Table Of ContentTHE
STRANGEST FRIENDSHIP
IN HISTORY
Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House
GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK
CONTENTS
THE AUTHOR CHARTS HIS COURSE.............................................. xi
I. UNCHARTED SEAS OF HISTORY ............................................ 3
David Meets Jonathan — Woodrow Wilson's Alter Ego — A Psychic Enigma — Unpublished Letters
— Genius or Dummy? — Lifted Veils
II. DEAR, DEAR FRIEND .............................................................. 9
Statesman or Sleuth?—A Lobe of Wilson's Brain?—The Thermometer of Wilson's Affection —
Guardian of the Privy Purse — The Dark Angel — Exit Ellen Axson Wilson — Enter Edith Boiling
Wilson
III. SYMBIOSIS .............................................................................. 16
Astral Bodies — Wilson in Slippers — Exchanging Budgets — The Secret of Colonel House — First
Impressions — The Passion of Politics — Vicarious Thrills — A Biological Parallel — Psychic
Messmates
IV. HOUSE — SVENGALI OR STATESMAN? ............................. 27
The Daydream of Colonel House — A Book That Made History — Philip Dru Unlocks the Secret of
Wilson Policies — House and Bryan — House Performs a Miracle — The Omen of Colonel Harvey —
Bryan Swallows a Cocked Hat — Two Colonels Make a President
V. TWO PRESIDENTS FOR ONE .................................................. 35
Wilson at the Telephone — A Masque of Big Business — Colonel House Averts a Panic — The
Duumvirs Pick a Cabinet — The Calling List of Colonel House — The Nonchalance of Woodrow
Wilson — McCombs Loses Out — The March of the Hungry Democrats
VI. THE HAND ON THE STEERING WHEEL .............................. 42
Wilson Balks — The Bryan Mystery — Why House Spurned Office — Super-Secretary of State — A
Vice-President Out of Luck — Reforming the Currency — Manning the Federal Reserve — There Is No
God but Wilson and House Is His Only Prophet — Page Turns His Face East — Appointed but Not
Received — Received but Not Read
VII. THE PRICE OF HUERTA'S HEAD ......................................... 50
Panama Tolls Trouble Wilson — Grey Converts House — The Colonel's Advice — England Wins a
Trick — Colonel House Upsets a Platform — Woodrow Wilson's Ruse—Huerta's Head on a Silver
Platter —A Dream of Pan-America— The Embryo of the League
V
vi CONTENTS
VIII. THE INTERVIEW THAT ALMOST STOPPED THE WORLD WAR ............. 55
Schrippenfest in Potsdam — The Geographical Colonel — Between Two Generals — Half an Hour That
Might Have Changed the Fate of the World — Queen Victoria's Favorite Grandson — Great Britain's
Choice — Germany, the Cockpit of Europe
IX. THE MOST ABYSMAL BLUNDER IN HISTORY................................................... 62
Sir Edward Grey Dillydallies — Colonel House Writes to the Kaiser — William II Indicts the Allies —
Wilson and the Kaiser — House Exculpates the Kaiser — Haldane's German Mission — A Fatal Error
— The War-Guilt Myth
X. WOODROW WILSON SEES A GHOST .................................................................... 69
Shades of Madison — Two Princeton Men in the White House — Woodrow Wilson's Deadly Parallel—
1812 and 1914—"A Tragic Accident"—The Duumvirs Intercept a Letter — House Averts Break with
Great Britain — Super-Diplomacy
XI. COLONEL HOUSE PACKS HIS TRUNKS .............................................................. 76
The Star of Bethlehem over the White House — The Pessimism of Colonel House — Woodrow Wilson
Looks Westward — Two Secretaries of State — Lansing Plays the Game — The President's Proxy in
Europe — The Farewell of the Duumvirs
XII. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS .................................................................................. 80
What Bryan Said to Dumba — A Tip for the Germans — Gerard Blusters — Zimmermann Calls a Bluff
— After Bryan's Resignation — Mischief in England — Walter Page Has His Little Joke — The "Over-
Advertised" British Navy — France Seizes the Dacia
XIII. HEADACHES THAT CHANGE HISTORY ....................................................... 87
Multiple Chess — Cross-purposes — Departments Go on Forever — Temperamental Tribulations — An
