that he depended on him greatly for instruction and guidance. Many of Wilson's important appointive posts in government were hand selected by House. He and Wilson even went so far as to develop a private code so they could communicate freely over the telephone. The President himself had written:
'Mr. House is my second personality. He is my independent self.
His thoughts and mine are one.'3
George Viereck, an admiring biographer of House, tells us: House had the Texas delegation in his pocket.... Always moving quietly in the background, he made and unmade several governors of Texas.... House selected Wilson because he regarded him as the best available candidate....
For seven long years Colonel House was Woodrow Wilson's other self. For six long years he shared with him all but the title of the Chief Magistracy of the Republic. For six years two rooms were al his disposal in the North Wing of the White House.... It was House who made the slate for the Cabinet, formulated the first policies of the Administration and practically directed the foreign affairs of the United States. We had, indeed, two Presidents for one!...
Super-ambassador, he talked to emperors and kings as an equal He was the spiritual generalissimo of the Administration. He was the piiot who guided the ship.4
A SECRET AGREEMENT TO GET THE U.S. INTO WAR
As the presidential election neared for Wilson's second term, Colonel House entered into a series of confidential talks with Sir 1.
2. Charles Seymour,
3. Seymour, Vol. I, p. 114.
4. George Sylvester Viereck,
SINK THE LUSITANIA!
241
VVilliam Wiseman, who was attached to the British embassy in Washington and who acted as a secret intermediary between House and the British Foreign Office. Charles Seymour writes: 'Between House and Wiseman there were soon to be few political secrets.'1
This was upsetting to the Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan. Mrs. Bryan, as co-author of her husband's memoirs, writes: While Secretary Bryan was bearing the heavy responsibility of the Department of State, there arose the curious conditions surrounding Mr. E.M. House's unofficial connection with the President and his voyages abroad on affairs of State, which were not communicated to Secretary Bryan.... The President was unofficially dealing with foreign governments.2
What was the purpose of those dealings? It was nothing less than to work out the means whereby the United States could be brought into the war. Viereck explains:
Ten months before the election which returned Wilson to the White House in 1916 'because he kept us out of war,' Colonel House negotiated a secret agreement with England and France on behalf of Wilson which pledged the United States to intervene on behalf of the Allies.
On March 9, 1916, Woodrow Wilson formally sanctioned the undertaking. If an inkling of the conversations between Colonel House and the leaders of England and France h a d reached the American people before the election, it might have caused incalculable revulsions of public opinion....
From this conversation and various conferences with Sir Edward Grey grew the Secret Treaty, m a d e without the knowledge and consent of the United States Senate, by which Woodrow Wilson and House chained the United States to the chariot of the Entente.... After the War the text of the agreement leaked out. Grey was the first to tattle. Page discussed it at length. Colonel House tells its history.
C. Hartley Grattan discusses it at length in his book,
But for some incomprehensible reason the enormous significance of the revelation never penetrated the consciousness of the American people.3
!• Seymour, Vol. 11, p. 399.
2- William Jennings Bryan and Mary Baird Bryan,
3- Viereck, pp. 106-08. This matter, along with the complete text of Sir Grey's memorandum, is discussed in
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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND
The basic terms of the agreement were that the United States government would offer to negotiate a peaceful settlement between Germany find the Allies and would then put forth a specific proposal for the terms of that settlement. If either side refused to accept the proposal, then the United States would come into the war as an ally of the other side. The catch was that the terms of the proposal were carefully drafted so that Germany could not possibly accept them. Thus, to the world, it would look as though Germany was at fault and the United States was
