Warren G. Harding, Worst President or Under-Appreciated President?
President Warren Gamaliel Harding was a Republican and the 29th President of the United States from 1921-1923 and is often forgotten, referred to as weak in character or listed as the worst president in history. These assumptions should not be considered fact. Harding was an honest, caring, and devoted American President who deserves his proper place among the great Presidents of the United States. President Harding wanted to return to normalcy after the Great War and faced many challenges. He met with union bargaining issues, inherited a slow economy, continued racial matters, and experienced administration scandals. Though President Harding has been unfairly judged as the worst President in history, in reality, Harding turned the country around after World War I and led the nation into the roaring twenties. He fought to reverse African American exclusion in government jobs, reassert the primacy of Congress of the presidency, and fought to regulate workdays supporting unions. Harding does not deserve the bad reputation he receives from historians and most authors. Today, let us discuss President Warren G. Harding.
Warren G. Harding was born in or around my hometown, Marion, Ohio, in November 1865. He owned and edited the Marion Daily Star[1] from 1884 to 1923 and made a name for himself as a businessman, journalist, editor, Senator, and Lieutenant Governor before becoming the President in 1921. Harding was a humble man and called himself “just a plain fellow. (Shi, 2019)” He had a simple plan to return America to normalcy after World War I. Harding also described himself as old-fashioned and a ‘reactionary’ in matters of faith and morals. These were small-town values, and ways of simple life shaped Harding. Some saw his behavior as weak, making them think of him as a villain; no, he was different from anyone or any politician before him. Warren only wanted the country to get back to normal, recover from the war, and impart some of his small-town persona to the country in the hopes of revitalization. Sherry Hall, author of “Warren G. Harding & the Marion Daily Star,” told the Marion Star in an interview publicizing her book in 2014, “[Harding] He’s a small businessman. He is somebody who genuinely cares about people. He’s somebody who can relate to their problems because he’s had them himself. He didn’t know where his next penny would come from in the early days. He’s been through it (Carter, 2020) [sic].”
World War I had caused a high national debt and high taxes, and Harding entrusted his Secretary of State Charles Evans free reign to handle foreign affairs to help pull the country out of a sluggish economy. Working alongside Evans were Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon. Together they designed a foreign policy enabling the U.S. to participate in the world’s economic life while retaining a free hand in international relations (Trani, 2017). The Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon, created the Mellon Plan to reduce federal spending and lower taxes, using the Congress-approved Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which made the Bureau of the Budget to help simplify the process of preparing the annual budget. The bill also generated a General Accounting Office so federal agencies could audit government spending (Shi, 2019). These financial changes enabled Harding to fulfill a longtime progressive goal to provide greater efficiency and nonpartisanship to the federal preparation process (Shi, 2019). Mr. Harding also supported Unions and collective bargaining and attempted to reduce the twelve-hour and six-hour work week to enable working class people time for leisure and family time. However, Harding ran into opposition from Congress due to the labor strikes of 1919 and their ties to radical socialism.
Though considered conservative, Warren changed regulations from the Woodrow Wilson Progressive age by appointing commissions within federal agencies to promote what is known as “regulatory capitalism” and friendly policies that supported businesses. Some considered this to be even more progressive than Wilson. President Harding repealed President Wilson’s policy of exclusion of African Americans in government jobs, and he gave a speech against racism. He attacked the Klu Klux Klan in the speech in Congress in 1921 for encouraging “hatred and prejudice and violence” while also urging Congress to remove “lynching from the banners of a free and orderly, representative democracy (Shi, 2019). His next speech in Birmingham, AL, caused further shock among the previously Confederate state. Harding said, “I say let the black man vote when he is fit to vote; prohibit the white man voting when he is unfit to vote, (Shi, 2019)” this speech[2] led to the Klan’s smearing campaign in which they led rumors that Harding was part of their group, to retaliate against the President. According to the Harding Presidential Sites webpage, “The Klan also found that telling people the President was a Klansman helped recruit new members (Harding, 2021) [sic].” Harding was applauded by the Universal Negro Improvement Association President, Marcus Garvey, and NAACP leader W.E.B.B Du Bois.
