Principled, high-profile resignations by high-ranking cabinet officials are relatively rare in American history. Woodrow Wilson experienced two over disagreements about his European war policy: those of his secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan, in 1915 and his secretary of war, Lindley Garrison in 1916. Bryan is far better known today and was in his own lifetime as well, but Garrison's shocking resignation hit Washington like a bombshell not unlike that of Secretary of Defense James Mattis last week. It also had a much more lasting impact on American military and defense policy than anyone could have imagined at the time.
Like the secretary of the navy, Josephus Daniels, Garrison had little familiarity with the military when he was named secretary of war in 1913. A native of Camden, New Jersey, Garrison had come to Wilson's attention while serving as vice-chancellor of the state during Wilson's tenure as governor there. Known as a progressive reformer and an efficient state administrator, Garrison nevertheless came to office as Wilson had: completely unprepared for a major foreign policy crisis.
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