Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
from 1923 to 1929. Born in
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...
, Coolidge was a
Republican lawyer from
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...
who climbed up the ladder of
state politics, becoming the state's
48th governor. His response to the
Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight as a man of decisive action. Coolidge was elected the country's 29th
vice president the next year, succeeding the presidency upon the sudden death of President
Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in
1924, Coolidge gained a reputation as a
small-government conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
distinguished by a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor, receiving the nickname "Silent Cal". Though his widespread popularity enabled him to run for a third term, he chose not to run again in
1928, remarking that ten years as president was (at the time) "longer than any other man has had ittoo long!"
Throughout his gubernatorial career, Coolidge ran on the record of
fiscal conservatism, strong support for
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...
, and a vague opposition to
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
. During his presidency, he restored public confidence in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...
after the many
scandals of the
Harding administration
Warren G. Harding's tenure as the 29th president of the United States lasted from March 4, 1921 until his death on August 2, 1923. Harding presided over the country in the aftermath of World War I. A Republican from Ohio, Harding held office dur ...
. He signed into law the
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted
US citizenship
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
to all
Native Americans, and oversaw a period of rapid and expansive economic growth known as the "
Roaring Twenties", leaving office with considerable popularity. He was known for his hands-off governing approach and pro-business stances. However, Coolidge did sign the
Radio Act of 1927 into law that established the
Federal Radio Commission (1927–1934), the
equal-time rule for
radio broadcasters in the United States, and restricted radio
broadcasting licenses to
stations that demonstrated that they served "the public interest, convenience, or necessity". As a Coolidge biographer wrote: "He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength."
Scholars have
ranked Coolidge in the lower half of U.S presidents. However, he gains almost universal praise for his stalwart support of
racial equality during a period of heightened racial tension in the United States, and is highly praised by advocates of smaller government and ''
laissez-faire
''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...
'' economics, while supporters of an active central government generally view him far less favorably. His critics argue that he failed to use the country's economic boom to help struggling farmers and workers in other flailing industries, and there is still much
debate
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, ac ...
among historians as to the extent to which Coolidge's economic policies contributed to the onset of the
Great Depression. However, it is widely accepted—including by his own Presidential Foundation—that the
Federal Reserve System during his administration was partly responsible for the
stock market crash of 1929 that occurred soon after he left office, which signaled the beginning of the Depression. He is to date the only president in U.S. history to run for federal, state, and municipal office without ever losing an election.
Early life and family history
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in
Plymouth Notch,
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...
—the only U.S. president to be born on
Independence Day. He was the elder of the two children of
John Calvin Coolidge Sr. (1845–1926) and Victoria Josephine Moor (1846–1885). Although named for his father, John, from early childhood Coolidge was addressed by his middle name, Calvin. His middle name was selected in honor of
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
, a founder of the
Congregational church in which Coolidge was raised and remained active throughout his life.
Coolidge Senior engaged in many occupations and developed a statewide reputation as a prosperous farmer, storekeeper, and public servant. He held various local offices, including
justice of the peace and tax collector and served in the
Vermont House of Representatives as well as the
Vermont Senate. Coolidge's mother was the daughter of Hiram Dunlap Moor, a Plymouth Notch farmer and Abigail Franklin. She was chronically ill and died at the age of 39, perhaps from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...
, when Coolidge was 12 years old. His younger sister, Abigail Grace Coolidge (1875–1890), died at the age of 15, probably of appendicitis, when Coolidge was 18. Coolidge's father married a Plymouth schoolteacher in 1891, and lived to the age of 80.
Coolidge's family had deep roots in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...
. The earliest American ancestor, John Coolidge, emigrated from
Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, around 1630 and settled in
Watertown, Massachusetts. Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, also named John Coolidge, was an American military officer in the
Revolutionary War and one of the first
selectmen of the town of Plymouth. His grandfather
Calvin Galusha Coolidge served in the Vermont House of Representatives. Coolidge was also a descendant of
Samuel Appleton, who settled in
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
and led the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
during
King Philip's War
King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...
.
File:PlymouthVT CalvinCoolidgeHouse.jpg, The Coolidge Homestead
The Coolidge Homestead, also known as Calvin Coolidge Homestead District or President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, was the childhood home of the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge and the place where he took the presiden ...
in Plymouth Notch, Vermont
File:CoolidgeAmherst.png, Coolidge as an Amherst College undergraduate
Early career and marriage
Education and law practice
Coolidge attended
Black River Academy and then
St. Johnsbury Academy
St. Johnsbury Academy (SJA) is an independent, private, coeducational, non-profit boarding and day school located in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in the United States. The academy enrolls students in grades 9-12. It was founded by Thaddeus Fairbanks ...
before enrolling at
Amherst College, where he distinguished himself in the debating class. As a senior, he joined the
Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated ''cum laude''. While at Amherst, Coolidge was profoundly influenced by philosophy professor
Charles Edward Garman
Charles Edward Garman (December 18, 1850 – February 9, 1907) was professor of philosophy at Amherst College.
He taught pupils such as Calvin Coolidge and Robert S. Woodworth. He is credited with influencing Woodworth towards a career in psychol ...
—a
Congregational mystic who had a
neo-Hegelian
Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic philosophy chiefly associated with G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both of whom were German idealist philosophers in the 19th century. The label has also been attached to others such as J ...
philosophy.
Coolidge explained Garman's ethics forty years later:
ere is a standard of righteousness that might does not make right, that the end does not justify the means, and that expediency as a working principle is bound to fail. The only hope of perfecting human relationships is in accordance with the law of service under which men are not so solicitous about what they shall get as they are about what they shall give. Yet people are entitled to the rewards of their industry. What they earn is theirs, no matter how small or how great. But the possession of property carries the obligation to use it in a larger service...
At his father's urging after graduation, Coolidge moved to
Northampton, Massachusetts to become a lawyer. Coolidge followed the common practice of apprenticing with a local law firm, Hammond & Field, and
reading law with them.
