On this episode of Our American Stories, at 2:47 AM on August 3rd, 1923 Calvin Coolidge was administered the oath of office by his father in the light of a kerosene lamp in the small town in which he was born; Plymoth Notch, Vermont. It was the culmination of a life well lived. Here to tell the story of our 30th President is Matthew Denhart and Tracy Messer—the world's greatest Coolidge impersonator—with the story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next a
story on our thirtieth President, Calvin Coolidge. Here to tell
the story of this remarkable figure is Matthew Denhart of
the Coolidge Foundation. Also presenting in this story is a
Calvin Coolidge impersonator, Tracy Messer, and he's reading from Coolidges
(00:32):
remarkable autobiography. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Calvin Coolidge was born July fourth, eighteen seventy two. He
was born in his parents' small house, In fact, in
his parents' bedroom, on the very bed on which they slept,
in the small village of Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The village
of Plymouth Notch was tiny, but very beautiful. The mountains
(00:59):
surround the notch, as they call it. It's very picturesque.
Maple trees surround on the mountains, so mapling in the
spring was a popular and necessary activity. It was said
that Calvin was able to get more maple sap out
of a tree than most of the other youngsters in
Plymouth Notch. When he was growing up, there would have
been only a few dozen residents, that is to say,
(01:21):
a number of families and no more.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It was rather isolated.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
The people there were primarily farmers and some small merchants.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Here's Calvin Coolidge on Plymouth Notch.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
The neighborhood around the notch was made up of people
of exemplary habits. His speech was clean, and their lives
were above reproach. They had no mortgages on their firms.
If any debts were contracted, they were promptly paid. Credit
(01:55):
was good, and there was money in the shavings bank.
The break of day saw them stir in their industry
continued until twilight.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Coolidge's own father was probably a good example of the
kind of work that was done in Plymouth. He ran
the village store. He also was a farmer himself. His
father also was very skilled with his hands. He was
a blacksmith. He was also the town tax collector. He
was a constable, a justice of the peace. Really sort
(02:32):
of a model citizen, if you will. Here's Calvin Coolidge
on his father, Colonel John Coolidge.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
My father, John Calvin Coolidge, ran the country Stowa. He
was successful. The annual rent of the whole place was
forty dollars. I have heard him say that his merchandise
bills were about ten thousand yearly. He had no other
(03:00):
expenses His profits were about one hundred dollars per month
on the average, so he must have sold on a
very close imagine. He trusted nearly everybody, but lost a
surprisingly small amount. He was a good businessman and a
very hard worker, and did not like to see things wasted.
(03:26):
He kept the Star about thirteen years and sold it
to my mother's brother, who became a prosperous merchant. In
addition to his business ability, my father was very skillful
with his hands. The best buggy he had for twenty
years was the one he made himself. He had a
(03:49):
complete set of tools ample to do all kinds of
building and carpentry work. He knew how to lay bricks
and was an excellent stonemader. He kept tools for mending
shoes and harness, and repairing for water pipes in tinware.
He knew how to perform all kinds of delicate operations
(04:12):
on domestic animals. The lines he laid out were true
and straight, and the curves regular. The work he did endured.
If there was any physical requirement of country life which
he could not perform, I do not know what it was.
(04:32):
From watching him and assisting him, I gained an intimate
knowledge of all this kind of work.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Calvin Coolidge's mother, Victoria Josephine Coolidge, was named for two empresses.
She was important to Calvin. She was a devoted wife,
a wonderful mother. She tragically died when Coolidge was only
twelve years old. It brought him great grief. Here's Koolidge's
writing about her death.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It seems impossible that any man could adequately describe his mother.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I cannot describe mine.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
She was practically an invalid ever after I could remember her,
but used what strength she had in lavish care upon
me and my sister, who was three years younger. There
was a touch of mysticism and poetry in her nature,
which made her love to gaze at the purple sunsets
and watch the evening stars. Whatever was grand and beautiful
(05:44):
in form and color attracted her. It seems as though
the rich green tints of the foliage and the blossoms
of the flowers came for her in the springtime and
in the autumn. It was for her that the mountain
sides were struck with crimson and gold.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
When she knew that her end.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Was near, she called us children to her bedside, where
we knelt down to receive her final patent blessing. In
an hour she was gone. It was her thirty ninth birthday.
(06:29):
I was twelve years old. We laid her away in
the bluster and snows of match. The greatest grief that
can come to a boy came to me. Life never
to seem the same again.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Er Coolidge learned so much observing the other adults around
him as he was growing up in Plymouth nine. These
were hardy New Englanders, people who believed strongly in service
in citizenship. He noted that they carried themselves with dignity.
