- In full:
- Warren Gamaliel Harding
- Born:
- November 2, 1865, Corsica [now Blooming Grove],
Ohio
,
U.S.
Warren G. Harding
(born November 2, 1865, Corsica [now Blooming Grove], Ohio, U.S.?died August 2, 1923,
San Francisco
, California) was the 29th
president
of the
United States
(1921?23). Pledging a nostalgic “return to normalcy” following
World War I
, Harding won the presidency by the greatest popular vote margin to that time. He died during his third year in office and was succeeded by Vice Pres.
Calvin Coolidge
. His brief administration accomplished little of lasting value, however, and soon after his death a series of scandals doomed the Harding presidency to be judged among the worst in American history.
Early life
Born on a farm, Harding was the eldest of eight children of George Tryon Harding and Phoebe Dickerson Harding; his ancestry combined English, Scottish, and Dutch stock. His father later left farming to become a physician. Following a
mediocre
education at local schools in
Ohio
and three years at Ohio Central College, Harding tried his hand at several vocations until in 1884 he bought a struggling weekly newspaper in
Marion
, Ohio, to which he devoted himself. Seven years later he married Florence Kling De Wolfe (
Florence Harding
), and she proved instrumental in transforming
The Marion Star
into a financially successful daily paper. Soon Harding, a man of little discernible intellect or imagination, found himself invited to join leading corporate boards and fraternal organizations. As he began to associate with the state’s movers and shakers, he was drawn into
Republican Party
politics. A handsome man who was always well dressed and well groomed, Harding looked like a leader. It was his outward appearance rather than any internal qualities that contributed most strongly to his political success.
Political career
Harding was elected a state senator (1899?1902) and lieutenant governor (1903?04), but he was defeated in his bid for the governorship in 1910. On most issues he allied himself with the
conservative
(“Old Guard”) wing of the Republican Party, standing firm against U.S. membership in the
League of Nations
and always supporting legislation friendly to business. He achieved national visibility when he was chosen to nominate
William Howard Taft
at the 1912 Republican Convention, and in his next campaign he was elected U.S. senator (1915?21).
When the
1920
Republican Convention deadlocked over its selection of a presidential nominee, party leaders turned?supposedly in a smoke-filled room in Chicago’s Blackstone Hotel?to the handsome, genial Ohioan as a compromise candidate. Paired with vice presidential candidate
Calvin Coolidge
, Harding
eschewed
a speaking tour in favour of a “front porch” campaign?similar to the one conducted by fellow Ohioan
William McKinley
20 years earlier?in which Harding read carefully scripted speeches to delegations of visitors at his Marion home. After eight years of the administrations of Pres.
Woodrow Wilson
, during which Americans had been asked to sacrifice greatly to reform the United States and to aid the Allied cause in
World War I
, Harding’s undemanding call for a
return to normalcy
was precisely what war-weary disillusioned voters wanted to hear. Harding won the election by the largest landslide to date, capturing some 60 percent of the popular vote. In a speech to a special session of Congress on April 12, 1921, he outlined the direction which he thought the
country
should take in the coming four years, saying in part:
Britannica Quiz
U.S. Presidents and Their Years in Office Quiz
I have said to the people we meant to have less of government in business as well as more business in government. It is well to have it understood that business has a right to pursue its normal,
legitimate
, and righteous way unimpeded, and it ought have no call to meet government competition where all risk is borne by the public Treasury. There is no challenge to honest and lawful business success. But government approval of fortunate, untrammeled business does not mean toleration of
restraint of trade
or of maintained prices by unnatural methods. It is well to have legitimate business understand that a just government, mindful of the interests of all the people, has a right to expect the cooperation of that legitimate business in stamping out the practices which add to unrest and inspire restrictive legislation. Anxious as we are to restore the onward flow of business, it is fair to combine
assurance
and warning in one utterance. …
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Presidency
Harding appointed to his cabinet a mixture of outstanding leaders and unscrupulous politicians waiting for an opportunity to line their pockets. In the first category were Secretary of State
Charles Evans Hughes
and Secretary of Commerce
Herbert Hoover
, and in the second were Attorney General
Harry Daugherty
and Secretary of the Interior
Albert B. Fall
. Harding was a notoriously poor judge of character who expected his appointees to repay his trust with
integrity
. He was to be deeply disappointed.
The administration got off to a good start when Congress completed an
initiative
begun in the Wilson administration and established a budget system for the federal government;
Charles G. Dawes
was appointed first director of the budget. Then in 1921?22 the United States hosted the
Washington Naval Disarmament Conference
. Under the leadership of Secretary Hughes, the conference succeeded in getting the world’s major powers to agree to halt the
arms race
in production of large naval vessels. It was by far the most important achievement of the Harding presidency. Other achievements were more in keeping with the Old Guard Republican views with which Harding had long been associated: a higher protective
tariff
(Fordney-McCumber), lower taxes on business, and a sharp reduction in the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States from southern and eastern Europe.
Early in 1923 Attorney General Daugherty disclosed to Harding that
Charles Forbes
, director of the Veterans Bureau, had been illegally selling government medical supplies to private contractors. After violently
berating
Forbes in the
White House
, Harding allowed him to leave the country to escape prosecution. Shortly thereafter Charles Cranmer, general
counsel
of the Veterans Bureau, committed
suicide
. Ten weeks later Jesse Smith, Daugherty’s private secretary, also committed suicide?one day after a long conversation with Harding in the White House. Rumours had been circulating that Smith and a group known as the “
Ohio Gang
” had been profiting from a variety of corrupt activities.
By the spring of 1923, Harding was visibly
distraught
at what he regarded as the betrayal of his friends who were taking advantage of his kindliness and lax administration. He sought escape from Washington in mid-June by taking a trip to
Alaska
with his wife and a large entourage. On his way home at the end of July, the president complained of abdominal pain, but he seemed to rally as he rested at a San Francisco hotel. On the evening of August 2, however, as his wife read to him from a magazine, Harding suddenly died from either a
heart attack
or a
stroke
.