John C. Hammond
John Chester Hammond ( - ) was a Northampton, Massachusetts lawyer and later Northwestern District Attorney of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He employed recent Amherst College graduate (and later US President) Calvin Coolidge
Calvi ...
and Henry P. Field, both Amherst graduates, introduced Coolidge to law practice in the county seat of
Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Hampshire County is a historical and judicial county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Following the dissolution of the county government in 1999, county affairs were managed by the Hampshire Council of Governments, which itself ce ...
. In 1897, Coolidge was admitted to the
Massachusetts bar
The Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) is a voluntary, non-profit bar association in Massachusetts with a headquarters on West Street in Boston's Downtown Crossing. The MBA also has a Western Massachusetts office.
The purpose of the MBA is to ...
, becoming a
country lawyer. With his savings and a small inheritance from his grandfather, Coolidge opened his own law office in Northampton in 1898. He practiced commercial law, believing that he served his clients best by staying out of court. As his reputation as a hard-working and diligent attorney grew, local banks and other businesses began to retain his services.
Marriage and family
In 1903, Coolidge met
Grace Goodhue, a
University of Vermont graduate and teacher at Northampton's
Clarke School for the Deaf. They married on October 4, 1905, at 2:30 p.m. in a small ceremony which took place in the parlor of Grace's family's house, having overcome her mother's objections to the marriage. The newlyweds went on a
honeymoon trip to
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
, originally planned for two weeks but cut short by a week at Coolidge's request. After 25 years he wrote of Grace, "for almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her graces".
The Coolidges had two sons:
John (1906–2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908–1924). On June 30, 1924, Calvin Jr. had played
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
with his brother on the White House tennis courts without putting on socks and developed a
blister on one of his toes. The blister subsequently degenerated into
sepsis
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is foll ...
. Calvin Jr. died a little over a week later at the age of 16. The President never forgave himself for Calvin Jr's death. His eldest son John said it "hurt
oolidgeterribly", and psychiatric biographer Robert E. Gilbert, author of '' The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression'', said that Coolidge "ceased to function as President after the death of his sixteen-year-old son". Gilbert explains in his book how Coolidge displayed all ten of the symptoms listed by the
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are invol ...
as evidence of
major depressive disorder following Calvin Jr.'s sudden death. John later became a railroad executive, helped to start the Coolidge Foundation, and was instrumental in creating the
President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site
The Coolidge Homestead, also known as Calvin Coolidge Homestead District or President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, was the childhood home of the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge and the place where he took the presiden ...
.
Coolidge was frugal, and when it came to securing a home, he insisted upon renting. He and his wife attended Northampton's Edwards
Congregational Church before and after his presidency.
Local political office (1898−1915)
City offices
The
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
was dominant in New England at the time, and Coolidge followed the example of Hammond and Field by becoming active in local politics. In 1896, Coolidge campaigned for Republican presidential candidate
William McKinley, and was selected to be a member of the Republican City Committee the next year. In 1898, he won election to the
City Council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
of Northampton, placing second in a ward where the top three candidates were elected. The position offered no salary but provided Coolidge with valuable political experience. In 1899, he was chosen City Solicitor by the City Council. He was elected for a one-year term in 1900, and reelected in 1901. This position gave Coolidge more experience as a lawyer and paid a salary of $600 (). In 1902, the city council selected a Democrat for city solicitor, and Coolidge returned to private practice. Soon thereafter, however, the
clerk of courts
A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court, administer oaths to witn ...
for the county died, and Coolidge was chosen to replace him. The position paid well, but it barred him from practicing law, so he remained at the job for only one year. In 1904, Coolidge suffered his sole defeat at the ballot box, losing an election to the Northampton
school board. When told that some of his neighbors voted against him because he had no children in the schools he would govern, the recently married Coolidge replied, "Might give me time!"
Massachusetts state legislator and mayor
In 1906, the local Republican committee nominated Coolidge for election to the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
. He won a close victory over the incumbent Democrat, and reported to
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
for the 1907 session of the
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...
. In his freshman term, Coolidge served on minor committees and, although he usually voted with the party, was known as a
Progressive Republican
The Republican Party in the United States includes several factions, or wings.
During the 19th century, Republican factions included the Half-Breeds, who supported civil service reform; the Radical Republicans, who advocated the immediate and t ...
, voting in favor of such measures as
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...
and the
direct election of Senators. While in Boston, Coolidge became an ally, and then a liegeman, of then U.S. Senator
Winthrop Murray Crane who controlled the western faction of the Massachusetts Republican Party; Crane's party rival in the east of the commonwealth was U.S. Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge. Coolidge forged another key strategic alliance with
Guy Currier
Guy Wilbur Currier (December 22, 1867 – June 21, 1930)"Guy W. Currier, 62, Boston attorney", ''The Berkshire Eagle'' (June 21, 1930), p. 2. was a lawyer and politician in Massachusetts. He served in both houses of the Massachusetts legislature ( ...
, who had served in both state houses and had the social distinction, wealth, personal charm and broad circle of friends which Coolidge lacked, and which would have a lasting impact on his political career. In 1907, he was elected to a second term, and in the 1908 session Coolidge was more outspoken, though not in a leadership position.
Instead of vying for another term in the
State House
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
, Coolidge returned home to his growing family and ran for mayor of Northampton when the incumbent Democrat retired. He was well liked in the town, and defeated his challenger by a vote of 1,597 to 1,409. During his first term (1910 to 1911), he increased teachers' salaries and retired some of the city's debt while still managing to effect a slight tax decrease. He was renominated in 1911, and defeated the same opponent by a slightly larger margin.
In 1911, the
State Senator for the Hampshire County area retired and successfully encouraged Coolidge to run for his seat for the 1912 session; Coolidge defeated his Democratic opponent by a large margin. At the start of that term, he became chairman of a committee to arbitrate the "
Bread and Roses" strike by the workers of the
American Woolen Company in
. After two tense months, the company agreed to the workers' demands, in a settlement proposed by the committee. A major issue affecting Massachusetts Republicans that year was the
party split between the progressive wing, which favored
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, and the conservative wing, which favored
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
. Although he favored some progressive measures, Coolidge refused to leave the Republican party. When the new
Progressive Party declined to run a candidate in his state senate district, Coolidge won reelection against his Democratic opponent by an increased margin.
