Harding, Warren G.

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Warren G. Harding

Born November 2, 1865 (Corsica, Ohio)
Died August 2, 1923 (San Francisco, California)

U.S. president

"Let us stop to consider that tranquillity at home is more precious than peace abroad, and that both our good fortune and our eminence are dependent on the normal forward stride of all the American people. . . ."

Warren G. Harding was elected to the presidency on the promise of returning the nation to what he called "normalcy" after the turmoil of World War I (1914–18). His term in office, which lasted from 1921 until his unexpected death in 1923, ushered in not only the general economic prosperity that characterized the Roaring Twenties but also the dominance of the Republican Party during this decade. Charming and personable, Harding was much loved by the ordinary people of the United States during his presidency, but history has not been as kind. His reputation was marred by revelations after his death that his administration had been riddled with corruption.

Finding his way

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the eldest of eight children born to George Tyron Harding, a Civil War veteran, a farmer, and a doctor, and Phoebe Dickerson Harding, a gentle, very religious woman who eventually went into medical practice with her husband. Harding attended a one-room school and performed his farm chores without much enthusiasm. The

family moved to a farm outside the small town of Caledonia when Harding was ten years old. Here Harding learned to play the cornet, spent his summers working in a sawmill, and worked as a printer's "devil" (helper) at a newspaper, where he learned the basics of a trade with which he would be involved for a long time to come.

When Harding was fourteen he entered Ohio Central College, a two-year academy with a rather weak academic program. He served as co-editor of the school newspaper before graduating in 1882. Shortly before his graduation, Harding's family had moved to Marion, and he joined them there that summer. He worked as a teacher but lasted only one semester, claiming later that it was the hardest job he had ever had. Next he read law in an attorney's office (the common method, in the early twentieth century, for training to become a lawyer), but he did not like this kind of work either. Jobs as an insurance agent and a part-time reporter for the weekly Mirror newspaper also did not work out.

Florence Harding: A Formidable First Lady

Florence Kling Harding, wife to U.S. president Warren G. Harding, was a strong individual who supported her husband's career to the White House but could not escape the rumor that she was some how involved in his death. A dynamic woman, Florence inspired a range of opinion about her character and her relationship to her husband.

Born into a wealthy family in Marion, Ohio, in 1860, Florence studied music for one year before returning home. The nineteen-year-old soon became pregnant by a local boy, Henry "Pete" De Wolfe. Although they were said to have eloped, a marriage may not have actually taken place. Son Eugene was born in 1880, and De Wolfe left his young family soon after the birth. Florence, struggling as a single mother, gave the baby to her parents to raise.

At age thirty, Florence met Warren G. Harding, who had recently bought Marion's Daily Star newspaper. Although her father disapproved, the two married in July 1881. Their marriage produced no children.

After their marriage, Florence took over the newspaper's circulation department, where she was known as a demanding but effective manager. Meanwhile, Harding became active in politics, supported and encouraged by his wife. He served first as an Ohio state senator, and in 1914 was elected to the U.S. Senate.

As the 1920 election approached, Harding's campaign manager urged him to run for president. Florence had reservations but supported her husband. She was actively involved in her husband's campaign by courting the press and endearing herself to female voters by speaking out on women's rights. With the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote, that had recently come into law, Florence became the first wife of a presidential candidate to cast a vote for her husband.

Harding won the presidency by a large margin. Upon moving into the White House, Florence immediately ordered the mansion to be opened to tourists. As First Lady, she hosted many teas, receptions, and state dinners. These festivities were well covered by the media, and newspapers often printed Florence's remarks in favor of women competing in sports and running their own businesses. Behind the scenes she encouraged her husband to speak out more forcefully on racial equality and religious tolerance. Florence was also known to serve as bartender at the poker games hosted by her husband, who served illegal liquor at these private gatherings.

