"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.