Although this post is completely off-topic, I have to admit that I
found it interesting.
Jerry Spinrad
On Apr 19, 9:55=A0am, sl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Sam Sloan) wrote:
> The President's Daughter by Nan Britton
>
> The President's Daughter is the heart warming story of an innocent
> young girl who became pregnant and gave birth to a child whose father
> happened to be the President of the United States.
>
> No. This is not a tawdry fable. This is fact. The President was Warren
> G. Harding who then died suddenly. Some say he was murdered.
>
> Largely on the strength of this and on the so-called =93Teapot Dome
> Scandal=94 Harding became known as the worst president the United States
> ever had.
>
> Of late, there has been a re-examination of President Harding, who was
> president from 1921 to 1923. A recent book by John W Dean , who, as
> the cover blurb notes in a massive understatement, is =93no stranger to
> presidential controversy=94 makes a strong case that not only was
> President Harding not the worst, but he was perhaps the best president
> the US ever had.
>
> The Fall Guy in the Teapot Dome Scandal had been Albert Fall. However,
> Fall had served as Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court and had
> been for many years a United States Senator before joining the Harding
> Administration, so it seems difficult to understand why Harding had to
> take the fall for Fall.
>
> Harding had many accomplishments as president, far more than most
> presidents. For example, President Harding was the first to require
> all departments of the government to have a budget. Harding cut
> government expenditures by one billion dollars. Harding brought about
> the economic reforms that started =93The Roaring Twenties=94, a period
of
> unequaled economic prosperity in America.
>
> And, with Nan Britton as our witness, Harding was also the best lay.
>
> Her book is great. In Chapter 18 she describes how on July 30, 1917
> she finally lost her virginity to the future president after a long
> court****p, in a New York City hotel on 30th Street overlooking
> Broadway. Only moments after intercourse had been completed, the New
> York City Vice Squad broke down the door. Harding was forced to
> identify himself. When the police realized that their target, Warren
> G. Harding, was a United States Senator (he was not yet president),
> the Vice Squad apologized and beat a hasty retreat, after Harding gave
> them a tip of $20. Harding told Britton that he was surprised that he
> got away for less than $100.
>
> Harding then explained that under the Constitution of the United
> States, a Congressman or Senator is immune from arrest while going to
> or from his place of office. Thus, since his stop-over in New York
> City to see Nan Britton had been part of his journey from Ohio from
> which he was a Senator to Wa****ngton DC, he could not be arrested.
>
> Suddenly, this explains a curious recent incident in which Senator
> Larry Graig of Idaho was arrested for tapping his toe in a public
> restroom in an air****t in Minnesota. Toe-tapping is, of course, a
> vile, heinous, criminal offense, and when the toe-police arrested the
> senator for tapping his toe, he immediately pulled out his
> identification card showing that he was a United States Senator going
> to or from his place of office and thus was immune from arrest.
>
> Apparently, the police and the press must have thought that Senator
> Larry Craig was trying to intimidate them by immediately identifying
> himself as a United States Senator, whereas in reality he was merely
> asserting his constitutional right to tap his toe as long as he was
> traveling to or from his place of office in the United States Senate.
>
> Similarly, in 1917, United States Senator Warren G. Harding knew his
> rights and knew that he had every legal right to pop the cherry of Nan
> Britton and could not be arrested for this.
>
> This, however, raises another interesting legal question. Nan Britton
> claims that she was born in 1896 and thus was 20 years old when the
> cherry popping incident took place. However, one wonders, was it ever
> illegal for a man to have *** with a 20-year-old woman in New York or
> in any other state. Under current law, it is perfectly legal for man
> to have *** with a woman in New York as long as she is at least 17
> years old. In New Jersey, the legal age is 16. Thus, since time
> immemorial, New York men have taken their 16-year-old girlfriends
> across the river to New Jersey.
>
> This makes one suspect that Nan Britton was in fact considerably
> younger than the 20 years she claimed to have been when the New York
> City Vice Squad raided the hotel room just after she had lost her
> virginity to the future President Warren G. Harding.
>
> Nan Britton explains that she really did not know how babies were
> made. Her mother had never explained this to her. Senator Harding came
> to the rescue and told her that he would explain to her how it was
> done, and then he proceeded to do so.
>
> It was not before long that Nan Britton discovered that she was
> pregnant. Senator Harding set her up in a house in Asbury Park, New
> Jersey and sent her money through messengers. Nan Britton created a
> fake personality named E. N. Christian, whom, she claimed, was her
> husband who had gone off to fight in World War I and had not yet
> returned from Europe. This story was used to explain to her landlady
> why she was pregnant but living alone in a rooming house. Similarly,
> she wrote to her mother and her sister that E. N. Christian was her
> employer and that all letters should be written to her c/o E. N.
