A Note on My Harding Research

The information I posted during 2020 mostly covered Warren Harding's front-porch campaign from his home on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Marion, Ohio. The campaign officially started on July 31, 1920, and ended on September 25. The plan was to post daily on events that occurred exactly 100 years ago that day, but I shared other information as well. You'll have to read bottom-to-top if you want to follow the campaign from Day 1.

I used the open web for some of my research but also information accessible by using my library card or my subscription to www.newspapers.com. The most useful resource was the Marion Star, which was owned by the Hardings at the time of the campaign. I also browsed online copies of other newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Star, and the Dayton Daily News, which, in 1920, was owned by Harding's Democratic opponent, Governor James M. Cox. I also posted information from other newspapers that covered Harding's trips away from Marion during the campaign.

Another great resource I used was Dale E. Cottrill's The Conciliator, a 1969 biography of the president that expanded an earlier bibliography of Harding's speeches. An online version is available at the Internet Archive, but I used a hard copy borrowed from the State Library of Ohio.

Readers should not construe anything posted here as a political statement on my part. I just like Harding as a historical topic.

7/11/2020

Sunday, July 11, 1920

Will Hays, chairman of the Republican National Committee, arrives in Marion this morning. He has breakfast with the Hardings and then attends morning services with them at the Trinity Baptist Church. The sermon itself does not address political issues and afterward the congregation is invited to form a receiving line in front of the pulpit to meet the Hardings.

After church, Harding and Hays take a short ride then return to executive headquarters for the first of two conferences. Hays tells the press after the second one, "I have been delighted to spend Sunday with Senator and Mrs. Harding and hear the splendid sermon this morning by the Rev. McAfee, their pastor... It has been inevitable, of course, that we have discussed some phases of the political situation during our visit. I can only say that every day more and more I congratulate the party and the country on Senator Harding's nomination."

Despite hundreds of requests for the candidate to leave Marion to campaign, Harding announces that there will be "no alteration of our affections or judgment" of the front-porch campaign plans."

The Hardings host Senator Albert B. Cummins of Iowa overnight. Cummins, an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1912 and 1916, is here to discuss transportation and agriculture.

Links:
Sources:
  • "Cummins Sees Nominee Here." Marion Star. 12 July 1920.
  • "Harding Unshaken on Porch Campaign." New York Times. 12 July 1920.
  • "Humility Is Power, Says Dr. T.H. M'Afee." Marion Star. 12 July 1920.
  • Lincoln, G. Gould. "Marion Has Moved Ahead as Harding Made Big Strides." Washington Star. 11 July 1920.
  • "Will H. Hays in Marion Sunday." Marion Star. 12 July 1920.

And here's a photograph of Harding from June 1920:


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)