The Colonel House Issue

The four volumes of The Intimate Papers of Colonel House began to appear in 1926, two years after Wilson died. Early in the Wilson administration, Colonel House had remarked that he had just one object and purpose in life, and that was to present Woodrow Wilson to the world as he really was in all his greatness. However, when The Intimate Papers appeared, they represented Colonel House as the inspiration, the originator, and almost the dictator of many of the most important Wilsonian policies. They stirred the embers of controversy, and led Admiral Cary Travers Grayson, a Virginia-born Admiral who became Wilson's personal physician, to write an article disputing the "facts" presented in those four volumes. Grayson's relations with the President were deep and abiding, and lasted until Wilson died in 1924. He went everywhere with him, and he saw the unique relationship between the President and Colonel Edward M. House as it flourished, and as it finally withered.…