Life and Background

Born in Ohio, Blooming Grove(nowadays Corsica), November 2, 1865

Ancestors had migrated from Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley.

The eldest of eight children born to Dr. George Tryon Harding, Sr. and Phoebe Elizabeth (Dickerson) Harding

Spent most of his childhood on farms

Attended a one room schoolhouse. This is where he learned to read, write, and spell

Moved to Caledonia, Ohio during his teen years, a (neighboring Marion County)

Served as a printer's helper and learned how to stick type, feed press, make up forms, and wash rollers

At age 14, studied printing and newspaper trading in Ohio Central College in nearby Iberian and graduated in 1882.

After college, Harding taught in a country school outside Marion, Ohio, for one term before trying on laws, insurance sales, and journalism for the local newspaper.

Bought Marion Daily Star after graduating, which later became one of the most successful newspaper in Ohio. The editorial supported the Republican Party.

At age 24 he suffered from exhaustion and spent time recovering at Battle Creek Sanitarium (Western Health Reform Institute) to regain his strength

In 1891 married Florence Kling DeWolfe, daughter of Amos Hall Kling (his nemesis). Florence Kling DeWolfe is a divorcee and a mother of a son. Florence's father was furious with his daughter's decision to marry Harding and forbade his wife from attending the wedding. They did not speak to her for 8 years.

Harding’s business, Marion Daily Star was turned into a good business with Florence’s help. She helped Harding achieve more than what he has done alone. She has also been credited with her support in Harding’s election

In 1899, he was elected as an Ohio State Senator. He served until 1903, when he was elected to be lieutenant governor of Ohio.

In 1915, he became a U.S. Senator from Ohio. He served until 1921 when he became president.

Election of 1920

President Wilson became increasingly unpopular due to his policies which caused recession in the economy. Later on severe stokes followed forbidding him to speak on his own behalf. The frontrunner for Republican nomination, Theodore Roosevelt, died in 1919, leaving the heir in Republican party to Warren G. Harding. In the election of 1920, Democrats nominated James M. Cox, who was also a newspaper publisher like Harding. Cox chose Franklin D. Roosevelt as his running mate in order to help his campaign and did all he could to defeat Harding. However, Harding ignored Cox and campaigned against Wilson, calling for normalcy. In the end Harding won with the largest popular vote percentage of 60.3% to 34.1% in Presidential elections with Calvin Coolidge along his side as the vice-president.



He used a slogan “Return to Normalcy” to called an end to the Era of the Great War, which included a “renewed isolationism in reaction to war, a revival of nativism, and ignoring government activism of the reform era” (Wikipedia). His campaign was covered by press and received widespread coverage. It was also “the first campaign to use the power of Hollywood and Broadway stars who travelled to Marion for photo opportunities” (Wikipedia). The campaign was very popular among women because of his support in women suffrage. The election was the first election that allowed women to vote nationwide and was also the first presidential election to be covered on the radio. His wife was one of his biggest supporters. She would care for the press and was very open in answering questions from the press. Her support obviously adds up to the public’s favor for Harding.

Foreign Policy and Affairs

After World War I, the League of Nations was rejected by people because of the possibility of another war. The Washington Conference took place in the middle of Harding’s term to reduce tensions growing in the Far East and the naval arms of the nations. There were three major pacts signed to “effectively limited the naval arms, provided self-respect in the Pacific, and calmed the tensions growing over the territory of China” (Thinkquest), so called the Open Door policies. President Harding took his election as a call for the U.S. to stay out of the League of Nations.

