Posted on 08/13/2015 10:16:39 AM PDT by dware
What was that ditty they wrote about Harding at the time?
Ma, ma where’s my Pa?
Gone to the White House
Ha, ha, ha.
Actually that rhyme was for the democrat Grover Cleveland about 40 years earlier.
I remember reading a political taunt that went, “Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa, Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha”.
I researched it and found it was from James blaine, an opponent of Grover Cleveland. Cleveland had also fathered a love child. Cleveland was a Dem.
You and I were thinking the same thing....and you got there first.
I believe you may be correct.
Right rhyme
Wrong President.
Years ago, on C-SPAN’s “Booknotes,” the superb historian Stephen Ambrose, who wrote “Band of Brothers” and “Undaunted Courage” about Lewis and Clark, was asked about Thomas Jefferson and he said that with his research he was able to determine that it was Jefferson’s brother who had the sexual relationship with Sally and not Thomas. He added that it was a political rumor spread at the time by one of his opponents. I can’t remember if he said DNA tests were done or not but he said that Jefferson believed that history would one day prove that he was faithful to his wife and did not have the liaison. According to Ambrose, Jefferson was actually too much of a gentleman to point out that it was his brother who had done it and not him.
Affairs of the State take precedent over the affairs of the State
...at least he came out of the closet
Scandalous. I won’t vote for Harding again.
“Affairs of state must take precedent over, uh, the affairs of state.”.
My work here is done.
“Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. Hello boys. Have a good night’s rest? I missed you.”
As well? There was a rumour that Harding was black but nobody said the mistress was.
That’s why I used the word “rumored”. DNA tests of Hemming’s descendants did seem to confirm that either Thomas or his brother were ancestors, but which one is impossible to confirm. It was a disgruntled muck raker who had worked for Jefferson, James Callender, who turned on him and put the rumors about his relationship and supposed fathering of several children with Sally out into print. It probably didn’t hurt him much in the south. Masters fathering children with slave women was fairly commonplace. Sally herself was the daughter of Jefferson’s father in law. But to the Federalists up in the northeast it was considered juicy.
Read Undaunted Courage...loved it. It should be a must read for Middle school/HS students.
A couple comments:
The DNA test reveals that Warren Harding had a child, albeit an illegitimate one. Following his death, Harding’s correspondence and other writings fell into the possession of his wife, Florence, but she soon passed away herself. His life’s work then passed into the possession of her children by a prior marriage. They never approved of their mother’s remarriage, and kept the Harding papers closed even as the man was being vilified in real time.
So, Harding did not die childless. he was survived by his daughter, who lived until 2005. The daughter subsequently married and had a child of her own, a son, who is alive today.
The DNA test also reveals NO African lineage. For his entire life, he carried the burden, of those days, of having African blood. As a boy, he was taunted. Every election, including 1920, it was an issue. His supposed African lineage was the real proof that he wasn’t so smart, womanized, imbibed liquor, played cards, and so forth.
depends what the meaning of “father” is.
Even a dead man can be a father to a girl who is innocent of her parents’ indiscretion.
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