August 2, 1923: Warren Gamaliel Harding, the 29th President of the United States, dies in office, halfway through the 3rd year of his term. He was 57 years old.
The former newspaper editor was a U.S. Senator from Ohio when he was elected President in a landslide in 1920. He was handsome, charming, and promised "a return to normalcy" after the turbulent Progressive Era, World War I, and its difficult aftermath. Actually, he never used the words "return to normalcy" in any speech. What he said was:
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.
Things had considerably calmed down in America during his time in office, and he was still popular in the Summer of 1923. He even posed for a photo with the biggest star in baseball, the Yankees' Babe Ruth.
Legend has it that Ruth, whose many alliterative nicknames could have included the Imperator of Informality, once asked the President of the United States, "Hot as hell, ain't it, Prez?" It's not clear whether the President in question was Harding, who might have appreciated it, or his successor, Calvin Coolidge, who certainly would not have.
So he was still popular in the Summer of 1923, when the Teapot Dome scandal broke out. Unlike such later scandals as Richard Nixon's Watergate, Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra, Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and the many scandals of George W. Bush and Donald Trump, this one was, and remains, a bit complicated.
Teapot Dome was an oil reserve outside Casper, Wyoming, one of three set aside for the use of the U.S. Navy in the event of a national emergency. In May 1921, Harding signed an executive order transferring control of the reserves from the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Interior. Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby agreed to this, and Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall now had control.
In July 1921, California-based oilman Edward Doheny offered Fall a bribe of $100,000 -- about $1,633,000 in today's money -- for permission to drill at Teapot Dome. The weird part is, after Harding was gone, Fall was convicted of accepting this bribe in 1929 -- the 1st Cabinet member ever to go to prison for actions in office -- but Doheny was acquitted of offering it in 1930.
Teapot Rock, above Teapot Dome
The scandal had begun to break, and Harding's bid for re-election was less than a year and a half away. He called his Secretary of Commerce into his office. He asked the Secretary, if he were President, and knew of a scandal in his Administration, what would he do? The Secretary said he would come completely clean. The Secretary's name was Herbert Hoover, and he would eventually become President. He didn't have a scandal like Teapot Dome in his Administration. He should have been no more unlucky than that.
Harding did not come clean. Instead, he ran away. No, he didn't resign. He went on what he called a "Voyage of Understanding," a train trip all over the continent. He became the 1st sitting President to visit Canada, and then the 1st to visit Alaska, which would still be a Territory until gaining Statehood in 1959.
On his way back south, he visited Seattle, and gave a speech at the University of Washington on July 27. That night, he called his doctor, Charles E. Sawyer, complaining of abdominal pain. Sawyer diagnosed an "acute gastrointestinal attack," and that's what the press was told. Somehow, it got out that Harding had eaten some tainted crabmeat in Alaska.
On July 29, Harding arrived in San Francisco, and checked into the Palace Hotel, and had a relapse. It wouldn't be publicly revealed until after his death, but, like his immediate predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, Harding was already a sick man when he became President, with a few years of heart problems, which were flaring up again. His wife, Florence, known as "The Duchess," was with him, and she wasn't very healthy, either, with a chronic kidney condition.
At 7:30 PM Pacific Time, in their room at the Palace, Florence was reading a flattering article about him, published by The Saturday Evening Post: "A Calm Review of a Calm Man." She paused, and he said, "That's good. Go on, read some more." She did, for a few seconds, until she noticed him twisting and gasping for air. She called the doctors, but it was too late: He was dead.
It was 10:30 PM in the East. Now, the Secret Service had to find the Vice President, Calvin Coolidge, former Governor of Massachusetts, and swear him in as the new President. That turned out to be an adventure, worthy of a separate entry, and I have one for it.
Mrs. Harding did not permit an autopsy for her husband. A rumor got around that she had poisoned him -- possibly to protect him from the rising scandal; or possibly out of revenge for something the public didn't know at the time, his voracious womanizing, including an affair that resulted in the only child he would ever have.
That wouldn't be known for a few years. At first, the country was deeply saddened by the death of a popular President. But before the Harding Tomb could be completed in 1929, it had all come out, and he became regarded as one of the worst Presidents the country had ever had: As scandalous as Richard Nixon, as dumb as George W. Bush, and as horny as Bill Clinton.
Whatever Mrs. Harding knew, she took to the grave, on November 21, 1924, less than a year and a half after her husband, and just after he would have had to face the voters again. Would he have been re-elected, given the booming economy, even with Teapot Dome and the subsequent scandal in the U.S. Department of Justice, which sent his Attorney General and former campaign manager, Harry Daugherty, to prison? Maybe, because the Democrats were badly divided.
But since Coolidge wasn't involved in the scandals at all, he cruised to an easy victory, as the nation decided to follow the Republican slogan, "Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge."
Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1886, from Harding's death on August 2, 1923 until the next Presidential term began on March 4, 1925, the man next in line for the Presidency was the Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes.
By the time the Harding Tomb in Marion was ready in 1927,
his reputation was in tatters.
Hoover ended up being the last surviving member of Harding's Cabinet, and also of Coolidge's, living until 1964.
There have been 2 ships named the USS Harding, but neither was named for Warren Gamaliel. In New Jersey, Harding Township in Morris County is named for him, and U.S. Route 40 in South Jersey is named the Harding Highway. High schools have been named for Harding in his hometown of Marion, and also in the Ohio city of Warren; in Bridgeport, Connecticut; in St. Paul, Minnesota; and in Oklahoma City.
Statue of Harding and his dog Laddie Boy,
"Presidential City," Rapid City, South Dakota
He has been played by Harry Dean Stanton in the 1975 film The Curse of the Hope Diamond, George Kennedy in the 1979 NBC miniseries Backstairs at the White House, and Malachy Cleary on a 2010 episode of Boardwalk Empire.
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August 2, 1923 was a Thursday. Shimon Peres, twice Prime Minister of Israel, was born on this day. So was boxer Ike Williams, Lightweight Champion of the World from 1945 to 1951.
It was the off-season for the NFL and the NHL, and the NBA hadn't been founded yet. But Major League Baseball games were played on August 2. Out of respect to Harding, all games scheduled for the next day, August 3, were postponed. They would be again on August 10, the day of Harding's Washington funeral. Here are the August 2 results:
* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at the then-new original Yankee Stadium. Hall-of-Famer Waite Hoyt outpitched James Edwards. The aforementioned Babe Ruth went 1-for-3. No home runs were hit in the game, but Yankee 3rd baseman Joe Dugan got 3 hits, and Hoyt helped his own cause with 2 hits.
* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Giants had beaten the Yankees in the last 2 World Series, the 1st 2 the Yankees had ever played in. They were on collision course again, and this time, the Yankees would win the Series.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. It would be renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953.
* The Washington Senators swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Browns at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The Senators won the 1st game 5-0, as Monroe Mitchell pitched a 6-hit shutout. They won the 2nd game 2-1, with George Mogridge going the distance.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at Redland Field in Cincinnati. It would be renamed Crosley Field in 1933.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-5 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* It would also be Chicago beating Boston in the National League: The Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Braves, 5-1 at Cubs Park. It would be renamed Wrigley Field in 1926.
* And a game between the Brooklyn Robins and the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis was rained out, and postponed until September 24. The Robins -- as the Dodgers were known while Wilbert Robinson was their manager from 1914 to 1931 -- beat the Cardinals 8-2.
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