The Career Begins for a Future President: The Oath of Candidacy of Warren G. Harding

He signs twice; once affirming his candidacy and once verifying the contributors and contributions

 

A highly unusual signed candidacy document, the first we have ever had

Warren G. Harding was owner and editor of the Marion Star newspaper when in the late 1890s he became interested in a political career. Democrats generally won Marion County’s offices; when Harding ran for auditor in 1895, he lost, but did better than expected. The following year, Harding was one of many orators who spoke across Ohio as part of the campaign of the Republican presidential candidate, Ohio’s former governor, William McKinley. It was while working for McKinley that Harding began making a name for himself throughout the world of Ohio politics.

Harding wished to try again for elective office. Though a longtime admirer of Ohio’s U.S. Senator Joseph Foraker, he had been careful to maintain good relations with the party faction led by the state’s other U.S. senator, Mark Hanna, McKinley’s political manager and chairman of the Republican National Committee. Both Foraker and Hanna supported Harding for State Senate in 1899; he gained the Republican nomination and was easily elected to a two-year term. This State Senate post was Harding’s first public office.

Harding began his four years as a state senator as a political unknown; he ended them as one of the most popular figures in the Ohio Republican Party. He always appeared calm and displayed humility, characteristics that endeared him to fellow Republicans even as he passed them in his political rise. Legislative leaders consulted him on difficult problems. It was usual at that time for state senators in Ohio to serve only one term, but Harding gained renomination in 1901. After the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, much of the appetite for politics was temporarily lost in Ohio. However, in November, Harding won a second term, more than doubling his margin of victory to 3,563 votes.

Harding went on to serve in the U.S. Senate and then to the presidency. This is a memento of the start of his political: the State Senate.

Candidates for office in Ohio (and some other places) had to fill out forms attesting to their candidacy. This is Ohio’s “Statement of Candidate for Election”, as filled out by Harding for his successful run for the Ohio Senate in 1901. It certified his candidacy and disclosed those who had made contributions to his campaign and the purposes of those contributions. The document is addressed to the clerk of Marion County, Ohio, and Harding states that he is “a candidate for nomination for the office of state senator, Thirteenth District of Ohio.” Below that he has written the identities of five persons and businesses who had contributed to his election campaign, in the total amount of $91.50. One contributed “to get out the vote” and another for “publishing notices”. The Marion Hotel contributed “rooms and cigars.”

On the verso, at top, the document is dated July 10, 1901, and is signed by Harding. Below that is the candidate’s oath, certifying the correctness of the contributions and that the money was not being used for any other purposes: “I, W. G. Harding, do solemnly swear or affirm that the foregoing statement is a true and full account of each and all sums of money and other things of value directly or indirectly contributed, disbursed, expended or promised by me, and (to the best of my knowledge and belief) by any and all other persons with my procurement in my behalf, wholly or in part, in endeavoring to secure, or in any way in connection with, my nomination to the office or place of State Senator, Thirteenth District of Ohio, or in endeavoring to secure or defeat or in any way in connection with the election of any other person or persons to any or in endeavoring to secure or defeat or in any way in connection with the nomination of any other person or persons to any office to be voted for on the same day of election, or in support of or opposition to any measure or proposition submitted to popular vote upon the same day of election; and that it is a true and full statement of the dates when, and the person or persons to whom, and the purposes for which, each such contribution, payment, expenditure, or promise was made. and the person or persons by whom, made when, not made directly by myself.” Harding has signed again below the oath.

A highly unusual signed candidacy document, the first we have ever had.