Warren G. Harding: The Most Corrupt President in US History

this video is brought to you by squarespace whether it's your new profession or just a lifelong passion start your journey to website glory with squarespace check out their amazing all in one platform through the link in the description below more on them in a bit in the annals of presidential history there are certain names that come etched in gold abraham lincoln george washington franklin d roosevelt names that will forever be remembered as the pinnacles of american leadership but then you have the other end of the scale the names that aren't so much etched in precious metals as hastily scrawled in a mixture of dog feces and liquid shame names like james buchanan or andrew johnson names like warren g harding a business friendly playboy more interested in girls and booze than running the nation harding has the distinction of presiding over the most corrupt white house in u.s history as the 20s roared his ohio gang lined their pockets fleecing the nation and partook in the teapot dome scandal a swindle so great it was declared the most stupendous piece of thievery known to our annals but was there more to this party president than meets the eye despite his abysmal reputation harding died so beloved that it's thought nine million people lined his coffins rude to pay their respects today we're investigating how the 29th president got his crooked reputation and if it's one he really deserves [Music] when as a presidential candidate the wealthy warren g harding wanted to connect with common people it would be to his childhood he turned again and again born shortly after the civil war ended on november 2nd 1865 harding's early life was a rural fairy tale his parents were ohio farmers turned country doctors and harding's boyhood was spent swimming in creeks working with animals and playing in the local village band educated in a one-room schoolhouse he knew everybody in his area and they knew him by his teenage years he was so tall and athletic everyone referred to him as adonis in short it was an idyllic childhood one he'd lay to play on to boost his popularity but had you told locals at the time that this easy-going ohio lad would one day be president they'd probably have laughed in your face that's because young warren g harding was almost singularly unambitious after graduating from ohio central college in 1882 the future 29th president didn't go diving straight into politics no instead he did some teaching tried his hand at sales thought about getting into law and took some odd writing jobs it was only through sheer dumb luck that he ever landed on a solid career in 1884 the four-page weekly marion star was on the brink of collapse reasoning it might be fun to run a newspaper harding and two friends raised 300 and bought it out they then set about transforming it into one of the kindliest papers in ohio easygoing as a child harding by now had grown into a man so genial he probably would shampoo your ball sack if he thought it would make you like him under his watch the star's coverage became instinctively deferential to republicans and democrats alike hodding refused to publish bad stories unless absolutely necessary and became famous for never firing a single employee this made the star go down super well with ohio's political elite and harding soon won himself some powerful friends but it would be thanks to one woman that the star really took off the florence mabel klingdewolf was divorced five years harding senior and with a son from a previous marriage she was also relatively wealthy and absolutely convinced the handsome well-liked harding could be a great man in fact she was so sure of this that she pursued him relentlessly until harding finally caved in 1891 the pair married that year although it was touch and go convinced by a local rumor that harding had hidden black ancestry florence's father threatened to shoot him if he touched her really though harding's new father-in-law should have been less worried about his racial background and more about his champion philandering harding was firmly of the if it has a pulse it's worth a shot school of seduction and art he carried into his marriage without batting an eyelid as his own father declared if you were a girl warren you'd be in the family way all the time you can't say no but while dad was talking about harding's horndog tendencies it was also a pretty good description of his soul friends family girls wives rivals no matter who was asking things of him harding was almost constitutionally incapable of saying no it was a tendency that would one day land him in a teapot full of very hot water but that would all come later by the end of the 1890s florence's money had turned the marian star into a hit and the genial harding into a respected businessman with strong connections to ohio's republican party there was only one logical next step to take it was time to get into politics if you ever needed living proof that the old adage dress for the job you want not for the job you have look no further than warren harding despite his lack of leadership qualities harding had an impressive knack for looking like someone who should be in charge tall well-dressed and with eyebrows that deserve their own biographics harding was the epitome of what voters thought a politician should look like so when florence pushed him into running for the ohio senate in 1899 the outcome was almost inevitable in his two terms and brief stint as lieutenant governor harding managed to build a solid reputation in his home state he was good at making friends rarely made enemies and knew who to secret favors for in return for advancement by the time he stepped down to return to the newspaper business harding was a political force to be reckoned with unfortunately all that good will would very nearly be sabotaged by his best friend jerry jerry esc is what harding used to call his penis and by god did harding have trouble controlling jerry in 1905 jerry made the acquaintance of carrie phillips the wife of one of harding's best friends while that friend was in a sanitarium recovering from a brutal