Happy Birthday Warren Harding
Some people consider Warren Harding to be one of the worst presidents ever. I disagree. True, a lot of "scandals" happened on his watch, not because he was personally dishonest, but because he trusted men who were. And sure, he loved the ladies a little too much, and went offside so much that he made Bill Clinton look like a monk. But Harding still ranks high in my estimation because in the 1920s, he ventured into Alabama into the heart of the deep south, and told southerners that they had to stop being so racist. That took a lot of courage and a lot of principle, and if only for that reason alone, I like Harding. The fact that he visited Canada just before his death also was pretty cool too.
It's Warren Harding's birthday today. He was born on November 2, 1865, 158 years ago on this day.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio. He was the eldest of eight children born to Dr. George Tryon Harding, Sr. and Phoebe Elizabeth (Dickerson) Harding. His mother was a midwife who later obtained her medical license. His father was usually in debt. He owned a farm and also acquired a medical degree and started a small practice. It was rumored in Blooming Grove that one of Harding's great-grandmothers might have been African American, but this rumor has never been substantiated. Harding's family moved to Caledonia, Ohio, where his father acquired The Argus, a local weekly newspaper. It was at The Argus where, from the age of 10, Harding learned the basics of the journalism business. Harding attended college at Ohio Central College. He became an accomplished public speaker in college, and graduated in 1882 at the age of 17 with a Bachelor of Science degree. As a youngster, Harding had become an accomplished cornet player and played in various bands.
On July 8, 1891, Harding married Florence Kling DeWolfe, the daughter of Amos Kling, Harding's nemesis in the newspaper business. Florence was a divorcée, five years Harding's senior, and the mother of a young son, Marshall Eugene DeWolfe. She had been disowned by her father, because of her first marriage to an alcoholic.
Harding was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1899, despite Amos Kling's financing of a primary opponent. In early 1903 Harding announced his campaign for Governor of Ohio. He later withdrew from the contest and was awarded the position of Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, a post he occupied from 1904 to 1906. Harding sought the 1909 gubernatorial nomination of the GOP, but could not defeat the Democrats.
In 1912, Harding gave the nominating speech for incumbent President William Howard Taft at the embattled Republican National Convention in Chicago. Harding was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming Ohio's first senator elected by popular vote. When Harding took his seat, both houses were controlled by the Democrats, and Woodrow Wilson, a progressive Democrat, was in the White House. He joined with 39 other senators in opposition to Wilson's proposed League of Nations. He was popular and acquired many very close friends in the chamber. Harding served as Chairman of the 1916 Republican Convention as well as Keynote Speaker.
At the 1920 GOP convention, no candidate was able to obtain a majority after nine ballots. Republican Senators and other leaders met in Room 404 of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago and after a nightlong session, tentatively concluded Harding was the best possible compromise candidate. This particular meeting came to be known as the "smoke filled room". Before Harding received the formal nod, Harding was asked if he knew, "before God," whether anything in his life would be an impediment. After mulling the question over for some minutes, Harding replied no, despite his alleged adulterous affairs. The next day, when Harding was nominated on the tenth ballot.
In the 1920 election, Harding ran against Democratic Ohio Governor James M. Cox, whose running mate was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. Harding ran on a promise to "Return to Normalcy", a term he popularized, and healing for the nation after World War I. This was the first modern campaign to use the power of Hollywood and Broadway stars, who travelled to Marion for photo opportunities with Harding and his wife. Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford as well as business icons like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone all lent their support to the campaign. The 1920 election was the first in which women could vote nationwide. It was also the first presidential election covered on the radio. Harding received 60% of the national vote, the highest percentage ever recorded up to that time, and 404 electoral votes. Cox received 34% of the national vote and 127 electoral votes. Campaigning from a federal prison, Socialist Eugene V. Debs received 3% of the national vote. The Presidential election results of 1920, for the first time in U.S. history, were announced live by radio.
In his inaugural speech Harding declared, "Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much from the government and at the same time do too little for it." Harding's administration has been critically viewed due to multiple scandals, but his accomplishments included income tax and federal spending reductions, economic policies that reduced "stagflation", a reduction of unemployment by 10%, and a bold foreign policy that created peace with Germany, Japan, and Central America. One of Harding's earliest decisions as President was the appointment of former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position Taft had always coveted, even more than the Presidency.
