Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding is commonly listed alongside Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in American history. The Harding Administration, even in the face of its immense popularity during the era it presided over - popularity Pierce, Buchanan, and Johnson all lacked - Harding has been eternally condemned to the title of bottom 10 president. Rarely has he escaped the humiliating prison of historians' scathing rejection. Yet, this judgment is unfair. Unlike Pierce, Harding did not push the nation to the brink of war with Spain or help dig the country into the pit of civil war with a law as horrific as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Unlike Buchanan, Harding did not sit on his hands as an entire region of the country began to break away. Unlike Johnson, Harding did not attempt to permanently jeopardize the rights of black Americans. But not only did Harding lack the destructiveness of his bedfellows at the bottom of America's presidential rankings, he was actually a good president.

Immediately after entering the White House on March 4, 1921, Harding initiated an ambitious set of domestic reforms. These reforms included the creation of the Government Accounting Office, which still exists today. This agency exists to monitor and analyze government spending with the goal of preventing wasteful and unnecessary spending. Harding also increased tariffs, which as a protectionist, I support. Before I move on, I will note that while I generally support these policies, there are 2 early Harding decisions that I disagree with. One is his reduction in income taxes. The second is more complex.

On May 19, 1921, Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act. This was an attempt to quell the influx of immigrants into America and from Europe, which was left in ruins after WW1. Under this law, only 3% of the number of people from a specific European country living in the US at the time of the 1910 census were allowed to move to America from the European nation in question each year. Harding gets a lot of criticism for this policy, and I disagree with it as well. However, this law, as much as I dislike it, was never meant to be a permanent restriction. It was always supposed to expire once conditions in Europe improved. Yes, it was the wrong choice, but the extent of its issues tends to be overstated.

Domestically, Harding continued to do great things even after completing his original set of reforms. Harding's predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, was president during the entirety of WW1. When the US entered the conflict on April 6, 1917, Wilson signed the Espionage and Sedition Acts, a set of laws that criminalized opposition to the American involvement in the conflict. While Wilson repealed the policies when the war drew to a close, those prosecuted under it remained imprisoned. After replacing Wilson, Harding instructed the Department of Justice to inspect each case involving a violation of these laws and to decide whether or not each person being punished deserved a pardon. Because of this, many people unfairly penalized under the Espionage and Sedition Acts were set free.

Harding also was a strong supporter of civil rights. While he did implement restrictions on immigration, he was also appalled by the treatment of black Americans at the time. Throughout his presidency, Harding routinely gave speeches denouncing racism and calling for more rights for America's black population. His dedication to civil rights, at one point, also transformed from words into action, as he tried to pass an anti-lynching law.

In terms of foreign policy, Harding also did a lot of good. While I'm critical of his attempts to transform the American banking industry into a major economic power, Harding deserves credit for his success in convincing various nations to reduce the size and scope of their navies. Harding also brokered the Nine-Power Treaty, a pledge in which all signing countries agreed to never make attempts at annexing Chinese territory. Additionally, Harding convinced several Arab countries to allow the US to drill for oil within their territories.

What I consider to be Harding's greatest diplomatic and geopolitical achievement, however, is the Dawes Plan. For context, on June 28, 1919, 7 months after WW1 ended, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Among other things, this document required the German government was given the burden of paying off every single debt acquired as a result of the First World War. This atrocious provision was actually a major reason Hitler took power. The German government eventually began printing money in a desperate effort to pay off the debt. This resulted in a severe inflation crisis that Hitler blamed on the Jews. Many Germans liked this simple explanation, making Hitler and the NSDAP both extremely popular, contributing to their eventual capture of state power. Harding, however, with the Dawes Plan, may have been able to prevent - or at least mitigate - this issue.

Under the Dawes Plan, the American government sent economic aid to Germany. The German government would, in turn, use this money to stimulate its economy. This increased tax revenue, hence giving Berlin more money with which to help pay off its debt from the Treaty of Versailles.

Of course, this also goes without mentioning the reason Harding is so disdained by historians: The corruption of the Harding Administration. Obviously, I am critical of Harding's corruption. However, the story is often oversimplified. Harding himself wasn't extremely corrupt. It was his officials - his cabinet - who were the corrupt ones. No story better exemplifies this fact than that of the Teapot Dome Affair.

President William Howard Taft - who, ironically, Harding, a Republican, gained national fame by delivering the 1912 speech announcing Taft as that year's Republican nominee - reserved Teapot Dome, an oil field in Wyoming, to solely naval use. In other words, the oil in Teapot Dome was only to be drilled by the government and only if the navy was short on oil. However, Albert Fall, Harding's secretary of the interior, allowed the Mammoth Oil Company, a private oil corporation, to drill the oil from Teapot Dome and use it for its own uses. In exchange, Fall received gifts and loans. Additionally, the company assisted in the construction of a government-owned storage facility in Hawaii and a public oil pipeline connecting Wyoming to Missouri. Harding played no role in this deal. It was entirely Fall and the Mammoth Oil Company.

Then, in April of 1922, an incident took place in which a group of oilmen working in Wyoming saw a truck with the Mammoth Oil Company logo on it driving toward Teapot Dome. They reported it to the press, and news of the incident quickly spread across the country. Congress even attempted to establish a committee tasked with investigating the event. However, Harding worked to suppress these investigations, a move that clearly warrants criticism. But Harding's involvement in the scandal was that and nothing more: One of suppression. As bad as that is, it is not as bad as actually brokering the original deal in and of itself.

Harding was a good president. He raised tariffs, founded the Government Accounting Office, pardoned people unjustly prosecuted for criticizing US involvement in WW1, and instituted a wonderful foreign policy. His corruption, while indefensible, has been overblown. Rather than being accurately depicted as what it was, historians have inflated the issue into an enormous distraction artificially blocking out all of Harding's accomplishments.