Harry M. Daugherty

Harry Micajah Daugherty (; January 26, 1860 – October 12, 1941) was an American politician. A key Republican political insider from Ohio, he is best remembered for his service as Attorney General of the United States under presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, as well as for his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal during Harding's presidency.

Despite his status as a key political leader of the Ohio Republican Party from the 1880s to the first decade of the 20th century, Daugherty was only briefly a statewide elected politician by serving just two terms in the Ohio General Assembly, working closely during the last two years with state governor William McKinley. Although he sought national office several times, Daugherty was thwarted in his effort to obtain the nomination of his party and was never elected to office again.

Daugherty remained an influential figure behind the election of several U.S. representatives and senators. He was Harding's campaign manager at the 1920 Republican National Convention. Following Harding's successful election, Daugherty was named attorney general. In that capacity, he was instrumental in winning presidential pardons for jailed anti-war dissidents such as Eugene V. Debs. Twice the subject of federal corruption investigations, Daugherty was forced in 1924 to resign his post as attorney general by Coolidge.

Biography

Early years

Harry M. Daugherty was born on January 26, 1860, in the small town of Washington Court House, Ohio. Daugherty's father, John H. Daugherty, was the Pennsylvania-born son of Irish immigrants and worked as a farmer and tailor. His mother, Jane Draper Daugherty, was from a prominent Ohio family with Virginia roots dating back to the time of the American Revolution.

Daugherty's father died of diphtheria when Harry was just four years old, as did one of his brothers, leaving his mother as the sole provider for the household. Harry and his older brother, Mally, were forced by economic necessity to take a variety of jobs from a relatively early age to help with the family's living expenses. Initially successful, this ethically shady activity was ultimately discovered and exposed by local gamblers puzzled by the brothers' uncanny success.

Factional soldier

thumb|Ohio governor Joseph B. Foraker, with whom Daugherty was politically allied as a young man, as he appeared in 1902

In 1882 Daugherty was elected by the Fayette County Republican Central Committee as the recording secretary of the organization.

A close political relationship developed between Foraker and Daugherty, with Daugherty exerting himself in support of Foraker's unsuccessful 1883 campaign. He was elected as chairman of the Fayette County Republican Central Committee in 1886 but spent most of his time helping to establish a law practice. This time Ohio Republicans recaptured not only the Governor's mansion – electing William McKinley to the state's chief executive office – but also the majority of the state assembly. Forced by the logic of the situation to switch alliances rather than risk being cast into political oblivion, Daugherty abandoned Foraker in the final contest of the Ohio Republican caucus on January 2, 1892, joining 52 others in voting for Sherman, against 38 for the insurgent campaign of Foraker.

In the aftermath of the caucus that would determine Ohio's U.S. Senator, editorials of the Democratic Columbus Post charged that Daugherty and fourteen other Ohio legislators had changed their support from Foraker to Sherman based upon "intimidation, threats, promises, and actual purchase" and accused Daugherty by name of having accepted cash payments.

The 1892 Senatorial campaign marked the formal attachment of Daugherty to the dominant Sherman-Hanna faction of the Ohio Republican Party after the better part of a decade as a trusted adherent of the rival Foraker faction. The move broadened Daugherty's political possibilities, and he was made chairman of the powerful Corporations Committee and named a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Governor McKinley also named Daugherty as his floor leader in the House of Representatives, keeping party members in line behind the governor's legislative agenda. Wilson won his race in the November 1892 general election and wound up serving four years in Congress on behalf of the 7th District.

In the aftermath of his failure to win a seat in Congress, Sherman offered Daugherty a political appointment as Assistant District Attorney in Columbus. Daugherty ultimately decided to decline this position, instead opening a new law office in that city, while still remaining a resident and practicing attorney in his hometown of Washington Court House. Dolby fled but was soon arrested and taken back to the jail at Washington Court House, where signs quickly pointed to an outburst of mob violence. Dolby supposedly confessed to the crime "upon being apprehended". The Ohio Republican Convention was dominated by the Foraker faction, however, and Foraker loyalist Frank S. Monnett was nominated for the Attorney General post over the deeply distrusted Daugherty.

Not daunted by his loss, in 1896 Daugherty announced his desire to win election to Congress. An advisory primary election was held among Fayette County Republicans in March 1896, in which Daugherty narrowly won a bitterly fought race. The actual nomination was to be made by the 7th District Republican Convention, however, and there Daugherty fell victim to factional machinations, with the nomination going instead to Walter L. Weaver, who would ultimately serve two terms in Congress. For a second time Daugherty had been denied.

