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Calvin Coolidge

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
   Calvin Coolidge
     __________________________________________________________________

   30th President of the United States
   In office
   August 2, 1923 –  March 4, 1929
   Vice President(s)   None (1923-1925)
   Charles G. Dawes, (1925-1929)
   Preceded by Warren G. Harding
   Succeeded by Herbert Hoover
     __________________________________________________________________

   29th Vice President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1921 –  August 2, 1923
   President Warren G. Harding
   Preceded by Thomas R. Marshall
   Succeeded by Charles G. Dawes
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born July 4, 1872
   Plymouth, Vermont
   Died January 5, 1933
   Northampton, Massachusetts
   Political party Republican
   Spouse Grace Goodhue Coolidge
   Religion Congregationalist
   Signature

   John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. ( July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the
   30th President of the United States (1923-1929), succeeding to office
   upon the death of Warren G. Harding.

Early life and career

   John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born in Plymouth, Windsor County, .
   Vermont on July 4, 1872, the elder of two children of John Calvin and
   Victoria Moor Coolidge, Sr. (his sister, Abigail Gratia, died at age
   14). Coolidge was the only President to be born on the 4th of July. He
   dropped John from his name upon graduating from college. He attended
   St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont before entering Amherst College in
   nearby Massachusetts, where he became a member of the Fraternity of Phi
   Gamma Delta and graduated cum laude in 1895. He practiced law in
   Northampton, Massachusetts, and was a member of the city council in
   1899, city solicitor from 1900-1902, clerk of courts in 1904, and
   representative from 1907-1908. In 1905, Coolidge married Grace Anna
   Goodhue. They were opposites in personality: she was talkative and
   fun-loving, and Coolidge was quiet and serious. Not long after their
   marriage Coolidge handed her a bag with 52 pairs of socks in it, all of
   them full of holes. Grace's reply was "Did you marry me to darn your
   socks?" Without cracking a smile and with his usual seriousness, Calvin
   answered, "No, but I find it mighty handy." They had two sons; John
   Coolidge, born in 1906, and Calvin Jr., born in 1908.

   Coolidge was elected mayor of Northampton in 1910 and 1911 and was a
   member of the state Senate 1912-1915, serving as president of that body
   in 1914 and 1915. He was lieutenant governor of the state from
   1916-1918, and Governor from 1919-1920. In 1919, Coolidge gained
   national attention when he ordered the Massachusetts National Guard to
   forcefully end the Boston Police Department strike. He later wrote to
   labor leader Samuel Gompers, "There is no right to strike against the
   public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime."

The 1920 Campaign and the Vice Presidency 1921-1923

   In 1920, Governor Coolidge ran for president as a favorite son.
   Coolidge was nominated for Vice President after some heated arguments
   on the floor and he decided to accept. He and Harding were elected in
   the biggest landslide since before the Civil War.

   While he was doing his duties, he and his vivacious wife Grace were
   invited to quite a few parties, where the legend of "Silent Cal" was
   born. It was from this time most of the jokes and anecdotes at his
   expense originate.

Presidency 1923-1929

   Vice President Coolidge became President on August 2, 1923.

   He was visiting at the family home, still without electricity or
   telephone, when he got word of Harding's death. His father, a notary
   public, 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; Coolidge was
   re-sworn by Chief Justice William Howard Taft upon his return to
   Washington, D.C.

Policies

   During Coolidge's presidency, the United States experienced the period
   of rapid economic growth known as the " Roaring Twenties." His economic
   policy may be summed up in the quote "the business of America is
   business". He vetoed the proposed McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill,
   designed to allow the Federal Government to purchase agricultural
   surpluses and dump them abroad at depressed prices.

   Although some later commentators have criticized Coolidge as a
   doctrinaire laissez-faire ideologue, historian Robert Sobel offers some
   context based on Coolidge's sense of federalism: "As Governor of
   Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed
   child labor, imposed economic controls during World War I, 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." Other commentators, Austrian
   Economists included, say that Coolidge's policies were not
   laissez-faire because inflation rates were heavily increased under his
   administration which they consider to be a major factor contributing to
   the Great Depression.
   Coolidge, reporters, and cameramen
   Enlarge
   Coolidge, reporters, and cameramen

   Coolidge was easily elected President of the United States in his own
   right in the election of 1924. Coolidge opposed U.S. membership in the
   League of Nations, but the administration was not isolationist. Its
   most notable initiative was the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, named for
   Coolidge's Secretary of State, Frank Kellogg, and for French foreign
   minister Aristide Briand. The treaty, ratified in 1929, committed
   signatories including the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
   Italy, and Japan to "renounce war, as an instrument of national policy
   in their relations with one another." The treaty of course failed to
   prevent the coming World War II, but did provide the founding principle
   for international law after World War II. Also in 1928, Coolidge
   represented the U.S. at the Pan American Conference in Havana, Cuba,
   making him the only sitting U.S. President to visit the country.
   Coolidge maintained the somewhat unpopular U.S. occupation of
   Nicaragua.

   Coolidge did not seek renomination; he announced his decision with
   typical terseness: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."
   After leaving office, he and wife Grace returned to Northampton, where
   he wrote a memoir that revealed little.

