Presidential Biographies: Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge was a New Englander through and through. He was born in Vermont, but moved to Massachusetts where he was a lawyer who climbed the ladder of Massachusetts politics, service as a mayor, a state legislator and eventually becoming Governor of the state. While in that office, he forcefully addressed a strike by Boston police officers that brought him to national prominence, so much so that he even received some votes to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 1920. That prize went to Warren Harding, but Coolidge didn't go unnoticed, as the party selected him for the second spot on the ticket. The two running mates were as different as night and day. Harding was a womanizer who loved his liquor as well as good poker game. Coolidge was a faithful husband to his lively wife Grace, and was straight-laced and boring. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, said that Coolidge looked as if he had been "weaned on a pickle."
When Harding died, Coolidge was first sworn into office by his father, a Justice of the Peace. In his autobiography, Coolidge said that he and Harding got along well and that he was treated kindly by the Hardings, but once the scandals of the Harding administration came to light, Coolidge distanced himself from his predecessor. When Harding's tomb was formally opened, Coolidge refused to attend the ceremony. But he did keep the best members from Harding's cabinet and got rid of the dishonest ones.
Coolidge was the ultimate fiscal conservative. He continued Harding's formal budgeting process, and the Washington Naval Treaty that Harding had worked to bring about was proclaimed just one month into Coolidge's term. Coolidge signed into law the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced the top marginal tax rate from 58 percent to 46 percent, and generally reduced personal income tax rates across the board. On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.
Coolidge won election to the Presidency in his own rite in 1924, despite the death of his son Calvin Jr. On June 30, 1924, Calvin Jr. had played tennis with his brother on the White House tennis courts without putting on socks and developed a blister on one of his toes. The blister subsequently degenerated into sepsis and Calvin Jr. died a little over a week later at the age of 16. Coolidge did not seek re-election in 1928 and was privately critical of his successor Herbert Hoover, who he said had given him much unsolicited advice, "all of it bad." Coolidge's retirement was brief. He died suddenly from coronary thrombosis on January 5, 1933, at the age of 60.
The potus_geeks library has four Coolidge biographies, with the best (in my humble opinion) being Amity Schlaes' 2013 book simply titled Coolidge. The Signature Series biography of Coolidge, published in 2000, was written by Donald McCoy and is called Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President. There is also Robert Sobel's 1998 biography of Coolidge called Coolidge: An American Enigma. For something written closer to Coolidge's time, a biography published in 1938 and written by the famed journalist William Allen White is cleverly titled A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge.
Although he was known as a man of few words, Coolidge wrote his own story in The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, originally published in 1929. He also wrote Have Faith in Massachusetts, a series of his essays and speeches, published in 1919. Another great collection of the words and wit of Coolidge can be found in David Pietrusza's 2008 book Silent Cal's Almanac: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge.
The story of the election of 1924 is told in Garland Tucker III's 2010 book The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge and the 1924 Election. Another very good book about that election is Robert Murray's 1976 book The 103rd ballot: Democrats and the disaster in Madison Square Garden, though that book focuses more on the Democrats than on Coolidge.
The University of Kansas Press's American Presidency Series book about Coolidge, The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge, was written by Robert H. Farrell and was published in 1998.
Calvin Coolidge is sometimes mocked for his humorless demeanor, or seen as cold and insensitive for his austere and tight-fisted financial policies. But fiscal conservatives see him as a role model and as someone whose responsible economic policies are sorely needed today. Especially since Amity Schlaes' biography was published, he is someone whose historical reputation has merited reconsideration and re-evaluation, and this case likely caused his star to rise when rankings of presidents occur. He also had a good record among his contemporaries for race relations and civil rights, yet another reason for historians to think twice about where Coolidge belongs in the annals of presidential history.
When Harding died, Coolidge was first sworn into office by his father, a Justice of the Peace. In his autobiography, Coolidge said that he and Harding got along well and that he was treated kindly by the Hardings, but once the scandals of the Harding administration came to light, Coolidge distanced himself from his predecessor. When Harding's tomb was formally opened, Coolidge refused to attend the ceremony. But he did keep the best members from Harding's cabinet and got rid of the dishonest ones.
Coolidge was the ultimate fiscal conservative. He continued Harding's formal budgeting process, and the Washington Naval Treaty that Harding had worked to bring about was proclaimed just one month into Coolidge's term. Coolidge signed into law the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced the top marginal tax rate from 58 percent to 46 percent, and generally reduced personal income tax rates across the board. On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.
Coolidge won election to the Presidency in his own rite in 1924, despite the death of his son Calvin Jr. On June 30, 1924, Calvin Jr. had played tennis with his brother on the White House tennis courts without putting on socks and developed a blister on one of his toes. The blister subsequently degenerated into sepsis and Calvin Jr. died a little over a week later at the age of 16. Coolidge did not seek re-election in 1928 and was privately critical of his successor Herbert Hoover, who he said had given him much unsolicited advice, "all of it bad." Coolidge's retirement was brief. He died suddenly from coronary thrombosis on January 5, 1933, at the age of 60.
The potus_geeks library has four Coolidge biographies, with the best (in my humble opinion) being Amity Schlaes' 2013 book simply titled Coolidge. The Signature Series biography of Coolidge, published in 2000, was written by Donald McCoy and is called Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President. There is also Robert Sobel's 1998 biography of Coolidge called Coolidge: An American Enigma. For something written closer to Coolidge's time, a biography published in 1938 and written by the famed journalist William Allen White is cleverly titled A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge.
Although he was known as a man of few words, Coolidge wrote his own story in The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, originally published in 1929. He also wrote Have Faith in Massachusetts, a series of his essays and speeches, published in 1919. Another great collection of the words and wit of Coolidge can be found in David Pietrusza's 2008 book Silent Cal's Almanac: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge.
The story of the election of 1924 is told in Garland Tucker III's 2010 book The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge and the 1924 Election. Another very good book about that election is Robert Murray's 1976 book The 103rd ballot: Democrats and the disaster in Madison Square Garden, though that book focuses more on the Democrats than on Coolidge.
The University of Kansas Press's American Presidency Series book about Coolidge, The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge, was written by Robert H. Farrell and was published in 1998.
Calvin Coolidge is sometimes mocked for his humorless demeanor, or seen as cold and insensitive for his austere and tight-fisted financial policies. But fiscal conservatives see him as a role model and as someone whose responsible economic policies are sorely needed today. Especially since Amity Schlaes' biography was published, he is someone whose historical reputation has merited reconsideration and re-evaluation, and this case likely caused his star to rise when rankings of presidents occur. He also had a good record among his contemporaries for race relations and civil rights, yet another reason for historians to think twice about where Coolidge belongs in the annals of presidential history.