Before his nomination, Warren G. Harding said: “America's present need is not heroism, but healing; no surgery, but serenity; no drama, but impartiality; not experimentation, but balance; not submersion in internationality, but support in a triumphant nationality..." A Democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches an "army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea. Their very obscurity was effective, since Harding's statements remained vague on the League of Nations, unlike the passionate crusade of the Democratic candidates, Governor James M. Cox of Ohio and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thirty-one prominent Republicans had signed a manifesto assuring voters that a vote for Harding was a vote for the League. But Harding interpreted his election as a mandate to stay out of the League of Nations. Harding, born near Marion, Ohio, in 1865, became a newspaper publisher. He married divorced Mrs. Florence Kling De Wolfe. He was a trustee of Trinity Baptist Church, a director of almost every important enterprise, and a leader in fraternal organizations and charitable enterprises. He organized the Citizen's Cornet Band, available for Republican and Democratic rallies; “I played every instrument except the slide trombone and the E-flat cornet,” he once remarked. Harding's unwavering Republicanism and vibrant voice, along with his willingness to let machine bosses set policy, took him far in Ohio politics. He served in the state Senate and as lieutenant governor, and ran successfully for governor. He delivered President Taft's nominating speech at the 1912 Republican Convention. In 1914 he was elected to the Senate, which he found "a very pleasant place." An Ohio admirer, Harry Daugherty, began promoting Harding for the 1920 Republican nomination because, he later explained, "he looked like a president." a group of senators, taking control of the 1920 Republican Convention when the leading candidates were deadlocked, turned to Harding. He won the presidential election with an overwhelming majority of 60 percent of the votes cast. Republicans in Congress easily obtained the president's signature on their bills. They eliminated war controls and reduced taxes, established a federal budget system, reinstated high protective tariffs, and imposed strict limitations on immigration. By 1923, the postwar depression seemed to be giving way to a new surge of prosperity, and newspapers hailed Harding as a wise statesman who kept his campaign promise: "Less government in business and more business in government ».