(November 2, 1865–August 2, 1923), was the 29th President of the United States, 1921–23, the sixth president to die in office; first president to speak on radio, 1920, at the Minnesota State Fair; U.S. Senator, 1915–21; Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 1904–06; Ohio State Senator, 1900–04; married Florence De Wolfe Kling, 1891; editor of the Marion Star, Ohio, 1884–1920; and attended Ohio Central College, 1879–82.
On Friday, March 4, 1921, in his Inaugural Address, President Warren G. Harding expressed:
Standing in this presence, mindful of the solemnity of this occasion, feeling the emotions which no one may know until he senses the great weight of responsibility for himself, I must utter my belief in the Divine Inspiration of the founding fathers. Surely there must have been God’s intent in the making of this new-world Republic. …
We have seen civil, human, and religious liberty verified and glorified. In the beginning the Old World scoffed at our experiment; today our foundations of political and social stand unshaken. … Let us express renewed and strengthened devotion, in grateful reverence for the immortal beginning, and utter our confidence in the supreme fulfillment. …
America is ready to encourage, eager to initiate, anxious to participate in any seemly program likely to lessen the probability of war, and promote that brotherhood of mankind which must be God’s highest conception of human relationship. …
My most reverent prayer for America is for industrial peace, with its rewards, widely and generally distributed, amid the inspirations of equal opportunity. …
We want an America of homes, illumined with hope and happiness, where mothers, freed from the necessity for long hours of toil beyond their own doors, may preside as befits the hearthstone of American citizenship. We want the cradle of American childhood rocked under conditions so wholesome and so hopeful that no blight may touch it. …
I would rejoice to acclaim the era of the Golden Rule. …
One cannot stand in this presence and be unmindful of the tremendous responsibility. The world upheaval has added heavily to our tasks. But with the realization comes the surge of high resolve, and there is reassurance in belief in the God-given destiny of our Republic.
If I felt that there is to be sole responsibility in the Executive for the America of tomorrow I should shrink from the burden. But here are a hundred millions, with common concern and shared responsibility, answerable to God and country. The Republic summons them to their duty, and I invite co-operation.
I accept my part with single-mindedness of purpose and humility of spirit, and implore the favor and guidance of God in His Heaven. With these I am unafraid, and confidently face the future.
I have taken the solemn oath of office on that passage of Holy Writ wherein it is asked: “What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” This I plight to God and country.3124
On April 12, 1921, in a special address to Congress, President Warren G. Harding stated:
Certainly no government is more desirous than our own to reflect the human attitude, the purpose of making better citizens—physically, intellectually, spiritually.3125
On May 3, 1921, President Warren G. Harding issued a Proclamation of a National Memorial Day:
Whereas this nation has been conceived in prayer and devotion by men and women who were moved under God to found a nation where principles of right should form the lasting cornerstone; and
Whereas there principles purchased at the price of great sacrifice have been fostered by a worthy posterity; and
Whereas a great war has lately laid its costly demands upon our land:
Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Monday, the thirtieth day of May, a day already freighted with sacred and stimulating memories, a day of public memorial. I invite my fellow citizens to pay homage on this day to a noble dead who sleep in homeland, beneath the sea or on foreign field that we who survive might enjoy the blessings of peace and happiness, and to the end that liberty and justice, without which no nation can exist, shall live forever.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia this third day of May, in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty-one and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-fifth. Warren G. Harding.
By the President: Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.3126
On September 30, 1921, President Warren G. Harding issued a Proclamation of a National Armistice Day:
Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by a concurrent resolution adopted on the fourth day of March last, authorized the Secretary of War to cause to be brought to the United States the body of an American, who was a member of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, who lost his life during the World War and whose identity has not been established, for burial in the Memorial Amphitheatre of the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia; and
Whereas, the remains of this unknown American to be brought to the United States, in pursuance of the said concurrent resolution, will be buried in the said Memorial Amphitheatre at Arlington on the eleventh day of November next; and
Whereas, these remains will be representative of all unidentified American dead who in the World War gave their lives in their country’s cause; and
Whereas, it is desired that grateful recognition of their loyal devotion to country and of their sacrifice should be appropriately shown with due solemnity by their God-fearing and patriotic fellow countrymen:
Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon all devout and patriotic citizens of the United States to pause from their accustomed occupations and labors on Friday the eleventh day of November next from twelve o’clock noon to two minutes past the hour for a period of silent prayer of thanks to the Giver of All Good for these valuable and valorous lives and of supplication for His Divine mercy and for His blessings upon our beloved country.
