Author Coolidge Calvin

Many later criticized Coolidge as part of a general criticism of laissez-faire government.[4] His reputation underwent a renaissance during the Ronald Reagan Administration,[5] but the ultimate assessment of his presidency is still divided between those who approve of his reduction of the size of government and those who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating and controlling the economy.[6] John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was born in Plymouth Notch, Windsor County, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, the only U.S. President to be born on the Fourth of July. He was the elder of two children of John Calvin Coolidge, Sr. (1845–1926) and Victoria Josephine Moor (1846–1885). His chronically ill mother died, possibly from tuberculosis, when Coolidge was just 12 years old. His only sibling, Abigail Grace Coolidge (1875–1890), died at the age of 15, when Coolidge was 18 years old. Coolidge's father married a schoolteacher in 1891 and lived to the age of 80. Over the years, Coolidge grew close to his step mother.[7] Coolidge's father engaged in many occupations during his lifetime, and ultimately enjoyed a statewide reputation as a prosperous farmer, storekeeper and committed public servant.[7]. He farmed, taught school, ran a local store, served in the Vermont House of Representatives and then the Vermont Senate, and held a various local offices including justice of the peace and tax collector.[7][8] Coolidge's mother was the daughter of a Plymouth Notch farmer.[9] [10] Coolidge's family had deep roots in New England. His earliest American ancestor, John Coolidge, emigrated from Cambridge, England around 1630 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.[11] Another Coolidge ancestor, Edmund Rice, arrived at Watertown in 1638.[12] Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, also named John Coolidge, was an American army officer in the Revolutionary War and was one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth Notch.[13] Most of Coolidge's ancestors were farmers; the more well-known Coolidges, such as architect Charles Allerton Coolidge and diplomat Archibald Cary Coolidge, were descended from branches of the family that had remained in Massachusetts.[11] Coolidge's grandmother, Sarah Almeda Brewer, had two famous first cousins: Arthur Brown, a United States Senator, and Olympia Brown, a women's suffragist. It is through this ancestor that Coolidge claimed American Indians descent, although this claim has not been established.[14] Coolidge's grandfather, Calvin Coolidge, held local government offices in Plymouth and was remembered as a man with "a fondness for practical jokes".[15] Coolidge attended Black River Academy and then Amherst College, where he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.[16] At his father's urging, Coolidge moved to Northampton, Massachusetts after graduating to take up the practice of law. Avoiding the costly alternative of attending a law school, Coolidge followed the more common practice of the time, apprenticing with the firm of a local law firm, Hammond & Field, and reading law with them. John C. Hammond and Henry P. Field, both Amherst graduates, introduced Coolidge to the law practice in the county seat of Hampshire County. In 1897, Coolidge was admitted to the bar, becoming a country lawyer. With his savings and a small inheritance from his grandfather, Coolidge was able to open his own law office in Northampton in 1898. He practiced transactional law, believing that he served his clients best by staying out of court. As his reputation as a hard-working and diligent attorney grew, local banks and other businesses began to retain his services.[17] In 1905 Coolidge met and married a fellow Vermonter, Grace Anna Goodhue, who was working as a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf. While Grace was watering flowers outside the school one day in 1903, she happened to look up at the open window of Robert N. Weir's boardinghouse and caught a glimpse of Calvin Coolidge shaving in front of a mirror with nothing on but long underwear and a hat.[18] After a more formal introduction sometime later, the two were quickly attracted to each other.[18] They were married on October 4, 1905, in the parlor of her parents' home in Burlington, Vermont. They were opposites in personality: she was talkative and fun-loving, while he was quiet and serious.[19] Not long after their marriage, Coolidge handed her a bag with fifty-two pairs of socks in it, all of them full of holes. Grace's reply was "Did you marry me to darn your socks?" Without cracking a smile and with his usual seriousness, Calvin answered, "No, but I find it mighty handy."[20] They had two sons: John, born in 1906, and Calvin, Jr., born in 1908.