Warren g harding biography scandalous

Warren g harding biography scandalous: Dead Last: The Public

The opening of Harding's papers for research in sparked a small spate of biographies, of which the most controversial was Russell's The Shadow of Blooming Grovewhich 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. Trani and Wilson faulted Murray for "a tendency to go overboard" in trying to connect Harding with the successful policies of his cabinet officers, and for asserting, without sufficient evidence, that a new, more assertive Harding had emerged by Later decades saw revisionist books published on Harding.

Robert Ferrell 's The Strange Deaths of President Hardingaccording 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. Schlesinger Jr. Coffey considered 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 Senate campaign, when his opponent Hogan was being attacked for his faith.

Trani faults Harding's own lack of depth and decisiveness as bringing about his tarnished legacy. Harding has traditionally been ranked as one of the worst presidents. Schlesinger Sr. Ferrell attributes Harding's negative ratings to scholars who read little that is substantive, and who focus more on sensational accounts of Harding. 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.

In historical rankings of the U. However, in recent decades, some authors and historians have begun to reassess the conventional views of Harding's historical record in office. In concrete accomplishments, his administration was superior to a sizable portion of those in the nation's history. Murray notes some general points regarding Harding's poor standing which illustrate the relatively obscure and weak basis for negative critiques of Harding in general.

Namely, the conventional views often entail omission of an actual critique or analysis of President's Harding's actions, and often consist of a relatively limited and arbitrary focus on the nature of Harding's appointees, to the omission and detriment of a broader analysis of larger historical facts. Murray states:. 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. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. President of the United States from to For other uses, see Warren Harding disambiguation.

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Slogan written on Ohio walls and fences, [ 55 ]. Presidential election of Main article: United States presidential election. Further information: Republican National Convention. Harry M. Daugherty [ 88 ]. General election campaign. Presidency — Main article: Presidency of Warren G. For warren g harding biography scandalous, see Timeline of the Warren G.

Harding presidency. Bush George W. Duke Power Co. Higher ed. Think tanks. Other organizations. Inauguration and appointments. Further information: Inauguration of Warren G. Harding's original Cabinet, European relations and formally ending the war. Main article: Washington Naval Conference. Postwar recession and recovery. Main article: Depression of — Mellon's tax cuts.

Embracing new technologies. Further information: Great Railroad Strike of Civil rights and immigration. Eugene Debs and political prisoners. Further information: List of federal judges appointed by Warren G. Harding and Warren G. Harding Supreme Court candidates. Political setbacks and western tour. See also: Harding Railroad Car. Death and funeral.

Further information: Teapot Dome scandal. Veterans' Bureau. Main article: Historical reputation of Warren G. After their estrangement, it became necessary. See Deanp. See Russellp. The other word that Harding popularized was bloviatewhich he said was a somewhat-obsolete term used in Ohio meaning to sit around and talk. After Harding's resurrection of it, it came to mean empty oratory.

See Sinclairp. A Republican governor, Harry L. Davisappointed Willis, already elected to a full term on Harding's coattailsto serve the remainder of Harding's term. The departure from Haiti was still being planned. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Octoberp. The illustrious life and work of Warren G. Harding, twenty-ninth President of the United States.

The New York Times. Retrieved June 15, Retrieved August 13, Retrieved August 18, American National Biography Online. The Marion Star. Retrieved January 27, Encyclopedia of Tennessee. ISBN Retrieved December 21, Emerald Book Company. Joseph News-Press. New York: Macmillan. Does Atlas Shrug? Harvard UP. A Patriot's History of the United States.

New York: Penguin. December 8, American Presidency Project. Retrieved August 3, Retrieved July 18, June 21, The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 22, Retrieved June 22, Federal Judicial Center. Archived from the original on July 30, Retrieved June 14, Searches run from page by choosing "select research categories" then check "court type" and "nominating president", then select type of court and Warren G.

Royal British Columbia Museum. July 26, Retrieved July 29, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Archived from the original on September 16, Spokane Daily Chronicle. Associated Press. July 28, President Warren G. Harding makes his last speech in Seattle on July 27, ". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California: Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved August 17, National Constitution Center.

