Warren G. Harding (1865-1923)

Benedict Gombocz

Outline of Warren G. Harding’s life and political career

Life • Born November 2, 1865, Blooming Grove,

OH

• Died August 2, 1923 (aged 57), San Francisco, CA

• Resting place Harding Tomb, Marion, OH

• Party affiliation Republican (associated with conservative wing)

• Spouse(s) Florence Kling Harding (married 1891-1923)

• Alma matter Ohio Central College

• Profession Journalist

• Religious views Baptist

Political Career• 29th President of the United States (elected November 2,

1920; served March 4, 1921-August 2, 1923, died in office)

• United States Senator from Ohio (elected November 3, 1914; served March 4, 1915-January 13, 1921, resigned to assume presidency)

• 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (elected 1903; served January 11, 1904-January 8, 1906)

• Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Philippines (served 1919-1921)

Early life

Early life • Warren Gamaliel Harding was born on November 2, 1865 on

his family’s farm in Blooming Grove, Morrow County, Ohio.

• His parents were Dr. George Tryon Harding and Phoebe Dickerson Harding, who were descendants of pioneer Ohio families of English and Dutch descent.

• He was the oldest son and the first of eight children (two boys and six girls).

• The Harding family belonged to the Baptist faith.

Painting of Warren G. Harding’s birth home

Early life – cont.

Early life – cont. • In 1870, the family moved to the village of Caledonia in

Marion County, where Mrs. Harding, a very intelligent woman (she finally studied and practiced medicine with her husband) who was profoundly religious, took time to play an active role in the social life of the community.

• It was during these years, in the office of the Caledonia Argus (which Dr. Harding owned part of), that the future Senator and President pursued an interest in journalism and served a traineeship in printing.

Location of Marion County in OH

Education

Education• Harding served as editor of the Ohio Central College’s school

paper when he was a student there in the proximate town of Ibernia, and he displayed an amusing promise as a public speaker.

• In 1882, at the age of sixteen, he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree and was the “orator” and the political and literary representative of his class at his graduation ceremony.

Historical marker at the site of the former Ohio Central College

Portrait of Harding, circa 1882

Education – cont.

Education – cont. • By the time of his graduation from high school, the Harding

family moved to Marion, Ohio.

• Armed with a degree and a printer’s rule, Harding was determined to make a living on his own.

• He momentarily tried (with only partial success and enjoyment) teaching school, studying law, and selling insurance.

Downtown Marion, OH, West Center Street, 2007

Early Interest in Politics

Early Interest in Politics• When he was nineteen, Harding inspired his father to acquire

a one-third interest in the Marion Star; his father was its publisher until he sold it in 1923.

• Harding took an interest in politics during the 1884 presidential election.

• Despite Republican James G. Blaine’s defeat in that election, Harding bravely named the editorial policy of the Star as Republican.

The Marion Star logo

Early Interest in Politics – cont.

• In 1886, Harding became the sole owner of the Star.

• Tasked with forming a circulation to found a Republican newspaper in a largely Democratic community, economic difficulties, and a despicable shortage of equipment, Harding proved that he could fulfill the challenge.

• Slowly but surely, he placed the Star on a sound economic foundation.

• The eminence of common sense and the impartiality of his editorials was quickly recognized throughout Ohio; he additionally won a status both as a political speaker and a lecturer on the Chautauqua circuit, where he selected such individuals like his political hero Alexander Hamilton to amuse and enlighten audiences.

• Also during this time, Harding took up a routine of staying in close touch with the public for which he worked.

Marriage

Marriage • Harding married Florence Kling DeWolfe, the daughter of one

of Marion’s leading citizens, in 1891; that same year, the newly married couple planned and built the house that is now the Harding Home and Museum, at 380 Mt. Vernon Avenue in Marion.

• Mrs. Harding took on the role of partner to her husband, and was a source of encouragement and helpful criticism during later years.

• Her vitality and eagerness promoted circulation of the Star until its daily issue exceeded that of any other newspaper in a town of equivalent size in the nation.

Florence Kling DeWolfe (L) and Warren G. Harding (R)

Political Career

Political Career • Harding’s political career started when he was elected to the Ohio Senate and

served two terms from 1900 to 1904.

• He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio in 1903; his political skills advanced during his tenure as Presiding Officer of the Upper House of the state legislature, and even brought about national acknowledgment.

