Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 - August 2, 1923) was the 29th President of the United States from 4 March 1921, until his death in 1923. At the time of his death, Harding was one of the most popular presidents, but his exposure the next scandal that took place under his rule like Teapot Dome eroded his popular view, as did the exposure of the affair by Nan Britton, one of his mistresses. In the historical rankings of US Presidents, Harding is often rated among the worst.
Harding lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when the political service took him elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star, building it into a successful newspaper. In 1899, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate and after four years there he managed to run for governor. He was defeated by the governor in 1910, but was elected to the United States Senate in 1914. When Harding ran for Republican presidential candidate in 1920, he was regarded as a long shot until the convention began. Then prominent candidates, such as General Leonard Wood, can not get the required majority and the service is deadlocked. Harding's support gradually grew until he was nominated at the 10th vote. He does a front porch campaign, which is left to a large extent in Marion and lets people come to him. Running with a theme to return to normal from the pre-World War I period, he won a landslide victory over Democrat James M. Cox and Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs and became the first US Senator to be elected president.
Harding pointed to a number of well-regarded figures in his cabinet, including Andrew Mellon at the Treasury, Herbert Hoover in Commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes at the State Department. Major foreign policy achievements came with the Washington Naval Conference in 1921-1922, in which the world's major naval forces approved a decade-long naval restriction program. Two of his cabinet members were involved in separate incidents of corruption: Interior Secretary Albert Fall and Attorney General Harry Daugherty. The resulting scandal did not entirely appear until after Harding's death, nor was there a word of marital affairs, and this problem greatly damaged his reputation after his death. Harding died of a heart attack in San Francisco while on a western tour, and was replaced by his vice president, Calvin Coolidge.
Video Warren G. Harding
Early life and career
Childhood and education
Harding was born on November 2, 1865, in Blooming Grove, Ohio. Dubbed "Winnie" as a child, Harding is the eldest of eight children born to George Tryon Harding (1843-1928, commonly known as Tryon) and Phoebe Elizabeth Harding (1843-1910). Febe is a state licensed midwife. Tryon farms and teaches schools near Mount Gilead, Ohio. Through an internship, study, and a year of medical school, Tryon became a doctor and started a small practice. Some of Harding's mother's ancestors were Dutch, including the famous Van Kirk family. Harding also has ancestors from England, Wales and Scotland.
It was rumored by political opponents in Blooming Grove that one of Harding's great-grandmothers was an African American. His great-grandfather, Amos Harding, claimed that a thief, caught red-handed by his family, began the gossip as an attempt to blackmail or revenge. After Warren Harding's death in 1923, several African Americans continue to claim he has a black ethnicity. This problem was solved in 2015. Genetic testing of harding descendants is determined, with more than 95% chance of accuracy, that it has no sub-Saharan African ancestry in four generations.
In 1870, the Harding family, who became abolitionist, moved to Caledonia, Ohio, where Tryon acquired The Argus , a local weekly newspaper. At The Argus , Harding, from the age of 11, learns the basics of newspaper business.
At the end of 1879, at the age of 14, Harding enrolled at his father's alma mater - Ohio Central College in Iberia - where he proved an adept student. He and a friend took out a small newspaper, the Iberia Spectator, during their final year at Ohio Central, which was intended to attract both colleges and towns. During his final year, the Harding family moved to Marion, Ohio, about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Caledonia, and when he graduated in 1882, he joined them there.
Editor
In the youth of Harding, the majority of the population still lives in agriculture and in small towns. He will spend most of his life in Marion, a small town in rural Ohio, and will be very close to him. When Harding rose to high office, he explained his love for Marion and his way of life, recounting the many young Marionites who had gone and enjoyed success elsewhere, pointing out that the man, who had once been the "pride of school", who remained behind and served cleanliness, is "the happiest of the others".
After graduating, Harding has a duty as a teacher and as a guarantor, and makes a short effort to study the law. He then raised $ 300 in partnership with others to buy a failed newspaper, The Marion Star , the weakest of three growing city newspapers, and his only daily. 18-year-old Harding used a train fitting that came with paper to attend the Republican National Convention of 1884, where he struggled with a more well-known journalist and supportive of presidential candidate, former Secretary of State James G. Blaine. Harding came back from Chicago to find that the paper had been reclaimed by the sheriff. During the election campaign, Harding worked for Marion Democrat Mirror and was upset about having to praise Democratic presidential nominee, New York Governor Grover Cleveland, who won the election. After that, with the financial help of his father, the novice journalists who were redeeming it for the paper.
Through the following years of the 1880s, Warren Harding built the Star . The town of Marion tends to choose the Republic (as did Ohio), but Marion County is Democrat. Therefore, Harding adopted an angry editorial stance, declared a nonpartisan Starred daily and circulated a weekly edition that was a moderate Republican. This policy attracts advertisers and makes the Republican weekly weekly out of business. According to his biographer Andrew Sinclair:
Harding's success with Star is of course in the Horatio Alger model. He started without anything, and through work, stalling, bullying, holding back payments, borrowing back wages, bragging and manipulating, he turned the dead cloth into a powerful small town newspaper. Much of his success was related to his good looks, friendliness, enthusiasm and perseverance, but he was also lucky. As Machiavelli once pointed out, intelligence will bring people far away, but he can not do it without good fortune.
Marion's population grew from 4,000 in 1880 to twofold in 1890, rising to 12,000 in 1900. This growth helped Star, and Harding did his best to promote the city, buying shares in many local companies. Although some of them proved to be very bad, he was generally successful as an investor, leaving a fortune of $ 850,000 in 1923. According to the biographer Harding and former White House Advisor John Dean, "the influence of Harding citizenship" is an activist who uses editorial pages to effectively keeping his nose - and the voice of encouragement - in all of the city's public business. "Until now, Harding is the only US president with journalism experience.He is a staunch supporter of Governor Joseph B. Foraker, a Republican.
