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Presidential Profile: Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) 30th US President.

Pre-Presidency (1872-1923):

-Calvin Coolidge was born John Calvin Coolidge Jr. on July 4th, 1872. Making him the only President to date born on the 4th of July.

-Coolidge was born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont to John Sr. and Virginia Coolidge (Moor). He had one younger sister Abigail Grace. His father was a farmer, general store owner and holder of several public offices and civil service positions, including justice of the peace, tax collector and member of the Vermont State House of Representatives and Vermont State Senate. His mother was the daughter of a Plymouth Notch farmer.

-Coolidge went by his middle name his entire life to differentiate him from his father.

-His ancestry was primarily of English descent going far back to Colonial era New England and the English Puritans who settled there. His great great grandfather, also named John Coolidge was a veteran and officer in Patriot Army during the American Revolution

-Many of Coolidge’s ancestors served as civil servants and politicians throughout Vermont’s history including his paternal grandfather.

- His mother died of tuberculosis in 1885 when Coolidge was age 13. His sister died of appendicitis 5 years later when Coolidge was 18. His father would remarry in 1891 and live until the year 1926 dying at age 80, still living in the same homestead the rest of his life.

-Coolidge attended Amherst College in Massachusetts. He graduated cum laude, was a member of the debate team and was greatly influenced by a philosophy teacher named Charles Edward Garman who would mentor Coolidge and help shape his later political philosophy. Summed up by Coolidge as follows:

“There 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.”

-Coolidge then moved to Northampton, Massachusetts to become a lawyer. He avoided law school and as was common in the 19th century, apprenticed at a law firm and “read” the law. He was admitted to the state bar in 1897, the following year he opened his own small law firm. He focused on commercial law and often sought to settle out of court. He quickly developed a reputation in the area as a hard working, attentive and honest attorney. He represented banks and many other local businesses.

-In 1903, he met his future wife, Grace Anna Goodhue who worked as a teacher for the deaf. They married two years later in 1905 despite his mother in law’s initial dislike of him. They would go on to have two sons John (1906-2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908-1924). Years later Coolidge summed up his relationship with his wife as follows:

“"For almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her graces".

-Coolidge was a member of the Republican Party which dominated New England and most Northern states in the US at the time. He began to run for local offices in Northampton. Serving on City Council, and as City Solicitor before he returned to his law practice. He also ran for school board but lost, this would be the only political defeat in his career.

-Later he served in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives before returning to Northampton and becoming Mayor. As mayor some signature accomplishments included giving teachers a raise, lowering the city’s government debt and even lowering local taxes. These final two achievements would become pattern obsessions of Coolidge all throughout his career.

-He later became a State Senator in Massachusetts, returning to Boston once more. This time he became noteworthy for his support of women’s suffrage and perhaps most notably for his 1914 speech to the state senate, called Have Faith in Massachusetts. He argued another cornerstone of his conservative philosophy:

“Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give the administration a chance to catch up with legislation.”

-Coolidge was elected to Lieutenant Governor along with new elected Governor Samuel McCall in 1915. At the time the Governorship was elected for one year terms. He and McCall were reelected in 1916 and 1917. In 1918 McCall declined a fourth term and this allowed Coolidge to run and win the Governorship of Massachusetts in 1918.

-1919 was a turning point in Coolidge’ career. In Boston, many members of the police force were planning on forming a union due to working conditions and low pay. Many of the members of the police force were former war veterans who had recently returned from World War I. In response to the plan to form a union, Police Commissioner Edwin Curtis refused and said no union could be tolerated for the police force. In August, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) gave a charter to the Boston Police Union. Curtis gave an ultimatum, the leaders of the union would be suspended from their positions unless they agreed to dissolve the union by a deadline of September 4th. The Mayor of Boston convinced Curtis to extend that deadline to allow negotiations to continue. The police union leaders were then suspended on September 8th. The next day, 3/4ths of Boston policemen went on strike in solidarity with the union leaders suspension. There was break outs of violence, looting and lawlessness throughout the city due to the lack of a sufficient police force. The Boston Mayor, Andrew Peters was worried firefighters would strike next out of sympathy. Coolidge himself was sympathetic, to Commissioner Curtis’s position. Curtis was dismissed by Peters who felt it necessary due to what he saw as Curtis mishandling the situation with heavy handedness. Coolidge as Governor then called up units of the Massachusetts National Guard to serve as a temporary police force. The military largely secured the city and ended the lawlessness. Coolidge also restored Curtis to the position of Police Commissioner and took personal control over the National Guard as police force. Curtis then announced all striking police officers were fired and that new ones were to be hired, a position which Coolidge accepted as necessary. Coolidge received a telegraph from AFL leader, Samuel Gompers who advised that it was Curtis’s fault for the strike and the lawlessness because he would not accept the worker’s rights and grievances. Coolidge famously responded publicly to Gompers:

"Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the opportunity; the criminal element furnished the action. There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time."

-The striking police force was indeed replaced by 1,500 newer officers who in the end did receive somewhat better pay and working conditions. The period of the strike lead to the deaths of 9 people in the city due to lawlessness. The National Guard also killed 8 rioters as well. The strike was a setback for the labor movement across the country. The failure of the strike resulted in AFL avoided involvement with police unions for nearly two decades.

-Coolidge became an overnight hero of the American public who was largely unsupportive of the strike. In part, because America’s political climate involved the Red Scare of 1919 at the time, with the backdrop of World War I and the rise of communism in Russia, many Americans worried that labor unions and leftist radicals were potentially communist agents who sought to overthrow the American republic and establish something along the lines of the emerging USSR. Coolidge was praised as a hero of conservatism for his decisive executive action in calling up the National Guard to restore order, his support for Curtis and the establishment of a new police force and for his unwavering belief that while the police might have legitimate grievances, their job and oath as public servants required a sense of duty to the public safety beyond their pay.

-Coolidge as a result became a national household name, he was reelected in 1919 and was later mentioned as a contender for Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket in 1920. He was nominated at the party convention that year and paired with running mate for the President, Warren G. Harding a US Senator from Ohio. They were opposed by the Democratic Party nominees , for President James Cox, Governor of Ohio and for Vice President, the future US President, then Assistant Secretary to the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Harding and Coolidge ran on a “return to normalcy” campaign. Which in its ethos sought to restore America’s political climate in the wake of World War I, the Progressive era, labor strikes and general atmosphere of political radicalism to a more moderate and conservative tone. One that supported capitalism and deregulated economics. Harding and Coolidge won in a landslide election capturing 60 percent of the popular vote, carrying 37 states total and capturing 404 electoral college votes to Cox and Roosevelt’s 127.

-Harding and Coolidge were inaugurated as President and Vice President respectively on March 4, 1921. They succeeded Woodrow Wilson and his administration, Wilson for his part had suffered a serious stroke in 1919 that left him in ill health and had prevented his goal of running for a third term as President. Harding’s election was a repudiation of Wilson’s international leanings with a greater focus on domestic issues away from the foreign policy of WWI.

-As Vice President, Coolidge was as many Vice Presidents prior to him not a holder of many official duties aside from presiding over the US Senate. Unlike his predecessors though, he was invited to Cabinet meetings, becoming the first Vice President to ever receive this invite from their President. Most of his time was spent giving speeches around the country and attending parties in Washington DC. It was during this time, the Coolidge’s legacy as a quiet and stern man was born. He was nicknamed “Silent Cal” for his economics with words and his known disdain of formal dinner parties. When asked why he showed up if hated them so much he replied matter of fact “Got to eat somewhere.” His wife Grace, proved to be much more social and outgoing, balancing out Coolidge’s more taciturn personality. The most famous story from this time was possibly pure invention but may have summed up Coolidge’s reputation best of all. At a dinner party, a female guest sitting next to Coolidge supposedly informed him that they made a bet that they could get him to say more than three words supposedly Coolidge said once again matter of fact “You lose.” Coolidge for his part was always shy from his childhood on. He also considered that politicians should speak very little in general and that the words they use carry great political weight, he was a firm believer in the principle of choose your words wisely.

