Henry White (diplomat)
Encyclopedia
Henry White was a prominent U.S.
diplomat during the 1890s and 1900s, and one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles
.
Theodore Roosevelt
, who was president during the peak of White's career, described White as "the most useful man in the entire diplomatic service, during my Presidency and for many years before." Colonel House
, the chief aide to Woodrow Wilson
, called White "the most accomplished diplomatist this country has ever produced."
, White was born into a wealthy and socially well-connected Maryland
family, the son of John Campbell White and his wife Eliza Ridgely, and the grandson of another Eliza Ridgely
(As a boy, White was taken by his grandfather to meet then-President Franklin Pierce
).
During the Civil War
, the family's sympathies were with the Confederacy. After the war ended in 1865 with a Confederate defeat, White's family moved to France, where White finished his education in Paris
. Five years later, war once again set the Whites to flight, as they moved to England
after the fall of Napoleon III
during the Franco-Prussian War
.
Because White showed signs of ill health after the move to England, he was ordered by his doctor to maintain a vigorous athletic regimen outdoors. These orders led White to become an avid fox hunter
; an avocation
that in turn allowed him to meet many of the leading figures in Victorian England. He continued to hunt until his marriage, in 1879, to Margaret "Daisy" Stuyvesant Rutherfurd.
After his marriage, White moved back to the United States after 14 years living overseas. Using the relationships he developed fox hunting, as well as the contacts possessed by his and his wife's families, he expressed his interest in getting a diplomatic post.
After three years of networking, White's efforts were rewarded in the summer of 1883 with the secretaryship of the U.S. legation in Vienna, working under minister Alphonso Taft
. At the end of the year, he was promoted to be second secretary of the far more important U.S. legation in London, working under minister
James Russell Lowell
; a post he kept even after a Democratic victory in the 1884 presidential election led to Lowell, like White a Republican appointee, being turned out of office in 1885. White was even promoted, to first secretary of the legation, in 1886. After seven years in that post, under ministers Edward J. Phelps
, Robert T. Lincoln
, and Thomas F. Bayard
, White was removed from office for political reasons in October 1893.
, where White laid the groundwork for a return to the diplomatic service.
Throughout White's diplomatic career, his prospects were helped by the social grace of himself and his wife. As a bachelor, White had ingratiated himself with the British sporting set. As a married couple, Henry and Margaret White had been popular with British intellectuals, and were charter members of The Souls
.
The Whites now made themselves welcome in salons throughout Washington, making or renewing friendships with Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay
, Chauncey Depew
, Henry Cabot Lodge
, and Levi P. Morton
, among many others.
These relationships White had formed with both British and American leaders were what made him an invaluable diplomat. White was able to serve as an unusually effective intermediary between the British and American governments because he was known and trusted by both sides. During the years when White was active in the United Kingdom, both the British and the American governments wanted close relations with the other, so White was able to use his ability to mediate with greatest effect.
's election to the presidency in 1896 brought White back into a government post. McKinley offered White the position of U.S. minister to Spain, but White choose to return to his old position as first secretary at the London embassy, where Hay was now the ambassador (the U.S. diplomatic mission in London had been upgraded from a legation to an embassy in 1895).
When Hay was recalled to Washington in 1898 for a promotion to Secretary of State
, White had hoped to become ambassador, but that position went to Joseph H. Choate
instead. As acting chargé d'affaires
while awaiting Choate's arrival, White played a key role in the negotiations leading to the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
.
In 1899, Margaret White was struck down by a degenerative nerve disease. She would recover only partially, and spent much of her time away at resorts, conserving her strength. For the next 10 years, the Whites' daughter Muriel would fill in as hostess during her mother's absences.
.
While Ambassador to Italy, White served as the lead U.S. mediator during the 1906 Algeciras Conference
. The agreement reached during that conference averted a war between France and Germany over economic rights in Morocco.
On December 19, 1906, White received another promotion from Roosevelt, this time to be the U.S. ambassador to France, replacing Robert Sanderson McCormick
who retired due to his health. He stayed in that position until President Taft took office in 1909 and requested his resignation.
. During the trip, Roosevelt and White met with every major chief of state in Europe except Tsar Nicholas II
.
In 1910, White also accepted an assignment from Taft to head the U.S. delegation to the Pan-American Conference
in Buenos Aires
. As a result of his discussions with Latin American diplomats, White wrote a strong recommendation to Secretary of State Philander C. Knox
that these diplomats be treated with more respect and tact. White became an active member of the Pan-American Society after returning from Buenos Aires.
In between diplomatic missions, White supervised the construction of a new mansion in Washington, D.C. (as of 2006, this building still stands, and is occupied by the Meridian International Center). The house was near most of the city's foreign embassies, and White actively socialized with ambassadors from around the world.
started in 1914. He and his wife were sequestered in Berlin for two weeks, and then were able to leave for home via Holland with their daughter's two children, who spent the first two years of the war in the United States.
