Essay On The Teapot Dome Scandal

2772 Words6 Pages

Amazingly, it is not until President Nixon and his involvement in the Watergate scandal that the Teapot Dome scandal finally takes a backseat as being notoriously known for the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. This paper will illustrate how and why one man in the oil industry could so easily manipulate the presidential election of 1920 in order to set up important cabinet appointments that will enable him and a few others, to reap millions. In addition, there will be important points on a select few people and their contribution, not only to the Teapot Dome scandal, but also to the 1920 presidential nominee, Warren G. Harding. Not only did this scandal involve President Harding, but it also included Albert B. Fall, former Senator of New Mexico, Harry Daugherty, Jake Hamon of Oklahoma, along with Secretary of the Navy - Edwin Denby, the founder of Sinclair Oil – Harry Sinclair, and finally, oil tycoon Edward Doheny. This paper will also illustrate how President Harding was a “sitting duck” due to the greed and premeditated planning of just two men.
To begin with, an explanation of how this became known as the “Teapot Dome” scandal is needed. The name Teapot Dome comes from a rock formation that looks like a teapot in a large area of land in Wyoming which was set aside as part of the U.S. Naval oil reserve. Under the Picket Act of 1910, President Taft set aside this land in addition to two others in California as reserves. It was believed that huge deposits of petroleum were located in these places that the Navy was to always have on reserve in the event of war or a national emergency. But where there is oil, there is money and never far behind, corruption. Unfortunately for President Harding, this oil reserv...

... middle of paper ...

...ess time for the corruption brought on by one man with a plan and carried out by a few men with a hunger for more money to manipulate one man that had no real, true plan to be the President of the United States. Once Hamon’s plan took root, it only took about a year for planning, less than a year to have the “right” people in position, and about one year for the actual deed of drilling on the Naval oil reserve. Yet, it took a large amount of people investigating a case of so few, six years to complete the hearings. Water and oil do not mix just like politicians and big oil companies should not. The end result will always be one, nasty mess that no one wants to wash their hands in. Unfortunately, history has proven itself, The Teapot Dome scandal in 1922, and the Watergate scandal in 1972. If this continues, the next major political scandal will happen in 2022.

Show More
Related

  • Research Paper On Ida Tarbell The Muckraker

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the late 1800's and early 1900's, change in American society was very evident in the economy. An extraordinary expansion of the industrial economy was taking place, presenting new forms of business organization and bringing trusts and holding companies into the national picture. The turn of the century is known as the "Great Merger Movement:" over two thousand corporations were "swallowed up" by one hundred and fifty giant holding companies.1 This powerful change in industry brought about controversy and was a source of social anxiety. How were people to deal with this great movement and understand the reasons behind the new advancements? Through the use of propaganda, the public was enlightened and the trusts were attacked. Muckraking, a term categorizing this type of journalism, began in 1903 and lasted until 1912. It uncovered the dirt of trusts and accurately voiced the public's alarm of this new form of industrial control. Ida Tarbell, a known muckraker, spearheaded this popular investigative movement.2 As a journalist, she produced one of the most detailed examinations of a monopolistic trust, The Standard Oil Company.3 Taking on a difficult responsibility and using her unique journalistic skills, Ida Tarbell was able to get to the bottom of a scheme that allowed the oil industry to be manipulated by a single man, John D. Rockefeller.

    Read More

  • Citizens United v. FEC: United We Stand, Corporations and All

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Gilded Age—a period that began in the 1870s wherein the United States experienced tremendous economic growth—affluent industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew W. Mellon, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie exercised, owing in large part to their wealth, enormous influence over the direction of American politics. Though left unaddressed during the Gilded Age, the issue of corporate involvement in political affairs was eventually identified as a corrosive problem in President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1904 State of the Union address. In his address, Roosevelt asserted that corporate spending in federal elections had the potential to engender corruption—or the appear...