> Christian. Thus, she was able to keep her pregnancy and the subsequent
> birth to her of an illegitimate child a secret from everybody, except
> for her actual lover who was US Senator and Future President Warren G.
> Harding.
>
> Many biographers have mistakenly concluded that E. N. Christian was
> her husband, a man whom she had married to legitimize the birth of her
> child. However, in her autobiography, Nan Britton makes it clear that
> E. N. Christian was entirely a fake personality. No such person ever
> existed.
>
> What is more remarkable is that she had only one baby by the future
> President Harding. After giving birth, she could hardly wait to get
> back into bed with him. Her book recounts the anxious time she spent
> waiting to recover from childbirth so she could resume their ***ual
> activities.
>
> In order to cover up that she had given birth to a child, she claimed
> that an unknown friend had abandoned the child to her. She then
> arranged for her sister and her sister's husband to adopt the
> supposedly abandoned child. Her sister really did not know that the
> child, Elizabeth Ann, was actually the child of Nan Britton and of
> course the sister had no idea that Warren G. Harding was in any way
> involved in this.
>
> An interesting incident occurred when by chance Nan Britton met
> Governor James Cox of Ohio while on a train to New York. Governor Cox
> then made great efforts to seduce Nan Britton, inviting her to dinner,
> riding with her in a taxi and so on. Governor Cox knew that she had
> some connection with Senator Harding, although he almost certainly did
> not know that she was actually Harding's mistress.
>
> Later, this same James Cox, the man who had tried hard to seduce Nan
> Britton, became the opposing candidate for President of the United
> States. Warren G. Harding was the Republican Party Candidate. James
> Cox was the Democratic Party Candidate. Harding won the election
> easily. Nan Britton, who knew little about politics, wondered why they
> even bothered to hold an election. It was just obvious to her that
> Harding should be president.
>
> Thus, everything was hunky dory. Elizabeth Ann had been legally
> adopted by her sister and her brother-in-law, and meanwhile Nan
> Britton was living in New York City and was free to visit Wa****ngton
> DC and to have *** romps in the White House as much as cir***stances
> would allow.
>
> There came a time when President Harding, at the height of his
> popularity, decided to take a trip with his legal wife to Alaska,
> which was the first trip ever by a president to the far western part
> of the United States. Since the President was going to be away anyway,
> Nan Britton took this op****tunity to take a trip to France, which was
> her first trip abroad.
>
> While in France, the shocking news arrived that President Harding had
> died. Nan Britton borrowed money from one Captain Neilson and was able
> to board a quick boat back to the United States, hoping to arrive in
> time for the funeral.
>
> After her return, Nan Brtton soon discovered that her economic
> cir***stances worsened considerably. Up until that time, President
> Warren G. Harding had been sending her cash money regularly, allowing
> her to enjoy a fairly lavish life style. One of the messengers who
> often brought her money from Harding was Tim Slade, who later on
> became a close friend of Nan Britton. Tim Slade later confided that he
> had long suspected that Nan Britton was actually the daughter of
> President Harding, from some prior relation****p. He had not originally
> suspected that she was actually the mistress.
>
> Nan Britton was now working at various secretarial jobs in New York
> City. She was having trouble paying rent and making ends meet.
> Meanwhile, her sister had adopted her daughter Elizabeth Ann. Soon,
> her sister must have realized than Nan was actually the mother of
> Elizabeth Ann. Nan Britton visited her daughter as often that she
> could. She wanted her daughter to come back permanently to live with
> her, but her cir***stances would not allow it.
>
> By now, Nan Britton was regularly approaching friends to borrow money.
> One person who always seemed willing to loan her money was Captain
> Nielson. Finally, Captain Neilson proposed marriage. He told her that
> he had a lot of property in Norway and offered to give her $25,000
> immediately upon consideration of this marriage.
>
> Finally, Nan Britton confided in him her secret, that she had a
> daughter who was living with her sister in Chicago, and the only
> reason she would marry Captain Neilson was to get her daughter back
> permanently.
>
> Nan Britton feared that upon hearing this news. Captain Nielson would
> dump her. However, this did not happen. Instead, Captain Neilson
> accepted this condition and the marriage ceremony took place.
>
> However, Captain Neilson did not have the money with him at the
> moment. First, he had to return to Norway, to sell the property he
> owned, and then he would return and give her the money he had
> promised.