Ambassador Disavowed — Wilson's Jibes: Gerard, Lippmann, Lawrence — Herron's Mission —
Munsterberg's Error — The Lightning that Struck Hale — Wilson Versus Hoover — Hidden Causes
XIV. THE COLONEL AND THE KING ........................................................................ 94
The Most Anti-German of Monarchs — The King and the Kaiser — King George Predicts the Sinking of
the Lusitania — House Makes a Prophecy — The Popularity of George V
XV. A BEE IN GERMANY'S BONNET ........................................................................... 98
The Freedom of the Seas—The Dubious Acquiescence of Sir Edward Grey A Machiavelli of Peace —
The Lusitania Sinks — House Demands an Ultimatum — Wilson Braves the Tempest — What the
Kaiser Said to Gerard British Beef and German Beer — Colonel House Foresees Trouble
XVI. DID WILSON PLEDGE THE UNITED STATES TO WAR
BEFORE THE ELECTION OF 1916? ................................................................................ 106
A Gentleman's Agreement — The I.O.U. of Sir Edward Grey — Private "Understandings" of McKinley
and Roosevelt—What Colonel House Said to Briand — French Genius for Misunderstanding — The
Misgivings of Ambassador Page — The House-Grey Memorandum — A Calvinist Conscience Rebels
CONTENTS vii
XVII. CLOVEN HOOFS .................................................................. 116
"Reasonable" Terms — The Hypnotized Duumvirs — The Duumvirs and the Germans — Wilson Strives
to Be Neutral — Page Suppresses a Dispatch — The Disastrous Agreement — Leaking Codes — The
Error of Wilhelmstrasse - A Break in the Wall of the Constitution — Will History Repeat Itself?
XVIII. THE GHOST OF MADISON STALKS ............................................................. 125
The Ruler of the Seas — The Patience of Woodrow Wilson — Vain Peace Efforts — House Warns Grey
— Scraps of Paper and Paper Blockades — Pigeon-holing Uncle Sam's Protest — Polite Refusals —
Wilson's Troubled Sleep
XIX. THE PIOUS WISH OF AMBASSADOR PAGE ................... 133
Deep Waters — A Deal in Cotton — Rumblings from Washington — Lansing Writes a Note — Wilson
Vacillates — Colonel House Loses His Temper — The Fury of Sir Cecil — Two Prayers
XX. WILSON CALLS THE ENGLISH "BOOBS" ........................... 138
When Gentlemen Disagree — The German Pot and the Allied Kettle — Grey Digs the Grave of an
Empire — Lansing Dissects His Chief — The Turn of the Road — A Stingless Ultimatum — House
Argues and Cajoles — Sir Edward's Note —The Rattle of the Skeletons
XXI. WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN! .......................................................................... 144
Campaign Hysteria — The Plaint of Captain Guy Gaunt —"The Last Straw"! —A Club for the President
— The Irritation of Colonel House — Page Chides the Administration — British Bourbons Will Not
Budge — Wilson at the Breaking Point — The Ghost of Madison Stalks Once More
XXII. IF HUGHES HAD BEEN ELECTED— ................................................................ 149
Secrets of the Campaign of 1916 — Wilson Decides to Resign if Defeated — Anglicizing the
Constitution — The Doubts of Justice Hughes — Polk Confirms House — Gregory's Story — Wilson's
Lost Letter
XXIII. THE SHADOW OF THE HYPHEN ....................................... 156
Wily Strategy — House Picks a Chairman — A Voice in the Wilderness — How Presidents Are Made
— Wilson's Postmaster General Woos Pro-Germans — The Hoax that Fooled Roosevelt — The
Winning of the West by Woodrow Wilson
XXIV. BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP, DEEP SEA 165
Anti-American Tension in London — House Counsels War with the Kaiser — The Cleavage of the
Duumvirs — Wilson's Battle for Peace — Fabian Tactics — The Note That Made King George Weep
— Germany's Round Robin — Wilson's Peace Note — House Sugars a Pill —"Peace Without
Victory"—Wilson's Mistake
XXV. BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE WHITE HOUSE WHEN
AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR ..................................................... 170
Germany and the Duumvirs — The Periscope on the Horizon — The Real Bernstorff — The Ear in the
Embassy Wall — If House Had Been the Kaiser Devious Ways of Duumvirs — Wilson's Suspicions
