Edwin Denby ( politician ) Edwin Denby ( February 18 , 1870 – February 8 , 1929 ) was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of the Navy in the administrations of Warren G . Harding and Calvin Coolidge from 1921 to 1924 . He also played a notable role in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal which took place during the Harding presidency . He was the son of Charles Harvey Denby , grandson of Graham N . Fitch and brother of Charles Denby , Jr . . Early life . Denby was born in Evansville , Indiana , where he attended the public schools . In 1885 , his father , Charles Harvey Denby , was appointed United States minister at Peking , China , by President Grover Cleveland , and Edwin accompanied him . He worked in the maritime customs service from 1887 to 1894 . He then returned to the United States and graduated from law school at the University of Michigan in 1896 . While attending the University of Michigan , Denby played on the 1895 Michigan Wolverines football team . He was subsequently admitted to the bar and began practicing as a lawyer in Detroit . Political and military career . He was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives in 1903 . In 1904 , Denby was elected as a Republican from Michigan ' s 1st congressional district to the 59th , 60th and 61st Congresses , serving from March 4 , 1905 , to March 3 , 1911 . Denby served as chairman of the United States House Committee on Naval Affairs . He was defeated in 1910 general election by Democrat Frank E . Doremus and resumed his law practice in Detroit . He served as president of the Detroit Board of Commerce in 1916 , and in 1917 enlisted as a private in the United States Marine Corps when the U . S . entered World War I . He was discharged in 1919 with the rank of major . When Warren G . Harding became President in March 1921 , he appointed Denby Secretary of the Navy . During the crisis of mail robberies in 1921 , Denby issued orders that Marines should be put in mail trucks and rail cars as protectors of the U . S . Mails . In his stirring order " To the Men of the Mail Guard " , Denby impressed upon his former service the importance of the high duty entrusted to them : " If two Marines are covered by a robber , neither must put up his hands , but both must immediately go for their guns . One may die , but the other will get the robber , and the mail will get through . " When our Corps goes in as guards over the mail , that mail must be delivered , or there must be a Marine dead at the post of duty . There can be no compromise . . . " " Within days , the robberies stopped , and there was not a single delivery of the mails disrupted while Marines stood the watch . Teapot Dome scandal . Shortly afterwards , Denby got Harding ' s approval to transfer control of the naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome , Wyoming , and Elk Hills , California , from the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Interior , headed by Albert B . Fall . Fall proceeded to lease these oil fields to friends who were heads of oil companies in exchange for over $ 400 , 000 in personal loans . Despite attempts to keep the deal secret , the " Wall Street Journal " leaked news of the leasing , and the Senate decided to launch an inquiry into the matter . The investigation began in October 1923 after Harding ' s death , and the Senate Committee on Lands and Public Surveys , which carried out the inquiry , concluded in 1924 that the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills leases to the oil companies had been fraudulent and corrupt . Both Denby and Fall were forced to resign from office as a result ; however , it is apparent that President Harding did not have a role in the wrongdoing . Death . Following his resignation , Denby went back to practicing law in Detroit , where he died several weeks before his 59th birthday . Detroit ' s Edwin C . Denby High School is named in his honor , as is the Denby Center for Children and Family Services , which the Salvation Army opened in Detroit in 1930 to provide housing and treatment for abused and neglected children .