Woodrow Wilson I. Wilson’s Early Life
Born December 28, 1856 at Staunton, Virginia; one of four children to Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Janet Wilson as Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Initially lived for only at year at Staunton; the family moved to Augusta, Georgia until 1870 moving to Columbia then Wilmington in 1784. Woodrow (who would later drop his first name Thomas/Tommy) got his early education from a few ex-Confederate soldiers who set up some schools after the Civil war and his father who taught him religion, literature and British history. In the year 1873, at sixteen years of age, Wilson attended Davidson College, North Carolina for only one year due to his health and concerns at home. 1875, he attended a College of New Jersey (better known as Princeton University) which he later graduated in 1879. That same year he would study law in the University of Virginia but would end up leaving during the second year due to personal reasons. He would continue his study of law on his own accord after returning home of Wilmington, North Carolina. Year 1882, he set up a legal practice with a friend from the University of Virginia and later passed the Georgia Bar Exam. However, he became tired with the practice of law; he decided to continue his education and attended at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. There he was enrolled as a graduate student in history and political science and earned his PH.D in 1886. With his research study, he made the dissertation known as Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics. In it, Wilson argued about the power the congressional government has over a weak postwar Presidency and for a constitutional change of separation of powers between Congress and the President to that of the British Parliament. He argued that the Prime Minister in the British Parliament leads both the government and the majority party, which he emphasized