Because White had strong ties to both England and Germany, he remained neutral in his sympathies during the early years of the war, an attitude which gradually made him a supporter of President Woodrow Wilson
, who also advocated neutrality and peace.
In 1914, the Wilson administration asked White first to head the American delegation to the 1914 Pan-American Conference and later to serve as Minister to Haiti. White declined both offers, though, and stayed out of diplomacy during these years because of the rapidly declining health of his wife, who died on September 2, 1916.
When Germany declared that it would conduct unrestricted submarine warfare against U.S. ships, White realized that U.S. entry into the war was inevitable, and he supported it wholeheartedly. When the French sent a special military mission, headed by Marshal Joffre
, to the United States after the declaration of war, White hosted the mission in his mansion.
, White received a surprise invitation from President Wilson to serve as one of the five American Peace Commissioners, who would go to France to work on the peace treaty with Germany. Wilson extended the invitation because White was a Republican yet still a supporter of Wilson's peace aims. Wilson also valued White as being the most experienced American diplomat of the time, and a man who knew most of the European leaders with whom the Commission would deal.
The Commission arrived in Paris on December 14. White talked with dignitaries from across Europe to learn what various groups wanted and what they would accept. He also sought unsuccessfully to find a common ground between Wilson and the Senate Republicans (led by Lodge) who would be in a position to reject the treaty Wilson was negotiating.
After the peace treaty with Germany was signed (the U.S. Senate later refused to ratify it), Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing
returned to the United States, leaving White to lead the delegation in drafting the peace treaties with Austria-Hungary
and Bulgaria
until he could be relieved of command by the Assistant Secretary of State. After five more months of work, White and the remainder of the delegation left Paris on December 9, 1919.
Upon his return to the United States, White continued to try to bring Wilson and Lodge together to compromise and get the treaty approved by the Senate. On March 19, 1920, however, the Senate rejected the treaty.
, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Smithsonian Institution
, among other organizations. White also continued to correspond and host friends from the diplomatic and political worlds.
On November 3, 1920, White re-married, to Emily Vanderbilt Sloane
.
In 1926, White's health began to fail, and he spent much of his time confined to bed. He died a few hours after undergoing an operation.
White's body was buried in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., near the tomb of Woodrow Wilson.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
diplomat during the 1890s and 1900s, and one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, who was president during the peak of White's career, described White as "the most useful man in the entire diplomatic service, during my Presidency and for many years before." Colonel House
Edward M. House
Edward Mandell House was an American diplomat, politician, and presidential advisor. Commonly known by the title of Colonel House, although he had no military experience, he had enormous personal influence with U.S...
, the chief aide to Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, called White "the most accomplished diplomatist this country has ever produced."
Early life
A native of BaltimoreBaltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, White was born into a wealthy and socially well-connected Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
family, the son of John Campbell White and his wife Eliza Ridgely, and the grandson of another Eliza Ridgely
Eliza Ridgely
Eliza Eichelberger Ridgely was an American heiress, traveler, arbiter of fashion, and mistress of Hampton, the Ridgely plantation north of Towson, Maryland...
(As a boy, White was taken by his grandfather to meet then-President Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
).
During the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the family's sympathies were with the Confederacy. After the war ended in 1865 with a Confederate defeat, White's family moved to France, where White finished his education in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Five years later, war once again set the Whites to flight, as they moved to England
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
after the fall of Napoleon III
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
.
Because White showed signs of ill health after the move to England, he was ordered by his doctor to maintain a vigorous athletic regimen outdoors. These orders led White to become an avid fox hunter
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
; an avocation
Avocation
An avocation is an activity that one engages in as a hobby outside one's main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside of their workplaces were their true passions in life...
that in turn allowed him to meet many of the leading figures in Victorian England. He continued to hunt until his marriage, in 1879, to Margaret "Daisy" Stuyvesant Rutherfurd.
Early diplomatic career
White's new wife was an ambitious and hard-working woman who encouraged her husband to pursue the career in diplomacy in which his years in Europe had interested him.After his marriage, White moved back to the United States after 14 years living overseas. Using the relationships he developed fox hunting, as well as the contacts possessed by his and his wife's families, he expressed his interest in getting a diplomatic post.
After three years of networking, White's efforts were rewarded in the summer of 1883 with the secretaryship of the U.S. legation in Vienna, working under minister Alphonso Taft
Alphonso Taft
Alphonso Taft was the Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and the founder of an American political dynasty. He was the father of U.S...
. At the end of the year, he was promoted to be second secretary of the far more important U.S. legation in London, working under minister
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
The office of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was traditionally, and still is very much so today due to the Special Relationship, the most prestigious position in the United States Foreign Service...