Harding pushed for the establishment of the Bureau of Veterans Affairs (later organized as the Department of Veterans Affairs). He argued for peacemaking with Germany and Austria, emergency tariffs, new immigration laws, regulation of radio and trans-cable communications, retrenchment in government, tax reduction, repeal of wartime excess profits tax, reduction of railroad rates, promotion of agricultural interests, a national budget system, an enlarged merchant marine, and a department of public welfare. He also called for measures to end lynching of African-Americans.
According to one of his biographers, Harding got along better with the press than any other previous President, being a former newspaperman. Reporters admired his frankness, candor, and his confessed limitations. He took the press behind the scenes and showed them the inner circle of the presidency. Harding, in November 1921, also implemented a policy of taking written questions from reporters during a press conference.
On December 23, 1921 Harding released an election opponent, socialist leader Eugene Debs, from prison. Debs, a forceful World War I antiwar activist, had been convicted under sedition charges brought by the Wilson administration for his opposition to the draft during World War I. Despite many political differences between the two candidates Harding commuted Debs' sentence to time served. Harding granted a general amnesty to 23 prisoners, alleged anarchists and socialists.
On April 12, Harding called a joint session of Congress in which he urged Congress to create a Bureau of the Budget, cut expenditures, and revise federal tax laws. Harding urged increased protectionist tariffs, lower taxes, and agriculture legislation to help farmers. In the speech, Harding advocated aviation technology for civil and military purposes, development and regulation of radio technology, and passage of a federal anti-lynching law to protect African Americans. Harding called for peace between all former enemy nations from World War I and the funding and liquidation of war debts.
Harding signed the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, considered one of his greatest domestic and enduring achievements. Harding got authorization from Congress for the country's first formal budgeting process-establishing of the Bureau of the Budget. The law created the presidential budget director, who was directly responsible to the President rather than to the Secretary of Treasury. The law also stipulated that the President must submit a budget annually to the U.S. Congress. All presidents since have had to submit an annual budget to Congress. Harding appointed Charles Dawes, known for being an effective financier, as the first director of the Bureau of the Budget. Dawes reduced government spending by $1.5 billion his first year as director, a 25% reduction, along with another 25% reduction the following year. In effect, the Government budget was nearly cut in half in just two years. Harding believed the federal government should be fiscally managed in a way similar to private sector businesses. He had campaigned on the slogan, "Less government in business and more business in government." Federal spending declined from $6.3 billion in 1920 to $5 billion in 1921 and $3.3 billion in 1922. Tax rates, meanwhile, were slashed-for every income group. And over the course of the 1920s, the national debt was reduced by one third.
On August 9, 1921, Harding signed legislation known as the Sweet Bill, which established the Veterans Bureau as a new agency. After World War I, 300,000 wounded veterans were in need of hospitalization, medical care, and job training.
Harding spearheaded a monumental global conference, held in Washington, D.C., to limit the armaments of world powers, including the U.S., Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Belgium, Netherlands and Portugal. Harding's Secretary of State, Charles E. Hughes, assumed a primary role in the conference and made the pivotal proposal-the U.S would reduce its number of warships by 30 if Great Britain decommissioned 19, and Japan 17 ships. Starting on November 6, 1921 and ending February 6, 1922, world leaders met to control a naval arms race and to bring stability to East Asia. The conference enabled the great powers to potentially limit their large naval deployment and avoid conflict in the Pacific. The conference produced six treaties and twelve resolutions among the participating nations, which ranged from limiting the size or "tonnage" of naval ships to custom tariffs. The treaties easily passed the Senate. Harding stunned the capital when he sent to the Senate a message supporting the participation of the U.S. in the proposed Permanent Court of International Justice. This was not favorably received by Harding's colleagues
In an age of severe racial intolerance during the 1920s, Harding spoke out against racial animosity. In a speech on October 26, 1921, given in segregated Birmingham, Alabama Harding advocated civil rights for African Americans. He was the first President to openly advocate political, educational, and economic equality for African-Americans during the 20th century. Harding went further and viewed the race problem as a national and international issue. He named some African Americans to federal positions, such as Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans, Louisiana, whom he named comptroller of customs. Harding supported Congressman Leonidas Dyer's federal anti-lynching bill, known as the Dyer Bill, which passed the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922. The bill was defeated in the Senate by a Democratic filibuster. Harding had previously spoken out publicly against lynching on October 21, 1921. Up to that time, Congress had not debated a civil rights bill since the 1890 Federal Elections Bill.
