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Luc Madonna
Mr. Widenhofer
AP US History
May 9, 2017

The president of the United States has many responsibilities. He represents the country

with not only his policies, but the morality and dignity of the office. We have repeatedly seen this

tarnished by many men who have taken the oath of office. In 1923, we saw the gold standard of

morality in office exemplified by Calvin Coolidge. Sworn in after the death of Warren G.

Harding, Silent Cals mission was not only to lead America by his conservative and pro-

business policies, but to display to other countries that America could still be viewed as the city

on the hill during an era of flappers and others leading modern, materialistic culture. In fact,

Calvin Coolidge is admired for effectively doing nothing to stimulate the economy. Although

short-term this assisted the period of a great middle class and good-paying manufacturing jobs,

his laissez-faire approach to central government economics proved to be a key element in the

economic downfall shortly after his presidency. Balancing first, the stimulus of the economy

during the Roaring Twenties, and second, his responsibility of the Great Depression, Calvin

Coolidge has to be rated as a below average president. Although he was admired by the public

and favored because of the economy while in office, he takes a large responsibly for the worst

economic recession in American history, the Great Depression.

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont on July 4, 1872. It was

in this small town where he lived with his father, who was a farmer and storekeeper, along with

his sister and mother (The White House). His father was also elected to the Vermont Senate and

House of Representatives at one point in his life. It was from his father where he learned how to
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live an upright and moral life. His father was an honest man who was took work very seriously

in the fields and in government. However, Coolidge was plagued by two major tragedies before

his eighteenth birthday. First, his mother died when he was twelve, and he was eighteen when his

sister died. He would go on to suffer chronic depression throughout his life because of these two

events, along with the death of his son later in his life. However, also at the age of eighteen,

Coolidge graduated from the Black River Academy and went to Amherst College shortly after to

study law and its practices (The White House). Shortly after graduation, Coolidge moved to

Massachusetts and apprenticed with a firm, Hammond and Field. These two men informally

introduced Coolidge to politics. They were very active in local politics and believed in

Republican ideals and practices. This sparked the idea of running for a position locally, which

Coolidge got the opportunity when he decided to move to Northampton in 1898 to start his own

law practice (TheFamousPeople- Society for Recognition of Famous People). As a lawyer here,

he gained respect from the locals for being an honest and hardworking attorney and a man of the

community. The next year, he decided to run for his first ever political position. He was elected

as the City Solicitor, a position he held successfully for two years. After this short political stint,

he went back into private law practice. However, Coolidge did not remain in law practice much

longer. In 1909, he was elected mayor of Northampton, which was followed by his election in

the US Senate from 1911 to 1915 (TheFamousPeople- Society for Recognition of Famous

People). Then he served as Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts until 1918, when he was

elected Governor of Massachusetts. This was the first time Coolidge shined in the national

spotlight. In 1919, there was a police strike in Boston where tens of thousands of people filled

the streets, along with many that decided to loot a variety of stores (Weineke). As governor,

Coolidge famously said, There is no right to strike against public safety by anybody, anywhere,
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any time. He backed this by replacing the entire police force within about six weeks. (Weineke).

The public admired Coolidges humble and simplistic approach to leadership, which led him to

be on the ballot as the running mate to soon-to-be president and Republican nominee, Warren G.

Harding in 1920 (Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation). The election of 1920 was truly a

landslide, with Harding and Coolidge winning sixty percent of the popular vote

(TheFamousPeople- Society for Recognition of Famous People). As Vice President, Coolidge

was the first to attend cabinet meetings, give meaningful speeches, and perform other high

ranking duties. Throughout his vice-presidency, he landed the nickname Silent Cal because of

his few, but intelligent remarks (Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation).

Although he was a quiet person, there was huge, abrupt news on August 2, 1923. While

traveling to California, President Warren G. Harding died from a heart attack. Coolidge, at the

time, was visiting family in Vermont when he heard the news. In fact, Coolidge took the

presidential oath of office administered by his father at 2:47 am at the family home. Coolidge,

like normal, did not speak many words that night and morning. Just about the only thing he said

was, Better have that fixed, referring to a stone step that was out of place (McCoy 150).

Nevertheless, the next day, Coolidge went to Washington to take another oath in front of the

Supreme Court.

Coolidges first desire in office was to restore morality and character to the oval office.

Hardings administration was full of corruption, including the Teapot Dome Scandal,

extramarital affairs with other women, and corruption in the cabinet (History). Coolidge, instead,

quietly brought back a moral standard to the White House. However, he continued some of

Hardings policies. One of the first things he signed in his first half-term was the Immigration

Act of 1924. This lessened the number of immigrants that were permitted to come over from
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certain areas, including Italy, Eastern European and mainly Jewish countries, as well as Asia.