Everything they did was honest. They believed in community, and
they had strong faith, and they were especially modest. Coolidge
(07:17):
learned from the people in Plymouth Notch that you don't
judge your fellow man or woman and other citizens by
their wealth or by what they have, but instead by
their character. Here's Coolidge on the people of Plymouth Notch
and how they viewed wealth and class distinctions.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
They held strongly to the doctrine of equality. Whenever the
hired man or the highed girl wanted to go anywhey out,
they were always understood to be entitled to my place
in the wagon, in which case I.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Remained at home.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
This gave me a very early training in democratic ideas
and impressed upon me very forcibly the dignity and power,
if not the superiority of labor. It was all a
fine atmosphere in which to raise a boy.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He also often reflected back on his childhood, and he
didn't believe that he lost out on anything having grown
up in a rural small place. In fact, he thought
that Plymouth notch imbued in him the kind of values
and traits that were necessary to succeed later in life.
Here's cool, He's writing about the benefits of growing up
in the country.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
We felt the cold in the winter, and had many inconveniences,
but we did not mind them, because we supposed they
were the inevitable burdens of existence. It would be hard
to imagine better surroundings for the development of a boy
than those which I had. While a wider breadth of
(09:02):
training and knowledge could have been presented to me, the
mind was given sufficient opportunity thoroughly to digest all that
came to it. Country life does not always have breadth,
but it has depth. It is neither artificial nor superficial,
(09:24):
but is kept close to the realities. If it did
not afford me the best that there was, it abundantly
provided me the best that there was for me.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And you're listening to the story of Calvin Coolidge. When
we return more of this remarkable life, this country life,
here on our American story, and we're back with our
(10:10):
American stories and the story of our thirtieth President, Calvin Coolidge,
as told by Matthew Dennart and also a Coolidge impersonator,
Tracy Messer. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
He felt prepared for college, and his father was supportive
of Calvin attending college, even in a time when most
young people did not go on to earn a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Calvin set his sites high.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
He wanted to go to Amherst College, an important liberal
arts school in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
However, he fell ill, perhaps.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Out of nerves, and performed very poorly on the entrance exam. Humiliated,
he returned home to Plymouth Notch and spent months helping
his father rebuild the countertops in the general store. However,
he remained determined to pursue a college education.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Especially at Amherst.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
He learned that he could pursue a remedial term at
Saint Johnsbury Academy, a high school in the northeast Kingdom
of Vermont, and through a special program he was able
to gain admittance to Amherst, showcasing his persistence even at
a young age. There were two professors who were particularly
(11:32):
important to Calvin Coolidge at Amherst. The first was Anson Morse.
Morse was a historian and a professor of government. From worse,
Coolidge learned about the proper role of government, the nature
of our constitution, and the relationship as it should be,
between the government and its citizens. Here's Coolidge writing about
Professor Anson Morse.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
He placed particular emphasis on the era when our institutions
had their beginning. Washington was treated with the greatest reverence,
and a high estimate was placed on the statesmanlike qualities
and financial capacity of Hamilton. But Jefferson was not neglected.
(12:17):
In spite of his many vagarities. It was shown that
in saving the nation from the danger of fallen under
the dominion of an oligarchy, and in establishing a firm
rule of the people which was forever to remain, he
vindicated the soundness of our political institutions. The whole course
(12:40):
was a thesis on good citizenship and good government. Those
who took it came to a clearer comprehension not only
of their rights and liberties, but of their duties and responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
After Amer's College, Coolidge prepared himself to become a lawyer. However,
rather than going to law school, he instead read the law.
Reading the law meant that he was a clerk in
an actual law firm. That firm was Hammond and Field
in Northampton, Massachusetts. He learned from the older lawyers, almost
as an apprentice would. He read his law books at
(13:25):
night in the public library and prepared himself to pass
the bar exam. By reading the law, Coolidge was following
in the footsteps of another a great American president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln,
of course, was one of America's greatest lawyers of all time,
and he never went to law school.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Coolidge was a young lawyer.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
In Northampton, Massachusetts, when he met the love of his life,
Grace Anna Goodhue.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
The story goes that Coolidge was.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Shaving in his first floor apartment when Grace was outside
peering through the window and chuckled to herself, seeing this
young man's are going to shave. They later would exchange
letters in court for a time before becoming married. Here's
Coolidge nearly twenty five years later, reflecting on his years
of marriage to the love of his life, Grace Coolidge.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
From our being together, we seem naturally to come to
care for each other. We became engaged the early summer
of nineteen oh five, and were married at her home
in Burlington, Vermont, on October fourth of that year. I
have seen so much fiction written on this subject that
(14:39):
I may be patented for relating the plain facts. We thought.