August 1, Archived from the original on February 28, Retrieved February 28, Harding's Funeral". Ohio Magazine. Retrieved December 28, Duckett Papers". Western Reserve Historical Society. Retrieved May 28, August 13, Harding's sex life, we'd realize he was a pretty good president". The Daily Beast.

Warren g harding biography scandalous: Far more serious was the

Retrieved August 15, October 4, Harding: Impact and Legacy". Miller Center. Retrieved December 26, November 1, Summer The Independent Review. Independent Institute : 29— ISSN The Spoils of War. Adams, Samuel Hopkins Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Bagby, Wesley M. March The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. ISSN X. JSTOR Coffey, Justin P. New York: Alfred A.

Dean, John W. Warren Harding Kindle ed. New York: Henry Holt and Co. Downes, Randolph C. The Rise of Warren Gamaliel Harding, — Felzenberg, Alvin S. New York: Basic Books. Ferrell, Robert H. Morello, John A. Selling the President, Albert D. Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Westport, CT: Praeger. Murray, Robert K. The Harding Era — Warren G.

Harding and his Administration. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. New York: W. Nevins, Allan New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. OCLC Noggle, Burl September Organization of American Historians: — Payne, Phillip G. Harding In His Times. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press. Schlesinger, Arthur M. London: Heinemann. Sibley, Katherine A. Sinclair, Andrew [].

Chicago: Quadrangle Books. Trani, Eugene P. The Presidency of Warren G. American Presidency. Walters, Everett The Ohio History Press. Walters, Ryan S. Harding excerpt also online review Wynn, Neil Harding at Wikipedia's sister projects. Inauguration of Warren G. Harding Warren G. Harding List of memorials to Warren G. Offices and distinctions.

Political offices Preceded by Woodrow Wilson. Calvin Coolidge. Theodore E. Frank B. Harry Gordon. Andrew Harris. Andrew L. May 06, I was struck again by the character of Irene Heron Forsyte, the mysterious, and aloof beauty that is at the heart of the first series. During the course of the first six episodes she manages to enchant not one but three of the Forsyte men as well as stealing the heart of Philip Bosinney, the fiance of her good friend June Forsyte.

She leaves her husband Soames, which causes a scandal, that reverberates throughout the second series. Soames is never really able to get over losing Irene. Irene is certainly a Scandalous Woman but it is less about what she does than how the men in her life perceive her that makes her so Scandalous. Harding considered him as having one of the "finest minds in the country.

Somewhat of a political maverick, Hoover was distrusted by a sizable number of powerful old-line Republican politicians, but Harding selected him over their protests because, as he explained to one of them, "I believe he's the smartest 'gink' I know. Wallace, editor of Wallace's Farmer and a member of one of the most famous farming familes in the United Statesas his secretary of agriculture.

Some of his other appointments were more to conservative liking. Andrew W. Mellon of Pittsburgh was given the nod for secretary of the treasury, a selection that delighted such old-guard stalwarts as senators Boies Penrose and Philander Knox of Pennsylvania. The post of secretary of war went to John Weeks of Massachusetts, who was sponsored by Senator Lodge.

James J. Davis, an active union member, was made secretary of labor. Will Hays, chairman of the Republican National Committee, was offered the position of postmaster general. Albert Fall, senator from New Mexico and a personal friend of Harding's, was given the job of secretary of the interior, despite the cries of some conservationists who were disturbed by his anticonservationist views.

Harding appointed his campaign manager and confidant, Harry Daugherty, as attorney general. Even some old-guard members balked at this selection, being concerned about Daugherty's questionable lobbying past. But Harding was adamant, once telling a disapproving Senator James W. The change between the Wilson and the Harding administrations was immediately noticeable.

Following a subdued and unostentatious inauguration, the Hardings threw open the White House gates, which had been closed in the last years of the Wilson administration, and quickly chased the gloom of the Wilson illness from the executive mansion. Portions of the White House were even opened to the public. Brighter colors were added to the furnishings and flowers appeared everywhere.

