What Was The Teapot Dome Scandal All About?

The 1920s' sensational corruption case served as a model for later scandals. Americans learned during the Teapot Dome controversy of the 1920s that the oil sector could exercise significant influence over public policy to the point of open corruption. The incident appeared to serve as a model for later controversies as it was depicted on newspaper front pages and in silent newsreel films.

 

There was blatant corruption found, there were denials, there were hearings on Capitol Hill, and media personnel were everywhere. When it was ended, several of the characters had gone to trial and been found guilty. But not much of the system changed.

 

The main character in Teapot Dome was an unfit and incompetent president who was surrounded by lurid subordinates. Following the turmoil of World War I, a strange cast of personalities came to power in Washington, and Americans who thought they were returning to normal life instead found themselves caught up in a tale of theft and deceit. Let us see how:

 

•    In Marion, Ohio, Warren Harding had been successful as a newspaper publisher. He was regarded as having an extroverted personality who joined clubs with enthusiasm and loved to speak in front of crowds.

 

•    He held a number of offices in Ohio after joining politics in 1899. He won a seat in the United States Senate in 1914. He was well-liked by his colleagues on Capitol Hill, yet he accomplished very little that was truly significant.

 

•    Encouraged by others, Harding started considering running for president in the final months of 1919. Following the conclusion of World War I, America was in a state of instability, and many Americans had grown weary of Woodrow Wilson's internationalist ideologies. Political supporters of Harding held the view that his small-town ideals, including eccentricities like his establishment of a local brass band, would bring America back to a more tranquil era.

 

•    Harding had slim chances of receiving his party's presidential nomination: His one benefit was that no one in the Republican Party despised him. In June 1920, at the Republican National Convention, he started to come across as a potential compromise candidate.

 

•    It is highly likely that oil company lobbyists influenced the convention's voting because they realized they could make huge profits by manipulating a president who was weak and supple. Will Hays, the head of the Republican National Committee, was a well-known lawyer who served on the board of directors and represented oil firms. 

 

•    There is proof that Harry Ford Sinclair, of the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Company, routed $3 million to pay the convention, which was held in Chicago, according to the 2008 book The Teapot Dome Scandal by seasoned business journalist Laton McCartney.

 

•    In a now-famous episode, Harding was asked if there was anything in his personal life that would prevent him from being president late one night during a political meeting in a convention backroom.

 

•    Harding's personal life did involve several controversies, including girlfriends and at least one child who wasn't his. But after giving it some thought, Harding asserted that nothing in his background had stopped him from holding the office of president.

 

•    Harding secured the 1920 republican nomination, and later that summer, James Cox, another Ohio politician, received the Democrats' nomination. Both party nominees had been newspaper publishers, which was an odd coincidence. Both had unremarkable political careers.

 

•    Perhaps more fascinating and competent than the vice-presidential contenders that year. Calvin Coolidge, the Massachusetts governor who had gained national notoriety by quelling a walkout by Boston police the year before, was Harding's running mate. Franklin D. Roosevelt, a rising star who had served in Wilson's cabinet, was running for vice president as a Democrat.

 

•    Harding hardly ran for office, instead preferred to stay at home in Ohio and make uninspiring speeches from his front porch. Wilson's effort to create a League of Nations and his appeal for "normalcy" resonated with a nation emerging from World War I.

 

•    The election in November was handily won by Harding.

 

•    With a platform that broke with the Wilson period, Warren Harding entered the White House relatively well-liked by the American people. He was captured on camera watching athletic events and playing golf. He was seen shaking hands with Babe Ruth, another highly well-known American, in a widely circulated news photograph.

 

•    Some of the individuals Harding chose for his cabinet were deserving, but some of the friends Harding brought into office became mired in scandal.

 

•    A well-known Ohio lawyer and political fixer named Harry Daugherty had played a key role in Harding's ascent to power. He received a prize from Harding by becoming attorney general.

 

•    Prior to Harding appointing him as interior secretary, Albert Fall served as a senator from New Mexico. Fall opposed environmental activism, and his decisions regarding oil leases on public lands would spark a wave of embarrassing stories.

 

•    According to reports, Harding told a newspaper editor: "With my adversaries, I have no issues. My friends, though, are what keep me pacing the floor at night."