bout of depression harding seduced phillips thus beginning an affair that would last 15 long years all of which harding recorded in cringy love letters with sentences like i hurt with insatiable longing until i feel that there will never be any relief until i take a long deep wild draft on your lips and then bury my face on your pillowing breasts now to all our female viewers if your breasts start pillowing consult a doctor fun as the affair was for jerry it was also supremely foolish affairs can still sink political careers now back in harding's era they could have you metaphorically tarred and feathered and run out of politics on the railroad harding himself seems to have recognized this in 1913 he wrote to philip's strongly hinting that he might like to leave his wife and marry her instead making their sex capades legit the timing wasn't coincidental by now harding was a rising star he introduced william howard taft on stage after his re-nomination in 1912 earning boos from the pro-roosevelt faction he was planning a run for the senate so this was the perfect moment to neutralize a possible scandal by marrying phillips sadly the plan didn't exactly work out phillips responded by saying that she'd rather start seeing other men breaking harding's heart but even if she had agreed to become his wife it's unlikely jerry would have gone along with it in 1914 while in the middle of his senate campaign harding met a teenage girl named nan britain who developed a crush on him it was the start of yet another multi-year affair one that would coincide with his rise to the very top harding won his senate seat in 1914 with such a crushing margin that he immediately began being talked about as a future presidential candidate again this had little to do with his actual political skills during his time in congress harding missed more than two-thirds of all votes preferring playing poker and making friends over the dull grind of lawmaking still rally voting meant rarely making enemies come 1916 harding was chairman of the republican national convention and making its keynote speech he seemed unstoppable it was at this point that the time bomb had set himself years earlier finally exploded as woodrow wilson's presidency entered at second term carrie phillips wrote to harding with a simple request either he start paying her big money or she would tell the whole world about what jerry had been up to as dangerous as news of an affair might be the hoddings career it was who it had the affair whiz that really threatened to take him down carrie phillips was a hardcore germanophile a fully paid-up kaiser fan girl when war broke out in europe in 1914 she became a vocal backer of the central powers using her influence to try and get harding to sign with germany this was bad enough when the u.s was officially neutral but after washington declared war on berlin in april 1917 it made their affair as politically toxic as weapons-grade plutonium terrified of the possible fallout from this political chernobyl harding arranged to pay phillips 5 000 a year in hush money when she demanded more he turned to the republican national committee for help in exchange for asylums phillips was bung in another twenty thousand dollars and was given an all-expenses paid trip to japan in all it's estimated that keeping harding's a fair secret cost around three hundred thousand dollars in today's money that's just his affair with phillips in 1919 the now 20-something man britain secretly gave birth to harding's love child the senator quickly arranged yet another round of monthly payments to cover up jerry's excapades the two women finally paid off harding could at last turn his attention to what he wanted most of all to run for president actually that's not quite true a more accurate rendering might be that harding's friends desperately wanted him to run for president while the genial harding was simply happy to go along for the ride the long shot bid was dreamed up by the rich ahayan harry dougherty who loved telling anyone who'd listened that harding would win because he looks like a president but doughty knew there was more to it than that the republican field was crowded that year so crowded that the convention would clearly have to nominate a compromise candidate dougherty's stroke of genius was to position harding as the ultimate compromise a friendly senator who knew all the party bigwigs from poker games and hadn't made a political enemy in his life it was a plan that would hand harding the presidency at the 1920 republican convention in chicago the party deadlocked on the 10th ballot according to legend the gop's elites then retired to a smoky back room at the blackstone hotel where they agreed to make the inoffensive harding their man and that's how a one-term senator from ohio landed at the top of the gop ticket with calvin coolidge as his running mate for harding it was the best possible time to be leading his party's white house bid by now woodrow wilson was badly ill and his progressive agenda deeply unpopular in fact the whole progressive era was starting to be perceived as a needless exhausting expansion of government rather than put forward a vision for america all harding had to do was say what his presidency wouldn't be like it wouldn't be anything like wilson's under the slogan return to normalcy harding campaigned for an ill-defined cliched return to some non-existent golden past that even he couldn't articulate not that it mattered it turned out that bland cliches was exactly what america wanted to hear on election day harding and coolidge crushed it at the ballot box winning what was then the biggest landslide since the unopposed election of 1820. not only did harding take 60 to the popular vote and sweep the electoral college he even took tennessee becoming the first republican since reconstruction to win a former confederate state inaugurated on march the 4th 1921 warren g harding became president at the head of the republican party that commanded huge majorities in both chambers of congress he could also reshape the country however he saw fit yet it would soon transpire that reshaping america