In the 1913 session, Coolidge enjoyed renowned success in arduously navigating to passage the Western Trolley Act, which connected Northampton with a dozen similar industrial communities in
western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts, known colloquially as “Western Mass,” is a region in Massachusetts, one of the six U.S. states that make up the New England region of the United States. Western Massachusetts has diverse topography; 22 colleges and u ...
. Coolidge intended to retire after his second term as was the custom, but when the
president of the state senate,
Levi H. Greenwood
Levi Heywood Greenwood
(December 22, 1872 – April 7, 1930) was a businessman and Republican politician from Massachusetts in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was the father of former Fitchburg Mayor Robert E. Greenwood.
Early year ...
, considered running for lieutenant governor, Coolidge decided to run again for the Senate in the hopes of being elected as its presiding officer. Although Greenwood later decided to run for reelection to the Senate, he was defeated primarily due to his opposition to women's suffrage; Coolidge was in favor of the women's vote, won his re-election, and with Crane's help, assumed the presidency of a closely divided Senate. After his election in January 1914, Coolidge delivered a published and frequently quoted speech entitled ''Have Faith in Massachusetts'', which summarized his philosophy of government.
Coolidge's speech was well received, and he attracted some admirers on its account; towards the end of the term, many of them were proposing his name for nomination to lieutenant governor. After winning reelection to the Senate by an increased margin in the 1914 elections, Coolidge was reelected unanimously to be President of the Senate. Coolidge's supporters, led by fellow Amherst alumnus
Frank Stearns
Frank Waterman Stearns (November 8, 1856, Boston – 1939) was an American businessman whose father, Richard H. Stearns had founded the R. H. Stearns department store and company in Boston. His mother was Louise M. Waterman.Cf. Who's Who ...
, encouraged him again to run for lieutenant governor. Stearns, an executive with the Boston department store R. H. Stearns, became another key ally, and began a publicity campaign on Coolidge's behalf before he announced his candidacy at the end of the 1915 legislative session.
Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Massachusetts (1916−1921)
Coolidge entered the
primary election
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
for lieutenant governor and was nominated to run alongside gubernatorial candidate
Samuel W. McCall. Coolidge was the leading vote-getter in the Republican primary, and
balanced the Republican ticket by adding a western presence to McCall's eastern base of support. McCall and Coolidge won the 1915 election to their respective one-year terms, with Coolidge defeating his opponent by more than 50,000 votes.
In Massachusetts, the lieutenant governor does not preside over the state Senate, as is the case in many other states; nevertheless, as lieutenant governor, Coolidge was a deputy governor functioning as an administrative inspector and was a member of the governor's council. He was also chairman of the finance committee and the pardons committee. As a full-time elected official, Coolidge discontinued his law practice in 1916, though his family continued to live in Northampton. McCall and Coolidge were both reelected in 1916 and again in 1917. When McCall decided that he would not stand for a fourth term, Coolidge announced his intention to run for governor.
1918 election
Coolidge was unopposed for the Republican nomination for
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Massachuse ...
in
1918. He and his running mate,
Channing Cox
Channing Harris Cox (October 28, 1879August 20, 1968) was an American Republican politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts. He served as the 49th Governor of Massachusetts, from 1921 to 1925. He attended Dartmouth College and serv ...
, a Boston lawyer and Speaker of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
, ran on the previous administration's record:
fiscal conservatism, a vague opposition to
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
, support for women's suffrage, and support for American involvement in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. The issue of the war proved divisive, especially among
Irish and
German Americans
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unit ...
. Coolidge was elected by a margin of 16,773 votes over his opponent,
Richard H. Long
Richard Henry Long (1865–1957) was an American businessman and politician who was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Massachusetts in 1918 and 1919. He lost both elections to future President of the United States Calvin Coolidge.
Early li ...
, in the smallest margin of victory of any of his statewide campaigns.
Boston Police Strike
In 1919, in reaction to a plan of the policemen of the
Boston Police Department to register with a
union, Police Commissioner
Edwin U. Curtis
Edwin Upton Curtis (May 26, 1861 – March 28, 1922) was an American attorney and politician from Massachusetts who served as the 34th Mayor of Boston (1895–1896). Later, as Boston Police Commissioner (1918–1922), his refusal to recognize t ...
announced that such an act would not be tolerated. In August of that year, the
American Federation of Labor issued a charter to the Boston Police Union. Curtis declared the union's leaders were guilty of insubordination and would be relieved of duty, but indicated he would cancel their suspension if the union was dissolved by September 4. The mayor of Boston,
Andrew Peters, convinced Curtis to delay his action for a few days, but with no results, and Curtis suspended the union leaders on September 8. The following day, about three-quarters of the policemen in Boston went on strike. Coolidge, tacitly but fully in support of Curtis' position, closely monitored the situation but initially deferred to the local authorities. He anticipated that only a resulting measure of lawlessness could sufficiently prompt the public to understand and appreciate the controlling principlethat a policeman does not strike. That night and the next, there was sporadic violence and rioting in the unruly city. Peters, concerned about
sympathy strikes by the firemen and others, called up some units of the
Massachusetts National Guard stationed in the Boston area pursuant to an old and obscure legal authority, and relieved Curtis of duty.
Coolidge, sensing the severity of circumstances were then in need of his intervention, conferred with Crane's operative, William Butler, and then acted. He called up more units of the National Guard, restored Curtis to office, and took personal control of the police force. Curtis proclaimed that all of the strikers were fired from their jobs, and Coolidge called for a new police force to be recruited.
That night Coolidge received a telegram from AFL leader
Samuel Gompers. "Whatever disorder has occurred", Gompers wrote, "is due to Curtis's order in which the right of the policemen has been denied…" Coolidge publicly answered Gompers's telegram, denying any justification whatsoever for the strikeand his response launched him into the national consciousness. Newspapers across the nation picked up on Coolidge's statement and he became the newest hero to opponents of the strike. Amid of the
First Red Scare
The First Red Scare was a period during the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of far-left movements, including Bolshevism and anarchism, due to real and imagined events; real events included the Ru ...
