Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge
I

INTRODUCTION

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), 30th president of the United States (1923-1929). A member of the Republican Party, Coolidge became vice president in 1921 and then
stepped in as president following the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding in August 1923. He was elected by a landslide in the 1924 presidential election.
Coolidge is remembered more for his solid character than his political achievements. His homespun personality captivated the nation, and to this day he remains a
symbol of his era. One of his well-known quotes, "The chief business of America is business," reflected his strong belief that the government should not interfere in the
economy. Coolidge opposed federal government intervention or relief for workers and was equally against any measures that would interfere with business. Announcing
in his 1924 inaugural address that the nation appeared to be "entering an era of prosperity," he argued for lowering taxes and pointed out that "employment is
plentiful, the rate of pay is high, and wage earners are in a state of contentment seldom before seen." His years in office were a relatively affluent time for Americans
and were not marked by much change or tumult. However, not long after Coolidge completed his second term in 1929 the Great Depression began in the United States,
and soon the world plunged into economic collapse.

II

EARLY LIFE

John Calvin Coolidge was the only son of a Vermont storekeeper, John Calvin Coolidge, and his wife, Victoria Josephine Moor Coolidge. The boy was born on July 4,
1872, in the dwelling at the rear of his father's combined general store and post office in Plymouth Notch. After attending school at Plymouth Notch and Black River
Academy in Ludlow, Vermont, Calvin in 1891 enrolled in Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. His favorite subjects at college were philosophy and oratory,
although he was never to excel as a speaker.
Following his graduation from Amherst in 1895, Coolidge studied law in Northampton, Massachusetts, and was admitted to the practice of law in 1897. The following
year he opened his own law office in Northampton, and maintained a practice there until 1919. He specialized in collecting debts for business houses, managing estates,
handling real estate problems, and performing title work for banks.
In 1905 Coolidge married Grace Anna Goodhue from Vermont, who taught at the Clarke Institute for the Deaf in Northampton. Vivacious, witty, and friendly, with a
pleasant smile, she was the opposite of her quiet husband. They had two sons, John and Calvin, Jr. The latter died in 1924.

III

EARLY POLITICAL CAREER

Coolidge devoted as much time as his law practice would permit to Republican Party politics. In 1898 he was elected city councilman of Northampton. Although he
lacked the public friendliness of a professional politician, he won elections. He formed the habit of visiting his constituents and simply saying, 'I want your vote. I need it.
I shall appreciate it.' Some of his loyal supporters were politically influential and had confidence in his integrity and desire to give honest public service. Between 1900
and 1911 he served as city solicitor, clerk of courts, representative in the Massachusetts legislature, and mayor of Northampton. He then served as senator in the state
legislature from 1912 to 1915 (its president from 1914) and as lieutenant governor from 1916 to 1918.
With his loyalty to the Republican Party, conservative principles, and hard work in his elected jobs, Coolidge attracted the attention of Massachusetts party leaders.
Coolidge also received support, financial and political, from the wealthy Boston department store owner Frank W. Stearns. Stearns dedicated himself wholeheartedly to
Coolidge's political career.

IV

GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS

In 1918, through the efforts of Stearns and other party leaders, Coolidge was nominated as the Republican candidate for governor of Massachusetts. He defeated his
Democratic opponent by less than 20,000 votes.
Governor Coolidge first became nationally known in 1919, when the Boston policemen went on strike. The underpaid policemen sought to raise their wages by forming a
union. The police commissioner suspended 19 leaders of the unionization movement, and the police went out on strike on September 9. On the following day, with the
city in disorder, Mayor Andrew Peters, a Democrat, called out the Boston companies of state troops. This action restored order, although the strike was not yet broken.
Governor Coolidge, who had earlier declined to take action, brought in additional troops on the third day of the strike and asked for federal soldiers in case a general
strike should occur. The policemen returned to work the following day. When Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, asked Coolidge to let the
suspended policemen return to their jobs, Coolidge refused, saying, "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime."
His statement was applauded throughout the nation. Many people began to think of him for the presidency, and his Massachusetts supporters tried to have him
nominated at the Republican National Convention in 1920.
At the convention, however, Coolidge received only 34 votes for the presidential nomination, 28 of them from Massachusetts. The convention chose Senator Warren G.
Harding, an Ohio conservative.
Senator Irvine Lenroot, a liberal from Wisconsin, was then put in nomination for vice president. But many delegates felt that Lenroot was too liberal and that a farWestern or Eastern candidate was needed to balance the national ticket geographically. Many delegates also resented being forced to take the choice of the party
leaders for vice president after Harding had been forced upon them. When a delegate from Oregon nominated Coolidge for vice president, the delegates cheered. In the
voting, Coolidge easily defeated Lenroot. The Democrats nominated James M. Cox for president and future President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) for vice
president.
A number of factors aided the Republican campaign. The nation was disillusioned about World War I (1914-1918) and President Woodrow Wilson's idealistic policies.
Many believed the Republican Party was the "party of prosperity." Harding's warm personality also helped the Republicans. In addition, the Democratic Party was
disorganized and had no leadership from the ailing Woodrow Wilson. These elements combined to give Harding and Coolidge an overwhelming victory of 7 million votes
over Cox. The vote in the Electoral College was 404 to 127.