Although Florence made significant contributions to her husband's career, their marriage does not appear to have been happy. It was widely known, though not reported by the press, that the president indulged in extramarital affairs. After the death of both Hardings, a book written by Nan Britton claimed that her daughter had been fathered by Harding.

By 1923 rumors were circulating that the Harding administration was riddled with corruption. The Hardings were aware of these growing concerns when they set off on a trip to Alaska and the West Coast that was billed as "a Voyage to Understanding." During the journey Harding became ill and, on August 2, 1923, suddenly died. Florence refused to allow an autopsy, which later led to allegations that she had somehow been involved in his death, but these were never proven.

After the funeral, Florence destroyed many of Harding's presidential papers, most likely to protect his reputation. She lived for only another year and a half, dying of kidney disease on November 21, 1924.

Meanwhile Harding helped to organize a town band, and he started forming the conservative Republican beliefs that he would hold for the rest of his life. In November 1884, when he was nineteen, Harding got together with two friends to buy, for three hundred dollars, a small, ill-equipped daily newspaper called the Marion Star. Eventually Harding became the Star's sole owner, and under his care the newspaper became increasingly successful. Within five years, in fact, it was Marion's leading publication.

At the same time, Harding was becoming a prominent citizen of Marion. He was appointed to the boards of directors of several companies, served as a trustee of his Baptist church, and belonged to a number of community organizations. In 1881 he married Florence "Flossie" Kling (1860–1924), who was five years older than Harding. Her father initially disapproved of the marriage because he had heard rumors that one or more of Harding's ancestors had been black. At this period in U.S. history, many people not only considered African Americans inferior to those of European ancestry but also strongly disapproved of intermingling between people of different races. This issue would continue to be raised from time to time during Harding's career.

In any case, it seems that Harding's marriage to Flossie, whom he called "Duchess" due to her dominant personality, was unhappy, and over the course of their married life he would have several extramarital affairs. Nevertheless, Harding's wife believed in his potential for success and encouraged his progress in both publishing and politics. Soon after their marriage she took over the Star's circulation department, and her able leadership helped to make the newspaper a thriving, profitable operation.

A popular Ohio politician

Harding had a natural gift for public speaking and an ability to say little of substance in an important-sounding, pleasing way. Thus he seemed well suited to run for political office. In 1899 he was elected as a Republican state senator, an impressive feat in a state dominated by Democrats. In this position he gained a reputation as someone who could mediate between the two different groups of Republicans within the Senate, who often squabbled with each other. During his second term as senator, Harding was chosen for the prestigious role of Republican floor leader. It was during this period that he met Harry Daugherty (1860–1941), a Republican politician, lawyer, and lobbyist (someone who tries to influence legislators on a particular issue) who would play a major role in his presidential administration.

Harding was elected to the largely ceremonial office of lieutenant governor of Ohio in 1902. Eight years later he ran for governor, but he was defeated and returned to Marion to run his newspaper. Harding gained some national attention in 1912 when he made a speech introducing William Howard Taft (1857–1930) as the nominee of the Republican National Convention. Two years later Harding was elected to the U.S. Senate.

He spent six years in the Senate, where he was well liked but accomplished nothing notable. In fact, Harding was present for less than one-third of the votes taken during his term. He consistently avoided taking any firm stands on the issues of the day, such as the prohibition of alcoholic drinks (which would become law in January 1920 after the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) and whether women should be allowed to vote (the Nineteenth Amendment, passed in 1920, would win them this right).

Harding did, however, serve as chairman of the Republican National Convention in 1916, when Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) was chosen to run against President Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; served 1913–21), the Democratic Party's candidate. Hughes lost to Wilson, who led the nation into war the next year despite his earlier promises to keep the United States out of the conflict.

An inoffensive candidate for president

As the 1920 election approached, Republicans knew that they were in a good position to win. Embittered by the failure of his effort to get the United States to join the League of Nations, an international organization formed to encourage cooperation and peace between countries, and weakened by illness, Wilson had decided not to run for reelection. The only question was whom the Republicans should nominate. At first the top contenders did not include Harding, but his old friend Daugherty persuaded him to put himself forward as a candidate. Daugherty began drumming up support for Harding's candidacy.

