Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; KOOL-ij; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he served from 1921 to 1923 as the 29th vice president, under President Warren G. Harding, and from 1919 to 1921 as the 48th governor of Massachusetts. Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, with a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor that earned him the nickname "Silent Cal".
Coolidge began his career as a member of the Massachusetts State House. He rose up the ranks of Massachusetts politics and was elected governor in 1918. As governor, Coolidge ran on the record of fiscal conservatism, strong support for women's suffrage, and vague opposition to Prohibition. His prompt and effective response to the Boston police strike in 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight as a man of decisive action. The following year, the Republican Party nominated Coolidge as the running mate to Senator Warren G. Harding in the 1920 presidential election, which they won in a landslide. Coolidge served as vice president until Harding's death in 1923, after which he assumed the presidency.
During his presidency, Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the Harding administration's many scandals. He signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans, along with the Immigration Act of 1924, which aimed at limiting immigration from outside the Western Hemisphere and established the United States Border Patrol; and oversaw a period of rapid and expansive economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties", leaving office with considerable popularity. Coolidge was known for his hands-off governing approach and pro-business stance; biographer Claude Fuess wrote: "He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength." Coolidge chose not to run again in 1928, remarking that ten years as president would be "longer than any other man has had it—too long!"
Coolidge is widely admired for his stalwart support of racial equality during a period of heightened racial tension, and he is highly regarded by advocates of smaller government and laissez-faire economics; supporters of an active central government generally view him far less favorably. His 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. Scholars have ranked Coolidge in the lower half of U.S. presidents.
Early life and family history
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont—the only U.S. president to be born on Independence Day. He was the elder of the two children of John Calvin Coolidge Sr. and Victoria Josephine Moor. Although named for his father, from early childhood Coolidge was addressed by his middle name. The name Calvin was used in multiple generations of the Coolidge family, apparently selected in honor of John Calvin, the Protestant Reformer, with Coolidge describing his ancestors as "English Puritan stock" in his Autobiography.
Coolidge's earliest American ancestor, John Coolidge, emigrated from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, around 1630 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. Coolidge also descended from Samuel Appleton, who settled in Ipswich and led the Massachusetts Bay Colony during King Philip's War. Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, another John Coolidge, was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War and one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth.
His grandfather Calvin Galusha Coolidge served in the Vermont House of Representatives. His cousin Park Pollard was a businessman in Cavendish, Vermont, and the longtime chair of the Vermont Democratic Party. Coolidge's mother was the daughter of Hiram Dunlap Moor, a Plymouth Notch farmer, and Abigail Franklin.
Coolidge Senior engaged in many occupations and developed a statewide reputation as a prosperous farmer, storekeeper, and public servant. He held various local offices, including justice of the peace and tax collector and served in both houses of the Vermont General Assembly. When Coolidge was 12 years old, his chronically ill mother died at the age of 39, perhaps from tuberculosis. His younger sister, Abigail Grace Coolidge (1875–1890), died at the age of 15, probably of appendicitis, when Coolidge was 18. Coolidge's father married a Plymouth schoolteacher in 1891, and lived to the age of 80.
Early career and marriage
Education and law practice
Coolidge attended the Black River Academy and then St. Johnsbury Academy before enrolling at Amherst College, where he distinguished himself in the debating class. As a senior, he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated cum laude. While at Amherst, Coolidge was profoundly influenced by philosophy professor Charles Edward Garman, a Congregational mystic who had a neo-Hegelian philosophy. Coolidge explained Garman's ethics forty years later:[T]here is a standard of righteousness that might does not make right, that the end does not justify the means, and that expediency as a working principle is bound to fail. The only hope of perfecting human relationships is in accordance with the law of service under which men are not so solicitous about what they shall get as they are about what they shall give. Yet people are entitled to the rewards of their industry. What they earn is theirs, no matter how small or how great. But the possession of property carries the obligation to use it in a larger service.
At his father's urging after graduation, Coolidge moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, to become a lawyer. Coolidge followed the common practice of apprenticing with a local law firm, Hammond & Field, and reading law with them. 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, Coolidge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, becoming a country lawyer. With his savings and a small inheritance from his grandfather, Coolidge opened his own law office in Northampton in 1898. He practiced commercial 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.
Marriage and family
In 1903, Coolidge met Grace Goodhue, a graduate of the University of Vermont and a teacher at Northampton's Clarke School for the Deaf. They married on October 4, 1905, at 2:30 p.m. in a small ceremony which took place in the parlor of Grace's family's house, having overcome her mother's objections to the marriage. The newlyweds went on a honeymoon trip to Montreal, originally planned for two weeks but cut short by a week at Coolidge's request. After 25 years he wrote of Grace, "for almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her graces".
The Coolidges had two sons: John (1906–2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908–1924). On June 30, 1924, Calvin Jr. played tennis with his brother on the White House tennis courts without putting on socks and developed a blister on one of his toes. The blister subsequently degenerated into sepsis. He died a little over a week later at the age of 16.