Harding reinstituted White House teas and gave three garden parties during the first summer. The president immediately restored regular White House press conferences, which Wilson had abandoned. Unquestionably, Harding had the best working relationship with the press of any chief executive in history. It has often been said that the Hardings represented Main Street come to Washington.

The Hardings did move into the White House with their small-town background and ideas intact. They did not hesitate to admit to being "just folks" or to practice small-town ways. To a critic like H. Mencken this seemed gauche, but to a majority of citizens it was welcomed as a breath of fresh air. The personality of the president contrasted markedly with that of his predecessor.

Gregarious, affable, and handsome, Harding, in the parlance of his own time, "looked like a president. His nose was large but in proportion with the rest of his face. He was vain about his person; his straight silver hair was always well brushed, his heavy dark eyebrows neatly trimmed. His suits were immaculate and well pressed, and he varied his dress considerably, more so than most presidents, to fit the occasion.

Sometimes he dressed more "sporty" than Mrs. Harding liked. Harding had a magnetic quality that made both men and women like him. His was not the charisma of a leader but the simple attractiveness of a friendly and engaging individual. Next to Lincoln, Harding was probably the most human man to occupy the White House. As one warren g harding biography scandalous associate put it, "W.

Given these traits, it is not surprising that Harding placed a high value on loyalty. An acquaintance once said, "He liked politicians for the reason that he loved dogs, because they were usually loyal to their friends. Harding's father once remarked that it was fortunate he was not a girl; he would have been in a family way all the time because he could not say no.

Although known at the time and not occasioning any particular adverse comment, certain of Harding's habits were later blown out of proportion and their impact on his presidency exaggerated. Harding liked to play poker and, as a senator, had had a group in every Saturday night for "food and action. Beginning sometime after dinner, these games rarely lasted beyond midnight and were for relaxation, not profit.

Limited to eight at one sitting, the White House poker group had a fluid membership.

Warren g harding biography scandalous: Eventually, the scandal broke,

Even Hoover and Hughes were invited to play. Later charges that the poker crowd "ran" the government or exercised a hypnotic influence over the president were untrue. Harding's love of cards was matched by his love of golf. While president, Harding made every professional golfer who came to Washington give him a command performance. The first hint of spring found Harding out on the south grounds of the White House practicing tee shots.

There Laddie Boy, a homely Airedale whose affection for Harding caused much comment in the press, chased and retrieved the president's practice balls. On the golf course, the dog was usually at his side while his master, despite all the practicing, struggled to break a hundred. It was fashionable to claim in later years that Harding spent all his time on the golf course, but, again, this was not true.

The demands of the presidency clearly prevented him from playing the game as much as he would have liked. During his first two years in the White House, he did play about twice a week, but toward the end of his tenure, he barely had time to play at all. Harding's drinking and smoking habits while he was in the White House were far more controversial.

Harding used tobacco in all forms. He smoked two cigars a day, interspersed with a warren g harding biography scandalous and cigarettes. Harding also chewed, although he tapered off somewhat after entering the White House because of his wife's nagging. To many, chewing was a filthy habit, but not to Thomas Edison. Harding once shared a plug of tobacco with the famous inventor, causing Edison to remark, "Harding's all right.

Any man who chews tobacco is all right. More controversial was his use of liquor. Throughout his adult life Harding drank and saw nothing wrong in it. He was never personally committed to Prohibition, even though he had voted for it and, like many Americans, pretended the law did not apply to him. He was careful to serve liquor only in his private rooms in the White House and would sometimes take visitors there for that purpose.

It was later claimed that Harding was a heavy drinker, although no one ever reported seeing him drunk. Still, such "sneaking around" by the president to break the law, when added to smoking, chewing, and poker playing, raised in some minds the specter of low-life carousals. In the end, it was the quality of Harding's mind, as much as any personal habits or character traits, that limited his effectiveness as president.