We were made for each other for almost a quarter
of a century. She is born with my infirmities, and
I have rejoiced in her graces.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Coolidge would quickly get involved in politics.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
In fact, he served in almost every office imaginable, and
eventually was elected governor of Massachusetts. There was a good
deal of labor unrest around the country, and indeed around
the world. Here's Coolidge on the growing spirit of radicalism in.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
America in the nineteen nineteens.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
It appeared to me in January nineteenth fourteen that a
spirit of radicalism prevailed which, unless checked, was likely to
prove very destructive. It had been encouraged by the opposition,
and by a large faction of my own party. It
(15:48):
consisted of the claim, in general that in some way
the government was to be blamed because everybody was not prosperous,
because it was necessary to work, work for a living,
and because our written constitutions, the legislatures, and the courts
(16:08):
protected the rights of private owners, especially in relation to
large aggregations of property. The previous session had been overwhelmed
with a record number of bills introduced, many of them
in an attempt to help the employee by impairing the
property of the employer. Though anxious to improve the condition
(16:31):
of our wage earners, I believed this doctrine would soon
destroy business and deprive them of a livelihood.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Kulda's first great test as a public leader came in
nineteen nineteen in Boston. The police believed that their pay
and conditions were inadequate. The police walked out on strike.
Panic ensued. There were riots in the.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
City, people died. Coolidge took a hard line.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Coolidge said there was no right to strike against the
public safety by anybody, any time, anywhere. With that, he
signaled that he would not hire the striking policemen back,
that they would lose their jobs. In fact, he said
that they had abandoned their contract to protect the city.
He would help them find new jobs, but he believed
(17:24):
that the rule of law was of the utmost importance.
The political ramifications of Coolidge's actions in the Boston police
strike had the opposite effect from what he had feared.
Rather than spelling doom to his political futures, it propelled
him to the national stage. He was praised by politicians
around the country, even including President Woodrow Wilson. That made
(17:48):
Coolidge somewhat of a household name in the coming presidential election.
Coolidge was not selected as the Republican's candidate for president
in nineteen twenty. However, having caught the nation's attention, Coolidge
was named to the vice presidential slot on the nineteen
twenty ticket, running alongside Warren G.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Harding.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
On August second, nineteen twenty three, while on a trip
out west, President Warren Harding tragically died. Calvin Coolidge, Vice President,
was with Grace in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, visiting his father
at his boyhood home. Even in those days, Plymouth Notch
did not have telephone service or electricity. Word had to
(18:30):
be sent by telegram. It was first received at the
next village down from Plymouth, the town of Bridgewater. The
dispatcher received the telegram and he himself drove the news
in the middle of the night to Plymouth Notch. He
arrived around midnight. It was pitch black. He knocked on
the family's door and gave the news to Calvin's father,
(18:53):
Colonel John Coolidge.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
And you've been listening to Matthew Dennart of the cool
Coolidge Foundation telling the story of Calvin Coolidge, and also
the Coolidge impersonator Tracy Messer reading periodically from Coolidge is
remarkable autobiographical memoir. When we come back more of this
remarkable life story from little Plymouth Notch to the White House.
(19:20):
Calvin Coolidge's life story continues here on our American Stories.
And we're back with our American Stories and the final
(19:41):
portion of our story on Calvin Coolidge. When we last
left off, President Orange Harding had died. Coolidge was in
Plymouth Notch with his father and family. And again this
is a time when there was no telephone. The messenger
had been dispatched from a neighboring town to go to
the Coolidge household. Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
He arrived around midnight. It was Pitt's black.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
He knocked on the family's door and gave the news
to Calvin's father, Colonel John Coolidge. Here's Calvin Coolidge in
his memoir, writing about how he learned that he was
President of the United States of America.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
On the night of August second, nineteen twenty three, I
was awakened by my father coming up the stairs calling
my name. I noticed that his voice trembled. As the
only times I had ever observed that before were when
death had visited our family. I knew that something of
(20:50):
the gravest nature had occurred. His emotion was partly due
to the knowledge that a man who whom he had
met and liked was gone, partly to the feeling that
must possess all of our citizens when the life of
their president is taken from them.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Coolidge was now president, and he needed to take the
oath of office. Rather than have a grand inauguration, Coolidge
did what was practical. He gathered Grace and his father
and a few others who were visiting, bringing them to
the family sitting room. Colonel John Coolidge was a notary public,
giving him the authority to administer the oath of office
(21:35):
to his son. So, standing in the family sitting room
with the family Bible on the table, Coolidge raised his
right hand before the light of kerosene lamp and took
the oath of office, becoming America's thirtieth president. Asked later
why he thought he had the authority to administer the oath,
Colonel John Coolidge said, well, nobody told me I couldn't.
(21:58):
The next morning, Coolidge visited his mother's grave for inspiration
and then took the train down to Washington. Coolidge believed
the proper course for policy was to follow the policy
set forth by President Harding that meant a return to normalcy,
(22:19):
balancing the government's budget, cutting taxes, and letting Americans get
back to the normal lives after a disruptive progressive period
in World War Coolidge thought that only by getting back
to basics would America prosper.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
It was my desire to maintain about the White House,
as far as possible, an attitude of simplicity, and not
to engage in anything that had an air of pretentious display.
