August 2, 1923: Warren Harding Dies

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.

Hughes had been Governor of New York, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and the 1916 Republican nominee for President. After serving as Secretary of State, he would be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Had he had to take the office, he might have been a better President than Coolidge. Certainly, he would have been better than Harding or Herbert Hoover.

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.

The Warren G. Harding Presidential Center opened adjacent to the Harding Home in Marion, Ohio on May 12, 2021. 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

Harding remains the most recent President born in, or representing, Ohio. 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. 

June 30, 1921: The Job Taft Really Wanted

June 30, 1921: President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He had wanted the job for as long as he could remember.

A graduate of Yale Law School, the son of former Attorney General Alphonso Taft, and, like his father, the U.S. Secretary of War, Taft wanted to be on the Supreme Court. He had served as U.S. Solicitor General under President Benjamin Harrison. That wouldn't have been an omen at the time, but he did go on to become the 1st holder of that office to be appointed to the Supreme Court. He has been followed as such by Stanley Reed, Robert H. Jackson, Thurgood Marshall and Elena Kagan. Another, Robert Bork, was appointed to the Court, but rejected by the Senate.

Taft and his wife Helen were invited to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt early in 1908. TR had already announced he would not run for what would have amounted to a 3rd term, and kiddingly told Taft that he could see the future. He saw a large man taking a great job -- but was it the Presidency, or the Chief Justiceship?

Will Taft said, "Let it be the Chief Justiceship."

Helen Taft, always more ambitious than her husband, said, "Let it be the Presidency."

The Presidency it was, and Will Taft was easily nominated at the 1908 Republican Convention in Chicago, and was elected in a landslide. But he took a more conservative course than TR did, and TR tried to regain the Republican nomination for President in 1912. When he failed, he ran a 3rd-party campaign, and, having said some very nasty things about Taft, finished ahead of him, but was unable to defeat the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson. Taft and TR made up before the latter's death in 1919.

In 1920, Senator Warren G. Harding was elected President. A fellow Republican from Ohio, Harding invited Taft to his home in Marion after the election, and promised him a Supreme Court appointment. Taft knew that Edward D. White, whom he had appointed Chief Justice in 1910, was ill, and told Harding that he didn't want to be an Associate Justice, only the Chief Justice.

White died in office on May 19, 1921. Harding was a weak man, who basically did everything his 1920 campaign manager, Harry Daugherty, told him to do, including to make Daugherty himself the U.S. Attorney General. Taft knew this, and lobbied Daugherty for the post. It worked: On June 30, 1921, Harding appointed Taft to be the new Chief Justice of the United States. Without holding a single hearing, and with a brief debate, the U.S. Senate confirmed him that very same day. The vote was 61-4, the "Nay" votes coming from a Southern Democrat and 3 progressive Republicans who had supported Roosevelt over him in 1912.

He was sworn in on July 11, and, to this day, he remains the only person to serve as both President of the United States and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, let alone the Chief Justice.

Charles Evans Hughes was unsuccessfully nominated by the Republicans in 1916, after he was an associate Justice but before he was Chief Justice. Earl Warren ran for the Republican nomination in 1944 and 1948, and was unsuccessfully nominated for Vice President in 1948, and was later named Chief Justice.

Taft led the Court through the 1920s, a very conservative period that saw very conservative decisions by the Court. He was a great deal happier in his new job, and his weight, once a Presidential record 340 pounds -- possibly broken by Donald Trump, but his Administration wouldn't tell us the truth -- dropped to 244 by 1929.

However, by that point, his heart and liver were failing. He had delivered the Oath of Office correctly to President Calvin Coolidge when he was inaugurated for a full term on March 4, 1925: "...and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." But at President-elect Herbert Hoover's Inauguration on March 4, 1929, Taft, as great a constitutional scholar as was alive at that point, misquoted the Oath as stated in the Constitution: "and will, to the best of your ability, that you will preserve, and maintain, and defend the Constitution of the United States?"

(Hoover, unusually, instead of repeating the Oath entirely, as Franklin D. Roosevelt did the next 4 times, or phrase by phrase as given him by the Chief Justice, as every President since has done, simply said, "I do.") 

Taft realized his mind was no longer sharp. A trip home to Cincinnati for his brother Charles' funeral in January 1930 damaged his physical health further. He asked Hoover to promise him that his replacement as Chief Justice would be Hughes, who had been Secretary of State under Harding and Coolidge, rather than the more liberal Harlan Stone, a Coolidge appointee. Hoover agreed, and Taft resigned on February 3.

He died on March 8, 1930, at the age of 72. Because he was still living in Washington, he became the 1st President -- and also the 1st Supreme Court Justice -- to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (The only President so honored since has been John F. Kennedy. Presidents tend to be buried in their hometowns, or at their Presidential Libraries -- usually, the Library is in their hometown.) His wife Helen lived on until 1943.

Taft is regarded as one of the better Chief Justices, but not as one of the better Presidents. He would have agreed with both assessments.

