Shy and silent Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth President of the United States, had a kindly face and a straightforward, small-town wisdom. He was a man of medium height and build, with a receding hair line and a quiet, knowing smile. His circular eyes, small mouth, and large bulbous nose were clumped tightly together in the center of his face. A man of economy and efficiency, his conservative and thoughtful nature was a sharp contrast to the wild years of reckless prosperity during which he served as President. His laissez faire economic policy let the careless over speculation of the 1920's continue unhindered, causing the years following his Presidency to be filled with extreme personal regret for not having done more to avoid the Great Depression.
John Calvin Coolidge was born July 4, 1872 in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He was the first child of two born to Victoria and John Coolidge, a small farmer who also owned and operated a general store. John Calvin was named after his father, but was always called Calvin by his family, so he dropped his first name legally sometime during his late teens. Victoria Coolidge died when her son was only twelve; Calvin's younger sister Abigail died some five years later. Calvin received his elementary education from local public schools. He entered the Black River Academy, a local college preparatory school, in 1886. In 1890, he sought enrollment in Amherst College, but failed the entrance exam. He was admitted to Amherst after taking a semester of courses at St. Johnsburg Academy. Calvin Coolidge graduated from Amherst College Cum Laude in 1895. After graduation Calvin moved to Northampton, Massachusetts and took a job as a law clerk at the firm of Hammond and Field. He passed the bar in 1897 and set up practice in Northampton.
While practicing law, Calvin Coolidge became interested in politics and joined the Republican Party. He was elected to the city council in 1899. In 1900 he was elected city solicitor, and he became clerk of courts in 1904. Coolidge ran for a position on the school board in 1905, but was defeated.
On October 4, 1905, Calvin Coolidge married Grace A. Goodhue, a teacher at Northampton's Clarke Institute for the Deaf. The couple had two sons. Calvin Coolidge Jr. died in 1924 from blood poisoning incurred from an open blister he got while playing tennis on the White House court.
In 1906 Calvin Coolidge was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives where he served two terms. He served for a year as mayor of Northampton before being elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1911. After serving four terms in the state senate, Coolidge became lieutenant-governor in 1915. In 1918 he ran for governor of Massachusetts and won by a small margin. One year later Mayor Coolidge was re-elected by an overwhelming majority. A Boston police strike in September of 1919 tipped off a city-wide, two-day crime spree. Governor Coolidge sent in the state's militia to restore order and began to institute legal action against the striking police. When Samuel Gompers, head of the Federation of Labor, denounced the actions of Governor Coolidge as unfair to labor, Coolidge responded with the statement "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime." The statement earned Governor Coolidge the national spotlight.
The Republican National Convention of 1920 was deadlocked between Senator Hiram W. Johnson of California, Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois, and Major General Leonard Wood. The Republican leaders retired to a "smoke-filled room" at the Chicago Blackstone Hotel to discuss alternatives and settled upon Senator Warren G. Harding. Harding won the Republican nomination on the tenth ballot. Senator Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin was expected to secure the Vice Presidential nomination, but an upset on the first ballot gave that distinction to Governor Calvin Coolidge. That year the Democrats nominated James M. Cox for President and Franklin Delano Roosevelt for Vice President. The Republican's "front porch" campaign from Harding's home in Ohio promised the country a return to "normalcy" and an isolationist foreign policy which put "America first." Harding/Coolidge beat Cox/Roosevelt by an overwhelming majority in the popular vote, and by 404-127 in the electoral college. Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as Vice President of the United States on March 4, 1921.
Vice President Coolidge was on vacation, visiting his father in Vermont when he was awakened in the middle of the night and informed of the President's death. Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the thirtieth President of the United States at 2:30 a.m. on the night of August 3, 1923.
As President, Coolidge decided to keep Harding's cabinet. As scandal after scandal came to light, however, one by one the members of Harding's cabinet were forced to resign. An investigation into corruption within the Veteran's Bureau resulted in the resignations of Charles F. Cramer, the Bureau's legal advisor, and Charles R. Forbes, the Bureau's director. Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall resigned after being implicated in the Teapot Dome Scandal. He was later found guilty and imprisoned for receiving bribes and leasing the federal oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California to private companies. Teapot Dome also resulted in the resignations of Attorney General Harry M. Daughrety and Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby.
At the Republican National Convention of 1924, President Coolidge received the nomination in his own right, with Charles G. Dawes as his Vice Presidential running mate. That year the Democrats nominated John W. Davis, and the Progressives nominated Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin. The Republicans tried to capitalize on Coolidge's reputation for personal honesty to overcome the damage done by the scandals of the Harding administration. They played up the President's image of quiet, rural wisdom and efficiency, with slogans like "Keep Cool with Calvin," and "Silent Cal for President." The Republican strategy was successful. President Coolidge won the election by a large margin in the popular vote, and by 382 to Davis's 136 and La Follette's 13 in the electoral college.
President Coolidge believed that government should be efficient, and subsequently as small and unobtrusive as possible. He refused to interfere in the business affairs of private financial institutions, and as a result, failed to pass legislation to curb the abuses which brought about the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing depression. President Coolidge did pass legislation which decreased the national debt and cut income taxes, both of which further stimulated an already soaring economy. He also supported a bill to further limit immigration. President Coolidge twice vetoed a bill to purchase agricultural surplus from American farmers and to sell that surplus abroad, and once vetoed a bill concerning the bonuses of World War I veterans (which was later overridden by Congress). President Coolidge also pocket-vetoed a bill which provided for government control of the Muscle Shoals power plant.
In foreign affairs, President Coolidge made amends with Mexico and other Latin American nations for the hostilities incurred during the Wilson administration. He arranged for the reduction of the United States' war debts to other countries and instituted the Dawes Plan which was designed to enable Germany to pay its war reparations. President Coolidge was against the entry of the United States into the League of Nations, but he did sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 which outlawed all war between nations.
President Coolidge did not seek re-election to a third term. He left Washington on March 4, 1929 and retired to his newly purchased home in Northampton, Massachusetts. In his retirement from public office Coolidge wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column entitled "Thinking Things Over With Calvin Coolidge" and began writing his autobiography which was released first as a series of newspaper articles and then in completed book form. He served on the board of directors of the New York Life Insurance Company and also as a trustee for his alma mater Amherst College. Calvin Coolidge died of a heart attack on January 5, 1933.
