Warren G.

Harding
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Warren G. Harding

Harding c. 1920

29th President of the United States

In office
March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923

Vice President Calvin Coolidge

Preceded by Woodrow Wilson

Succeeded by Calvin Coolidge

United States Senator

from Ohio

In office

March 4, 1915 – January 13, 1921

Preceded by Theodore E. Burton

Succeeded by Frank B. Willis

28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio

In office

January 11, 1904 – January 8, 1906

Governor Myron T. Herrick

Preceded by Harry L. Gordon

Succeeded by Andrew L. Harris

Member of the Ohio Senate

from the 13th district

In office

January 1, 1900 – January 4, 1904

Preceded by Henry May

Succeeded by Samuel H. West

Personal details

Born Warren Gamaliel Harding

November 2, 1865

Blooming Grove, Ohio, U.S.

Died August 2, 1923 (aged 57)

San Francisco, California, U.S.

Cause of death Myocardial infarction[1]

Resting place Harding Tomb

Political party Republican

Florence Kling (m. 1891)
Spouse(s)
 Children Elizabeth (with Nan Britton)

Parents George Tryon Harding

Phoebe Elizabeth Dickerson

Education Ohio Central College (BA)

Signature

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the

29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member
of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents to that
point. After his death, a number of scandals—including Teapot Dome—came to
light, as did his extramarital affair with Nan Britton; each eroded his popular
regard. Harding is often rated as one of the worst presidents in historical
rankings.
Harding lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when political service took him
elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star and built it into a
successful newspaper. In 1899, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate; he
spent four years there, then was elected lieutenant governor. He was defeated
for governor in 1910, but was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1914. He ran for the
Republican nomination for president in 1920, and he was considered a long
shot until after the convention began. The leading candidates could not gain the
needed majority, and the convention deadlocked. Harding's support gradually
grew until he was nominated on the tenth ballot. He conducted a front porch
campaign, remaining for the most part in Marion and allowing the people to
come to him, and running on a theme of a return to normalcy of the pre-World
War I period. He won in a landslide over Democrat James M. Cox and the then-
imprisoned Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs and became the first sitting
senator to be elected president.
Harding appointed a number of well-regarded figures to his cabinet,
including Andrew Mellon at Treasury, Herbert Hoover at the Department of
Commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes at the State Department. A major
foreign policy achievement came with the Washington Naval Conference of
1921–1922, in which the world's major naval powers agreed on a naval
limitations program that lasted a decade. Harding released political prisoners
who had been arrested for their opposition to World War I. His cabinet
members Albert B. Fall (Interior Secretary) and Harry Daugherty (Attorney
General) were each later tried for corruption in office; these and other scandals
greatly damaged Harding's posthumous reputation. Harding died of a heart
attack in San Francisco while on a western tour and was succeeded by Vice
President Calvin Coolidge.
 Contents

 1Early life and career

o 1.1Childhood and education
o 1.2Editor
o 1.3Start in politics
 2Rising politician (1897–1919)
o 2.1State senator
o 2.2Ohio state leader
o 2.3U.S. Senator
 2.3.1Election of 1914
 2.3.2Junior senator
 3Presidential election of 1920
o 3.1Primary campaign
o 3.2Convention
o 3.3General election campaign
 4President (1921–1923)
o 4.1Inauguration and appointments
o 4.2Foreign policy
 4.2.1European relations and formally ending the war
 4.2.2Disarmament
 4.2.3Latin America
o 4.3Domestic policy
 4.3.1Postwar recession and recovery
 4.3.2Mellon's tax cuts
 4.3.3Embracing new technologies
 4.3.4Business and labor
 4.3.5Civil rights and immigration
 4.3.6Debs and political prisoners
 4.3.7Judicial appointments
o 4.4Political setbacks and western tour
 5Death and funeral
 6Scandals
o 6.1Teapot Dome
o 6.2Justice Department
o 6.3Veterans' Bureau
 7Extramarital affairs
 8Historical view
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
 12Bibliography
 13External links

Early life and career

Childhood and education
Harding's home in Marion, Ohio

Warren Harding was born on November 2, 1865, in Blooming Grove, Ohio.

[2]
 Nicknamed "Winnie" as a small child, he was the eldest of eight children born
to George Tryon Harding (1843–1928; usually known as Tryon) and Phoebe
Elizabeth (née Dickerson) Harding (1843–1910). [2] Phoebe was a state-licensed
midwife. Tryon farmed and taught school near Mount Gilead, Ohio. Through
apprenticeship, study and a year of medical school, Tryon became a doctor and
started a small practice.[3] Some of Harding's mother's ancestors were Dutch,
including the well-known Van Kirk family. [4] Harding also had ancestors from
England, Wales and Scotland.[5]
It was rumored by a political opponent in Blooming Grove that one of Harding's
great-grandmothers was African American.[6] His great-great grandfather Amos
Harding claimed that a thief, who had been caught in the act by the family,
started the rumor in an attempt at extortion or revenge. [7] In 2015, genetic
testing of Harding's descendants determined, with more than a 95% chance of
accuracy, that he lacked sub-Saharan African forebears within four generations.
[8][9]

In 1870, the Harding family, who were abolitionists,[9] moved to Caledonia, Ohio,

where Tryon acquired The Argus, a local weekly newspaper. At The Argus,
Harding, from the age of 11, learned the basics of the newspaper business. [10] In
late 1879, at the age of 14, Harding enrolled at his father's alma mater – Ohio
Central College in Iberia – where he proved an adept student. He and a friend
put out a small newspaper, the Iberia Spectator, during their final year at Ohio
Central, intended to appeal to both the college and the town. During his final
year, the Harding family moved to Marion, Ohio, about 6 miles (9.7 km) from
Caledonia, and when he graduated in 1882, he joined them there. [11]
Editor
Harding, c. 1882

In Harding's youth, the majority of the population still lived on farms and in small
towns. He would spend much of his life in Marion, a small city in rural Ohio, and
would become closely associated with it. When Harding rose to high office, he
made clear his love of Marion and its way of life, telling of the many young
Marionites who had left and enjoyed success elsewhere, while suggesting that
the man, once the "pride of the school", who had remained behind and become
a janitor, was "the happiest one of the lot".[12]
Upon graduating, Harding had stints as a teacher and as an insurance man,
and made a brief attempt at studying law. He then raised $300 (equivalent to
$8,232 in 2019) in partnership with others to purchase a failing newspaper, The
Marion Star, weakest of the growing city's three papers, and its only daily. The
18-year-old Harding used the railroad pass that came with the paper to attend
the 1884 Republican National Convention, where he hobnobbed with better-
known journalists and supported the presidential nominee, former Secretary of
State James G. Blaine. Harding returned from Chicago to find that the paper
had been reclaimed by the sheriff. [13] During the election campaign, Harding
worked for the Marion Democratic Mirror and was annoyed at having to praise
the Democratic presidential nominee, New York Governor Grover Cleveland,
who won the election.[14] Afterward, with the financial aid of his father, the
budding newspaperman reacquired ownership of the Star.[13]
Through the later years of the 1880s, Harding built the Star. The city of Marion
tended to vote Republican (as did Ohio), but Marion County was Democratic.
Accordingly, Harding adopted a tempered editorial stance, declaring the
daily Star nonpartisan and circulating a weekly edition that was moderate
Republican. This policy attracted advertisers and put the town's Republican
weekly out of business. According to his biographer, Andrew Sinclair:
The success of Harding with the Star was certainly in the model of Horatio
Alger. He started with nothing, and through working, stalling, bluffing,
withholding payments, borrowing back wages, boasting, and manipulating, he
turned a dying rag into a powerful small-town newspaper. Much of his success
had to do with his good looks, affability, enthusiasm, and persistence, but he
was also lucky. As Machiavelli once pointed out, cleverness will take a man far,
but he cannot do without good fortune.[15]
The population of Marion grew from 4,000 in 1880 to twice that in 1890,
increasing to 12,000 by 1900. This growth helped the Star, and Harding did his
best to promote the city, purchasing stock in many local enterprises. Although a
few of these turned out badly, he was in general successful as an investor,
leaving an estate of $850,000 in 1923 (equivalent to $12.75 million in 2019).
[16]
 According to Harding biographer and former White House Counsel John
Dean, Harding's "civic influence was that of an activist who used his editorial
page to effectively keep his nose—and a prodding voice—in all the town's
public business".[17] To date, Harding is the only U.S. president to have
had journalism experience.[13] He became an ardent supporter of
Governor Joseph B. Foraker, a Republican.[18]
Harding first came to know Florence Kling, five years older than he, as the
daughter of a local banker and developer. Amos Kling was a man accustomed
to getting his way, but Harding attacked him relentlessly in the paper. Amos
involved Florence in all his affairs, taking her to work from the time she could
walk. As hard-headed as her father, Florence came into conflict with him after
returning from music college.[a] After she eloped with Pete deWolfe, and returned
to Marion without deWolfe, but with an infant called Marshall, Amos agreed to
raise the boy, but would not support Florence, who made a living as a piano
teacher. One of her students was Harding's sister Charity. By 1886, Florence
Kling had obtained a divorce, and she and Harding were courting, though who
was pursuing whom is uncertain, depending on who later told the story of their
romance.[19][20]
A truce between the Klings was snuffed out by the budding match. Amos
believed that the Hardings had African American blood, and was also offended
by Harding's editorial stances. He started to spread rumors of Harding's
supposed black heritage, and encouraged local businessmen to boycott
Harding's business interests.[9] When Harding found out what Kling was doing,
he warned Kling "that he would beat the tar out of the little man if he didn't
cease."[b][21]
The Hardings were married on July 8, 1891, [22] at their new home on Mount
Vernon Avenue in Marion, which they had designed together in the Queen Anne
style.[23] The marriage produced no children.[24] Harding affectionately called his
wife "the Duchess" for a character in a serial from The New York Sun who kept
a close eye on "the Duke" and their money.[25]
Florence Harding became deeply involved in her husband's career, both at
the Star and after he entered politics.[19] Exhibiting her father's determination and
business sense, she helped turn the Star into a profitable enterprise through her
tight management of the paper's circulation department. [26] She has been
credited with helping Harding achieve more than he might have alone; some
have suggested that she pushed him all the way to the White House. [27]
Start in politics

Shown on a $10 gold piece (part of the Presidential $1 Coin Program), Florence Harding pushed her
husband Warren ahead in his career.