The Republican National Committee recognized Daugherty's gifts as an indefatigable partisan and effective stump speaker, however, and sent him out on the road in support of McKinley's campaign for President of the United States in 1896. While Daugherty's insistence upon being paid had made for a tense relationship, the actual parting of their ways came in 1899, when Daugherty again sought the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio. Neither Foraker nor Hanna supported Daugherty for the position, with Hanna lending his support to George K. Nash and Foraker clearly still seething over Daugherty's 1892 abandonment.

Over the next five years Daugherty skillfully built political influence in the Ohio Republican establishment by dealing with leaders of both of the party's major factions. Daugherty maintained considerable influence with Republicans in the state legislature, who had known and worked with Daugherty for years. His political rehabilitation was only partial, however, for as long as Foraker and Hanna remained the top factional leaders of Ohio Republican politics there remained a very real ceiling beyond which Daugherty could never hope to rise.

Hanna's death in February 1904 and a subsequent discrediting of some of his top allies such as George B. Cox on grounds of political bossism again cleared the way for Daugherty's emergence.

Daugherty was instrumental in helping his ally Burton win election to the Senate in 1908 but was once again relegated to a key backstage role instead of himself standing for election to high office. Daugherty's position as a political boss rather than a public politician had once again been confirmed.

During the party split of 1912, Daugherty was a staunch supporter of Taft and old guard Republican conservatism against the progressive Republicanism espoused by Roosevelt. Daugherty was a key figure on the ground in Ohio in behalf of the Taft campaign, issuing a major address on May 18 which was so well regarded that it was reproduced as a pamphlet by the Taft organization. Although Daugherty's machinations along with Cuyahoga County boss Maurice Maschke carried the state Republican convention for Taft, a split of the Republican field in the November election propelled Democrat Woodrow Wilson to the presidency with a plurality of under 42% of the vote.

The Harding campaign

thumb|U.S. senator Warren Harding, 1918

The establishment of primary elections for the U.S. Senate in 1914 greatly reduced the power of political bosses such as Daugherty. It would not be too many years before these roles were reversed, however, with Harding elected to the state senate in 1901 and appointed Republican floor leader in that same session. Both were politically ambitious and while they enjoyed one another's company, they were not intimate personal friends.

Ever the political manipulator, in January 1918 Daugherty observed the significance of the growing temperance movement and opportunistically attempted to become a movement leader in the state. Daugherty was himself a drinker but was not a man to let personal habits stand in the way of political possibility.

In the summer of 1922, Daugherty labeled the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 as "a conspiracy worthy of Lenin and Zinoviev". He sent US marshals to aid the railroad companies in their effort to defend their properties and defeat the strike. This action provoked a backlash from many congressmen, and a house committee voted to hear charges of impeachment against Daugherty, though it never resulted in an actual impeachment vote.

The "Ohio Gang"

thumb|left|Attorney General Daugherty in his office

Having achieved power, Harding gathered around him a group of political cronies, including factional friends from the Ohio Republican establishment like Daugherty and others of like mind from other states, a group known colloquially as the "Ohio Gang." Critics such as Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover viewed the clique with thinly disguised disgust:<blockquote>[Harding] had another side which was not good. His political associates had been men of the type of Albert B. Fall, whom he appointed Secretary of the Interior; Daugherty, whom he appointed Attorney General; Forbes, whom he appointed Director of the Veterans' Bureau; Thomas W. Miller, whom he appointed Alien Property Custodian, and Jesse Smith who had office room in the Department of Justice.<br />

He enjoyed the company of these men and his old Ohio associates in and out of the government. Weekly White House poker parties were his greatest relaxation. The stakes were not large, but the play lasted most of the night.... I had lived too long on the frontiers of the world to have strong emotions against people playing poker for money if they liked it, but it irked me to see it in the White House.</blockquote>

thumb|A 1922 [[Charles Henry Sykes cartoon, whose caption reads, "N-nothin' to it, I tell you!"]]

Several of Harding's Ohio Gang associates lost no time enriching themselves at the public expense. Soon rumblings began to be heard over possible malfeasance in various government departments, including Daugherty's Department of Justice. Then on April 14, 1922, The Wall Street Journal broke a sensational story about a secret bribery scheme involving oil company kickbacks to government officials in exchange for the granting of extraordinarily favorable oil extraction leases via single-bid contracts. The next day Democratic Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduced a resolution which set in motion the Senate investigation that would ultimately expose this so-called Teapot Dome scandal, involving an illegal financial relationship between Fall, Harding's Secretary of the Interior, and a subsidiary of the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation. Morse, a multi-millionaire who had just begun a fifteen-year prison sentence, pretended to be dying in order to plead for a pardon on humanitarian grounds from President William Howard Taft. Daugherty, hired because of his closeness to Taft, and promised a fee of $100,000 if a pardon were obtained, In fact, after receiving the pardon, Morse lived another 21 years.