, many Americans were terrified of the spread of
communist revolutions, like those that had taken place in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
, and
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
. While Coolidge had lost some friends among organized labor, conservatives across the nation had seen a rising star. Although he usually acted with deliberation, the Boston police strike gave him a national reputation as a decisive leader, and as a strict enforcer of law and order.
1919 election
Coolidge and Cox were renominated for their respective offices in
1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the ...
. By this time Coolidge's supporters (especially Stearns) had publicized his actions in the Police Strike around the state and the nation and some of Coolidge's speeches were published in book form. He faced the same opponent as in 1918, Richard Long, but this time Coolidge defeated him by 125,101 votes, more than seven times his margin of victory from a year earlier. His actions in the police strike, combined with the massive electoral victory, led to suggestions that Coolidge run for president in 1920.
Legislation and vetoes as governor
By the time Coolidge was inaugurated on January 2, 1919, the First World War had ended, and Coolidge pushed the legislature to give a $100 bonus () to Massachusetts veterans. He also signed a bill reducing the work week for women and
children from fifty-four hours to forty-eight, saying, "We must humanize the industry, or the system will break down." He signed into law a budget that kept the tax rates the same, while trimming $4 million from expenditures, thus allowing the state to retire some of its debt.
Coolidge also wielded the veto pen as governor. His most publicized veto prevented an increase in legislators' pay by 50%. Although Coolidge was personally opposed to Prohibition, he vetoed a bill in May 1920 that would have allowed the sale of beer or wine of
2.75% alcohol or less, in Massachusetts in violation of the
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and was ratified by the requisite number of ...
. "Opinions and instructions do not outmatch the Constitution," he said in his veto message. "Against it, they are void."
Vice presidency (1921−1923)
1920 election
At the
1920 Republican National Convention, most of the delegates were selected by state party caucuses, not primaries. As such, the field was divided among many local favorites. Coolidge was one such candidate, and while he placed as high as sixth in the voting, the powerful party bosses running the convention, primarily the party's U.S. Senators, never considered him seriously. After ten ballots, the bosses and then the delegates settled on Senator
Warren G. Harding of
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
as their nominee for president. When the time came to select a vice presidential nominee, the bosses also made and announced their decision on whom they wantedSen.
Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsinand then prematurely departed after his name was put forth, relying on the rank and file to confirm their decision. A delegate from
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
,
Wallace McCamant
Wallace McCamant (September 22, 1867 – December 17, 1944) was an American jurist in Oregon. A Pennsylvania native, he served as the 46th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1917 to 1918. Later he served briefly as a United States circui ...
, having read ''Have Faith in Massachusetts'', proposed Coolidge for vice president instead. The suggestion caught on quickly with the masses starving for an act of independence from the absent bosses, and Coolidge was unexpectedly nominated.
The Democrats nominated another Ohioan,
James M. Cox, for president and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, for vice president. The question of the United States joining the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...
was a major issue in the campaign, as was the unfinished legacy of
Progressivism
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, tec ...
. Harding ran a "
front-porch" campaign from his home in
Marion, Ohio, but Coolidge took to the campaign trail in the
Upper South
The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States, Southern and lower Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. They differ from the Deep South and A ...
, New York, and New Englandhis audiences carefully limited to those familiar with Coolidge and those placing a premium upon concise and short speeches. On November 2, 1920, Harding and Coolidge were victorious in a landslide, winning more than 60 percent of the popular vote, including every state outside the South. They also won in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...
, the first time a Republican ticket had won a Southern state since
Reconstruction.
"Silent Cal"
The U.S. vice-presidency did not carry many official duties, but Coolidge was invited by President Harding to attend cabinet meetings, making him the first vice president to do so. He gave a number of unremarkable speeches around the country.
As vice president, Coolidge and his vivacious wife
Grace
Grace may refer to:
Places United States
* Grace, Idaho, a city
* Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois
* Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office
* Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninc ...
were invited to quite a few parties, where the legend of "Silent Cal" was born. It is from this time that most of the jokes and anecdotes involving Coolidge originate, such as Coolidge being "silent in five languages". Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was commonly referred to as "Silent Cal". An apocryphal story has it that a person seated next to him at a dinner said to him, "I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." He replied, "You lose." However, on April 22, 1924, Coolidge himself said that the "You lose" quotation never occurred. The story about it was related by Frank B. Noyes, President of the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
, to their membership at their annual luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, when toasting and introducing Coolidge, who was the invited speaker. After the introduction and before his prepared remarks, Coolidge said to the membership, "Your President
eferring to Noyeshas given you a perfect example of one of those rumors now current in Washington which is without any foundation."
Coolidge often seemed uncomfortable among fashionable Washington society; when asked why he continued to attend so many of their dinner parties, he replied, "Got to eat somewhere."
Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a leading Republican wit, underscored Coolidge's silence and his dour personality: "When he wished he were elsewhere, he pursed his lips, folded his arms, and said nothing. He looked then precisely as though he had been weaned on a pickle." Coolidge and his wife, Grace, who was a great baseball fan, once attended a
Washington Senators game and sat through all nine innings without saying a word, except once when he asked her the time.
As president, Coolidge's reputation as a quiet man continued. "The words of a President have an enormous weight," he would later write, "and ought not to be used indiscriminately." Coolidge was aware of his stiff reputation; indeed, he cultivated it. "I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President," he once told
Ethel Barrymore, "and I think I will go along with them." Some historians suggest that Coolidge's image was created deliberately as a campaign tactic, while others believe his withdrawn and quiet behavior to be natural, deepening after the death of his son in 1924.
Dorothy Parker, upon learning that Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked, "How can they tell?"
Presidency (1923−1929)
On August 2, 1923, President Harding died unexpectedly from a heart attack in San Francisco while on a speaking tour of the western United States. Vice President Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his
family home
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...
, which had neither electricity nor a telephone, when he received word by messenger of Harding's death. Coolidge dressed, said a prayer, and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled. His father, a
notary public and
justice of the peace, 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, whereupon the new President of the United States returned to bed.
Coolidge returned to Washington the next day, and was sworn in again by Justice
Adolph A. Hoehling Jr.
Adolph August Hoehling Jr. (November 3, 1868 – February 17, 1941) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.