Soon after purchasing the Star, Harding turned his attention to politics,

supporting Foraker in his first successful bid for governor in 1885. Foraker was
part of the war generation that challenged older Ohio Republicans, such as
Senator John Sherman, for control of state politics. Harding, always a party
loyalist, supported Foraker in the complex internecine warfare that was Ohio
Republican politics. Harding was willing to tolerate Democrats, as necessary to
a two-party system, but had only contempt for those who bolted the Republican
Party to join third-party movements.[28] He was a delegate to the
Republican state convention in 1888, at the age of 22, representing Marion
County, and would be elected a delegate in most years until becoming
president.[29]
Harding's success as an editor took a toll on his health. Five times between
1889 (when he was 23) and 1901, he spent time at the Battle Creek
Sanitorium for reasons Sinclair described as "fatigue, overstrain, and nervous
illnesses".[30] Dean ties these visits to early occurrences of the heart ailment that
would kill Harding in 1923. During one such absence from Marion, in 1894,
the Star's business manager quit. Florence Harding took his place. She became
her husband's top assistant at the Star on the business side, maintaining her
role until the Hardings moved to Washington in 1915. Her competence allowed
Harding to travel to make speeches – his use of the free railroad pass increased
greatly after his marriage.[31] Florence Harding practiced strict economy[26] and
wrote of Harding, "he does well when he listens to me and poorly when he does
not."[32]
In 1892, Harding traveled to Washington, where he met Democratic Nebraska
Congressman William Jennings Bryan, and listened to the "Boy Orator of the
Platte" speak on the floor of the House of Representatives. Harding traveled to
Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Both visits were without Florence.
Democrats generally won Marion County's offices; when Harding ran for auditor
in 1895, he lost, but did better than expected. The following year, Harding was
one of many orators who spoke across Ohio as part of the campaign of the
Republican presidential candidate, that state's former governor, William
McKinley. According to Dean, "while working for McKinley [Harding] began
making a name for himself through Ohio".[31]

Rising politician (1897–1919)

State senator
Harding wished to try again for elective office. Though a longtime admirer of
Foraker (by then a U.S. senator), he had been careful to maintain good
relations with the party faction led by the state's other U.S. senator, Mark
Hanna, McKinley's political manager and chairman of the Republican National
Committee (RNC). Both Foraker and Hanna supported Harding for state Senate
in 1899; he gained the Republican nomination and was easily elected to a two-
year term.[33]
Harding began his four years as a state senator as a political unknown; he
ended them as one of the most popular figures in the Ohio Republican Party.
He always appeared calm and displayed humility, characteristics that endeared
him to fellow Republicans even as he passed them in his political rise.
Legislative leaders consulted him on difficult problems. [34] It was usual at that
time for state senators in Ohio to serve only one term, but Harding gained
renomination in 1901. After the assassination of McKinley in September (he
was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt), much of the appetite
for politics was temporarily lost in Ohio. In November, Harding won a second
term, more than doubling his margin of victory to 3,563 votes. [35]
Like most politicians of his time, Harding accepted that patronage and graft
would be used to repay political favors. He arranged for his sister Mary (who
was legally blind) to be appointed as a teacher at the Ohio School for the Blind,
although there were better-qualified candidates. In another trade, he offered
publicity in his newspaper in exchange for free railroad passes for himself and
his family. According to Sinclair, "it is doubtful that Harding ever thought there
was anything dishonest in accepting the perquisites of position or office.
Patronage and favors seemed the normal reward for party service in the days of
Hanna."[36]
Soon after Harding's initial election as senator, he met Harry M. Daugherty, who
would take a major role in his political career. A perennial candidate for office
who served two terms in the state House of Representatives in the early 1890s,
Daugherty had become a political fixer and lobbyist in the state capital of
Columbus. After first meeting and talking with Harding, Daugherty commented,
"Gee, what a great-looking President he'd make." [37]
Ohio state leader
In early 1903, Harding announced he would run for Governor of Ohio, prompted
by the withdrawal of the leading candidate, Congressman Charles W. F. Dick.
Hanna and George Cox felt that Harding was not electable due to his work with
Foraker—as the Progressive Era commenced, the public was starting to take a
dimmer view of the trading of political favors and of bosses such as Cox.
Accordingly, they persuaded Cleveland banker Myron T. Herrick, a friend of
McKinley's, to run. Herrick was also better-placed to take votes away from the
likely Democratic candidate, reforming Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson. With
little chance at the gubernatorial nomination, Harding sought nomination as
lieutenant governor, and both Herrick and Harding were nominated by
acclamation.[38] Foraker and Hanna (who died of typhoid fever in February 1904)
both campaigned for what was dubbed the Four-H ticket. Herrick and Harding
won by overwhelming margins.[39]

Senator Joseph B. Foraker in 1908, his final full year as senator before his re-election defeat

Once he and Harding were inaugurated, Herrick made ill-advised decisions that
turned crucial Republican constituencies against him, alienating farmers by
opposing the establishment of an agricultural college. [39] On the other hand,
according to Sinclair, "Harding had little to do, and he did it very well". [40] His
responsibility to preside over the state Senate allowed him to increase his
growing network of political contacts.[40] Harding and others envisioned a
successful gubernatorial run in 1905, but Herrick refused to stand aside. In early
1905, Harding announced he would accept nomination as governor if offered,
but faced with the anger of leaders such as Cox, Foraker and Dick (Hanna's
replacement in the Senate), announced he would seek no office in 1905.
Herrick was defeated, but his new running mate, Andrew L. Harris, was elected,
and succeeded as governor after five months in office on the death of
Democrat John M. Pattison. One Republican official wrote to Harding, "Aren't
you sorry Dick wouldn't let you run for Lieutenant Governor?" [41]
In addition to helping pick a president, Ohio voters in 1908 were to choose the
legislators who would decide whether to re-elect Foraker. The senator had
quarreled with President Roosevelt over the Brownsville Affair. Though Foraker
had little chance of winning, he sought the Republican presidential nomination
against his fellow Cincinnatian, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, who was
Roosevelt's chosen successor.[42] On January 6, 1908, Harding's Star endorsed
Foraker and upbraided Roosevelt for trying to destroy the senator's career over
a matter of conscience. On January 22, Harding in the Star reversed course
and declared for Taft, deeming Foraker defeated. [43] According to Sinclair,
Harding's change to Taft "was not ... because he saw the light but because he
felt the heat".[44] Jumping on the Taft bandwagon allowed Harding to survive his
patron's disaster—Foraker failed to gain the presidential nomination, and was
defeated for a third term as senator. Also helpful in saving Harding's career was
the fact that he was popular with, and had done favors for, the more progressive
forces that now controlled the Ohio Republican Party. [45]
Harding sought and gained the 1910 Republican gubernatorial nomination. At
that time, the party was deeply divided between progressive and conservative
wings, and could not defeat the united Democrats; he lost the election to
incumbent Judson Harmon.[46] Harry Daugherty managed Harding's campaign,
but the defeated candidate did not hold the loss against him. Despite the
growing rift between them, both President Taft and former president Roosevelt
came to Ohio to campaign for Harding, but their quarrels split the Republican
Party and helped assure Harding's defeat. [47]
The party split grew, and in 1912, Taft and Roosevelt were rivals for the
Republican nomination. The 1912 Republican National Convention was bitterly
divided. At Taft's request, Harding gave a speech nominating the president, but
the angry delegates were not receptive to Harding's oratory. Taft was
renominated, but Roosevelt supporters bolted the party. Harding, as a loyal
Republican, supported Taft. The Republican vote was split between Taft, the
party's official candidate, and Roosevelt, running under the label of
the Progressive Party. This allowed the Democratic candidate, New Jersey
Governor Woodrow Wilson, to be elected.[48]
U.S. Senator
Election of 1914
Further information: 1914 United States Senate election in Ohio
Congressman Theodore Burton had been elected as senator in Foraker's place
in 1909, and announced that he would seek a second term in the 1914
elections. By this time, the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution had been ratified, giving the people the right to elect senators, and
Ohio had instituted primary elections for the office. Foraker and former
congressman Ralph D. Cole also entered the Republican primary. When Burton
withdrew, Foraker became the favorite, but his Old Guard Republicanism was
deemed outdated, and Harding was urged to enter the race. Daugherty claimed
credit for persuading Harding to run, "I found him like a turtle sunning himself on
a log, and I pushed him into the water." [49] According to Harding biographer
Randolph Downes, "he put on a campaign of such sweetness and light as
would have won the plaudits of the angels. It was calculated to offend nobody
except Democrats."[50] Although Harding did not attack Foraker, his supporters
had no such scruples. Harding won the primary by 12,000 votes over Foraker. [51]
Read The Menace and get the dope,
Go to the polls and beat the Pope.
Slogan written on Ohio walls and fences, 1914[52]

