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“The Quiet Texan Behind the Oval Office: Colonel Edward Mandell House”

Welcome to Episode 82 of the Hidden History of Texas, Yes, I took the holidays off and feel refreshed and ready to go here in 2026. I hope each and all of you had a wonderful holiday season. Now it’s time to get back into it.  

If you pay attention to the world of political news, then you’ve probably heard the name Steven Miller. If you haven’t, he’s a primary advisor to President Trump. There are some who think that Mr. Miller is the most powerful person in Washington. That he wields more power and influence inside the administration than anyone else. He is what some call the power behind the throne, and they are surprised that someone like this exists. However, it’s not rare at all, throughout history there have been men who were incredibly powerful but whom most people can’t name.

The question becomes, how on earth does a person rule a nation, a country without actually being the ruler? How does someone rule without ruling?

It’s important to understand that real power doesn’t always sit at the top. Many times, the real power is held by a person that many people are unaware even exists. Real power operates quietly, seemingly in the shadows, through trust and access. One such person’s name was  Edward Mandell House, and of course, he came from Texas.”  And at one point during World War I, he was one of the most influential men in Washington. He either shaped or helped shape American foreign policy. He was never elected to office. He held no cabinet position, and he most certainly did not have a public mandate to do what he did.

Who was Edward Mandell House?

He was born in Houston on July 26, 1858, to Mary Elizabeth (Shearn) and Thomas William House. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas, his father, was one of the leading citizens of Texas. He was a wealthy merchant, a banker, and a landowner.  As did many wealthy children in that time period, Edward had a privileged youth.

Growing up he met many prominent people who visited his family’s large homes in Galveston and Houston. He also spent time enjoying life at his father’s sugar plantation near Arcola Junction.  And like many Texas boys, he rode, hunted, and admired the gunfighters of the era.  He would often roam the flat, vast coastal plain near Houston.

After his mother passed away on January 28, 1870, his father sent him away to boarding school. First a school in Virginia and then to one in New Haven, Connecticut. He was not a serious student, but he made several connections that would serve him well in life. It was also there that he became intrigued with politics. He and his closest friend, Oliver T. Morton (the son of Senator Oliver Perry Morton of Indiana), became fascinated by the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876 and the crisis that followed it. (If you think there are allegations of election fraud now, you should really look into how crooked elections have often been in our nation’s past) The two young men traveled to New York and Washington studying the events that were taking place. This might have been one of those moments in time when seeds of a person’s destiny are planted. This election and the intrigue that surrounded it and how political power is really wielded seems to have left a lasting impression on the young House.

In the autumn of 1877 while attending Cornell University, his father became ill and he returned to Texas to attend to him. In 1880 after the death of his father, he decided to remain in Texas and help manage the estate. In 1881 he married Loulie Hunter of Hunter, Texas. The young couple honeymooned and spent a year in Europe after which they returned to Houston.

A Return to Texas

It was during this time that House began to supervise his family’s extensive landholdings which were spread throughout Texas. He moved his family to Austin in the fall of 1885 for two reasons. First, he wanted to escape the heat and humidity of Houston, (I can attest to that, I left Houston for the same reason) and he wanted to be closer to his cotton plantations. During the period of the late 1880s and early 1890s, he rose to a position of prominence in Austin society and expanded his business activities to include farming and land speculation.

With Austin being the state’s capital and House having extensive business holdings throughout the state he was drawn into state politics due to his friendship with then Texas Governor Hogg. In 1892 the governor was facing a formidable challenge for renomination and then reelection due to opposition from conservative Democrats and Populists. House stepped in and took control of and directed Hogg’s campaign.

Using his business acumen, he established a network of contacts with influential local Democratic leaders, then managed to manipulate the electoral machinery, and finally bargained for the often-overlooked votes of African and Mexican Americans. His skills helped Hogg triumph in what was a bitter, three-way race. On July 20, 1893, Hogg rewarded House with the honorary title of “lieutenant colonel.” The press soon shortened the title to “colonel.” This campaign seemed to wet House’s appetite; however, he was more fascinated with the process of politics than with the substance.

He went on to build his own faction-“our crowd,” he called it, which became a powerful force in Texas politics. He was an ambitious political operator, not politician, and he was skilled in organizing and inspiring others. He preferred to work mostly behind the scenes. By doing so, it helped him develop ties of loyalty and affection with his close associates. This also enabled him to use patronage (favors) 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. He was particularly close to Culberson, and House directed the 1898 campaign that sent Culberson to the United States Senate. Over the years he served as a political counselor, often dispensing advice and controlling patronage for all three governors.

“House learned early that true power doesn’t need a podium, it simply needs proximity. It needs access”

Life in Washington

Remember how as a youth, House had become intrigued by the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876 and that intrigue instilled in him some grand dreams. Tiring of being involved with state politics, he began to crave a place on the national level. (One thing to remember is that in those days the Democrats were the conservatives, and the Republicans were the moderate and liberals.) House was a fiscal or financial conservative, and he was irritated and discouraged when in 1904, the democratic nominee Alton B. Parker was defeated by Theodore Roosevelt. In the 1908 presidential election, he was further discouraged when Republican candidate William Howard Taft defeated democratic party candidate William Jennings Bryan. Rather than stay, House travelled to Europe where he tried to find peace of mind and dabbled in spiritualism.

