"DECISION MADE AFTER WEIGHING CONSEQUENCES CAREFULLY"

WILSON WENT ON SPEAKING TOUR DESPITE WARNING OF DANGER TO HIS HEALTH

Richmond, Virginia (JFK+50) On June 5, 1924, The Washington Times reports that former personal physician to the late President Woodrow Wilson disclosed here in Richmond "that when Mr. Wilson took his World Court plan to the country it was with the knowledge that the strain would probably result in hastening his death."

Rear Admiral Cary T. Grayson* was speaking to the graduating class of the Medical College of Virginia when he said...

"The decision to carry his message to the people was made after he weighed the consequences carefully."

*Dr. Cary Travers Grayson (1878-1938) was born in Salubria, Virginia & earned his M.D. & Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of the South.  CTG served as the personal physician of the POTUS 1913-1921.

SOURCE

"Wilson Warned, Chose Death for Cause," The Washington Times, June 5, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Dr. Cary T. Grayson

Photo by Hartsook

MY GOD, THE PRESIDENT IS PARALYZED!

JFK+50:  Volume 5, No. 2086

PRESIDENT WILSON SUFFERED STROKE 97 YEARS AGO

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Ninety-seven years ago today, October 2, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke at the White House here in the Nation's Capital.

The President had returned to the Executive Mansion after collapsing while on a whistle-stop tour across the country to gain support for the Versailles Treaty which he helped negotiate in France at the end of World War I.  The controversial peace treaty included a League of Nations which was to be a body of international cooperation to prevent another world war.

According to Eyewitness to History, Edith Galt Wilson found her husband on the floor of the bathroom of their private quarters.  He was unconscious and bleeding from a cut on the head.

The President's personal physician, Dr.Cary T. Grayson, was quickly summoned.  After a ten minute examination, he came out in the hall and said...

"My God, the President is paralyzed."

President Wilson lay on the Lincoln bed.  According to witnesses, "he looked as if he were dead."

The stroke, which left the President paralyzed on his left side, effectively ended Wilson's ability to influence the Senate vote on the treaty or, in fact, to conduct the daily business required of the President of the United States.  The public, however, was kept in the dark regarding the severity of the stroke or of the President's condition.

The Treaty of Versailles was not ratified by the Senate but President Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.  He died four years later in Washington, D.C.  He is buried in the National Cathedral.

SOURCES

"A President's Illness Kept Under Wraps," by Michael Alison Chandler, February 3, 2007, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/

"President Wilson Suffers a Stroke, 1919," Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

President Woodrow Wilson &

Dr. Cary T. Grayson

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Photo

Woodrow Wilson's Sarcophagus

National Cathedral

Tony Fisher Photography

December 29, 2009

www.flicker.com