Harding's general election opponent was Ohio Attorney General Timothy

Hogan, who had risen to statewide office despite widespread prejudice against
Roman Catholics in rural areas. In 1914, the start of World War I and the
prospect of a Catholic senator from Ohio increased nativist sentiment.
Propaganda sheets with names like The Menace and The Defender contained
warnings that Hogan was the vanguard in a plot led by Pope Benedict
XV through the Knights of Columbus to control Ohio. Harding did not attack
Hogan (an old friend) on this or most other issues, but he did not denounce the
nativist hatred for his opponent.[53][54]
Harding's conciliatory campaigning style aided him;[54] one Harding friend
deemed the candidate's stump speech during the 1914 fall campaign as "a
rambling, high-sounding mixture of platitudes, patriotism, and pure nonsense".
[55]
 Dean notes, "Harding used his oratory to good effect; it got him elected,
making as few enemies as possible in the process." [55] Harding won by over
100,000 votes in a landslide that also swept into office a Republican
governor, Frank B. Willis.[55]
Junior senator
When Harding joined the U.S. Senate, the Democrats controlled both houses of
Congress, and were led by President Wilson. As a junior senator in the minority,
Harding received unimportant committee assignments, but carried out those
duties assiduously.[56] He was a safe, conservative, Republican vote.[57] As during
his time in the Ohio Senate, Harding came to be widely liked. [58]
On two issues, women's suffrage, and the prohibition of alcohol, where picking
the wrong side would have damaged his presidential prospects in 1920, he
prospered by taking nuanced positions. As senator-elect, he indicated that he
could not support votes for women until Ohio did. Increased support for suffrage
there and among Senate Republicans meant that by the time Congress voted
on the issue, Harding was a firm supporter. Harding, who drank, [59] initially voted
against banning alcohol. He voted for the Eighteenth Amendment, which
imposed Prohibition, after successfully moving to modify it by placing a time
limit on ratification, which was expected to kill it. Once it was ratified anyway,
Harding voted to override Wilson's veto of the Volstead Bill, which implemented
the amendment, assuring the support of the Anti-Saloon League.[60]
Harding, as a politician respected by both Republicans and Progressives, was
asked to be temporary chairman of the 1916 Republican National
Convention and to deliver the keynote address. He urged delegates to stand as
a united party. The convention nominated Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
[61]
 Harding reached out to Roosevelt once the former president declined the
1916 Progressive nomination, a refusal that effectively scuttled that party. In
the November 1916 presidential election, despite increasing Republican unity,
Hughes was narrowly defeated by Wilson.[62]
Harding spoke and voted in favor of the resolution of war requested by Wilson
in April 1917 that plunged the United States into World War I. [63] In August,
Harding argued for giving Wilson almost dictatorial powers, stating that
democracy had little place in time of war. [64] Harding voted for most war
legislation, including the Espionage Act of 1917, which restricted civil liberties,
though he opposed the excess profits tax as anti-business. In May 1918,
Harding, less enthusiastic about Wilson, opposed a bill to expand the
president's powers.[65]
In the 1918 midterm congressional elections, held just before the armistice,
Republicans narrowly took control of the Senate. [66] Harding was appointed to
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.[67] Wilson took no senators with him to
the Paris Peace Conference, confident that he could force what became
the Treaty of Versailles through the Senate by appealing to the people. [66] When
he returned with a single treaty establishing both peace and a League of
Nations, the country was overwhelmingly on his side. Many senators disliked
Article X of the League Covenant, that committed signatories to the defense of
any member nation that was attacked, seeing it as forcing the United States to
war without the assent of Congress. Harding was one of 39 senators who
signed a round-robin letter opposing the League. When Wilson invited the
Foreign Relations Committee to the White House to informally discuss the
treaty, Harding ably questioned Wilson about Article X; the president evaded his
inquiries. The Senate debated Versailles in September 1919, and Harding
made a major speech against it. By then, Wilson had suffered a stroke while on
a speaking tour. With an incapacitated president in the White House and less
support in the country, the treaty was defeated. [68]

Presidential election of 1920

Main article: 1920 United States presidential election
Primary campaign
Harding c. 1919

With most Progressives having rejoined the Republican Party, their former
leader, Theodore Roosevelt, was deemed likely to make a third run for the
White House in 1920, and was the overwhelming favorite for the Republican
nomination. These plans ended when Roosevelt suddenly died on January 6,
1919. A number of candidates quickly emerged, including General Leonard
Wood, Illinois Governor Frank Lowden, California Senator Hiram Johnson, and
a host of relatively minor possibilities such as Herbert Hoover (renowned for his
World War I relief work), Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge, and
General John J. Pershing.[69]
Harding, while he wanted to be president, was as much motivated in entering
the race by his desire to keep control of Ohio Republican politics, enabling his
re-election to the Senate in 1920. Among those coveting Harding's seat were
former governor Willis (he had been defeated by James M. Cox in 1916) and
Colonel William Cooper Procter (head of Procter & Gamble). On December 17,
1919, Harding made a low-key announcement of his presidential candidacy.
[70]
 Leading Republicans disliked Wood and Johnson, both of the progressive
faction of the party, and Lowden, who had an independent streak, was deemed
little better. Harding was far more acceptable to the "Old Guard" leaders of the
party.[71]
Daugherty, who became Harding's campaign manager, was sure none of the
other candidates could garner a majority. His strategy was to make Harding an
acceptable choice to delegates once the leaders faltered. Daugherty
established a Harding for president campaign office in Washington (run by his
confidant, Jess Smith), and worked to manage a network of Harding friends and
supporters, including Frank Scobey of Texas (clerk of the Ohio State Senate
during Harding's years there).[72] Harding worked to shore up his support through
incessant letter-writing. Despite the candidate's work, according to Russell,
"without Daugherty's Mephistophelean efforts, Harding would never have
stumbled forward to the nomination."[73]
America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but
restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate;
not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant
nationality.
Warren G. Harding, speech before the Home Market Club, Boston, May 14, 1920[74]

There were only 16 presidential primary states in 1920, of which the most
crucial to Harding was Ohio. Harding had to have some loyalists at the
convention to have any chance of nomination, and the Wood campaign hoped
to knock Harding out of the race by taking Ohio. Wood campaigned in the state,
and his supporter, Procter, spent large sums; Harding spoke in the non-
confrontational style he had adopted in 1914. Harding and Daugherty were so
confident of sweeping Ohio's 48 delegates that the candidate went on to the
next state, Indiana, before the April 27 Ohio primary. [75] Harding carried Ohio by
only 15,000 votes over Wood, taking less than half the total vote, and won only
39 of 48 delegates. In Indiana, Harding finished fourth, with less than ten
percent of the vote, and failed to win a single delegate. He was willing to give up
and have Daugherty file his re-election papers for the Senate, but Florence
Harding grabbed the phone from his hand, "Warren Harding, what are you
doing? Give up? Not until the convention is over. Think of your friends in
Ohio!"[76] On learning that Daugherty had left the phone line, the future First Lady
retorted, "Well, you tell Harry Daugherty for me that we're in this fight until Hell
freezes over."[74]
After he recovered from the shock of the poor results, Harding traveled to
Boston, where he delivered a speech that according to Dean, "would resonate
throughout the 1920 campaign and history." [74] There, he stated that "America's
present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; [c] not
revolution, but restoration."[77] Dean notes, "Harding, more than the other
aspirants, was reading the nation's pulse correctly." [74]
Convention
Further information: 1920 Republican National Convention
The 1920 Republican National Convention opened at the Chicago Coliseum on
June 8, 1920, assembling delegates who were bitterly divided, most recently
over the results of a Senate investigation into campaign spending, which had
just been released. That report found that Wood had spent $1.8 million
(equivalent to $22.97 million in 2019), lending substance to Johnson's claims
that Wood was trying to buy the presidency. Some of the $600,000 that Lowden
had spent had wound up in the pockets of two convention delegates. Johnson
had spent $194,000, and Harding $113,000. Johnson was deemed to be behind
the inquiry, and the rage of the Lowden and Wood factions put an end to any
possible compromise among the frontrunners. Of the almost 1,000 delegates,
27 were women—the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,
guaranteeing women the vote, was within one state of ratification, and would
pass before the end of August.[78][79] The convention had no boss, most
uninstructed delegates voted as they pleased, and with a Democrat in the White
House, the party's leaders could not use patronage to get their way. [80]
Reporters deemed Harding unlikely to be nominated due to his poor showing in
the primaries, and relegated him to a place among the dark horses.[78] Harding,
who like the other candidates was in Chicago supervising his campaign, had
finished sixth in the final public opinion poll, behind the three main candidates
as well as former Justice Hughes and Herbert Hoover, and only slightly ahead
of Coolidge.[81][82]
After the convention dealt with other matters, the nominations for president
opened on the morning of Friday, June 11. Harding had asked Willis to place
his name in nomination, and the former governor responded with a speech
popular among the delegates, both for its folksiness and for its brevity in the
intense Chicago heat.[83] Reporter Mark Sullivan, who was present, called it a
splendid combination of "oratory, grand opera, and hog calling." Willis confided,
leaning over the podium railing, "Say, boys—and girls too—why not name
Warren Harding?"[84] The laughter and applause that followed created a warm
feeling for Harding.[84]
I don't expect Senator Harding to be nominated on the first, second, or third ballots, but I think we can well
afford to take chances that about eleven minutes after two o'clock on Friday morning at the convention,
when fifteen or twenty men, somewhat weary, are sitting around a table, some one of them will say: "Who
will we nominate?" At that decisive time, the friends of Senator Harding can suggest him and afford to
abide by the result.
Harry M. Daugherty[85]

Four ballots were taken on the afternoon of June 11, and they revealed a
deadlock. With 493 votes needed to nominate, Wood was the closest with 314
1
⁄2; Lowdon had 2891⁄2. The best Harding had done was 651⁄2. Chairman Henry
Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, the Senate Majority Leader, adjourned the
convention about 7 p.m.[84][86]
The night of June 11–12, 1920, would become famous in political history as the
night of the "smoke-filled room," in which, legend has it, party elders agreed to
force the convention to nominate Harding. Historians have focused on the talks
held in the suite of Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Will
Hays at the Blackstone Hotel, at which senators and others came and went,
and numerous possible candidates were discussed. Utah Senator Reed Smoot,
before his departure early in the evening, backed Harding, telling Hays and the
others that as the Democrats were likely to nominate Governor Cox, they
should pick Harding to win Ohio. Smoot also told The New York Times that
there had been an agreement to nominate Harding, but that it would not be
done for several ballots yet.[87] This was not true: a number of participants
backed Harding (others supported his rivals), but there was no pact to nominate
him, and the senators had little power to enforce any agreement. Two other
participants in the smoke-filled room discussions, Kansas Senator Charles
Curtis and Colonel George Brinton McClellan Harvey, a close friend of Hays,
predicted to the press that Harding would be nominated because of the
liabilities of the other candidates.[88]
Colonel Harvey's account of the smoke-filled room had Harding being sent for in
the early morning hours, to be informed by Harvey that the Ohioan would be the
candidate. Harvey stated he asked if there was anything in Harding's
background that might harm his candidacy, to which the senator, who had had
at least one extramarital affair, replied there was not. Harding biographer
Charles W. Murray noted that there is no evidence besides Harvey's word that
Harding went to the Hays suite that night, and that other participants denied that
Harding was there.[88] Harding was so uncertain of victory that he filed for re-
election to the Senate, though Daugherty continued to urge delegates to
support him.[89][90]
The reassembled delegates had heard rumors that Harding was the choice of a
cabal of senators. Although this was not true, delegates believed it, and sought
a way out by voting for Harding. When balloting resumed on the morning of
June 12, Harding gained votes on each of the next four ballots, rising to 133
1
⁄2 as the two front runners saw little change. Lodge then declared a three-hour
recess, to the outrage of Daugherty, who raced to the podium, and confronted
him, "You cannot defeat this man this way! The motion was not carried! You
cannot defeat this man!"[91] Lodge and others used the break to try to stop the
Harding momentum and make RNC Chairman Hays the nominee, a scheme
Hays refused to have anything to do with.[92] The ninth ballot, after some initial
suspense, saw delegation after delegation break for Harding, who took the lead
with 3741⁄2 votes to 249 for Wood and 1211⁄2 for Lowden (Johnson had 83).
Lowden released his delegates to Harding, and the tenth ballot, held at 6 p.m.,
was a mere formality, with Harding finishing with 672 1⁄5 votes to 156 for Wood.
The nomination was made unanimous. The delegates, desperate to leave town
before they incurred more hotel expenses, then proceeded to the vice
presidential nomination. Harding wanted Senator Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin,
who was unwilling to run, but before Lenroot's name could be withdrawn and
another candidate decided on, an Oregon delegate proposed Governor
Coolidge, which was met with a roar of approval from the delegates. Coolidge,
popular for his role in breaking the Boston police strike of 1919, was nominated
for vice president, receiving two and a fraction votes more than Harding had.
James Morgan wrote in The Boston Globe: "The delegates would not listen to
remaining in Chicago over Sunday ... the President makers did not have a clean
shirt. On such things, Rollo, turns the destiny of nations." [93][94]
General election campaign

Harding begins his front porch campaign by accepting the Republican nomination, July 22, 1920.

