It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone…. The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: “This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. In subsequent years he twice vetoed farm relief bills, and killed a plan to produce cheap Federal electric power on the Tennessee River. In his Inaugural he asserted that the country had achieved “a state of contentment seldom before seen,” and pledged himself to maintain the status quo. In 1924, as the beneficiary of what was becoming known as “Coolidge prosperity,” he polled more than 54 percent of the popular vote. His first message to Congress in December 1923 called for isolation in foreign policy, and for tax cuts, economy, and limited aid to farmers. He refused to use Federal economic power to check the growing boom or to ameliorate the depressed condition of agriculture and certain industries. En route he became thoroughly conservative.Īs President, Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying. Slowly, methodically, he went up the political ladder from councilman in Northampton to Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered law and politics in Northampton, Massachusetts. “His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history … in a time of extravagance and waste….”īorn in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible.Ĭoolidge was “distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement,” wrote a Democratic admirer, Alfred E. ![]() The biography for President Coolidge and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association.Īs America’s 30th President (1923-1929), Calvin Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts of frugality amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era.Īt 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that he was President.
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