President Warren Harding, POTUS #29 was born on this day in 1865.

Ten Notes On President Warren Harding

1. Warren Harding is considered one of the worst presidents in American history. Some survey’s among historians have ranked him as the worst but when he was POTUS he was a popular president. He only served 2 1/2 years in office before dying on a trip out west in 1923. He was succeeded by his Vice President Calvin Coolidge.

2. Warren Harding was the person who coined the phrase “Founding Fathers” about the men who started our country. I remember when I first heard this I was kind of shocked. I figured the term had been around a lot longer than that.

3. Harding was 6 foot, had gray eyes and white hair. He did not have a long career in politics. He had been a newspaper editor in Marion, Ohio. He was a Baptist. He went to college at Ohio Central College. His political offices he held- City auditor, Marion, Ohio in 1895, Member of the Ohio State Senate 1899-1903, Lieutenant Governor of Ohio 1904-05, U.S. Senate 1915-21. One of Harding’s main qualifications it seems for his becoming a presidential candidate was that he looked like one.

4. One of the things that Harding is remembered for is something that the public didn’t know about when he was alive-that he had a mistress named Nan Britton who bore him a child in 1919. The daughter who was Harding’s only biological child died in 2005. Kind of the John Edwards of his day except the news never came out at the time. Supposedly Harding never saw the child.  Harding had another affair with a woman named Carrie Phillips. This affair didn’t come out until his love letters to her were discovered in 1960. Republican party bosses paid her off to keep her silent while Harding was running for POTUS and while he was POTUS.

5. President Harding gave the first presidential speech on the radio. It was on June 14th, 1922 in Baltimore. He was there dedicating the Francis Scott Key Memorial.

6. Warren Harding was one of those people who was very well liked by those who knew him but he did not have a first-rate mind, or a second-rate mind. He wasn’t good at making decisions. He was indecisive. As POTUS he was in way over his head. He looked the part of a United States Senator and a POTUS but it was just that, looks. Too bad Theodore Roosevelt passed away in 1919. If TR had lived Harding wouldn’t have come close to getting the Republican nomination. He would have remained in the senate and his name would be forgotten today.

7. The thing that Harding is most remembered for isn’t a good thing- its scandals. The biggest of the scandals was the Teapot Dome Scandal. Most of this didn’t come to light until after Harding’s death and their is no evidence that Harding himself was involved. Albert Fall who was the Secretary of the Interior became the first former Cabinet member to go to prison. Teapot Dome was an oil reserve in Wyoming. Fall was convicted of taking a bribe.

8. In the summer of 1923 Harding went on an extensive tour of Alaska, Canada and the West Coast of the United States. When he arrived in San Francisco Harding became ill with what was thought to be pneumonia. His health appeared to be improving a bit but then he suddenly died in the middle of a conversation with his wife. There has always been controversy over the cause of death. Mrs. Harding refused to allow an autopsy. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was now the POTUS.

9. There were always rumours that Florence Harding the POTUS wife was involved in killing her husband. These remain just rumours. The thinking by those who believe that is she was tired of his womanizing and offed him. Highly doubtful.

10. Prohibition was in effect during the Harding presidency but Harding ignored that fact. He was famous for having late night poker games at the White House with his friends and liquor freely flowed.