120 Facts About Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge began his career as a member of the Massachusetts State House.

Calvin Coolidge rose up the ranks of Massachusetts politics and was elected governor in 1918.

Calvin Coolidge's prompt and effective response to the Boston police strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight as a man of decisive action.

Calvin Coolidge served as vice president until Harding's death in 1923, after which he assumed the presidency.

Calvin Coolidge signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted US citizenship to all Native Americans, and oversaw a period of rapid and expansive economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties", leaving office with considerable popularity.

Calvin Coolidge is widely admired for his stalwart support of racial equality during a period of heightened racial tension, and is highly regarded by advocates of smaller government and laissez-faire economics; supporters of an active central government generally view him far less favorably.

Calvin Coolidge's critics argue that he failed to use the country's economic boom to help struggling farmers and workers in other flailing industries, and there is still much debate among historians about the extent to which Coolidge's economic policies contributed to the onset of the Great Depression, which began shortly after he left office.

Calvin Coolidge was the elder of the two children of John Calvin Coolidge Sr.

The name Calvin was used in multiple generations of the Coolidge family, apparently selected in honor of John Calvin, the Protestant Reformer.

Calvin Coolidge Senior engaged in many occupations and developed a statewide reputation as a prosperous farmer, storekeeper, and public servant.

Calvin Coolidge held various local offices, including justice of the peace and tax collector and served in both houses of the Vermont General Assembly.

When Calvin Coolidge was 12 years old, his chronically ill mother died at the age of 39, perhaps from tuberculosis.

Calvin Coolidge's father married a Plymouth schoolteacher in 1891, and lived to the age of 80.

Calvin Coolidge descended from Samuel Appleton, who settled in Ipswich and led the Massachusetts Bay Colony during King Philip's War.

Calvin Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, another John Calvin Coolidge, was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War and one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth.

Calvin Coolidge's cousin Park Pollard was a businessman in Cavendish, Vermont, and the longtime chair of the Vermont Democratic Party.

Calvin Coolidge's mother was the daughter of Hiram Dunlap Moor, a Plymouth Notch farmer, and Abigail Franklin.

Calvin Coolidge attended the Black River Academy and then St Johnsbury Academy before enrolling at Amherst College, where he distinguished himself in the debating class.

At his father's urging after graduation, Calvin Coolidge moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, to become a lawyer.

John C Hammond and Henry P Field, both Amherst graduates, introduced Coolidge to practicing law in the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

In 1897, Calvin Coolidge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, becoming a country lawyer.

Calvin Coolidge practiced commercial law, believing that he served his clients best by staying out of court.

In 1903, Calvin Coolidge met Grace Goodhue, a graduate of the University of Vermont and a teacher at Northampton's Clarke School for the Deaf.

Calvin Coolidge was frugal, and when it came to securing a home, he insisted upon renting.

The Republican Party was dominant in New England at the time, and Calvin Coolidge followed the example of Hammond and Field by becoming active in local politics.

In 1896, Calvin Coolidge campaigned for Republican presidential candidate William McKinley, and was selected to be a member of the Republican City Committee the next year.

Calvin Coolidge was elected to a one-year term in 1900 and reelected in 1901.

In 1902, the city council selected a Democrat for city solicitor, and Calvin Coolidge returned to private practice.

Soon thereafter, the clerk of courts for the county died, and Calvin Coolidge was chosen to replace him.

In 1904, Calvin Coolidge suffered his sole defeat at the ballot box, losing an election to the Northampton school board.

Calvin Coolidge won a close victory over the incumbent Democrat, and reported to Boston for the 1907 session of the Massachusetts General Court.

Calvin Coolidge forged another key strategic alliance with Guy Currier, who had served in both state houses and had the social distinction, wealth, personal charm, and broad circle of friends Calvin Coolidge lacked, and which had a lasting impact on his political career.

Calvin Coolidge was well liked in the town, and defeated his challenger by a vote of 1,597 to 1,409.

In 1911, the State Senator for the Hampshire County area retired and successfully encouraged Calvin Coolidge to run for his seat for the 1912 session.

Coolidge intended to retire after his second term, as was customary, but when the president of the state senate, Levi H Greenwood, considered running for lieutenant governor, Coolidge decided to run for the Senate again in hopes of being elected its presiding officer.

Calvin Coolidge was in favor of the women's vote, and was reelected.

Calvin Coolidge's speech was well received, and he attracted some admirers on its account.

Calvin Coolidge's supporters, led by fellow Amherst alumnus Frank Stearns, encouraged him again to run for lieutenant governor.

Calvin Coolidge was the leading vote-getter in the Republican primary, and balanced the Republican ticket by adding a western presence to McCall's eastern base of support.

McCall and Calvin Coolidge won the 1915 election to their respective one-year terms, with Calvin Coolidge defeating his opponent by more than 50,000 votes.

