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.