Hello and welcome to Whistle Stop, a podcast of the presidency. I'm John Dickerson to face the nation.

A frail and sickly president elected to deal with the internal affairs of the nation drove himself within inches of the grave in a crusade to sell an idea about the world to a skeptical American public. But it was

more than a policy. He was selling. The president was selling an idea about the way that his

office and democracy function. In the end, the idea, the policy, and the man would all fail in the

effort. Our whistle stop today is September 25th. In 1919, President Woodrow

Wilson is speaking in Pueblo, Colorado at the dedication of Memorial Hall. It was given that

name to memorialize all those who died in the war to end all wars, World War I. Of course,

at the time, it was only known as the World War.

They didn't need to give it a number, although that's one of our themes today.

The World War is a term, it turns out, according to Scott Berg's wonderful biography, Wilson,

that the 28th president himself coined. He was given a list of possible

options for naming the war, and that's the one he came up with. Anyway, Wilson was in Pueblo not to

name the war, but he was at the end of a more than 20-day-long 9,000-mile national sales trip on a

train on behalf of a global treaty that would

prevent another World War. You wouldn't need to ever call anything World War II with his new

idea for a world order. Or so he thought he'd come to Pueblo to deliver a speech in favor of the

League of Nations. Though it was a full year before his term would be up,

this would be the last speech that Woodrow Wilson would ever give as president.

The building was so new it didn't have any seats yet, and it was sweltering hot on that September

day. The president had just taken a car ride around the local fairgrounds.

Thousands of well-wishers were there, and he waved to them on his way to Memorial Hall.

When he got to Memorial Hall, he was unsteady on his feet. He'd been sick.

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