Education and career
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Hoehling was the son of Annie Tilghman Hoehli ...
of the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, to forestall any questions about the authority of a state official to administer a federal oath. This second oath-taking remained a secret until it was revealed by
Harry M. Daugherty in 1932, and confirmed by Hoehling. When Hoehling confirmed Daugherty's story, he indicated that Daugherty, then serving as
United States Attorney General
The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
, asked him to administer the oath without fanfare at the
Willard Hotel. According to Hoehling, he did not question Daugherty's reason for requesting a second oath-taking but assumed it was to resolve any doubt about whether the first swearing-in was valid.
The nation initially did not know what to make of Coolidge, who had maintained a low profile in the Harding administration; many had even expected him to be replaced on the ballot in 1924. Coolidge believed that those of Harding's men under suspicion were entitled to every presumption of innocence, taking a methodical approach to the scandals, principally the
Teapot Dome scandal, while others clamored for rapid punishment of those they presumed guilty. Coolidge thought the Senate investigations of the scandals would suffice; this was affirmed by the resulting resignations of those involved. He personally intervened in demanding the resignation of Attorney General
Harry M. Daugherty after he refused to cooperate with the congressional probe. He then set about to confirm that no loose ends remained in the administration, arranging for a full briefing on the wrongdoing.
Harry A. Slattery
Harry A. Slattery (June 13, 1887 – September 1, 1949), was an American lawyer and statesman. He was United States Under Secretary of the Interior from 1938–39 and gave his name to the Slattery Report, which proposed to develop Alaska throu ...
reviewed the facts with him,
Harlan F. Stone analyzed the legal aspects for him and Senator
William E. Borah
William Edgar Borah (June 29, 1865 – January 19, 1940) was an outspoken Republican United States Senator, one of the best-known figures in Idaho's history. A progressive who served from 1907 until his death in 1940, Borah is often co ...
assessed and presented the political factors.
Coolidge addressed Congress when it reconvened on December 6, 1923, giving a speech that supported many of Harding's policies, including Harding's formal budgeting process, the enforcement of
immigration restrictions and arbitration of coal strikes ongoing in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
. The address to Congress was the first presidential speech to be broadcast over the radio. The
Washington Naval Treaty was proclaimed just one month into Coolidge's term, and was generally well received in the country. In May 1924, the World War I veterans'
World War Adjusted Compensation Act or "Bonus Bill" was passed over his veto. Coolidge signed the
Immigration Act later that year, which was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigration, but appended a
signing statement
A signing statement is a written pronouncement issued by the President of the United States upon the signing of a bill into law. They are usually printed along with the bill in '' United States Code Congressional and Administrative News'' (USCCA ...
expressing his unhappiness with the bill's specific exclusion of
Japanese immigrants. Just before the Republican Convention began, Coolidge signed into law the
Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced the top marginal tax rate from 58% to 46%, as well as personal
income tax
An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...
rates across the board, increased the
estate tax and bolstered it with a new
gift tax
In economics, a gift tax is the tax on money or property that one living person or corporate entity gives to another. A gift tax is a type of transfer tax that is imposed when someone gives something of value to someone else. The transfer must ...
.
On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. By that time, two-thirds of them were already citizens, having gained it through marriage, military service (veterans of World War I were granted citizenship in 1919), or the land allotments that had earlier taken place.
1924 election
The
Republican Convention was held on June 10–12, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio; Coolidge was nominated on the first ballot. The convention nominated
Frank Lowden of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...
for vice president on the second ballot, but he declined; former Brigadier General
Charles G. Dawes was nominated on the third ballot and accepted.
The Democrats held their
convention
Convention may refer to:
* Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct
** Treaty, an agreement in international law
* Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...
the next month in New York City. The convention soon deadlocked, and after 103 ballots, the delegates finally agreed on a compromise candidate,
John W. Davis, with
Charles W. Bryan
Charles Wayland Bryan (February 10, 1867 – March 4, 1945) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 20th and 23rd Governor of Nebraska, and Mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, and was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1924. ...
nominated for vice president. The Democrats' hopes were buoyed when
Robert M. La Follette, a Republican senator from
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, split from the GOP to form a new
Progressive Party. Many believed that the split in the Republican party, like the one in 1912, would allow a Democrat to win the presidency.
After the conventions and the death of his younger son Calvin, Coolidge became withdrawn; he later said that "when he
he sondied, the power and glory of the Presidency went with him." Even as he mourned, Coolidge ran his standard campaign, not mentioning his opponents by name or maligning them, and delivering speeches on his theory of government, including several that were broadcast over the radio. It was the most subdued campaign since 1896, partly because of Coolidge's grief, but also because of his naturally non-confrontational style. The other candidates campaigned in a more modern fashion, but despite the split in the Republican party, the results were similar to those of 1920. Coolidge and Dawes won every state outside the South except Wisconsin, La Follette's home state. Coolidge won the election with 382 electoral votes and the popular vote by 2.5 million over his opponents' combined total.
Industry and trade
During Coolidge's presidency, the United States experienced a period of rapid economic growth known as the "
Roaring Twenties". He left the administration's industrial policy in the hands of his activist Secretary of Commerce,
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, holding o ...
, who energetically used government auspices to promote business efficiency and develop airlines and radio. Coolidge disdained regulation and demonstrated this by appointing commissioners to the
Federal Trade Commission and the
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...
who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction. The regulatory state under Coolidge was, as one biographer described it, "thin to the point of invisibility".
Historian
Robert Sobel
Robert Sobel (February 19, 1931 – June 2, 1999) was an American professor of history at Hofstra University and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories.
Biography
Sobel was born in the Bronx, in New York City, New York. He c ...
offers some context of Coolidge's ''
laissez-faire
''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...
'' ideology, based on the prevailing understanding of
federalism
Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (provincial, state, cantonal, territorial, or other sub-unit governments) in a single po ...
during his presidency: "As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed
child labor
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such ...
, imposed economic controls during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, 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."
