¹ Letter from Adams, Charles Kendall, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1885–88, Vol. 5, ed. Link, Arthur S. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), 351.Google Scholar

² News item from the New York Evening Post, cited in The Woodrow Wilson Papers, 5, 358.

³ Mosher, Frederick C., Democracy and the Public Service (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 68.Google Scholar For a similar point of view on the essay, see East, John Porter, Council-Manager Government: The Political Thought of Its Founder, Richard S. Childs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965), p. 23.Google Scholar

⁴ Riggs, Fred W., “Relearning Old Lessons: The Political Context of Development Administration,” Public Administration Review, 25 (March, 1965), cited at p. 71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ Buechner, John C., Public Administration (Belmont: Dickenson Publishing Company, 1968), p. 6.Google Scholar

⁶ For a complete set of Wilson's, college papers, refer to The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1856–80, Vol. 1, especially his first published article on “Cabinet Government in the United States,” pp. 493–510.Google Scholar

For several excellent accounts of Wilson's early life upon which this study is based, refer to: Bragdon, Henry W., Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Osborn, George C., Woodrow Wilson: The Early Years (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968)Google Scholar; Baker, Ray Stannard, Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters, 1856–90, Vol. I (Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1927)Google Scholar; Link, Arthur S., Wilson: The Road to the White House (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947)Google Scholar; and George, Alexander L. and George, Juliette L., Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study (New York: Dover Publications, 1956).Google Scholar

⁷ Wilson studied law initially as a route to politics, as he wrote to Ellen Axson, October 30, 1883, “The profession I chose was politics; the profession I entered was the law. I entered the one because I thought it would lead to the other,” in Baker, I, 109.

⁸ Herbert B. Adams: born in Shutesberg, Mass. 1850, died 1901, A.B. Amherst 1872, University of Berlin 1874–75, Ph.D. Heidelberg 1876, Johns Hopkins Faculty 1876–1900.

Richard T. Ely: born in Ripley, New York 1854, died 1933, A.B. Columbia 1876, Ph.D. Heidelberg 1879, Johns Hopkins Faculty 1881–92.

⁹ For an excellent account of the development of Johns Hopkins University and the role of Drs. Adams and Ely in building the social science department, see Hawkins, Hugh, Pioneer: A History of The Johns Hopkins University, 1874–89 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1960), especially chapter ten, pp. 169–86.Google Scholar

¹⁰ From the Minutes of the Seminary of Historical and Political Science, Feb. 27, 1885, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1885, Vol. 4, 303.

Dr. Ely later noted Wilson's enthusiasm for the subject he taught, “I felt that I struck a spark and kindled a fire in Wilson.” Refer to Ely, Richard T., Ground Under Our Feet (New York: Macmillan Co., 1938), p. 114.Google Scholar

¹¹ A listing of Wilson's bibliographical index between 1883 and 1890 cites 26 entries on the topic of administration, mostly German works with a few French and English titles, refer to The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1885, Vol. 4, 303.

Johann Kasper Bluntschli, 1808–81, was a Professor of International Law at the University of Heidelberg and had taught both Professors Adams and Ely.

¹² As quoted in Hofstadter, Richard, The American Political Tradition (New York: Vintage Books, 1954), p. 242.Google Scholar

¹³ Bragdon, Henry, Woodrow Wilson, p. 106Google Scholar and Hawkins, Hugh, Pioneer, pp. 300–301.Google Scholar Wilson resented this minute style of scholarship: “… digging into the dusty records of old settlements and colonial cities … seems very tiresome in comparison with the grand excursions among imperial policies which I had planned for myself,” Letter to Ellen Axson, October 16, 1883, in Baker, , Woodrow Wilson. pp. 174–75.Google Scholar

¹⁴ For a list of Wilson's readings of the contemporary Social Darwinian writings, refer to The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 5, 19, note I. Two excellent analyses of the impact of Social Darwinism on late nineteenth century America are found in Hofstadter, Richard, Social Darwinism in American Thought (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944)Google Scholar and White, Morton G., Social Thought in America (New York: Viking Press, 1949).Google Scholar

¹⁵ White, Leonard D., The Republican Era, 1869–1901 (New York: Macmillan Co., 1958), p. 297.Google Scholar Also, for a detailed and insightful account of civil service reform, see Riper, Paul Van, History of the United States Civil Service (Evanston: Row Peterson and Co., 1958), pp. 60–136Google Scholar, and Sageser, A. Bower, The First Two Decades of the Pendleton Act (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1935).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Bragdon, Henry, Woodrow Wilson, p. 118Google Scholar, and Hawkins, Hugh, Pioneer, pp. 178–79.Google Scholar

¹⁷ The eight books Wilson published during his academic years were Congressional Government (1885); The State (1889); Division and Reunion, 1829–1889 (1893); An Old Master and Other Political Essays (1893); Mere Literature and Other Essays (1896); George Washington (1896); A History of the American People (1902); and Constitutional Government in the United States (1908).

