By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: July 15, 2014 12:34 PM

Warren Harding is back in the news, and who would have thought it? Our 29th president is generally considered the one of the worst because of the outrageous scandals that flared during his term.

Mr. Harding has come back to the limelight not for the Teapot Dome Scandal but for his naughty letters.

Mr. Harding was a bit of a rake. A bit? It’s unclear how many affairs he actually had. Probably the most famous – if it indeed occurred, she was by all accounts infatuated with him growing up and may have fantasized some incidents – was with Nan Britton, who wrote a book following his death, claiming Mr. Harding had fathered her daughter.

But he did have a long-term affair with a neighbor in Marion, Ohio – Carrie Fulton Phillips – and that’s what has brought him back to the public eye. The letters he wrote her, some quite graphic, some that are poems, show that if nothing else he had writing talent.

That brought to mind a letter Mr. Harding wrote to the founder of Gongwer News Service, Charles Gongwer. Our esteemed founder started the company in 1906 in Columbus, Ohio, and became friends with Mr. Harding who served in the Ohio Senate. We initially featured the letter in an article during the company’s centennial.

In 1910, Mr. Harding was the GOP candidate for governor and lost to the Democratic incumbent. A few days after the defeat, he took out a pen, sat at his desk and wrote the following to Mr. Gongwer, a very interesting and even touching expression of his feelings during the campaign and immediately after:

My Dear Gongwer,

Yours at hand. I wanted to write you yesterday, but possessed no address. The framed ‘deference and devotion’ came Thursday morning and I wanted to make instant acknowledgement. Let me tell you, Charley, I had rather had that framed souvenir and your letter than a certificate of election as governor of Ohio, especially if I had to be a hypocrite to secure the latter. I believe the highest victory in this world is to measure well in the estimate of those of intimate association.

I never deceived you except in one thing, and I’ll swear that now. All through the campaign, away deep in my heart, I felt the danger of defeat. It was little less than conviction, but I felt myself duty bound to repress it, and drive cheerfully on. In spite of this, I was not prepared for the sweeping defeat. The enthusiastic meetings fooled me. We didn’t know the feelings of those who stayed away. Neither did the county managers apparently. But I am harboring no great grief, nor painful resentment. I had my whirl, enjoyed the time and the experience of our ‘show,’ and I am now content. I am glad I came to know you, and Bill, and Ralph, too. The bunch will dwell in grateful memory with me, and wherever there is opportunity, no matter when, I’ll be happy to attest to my ‘deference and devotion.’ If you didn’t believe me, then there is no longer any sincerity among men.

Very Truly Yours

W. Harding

Well, he may have been a scandal, but clearly he was also a gracious guy, at least in some respects.