exactly what they did, but whatever it was, it was enormously successful. Including cinder fall, the republican who wouldve been most anxious to show that there was something wrong with wilson. He said to the press afterwards that the president grasped his hands with both of them, well that was impossible because woodrow could not move his hands. But he was so taken with wilsons apparent animation, he made a lot of jokes because that part of his thinking came back very quickly. He made putin ponds and told lots of jokes, and the judgment was what took a hit. We have a bit of a timeline as john cooper told us, the struck was in september 1990. It was not until december that the president took his first steps after the stroke, and it was in march of 1921. He left the house for the first time, and by the way, we have to talk about all of the political entry and important decisions going on in the aftermath of world war one. His beloved league of nations was rejected for the first time. In april of 1920, the president had his first cabinet meeting. How did the government continue . By routine. And also wilson was a great delegator, except in foreign affairs. Other than that, he gave his cabinet secretaries lots of leeway so they were used to running things on their own. I think it is very lucky and something of a tribute to that that the government function as well as it did. Because this is a story about edith, all during that time, what really was her role . I think one aspect of her role that has been overlooked is the extent to which she tried to make woodrow give way on some of his intransigence about the league of nations. In her memoir, which is fanciful in places, she says that she asked him to compromise with the republicans in congress to try to get the treaty passed with the league of nations. And he turn to her and say, little girl, dont you deserve me too. I love that he called her little girl, she was about five foot nine inches. She never tried to change its mind again. But we found evidence that there were two other occasions when she did try to change his mind. She and what will now be called his chief of staff had discussed some of the places where they hoped woodrow could give a little ground and where the republicans could give a little ground. They hope to find some compromise. And she took some notes very hurried, almost shorthand notes of what obviously is speech that she was going to give to wilson that wound up saying for the sake of the country and the piece of the world, please consider this. And it did not work, apparently. Because they did not change. But she was not a woman to take note on something and not do something about it. And then a little bit later she had some conversations with baker who later became his official biographer. He gave it some suggestions and some talking points to try and get wilson to change his mind. But he did not, and by that time, the republicans were hardening their lines and were reeling in the republican leadership. So donald on facebook asks if needed spoke out publicly on the league of nations, and if she did, did she support it . She did not speak out on anything. This is again to correct a big misconception of edith. I do not think she was at all power hungry for herself. She wanted what her husband wanted, his agenda was her agenda. She used to say to people, i never make speeches. She said made a few years after woodrow died, but during the time he was in the white house she was asked to present something innocuous like a bouquet of flowers and she did not even approve of woman suffrage. We need to go back in time, but for viewers, to come back to this later on. We thought youd all want to get this out, because it sets in important aspect. How did affect the role of the first lady in the constitutional issues around . It was the role of the president . Which are wilson follows Theodore Roosevelt. And those two together, one after the other maybe the president of the center of the government. The active part and even president s later who wanted to retreat to the sidelines could not do it. That is what really changed their. The first ladies role in terms of things that happened maybe ellen had more than edith did. I couldnt agree with you more. Well were not going to move into ellen wilson, not tell you how you can get him involved. The beauty of the series, and tonight is a special to our program because we have to first ladies to talk about but our phone lines will be open and you can reach us at 2025853880 if you live in and eastern or central time zones. Mountain and pacific . 2025853881. You can be part of a facebook conversation, go to cspan on facebook. And you can tweet us at first ladies or the hashtag first ladies and be part of the conversation. So we welcome your involvement as the program progresses. But were going to roll back the clock and talk about the long marriage of which wasnt to his first wife, allen. To set the stage for, that were going to visit the wilson house. You saw it in the open annex street in washington d. C. Its available for you to visit if you come to the nations capital. And inside the john room is my colleague. We are in the president Woodrow Wilson house with robert enholm, this is where the president and edith wilson live post presidency. How do they acquire the south . The movie of the day they left the white house in 1921. Theres some cost 150,000 dollars and they managed to scrape together by assembling both president wilsons winnings as the Nobel Peace Prize winner and also donation from ten of his wealthy friends and political supporters. It is wilson lift her and to her death in 1961. 1961. 40 years she lived here. She died right upstairs. Both expired in this home. In 1921 for president wilson. Even though it was edith well since house, theres the presence of allen wilson here . We try at the liberals and house to remember president wilsons years which include both and its important when considering figures of history to remember that they had childhoods and experiences that leading to both where they were. This is a painting and even as a young girl she was a good painter and enjoyed it. Even when president wilson proposed marriage to her, she said yes, but id like to go to the arts school, where she went for a year before they were web. Fog robert enholm, the story behind this patient . His last wish included that this painting laid over his casket before he was laid to rest. Were here at the wilson house, a mile from the white house, well show you more. Later edith sorry, ellen was born in georgia in 1860. Tell me about her early. Life early life was very difficult. Her father was a presbyterian minister and he had served in the civil war, but he had to leave because of some stress related conditions. He later developed a Mental Illness and that ornamental institution, poss