Warren G. Harding, the twenty-ninth President of the United States, was a man of medium height and stocky build. He had a thick nose, square chin, high forehead, and dark, bushy eyebrows. Harding was notorious for leaving the governing of the nation to his staff while he was out enjoying the finer pleasures of drinking, playing cards, and socializing. Unfortunately for Harding, his staff, a collection of friends he had brought into Washington from his home state of Ohio (known in the popular press as the "Ohio Gang"), turned out to be predominantly comprised of thieves. Scandal after scandal came to light in the years following the President's untimely death. Largely because of Mrs. Harding, who burned all of the President's letters in an attempt to protect her husband's good name, the extent of Harding's knowledge and/or involvement in the corruption is not known. During the 1920 campaign, Warren Harding called for a return to "normalcy," and a for foreign policy of "America first." His overwhelming victory marked the end of the idealism and reform of the Wilson Administration and a return to U. S. isolationism. The election of Harding also marked the end of the Democratic campaign for the United States' membership in the League of Nations. Two years into his term, slumping popularity and rumors of corruption caused President Harding to embark on a speaking tour of the country. In the course of his tour, he suddenly fell ill and died. His wife refused to allow an autopsy to be performed, and so the cause of death is not known.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was born November 2, 1865 in Cosica, Ohio (now Blooming Grove). He was the first child of eight born to Phoebe and George Harding, a moderately successful farmer and homeopathic doctor. Warren received his elementary education at local public schools. In 1878, he enrolled at Ohio Central College in Iberia, where he became editor of the school newspaper. He graduated in 1882 and took a job teaching school, but soon quit as he found he was not suited to teaching. Harding moved to Marion, Ohio where he worked as an insurance salesman for a while before becoming a reporter on the Marion Democratic Mirror. When Harding favored Republican candidate James G. Blaine for President in the election of 1884, he was promptly fired from the paper. With four friends, Harding purchased the Marion Star, a small bankrupt newspaper, and turned it into a successful money maker and politically influential paper. When his friends lost interest in the venture, Harding bought out their shares in 1886.
Warren Harding married Florence Kling De Wolfe, a wealthy Ohio divorcee, on July 8, 1891 in Marion, Ohio. The couple had no children together, but raised Florence's daughter by her first marriage. Harding had an affair with Nan Britton which began while he was working on the Marion Star and lasted well into his years in the Senate. Harding and Britton had one daughter who was born October 22, 1919. Britton published The President's Daughter, a book chronicling her affair with Harding, in 1927.
When Harding ran as the Republican candidate for county auditor in 1892, he was defeated, but in 1899 he won a seat on the Ohio State Senate. He was re-elected in 1901 and elected lieutenant-governor in 1903. He briefly retired from politics in 1905 and returned to Marion to manage his paper. Then in 1909, he ran for governor of Ohio and was defeated.
Warren Harding gained national attention when he delivered a speech re-nominating President William Howard Taft at the Republican National Convention in July of 1912. Harding won a seat in the United States Senate in 1914. Senator Harding supported the party line in voting for Prohibition, for universal suffrage for women, and against the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. He made it a point to avoid controversial issues which split the Republican Party and was frequently absent during debates. Senator Harding did not introduce any new legislation.
The Republican National Convention of 1920 was deadlocked between Senator Hiram W. Johnson of California, Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois, and Major-General Leonard Wood. When Republican leaders retired to a "smoke filled room" at the Chicago Blackstone Hotel to discuss alternatives, Harry M. Daughrety, a good friend of Senator Harding, persuaded the others to put Harding's name on the ballot. Senator Warren G. Harding won the Republican nomination for President on the tenth ballot, and Calvin Coolidge received the nomination for Vice President. That year the Democrats nominated James M. Cox for President and Frankiln Delano Roosevelt for Vice President. Harding conducted a "front porch" campaign from his home in Ohio, which promised the country a return to "normalcy" and an isolationist foreign policy that put "America first." In a round-about way, Harding came out against the Treaty of Versailles and the United States' entry into President Wilson's League of Nations. The Democrats had tried to make both of these issues the crux of the election, but Senator Harding's position on both of these issues was far too muddled to be understood, much less debated. Harding/Coolidge beat Cox/ Roosevelt by an overwhelming majority in the popular vote and by 404 to 127 in the electoral college. Warren G. Harding became the twenty-ninth President of the United States on March 4, 1921.
Since the United States refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, the Harding Administration's first order of business was to organize peace with Germany, Austria, and Hungary. A treaty with the Central Powers was signed on July 2, 1921, under which immigration quotas were made.
The Washington Disarmament Conference, which was headed by Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes, took place in 1921. The conference was attended by delegates from Great Britain, France, Japan, Italy, and Germany. One of the resulting treaties of the conference was the Five Power Treaty which set the ratio of naval power between the United States, Great Britain, and Japan at 5-5-3.
Domestically, the Harding Administration was responsible for the Fordney-McCumber Act which raised the tariffs to what they had been before the Wilson Administration. The Harding Administration also cut income taxes for the wealthy and established the Bureau of the Budget (now Office of Management and Budget).
In 1923 President Harding embarked on a speaking tour of the country to combat his slumping popularity and to escape rumors of corruption. He became the first U.S. President to visit Canada and Alaska. While speaking in Seattle, President Harding fell ill. He was diagnosed with minor indigestion and recovered to continue his tour to San Francisco. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco, President Warren G. Harding died unexpectedly. Doctors suspected that a blood clot was responsible for the President's death, but Mrs. Harding refused to allow an autopsy, so the cause of death is not known. Mrs. Harding also burned all of her husband's correspondences, and so the extent of President Harding's knowledge/involvement in the scandals revealed after his death is not known.
In May of 1923 an investigation into governmental corruption by the Department of Justice resulted in the suicide of Jesse W. Smith, a political ally of Harry M. Daughrety. Also in 1923, an investigation into corruption within the Veteran's Bureau resulted in the suicide of Charles F. Cramer, the Bureau's legal advisor, and the imprisonment of Charles R. Forbes, the Bureau's director. In May of 1921, President Harding had signed an executive order transferring certain oil reserves from the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Interior. Harding's Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, was found guilty of receiving bribes and leasing the federal oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California to private companies. Also implicated in the scandal were Attorney General Harry M. Daughrety, Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, and Charles Forbes of the Veteran's Bureau. Albert Fall, however, was the only government official who was fined and imprisoned in the "Teapot Dome Scandal," the bulk of which was revealed in 1923.
