|
"Colonel" Edward Mandell House
was born in Houston on 26 July 1858 to
Thomas William and Mary Elizabeth House. He was the youngest of seven boys
and born into privilege, as his father was a prominent Texan and businessman.
House as a child was close to the old West and he idealized the west and
the culture that epitomized it. Still, he was sent to Bath, England for
his early schooling. When his mother died in 1870, his father sent him
to Hopkins Grammar School and then Cornell University. At Cornell, House
had his first taste of politics.
When his father died in January 1880, House
left school and never completed his degree. Instead he stayed in Texas
and took control of part of the family's estate. On 4 August 1881 he married
Loulie Hunter, and for the next year they traveled in Europe and eastern
America and made many contacts. House returned home to manage his estate
and eventually settled in Austin.
House spent the next several years as a
Austin socialite and in business. In 1892, he entered the political arena
and helped get James Hogg re-elected governor of Texas. House's shrewd
administrative and political skills were a major part of this victory.
It was Hogg who gave him House the title "Colonel" when House took a minor
position on Hogg's staff. By working behind the scenes quietly, House helped
the elections of Charles Culberson in 1894 and Joseph Sayers in 1898. In
1902 House dropped out of politics in Texas he felt that he had done as
much as he could.
In 1910 House choose to reenter politics
having been motivated by democratic victories nationally. But after the
unsuccessful presidential campaigns of democrats Alton Parker and William
Jennings Bryan, House became dejected on the political future of the democrats.
House found Wilson to be someone he thought could win and sought him out.
In 1911 he met Wilson and decided to support his campaign for presidency.
House was important in uniting the Democratic party behind Wilson.
After Wilson's election to the presidency
in 1912, he gave House a great deal of responsibility and found House to
be effective due to his Democratic party connections and his selflessness
House became, as some called him, Wilson's "silent partner." In the area
of foreign affairs, House went to Europe and worked on preventing the outbreak
of war by working with the parties involved to smooth over relations.
House was instrumental in seeking to resolve
the increasing British-German disputes, trying to get the disputing parties
to disarm and economic solutions. Even though House was able to meet with
the disputing sides, he was unable to accomplish anything substantial before
war broke out.
House believed, as Wilson did, that neutrality
was America's best option once the war started, and he continued to look
for an opportunity to bring about peace, but without success. After America
entered the war House worked for Wilson as a representative in Europe,
and was given charge of manpower, finance supplies and shipping. House
also played a key role in developing the fourteen points which were Wilson's
terms for ending the war. Wilson also asked House to write the League of
Nations covenant, the opening statement for the proposed organization to
settle dispute between nations. House then went to help get the allies
to agree to the fourteen points, Wilson's earlier peace proposals, and
he was able get the allies to agree to terms of the armistice. House next
was America's representative for the surrender of Germany, and as Wilson's
personal representative was key in setting the stage for the Paris peace
conference and deciding on the location.
At the Paris peace conference House was
a peace commissioner of the American delegation, but because of Wilson's
personal presence at the conference, House was less influential. But when
Wilson left Paris to return to the United States on February fourteenth
to attend to domestic matters, House was in charge and choose to compromise
on major issues, such as border settlements and reparations with the French
and British. These compromises angered Wilson. The true effect of the House-Wilson
disagreement over these issues is still being debated. After Wilson left
for America at the end of the conference for the final time House stayed
behind and sought to implement the league, with little success.
After the peace conference, House never
did see Wilson again nor did he ever play an active role in politics. He
died 28 March 1938 in New York.
Read the article.
Back to Table of Contents
|