V

VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Coolidge was inaugurated vice president on March 4, 1921. Little was expected of the vice president, and Coolidge was not very active. He took satisfaction in presiding
over the Senate, in attending Cabinet meetings, and ranking next to the president in ceremonial functions. "Silent Cal," as he was called, began to express himself more
in longer speeches and in newspaper articles.

By 1923 President Harding was faced with a number of difficulties. A business depression, which had begun in 1922, continued. In addition, the Republican majorities in
both houses of Congress were reduced in the election of 1922, and a discontented farm bloc of Western Republican senators threatened to destroy the Senate majority
by allying with the Democrats. Finally, it was rumored that major scandals involving Harding's friends were about to break.
The rumors were soon proved accurate. The director of the Veterans' Bureau, Charles R. Forbes, stole $200 million in public funds and ran off to Europe. Attorney
General Harry Daugherty sold alcohol out of government stocks and took the money. In the most publicized of the scandals, only rumored during Harding's lifetime,
Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall and Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby were deeply involved in what became known as the Teapot Dome scandal. Denby had
approved the transfer of federal oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to Interior Secretary Fall, who then leased them to private oil companies in return for more
than $400,000.
With all these troubles facing him, Harding died suddenly in San Francisco, California, on August 2, 1923. Coolidge, who was visiting his father in Vermont, received the
news of the president's death in the early hours of August 3. Coolidge took the presidential oath in the farmhouse parlor by the light of kerosene lamps. The oath of
office was administered to him by his father, a justice of the peace. However, because his father could only swear in people for Vermont offices, Coolidge repeated the
oath in Washington, D.C., 18 days later.

VI

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

President Coolidge temporarily took over Harding's Cabinet, his group of presidential advisors and department heads. Three Cabinet members, Secretary of the
Treasury Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of Labor James J. Davis, and Postmaster General Harry New, remained with him to the end of his presidential service. Herbert
Hoover continued as secretary of commerce until his own nomination for president in 1928.
It fell to Coolidge to clean up the scandals of his predecessor's administration. He performed the task competently, accepting the resignation of Denby and demanding
Daugherty's resignation. Fall had resigned earlier.
In foreign affairs, Coolidge interceded in a Latin American dispute in 1923 between Chile and Peru over the border provinces of Tacna and Arica. He pursued the "Big
Stick" policy of former President Theodore Roosevelt, in which U.S. policies were strongly stated and enforced by diplomatic or military action when necessary. Coolidge
ordered the two countries to settle the question by a vote. Although his command was carried out, the ownership dispute was not settled until the administration of his
successor, Herbert Hoover.
In the summer of 1924, Coolidge suffered a great blow when his son Calvin died of an infection. "The power and the glory of the presidency went with him," Coolidge
wrote in later years.

VII

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

When the national election of 1924 approached, Coolidge had no difficulty in being nominated for president. The Democrats, after a convention battle, nominated a
corporation lawyer of New York, John W. Davis, for president, but only after a deadlock that lasted for 100 ballots. The rival candidates were former Treasury Secretary
William Gibbs McAdoo and Alfred E. Smith, governor of New York. United States Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., of Wisconsin, also entered the race as the candidate
of the Progressive Party.
The Democrats went into the contest badly divided because of their convention fight. They were further weakened by the fact that workers, who usually voted
Democratic, were not enthusiastic about Davis, who had connections with high finance. A considerable portion of trade union leaders later swung their support to La
Follette, and the American Federation of Labor openly endorsed him.
The Republicans, on the other hand, were unified and strong. They made effective use of their slogan "Keep Cool With Coolidge." The paramount issue was the
economic condition of the country, which had greatly improved under Coolidge. When the votes were counted, Coolidge had easily defeated Davis, collecting 382
electoral votes to 136 for the Democrat. Coolidge received 15,725,016 popular votes to Davis's 8,385,586. La Follette received the 13 electoral votes of his native
Wisconsin and 4,822,856 popular votes.

