Presidential Biographies | Harding Administration - Harding's Advisers

Harding's Advisers

President Harding delegated to Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes broad authority over matters related to foreign affairs. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover played similarly important roles in regard to finance and business respectively. Hoover, already famous for his humanitarian work during and after World War I (1914–18), would further boost his image with his excellent work in the Commerce Department under Harding and Coolidge, so much so that he was elected president in 1928.

The men closest to the president, however, were his friends—the so-called "Ohio Gang"—especially his attorney general, Harry M. Daugherty. Daugherty, in turn, brought his friend and associate, Jesse Smith, into the Justice Department. (Smith never held any official government position but he nonetheless had an office near Daugherty in the Justice Department building.)...