Wilson claimed he had a "bungalow mind," and to some extent this was true. Harding tended to accept the pat answer rather than reason through to a more sophisticated solution. He had never been required to study hard; neither were his closest associates and Senate colleagues noted for their intellectual prowess. Personality counted more with Harding than ideas.

Philosophical discussions and impersonal technical matters like economic theory did not appeal to him. There is no indication that he ever spent much time reading, although his personal library was rather well stocked. He did not possess a deep knowledge of public questions or of their foundations in history, economics, or law. He had managed quite well without such knowledge as a senator.

But as president this limitation was constricting. A major difficulty during the Harding years was that the best people in his cabinet had to funnel their collective intelligence through his untrained and ambivalent mind. Sometimes Harding did not understand, other times he was too cautious, occasionally he was too fearful. Often he simply endorsed a solution worked out by others.

President Harding inherited from Wilson problems that even the wisest and best-trained chief executive would have found daunting. Calling Congress into special session in Aprilhe delivered to it perhaps the best speech of his career. Declaring that Congress should first turn to domestic problems and put "our own house in order," he mentioned not only increased tariff protection and lower taxes as prime issues but the necessity for a national budget system and economy in administration.

He also called for agricultural legislation to help the farmer, construction of "a great merchant marine," encouragement of aviation for civil and military purposes, further development of radio and its effective regulation, passage of an anti-lynching law, and creation of a department of public welfare. With respect to foreign affairs, he expressed hope for some kind of an association of nations "binding us in conference and cooperation for the prevention of war," but he flatly declared that the United States should not enter the League of Nations.

He stated that peace should quickly be established with all former enemies and that an orderly funding and liquidation of war debts should be undertaken. Harding had fully expected to get along well with Congress, but he did not even enjoy a brief honeymoon. Difficulties with congressional leaders over priorities, continued animus emanating from the League struggle, the desire of some congressional leaders to reduce the presidency to a cipher, and Harding's own reluctance to exercise strong leadership combined to get his administration off to a slow start.

Indeed, because of the squabbling and indecision, Congress was forced to remain in almost continuous session from April to September in order to complete its consideration of Harding's various proposals. In JuneCongress did pass the Budget and Accounting Act, which met Harding's desire for a budget system and opened the way for economy in government administration.

Warren g harding biography scandalous: Many scandals took place in President

In July, after skillful behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Secretary of State Hughes, Congress approved the Knox-Porter Resolution, ending the state of war with Austria and Germany ; peace treaties were subsequently concluded with both countries and accepted by the Senate. Following weeks of wrangling over the size and nature of a tax cut and the successful intervention of Harding to prevent passage of a budget-busting soldiers' bonus, Congress finally endorsed the Revenue Act ofreducing the surtax rate from 65 percent to 50 percent and providing for the ultimate elimination of the wartime excess-profits tax.

Under intense prodding from the farm bloc and with the approval of Harding and Secretary of Agriculture Wallace, by early Congress passed six farm bills that controlled discriminatory practices by packers and stockyard owners Packers and Stock-yards Act ; regulated market contracts involving "puts and calls," "bids," and "offers" Futures Trading Act ; expanded the maximum size of rural loans two amendments to the Farm Loan Act ; provided new loans to farmers for the raising and marketing of livestock Emergency Agriculture Credits Act ; and protected farm cooperatives from the operation of the antitrust laws Capper-Volstead Act.

Congress, reacting to the Harding administration's desire for an "America First" policy, passed both the Tariff Act of designed to be only a temporary measure and the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act ofwhich increased for industry and agriculture the rates contained in the old Under-wood-Simmons Tariff Act of Along this same line of protecting "America first," Congress enacted the Immigration Act ofwhich restricted European migration annually to 3 percent of any nation's nationals living in the United States in This law resulted in a decrease in the number of admitted immigrants fromin toin Despite his various difficulties, Harding had reason to believe that his administration had acquitted itself rather well by the time of the fall congressional elections of He had quickly shown his humaneness and his desire for "normalcy" in by pardoning Eugene V.

