Warren G. Harding

I

Introduction

Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), 29th president of the United States (1921-1923). Harding was an easy-going politician who believed that the Republican Party could bring the United States back to “normalcy,” a word he invented. By normalcy he meant a return to the economic and political isolation that had characterized the United States before it entered World War I in 1917. Harding never showed the leadership or vision required to be an effective president, and his administration is mainly remembered for its corruption, which was revealed after Harding's death.

II

Early Life

Harding was the first child of George and Phoebe Dickerson Harding. He was born on November 2, 1865, on a farm near Corsica (now Blooming Grove), Ohio. When he was seven, the family moved to nearby Caledonia where the boy went to school and played in the village band. A band member later recalled that Harding was “a jolly, good fellow, full of fun, loyal to his friends.” In 1879, Harding entered Ohio Central College. He spent his vacations and spare hours working on the family farm and in the local sawmill, and he also worked briefly on the Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad.

The family moved to Marion, Ohio, in 1882. In Marion, Harding studied law, sold insurance, and taught school, but he didn't like any of these occupations. Finally, because he had managed his college newspaper and had done some work at the Caledonia Argus, Harding took a job as a printer, pressman, and reporter at the Marion Democratic Mirror.

Harding liked his work but was irritated by the political views of the Democratic Mirror. In 1884 he and a friend bought an unsuccessful four-page newspaper, the Marion Star, and as the town grew, the newspaper prospered. Harding soon bought out his partner. In 1891, when he was 26 years old, Harding married a wealthy widow, Mrs. Florence Kling De Wolfe, and with her help the weekly Star became an influential daily newspaper.

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III

Early Political Career

In the 1890s Harding increased his social and business connections in Marion. He joined the Masons, the Elks, and other fraternal orders. He served as a director of the Marion County Bank, the Marion County Telephone Company, and Marion Lumber Company, and he was a trustee of the Trinity Baptist Church.

The influence of his newspaper, his public speaking ability, his friendly personality, and his interest in public affairs brought Harding to the attention of local and state politicians. He joined the state Republican Party, and in 1898 and 1900, Harding was elected to the Ohio State Senate. By this time he had become friendly with Harry M. Daugherty, an influential lawyer and politician. In 1903 Daugherty helped get Harding elected lieutenant governor of Ohio. After serving a two-year term, Harding retired from politics until 1910, when he lost a campaign for governor.

In spite of this defeat, Harding remained well liked by Republican politicians. In 1912 President William Howard Taft, a fellow Ohioan, asked Harding to nominate Taft at the Republican National Convention for a second term as president. In the subsequent campaign, Harding vigorously attacked former President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), who had left the party to run as the candidate of the Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party. The issue of party loyalty seemed to have been more important to Harding than the defeat of the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, who won the election.

In 1914, with Daugherty's help, Harding gained the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate. In November he won the election by a large margin.

A

United States Senator

In the Senate, Harding's warm nature, his conservative principles, and the fact that he represented a politically important state strengthened his political position, but Harding's record was undistinguished. He routinely supported the conservative policies of the Republican leadership. He favored a high protective tariff, or import tax, and although he voted for U.S. entry into World War I, in April 1917, he opposed high taxes on war profits as he opposed all measures that might harm business interests. For political reasons, not personal conviction, he supported the Anti-Saloon League's pressure on the Congress of the United States to submit the 18th, or Prohibition, Amendment to the states and the Volstead Act, which prohibited the sale of almost all beverages with an alcoholic content of more than 0.5 percent. After the war he joined other Republicans in opposing the Versailles Treaty, which included United States membership in the League of Nations, an association of the world's nations meant to be the first international peacekeeping body. Critics of the treaty argued that it might require the United States to send troops into another European war against the will of Congress or the president.

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