The Harding/Coolidge ticket was quickly backed by Republican newspapers,

but those of other viewpoints expressed disappointment. The New York
World found Harding the least-qualified candidate since James Buchanan,
deeming the Ohio senator a "weak and mediocre" man who "never had an
original idea."[95] The Hearst newspapers called Harding "the flag-bearer of a
new Senatorial autocracy."[96] The New York Times described the Republican
presidential candidate as "a very respectable Ohio politician of the second
class."[95]
The Democratic National Convention opened in San Francisco on June 28,
1920, under a shadow cast by Woodrow Wilson, who wished to be nominated
for a third term. Delegates were convinced Wilson's health would not permit him
to serve, and looked elsewhere for a candidate. Former Treasury
Secretary William G. McAdoo was a major contender, but he was Wilson's son-
in-law, and refused to consider a nomination so long as the president wanted it.
Many at the convention voted for McAdoo anyway, and a deadlock ensued with
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. On the 44th ballot, the Democrats
nominated Governor Cox for president, with his running mate Assistant
Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. As Cox was, when not in politics, a
newspaper owner and editor, this placed two Ohio editors against each other for
the presidency, and some complained there was no real political choice. Both
Cox and Harding were economic conservatives, and were reluctant
progressives at best.[97]

"How Does He Do It?" In this Clifford Berryman cartoon, Harding and Cox ponder another big story of
1920: Babe Ruth's record-setting home run pace.

Harding elected to conduct a front porch campaign, like McKinley in 1896.

[98]
 Some years earlier, Harding had had his front porch remodeled to resemble
McKinley's, which his neighbors felt signified presidential ambitions. [99] The
candidate remained at home in Marion, and gave addresses to visiting
delegations. In the meantime, Cox and Roosevelt stumped the nation, giving
hundreds of speeches. Coolidge spoke in the Northeast, later on in the South,
and was not a significant factor in the election. [98]
In Marion, Harding ran his campaign. As a newspaperman himself, he fell into
easy camaraderie with the press covering him, enjoying a relationship few
presidents have equaled. His "return to normalcy" theme was aided by the
atmosphere that Marion provided, an orderly place that induced nostalgia in
many voters. The front porch campaign allowed Harding to avoid mistakes, and
as time dwindled towards the election, his strength grew. The travels of the
Democratic candidates eventually caused Harding to make several short
speaking tours, but for the most part, he remained in Marion. America had no
need for another Wilson, Harding argued, appealing for a president "near the
normal."[100]
Harding's vague oratory irritated some; McAdoo described a typical Harding
speech as "an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search
of an idea. Sometimes these meandering words actually capture a straggling
thought and bear it triumphantly, a prisoner in their midst, until it died of
servitude and over work."[101] H. L. Mencken concurred, "it reminds me of a string
of wet sponges, it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of
stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless
nights. It is so bad that a kind of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the
dark abysm ... of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of tosh. It is
rumble and bumble. It is balder and dash." [d][101] The New York Times took a more
positive view of Harding's speeches, stating that in them the majority of people
could find "a reflection of their own indeterminate thoughts." [102]
Wilson had stated that the 1920 election would be a "great and solemn
referendum" on the League of Nations, making it difficult for Cox to maneuver
on the issue—although Roosevelt strongly supported the League, Cox was less
enthusiastic.[103] Harding opposed entry into the League of Nations as negotiated
by Wilson, but favored an "association of nations," [24] based on the Permanent
Court of Arbitration at The Hague. This was general enough to satisfy most
Republicans, and only a few bolted the party over this issue. By October, Cox
had realized there was widespread public opposition to Article X, and stated
that reservations to the treaty might be necessary; this shift allowed Harding to
say no more on the subject.[104]

Harding campaigning in 1920

The RNC hired Albert Lasker, an advertising executive from Chicago, to

publicize Harding, and Lasker unleashed a broad-based advertising campaign
that used many now-standard advertising techniques for the first time in a
presidential campaign. Lasker's approach included newsreels and sound
recordings. Visitors to Marion had their photographs taken with Senator and
Mrs. Harding, and copies were sent to their hometown newspapers. [105] Billboard
posters, newspapers and magazines were employed in addition to motion
pictures. Telemarketers were used to make phone calls with scripted dialogues
to promote Harding.[106]
During the campaign, opponents spread old rumors that Harding's great-great-
grandfather was a West Indian black person and that other blacks might be
found in his family tree.[107] Harding's campaign manager rejected the
accusations. Wooster College professor William Estabrook
Chancellor publicized the rumors, based on supposed family research, but
perhaps reflecting no more than local gossip.[108]

1920 electoral vote results

By Election Day, November 2, 1920, few had any doubts that the Republican
ticket would win.[109] Harding received 60.2 percent of the popular vote, the
highest percentage since the evolution of the two-party system, and
404 electoral votes. Cox received 34 percent of the national vote and 127
electoral votes.[110] Campaigning from a federal prison where he was serving a
sentence for opposing the war, Socialist Eugene V. Debs received 3 percent of
the national vote. The Republicans greatly increased their majority in each
house of Congress.[111][112]

President (1921–1923)
Main article: Presidency of Warren G. Harding
Inauguration and appointments
Further information: Inauguration of Warren G. Harding

Official White House Portrait

Harding was sworn in March 4, 1921, in the presence of his wife and father.
Harding preferred a low-key inauguration, without the customary parade,
leaving only the swearing-in ceremony and a brief reception at the White
House. In his inaugural address he declared, "Our most dangerous tendency is
to expect too much from the government and at the same time do too little for
it."[113]
After the election, Harding had announced he was going on vacation, and that
no decisions about appointments would be made until he returned to Marion in
December. He went to Texas, where he fished and played golf with his
friend Frank Scobey (soon to be Director of the Mint), then took ship for
the Panama Canal Zone. He went to Washington, where he was given a hero's
welcome[e] when Congress opened in early December as the first sitting senator
to be elected to the White House. Back in Ohio, he planned to consult the "best
minds" of the country on appointments, and they dutifully journeyed to Marion to
offer their counsel.[114][115]
Harding's inauguration, March 4, 1921

Harding chose pro-League Charles Evans Hughes as his Secretary of State,

ignoring advice from Senator Lodge and others. After Charles G.
Dawes declined the Treasury position, Harding asked Pittsburgh
banker Andrew W. Mellon, one of the richest people in the country; he agreed.
Harding appointed Herbert Hoover as United States Secretary of Commerce.
[116]
 RNC Chairman Will Hays was made Postmaster General, then a cabinet
post; he would leave after a year in the position to become chief censor to the
motion picture industry.[117]
The two Harding cabinet appointees who darkened the reputation of his
administration for their involvement in scandal were Harding's Senate
friend, Albert B. Fall of New Mexico, the Interior Secretary, and Daugherty, who
became Attorney General. Fall was a Western rancher and former miner, and
was pro-development.[117] He was opposed by conservationists such as Gifford
Pinchot, who wrote, "it would have been possible to pick a worse man for
Secretary of the Interior, but not altogether easy." [118] The New York
Times mocked the Daugherty appointment, stating that rather than select one of
the best minds, Harding had been content "to choose merely a best
friend."[119] Eugene P. Trani and David L. Wilson, in their volume on Harding's
presidency, suggest that the appointment made sense then, since Daugherty
was "a competent lawyer well-acquainted with the seamy side of politics ... a
first-class political troubleshooter and someone Harding could trust." [120]

Harding's original Cabinet, 1921

The Harding Cabinet

Office Name Term

President Warren G. Harding 1921–23

Vice President Calvin Coolidge 1921–23

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes 1921–23

Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon 1921–23

Secretary of War John W. Weeks 1921–23

Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty 1921–23

Postmaster General Will H. Hays 1921–22

Hubert Work 1922–23

Harry S. New 1923

Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby 1921–23

Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall 1921–23

Hubert Work 1923

Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace 1921–23

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover 1921–23

Secretary of Labor James J. Davis 1921–23

Foreign policy
European relations and formally ending the war

MENU
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Warren G. Harding explains his unwillingness to have the US join the League of Nations

Harding made it clear when he appointed Hughes as Secretary of State that the
former justice would run foreign policy, a change from Wilson's close
management of international affairs. [121] Hughes had to work within some broad
outlines; after taking office, Harding hardened his stance on the League of
Nations, deciding the U.S. would not join even a scaled-down version of the
League. With the Treaty of Versailles unratified by the Senate, the U.S.
remained technically at war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Peacemaking
began with the Knox–Porter Resolution, declaring the U.S. at peace and
reserving any rights granted under Versailles. Treaties with
Germany, Austria and Hungary, each containing many of the non-League
provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, were ratified in 1921. [122]
This still left the question of relations between the U.S. and the League.
Hughes' State Department initially ignored communications from the League, or
tried to bypass it through direct communications with member nations. By 1922,
though, the U.S., through its consul in Geneva, was dealing with the League,
and though the U.S. refused to participate in any meeting with political
implications, it sent observers to sessions on technical and humanitarian
matters.[123]
By the time Harding took office, there were calls from foreign governments for
reduction of the massive war debt owed to the United States, and the German
government sought to reduce the reparations that it was required to pay. The
U.S. refused to consider any multilateral settlement. Harding sought passage of
a plan proposed by Mellon to give the administration broad authority to reduce
war debts in negotiation, but Congress, in 1922, passed a more restrictive bill.
Hughes negotiated an agreement for Britain to pay off its war debt over 62
years at low interest, effectively reducing the present value of the obligations.
This agreement, approved by Congress in 1923, set a pattern for negotiations
with other nations. Talks with Germany on reduction of reparations payments
would result in the Dawes Plan of 1924.[124]
A pressing issue not resolved by Wilson was the question of policy
towards Bolshevik Russia. The U.S. had been among the nations that had sent
troops there after the Russian Revolution. Afterwards, Wilson refused to
recognize the Russian SFSR. Under Harding, Commerce Secretary Hoover,
with considerable experience of Russian affairs, took the lead on policy.
When famine struck Russia in 1921, Hoover had the American Relief
Administration, which he had headed, negotiate with the Russians to provide
aid. Soviet leaders (the U.S.S.R. was established in 1922) hoped in vain that
the agreement would lead to recognition. Hoover supported trade with the
Soviets, fearing U.S. companies would be frozen out of the Soviet market, but
Hughes opposed this, and the matter was not resolved under Harding's
presidency.[125]
Disarmament
Main article: Washington Naval Conference

