{{Officeholder
|name=Calvin Coolidge
|image=460px-Calvin Coolidge photo portrait head and shouldersby Hopkinson.jpg
|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=Grace Goodhue Coolidge
|number=48th
|state=Massachusetts
|lieutenant=Channing H. Cox
|terms=January 2, 1919 – January 6, 1921
|preceded=Samuel W. McCall
|succeeded=Channing H. Cox
}}
{{Officeholder/governor
|number=46th Lieutenant |lieutenant=y |governor=[[Samuel W. McCall]]
|state=Massachusetts
|terms=January 6, 1916 – January 2, 1919
|former=y
|succeeded=Channing H. Cox
}}
{{Officeholder/mayor
|city=Northampton, Massachusetts
|number=16th
|terms=1910-1911
|preceded=James W. O'Brien
|former=y
|succeeded=William Feiker
}}
}}
'''John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.''' was the 30th [[President president of the United States of America]] from 1923 to 1929, an era of peace and prosperity. He was elected Vice President vice president in 1920 as a [[Republican Party|Republican]] and took office in August 1923 upon the death of President [[Warren G. Harding]]; he was reelected by a landslide in 1924, but in 1928 at the peak of his popularity he announced in typical laconical laconic fashion that he did not choose to run again.
==Early Careercareer==Coolidge was born in Plymouth, Vermont, July 4, 1872, the son of John and Victoria Moor Coolidge. Both parents were Yankees; his ancestors came from England to New England in the early seventeenth century. Coolidge's father was a farmer and a successful country storekeeper who dabbled in local and state politics. Young Calvin was educated in the local school and later at Black River and St. Johnsbury academies. In 1891 he entered [[Amherst College]] in Massachusetts, where he showed an interest in philosophy. Reserved and reticent, he did not mix readily with his fellows. In his senior year, however, he was selected as class speaker. ==Early Public Lifepublic life==
After his graduation in 1895 Coolidge studied law, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1897, and began to practice in the city of Northampton, where he became active in local GOP politics. In 1898 he was elected to the common council. Thereafter he was seldom out of public office. He was elected to the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) in 1907. After two terms he was elected mayor of Northampton and then was elected to the state senate; during 1914-1915 he was president of that body. He had also served as chairman of the Republican State Committee, and he spent three terms as lieutenant governor of the state.
==Governor and Vice President==
When Governor Samuel W. McCall retired in 1918, Coolidge became the unanimous choice of the Republican Party for the governorship; he was elected and took office in January 1919. As governor, Coolidge substantially reduced the number of state agenciesmade no radical innovations nor did he sponsor a legislative program. A conservative, he devoted himself to a program of economy in government. The Boston police strike, and his handling of it, first brought him to national attention. On September Sept. 9, 1919, the police struck in protest against the police commissioner's refusal to permit them to join an American Federation of Labor union. Immediately there were riots and disorder. After some urging Governor Coolidge called out the state guard to preserve order and personally took charge. The governor answered A F of L President Samuel Gompers' objections to his actions with the statement: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, at any time." The statement received nationwide publicity. After the nomination of Warren G. Harding by the Republican national convention in 1920, the members of the convention rebelled against the dominant senatorial clique. They nominated Coolidge for second place on the ticket after his name had been presented by a comparatively unknown delegate. Coolidge was elected along with Harding in November 1920 and became president on August Aug. 2, 1923, when Harding died of natural causes. Coolidge was at his father's house in Plymouth Notch, Vermont when the momentous news arrived. His father, a notary public, administered the oath of office.
==Presidency==
===Foreign Affairs===
In the realm of foreign affairs the president urged the nation to become a member of the World Court, but the bill authorizing it was hedged with so many qualifications that the other member nations refused to admit the United States. Under the direction of Secretary of the Treasury [[Andrew W. Mellon]], plans for the payment of foreign government debts to the United States were negotiated and approved. During the Coolidge administration the Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy, was signed by most of the important nations of the world. The appointment of Dwight W. Morrow as ambassador to Mexico did much to restore good relations with that country, although the policy pursued elsewhere in Latin America in the interest of American investors helped maintain the Latin-American distrust of their northern neighbor.
=== Calvin Coolidge and Prohibition ===
Calvin Coolidge was not a teetotaler, but he didn't have much use for alcohol. Due to his belief in limited government, he cut the [[Prohibition]] Bureau’s budget during the boom year of 1926. Andrew Mellon, who as Treasury Secretary was also the Chief Prohibition Enforcement Officer in the United States, hated the law and was less than dedicated in his enforcement efforts.<ref>[http://kaiology.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/water-water-everywhere-and-not-a-drop-to-drink-coolidge-and-prohibition-2/ Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink – Coolidge and Prohibition]</ref>
===Evaluations===
In the short view, the Coolidge administration was a preeminently successful one. Income taxes and corporate taxes were greatly reduced, a major part of the national debt was retired, and the nation experienced some of the most prosperous years in its history. The Coolidge policies were in part responsible for these benefits, but some hostile [[liberal]] historians falsely claim they were probably responsible, in part, for the great depression that followed.
