In June 1923, Harding set off on a cross-country tour that included a first presidential visit to the state of Alaska. While on the four-day boat voyage to Alaska, an ill-at-ease Harding asked Commerce Secretary and future president Herbert Hoover, “If you knew of a great scandal in our administration, would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly or would you bury it?”
Hoover said he advised the president to expose it, but Harding declined, fearing political repercussions. Harding himself had personally approved Fall’s plan to lease the oil reserves (although he may not have paid much attention to what he approved).
Harding may also have benefitted from the dealings: Just before Harding departed on his cross-country trip, Harding accepted a suspiciously high offer to buy the Marion Star, Harding’s newspaper, in a deal that some believed was orchestrated by Sinclair.
The president and his wife Florence Harding also told friends about a year-long, all-expenses-paid cruise around the world they planned to take, along with some 50 of their friends, once Harding’s four-year term was over. That cruise had likely been promised by Sinclair and was to take place on Sinclair’s luxury yacht.
But Harding and his wife would never take advantage of their new windfall nor enjoy an elaborate, post-presidency cruise. Upon returning from the Alaskan cruise, Harding began suffering from cramps and shortness of breath. On August 2, 1923, Harding died at age 57 in San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.
The cause of death was listed as a stroke, but some doctors suggested a heart attack was the more likely cause.