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Teapot Dome scandal
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The Teapot Dome scandal refers to a bribery scandal of the White House administration of United States President Warren G. Harding. "Teapot Dome" is an oil field on public land in the U.S. state of Wyoming, so named for Teapot Rock, an outcrop resembling a teapot overlooking the field.
In 1921, by executive order of President Harding, control of Naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and at Elk Hills, California, was transferred from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior. The oil reserves had been set aside for the Navy by President Taft.
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The Teapot Dome scandal refers to a bribery scandal of the White House administration of United States President Warren G. Harding. "Teapot Dome" is an oil field on public land in the U.S. state of Wyoming, so named for Teapot Rock, an outcrop resembling a teapot overlooking the field.
In 1921, by executive order of President Harding, control of Naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and at Elk Hills, California, was transferred from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior. The oil reserves had been set aside for the Navy by President Taft. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Harry F. Sinclair, an oil operator, and the field at Elk Hills, California, to Edward L. Doheny. These transactions became (1922–23) the subject of a Senate investigation conducted by Sen. Thomas J. Walsh.
It was found that in 1921, Doheny had lent Fall $100,000, interest-free, and that upon Fall's retirement as Secretary of the Interior, in March 1923, Sinclair also “lent” him a large amount of money. The investigation led to criminal prosecutions. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000. In another trial for bribery Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted, although Sinclair was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury in his case. The oil fields were restored to the U.S. government through a Supreme Court decision in 1927.
Oil riches on government land
Teapot Dome is a geologic structural uplift and associated oil field located in Natrona County, Wyoming, about 55 miles north of Casper. It is named for a formation of eroded sandstone called Teapot Rock that rises above the bare sagebrush. Teapot Rock overlooks the tract of land containing the Teapot Dome structure and oil field, and the United States Naval Oil Reserve covering most of the field.
Teapot Dome, Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills in Kern County, California, were oil fields located on public land reserved for emergency use by the U.S. Navy only when the regular oil supplies diminished. Many politicians and private oil interests had opposed the limits placed on the oil fields, claiming that the reserves were unnecessary and that American oil companies could provide for the Navy.
One of the public officials most avidly opposed to the reserves was New Mexico Republican Senator Albert B. Fall. A political alliance ensured his appointment to the Senate in 1912, and his political allies — who later made up the infamous Ohio Gang — convinced President Harding to appoint Fall as United States Secretary of the Interior in March 1921.
Single-bid contracts followed by kickbacks
In 1922, the reserves were still under the jurisdiction of Edwin C. Denby, the United States Secretary of the Navy. Fall convinced Denby to give jurisdiction over the reserves to the Department of the Interior. Fall then leased the rights of the oil to Harry F. Sinclair of the original Sinclair Oil, then known as Mammoth Oil, without competitive bidding. Contrary to popular belief, this manner of leasing was legal under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. Concurrently, Fall also leased the Naval oil reserves at Elk Hills, California, to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum in exchange for personal loans at no interest. In return for leasing these oil fields to the respective oil magnates, Fall received gifts from the oilmen totaling about $404,000 [equivalent to $4 million in the year 2000]. It was this money changing hands that was illegal—not the lease itself. Fall attempted to keep his actions secret, but the sudden improvement in his standard of living prompted speculation.
On April 14, 1922, the Wall Street Journal reported a secret arrangement in which Fall had leased the petroleum reserves to a private oil company without competitive bidding. Fall denied the claims, and the leases to the oil companies seemed legal enough on the surface. However, the following day, Wyoming Democratic Senator John B. Kendrick introduced a resolution that would set in motion one of the most significant investigations in the Senate's history. Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., arranged for the Senate Committee on Public Lands to investigate the matter. At first, La Follette believed Fall was innocent. However, his suspicions deepened after his office was ransacked. Without any proof and with more ambiguous headlines, the story faded from the public eye. However, the Senate kept investigating.
Investigation and outcome
La Follette's committee allowed the investigation panel's most junior minority member, Montana Democrat Thomas J. Walsh, to lead what most expected to be a tedious and probably futile inquiry seeking answers to many questions. For two years, Walsh pushed forward while Fall stepped backward, covering his tracks as he went. The Committee found no evidence of wrongdoing, the leases were legal enough, but records kept disappearing mysteriously. Fall had made the leases of the oil fields appear to be legitimate, but his acceptance of the money was his undoing. By 1924, the Committee had only one unanswered question: How did Fall become so rich so quickly?
Money from the bribes went to Fall's cattle ranch and investments in his business. Finally, as the investigation was winding down and preparing to declare Fall innocent, Walsh uncovered one piece of evidence Fall had forgotten to cover up: Doheny's loan to Fall in November 1921, in the amount of $100,000.
The investigation led to a series of civil and criminal suits related to the scandal throughout the 1920s. Finally in 1927 the Supreme Court ruled that the oil leases had been corruptly obtained and invalidated the Elk Hills lease in February of that year and the Teapot lease in October of the same year. The Navy regained control of the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills reserves as a result of the Court's decision. Another significant outcome was the Supreme Court case McGrain v. Daugherty which, for the first time, explicitly established Congress' right to compel testimony.
Albert Fall was found guilty of bribery in 1929, fined $100,000 and sentenced to one year in prison, making him the first Presidential cabinet member to go to prison for his actions in office. Harry Sinclair, who refused to cooperate with the government investigators, was charged with contempt, fined $100,000, and received a short sentence for jury tampering. Edward Doheny was acquitted in 1930 of attempting to bribe Fall.
Further reading
- J. Leonard Bates, 1963, The Origins of Teapot Dome, U. of Illinois Press: Urbana.
- John Ise, 1926, The United States Oil Policy, Yale University Press: New Haven.
- Blakely M. Murphy (editor), 1948. Conservation of Oil and Gas, A Legal History, Section of Mineral Law, American Bar Association: Chicago, 1949.
- W. T. Thom and Edmund M. Spieker, 1933, "The Significance of Geologic Conditions in Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3, Wyoming", Professional Paper 163, U.S. Geological Survey, United States Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
- 1928, United States Reports -- Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court, Vol. 273 and Vol. 275. United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
- Carroll H. Wegemann, 1918. "The Salt Creek Oil Field, Wyoming", U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 670, Government Printing Office: Washington D.C. 1918.
- M. R. Werner and John Starr, 1959, Teapot Dome, The Viking Press: New York.
- April 1924, "Some Physical Facts in the Naval Oil Reserve Problem", Scientific American, Scientific American Publishing Co.: Munn & Co, N.Y.
External links
- has a quote (attributed to him, but unsourced) about the Teapot Dome scandal
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