-In August 1923, Coolidge and his family went to visit his father back at his childhood home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Meanwhile, President Harding was on a speaking tour out on the west coast. On August 2nd, Harding died unexpectedly from congestive heart failure in San Francisco, having experienced worsening symptoms in the days preceding his death. Coolidge had to be informed of Harding death and his own subsequent accession to the Presidency. Coolidge’ s father’s farm had no phone or electricity. They were informed by messenger in the middle of the night. Coolidge got dressed, prayed and then was sworn in as 30th President of the United States in the family parlor by kerosene light around 3am by his own father who was a notary public and justice of the peace. He then went back to bed.

-Coolidge returned to Washington DC by train the next day. He immediately had a second swearing in of the Presidential oath by having a federal judge from the Supreme Court District of Washington DC administer the oath to him. The goal of the second swearing in was to prevent any doubt about whether the first was invalid because his father was a state level official and not a federal one.

Presidency (1923-1929)

-Coolidge at first kept Harding’s entire Cabinet in their roles, a believer in the retention of all Cabinet members until one was elected in their own right. He sought to carry out Harding’s domestically oriented goals if by putting his own spin on them. At the time, Harding was a very popular President but his Cabinet has earned a scandalized reputation due to involvement in the Teapot Dome Scandal which involved bribery. Coolidge was called to fire some in the Cabinet on the need to punish those presumed guilty. Coolidge ever the believer in law and order, refused to the do so and expected each man would be tried by evidence first and if found guilty would be removed or if not would be acquitted in his eyes. Coolidge earned praise for his belief in the Constitutional right to be tried when accused of a crime. Those Cabinet members who were uncooperative with the congressional investigations however would be removed since Coolidge saw these investigations as effectively the trial period for each accused Cabinet member.

-Coolidge in 1923 became the first sitting President to give a speech broadcast on radio. Despite his reputation as “Silent Cal” and being a man of few words, Coolidge became the first President to utilize the modern inventions of radio, and movie cameras to communicate with the American public. He also gave more personal press conferences than any US President in history. Coolidge became well liked by the media for the access he granted them and in turn he was well aware of the potential communicative power the new mediums of radio and motion pictures had for the Presidency and in pushing his agenda.

- Coolidge did sign the Immigration Act of 1924 that placed restrictions on immigration from parts of Southern and Eastern Europe. His added a signing statement expressing his reluctance and displeasure to sign the bill because of what he saw as its implicit racism towards Asian, namely Japanese immigration. Coolidge was personally friendly with immigrants and believed immigration was important and vital, however he believed America should be able to regulate immigration and should place some controls on the amount of immigrants coming into the country. Coolidge thought immigration proceeded best when slowed down which allowed time for the country to absorb regulated waves of immigration and allow them to assimilate. The slowing down and conservative approach to all things in government was in line with Coolidge’s nature.

-Coolidge also signed the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, this granted US citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations henceforth. It remains in effect to this day.

-On racial issues in general, Coolidge was praised in most quarters for his opposition to racism across the board. He was described as being devoid of all racial prejudice. He saw immigration to the US as important, spoke of the importance of immigration and assimilation to US cultural values. He also spoke to immigrants and American citizens alike to drop their racial prejudice and hatreds. He also asked the Congress to pass anti-lynching laws at the federal level. In his first State of the Union address, he spoke favorably of African-Americans, stated their rights were as important as any others and should be publicly and privately defended. He also thanked African-Americans in several speeches over the years for their contributions to America and advances in education while acknowledging they continued to face discrimination. Coolidge personally disliked the Ku Klux Klan and is not known to have appointed any Klansmen to a federal position.

-In foreign policy Coolidge was somewhat removed in comparison to his domestic agenda. The 1920′s was a time of isolationism in American politics. He did oversee the initial enforcement of the Washington Naval Treaty which sought to deescalate a naval arms race with other nations, namely Japan. He was largely a non-interventionist in outlook. He did not oppose the League of Nations but did not actively seek to enact American membership in it either. Coolidge also helped normalize relations with Mexico which had soured with the Revolution there in previous years which also saw border conflicts with the US, his new Ambassador was successful in helping smooth over relations. He also pushed the Dawes Plan which lent economic support to Germany in the form of partial reparation relief post World War I. This move actually briefly boosted Germany’s post war economy which had suffered for years and slightly helped smooth relations with Germany in a way that neither France nor Britain sought to do. Coolidge refused to recognize the USSR officially as a nation. He also continued the prior administration's policy of US troops occupying Nicaragua due to the political instability there, though he would withdraw and reinstall them there after the return of instability. Hoping to curb the perception of America being imperialist in Latin America, Coolidge made his only international Presidential visit to Havana, Cuba to attend the Sixth International Conference of American States in 1928. Coolidge stated these nations should be treated as equals to the US in terms of foreign relations. He became the last sitting US President to visit Cuba until President Barack Obama did in 2016.