• A split in the Republican Party caused his defeat in his bid for Governor of Ohio in 1910, but he remained active in Republican politics and was chosen to deliver the nominating speech for William Howard Taft at the party’s 1912 convention.

• He subsequently won the 1914 Republican primary election as a nominee for the U.S. Senate; in the general election, he was elected by a majority of 100,000 votes for the 1915-1921 term.

• Harding had a good record in the Senate, and extended his understanding of foreign affairs during his service as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

• He supervised the 1916 Republican National Convention held in Chicago; he was chosen to deliver the keynote address.

Harding’s Senate portrait

1912 Republican National Convention

Political Career – cont.

Political Career – cont. • It was during Harding’s involvement in political life that he was

introduced to golf.

• He took such a liking to the ritual, competition, and sportsmanship that golf offered that it became a personal interest throughout the rest of his life.

• He frequently played at the Chevy Chase Golf Club with what became the “senatorial foursomes” that included, among others, President Woodrow Wilson’s assistant secretary of the navy (and future president), Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• As president, Harding continued to play and advance the game by serving as a nominal member of the United States Golf Association's administrative commission; he was also a Founder Life Member of the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, and contributed the Harding Cup, awarded yearly to the team champion at the United States Public Links Championships, in 1923.

Harding golfing in NH, 1921

Presidential Candidacy and Subsequent Election

Presidential Candidacy and Subsequent Election • Endorsed by friends from Marion and fellow Ohioans, Harding campaigned for the

Republican nomination for the presidency in 1920.

• The convention held in Chicago was one of the most moving in the relatively young history of the Republican Party due to the uncertainty of its ending.

• Harding won 65 and ½ votes on the first ballot; 39 of those votes were from his own state.

• He captured the nomination on the tenth ballot with 692 and ½ votes; this exceeded the only 400 votes that were needed for him to win the nomination.

• “A Return to Normalcy” was Harding’s campaign slogan.

• Harding believed in “America First”, and used that belief to justify his opposition to U.S. membership in the League of Nations that was proposed by President Wilson.

• During his campaign, he did not travel much around the country; he instead campaigned from the front porch of his own house, where delegations and thousands of individuals lined up in large numbers to hear him speak.

• In the November general election, Harding and his running mate, Calvin Coolidge, defeated the Democratic candidate, Ohio Governor James M. Cox and his running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, with 60% of the popular vote.

Harding/Coolidge campaign banner

Results of the 1920 presidential election

Presidential Candidacy and Subsequent Election – cont.

Presidential Candidacy and Subsequent Election – cont. • In December 1920, a month after his victory, president-elect

Harding resigned from the U.S. Senate.

• On March 4, 1921, Harding was inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States.

• The one-term Senator from Ohio was the seventh president born in that state, and the sixth (and most recent) elected from there.

• One of Harding’s campaign promises was working to achieve peace and prosperity, and he kept that promise.

• Harding believed that all Americans, without regard to race, color, or creed, had the ability to take care of themselves if they were given the opportunity to do so.

Harding’s inauguration

Overview of the Harding Administration

Overview of the Harding Administration • The accomplishments of the short two-and-a-half years

Harding Administration can best be put into outlook by examining the correlation that was proposed by the great historian Henry B. Adams in 1870.

• Adams implied that the American President could be associated with the captain of the ship at sea, whose journey required a helm to grasp, a course to navigate, and a port to seek; in the case of Harding, the “port to seek” was returning to normalcy after the turmoil and unrest caused by World War I, and the frantic, self-righteous, reform-minded interventionism of outgoing President Wilson, who left office as one of the least popular presidents in American history upon his departure in March 1921.

“America First!”

“Course to steer”

• Harding’s “course to steer” can best be categorized as foreign and domestic policy.

• He promised peace for the country through a process of:

• (1) normalizing relations with former enemies, concluding separate treaties of peace with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, (2) calling and securing the treaties of the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armaments in 1921 and 1922, and (3) advancing our entry into the World Court. 

• Some of his successes in domestic policy that increased the likelihood for prosperity included:

• (1) lowering taxes, (2) lowering the national debt by $26 billion, and (3) promoting economy in government by creating the Department of the Budget and balancing the budget. (He wanted more business practice in government and less government intervention in the country's businesses.)