Harding first got to know Florence Kling, five years older than him, as the daughter of a banker and a local developer. Amos Kling was a man accustomed to getting his way, but Harding attacked him endlessly in the paper. Amos involves Florence in all his affairs, taking him to work from the moment he can walk. As stubborn as his father, Florence came into conflict with him after returning from college music. After marrying off with Pete deWolfe, and returning to Marion without deWolfe, but with a baby named Marshall, Amos agrees to raise the boy, but will not support Florence, who makes a living as a piano teacher. One of his students is Charity from Harding. In 1886, Florence Kling had divorced, and she and Warren Harding were dating, though who chased after who was uncertain, depending on who later told their romance.
A ceasefire between Klings was frozen by a rookie match. Amos believes that Hardings has African American blood, and is also offended by Harding's editorial stance. He began to spread rumors about Harding's black legacy, and encouraged local businessmen to boycott Harding's business interests. When Harding knew what Kling was doing, he warned Kling "that he would defeat the tar from the little man if he did not stop."
The Hardings married on July 8, 1891, in their new home on Mount Vernon Avenue in Marion, which they designed together in Queen Anne style. The marriage does not produce a child. Warren Harding lovingly calls his wife "The Duchess," based on a character in the series from The New York Sun, where the Duchess keeps an eye on the Duke and their money, running whatever it takes. efficiency.
Florence Harding became deeply involved in her husband's career, both in Star and after he entered politics. Demonstrating the firmness and instinct of his father's business, he helped turn Star into a profitable company through his strict management of the paper's circulation department. He has been credited with helping Harding achieve more than he might have by himself; some suggested he push him to the White House.
Start in politics
Soon after buying Star, Harding turned his attention to politics, supporting Foraker in his first successful bid for governor in 1885. Foraker was part of a generation of war that challenged the older Ohio Republic, like Senator John Sherman, to control state politics. Harding, always a party loyalist, supports Foraker in a complex internecine warfare that is the politics of the Republic of Ohio. Harding is willing to tolerate Democrats, which are necessary for a two-party system, but only an insult to those who wield Republicans to join a third party movement. He was a delegate to the Republican state convention in 1888, at the age of 22, representing Marion County, and would be elected as a delegate in most years until becoming president.
Harding's success as an editor has an impact on his health. Five times between 1889 (when he was 23) and 1901, he spent time in the Battle Creek Sanitorium for reasons of Sinclair described as "fatigue, exhaustion, and neurological disease". Dean attributed this visit to the initial incidence of heart disease that would kill Harding in 1923. During one such absence from Marion, in 1894, the Star business manager quit. Florence Harding took her place. She became her husband's primary assistant on the Star on business side, defending her role until Hardings moved to Washington in 1915. Her help and competence enabled Warren Harding to make a journey to make speeches (she used the free railway line to increase rapidly after her marriage ). Florence Harding made sure no pennies escaped him - sometimes sending Warren to the bank with a bucket (3.8 liters) full in each hand - and writing about her husband, "he did well when he listened to me and was bad when he no."
In 1892, Harding traveled to Washington, where he met with Nebraska Democrat Congressman William Jennings Bryan, and listened to "Orator Boy of the Platte" speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives. Harding went to Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Both visits were without Florence. Democrats generally won the offices of Marion County; When Harding ran for auditors in 1895, he lost, but better than expected. The following year, Harding was one of many speakers who spoke throughout Ohio as part of a Republican presidential candidate campaign, former state governor William McKinley. According to Dean, "when working for McKinley [Harding] started making a name for himself through Ohio".
Maps Warren G. Harding
Increased politicians (1897-1919)
State senator
Harding wants to try again for elective office. Despite the old admirer of Foraker (then a US senator), he has been careful to maintain good relations with party factions led by other US senators, Mark Hanna, political manager of McKinley and chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Both Foraker and Hanna supported Harding for the state Senate in 1899; he earned a Republican nomination and is easily elected for a two-year term.
Harding started four years as a state senator as unknown to politics; he ended them as one of Ohio's most popular Republican figures. He always appears calm and displays humility, a characteristic that makes him cherished by his fellow Republicans even as he passes them in his political revival. The legislative leaders consulted him on a difficult issue. It was common at the time for state senators in Ohio to serve only one term, but Harding gained renomination in 1901. After McKinley's assassination in September (he was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt), much of the appetite for politics was temporarily lost in Ohio. In November, Harding won a second term, more than doubling his winning margin to 3,563 votes.
Like most politicians of his time, Harding accepted that patronage and corruption would be used to reciprocate political goodness. She arranged for her sister Mary (who was legally blind) to be appointed teacher at the Ohio School for the Blind, even though there were better qualified candidates. In other trades, he offers publicity in his newspaper in exchange for free train tickets for himself and his family. According to Sinclair, "it is doubtful that Harding ever thought that there was anything dishonest in accepting a valuable position or position, and the protection and help seemed a normal gift for a party service in Hanna's time."
Soon after Harding's early elections as senator, he met Harry M. Daugherty, who would take a leading role in his political career. As an eternal candidate for a position serving two terms in the state House of Representatives in the early 1890s, Daugherty has become a political and lobbyist solver in the state capital of Columbus. After the first meeting and talking to Harding, Daugherty commented, "Wow, the very handsome President he will make."