[21] The marriage was, by most accounts, a happy one.[22] As Coolidge wrote in his Autobiography, "We thought we were made for each other. For almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces."[23] The Republican Party was dominant in New England in Coolidge's time, and he followed Hammond's and Field's example by becoming active in local politics.[24] Coolidge campaigned locally for Republican presidential candidate William McKinley in 1896, and the next year he was selected to be a member of the Republican City Committee.[25] In 1898, he won election to the City Council of Northampton, placing second in a ward where the top three candidates were elected.[25] The position offered no salary, but gave Coolidge experience in the political world.[26] In 1899, he declined renomination, running instead for City Solicitor, a position elected by the City Council. He was elected for a one-year term in 1900, and reelected in 1901.[27] This position gave Coolidge more experience as a lawyer, and paid a salary of $600.[27] In 1902, the city council selected a Democrat for city solicitor, and Coolidge returned to an exclusively private practice.[28] Soon thereafter, however, the clerk of courts for the county died, and Coolidge was chosen to replace him. The position paid well, but barred him from practicing law, so he only remained at the job for one year.[28] The next year, 1904, Coolidge met with his only defeat before the voters, losing an election to the Northampton school board. When told that some of his neighbors voted against him because he had no children in the schools he would govern, Coolidge replied "Might give me time!"[28] In 1906 the local Republican committee nominated Coolidge for election to the state House of Representatives. He won a close victory over the incumbent Democrat, and reported to Boston for the 1907 session of the Massachusetts General Court.[29] In his freshman term, Coolidge served on minor committees and, although he usually voted with the party, was known as a Progressive Republican, voting in favor of such measures as women's suffrage and the direct election of Senators.[30] Throughout his time in Boston, Coolidge found himself allied primarily with the western Winthrop Murray Crane faction of the state Republican Party, as against the Henry Cabot Lodge-dominated eastern faction.[31] In 1907, he was elected to a second term. In the 1908 session, Coolidge was more outspoken, but was still not one of the leaders in the legislature.[32] Instead of vying for another term in the state house, Coolidge returned home to his growing family and ran for mayor of Northampton when the incumbent Democrat retired. He was well-liked in the town, and defeated his challenger by a vote of 1,597 to 1,409.[33] During his first term (1910 to 1911), he increased teachers' salaries and retired some of the city's debt while still managing to effect a slight tax decrease.[34] He was renominated in 1911, and defeated the same opponent by a slightly larger margin.[35] In 1911, the State Senator for the Hampshire County area retired and encouraged Coolidge to run for his seat for the 1912 session. He defeated his Democratic opponent by a large margin.[36] At the start of that term, Coolidge was selected to be chairman of a committee to arbitrate the "Bread and Roses" strike by the workers of the American Woolen Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts.[37] After two tense months, the company agreed to the workers' demands in a settlement the committee proposed.[38] The other major issue for Republicans that year was the party split between the progressive wing, which favored Theodore Roosevelt, and the conservative wing, which favored William Howard Taft. Although he favored some progressive measures, Coolidge refused to leave the Republican party.[39] When the new Progressive Party declined to run a candidate in his state senate district, Coolidge won reelection against his Democratic opponent by an increased margin.[39] The 1913 session was less eventful, and Coolidge's time was mostly spent on the railroad committee, of which he was the chairman.[40] Coolidge intended to retire after the 1913 session, as two terms were the norm, but when the President of the State Senate, Levi H. Greenwood, considered running for Lieutenant Governor, Coolidge decided to run again for the Senate in the hopes of being elected as its presiding officer.[41] Although Greenwood later decided to run for reelection to the Senate, he was defeated and Coolidge was elected, with Crane's help, as the President of a closely divided Senate.[42] After his election in January 1914, Coolidge delivered a speech entitled Have Faith in Massachusetts, which summarized his philosophy of government. It was later published in a book, and frequently quoted.[43]