Role of the Vice President

Role of the Vice President• Under Harding’s presidency, the Vice President took on an

important role in the workings of government.

• Harding left a well-planned program to his vice president (and later his successor), Calvin Coolidge.

• The Harding Administration can be described as wholly positive; Harding himself was one of the few presidents during his own time who had the political qualifications to lead the United States through the dangerous period of reconstruction in the aftermath of World War I.

Calvin Coolidge

Cabinet and Judicial Appointments

Cabinet and Judicial Appointments• President Harding chose a group of able and notable citizens to

fill cabinet and judicial positions; these included two future presidents, Vice President Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, and the Republican presidential nominee in 1916 and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Charles Evans Hughes, in whom Harding had faith that Hughes would go down in history as prominent for statesmanship.

• During his short presidency, Harding appointed four justices to the Supreme Court; one noteworthy appointment was fellow Republican William Howard Taft, the only person who served as both President and Chief Justice.

William Howard Taft as 10th Chief Justice of the United States

Corruption Scandals

Corruption Scandals • Much like many Presidents before and after him, Warren G.

Harding had to handle corruption in his administration.

• One early episode of corruption was when Veterans Bureau director Charles Forbes was convicted and imprisoned for financial dishonesty in the building of hospitals.

• Even though the story was made public only after Harding died, the president knew enough to immediately and correctly demand Forbes’ resignation upon learning of his crimes.

• Albert B. Fall, one of Harding’s former cabinet members, was convicted in a later case of accepting a bribe to rent oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California to oil financiers, and was sent to prison; he was the first, but certainly not the last, former cabinet member to face such a prison sentence.

Teapot Dome Scandal cartoon

Death

Death• In June 1923, President Harding was longing to make more public appearances

and meet the American people; he was also focused on a re-election campaign for 1924.

• He and Mrs. Harding went on a trip via train across the continent to Alaska.

• The trip ended in his premature death from a heart attack at age 57 on August 2, 1923 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco (His five attending doctors mistakenly identified his cause of death as a stoke, an easily understood mistake at the time as the medical field of cardiology was only in its early stages).

• The progress of the funeral train from California to Washington, D.C. was marked by a sorrow-stricken country.

• After Harding’s body lay in state in the rotunda of the Capital building, the coffin was transported to Marion and put in a momentary grave.

• Florence Harding only lived fifteen months longer than her beloved husband (she died on November 21, 1924 at only the age of 64).

• The bodies of both President and Mrs. Harding were reburied in the stunning Harding Memorial on December 21, 1927.

The Day headline, “President Harding Dead”, August 3, 1923

Misunderstanding Harding’s legacy

Misunderstanding Harding’s legacy• Harding’s death made him unable to protect himself from

personal and political attacks.

• His legacy has been recorded mostly by writers who repeat misstatements, opinions, and explanations of an earlier period with no deliberation of source.

• These writers depend on most problematic materials, in particular newspaper accounts and journalistic books of the 1920s.

• It has correctly been said that these writers have stuck to the “Progressive Era” point of view, that of writers who have admired the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, while overlooking the real successes of Republican presidents of the 1920s and the early 1930s.

Harding’s presidential portrait

Personality

Personality • During his political career, President Harding maintained the passionate kindness of his

childhood, an element in his personality that made him a much-loved figure both at home and overseas.

• Harding was a kind and friendly man, more likely to praise than to criticize.

• Of all his presidential responsibilities, Harding most took delight in meeting people and shaking their hands; characteristically, he was a man who liked bringing people together.

• Warren G. Harding was a quiet, aloof, and internally fixated man with a strong sense of humbleness, esteem, fair play, decency, devotion, morality, and patriotism.

• He was an accomplished and keen politician.

• If responsibilities are to be attributed, his conception of his office, more than his ability, limited his success.

• The 1920s were a time of wanting small government, a belief that most Americans shared, though it was only later, during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s (and more remarkably during World War II), that the currently held ideas of government involvement in public (and maybe private) issues affecting all Americans gained importance.

• Warren G. Harding’s record as president deserves far more admiration than the resounding dismissals that Progressive writers have given him, dismissals that regrettably continue to the modern day.

Harding’s baseball salute

References

References• http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/warren-gam

aliel-harding/

Harding Home and Museum, Marion, OH