direcorrector at Hail to the Chiefs Part XXIX: Friends in Low Places I figured once I got to the 1920's with the presidents it would feel like I had retreated back into the Guilded Age, except with much better music. However Warren G. Harding surprised me two fold. First off, he was a much better president than we've been led to believe. While he doesn't soar to the heights of Wilson or T.R.....he should not have been lumped in with Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and the assorted 19th century dunderheads. The other big surprise was, while I knew Harding was unfaithful to his wife, I didn't realize it was a steamy 15 year affair with a woman who may have been a spy.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio on November 2, 1865....about 6 months after the end of the Civil War. He was the oldest of 8 children. His father was a doctor and his mother was a midwife. Harding was especially close to his mother either bringing or delivering her flowers every week until her death.
Harding learned to read at age 4, and had a fondness for words and literature. In his senior year of college he helped to found a school newspaper.
Initially after college he toyed with studying law, although quickly found out it wasn't his thing. Eventually with some help from his father, he bought the newspaper the Marion Star. Harding proved to be highly successful in that business.
In 1891, when he was 25, he married Florence Kling DeWolfe. Florence's first "marriage" had been to elope with Pete DeWolfe. They were never legally married, but did have a child together. Pete was an alcoholic and Florence soon left him. She moved back to Marion and tried to support herself and her son by teaching piano.
Florence's overbearing father did not approve of her relationship with Harding. He encouraged the rumors, that had already been floating around for years, that Harding had some African-American ancestry. The rumor probably began because Harding came from a family that had supported the abolitionist cause, and that was a common slam on abolitionists. Florence's father would not talk to them during the first 8 years of their marriage. Later, he warmed up to his son-in-law commenting: "He may be a n________ but he's a smart n_______."
The Harding marriage wasn't very happy. Florence called Harding, who was 5 years her junior, "Sonny." He referred to her as "the Duchess" which was a reference to a well known fictional character at the time who kept an eagle eye on her husband. I suspect of Harding ever came in contact with the British series "Rumpole of the Bailey" he'd start referring to his wife as "She Who Must Be Obeyed." Due to the ill health of Florence, and his possible sterility, the couple never had any children together.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio on November 2, 1865....about 6 months after the end of the Civil War. He was the oldest of 8 children. His father was a doctor and his mother was a midwife. Harding was especially close to his mother either bringing or delivering her flowers every week until her death.
Harding learned to read at age 4, and had a fondness for words and literature. In his senior year of college he helped to found a school newspaper.
Initially after college he toyed with studying law, although quickly found out it wasn't his thing. Eventually with some help from his father, he bought the newspaper the Marion Star. Harding proved to be highly successful in that business.
In 1891, when he was 25, he married Florence Kling DeWolfe. Florence's first "marriage" had been to elope with Pete DeWolfe. They were never legally married, but did have a child together. Pete was an alcoholic and Florence soon left him. She moved back to Marion and tried to support herself and her son by teaching piano.
Florence's overbearing father did not approve of her relationship with Harding. He encouraged the rumors, that had already been floating around for years, that Harding had some African-American ancestry. The rumor probably began because Harding came from a family that had supported the abolitionist cause, and that was a common slam on abolitionists. Florence's father would not talk to them during the first 8 years of their marriage. Later, he warmed up to his son-in-law commenting: "He may be a n________ but he's a smart n_______."
The Harding marriage wasn't very happy. Florence called Harding, who was 5 years her junior, "Sonny." He referred to her as "the Duchess" which was a reference to a well known fictional character at the time who kept an eagle eye on her husband. I suspect of Harding ever came in contact with the British series "Rumpole of the Bailey" he'd start referring to his wife as "She Who Must Be Obeyed." Due to the ill health of Florence, and his possible sterility, the couple never had any children together.
In 1905 his friends and neighbors Jim and Carrie Phillips were mourning the death of their 2 year old son. To steal a Carrie Fisher quote, Harding rushed to her side "gradually making his way slowly to her front." Warren Harding and Carrie Phillips began what would be a 15 year affair on August 23, 1905. I guess they were celebrating that I'd be born that day 72 years later. (August 23rd is a great day for doomed romances. John Lennon married his first wife Cynthia on August 23, 1962. Silent movie romantic lead Rudy Valentino died on August 23, 1926.) It was quite a steamy affair that was well-documented in the book "The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage During the Great War" by James David Robenalt. It sounds like it became an open secret in Marion. People were well aware that every time Jim Phillips was out of town, Harding was not. Harding had some health issues. He used to go to the famous sanatorium run by Dr. Kellogg in Battle Creek Michigan. (The book and the movie "The Road to Wellville" are based on that sanatorium.) Mysteriously, he didn't need to spend time there once his affair started with Carrie.
Phillips lived for several years in Berlin. There is some evidence that she and her daughter were spies for the Germans in World War I. According to Robenalt, a prominent democrat hinted that he "had the goods" on Harding, but that the evidence would not be released because it would be damaging to the Wilson administration. Anyway, I'd highly recommend the book. It reads like fiction. It also has been fun speculating who could play the classically tall dark and handsome Harding in the movie version.