Ohio state leaders
In early 1903, Harding announced he would run for governor of Ohio, motivated by the withdrawal of the main candidate, Congressman Charles Dick. Hanna and George Cox felt that Harding could not be chosen because of his work with Foraker - when the Progressive Era began, the public began to take a bleak view of the political aid trade and bosses like Cox. Thus, they convinced Cleveland banker Myron T. Herrick, a McKinley friend, to run. Herrick is also better placed to take votes from Democratic candidates, reforming Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson. With little chance at governor nomination, Harding sought nominations as lieutenant governor, and Herrick and Harding were both nominated unanimously. Foraker and Hanna (who died of typhoid fever in February 1904) were both campaigning for what was dubbed the Four-H ticket. Herrick and Harding win by a tremendous margin.
As soon as he and Harding were inaugurated, Herrick made the wrong decisions that changed the important Republican constituencies against him, alienating the peasants by opposing the establishment of an agricultural college. On the other hand, according to Sinclair, "Harding has nothing to do, and he does it very well". His responsibility to lead the state Senate enabled him to increase his growing network of political contacts. Harding and others envisioned the success of the governor in 1905, but Herrick refused to rule out. In early 1905, Harding announced he would accept nominations as governor if offered, but was confronted by the anger of leaders such as Cox, Foraker and Dick (Hanna's successor in the Senate), announcing he would not seek office in 1905. Herrick was defeated, but his new counterpart , Andrew L. Harris, was elected, and succeeded as governor after five months in office at the death of Democrat John M. Pattison. A Republican official wrote to Harding, "Are not you sorry Dick will not let you run for Lieutenant Governor?"
In addition to helping to elect a president, Ohio voters in 1908 had to elect legislators who would decide whether to re-select Foraker. The senator quarreled with President Roosevelt on the Brownsville incident. Although Foraker had little chance of winning, he sought a Republican presidential nomination against his partner, Cincinnatian, Minister of War William Howard Taft, who was Roosevelt's chosen successor. On January 6, 1908, Harding's Star authorized Foraker and denounced Roosevelt for trying to destroy the senator's career over the matter of conscience. On January 22, Harding in the Star reversed and declared for Taft, assuming Foraker lost. According to Sinclair, Harding's change to Taft "no... because he saw the light but because he felt the heat". Jumping on the Taft bandwagon allows Harding to survive his protective disaster - Foraker failed to win a presidential nomination, and was defeated for a third term as senator. Also helpful in saving Harding's career is the fact that he is popular with, and has done a favor, a more progressive force that now controls the Ohio Republican Party.
Harding sought and obtained a nomination of 1910 Republican governor. At that time, the party was deeply divided between progressive and conservative wings, and could not defeat the united Democrats; he lost the election for Judson Harmon. Harry Daugherty manages the Harding campaign, but the losing candidate has no harm to him. Despite the growing rift between them, both President Taft and former president Roosevelt came to Ohio to campaign for Harding, but their quarrel broke the Republicans and helped convince Harding's defeat.
The party split grew, and in 1912, Taft and Roosevelt were rivals for the Republican nomination. The 1912 National Convention of the Republic was divided bitterly. At Taft's request, Harding gave a speech nominating the president, but angry delegates refused to accept Harding's oration. Taft was re-nominated, but Roosevelt's supporters broke up the party. Harding, as a loyal Republican, supports Taft. The Republican vote was split between Taft, the party's official candidate, and Roosevelt, running under the Progressive Party label. This allows the Democratic candidate, New Jersey Governor, Woodrow Wilson, to be elected.
AS. senator
The 1914 election
Congressman Theodore Burton was elected senator at Foraker's place in 1909, and announced that he would seek a second term in elections in 1914. At this time, the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has been ratified, giving people the right to vote for senators , and Ohio has organized major elections for the office. Foraker and former congressman Ralph D. Cole also entered the Republican Party. When Burton resigns, Foraker becomes a favorite, but his Old Guard Republicanism is considered outmoded, and Harding is urged to enter the race. Daugherty claimed credit for persuading Harding to run, "I found him like a turtle basking on wood, and I pushed him into the water." According to Harding's biographer, Randolph Downes, "he did a very sweet and light campaign that would win the praise of angels, which was counted to offend anyone but the Democrats." Although Harding did not attack Foraker, his supporters did not have that objection. Harding won a primer with 12,000 votes above Foraker.
Harding's election opponent is Ohio Attorney General Timothy Hogan, who has ascended to the state office despite widespread prejudices against Roman Catholics in the countryside. In 1914, the start of World War I and the prospect of a Catholic senator from Ohio increased the sentiment of the natives. Propaganda sheets with names like The Menace and The Defender contain warnings that Hogan is a pioneer in plots led by Pope Benedict XV through the Knights of Columbus to control Ohio. Harding did not attack Hogan (an old friend) on this or most other issues, but he did not condemn the native hatred of his opponent.
The campaign style of peace Consultative help him; a friend of Harding regarded the candidate's stellar speech during the fall of 1914 as "a mixture of stale, patriotism, and pure nonsense". Dean noted, "Harding uses speech to good effect; it makes him elected, making as few enemies as possible in the process." Harding was won by over 100,000 votes in landslides that also swept Republican office governor Frank B. Willis.
junior senator
When Harding joined the US Senate, the Democratic Party controlled both houses of Congress, and was led by President Wilson. As a minority senator in a minority, Harding accepts unnecessary committee duties, but performs those tasks diligently. He is a safe, conservative Republican vote. Like time in the Ohio Senate, Harding became very well liked.