Radio and film

   Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made radio history
   several times while President: his inauguration was the first
   presidential inauguration broadcast on radio; on February 12, 1924, he
   became the first President of the United States to deliver a political
   speech on radio. In August 1924, Coolidge was filmed on the White House
   lawn by Lee De Forest in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process,
   becoming the first President to appear in a sound film. He also went on
   the radio in an effort to find his lost cat "Tiger".

Major presidential acts

     * Signed Immigration Act of 1924
     * Signed Revenue Act of 1924
     * Signed Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
     * Signed Revenue Act of 1926
     * Signed Radio Act of 1927
     * Signed Revenue Act of 1928

Administration and Cabinet

   On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge had signed a bill granting Native
   Americans full U.S. citizenship. Coolidge is shown above on October 22,
   1924 holding a ceremonial hat given to him by the Smoki People, a group
   of white businessmen who celebrated Native American culture in
   Prescott, Arizona.
   Enlarge
   On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge had signed a bill granting Native
   Americans full U.S. citizenship. Coolidge is shown above on October 22,
   1924 holding a ceremonial hat given to him by the Smoki People, a group
   of white businessmen who celebrated Native American culture in
   Prescott, Arizona.
   OFFICE                    NAME                 TERM
   President                 Calvin Coolidge      1923–1929
   Vice President            None                 1923–1925
                             Charles G. Dawes     1925–1929
   Secretary of State        Charles Evans Hughes 1923–1925
                             Frank B. Kellogg     1925–1929
   Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon        1923–1929
   Secretary of War          John W. Weeks        1923–1925
                             Dwight F. Davis      1925–1929
   Attorney General          Harry M. Daugherty   1923–1924
                             Harlan F. Stone      1924–1925
                             John G. Sargent      1925–1929
   Postmaster General        Harry S. New         1923–1929
   Secretary of the Navy     Edwin C. Denby       1923–1924
                             Curtis D. Wilbur     1924–1929
   Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work          1923–1928
                             Roy O. West          1928–1929
   Secretary of Agriculture  Henry C. Wallace     1923–1924
                             Howard M. Gore       1924–1925
                             William M. Jardine   1925–1929
   Secretary of Commerce     Herbert Hoover       1923–1928
                             William F. Whiting   1928–1929
   Secretary of Labor        James J. Davis       1923–1929

Supreme Court appointments

   Coolidge appointed the following Justice to the Supreme Court of the
   United States:
     * Harlan Fiske Stone in 1925

Retirement and death

   Coolidge addressing a crowd at Arlington National Cemetery's Roman
   style amphitheater in 1924.
   Enlarge
   Coolidge addressing a crowd at Arlington National Cemetery's Roman
   style amphitheater in 1924.

   After the presidency, Coolidge served as chairman of the non-partisan
   Railroad Commission, as honorary president of the Foundation of the
   Blind, as a director of New York Life Insurance Company, as president
   of the American Antiquarian Society, and as a trustee of Amherst
   College. Coolidge received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Bates
   College in Lewiston, Maine.

   Coolidge published an autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated
   newspaper column, "Calvin Coolidge Says," from 1930-1931. He died
   suddenly of coronary thrombosis at his home, "The Beeches," at 12:45
   p.m. in Northampton on January 5, 1933 at the age of 60. Prior to his
   death, Coolidge felt disappointed about Hoover's re-election defeat,
   after which his health began to decline very rapidly. Shortly before
   his death, Coolidge confided to an old friend: "I feel I am no longer
   fit in these times."

   Coolidge is buried beneath a simple headstone in Notch Cemetery,
   Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where the family homestead is maintained as a
   museum. The State of Vermont dedicated a new historic-site visitors'
   centre nearby to mark Coolidge's 100th birthday on July 4, 1972. Calvin
   Coolidge is also memorialized in the Hall of Inscriptions at the
   Vermont State House at Montpelier, Vermont.

"Silent Cal"

   Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public
   speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was therefore
   commonly referred to as "Silent Cal." A possibly apocryphal story has
   it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him,
   "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was
   impossible to get more than two words out of you." His famous reply:
   "You lose."

   However, another one of Coolidge's dinner guests had this to say: "I
   cannot help feeling that persons who complained about his silence as a
   dinner partner never really tried to get beyond trivialities to which
   he did not think it worth while to respond."

   Another famous anecdote has it that one Sunday, Mrs. Coolidge was too
   ill to attend church, and Calvin attended the services alone. When he
   returned, his wife asked him, "Did you go to church?" "Yes," Calvin
   responded. "Did the minister give a sermon?" his wife continued. "Yes,"
   Calvin answered. "What did he talk about?" Mrs. Coolidge pressed
   impatiently. "Sin," her husband replied. "Well," demanded the Calvin's
   wife, as her frustration continued to mount, "what did he say about
   it?" "He's against it," Calvin concluded.

   Prior to his election in 1924, Coolidge's younger son, Calvin, Jr.,
   developed a blister from playing tennis on the White House courts. The
   blister became infected, and Calvin, Jr. died. After that, Coolidge
   became even more withdrawn. People who knew the President said he never
   fully recovered from his son's death. He said that "when he died, the
   glory of the Presidency went with him."

   His withdrawn nature was also the inspiration for the mnemonic, "Cool
   Cal." It also led to a dart fired by Dorothy Parker, who upon being
   informed of his death, sardonically asked, "How could they tell?"
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