Coolidge never forgave himself for Calvin Jr's death. His elder son John said it "hurt [Coolidge] terribly", and psychiatric biographer Robert E. Gilbert, author of The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression, said that Coolidge "ceased to function as President after the death of his sixteen-year-old son". Gilbert writes that after Calvin Jr.'s death Coolidge displayed all ten of the symptoms the American Psychiatric Association lists as evidence of major depressive disorder. John later became a railroad executive, helped start the Coolidge Foundation, and was instrumental in creating the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site.
Coolidge was frugal, and when it came to securing a home, he insisted upon renting. He and his wife attended Northampton's Edwards Congregational Church before and after his presidency.
Local political office (1898−1915)
City offices
The Republican Party was dominant in New England at the time, and Coolidge followed the example of Hammond and Field by becoming active in local politics. In 1896, Coolidge campaigned for Republican presidential candidate William McKinley, and was selected to be a member of the Republican City Committee the next year. In 1898, he won election to the City Council of Northampton, placing second in a ward where the top three candidates were elected. The position offered no salary but provided Coolidge with valuable political experience.
In 1899, the city council made Coolidge city solicitor. He was elected to a one-year term in 1900 and reelected in 1901. This position gave Coolidge more experience as a lawyer and paid a salary of $600 (equivalent to $23,220 in 2025). In 1902, the city council selected a Democrat for city solicitor, and Coolidge returned to private practice. Soon thereafter, the clerk of courts for the county died, and Coolidge was chosen to replace him. The position paid well, but it barred him from practicing law, so he remained at the job for only a year.
In 1904, Coolidge suffered his sole defeat at the ballot box, 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, the recently married Coolidge replied, "Might give me time!"
Massachusetts state legislator and mayor
In 1906, the local Republican committee nominated Coolidge for election to the Massachusetts 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. 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.
While in Boston, Coolidge became an ally, and then a faithful supporter, of then U.S. Senator Winthrop Murray Crane, who controlled the Massachusetts Republican Party's western faction; Crane's party rival in eastern Massachusetts was U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. 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 Coolidge lacked, and which had a lasting impact on his political career. In 1907, Coolidge was reelected. In the 1908 session he was more outspoken, though not in a leadership position.
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. During his first term from 1910 to 1911, he increased teachers' salaries and retired some of the city's debt while still managing to effect a slight tax decrease. In 1911, he was renominated and defeated the same opponent by a slightly larger margin.
In 1911, the State Senator for the Hampshire County area retired and successfully encouraged Coolidge to run for his seat for the 1912 session. Coolidge defeated his Democratic opponent by a large margin. At the start of that term, he became chairman of a committee to arbitrate the "Bread and Roses" strike by the workers of the American Woolen Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts. After two tense months, the company agreed to the workers' demands, in a settlement proposed by the committee.
A major issue affecting Massachusetts Republicans in 1912 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. 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.
Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation.
In the 1913 session, Coolidge enjoyed renowned success in arduously navigating to passage the Western Trolley Act, which connected Northampton with a dozen similar industrial communities in Western Massachusetts.
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. Greenwood later decided to run for reelection to the Senate, and was defeated primarily due to his opposition to women's suffrage.
Coolidge was in favor of the women's vote, and was reelected. With Crane's help, Coolidge assumed the presidency of a closely divided Senate. After his election in January 1914, Coolidge delivered a published and frequently quoted speech, Have Faith in Massachusetts, which summarized his philosophy of government.
Coolidge's speech was well received, and he attracted some admirers on its account. Towards the end of the term, many of them were proposing Coolidge's name for nomination to lieutenant governor. After winning reelection to the Senate by an increased margin in the 1914 elections, Coolidge was reelected unanimously to be President of the Senate. Coolidge's supporters, led by fellow Amherst alumnus Frank Stearns, encouraged him again to run for lieutenant governor. Stearns, an executive with the Boston department store R. H. Stearns, became another key ally, and began a publicity campaign on Coolidge's behalf before he announced his candidacy at the end of the 1915 legislative session.
Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Massachusetts (1916−1921)
Coolidge entered the primary election for lieutenant governor and was nominated to run alongside gubernatorial candidate Samuel W. McCall. 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 Coolidge won the 1915 election to their respective one-year terms, with 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, Coolidge was a deputy governor functioning as an administrative inspector and was a member of the governor's council. He was also chairman of the finance committee and the pardons committee. As a full-time elected official, Coolidge discontinued his law practice in 1916, though his family continued to live in Northampton. McCall and Coolidge were both reelected in 1916 and in 1917. When McCall decided that he would not stand for a fourth term, Coolidge announced his intention to run for governor.
1918 election
Coolidge was unopposed for the Republican nomination for governor of Massachusetts in 1918. He and his running mate, Channing Cox, a Boston lawyer and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, ran on the previous administration's record: fiscal conservatism, a vague opposition to Prohibition, support for women's suffrage, and support for American involvement in World War I. The issue of the war proved divisive, especially among Irish and German Americans. Coolidge was elected by a margin of 16,773 votes over his opponent, Richard H. Long, in the smallest margin of victory of any of his statewide campaigns.
