Tempest in a Teapot Dome

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Nowadays we are shocked when a politician manages to do his or her job without a scandal attached to them. It really isn’t anything new, if you think about it: studying about Tammany Hall in the 19th century will make you think a lot of today’s politicians are saints by comparison. One hundred years ago next week the sixth U.S. president to die while in office passed away. That was Warren G. Harding. Most people consider him one of the absolute WORST presidents in American history, thanks in no small part to something that came to light after his death: the Teapot Dome scandal. Not only the first, but definitely the worst, according to many historians of the time. Albert Fall, Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, became the first presidential cabinet member in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime. That put a permanent blemish on Harding’s presidency; which, granted, didn’t last very long to begin with. Elected in 1920, he died on August 2, 1923 while on a trip to San Francisco. (Oh, for the record, Harding was also a womanizer, fathering a child by an Oregon secretary. Some have speculated that Harding’s “sudden illness” was actually his wife poisoning him after finding out about his trysts.) Harding was the seventh and most recent U.S. president to hail from Ohio. (Two of our assassinated presidents, McKinley and Garfield, were also native Buckeyes.) After his death in August 1923 his body was returned to his native soil, where he was buried in his hometown of Marion. His wife, Florence Kling Harding, died 15 months later. The photos you see are the burial site for the couple, erected by private donations from citizens of the area who wanted to honor their native son. Harding’s name may be forgotten, or if remembered at all, attached to scandal. However, he was our president. And, as the centennial of his death is soon, I felt it was only right to pay respects at his grave. COLLAGE: (Top) The memorial (Bottom) Interior, with the graves of Harding (left) and his wife