This was not countered by Congress and was passed relatively easily. During this first stint as

president, he also fought for more rights for minorities, including African Americans and Native

Americans. He spoke out against appointing KKK members to government positions and called

for an end to lynching. He assisted Native Americans when he signed the Indian Citizenship Act

in 1924, which granted them full citizenship and allowed them to retain tribal land rights.

However, some Native Americans were still not allowed to vote because of unique voting laws in

different states.

In 1924, Coolidge decided to run again for reelection. Most Americans were pleased with

his morality and hands-off approach to business. In fact, thanks in part to new inventions like the

automobile and electricity, the economy was booming, making Coolidge was a very popular

president. This era in United States history is tabbed The Roaring Twenties because of the

growth of the economy at an unprecedented rate (History). This also was an era of new culture,

including dress, music, and entertainment. Women started dressing in the flapper style, and

also began to drink, smoke, and wear their hair in a bob. Average Americans were slowly able to

purchase automobiles and live more extravagantly than ever before. Even canned foods started to

become in demand. These new ideas, which created domestic manufacturing opportunities,

turned the United States into the leading world economic power. Coolidge was almost a father

figure throughout this period in history (History). He favored tax cuts and limited government

spending, which helped every type of business, but especially small and family-owned

businesses. He also incorporated a hefty tariff on imported goods to preserve manufacturing jobs.

The chief business of the American people is business, Coolidge once said. This, while true,
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created a gap between the rich and the poor which we had never seen to this extent before (UVA

Miller Center).

Calvin Coolidge received praise domestically for the Roaring Twenties but also received

criticism internationally for the Dawes Plan and Kellogg-Briand Pact (UVA Miller Center). The

Dawes plan ineffectively did nothing but pass money between the United States, Germany, and

Allies. It was initially aimed to help the Germans get out of the economic hole of WWI and to

ease the tensions between Germany and the rest of Western Europe. Likewise, the Kellogg-

Briand Pact failed because its initial purpose was to once again ease the tensions between

Germany and other countries by demilitarizing these countries and outlawing war altogether.

(UVA Miller Center). Although it sounds democratic, officially banning war is almost impossible

and has never been done in the history of mankind.

Not long before the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928, Calvin Coolidge let the American

public know that he was not going to run for a second and final term. While vacationing in the

Black Hills of South Dakota in 1927, he famously said, I do not choose to run for President in

1928 (The White House).

This was a wise decision by Coolidge, because shortly after his successor, Herbert

Hoover was sworn in, the country went into the biggest recession of all time. The Great

Depression left millions jobless and hungry on the street. Hoover historically seems to be blamed

for the outcome of the Great Depression, however, Coolidge was ultimately responsible. He

allowed the banking system to fail by letting them invest in the booming stock market

(Tennessee 4 Me - Was President Herbert Hoover Responsible for the Depression?). Although

this sounds reasonable because of the economic skyrocket, that is never a smart option because it

causes over speculation. Even regular people invested immense amount of money in the stock
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market, and when it crashed, they were left with nothing. Another problem was the issue between

government executives. People like Andrew Mellon believed that recessions were part of

business and that it is not necessarily a bad thing. He is not completely wrong, but a recession as

large as the Great Depression had to be addressed (Tennessee 4 Me - Was President Herbert

Hoover Responsible for the Depression?). Hoover eventually relieved Mellon as Treasurer, but

by that point it was too late.

The Great Depression singlehandedly turned Coolidges presidency from very good to

below average. Although he served one of the most-liked presidents while in office, his impact

after leaving the oval office is what he often gets remembered for. His laissez-faire policies failed

in the long-run, but his morality while in the White House is something that presidents for

generations can refer to as admirable.

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Works Cited
Calvin Coolidge Biography. TheFamousPeople- Society for Recognition of Famous People.
Web. 18 May 2017.
Calvin Coolidge. History. A&E Television Networks. Web. 18 May 2017.
Calvin Coolidge: Impact and Legacy. UVA Miller Center. Web. 17 May 2017.
Calvin Coolidge. The White House. Web. 17 May 2017.
McCoy, Donald R. Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President. The Macmillan Company, New York
1967, Collier-Macmillan Canada Ltd., Toronto, 1967. Print.
President Calvin Coolidge- Life and Legacy. Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. Web.
17 May 2017.
"Was President Herbert Hoover Responsible for the Depression?" Tennessee 4 Me - Was
President Herbert Hoover Responsible for the Depression? Web. 17 May 2017.
Weineke, David. Boston Police Strikes of 1919. iBoston- Boston History and Architecture.
Web. 18 May 2017.