John Calvin Coolidge was the thirtieth president of the United States. He has become symbolic of the smug and self-satisfied conservatism that helped bring on the Great Depression.
Background
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in Vermont to John Calvin Coolidge Sr. and Victoria Josephine Moor. He had one younger sister. His father worked as a farmer and storekeeper, and also served in the Vermont House of Representatives and the Vermont Senate. His early life was marked by two major tragedies - the death of his mother when he was 12, and the death of his only sister when he was 18. His father later remarried and lived a long life. His father was a very hard working and honest man who instilled the same values in his son. John grew up to be a principled young man of strong character under his father’s guidance.
Education
Young Calvin was educated in the local school and later at Black River and St. Johnsbury academies. In 1891 he entered Amherst College, at Amherst Massachussets, where he was only an average student. After his graduation in 1895 Coolidge studied law, was admitted to the Massachusetts state bar in 1897, and began to practice in Northampton the following year.
Coolidge became active in local Republican politics, serving as a member of the city council, city solicitor, clerk of the Hampshire County courts, and chairman of the Republican city committee. He spent two terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and two terms as mayor of Northampton. In 1911 he was elected to the state senate and 2 years later—thanks to luck, hard work, and cautious but skillful political maneuvering—he became president of the state senate. This was a traditional stepping-stone to the lieutenant governorship; he was elected to this post in 1915 and reelected in 1916 and 1917.
Elected governor in 1918, Coolidge pushed through a far-reaching reorganization of the state government, supported adoption of legislation against profiteering, and won a reputation for fairness as a mediator in labor disputes. But what brought him national fame was the Boston police strike of 1919. He avoided involvement in the dispute on the ground that he had no legal authority to interfere. Even when the police went out on strike, Coolidge failed to act until after Boston's mayor had brought the situation under control. Yet again Coolidge's luck held; and he, not the mayor, received the credit for maintaining law and order. His reply to the plea of the American Federation of Labor president Samuel Gompers for reinstatement of the dismissed strikers—"There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time"—made him a popular hero and won him reelection that fall with the largest vote ever received by a Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate. At the Republican National Convention the following year the rank-and-file delegates rebelled against the party leaders' choice for the vice-presidential nominee and named Coolidge on the first ballot.
Coolidge found the vice presidency frustrating and unrewarding. He presided over the Senate and unobtrusively sat in on Cabinet meetings at President Warren G. Harding's request but took no active role in administration decision making, gaining the nickname "Silent Cal."
Harding's death in 1923 catapulted Coolidge into the White House. The new president's major problem was the exposure of the corruption that had gone on under his predecessor. But his own reputation for honesty and integrity, his early appointment of special counsel to investigate the Teapot Dome oil-lease scandal and prosecute wrongdoers, and his removal of Attorney General Harry Daugherty when Daugherty refused to open Justice Department files to Senate investigators, effectively defused the corruption issue. Simultaneously, he smoothed the path for his nomination in 1924 through skillful manipulation of patronage. The Republican themes in the 1924 election were prosperity, governmental economy, and "Keep Cool with Coolidge." He won decisively.
Except for legislation regulating and stabilizing the chaotic radio industry, the subsidization and promotion of commercial aviation, and the Railroad Labor Act of 1926 establishing more effective machinery for resolving railway labor disputes, the new Coolidge administration's record in the domestic sphere was largely negative. Coolidge was handicapped by the split in Republican congressional ranks between the insurgents and regulars; furthermore, he was not a strong leader and remained temperamentally averse to making moves that might lead to trouble. He was also handcuffed by his conviction that the executive's duty was simply to administer the laws Congress passed. Most important, he was limited by his devotion to governmental economy, his belief in allowing the widest possible scope for private enterprise, his faith in business self-regulation, his narrow definition of the powers of the national government under the Constitution, and his acceptance of the "trickle-down" theory of prosperity through the encouragement of big business.
Coolidge was popular and could have been reelected in 1928. But on August 2, 1927, he publicly announced, "I do not choose to run for president in 1928." The death of his son Calvin in 1924 had dimmed his interest in politics; both he and his wife felt the physical strain of the presidency, and he had doubts about the continued soundness of the economy. He left the White House to retire to Northampton, where he died on January 5, 1933, of a coronary thrombosis.
President Calvin Coolidge, named for 16th century Protestant reformer John Calvin, was molded by this faith in the Green Mountains of Vermont. He describes his ancestors as “English Puritan stock” in his Autobiography, and notes the quiet but firm faith of his parents and grandparents that influenced his own spiritual direction:
“They kept up no church organization, and as there was little regular preaching the outward manifestation of religion through public profession had little opportunity, but they were without exception a people of faith and charity and of good works. They cherished the teachings of the Bible and sought to live in accordance with its precepts.”
This simple, unpretentious Yankee faith marked President Coolidge throughout his life. During their years in the White House he and Mrs. Coolidge were regular parishioners at the First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C., a storied house of worship with a long tradition of commitment to the social gospel principles that have marked post-colonial Congregationalism.
The Coolidges began worshiping at First Church from the time they arrived in D.C. as vice president and Second Lady of the United States in 1921. According to the First Congregational Church’s official history, the Coolidges were regular churchgoers, and were often joined by their sons Calvin, Jr., and John whenever they too were in Washington.