On two issues, women's suffrage, and alcohol prohibition, in which choosing the wrong party will undermine the prospect of his presidency in 1920, he prospered by taking a nuanced position. As an elected senator, he indicated that he could not support a voice for women until Ohio did so. The increased support for the right to vote there and between the Republican Senate means that as Congress voted on the issue, Harding was a strong supporter. Harding, who drank, initially voted against the ban on alcohol. He chose the Eighteen Amendment, which imposed the Prohibition, having successfully moved to change it by placing a deadline on ratification, which was expected to kill him. Once ratified also, Harding chose to override Wilson's veto from Volstead Bill, which implements the amendment, ensuring support of the Anti-Saloon League.
Harding, as a politician respected both Republican and Progressive, was asked to become a temporary chairman of the 1916 Republican National Convention and to deliver a keynote speech. He urged delegates to stand as a united party. The convention nominated Judge Charles Evans Hughes. Harding reached out to Roosevelt once the former president rejected Progressive 1916's nomination, a refusal to effectively stop the party. In the November 1916 presidential election, despite growing Republican unity, Hughes was narrowly defeated by Wilson.
Harding spoke and voted in favor of the war resolution demanded by Wilson in April 1917 that plunged the United States into World War I. In August, Harding argued to give Wilson nearly dictatorial powers, stating that democracy had little place in times of war. Harding chose most of the war legislation, including the 1917 Spying Act, which restricts civil liberties, although he opposes the excess profits tax as anti-business. In May 1918, Harding, less enthusiastic about Wilson, opposed the bill to expand presidential powers.
At the 1918 mid-term congressional election, held just before the ceasefire, Republicans narrowly took control of the Senate. Harding was appointed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wilson did not bring a senator with him to the Paris Peace Conference, convinced that he could impose what became the Versailles Treaty through the Senate by appealing to the people. When he returns with a treaty that creates peace and the League of Nations, the country is very much on his side. Many senators who disliked Article X of the League Agreement, that the signing of a commitment to defend every member state that was attacked, saw it as forcing the United States to go to war without the consent of Congress. Harding is one of 39 senators who signed a round-robin letter against the League. When Wilson invited the Foreign Relations Committee to the White House to informally discuss the agreement, Harding skillfully asked Wilson about Article X; President avoids the question. The Senate debated Versailles in September 1919, and Harding made a keynote speech against it. At that time, Wilson suffered a stroke while attending a speaking tour. With an incumbent president in the White House and lacking support in the country, the treaty was defeated.
Presidential Election 1920
Primary campaign
With most of Progressive after rejoining the Republicans, their former leader, Theodore Roosevelt, was thought to be conducting a third round for the White House in 1920, and was an outstanding favorite for the Republican nomination. This plan ended when Roosevelt died suddenly on January 6, 1919. A number of candidates quickly emerged, including General Leonard Wood, Illinois Governor Frank Lowden, California Senator Hiram Johnson, and a number of relatively small possibilities such as Herbert Hoover (renowned for the Work of Warfare World I), Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge, and General John J. Pershing.
Harding, when he wanted to become president, was motivated to enter the race with his desire to keep control of the Ohio Republic's politics, allowing his re-election to the Senate in 1920. Among those who target Harding's chair was former governor Willis (he had been defeated by James M. Cox in 1916) and Colonel William Cooper Procter (head of Procter & Gamble). On December 17, 1919, Harding made a low announcement about his candidacy as president. The Republican leader dislikes Wood and Johnson, the two progressive factions of the party, and Lowden, who has an independent streak, is considered a little better. Harding is much more accepted by the "Old Guard" leaders of the party.
Daugherty, who became a campaign manager for Harding, believes no other candidate can garner the majority. The strategy is to make Harding an acceptable option for delegates once the leaders get stuck. Daugherty founded the Harding for president campaign office in Washington (run by his confidant, Jess Smith), and worked to manage the network of Harding's friends and supporters, including Frank Scobey of Texas (Ohio State Senate's scribe during Harding's time there ). Harding works to shore up his support through unending writing. Despite the work of the candidates, according to Russell, "without the efforts of Mephistophelean Daugherty, Harding will never stumble forward for the nomination."
There were only 16 states president in 1920, the most important for Harding was Ohio. Harding must have some loyalists at the convention to have a nomination chance, and Wood's campaign hopes to beat Harding out of the race by taking Ohio. Wood is campaigning in the state, and its supporters, Procter, spend huge sums of money; Harding spoke in a non-confrontational style he adopted in 1914. Harding and Daugherty were so confident sweeping 48 members from Ohio that the candidate went on to the next state of Indiana, before April 27 in Ohio. Harding performed Ohio by only 15,000 votes over Wood, taking less than half the total votes, and winning only 39 of 48 delegates. In Indiana, Harding came in fourth, with less than ten percent of the vote, and failed to win a delegation. He willingly gave up and asked Daugherty to file his nomination letter for the Senate, but Florence Harding grabbed the phone from his hand, "Warren Harding, what are you doing? Surrender? Not until the convention is over. Think your friends in Ohio!" When you learn that Daugherty has leaving the phone line, First Mother of the future replied, "Well, you told Harry Daugherty to me that we are in this fight until Hell freezes."
After he recovered from the shock of the bad results, Harding traveled to Boston, where he delivered a speech that Dean said, "will resonate throughout the campaign and history of 1920." There, he states that "America's current need is not heroism, but healing, not the pulpit, but normal, not revolution, but restoration." Dean noted, "Harding, more than any other aspirant, is reading the pulse of the nation correctly."
