HARDING: OUR WORSTPRESIDENT?

POLITICS OF NORMALCY

President Warren G. Harding promised stability for a war-weary country. Instead his administration took corruption to awhole new level by presiding over one of the most corruptadministrations in American history. The corruptionovershadowed Harding’s actual achievements—convening theWashington Naval Conference on the limitation of armaments(the first peace summit), signing the Sheppard Towner Act(provided federal funding and oversight for state programs oninfant mortality and health care for women and children),pushing the Federal Highway Act of 1921 through Congress($75 million for national highway system), creating the Bureauof the Budget headed by Charles Dawes (gave federalgovernment an operation budget), attempting to end the 12-hour workday and 6-day workweek, putting pressure on thesteel industry, attacking the KKK, etc.

TAINTED REPUTATION

Harding is largely remembered for presiding over anadministration known for its flagrant corruption, broughtabout by a president who was elevated to a post beyond hispowers. Most historians have regarded Harding as thenation’s worst president, not only a man flawed by badpersonal habits but one basically unfit for presidency andeasily manipulated by others. Recent scholarship has shownthat contrary to popular myth Harding was hardworking,conscientious, and nobody’s puppet. Many now credit himwith leading the nation through a painful transitional period.

Harding lives up to his tarnished reputation in his private life.However, he does not deserve to be ranked as our nation’sworst president. Perhaps it is more accurate to dub him ourmost scandalous president.

LIFE IN BRIEF

BORN: Nov. 2, 1865, BloomingGrove, Ohio

COLLEGE: Ohio Central College(1879-1882)

CAREER: Became owner-editor ofthe Marion Star (1884)

POLITICAL CAREER: StateSenator, Ohio, 1900-1904;Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (1904-1906); U.S. Senator from Ohio,1915-1921; President, 1921-1923

FIRSTS: First sitting senatorelected to presidency. First to rideto his inaugural in an automobile.First president to be born after theend of the Civil War.

HIS HEROES: Alexander Hamilton,Napoleon, Julius Caesar

SELF PERCEPTION: “I am a manof limited talents from a small town.I don’t seem to grasp that I amPresident.” “I cannot hope to be oneof the great presidents, but perhaps Imay be remembered as one of themost loved.”

CHARACTER SNAPSHOT:“Harding was not a bad man. Hewas just a slob.” --Alice RooseveltLongworth

DARK HORSE OF 1920

As Frank Brandegee said, theRepublicans had no “first raters”but Harding was the best of the“second raters.”

Republicans only nominatedsomeone as undistinguished asHarding because they sought acandidate who had offended noone, looked presidential, andcould be influenced.

Harding emerged as acompromise candidate running a“front porch” campaign.

Personal scandals were never farfrom the surface. Quite frankly,he was an inveterate womanizer.

He had extramarital affairs withGrace Cross, Carrie Phillips (15years, wife’s former best friend),and actress Nan Britton (30years his younger). Accordingto Britton, Harding fathered anillegitimate child (Elizabeth Ann)with her in 1919.

Republicans bought Phillips’ssilence ($20,000), arranged tohave Harding’s letters to Crossstolen, intimidated Cross intovacating Washington D.C.before the inaugurationceremony.

Harding possessed limitedintellect and leadership capacity.

PRESIDENT HARDING

DUCHESS

Harding’s wife Florencehelped him make theMarion Star a commercialsuccess. Florence has beencredited with promotingHarding’s political career.Many in the pressconsidered her the powerbehind the presidency.

Florence Harding

RETURN TO NORMALCY

Harding was vain about hispersonal appearance and hadsubstantial personal failings. Buthe possessed an easy-goingmanner people loved.

Harding said, “America’spresent need is not heroics, buthealing; not nostrums, butnormalcy; not revolution, butrestoration; not agitation, butadjustment; not surgery, butserenity; not dramatic, but thedispassionate; not experiment,but equipoise; not submergencein internationality, butsustainment in triumphantnationality.”

Harding promised Americans“normalcy” instead of“normality,” a slip of the tonguethat sustained the nostalgicdreams of the 1920s.

Like Sinclair Lewis’s fictionalcharacter George Babbit,Harding embodied the spirit ofthe age, laissez-faire andprotectionist in economics, get-rich-quick in business ideas,hypocritical in morals.

MIXED BAG OFAPPOINTMENTS

The good: Charles Evans Hughes,

Secretary of State Herbert Hoover, Secretary of

Commerce Andrew Mellon, Secretary of

Treasury (pro-business)

The bad and the ugly: Harry Daugherty, Attorney

General Albert Fall, Secretary of the

Interior

Harry M. DaughertyAnd

Andrew Mellon

Charles Evans HughesAlbert Fall

DAUGHERTY

Harry Daugherty brought the “OhioGang” to the Justice Department.

He failed to enforce antitrust laws,refused to prosecute war profiteersand bootleggers, obtained pardonsfor criminals, employed corruptofficials in the Justice Department,diverted funds for illegal purposes,failed to prosecute oil companiesthat were trespassing ongovernment oil lands, and orderedofficials to intimidate.

The Justice Department continuallyhid Harding’s indiscretions as wellas its own illegal activities.

Jess Smith

TEAPOT DOME

Fall encouraged Harding to transfer government control of governmentoil reserves from the Navy Department to the Interior Department andsecretly leased oil lands to Harry Sinclair and Edward Doheny in TeapotDome and Elk Hills for substantial funds.

Harding ignored and dismissed accusations of corruption, preferringpoker and Nan Britton.

