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THE HOUSE THAT HOUSE
BUILT by
Archie P. McDonald, PhD | |
Edward
Mandell House of Galveston and Houston rose about as high as one can go in Texas
or United States politics, yet he never held an elective or appointive office.
Instead of wanting to be "king," House was content to be the "king maker."
E.M. House, or "Colonel" House, as he was called in later years, was born
in 1858 to wealth and privilege as the scion of a coastal landowner and merchant
of some significance. An indifferent student, House left Cornell after his third
year to help his ailing father with family affairs, and took over their supervision
after his father’s death.
The family’s fortunes so increased that House
could afford to semi-retire and indulge a passion for politics. He never quite
gave up business affairs, and remained wealthy throughout his life, but there
is no doubt that he enjoyed the "game" of politics most of all.
House
became active in state politics with his friend and fellow East Texan James Stephen
Hogg, who faced a tough reelection campaign in 1892. House liked Hogg’s "progressive"
policies, so he devoted great energy and financial support into organizing a majority
faction of the Democratic Party filled with like minded folk.
House was
so successful is getting what he called "our crowd" together that he reelected
Hogg and the next three progressive governors — Charles Allen Culberson, Joseph
D. Sayers, and S.W.T. Lanham. There was no more powerful — if unelected — political
figure in Texas than House from 1882 to 1904.
When House grew bored with
Texas politics, he moved to New York to try his hand in the national game. He
disliked the inflationary monetary policy of William Jennings Bryant, the perennial
Democrat candidate then, but after he learned of Woodrow Wilson’s election as
governor of New Jersey, House knew he had found his champion.
Wilson and
House developed a close personal relationship that was cemented during Wilson’s
campaign for the presidency in 1912. After an assassination attempt on the life
of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who was running again in 1912, House summoned
Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald to become Wilson’s bodyguard.
House
and Wilson became so close that the President called House his "alter ego." So
synonymous was their thinking that he sent House on diplomatic missions without
specific instructions, trusting him to "say what I would say."
Wilson
and House grew apart after Wilson’s near-fatal stroke in 1919 and death in 1924.
House lived until 1938, and is buried in Houston. |
All
Things Historical
Oct. 21, 2004
Published with permission
(Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Dr. Archie Mc Donald is
the Association’s executive director and author of more than 20 books about Texas.)
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