His son, Robert A. Taft, would serve Ohio in the U.S. Senate, and run for President 3 times, though he never got the Republican nomination. He was so conservative, he would be known as "Mr. Republican." He died in 1953, in office as Senate Majority Leader. His son, Robert Taft Jr., served Ohio in both houses of Congress. And his son, Bob Taft, served 2 terms as Governor of Ohio.

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June 30, 1921 was a Thursday. There were 4 baseball games played that day:

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at League Park in Cleveland. Ty Cobb went 3-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Tris Speaker went 1-for-4 with a walk. Each man was now his team's player-manager.

* And the St. Louis Browns swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox, 6-1 and 1-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Ray Kolp pitched a 4-hit shutout in the nightcap. Eddie Collins made only 1 plate appearance, as an unsuccessful pinch-hitter in the nightcap. Over the 2 games, George Sisler went 4-for-8.

June 12, 1920: The Smoke-Filled Room

June 12, 1920: The Republican Convention is held at the Chicago Coliseum. With the nation tired of the moralizing and international engaging of the Democratic incumbent, Woodrow Wilson, the Republicans think they have a golden opportunity to take the Presidency. They just have to find the right man.

That proved harder than they thought. On the 1st ballot, General Leonard Wood, one of the heroes of World War I, led the balloting. He was followed by Frank Lowden and Hiram Johnson, the Governors of Illinois and California, respectively. Through 4 ballots, Wood led, but couldn't get a majority. On the 5th ballot, Lowden took the lead, but also couldn't get a majority. Through 8 ballots, it was still a toss-up between Wood and Lowden, but neither could get a majority.

So the leaders of the Party retreated to a room at the Blackstone Hotel, gathered in what became known as the famous "smoke-filled room," because of all the cigar smoking, and looked for a compromise candidate, one that supporters of Wood, Lowden and Johnson could all get behind.

The Blackstone Hotel

Harry Daugherty, Chairman of the Republican Party of Ohio, suggested his State's Senator, Warren Harding, especially since the Democrats seemed likely to nominate that State's Governor, Jim Cox. Harding, 54 years old, was running for his 2nd term in the U.S. Senate, having previously been the Lieutenant Governor and a State Senator. He was good-looking enough to attract female voters, who, it appeared, would be legalized through the upcoming ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Most importantly, like any good "compromise candidate," he had no enemies.

But most of the men in the room didn't know anything about him. There were good reasons to pick him. Was there a good reason to not pick him? Harding was called into the room, and was asked if there was anything about him that might embarrass the Party.

Hearing the question, Harding excused himself, left the room, returned 15 minutes later, and said, "No." That leaving of the room, as well as those 15 minutes, should each have been a red flag to the men in the smoke-filled room. They took his word for it, anyway.

So what did Harding do in the intervening 15 minutes? It is believed by historians that he made phone calls to his mistresses, Nan Britton (who had already given birth to his illegitimate daughter) and Carrie Phillips, and arranged for payment for their silence.

Harding wasn't actually running before this, and hadn't considered that such arrangements would be necessary. Daugherty had put his name in nomination as a formality, and as a favor for a friend. Harding had trailed badly on the 1st 6 ballots, and gained on the 7th and the 8th. With this new support, he took the lead on the 9th ballot, and got a majority and the nomination on the 10th.

Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, who had become nationally famous with his handling of a police strike in Boston, was nominated for Vice President. Given each man's character, the country would have been better off if the GOP nominations were the other way around: Coolidge, the strong, clean, intelligent executive whose experience ran from farm to small town to big city, for President; and Harding, the amiable, potentially scandalous nonentity, for Vice President.

Eight weeks later, on July 26, 1920, H.L. Mencken wrote this in The Baltimore Evening Sun:

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

After winning the election, Harding appointed Daugherty to be the U.S. Attorney General. After Harding's death, Daugherty was wrapped up in the Teapot Dome scandal, and Coolidge fired him. Daugherty later escaped a criminal conviction by the vote of 1 juror.

The Republican Party only required a simple majority of the delegates to get the nominations for President and Vice President. Until 1932, the Democratic Party required a two-thirds majority. Once the Democrats dropped that requirement for their 1936 Convention, a "smoke-filled room" full of wheeler-dealer Party officials, accountable to no voter, was never again needed to help select a major-party nominee for President. There would, however, be occasions when one would be needed to select a Vice Presidential nominee: The Democrats with Harry Truman in 1944 and Thomas Eagleton in 1972, and the Republicans with Spiro Agnew in 1968.

Built in 1910, the 21-story Blackstone Hotel still stands, at 636 South Michigan Avenue.

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June 12, 1920 was a  Saturday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at League Park in Cleveland. Ray Caldwell outpitched Jack Quinn. Tris Speaker, the Indians' manager and center fielder, went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Babe Ruth went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at the Polo Grounds. Jesse Haines pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known during Wilbert Robinson's managing, from 1914 to 1931) lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Ebbets Field.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Braves, 8-1 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-3 at Navin Field in Detroit. (It would later be renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium.) Ty Cobb did not play.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 9-8 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. It was a rare bad pitching performance from Walter Johnson.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 15-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. George Sisler went 3-for-6 with an RBI.