Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents to that point. Harding died of a heart attack in San Francisco while on a western tour and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge.

About Warren G. Harding in brief

Summary Warren G. HardingWarren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents to that point. After his death, a number of scandals—including Teapot Dome—came to light, as did his extramarital affair with Nan Britton; each eroded his popular regard. Harding died of a heart attack in San Francisco while on a western tour and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge. Harding lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when political service took him elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star and built it into a successful newspaper. He served in the Ohio State Senate from 1900 to 1904, then as lieutenant governor for two years. He was defeated for governor in 1910, but was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1914. He won in a landslide over Democrat James M. Cox and the then imprisoned Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs and became the first sitting senator to be elected president. Harding released political prisoners who had been arrested for their opposition to World War I. His cabinet members Albert B. Fall and Harry Daugherty were each later tried for corruption in office; Fall was convicted though Daughers was not. Harding appointed a number. of well-regarded figures to his cabinet, including Andrew Mellon at Treasury, Herbert Hoover at the Department of Commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes at the State Department. In 2015, genetic testing of Harding’s descendants determined, with more than a 95% chance of accuracy, that he lacked sub-Saharan African forebears within four generations.

In Harding’s youth, the majority of the population still lived on farms and would spend much of his life in Marion, Ohio, a small city. When Harding rose to high office, he made clear his love of Marion and would become closely associated with it. He had a brief stint as a teacher and made a brief attempt at studying law, then raised 300 USDs as an insurance man. He remained a janitor and remained a love of the school, suggesting that the man, once the pride of Marion, had once enjoyed success elsewhere, while suggesting that he was once the “pride and joy” of Marion. In his final year at Ohio Central, the Harding family moved to Ohio, about 6 miles from Caledonia, and when he graduated in 1882, he would join them. He would become much associated with Marion, and would spent much time with it, becoming closelyassociated with it and would remain a love and joy of the town. He and a friend put out a small newspaper, the Iberia Spectator, during their final year in Ohio, intended to appeal to both the college and town. His great-great grandfather Amos Harding claimed that a thief had been caught in the act by the family, in an attempt at extortion or revenge. In late 1879, at the age of 14, Harding enrolled at his father’s alma mater—Ohio Central College in IberIA—where he proved an adept student.