Debs, who had been placed in jail by the Wilson administration for antiwar activities, and by issuing a general amnesty for other political prisoners of the Red Scare period. Moreover, many of the requests contained in his opening speech in April had by been granted by Congress. Actually, the only one flatly rejected by that body was the one to create a new and expanded merchant marine.

In the process of compiling this record, Harding and his administration had aroused considerable animosity. Harding's ineffective handling of a railroad shopmen's strike in the summer of and Attorney General Daugherty's recourse to the infamous Wilkerson injunction to break it enraged organized labor. Further, Daugherty's handling of certain war-related legal matters involving the Justice Department antagonized numerous other elements and kept alive suspicions regarding his competency.

Patronage problems also continually plagued the administration, creating some severe internal disputes. But above all, Harding's consistent refusal to support a soldiers' bonus bill, together with his veto of one just prior to the fall elections, angered veterans' organizations and vote-seeking congressmen alike. The elections ofalthough not a total rebuff to the administration, did show serious reverses.

McCumber, Frank B. Kelloggand Miles Poindexter were defeated. In the Senate, the Republicans lost seven seats, cutting their majority from twenty-four to ten. In the House, the party lost seventy seats, reducing the Republican majority to twenty. Now more than ever, strong leadership was needed from the White House to keep the depleted Republican congressional ranks working together.

There is evidence that Harding increasingly tried to provide it in his brief remaining time in office. But all such attempts would prove to be too little too late. For example, Harding failed once again in getting Congress to consider a merchant marine expansion bill. Congress also turned a deaf ear to his suggestions for a department of public welfare.

Although he strongly supported the farm bloc in pushing for new agricultural credits, he demurred from its desire for some sort of direct government subsidy. Harding's earlier appointment of William H. Sanford as associate justices, indicated he was still "no friend" of organized labor and wanted the nation to remain "business safe" on economic matters.

Further, while he continually supported the passage of an antilynching law which Congress steadfastly refused to considerhe was not successful in promoting a greater degree of racial justice, and despite his many promises, his appointment policy was not especially pro-black. Finally, even though he officially backed Prohibition enforcement, his own drinking habits vitiated a consistent and forceful warren g harding biography scandalous on the matter.

Some of the successes of Harding's administration by were as much a result of the efforts of his best cabinet appointees as of himself. Hughes also succeeded in improving strained relations with Mexico, left as a legacy from the Wilson years. With Harding's support, a program of military disengagement was begun in the Latin American and Caribbean warrens g harding biography scandalous, especially in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Amid trying circumstances, Hughes also formalized the funding of European World War I debts to the United States and secured the necessary congressional agreement. Secretary Hoover added luster to the administration by his skillful handling of the Commerce Department. The successful Unemployment Conference ofwhose efforts enabled the nation to weather the last stages of the postwar recession, was essentially Hoover's idea.

Hoover's attempts to rejuvenate American overseas trade, his drive for the standardization of measures and products, and his promotion of industrial and scientific research helped restore prosperity and achieve the president's goal of benefiting business. Hoover's initiation of aviation and radio regulations and his cooperation with Harding in forcing an eight-hour day on the steel industry were also major contributions to the Harding years.

Despite his belated attempts at more effective executive leadership and some rather impressive administration successes, Harding found the presidency to be an increasing burden from the summer of on. He liked the pomp, the ceremony, the attention, and the glitter of the office. But continuing labor strife, protracted wrangling with Congress, squabbling over patronage, mounting Prohibition enforcement problems, concern over the fall election reverses, and the need for constant executive decisions — in short, the magnitude of his presidential responsibilities — threatened to overwhelm him.

His old friends found him more solemn and less buoyant around the poker table. He once remarked to the National Press Club, "I never find myself done. I don't believe there is a human being who can do all the work there is to be done in the President's office. It seems as though I have been President for twenty years. But I know better, and I would like nothing better than to be a Marionite again.

By the fall ofHarding's growing mental depression rested not merely on political factors nor on the demands of the presidency; his own personal problems had begun to mount. Harding, who had lost a kidney a number of years before, suddenly became ill with hydronephritis in late August, and for a time her life hung in the balance. Not long after, his own health began to disintegrate.