Furthermore, I hereby direct that the National Flag be displayed at half staff upon all the public buildings of the United States and all stations of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps throughout the world, as well as upon all American embassies, legations and consulates, from sunrise until sunset, on November the eleventh, 1921.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the City of Washington this thirtieth day of September in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-sixth. Warren G. Harding.
By the President: Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.3127
On October 31, 1921, President Warren G. Harding issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving, Devotion and Prayer:
That season has come when, alike in pursuance of a devout people’s time-honored custom and in grateful recognition of favoring national fortunes, it is proper that the President should summon the nation to a day of devotion, of thanksgiving for blessings bestowed, and of prayer for guidance in modes of life that may deserve continuance of Divine favor.
Foremost among our blessings is the return of peace, and the approach to normal ways again. The year has brought us again into relations of amity with all nations, after a long period of struggle and turbulence. In thankfulness therefore, we may well unite in the hope that Providence will vouchsafe approval to the things we have done, the aims which have guided us, the aspirations which have inspired us. We shall be prospered as we shall deserve prosperity, seeking not alone for the material things but for those of spirit as well; earnestly trying to help others; asking, before all else, the privilege of service. As we render thanks anew for the exaltation which came to us, we may fittingly petition that moderation and wisdom shall be granted to rest upon all who are in authority, in the tasks they must discharge. Their hands will be steadied, their purposes strengthened, in answer to our prayers.
Ours has been a favored nation in the bounty which God has bestowed upon it. The great trial of humanity, though indeed we bore our part as well as we were able, left us comparatively little scarred. It is for us to recognize that we have been thus favored, and when we gather at our altars to offer up thanks, we will do well to pledge, in humility and all sincerity, our purpose to prove deserving. We have been raised up and preserved in national power and consequence as part of a plan whose wisdom we can not question. Thus believing, we can do no less than hold our nation the willing instrument of the Providence which has so wonderfully favored us. Opportunity for very great service awaits us if we shall prove equal to it. Let our prayers be raised for direction in the right paths. Under God, our responsibility is great; to our own first, to all men thereafter; to all mankind in God’s own justice.
Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of November, to be observed by the people as a day of Thanksgiving, devotion and prayer; urging that at their hearthsides and their altars they will give thanks for all that has been rendered unto them, and will pray for a continuance of Divine fortune which has been showered so generously upon this nation.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this thirty-first day of October in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-sixth. Warren G. Harding.
By the President: Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.3128
On November 4, 1921, President Warren G. Harding issued a Proclamation declaring Armistice Day a legal public holiday:
Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, in pursuance of the said Joint Resolution of Congress, do hereby declare November 11, 1921, a holiday, as a mark of respect to the memory of those who gave their lives in the late World War, as typified by the unknown and unidentified American soldier who is to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on that day; and do hereby recommend to the Governors of the several States that proclamations be issued by them calling upon the people of their respective States to pause in their usual pursuits as a mark of respect on this solemn occasion.
And, in order that the solemnity of the occasion may be further emphasized, I do hereby furthermore recommend that all public and church bells throughout the United States be tolled at intervals between 11:45 o’clock a.m. and 12 o’clock noon of the said day, and that from 12 o’clock noon to two minutes past that hour, Washington time, all devout and patriotic citizens of the United States indulge in a period of silent thanks to God for these valuable valorous lives and of supplication for His Divine mercy and for His blessings upon our beloved country.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this fourth day of November in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-sixth. Warren G. Harding.
By the President: Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.3129
On November 8, 1921, in an Executive Order regarding the manner of dating proclamations, commissions, and similar Executive documents, President Warren G. Harding stated:
Hereafter the recital immediately preceding the President’s signature in proclamations, commissions, and other formal documents of like nature shall be in the following form:
“Done at the City of Washington this. … . … ..day of. … . … ..in the year of Our Lord. … . … .., and of the Independence of the United States of America the. … . … ..”