On November 21, 1921, Harding signed the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act, the first major federal government social welfare program in the U.S. The law funded almost 3,000 child and health centers throughout the U.S. Medical doctors were spurred to offer preventative health care measures in addition to treating ill children. Doctors were required to help healthy pregnant women and prevent healthy children from getting sick. Child welfare workers were sent out to make sure that parents were taking care of their children. Many minority groups, particularly African American, Native American, and foreign-born women, resented the law and the welfare workers who visited their homes and intruded into their family's lives. Although the law remained in effect only eight years, it set the trend for New Deal social programs during the Great Depression.
Harding appointed prominent Jewish leader, Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld, and Catholic leader, Father Joseph M. Dennig, to foreign diplomatic positions. In an unpublished letter, Harding advocated the establishment and funding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Harding's physical health began to decline in the fall of 1922. Harding was suffering from coronary disease. By early 1923, Harding had trouble sleeping, looked tired, and could barely get through nine holes of golf. Harding wanted to run for a second term. He gave up drinking. Harding, along with his personal physician Dr. Charles E. Sawyer, believed getting away from Washington would help relieve the stresses of being President. By July 1923, criticism of the Harding Administration was increasing. Prior to his leaving Washington, the President reported chest pains that radiated down his left arm.
In June of 1923 Harding boarded a naval transport ship, the USS Henderson, and voyaged to Alaska. Rumors of corruption in his administration were beginning to circulate in Washington. While in Alaska, Harding was profoundly shocked by a long message he received detailing illegal activities previously unknown to him. Harding arrived in Alaska on the Henderson on July 7, 1923. Harding and his presidential party first visited a number of places in Alaska, including Metlakatla, Ketchikan (July 8), and Wrangell (July 9). They continued on to Juneau (July 10), Skagway, and Glacier Bay (July 11). The President then cruised to Seward (July 13). They then proceeded to travel by Presidential railway car and automobile. Harding visited Snow River on the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage (July 13), Chickaloon, Wasilla and Willow (July 14). He continued his Alaska journey through Montana Station, Curry (July 14) Cantwell, McKinley Park and Nenana (July 15). On July 15, 1923, Harding drove in the golden spike on the north side of the steel Mears Memorial Bridge that completed the Alaska Railroad. The trip continued to Fairbanks (July 15) where it was decided (July 16) that the President and his wife would return to Seward (July 17) via the railroad. They spent a restful day at Seward (July 18). From there they took the Henderson to Valdez (July 19), Cordova (July 20), and Sitka (July 22). While in Sitka, Harding visited and shook hands with Alaskan Native Tlingit elder chief Katlean outside in a crowd of people.
On July 26, 1923, having departed Alaska on the Henderson, Harding toured Vancouver, British Columbia as the first sitting American President ever to visit Canada. Harding became exhausted while playing golf at the Shaughnessy Heights Golf Club, and complained of nausea and upper abdominal pain. His doctor, Charles E. Sawyer, believed Harding's illness was a severe case of food poisoning. Nevertheless, Dr. Joel T. Boone also examined the President and noticed an enlargement of his heart. Harding's pulse and breathing rate were rapid. The President was given digitalis. Harding met with British Columbia Premier John Oliver and Mayor of Vancouver Charles Tisdall at the Hotel Vancouver. Harding spoke in front of 50,000 people at Stanley Park with his voice projected by microphones. Harding inspected The Vancouver Regiment honor guard accompanied by Canadian Brigadier General V.W. Odlum. There is a monument to President Harding in Vancouver's Stanley Park.
Coming into Seattle, Washington, Harding's transport ship, the Henderson, accidentally rammed into the USS Zeilin, a U.S. naval destroyer, in the fog. Harding was not harmed in the incident. In Seattle, Harding greeted children and led 50,000 Boy Scouts in the Pledge of Allegiance. Harding gave his final speech to a large crowd of 25,000 people at the University of Washington stadium in Seattle. Harding then traveled by train from Seattle to Portland, Oregon. Harding's scheduled speech in Portland was canceled.
