Calvin Coolidge

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.

30th President of the United States
Term of office	August 2, 1923 – March 3, 1929
Preceded by	Warren G. Harding
Succeeded by	Herbert Hoover
Date of birth	July 4, 1872
Place of birth	Plymouth, Vermont
Date of death	January 5, 1933
Place of death	Northampton, Massachusetts
Spouse	Grace Goodhue Coolidge
Political party	Republican

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923-1929), succeeding to office upon the death of Warren G. Harding.

Early life and career

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born in Plymouth, Windsor County, Vermont on July 4, 1872, to John Calvin Coolidge, Sr. and Victoria Moor. Coolidge was the only President to be born on the 4th of July, Independence Day. He dropped John from his name upon graduating from college. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he became a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta and graduated cum laude in 1895. He practiced law in Northampton, Massachusetts, and was a member of the city council in 1899, city solicitor from 1900-1902, clerk of courts in 1904, and representative from 1907-1908.

In 1905, Coolidge married Grace Anna Goodhue. They were opposites in personality: she was talkative and fun-loving, and Coolidge was quiet and serious. They had two sons; John Coolidge, born in 1906, and Calvin Jr., born in 1908.

Coolidge was elected mayor of Northampton in 1910 and 1911 and was a member of the state Senate 1912-1915, serving as president of that body in 1914 and 1915. He was lieutenant governor of the state from 1916-1918, and Governor from 1919-1920. In 1919, Coolidge gained national attention when he ordered the Massachusetts National Guard to forcefully end the Boston Police Department strike. He later wrote to labor leader Samuel Gompers, "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime."

Presidency 1923-1929

President Coolidge, his wife Grace, and Kansas senator Charles Curtis on their way to the U.S. Capitol building on inauguration day, March 4, 1925.

Coolidge attempted to secure the Republican presidential nomination in 1920, losing to Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio. Party leaders wanted to nominate Wisconsin Senator Irvine Lenroot for vice president; however, convention delegates nominated Coolidge. The Harding-Coolidge ticket won handily against Governor of Ohio James M. Cox and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide, 60.36 to 34.19 percent.

Harding was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1921, and served until August 2, 1923. Upon Harding's death, Coolidge became President on August 2, 1923. Coolidge was visiting at the family home, still without electricity or telephone, when he got word of Harding's death. His father, a notary public administered the oath of office in the family's parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. on August 3, 1923; Coolidge was re-sworn by Chief Justice of the United William Howard Taft upon his return to Washington, D.C.

Policies

Coolidge, reporters, and cameramen

Coolidge was easily elected President of the United States in his own right in the election of 1924. Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made radio history several times while President: his inauguration was the first presidential inauguration broadcast on radio; on February 12, 1924, he became the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio, and on February 22, he became the first President to deliver such a speech from the White House.

During Coolidge's presidency, the United States experienced the wildly successful period of economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties." He was the last President of the United States who did not attempt to intervene in free markets, letting business cycles run their course—summed up in the quote "the business of America is business". He vetoed the proposed McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill, designed to allow the Federal Government to purchase agricultural surpluses. It should be noted that President Coolidge not only lowered taxes but also reduced the national debt.

Although some later commentators have criticized Coolidge as a doctrinaire laissez-faire ideologue, historian Robert Sobel offers some context based on Coolidge's sense of federalism: "As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed child labor, imposed economic controls during World War I, favored safety measures in factories, and even worker representation on corporate boards. Did he support these measures while president? No, because in the 1920s, such matters were considered the responsibilities of state and local governments."

Coolidge opposed U.S. membership in the League of Nations, but the administration was not isolationist. Its most notable initiative was the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, named for Coolidge's Secretary of State, Frank Kellogg, and for French foreign minister Aristide Briand. The treaty, ratified in 1929, committed signatories including the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan to "renounce war, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another." The treaty of course failed to prevent the coming Second World War, but did provide the founding principle for international law after World War II. Also in 1928, Coolidge represented the U.S. at the Pan American Conference in Havana, Cuba, making him the only sitting U.S. President to visit the country. Coolidge maintained the somewhat unpopular U.S. occupation of Nicaragua.

Coolidge did not seek renomination; he announced his decision with typical terseness: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." After leaving office, he and wife Grace returned to Northampton, where his political career had begun.

Major presidential acts

• Signed Immigration Act of 1924
• Signed Revenue Act of 1924
• Signed Indian Citizenship Act of 1924(?)
• Signed Revenue Act of 1926
• Signed Radio Act of 1927
• Signed Revenue Act of 1928

Administration and Cabinet

On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge had signed a bill granting Native Americans full U.S. citizenship. Coolidge is shown above on October 22, 1924 holding a ceremonial hat given to him by the Smoki Indian tribe of Prescott, Arizona.

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Calvin Coolidge	1923–1929
Vice President	None	1923–1925
	Charles G. Dawes	1925–1929
Secretary of State	Charles Evans Hughes	1923–1925
	Frank B. Kellogg	1925–1929
Secretary of the Treasury	Andrew Mellon	1923–1929
Secretary of War	John W. Weeks	1923–1925
	Dwight F. Davis	1925–1929
Attorney General	Harry M. Daugherty	1923–1924
	Harlan F. Stone	1924–1925
	John G. Sargent	1925–1929
Postmaster General	Harry S. New	1923–1929
Secretary of the Navy	Edwin Denby	1923–1924
	Curtis D. Wilbur	1924–1929
Secretary of the Interior	Hubert Work	1923–1928
	Roy O. West	1928–1929
Secretary of Agriculture	Henry C. Wallace	1923–1924
	Howard M. Gore	1924–1925
	William M. Jardine	1925–1929
Secretary of Commerce	Herbert Hoover	1923–1928
	William F. Whiting	1928–1929
Secretary of Labor	James J. Davis	1923–1929

Supreme Court appointments

Coolidge appointed the following Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• Harlan Fiske Stone – 1925

Retirement and death

Coolidge addressing a crowd at Arlington National Cemetery in 1924.