In Massachusetts, the lieutenant governor does not preside over the state Senate, as is the case in many other states; nevertheless, as lieutenant governor, Calvin Coolidge was a deputy governor functioning as an administrative inspector and was a member of the governor's council.

Calvin Coolidge was chairman of the finance committee and the pardons committee.

McCall and Calvin Coolidge were both reelected in 1916 and in 1917.

When McCall decided that he would not stand for a fourth term, Calvin Coolidge announced his intention to run for governor.

Calvin Coolidge was unopposed for the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts in 1918.

Tacitly but fully in support of Curtis's position, Calvin Coolidge closely monitored the situation but initially deferred to the local authorities.

Calvin Coolidge anticipated that only a resulting measure of lawlessness could sufficiently prompt the public to understand and appreciate the controlling principle: that a policeman does not strike.

Calvin Coolidge, sensing the severity of circumstances were then in need of his intervention, conferred with Crane's operative, William Butler, and then acted.

Calvin Coolidge called up more units of the National Guard, restored Curtis to office, and took personal control of the police force.

Curtis proclaimed that all of the strikers were fired from their jobs, and Calvin Coolidge called for a new police force to be recruited.

That night Calvin Coolidge received a telegram from AFL leader Samuel Gompers.

Calvin Coolidge had lost some friends among organized labor, but conservatives saw a rising star.

Calvin Coolidge faced the same opponent as in 1918, Richard Long, but this time Coolidge defeated him by 125,101 votes, more than seven times his margin of victory from a year earlier.

Calvin Coolidge was one such candidate, and while he placed as high as sixth in the voting, the powerful party bosses running the convention, primarily the party's US Senators, never considered him seriously.

The suggestion caught on quickly, with the masses craving an act of independence from the absent bosses, and Calvin Coolidge was unexpectedly nominated.

On November 2,1920, Harding and Calvin Coolidge were victorious in a landslide, winning more than 60 percent of the popular vote, including every state outside the South.

The vice presidency did not carry many official duties, but Harding invited Calvin Coolidge to attend cabinet meetings, making him the first vice president to do so.

Calvin Coolidge gave a number of unremarkable speeches around the country.

Calvin Coolidge looked then precisely as though he had been weaned on a pickle.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his family home, which had neither electricity nor a telephone, when he received word by messenger of Harding's death.

Calvin Coolidge dressed, said a prayer, and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled.

The nation initially did not know what to make of Calvin Coolidge, who had maintained a low profile in the Harding administration.

Calvin Coolidge believed that those of Harding's men under suspicion were entitled to every presumption of innocence, taking a methodical approach to the scandals, principally the Teapot Dome scandal, while others clamored for rapid punishment of those they presumed guilty.

Calvin Coolidge thought the Senate investigations of the scandals would suffice.

Calvin Coolidge personally intervened in demanding the resignation of Attorney General Harry M Daugherty after Daugherty refused to cooperate with the investigations.

Calvin Coolidge then set about to confirm that no loose ends remained in the administration, arranging for a full briefing on the wrongdoing.

On December 6,1923, Calvin Coolidge addressed Congress when it reconvened, giving a speech that supported many of Harding's policies, including Harding's formal budgeting process, the enforcement of immigration restrictions, and the arbitration of coal strikes ongoing in Pennsylvania.

Later that year, Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act, which was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigration, but appended a signing statement expressing his unhappiness with the bill's specific exclusion of Japanese immigrants.

On June 2,1924, Calvin Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

Calvin Coolidge won every state outside the South except Wisconsin, La Follette's home state.

Calvin Coolidge left the administration's industrial policy in the hands of his activist Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, who energetically used government auspices to promote business efficiency and develop airlines and radio.

Calvin Coolidge disdained regulation and appointed men to the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission, who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction.

The regulatory state under Calvin Coolidge was, as one biographer called it, "thin to the point of invisibility".

Calvin Coolidge signed the Radio Act of 1927, which established the Federal Radio Commission and the equal-time rule for radio broadcasters and restricted radio broadcasting licenses to stations that demonstrated they served "the public interest, convenience, or necessity".

Calvin Coolidge's ideas were shared by the Republicans in Congress, and in 1924, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced income tax rates and eliminated all income taxation for two million people.

Federal spending remained flat during Calvin Coolidge's administration, allowing one-fourth of the federal debt to be retired.

Calvin Coolidge opposed McNary-Haugen, saying that agriculture must stand "on an independent business basis" and that "government control cannot be divorced from political control".

In May 1928, Congress passed the bill again by an increased majority, and Calvin Coolidge vetoed it again.

Calvin Coolidge has often been criticized for his actions during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Calvin Coolidge believed that visiting the region after the floods would accomplish nothing and be seen as political grandstanding.

Calvin Coolidge did not want to incur the federal spending that flood control would require.

Calvin Coolidge believed that property owners should bear much of the cost.

When Congress passed a compromise measure in 1928, Calvin Coolidge declined to take credit for it and signed the bill in private on May 15.