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
; a post he kept even after a Democratic victory in the 1884 presidential election led to Lowell, like White a Republican appointee, being turned out of office in 1885. White was even promoted, to first secretary of the legation, in 1886. After seven years in that post, under ministers Edward J. Phelps
Edward John Phelps
Edward John Phelps was a lawyer and diplomat from Vermont. Born in Middlebury, he graduated from Middlebury College in 1840, studied law at Yale University, and began practicing in 1843.-Schooling:...
, Robert T. Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln was an American lawyer and Secretary of War, and the first son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln...
, and Thomas F. Bayard
Thomas F. Bayard
Thomas Francis Bayard was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party, who served three terms as U.S. Senator from Delaware, and as U.S. Secretary of State, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.-Early life and family:Bayard was born in...
, White was removed from office for political reasons in October 1893.
American interlude
After stepping down in London, White and his family returned to the United States, a country which White had lived in for only three of the past 27 years. The family moved to Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where White laid the groundwork for a return to the diplomatic service.
Throughout White's diplomatic career, his prospects were helped by the social grace of himself and his wife. As a bachelor, White had ingratiated himself with the British sporting set. As a married couple, Henry and Margaret White had been popular with British intellectuals, and were charter members of The Souls
The Souls
The Souls were a small, loosely-knit but distinctive social group in England, from 1885 to about 1920. Their members included many of the most distinguished English politicians and intellectuals....
.
The Whites now made themselves welcome in salons throughout Washington, making or renewing friendships with Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay
John Hay
John Milton Hay was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...
, Chauncey Depew
Chauncey Depew
Chauncey Mitchell Depew was an attorney for Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad interests, president of the New York Central Railroad System, and a United States Senator from New York from 1899 to 1911.- Biography:...
, Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...
, and Levi P. Morton
Levi P. Morton
Levi Parsons Morton was a Representative from New York and the 22nd Vice President of the United States . He also later served as the 31st Governor of New York.-Biography:...
, among many others.
These relationships White had formed with both British and American leaders were what made him an invaluable diplomat. White was able to serve as an unusually effective intermediary between the British and American governments because he was known and trusted by both sides. During the years when White was active in the United Kingdom, both the British and the American governments wanted close relations with the other, so White was able to use his ability to mediate with greatest effect.
Back in the diplomatic service
William McKinleyWilliam McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
's election to the presidency in 1896 brought White back into a government post. McKinley offered White the position of U.S. minister to Spain, but White choose to return to his old position as first secretary at the London embassy, where Hay was now the ambassador (the U.S. diplomatic mission in London had been upgraded from a legation to an embassy in 1895).
When Hay was recalled to Washington in 1898 for a promotion to Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
, White had hoped to become ambassador, but that position went to Joseph H. Choate
Joseph Hodges Choate
Joseph Hodges Choate , was an American lawyer and diplomat.-Biography:He was born in Salem, Massachusetts on January 24, 1832. He was the son of physician George Choate and the brother of George C. S. Choate. His father's first cousin was Rufus Choate...
instead. As acting chargé d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
while awaiting Choate's arrival, White played a key role in the negotiations leading to the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
The United States and the United Kingdom signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty on 18 November 1901. The Treaty nullified the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 and gave the United States the right to create and control a canal across the Central American isthmus to connect the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic...
.
In 1899, Margaret White was struck down by a degenerative nerve disease. She would recover only partially, and spent much of her time away at resorts, conserving her strength. For the next 10 years, the Whites' daughter Muriel would fill in as hostess during her mother's absences.
Ambassadorial years
On March 6, 1905, White received his long-awaited promotion to Ambassador, as President Roosevelt named him to represent the United States with ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
While Ambassador to Italy, White served as the lead U.S. mediator during the 1906 Algeciras Conference
Algeciras Conference
The Algeciras Conference of 1906 took place in Algeciras, Spain, and lasted from January 16 to April 7. The purpose of the conference was to find a solution to the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany, which arose as Germany attempted to prevent France from establishing a protectorate...
. The agreement reached during that conference averted a war between France and Germany over economic rights in Morocco.
On December 19, 1906, White received another promotion from Roosevelt, this time to be the U.S. ambassador to France, replacing Robert Sanderson McCormick
Robert Sanderson McCormick
Robert Sanderson McCormick was a United States diplomat. Born in rural Virginia, his extended McCormick family became influential in Chicago.-Life:...
who retired due to his health. He stayed in that position until President Taft took office in 1909 and requested his resignation.
