"I cannot hope to be one of the great presidents, but perhaps I may be one of the best loved." --Warren G. Harding

As it turned out, Harding led one of the most corruption-riddled and discredited administrations in America's history. In a recent survey, historians rated Harding #38 out of 41 presidents, trailed only by Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan. And as historian Robert Murray writes, Harding's name, "rather than evoking praise and admiration, has conjured up scenes of smoke-filled rooms, evil machinations, and raucous poker parties."

While history shows that Harding was not personally involved in the many scandals that plagued his stewardship, nonetheless, he was guilty of incredibly poor judgment. And one of the great scandals in our nation's history, "Teapot Dome," occurred under his watch. We will spend the next few weeks exploring this in some detail.

Harding was born on November 2, 1865, in the town of what is now called Blooming Grove, Ohio. He worked in the newspaper business as editor of the Marion (Ohio) Star, then caught the politics bug and served Ohio, both as state senator and Lieutenant Governor, before a term in the U.S. Senate (1915-1921).

The presidential election of 1920 proved to be no contest. The nation was tired of the tumultuous era of Woodrow Wilson and Harding correctly gauged the sentiments of the people.

"America's present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy," he said.

The Republican Harding slaughtered his Democratic opponent James Cox by a 60.4% to 34.3% margin. However, when it came time for Harding to pick his cabinet, he chose unwisely.

But to further set the stage for our discussion of Teapot Dome, let's take a look at the decade in which it transpired.

The 1920s were a period of incredible prosperity for most of America. The nation's gross national product surged 47% between 1921 and 1929, while per capita income rose from $522 to $716, a gain of 37%.

The boom was fueled by the growth in the auto industry. Back in 1920 there were some 8 million cars in America. By 1929, the country produced 5.6 million in that year alone. The surging sector helped innumerable other areas of our economy, including oil, highway construction, repairs, glass, steel and rubber.

It was also a period where government spent less, tax rates were reduced and large federal surpluses were used to help pay off the national debt, which fell by more than a third from its post- World War I high. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, one of Harding's good cabinet selections and a man who served under three presidents at treasury from 1921-32, had a lot to do with the good times. His fiscal policies provided an atmosphere of stability that was welcomed on Wall Street. Said Mellon, "The government is just a business, and can and should be run on business principles."

Of course, the 1920s were also a period of incredible excesses, both in government and on Wall Street. And one can draw some interesting parallels between the boom in the economy and the inauguration of President Warren G. Harding.

When Harding took the oath of office on March 4, 1921, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 75.11. That was basically its low for the decade. [The Dow peaked at 381 on September 3, 1929 and closed out the '20s at a level of 248.]

This is a good break point before we get into the story of Albert Fall, Harding's Secretary of the Interior and the central figure of Teapot Dome. And if you glance down at the sources, next week you'll discover why an encyclopedia of western outlaws is among those used to put together this series.

Sources: [For the whole series]

Robert Sobel, "The Great Bull Market" Robert Sobel, "Coolidge: An American Enigma" J.M. Roberts, "Twentieth Century" John Steele Gordon, "The Great Game" George Brown Tindall and David Shi, "America: A Narrative History" Harold Evans, "The American Century" Jay Robert Nash, "Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen & Outlaws" Paul Johnson, "A History of the American People" Morison, Commager, Leuchtenburg, "The Growth of the American Republic"

Brian Trumbore