Convention
The 1920 Republican National Convention opened at the Chicago Coliseum on June 8, 1920, gathering divided delegates, most recently from the results of the Senate investigation into campaign spending, just released. The report found that Wood had spent $ 1.8 million, lending substance to Johnson's claims that Wood was trying to buy the presidency. Some of the $ 600,000 spent by Lowden has ended up in the pockets of two convention delegates. Johnson has spent $ 194,000, and Harding $ 113,000. Johnson was thought to be behind the investigation, and the fury of the Lowden and Wood factions ended the possibility of a compromise between the front runners. Of the nearly 1,000 delegates, 27 are women - the United States Ninth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees women elect, are in a single ratification state, and will pass before the end of August. The worship service did not have a boss, most untrained delegates voted happily, and with a Democrat at the White House, party leaders could not use patronage to get their way.
Correspondents say Harding is unlikely to be nominated for his poor performances in the primaries, and degrades him somewhere between black horses. Harding, who likes other candidates to be in Chicago overseeing his campaign, has occupied the sixth position in the last election, behind three major candidates as well as former Judge Hughes and Herbert Hoover, and just a little ahead of Coolidge.
After the convention was dealt with other things, the nomination for the president opened on the morning of Friday, June 11. Harding had asked Willis to put his name in nomination, and the former governor responded with a popular speech among the delegates, both for his hospitality. and for his prowess in the intense Chicago heat. Reporter Mark Sullivan, who attended, called it a wonderful combination of "speeches, great operas, and pig calls." Willis confessed, leaning on the podium fence, "Say, boys - and girls too - why not call Warren Harding?" The laughter and applause that followed created a warm feeling for Harding.
Four ballots were taken on the afternoon of June 11, and they revealed an impasse. With 493 votes required to be nominated, Wood is the closest to 314 1 / 2 ; Lowdon has 289 1 / 2 . The best harding ever done is 65 1 / 2 . Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Senate Majority Leader, suspended the convention around 7 pm.
The night of June 11-12, 1920, will become famous in political history as the night of "smoke-filled room," in which, legend has it, the party elders agree to force the convention to nominate Harding. Historians focus on the talks held in the suite of Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Will Hays at the Blackstone Hotel, where senators and others come and go, and many candidates are likely to be discussed. Utah Senator Reed Smoot, before his early night departure, supported Harding, telling Hays and others that when Democrats tend to nominate Cox Governor, they must vote for Harding to win Ohio. Smoot also told The New York Times that there had been an agreement to nominate Harding, but that would not be done for some ballot papers. This is not true: some participants support Harding (others support his rival), but there is no agreement to nominate him, and senators have little power to enforce any agreement. Two other participants in the smoke-filled room discussion, Kansas Senator Charles Curtis and Colonel George Brinton McClellan Harvey, Hays's close friend, estimate the press that Harding will be nominated for the responsibilities of other candidates.
Colonel Harvey's account of the smoke-filled room had been sent to Harding in the early hours of the morning, to be informed by Harvey that Ohioan would be a candidate. Harvey stated he asked if there was anything in Harding's background that might jeopardize his candidacy, which the senator, who at least had an extramarital affair, replied that there was none. Harding biographer Charles W. Murray notes that there is no evidence other than Harvey's remark that Harding went to the Hays suite that night, and that other participants denied that Harding was there. Harding was very unsure of the victory he had proposed to be re-elected to the Senate, though Daugherty kept urging the delegates to support him.
The re-assembled delegates had heard rumors that Harding was the choice of a senator plot. While this is not true, the delegates believe it, and look for a way out by choosing Harding. When voting resumed on the morning of June 12, Harding received votes on each of the four ballot papers, rising to 133 1 / 2 as the two front runners see little change. Lodge then states a recess for three hours, to the anger of Daugherty, who runs to the podium, and faces him, "You can not beat this guy this way! The movement is not done! You can not beat this guy!" Lodge and others use a break to try to stop Harding's momentum and make RNC Chairman Hays nominee, the Hays scheme refuses to have anything to do. The ninth vote, after some initial tension, sees the delegation after the delegate decides for Harding, who leads the 374 1 / 2 votes to 249 for Wood and 121 1 / 2 for Lowden (Johnson has 83). Lowden released his delegation to Harding, and the tenth vote, held at 6 pm, was a mere formality, with Harding finishing with 672 vote for 156 for Wood. The nomination was made unanimously. The delegates, desperate to leave the city before they issue more hotel fees, then proceed to the vice-presidential nomination. Harding wanted Senator Irvine Lenroot from Wisconsin, who did not want to run, but before the Lenroot name could be withdrawn and someone else decided, an Oregon delegate proposed Governor Coolidge, who was greeted with the roar of approval from the delegates. Coolidge, who was popular for his role in the Boston police strike of 1919, was nominated for a vice president, receiving two and more fractional votes than Harding had. James Morgan writes on The Boston Globe: "Delegates will not listen to stay in Chicago for Sunday... President-makers do not have clean shirts." On things like that, Rollo, from the country. "
General election campaign
The Harding/Coolidge tickets were quickly supported by Republican newspapers, but from another point of view expressed disappointment. The New York World found Harding the most unqualified candidate since James Buchanan, who considers the Ohio senator a "weak and mediocre man" who "never had an original idea." The Hearst newspaper called Harding "the new Senator's autocratic flag carrier." The New York Times describes the Republican presidential candidate as "a very respectable Ohio politician in the second class."
The Democratic National Convention was opened in San Francisco on 28 June 1920, under the shadow of Woodrow Wilson, who wanted to be nominated for a third term. Delegates are convinced that Wilson's health will not allow him to serve, and look for other candidates elsewhere. Former Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo is the main challenger, but he is Wilson's son-in-law, and refuses to consider nominations as long as the president wants him. Many at the convention voted for McAdoo, and the impasse happened with Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. In the 44th vote, Democrats nominated Cox for the president, with his assistant, assistant to the Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. Like Cox, when it is not in politics, the owners of newspapers and editors, this puts two Ohio editors to each other for the presidency, and some complain of no real political option. Both Cox and Harding are conservative economies, and progressive are reluctant at best.