Taxation and government spending
Coolidge adopted the taxation policies of his Secretary of the Treasury,
Andrew Mellon, who advocated "scientific taxation"the notion that lowering taxes will increase, rather than decrease, government receipts. Congress agreed, and tax rates were reduced in Coolidge's term. In addition to federal tax cuts, Coolidge proposed reductions in federal expenditures and retiring of the
federal debt. Coolidge's ideas were shared by the Republicans in Congress, and in 1924, Congress passed the
Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced income tax rates and eliminated all income taxation for some two million people. They reduced taxes again by passing the Revenue Acts of
1926 and
1928, all the while continuing to keep spending down so as to reduce the overall federal debt. By 1927, only the wealthiest 2% of taxpayers paid any federal income tax. Federal spending remained flat during Coolidge's administration, allowing one-fourth of the federal debt to be retired in total. State and local governments saw considerable growth, however, surpassing the federal budget in 1927. By 1929, after Coolidge's series of tax rate reductions had cut the tax rate to 24 percent on those making over $100,000, the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income taxes, of which 65 percent was collected from those making over $100,000. In 1921, when the tax rate on people making over $100,000 a year was 73 percent, the federal government collected a little over $700 million in income taxes, of which 30 percent was paid by those making over $100,000.
Opposition to farm subsidies
Perhaps the most contentious issue of Coolidge's presidency was relief for farmers. Some in Congress proposed a bill designed to fight falling agricultural prices by allowing the federal government to purchase crops to sell abroad at lower prices. Agriculture Secretary
Henry C. Wallace
Henry Cantwell "Harry" Wallace (May 11, 1866 – October 25, 1924) was an American farmer, journalist, and political activist who served as the Secretary of Agriculture from 1921 to 1924 under Republican presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin ...
and other administration officials favored the bill when it was introduced in 1924, but rising prices convinced many in Congress that the bill was unnecessary, and it was defeated just before the elections that year. In 1926, with farm prices falling once more, Senator
Charles L. McNary and Representative
Gilbert N. Haugenboth Republicansproposed the
McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill. The bill proposed a federal farm board that would purchase surplus production in high-yield years and hold it (when feasible) for later sale or sell it abroad. Coolidge opposed McNary-Haugen, declaring that agriculture must stand "on an independent business basis", and said that "government control cannot be divorced from political control." Instead of manipulating prices, he favored instead
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, holding o ...
's proposal to increase profitability by modernizing agriculture. Secretary Mellon wrote a letter denouncing the McNary-Haugen measure as unsound and likely to cause inflation, and it was defeated.
After McNary-Haugen's defeat, Coolidge supported a less radical measure, the Curtis-Crisp Act, which would have created a federal board to lend money to farm co-operatives in times of surplus; the bill did not pass. In February 1927, Congress took up the McNary-Haugen bill again, this time narrowly passing it, and Coolidge vetoed it. In his veto message, he expressed the belief that the bill would do nothing to help farmers, benefiting only exporters and expanding the federal bureaucracy. Congress did not override the veto, but it passed the bill again in May 1928 by an increased majority; again, Coolidge vetoed it. "Farmers never have made much money," said Coolidge, the Vermont farmer's son. "I do not believe we can do much about it."
Flood control
Coolidge has often been criticized for his actions during the
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast until
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Although he did eventually name Secretary Hoover to a commission in charge of flood relief, scholars argue that Coolidge overall showed a lack of interest in federal flood control. Coolidge did not believe that personally visiting the region after the floods would accomplish anything, and that it would be seen as mere political grandstanding. He also did not want to incur the federal spending that flood control would require; he believed property owners should bear much of the cost. On the other hand, Congress wanted a bill that would place the federal government completely in charge of flood mitigation. When Congress passed a compromise measure in 1928, Coolidge declined to take credit for it and signed the bill in private on May 15.
Civil rights
According to one biographer, Coolidge was "devoid of racial prejudice", but rarely took the lead on civil rights. Coolidge disliked the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Ca ...
and no Klansman is known to have received an appointment from him. In the 1924 presidential election his opponents (Robert La Follette and John Davis), and his running mate Charles Dawes, often attacked the Klan but Coolidge avoided the subject. During his administration, lynchings of African-Americans decreased and millions of people left the Ku Klux Klan.
Coolidge spoke in favor of the civil rights of African Americans, saying in his first
State of the Union address that their rights were "just as sacred as those of any other citizen" under the U.S. Constitution and that it was a "public and a private duty to protect those rights."
[ s:Calvin Coolidge's First State of the Union Address]
Coolidge repeatedly called for laws to make
lynching a federal crime (it was already a state crime, though not always enforced). Congress refused to pass any such legislation. On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the
Indian Citizenship Act, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations. (Those off reservations had long been citizens.) On June 6, 1924, Coolidge delivered a commencement address at historically black, non-segregated
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...
, in which he thanked and commended African Americans for their rapid advances in education and their contributions to U.S. society over the years, as well as their eagerness to render their services as soldiers in the World War, all while being faced with discrimination and prejudices at home.
In a speech in October 1924, Coolidge stressed tolerance of differences as an American value and thanked immigrants for their contributions to U.S. society, saying that they have "contributed much to making our country what it is." He stated that although the diversity of peoples was a detrimental source of conflict and tension in Europe, it was peculiar for the United States that it was a "harmonious" benefit for the country. Coolidge further stated the United States should assist and help immigrants who come to the country and urged immigrants to reject "race hatreds" and "prejudices".
Foreign policy
Coolidge was neither well versed nor very interested in world affairs.
His focus was directed mainly at American business, especially pertaining to trade, and "Maintaining the Status Quo". Although not an isolationist, he was reluctant to enter into European involvements. While Coolidge believed strongly in a
non-interventionist foreign policy, he did believe that the
United States was exceptional.
Coolidge considered the 1920 Republican victory as a rejection of the
Wilsonian position that the United States should join the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...
. Coolidge believed the League did not serve American interests. However, he spoke in favor of joining the
Permanent Court of International Justice (World Court), provided that the nation would not be bound by advisory decisions. In 1926, the Senate eventually approved joining the Court (with
reservations). The League of Nations accepted the reservations, but it suggested some modifications of its own. The Senate failed to act and so the United States did not join the World Court.
Coolidge authorized the
Dawes Plan, a financial plan by
Charles Dawes
Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker, general, diplomat, composer, and Republican politician who was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-re ...