-Coolidge’s main focus was the United States economy. He sought to achieve his signature goals of budget and tax reduction. Coolidge was personally very frugal and economical. He reduced the size of White House domestic staff and never owned a home in Northampton Massachusetts, preferring to rent and live modestly on a modest income. During his tenure as President, each summer he and First Lady Grace Coolidge would send their sons to work to earn their own pay and learn the value of labor. Coolidge’s most essential Cabinet member was a holdover from the Harding days, US Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon. Mellon and Coolidge both shared a belief that government should not intervene in the economy and that deregulation of business was ideal to stimulate the American economy. In a precursor to the supply-side economics or Reaganomics of the 1980′s, called “scientific taxation” Coolidge and Mellon proposed and passed the Revenue Acts of 1924, ‘26 and ‘28. All of these reduced income tax totally by 24%. By 1927 only the top 2% of income earners in America paid federal income taxes. The other component of Mellon and Coolidge’s plan was reduction of the overall size of government. In very much a libertarian mode of thinking, Coolidge deregulated business and his appointees to regulatory committees often were nominal and not very active. Coolidge would be meet weekly with advisors on how to save on federal spending prior to each Cabinet meeting. These advisors kept Coolidge informed on all department budgets and allowed him to better comprehend the needs of each department without giving preferential treatment to one department’ s budget over the other, this allowed for a consistency in his treatment of Cabinet members. Throughout Coolidge’s tenure, federal spending remained essentially flat. This in turn retired a fourth of the federal government's debt in total by the end of his tenure.

-Coolidge’s tenure was part of the Roaring 20′s, businesses were booming and the business deregulation mentality he presented and epitomized yielded real results for the length of his tenure as the economy steadily grew and improved. Coolidge growing up in economical circumstances was philosophically inclined to believe in a more laissez-faire form of capitalism. He strongly believed as a matter of morality government had little to no place in interfering with business and controlling how people spent their money. Economic freedom for citizens and businesses were for Coolidge the best expression of political freedom. He believed in private property and the notion that people should be able to spend their hard earned dollars as they saw fit rather than through government. In turn this would propel the economy and by most measures for his tenure this seemed to be the case. Additionally, his keeping of federal spending flat along with retiring debt and tax cuts actually saw new levels of government revenues as well, two thirds coming from the highest income earners. He summed up the ethos of the times with the following:

“It is probable that a press which maintains an intimate touch with the business currents of the nation is likely to be more reliable than it would be if it were a stranger to these influences. After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”

-As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge actually supported a number of measures from the Progressive era, seemingly at odds with his federal deregulation as President. As governor he passed or supported laws opposing child labor, in favor of wages and hours controls, economics controls and improved safety regulations. His opposition to regulation as President not only stemmed from his overall economic moral philosophy but his belief in federalism. Regulation in the 1920′s was largely seen as a state and local matter for laws and not a federal one and it was largely perceived by Coolidge to be a matter of principle not to regulate from the federal level as it was essentially unconstitutional in his eyes beyond Congress’s ability to regulate interstate trade.

-Coolidge was criticized by some for not supporting strong enough measures for Farm Subsidies. He again opposed bills on this for moral reasons, believing government should be in the business of providing subsidies to businesses, Coolidge believed in an almost total hands off approach. Almost no breaks or handouts whatsoever and no overzealous regulation, everything was to be moderated in the wake of the Progressive era. He also faced criticism for his handing of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, federal disaster relief was limited under Coolidge and he did not visit the disaster areas not for a lack of caring but a genuine belief that it would appear as political grandstanding and wouldn’t practically provide much help. Coolidge was consistent in keeping a low profile and as always choosing his words and appearances as he saw it wisely. In 1928, Congress and Coolidge signed a compromise bill to provide relief funding to those affected by the disaster, Coolidge signed it privately not wishing to appear publicly advocating a position he saw as interference in the lives of the American citizen. Again, believing Americans to be most resilient on their own, providing citizens great freedom also in Coolidge’s mind meant bearing great personal responsibility.