The President's train continued south to San Francisco. Arriving at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Harding developed a respiratory illness believed to be pneumonia. Harding, severely exhausted, ordered that his planned speech be issued through the national press in order to communicate with the public. The President was given digitalis and caffeine that momentarily helped relieve his heart condition and sleeplessness. On Thursday, the President's health appeared to improve, so his doctors went to dinner. Harding's pulse was normal and his lung infection had subsided. Unexpectedly, during the evening, Harding shuddered and died suddenly in the middle of conversation with his wife in the hotel's presidential suite, at 7:35 p.m. on August 2, 1923.
Harding was succeeded as President by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who was sworn in while vacationing at Plymouth Notch, Vermont, by his father, a Vermont notary public. Harding's body was taken from the Palace Hotel directly to the train depot. The funeral train made a four-day journey eastward across the country-the first such procession since Lincoln's funeral train. Millions lined the tracks in cities and towns across the country to pay their respects. Harding's casket was placed in the East Room of the White House pending a state funeral, which was held on August 8, 1923, at the United States Capitol. Harding was entombed at the Marion Cemetery, Marion, Ohio, on August 10, 1923. Following Mrs. Harding's death on November 21, 1924 (from renal failure), she was buried next to her husband. Their remains were re-interred December 20, 1927, at the newly completed Harding Memorial in Marion, dedicated by President Herbert Hoover on June 16, 1931.
Harding's sudden death led to theories that he had been poisoned or committed suicide. Rumors of poisoning were fueled, in part, by a book called The Strange Death of President Harding, in which the author (convicted criminal and detective Gaston Means, who had once been hired by Mrs. Harding to investigate Warren Harding and his mistress) suggested that Mrs. Harding had poisoned her husband. Mrs. Harding's refusal to allow an autopsy on her husband only added to the speculation. According to the physicians attending Harding, however, the symptoms prior to his death all pointed to congestive heart failure. Immediately after Harding's death, Mrs. Harding returned to Washington, D.C., and stayed in the White House briefly with the Coolidges. For a month, former First Lady Harding gathered and burned President Harding's correspondence and documents, both official and unofficial. Upon her return to Marion, Mrs. Harding hired a number of secretaries to collect and burn Harding's personal papers. According to Mrs. Harding, she took these actions to protect her husband's legacy.
It's Warren Harding's birthday today. He was born on November 2, 1865, 158 years ago on this day.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio. He was the eldest of eight children born to Dr. George Tryon Harding, Sr. and Phoebe Elizabeth (Dickerson) Harding. His mother was a midwife who later obtained her medical license. His father was usually in debt. He owned a farm and also acquired a medical degree and started a small practice. It was rumored in Blooming Grove that one of Harding's great-grandmothers might have been African American, but this rumor has never been substantiated. Harding's family moved to Caledonia, Ohio, where his father acquired The Argus, a local weekly newspaper. It was at The Argus where, from the age of 10, Harding learned the basics of the journalism business. Harding attended college at Ohio Central College. He became an accomplished public speaker in college, and graduated in 1882 at the age of 17 with a Bachelor of Science degree. As a youngster, Harding had become an accomplished cornet player and played in various bands.
On July 8, 1891, Harding married Florence Kling DeWolfe, the daughter of Amos Kling, Harding's nemesis in the newspaper business. Florence was a divorcée, five years Harding's senior, and the mother of a young son, Marshall Eugene DeWolfe. She had been disowned by her father, because of her first marriage to an alcoholic.
Harding was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1899, despite Amos Kling's financing of a primary opponent. In early 1903 Harding announced his campaign for Governor of Ohio. He later withdrew from the contest and was awarded the position of Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, a post he occupied from 1904 to 1906. Harding sought the 1909 gubernatorial nomination of the GOP, but could not defeat the Democrats.
In 1912, Harding gave the nominating speech for incumbent President William Howard Taft at the embattled Republican National Convention in Chicago. Harding was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming Ohio's first senator elected by popular vote. When Harding took his seat, both houses were controlled by the Democrats, and Woodrow Wilson, a progressive Democrat, was in the White House. He joined with 39 other senators in opposition to Wilson's proposed League of Nations. He was popular and acquired many very close friends in the chamber. Harding served as Chairman of the 1916 Republican Convention as well as Keynote Speaker.
