Daddy's Day  
Displaying Flag 
Flag Folding Ceremony

To Learn More about this President  Junto Society recommends these books!

Click on Books Didn't see what you want? Click here:  Calvin Coolidge  US Presidents

United States Presidents

Calvin Coolidge, 
1923 - 1929

	Thirtieth President Republican Vice President -  Charles E. Dawes Born: July 4, 1872 Plymouth, Vermont Occupation: Lawyer, Governor Married Grace Anna Goodhue Died: January 5, 1933 Northampton, Massachusetts

Early Years:  Coolidge attended a one-room school until he entered Black River Academy at 13.  He graduated with honors from Amherst College in Massachusetts, decided to become a lawyer and passed the bar examination in less than two years.    

His Presidency:  As president during the roaring 20s, Coolidge was a symbol of prosperity.  He was thrifty, conservative regarding economics, and had common sense which people admired.  He was not very interested in foreign affairs, but took measures to protect American interest in Nicaragua and improve relations with Mexico.  

His Life:  At 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that he was President. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible.

Coolidge was "distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement," wrote a Democratic admirer, Alfred E. Smith. "His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history ... in a time of extravagance and waste...."

Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered law and politics in Northampton, Massachusetts. Slowly, methodically, he went up the political ladder from councilman in Northampton to Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. En route he became thoroughly conservative.

As President, Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying. He refused to use Federal economic power to check the growing boom or to ameliorate the depressed condition of agriculture and certain industries. His first message to Congress in December 1923 called for isolation in foreign policy, and for tax cuts, economy, and limited aid to farmers.

He rapidly became popular. In 1924, as the beneficiary of what was becoming known as "Coolidge prosperity," he polled more than 54 percent of the popular vote.

In his Inaugural he asserted that the country had achieved "a state of contentment seldom before seen," and pledged himself to maintain the status quo. In subsequent years he twice vetoed farm relief bills, and killed a plan to produce cheap Federal electric power on the Tennessee River.

The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone.... And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy...."

Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more."

But no President was kinder in permitting himself to be photographed in Indian war bonnets or cowboy dress, and in greeting a variety of delegations to the White House.

Both his dry Yankee wit and his frugality with words became legendary. His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose." 

In a letter to the press on August 2, 1927, Calvin Coolidge announced "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."

By the time the disaster of the Great Depression hit the country, Coolidge was in retirement. Before his death in January 1933, he confided to an old friend, ". . . I feel I no longer fit in with these times."

Did you know?  Coolidge slept over eight hours a night, and took long naps in the afternoon.  

Quotations

[Home] [About Us] [Breaking News] [Commentary] [Contact Us]  [Discussion Groups] [Education] [Guest Commentator's] [Political News] [Store]