After the presidency, Coolidge served as chairman of the non-partisan Railroad Commission, as honorary president of the Foundation of the Blind, as a director of New York Life Insurance Company, as president of the American Antiquarian Society]], and as a trustee of Amherst College. Coolidge received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Coolidge published an autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Calvin Coolidge Says," from 1930-1931. He died suddenly of coronary thrombosis at his home, "The Beeches," at 12:45 p.m. in Northampton on January 5, 1933 at the age of 60. Prior to his death, Coolidge felt disappointed about Hoover's re-election defeat, after which his health began to decline very rapidly. Shortly before his death, Coolidge confided to an old friend: "I feel I am no longer fit in these times."

Coolidge is buried beneath a simple headstone in Notch Cemetery, Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where the family homestead is maintained as a museum. The state of Vermont dedicated a new historic-site visitors' center nearby to mark Coolidge's 100th birthday on July 4, 1972.

"Silent Cal"

Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was therefore commonly referred to as "Silent Cal." It is said that a White House dinner guest once made a bet with her friends that she could get the President to say at least three words during the course of the meal. Upon telling Coolidge of her wager, he replied "You lose." However, another one of Coolidge's dinner guests had this to say: "I cannot help feeling that persons who complained about his silence as a dinner partner never really tried to get beyond trivialities to which he did not think it worth while to respond."

Prior to his election in 1924, Coolidge's younger son, Calvin, Jr., contracted a blister from playing tennis on the White House courts. The blister became infected, and Calvin, Jr. died. After that, Coolidge became even more withdrawn. People who knew the President said he never fully recovered from his son's death. He said that "when he died, the glory of the Presidency went with him."

His withdrawn nature was also the inspiration for the mnemonic, "Cool Cal."

Relationship to the Adams Family

Although not known until recently, Calvin Coolidge was a member of the Adams Family. He was a descendent of Henry Adams, the first member of the family to arrive in America, and from whom all Adams claim descent. Coolidge related to John Adams. Thus, this would make him the third president who was a member of this dynasty.

Noted quotations

• "There is no right to strike against the public safety of anybody, anywhere, any time." [1919 about Boston Police Strike; the quote made him famous]
• "Collecting more taxes than absolutely necessary is legalized robbery."
• "I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm."
• "Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country."
• "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
• "The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."
• "We do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen. If the foundation be firm, the foundation will stand."
• "You lose." (His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him that she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose.")
• "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."
• "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business."
• "The chief business of the American people is business." (Full quote: "After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing, and prospering in the world. I am strongly of the opinion that the great majority of people will always find these are moving impulses in our life. . . . In all experience, the accumulation of wealth means the multiplication of schools, the encouragement of science, the increase of knowledge, the dissemination of intelligence, the broadening of outlook, the expansion of liberties, the widening of culture. Of course the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence. But we are compelled to recognize it as a means to well-nigh every desirable achievement. So long as wealth is made the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it. And there never was a time when wealth was so generally regarded as a means, or so little regarded as an end, as today. It is only those who do not understand our people who believe that our national life is entirely absorbed by material motives. We make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong an element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists. . . . . No newspaper can be a success which fails to appeal to that element of our national life."
• "It's hard to imagine Senator Borah going in the same direction as his horse." (After he was told Idaho Senator William Edgar Borah often went riding around Washington, D.C. The senator was reputedly extremely headstrong.)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Scholarly sources

• White, William Allen. A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge (1938)

• Fuess, Claude Moore. Calvin Coolidge: The Man from Vermont. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1976, c1940 ISBN 0837193206

• Silver, Thomas B. Coolidge and the Historians (1983)

• Sobel, Robert. Coolidge: An American Enigma. Washington, D.C. : Regnery Pub., 1998 ISBN 0895264102

• Ferrell, Robert H. The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge. Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, c1998 ISBN 0700608923

• McCoy, Donald, Heckscher, August and Speirs, Katherine E. ed. Calvin Coolidge: A Biography. American Political Biography Press; Reprint edition, 2000 ISBN 0945707231

• Russell, Francis. A City in Terror: Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike. Boston : Beacon Press, 2005 ISBN 0807050334

Primary sources

• Coolidge, Calvin. The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge (1929)

• The Talkative President: The Off-the Record Press Conferences of Calvin Coolidge edited by Howard H. Quint and Robert H. Ferrell (1964)

Other

An academic conference on Coolidge was held July 30-31, 1998, at the John F. Kennedy Library to mark the 75th anniversary of his lantern-light homestead inaugural.

External links

• Official White House biography
• Inaugural Address
• Audio clips of Coolidge's speeches
• 1st State of the Union Address of Calvin Coolidge
• 2nd State of the Union Address of Calvin Coolidge
• 3rd State of the Union Address of Calvin Coolidge
• 4th State of the Union Address of Calvin Coolidge
• 5th State of the Union Address of Calvin Coolidge
• 6th State of the Union Address of Calvin Coolidge
• Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation
• Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library & Museum at Forbes Library, Northampton, MA
• Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era at the Library of Congress
• Calvin Coolidge Links
• Find-A-Grave profile for Calvin Coolidge

Preceded by: Grafton D. Cushing	Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts 1916 – 1919	Succeeded by: Channing H. Cox
Preceded by: Samuel W. McCall	Governor of Massachusetts 1919 – 1921	Succeeded by: Channing H. Cox

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