VIII SECOND TERM
A Domestic Affairs
Coolidge's conservative policies underwent no change after he assumed the presidency for a four-year term on March 4, 1925. Congress, although under Republican
control, did not always agree with the president. Western farmers did not benefit from the general prosperity under Coolidge, and his continued opposition to their
demands for government aid led Republican senators and representatives from the West to form coalitions with the Democrats against the president. One result was
the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill, which proposed that the government buy surplus crops and sell them abroad in order to raise domestic agricultural prices.
Coolidge, arguing that the government had no business fixing prices, vetoed the bill in 1927 and again in 1928. This coalition also opposed Coolidge's plans for tax
reduction, especially in the higher income tax brackets, and his tax bills were greatly modified before they were passed. In 1927 Coolidge vetoed a bill to provide extra
payments to World War I servicemen, and he allowed a bill providing for government operation of the hydro-electric plant at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, on the Tennessee
River to expire without his signature. His attitude toward Muscle Shoals was consistent with his lifelong opposition to the expansion of government functions and the
interference of the federal government in private enterprise.
During his administration, Coolidge's respect for private enterprise, especially big businesses, reflected itself in the operation of certain government agencies. The Tariff
Commission, charged with suggesting reductions in the tariff, or import tax, made its reports reluctantly and without strong recommendations. The Federal Trade
Commission, established by President Wilson to curb monopolies, now looked on favorably when businesses merged. Investigations and prosecutions of lawsuits against
these combinations were only halfheartedly conducted.
Since a large volume of foreign exports aided business, Coolidge permitted private loans of billions of dollars to other nations to make such trade possible. The steadily
rising stock market, particularly near the end of Coolidge's second term, met with his approval and he foresaw no sign of the coming stock market crash and depression
that began in 1929 (see United States (History): The Great Depression).
During his second term, Coolidge made several changes in his Cabinet. Charles E. Hughes, secretary of state, left to serve in the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The
Hague in the Netherlands and was replaced by Frank B. Kellogg. Dwight F. Davis was appointed secretary of war when John W. Weeks resigned. Coolidge tried to
appoint sugar-beet magnate Charles B. Warren as attorney general, but the Senate voted against him.

B

Foreign Affairs

Coolidge's chief contributions to foreign diplomacy were the appointments of the gifted diplomats Frank B. Kellogg, Dwight W. Morrow, and Henry L. Stimson. Coolidge
completely supported the work of Secretary of State Kellogg, who, with the French foreign minister, Aristide Briand, worked out the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. That
treaty, also called the Treaty for the Renunciation of War, bound the countries that signed it to renounce war as an instrument of national policy and to settle
international disputes by peaceful means. As a practical instrument for preventing war the treaty was useless, but it was an important step toward establishing the
concept of war as a criminal act by an aggressor against a victim state.
When a crisis developed in Mexico in 1927, Coolidge sent Morrow there as ambassador. The trouble developed when President Plutarco Elías Calles of Mexico insisted
that Mexican oil and mineral deposits, owned by foreign investors, should be made the property of the Mexican state (see Nationalization). Morrow was instructed by
Coolidge to "keep us out of war," and succeeded in averting war while preserving the property rights of American oil companies.
Stimson, who would later be President Hoover's secretary of state, was sent by Coolidge to Nicaragua as a special representative when a revolt broke out there.
Coolidge also sent 5000 U.S. Marines to restore order and protect American citizens and property in Nicaragua but denied that this show of force meant war "any more
than a policeman on the street is making war on passersby." Nicaragua was, in fact, only one of about ten Latin American countries upon which the United States was
exerting economic or military pressure (see Nicaragua: The Intervention Era, 1909-1933).

IX

PERSONAL LIFE

During his presidency, Coolidge continued his usual habits in daily living. He retired before 10

PM,

rose early, and took afternoon naps, getting about 11 hours of sleep a

day. However, at the end of his elected term as president, he felt he needed a long rest.
In August 1927, as Coolidge vacationed in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he released a statement to the newspapers that upset the plans of his supporters. The short
release said, "I do not choose to run for president in 1928." Coolidge refused to add any explanation to this statement, but it is thought that the death of his son, the
strain on his grieving wife, and his own exhaustion were the reasons for his withdrawal from public life. Complying with his wishes, the Republicans turned to a new
candidate and nominated Herbert Hoover for president in 1928.

X

LAST YEARS

Coolidge passed his remaining years quietly after turning the presidential office over to Hoover on March 4, 1929. He wrote his Autobiography, published in magazine
installments in 1929 and later in book form. He also published articles advocating individualism and a laissez-faire economic policy, in which government did not interfere
in individual or business affairs. In 1930 he purchased a 12-room house near Northampton, Massachusetts. He sat on the board of the New York Life Insurance
Company, served as trustee of his alma mater, Amherst College, and headed the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Great Depression,
which began shortly after Hoover assumed the presidency, distressed Coolidge, and he was deeply disappointed by Hoover's defeat in 1932.
Meanwhile, Coolidge's health was failing. On January 5, 1933, two months before Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated, Coolidge died at his Northampton home.

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