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Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company (second from right, with moustache) testifying before the Senate committee investigating the Teapot Dome Scandal.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (cph 3a51362)
The Teapot Dome Scandal was an American political scandal of the early 1920s. It involved the secret leasing of federal oil reserves at Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming, by Albert Bacon Fall—U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding’s secretary of the interior—to oil tycoons Edward L. Doheny and Harry F. Sinclair. Fall, who had received as much as $400,000 in bribes, became the first cabinet member to be imprisoned for crimes committed while in office. Harding was never personally implicated in the scandal, but the stress related to it took a toll on his health, and he died in office. NoneRead more about the checkered career of Albert Bacon Fall, the architect of the Teapot Dome Scandal.
What did the Teapot Dome Scandal reveal about U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding’s administration?
The Teapot Dome Scandal revealed that U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding’s administration was rife with corruption. Beyond Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall’s secret leasing of federal oil reserves in exchange for bribes, Attorney General Harry Daugherty, Harding’s longtime campaign manager, was accused of selling government supplies of alcohol during Prohibition. Moreover, Charles R. Forbes, head of the Veterans Bureau, was convicted on bribery and corruption charges. Harry Micajah DaughertyRead about Harry Daugherty, U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding’s corrupt attorney general.
How did the Teapot Dome Scandal affect U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding’s reputation?
Although U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding was not personally implicated in the Teapot Dome affair or the other scandals that tarnished his administration, he was aware of the corrupt behaviour of the “Ohio Gang” and failed to expose it. By the mid-1920s he was seen as a man who was simply not up to the responsibilities of the presidency. He was rumoured to have been drinking heavily and to have been involved in extramarital affairs. Historians have challenged the veracity of some allegations made against Harding, but many of them regard him as the country’s least capable president. Warren G. Harding: ScandalsOhio GangLearn about the “Ohio Gang,” the politicians who achieved high office during the Harding administration and who were involved a number of scandals.
Teapot Dome Scandal, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome (Wyoming) reserves (April 7, 1922). He granted similar rights to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company for the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves in California (1921–22).
When these leases and contracts came under investigation by committees of the U.S. Senate, it was disclosed that shortly after the signing of the Teapot Dome lease, Fall and members of his family had received from an unknown source more than $200,000 in Liberty bonds under circumstances indicating that the bonds came from a company organized by Sinclair and others receiving benefits from the lease. Also, it appeared that prior to the execution of the Pan American contracts and leases, Doheny, at Fall’s request, sent $100,000 in currency to Fall as a “loan” that had not been repaid.
On April 14, 1922, a story broke about bribes, corruption, and secret deals worth millions in oil money in the American West.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
When the affair became known, Congress directed President Harding to cancel the leases; the Supreme Court declared the leases fraudulent and ruled illegal Harding’s transfer of authority to Fall. Although the president himself was not implicated in the transactions that had followed the transfer, the revelations of his associates’ misconduct took a severe toll on his health; disillusioned and exhausted, he died before the full extent of the wrongdoing had been determined. Fall was convicted of accepting a bribe in the Elk Hills negotiations and imprisoned. Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted of charges of bribery and criminal conspiracy, but Sinclair spent 6 1/2 months in prison for contempt of court and contempt of the U.S. Senate. Although the secretary of the navy, Edwin Denby, had signed all the leases, he was cleared of all charges.
Political cartoon depicting the Teapot Dome Scandal of the early 1920s.
JT Vintage/age fotostock
Though “Teapot Dome” entered the American political vocabulary as a synonym for governmental corruption, the scandal had little long-term effect on the Republican Party. Calvin Coolidge, a Republican, was elected president in 1924.