At the Republican convention, held that summer in Chicago, Illinois, the inability of party members to agree on a nominee made Harding seem an attractive candidate. Almost everyone could agree that he had some ideal qualities: he was from an important state, he was a loyal Republican (and thus more easily controlled), he had an friendly personality, and he had never taken any controversial stands on anything. The night before Harding was nominated, a group of senators met in what came to be called a "smoke-filled room" (meaning a behind-the-scenes setting), where they expressed their approval for Harding's candidacy.

The next day he was nominated on the tenth ballot; unlike today's conventions, those in the early part of the century often featured multiple votes before a candidate was chosen. Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933; see entry), an unsmiling, upright man known as "Silent Cal," was

chosen as the vice-presidential candidate. The Republican platform (statement of positions on various issues) centered on cutting government spending, lowering taxes, and imposing more restrictions on immigration. The Democrats, meanwhile, chose as their candidate another Ohio native, the rather bland Senator James M. Cox (1870–1957), with Assistant Secretary of the Navy (and future president) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) as his running mate.

Harding conducted a relaxed campaign, inviting anyone who wanted to talk with him to visit his home in Marion. Standing on his own front porch, he conducted what he called "bloviating," delivering the kind of fancy-sounding, clicheloaded speeches for which he was famous. Yet Harding avoided taking any clear stands on the issues, such as U.S. involvement with the League of Nations. In a famous speech delivered in May 1920, he promised a "return to normalcy," which, as quoted in Geoffrey Perret's America in the Twenties, he later defined as "a regular steady order of things. … normal procedure, the natural way, without excess."

Elected by a landslide

That promise undoubtedly appealed to the desire of many voters for peace and calm at an uncertain, confusing time. The election ended in a landslide victory for Harding, who won 61 percent of the popular vote. This was the widest winning margin any U.S. presidential candidate had ever achieved.

Harding's first task as president was to appoint the individuals who would make up his cabinet, the group of officials who head each department of the federal government. Some of the men he chose were very respectable and competent, including Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948), Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon (1855–1937), and Secretary of Commerce (and future president) Herbert Hoover (1874–1964; see entry). But Harding also rewarded several of his close friends for their support by appointing them to high offices. Known as the "Ohio gang" because many came from Harding's home state, these men—including Daugherty, who became attorney general; Veteran's Bureau director Charles Forbes; and Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall (1861–1944)—would eventually betray Harding's trust.

As Harding's first term began, he took steps to deliver on his campaign promise of "Less government in business and more business in government," setting off a trend of laissez-faire (hands-off) government that would last throughout the 1920s. Backed by Treasury Secretary Mellon, he set into motion a program of lowered taxes, especially for the nation's wealthiest citizens, and decreased government spending, as well as an increase in tariffs (taxes other nations had to pay to import their products to the United States). He also vetoed a bonus for World War I veterans that Congress had passed and indicated his support for new measures to restrict the number of immigrants allowed to come to the United States.

On the other hand, Harding supported the Sheppard-Towner Act, which gave federal aid to the states to help reduce infant mortality, and he helped to end the steel industry's twelve-hour workday. He signed the 1921 Federal Highway Act, which provided funding for road construction and improvement, as well as legislation creating offices to handle public welfare and the federal budget. In addition, Harding pardoned many individuals who had been imprisoned during the war for beliefs then considered traitorous; the most famous of these was labor leader Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926).

Harding's most notable accomplishment in the realm of foreign affairs was organizing the Washington Conference in 1921. This gathering of representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan resulted in these nations agreeing to reduce the size of their navies. Harding also came out in favor of full repayment of debts owed the United States by countries that had borrowed money during World War I (some thought these debts should be forgiven), and he worked to restore better relations with Mexico and the Central American nations.