Charles Evans Hughes, former Supreme Court justice and Harding's Secretary of State

Harding had urged disarmament and lower defense costs during the campaign,
but it had not been a major issue. He gave a speech to a joint session of
Congress in April 1921, setting out his legislative priorities. Among the few
foreign policy matters he mentioned was disarmament, with the president
stating that the government could not "be unmindful of the call for reduced
expenditure" on defense.[126]
Idaho Senator William Borah had proposed a conference at which the major
naval powers, the U.S., Britain, and Japan, would agree to cuts in their fleets.
Harding concurred, and after some diplomatic discussions, representatives of
nine nations convened in Washington in November 1921. Most of the diplomats
first attended Armistice Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, where
Harding spoke at the entombment of the Unknown Soldier of World War I,
whose identity, "took flight with his imperishable soul. We know not whence he
came, only that his death marks him with the everlasting glory of an American
dying for his country".[127]
Hughes, in his speech at the opening session of the conference on November
12, 1921, made the American proposal—the U.S. would decommission or not
build 30 warships if Great Britain did the same for 19 vessels, and Japan 17
ships.[128] The secretary was generally successful, and agreements were reached
on this and other points, including settlements to disputes over islands in the
Pacific, and limitations on the use of poison gas. The naval agreement was
limited to battleships and to some extent aircraft carriers, and in the end did not
prevent rearmament. Nevertheless, Harding and Hughes were widely
applauded in the press for their work. Harding had appointed Senator Lodge
and the Senate Minority Leader, Alabama's Oscar Underwood, to the U.S.
delegation; they helped ensure that the treaties made it through the Senate
mostly unscathed, though that body added reservations to some. [129][130]
The U.S. had acquired over a thousand vessels during World War I, and still
owned most of them when Harding took office. Congress had authorized their
disposal in 1920, but the Senate would not confirm Wilson's nominees to
the Shipping Board. Harding appointed Albert Lasker as its chairman; the
advertising executive undertook to run the fleet as profitably as possible until it
could be sold. Most ships proved impossible to sell at anything approaching the
government's cost. Lasker recommended a large subsidy to the merchant
marine to enable the sales, and Harding repeatedly urged Congress to enact it.
Unpopular in the Midwest, the bill passed the House, but was defeated by
a filibuster in the Senate, and most government ships were eventually
scrapped.[131]
Latin America
Intervention in Latin America had been a minor campaign issue; Harding spoke
against Wilson's decision to send U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic and
Haiti, and attacked the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Franklin
Roosevelt, for his role in the Haitian intervention. Once Harding was sworn in,
Hughes worked to improve relations with Latin American countries who were
wary of the American use of the Monroe Doctrine to justify intervention; at the
time of Harding's inauguration, the U.S. also had troops in Cuba and Nicaragua.
The troops stationed in Cuba to protect American interests were withdrawn in
1921; U.S. forces remained in the other three nations through Harding's
presidency.[f][132] In April 1921, Harding gained the ratification of the Thomson–
Urrutia Treaty with Colombia, granting that nation $25 million (equivalent to
$358.35 million in 2019) as settlement for the U.S.-provoked Panamanian
revolution of 1903.[133] The Latin American nations were not fully satisfied, as the
U.S. refused to renounce interventionism, though Hughes pledged to limit it to
nations near the Panama Canal, and to make it clear what the U.S. aims were.
[134]

The U.S. had intervened repeatedly in Mexico under Wilson, and had withdrawn
diplomatic recognition, setting conditions for reinstatement. The Mexican
government under President Álvaro Obregón wanted recognition before
negotiations, but Wilson and his final Secretary of State, Bainbridge Colby,
refused. Both Hughes and Fall opposed recognition; Hughes instead sent a
draft treaty to the Mexicans in May 1921, which included pledges to reimburse
Americans for losses in Mexico since the 1910 revolution there. Obregón was
unwilling to sign a treaty before being recognized, and worked to improve the
relationship between American business and Mexico, reaching agreement with
creditors, and mounting a public relations campaign in the United States. This
had its effect, and by mid-1922, Fall was less influential than he had been,
lessening the resistance to recognition. The two presidents appointed
commissioners to reach a deal, and the U.S. recognized the Obregón
government on August 31, 1923, just under a month after Harding's death,
substantially on the terms proffered by Mexico.[135]
Domestic policy
Postwar recession and recovery
Main article: Depression of 1920–21

Charles Dawes—the first budget director and later, vice president under Coolidge

When Harding took office on March 4, 1921, the nation was in the midst of a
postwar economic decline.[136] At the suggestion of its leaders, Harding called a
special session of Congress to convene on April 11. When Harding addressed
the joint session the following day, he urged the reduction of income taxes
(raised during the war), an increase in tariffs on agricultural goods to protect the
American farmer, as well as more wide-ranging reforms, such as support for
highways, aviation, and radio.[137][138] But it was not until May 27 that Congress
passed an emergency tariff increase on agricultural products. An act authorizing
a Bureau of the Budget followed on June 10; Harding appointed Charles Dawes
as bureau director with a mandate to cut expenditures. [139]
Mellon's tax cuts
Treasury Secretary Mellon also recommended to Congress that income tax
rates be cut. He asked that the excess profits tax on corporations be abolished.
The House Ways and Means Committee endorsed Mellon's proposals, but
some congressmen, who wanted to raise tax rates on corporations, fought the
measure. Harding was unsure what side to endorse, telling a friend, "I can't
make a damn thing out of this tax problem. I listen to one side, and they seem
right, and then—God!—I talk to the other side, and they seem just as
right."[138] Harding tried compromise, and gained passage of the bill in the House
after the end of the excess profits tax was delayed a year. In the Senate, the tax
bill became entangled in efforts to vote World War I veterans a soldier's bonus.
Frustrated by the delays, on July 12, Harding appeared before the Senate to
urge it to pass the tax legislation without the bonus. It was not until November
that the revenue bill finally passed, with higher rates than Mellon had proposed.
[140][141]

Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon advocated lower tax rates.

Harding had opposed payment of a bonus to veterans, arguing in his Senate

address that much was already being done for them by a grateful nation, and
that the bill would "break down our Treasury, from which so much is later on to
be expected."[142] The Senate sent the bonus bill back to committee, [142] but the
issue returned when Congress reconvened in December 1921. A bill providing a
bonus, without a means of funding it, was passed by both houses in September
1922. Harding vetoed it, and the veto was narrowly sustained. A bonus, not
payable in cash, was voted to soldiers despite Coolidge's veto in 1924. [143]
In his first annual message to Congress, Harding sought the power to adjust
tariff rates. The passage of the tariff bill in the Senate, and in conference
committee became a feeding frenzy of lobbyist interests. [144] Harding, when he
enacted the Fordney–McCumber Tariff Act on September 21, 1922, made a
brief signing statement, praising only that the bill gave him some power to
adjust rates.[145] According to Trani and Wilson, the bill was "ill-considered. It
wrought havoc in international commerce and made the repayment of war debts
more difficult."[146]
Mellon ordered a study that demonstrated historically that, as income tax rates
were increased, money was driven underground or abroad. He concluded that
lower rates would increase tax revenues.[147][148] Based on his advice, Harding's
revenue bill cut taxes, starting in 1922. The top marginal rate was reduced
annually in four stages from 73% in 1921 to 25% in 1925. Taxes were cut for
lower incomes starting in 1923. The lower rates substantially increased the
money flowing to the treasury. They also pushed massive deregulation and
federal spending as a share of GDP fell from 6.5% to 3.5%. By late 1922, the
economy began to turn around. Unemployment was pared from its 1921 high of
12% to an average of 3.3% for the remainder of the decade. The misery index,
which is a combination of unemployment and inflation, had its sharpest decline
in U.S. history under Harding. Wages, profits, and productivity all made
substantial gains; annual GDP increases averaged at over 5% during the
1920s. Libertarian historians Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen argue that,
"Mellon's tax policies set the stage for the most amazing growth yet seen in
America's already impressive economy."[149]
Embracing new technologies
The 1920s were a time of modernization for America. Use of electricity became
increasingly common. Mass production of the motor car stimulated other
industries, as well, such as highway construction, rubber, steel, and building, as
hotels were erected to accommodate the tourists venturing upon the roads. This
economic boost helped bring the nation out of the recession. [150] To improve and
expand the nation's highway system, Harding signed the Federal Highway Act
of 1921. From 1921 to 1923, the federal government spent $162 million
(equivalent to $2.4 billion in 2019) on America's highway system, infusing the
U.S. economy with a large amount of capital.[151] In 1922, Harding proclaimed
that America was in the age of the "motor car", which "reflects our standard of
living and gauges the speed of our present-day life." [152]
Harding had urged regulation of radio broadcasting in his April 1921 speech to
Congress.[153] Commerce Secretary Hoover took charge of this project, and
convened a conference of radio broadcasters in 1922, which led to a voluntary
agreement for licensing of radio frequencies through the Commerce
Department. Both Harding and Hoover realized something more than an
agreement was needed, but Congress was slow to act, not imposing radio
regulation until 1927.[154]
Harding also wished to promote aviation, and Hoover again took the lead,
convening a national conference on commercial aviation. The discussions
focused on safety matters, inspection of airplanes, and licensing of pilots.
Harding again promoted legislation but nothing was done until 1926, when
the Air Commerce Act created the Bureau of Aeronautics within Hoover's
Commerce Department.[154]
Business and labor
Further information: Great Railroad Strike of 1922
Harding's attitude toward business was that government should aid it as much
as possible.[155] He was suspicious of organized labor, viewing it as a conspiracy
against business.[156] He sought to get them to work together at a conference on
unemployment that he called to meet in September 1921 at Hoover's
recommendation. Harding warned in his opening address that no federal money
would be available. No important legislation came as a result, though
some public works projects were accelerated.[157]
Within broad limits, Harding allowed each cabinet secretary to run his
department as he saw fit.[158] Hoover expanded the Commerce Department to
make it more useful to business. This was consistent with Hoover's view that
the private sector should take the lead in managing the economy. [159] Harding
greatly respected his Commerce Secretary, often asked his advice, and backed
him to the hilt, calling Hoover "the smartest 'gink' I know".[160]
Widespread strikes marked 1922, as labor sought redress for falling wages and
increased unemployment. In April, 500,000 coal miners, led by John L. Lewis,
struck over wage cuts. Mining executives argued that the industry was seeing
hard times; Lewis accused them of trying to break the union. As the strike
became protracted, Harding offered compromise to settle it. As Harding
proposed, the miners agreed to return to work, and Congress created a
commission to look into their grievances.[161]
On July 1, 1922, 400,000 railroad workers went on strike. Harding proposed a
settlement that made some concessions, but management objected. Attorney
General Daugherty convinced Judge James H. Wilkerson to issue a sweeping
injunction to break the strike. Although there was public support for the
Wilkerson injunction, Harding felt it went too far, and had Daugherty and
Wilkerson amend it. The injunction succeeded in ending the strike; however,
tensions remained high between railroad workers and management for years. [162]
By 1922, the eight-hour day had become common in American industry. One
exception was in steel mills, where workers labored through a twelve-hour
workday, seven days a week. Hoover considered this practice barbaric and got
Harding to convene a conference of steel manufacturers with a view to ending
the system. The conference established a committee under the leadership of U.
S. Steel chairman Elbert Gary, which in early 1923 recommended against
ending the practice. Harding sent a letter to Gary deploring the result, which
was printed in the press, and public outcry caused the manufacturers to reverse
themselves and standardize the eight-hour day.[163]
Civil rights and immigration