Harding was selected to conduct front-porch campaigns, such as McKinley in 1896. A few years earlier, Harding had a front veranda built to resemble McKinley's, whose neighbors felt signifying the president's ambitions. Candidates remain at home in Marion, and provide an address to visit the delegation. Meanwhile, Cox and Roosevelt make fun of the nation, giving hundreds of speeches. Coolidge speaks in the Northeast, then in the South, and is not a significant factor in the election.
In Marion, Harding runs his campaign. As a journalist himself, he fell into easy friendships with the press covering him, enjoying relationships that only a few presidents could achieve. Her "Back to Normal" theme is helped by the atmosphere Marion provides, a place of order that raises nostalgia in many voters. The front-porch campaign allows Harding to avoid mistakes, and as time shrinks toward elections, his strength grows. The journey of candidates from the Democratic Party eventually led Harding to make several brief lecture tours, but for the most part, he stayed at Marion. The Americans did not need another Wilson, Harding argued, asking a president "to approach normally."
Harding's vague autonomy irritates some people; McAdoo describes Harding's distinctive words as "a group of arrogant factions moving over the landscape in search of an idea." Sometimes these loosening words actually capture stuttering thoughts and carry them triumphantly, a prisoner in in the midst of them, to death from slavery and beyond. HL Mencken agrees, "it reminds me of a bunch of wet sponges, it reminds me of ragged washing on the line, it reminds me of stale peanut soup, college shouts, dogs barking stupidly through endless nights. It's so bad that some kind of splendor creeps into it, it drags itself out of the darkness... pish, and crawls up to the highest peak of the tosh.This rumbles and bumbles.This is the balder and dash. " The New York Times took a more positive view of Harding's speech, stating that in it the majority could find "a reflection of their own indeterminate thought."
Wilson has declared that the 1920 election will be a "big and serious referendum" in the League of Nations, making it difficult for Cox to maneuver on this issue - even though Roosevelt strongly supports the League, Cox is less enthusiastic. Harding opposed entry into the League of Nations as negotiated by Wilson, but favored "nation associations," based on the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. It is quite common to satisfy most Republicans, and only a few have left the party on this issue. In October, Cox was aware of a widespread public opposition to Article X, and stated that reservations to the treaty may be necessary; This shift allows Harding to say nothing more about this issue.
RNC hired Albert Lasker, an advertising executive from Chicago, to publish Harding, and Lasker issued a broad-based advertising campaign that used many standard advertising techniques for the first time in a presidential campaign. Lasker's approach includes news and voice recording. Visitors to Marion take pictures with Senator and Ny. Harding, and a copy was sent to their hometown newspaper. Posters, newspapers, and billboard magazines are used in addition to movies. Telemarketers are used to make phone calls with written dialogue to promote Harding.
During the campaign, opponents spread the old rumor that Harding's great-grandfather was a West Indian black man and that other blacks might be found in his family tree. Harding's campaign manager rejected the allegations. Professor Wooster College, William Estabrook Chancellor, publishes the rumor, based on family research, but may reflect nothing more than local gossip.
On Election Day, 2 November 1920, few doubted that Republican ticket would win. Harding received 60.2 percent of popular votes, the highest percentage since the evolution of the two-party system, and 404 electoral votes. Cox received 34% of national votes and 127 electoral votes. Campaigning from a federal prison where he served his sentence for opposing war, Socialist Eugene V. Debs received 3% of the national vote. Republicans greatly increase their majority in every house of Congress.
President (1921-1923)
Inauguration and appointment
Warren Harding was sworn in as president on March 4, 1921, in the presence of his wife and father. Harding prefers low-key inauguration, without a customary parade, leaving only the inauguration ceremony and a short reception at the White House. In his inaugural address he stated, "Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much from the government and at the same time too little for that."
After the election, Harding announces he will go on vacation, and that no decision about the appointment will be made until he returns to Marion in December. She went to Texas, where she fished and played golf with her friend Frank Scobey (soon to become Mint Director), then took a boat to the Panama Canal Zone. He went to Washington, where he was given a hero's welcome when Congress opened in early December as the first senator to sit to be elected to the White House. Upon his return to Ohio, he plans to consult the country's "best men" on appointments, and they dutifully travel to Marion to offer their advice.
Harding chose pro-League Charles Evans Hughes as his Foreign Minister, ignoring suggestions from Senator Lodge and others. After Charles G. Dawes rejected the Treasury position, Harding asked Pittsburgh banker Andrew W. Mellon, one of the richest men in the country; he agreed. Harding appointed Herbert Hoover as United States Trade Secretary. RNC Chairman Will Hays was appointed Postmaster General, then a post cabinet; he will go after a year in a position to become the main censor in the film industry.
Two Harding cabinet members who embezzled the reputation of his government for their involvement in the scandal were friends of Senate Harding, Albert B. Fall New Mexico, Minister of the Interior, and Daugherty, who became Attorney General. Fall is a Western breeder and a former miner, and pro-development. He was opposed by conservationists like Gifford Pinchot, who wrote, "it would be possible to choose a worse person for the Interior Secretary, but not everything is easy." The New York Times mocked the appointment of Daugherty, stating that instead of choosing one of the best thinkers, Harding has been contented "to choose only the best friend." Eugene P. Trani and David L. Wilson, in their volume in Harding's presidency, pointed out that the appointment made sense, since Daugherty was "a competent lawyer acquainted with the political side...... a first-class political troublemaker. and someone Harding can believe. "
Foreign policy
European relations and officially end the war
Harding explains it when he appoints Hughes as Foreign Minister that the former judiciary will run foreign policy, a change from management near Wilson's international affairs. Hughes had to work in several outlines; after taking office, Harding hardened his stance in the League of Nations, deciding that the US would not join a smaller version of the League. With the Versailles Treaty not approved by the Senate, the US is technically at war with Germany, Austria and Hungary. Peace begins with Knox-Porter Resolution, declaring the United States peacefully and preserving whatever rights are granted under Versailles. Agreements with Germany, Austria and Hungary, each containing many non-League provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, were ratified in 1921.