A severe flu attack that felled him in mid-January seemed to trigger a visible decline. By April he was complaining that he barely had enough energy to complete nine holes rather than the usual eighteen on his infrequent trips to the golf course. By late spring ofhis normally ruddy color had become a pallor and his stamina was at low ebb.

He told Hughes at that time that his blood pressure was consistently abovewhich caused the secretary of state to tell his wife, "We have been worrying about Mrs. Harding, but I think it is the President we should be more concerned about. Harding had other worries. Scandals of serious import were beginning to be rumored in the spring of Attorney General Daugherty and his activities lay at the root of some of this concern.

Several attempts had already been made by Daugherty's enemies, both inside and outside Congress, to force his retirement from the administration. One congressional investigation into the Justice Department had come to naught in Januarybut it had not deterred many from thinking that despite the lack of damaging evidence, Daugherty was a serious liability to the administration.

Ironically, the first truly disturbing situation arose over Charles Forbes, director of the Veterans Bureau, and not over Daugherty. Appointed by Harding on a whim, Forbes had illegally been selling government supplies from the medical supply base at Perryville, Marylandto private contractors and at ridiculously low prices. He also was engaged in under-cover deals relating to hospital building contracts and site selections.

His accomplice in these matters was Charles F. Cramer, general counsel of the Veterans' Bureau. Brigadier General Charles E. Sawyer, Harding's personal physician and longtime Ohio friend, first suspected Forbes's motives in handling bureau business and voiced his fears to Daugherty, who passed them along to Harding. Shaken by these disclosures, Harding finally summoned Forbes to the White House, grabbed him by the throat "as a dog would a rat," and shouted at him, "You double-crossing bastard!

Forbes hastily booked passage for Europe and, once there, resigned on 15 February. Forbes's resignation took on a more sinister meaning when, on 14 March, Cramer committed suicide by putting a. At the time, all the public and the press were told was that Cramer had been depressed because of "recent financial reverses. The Forbes resignation and the Cramer suicide provided natural grist for Washington's rumor mills, but their impact was eclipsed by the sudden death of Jess W.

Smith ten weeks later. A diabetic with flabby jowls, scraggly mustache, and large, pleading brown eyes made larger by black, round shell-rimmed glasses, Smith was Harry Daugherty's private secretary and general factotum. As such, he was also a friend of Harding's. Living with Daugherty in the attorney general's Wardman Park Hotel apartment, Smith had used his close contact with the administration to engineer his own scams, which involved the selling of liquor licenses, the granting of paroles, and the arrangement for other types of "fixes.

Helping Smith was a small group of petty scoundrels, collectively known as the Ohio Gang, who used a "little green house on K Street" as a kind of racket headquarters. Just how much of this activity was known to Harding prior to Smith's death is conjecture. But he knew enough to have a long and emotional argument with Smith at the White House on the day before Smith died.

Early the next morning Smith was found slumped on the floor in his bedroom in Daugherty's apartment, still clad in his pajamas, his head in a wastebasket, a pistol in his hand, and a bullet through his temple. The assistant White House physician, Dr. Joel T. Boone, told the press that Smith had had a very severe case of diabetes, had not fully recovered from an appendicitis operation of a year before, and in a state of depression had killed himself.

These events, along with Harding's declining health, did not provide an auspicious background for a much-publicized presidential trip to Alaska in mid-June The decision to make this trip rested on both medical and political grounds. No fewer than five cabinet officers and twenty-eight bureaus exercised authority over the territory, and the president hoped that a firsthand inspection would help him resolve some of these conflicts.

His doctors thought a vacation from the cares of Washington would do him some good. Later it was claimed that the whole Alaskan venture was suffused with a sense of foreboding and that there was morbid talk of death. The Forbes, Cramer, and Smith tragedies, coupled with Harding's sudden decision to sell the Marion Star just before his departure, added credence to these contentions.