Semi-retirement
White remained active in U.S. diplomacy after leaving Paris. He accompanied Roosevelt on the now-former President's tour of Europe in 1910, serving as Roosevelt's de facto chief of staff during visits to Paris and Berlin and during Roosevelt's service as the U.S. special representative to the funeral of King Edward VIIEdward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. During the trip, Roosevelt and White met with every major chief of state in Europe except Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
.
In 1910, White also accepted an assignment from Taft to head the U.S. delegation to the Pan-American Conference
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. As a result of his discussions with Latin American diplomats, White wrote a strong recommendation to Secretary of State Philander C. Knox
Philander C. Knox
Philander Chase Knox was an American lawyer and politician who served as United States Attorney General , a Senator from Pennsylvania and Secretary of State ....
that these diplomats be treated with more respect and tact. White became an active member of the Pan-American Society after returning from Buenos Aires.
In between diplomatic missions, White supervised the construction of a new mansion in Washington, D.C. (as of 2006, this building still stands, and is occupied by the Meridian International Center). The house was near most of the city's foreign embassies, and White actively socialized with ambassadors from around the world.
World War I
White's daughter had married Graf (Ernst Hans Christoph Roger) Hermann von Seherr-Thoss, a German aristocrat, in 1909, and White was in Germany visiting them when World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
started in 1914. He and his wife were sequestered in Berlin for two weeks, and then were able to leave for home via Holland with their daughter's two children, who spent the first two years of the war in the United States.
Because White had strong ties to both England and Germany, he remained neutral in his sympathies during the early years of the war, an attitude which gradually made him a supporter of President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, who also advocated neutrality and peace.
In 1914, the Wilson administration asked White first to head the American delegation to the 1914 Pan-American Conference and later to serve as Minister to Haiti. White declined both offers, though, and stayed out of diplomacy during these years because of the rapidly declining health of his wife, who died on September 2, 1916.
When Germany declared that it would conduct unrestricted submarine warfare against U.S. ships, White realized that U.S. entry into the war was inevitable, and he supported it wholeheartedly. When the French sent a special military mission, headed by Marshal Joffre
Joseph Joffre
Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre OM was a French general during World War I. He is most known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne in 1914. His popularity led to his nickname Papa Joffre.-Biography:Joffre was born in...
, to the United States after the declaration of war, White hosted the mission in his mansion.
American Peace Commissioner
On November 19, 1918, shortly after the declaration of the ArmisticeArmistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...
, White received a surprise invitation from President Wilson to serve as one of the five American Peace Commissioners, who would go to France to work on the peace treaty with Germany. Wilson extended the invitation because White was a Republican yet still a supporter of Wilson's peace aims. Wilson also valued White as being the most experienced American diplomat of the time, and a man who knew most of the European leaders with whom the Commission would deal.
The Commission arrived in Paris on December 14. White talked with dignitaries from across Europe to learn what various groups wanted and what they would accept. He also sought unsuccessfully to find a common ground between Wilson and the Senate Republicans (led by Lodge) who would be in a position to reject the treaty Wilson was negotiating.
After the peace treaty with Germany was signed (the U.S. Senate later refused to ratify it), Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing served in the position of Legal Advisor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I where he vigorously advocated against Britain's policy of blockade and in favor of the principles of freedom of the seas and the rights of neutral nations...
returned to the United States, leaving White to lead the delegation in drafting the peace treaties with Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
until he could be relieved of command by the Assistant Secretary of State. After five more months of work, White and the remainder of the delegation left Paris on December 9, 1919.
Upon his return to the United States, White continued to try to bring Wilson and Lodge together to compromise and get the treaty approved by the Senate. On March 19, 1920, however, the Senate rejected the treaty.
Retirement
The rejection of the treaty ended White's diplomatic career, though he continued to be active in public life, as a trustee for the National Geographic SocietyNational Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, among other organizations. White also continued to correspond and host friends from the diplomatic and political worlds.
On November 3, 1920, White re-married, to Emily Vanderbilt Sloane
Emily Thorn Vanderbilt
Emily Thorn Vanderbilt was a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family.The second daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam , Emily Thorn Vanderbilt was named after her aunt, Emily Almira Thorn, daughter of dynasty founder Cornelius Vanderbilt.The Sloanes were...
.
In 1926, White's health began to fail, and he spent much of his time confined to bed. He died a few hours after undergoing an operation.
White's body was buried in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., near the tomb of Woodrow Wilson.
Children
Henry and Margaret White had two children:- Muriel White (October 12, 1880 – March 13, 1943). She married Count (Ernst Hans Christoph Roger) Hermann Seherr-Thoss, a Prussian aristocrat, in Paris on April 28, 1909, and lived in Germany for the rest of her life.
- John Campbell White (March 1884 – June 11, 1967). He married Elizabeth Moffat. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service as a diplomat from 1914 to 1945, and was U.S. ambassador to Haiti (1941–1944) and Peru (1944–1945).