-Coolidge finished out the last year and half of Harding’s term in late 1923 and all of 1924 into 1925. He ran for his own election in 1924, was personally very popular with everyday Americans after his handling of the economy and his restoring confidence in the moral integrity of the White House after the Teapot Dome Scandal had hurt Harding’s once popular reputation.

-1924 however saw a turning point in Coolidge’s personal life. That summer his sons were home from school at the White House, while playing tennis one day his younger son, Calvin Jr. developed a blister and became gravely ill very fast. Coolidge and his wife Grace did what they could to console the child who feared for his life. Nonetheless, Calvin Jr. died days later, the result of septicemia. Coolidge apparently in an effort to calm his son in his final days, reportedly got on his own hands and knees to find a small rabbit in the White House garden and present it to his son as a gift since Calvin Jr. and the whole Coolidge family had a love of animals. Coolidge remarked that he tried what he could reassure his son but he that he had failed. For the rest of his life, Coolidge sank into a deep depression, many people around him reported a personality change of distractedness, anger and sadness. His interest in the Presidency is seen to have died with him. Coolidge was elected in a very subdued campaign that November out of respectful mourning for the Coolidges. Coolidge won 55% of the popular vote and 382 electoral college votes. carrying 35 states.

-As mentioned the Coolidge family loved animals and to this day had the largest overall collection of animals any Presidential family had in US history. They had among other animals a variety of cats, dogs, birds, raccoons, briefly a black bear, a pygmy hippo and two lions cubs gifted from South Africa, Coolidge named the cubs Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau after his favorite political focus.

-In 1928, Coolidge decided not to run for second full term on his own. He felt his time in Washington was accomplished enough and he looked to finally retire after 30 years of political involvement. Also, he was still dealing with the depression of his son’s death, mentioning repeatedly that he held himself responsible for his son’s demise. He blamed his political ambitions as leading to the circumstances which caused his son to get a blister and fatal infection at the White House. in almost religious overtones, Coolidge saw it as a form of divine punishment for a life of politics. His announcement not to seek another term was even a secret from his wife. His Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928, inaugurated on March 4, 1929.

Post-Presidency/Legacy (1929-1933):

-Several months after Coolidge’s departure the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 took place the Great Depression of the next decade or so began. Coolidge has received some blame for the Great Depression due to his laissez faire economics and lack of regulation. To this day the causes of the Great Depression are controversial and debated, Coolidge also has supporters who state he couldn’t have known it would have happened nor was he in a position of power to regulate the economy since the federal government had little to do with the stock market which was seen as a state matter in those days. His supporters also place blame on Herbert Hoover’s regulartory measures in the months leading up to the crash. Either way Coolidge’s role in this tarnished his reputation for many years among historians who tend to rank him in the lower half of US Presidents overall. Though modern libertarians, and fiscal conservatives and capitalist supporters tend to praise Coolidge’s time in office.

-Coolidge moved back to Northampton and ended up earning money providing syndicated newspaper columns and publishing an autobiography. He also served as a trustee on various boards and earned monies from these various streams of revenue. Coolidge also donated earnings to his wife Grace’s favorite charity, the school for the deaf which she taught when they first married. It was his way of paying her back for giving up her own career to raise a family and support his political career. In 1932, he supported Herbert Hoover for reelection out of party loyalty rather than personal admiration for Hoover, whom he saw as often providing him bad advice during his own Presidency. Hoover was defeated by FDR nonetheless and the era of New Deal had begun.

-Coolidge died aged 60 in January 1933 from coronary thrombosis.

-Coolidge was honored with posthumous appearances on postage stamps, additionally he was the only President to appear on US coinage in their lifetime during their Presidency. Appearing on the 150th anniversary edition of Declaration of Independence, half-dollar coin with George Washington’s likeness.

-Ronald Reagan cited Coolidge as an influence and during the Reagan era a reassessment of Coolidge as a person and politician was very popular. Overall, Coolidge still is ranked as average to below average in general but his esteem is largely influenced by the political ideology of those reviewing him.

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