Harding had his share of controversy in his presidency, and the following events are where his reputation was tainted. The head of the Veterans Bureau, Charles R. Forbes, was accused of stealing medical supplies intended for servicemen and resigned. Shortly after this incident, the legal advisor for the bureau killed himself. Then, Jesse Smith, a colleague of Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, was illegally selling federal paroles, pardons, and judgeships directly from the Department of Justice offices. Smith killed himself the day after President Harding reprimanded him in the White House. After Smith’s death, Daugherty was accused of selling German assets from the war for his personal financial gain. Though the most significant scandal was the Teapot Dome Affair. This was an oil field owned by the government in Wyoming and managed by the Department of the Interior, Albert B. Fall. Fall was crippled with debt due to unpaid taxes, and rather than pay or try to resolve it, he began selling the oil to close friends, who happened to be oil executives of competing companies. There were bribes, conspiracy, and corruption in these proceedings, and Fall was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison. Harding was not accused or implicated in the Teapot Dome Affair, but he “acquired a lasting reputation as a weak and foolish man who trusted corrupt, betraying friends (Stevens, 2016).” President Harding unfairly became a villain in the public eye for his corrupt associates, and these events led to him being considered one of the worst in Presidential History.
Harding liked a good time, liked to drink, smoke, play poker and entertain a lady friend. He was not perfect, but he was honest and wanted the United States to prevail admirably after the war. Ryan Walter, author of The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding, relates Harding to the roaring twenties and the age of Jazz. Walter points out how Harding helped to push out a second industrial revolution while ridding the country of old laissez-faire economics and old Victorian values from America and ushered in a new positive outlook post-war. Walter also spoke of Warren’s character, “Victorians were prim, proper, prudish, and puritanical, everything Warren Harding was not. Harding was not a moral degenerate; he simply radiated vigor, vitality, and vivaciousness, just like the era in which he served as President (Walters, 2022).” Harding attempted to unite the Republican party but never said ill words against other parties; instead used “I believe” statements about what he wanted to accomplish for the country. Such as, “I believe the Federal department should be made more business-like and send back to productive effort thousands of Federal employees, who are either duplicating work or not essential at all (Walters, 2022).”
In conclusion, despite the corrupt aspect of his presidency, one should not forget all the good things Harding accomplished. Warren G. Harding cut taxes, created government regulations, and led the country into the roaring twenties by putting Americans first after a lengthy World War I. One must look past the poor decisions of cabinet members, their scandals, and the misguided prejudices of journalists, authors, and political figures of the early 1920s. Instead, look at Warren G. Harding directly, his values, accomplishments while in office, and his contribution to America in the early 1920s. After Harding had died, Herbert Hoover spoke at the dedication of Warren’s Harding Memorial[3] in Marion, Ohio, in June 1931, he said Harding “was a man whose soul was seared by a great disillusionment…. Betrayed by a few of the men whom he had trusted, by men he believed were his devoted friends. That was the tragedy of Warren Harding (Edwards, 2019). The accomplishments of this American President greatly outweigh the scandals during his time in office. The book, The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding, has been a breath of fresh air to the historical story of Harding’s legacy and that legacy lives, quite proudly, in his hometown, Marion, despite flawed assumptions of the country.
Works Cited
Carter, A. (2020, November 1). Harding: From Marion to the White House, a true American story . Retrieved from The Marion Star: https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/2020/11/01/harding-marion-white-house-true-american-story/6048860002/
Edwards, A. H. (2019, March 13). Hoover Heads: Hoover and 20th Century Presidents: Warren Harding . Retrieved from National Archives, Hoover: https://hoover.blogs.archives.gov/2019/03/13/hoover-and-20th-century-presidents-warren-harding/
Harding, W. G. (2021). Fact Vs. Fiction. Retrieved from Harding Presidential Sites: https://hardingpresidentialsites.org/fact-vs-fiction/
Shi, E. D. (2019). America: A Narrative History (11th Edition ed., Vol. Volume 2). W. W Norton & Company.
Stevens, R. (2016). A Time of Scandal. John Hopkins University Press.
Trani, E. P. (2017). Warren G. Harding: Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from University of Virginia - Miller Center: https://millercenter.org/president/harding/foreign-affairs
Walters, R. S. (2022). The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding. Regnery History.
[1] Now known as “The Marion Star”
[2] For the full speech, please visit: https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/warren-g-harding-address-at-birmingham-speech-text/
[3] Personal photos of the memorial and Harding’s Home. https://flic.kr/s/aHsjJ7VJed
I wrote this paper as a persuasive essay for my HI-252 American History Since 1877. Happy to say I received 100/100. I figured I would post it.