During the first year or so of Harding's presidency, the economy took something of a downturn due to the sudden dip in manufacturing and employment caused by the end of the war. But by 1922 things were looking up again. Between that year and 1927, the economy would grow by an impressive 7 percent per year, as most U.S. citizens grew more prosperous and gained more buying power.

Rumors plague a popular president

On the personal front, Harding and his wife worked hard to infuse the White House with a new spirit of cheer and welcome after the rather dreary days of Wilson's presidency. They opened the front gates and window shutters so that ordinary people could catch a glimpse of what was going on inside, and they allowed the public to tour the White House, during which Flossie Harding herself would sometimes greet visitors. They hosted many teas, receptions, and holiday parties, not to mention the weekly poker games that Harding enjoyed (a glass of illegal liquor at his side) with a select group of friends. The president also liked getting away from work to play golf and attend baseball games, and he claimed to take true pleasure in the dull process of standing in reception lines and chatting with people.

Perhaps because of his long involvement with the newspaper publishing business, Harding enjoyed an especially friendly relationship with the press. For their part, the journalists who covered the White House never publicly mentioned something that was widely known: the president carried on extramarital affairs. The relationship that lasted the longest was with Carrie Phillips, the wife of a Marion friend, with whom (as proved by letters discovered after Phillips's death) Harding was involved from 1905 to 1920. Harding is also thought to have had an affair with Nan Britton, a woman thirty years younger than he was, who would later claim to have given birth to Harding's daughter.

As the summer of 1923 approached, a different kind of rumor began to circulate. Whispers of corruption in the Harding administration seem to have reached the president himself; he probably knew, for example, that Forbes was strongly suspected of having stolen funds from the Veteran's Bureau and that others close to Harding may also have been lining their pockets with government money. There is evidence that Harding was worried about these rumors, even as he set out on what he called a "Voyage of Discovery" in June. Along with Mrs. Harding, the president was scheduled to take a 1,500-mile (2,414-kilometer) journey as far west as Alaska (becoming the first president to visit that future state) in order to talk with U.S. citizens about his support for the League of Nations' World Court.

To those around him during this period, Harding seemed weary and depressed. While traveling on a train bound for San Francisco, California, he suffered what is now thought to have been a mild heart attack. After reaching San Francisco, he seemed to be recovering. On August 2, however, he died suddenly in his hotel room, with Mrs. Harding by his side. Within a few days Calvin Coolidge had been sworn in as president. The death of their beloved president came as a shock to the people of the United States. Thousands lined the route of the train that carried Harding's body back to Marion. Florence Harding, who had been ill for a long time, died only sixteen months after her husband.

Despite his great popularity at the time of his death, Harding's reputation had become tarnished within a year. Congressional investigations held during late 1923 and early 1924 revealed the nature and extent of the wrongdoing that had occurred during his presidency. Some of the culprits were among those closest to Harding. Daugherty, for example, had taken bribes from former clients in exchange for political favors, while Forbes had funneled thousands of Veteran's Bureau dollars into his own bank account. The worst offenses, however, soon became known as the Teapot Dome scandal.

Drilling for oil

Teapot Dome was the name of an area of Wyoming where some government oil reserves (land rich with oil, which was intended to fuel navy ships) were located. It turned out that Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall had arranged for this and other western reserves to be transferred from the Department of the Navy to his own department. Then Fall had granted the right to drill for valuable oil on these lands to several of his friends who were oil company executives. Fall was eventually convicted of bribery and sent to prison, becoming the first cabinet member in U.S. history to serve time in jail. Although never convicted of a crime, Daugherty and Forbes were both forced to resign, while two other government officials connected to the scandals committed suicide.

Harding's reputation was further damaged by the publication of The President's Daughter (1927), a book by Britton in which she detailed her affair with the president and revealed that he had fathered her daughter, Elizabeth. Public disapproval of both the corruption scandals and Harding's illicit affairs have tended to overshadow the more positive aspects of his presidency, especially the deep bond of affection he forged with the majority of U.S. citizens.