ABSTRACT
Ulysses Simpson Grant, eighteenth president of the United States, presided over one of the most corrupt administrations in U.S. history, matched only by the scandals of the Harding years. Both Grant and Harding were ill prepared for the White House. Harding’s main interests were newspaper publishing and his buddies, Grant’s main interest was military service. Harding had served briefly in office in Ohio (in the state legislature and as lieutenant governor) and in the U.S. Senate, but he showed little interest in carefully supervising the cronies he put in office, who dishonored him and caused him to lose his will to live. Grant had little interest in politics, having voted in only one presidential election before running for the office himself. He, too, failed to exercise tight control over friends and relatives who saw national office as a way to line their pockets.