At the 1920 GOP convention, no candidate was able to obtain a majority after nine ballots. Republican Senators and other leaders met in Room 404 of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago and after a nightlong session, tentatively concluded Harding was the best possible compromise candidate. This particular meeting came to be known as the "smoke filled room". Before Harding received the formal nod, Harding was asked if he knew, "before God," whether anything in his life would be an impediment. After mulling the question over for some minutes, Harding replied no, despite his alleged adulterous affairs. The next day, when Harding was nominated on the tenth ballot.
In the 1920 election, Harding ran against Democratic Ohio Governor James M. Cox, whose running mate was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. Harding ran on a promise to "Return to Normalcy", a term he popularized, and healing for the nation after World War I. This was the first modern campaign to use the power of Hollywood and Broadway stars, who travelled to Marion for photo opportunities with Harding and his wife. Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford as well as business icons like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone all lent their support to the campaign. The 1920 election was the first in which women could vote nationwide. It was also the first presidential election covered on the radio. Harding received 60% of the national vote, the highest percentage ever recorded up to that time, and 404 electoral votes. Cox received 34% of the national vote and 127 electoral votes. Campaigning from a federal prison, Socialist Eugene V. Debs received 3% of the national vote. The Presidential election results of 1920, for the first time in U.S. history, were announced live by radio.
In his inaugural speech Harding declared, "Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much from the government and at the same time do too little for it." Harding's administration has been critically viewed due to multiple scandals, but his accomplishments included income tax and federal spending reductions, economic policies that reduced "stagflation", a reduction of unemployment by 10%, and a bold foreign policy that created peace with Germany, Japan, and Central America. One of Harding's earliest decisions as President was the appointment of former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position Taft had always coveted, even more than the Presidency.
Harding pushed for the establishment of the Bureau of Veterans Affairs (later organized as the Department of Veterans Affairs). He argued for peacemaking with Germany and Austria, emergency tariffs, new immigration laws, regulation of radio and trans-cable communications, retrenchment in government, tax reduction, repeal of wartime excess profits tax, reduction of railroad rates, promotion of agricultural interests, a national budget system, an enlarged merchant marine, and a department of public welfare. He also called for measures to end lynching of African-Americans.
According to one of his biographers, Harding got along better with the press than any other previous President, being a former newspaperman. Reporters admired his frankness, candor, and his confessed limitations. He took the press behind the scenes and showed them the inner circle of the presidency. Harding, in November 1921, also implemented a policy of taking written questions from reporters during a press conference.
On December 23, 1921 Harding released an election opponent, socialist leader Eugene Debs, from prison. Debs, a forceful World War I antiwar activist, had been convicted under sedition charges brought by the Wilson administration for his opposition to the draft during World War I. Despite many political differences between the two candidates Harding commuted Debs' sentence to time served. Harding granted a general amnesty to 23 prisoners, alleged anarchists and socialists.
On April 12, Harding called a joint session of Congress in which he urged Congress to create a Bureau of the Budget, cut expenditures, and revise federal tax laws. Harding urged increased protectionist tariffs, lower taxes, and agriculture legislation to help farmers. In the speech, Harding advocated aviation technology for civil and military purposes, development and regulation of radio technology, and passage of a federal anti-lynching law to protect African Americans. Harding called for peace between all former enemy nations from World War I and the funding and liquidation of war debts.
Harding signed the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, considered one of his greatest domestic and enduring achievements. Harding got authorization from Congress for the country's first formal budgeting process-establishing of the Bureau of the Budget. The law created the presidential budget director, who was directly responsible to the President rather than to the Secretary of Treasury. The law also stipulated that the President must submit a budget annually to the U.S. Congress. All presidents since have had to submit an annual budget to Congress. Harding appointed Charles Dawes, known for being an effective financier, as the first director of the Bureau of the Budget. Dawes reduced government spending by $1.5 billion his first year as director, a 25% reduction, along with another 25% reduction the following year. In effect, the Government budget was nearly cut in half in just two years. Harding believed the federal government should be fiscally managed in a way similar to private sector businesses. He had campaigned on the slogan, "Less government in business and more business in government." Federal spending declined from $6.3 billion in 1920 to $5 billion in 1921 and $3.3 billion in 1922. Tax rates, meanwhile, were slashed-for every income group. And over the course of the 1920s, the national debt was reduced by one third.
