Warren Gamaliel Harding, the 29th president of the United States, died August 2, 1923, of a cerebral hemorrhage, the third American president to die in office of natural causes. Harding had been a journalist before entering into politics, the editor of The Marion Star, his hometown paper, which he raised from obscurity to a major organ in national life. The following editorial and news briefs were published in the August 11, 1923, edition of The Living Church.
Not only as loyal citizens of the United States, whose proud political duty it is to support and honor the Chief Executive of our nation. The Living Church, with all faithful churchmen, mourns the sudden death of President Harding. It could not well be otherwise, for we are accustomed to pray regularly and ex animo that he be replenished with the grace of the Holy Spirit that he may always incline to God’s will and walk in his way, and that we and all the people, duly considering whose authority he bore, may faithfully and obediently honor him, “in thee, and for thee, according to thy blessed word and ordinance.” It is of course true that we pray for the officer; but religion is such that we cannot well divorce the abstract idea from the concrete personality. God cannot be thought of as giving grace to an idea: and so we have been commending, and do now equally commend, Warren Gamaliel Harding, President of the United States, to the love and direction of our heavenly Father.
President Harding’s term of office came at one of the most difficult periods of American history, during the reconstruction period after the great war. He took the great weight of office that finally crushed him, as it had crushed his predecessor, and maintained it with dignity and honor. However any may differ with his policies, we believe that there is none who can say that Mr. Harding did not endeavor to be President of the whole nation, or that he did not use all of his power in the interest of the entire country, as he saw it. He has gone now, we trust, to the place of rest and refreshment, into the presence of the Supreme Governor of the universe. May he find continued grace and mercy there!
Solemn Requiems for President Harding
Among other solemnities observed by the Church on the day of the funeral of the late President Harding, a Solemn High Mass of Requiem will be said in the Church of the Transfiguration, New York City. A Requiem Mass will be said Friday, August 10th, in All Saints’ Cathedral, Milwaukee, Wis.
Prayers were offered for the repose of the soul of the late president at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, August 3rd and on the same day a requiem was said in St. Luke’s Chapel, Trinity Parish, New York. Memorial services are to be held on the day of burial in the cathedral and in Trinity Church.
The rector of St. Paul’s Church, Marion, Ohio, the Rev. I. Frederic Jones, said a requiem for the repose of the soul of the late President Harding on Friday, Aug. 3rd. St. Paul’s Church stands immediately east of the Star building, and it was in the shadow of this house of worship that the president worked for so many years, and built the Star from its modest beginnings to its present state of excellence.