is exactly what harding didn't want to do even as he stood before the roaring crowd the new president knew in his bones that he wasn't up for the job i am not fit for this office and should never have been here later say in private not even warren harding could have realized just how right his withering assessment would turn out to be now we'll get back to presidential politics of days gone by in just a moment but first here's a word from today's sponsor squarespace you know what's great about the summer vacation time off a little bit of r r it's the perfect time to spend lounging around on the beach or in the park daydreaming about that next project 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her in a closet right next to the oval office he also liked to drink expensive liquor in a time when prohibition was the law of the land yet despite all this he wasn't entirely useless today there's a small but growing number of history buffs he'll tell you that harding did some worthwhile or even great things during his term so before we get into all the scandals let's take a quick look at the other side at the things the 29th president got right perhaps the biggest of all was race relations at a time when the ku klux klan was resurgent and race relations were less in the gutter than drowning at the bottom of a very deep well harding became an unlikely champion of tolerance in october of 1921 he stood before a racially segregated audience in birmingham alabama and gave a blistering speech calling for economic equality between white and black people whether you like it or not he thundered unless our democracy is a lie you must stand for that equality that same year he expended a ton of political capital supporting the dire bill and ultimately failed but pioneering effort to make lynching a federal crime yet it wasn't just on racial issues that harding went hardcore for equality in his short time in office he commuted the sentences of 24 political prisoners locked up during world war one by the wilson administration created the veterans bureau the forerunner of the department of veterans affairs and passed a short-lived bill that funded new healthcare clinics for children and pregnant women that last one by the way was responsible for a 9 drop in infant mortality in the years that it was active in stuff like this you can almost see the great president warren harding might have become for all his faults for all his weaknesses deep down he really did seem to want nothing more than to make everyone happy sure that often took the form of letting friends push him around but it also meant a desire to support minorities former soldiers and poor mothers that went well beyond what the era expected of him it was harding you helped push the then mighty steel industry for an eight-hour workday harding that passed laws that led to a balanced budget unthinkable in the wilson era had he had just a tad more energy had he spent less time playing poker and more time using his office to force through stuff like the dire bill he'd probably today be remembered as a champion of america's underdogs sadly though that energy was something harding simply lacked this was something he himself recognized to combat his own deficiencies he brought in outside help to do all of the heavy lifting at its best this policy resulted in guys like charles g dawes and herbert hoover running their departments like well-old machines at his worst well things got seriously bad as we're about to see it was the outside help that would soon suck warren harding's reputation into one of the biggest political quagmires in history if you're into googling long dead presidents and let's face it since you're watching this video you probably are you might have stumbled across this harding quote before i have no trouble with my enemies i can take care of my enemies all right but my damn friends they're the ones who keep me walking the floor nights those friends were a bunch of sleazebags harding mostly knew from his ohio days known to history as the ohio gang they were so corrupt they could have given the mob a run for its money one notorious member was harry doherty the businessman who'd helped harding win the republican nomination now attorney general he developed a racket in defrauding the government misappropriating property confiscated during world war one and selling it to line his own pockets on a whole other level was the corruption of charles r forbes despite being part of the ohio gang forbes wasn't actually from the buckeye state no he was just a friend of harding's a friend harding made director of his newly created veterans bureau only for forbes to not just embezzle money earmarked to veterans but also steal drugs and medicinal alcohol from hospitals and sell them onto bootleggers and forbes wasn't even the worst as a whole the ohio gang were responsible for theft bribery extortion securities fraud witness tampering blackmail racketeering perjury and many other crimes are just too numerous to list at their best they were like a black hole at the center of government devouring public funds at their worst they were actively involved in stuff like smuggling craziest part harding was aware of all of it now maybe he didn't know the specifics but he knew for sure that his little gang was up to no good it was just he enjoyed their company too much he valued their friendship too much to even suggest that they try reining in their behavior as his father had noted all those years ago harding just couldn't say no to anyone not even albert fall a paid up sticker fat for the oil industry senator fall was also a bribe-taking machine it would be fall's actions more than those of any others that would soon hurl warren harding's reputation into a dumpster and it would be all thanks to a little outcrop of rock in wyoming that resembled a teapot back in 1909 the navy had requested certain oil reserves be put aside for possible emergency use among these reserves was the wyoming site known as teapot dome but while this was good planning on the navy's part for the rich oil men it felt like a slap in the face why were these reservoirs of black