This order is issued to establish uniformity in the several Departments in the language used in these documents, and to restore the form which prevailed from the time the Government was established in this city, except for a brief period, when they were dated from the District of Columbia instead of the City of Washington.3130
On Friday, November 11, 1921, at the burial of an Unknown American Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, President Warren G. Harding addressed the Secretary of War and the citizens assembled:
We are met today to pay the impersonal tribute. The name of him whose body lies before us took flight with his imperishable soul. We know not whence he came, but only that his death marks him with the everlasting glory of an American dying for his country. …
In the death gloom of gas, the bursting of shells and rain of bullets, men face more intimately the great God over all, their souls are aflame, and consciousness expands and hearts are searched. With the din of battle, the glow of conflict, and the supreme trial of courage, come involuntarily the hurried appraisal of life and the contemplation of death’s great mystery. On the threshold of eternity, many a soldier, I can well believe, wondered how his ebbing blood would color the stream of human life, flowing on after his sacrifice. …
There was the rain of ruin from aircraft, the thunder of artillery, followed by the unspeakable devastation wrought by bursting shells; there were mortars belching their bombs of desolation; machine guns concentrating their leaden storms; there was the infantry, advancing, firing, and falling—like men with souls sacrificing for the decision. The flying missiles were revealed by illuminating tracers, so that we could note their flight and appraise their deadliness. The air was streaked with tiny flames marking the flight of massed destruction. …
There have been a thousand defenses justly and patriotically made; a thousand offenses which reason and righteousness ought to have stayed. Let us beseech all men to join us in seeking the rule under which reason and righteousness shall prevail. …
I can sense the prayers of our people, of all peoples, that this Armistice Day shall mark the beginning of a new and lasting era of peace on earth, good will among men. Let me join in that prayer.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.3131
On November 12, 1921, in an address opening the Conference in the Continental Memorial Hall in Washington, D.C., President Warren G. Harding stated:
Here in the United States we are but freshly turned from the burial of an unknown American soldier, when a nation sorrowed while paying him tribute. Whether it was spoken or not, a hundred millions of our people were summarizing the inexcusable causes, the incalculable cost, the unspeakable sacrifices, and the unutterable sorrows, and there was the ever impelling question: How can humanity justify or God forgive? Human hate demands no such toll; ambition and greed must be denied it.
If misunderstandings must take the blame, then let us banish it, and let understanding rule and make good will regnant everywhere. All of us demand liberty and justice. There can not be one without the other, and they must be held the unquestioned possession of all peoples. Inherent rights are of God, and the tragedies of the world originate in their attempted denial.3132
On November 29, 1921, President Warren G. Harding issued a Proclamation of a National American Education week:
Whereas, the experience of the war revealed vast elements of population that are illiterate, physically unfit, or unfamiliar with American ideals and traditions; and our future strength and security are much dependent on their education and commitment to American ideals;
Therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States, do urge the Governors of the various States and Territories to set apart December 4th to 10th, inclusive, 1921, as American Education Week, during which
Citizens in every state are urged to give special and thoughtful attention to the needs and aims of the public schools. … The subject of public education has always been very close to the American heart, and to the fact that it has been made a chief responsibility of local governmental units, we largely owe the wide diffusion of educational facilities. It is believed that a widespread and earnest effort at observance of Education Week would do much to emphasize this feeling of immediate responsibility. Therefore it is suggested that the pulpit, press, schools, and public gatherings be enlisted in behalf of this special effort.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand nine hundred twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-sixth. Warren G. Harding.
By the President: Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.3133
On December 6, 1921, in his First Annual Address to Congress, President Warren G. Harding stated:
Homemaking is one of the greater benefits which government can bestow. Measures are pending embodying this sound policy to which we may well adhere. It is easily possible to make available permanent homes which will provide, in turn, for prosperous American families, without injurious competition with established activities, or imposition on wealth already acquired.
