On September 25, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a slight stroke, and a week later it was followed by a second, far more serious one that left Wilson - and the executive branch - nearly completely paralyzed.

Rather than to resign from office (as most modern presidential historians say he should have) or to ask that Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall (pictured below right) act as President, Wilson's wife, physicians and others in his inner circle simply hid the President, isolating him from both the public and key government officials - including Marshall, who would not see the President in person again until March 4, 1921, their last day in office.

Following an April 13, 1920 cabinet meeting (Vice Presidents were not as yet regular attendees), one of the participants wrote in his journal:  "The President looked old, worn, and haggard.  It was enough to make one weep looking at him... One of his arms was useless.  In repose, his face looked very much as usual, but when he tried to speak, there was marked evidences of his trouble.  His jaw tended to drop on one side, or seemed to do so.  His voice was very weak and strained... The President seemed at first to have some difficulty in fixing his mind on what we were discussing."

First lady Edith Wilson assumed many of the routine duties and details handled by her husband, and is considered by many to have been the de facto President.  In her 1939 autobiography, Mrs. Wilson herself referred to her role as a "stewardship" of the office.  The situation was a clarion call for Congress to finally enact at least some form of presidential disability legislation - and yet again, nothing was done.