Wane — Torpedo Ahoy! The Duumvirs Play Pool
viii CONTENTS
XXVI. THE PACIFIST GOES TO WAR ........................................... 180
Wilson's Gethsemane — The President's Pacifist Gospel —The Truth About the Sunrise Conference —
Frustrated Hopes — House Argues for War — The President Still Hesitates — Zimmermann Sets Off a
Bomb — Last Struggles — Woodrow Wilson Salves His Conscience — Wilson and Lenin
XXVII. WILSON'S PERSONALITY SPLITS .................................. 194
Wilson Finds a New Devil — The "Stupidity" of the Pacifists—Wilson Answers the Pope — Woodrow
Wilson Edits a Dispatch for Downing Street — House Despairs of British Victory — The Lost Map
of the Secret Treaties — Wilson's Slip of Mind — The Shortcomings of General Wood —
Pershing's Prussian Discipline—"Kicking the Kaiser off His Perch"—The Duumvir is Disturbed —
Suppressed Minutes — The Russian Dilemma
XXVIII. WILSON AND HOUSE RE-MAKE THE WORLD IN
TWO HOURS ....................................................................................... 209
The Genesis of the Fourteen Points — The Regrets of Colonel House — The Four Objectives of the
Duumvirs — How Poland Got the Corridor — The Puzzle of Austria-Hungary — Alsace Lorraine Falls
under the Table — House Incorporates the Freedom of the Seas — Everybody's Business — Lloyd
George Steals Wilson's Thunder — The Fourteen Points and the Secret Treaties — Wilson's Tongue
Sharper than Pershing's Sword
XXIX. THE NEW SANCTION IS BORN........................................ 217
The League is Bom — Multiple Fathers — Snatched from the Womb of Time — Long-Distance Debates
— Austria's Secret Peace Offer — Allied Statesmen Shake in Their Boots—"Force without Stint or
Limit"—A League Symposium — House Writes a Covenant — History Stalks Through Magnolia
XXX. HOUSE SAVES THE FOURTEEN POINTS AT THE
ARMISTICE CONFERENCE ............................................................ 225
Germany's Imperial Scapegoat — The German Government Tricks the Kaiser — Uncle Sam's Trojan
Horse — Five New Commandments — Pershing's March to Berlin — The Colonel's Tiff with Lloyd
George and the Tiger — House Threatens a Separate Peace — German Collapse Weakens Wilson's Hand
XXXI. MOHAMMED COMES TO THE MOUNTAIN ................... 234
Wilson Decides to Make Peace in Person — House Upsets the President — Roosevelt Thunders in the
Index — Wilson's Puppets in Paris — The Duumvir Moves — Allied Plot to Poison President —
Wilson's Infelicitous Joke — Woodrow Wilson's Obsession — The Duumvir and the Tiger — Clouds
with a Purple Hue
XXXII. WOODROW WILSON DROPS THE PILOT ...................... 244
Backwash of Greed — A New Constellation — The Round Robin of Senator Lodge — The Duumvirs
Little White House in Paris — Mrs. Wilson Objects —"The Jack That House Built"— Rumblings of
Discontent — The Insatiable Tiger —House Advises Break with Allies — Treacherous Waters
XXXIII. THE WRECK OF THE FOURTEEN POINTS..................... 252
Fourteen Points Overboard — House on Reparations — Wilson's Change of Mind — The Blunder of the
Brenner Pass — The Secret Treaties Come Home to Roost — The Abstemiousness of Woodrow Wilson
— The Last Talk of the Duumvirs
CONTENTS ix
XXXIV. THE END OF A FRIENDSHIP ....................................................................... 261
Estrangement — Many Hypotheses — The Friendships of Woodrow Wilson — What Wilson Said to Sir
William Wiseman — Seibold's Theory — More Conjectures
XXXV. WHY WOODROW WILSON BROKE WITH EDWARD
MANDELL HOUSE ........................................................................................................... 269
Colonel House Takes the Stand — Why Colonel House Did Not Ask for a Showdown — Five Minutes
that Might Have Restored the World's Equilibrium - What Wilson Did not Know — Colonel House
Calls at S Street — The Silence of Colonel House — The Human Reasons for the Break — The Wall
Around Wilson — A Deathbed Message from Doctor Mezes — What Did Edith Tell?
XXXVI. THE FOUR SELVES OF WOODROW WILSON........................................... 278
The Verdict of the Jury — The Ambivalence of the Duumvirs — The Schizoid President — Two
Portraits — The Revenge of an Artist — The Lady or the Blarney Stone? — Woodrow Wilson and Mrs.
