Editing Warren G. Harding (section)

====Junior senator====
When Harding joined the U.S. Senate, the Democrats controlled both houses of [[64th United States Congress|Congress]], and were led by President Wilson. As a junior senator in the minority, Harding received unimportant committee assignments, but carried out those duties assiduously.{{sfn|Dean|p=44}} He was a safe, conservative,<!-- this comma should remain regardless of the use of serial commas --> Republican vote.{{sfn|Nevins|p=253}} As during his time in the Ohio Senate, Harding came to be widely liked.{{sfn|Dean|pp=38, 44}}

On two issues, [[women's suffrage]], and the [[Prohibition in the United States|prohibition of alcohol]], where picking the wrong side would have damaged his presidential prospects in 1920, he prospered by taking nuanced positions. As senator-elect, he indicated that he could not support votes for women until Ohio did. Increased support for suffrage there and among Senate Republicans meant that by the time Congress voted on the issue, Harding was a firm supporter. Harding, who drank,{{sfn|Russell|p=141}} initially voted against banning alcohol. He voted for the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment]], which imposed prohibition, after successfully moving to modify it by placing a time limit on ratification, which was expected to kill it. Once it was ratified anyway, Harding voted to override Wilson's veto of the [[Volstead Act|Volstead Bill]], which implemented the amendment, assuring the support of the [[Anti-Saloon League]].{{sfn|Sinclair|pp=63–65}}

Harding, as a politician respected by both Republicans and [[Progressive Era|Progressives]], was asked to be temporary chairman of the [[1916 Republican National Convention]] and to deliver the [[keynote address]]. He urged delegates to stand as a united party. The convention nominated Justice [[Charles Evans Hughes]].{{sfn|Dean|pp=37–39}} Harding reached out to Roosevelt once the former president [[1916 Progressive National Convention|declined the 1916 Progressive nomination]], a refusal that effectively scuttled that party. In the [[1916 United States presidential election|November 1916 presidential election]], despite increasing Republican unity, Hughes was narrowly defeated by Wilson.{{sfn|Sinclair|p=70}}

Harding spoke and voted in favor of the [[United States declaration of war on Germany (1917)|resolution of war]] requested by Wilson in April 1917 that plunged the United States into World War I.{{sfn|Russell|p=283}} In August, Harding argued for giving Wilson almost dictatorial powers, stating that democracy had little place in time of war.{{sfn|Sinclair|p=77}} Harding voted for most war legislation, including the [[Espionage Act of 1917]], which restricted civil liberties, though he opposed the [[excess profits tax]] as anti-business. In May 1918, Harding, less enthusiastic about Wilson, opposed a bill to expand the president's powers.{{sfn|Russell|p=299}}

In the 1918 midterm congressional elections, held just before the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|armistice]], Republicans narrowly took control of the Senate.{{sfn|Sinclair|p=82}} Harding was appointed to the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]].{{sfn|Dean|p=47}} Wilson took no senators with him to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]], confident that he could force what became the [[Treaty of Versailles]] through the Senate by appealing to the people.{{sfn|Sinclair|p=82}} When he returned with a single treaty establishing both peace and a [[League of Nations]], the country was overwhelmingly on his side. Many senators disliked Article X of the [[Covenant of the League of Nations|League Covenant]], that committed signatories to the defense of any member nation that was attacked, seeing it as forcing the United States to war without the assent of Congress. Harding was one of 39 senators who signed a [[Round-robin (document)|round-robin letter]] opposing the League. When Wilson invited the Foreign Relations Committee to the White House to informally discuss the treaty, Harding ably questioned Wilson about Article X; the president evaded his inquiries. The Senate debated Versailles in September 1919, and Harding made a major speech against it. By then, Wilson had suffered a stroke while on a speaking tour. With an [[Presidency of Woodrow Wilson#Incapacity, 1919–1921|incapacitated president]] in the White House and less support in the country, the treaty was defeated.{{sfn|Sinclair|pp=91–100}}