 

•    The U.S. Navy kept two oil fields as a strategic reserve in case of another conflict as the 1920s got underway. The Navy was the largest consumer of oil in the nation because warships switched from coal to oil.

 

•    The tremendously lucrative oil deposits were found in two isolated areas: Elk Hills in California and Teapot Dome in Wyoming. The natural rock feature that resembled the spout of a teapot gave rise to the name Teapot Dome.

 

•    The transfer of the oil reserves from the Navy to the Department of the Interior was handled by Interior Secretary Albert Fall. He then made arrangements for his associates to lease the locations for drilling, primarily Harry Sinclair (who managed the Mammoth Oil Company) and Edward Doheny (of Pan-American Petroleum).

 

•    Sinclair and Doheny would give fall what amounted to nearly a half million dollars as part of a traditional sweetheart arrangement.

 

•    The swindle, which was made public in the summer of 1922 through newspaper reporting, may have gone unnoticed by President Harding. Department of the Interior representatives testified in front of a Senate committee in October 1923 that Secretary Fall had given the oil licenses without getting permission from the president.

 

•    Given that Harding frequently appeared to be overloaded, it was not difficult to think he was unaware of what fall was doing. I am not fit for this job and should never have been here, Harding allegedly told a White House assistant, according to a well-known story about him.

 

•    In Washington, there were early 1923 reports of a massive corruption scandal. Members of Congress were set on initiating broad probes of the Harding administration.

 

•    Harding appeared to be experiencing extreme stress in the summer of 1923. In an effort to escape the numerous problems that were festering within his government, he and his wife set out on a tour of the American West.

 

•    Harding was travelling by boat from Alaska to California when he fell unwell. He checked into a hotel in California, received medical attention, and the public was informed that he was healing and would soon return to Washington.

 

•    Harding passed away unexpectedly on August 2, 1923, most likely from a stroke. Later, there was talk that his wife had poisoned him after stories of his extramarital encounters were public. (Obviously, that was never established.)

 

•    At the time of his passing, Harding was still quite well-liked by the populace, and as a train brought his body back to Washington, he was lamented. His body was transported to Ohio, where he was interred, after lying in state at the White House.

 

•    Calvin Coolidge, Harding's vice president, took the oath of office in the middle of the night while on vacation at a modest Vermont farmhouse. The general public only knew Coolidge as "Silent Cal," a guy of few words.

 

•    Harding seemed to be the complete reverse of Coolidge, who functioned with an aura of New England frugality. As president, he would benefit from his severe character because the problems that were about to become public did not involve Coolidge but rather his deceased predecessor.

 

•    Hearings on the Teapot Dome bribery scandal began on Capitol Hill in the fall of 1923. The investigations were led by Montana Senator Thomas Walsh, who wanted to know how and why the Navy had given management of its oil reserves to Interior Department official Albert Fall.

 

•    As wealthy oilmen and famous politicians were asked to testify, the hearings captured the public's attention. Men in suits entered and exited the courthouse as silent newsreel cameras recorded the event, and some individuals paused to speak with the press. The way the press behaved appeared to set precedents for how later crises would be reported by the media up until the present age.

 

•    Beginning in early 1924, the public began to learn the broad strokes of fall’s plan, with much of the blame resting on the late President Harding rather than his stern successor, President Calvin Coolidge.

 

•    The fact that the financial schemes carried out by oilmen and members of the Harding administration tended to be intricate was also advantageous to Coolidge and the Republican Party. Naturally, the general people found it challenging to keep up with all of the story's turns.

 

•    Harry Daugherty, an Ohio political fixer who orchestrated the Harding presidency, was incidentally connected to a number of scandals. Coolidge accepted his resignation and won the public's favor by appointing Harlan Fiske Stone as his suitable replacement (who was later nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt).

 

•    One may have predicted that the Teapot Dome controversy would provide the Democrats a political advantage in the 1924 election. The constant stream of allegations of corruption during Harding's administration had no effect on his political fortunes, however, because Coolidge had maintained his distance from Harding. In 1924, Coolidge ran for president and won.

 

•    Investigations into the dubious oil lease scams to deceive the public proceeded. Albert Fall, the previous secretary of the Interior, eventually went on trial. He was found guilty and given a one-year prison term.

 

•    Fall made history when she became the first ex-cabinet secretary to be sentenced to prison for misconduct in office. However, additional government officials who might have been involved in the bribery scandal avoided prosecution.