, to provide Germany partial relief from
its reparations obligations from
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. The plan initially provided stimulus for the German economy. Additionally, Coolidge attempted to pursue further curbs on naval strength following the early successes of Harding's
Washington Naval Conference by sponsoring the
Geneva Naval Conference in 1927, which failed owing to a French and Italian boycott and ultimate failure of Great Britain and the United States to agree on cruiser tonnages. As a result, the conference was a failure and Congress eventually authorized for increased American naval spending in 1928. The
Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928, named for Coolidge's Secretary of State,
Frank B. Kellogg, and French foreign minister
Aristide Briand, was also a key peacekeeping initiative. The treaty, ratified in 1929, committed signatoriesthe United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japanto "renounce war, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another". The treaty did not achieve its intended resultthe outlawry of warbut it did provide the founding principle for international law after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Coolidge also continued the previous administration's policy of withholding recognition of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
.
Efforts were made to
normalize ties with post-
Revolution Mexico. Coolidge recognized Mexico's new governments under
Álvaro Obregón and
Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles (25 September 1877 – 19 October 1945) was a general in the Mexican Revolution and a Sonoran politician, serving as President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928.
The 1924 Calles presidential campaign was the first populist ...
, and continued American support for the elected Mexican government against the
National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty during the
Cristero War, lifting the arms embargo on that country; he also appointed
Dwight Morrow as
Ambassador to Mexico with the successful objective to avoid further American conflict with Mexico.
Coolidge's administration would see continuity in the
occupation of Nicaragua
The United States occupation of Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 was part of the Banana Wars, when the US military invaded various Latin American countries from 1898 to 1934. The formal occupation began in 1912, even though there were various ot ...
and
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
, and an end to the
occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1924 as a result of withdrawal agreements finalized during Harding's administration. In 1925, Coolidge ordered the withdrawal of
Marines stationed in Nicaragua following perceived stability after the
1924 Nicaraguan general election
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 5 October 1924 to elect a president, half of the deputies and one-third of the senators of the National Congress.
When the President Diego Manuel Chamorro died in office on 12 October 1923 Vice-Preside ...
, but redeployed them there in January 1927 following failed attempts to peacefully resolve the rapid deterioration of political stability and avert the ensuing
Constitutionalist War;
Henry L. Stimson was later sent by Coolidge to mediate
a peace deal that would end the civil war and extend American military presence in Nicaragua beyond Coolidge's term in office.
To extend an
olive branch to Latin American leaders embittered over America's
interventionist policies in Central America and the
Caribbean, Coolidge led the U.S. delegation to the
Sixth International Conference of American States, January 15–17, 1928, in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. ,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, the only international trip Coolidge made during his presidency. He would be the last sitting American president to visit Cuba until
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
in 2016.
For Canada, Coolidge authorized the
St. Lawrence Seaway
The St. Lawrence Seaway (french: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North Americ ...
, a system of locks and canals that would provide large vessels passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five la ...
.
Cabinet
Although a few of Harding's cabinet appointees were scandal-tarred, Coolidge initially retained all of them, out of an ardent conviction that as successor to a deceased elected president he was obligated to retain Harding's counselors and policies until the next election. He kept Harding's able speechwriter
Judson T. Welliver
Judson Churchill Welliver (August 13, 1870 – April 14, 1943) was a "literary clerk" to President Warren G. Harding and is usually credited as being the first presidential speechwriter.
Biography
Judson Welliver was born on August 13, 1870 in ...
; Stuart Crawford replaced Welliver in November 1925. Coolidge appointed
C. Bascom Slemp, a
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...
Congressman and experienced federal politician, to work jointly with Edward T. Clark, a Massachusetts Republican organizer whom he retained from his vice-presidential staff, as
Secretaries to the President (a position equivalent to the modern
White House Chief of Staff).
Perhaps the most powerful person in Coolidge's Cabinet was Secretary of the Treasury
Andrew Mellon, who controlled the administration's financial policies and was regarded by many, including House Minority Leader
John Nance Garner, as more powerful than Coolidge himself. Secretary of Commerce
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, holding o ...
also held a prominent place in Coolidge's Cabinet, in part because Coolidge found value in Hoover's ability to win positive publicity with his pro-business proposals. Secretary of State
Charles Evans Hughes directed Coolidge's foreign policy until he resigned in 1925 following Coolidge's re-election. He was replaced by
Frank B. Kellogg, who had previously served as a senator and as the ambassador to Great Britain. Coolidge made two other appointments following his re-election, with
William M. Jardine taking the position of Secretary of Agriculture and
John G. Sargent
John Garibaldi Sargent (October 13, 1860March 5, 1939) was an American lawyer and government official. He served as United States Attorney General during the administration of President Calvin Coolidge.
Biography
John G. Sargent was born in Lu ...
becoming Attorney General. Coolidge did not have a vice president during his first term, but
Charles Dawes
Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker, general, diplomat, composer, and Republican politician who was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-re ...
became vice president during Coolidge's second term, and Dawes and Coolidge clashed over farm policy and other issues.
Judicial appointments
Coolidge appointed one justice to the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
,
Harlan F. Stone in 1925. Stone was Coolidge's fellow Amherst alumnus, a Wall Street lawyer and conservative Republican. Stone was serving as dean of
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked ...
when Coolidge appointed him to be attorney general in 1924 to restore the reputation tarnished by Harding's Attorney General,
Harry M. Daugherty. It does not appear that Coolidge considered appointing anyone other than Stone, although Stone himself had urged Coolidge to appoint
Benjamin N. Cardozo. Stone proved to be a firm believer in
judicial restraint and was regarded as one of the court's
three liberal justices who would often vote to uphold New Deal legislation. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt later appointed Stone to be chief justice.
Coolidge nominated 17 judges to the
United States Courts of Appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals f ...
and 61 judges to the
United States district courts. He appointed judges to various specialty courts as well, including
Genevieve R. Cline, who became the first woman named to the federal judiciary when Coolidge placed her on the
United States Customs Court in 1928. Coolidge also signed the
Judiciary Act of 1925 into law, allowing the Supreme Court more discretion over its workload.