Daugherty was also accused by opponents of the administration of having been complicit in the Teapot Dome affair by failing to intervene after he had learned of the malfeasance. suddenly committed suicide. Although as a pious Quaker, Hoover was never part of the President's inner circle, he was abruptly added to the traveling party on the cruise by a "nervous and distraught" Harding, who apparently sought his counsel.

Hoover later recalled:

<blockquote>One day after lunch when we were a few days out, Harding asked me to come to his cabin. He plumped at me the question: "If you knew of a great scandal in our administration, would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly or would you bury it?" My natural reply was "Publish it, and at least get credit for integrity on your side." He remarked that this method might be politically dangerous. I asked for more particulars. He said that he had received some rumors of irregularities, centering around Smith, in connection with cases in the Department of Justice. He had followed the matter up and finally sent for Smith. After a painful session he told Smith that he would be arrested in the morning. Smith went home, burned all his papers, and committed suicide. Harding gave me no information about what Smith had been up to. I asked what Daugherty's relations to the affair were. He abruptly dried up and never raised the question again. While new President Calvin Coolidge initially resisted calls to sack Daugherty, Hoover and Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes prevailed upon him to eliminate a man whom they considered to be a corrupt official. In his memoirs Hoover remembered:

<blockquote>Coolidge was loath to believe that such things were possible. He greatly delayed the removal of Daugherty from the Cabinet. From this man's long-time character, he should never have been in any government.... Coolidge had a high sense of justice and asserted that he had no definite knowledge of wrongdoings by Daugherty and could not remove him on rumors. We urged that Daugherty had lost the confidence of the whole country and himself should be willing to retire for the good of public service.</blockquote>

On March 28, 1924, Coolidge acquiesced, demanding and receiving a letter of resignation from Daugherty. He was quickly replaced as Attorney General by Harlan Fiske Stone, dean of the Columbia Law School. Daugherty served as president of, when Daughterty refused to investigate the Teapot Dome Scandal. On January 17, 1927, in the McGrain v. Daugherty ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a contempt conviction against Mally Daughterty which was related to a contempt citation which was issued against him in 1924. However, the Supreme Court decision to uphold Mal's contempt conviction would also result in the Midland Bank case against Daugherty passing into history.

Later years, death, and legacy

Daugherty returned to practicing law until his retirement in 1932, and that year published, with ghostwriter Thomas Dixon, The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy about his time in the Harding administration. In the book he claimed that Fall had become Secretary of the Interior by forging Daugherty's signature, and that Smith, his close friend, had killed himself because of diabetes, not a guilty conscience.

Spending many of his final years in Florida and Mackinac Island, Michigan, Daugherty planned to write more books to clear his reputation, but in October 1940, he suffered two heart attacks and was stricken with pneumonia. Bedridden and blind in one eye during this last year, he died peacefully in his sleep with his son and daughter at his side on October 12, 1941.

Daugherty was buried at Washington Cemetery in Washington Court House, Ohio. Some of his papers, consisting primarily of correspondence between him and President Warren Harding, are housed at the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus.

Popular culture

Daugherty is portrayed by Christopher McDonald on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Like the real life Daugherty, the character is portrayed as Warren G. Harding's 1920 campaign manager and later as his Attorney General. He also faces corruption charges and his relationship with Jess Smith and Gaston Means is also shown. Daugherty is also portrayed by Barry Sullivan in the 1979 NBC mini-series Backstairs at the White House.

Works

Respect for Law: Address of Hon. Harry M. Daugherty at the Meeting of the American Bar Association at Cincinnati, Ohio, August 31, 1921. Washington, DC: [U.S. Government Printing Office?], 1921.
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act: Letter from the Attorney General, Transmitting in Response to Senate Resolution of January 25, 1922, Additional Information Regarding Persons Prosecuted by the Government under the Espionage Act or for Conspiracy to Violate War-time Laws ... Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1922.
Reply by the Attorney General of the United States, Harry M. Daugherty to charges filed with the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, December 1, 1922, by Oscar E. Keller. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1922.
Address by the Attorney General of the United States, Hon. Harry M. Daugherty (at Canton, Ohio, October 21, 1922). Washington, DC: n.p., 1922.
Speech of Former Attorney General Daugherty and Introductory Remarks of Judge John E. Sater: At Testimonial Dinner Tendered by Business and Professional Men at Hotel Deshler, Columbus, Ohio, April 23rd, 1924. Columbus, OH: n.p., 1924.
Report Submitted to President Coolidge by Attorney General H. M. Daugherty Concerning Prohibition Litigation throughout U.S., Covering Period Jan. 16, 1920 to June 16, 1923. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1926.
The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy. With Thomas Dixon. New York: Churchill Company, 1932.

Harry M. Daugherty

Biography

Early years

Factional soldier

The Harding campaign

The "Ohio Gang"

Later years, death, and legacy

Popular culture

Works

See also

Notes

Footnotes

Further reading

External links