The New Freedom

The election to the Presidency gave Wilson an opportunity no Democrat in the previous fifty years had been given. A huge majority of voters in the Electoral College had given him their votes and, with them, a mandate from the people to reform government. Armed with support from the Democratic Party, the bipartisan support of progressives, and with both the House of Representatives and the Senate under Democratic control, Wilson was able to initiate and carry out his reforms with little political opposition. Soon after his election, the new President declared that he intended to make good on his promises of reform. His domestic progressive policies, which became collectively known as the New Freedom, included reduction of the tariff on imported goods, reform of the inept national banking system, and strengthening of the Sherman Act to combat trusts. Wilson's election to the Presidency also allowed him to reconstruct the floundering Democratic Party, which had arguably been more or less without strong leadership since the antebellum days.