|
format this article to
print
HOUSE, EDWARD MANDELL
(1858-1938). Edward Mandell House was born in Houston on July
26, 1858, the last of seven children of Mary Elizabeth (Shearn)
and Thomas William House.qv His father was one of the leading citizens of Texas, a wealthy
merchant, banker, and landowner. Edward had a privileged youth:
he spent six months in England in 1866, met many prominent people
who visited the large family homes in Galveston and Houston, and
enjoyed the colorful life of his father's sugar plantation near
Arcola Junction. As a boy he rode and hunted, admired the gunfighters
of the era, and roamed the flat, vast coastal plain near Houston.
Initially House attended Houston Academy,qv but after the death of his mother on January 28, 1870, his father
sent him to boarding school, first in Virginia and then in New
Haven, Connecticut. House was not a serious student, and he and
his closest friend, Oliver T. Morton (the son of Senator Oliver
Perry Morton of Indiana), became absorbed in the Hayes-Tilden
election of 1876 and the long crisis following it; they frequently
traveled to New York and Washington.
In the autumn of 1877 House entered Cornell University,
where he remained until the beginning of his third year, when
his father became ill and the younger House left school to care
for him. When T. W. House died, on January 17, 1880, his son decided
to stay in Texas and help manage the estate, which was to be divided
among the five surviving children. On August 4, 1881, House married
Loulie Hunter of Hunter, Texas. After a year in Europe the couple
returned to Houston, and House supervised the family's extensive
landholdings scattered throughout Texas. In the autumn of 1885
he moved to Austin in order to escape the heat of Houston and
to be closer to his cotton plantations. He became a prominent
member of Austin society and, in the late 1880s and early 1890s,
pursued a variety of business activities, including farming and
land speculation. In June 1892 he completed a great mansion at
1704 West Asylum Avenue, designed by the New York architect Frank
Freeman. The house was one of the finest examples in Texas of
the Shingle style of residential architecture. With a minimum
of decorative detail, it made innovative use of red sandstone,
sweeping shingled roofs, and an open-plan interior in a style
that suggested future architectural trends. It was razed in 1967.
House was drawn into state politics through his friendship
with James Stephen Hogg,qv who in 1892 faced a formidable challenge for renomination and
reelection from conservative Democrats and Populists. House directed
Hogg's campaign, established a network of contacts with influential
local Democratic leaders, manipulated the electoral machinery,
and bargained for the votes of African and Mexican Americans.qqv Hogg triumphed in a bitter, three-way race and rewarded House
on July 20, 1893, with the honorary title of "lieutenant
colonel." The press soon shortened the title to "colonel."
Fascinated more with the process of politics than
with the substance, House proceeded to build his own faction-"our
crowd," as he called it-which became a powerful force in
Texas politics. He was an ambitious political operator, skilled
in organizing and inspiring others. He worked largely behind the
scenes, developing ties of loyalty and affection with his close
associates and using patronage to rally party workers behind his
candidates. From 1894 to 1906 House's protégés served
as governors of Texas. He and his associates managed the gubernatorial
campaigns of Charles Allen Culberson, Joseph D. Sayers, and Samuel
W. T. Lanham.qqv House was especially close to Culberson, whose elevation to the
United States Senate in 1898 the colonel directed. House served
as a political counselor, often dispensing advice and controlling
patronage for all three governors.
By the turn of the century he was bored with his
role in Texas politics and was restlessly searching for broader
horizons. He sought further wealth, first by attempting to profit
from the discovery of oil at the Spindletop oilfieldqv in 1901 and 1902. With the backing of eastern financiers, he formed
the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway Company. He also felt the
pull of the East. For years he had spent the summers on Boston's
North Shore, and gradually he began to winter in New York, severing
most of his ties with Texas and only occasionally visiting the
state. After 1904 he was never again involved in a gubernatorial
campaign.
As a youth House had dreamed great dreams, yearning
for a place on the national political stage. A conservative, sound-money
Democrat, he disliked William Jennings Bryan and in 1904 supported
Alton B. Parker. Discouraged by the prospects of the Democratic
partyqv after Parker's defeat in 1904 and Bryan's in 1908, House found
solace in leisurely tours of Europe and in spiritualism. He continued
his search for a Democratic presidential candidate, and on November
25, 1911, met Woodrow Wilson; the two formed a close friendship
that lasted for years. House participated in Wilson's campaign
for the presidential nomination by using his influence to secure
the forty votes of the Texas delegation and the approval of William
Jennings Bryan for Wilson's candidacy. After Wilson's victory
House refused any official appointment, but was responsible for
the appointment of several Texans to cabinet positions. He quickly
established himself as the president's trusted adviser and confidant,
especially on foreign affairs.
After the outbreak of World War I,qv House undertook several important European missions for the president.
When the United States became involved in the war, he won British
and French acceptance of Wilson's Fourteen Points as the basis
for the peace. House was appointed one of the five American commissioners
at the peace conference and served as Wilson's second in command.
When the president temporarily returned to the United States during
the negotiations, House took his place at the head of the American
delegation. After signing the Treaty of Versailles on June 28,
1919, Wilson appointed House to represent him at London in the
drafting of provisions for operation of the mandate system set
up by the treaty.
The relationship between the two men deteriorated
after Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke in the fall of 1919,
and during the Republican party'sqv ascendancy in the 1920s House ceased to exercise direct influence
on public affairs. Until his death, however, he maintained close
contact with important national and international figures. He
took an interest in Franklin D. Roosevelt's nomination in 1932,
but made no effort to resume the political influence he enjoyed
under Wilson. House died on March 28, 1938, in New York City and
was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Drury Blakeley Alexander and (photographs)
Todd Webb, Texas Homes of the Nineteenth Century (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1966). Alexander L. and Juliette L.
George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House (New York: Dover,
1956). Rupert N. Richardson, Colonel Edward M. House: The Texas
Years, 1858-1912 (Abilene, Texas: Hardin-Simmons University,
1964).
Charles E. Neu
|