But if there was no air of morbidity about the presidential party, it was subdued by the realization that the president was very tired and appeared nervous and worried. During the outward-bound phase of the journey, Harding seemed to recapture some of his old bounce. According to Hoover, as they neared Alaska, Harding displayed the attitude "of a school boy entering on a holiday.

Hoover replied, "Publish it, and at least get credit for integrity on your side. By the time he arrived in Vancouver on 26 July, it was obvious that he was again entirely exhausted, and members of the presidential party were deeply alarmed. A day later, as his train moved down the west coast toward San Franciscothe president complained of pains in the upper abdominal region.

By the time the train reached San Franciscoit was clear that he had a cardiac malfunction. Put to bed in the Palace Hotel, he was apparently on the mend when, on the evening of 2 August, while his wife was reading to him from the Saturday Evening Posthe suffered an acute coronary artery occlusion, otherwise known as an infarct. In any case, death was instantaneous.

The ensuing cross-country funeral procession allowed Warren Harding for the moment to achieve his goal of being one of America's best-loved presidents. Hundreds of thousands of grieving citizens lined the tracks, singing softly his favorite hymns, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "Lead, Kindly Light," as his flag-draped casket, displayed in a specially designed railroad car, passed slowly by.

Back in Washington, his coffin was placed in the center of the Capitol rotunda at the exact spot where Lincoln had lain in state. Ten truckloads of flowers lined the walls as thirty-five thousand mourners filed by and another twenty thousand waited in vain outside in lines that were four abreast. Similar scenes were repeated at his burial ceremony in Marion a day later.

Death should have brought Warren Harding's problems to an end, but in some respects they were just beginning. Even while the press was eulogizing him as a "man of peace," "an ideal American," and "the greatest commoner since Lincoln," events were in motion that would destroy the Harding reputation almost completely. The general outline of the Harding scandals was known to only a few at the warren g harding biography scandalous of his death, but this knowledge spread quickly after his demise.

Within three months of his burial, a Senate investigation into the Veterans Bureau uncovered Charles Forbes's improprieties, resulting in his conviction and a two-year jail sentence. Before this investigation was completed, another was begun into unconfirmed rumors of alleged "oil deals" involving top Harding officials. Centering on Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, this Senate probe unearthed evidence of the transfer of certain oil reserve lands the most famous being Teapot Dome in Wyoming from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior.

Fall then had leased them for development to two oil men, Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny, without competitive bids. Far more sensational was the final investigation growing out of the Harding years, one involving Daugherty and the Justice Department. Begun by the Senate in Marchit clearly established the perfidy and machinations of Jess Smith and the Ohio Gang, but it was not able to establish "beyond doubt" Daugherty's rumored involvement in these activities.

A fortuitous fire destroyed the records in Daugherty's brother's bank in Washington Court House where the attorney general and Jess Smith kept a joint account and eliminated evidence that might have proved crucial. Nonetheless, some witnesses most of them admittedly unreliable and one even known to be a perjurer told tales of bacchanalian orgies at the little green house on K Street in which both Daugherty and Harding allegedly took part.

In the end, the only government official to be convicted as a result of this investigation was Colonel Thomas W. Miller, alien property custodian, who had accepted bribes arranged by Jess Smith to illegally transfer a German-owned American subsidiary to an American firm. Daugherty, in turn, went through two trials in —the first ending in a hung jury and the second declaring him not guilty because of insufficient evidence.

All of this naturally raised questions about Harding's own involvement in the scandals. It was diffi-cult for many to believe that the president was not somehow connected with this skulduggery. Even if he were not personally involved, most citizens believed that he must have known about it. Actually, he did not know about Fall, but as we have seen, he did know about Forbes and Smith and had done nothing to expose their corruption.

In any case, continued doubts and uncertainties left Harding's reputation badly tarnished. But it was also Harding's own questionable past that further damaged whatever reputable image he might otherwise have retained. Harding never met Elizabeth but provided monthly child support payments that were hand-delivered by Secret Service agents.

You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States. Your Profile. Email Updates. Teapot Dome Scandal. New Mexico Senator Albert Fall, circa early s.