Understanding the Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s
History doesn't repeat but it rhymes.
"Blatant corruption was discovered, denials were made, hearings were held on Capitol Hill, and all the time reporters and photographers swarmed the scene. By the time it was over, some of the characters stood trial and were convicted. Yet the system changed very little.
The story of Teapot Dome was essentially the tale of an unqualified and inept president, surrounded by larcenous underlings. An unusual cast of characters took power in Washington following the turbulence of World War I, and Americans who thought they were returning to normal life instead found themselves following a saga of thievery and deception." https://www.thoughtco.com/teapot-dome-scandal-4158547
"Harding's odds of winning the presidential nomination of his party were not great: His one advantage was that no one in the Republican Party disliked him. At the Republican National Convention in June 1920 he began to appear to be a viable compromise candidate.
"It is strongly suspected that lobbyists of the oil industry, sensing that enormous profits could be made by controlling a weak and pliable president, influenced balloting at the convention."
("Harry Ford Sinclair, of the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Company, [allegedly] funneled $3 million to fund the convention, which was held in Chicago.")
"In an incident that would later become famous, Harding was asked, late one night in a backroom political meeting at the convention, if there was anything in his personal life that would disqualify him from serving as president.
"Harding did, in fact, have a number of scandals in his personal life, including mistresses and at least one illegitimate child. But after thinking for a few minutes, Harding claimed nothing in his past prevented him from being president."
"Some of the people Harding appointed to his cabinet were worthy. But some of the friends Harding brought into office became mired in scandal.
"Harry Daugherty, a prominent Ohio lawyer and political fixer, had been instrumental in Harding's rise to power. Harding rewarded him by making him attorney general.
"Albert Fall had been a senator from New Mexico before Harding appointed him as secretary of the interior. Fall was opposed to the conservation movement, and his actions concerning oil leases on government land would create a torrent of scandalous stories."
"Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall arranged for the Navy to transfer the oil reserves to the Department of the Interior. And he then arranged for friends of his, primarily Harry Sinclair (who controlled the Mammoth Oil Company) and Edward Doheny (of Pan-American Petroleum) to lease the sites for drilling.
"It was a classic sweetheart deal in which Sinclair and Doheny would kick back what amounted to about a half-million dollars to Fall.
"By early 1924 the general outlines of Fall's scheme was being exposed to the public, with much of the blame falling on the late President Harding, rather than his severe replacement, President Calvin Coolidge.
"Also helpful to Coolidge and the Republican Party was that the financial schemes perpetrated by oilmen and Harding administration officials tended to be complicated. The public naturally had trouble following every twist and turn in the saga."
"The political fixer from Ohio who masterminded the Harding presidency, Harry Daugherty, was tangentially implicated in several scandals. Coolidge accepted his resignation, and scored points with the public by replacing him with capable successor, Harlan Fiske Stone…"
"The schemes to defraud the public through the shady oil leases continued to be investigated. Eventually the former head of the Department of the Interior, Albert Fall, stood trial. He was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison.
"Fall made history by becoming the first former cabinet secretary to serve prison time related to malfeasance in office. But others in the government who may have been part of the bribery scandal escaped prosecution."
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