Hulbert Peck — Ten Shares of Steel — Wilson the Covenanter, House the Pagan — Woodrow Wilson's
Heart of Hearts—"Tremendous Storms"—The Return of Colonel House — Wilson Immures Himself —
The End of the Duumvirate — The Judgment of Wood-row Wilson
XXXVII. THE GREAT COLLAPSE ......................................................................... 293
Wilson's Psychic Shocks —Dr. Grayson Makes a Blood Test —The Truth About Wilson's Blind Eye —
Messengers of Death — The Great Crusade — Bullitt's Bullet — Lansing's Excuse — The Chink in the
Armor — Wilson Weeps in Pueblo — Mrs. Wilson Takes Command — The Verdict of the Specialists
— Lansing Invokes the Constitution — Tumulty and Grayson Defy the Secretary of State — Who Ruled
America?
XXXVIII. THE INACCESSIBLE PRESIDENT ........................................................... 304
Guardians of the Sick-room — Misleading Information — The Isolation of Woodrow Wilson — The
Ignorance of the Cabinet — The Resentment of Vice-President Marshall — Senator Moses Explodes a
Bombshell — Dr. Grayson Makes a Statement — The Chinese Wall Grows Higher — The President's
Callers — The Senate's Smelling Committee — Wilson Forces Out Lansing — Colby Steps into
Lansing's Shoes — Grayson Tiptoes — The Woman in Purple
XXXIX. WHEN A WOMAN WAS PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES .............................................................................................................. 319
The Most Devoted of Wives — A Uxorious President — The Woman who Was President — Mixed
Motives — Lane Talks to Grayson — An Interrupted Cabinet Meeting — Wilson's Methods of
Communication — Wilson's Affection for Grayson — The Animus of Edith Boiling Wilson —
Tumulty's Story —The Husband of Mrs. Wilson's Stepdaughter — The Last Will of Woodrow Wilson —
Wilson's Bid for a Third Term —The Last Bolt Shot
XL. THE WILSON MYTH .................................................................................................. 338
The Legend of Wilson — Houston Revises His Testimony — Colby Adds a Cubit — Hypocrite or Lamb
of God? — A Boiling Caldron — Complex Complexes — Rejuvenation and Resurrection — Last Words
— Half-Man and Super-Man — The Feet of the Idol
APPENDIX .......................................................................................................................... 353
INDEX ............................................................................... 365
THE AUTHOR CHARTS HIS COURSE
I
PROPOSE to tell the true story of the Wilson Administration,
curiously entwined with the story of the friendship between
Woodrow Wilson and Edward Mandell House—the strangest
friendship in history. In writing this book I have had the uncon-
scious collaboration of Woodrow Wilson. His constant intimate
letters to Colonel House have been opened to me, and I have found
in them a key to his character. Colonel House, Woodrow Wilson's
other self, has answered numberless questions and elucidated for me
some unsolved mysteries of the Wilson Administration. Other
distinguished contemporaries have also guided my sometimes
faltering footsteps. Emperor William and Colonel House read and
revised my account of their momentous interview which almost
stopped the World War.
Dr. Constantin Dumba, the Ambassador of Francis Joseph in
Washington; Count Johann von Bernstorff, the envoy of William
II; Bainbridge Colby, Wilson's Secretary of State; General T. W.
Gregory, Wilson's Attorney-General; David F. Houston, Wilson's
Secretary of Agriculture and McAdoo's successor as Secretary of
the Treasury; Newton D. Baker, the pacifist Secretary of War of a
pacifist President; Frank L. Polk, legal adviser of the State
Department; Joseph P. Tumulty, the most loyal of secretaries; the
late Sidney E. Mezes, Chief of the Inquiry, the body established to
prepare the American data for the Peace Conference; Justice
Charles Evans Hughes, Wilson's opponent in 1916; Louis Seibold,
the brilliant Washington correspondent; Professor Charles
Seymour, the editor of The Intimate Papers of Colonel House; Miss
Frances Denton, the Colonel's able secretary who knew and kept
more secrets than the State Department; Shaemas O'Sheel, who
graciously delved into musty records for me, and innumerable
others have been kind enough to aid my
xi
xii THE AUTHOR CHARTS HIS COURSE
researches. Nor should I fail to mention the help which I received
from my wife, Margaret Hein Viereck. Last, but not least, I express
my gratitude to my old associate, A. Paul Maerker-Branden, who
lashed me into writing this book, and to my brilliant and versatile
friend, Charles Fulton Oursler, without whom my inspiration would
have lagged before I reached the end of my course.