While we are thinking of promoting the fortunes of our own people I am sure there is room in the sympathetic thought of America for fellow human beings who are suffering and dying of starvation in Russia. A severe drought in the valley of the Volga has plunged 15,000,000 people into grievous famine. …
It seems to me we should be indifferent to our own heart promptings, and out of accord with the spirit which acclaims the Christmastide, if we do not give out of our national abundance to lighten this burden of woe upon a people blameless and helpless in famine’s peril.3134
On December 23, 1921, President Warren G. Harding directed the White House to issue the statement expressing his support of the American delegation at the Conference drawing up the Four-Power Treaty:
He has full confidence now and is more than gratified over their efforts, because they are working out the greatest contribution to peace and good-will which has ever marked the Christmas time in all the Christian era.3135
On February 6, 1922, in the closing address at the Conference which discussed Pacific and Far East questions with the British Empire, France, Japan, China, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Portugal and the United States, President Warren G. Harding stated:
Those of us who live another decade are more likely to witness a growth of public opinion, strengthened by the new experience, which will make nations more concerned with living to the fulfillment of God’s high intent than with agencies of warfare and destruction.3136
On May 30, 1922, at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., President Warren G. Harding stated:
In every moment of peril, in every hour of discouragement, whenever the clouds gather, there is the image of Lincoln to rivet our hopes and to renew our faith. … Here was the great purpose, here the towering hope, here the supreme faith. He treasured the inheritance handed down by the founding fathers, the ark of the covenant wrought through their heroic sacrifices, and builded in their inspired genius. …
His faith was inspiring, his resolution commanding, his sympathy reassuring, his simplicity enlisting, his patience unfailing. He was Faith, Patience and Courage, with his head above the clouds, unmoved by the storms which raged about his feet. … He knew he had freed a race of bondmen and had given to the world the costly proof of the perpetuity of the American union. …
Lincoln came almost as humbly as The Child of Bethlehem. His parents were unlettered, his home was devoid of every element of culture and refinement. He was no infant prodigy, no luxury facilitated or privilege hastened his development, but he had a God-given intellect, a love for work, a willingness to labor and a purpose to succeed. …
His work was so colossal, in the face of such discouragement, that none will dispute that he was incomparably the greatest of our presidents. … Amid it all there was a gentleness, a kindness, a sympathetic sorrow, which suggest a divine intent to blend mercy with power in supreme attainment.3137
On November 2, 1922, President Warren G. Harding issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving, Supplication and Devotion:
In the beginnings of our country the custom was established by the devout fathers of observing annually a day of Thanksgiving for the bounties and protection which Divine Providence had extended throughout the year. It has come to be perhaps the most characteristic of our national observances, and as the season approaches for its annual recurrence, it is fitting formally to direct attention to this ancient institution of our people and to call upon them again to unite in its appropriate celebration.
The year which now approaches its end has been marked, in the experience of our nation, by a complexity of trials and of triumphs, of difficulties and of achievements, which we must regard as our inevitable portion in such an epoch as that through which all mankind is moving. As we survey the experience of the passing twelve-month we shall find that our estate presents very much to justify a nation-wide and most sincere testimony of gratitude for the bounty which has been bestowed upon us. Though we have lived in the shadow of the hard consequences of great conflict, our country has been at peace and has been able to contribute toward the maintenance and perpetuation of peace in the world. We have seen the race of mankind make gratifying progress on the way to permanent peace, toward order and restored confidence in its high destiny. For Divine guidance which has enabled us, in growing fraternity with other peoples, to attain so much of progress; for the bounteous yield which has come to us from the resources of our soil and our industry, we owe our tribute of gratitude and with it our acknowledgement of the duty and obligation to our own people and to the unfortunate, the suffering, the distracted of other lands.
Let us in all humility acknowledge how great is our debt to the Providence which has generously dealt with us, and give devout assurance of unselfish purpose to play a helpful and ennobling part in human advancement. It is much to be desired that in rendering homage for the blessings which have come to us, we should earnestly testify our continued and increasing aim to make our own great fortune a means of helping and serving, as best we can, the cause of all humanity.
Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, do designate Thursday, the thirtieth day of November, as a day of Thanksgiving, supplication and devotion. I recommend that the people gather at their family altars and in their houses of worship to render thanks to God for the bounties they have enjoyed and to petition that these may be continued in the year before us.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this second day of November, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-seventh. Warren G. Harding.
By the President: Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.3138
On November 20, 1922, President Warren G. Harding issued a Proclamation of an American Education Week:
“Without a vision the people perish”(Pr. 29:18). Without education, there can be little vision. Of education it may be said that “It is twice blest; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” It will be greatly worth the effort if, as an incident to the observance of Education Week, we can impress this thought upon the young manhood and womanhood of the nation and redirect their interest and patriotic zeal to the idea of making a proper contribution to educational work. … The strength and security of the nation will always rest in the intelligent body of its people. …
Civic organizations and religious bodies may render special service by their cooperation; and particularly it is recommended that parents enlist themselves in behalf of closer understanding between school and home. …
In Consideration and Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twentieth day of November, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-seventh. Warren G. Harding.
By the President: Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.3139
On May 17, 1923, at the unveiling of the statue of Alexander Hamilton, President Warren G. Harding stated:
It was from Hamilton’s lips that came the finest utterance ever made concerning human liberty: “The sacred rights of mankind are written as with a sunbeam, by the hand of Divinity itself, never to be erased or obscured by mortal power.”3140
On May 30, 1923, in his Memorial Day Address at Arlington National Cemetery, President Warren G. Harding stated:
I believe it a God-given duty to give of our influence to establish the ways of peace throughout the world. …
In all the wars of all time the conscienceless profiteer has put the black blot of greed upon the righteous sacrifice and highly purposed conflict. … God grant that no conflict will come again, but if it does it shall be without profit to the noncombatant participants except as they share in the triumphs of the nation.3141
On June 5, 1923, in Washington, D.C., President Warren G. Harding stated:
I wish somehow we could have fraternity among nations, as it is taught in America among men. … the ideals of brotherhood recited in the Golden Rule, and the righteous fellow-relationship which every man knows his God approves.3142
On Thursday, June 21, 1923, in his address on the International Court of Justice, delivered in St. Louis, Missouri, President Warren G. Harding stated:
In his never-to-be-forgotten Farewell Address, in which the first president compressed the gospel of our mutual interest at home and our proper relations abroad, he said:
“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct. And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?” …
This solemn admonition was addressed by George Washington to his fellow-countrymen one hundred and twenty-seven years ago. That it has been heeded scrupulously we are proud to assume the world believes. That we have, indeed, observed good faith and have exalted justice above all other agencies of civilization, barring only Christianity, surely none can deny with truth. …
Very recently a striking message was flashed through the air from Rome to Washington. “Tell America,” said the vigorous Prime Minister, “that I like her, like her because she is strong, simple, and direct. I wish Italy to be the same and shall try to make her so.” God speed him! And God grant that America shall never forfeit the high honor borne by that sentiment tribute. …
I shall call upon your patriotism. I shall beseech your humanity. I shall invoke your Christianity. I shall reach to the very depths of your love for your fellow man of whatever race or creed throughout the world. I shall speak, as I speak now, with all the earnestness and power of the sincerity that is in me and in perfect faith that God will keep clear and receptive your understanding. I could not do otherwise. My soul yearns for peace. My heart is anguished by the sufferings of war. My spirit is eager to serve. …
If, in our search for everlasting peace, we but let lead, and follow humbly but dauntlessly, the “Kindly Light” of divine inspiration to all human brotherhood, gleaming like a star in the heavens, from the most beautiful hymn ever written, God will not let us fail.3143
On June 22, 1923, in an address given in Kansas City, Missouri, President Warren G. Harding stated:
In the infinite bounty of the Creator the measureless riches of the West were bestowed, but they are availed little until the whistle of the steam locomotive proclaimed its westward march. …
It was extremely uncertain whether the wisdom of a dozen Solomons, sitting as railroad presidents and chairmen of boards, and as financial backers of these great properties, would be equal to the task of organizing a group of systems which would represent fair treatment of all the interests involved, including those of the public.3144
On Monday, June 25, 1923, in an address delivered in Denver, Colorado, President Warren G. Harding stated:
There is another phase of law-observance to which reference is impelling. I am thinking of the law of the Golden Rule, a statute from the Man of Nazareth, who brought new peace and new hope to mankind, and proclaimed service to men the highest tribute to God.
Service is both the inspiration and the accomplishment of quite everything worth while which impels us onward and upward. With service which the Nazarene would approve are associated all our ideals and our finer aspirations. …
We may rejoice in the flood tides of material good fortune, we may becomingly boast the measureless resources of the republic through God’s bounty in creation and man’s genius in development, but we aren’t living the becoming life unless we are seeking to advance humankind as we achieve for ourselves. I would like the ages of envy and hate, and conquest and pillage, and armed greed and mad ambitions to be followed by understanding and peace, by the rule of law where force had reigned … the observance of the Golden Rule as the law of human righteousness.3145
On June 29, 1923, in an address delivered in Helena, Montana, President Warren G. Harding stated:
Whether we account it wise or otherwise, we must recognize that the tendency is to take the modern mother more and more away from the control, the training, the intellectual guidance and spiritual direction of her children. … Frankly, I am one of those old-fashioned people who would be glad if the way could be found to maintain the traditional relations of father, mother, children, and home.
We must hope, and we must make it possible, that mothers will not assume, when their babes of yesterday become the schoolboys and schoolgirls of to-day, that the responsibility of the mother is ended, and that the teacher, the school authorities, the college, the state, will henceforth assume it. Rather, we must recognize that no other influence can possibly be substituted for that of motherhood; and we must make it possible for the mothers to cooperate with these social institutions of the new order, to give the children so far as possible the privileges of a home atmosphere which will supplement the advantages of mere education and training. It must be made possible for the mothers to familiarize themselves with the problems of the people, the school superintendents, the college authorities, the health and sanitation officials. In short, the mothers must be placed in such position that despite their obligations outside the home they shall not have to surrender their domestic responsibility. …
Those mothers who have the advantage of the best material and intellectual opportunities will, if they make the most of these advantages, help greatly to improve the conditions of children that come from families and homes less fortunately situated. They will be able to help in lifting up the poorer, the less fortunate children, to a higher level. The mother who tirelessly seeks rightly to train her own children, to instill into them that indefinable essence which we know as good breeding, will be performing this service not alone for her own children, but in only less measure for the children who come from homes less blessed with the finer things of life. …
The teacher, and the authorities back of her, must be equally ready to cooperate with the home and the mother. In the home must still be performed the duty of instilling into the child those fundamental concepts of religion and of faith which are essential to rightly shaping the character of citizens, and therefore of the nation. It would be an irreparable mistake if in surrendering to society a larger responsibility for the child’s intellectual and physical well being, we should forget the necessity for proper religious training. That duty must be performed in the home; it will always be peculiarly the duty of the mother.
Mankind never has stood more in need than it does now of the consolations and reassurances which derive from a firm religious faith. We are living in a time of many uncertainties, of weakened faith in the efficiency of institutions, of industrial systems, of economic hypotheses, of dictum and dogma in whatever sphere. Yet we all know that there are certain fundamental truths of life and duty and destiny which will stand eternal. …
There must be no mistake whereby we shall confuse the things which are of eternity with those which are of time. We must not let our engrossment with the things of matter and of mind distract us from a proper concern for those which are of the spirit and the soul. …
Twenty centuries of the Christian era and its great story of human progress, and the countless centuries before the light of Christianity flamed. … is the best the world has revealed, and I preach the gospel of holding fast to that which has proven good, ever trying in good conscience to make it better, and consider and treat as an enemy every man who chooses our land as a haven in which to assail the very institutions which shelter him. … In the recognized test which our civilization is now undergoing America’s supreme task is one of preservation. I call upon America to protect and preserve.3146
On Tuesday, July 3, 1923, just one month before his death, President Warren G. Harding delivered a speech in Meacham, Oregon, in remembrance of the Oregon Trail and the courageous missionaries to the Oregon and Washington territories. He unveiled a monument at Immigration Springs, and gave special recognition to the medical missionary Dr. Marcus Whitman, who, along with his wife, journeyed in 1836 to the Oregon territory. Dr. Marcus Whitman was also honored by the U.S. government with a statue in the U.S. Capital Hall of Statuary for his key role in populating Oregon, which was vital in winning the boundary dispute with Great Britain, thereby bringing the territory under U.S. jurisdiction. President Warren G. Harding stated:
Of the many rooms in the White Houses, which possess the peculiar charm of association with epochal happenings, the one most fascinating to me is that which formerly comprised the Cabinet Room and the President’s Study. Through its high windows one’s gaze is drawn irresistibly to the towering granite shaft whose very grandeur, exceeded by no other moment in the world, admirably symbolizes the matchless character of George Washington. The beautifully carved mahogany bedposts are those upon which fell the eyes of Andrew Jackson when opened from the troubled slumber which even to this day occasionally falls to lot of an over-weary President. Sunk into the marble mantel piece is a bronze tablet recording the circumstance that it was in this room that Abraham Lincoln signed the great emancipation proclamation, which struck the shackles of slavery from millions of human beings.
Yet another episode of hardly less importance in the building of our mighty nation took place within these walls. Before my mind’s eye as I stood in that heroic chamber a few days ago appeared the vivid picture. I beheld seated at his desk, immaculately attired, the embodiment of dignity and courtliness, John Tyler, tenth President of the United States. Facing him, from a chair constructed for a massive frame, his powerful spirit gleaming through his cavernous eyes, was the lion-visaged Daniel Webster, Secretary of State.
The door opened and there appeared before the amazed statesmen a strange and astonishing figure. It was that of a man of medium height and sturdy build, deep chested, broad shouldered, yet lithe in movement and soft in step. He was clad in a coarse fur coat, buckskin breeches, fur leggings, and boot moccasins, looking much worse for the wear. But it was the countenance of the visitor, as he stood for an instant in the doorway, that riveted the perception of the two Chiefs of State.
It was that of a religious enthusiast, tenaciously earnest yet revealing no suggestion of fanaticism, bronzed from exposure to pitiless elements and seamed with deep lines of physical suffering, a rare combination of determination and gentleness—obviously a man of God, but no less a man among men.
Such was Marcus Whitman, the missionary hero of the vast, unsettled, unexplored Oregon country, who had come out of the West to plead that the state should acquire for civilization the empire that the churches were gaining for Christianity.
Many of the exploits of America’s resolute sons are recounted in prose and verse. How often in our youth, and even in later years, have we been thrilled by the story of how “on through the night rode Paul Revere, through every Middlesex village and farm” to call the Minute Men to embattle at Lexington and fire “the shot heard ’round the world!” How many times we have shuddered at the impending fate of the Shenandoah Valley with “Sheridan twenty miles away!” I loved the martial notes of those stirring verses as a boy. I still love them.
But, when I stood in that historic room in the White House and my imagination depicted the simple scene, I could not but feel that the magnificence of Marcus Whitman’s glorious deed has yet to find adequate recognition in any form. Here was a man who, with a single companion, in the dead of winter [1842], struggled through pathless drifts and blinding storms, four thousand miles, with the sole aim to serve his country and his God. Eighty years and eight months ago he was pushing grimly and painfully through this very pass on his way from Walla Walla to Fort Hall, thence, abandoning the established northern route as impassable, off to the South through unknown, untrodden lands, past the Great Salt Lake, to Santa Fe, then hurriedly on to St. Louis and finally, after a few days, again on the home-stretch to his destination, taking as many months as it now takes days to go from Walla Walla to Washington.
It was more than a desperate and perilous trip that Marcus Whitman undertook. It was a race against time. Public opinion was rapidly crystallizing into a judgment that the Oregon country was not worth claiming, much less worth fighting for; that, even though it could be acquired against the insistence of Great Britain, it would prove to be a liability rather than an asset.
It is with sheer amazement that we now read the declarations of leading men of that period. So good an American, so sturdy a frontiersman, so willing a fighter, as General Jackson, shook his head ominously in fear lest the national domain should get too far outspread, and warned the country that its safety “lay in a compact government.” Senator McDuffie, of South Carolina, declared he “would not give a pinch of snuff for the whole territory,” and expressed the wish that the Rocky Mountains were “an impassable barrier.” Senator Dayton, of New Jersey, said that, with very limited exceptions, “the whole country was as irreclaimable and barren a waste as the Sahara desert,” and that malaria had carried away most of its native population. Even so far-seeing and staunch an advocate of western interests as Thomas Benton protested that the ridge of the Rockies should be made our western boundary, and avowed that “on the highest peak the statue of the fabled god, Terminus, should be erected, never to be thrown down.”
Webster, although not definitely antagonistic, was uninterested and lukewarm. Years before he had pronounced Oregon “a barren, worthless country, fit only for wild beasts and wild men,” and he was not one who changed opinions readily. But neither was Whitman one easily dismayed. Encouraged by the manifest friendliness of President Tyler, he portrayed with vivid eloquence the salubrity of the climate, the fertility of the soil, the magnitude of the forests, the evidences of ore in the mountains, and the splendor of the wide valleys drained by the great rivers. And he did not hesitate to speak plainly, as one who knew, even like the prophet Daniel.
“Mr. Secretary,” he declared, “you would better give all New England for the cod and mackerel fisheries of Newfoundland than to barter away Oregon.”
Then turning to the President, he added quietly but beseechingly:
“All I ask is that you will not barter away Oregon or allow English interference until I can lead a band of stalwart American settlers across the plains. For this I shall try to do!”
The manly appeal was irresistible. He sought only for the privilege of proving his faith. The just and considerate Tyler could not refuse.
“Doctor Whitman,” he rejoined sympathetically, “your long ride and frozen limbs testify to your courage and your patriotism. Your credentials establish your character. Your request is granted!”
Whitman’s strategy was true statesmanship. Substantial occupation would make good the claim of the United States, and that was what he had initiated during his few days in St. Louis. A few months later [1843] he had completed an organization of eager souls, and led the first movement by wagon train across plains and mountains along this unblazed trail.
What a sight that caravan must have appeared to the roaming savages! And what an experience for the intrepid pioneers!
More that two hundred wagons, bearing well-nigh a thousand emigrants, made up the party. They traveled by substantially the same route that Whitman had taken when he first went out to Oregon; from a rendezvous near what is now Kansas City they moved due northwest across northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska to the Platte River; followed the Platte to the middle of what is now Wyoming, thence crossing the mountains by way of the Sweetwater Valley and the South Platte; and from Fort Hall, following the well-known route, roughly paralleling the Snake River, into Oregon. The difficulties of the trip, involving beside the two hundred wagons, the care of women and children, and of considerable herds of live stock, were such that its successful accomplishment seems almost miraculous.
But stern determination triumphed and the result was conclusive. Americans had settled the country. The country belonged to them because they had taken it; and in the end the boundary settlement was made on the line of the forty-ninth parallel, your great Northwest was saved, and a veritable Empire was merged in the young Republic.
Never in the history of the world has there been a finer example of civilization following Christianity. The missionaries led under the banner of the cross, and the settlers moved close behind under the star-spangled symbol of the nation.
Among all the records of the evangelizing efforts as the forerunner of human advancement, there is none so impressive as this of the early Oregon mission and its marvelous consequences.
To the men and women of that early day whose first thought was to carry the gospel to the Indians—to the Lees, the Spauldings, the Grays, the Walkers, the Leslies, to Fathers DeSmet and Blanchet and DeMars, and to all the others of that glorious company who found that in serving God they were also serving their country and their fellowmen—to them we pay today our tribute; to them we owe a debt of gratitude, which we can never pay, save partially through recognition such as you and I have accorded today. …
I thank you from my heart for permitting me to participate in doing homage to those brave souls. I rejoice particularly in the opportunity afforded me of voicing my appreciation both as President of the United States and as one who honestly tries to be a Christian soldier, of the signal service of the martyred Whitman.3147
On July 31, 1923, in a speech that he was unable to deliver due to his fatal illness, but which was released for publication in San Francisco, President Warren G. Harding stated:
We were never technically at war with Turkey, and had no part in the Greek-Angora conflict, which threatened to set the Near East aflame. But the rights of our nationals and other nationals long recognized by accepted civilization were involved in the settlement, and we had our representatives at Lausanne, not only to protect those rights, but serve humanitarian interests and promote the cause of peace. … We did not fail to voice American sentiment of behalf of Christian minorities, and we did assist in reaching a settlement calculated to assure their future protection.3148
President Warren Gamaliel Harding, who was a Baptist,3149 stated:
I have always believed in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, whereby they have become the expression to man of the Word and Will of God.3150