>
> Captain Neilson left by ****p. When he returned weeks later, he had not
> been successful in selling the property in Norway and he did not have
> any money to give her. Soon, he left on another ****p, and then another
> and then another. Eventually, Nan Britton realized that he was working
> on these ****ps. He was not the owner or even the captain. He had no
> money and, when in New York, she had to sup****t him, not the other way
> around.
>
> After Nan Britton finally realized that Captain Neilson had no money
> at all, she was able to find a lawyer who arranged a divorce or an
> annulment without charging much. However, for some time, she used the
> name =93Nan Britton Neilson=94.
>
> Now that her plan of having enough money to recover her daughter by
> marrying a rich man had fallen through, Nan Britton decided to contact
> the family of the Late President Harding to ask them for help. It is
> not true that they refused to help. They did offer to help. Daisy, the
> sister of the late President Harding, often sent Nan Britton $40.
> Other family members gave her small amounts of money as well. Tim
> Slade once gave her $100. However, Nan Britton had rent and payments
> to make. These small amounts of money plus her salary at various
> secretarial jobs were not enough to sup****t both her and her bastard
> kid. She needed more.
>
> Nan Britton obviously believed that Warren G. Harding had been a
> wealthy man. She estimated his estate as being between $500,000 to
> $900,000. She only wanted $50,000 in a trust fund, which she felt was
> reasonable. She was interviewed by the late president's brother,
> Doctor Harding. The doctor obviously felt that her demands were
> unreasonable. By then, the widow of the late president, Florence
> Harding, had died too so, if Nan Britton could prove her claim that
> Elizabeth Ann was the daughter of the late president, then she would
> be entitled to the entire estate, as President Harding had left no
> other heirs. His wife, Florence, had been much older and there had
> been no children.
>
> However, the truth was probably that President Harding did not have a
> lot of money. He was deeply in debt and probably insolvent. Thus, the
> small amounts such as the $40 that Daisy Harding often gave Nan
> Britton was not the result of miserliness but rather because Daisy did
> not have a lot of money herself and gave when she could.
>
> Finally, Nan Britton made a decision which should be obvious to every
> modern reader but it took a long time for Nan Britton to think of it
> and was a hard decision for Nan Britton to reach, which was TO SELL
> HER STORY.
>
> The resulting book, The Presidents Daughter, has a story all its own.
> Bills were introduced in the United States Congress to stop the
> publication of this book or to make possession of it illegal. The FBI
> took an interest. The New York City Vice Squad raided the printing
> plant and confiscated all the plates. Nan Britton went to court and
> got the plates back.
>
> It is not clear the legal grounds on which the New York City Vice
> Squad raided. Was it because the book was ****? Mild by modern
> standards, it probably was by the standards of those times.
>
> No major, reputable book publisher would touch this book. All turned
> it down. Finally, a charitable foundation was formed just to help
> protect the rights of illegitimate children and it was this
> foundation, The Elizabeth Ann Guild, that published this book.
> Naturally, as the book featured *** romps in the White House, it
> became a best seller.
>
> It was obviously an expensively produced book, with hard thick covers
> and high quality paper, but without the input of a regular book
> publisher, the print quality was poor, the pages often irregular, hard
> to read and sometimes off center. When I first saw it, I thought that
> this must be a pirate edition. The book is not old, it was published
> in 1927, but I had never seen a book in such bad condition.
>
> I need to thank Pam McCallum of Scituate, Massachusetts for helping me
> restore this book. Without her help, I could never have done it. She
> enhanced the type fonts to make it more readable. Re-centered the
> pages where needed. Due to the irregular placement of the page
> numbers, too close to the edges in the lower corners, they had to be
> cut off, but with 175 chapters, one for every two or three pages, it
> is easy to find things.
>
> One charge often made is that this book is a hatchet job by a
> political opponent of Harding, who was probably a Democrat or a
> Christian Religious Fanatic. There is no doubt some truth to this. It
> would have been virtually impossible or at least unlikely for a simple
> girl with a high school diploma who worked at various secretarial jobs
> to have created this book, which was obviously well written, probably
> by a professional writer. However, there is nothing wrong with that.
> Almost all modern books nowadays have editors, proof readers and so
> on. Also, throughout this book, Nan Britton expresses nothing but
> admiration and respect for Warren G. Harding. She has nothing but good
> things to say about the president. She simply thinks that there is
> nothing wrong with a man sleeping with a woman. Others had done it,
> even before President Harding. She probably never imagined that this
> book would harm his reputation to the extent that it did. She wanted
> only to provide for their daughter.
>
> Nan Britton never remarried. It is said that Nan Britton loved Warren
> G. Harding until the day she died on March 21, 1991 at age 94.
>
> Sam Sloan
>
> This book will soon be reprinted and available at the following
> address:http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891234
|
