Harding, Warren G(amaliel) 1865-1923
29th President of the USA

Born in Blooming Grove (now Corsica), Ohio, a doctor's son, he was a journalist and newspaper owner (the Marion Star), then entered politics as a Republican and served as a state senator (1899-1903) and Lieutenant-Governor (1902-06) of Ohio. During his term in the US Senate (1915-20), he proved himself an unremarkable party loyalist, and perhaps because he was offensive to nobody, in 1920 he was the compromise choice as the Republican presidential candidate. He promised a 'return to normalcy' after World War I, and his presidency (1921-23) saw the conclusion of peace treaties with Germany, Austria and Hungary, and the negotiation (1921) of a naval arms-limitation treaty at the Washington Naval Conference. Politically naive, he had little notion of the real activities of his appointees and advisers until 1923, when during a transcontinental tour he received word that the corrupt schemes of several of his Cabinet members were on the verge of being exposed. This shock probably contributed to his sudden death in San Francisco soon afterwards. The investigations that followed brought to light the Teapot Dome scandal and revealed a level of corruption seldom matched in US presidential history.

Bibliography: Andrew Sinclair, The Available Man: The Life Behind the Masks of Warren Gamaliel Harding (1965)