Harding addresses the segregated crowd in Birmingham, Alabama October 26, 1921

Although Harding's first address to Congress called for passage of anti-lynching

legislation,[9] he initially seemed inclined to do no more for African Americans
than Republican presidents of the recent past had; he asked Cabinet officers to
find places for blacks in their departments. Sinclair suggested that the fact that
Harding received two-fifths of the Southern vote in 1920 led him to see political
opportunity for his party in the Solid South. On October 26, 1921, Harding gave
a speech in Birmingham, Alabama, to a segregated audience of 20,000 whites
and 10,000 blacks. Harding, while stating that the social and racial differences
between whites and blacks could not be bridged, urged equal political rights for
the African American. Many African Americans at that time voted Republican,
especially in the Democratic South, and Harding stated he did not mind seeing
that support end if the result was a strong two-party system in the South. He
was willing to see literacy tests for voting continue, if applied fairly to white and
black.[164] "Whether you like it or not," Harding told his segregated audience,
"unless our democracy is a lie, you must stand for that equality." [9] The white
section of the audience listened in silence, while the black section cheered. [165]
Harding (center) with Chief Justice Taft (left) and Robert Lincoln at the dedication of the Lincoln
Memorial, May 30, 1922

Harding had spoken out against lynching in his April 1921 speech before
Congress, and supported Congressman Leonidas Dyer's federal anti-lynching
bill, which passed the House of Representatives in January 1922. [166] When it
reached the Senate floor in November 1922, it was filibustered by Southern
Democrats, and Lodge withdrew it so as to allow the ship subsidy bill Harding
favored to be debated (it was likewise filibustered). Blacks blamed Harding for
the Dyer bill's defeat; Harding biographer Robert K. Murray noted that it was
hastened to its end by Harding's desire to have the ship subsidy bill considered.
[167]

With the public suspicious of immigrants, especially those who might

be socialists or communists, Congress passed the Per Centum Act of 1921,
signed by Harding on May 19, 1921, as a quick means of restricting
immigration. The act reduced the numbers of immigrants to 3% of those from a
given country living in the U.S., based on the 1910 census. This would, in
practice, not restrict immigration from Ireland and Germany, but would bar many
Italians and eastern European Jews.[168] Harding and Secretary of Labor James
Davis believed that enforcement had to be humane, and at the Secretary's
recommendation, Harding allowed almost a thousand deportable immigrants to
remain.[169] Coolidge later signed the Immigration Act of 1924, permanently
restricting immigration to the U.S.[170]
Debs and political prisoners
Harding's Socialist opponent in the 1920 election, Eugene Debs, was serving a
ten-year sentence in the Atlanta Penitentiary for speaking against the war.
Wilson had refused to pardon him before leaving office. Daugherty met with
Debs, and was deeply impressed. There was opposition from veterans,
including the American Legion, and also from Florence Harding. The president
did not feel he could release Debs until the war was officially over, but once the
peace treaties were signed, commuted Debs' sentence on December 23, 1921.
At Harding's request, Debs visited the president at the White House before
going home to Indiana.[171]
Harding released 23 other war opponents at the same time as Debs, and
continued to review cases and release political prisoners throughout his
presidency. Harding defended his prisoner releases as necessary to return the
nation to normalcy.[172]
Judicial appointments
Further information: List of federal judges appointed by Warren G.
Harding and Warren G. Harding Supreme Court candidates
Harding appointed four justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
When Chief Justice Edward Douglass White died in May 1921, Harding was
unsure whether to appoint former president Taft or former Utah senator George
Sutherland—he had promised seats on the court to both men. After briefly
considering awaiting another vacancy and appointing them both, he chose Taft
as Chief Justice. Sutherland was appointed to the court in 1922, to be followed
by two other economic conservatives, Pierce Butler and Edward Terry Sanford,
in 1923.[173]
Harding also appointed six judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, 42
judges to the United States district courts, and two judges to the United States
Court of Customs Appeals.[174]
Political setbacks and western tour
See also: Harding Railroad Car

Harding aboard the presidential train in Alaska, July 1923, with secretaries Hoover, Wallace, Work,
and Mrs. Harding

Entering the 1922 midterm congressional election campaign, Harding and the
Republicans had followed through on many of their campaign promises. But
some of the fulfilled pledges, like cutting taxes for the well-off, did not appeal to
the electorate. The economy had not returned to normalcy, with unemployment
at 11 percent, and organized labor angry over the outcome of the strikes. From
303 Republicans elected to the House in 1920, the new 68th Congress would
see that party fall to a 221–213 majority. In the Senate, the Republicans lost
eight seats, and had 51 of 96 senators in the new Congress, which Harding did
not survive to meet.[175]
A month after the election, the lame-duck session of the old 67th Congress met.
Harding had come to believe that his early view of the presidency—that it
should propose policies, but leave whether to adopt them to Congress—was not
enough, and he lobbied Congress, although in vain, to get his ship subsidy bill
through.[175] Once Congress left town in early March 1923, Harding's popularity in
the country began to recover. The economy was improving, and the programs
of Harding's more able Cabinet members, such as Hughes, Mellon and Hoover,
were showing results. Most Republicans realized that there was no practical
alternative to supporting Harding in 1924.[176]
In the first half of 1923, Harding did two acts that were later said to indicate
foreknowledge of death: he sold the Star (though undertaking to remain as a
contributing editor for ten years after his presidency), and made a new will.
[177]
 Harding had long suffered occasional health problems, but when he was not
experiencing symptoms, he tended to eat, drink and smoke too much. By 1919,
he was aware he had a heart condition. Stress caused by the presidency and
by Florence Harding's ill health (she had a chronic kidney condition) debilitated
him, and he never really recovered from an episode of influenza in January
1923. After that, Harding, an avid golfer, had difficulty completing a round. In
June 1923, Ohio Senator Willis met with Harding, but brought to the president's
attention only two of the five items he intended to discuss. When asked why,
Willis responded, "Warren seemed so tired." [178]
In early June 1923, Harding set out on a journey, which he dubbed the "Voyage
of Understanding."[176] The president planned to cross the country, go north
to Alaska Territory, journey south along the West Coast, then travel by a US
Navy ship from San Diego along the Mexican and Central America West Coast,
through the Panama Canal, to Puerto Rico, and to return to Washington at the
end of August.[179] Harding loved to travel and had long contemplated a trip to
Alaska.[180] The trip would allow him to speak widely across the country, to politic
and bloviate in advance of the 1924 campaign, and allow him some rest [181] away
from Washington's oppressive summer heat. [176]
Harding's political advisers had given him a physically demanding schedule,
even though the president had ordered it cut back. [182] In Kansas City, Harding
spoke on transportation issues; in Hutchinson, Kansas, agriculture was the
theme. In Denver, he spoke on Prohibition, and continued west making a series
of speeches not matched by any president until Franklin Roosevelt. Harding
had become a supporter of the World Court, and wanted the U.S. to become a
member. In addition to making speeches, he visited Yellowstone and Zion
National Parks,[183] and dedicated a monument on the Oregon Trail at a
celebration organized by venerable pioneer Ezra Meeker and others.[184]
On July 5, Harding embarked on USS  Henderson in Washington state. The first
president to visit Alaska, he spent hours watching the dramatic landscapes from
the deck of the Henderson.[185] After several stops along the coast, the
presidential party left the ship at Seward to take the Alaska Central
Railway to McKinley Park and Fairbanks, where he addressed a crowd of 1,500
in 94 °F (34 °C) heat. The party was to return to Seward by the Richardson
Trail, but due to Harding's fatigue, it went by train. [186]
On July 26, 1923, Harding toured Vancouver, British Columbia as the first sitting
American president to visit Canada. He was welcomed by the Premier of British
Columbia and the Mayor of Vancouver, and spoke to a crowd of over 50,000.
Two years after his death, a memorial to Harding was unveiled in Stanley Park.
[187]
 Harding visited a golf course, but completed only six holes before becoming
fatigued. After resting for about one hour, he played the 17th and 18th holes so
it would appear he had completed the round. He was not successful in hiding
his exhaustion; one reporter deemed him looking so tired that a rest of mere
days would not be sufficient to refresh him. [188]
In Seattle the next day, Harding kept up his busy schedule, giving a speech to
25,000 people at the stadium at the University of Washington. In the final
speech he gave, Harding predicted statehood for Alaska. [189] The president
rushed through his speech, not waiting for applause by the audience. [190]