That was my conception of the Great Office. It carries
sufficient power within itself so that it does not require
(22:57):
any of the outward trap ins of pomp and splendor
for the purpose of creating an impression. It has a
dignity of its own, which makes itself sufficient. Of course,
there should be proper formality, and personal relations should be
conducted at all times with decorum and dignity, and in
(23:22):
accordance with the best traditions of polite society. But there
is no need of theatricals.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Coolage believe first in constructive economy. That meant taking the
utmost care with the public's money. He was a ferocious budgeter.
He balanced the budget of the federal government every year.
While President Colage brought the top marginal tax rate on
the income tax all the way down to twenty five percent.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of
human toil. To dissipate it in based and extravagance is
disloyalty to humanity. This is, by no means a doctrine
of parsimony. Both men and nations should live in accordance
(24:13):
with their means, and devote their substance not only to
productive industry, but to the creation of the various forms
of beauty and the pursuit of culture, which give adornments
to the art of life. When I became president, it
was perfectly apparent that the key by which the way
(24:34):
could be open to national progress was constructive economy. Only
by the use of that policy could the high rates
of taxation, which were retired in our development and prosperity,
be diminished, and the enormous burden of our public debt
(24:54):
be reduced.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
The results worth fowning. We hear about the roaring ties
twenties today, and they did roar. It was in the
nineteen twenties when most American households received electricity. It was
in the nineteen twenties when indoor plumbing finally arrived, even
in Plymouth Notch. It was also in the nineteen twenties
when Americans became so productive that they were able to
(25:17):
finally have a day of leisure. That day became known
as Saturday, a day off. Automobiles became much more widespread.
This was the era of Henry Ford's assembly line. This
was the era of Thomas Edison in invention. Race relations
improved considerably. At the beginning of the decade, the ku
Klux Klan was on the March. By the end it
(25:39):
was greatly in decline tragedy would visit President Coolidge again.
It was the summer of nineteen twenty four. His sons,
John Coolidge and Calvin Junior were visiting the White House.
They went out back to the White House tennis court
to play a game. Calvin Junior was not wearing socks.
(26:03):
He developed a blister, seemed harmless at first, but soon
became infected. The infection would take over his body. Although
Calvin Junior had the best medical care available at the time,
not even those doctors could save him. Writing in his memoir,
Calvin Coolidge says, in his suffering, he was asking me
(26:23):
to make him well.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I could not.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
When he went, the power and the glory of the
presidency went with him. With Coolidge's first term nearing an end,
he was a shoe in to be reelected. Americans were
very happy with the job Calvin Coolidge was doing as president.
In fact, the Roaring twenties were often referred to as
(26:48):
Coolidge Prosperity. The party leaders were almost demanding the Coolidge run,
and they wanted an answer. The press, of course, were
also very interested. It was the summer of nineteen twenty seven,
and Coolidge and Grace were in South Dakota. The summer
White House, escaping the heat of Washington, D C. Coolidge
called a small press conference together. Rather than deliver a
(27:10):
major address, He instead handed the newspaperman a small slip
of paper. Upon it he had earlier written just.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
A few words.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Those words read, I do not choose to run for
president in nineteen twenty eight. With that, Coolidge made his
intention clear. He would do the almost unthinkable step away
from power, from the grandest office in the world, and
return to life as a private citizen.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
The country was shocked.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
People wondered what did he mean by it, I do
not choose to run for president?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Was it that he wanted to be convinced? Well?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
A few years later, Coolidge would reflect on what he
meant by these words in his memoir. Here's Coolidge explaining
his decision not to run again.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Perhaps I have already indicated some of the reasons why
I did not desire to be a candidate to succeed myself.
Presidential office takes a heavy toll on those who occupy
it and those who are a dear to them. While
we should not refuse to spend and be spent in
(28:15):
the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt
what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
In his memoir, Coolidge said, we draw our presidents from
the people. It is the wholesome thing for them to
return to the people. Coolidge retired quietly from the presidency
in nineteen twenty nine, moving back home to be with
the people in his adopted hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts. He
and Grace moved back into the half of a duplex
(28:49):
home on Massasuyott Street where they had spent so many years.
The crowds did overwhelm them coming to visit, so they
eventually moved into.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
A slightly larger house.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Not long after completing his memoir, Calvin Coolidge died in
his New England home on January fifth, nineteen thirty three.
The former president was only sixty years old. Coolidge had
once said, be brief above all things, be brief. True
to that, His funeral was a mere twenty two minutes.
