Happy Birthday Calvin Coolidge
Three presidents died on the 4th of July, but only one has a birthday today. John Calvin Coolidge Jr., the 30th President of the United States, was born on July 4, 1872 (152 years ago today).
Coolidge had a remarkably successful career. Born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Coolidge became a lawyer and began practicing law in Northampton, Massachusetts. Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, serving as a City Councillor, the City Solicitor, Clerk of Courts for the county, State Representative, State Senator, Mayor of Northampton, State Senator again, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and finally in 1918 he became Governor of that state. His conduct during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight and gave him a reputation as a man of decisive action.
In 1920 he was selected as Warren Harding's running mate and he was elected as the 29th Vice President. Coolidge became President upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in August of 1923. He was elected in his own right as President in 1924, and he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little. Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity.
After he retired Coolidge published his autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column entitled "Calvin Coolidge Says" from 1930 to 1931. Faced with obvious defeat in the 1932 presidential election, some Republicans spoke of dumping Herbert Hoover as their party's nominee, and drafting Coolidge to run, but Coolidge was not interested in running again, and that he would publicly repudiate any effort to draft him. Hoover was renominated, and Coolidge made several radio addresses in support of him.
Coolidge died suddenly from coronary thrombosis at his Northampton home known as "The Beeches", at 12:45 pm, January 5, 1933 at the age of 60.
In 2013, historian Amity Schlaes wrote a wonderful biography of the man, simply titled Coolidge, (reviewed in this community here) in which she made this assessment of him:
"Perhaps the deepest reason for Coolidge's recent obscurity is that the thirtieth president spoke a different economic language from ours. He did not say "money supply"; he said "credit." He did not say "the federal government"; he said "the national government." He did not say "private sector"; he said "commerce." He did not say "savings"; he said "thrift" or "economy." Indeed, he especially cherished the word "economy" because it came from the Greek for "household." To Coolidge the national household resembled the family household, and to her displeasure he monitored the White House housekeeper with the same vigilance that he monitored the departments of the federal government. Our modern economic lexicon and the theories behind it cannot capture Coolidge's achievements or those of his predecessor, Warren Harding.
"It is hard for modern students of economics to know what to make of a government that treated economic weakness by raising interest rates 300 basis points, cutting tax rates, and halving the federal government; so much at odds is that prescription with the antidotes to recession our own experts tend to recommend. It is harder still for modern economists to concede that that recipe, the policy for the early 1920s advocated by Coolidge and Harding, yielded growth on a scale to which we can aspire today. As early at the 1930s, Coolidge's reputation and way of thinking began their decline. Collectives and not individuals became fashionable. Sensing such shifts, Coolidge at the end of his life spoke anxiously about the "importance of the obvious." Perseverance, property rights, contracts, civility to one's opponents, silence, smaller government, trust, certainty, restraint, respect for faith, federalism, economy and thrift: these Coolidge ideals intrigue us today as well. After all, many citizens today do feel cursed by debt, their own or their government's. Knowing the details of his life may well help Americans now turn a curse to a blessing or, at the very least, find the heart to continue their own persevering."
Coolidge had a remarkably successful career. Born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Coolidge became a lawyer and began practicing law in Northampton, Massachusetts. Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, serving as a City Councillor, the City Solicitor, Clerk of Courts for the county, State Representative, State Senator, Mayor of Northampton, State Senator again, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and finally in 1918 he became Governor of that state. His conduct during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight and gave him a reputation as a man of decisive action.
In 1920 he was selected as Warren Harding's running mate and he was elected as the 29th Vice President. Coolidge became President upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in August of 1923. He was elected in his own right as President in 1924, and he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little. Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity.
After he retired Coolidge published his autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column entitled "Calvin Coolidge Says" from 1930 to 1931. Faced with obvious defeat in the 1932 presidential election, some Republicans spoke of dumping Herbert Hoover as their party's nominee, and drafting Coolidge to run, but Coolidge was not interested in running again, and that he would publicly repudiate any effort to draft him. Hoover was renominated, and Coolidge made several radio addresses in support of him.
Coolidge died suddenly from coronary thrombosis at his Northampton home known as "The Beeches", at 12:45 pm, January 5, 1933 at the age of 60.
In 2013, historian Amity Schlaes wrote a wonderful biography of the man, simply titled Coolidge, (reviewed in this community here) in which she made this assessment of him:
"Perhaps the deepest reason for Coolidge's recent obscurity is that the thirtieth president spoke a different economic language from ours. He did not say "money supply"; he said "credit." He did not say "the federal government"; he said "the national government." He did not say "private sector"; he said "commerce." He did not say "savings"; he said "thrift" or "economy." Indeed, he especially cherished the word "economy" because it came from the Greek for "household." To Coolidge the national household resembled the family household, and to her displeasure he monitored the White House housekeeper with the same vigilance that he monitored the departments of the federal government. Our modern economic lexicon and the theories behind it cannot capture Coolidge's achievements or those of his predecessor, Warren Harding.
"It is hard for modern students of economics to know what to make of a government that treated economic weakness by raising interest rates 300 basis points, cutting tax rates, and halving the federal government; so much at odds is that prescription with the antidotes to recession our own experts tend to recommend. It is harder still for modern economists to concede that that recipe, the policy for the early 1920s advocated by Coolidge and Harding, yielded growth on a scale to which we can aspire today. As early at the 1930s, Coolidge's reputation and way of thinking began their decline. Collectives and not individuals became fashionable. Sensing such shifts, Coolidge at the end of his life spoke anxiously about the "importance of the obvious." Perseverance, property rights, contracts, civility to one's opponents, silence, smaller government, trust, certainty, restraint, respect for faith, federalism, economy and thrift: these Coolidge ideals intrigue us today as well. After all, many citizens today do feel cursed by debt, their own or their government's. Knowing the details of his life may well help Americans now turn a curse to a blessing or, at the very least, find the heart to continue their own persevering."