Death and funeral

Harding's funeral procession passing the White House

President Harding went to bed early on the evening of July 27, 1923, a few
hours after giving a speech at the University of Washington. Later that night, he
called for his physician Charles E. Sawyer, complaining of pain in the upper
abdomen. Sawyer thought that it was a recurrence of a dietary upset, but
Dr. Joel T. Boone suspected a heart problem. Harding felt better the next day,
as the train rushed to San Francisco; they arrived on the morning of July 29 and
he insisted on walking from the train to the car, to the hotel at which he was
staying. After reaching his room at the Palace Hotel,[191][192] he suffered a relapse.
Doctors found not only that his heart was causing problems, but also that he
had pneumonia, and he was confined to bed rest in his hotel room. Over the
next few days, doctors treated Harding with liquid caffeine and digitalis, and he
seemed to improve. Hoover released Harding's foreign policy address
advocating membership in the World Court, and the president was pleased that
it was favorably received. By the afternoon of August 2, doctors allowed him to
sit up in bed. At around 7:30 pm that evening, Florence was reading him "A
Calm Review of a Calm Man", a flattering article from The Saturday Evening
Post; she paused to fluff his pillows and he told her, "That's good. Go on, read
some more." which were his last words. She resumed reading when a few
seconds later, Harding suddenly twisted convulsively and collapsed back in the
bed, gasping. Florence Harding immediately called the doctors into the room,
but they were unable to revive the President with stimulants; Harding was
pronounced dead a few minutes later at the age of 57. [1] His death was initially
attributed to a cerebral hemorrhage, as doctors at the time did not generally
understand the symptoms of cardiac arrest.[24][191]

The Harding Tomb in Marion

Harding's sudden death came as a great shock to the nation. He was liked and
admired, and both the press and public had followed his illness closely and
been reassured by his apparent recovery. [193] His body was carried to his train in
a casket for a journey across the nation followed closely in the newspapers.
Nine million people lined the tracks as his body was taken from San Francisco
to Washington, D.C., where he lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda.
After funeral services there, the body was transported to Marion, Ohio, for
burial.[194]
In Marion, Harding's body was placed on a horse-drawn hearse, which was
followed by President Coolidge and Chief Justice Taft, then by Harding's widow
and his father.[195] They followed it through the city, past the Star building, and
finally to the Marion Cemetery where the casket was placed in the cemetery's
receiving vault.[196][197] Funeral guests included inventor Thomas Edison and
industrialist businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone.[198] Warren and
Florence Harding rest in the Harding Tomb, which was dedicated in 1931 by
President Hoover.[199]

Scandals
Harding appointed a number of friends and acquaintances to federal positions.
Some served competently, such as Charles E. Sawyer, the Hardings' personal
physician from Marion who attended to them in the White House. Sawyer
alerted Harding to the Veterans' Bureau scandal. Others proved ineffective in
office, such as Daniel R. Crissinger, a Marion lawyer whom Harding
made Comptroller of the Currency and later a governor of the Federal Reserve
Board; or Harding's old friend Frank Scobey, Director of the Mint, who Trani and
Wilson noted "did little damage during his tenure." Others of these associates
proved corrupt and were later dubbed the "Ohio Gang".[200]

Harding made his friend Frank E. Scobey Director of the Mint. Medal by Chief Engraver George T.
Morgan.

Most of the scandals that have marred the reputation of Harding's

administration did not emerge until after his death. The Veterans' Bureau
scandal was known to Harding in January 1923 but, according to Trani and
Wilson, "the president's handling of it did him little credit". [201] Harding allowed the
corrupt director of the bureau, Charles R. Forbes, to flee to Europe, though he
later returned and served prison time. [202] Harding had learned that Daugherty's
factotum at the Justice Department, Jess Smith, was involved in corruption. The
president ordered Daugherty to get Smith out of Washington and removed his
name from the upcoming presidential trip to Alaska. Smith committed suicide on
May 30, 1923.[203] It is uncertain how much Harding knew about Smith's illicit
activities.[204] Murray noted that Harding was not involved in the corruption and
did not condone it.[205]
Hoover accompanied Harding on the Western trip and later wrote that Harding
asked then what Hoover would do if he knew of some great scandal, whether to
publicize it or bury it. Hoover replied that Harding should publish and get credit
for integrity, and asked for details. Harding stated that it had to do with Smith
but, when Hoover enquired as to Daugherty's possible involvement, Harding
refused to answer.[206]
Teapot Dome
Further information: Teapot Dome scandal

Albert B. Fall, Harding's first Secretary of the Interior, became the first former cabinet member to be
sent to prison for crimes committed in office.

The scandal which has likely done the greatest damage to Harding's reputation
is Teapot Dome. Like most of the administration's scandals, it came to public
light after Harding's death, and he was apparently not aware of the illegal
aspects. Teapot Dome involved an oil reserve in Wyoming which was one of
three set aside for the use of the Navy in a national emergency. There was a
longstanding argument that the reserves should be developed; Wilson's first
Interior Secretary Franklin Knight Lane was an advocate of this position. When
the Harding administration took office, Interior Secretary Fall took up Lane's
argument and Harding signed an executive order in May 1921 transferring the
reserves from the Navy Department to Interior. This was done with the consent
of Navy Secretary Edwin C. Denby.[207][208]
The Interior Department announced in July 1921 that Edward Doheny had been
awarded a lease to drill along the edges of the Elk Hills naval reserve in
California. The announcement attracted little controversy, as the oil would have
been lost to wells on adjacent private land.[209] Wyoming Senator John
Kendrick had heard from constituents that Teapot Dome had also been leased,
but no announcement had been made. The Interior Department refused to
provide documentation, so he secured the passage of a Senate resolution
compelling disclosure. The department sent a copy of the lease granting drilling
rights to Harry Sinclair's Mammoth Oil Company, along with a statement that
there had been no competitive bidding because military preparedness was
involved—Mammoth was to build oil tanks for the Navy as part of the deal. This
satisfied some people, but some conservationists, such as Gifford
Pinchot, Harry A. Slattery, and others, pushed for a full investigation into Fall
and his activities. They got Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. to begin
a Senate investigation into the oil leases. La Follette persuaded Democratic
Montana Senator Thomas J. Walsh to lead the investigation, and Walsh read
through the truckload of material provided by the Interior Department through
1922 into 1923, including a letter from Harding stating that the transfer and
leases had been with his knowledge and approval. [210]
Hearings into Teapot Dome began in October 1923, two months after Harding's
death. Fall had left office earlier that year, and he denied receiving any money
from Sinclair or Doheny; Sinclair agreed. The following month, Walsh learned
that Fall had spent lavishly on expanding and improving his New Mexico ranch.
Fall reappeared and stated that the money had come as a loan from Harding's
friend and The Washington Post publisher Edward B. McLean, but McLean
denied it when he testified. Doheny told the committee that he had given Fall
the money in cash as a personal loan out of regard for their past association,
but Fall invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when he
was compelled to appear again, rather than answer questions. [211]
Investigators found that Fall and a relative had received a total of about
$400,000 from Doheny and Sinclair, and that the transfers were
contemporaneous with the controversial leases.[212] Fall was convicted in 1929 of
accepting bribes, and in 1931 became the first U.S. cabinet member to be
imprisoned for crimes committed in office.[213] Sinclair was convicted only
of contempt of court for jury tampering. Doheny was brought to trial before a
jury in April 1930 for giving the bribe that Fall had been convicted of accepting,
but he was acquitted.[214]
Justice Department

Harry M. Daugherty was implicated in the scandals but was never convicted of any offense.

Harding's appointment of Harry M. Daugherty as Attorney General received

more criticism than any other. Daugherty's Ohio lobbying and back-room
maneuvers were not considered to qualify him for his office. [215] When the
scandals broke in 1923 and 1924, Daugherty's many enemies were delighted at
the prospect of connecting him with the dishonesty, and assumed he had taken
part in Teapot Dome, though Fall and Daugherty were not friends. In February
1924, the Senate voted to investigate the Justice Department, where Daugherty
remained Attorney General.[216]
Democratic Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler was on the investigating
committee and assumed the role of prosecutor when hearings began on March
12, 1924.[217] Jess Smith had engaged in influence peddling before his suicide,
conspiring with two other Ohioans, Howard Mannington and Fred A. Caskey, to
accept payoffs from alcohol bootleggers to secure either immunity from
prosecution or the release of liquor from government warehouses. Mannington
and Caskey's residence became infamous as the Little Green House on K
Street.[218] Some witnesses, such as Smith's divorced wife Roxy Stinson, and
corrupt former FBI agent Gaston Means, alleged that Daugherty was personally
involved. Coolidge requested Daugherty's resignation when the Attorney
General indicated that he would not allow Wheeler's committee access to
Justice Department records, and Daugherty complied on March 28, 1924. [219]
The illicit activity that caused Daugherty the most problems was a Smith deal
with Colonel Thomas W. Miller, a former Delaware congressman, whom
Harding had appointed Alien Property Custodian. Smith and Miller received a
payoff of almost half a million dollars for getting a German-owned firm, the
American Metal Company, released to new U.S. owners. Smith deposited
$50,000 in a joint account with Daugherty, used for political purposes. Records
relating to that account were destroyed by Daugherty and his brother. Miller and
Daugherty were indicted for defrauding the government. The first trial, in
September 1926, resulted in a hung jury; at the second, early in 1927, Miller
was convicted and served prison time, but the jury again hung as to Daugherty.
Though charges against Daugherty were then dropped, and he was never
convicted of any offense, his refusal to take the stand in his own defense
devastated what was left of his reputation. The former Attorney General
remained defiant, blaming his troubles on his enemies in the labor movement
and on the Communists, and wrote that he had "done nothing that prevents my
looking the whole world in the face".[220][221]
Veterans' Bureau

Charles R. Forbes, director of the Veterans' Bureau, who was sent to prison for defrauding the
government