(29:19):
He was buried in the Hillside Cemetery in Plymouth Notch,
alongside generations of his family before him. You might expect the.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Headstone of a former president to be grand. Coolidge isn't.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Coolidge's headstone is simple, engraved in the granite is only
his name, Calvin Coolidge, in the years of his birth
and death. You could be forgiven for not knowing that
this is the headstone of a former president. After all,
the only marcation is the presidential seal engraved quietly at
the top of the headstone.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And a great job on the production by Monty Montgomery,
and a special thanks to Matthew Dennart, and a special
thanks also to the Coolidge impersonator Tracy Messer, who was
doing dramatic readings from Coolidge's remarkable memoir, which weighed in
at a mere two hundred and forty six pages. The
story of Calvin Coolidge here on our American Story
And we returned to our American stories. Up next a
story on our thirtieth President, Calvin Coolidge. Here to tell
the story of this remarkable figure is Matthew Denhart of
the Coolidge Foundation. Also presenting in this story is a
Calvin Coolidge impersonator, Tracy Messer, and he's reading from Coolidges
(00:32):
remarkable autobiography. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Calvin Coolidge was born July fourth, eighteen seventy two. He
was born in his parents' small house, In fact, in
his parents' bedroom, on the very bed on which they slept,
in the small village of Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The village
of Plymouth Notch was tiny, but very beautiful. The mountains
(00:59):
surround the notch, as they call it. It's very picturesque.
Maple trees surround on the mountains, so mapling in the
spring was a popular and necessary activity. It was said
that Calvin was able to get more maple sap out
of a tree than most of the other youngsters in
Plymouth Notch. When he was growing up, there would have
been only a few dozen residents, that is to say,
(01:21):
a number of families and no more.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It was rather isolated.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
The people there were primarily farmers and some small merchants.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Here's Calvin Coolidge on Plymouth Notch.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
The neighborhood around the notch was made up of people
of exemplary habits. His speech was clean, and their lives
were above reproach. They had no mortgages on their firms.
If any debts were contracted, they were promptly paid. Credit
(01:55):
was good, and there was money in the shavings bank.
The break of day saw them stir in their industry
continued until twilight.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Coolidge's own father was probably a good example of the
kind of work that was done in Plymouth. He ran
the village store. He also was a farmer himself. His
father also was very skilled with his hands. He was
a blacksmith. He was also the town tax collector. He
was a constable, a justice of the peace. Really sort
(02:32):
of a model citizen, if you will. Here's Calvin Coolidge
on his father, Colonel John Coolidge.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
My father, John Calvin Coolidge, ran the country Stowa. He
was successful. The annual rent of the whole place was
forty dollars. I have heard him say that his merchandise
bills were about ten thousand yearly. He had no other
(03:00):
expenses His profits were about one hundred dollars per month
on the average, so he must have sold on a
very close imagine. He trusted nearly everybody, but lost a
surprisingly small amount. He was a good businessman and a
very hard worker, and did not like to see things wasted.
(03:26):
He kept the Star about thirteen years and sold it
to my mother's brother, who became a prosperous merchant. In
addition to his business ability, my father was very skillful
with his hands. The best buggy he had for twenty
years was the one he made himself. He had a
(03:49):
complete set of tools ample to do all kinds of
building and carpentry work. He knew how to lay bricks
and was an excellent stonemader. He kept tools for mending
shoes and harness, and repairing for water pipes in tinware.
He knew how to perform all kinds of delicate operations
(04:12):
on domestic animals. The lines he laid out were true
and straight, and the curves regular. The work he did endured.
If there was any physical requirement of country life which
he could not perform, I do not know what it was.
(04:32):
From watching him and assisting him, I gained an intimate
knowledge of all this kind of work.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Calvin Coolidge's mother, Victoria Josephine Coolidge, was named for two empresses.
She was important to Calvin. She was a devoted wife,
a wonderful mother. She tragically died when Coolidge was only
twelve years old. It brought him great grief. Here's Koolidge's
writing about her death.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It seems impossible that any man could adequately describe his mother.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I cannot describe mine.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
She was practically an invalid ever after I could remember her,
but used what strength she had in lavish care upon
me and my sister, who was three years younger. There
was a touch of mysticism and poetry in her nature,
which made her love to gaze at the purple sunsets
and watch the evening stars. Whatever was grand and beautiful
(05:44):
in form and color attracted her. It seems as though
the rich green tints of the foliage and the blossoms
of the flowers came for her in the springtime and
in the autumn. It was for her that the mountain
sides were struck with crimson and gold.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
When she knew that her end.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Was near, she called us children to her bedside, where
we knelt down to receive her final patent blessing. In
an hour she was gone. It was her thirty ninth birthday.
(06:29):
I was twelve years old. We laid her away in
the bluster and snows of match. The greatest grief that
can come to a boy came to me. Life never
to seem the same again.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Er Coolidge learned so much observing the other adults around
him as he was growing up in Plymouth nine. These
were hardy New Englanders, people who believed strongly in service
in citizenship. He noted that they carried themselves with dignity.
