[24][192], Harding's death came as a great shock to the nation. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. It is so bad that a kind of grandeur creeps into it. [134], When Harding took office on March 4, 1921, the nation was in the midst of a postwar economic decline. [243], Upon his death, Harding was deeply mourned. [12], Upon graduating, Harding had stints as a teacher and as an insurance man, and made a brief attempt at studying law. Johnson had spent $194,000, and Harding $113,000. [18], Harding first came to know Florence Kling, five years older than he, as the daughter of a local banker and developer. [130], Intervention in Latin America had been a minor campaign issue; Harding spoke against Wilson's decision to send U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and attacked the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt, for his role in the Haitian intervention. Once Harding was sworn in, Hughes worked to improve relations with Latin American countries who were wary of the American use of the Monroe Doctrine to justify intervention; at the time of Harding's inauguration, the U.S. also had troops in Cuba and Nicaragua. [31] Florence Harding practiced strict economy[26] and wrote of Harding, "he does well when he listens to me and poorly when he does not. The travels of the Democratic candidates eventually caused Harding to make several short speaking tours, but for the most part, he remained in Marion. [47], The party split grew, and in 1912, Taft and Roosevelt were rivals for the Republican nomination. Through the later years of the 1880s, Harding built the Star. In Denver, he spoke on Prohibition, and continued west making a series of speeches not matched by any president until Franklin Roosevelt. After the assassination of McKinley in September (he was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt), much of the appetite for politics was temporarily lost in Ohio. Many at the convention voted for McAdoo anyway, and a deadlock ensued with Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. "[247], Hagiographic accounts of Harding's life quickly followed his death, such as Joe Mitchell Chapple's Life and Times of Warren G. Harding, Our After-War President (1924). The handsome, dapper Harding remained popular at the time of his death. "[117] The New York Times mocked the Daugherty appointment, stating that rather than select one of the best minds, Harding had been content "to choose merely a best friend. [127] The secretary was generally successful, and agreements were reached on this and other points, including settlements to disputes over islands in the Pacific, and limitations on the use of poison gas. When the 1920 Republican Convention deadlocked over its selection of a presidential nominee, party leaders turned—supposedly in a smoke-filled room in Chicago’s Blackstone Hotel—to the handsome, genial Ohioan as a compromise candidate. In February 1924, the Senate voted to investigate the Justice Department, where Daugherty remained Attorney General. He and a friend put out a small newspaper, the Iberia Spectator, during their final year at Ohio Central, intended to appeal to both the college and the town. Mining executives argued that the industry was seeing hard times; Lewis accused them of trying to break the union. [116] He was opposed by conservationists such as Gifford Pinchot, who wrote, "it would have been possible to pick a worse man for Secretary of the Interior, but not altogether easy. Harding was willing to tolerate Democrats, as necessary to a two-party system, but had only contempt for those who bolted the Republican Party to join third-party movements. He urged delegates to stand as a united party. [258] Murray argued that Harding deserves more credit than historians have given: "He was certainly the equal of a Franklin Pierce, an Andrew Johnson, a Benjamin Harrison, or even a Calvin Coolidge. [121], This still left the question of relations between the U.S. and the League. Lasker recommended a large subsidy to the merchant marine to enable the sales, and Harding repeatedly urged Congress to enact it. Also helpful in saving Harding's career was the fact that he was popular with, and had done favors for, the more progressive forces that now controlled the Ohio Republican Party. Harding appointed Herbert Hoover as United States Secretary of Commerce. By October, Cox had realized there was widespread public opposition to Article X, and stated that reservations to the treaty might be necessary; this shift allowed Harding to say no more on the subject. ", "The Republican president who called for racial justice in America after Tulsa massacre", "Biographical Dictionary of the Federal Judiciary", "Item D-01800 – U.S. President Warren Gamaliel Harding and Lieutenant Governor Nichol in a procession on Granville Street, Vancouver", "U.S. President Warren G. Harding makes his last speech in Seattle on July 27, 1923", "President Harding's mysterious S.F. During one such absence from Marion, in 1894, the Star's business manager quit. The president ordered Daugherty to get Smith out of Washington and removed his name from the upcoming presidential trip to Alaska.