After returning to the United States in time for the lead up to the 1912 Presidential election, House was living in New York. It was then that several of Woodrow Wilson’s allies, including William McAdoo, who knew of House’s political organization, met with him to gauge his support. House agreed to meet with Wilson and hosted him for a visit in late November 1911. The two men felt an immediate rapport, bonding over shared views and backgrounds, with House noting how pleasant Wilson was. As a result, a close friendship was formed that lasted for decades.

House used his network to help Wilson win the democratic nomination for president in the 1912 election. His influence secured the forty votes of the Texas delegation and the approval of William Jennings Bryan for Wilson’s candidacy.

The election of 1912 was one of chaos and if you read most history books about that race you will see it described as a bitter contest between Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Williams Howard Taft, and Eugene Debs.

Roosevelt ran on what was called a “New Nationalism” platform that called for social insurance programs, reduction to an eight-hour workday, and robust federal regulation of the economy.

Wilson’s platform was labeled the  “New Freedom” platform, and it called for tariff reduction, banking reform, and new antitrust regulations.

Incumbent President Taft ran an almost quiet campaign that emphasized his idea of “progressive conservatism”.

Eugene Debs was a proud socialist and he spent most of his time denouncing the other three by claiming that Wilson, Roosevelt and Taft were all financed by different factions within what were called the capitalist trusts. He also maintained that Roosevelt in particular was a demagogue who only used socialistic language because he wanted to insure that the capitalist establishment had control.

Wilson won a close election, and this is when House as a person who is interested in real power, not flash, not headlines, but real power showed what he was capable of. He refused any official appointment but was responsible for the appointment of several Texans to cabinet positions. Thus, he was able to quickly and firmly establish himself as the president’s trusted adviser and confidant. Since he had travelled extensively in Europe Wilson leaned heavily on House for advice on foreign affairs.

House was establishing the fact that real power grows where trust replaces accountability. Wilson trusted House and that was all that mattered

But what is that kind of power? What was the nature of House’s power?

House had what we refer to as Power Without Portfolio.

He had no official department; he wasn’t and didn’t need to be confirmed by the Senate. One important difference between then and today, he was never under any public scrutiny. Of course, in today’s media connected world, everyone involved with any administration is under the watchful eye of someone, somewhere.

House also exhibited his power through what we call the process. He would draft ideas for Wilson to consider, help the president by framing options. Much like advisers today, he also filtered information before it reached the President’s desk.

Since Wilson’s first term was 1912 – 1916, World War I started right in the middle in 1914. Wilson depended on House to handle the diplomatic relationships through private negotiations. In effect, he acted as Wilson’s personal emissary.

A modern-day version of the type of power, real unadulterated power he held can be seen in the role Steven Miller plays in the Trump Administration. Miller does not command any institution he manages access and interpretation. That’s the role House played in the Wilson administration. He was a gatekeeper, a get-it-done person and few things or people reached the president’s desk without his approval.

The peak of House’s power was during World War I. It showed the height and also the limits of his power. In WWI, the United States tried to remain neutral. However, Germany was very aggressive, and in 1915 they sank the British passenger liner the Lusitania taking 128 American lives. While the U.S. didn’t enter at that time, there was a subtle shift in American attitudes towards the conflict. House was tasked with trying to convince our Europeans allies that we were not anxious to become involved. He was responsible for practicing neutral diplomacy.

Unfortunately, the German navy continued to be aggressive and promised to sink any and all merchant and passenger vessels that approached Great Britain. In 1917, President Wilson asked for and received a Declaration of War against Germany.

Once the U.S. was involved with the actual fighting; House became important in helping Wilson bring it to an end. He was able to get the British and French governments to accept Wilson’s Fourteen Points as the basis for the peace. He was also appointed as one of the five American commissioners at the peace conference. He actually served as Wilson’s second in command.

During the conference Wilson had to temporarily return to the United States, House actually took his place at the head of the American delegation. Upon the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, Wilson appointed House to represent him at London where they were drafting provisions for operation of the mandate system set up by the treaty. (as an aside, the Treaty of Versailles was so one-sided in seeking retribution against Germany that many historians believe it actually laid the groundwork for the eventual rise of Adolf Hitler and WWII).

House was also played a role in helping craft the concept of the League of Nation’s which Wilson hoped would lead to true world peace. However, the American Senate refused to ratify it. House’s outsized influence on Wlson eventually caused other advisers to resent him and helped to create tension between the Military and the Department of State.

It appears that the closer House came to shaping the world, the more visible, and vulnerable, he became. It’s difficult to resent someone who stays in the shadows and his power was actually tenuous. This is clearly seen once President Wilson suffered a stroke in the fall of 1919. Some believe Wilson’s wife Edith actually ran the government during her husband’s incapacitation. Needless to say, House began to be pushed out, but much like his career, it was done quietly. There was no grand scandal. There was no purge, no execution, and no disgrace, there was something much worse to a proud person, irrelevance.

It’s important to remember that those who wield power without having an official position lose that power once trust dissolves.

What can we learn from this today?

The American system allows influence, but not sovereignty. Today in Washington and Texas, we’re seeing that play out in real time. Those who achieve power without being elected only thrive when ambiguity is there. They often have a heightened self-worth, because many Americans have a fear of “shadow rulers”. Since we don’t know what they’re exactly doing, we mentally exaggerate their autonomy. House helped shape American policy. He did not control the state, and his story is instructive and not sinister.

Remember the person you see before the camera making the statements, is often NOT the person who is crafting the statements and making the policy. We have to beware of those who lurk in the shadows.

Thank you for joining me on the Hidden History of Texas and the world.