Everything they did was honest. They believed in community, and
they had strong faith, and they were especially modest. Coolidge
(07:17):
learned from the people in Plymouth Notch that you don't
judge your fellow man or woman and other citizens by
their wealth or by what they have, but instead by
their character. Here's Coolidge on the people of Plymouth Notch
and how they viewed wealth and class distinctions.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
They held strongly to the doctrine of equality. Whenever the
hired man or the highed girl wanted to go anywhey out,
they were always understood to be entitled to my place
in the wagon, in which case I.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Remained at home.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
This gave me a very early training in democratic ideas
and impressed upon me very forcibly the dignity and power,
if not the superiority of labor. It was all a
fine atmosphere in which to raise a boy.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He also often reflected back on his childhood, and he
didn't believe that he lost out on anything having grown
up in a rural small place. In fact, he thought
that Plymouth notch imbued in him the kind of values
and traits that were necessary to succeed later in life.
Here's cool, He's writing about the benefits of growing up
in the country.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
We felt the cold in the winter, and had many inconveniences,
but we did not mind them, because we supposed they
were the inevitable burdens of existence. It would be hard
to imagine better surroundings for the development of a boy
than those which I had. While a wider breadth of
(09:02):
training and knowledge could have been presented to me, the
mind was given sufficient opportunity thoroughly to digest all that
came to it. Country life does not always have breadth,
but it has depth. It is neither artificial nor superficial,
(09:24):
but is kept close to the realities. If it did
not afford me the best that there was, it abundantly
provided me the best that there was for me.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And you're listening to the story of Calvin Coolidge. When
we return more of this remarkable life, this country life,
here on our American story, and we're back with our
(10:10):
American stories and the story of our thirtieth President, Calvin Coolidge,
as told by Matthew Dennart and also a Coolidge impersonator,
Tracy Messer. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
He felt prepared for college, and his father was supportive
of Calvin attending college, even in a time when most
young people did not go on to earn a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Calvin set his sites high.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
He wanted to go to Amherst College, an important liberal
arts school in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
However, he fell ill, perhaps.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Out of nerves, and performed very poorly on the entrance exam. Humiliated,
he returned home to Plymouth Notch and spent months helping
his father rebuild the countertops in the general store. However,
he remained determined to pursue a college education.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Especially at Amherst.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
He learned that he could pursue a remedial term at
Saint Johnsbury Academy, a high school in the northeast Kingdom
of Vermont, and through a special program he was able
to gain admittance to Amherst, showcasing his persistence even at
a young age. There were two professors who were particularly
(11:32):
important to Calvin Coolidge at Amherst. The first was Anson Morse.
Morse was a historian and a professor of government. From worse,
Coolidge learned about the proper role of government, the nature
of our constitution, and the relationship as it should be,
between the government and its citizens. Here's Coolidge writing about
Professor Anson Morse.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
He placed particular emphasis on the era when our institutions
had their beginning. Washington was treated with the greatest reverence,
and a high estimate was placed on the statesmanlike qualities
and financial capacity of Hamilton. But Jefferson was not neglected.
(12:17):
In spite of his many vagarities. It was shown that
in saving the nation from the danger of fallen under
the dominion of an oligarchy, and in establishing a firm
rule of the people which was forever to remain, he
vindicated the soundness of our political institutions. The whole course
(12:40):
was a thesis on good citizenship and good government. Those
who took it came to a clearer comprehension not only
of their rights and liberties, but of their duties and responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
After Amer's College, Coolidge prepared himself to become a lawyer. However,
rather than going to law school, he instead read the law.
Reading the law meant that he was a clerk in
an actual law firm. That firm was Hammond and Field
in Northampton, Massachusetts. He learned from the older lawyers, almost
as an apprentice would. He read his law books at
(13:25):
night in the public library and prepared himself to pass
the bar exam. By reading the law, Coolidge was following
in the footsteps of another a great American president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln,
of course, was one of America's greatest lawyers of all time,
and he never went to law school.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Coolidge was a young lawyer.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
In Northampton, Massachusetts, when he met the love of his life,
Grace Anna Goodhue.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
The story goes that Coolidge was.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Shaving in his first floor apartment when Grace was outside
peering through the window and chuckled to herself, seeing this
young man's are going to shave. They later would exchange
letters in court for a time before becoming married. Here's
Coolidge nearly twenty five years later, reflecting on his years
of marriage to the love of his life, Grace Coolidge.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
From our being together, we seem naturally to come to
care for each other. We became engaged the early summer
of nineteen oh five, and were married at her home
in Burlington, Vermont, on October fourth of that year. I
have seen so much fiction written on this subject that
(14:39):
I may be patented for relating the plain facts. We thought.
We were made for each other for almost a quarter
of a century. She is born with my infirmities, and
I have rejoiced in her graces.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Coolidge would quickly get involved in politics.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
In fact, he served in almost every office imaginable, and
eventually was elected governor of Massachusetts. There was a good
deal of labor unrest around the country, and indeed around
the world. Here's Coolidge on the growing spirit of radicalism in.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
America in the nineteen nineteens.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
It appeared to me in January nineteenth fourteen that a
spirit of radicalism prevailed which, unless checked, was likely to
prove very destructive. It had been encouraged by the opposition,
and by a large faction of my own party. It
(15:48):
consisted of the claim, in general that in some way
the government was to be blamed because everybody was not prosperous,
because it was necessary to work, work for a living,
and because our written constitutions, the legislatures, and the courts
(16:08):
protected the rights of private owners, especially in relation to
large aggregations of property. The previous session had been overwhelmed
with a record number of bills introduced, many of them
in an attempt to help the employee by impairing the
property of the employer. Though anxious to improve the condition
(16:31):
of our wage earners, I believed this doctrine would soon
destroy business and deprive them of a livelihood.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Kulda's first great test as a public leader came in
nineteen nineteen in Boston. The police believed that their pay
and conditions were inadequate. The police walked out on strike.
