The Ohio Gang was a gang of politicians and industry leaders closely surrounding Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States. Many of these individuals came into Harding's personal orbit during his tenure as a state-level politician in Ohio, hence the name.
During the Harding administration, several members of the Ohio Gang became involved in financial scandals. These included the Teapot Dome scandal and apparent malfeasance at the U.S. Department of Justice, some of which ended in prison terms and a suicide. Following Harding's sudden death of a heart attack in 1923, many members of the Ohio Gang were effectively removed from the corridors of power by Harding's vice president and successor, Calvin Coolidge.
Background
Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, chief perpetrator of the Teapot Dome bribery scandal
Warren G. Harding was elected president by promising to return the nation to "normalcy", and opposing the idealism of his predecessor Woodrow Wilson. He captured 60% of Americans’ votes and won by a landslide. After Harding had won the election, he appointed many of his allies and campaign contributors to powerful political positions in control of vast amounts of government money and resources.
Albert Fall was responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal. Teapot Dome was considered America's biggest political scandal up until Watergate. The group met regularly at the infamous Little Green House on K Street. Also associated with the secret hide out was Jesse W. Smith who was said to have committed suicide because he faced scrutiny from Harding's supporters about his activities.
There is no information that proves that Harding knew of the scandals that were going on during his time in office. He may not have learned much of it until the eve of his death. Fall was mainly responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal and was eventually jailed for taking bribes. Later President Coolidge forced the resignation of Daugherty for the same crimes.
Internal opposition
Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, one of the leaders of the so-called Ohio Gang
Not every member of the Harding administration was a member of the so-called "Ohio Gang." Among the critics of the clique was Harding's straitlaced Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, who while generally appreciative of Harding viewed the motivations and behavior of the Ohio Gang with thinly concealed disgust.[1]
In his memoirs, published in 1952, Hoover depicted Harding's Ohio cronies as a reflection of a character flaw:
[Harding] had another side which was not good. His political associates had been men of the type of Albert B. Fall, whom he appointed Secretary of the Interior; Daugherty, whom he appointed Attorney General; Forbes, whom he appointed Director of the Veterans' Bureau; Thomas W. Miller, whom he appointed Alien Property Custodian, and Jesse W. "Jess" Smith who had office room in the Department of Justice.
He enjoyed the company of these men and his old Ohio associates in and out of the government. Weekly White House poker parties were his greatest relaxation. The stakes were not large, but the play lasted most of the night.... I had lived too long on the frontiers of the world to have strong emotions against people playing poker for money if they liked it, but it irked me to see it in the White House.[1]
Although the religious Hoover was invited to the White House poker party only once and never invited back, he was nevertheless held in esteem by Harding, and he was abruptly added to the entourage for the President's July 1923 trip to Alaska, which came in the wake of Jess Smith's suicide.[2]
Even as Harding prepared to leave Washington, DC, Hoover found him "nervous and distraught," and his mood changed little on board ship to Alaska.[3] Hoover later recalled:
One day after lunch when we were a few days out, Harding asked me to come to his cabin. He plumped at me the question: "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?" My natural reply was "Publish it, and at least get credit for integrity on your side." He remarked that this method might be politically dangerous. I asked for more particulars. He said that he had received some rumors of irregularities, centering around Smith, in connection with cases in the Department of Justice. He had followed the matter up and finally sent for Smith. After a painful session he told Smith that he would be arrested in the morning. Smith went home, burned all his papers, and committed suicide. Harding gave me no information about what Smith had been up to. I asked what Daugherty's relations to the affair were. He abruptly dried up and never raised the question again.[3]
During his Alaskan trip Harding suffered the first heart attack in what would prove to be his last days.[4] Following Harding's death, Hoover and his co-thinker, Secretary of StateCharles Evans Hughes, approached new President Calvin Coolidge and asked him to remove prominent Ohio Gang member Daugherty as Attorney General.[5] Harding's death had done nothing to stem the tide of emerging scandals revolving around his Ohio clique, with the news dominated by the story of Teapot Dome bribery and allegations of wrongdoing in the Office of the Alien Property Custodian, the Veterans' Bureau, and the Office of the Attorney General.[6]
Hoover recalled:
Coolidge was loath to believe that such things were possible. He greatly delayed the removal of Daugherty from the Cabinet. From this man's long-time character, he should never have been in any government.... Coolidge had a high sense of justice and asserted that he had no definite knowledge of wrongdoings by Daugherty and could not remove him on rumors. We urged that Daugherty had lost the confidence of the whole country and himself should be willing to retire for the good of public service.[5]
Finally, on March 28, 1924, Coolidge requested and received a letter of resignation from Daugherty, effectively terminating the Ohio Gang's last leading member.[7]
The term "Ohio Gang", while used as an epithet by some during the decade of the 1920s and subsequently, was embraced by others. In his 1932 memoir Harry Daugherty unabashedly declared:
"...I was a true son of Ohio, the battle ground of the Nation. I frankly confess to a leadership in the so-called 'Ohio Gang' for about forty years. On the lips of rival politicians the 'Ohio Gang' is an epithet. I wear its badge as a mark of honor."[8]
1 2 Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933. New York: Macmillan, 1952; pg. 48
↑ Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933, pp. 48-49.