¹⁸ Bragdon, Henry, Woodrow Wilson, p. 125Google Scholar, and Osborn, George C., Woodrow Wilson, p. 117.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics, as quoted from The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1885, 4, 13–179.

²⁰ Curtis, George W., “Party and Patronage,” in Orations and Addresses of George William Curtis (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1894), p. 502.Google Scholar

²¹ Letter from Gould, R. L., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1885–88, 5, 94–95.Google Scholar The actual letter Wilson wrote to Gould is missing from his papers.

Curiously, Wilson found little necessity to study administration firsthand in nearby Washington, D.C. As he wrote to Ellen Axson, January 22, 1885, “… If I wrote Congressional Government without visiting Washington, much more can I write upon the science of administration without doing so.” As quoted in Baker, p. 259.

²² The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1885–88, 5, 43–54. The three fragments are each only a few pages long but clearly provide the basis for Wilson's “The Study of Administration.” Interestingly Wilson entitled the first fragment, “Notes on Administration,” then changed the title to read, “The Art of Government,” and finally to “The Study of Administration.” The changes in the title reflect his own evolution of thinking on the subject. For instance, in “Notes on Administration” he wrote, “I suppose that no great discoveries of method are to be made in administration.” Yet in his final draft of the article, he states “… administrative study and creation are imperatively necessary. …” Refer to the Editorial Note in The Woodrow Wilson Papers, 5, 43–44.

²³ Letter from Adams, Charles K., The Woodrow Wilson Papers, 5, 351.Google Scholar For correspondence concerning the publication of his lecture in the Political Science Quarterly, refer to pp. 386–87. For interesting comments on the essay by Almont Barnes and Wilson's reply, read pp. 518–21. Also for correspondence with Herbert B. Adams which eventually secured Wilson a part-time lectureship on administration at Johns Hopkins, refer to pp. 393–94.

Text of “The Study of Administration” is cited from The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1885–88, 5, 359–80.

The essay, “The Study of Administration,” originally appeared in the Political Science Quarterly, 2 (June 1887), 197–222 and was reprinted in the same journal, 55 (December 1941), 481–506. Wilson's essay appeared six years before the first textbook on administration was published, Goodnow's, Frank J.Comparative Administrative Law, two volumes (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893).Google Scholar

²⁴ In the original draft delivered at Cornell University and deleted from the subsequent article appearing in the Political Science Quarterly, this point was stressed even more strongly, presumably in defense of the newly created Civil Service System, then only three years old.

²⁵ For the classic attack on the rigid separation of politics from administration in scientific management doctrine, read Waldo, Dwight, The Administrative State (New York: Ronald Press. 1948).Google Scholar

²⁶ In a letter to Almont Barnes, Wilson himself says of the essay that it was “too broad, too general, too vague,” as appearing in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. 1886–88, 5, 518–21.

²⁷ Wilson's administrative lectures were given in three cycles of three years each (1888–90, 1891–93 and 1894–96). They were originally intended to develop the topic in a systematic fashion, but this approach soon proved impossible because every year new students entered the course. Wilson normally gave these graduate lectures at Johns Hopkins during February. Fragments of the lecture notes appear in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vols. 5–8.

Concurrently, while giving the Johns Hopkins lectures on administration, Wilson during his first three years at Princeton (1890–93) taught a similar course there on administration. The course is listed in the Princeton Catalogue of 1890–91 as follows: “Administration. Lectures and collateral readings. Two hours a week … Senior elective and open to Graduate Students.”

When Wilson taught administration at Princeton and Johns Hopkins, only two other schools in the United States (Columbia and University of Pennsylvania), were offering courses in the field. Refer to Haddow, Anna, Political Science in American Colleges and Universities, 1636–1900 (New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1939), pp. 180–95.Google Scholar

²⁸ The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1890–92, 7, 114–15.

²⁹ At one point in his lectures in 1890, however, he did recommend a system of local government similar to the commission form of municipal government, first instituted in Galveston, Texas in 1901. See The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 1888–90, 6, 501–502.

Despite his auspicious and enthusiastic beginning in the field of administration and despite the acclaim from his own contemporaries, Wilson did not continue writing on the subject. His subsequent works such as The State and Constitutional Government in the United States, while touching on administrative problems, mainly were devoted to broader political subjects. As Alan Altshuler has noted: “Wilson did not consider devoting his scholarly life to the refinement of administrative techniques. He left that to more prosaic minds.” Wilson did, however, later become quite a dynamic and innovative practitioner of the administrative arts as President of Princeton (1902–10), Governor of New Jersey (1910–13) and President of the United States (1913–21). For several interesting assessments of Woodrow Wilson as a practicing administrator, see Brownlow, Louis, “Woodrew Wilson and Public Administration,” Public Administration Review, 16 (Spring, 1956), 77–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Turner, Henry A., “Woodrow Wilson as Administrator,” Public Administration Review, 16 (Autumn, 1956), 249–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Turner, Henry A., “Woodrow Wilson: Exponent of Executive Leadership,” Western Political Quarterly, 4 (March, 1951), 97–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁰ Leonard D. White, p. 46.