Warren G. Harding

Political rise

As an influential newspaper publisher with a flair for public speaking, Harding was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1899. He served four years before being elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, a post he occupied from 1903 to 1905. His leanings were conservative, his record in both offices relatively undistinguished. At the conclusion of his term as Lieutenant Governor Harding returned to private life.

Related Topics:
1899 - Lieutenant Governor of Ohio - 1903 - 1905 - Lieutenant Governor

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Senator

Re-entering politics five years later, Harding lost a race for governor in 1910, but won election to the United States Senate in 1914, serving from 1915 until his inauguration on March 4, 1921, having earned the distinction of becoming the first sitting Senator to be elected President.

Related Topics:
1910 - United States Senate - 1914 - 1915 - March 4 - 1921 - President

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As with his first term as Senator, Harding had a relatively undistinguished record, missing over two-thirds of the roll-call votes. Among them was the vote to send the 19th Amendment (granting Women's Suffrage) to the states for ratification, a measure he had supported. Harding was a strong opponent of the League Of Nations. This was a proposal of President Woodrow Wilson that would later be The United Nations. He made a speech opposing this and had a recording made of it.

Related Topics:
19th Amendment - Women's Suffrage

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Election of 1920

Relatively unknown outside his own state, Harding was a true "dark horse" candidate, winning the Republican Party nomination due to the political machinations of his friends after the nominating convention had become deadlocked. Before receiving the nomination, he was asked whether there were any embarrassing episodes in his past that might be used against him. His formal education was limited, he had a longstanding affair with the wife of an old friend, and was a social drinker. Harding answered "No" and the Party moved to nominate him, only to discover later his relationship with Carrie Fulton Phillips. Phillips and her family received an extended tour of Asia courtesy of the Republican Party in exchange for her silence. Mrs. Harding's newlywed brother Vetallis ("Tal") Kling and his bride Elnora ("Nona") Younkins-Hinaman also received a all expenses-paid tour of Europe from the Hardings; the bride was a Catholic widow, and the marriage performed in the Catholic Church at a time when Catholics were viewed as a liability in American politics and the recently revived Ku Klux Klan, anti-Catholic as well as anti-black and anti-Jewish, was rapidly becoming popular in the Midwest. There is controversial and disputed evidence that Harding was himself a Klan member.

Related Topics:
Republican Party - Carrie Fulton Phillips - Asia - Europe - Catholic Church - Ku Klux Klan - Catholic - Black - Jewish - Controversial and disputed evidence

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the 1920 election, Harding ran against Democrat Ohio Governor James M. Cox, whose vice presidential candidate was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. The election was seen in part as a referendum on whether to continue with the progressive work of the Woodrow Wilson administration or to revert to the laissez-faire approach of the William McKinley era.

Related Topics:
1920 election - Democrat - Ohio Governor - James M. Cox - Assistant Secretary of the Navy - Franklin D. Roosevelt - Referendum - Progressive - Woodrow Wilson - Laissez-faire - William McKinley

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Harding ran on a promise to "Return to Normalcy," a term he coined, which reflected three trends of his time: a renewed isolationism in reaction to World War I, a resurgence of nativism, and a turning away from the government activism of the reform era.

Related Topics:
Isolationism - World War I - Nativism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Harding's "front porch campaign" during the late summer and fall of 1920 captured the imagination of the country. Not only was it the first campaign to be heavily covered by the press, and to receive widespread newsreel coverage, but it was also the first modern campaign to use the power of Hollywood and Broadway stars who traveled to Marion for photo opportunities with Harding and his wife. Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford were among the luminaries to make the pilgrimage to central Ohio. Business icons Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone also lent their cachet to the Front Porch Campaign. From the onset of the campaign until the November election, over 600,000 people traveled to Marion to participate.

Related Topics:
Front porch campaign - 1920 - Newsreel - Hollywood - Broadway - Al Jolson - Lillian Russell - Douglas Fairbanks - Mary Pickford - Thomas Edison - Henry Ford - Harvey Firestone

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The campaign owed a great deal to Florence Harding, who played perhaps a more active role than any previous candidate's wife in a Presidential race. She cultivated the relationship between the campaign and the press; as the business manager of the Star, she understood reporters and their industry and played to their needs by making herself freely available to answer questions, pose for pictures or deliver home cooked food from her kitchen to the press office, a bungalow she had constructed at the rear of their property in Marion. Mrs. Harding even went so far as to coach her husband on the proper way to wave to newsreel cameras to make the most of coverage.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The campaign also drew upon Harding's popularity with women. Considered handsome, Harding photographed well compared to Cox. However, it was Harding's support for women's suffrage in the Senate that made him extremely popular with women: the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in August 1920 brought huge crowds of women to Marion, Ohio to hear Harding.