    Read More

  • Ida Tarbell And The Cleveland Massacre

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Cleveland massacre was the beginning of Rockefeller’s career and an end to many of the small oil refineries in Cleveland, Ohio. Frank Tarbell was one of those people. For 2 years, Tarbell searched for illegal activities that Rockefeller had committed and one of the major ways that Tarbell gained information from was interviewing businessmen and even senior officers of Standard Oil. At first, only a small amount of businessmen would talk because they were afraid of Rockefeller and his massive company. One man had even told Tarbell that Rockefeller was going to destroy McClure’s Magazine if she kept investigating Standard Oil (Ida Tarbell, 1857-1944: She Used Her Reporting Skills Against One of the Most Powerful Companies in the World). Soon she found evidence of the illegal methods that Rockefeller used to take over the oil industry. After she wrote an article about the illegal methods, many people began assisting her in exposing Standard Oil. With the help of Mark Twain, Tarbell was able to interview the most powerful senior executive of Standard Oil, Henry H. Rogers. During this interview with Henry H. Rogers, who was surprisingly open, Tarbell confirmed the information that she learned from other businessmen and published it in McClure’s Magazine. For over the next two years, Rogers and Tarbell held long interviews regularly and Tarbell was

    Read More

  • Comparing Fact and Fiction: All the President's Men

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    unearthed one of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century. Bernstein and Woodward were not aware of how well they worked together. "They had never worked on a s...

    Read More

  • The Capitalists Who Shaped Post-Civil War America

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1800’s, business leaders who built their affluence by stealing and bribing public officials to propose laws in their favor were known as “robber barons”. J.P. Morgan, a banker, financed the restructuring of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. In addition, Andrew Carnegie, the steel king, disliked monopolistic trusts. Nonetheless, ruthlessly destroying the businesses and lives of many people merely for personal profit; Carnegie attained a level of dominance and wealth never before seen in American history, but was only able to obtain this through acts that were dishonest and oftentimes, illicit. Document D resentfully emphasizes the alleged capacity of the corrupt industrialists. In the picture illustrated, panic-stricken people pay acknowledgment to the lordly tycoons. Correlating to this political cartoon, in 1900, Carnegie was willing to sell his holdings of his company. During the time Morgan was manufacturing

    Read More

  • How Did Warren G Harding Impact The 1920s

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Teapot Dome Scandal happened during Harding's Presidency. The Scandal was that Albert Fall, Harding’s secretary of interior who leased federal

    Read More

  • Effects Of The Teapot Dome Scandal

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Teapot Dome and Corruption by Albert B. The Teapot Dome scandal took place at a time when oil had only recently become the coveted mineral it is today. Taking place during a time when conservation efforts were on the rise, the scandal that would plague both the Harding and Coolidge administrations erupted and saw two cabinet members resign, one be sentenced to prison time, and damage the trust the public had in the government. Teapot Dome centered around three major oil reserves, all of which were in the government's control, and two of which that were in the hands of the navy for national security purposes. Albert B. Fall, the secretary of interior, Edward Doheny, and Harry Sinclair were the major players in this scandal, along with Thomas J. Walsh, a senator from Montana who was neither conservationist nor interested in oil, and Edwin Denby Harding’s Secretary of Navy. The corruption took place under Harding’s administration, though he died before he could suffer the windfall or be implicated in any way.

    Read More

  • Confidence In The Watergate Scandal

    1567 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is clear that while political scandal, primarily the 1974 Watergate scandal, played a large role in the rapidly declining confidence in government between 1968 and 1980, it is not the sole or even the dominant factor. The Watergate scandal only impacted on the Nixon era, and subsequently lead to measures that should have prevented further distrust in the government. Instead, the role played by the four presidents who held office in those years was the main reason behind the decline in confidence. The role of the presidents and their White House administrations encompassed political scandals, and also clearly influenced other factors such as the role

    Read More

  • Andrew Jackson: The Champion Of The Common Man

    1569 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shortly after the American Revolution, the United States entered an era of profound economic and social change that was dominated first by the Market Revolution and subsequently by Andrew Jackson’s skillful use of the power of the presidency to crack down on capitalist exploitation. Jackson’s first biographer, James Parton, however, describes the legacy of the seventh President’s administration as one fraught with controversy, “Andrew Jackson was a patriot, and a traitor. He was the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. He was the most candid of men, and capable of the profoundest dissimulation. He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint.”