Panic ensued. There were riots in the.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
City, people died. Coolidge took a hard line.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Coolidge said there was no right to strike against the
public safety by anybody, any time, anywhere. With that, he
signaled that he would not hire the striking policemen back,
that they would lose their jobs. In fact, he said
that they had abandoned their contract to protect the city.
He would help them find new jobs, but he believed
(17:24):
that the rule of law was of the utmost importance.
The political ramifications of Coolidge's actions in the Boston police
strike had the opposite effect from what he had feared.
Rather than spelling doom to his political futures, it propelled
him to the national stage. He was praised by politicians
around the country, even including President Woodrow Wilson. That made
(17:48):
Coolidge somewhat of a household name in the coming presidential election.
Coolidge was not selected as the Republican's candidate for president
in nineteen twenty. However, having caught the nation's attention, Coolidge
was named to the vice presidential slot on the nineteen
twenty ticket, running alongside Warren G.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Harding.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
On August second, nineteen twenty three, while on a trip
out west, President Warren Harding tragically died. Calvin Coolidge, Vice President,
was with Grace in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, visiting his father
at his boyhood home. Even in those days, Plymouth Notch
did not have telephone service or electricity. Word had to
(18:30):
be sent by telegram. It was first received at the
next village down from Plymouth, the town of Bridgewater. The
dispatcher received the telegram and he himself drove the news
in the middle of the night to Plymouth Notch. He
arrived around midnight. It was pitch black. He knocked on
the family's door and gave the news to Calvin's father,
(18:53):
Colonel John Coolidge.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
And you've been listening to Matthew Dennart of the cool
Coolidge Foundation telling the story of Calvin Coolidge, and also
the Coolidge impersonator Tracy Messer reading periodically from Coolidge is
remarkable autobiographical memoir. When we come back more of this
remarkable life story from little Plymouth Notch to the White House.
(19:20):
Calvin Coolidge's life story continues here on our American Stories.
And we're back with our American Stories and the final
(19:41):
portion of our story on Calvin Coolidge. When we last
left off, President Orange Harding had died. Coolidge was in
Plymouth Notch with his father and family. And again this
is a time when there was no telephone. The messenger
had been dispatched from a neighboring town to go to
the Coolidge household. Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
He arrived around midnight. It was Pitt's black.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
He knocked on the family's door and gave the news
to Calvin's father, Colonel John Coolidge. Here's Calvin Coolidge in
his memoir, writing about how he learned that he was
President of the United States of America.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
On the night of August second, nineteen twenty three, I
was awakened by my father coming up the stairs calling
my name. I noticed that his voice trembled. As the
only times I had ever observed that before were when
death had visited our family. I knew that something of
(20:50):
the gravest nature had occurred. His emotion was partly due
to the knowledge that a man who whom he had
met and liked was gone, partly to the feeling that
must possess all of our citizens when the life of
their president is taken from them.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Coolidge was now president, and he needed to take the
oath of office. Rather than have a grand inauguration, Coolidge
did what was practical. He gathered Grace and his father
and a few others who were visiting, bringing them to
the family sitting room. Colonel John Coolidge was a notary public,
giving him the authority to administer the oath of office
(21:35):
to his son. So, standing in the family sitting room
with the family Bible on the table, Coolidge raised his
right hand before the light of kerosene lamp and took
the oath of office, becoming America's thirtieth president. Asked later
why he thought he had the authority to administer the oath,
Colonel John Coolidge said, well, nobody told me I couldn't.
(21:58):
The next morning, Coolidge visited his mother's grave for inspiration
and then took the train down to Washington. Coolidge believed
the proper course for policy was to follow the policy
set forth by President Harding that meant a return to normalcy,
(22:19):
balancing the government's budget, cutting taxes, and letting Americans get
back to the normal lives after a disruptive progressive period
in World War Coolidge thought that only by getting back
to basics would America prosper.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
It was my desire to maintain about the White House,
as far as possible, an attitude of simplicity, and not
to engage in anything that had an air of pretentious display.
That was my conception of the Great Office. It carries
sufficient power within itself so that it does not require
(22:57):
any of the outward trap ins of pomp and splendor
for the purpose of creating an impression. It has a
dignity of its own, which makes itself sufficient. Of course,
there should be proper formality, and personal relations should be
conducted at all times with decorum and dignity, and in
(23:22):
accordance with the best traditions of polite society. But there
is no need of theatricals.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Coolage believe first in constructive economy. That meant taking the
utmost care with the public's money. He was a ferocious budgeter.