This still leaves the question of the relationship between the US and the League. The Department of Foreign Affairs Hughes initially ignored communications from the League, or tried to bypass it through direct communication with member countries. However, in 1922, the United States, through its consul in Geneva, dealt with the League, and although the US refused to participate in any meeting with political implications, the US sent observers to a session on technical and humanitarian issues.
When Harding took office, there was a call from a foreign government to reduce the massive debt debt payable to the United States, and the German government sought to reduce the reparations to be paid. US refused to consider multilateral settlement. Harding searched the way for a plan proposed by Mellon to give the government widespread authority to reduce the debt of war in negotiations, but Congress, in 1922, passed a stricter bill. Hughes negotiated a deal for Britain to pay off its 62-year debt war with low interest, effectively reducing the present value of the obligations. This agreement, approved by Congress in 1923, sets a pattern for negotiations with other countries. Talking to Germany about reducing repayment payments would result in the Dawes Plan of 1924.
An urgent matter which Wilson did not solve was a policy issue against the Russian Bolsheviks. The US is among the countries that have sent troops there after the Russian Revolution. After that, Wilson refused to recognize the Russian SFSR. Under Harding, Trade Secretary Hoover, with considerable experience in Russian affairs, took over the policy. When hunger struck Russia in 1921, Hoover had the American Relief Administration, which he headed, negotiating with Russia to provide assistance. Soviet leaders (A.S.R. founded in 1922) wished in vain that the treaty would lead to confession. Hoover supported trade with the Soviets, fearing US companies would be frozen from the Soviet market, but Hughes opposed this, and the issue was not resolved under Harding's presidency.
Disarmament
Harding has been urging disarmament and lowering defense costs during the campaign, but that is no big deal. He gave a speech to a joint Congressional hearing in April 1921, setting out his legislative priorities. Among the few foreign policy issues he mentioned were disarmament, with the president stating that the government can not "not think of calls to reduce spending" on defense.
Senator Idaho William Borah has proposed a conference in which major naval forces, the US, Britain, and Japan, will agree to cut their fleets. Harding agreed, and after several diplomatic discussions, representatives from nine countries gathered in Washington in November 1921. Most of the first diplomats attended the ceremony days of the Armistice Day at the Arlington National Cemetery, where Harding spoke at the grave of the Unknown World War I Warrior, whose identity, "flies with his imperishable soul.We do not know where he came from, only that his death marks him with the eternal glory of an American who died for his country".
Hughes, in his address to the opening session of the conference on November 12, 1921, made an American - US proposal to decide or not to build 30 warships if Britain did the same for 19 ships, and 17 Japanese ships. The Secretary is generally successful, and agreement is reached on this and other points, including the settlement of disputes over the islands of the Pacific, and restrictions on the use of toxic gases. The naval agreement is limited to warships and to some extent the aircraft carrier, and ultimately does not prevent arms back. Nevertheless, Harding and Hughes are widely awarded in the media for their work. Harding has appointed Senator Lodge and Senate Minority Leader Oscar Underwood of Alabama to the US delegation; they helped ensure that the agreement made it through the Senate largely unscathed, although the agency added objections to several agreements.
The US had bought more than a thousand ships during World War I, and still had most of them when Harding took over the office. The Congress had authorized them in 1920, but the Senate would not confirm the candidate of Wilson to the Sailing Council. Harding appointed Albert Lasker as its chairman; advertising executives do to run the fleet as attractive as possible until it can be sold. Most of the ships proved impossible to sell anything close to government costs. Lasker recommends large subsidies to marine merchants to enable sales, and Harding repeatedly urges Congress to enforce them. Unpopular in the Midwest, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives, but was defeated by filibuster in the Senate, and most of the government ships were finally canceled.
Latin America
Intervention in Latin America has become a small campaign issue; Harding spoke out against Wilson's decision to send US troops to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and attacked Democratic vice presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt for his role in Haiti's intervention. After Harding was sworn in, Hughes worked to improve relations with Latin American countries who were cautious about the use of the Monroe Doctrine by the Americans to justify the intervention; at the time of Harding's inauguration, the US also had troops in Cuba and Nicaragua. The troops stationed in Cuba to protect American interests were withdrawn in 1921; US troops remain in three other countries through the Harding presidency. In April 1921, Harding secured the ratification of the Thomson-Urrutia Agreement with Colombia, giving the country $ 25,000,000 in settlement to the provoked Panama Panama revolution in 1903. Latin American countries were not entirely satisfied, as the US refused to abandon intervention, though Hughes promised to limit to countries near the Panama Canal, and to clarify US goals.
The US has intervened repeatedly in Mexico under Wilson, and has attracted diplomatic recognition, setting the conditions for recovery. The Mexican government under President ÃÆ' lvaro ObregÃÆ'³n wants recognition before negotiations, but Wilson and his last Secretary, Bainbridge Colby, refused. Both Hughes and Fall are against recognition; Hughes instead sent a draft agreement to the Mexicans in May 1921, which included a pledge to repay America's losses in Mexico since the 1910 revolution there. ObregÃÆ'³n did not want to sign an agreement before it was acknowledged, and worked to improve relations between American and Mexican businesses, reach agreements with creditors, and advance public relations campaigns in the United States. This had its effect, and by mid-1922, Fall was less influential than before, reducing resistance to recognition. The two presidents appointed the commissioners to reach an agreement, and the US recognized the Obregasi government on 31 August 1923, just under one month after Harding's death, substantially on terms provided by Mexico.
