The Hardings leave Zanesville at 9:15 a.m. Harding "paid his Zanesville friends the compliment of saying that he had planned his trip so that he might spend Sunday night here." Harding's pre-convention campaign manager, Harry Daugherty, will travel with them on the last leg of the trip, which includes a stop for lunch at the Allen hotel in Delaware. "All along the route from Zanesville...the nominee was recognized, waved at by farmers standing on top of their hay wagons or driving drowsy horses," reported the New York Times.
In Marion this morning, family, including Harding's father, friends, and neighbors begin to gather at the Harding home. A larger crowd gathers in front of the Harding home at 1 p.m., the time in which the Hardings are expected to arrive. Media is on the front lawn to document the arrival.
Florence Harding, WGH, and Harding's father
The candidate's car pulls up to the house at 1:25 p.m. Harding informally addresses the crowd that has gathered, then he and Mrs. Harding greet relatives on the porch and enter the house.
The official welcome starts at 6 p.m. on the Harding porch. Thousands of people surround the Harding home to hear from the candidate. Harding is welcomed by D. R. Crissinger: "This day marks the beginning of a new epoch for Marion and its citizens. Our city will be the Mecca for many pilgrimages. In our midst will be staged and carried to fruition all that typifies the best traditions of the republic in the making of an illustrious president of the United States. To our city will come those eminent and those unknown, the lowly and the exalted, from every walk of life, to pay tribute and to do honor to our distinguished fellow townsman, Warren G. Harding, the next president of the United States."
In response, Harding offers:
Let me say it to you friends and neighbors – aye, let me say it to any who may be noting our exchange of greetings today – if I believed in one-man government, if I believed the superman were necessary to appeal to the sober sense of the republic and ask our people to plant their feet in secure and forward paths once more, I would not be here in the capacity which has inspired your greetings. Normal men and back to normalcy will steady a civilization which has been fevered by the supreme upheaval of the world.
Harding ends his speech by presenting two supporters:
One of them knows all my faults and failings, and yet is loyal to me—Mrs. Harding." The crowds erupts in cheers as the Hardings moves from one side of the porch to the other. "The other is one who stood by me through the fire of opposition; one who is always a good fighter and a wonderfully helpful support. If you but knew how he has fought for me, you would esteem him as I do. I present Harry M. Daugherty.
The Hardings spend the next hour shaking hands on the walk in front of the house.
The caption reads: "This is how Senator Harding will conduct his 'McKinley campaign' from the porch of his home at Marion, Ohio, from which he expects to make most of his campaign speeches. The photograph shows the republican nominee for President on his porch thanking those in the big crowd that greeted him upon his return home from Washington, D.C." (as published in the Washington Star on July 9, 1920).
Video:
"Senator Harding's return to his home at Marion, Ohio, after his nomination" starts at 01:46 in this video posted on the Library of Congress website.
Sources:
- "Enthusiastic Welcome Given Senator Harding." Marion Star. 6 July 1920.
- "Stopped in Zanesville." Zanesville Times Recorder. 6 July 1920.
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