Related Topics:
19th Amendment - August 1920

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the campaign, rumors were spread by persons (unaffiliated with the Cox campaign) that Harding's great-great-grandfather was a West Indian black and that other blacks lurked in his family tree (see Scandals, below). In response, Harding's campaign manager said, "No family in the state has a clearer, a more honorable record than the Hardings, a blue-eyed stock from New England and Pennsylvania, the finest pioneer blood." To a friend, however, Harding confided that one of his ancestors may have "jumped the fence," though Harding himself was never certain whether or not this was true. These rumors, perhaps based on no more than local Ohio gossip, were circulated by William Estabrook Chancellor.

Related Topics:
West Indian - New England - Pennsylvania - William Estabrook Chancellor

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The milestone election of 1920 was the first in which women could vote nationwide. Harding received 61 percent of the national vote and 404 electoral votes, an unprecedented margin of victory. Cox received 36 percent of the national vote and 127 electoral votes. Socialist Eugene V. Debs, campaigning from Federal prison, received 3 percent of the national vote.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Presidency

Throughout his administration, Harding adopted laissez-faire policies, and there are few lasting achievements to his name. One important event, however, was the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922, which at Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes' instigation limited the size of navies and reduced tension between the US, the UK and Japan in the Pacific. Also notable was the establishment of the Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget), which increased the powers of the President by directing departmental spending plans to him rather than to the U.S. Congress, and the General Accounting Office to audit government expenditures. Harding was also able to bring the reality of an eight-hour work day to millions of Americans (which happened some days after his death). In a special session of Congress shortly after his inaugaration he called for retrenchment of government, low taxes, repeal of the wartime excise tax, reduction of railroad rates, a great merchant marine, a Public Welfare Department (realized in 1953 as the U.S Health, Education and Welfare Department), a national budget system and promotion of agricultural interests.

Related Topics:
Laissez-faire - Washington Naval Conference - 1921 - 1922 - Secretary of State - Charles Evans Hughes - US - UK - Japan - Pacific - Office of Management and Budget - U.S. Congress - General Accounting Office - Excise tax - Railroad - Merchant marine - 1953 - U.S Health, Education and Welfare Department

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On October 26, 1921, Harding delivered a speech while on a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, making him the first U.S. President to advocate the rights of blacks while on southern soil. In his speech, given at the Capitol park, Harding stated that lynching had become an international problem, and that it violated the rights of "negro Americans". Harding also called for the equal access to politics, business and education for all Americans. "Nothing can be gained by blinking our eyes to this problem," Harding stated. "This is not the American way."

Related Topics:
October 26 - 1921 - Birmingham, Alabama - Black

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As President, Harding played both golf (in season) and poker twice a week. Although as a U.S. senator from Ohio he had voted for Prohibition, Harding kept the White House well stocked with bootleg liquor. He attended baseball games regularly.

Related Topics:
Golf - Poker - Prohibition - White House - Baseball

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite the reputation that later clung to him, Harding did appoint several men to his Cabinet who rose to personal prominence later, including especially Hughes, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, Secretary of War John W. Weeks, Postmaster General Will Hays, and Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace. Wallace was the father of Henry A. Wallace, the future Cabinet Secretary, Vice President and 1948 progressive presidential candidate.

Related Topics:
Secretary of Commerce - Herbert Hoover - Secretary of the Treasury - Andrew Mellon - Secretary of War - John W. Weeks - Postmaster General - Will Hays - Secretary of Agriculture - Henry C. Wallace - Henry A. Wallace - 1948 - Progressive

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Both President Harding and his wife were extremely popular during their tenure in the White House.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cabinet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Supreme Court appointments

Harding appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• William Howard Taft - Chief Justice - 1921
• Harding was the only President to have appointed a previous President as chief justice (or associate justice, for that matter; Taft is the only person to have served as both President and Supreme Court Justice).
• George Sutherland - 1922
• Pierce Butler - 1923
• Edward Terry Sanford - 1923