He balanced the budget of the federal government every year.
While President Colage brought the top marginal tax rate on
the income tax all the way down to twenty five percent.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of
human toil. To dissipate it in based and extravagance is
disloyalty to humanity. This is, by no means a doctrine
of parsimony. Both men and nations should live in accordance
(24:13):
with their means, and devote their substance not only to
productive industry, but to the creation of the various forms
of beauty and the pursuit of culture, which give adornments
to the art of life. When I became president, it
was perfectly apparent that the key by which the way
(24:34):
could be open to national progress was constructive economy. Only
by the use of that policy could the high rates
of taxation, which were retired in our development and prosperity,
be diminished, and the enormous burden of our public debt
(24:54):
be reduced.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
The results worth fowning. We hear about the roaring ties
twenties today, and they did roar. It was in the
nineteen twenties when most American households received electricity. It was
in the nineteen twenties when indoor plumbing finally arrived, even
in Plymouth Notch. It was also in the nineteen twenties
when Americans became so productive that they were able to
(25:17):
finally have a day of leisure. That day became known
as Saturday, a day off. Automobiles became much more widespread.
This was the era of Henry Ford's assembly line. This
was the era of Thomas Edison in invention. Race relations
improved considerably. At the beginning of the decade, the ku
Klux Klan was on the March. By the end it
(25:39):
was greatly in decline tragedy would visit President Coolidge again.
It was the summer of nineteen twenty four. His sons,
John Coolidge and Calvin Junior were visiting the White House.
They went out back to the White House tennis court
to play a game. Calvin Junior was not wearing socks.
(26:03):
He developed a blister, seemed harmless at first, but soon
became infected. The infection would take over his body. Although
Calvin Junior had the best medical care available at the time,
not even those doctors could save him. Writing in his memoir,
Calvin Coolidge says, in his suffering, he was asking me
(26:23):
to make him well.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I could not.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
When he went, the power and the glory of the
presidency went with him. With Coolidge's first term nearing an end,
he was a shoe in to be reelected. Americans were
very happy with the job Calvin Coolidge was doing as president.
In fact, the Roaring twenties were often referred to as
(26:48):
Coolidge Prosperity. The party leaders were almost demanding the Coolidge run,
and they wanted an answer. The press, of course, were
also very interested. It was the summer of nineteen twenty seven,
and Coolidge and Grace were in South Dakota. The summer
White House, escaping the heat of Washington, D C. Coolidge
called a small press conference together. Rather than deliver a
(27:10):
major address, He instead handed the newspaperman a small slip
of paper. Upon it he had earlier written just.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
A few words.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Those words read, I do not choose to run for
president in nineteen twenty eight. With that, Coolidge made his
intention clear. He would do the almost unthinkable step away
from power, from the grandest office in the world, and
return to life as a private citizen.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
The country was shocked.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
People wondered what did he mean by it, I do
not choose to run for president?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Was it that he wanted to be convinced? Well?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
A few years later, Coolidge would reflect on what he
meant by these words in his memoir. Here's Coolidge explaining
his decision not to run again.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Perhaps I have already indicated some of the reasons why
I did not desire to be a candidate to succeed myself.
Presidential office takes a heavy toll on those who occupy
it and those who are a dear to them. While
we should not refuse to spend and be spent in
(28:15):
the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt
what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
In his memoir, Coolidge said, we draw our presidents from
the people. It is the wholesome thing for them to
return to the people. Coolidge retired quietly from the presidency
in nineteen twenty nine, moving back home to be with
the people in his adopted hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts. He
and Grace moved back into the half of a duplex
(28:49):
home on Massasuyott Street where they had spent so many years.
The crowds did overwhelm them coming to visit, so they
eventually moved into.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
A slightly larger house.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Not long after completing his memoir, Calvin Coolidge died in
his New England home on January fifth, nineteen thirty three.
The former president was only sixty years old. Coolidge had
once said, be brief above all things, be brief. True
to that, His funeral was a mere twenty two minutes.
(29:19):
He was buried in the Hillside Cemetery in Plymouth Notch,
alongside generations of his family before him. You might expect the.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Headstone of a former president to be grand. Coolidge isn't.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Coolidge's headstone is simple, engraved in the granite is only
his name, Calvin Coolidge, in the years of his birth
and death. You could be forgiven for not knowing that
this is the headstone of a former president. After all,
the only marcation is the presidential seal engraved quietly at
the top of the headstone.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And a great job on the production by Monty Montgomery,
and a special thanks to Matthew Dennart, and a special
thanks also to the Coolidge impersonator Tracy Messer, who was
doing dramatic readings from Coolidge's remarkable memoir, which weighed in
at a mere two hundred and forty six pages. The
story of Calvin Coolidge here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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