A quiet and somber man whose sour expression masked a dry wit, Calvin Coolidge was known as "Silent Cal." After learning of his ascendancy to President on the death of Warren Harding in 1923, Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a justice of the peace, and promptly went back to bed.

Calvin Coolidge was born on Independence Day, 1872, and raised in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. His father was a pillar of the community, holding a variety of local offices from tax collector to constable. From him, Coolidge inherited his taciturn nature, his frugality, and his commitment to public service. The early death of his mother and sister also contributed to his somber public image.


Climbing the Political Ladder

While practicing law in Northhampton, Massachusetts, Coolidge began to climb the ladder of state politics from a spot on the City Council in 1900, to chairman of the Northhampton Republican Committee in 1904, to the state legislature in 1907. His term as governor of Massachusetts placed him in the national arena just in time to benefit from the return to power of the Republicans at the end of World War I. As governor, he called in the state guard to break a strike by city police in Boston, claiming that "there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime." This bold action, which contrasted with Coolidge's nonconfrontational reputation, won him public acclaim and swept him onto the Republican ticket as vice presidential nominee under Warren Harding. As vice president, Coolidge kept a low profile, sitting silently during cabinet meetings and seldom speaking in his constitutional position as presiding officer of the Senate.

After Harding's death in 1923, Coolidge became President, serving a year before deciding to run for reelection in 1924. Coolidge had emerged unscathed from the scandals that plagued the Harding administration, earning a reputation for being honest, direct, and hardworking. The Democrats were split in 1924, finally settling on a compromise candidate, John Davis of West Virginia, whom Coolidge beat with the slogan "Keep Cool With Coolidge."


A Visible Yet Passive Presidency

In contrast to his disdain for small talk, Coolidge was a highly visible leader, holding press conferences, speaking on the radio, and posing for portraits dressed in farmer overalls, cowboy hats and chaps, and full Indian headdresses. Philosophically, he believed that human action was of little consequence because Providence had its own plan, a conviction that made for a passive style of leadership. His motto was most often "let well enough alone."

In domestic affairs, he went along with the Immigration Act of 1924, which curbed the number of eastern and southern Europeans allowed into America and excluded the Japanese altogether. He also supported the Revenue Acts of 1924 and 1926, initiated by Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, the wealthy Pittsburgh banker who favored tax cuts for the rich. These acts freed up private funds that fueled the speculation behind the stock market crash of 1929. To make matters worse, Coolidge fought farm relief legislation that might have shored up the depressed farm economy.

Like Harding, Coolidge allowed his cabinet a free hand in foreign affairs, delegating authority to Treasury Secretary Mellon, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, and Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover (all holdovers from Harding's cabinet). He believed that America should seek out foreign markets and refrain from entangling alliances and participation in the League of Nations. He supported the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war as a means of settling international differences, but the pact had no means of enforcement and was little more than an empty gesture. In Latin America, Coolidge's administration supported economic imperialism. In 1928 Latin American countries were eager to denounce U.S. business practices, and Secretary Hughes was barely able to dissuade them from passing a strong anti-U.S. resolution.

Coolidge never explained why he chose not to run for a second term, but those closest to him suggested it was out of concern for his health. Others speculate that he wanted out before the coming economic crash, which he had predicted to his wife. The first lady, Grace Coolidge, was as sunny and sociable as her husband was taciturn and sardonic. The press photographed her at every opportunity and she once joked that she was the "national hugger." Having been trained as an instructor for the deaf, Grace Coolidge brought national attention to the plight of the nation's hearing-impaired and became a close personal friend of Helen Keller.

Although the public had admired Coolidge during his time in office, the Great Depression turned public opinion against him. Many linked the nation's economic collapse to Coolidge's poor policy decisions. He refused to aid the depressed agricultural sector while thousands of rural banks in the Midwest and South were shutting their doors and farmers were losing their land. His tax cuts for the rich caused the maldistribution of wealth and overproduction of goods, which destabilized the economy while putting two hundred corporations in control of more than 50 percent of the nation's wealth. Although he regained some of his stature in the conservative 1980s, most historians look upon the Coolidge presidency with skepticism, ranking him among the lowest of American chief executives in terms of positive impact and legacy, however high he might stand in personal integrity.