Charles R. Forbes, the energetic director of the Veterans' Bureau, sought to

consolidate control of veterans' hospitals and their construction in his bureau. At
the start of Harding's presidency, this power was vested in the Treasury
Department. The politically-powerful American Legion backed Forbes and
denigrated those who opposed him, like Secretary Mellon, and in April 1922,
Harding agreed to transfer control to the Veterans' Bureau. [222] Forbes' main task
was to ensure that new hospitals were built around the country to help the
300,000 wounded World War I veterans.[223]
Near the beginning of 1922, Forbes had met Elias Mortimer, agent for the
Thompson-Black Construction Company of St. Louis, which wanted to construct
the hospitals. The two men became close, and Mortimer paid for Forbes' travels
through the West, looking at potential hospital sites for the wounded World War
I veterans. Forbes was also friendly with Charles F. Hurley, owner of the Hurley-
Mason Construction Company of Washington state.[224] Harding had ordered that
all contracts be pursuant to public notice, [225] but the three worked out a deal
whereby the two companies would get the contracts with the profits divided
three ways. Some of the money went to the bureau's chief counsel, Charles F.
Cramer.[224] Forbes defrauded the government in this hospital construction,
increasing construction costs from $3,000 to $4,000 per bed. [226] A tenth of the
inflated construction billings was set aside for the conspirators, with Forbes
receiving a third of the take.[227] The graft then spread to land acquisition, with
Forbes authorizing the purchase of a San Francisco tract – that was worth less
than $20,000 – for $105,000. At least $25,000 of the resulting financial excess
was divided between Forbes and Cramer.[224]

Dr. Charles E. Sawyer

Intent on making more money, Forbes in November 1922 began selling

valuable hospital supplies under his control in large warehouses at the
Perryville Depot in Maryland.[228] The government had stockpiled huge quantities
of hospital supplies during the first World War, which Forbes unloaded for a
fraction of their cost to the Boston firm of Thompson and Kelly at a time when
the Veterans' Bureau was buying supplies for the hospitals at a much higher
price.[229]
The check on Forbes' authority at Perryville was Dr. Sawyer, Harding's
physician and chairman of the Federal Hospitalization Board. [230] Sawyer told
Harding that Forbes was selling valuable hospital supplies to an insider
contractor.[231] At first Harding did not believe it, but Sawyer secured proof in
January 1923.[202] A shocked Harding, who alternated between rage and
despondency over the corruption in his administration, summoned Forbes to the
White House and demanded his resignation. Harding did not want an open
scandal and allowed Forbes to flee to Europe, from where he resigned on
February 15, 1923. In spite of Harding's efforts, gossip about Forbes' activities
resulted in the Senate ordering an investigation two weeks later, [232] and in mid-
March, Cramer committed suicide.[233]
Mortimer was willing to tell all, as Forbes had had an affair with his wife (which
also broke up the Forbes' marriage). The construction executive was the star
witness at the hearings in late 1923, after Harding's death. Forbes returned
from Europe to testify, but convinced few, and in 1924, he and John W.
Thompson, of Thompson–Black, were tried in Chicago for conspiracy to defraud
the government. Both were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.
Forbes began to serve his sentence in 1926; Thompson, who had a bad heart,
died that year before commencing his. [234] According to Trani and Wilson, "One of
the most troublesome aspects of the Harding presidency was that he appeared
to be far more concerned with political liabilities of a scandal than in securing
justice."[202]

Extramarital affairs
External video

 Panel discussion at the Library of Congress on the love letters of

Warren G. Harding, July 22, 2014, C-SPAN

Harding had an extramarital affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips of Marion, which

lasted about fifteen years before ending in 1920. Letters from Harding to Phillips
were discovered by Harding biographer Francis Russell in the possession of
Marion attorney Donald Williamson while Russell was researching his book in
1963. Before that, the affair was not generally known. Williamson donated the
letters to the Ohio Historical Society. Some there wanted the letters destroyed
to preserve what remained of Harding's reputation. A lawsuit ensued, with
Harding's heirs claiming copyright over the letters. The case was ultimately
settled in 1971, with the letters donated to the Library of Congress. They were
sealed until 2014, but before their opening, historians used copies at Case
Western Reserve University and in Russell's papers at the University of
Wyoming.[235][236][237] Russell concluded from the letters that Phillips was the love of
Harding's life—"the enticements of his mind and body combined in one person",
[238]
 but historian Justin P. Coffey in his 2014 review of Harding biographies
criticizes him for "obsess[ing] over Harding's sex life".[239]
The allegations of Harding's other known mistress, Nan Britton, long remained
uncertain. In 1927, Britton, also a Marionite, published The President's
Daughter, alleging that her child Elizabeth Ann Blaesing had been fathered by
Harding. The book, which was dedicated to "all unwedded mothers" and "their
innocent children whose fathers are usually not known to the world", was sold,
like pornography, door-to-door, wrapped in brown paper. [240] The late president's
reputation had deteriorated since his death in 1923, and many believed Britton.
[241]
 The public was tantalized by salacious details such as Britton's claim that the
two had sex in a White House closet, with Secret Service agents posted to ward
off intruders.[241] Although part of the public believed her, a jury found against her
when she alleged she was libeled by a refutation of her book. [242] According to
Harding family lore, the late president was infertile and could not have fathered
a child, having suffered from mumps in childhood;[8] Britton maintained that
Harding had provided child support of $500 per month for the daughter he never
met,[243] but she had destroyed romantic correspondence from him at his request.
[8][243]

Harding's biographers, writing while Britton's allegations remained uncertain,

differed on their truth; Russell believed them unquestioningly [239] while Dean,
having reviewed Britton's papers at UCLA, regarded them as unproven.[244] In
2015, DNA tests performed by Ancestry.com were used by members of the
Harding and Blaesing families to determine that Harding was Elizabeth's father.
[8]
 Sinclair wondered why Harding's infidelity was held so much against him,
given that Grover Cleveland was elected president in 1884 although it was
known he had a mistress and may have fathered a son out of wedlock. [242]

Historical view

Harding memorial issue, issued September 1, 1923

Upon his death, Harding was deeply mourned. He was called a man of peace in
many European newspapers; American journalists praised him lavishly, with
some describing him as having given his life for his country. His associates
were stunned by his demise; Daugherty wrote, "I can hardly write about it or
allow myself to think about it yet."[245] Hughes stated, "I cannot realize that our
beloved Chief is no longer with us."[246]
Hagiographic accounts of Harding's life quickly followed his death, such as Joe
Mitchell Chapple's Life and Times of Warren G. Harding, Our After-War
President (1924).[247] By then, the scandals were breaking, and the Harding
administration soon became a byword for corruption in the view of the public.
Works written in the late 1920s helped shape Harding's historical
reputation: Masks in a Pageant, by William Allen White, mocked and dismissed
Harding, as did Samuel Hopkins Adams' fictionalized account of the Harding
administration, Revelry.[241] These books depicted Harding's time in office as one
of great presidential weakness.[248] The publication of Nan Britton's bestselling
book disclosing they had had an affair also lowered the late president in public
esteem. President Coolidge, not wishing to be further associated with his
predecessor, refused to dedicate the Harding Tomb. Hoover, Coolidge's
successor, was similarly reluctant, but with Coolidge in attendance presided
over the dedication in 1931. By that time, with the Great Depression in full
swing, Hoover was nearly as discredited as Harding. [249][250]
Adams continued to shape the negative view of Harding with several nonfiction
works in the 1930s, culminating with The Incredible Era—The Life and Times of
Warren G. Harding (1939) in which he called his subject "an amiable, well-
meaning third-rate Mr. Babbitt, with the equipment of a small-town semi-
educated journalist ... It could not work. It did not work."[251] Dean deems the
works of White and Adams "remarkably unbalanced and unfair accounts,
exaggerating the negative, assigning responsibility to Harding for all wrongs,
and denying him credit for anything done right. Today there is considerable
evidence refuting their portrayals of Harding. Yet the myth has persisted." [252]

Warren and Florence Harding, c. 1922. Florence Harding was highly protective of her husband's
legacy.

The opening of Harding's papers for research in 1964 sparked a small spate of
biographies, of which the most controversial was Russell's The Shadow of
Blooming Grove (1968), which concluded that the rumors of black ancestry (the
"shadow" of the title) deeply affected Harding in his formative years, causing
both Harding's conservatism and his desire to get along with everyone. Coffey
faults Russell's methods, and deems the biography "largely critical, though not
entirely unsympathetic."[253] Murray's The Harding Era (1969) took a more
positive view of the president, and put him in the context of his times. Trani and
Wilson faulted Murray for "a tendency to go overboard" in trying to connect
Harding with the successful policies of cabinet officers, and for asserting,
without sufficient evidence, that a new, more assertive Harding had emerged by
1923.[254]

External video

 Booknotes interview with Robert Ferrell on The Strange Deaths of

President Harding, January 12, 1997, C-SPAN

 Booknotes interview with John Dean on Warren G. Harding,

March 14, 2004, C-SPAN

Later decades saw revisionist books published on Harding. Robert Ferrell's The
Strange Deaths of President Harding (1996), according to Coffey, "spends
almost the entire work challenging every story about Harding and concludes
that almost everything that is read and taught about his subject is wrong." [255] In
2004, John Dean, noted for his involvement in another presidential
scandal, Watergate, wrote the Harding volume in "The American Presidents"
series of short biographies, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Coffey deemed
that book the most revisionist to date, and faults Dean for glossing over some
unfavorable episodes in Harding's life, like his silence during the 1914 Senate
campaign, when his opponent Hogan was being attacked for his faith. [256]
Harding has traditionally been ranked as one of the worst presidents.[257] In a
1948 poll conducted by Harvard University, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger
Sr. conducted a survey of scholars' opinions of the presidents, Harding ranked
last among the 29 presidents considered. [258] He has also been last in other polls
since, which Ferrell attributes to scholars reading little but sensational accounts
of Harding.[257] Murray argued that Harding deserves more credit than historians
have given: "He was certainly the equal of a Franklin Pierce, an Andrew
Johnson, a Benjamin Harrison, or even a Calvin Coolidge. In concrete
accomplishments, his administration was superior to a sizable portion of those
in the nation's history."[259] Coffey believes "the academic lack of interest in
Harding has cost him his reputation, as scholars still rank Harding as nearly
dead last among presidents."[253]
Trani faults Harding's own lack of depth and decisiveness as bringing about his
tarnished legacy.[260] Still, some authors and historians continue to call for a
reconsideration of Harding's presidency. [240][261] Murray argued that Harding sowed
the seeds for his administration's poor standing:
In the American system, there is no such thing as an innocent bystander in the
White House. If Harding can rightly claim the achievements of a Hughes in
State or a Hoover in Commerce, he must also shoulder responsibility for a
Daugherty in Justice and a Fall in Interior. Especially must he bear the onus of
his lack of punitive action against such men as Forbes and Smith. By his
inaction, he forfeited whatever chance he had to maintain the integrity of his
position and salvage a favorable image for himself and his administration. As it
was, the subsequent popular and scholarly negative verdict was inevitable, if
not wholly deserved.[259]