Warren, We Hardly Knew Yah

The hotel is reserved, the date is set, and I'm all ready to go. That's right, my first trip to the hometown & house & memorial of America's most misunderstood and underestimated president (Franklin Pierce a close #2) Warren Gamaliel Harding. Since my wife and I are attending a christening in Cincinnati, I figured this would be a perfect time to swing through Marion, Ohio and pay my respects to Warren.

What's not to like? Harding reduced taxes, reduced the budget, helped America emerge from the Wilson Depression (and was arguably more responsible for the real prosperity of the Roaring Twenties than Coolidge, who merely continued Harding's policies), and hired the best men available (don't get me started on Fall and Daugherty -- it's a fight you can't win). Besides that, he drank whiskey, played golf, dressed snazzy, and gave a darn good (if a bit windy) speech. Don't believe me? Check out the newly published book of Harding's speeches, just out from University of Missouri Press. Certainly the best overview of Harding is by Paul Johnson in his History of the American People, another book worth checking out.

So why do we hate Harding so much? Well, the conventional answer (aside from being a conservative, criminal in progressive eyes) is scandal, scandal that came in two forms: betrayal by his employees and "women trouble." Let's deal with these one at a time.

First, the "betrayals" came in essentially three waves. (a.) Charlies Forbes, the Veteran's Bureau Commissioner, made off with millions and eventually went to jail. People use Forbes as a way to say, "Gee, that Harding was a bad judge of character." Untrue, really -- William H. Taft, soon to be Chief Justice, recommended him highly, as did the American Legion. (b.) Harry Daugherty, the Attorney-General, was tried twice but never convicted of essentially selling favors. He was certainly qualified, being one of Ohio's most prominent corporation lawyers, and since he was one of Harding's campaign managers he deserved a place in the cabinet. Daugherty is a quizzical character; so many shady things and people around him, but so many highly esteemed and credible attorneys and judges thought the world of him. (c.) Albert Fall, Secretary of the Interior, went to jail for his part in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal. Teapot Dome always struck me as small-time; what was there, a few thousand bucks that changed hands? And Fall was qualified for the job -- he was approved unanimously by the Senate (an esteemed member of the Senate himself, specializing in western affairs) and was thought of highly by most in DC at that time. So, what does this add up to? Three people, all highly qualified and thought well of my most Americans/two genuine crooks and one found innocent/ one crook truly nefarious (Forbes, taking millions and shafting WW1 veterans), one crook pretty small time (the impoverished Fall used the few thousand to jazz up his ranch), and one who the prosecutors could not nail.

Second, I've always thought the women trouble really overdone. Did he have affairs? Absolutely no question about it, one rather silly and sloppy one with the wife of his neighbor. The one that gets all the attention is the Nan Britton affair, but Robert Farrell's The Strange Deaths of President Harding really cast doubt on this. And Carl Anthony's Florence Harding is wholly unreliable (a glance at his sources and bibliography is a horror show, as are the sweeping, smearing assertions he makes from them). They were immoral and wrong, but Harding was never a Bill Clinton lying under oath, or a John Kennedy shacking up with Nazi sympathizers and mafia bimbos.

So, lift a glass and toast Warren. A good man, wrongly smeared by progressive historians enamored by FDR and Wilson, who had some real accomplishments to his name in a short 2 1/2 years. Warren, we hardly knew yah.