Coolidge's image was to a degree shaped by Madison Avenue. Buckley (2003) reveals the role of advertising giant [[Bruce Barton]] in the remaking of the public persona or image of Coolidge during 1919-26 and, in so doing, guiding a dramatic shift in politics and the wide acceptance of consumer culture. The dominance of the political party bosses, who selected Harding in 1920, ended when the business elite wrested control from the party, using their ability to raise money for advertising and ultimately commodifying the political process. Members of this elite suggested that Barton refashion Coolidge from an aloof man driven by the advancement of his career into a voice of the masses, the "silent majority," which Barton accomplished with press coverage, exploiting the new technology of radio for political speeches, newsreels, an exclusive "spontaneous" interview with Coolidge, and by arranging events that would be covered free, as news. Coolidge's election to the presidency in 1924 was the first campaign of personality, in which style was promoted over substance, tapping into "intense private longings" of a public uncertain of its moorings in a rapidly modernizing society. Gilbert (2003) and Gilbert (2005) argues that Coolidge suffered from clinical depression throughout his life. Gilbert discusses the major symptoms of the disorder as evidenced in Coolidge's personal and political behavior. He exhibited symptoms from a very early age, beginning with his grandfather's death when he was six and again with the deaths of his mother and sister during his adolescence. Ascending to the presidency in 1923, Coolidge at first was diligent, effective, and respectful of others. After the death of his teenage son in 1924, however, his demeanor and degree of political engagement changed drastically. He developed hypersomnia, sleeping as much as 15 hours per day, and he began to treat White House staffers and his wife rudely, often publicly humiliating them. Moreover, in Gilbert's opinion, he became far less effective as a decision-maker and grew increasingly detached from political issues. This, however, was he period in which he secured major tax reform and ratification of he Kellogg-Briand Pact, dispatched Dwight Morow to Mxico, and twice vetoed McNary-Haugen.
==Silent Cal==
==Quotes==
*"Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It doesn't appear to belong to anybody."
*"It was never flaunted for the glory of royalty, but to be born under it is to be born a child of a king, and to establish a home under it is to be the founder of a royal house." - Speaking of the American flag
*'''"I favor the American system of individual enterprise, and I am opposed to any general extension of government ownership, and control."'''
*"Unfortunately the Federal Government has strayed far afield from its legitimate business. It has trespassed upon fields where there should be no trespass. If we could confine our Federal expenditures to the legitimate obligations and functions of the Federal Government, a material reduction would be apparent. But far more important than this would be its effect upon the fabric of our constitutional form of government, which tends to be gradually weakened and undermined by this encroachment. The cure for this is not in our hands. It lies with the people. It will come when they realize the necessity of State assumption of State responsibility. It will come when they realize that the laws under which the Federal Government hands out contributions to the states are placing upon them a double burden of taxation–Federal taxation in the first instance to raise the moneys which the Government donates to the states, and state taxation in the second instance to meet the extravagances of state expenditures which are tempted by Federal donations." - At Memorial Continental Hall, January 21, 1924
*"What we need is not more Federal government, but better local government."
*"Nations which are torn by dissension and discord, which are weak and inefficient at home, have little standing or influence abroad. Even the blind do not chose the blind to lead them."
*"A very positive echo of what the Dutch had done in 1581, and what the English were preparing to do, appears in the assertion of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Connecticut, as early as 1638, when he said in a sermon before the General Court that- “The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people.” “The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God’s own allowance.” This doctrine found wide acceptance among the nonconformist clergy who later made up the Congregational Church. The great apostle of this movement was the Rev. John Wise, of Massachusetts. He was one of the leaders of the revolt against the royal governor Andros in 1687, for which he suffered imprisonment. He was a liberal in ecclesiastical controversies. He appears to have been familiar with the writings of the political scientist, Samuel Pufendorf, who was born in Saxony in 1632. Wise published a treatise, entitled “The Church’s Quarrel Espoused,” in 1710, which was amplified in another publication in 1717. In it he dealt with the principles of civil government. His works were reprinted in 1772 and have been declared to have been nothing less than a textbook of liberty for our Revolutionary fathers."<ref>[https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2011/pdf/FP_PS32.pdf Calvin Coolidge Challenges Progress in the Name of the Declaration of Independence], [[Heritage Foundation]]</ref><ref>[http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-occasion-of-the-one-hundred-and-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-declaration-of-independence/ Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence]</ref>
==Bibliography==
* Buckley, Kerry W. "'A President for the "Great Silent Majority': Bruce Barton's Construction of Calvin Coolidge." ''New England Quarterly'' 2003 76(4): 593-626. Issn: 0028-4866 Fulltext: in Jstor
* McCoy, Donald R. ''Calvin Coolidge: A Biography'' (1967), 447pp, the standard scholarly biography
* Pietrusza, David ''1920: The Year of the Six Presidents'' New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007
* Pietrusza, David (ed.) ''Calvin Coolidge: A Documentary Biography'' Church & Reid: 2013.* Pietrusza, David (ed.) ''Calvin Coolidge on The the Founders: Reflections on the American Revlution and the Founding Fathers'' Church & Reid, 2012.
* Pietrusza, David (ed.) ''Silent Cal's Almanack: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge'' createspace: 2008.
* Shlaes, Amity, ''Coolidge'', HarperCollins, 2013.* White, William Allen White; ''A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge,'' (1938) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=1105748 online edition]
[[Category:Fiscal Conservatives]]
[[Category:Republican Governors]]
[[Category:Veterans]]
[[Category:Patriots]]