Calvin Coolidge disliked the Ku Klux Klan and no Klansman is known to have received an appointment from him.

Calvin Coolidge spoke in favor of African Americans' civil rights, saying in his first State of the Union address that their rights were "just as sacred as those of any other citizen" under the US Constitution and that it was a "public and a private duty to protect those rights".

Calvin Coolidge repeatedly called for laws to make lynching a federal crime.

On June 2,1924, Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted US citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations.

On June 6,1924, Calvin Coolidge delivered a commencement address at historically black, non-segregated Howard University, in which he thanked and commended African Americans for their rapid advances in education and contributions to US society over the years, as well as their eagerness to render their services as soldiers in the World War, all while faced with discrimination and prejudice at home.

Calvin Coolidge was neither well versed nor very interested in world affairs.

Calvin Coolidge's focus was mainly on US business, especially pertaining to trade, and "Maintaining the Status Quo".

Calvin Coolidge believed strongly in a non-interventionist foreign policy and supported American exceptionalism.

Calvin Coolidge considered the 1920 Republican victory a rejection of the Wilsonian position that the US should join the League of Nations.

In 1924, the Calvin Coolidge administration nominated Charles Dawes to head the multinational committee that produced the Dawes Plan.

Calvin Coolidge attempted to pursue further curbs on naval strength after the successes of Harding's Washington Naval Conference, by sponsoring the Geneva Naval Conference in 1927, which failed owing to a French and Italian boycott and the failure of Great Britain and the US to agree on cruiser tonnages.

Calvin Coolidge continued the Harding administration's policy of withholding recognition of the Soviet Union.

Calvin Coolidge recognized Mexico's new governments under Alvaro Obregon and Plutarco Elias Calles, and continued US support for the elected Mexican government against the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty during the Cristero War, lifting the arms embargo on Mexico.

Calvin Coolidge appointed Dwight Morrow as Ambassador to Mexico with the successful objective to avoid further conflict with Mexico.

Calvin Coolidge's administration saw continuity in the occupation of Nicaragua and Haiti.

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge ended the US occupation of the Dominican Republic as a result of withdrawal agreements finalized during Harding's administration.

In 1925, Calvin Coolidge ordered the withdrawal of Marines stationed in Nicaragua following perceived stability after the 1924 Nicaraguan general election.

Calvin Coolidge later sent Henry L Stimson to mediate a peace deal that ended the civil war and extend US military presence in Nicaragua beyond Coolidge's presidency.

In January 1928, to extend an olive branch to Latin American leaders embittered over US interventionist policies in Central America and the Caribbean, Calvin Coolidge led the US delegation to the Sixth International Conference of American States in Havana, Cuba, the only international trip Calvin Coolidge made during his presidency.

Calvin Coolidge was the last sitting US president to visit Cuba until Barack Obama in 2016.

For Canada, Calvin Coolidge authorized the St Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks and canals that provided large vessels passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.

Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover held a prominent place in the cabinet, in part because Calvin Coolidge found value in Hoover's ability to win positive publicity with his pro-business proposals.

Calvin Coolidge was replaced by Frank B Kellogg, who had previously served as a senator and ambassador to Great Britain.

In 1925, Coolidge appointed one justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, Harlan F Stone.

In 1924, Stone was serving as the dean of Columbia Law School when Coolidge appointed him to be attorney general to restore the reputation tarnished by Harding's attorney general, Harry M Daugherty.

Calvin Coolidge nominated 17 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals and 61 to the United States district courts.

Calvin Coolidge appointed judges to various specialty courts, including Genevieve R Cline, who became the first woman named to the federal judiciary when Coolidge placed her on the United States Customs Court in 1928.

Calvin Coolidge signed the Judiciary Act of 1925 into law, allowing the Supreme Court more discretion over its workload.

Calvin Coolidge kept a Hacker runabout boat on the Connecticut River, and local boating enthusiasts often observed him on the water.

Calvin Coolidge was an honorary president of the American Foundation for the Blind, a director of New York Life Insurance Company, president of the American Antiquarian Society, and a trustee of Amherst College.

Coolidge published his autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Calvin Coolidge Says", from 1930 to 1931.

Hoover was renominated, and Calvin Coolidge made several radio addresses in support of him.

Some historians have scrutinized Calvin Coolidge for signing laws that broadened federal regulatory authority and say it paved the way for corruption in future presidential administrations.

In 2006, British journalist William Shawcross said he believed Calvin Coolidge was the worst president of the 20th century.

Calvin Coolidge made himself available to reporters, giving 520 press conferences, meeting with reporters more regularly than any president before or since.

Calvin Coolidge signed the Radio Act of 1927, which assigned regulation of radio to the newly created Federal Radio Commission.

When Charles Lindbergh arrived in Washington on a US Navy ship after his celebrated 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, Calvin Coolidge welcomed him back to the US and presented him with the Medal of Honor, and the event was filmed.