'''Edward Mandell House''' (July 26, 1858 – March 28, 1938) was an American diplomat, and an adviser to President [[Woodrow Wilson]]. He was known as '''Colonel House''', although his rank was honorary and he had performed no military service. He was a highly influential back-stage politician in Texas before becoming a key supporter of the presidential bid of Wilson in 1912. Having a self-effacing manner, he did not hold office but was an "executive agent", Wilson's chief adviser on European politics and diplomacy during [[World War I]] (1914–1918). He became a government official as one of the five American commissioners to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference of 1919]].<ref>His appointment was announced November 29, 1918. Neu (2015), p. 379.</ref> In 1919, Wilson broke with House and many other top advisers, believing they had deceived him at Paris.
==Early years==
He was born July 26, 1858, in [[Houston]], Texas, the last of seven children<!-- He was the son of Houston mayor [[Thomas William House Sr.]], a gunrunner during the [[USAmerican Civil War]] who amassed a fortune.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} --> of Mary Elizabeth (Shearn) and [[Thomas William House Sr.]] His father was an emigrant from England by way of New Orleans, who became a prominent Houston businessman, with a large role in developing the city and served a term as its mayor. His father sent ships laden with cotton to evade the [[Union blockade]] in the Gulf of Mexico during the [[American Civil War]]. He traded Texas cotton through [[Matamoros, Mexico]], in exchange for equipment and ammunition.<ref name="TWH">{{cite web |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/house-thomas-william |title=House, Thomas William (1814–1880) |last=Beazley |first=Julia |website=Handbook of Texas |publisher=Texas State Historical Society |access-date=July 12, 2021 }}</ref>
As a young man, House and his companions harassed [[Freedman|recently-freed slaves]] verbally and with [[slingshot]]s. His diary entries "consistently reveal a deeply felt racism" and a belief in [[white supremacy]].<ref name="Minutaglio">{{cite book |last=Minutaglio |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Minutaglio |date=2021 |title=A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles: A History of Politics and Race in Texas |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Single_Star_and_Bloody_Knuckles/lYcHEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA70 |location= |publisher=University of Texas Press |page=70 |isbn=9781477310366}}</ref>