Harding was implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal for allowing thetransfer of control over oil from the Navy to the Interior Department, butit was not considered an illegal act until years after his death.

Albert Fall earned the dubious distinction of being the first Cabinetofficer convicted of criminal misconduct in office. He was found guiltyof accepting bribes, sentenced to a year in a federal penitentiary andfined $100,000.

Several of those who were accused or somehow implicated in theHarding scandals “committed suicide.”

VETERANS’ BUREAUSCANDAL

Harding created the Veteran’s Bureau, but Charles Forbesduped Harding after he obtained kickbacks from resoldmedical supplies and hospital building site contracts.Harding knew of Forbes’s misdeeds for months withoutdemanding his resignation.

Harding could have been tried for criminal conspiracy, afelony. But there is no solid evidence that he was deeplyinvolved in the dark scandals or that he personally profitedfrom them.

Charles Forbes and contractor John Thompson received 2years in jail and a $10,000 fine each for involvement in thescandal.

The Veterans’Bureau was the most damaging scandal of all.

EXTRAMARITALAFFAIRS

Jess Smith kept a blackmail fund to pay offhis mistresses.

Carrie Phillips, Florence Harding’s formerbest friend, was the love of Harding’s lifefor 15 years.

Nan Britton published The President’sDaughter (1927) telling the story of herlong affair with Harding—the only oneFlorence never knew about. According toBritton’s account, Secret Service agentsescorted her to the White House severaltimes to make love to Harding in a smallcloset just off the Oval Office.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth once said, “MyGod, we’ve got a president who doesn’tknow beds were invented, and he waselected on a slogan of ‘Back toNormalcy.’”

Actress NanBritton in 1928

Nan Britton and Elizabeth

OHIO GANG

Harding let alcohol flow freely inthe White House.

Jess Smith headed Washington’smost elite bootlegging operation.

Harding loved his poker and golfas well.

Harding lamented to reporterWilliam Allen White, “My God,this is a hell of a job! I have notrouble with my enemies. I cantake care of my enemies all right.But my friends, God-damn friends,White, they’re the ones that keepme walking the floors nights!”

The Hardings

PROGRESSIVEACHIEVEMENTS

Total lack of racial and religious prejudices during an intolerant era First appointment of a Jew to high profile position—Albert Lasker—Shipping Board Interested in turning part of Palestine into Jewish homeland Proposed and promoted anti-lynching bill and formation of interracial commission to

recommend ways to improve race relation; Democratic filibusters killed anti-lynching bill inthe Senate and interracial commission in the House

Argued that democracy would be a sham until African Americans received full equality ineducation, employment and political life; attacked KKK publicly

Welcomed women into politics and more firmly defended their interests

Signed Sheppard-Towner Act Supported right of labor to collectively bargain and opposed strikes only when public

safety was at risk Tried to abolish 12-hour workday and 6-day workweek, putting pressure on the steel

industry Pushed Federal Highway Act through Congress; created Bureau of the Budget Convened Washington Naval Conference Embraced and promoted the technology of the period—radio, automobile, airplane,

motion pictures, etc.

SUDDEN DEATH

Most of the scandals that soiled his legacywere revealed only after his death.However, Harding had learned enoughabout the corruption associated with hisadministration to become deeply worried.The anxiety probably contributed to thestroke that allegedly killed him while hewas returning from a speaking tour ofAlaska. Gaston Means, a shadowy figureon the fringes of Harding’s administrationclaimed in his The Strange Death ofPresident Harding (1930) that Hardingwas poisoned by his wife and doctor.Florence Harding refused to permit anautopsy and systematically destroyedmany of Harding’s papers. Other rumorscirculated that Harding committed suicide.

LEGACY

Many historians still claim that Harding did little to meet the economic andsocial needs of the time. To be sure, his policies were conservative in the areasof taxation and spending, tariff protection, immigration restriction, and businessregulation. Others say he did too little to help farmers and workers.

Surely the scandals marred his administration. But at the same time, one mustnot overlook his little-known domestic accomplishments. Although Hardingwas by no means a great president, he did possess some admirableachievements—showing sympathy to problems facing minorities, embracing theNew Era’s technology and culture, the 40-hour work week, improved health carefor new mothers, the first balanced-budget bureau, and so forth. We should takeinto consideration that many of his poor appointments were at his wife’s urging.People say Harding’s geniality, gentleness, and warmth rivaled Lincoln’s.Lastly he was the object of national grief and reverence upon his death.

Can we really say he was the worst president? Harding was at least ascompetent as Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Grant, the Harrisons, Tyler, Pierce,Buchanan, and Van Buren, all of whom have been consistently ranked ahead ofHarding in polls. He may have been “our most scandalous president,” but hewas not our worst.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. NewYork: Harper and Row, 1931.

Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. “Scandal in the Oval Office”. Washington Post NationalWeekly Edition. June 15, 1998. pp. 6-7.

_____. “The Most Scandalous President”. American Heritage. July/August 1998.pp. 53-55, 58-59.

Haydock, Michael D. “The Dark Side of Normalcy”. American History. April 1999.pp. 16-24, 56-57.

Keller, Morton. “Warren G. Harding”. In: “To The Best Of My Ability”: TheAmerican Presidents. Edited by James M. McPherson. New York: DorlingKindersley, 2000. pp. 206-211.

Leuchtenburg, William E. The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-32. Second Edition.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993 (1958).

Murray, Robert K. The Harding Era. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.