1928 election
In the summer of 1927, Coolidge vacationed in the
Black Hills of
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...
, where he engaged in horseback riding and fly fishing and attended
rodeos. He made
Custer State Park his "summer White House". While on vacation, Coolidge surprisingly issued a terse statement that he would not seek a second full term as president: "
I do not choose to run
"I do not choose to run" was a statement made by U.S. president Calvin Coolidge to the press on August 2, 1927, on his decision not to run for the 1928 presidential election. The statement was ambiguous, and led to considerable debate as to the ...
for President in 1928." After allowing the reporters to take that in, Coolidge elaborated. "If I take another term, I will be in the White House till 1933 … Ten years in Washington is longer than any other man has had ittoo long!" In his memoirs, Coolidge explained his decision not to run: "The Presidential office takes a heavy toll of those who occupy it and those who are dear to them. While we should not refuse to spend and be spent in the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish." After leaving office, he and Grace returned to Northampton, where he wrote his memoirs. The Republicans retained the White House in 1928 with a landslide by
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, holding o ...
. Coolidge had been reluctant to endorse Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that "for six years that man has given me unsolicited adviceall of it bad." Even so, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the nomination of the popular commerce secretary.
Post-presidency (1929–1933)
After his presidency, Coolidge retired to a spacious home in Northampton, "The Beeches". He kept a
Hacker runabout boat on the Connecticut River and was often observed on the water by local boating enthusiasts. During this period, he also served as chairman of the Non-Partisan Railroad Commission, an entity created by several banks and corporations to survey the country's long-term transportation needs and make recommendations for improvements. He was an honorary president of the
American Foundation for the Blind
The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is an American non-profit organization for people with vision loss. AFB's objectives include conducting research to advance change, promoting knowledge and understanding, and shaping policies and practi ...
, a director of
New York Life Insurance Company, president of the
American Antiquarian Society, and a trustee of Amherst College.
Coolidge published
his autobiography
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Calvin Coolidge Says", from 1930 to 1931. Faced with a Democratic landslide in the
1932 presidential election, some Republicans spoke of rejecting Hoover as their party's nominee, and instead drafting Coolidge to run. Coolidge made it clear that he was not interested in running again, and that he would publicly repudiate any effort to draft him. Hoover was renominated, and Coolidge made several radio addresses in support of him. Hoover then lost the general election to Coolidge's 1920 vice presidential Democratic opponent
Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide.
Death
Coolidge died suddenly from
coronary thrombosis at "The Beeches", at 12:45 p.m., January 5, 1933, at age 60. Shortly before his death, Coolidge confided to an old friend: "I feel I no longer fit in with these times." Coolidge is buried in
Plymouth Notch Cemetery,
Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The nearby family home is maintained as one of the original buildings on the
Calvin Coolidge Homestead District site. The State of Vermont dedicated a new visitors' center nearby to mark Coolidge's 100th birthday on July 4, 1972.
Radio, film, and commemorations
Despite his reputation as a quiet and even reclusive politician, Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made radio history several times while president. He made himself available to reporters, giving 520 press conferences, meeting with reporters more regularly than any president before or since. Coolidge's
second inauguration was the first presidential inauguration broadcast on radio. On December 6, 1923, his speech to Congress was broadcast on radio, the first presidential radio address. Coolidge signed the
Radio Act of 1927, which assigned regulation of radio to the newly created
Federal Radio Commission. On August 11, 1924,
Theodore W. Case, using the
Phonofilm sound-on-film process he developed for
Lee de Forest
Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor and a fundamentally important early pioneer in electronics. He invented the first electronic device for controlling current flow; the three-element " Audion" triode ...
, filmed Coolidge on the White House lawn, making "Silent Cal" the first president to appear in a sound film. The title of the DeForest film was ''President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Grounds''. When
Charles Lindbergh arrived in Washington on a U.S. Navy ship after his celebrated 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, President Coolidge welcomed him back to the U.S. and presented him with the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor ...
; the event was captured on film.
File:Sesquicentennial american independence half dollar commemorative obverse.jpg, Coolidge was the only president to have his portrait on a coin during his lifetime: the Sesquicentennial of American Independence Half Dollar, minted in 1926.
File:Calvin Coolidge 1938 Issue-$5.jpg, Coolidge on a 1938 postage stamp
See also
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Coolidge, Arizona
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Coolidge Dam
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List of things named after Calvin Coolidge
This is a list of things named after Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States. President Coolidge was himself named after his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., and his grandfather, Calvin Galusha Coolidge. As Coolidge was a some ...
*
Presidency of Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge's tenure as the 30th president of the United States began on August 2, 1923, when Coolidge became president upon Warren G. Harding's death, and ended on March 4, 1929. A Republican from Massachusetts, Coolidge had been vice pres ...
Notes
References
Works cited
About Coolidge and his era
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Further reading
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* Postell, Joseph W. "Roaring Against Progressivism: The Principled Conservatism of Calvin Coolidge," in Joseph W. Postell and Johnathan O'Neill, eds. ''Toward an American Conservatism: Constitutional Conservatism during the Progressive Era'' (2013) pp. 181–208.
* Russell, Francis. “Coolidge and the Boston Police Strike.” ''Antioch Review'' 16#4 (1956), pp. 403–15
online* Tacoma, Thomas J. ''The Political Thought of Calvin Coolidge: Burkean Americanist'' (Lexington Books, 2020).
* Tacoma, Thomas. "Calvin Coolidge and the Great Depression: A New Assessment." ''Independent Review'' 24.3 (2019): 361–380
online* Zibel, Howard J. "The Role of Calvin Coolidge in the Boston Police Strike of 1919," ''Industrial and Labor Relations Forum'' 6, no. 3 (November 1969): 299–318
Primary sources
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External links
White House biography*
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library & MuseumCalvin Coolidge Presidential FoundationText of a number of Coolidge speeches Miller Center of Public Affairs
*
Calvin Coolidge: A Resource Guide Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...
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President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Ground', the first presidential film with sound recording
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"Life Portrait of Calvin Coolidge" from
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United Stat ...
's ''
American Presidents: Life Portraits'', September 27, 1999
Calvin Coolidge Personal Manuscripts*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coolidge, Calvin
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