1 2 Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933, pg. 49.
↑ Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933, pp. 50-53.
1 2 Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933, pg. 54.
↑ Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933, pg. 53.
↑ Mark Grossman, "Harry Micajah Daugherty (1860-1941)," in Political Corruption in America: An Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power, and Greed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003; pp. 91-93.
↑ Harry M. Daugherty in collaboration with Thomas Dixon, The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy. New York: The Churchill Co., 1932; pg. 5.
Charles L. Mee, The Ohio Gang: The World of Warren G. Harding. New York: M. Evans and Co., 1981..
Related Research Articles
Calvin Coolidge was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929.
Herbert Clark Hoover was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. He was a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Great Depression in the United States. A self-made man who became rich as a mining engineer, Hoover led the Commission for Relief in Belgium, served as the director of the U.S. Food Administration, and served as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. After his death, a number of scandals were exposed, including Teapot Dome, as well as an extramarital affair with Nan Britton, which diminished his reputation.
The 1924 United States presidential election was the 35th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1924. In a three-way contest, incumbent Republican President Calvin Coolidge won election to a full term. Coolidge was the second vice president to ascend to the presidency and then win a full term.
The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. The leases were the subject of a seminal investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, Fall became the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison; no one was convicted of paying the bribes.
Harry Micajah Daugherty was an American politician. A key Ohio Republican political insider, he is best remembered for his service as Attorney General of the United States under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, as well as for his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal during Harding's presidency.
The 1920 Republican National Convention nominated Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding for president and Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge for vice president. The convention was held in Chicago, Illinois, at the Chicago Coliseum from June 8 to June 12, 1920, with 940 delegates. Under convention rules, a majority plus one, or at least 471 of the 940 delegates, was necessary for a nomination.
Atlee Pomerene was an American Democratic Party politician from Ohio. He represented Ohio in the United States Senate from 1911 until 1923.
William John Burns was an American private investigator and law enforcement official. He was known as "America's Sherlock Holmes" and earned fame for having conducted private investigations into a number of notable incidents, such as clearing Leo Frank of the 1913 murder of Mary Phagan, and for investigating the deadly 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing conducted by members of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. From August 22, 1921, to May 10, 1924, Burns served as the director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), predecessor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Gaston Bullock Means was an American private detective, salesman, bootlegger, forger, swindler, murder suspect, blackmailer, and con artist.
William Squire Kenyon was a United States senator from Iowa, and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Warren G. Harding's tenure as the 29th president of the United States lasted from March 4, 1921 until his death on August 2, 1923. Harding presided over the country in the aftermath of World War I. A Republican from Ohio, Harding held office during a period in American political history from the mid-1890s to 1932 that was generally dominated by his party. He died of an apparent heart attack and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge.
Jesse W. Smith was a member of President Warren G. Harding's Ohio Gang. He was born and raised in Washington Court House, Ohio, where he became a friend of Harry M. Daugherty. There, Daugherty helped him to become the successful owner of a department store. Smith became Daugherty's gofer during the 1920 campaign.
The Little Green House on K Street was a residence in Washington DC, USA, where the notoriously corrupt deals of Warren Harding's presidency (1921–1923) are believed to have been planned.
McGrain v. Daugherty, 273 U.S. 135 (1927), was a case heard before the Supreme Court, decided January 17, 1927. It was a challenge to Mally Daugherty's contempt conviction and arrest, which happened when he failed to appear before a Senate committee investigating the failure of his brother, Attorney General Harry Daugherty, to investigate the perpetrators of the Teapot Dome Scandal. The Court upheld his conviction.
William Herman Moran was the longest-serving Chief of the United States Secret Service, serving from 1917 to 1936.
Calvin Coolidge's tenure as the 30th president of the United States began on August 2, 1923, when Coolidge became president upon Warren G. Harding's death, and ended on March 4, 1929. A Republican from Massachusetts, Coolidge had been vice president for 2 years, 151 days when he succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Harding. Elected to a full four–year term in 1924, Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative. Coolidge was succeeded by former Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover after the 1928 presidential election.
The presidency of Calvin Coolidge began on August 2, 1923, when Calvin Coolidge became the 30th president of the United States upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding, and ended on March 4, 1929.
The presidential transition of Warren G. Harding began when he won the United States 1920 United States presidential election, becoming the president-elect, and ended when Harding was inaugurated at noon EST on March 4, 1921.
Foreign policy of Herbert Hoover covers the international activities and policies of Herbert Hoover for his entire career, with emphasis to his roles from 1914 to 1933.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