Domestic policy
Postwar recession and recovery
When Harding took office on March 4, 1921, the nation was in the midst of the postwar economic downturn. At the suggestion of its leaders, Harding called a special session of Congress to meet on 11 April. When Harding spoke at a joint session the following day, he urged a reduction in income tax (earned during the war), increased tariffs for agricultural goods to protect American farmers, as well as broader reforms, such as support for roads, aviation and radio. But only on May 27, Congress issued an emergency tariff increase for agricultural products. An act authorizing the Budget Bureau to be followed on June 10; Harding appointed Charles Dawes as a bureau director with a mandate to cut spending.
Mellon tax cut
Finance Minister Mellon also recommended to Congress that the income tax rate will be cut. He requested that the excess profits tax on the company be abolished. The House Ways and Means Committee endorsed Mellon's proposal, but some congressmen, who wanted to raise tax rates for corporations, championed the move. Harding is not sure which side will support, telling a friend, "I can not rule out this tax issue, I listen to one side, and they look right, and then - God! - I talk to the other side, and they look right. "Harding tries to compromise, and gets a share of the bill in the House after the excessive profits tax expires postponed a year. In the Senate, the tax bill became entangled in an attempt to vote for the winner of a World War I soldier. Frustrated by a delay, on July 12, Harding appeared before the Senate to urge him to pass a tax law without bonus. New in November the income bill finally succeeded, with interest higher than Mellon proposed.
Harding opposes bonus payments to veterans, arguing at the Senate address that much has been done for them by a grateful nation, and that the bill will "destroy our Treasury Department, from where so much is expected." The Senate sent a bonus bill back to the committee , but the problem came back when the Congress reunited in December 1921. The bonus bill, without the means of funding it, was passed by both houses in September 1922. Harding vetoed, and the veto narrowly defended. Bonus, not paid in cash, was chosen for the army despite Coolidge's veto in 1924.
In his first annual message to Congress, Harding sought power to adjust tariffs. Part of the tariff bill in the Senate, and on the conference committee into eating mad interests of lobbyists. Harding, when he imposed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act on September 21, 1922, made a brief signing statement, merely praising that the bill gave him the power to adjust the tariff. According to Trani and Wilson, the bill "is not taken into consideration.This raises a catastrophe in international trade and makes debt repayment more difficult."
Mellon ordered a study that showed historically that, as income tax rates increased, money was pushed underground or abroad. He concluded that a lower rate would increase tax revenues. Based on his suggestion, Harding's income bill cut taxes, beginning in 1922. The upper marginal rate was reduced annually in four stages from 73% in 1921 to 25% in 1925. Taxes were cut for lower revenues starting in 1923. More rates low substantially increases the money flowing into the treasury. They also encouraged massive deregulation and federal spending as part of GDP fell from 6.5% to 3.5%. By the end of 1922, the economy began to reverse. Unemployment was trimmed from 1921 high from 12% to an average of 3.3% for the rest of the decade. The index of misery, which is a combination of unemployment and inflation, has fallen sharply in US history under Harding. Wages, profits, and productivity all yield huge profits; The annual GDP increased by an average of more than 5% during the 1920s. Libertarian historian Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen argue that, "Mellon's tax policy sets the stage for the most amazing growth that has never been seen in an impressive American economy."
Embracing new technology
The 1920s were a period of modernization for America. The use of electricity is becoming increasingly common. Mass production of automobiles stimulates other industries, too, such as the construction of highways, rubber, steel and buildings, as hotels are built to accommodate travelers on the road. This economic boost helps bring the nation out of recession. To repair and expand the country's highway system, Harding signed the Federal Highway Act of 1921. From 1921 to 1923, the federal government spent $ 162 million on the American highway system, inculcating the US economy with large amounts of capital. In 1922, Harding proclaimed that America was in the "motor car" era, which "reflects our standard of living and measures the speed of our lives today."
Harding had pushed for radio broadcasting in his speech in April 1921 to Congress. The Trade Secretary Hoover took over the project, and held a radio broadcaster conference in 1922, which led to a voluntary agreement for radio frequency licensing through the Ministry of Commerce. Both Harding and Hoover realized something more than just approval needed, but Congress was slow to act, not imposing radio rules until 1927.
Harding also wanted to promote the flight, and Hoover regained the lead, holding a national conference on commercial aviation. The discussion focused on security issues, aircraft inspections, and pilot licensing. Debate back on promoted legislation but nothing was done until 1926, when the Air Traffic Act created the Aviation Bureau within Hoover Trade Department.
Business and labor
Harding's attitude toward business is that the government should help as much as possible. He was suspicious of organized workers, seeing him as a conspiracy against business. He tried to get them to work together at a conference on unemployment he called to meet in September 1921 on Hoover's recommendation. Harding warned at his opening address that no federal money would be available. There is no legislation that matters as a result, although some public works projects are accelerated.
To a large extent, Harding allowed each cabinet secretary to run his department as he deemed appropriate. Hoover expanded the Department of Commerce to make it more useful for businesses. This is consistent with Hoover's view that the private sector should take the lead in managing the economy. Harding greatly respects his Trade Secretary, often asks for his advice, and supports him to the hilt, calling Hoover "the smartest 'gink' I know"
The widespread strike marked the year 1922, when workers did
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