Calvin Coolidge Essay, Research Paper

Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge was the only son of a Vermont storekeeper. He was born in the

house at the rear of his father’s combined general store and post office in Plymouth

Notch. In 1891 he enrolled in Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. His favorite

subjects at college were philosophy and speech. Following his graduation from

Amherst in 1895, Coolidge studied law in Northampton, Massachusetts. The following

year he opened his own law office in Northampton, and maintained a practice there

until 1919.

Coolidge devoted as much time as his law practice would permit to Republican

Party politics. In 1898 he was elected city councilman of Northampton. He won many

votes by his popular saying, “I want your vote. I need it. I shall appreciate it . Between

1900 and 1911 he served as city solicitor, clerk of courts, representative in the

Massachusetts legislature, and mayor of Northampton. He then served as senator in the

state legislature from 1912 to 1915 and as lieutenant governor from 1916 to 1918. In

1918 Coolidge was nominated as the Republican candidate for governor of

Massachusetts. Many people began to think of him for the presidency, and his

Massachusetts supporters tried to have him nominated at the Republican National

Convention in 1920. He did not receive too many votes and was beat out by Warren G.

Harding.

Coolidge was inaugurated vice president on March 4, 1921. While Coolidge was

vice president, it was rumored that major scandals involving Harding’s friends were

about to break out into the public. All this proved true and Harding and Coolidge were

in the middle of the Tea Pot Dome Scandal. Harding died suddenly in San Francisco,

California, on August 2, 1923. Coolidge took the presidential oath in the farmhouse

parlor by the light of kerosene lamps.

Calvin Coolidge temporarily took over Harding’s Cabinet, his group of presidential

advisors and department heads. Harding s problems went to Coolidge to clean up the

scandals of his predecessor’s administration. When the national election of 1924

approached, Coolidge had no difficulty in being nominated for president. The main issue

was the economic condition of the country, which had greatly improved under Coolidge.

When the votes were counted, Coolidge had easily defeated Davis, collecting 382

electoral votes to 136 for the Democrat. Coolidge received 15,725,016 popular votes to

Davis’s 8,385,586.

Coolidge’s conservative policies underwent no change after he assumed the

presidency for a four-year term on March 4, 1925. During his administration,

Coolidge’s respect for private enterprise, especially big businesses, reflected itself in

the operation of certain government agencies. Since a large volume of foreign exports

aided business, Coolidge permitted private loans of billions of dollars to other nations

to make such trade possible. The steadily rising stock market, particularly near the

end of Coolidge’s second term, met with his approval and he foresaw no sign of the

coming stock market crash and depression that began in 1929.

In August 1927, as Coolidge vacationed in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he

released a statement to the newspapers that upset the plans of his supporters. The

statement said, I do not choose to run for president in 1928. Coolidge refused to add

any explanation to this statement, but it is thought that the death of his son, the strain

on his grieving wife, and his own exhaustion were the reasons for his withdrawal from

public life.

Coolidge passed his remaining years quietly after turning the presidential office

over to Hoover on March 4, 1929. He wrote his Autobiography, published in magazine

in 1929 and later in book form. He also published articles encouraging individualism

and a laissez-faire economic policy. The Great Depression began soon after Coolidge

left the office. Meanwhile, Coolidge’s health was failing. In January 1933, two months

before Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated, Coolidge died at his Northampton home.