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“Service is the supreme commitment of life. I would rejoice to acclaim the era of the Golden Rule and crown it with the autocracy of service. I pledge an administration wherein all the agencies of Government are called to serve, and ever promote an understanding of Government purely as an expression of the popular will.” This is a quote from Warren G Harding’s inauguration speech given March 4, 1921. Warren Gamaliel Harding was born on a farm near Corsica (now Blooming Grove), Ohio, on November 2, 1865. He was the oldest of eight children of George and Phoebe Dickerson Harding. When Harding was only seven years old his family and him moved to Caledonia, where he went to school and played in the village band. Harding organized the Citizen’s Cornet band, available for both Republican and Democratic rallies. He once said that he played every instrument but the slide trombone and the E-flat cornet. He spent his vacations and free time working on the family farm and in the local sawmill. He also worked a short time for the Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad. In 1882 Harding graduated from Ohio Central College. The family moved to Marion in 1882. There Harding studied law, sold insurance, and taught school. However, he didn’t like any of these jobs.
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