On August 9, 1921, Harding signed legislation known as the Sweet Bill, which established the Veterans Bureau as a new agency. After World War I, 300,000 wounded veterans were in need of hospitalization, medical care, and job training.
Harding spearheaded a monumental global conference, held in Washington, D.C., to limit the armaments of world powers, including the U.S., Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Belgium, Netherlands and Portugal. Harding's Secretary of State, Charles E. Hughes, assumed a primary role in the conference and made the pivotal proposal-the U.S would reduce its number of warships by 30 if Great Britain decommissioned 19, and Japan 17 ships. Starting on November 6, 1921 and ending February 6, 1922, world leaders met to control a naval arms race and to bring stability to East Asia. The conference enabled the great powers to potentially limit their large naval deployment and avoid conflict in the Pacific. The conference produced six treaties and twelve resolutions among the participating nations, which ranged from limiting the size or "tonnage" of naval ships to custom tariffs. The treaties easily passed the Senate. Harding stunned the capital when he sent to the Senate a message supporting the participation of the U.S. in the proposed Permanent Court of International Justice. This was not favorably received by Harding's colleagues
In an age of severe racial intolerance during the 1920s, Harding spoke out against racial animosity. In a speech on October 26, 1921, given in segregated Birmingham, Alabama Harding advocated civil rights for African Americans. He was the first President to openly advocate political, educational, and economic equality for African-Americans during the 20th century. Harding went further and viewed the race problem as a national and international issue. He named some African Americans to federal positions, such as Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans, Louisiana, whom he named comptroller of customs. Harding supported Congressman Leonidas Dyer's federal anti-lynching bill, known as the Dyer Bill, which passed the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922. The bill was defeated in the Senate by a Democratic filibuster. Harding had previously spoken out publicly against lynching on October 21, 1921. Up to that time, Congress had not debated a civil rights bill since the 1890 Federal Elections Bill.
On November 21, 1921, Harding signed the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act, the first major federal government social welfare program in the U.S. The law funded almost 3,000 child and health centers throughout the U.S. Medical doctors were spurred to offer preventative health care measures in addition to treating ill children. Doctors were required to help healthy pregnant women and prevent healthy children from getting sick. Child welfare workers were sent out to make sure that parents were taking care of their children. Many minority groups, particularly African American, Native American, and foreign-born women, resented the law and the welfare workers who visited their homes and intruded into their family's lives. Although the law remained in effect only eight years, it set the trend for New Deal social programs during the Great Depression.
Harding appointed prominent Jewish leader, Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld, and Catholic leader, Father Joseph M. Dennig, to foreign diplomatic positions. In an unpublished letter, Harding advocated the establishment and funding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Harding's physical health began to decline in the fall of 1922. Harding was suffering from coronary disease. By early 1923, Harding had trouble sleeping, looked tired, and could barely get through nine holes of golf. Harding wanted to run for a second term. He gave up drinking. Harding, along with his personal physician Dr. Charles E. Sawyer, believed getting away from Washington would help relieve the stresses of being President. By July 1923, criticism of the Harding Administration was increasing. Prior to his leaving Washington, the President reported chest pains that radiated down his left arm.
In June of 1923 Harding boarded a naval transport ship, the USS Henderson, and voyaged to Alaska. Rumors of corruption in his administration were beginning to circulate in Washington. While in Alaska, Harding was profoundly shocked by a long message he received detailing illegal activities previously unknown to him. Harding arrived in Alaska on the Henderson on July 7, 1923. Harding and his presidential party first visited a number of places in Alaska, including Metlakatla, Ketchikan (July 8), and Wrangell (July 9). They continued on to Juneau (July 10), Skagway, and Glacier Bay (July 11). The President then cruised to Seward (July 13). They then proceeded to travel by Presidential railway car and automobile. Harding visited Snow River on the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage (July 13), Chickaloon, Wasilla and Willow (July 14). He continued his Alaska journey through Montana Station, Curry (July 14) Cantwell, McKinley Park and Nenana (July 15). On July 15, 1923, Harding drove in the golden spike on the north side of the steel Mears Memorial Bridge that completed the Alaska Railroad. The trip continued to Fairbanks (July 15) where it was decided (July 16) that the President and his wife would return to Seward (July 17) via the railroad. They spent a restful day at Seward (July 18). From there they took the Henderson to Valdez (July 19), Cordova (July 20), and Sitka (July 22). While in Sitka, Harding visited and shook hands with Alaskan Native Tlingit elder chief Katlean outside in a crowd of people.