    Read More

  • Corruption and Greed in the Gilded Age

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Following the years of Congressional Reconstruction during the Johnson administration, former Union General Ulysses S. Grant was elected president, despite his lack of political experience. Although Grant was an excellent soldier, he proved to be an insufficient politician, failing to respond effectively to rampant corruption throughout his two terms in office. Both government and businesses were plagued by corrupt schemes, as Republican leaders used the spoils system to gain political favors and “robber barons,” such as Jay Gould and James Fisk, stole large sums of money at the public’s expense. New York Mayor William “Boss” Tweed, leader of the “Tammany Hall” political machine, took advantage of the influx of immigrants to the United States by manipulating newly arrived immigrants, promising employment, housing, and other favors in return for their electoral support. This blatant corruption severely damaged the opinions of many Americans regarding their government, and prompted the election of numerous reform-minded politicians. Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield both attempted to restore honest government following the tainted Grant administration, yet political divisions between the “Halfbreed” and “Stalwart” factions of the Republican Party prev...

    Read More

  • Andrew Jackson Argumentative Essay

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    As soon as Andrew Jackson came into office, he fired 10% of the government’s employees, mainly from the post office, and placed his own supporters into the vacated posts. This may not have been a problem if he replaced these workers with people who were qualified, but the vast majority of Andrew Jackson’s appointments were incompetent. Thus, the government became bloated and less efficient. Andrew Jackson development of a special system to reward his cronies with government jobs without formal training, demonstrates that Andrew Jackson should be remembered as

    Read More

  • Betty Keller's Major Conflict In The Tea Party By Amy Keller

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    The play’s major conflict is the loneliness experienced by the two elderly sisters, after outliving most of their relatives. The minor conflict is the sisters setting up a tea party for the newspaper boy who is supposed to collect his pay, but instead skips over their house. The sisters also have another minor conflict about the name of a ship from their father’s voyage. Because both sisters are elderly, they cannot exactly remember the ships name or exact details, and both sisters believe their version of the story is the right one. Although it is a short drama narration, Betty Keller depicts the two sisters in great detail, introduces a few conflicts, and with the use of dialogue,

    Read More

  • The Watergate Scandal

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    Despite the national attention the Watergate scandal had gained President Nixon, he won the second term presidency. The major problem for Nixon would come later. The investigations of the Watergate scandal lead to the discovery of other criminal acts by officials including Nixon. During the investigation many things begin to surface. It was discovered that documents had been destroyed that may have made a link between Nixon and the Watergate scandal. These documents may have shown that he had some acknowledgement in what had happened. There was evidence that people involved in the Nixon campaign had been wire tapping phones illegally for a long time according to “dummies.com”. The greatest issue would come to light during the 1973 Watergate hearings. During testimonies it came to light that every conversation was recorded in the Oval office according to “study.com”. It was demanded that these tapes be reviewed to learn how much involvement President Nixon had in the Watergate burglary. The President felt that he had the right to withhold these tapes through what he referred to as executive privilege. This means that if it is the best interest of the public the president has the right to keep information from the

    Read More

  • The Failure Of The Teapot Dome Scandal

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Teapot Dome scandal, which is also called the Elk Hills scandal or the Oil Reserves scandal, was a scandal that involved big oil companies, national security, bribery and corruption in the Harding administration. There was also corruption at the highest levels of the government of the United States. Teapot Dome was named that because it was near a rock formation that looked like a teapot.

    Read More

  • A Scandal In Belgravia Comparison

    880 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story of “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Conan Doyle relates to the BBC crime drama series Sherlock episode “A Scandal in Belgravia”. BBC crime drama was filmed based on the short story that Conan Doyle wrote. The film and the text is based on a similar concept, but contains different details of information. There are three comparisons that is easily identified such as theme, characters and setting. These differences make the text and the film different.

    Read More

More about Essay On The Teapot Dome Scandal

Open Document