President and Mrs. Coolidge largely reflected that modest mode of religious expression exemplified by the Plymouth Notch of the president’s youth. In his Autobiography President Coolidge notes that one of the first things he did as president, in the hours after being notified of Warren Harding’s untimely death, was send a telegram to Dr. Pierce requesting a meeting with the cleric upon his arrival in Washington. President Coolidge never divulged what counsel Dr. Pierce provided him at that time, but one can surmise that Coolidge likely called upon his pastor to seek the blessing of Almighty God for the facing of the hour, as he took up the heavy mantle of the presidential office.
The Coolidges attended First Church nearly every Sunday during his presidency.
Politics
He gained a reputation as a loyal party man and follower of the powerful U.S. senator W. Murray Crane, a safe and sound man as regards business and a champion of governmental economy and efficiency. And Coolidge won the friendship of Boston department store owner Frank W. Stearns, who became his enthusiastic political booster.
But Coolidge was no narrow-minded standpatter. His credo was the promotion of stability and harmony through the balancing of all legitimate interests. Thus, he supported woman's suffrage, popular election of U.S. senators, establishment of a public service commission, legislation to prohibit the practice of undercutting competition by charging less than cost, protection of child and woman workers, maternity aid legislation, and the state's savings-bank insurance system.
While Coolidge was a president, he strongly backed Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon's proposals for tax cuts to stimulate investment, and the Revenue Act of 1926 cut the maximum surtax from 40 to 20 percent, abolished the gift tax, and halved the estate tax. He vetoed the World War I veterans' bonus bill (1924), but Congress overrode his veto. He packed the regulatory commissions with appointees sympathetic to business. He twice vetoed the McNary-Haugen bills for the subsidized dumping of agricultural surpluses abroad in hopes of bolstering domestic prices. Coolidge unsuccessfully urged the sale or lease of Muscle Shoals to private enterprise and in 1928 pocket-vetoed a bill providing for government operation. He succeeded in limiting expenditures for flood control and Federal development of water resources. He resisted any reductions in the protective tariff. And he not only failed to restrain, but encouraged, the stock market speculation that was to have such disastrous consequences in 1929.
Coolidge left foreign affairs largely in the hands of his secretaries of state, Charles Evans Hughes and then Frank B. Kellogg. The administration's major achievements in this area were its fostering of a professional civil service, its cautious sympathy toward Chinese demands for revision of the tariff and extraterritoriality treaties, and its efforts to restore friendship with Latin America.
Coolidge had a vague, idealistic desire to promote international stability and peace. But he rejected American membership in the League of Nations as then constituted and, whatever his personal feelings, regarded the League as a dead issue. He felt bound by Harding's prior commitment to support American membership on the World Court, but he never fought for its approval and dropped the issue when other members balked at accepting the reservations added by the Senate anti-internationalists. Although Coolidge did exert his influence to secure ratification of the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) outlawing war, his hand was forced by public opinion and he had no illusions about its significance. He supported Hughes's efforts to resolve the reparations tangle; but he was adamant against cancellation of the World War I Allied debts, reportedly saying, "They hired the money, didn't they?" His major effort in behalf of disarmament, the Geneva Conference of 1927, was a failure.
Views
Quotations:
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery."
"Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong."
"To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race."
"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."
Personality
Coolidge was shy, undemonstrative, restrained, cautious wholly self-reliant, and a man of few friends. “When I was a little fellow,” Coolidge recalled, “as long ago as I can remember, I would go into a panic if I heard strange voices in the kitchen. I felt I just couldn’t meet the people and shake hands with them…The hardest thing in the world was to have to go through the kitchen door and give them a greeting. I was almost ten before I realized I couldn’t go on that way. And by fighting hard I used to manage to get through that door. I’m all right with old friends, but everytime I meet a stranger, I’ve got to go through that old kitchen door, back home, and it’s not easy.” Coolidge was frugal but no sponger. When he send an aide out for a magazine, for example, he expected his change, even if it was just a nickel, and complained if he did not get it promptly. Whenever he borrowed a minor sum, he quickly repaid it to the penny. His reputation as a man of few, but witty, words was legend. A typical exchange involved the hostess who came up to him and said, “You must talk to me, Mr. President. I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you.” Coolidge replied, “You lose.”
Physical Characteristics:
Coolidge stood about 5 feet 9 inches tall and was slightly built. He had finely chiseled features, a narrow pointed nose, cleft chin, small deeply set blue eyes, and thin pursed lips. The red hair of his youth turned sandy in maturity. He spoke with a New England nasal twang. He walked in short, quick steps. He suffered from chronic respiratory and digestive ailments. As president he underwent frequent attacks of asthma, hay fever, bronchitis, and stomach upset. He relied on nasal sprays to relieve his swollen sinuses and took a variety of pills for other symptoms. He coughed so often that he feared he had tuberculosis. He tired easily and usually slept about 11 hours a day, 9 hours at night and a 2-hour nap in the afternoon. He dressed fashionably in suits tailor-made in Vermont. He slicked down his hair with petroleum jelly. Curiously, he insisted on wearing baggy underwear.
Quotes from others about the person
"Where Coolidge stood on the race issue is clear, but he did not take any concrete steps to ease the burden of discrimination. Nevertheless, the conservative Coolidge has had a far better press on the race issue than the progressive Woodrow Wilson, who was one of the most bigoted persons ever to hold the nation's highest office."
Robert Springer, as quoted in Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come from: Lyrics and History, p. 154.
Interests
Horseback riding, fly fishing
Connections
Calvin Coolidge married Grace Anna Goodhue in 1905. Grace was a University of Vermont graduate and teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf. His wife was as vivacious and sociable as he was reserved and taciturn. The couple had a happy marriage that produced two sons. The couple suffered a terrible tragedy when one of their sons died as a teenager.