No one except myself is responsible for my conclusions.
Many of those to whom I am indebted for information will dis-
agree emphatically with some of my interpretations. I am the cook.
If I have spoiled the broth the fault is mine, not theirs.
I draw freely upon my own experiences. My slant is some-
what more intimate than that of the historian, because I have met
and known personally many of the personages who stalk through
these pages: President Wilson and his daughters, Clemen-ceau,
McAdoo, Bryan, Page, Burleson, Gregory, Colby, Morgen-thau,
Ludendorff, Foch, Briand, Sir William Wiseman, once head of the
British Secret Service in the United States, President Roosevelt,
Colonel House, William II, etc., etc.
Books, especially The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, The
True Story of Woodrow Wilson, by David Lawrence, and
Woodrow Wilson, by William Allen White, have helped me in my
task. I have dipped freely into these works and I have gathered
information wherever I could. The Intimate Papers especially have
yielded so much valuable material that it would be impossible to
acknowledge my indebtedness in each instance. Houghton Mifflin
Company, authorized publishers of Colonel House's book, have been
gracious enough to grant me special permission to borrow freely
from this inexhaustible source. Joseph P. Tumulty's Woodrow
Wilson As I Know Him, Ray Stannard Baker's Wood-row Wilson:
Life and Letters, Henry L. Stoddard's As I Knew Them, D. F.
Houston's Eight Years with Wilson's Cabinet, Josephus Daniels's
The Life of Wilson, George Creel's The War, the World and
Wilson, William G. McAdoo's Crowded Years, William E. Dodd's
Woodrow Wilson and His Work, Arthur D. Howden Smith's The
Real Colonel House, Colonel House's Philip Dru—Administrator,
James Kerney's The Political Education of Woodrow Wilson,
Woodrow Wilson's History of the
THE AUTHOR CHARTS HIS COURSE xiii
American People, and other studies, too numerous to recite, have
supplied here and there a flash that illuminates the amazing psy-
chology of Woodrow Wilson and Edward Mandell House.
I shall pilot the reader through uncharted seas of history
without attempting to follow strictly the order of events in time.
Where a conflict occurs, I shall be guided more often by psy-
chology than by chronology. Those who follow me will discover
that for six and one-half years the United States was governed by a
Duumvirate, a Committee of Two. They will note the confusion
prevailing in the diplomatic service of the United States because the
Duumvirs, scorning official avenues of diplomacy, chose to
communicate with foreign governments through channels of their
own. We shall witness the spectacle of a President disowning his
own ambassadors, and of ambassadors disowning their government.
We shall catch intimate glimpses of monarchs and of premiers. We
shall hear what Colonel House said to the Kaiser and to King
George, and what they said to him. We shall discover the origin of
the "strangest and most fruitful alliance in history," and tell, for the
first time, the true story of why it was broken. I shall lift the veil
that hides the real causes of the rupture between Woodrow Wilson
and Colonel House, even from House himself.
There will be no doubt as to who was the real author of the
Fourteen Points and who tried to save them in Paris. Woodrow
Wilson's secret agreement pledging the United States to inter-
vention before he was reelected will cast its shadow across our
page. It will be made clear why Woodrow Wilson reversed himself
on the Panama tolls, and why he plunged us into war. We shall
learn why, in spite of his Gentleman's Agreement with England,
Wilson called the British "boobs," and why the United States was on
the verge of war with Great Britain during the Wilson
Administration. We shall see why, twice in his career, President
Wilson was on the point of resigning the Presidency, why Wilson
refused to support his son-in-law McAdoo's Presidential ambi-
tions, and other carefully guarded secrets. In this connection we
shall make the astounding discovery that for six and one-half
months Edith Boiling Wilson was virtually President of the United
States; for a longer period, ten months and two and one-
xiv THE AUTHOR CHARTS HIS COURSE
half weeks, the sprightly widow of the Washington jeweler was
Wilson's co-regent.
When I began my study I looked upon Woodrow Wilson as
the villain of the ensuing drama. As I proceeded to delve into the
debris of reminiscences and unwritten history, he gradually as-
sumed some aspects of a martyr and a saint. There was a time
when there was no one in the world whom I distrusted more than
Edward Mandell House. To-day he seems to me a genuine philos-
opher and a gifted statesman. Even if his good intentions, like
Wilson's, have helped to pave mankind's way to hell, they gave us
a glimpse of the Promised Land where peace abides and a new
sanction governs the fate of nations.
GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK
