President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, faced a Republican Senate, and Theodore Roosevelt, an independent-minded Republican, took delight in testing his strength even against a Republican Congress.
President Cleveland in 1886 backed his Attorney General in refusing to deliver to the Senate some reports dealing with the administration of the United States District Attorney’s office in the District of Columbia. The man who had held the office had been suspended, and Cleveland argued that the report on the reasons was the business of the executive branch. Because the Kilbourn case had weakened the position of Congress, Cleveland was not challenged.
President Theodore Roosevelt refused to allow his Attorney General to deliver papers to the Senate dealing with the status of investigations involving the U.S. Steel Corporation. The papers included an Attorney General’s opinion on the U.S. Steel Corporation case.
Although the papers sought involved a pending case, the Senate insisted on pursuing the matter. Herbert K. Smith, head of the Bureau of Corporations, was summoned and was threatened with contempt and imprisonment if he failed to produce the documents. President Roosevelt asked Smith for the papers and, after taking them into his possession, informed the Senate the only way they could get the papers would be by impeaching him. The Senate then dropped the matter.
The infamous scandals of the Harding administration renewed the will of the Congress, and proved for all time the need for Congress to investigate even when a President assures the public that “all is well.”
CHAPTER III
Teapot Dome to the Tax Scandals
Before Congress completed its investigations of the Harding administration scandals, cabinet officers had been found to be involved in the maladministration or corruption. Secretary of Navy Edwin Denby resigned from office under a barrage of criticism. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, involved in several questionable financial transactions, was indicted on a charge of having accepted a $200,000 payoff in connection with handling of Alien Property Custodian affairs. Daugherty was acquitted of the criminal charge, but reports of Congress established him as corrupt and incompetent in the handling of his office. Secretary of Interior Albert Fall was convicted of accepting a bribe and sent to prison.
It was in May 1921, within a year of President Harding’s election, that Secretary of Interior Fall persuaded the President and Navy Secretary Denby to transfer certain naval oil reserves from the Navy to the Interior Department. Once he got them within his domain, Fall then transferred the oil reserves—at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California—to two private oil producers, Harry Sinclair and E. L. Doheny. The leases were signed secretly, without competitive bidding, and Secretary of Interior Fall conveniently tossed them into a drawer away from public view. He then proceeded to collect $100,000 from Doheny for the Elk Hills transfer, and $300,000 from Sinclair for the Teapot Dome transfer.
Months later when the Democrats learned of the oil leases they demanded explanations and alleged, without substantiation, that the leases might involve some improprieties. Fall and Denby explained that the transfers to the Interior Department and the leasings were “in the public interest.”
When President Harding put his personal stamp of approval on the leasing of the oil reserves, public sentiment turned against the investigating Democrats. A big, smiling man with an open face that seemed to project total integrity, Harding easily gave the impression that all was well with the oil reserve transactions. Although events later proved that he lacked understanding of the Teapot Dome scandals as well as many other important matters that took place in his administration, his reassurances at this stage were readily accepted by the public and the press.