On July 26, 1923, having departed Alaska on the Henderson, Harding toured Vancouver, British Columbia as the first sitting American President ever to visit Canada. Harding became exhausted while playing golf at the Shaughnessy Heights Golf Club, and complained of nausea and upper abdominal pain. His doctor, Charles E. Sawyer, believed Harding's illness was a severe case of food poisoning. Nevertheless, Dr. Joel T. Boone also examined the President and noticed an enlargement of his heart. Harding's pulse and breathing rate were rapid. The President was given digitalis. Harding met with British Columbia Premier John Oliver and Mayor of Vancouver Charles Tisdall at the Hotel Vancouver. Harding spoke in front of 50,000 people at Stanley Park with his voice projected by microphones. Harding inspected The Vancouver Regiment honor guard accompanied by Canadian Brigadier General V.W. Odlum. There is a monument to President Harding in Vancouver's Stanley Park.
Coming into Seattle, Washington, Harding's transport ship, the Henderson, accidentally rammed into the USS Zeilin, a U.S. naval destroyer, in the fog. Harding was not harmed in the incident. In Seattle, Harding greeted children and led 50,000 Boy Scouts in the Pledge of Allegiance. Harding gave his final speech to a large crowd of 25,000 people at the University of Washington stadium in Seattle. Harding then traveled by train from Seattle to Portland, Oregon. Harding's scheduled speech in Portland was canceled.
The President's train continued south to San Francisco. Arriving at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Harding developed a respiratory illness believed to be pneumonia. Harding, severely exhausted, ordered that his planned speech be issued through the national press in order to communicate with the public. The President was given digitalis and caffeine that momentarily helped relieve his heart condition and sleeplessness. On Thursday, the President's health appeared to improve, so his doctors went to dinner. Harding's pulse was normal and his lung infection had subsided. Unexpectedly, during the evening, Harding shuddered and died suddenly in the middle of conversation with his wife in the hotel's presidential suite, at 7:35 p.m. on August 2, 1923.
Harding was succeeded as President by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who was sworn in while vacationing at Plymouth Notch, Vermont, by his father, a Vermont notary public. Harding's body was taken from the Palace Hotel directly to the train depot. The funeral train made a four-day journey eastward across the country-the first such procession since Lincoln's funeral train. Millions lined the tracks in cities and towns across the country to pay their respects. Harding's casket was placed in the East Room of the White House pending a state funeral, which was held on August 8, 1923, at the United States Capitol. Harding was entombed at the Marion Cemetery, Marion, Ohio, on August 10, 1923. Following Mrs. Harding's death on November 21, 1924 (from renal failure), she was buried next to her husband. Their remains were re-interred December 20, 1927, at the newly completed Harding Memorial in Marion, dedicated by President Herbert Hoover on June 16, 1931.
Harding's sudden death led to theories that he had been poisoned or committed suicide. Rumors of poisoning were fueled, in part, by a book called The Strange Death of President Harding, in which the author (convicted criminal and detective Gaston Means, who had once been hired by Mrs. Harding to investigate Warren Harding and his mistress) suggested that Mrs. Harding had poisoned her husband. Mrs. Harding's refusal to allow an autopsy on her husband only added to the speculation. According to the physicians attending Harding, however, the symptoms prior to his death all pointed to congestive heart failure. Immediately after Harding's death, Mrs. Harding returned to Washington, D.C., and stayed in the White House briefly with the Coolidges. For a month, former First Lady Harding gathered and burned President Harding's correspondence and documents, both official and unofficial. Upon her return to Marion, Mrs. Harding hired a number of secretaries to collect and burn Harding's personal papers. According to Mrs. Harding, she took these actions to protect her husband's legacy.