WARREN G. HARDING
.
Warren G. Harding's (Republican) presidential leadership was riddled with scandal but he also embraced technology and was sensitive to the problems of minorities and women. Before his nomination, Warren G. Harding declared, "America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality...." Thirty-one distinguished Republicans had signed a manifesto assuring voters that a vote for Harding was a vote for the League. However, Harding interpreted his election as a mandate to stay out of the League of Nations.
Before his presidency, Harding was a publisher of a newspaper, trustee of the Trinity Baptist Church, and played many instruments. Harding's charisma and his ability to never deviate from Republican views carried him a long way in Ohio politics. In 1914, he was elected to the Senate. He won his Presidential election by an unprecedented landslide of 60% of the popular vote. Once elected, Harding signed off on all Republican bills. They succeeded in eliminating wartime controls, they slashed taxes, established a Federal budget system, restored the high protective tariff, and imposed tight limitations upon immigration.
By 1923, the depression that followed WWI seemed to be diminishing and it left a new surge of prosperity in its place. Newspapers praised harding and said he was a wise statesman carrying out his campaign promise--"Less government in business and more business in government." Despite their outward appearance, not all of Harding's administration was as supportive. The President began to learn that some of his friends were using their official positions for their own enrichment. He was alarmed and acted surprised at the accusations (Warren G. Harding).
One of the most infamous scandals committed by Harding's legislation was the Teapot Dome Scandal. This scandal surrounds the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After President Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted exclusive rights of the Teapot Dome to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company. He granted similar rights to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company for the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves in California. In return, Fall received large cash gifts and no-interest “loans.” After the scandal became known, congress encouraged Harding to cancel the leases because the Supreme Court declared the leases fraudulent and illegal under Harding’s transfer of authority to Fall. Although the president himself was not directly involved in the scandal, the revelations of his associates’ misconduct took a severe toll on his health. This scandal became a representation of the government's corruption (Teapot Dome Scandal).
In the summer of 1923, Harding traveled westward with him his Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover. Harding looked for guidance from Hoover about what to do if he knew of a scandal within the official administration. Hoover encouraged him to publish the story, but Harding was terrified of the political repercussions. However, he did not live to find out how the public would react to the scandals of his administration because in August of 1923, he died in San Francisco of a heart attack (Warren G. Harding).
Before his presidency, Harding was a publisher of a newspaper, trustee of the Trinity Baptist Church, and played many instruments. Harding's charisma and his ability to never deviate from Republican views carried him a long way in Ohio politics. In 1914, he was elected to the Senate. He won his Presidential election by an unprecedented landslide of 60% of the popular vote. Once elected, Harding signed off on all Republican bills. They succeeded in eliminating wartime controls, they slashed taxes, established a Federal budget system, restored the high protective tariff, and imposed tight limitations upon immigration.
By 1923, the depression that followed WWI seemed to be diminishing and it left a new surge of prosperity in its place. Newspapers praised harding and said he was a wise statesman carrying out his campaign promise--"Less government in business and more business in government." Despite their outward appearance, not all of Harding's administration was as supportive. The President began to learn that some of his friends were using their official positions for their own enrichment. He was alarmed and acted surprised at the accusations (Warren G. Harding).
One of the most infamous scandals committed by Harding's legislation was the Teapot Dome Scandal. This scandal surrounds the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After President Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted exclusive rights of the Teapot Dome to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company. He granted similar rights to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company for the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves in California. In return, Fall received large cash gifts and no-interest “loans.” After the scandal became known, congress encouraged Harding to cancel the leases because the Supreme Court declared the leases fraudulent and illegal under Harding’s transfer of authority to Fall. Although the president himself was not directly involved in the scandal, the revelations of his associates’ misconduct took a severe toll on his health. This scandal became a representation of the government's corruption (Teapot Dome Scandal).
In the summer of 1923, Harding traveled westward with him his Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover. Harding looked for guidance from Hoover about what to do if he knew of a scandal within the official administration. Hoover encouraged him to publish the story, but Harding was terrified of the political repercussions. However, he did not live to find out how the public would react to the scandals of his administration because in August of 1923, he died in San Francisco of a heart attack (Warren G. Harding).