Harding’s foreign policy was mostly guided by Charles Evans Hughes, the secretary of state. Although his election was popular against membership in League of Nations, “his administration involved nonpolitical activities of the League” (Answers). Harding favored American membership on the World Court. Unyielding in demanding full repayment from war debts, he was flexible in arranging terms. Attempts were made to restore good relationships with Mexico and Cuba. There were also attempts made to cease military involvement in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Washington Conference was one of Harding administration’s most important political achievements, which devised series of treaties, secured Senate sanction, and amended ratios of warships for United States, Britian, Japan, France, and Italy. It guaranteed the territory in the pacific and “reaffirmed the independence of territorial integrity of China in commercial equality” (Answers) in the open-door policy. Moreover, he helped assure peace for Americans by normalizing relationships with adversaries. Harding concluded separate peace treaty with Germany, Austria, and Hungary by giving loan for the reparation, so called the Dawes Plan.

Harding did his best to satisfy the people by concentrating more on domestic issues rather than foreign, obeying George Washington’s farewell speech, “Stay out of Europe.” He did great job building good relationships before stepping out of Europe by offering Germany and Austria loans for reparation, and agreeing on the controlled number of naval with Great Britain, France, Japan, and Italy, which was called the Five-Power Treaty. Moreover, thi treaty covered the agreement to respect one another’s interests in the pacific. As you can see, Harding’s moves wasn’t just taking U.S. out of Europe and leaving all the problems behind him. Instead, he held his patience and solved the problem before hand to avoid future conflicts. As a result, U.S.’s ties with Europe were completely broken.

Domestic Policy and Affairs

Harding’s domestic policies and affairs are somewhat interesting, but the bad affairs overrule. Similar to Grant’s presidency, Harding wasn’t really the one corrupting, but instead his chosen officials were. His chosen officials viewed their positions as a path to wealth. Due to his party loyalty, his presidency was pulled down to the worst. One of the most famous scandals during Harding’s presidency was the Teapot Dome. This scandal involved Albert B Fall, who was accused of taking bribe of $308,000 in return of the rights to private companies to investigate in oil field in Teapot Wyoming. As a result, Fall was jailed for a year. Before he was impeached, he died of stress from dealing with his corrupted officials.

Even though Harding is mostly known for the bad affairs, he has left behind some of the good policies. Like what presidents should do to help their country recover from war, he lowered the taxes, after World War One. He did a job of taking US out of the war and brought it back to normal state by reducing national debt by 26 billion dollars. Also he created a Department for managing and budgeting government’s budget, called Bureau of the Budget, which put restriction in government’s spending to prevent corruption. This Department was known to be one of his nominated issues in his presidency. He also tried to protect the civil right by passing an Anti-Lynching Act and spoke out against the unfair treatment of the minority. With his amnesty, he released Eugene V Debs who was a socialist that speaking against President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to join the World War I under the Espionage Act. He also protected Woodrow Wilson’s plan for budgeting and accounting, allowing the president to submit his own budget to the congress. During his presidency, the congress also passed the Emergency Quota Act, which helped control the amount of immigrants inside United States. Lastly to protect the farmer from cheap import, he created the highest tariff in U.S. History, Fordney-McCumber Tariff.

In my opinion, Harding wasn’t as bad as how he was rated. He helped protect the civil rights of African American by passing the Anti-Lynching Act and the farmer by passing really high tariff. Unfortunately, all of them were ruined by his thoughtlessly chosen officials. This poor guy’s reputation suffered from scandals caused by the Ohio cronies, but he didn’t give up. He has planned to make better understandings with people, but unfortunately he passed away before he had a chance to amend his mistakes. On August 2nd, 1923, he passed away from heart attack in San Francisco. After his death, more scandals were exposed, which hurt more of his reputation as a president and pulled him down as the worst president of U.S.

Legacy

Even though Harding was given some credit for civil rights and progressive views on race, in most people’s opinion, he had failed. Many believed that he viewed presidency as a ceremonial and has never taken the role as a leader seriously. He never really understood how he should lead the nation nor communicate effectively. In the end, his legacy was blemished by his corrupt friends and also undermined his historical impact. His inability to set goal for himself and control the officials under him made him a bad leader. Adding up to his poor sense of priorities and lack of vision, he was dragged down into the lowest rank of U.S. Presidents.