gold going untapped especially when they could make those who extracted them silly money it was a line of thinking albert paul was sympathetic to so sympathetic when harding made him secretary of the interior he all but openly winked at the oil barons and said watch this in 1921 fall asked harding to put the reserves under his department the moment harding had signed off on the idea fall was drawing up secret agreements with oil industry chums harry sinclair and edward doheny in return for a chance to tap these sites sinclair and derney would merely have to fulfill minor obligations to the government provided albert fall and possibly warren harding were paid well nothing would stand between these caricature capitalists and scrooge mcduck levels of wealth it was the beginning of the teapot dome scandal a pr disaster that would soon become the greatest example of presidential misconduct this side of watergate was also the scandal that would turn warren harding's name into mud [Music] the expose that would send teapot dome boiling over came barely a year into harding's presidency on april 14th 1922 the wall street journal broke the news of the corrupt deal the very next day wyoming senator john kendrick began a formal investigation by then the corruption was already out of control for example there was the other old man colonel james g darden who decided he'd been stiffed of the chance to tap teapot dome and began drilling regardless this forced harding to send the marines to stop him only for denver post reporters to document the entire incident to by their silence fall arranged a million-dollar bribe for the editors then there was albert fall himself in return for teapot dome paul was given a hundred thousand dollar loan by the oil baron doheny to build himself a fancy ranch dropped off in bags by bernie's son ned while the other old man sinclair arranged to send full 300 000 in liberty bond but perhaps the more pressing question is was harding in on the corruption the conventional view is that harding was less corrupt than he was surrounded by crooks still he certainly had an idea of what fall was up to and may have even profited from it in 1923 harding's old newspaper attracted a huge offer in a deal that may have been a way of giving harding his cut of the teapot shaped pie there was also the luxury all expenses paid crews around the world sinclair offered to the president despite this we'll never know for sure if harding was in on it in the summer of 1923 just as the teapot dome investigation was heating up harding and his entourage set off on a tour of the western states at alaska it was billed as a chance for harding to reconnect with voters but other things were clearly weighing on his mind on the boat to alaska a troubled looking harding took his secretary of commerce herbert hoover to one side and asked him if you knew of a great scandal in our administration would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly or would you bury it hoover was all for telling the truth but harding would never get the chance as the party returned from alaska the president came down with a mysterious illness thinking it was food poisoning doctors rushed harding to san francisco there on the 2nd of august 1923 he died of a suspected heart attack while florence was reading to him he was 57. the death of warren g harding hit the nation like an apocalyptic asteroid with just over half of his first term complete harding was still in the honeymoon stage of his presidency when his body was returned to washington on board a slow-moving train it's estimated over nine million people lined the route to pay their respects it was an outpouring of grief a shared moment of love for a president cruelly snatched before his time it was also just about the last time anyone would ever feel anything but utter contempt for warren harding shocked by the stories of sleaze emerging about his former boss new president calvin coolidge appointed two special prosecutors to look into teapot dome although the investigation would drag on into herbert hoover's presidency it eventually uncovered a scandal so great it annihilated harding's reputation in 1929 albert four wound up becoming the first former cabinet secretary to be jailed for a crime committed while in office ohio gang member charles r forbes was likewise convicted of defrauding the government while harry doughty was forced to leave washington in disgrace even the crooked allman fared badly dany's son had died in a murder-suicide linked to teapot dome while the reserves were taken back under federal control it wasn't until 2015 that the site was at last sold for drilling this time in a legal manner but what of warren g harding himself at the moment he died most would have probably expected harding to go down as a mid-ranked president someone who was popular but didn't live long enough to get much done today though with everything we know about teapot dome the ohio gang and the love affairs and sleaze you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who'd put harding's presidency anywhere but the very bottom in some ways perhaps this is unfair for all his faults harding didn't send the nation spiraling towards civil war or get impeached or even have the misfortune like herbert hoover to preside over an economic crisis he simply lacked the vision to get anything done while also relying too much on friends who are willing to take advantage it's said that the presidency brings out the true character of a man that it shows people for who they really are in warren harding's case it simply showed the world how deeply mediocre he was how far had been promoted above his talents perhaps in the end the one thing harding should have said no to was the presidency itself so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe also please do check out fantastic sponsor for this episode squarespace linked to below and thank you for watching you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 1,289,647

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: aBZHXBS5rCY

Length: 24min 33sec (1473 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021