One arena where Harding did demonstrate fidelity was for the Republican party. He consistently printed pro-Republican editorials in his newspaper. He gradually became more and more involved in the Ohio Republican Party. He was first elected as Marion County auditor, which was rather a coup as the era was strongly Democratic. In 1899 he was elected to the state senate. He ran a few failed campaigns for governor, but was lieutenant governor from 1904-1906.
In 1912 Harding gave the nominating speech for Taft at the Republican convention. It didn't help poor Taft do any better in the polls, but did help making Harding more of a national name. (SEE ALSO: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama...) In 1914, thanks to the 17th Amendment, Harding became the first Ohio senator to be elected by popular vote. Before that senators were picked by the state legislature. It's ironic that Harding wasn't the biggest fan of too much direct democracy.
Harding has a reputation for having done very little as a senator. The image of him is pretty much hanging out, playing poker and smoking cigars the whole time. While this is partly true, he did rise to prominence enough to be asked to be the keynote speaker at the 1916 Republican convention.
4 years later he became the candidate for the 1920 election. Initially Teddy Roosevelt was the favorite....but then T.R. died in 1919. And Harding...LOOKED presidential....seriously, that was one of the reasons they chose him as a candidate. Harding decided the best way to campaign would be from the front porch of his house....just like Bill McKinley. So he stood on his porch and "bloviated" all summer about a return to "normalcy"...which is a word he made up. If you think the American people don't like Republican candidates that make up their own words, I would like to refudiate that point because you are misunderestimating them.
4 years later he became the candidate for the 1920 election. Initially Teddy Roosevelt was the favorite....but then T.R. died in 1919. And Harding...LOOKED presidential....seriously, that was one of the reasons they chose him as a candidate. Harding decided the best way to campaign would be from the front porch of his house....just like Bill McKinley. So he stood on his porch and "bloviated" all summer about a return to "normalcy"...which is a word he made up. If you think the American people don't like Republican candidates that make up their own words, I would like to refudiate that point because you are misunderestimating them.
While Harding was overwhelmed by the presidency, and the job was not a good fit....the fact that he is often rated even lower than James Buchanan isn't fair. No wars started on Harding's watch, he didn't encourage slavery, and his adminstration ended with the exact same number of states it started with.
In some ways Harding was one of our first classic Republican presidents. He worked on lowering taxes. He thought Wilson's style of governing was dangerous, and wanted a more business friendly, more isolationist American government.
World War I technically ended on his watch. He was the one to actually sign the treaty. He also pardoned socialist advocate and former presidential candidate Eugene Debs, who had been jailed under sedition laws during the War.
At the 1921-22 Naval Conference, Harding promoted disarmament of naval ships. The conference was successful, and was the first of its kind. And trust me, the presidents that do belong on the bottom of the rankings...Buchanan and Andrew Johnson....NEVER in a million years would have come up with something like it.
The biggest surprise for me was that in 1921 Harding went to Alabama to give a speech promoting Civil Rights. Yes you read that right. "Whether you like it or not, unless our democracy is a lie you must stand for that equality." He meant voting rights, education, the whole shebang. One African-American activist, Dr. Robert R. Moton, said the speech was the "most important utterance on the question by a President since Lincoln." And you better believed the white Southerners were pissed. It was a very gutsy move on Harding's part. He also promoted anti-lynching legislation, and tried to appoint more African-Americans to government positions.
In 1923 Harding became the first president to visit Alaska. During the trip he clearly was not well. He took some time to recuperate in San Francisco, where he suddenly died. At the time of his death, he was a very popular president.
It was in the months afterwards that the scandals began to emerge. There is no evidence that Harding himself was actually involved in the notorious Teapot Dome Scandal. However, like President Grant, he was surrounded by dishonest men. Harding was known to comment "I can take care of my enemies all right, but my friends. My goddamn friends! They're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!"
Florence Harding, attempting to protect her husband's memory, wound up tarnishing it all the further. She demanded to one of the aides that he send her all of Harding's papers to her to be destroyed. The aide only partially complied. Nobody realized for a few decades that the bulk of Harding's papers were actually hidden in the White House basement. They will not be released publicly until 2014.
In the meanwhile, Harding's story was mainly told by people with an agenda against him. They often used fabrications and sometimes literally fiction as their sources. Now that I've taken a closer look at Harding, I can't wait to see those papers. What an interesting character!
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What I am also enjoying with this part of history is gradually, people that I know personally are a part of it. My paternal grandfather was born in October 1917, same time as the Communist revolution in Russia. (He wound up outliving it by 18 months.) Two of my grandparents were born in 1922, the Harding administration. Also at this time all my immigrant ancestors were here....those pesky Germans and Slavs that caused a major backlash against immigration during the 1910's and 20's. (Every time I read that an anti-immigration law passed in that era I say "Ha HA! Too late!")
Warren G. Harding isn't one to show up in pop culture often. However he was mentioned in "Short Circuit 2." It was actually how I first heard of him. I wouldn't recommend the movie at all, but enjoy the clip!