Bridges history column: As diplomat, advisor, 'Col. House' pushed for peace amid politics

Edward House was a Texan determined to move the world when the world refused to be moved.  He was a powerful diplomat and presidential advisor and a voice for peace in a time when so much of the world was bent on destruction.

House was born in Houston in 1858, the youngest of seven children.  His father, Thomas W. House, an English immigrant, had made a fortune in banking, international trade, and real estate.  As a youth, he traveled to Europe and across the nation often.  He enrolled in Cornell University in New York in 1877.  However, his father’s declining health forced him to return to care for him.

After his father’s death, he married in 1881 and continued to travel extensively to tend to the family’s many business interests.  He moved to Austin in 1885, where he expanded his real estate holdings and cotton plantations.  While in Austin, he became friends with many prominent Texas figures, including Gov. James S. Hogg.

In 1892, Hogg turned to House for help with his re-election campaign.  House traveled the state extensively, persuading prominent individuals and influential groups to back the governor.  The hard work paid off, and Hogg won re-election. Though House had no military experience, a grateful Hogg rewarded him for his service with the honorary title of lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard.  Before long, he simply became known as "Col. House" to reporters and politicians alike.  Over the next several years, House continued to play an important role in Texas politics, helping the election of governors and acting as an advisor on all aspects of their administration.

In 1911, he met New Jersey Gov. Woodrow Wilson, and the two formed an immediate friendship as Wilson prepared a run for the presidency.  He advised Wilson on his campaign strategies and helped him secure the needed delegates and endorsements needed to secure the nomination.  Wilson won easily in the 1912 election, defeating former President Theodore Roosevelt and the incumbent President William H. Taft.

After Wilson’s inauguration, House declined to take any official role, preferring to stay in the background as a close advisor.  House convinced Wilson to include several prominent Texans in his cabinet, including US Rep. Albert Burleson as postmaster general, attorney James W. Gregory as attorney general, and scholar David Houston as Secretary of Agriculture and later as Secretary of the Treasury.

World War I and its aftermath consumed much of Wilson’s presidency.  The intensity of the bloodshed shocked the world.  Wilson sent House all over Europe in 1915 and 1916 to try to convince the warring powers to stop the fighting.  In spite of numerous efforts, the peace overtures were rejected each time, including a 1916 offer by Wilson for the United States to mediate a peace conference.

After the war ended, Wilson and House attempted to win approval for the Treaty of Versailles.  House was desperate to save American support for the treaty and American entry into the League of Nations, the forerunner of the modern United Nations.  He attempted to broker deals with European diplomats to make the treaty more palatable to Republican critics of Wilson who were determined to reject the treaty if only to humiliate the president.

After Wilson left office, House continued to lobby Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and for American membership in the League of Nations.  He continued to be active in Democratic Party politics, supporting the nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt, another early supporter of the League of Nations, as president in 1932.  However, by the 1930s, House steadily scaled back his role in politics.  He died in New York in 1938 at the age of 79.

Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. He holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas. Bridges can be reached by email at drkenbridges@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Bridges history column: Edward House was diplomat for peace