Boston police strike
In 1919, in reaction to a plan of the policemen of the Boston Police Department to register with a union, Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis announced that such an act would not be tolerated. In August of that year, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) issued a charter to the Boston Police Union. Curtis declared the union's leaders were guilty of insubordination and would be relieved of duty, but indicated he would cancel their suspension if the union was dissolved by September 4. The mayor of Boston, Andrew Peters, convinced Curtis to delay his action for a few days, but with no results, and Curtis suspended the union leaders on September 8. The following day, about three-quarters of the policemen in Boston went on strike.
Tacitly but fully in support of Curtis's position, Coolidge closely monitored the situation but initially deferred to the local authorities. He 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. That night and the next, there was sporadic violence and rioting in the city. Concerned about sympathy strikes by the firemen and others, Peters called up some units of the Massachusetts National Guard stationed in the Boston area pursuant to an old and obscure legal authority and relieved Curtis of duty.
Coolidge, sensing the severity of circumstances were then in need of his intervention, conferred with Crane's operative, William Butler, and then acted. He 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 Coolidge called for a new police force to be recruited.
That night Coolidge received a telegram from AFL leader Samuel Gompers. "Whatever disorder has occurred", Gompers wrote, "is due to Curtis's order in which the right of the policemen has been denied".
Coolidge publicly answered Gompers's telegram, denying any justification whatsoever for the strike—and his response launched him into the national consciousness. Newspapers nationwide picked up on Coolidge's statement and he became the strike's opponents' newest hero. Amid the First Red Scare, many Americans were terrified of the spread of communist revolutions like those in Russia, Hungary, and Germany. Coolidge had lost some friends among organized labor, but conservatives saw a rising star. Although he usually acted with deliberation, the Boston police strike gave Coolidge a national reputation as a decisive leader and strict enforcer of law and order.
Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the opportunity; the criminal element furnished the action. There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time. ... I am equally determined to defend the sovereignty of Massachusetts and to maintain the authority and jurisdiction over her public officers where it has been placed by the Constitution and laws of her people.
1919 election
Coolidge and Cox were renominated for their respective offices in 1919. By this time Coolidge's supporters, especially Stearns, had publicized his actions in the Police Strike around the state and the nation, and some of Coolidge's speeches were published in book form. He 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. His actions in the police strike, combined with the massive electoral victory, led to suggestions that Coolidge run for president in 1920.
Legislation and vetoes as governor
By the time Coolidge was inaugurated on January 2, 1919, the First World War had ended, and Coolidge pushed the legislature to give a $100 bonus (equivalent to $1,857 in 2025) to Massachusetts veterans. He signed a bill reducing the work week for women and children from 54 hours to 48, saying, "We must humanize the industry, or the system will break down." He passed a budget that kept the tax rates the same, while trimming $4 million from expenditures, allowing the state to retire some of its debt.
Coolidge wielded the veto pen as governor. His most publicized veto prevented an increase in legislators' pay by 50%. Although he was personally opposed to Prohibition, he vetoed a bill in May 1920 that would have allowed the sale of beer or wine of 2.75% alcohol or less, in Massachusetts in violation of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. "Opinions and instructions do not outmatch the Constitution," he said in his veto message. "Against it, they are void."
Vice presidency (1921–1923)
1920 election
At the 1920 Republican National Convention, most of the delegates were selected by state party caucuses, not primaries. As such, the field was divided among many local favorites. 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 U.S. Senators, never considered him seriously. After ten ballots, the bosses and then the delegates settled on Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio as their nominee for president.
When the time came to select a vice-presidential nominee, the bosses also announced their choice, Senator Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin, and then departed after his name was put forth, relying on the rank and file to confirm their decision. A delegate from Oregon, Wallace McCamant, had read Have Faith in Massachusetts and proposed Coolidge for vice president instead. The suggestion caught on quickly, with the masses craving an act of independence from the absent bosses, and Coolidge was unexpectedly nominated.
The Democrats nominated another Ohioan, James M. Cox, for president and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, for vice president. The question of the United States joining the League of Nations was a major issue in the campaign, as was the unfinished legacy of Progressivism. Harding ran a "front-porch" campaign from his home in Marion, Ohio, but Coolidge took to the campaign trail in the Upper South, New York, and New England – his audiences carefully limited to those familiar with Coolidge and those placing a premium upon concise and short speeches. On November 2, 1920, Harding and Coolidge were victorious in a landslide, winning more than 60 percent of the popular vote, including every state outside the South. They won in Tennessee, the first time a Republican ticket had won a Southern state since Reconstruction.
"Silent Cal"
The vice presidency did not carry many official duties, but Harding invited Coolidge to attend cabinet meetings, making him the first vice president to do so. He gave a number of unremarkable speeches around the country.
As vice president, Coolidge and his vivacious wife Grace were invited to quite a few parties, where the legend of "Silent Cal" was born. It is from this time that most of the jokes and anecdotes involving Coolidge originate, such as Coolidge being "silent in five languages". Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was commonly referred to as "Silent Cal".
An apocryphal story has it that a person seated next to Coolidge at a dinner told him, "I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you", to which Coolidge replied, "You lose". On April 22, 1924, Coolidge said that the "You lose" incident never occurred. The story was related by Frank B. Noyes, President of the Associated Press, to its membership at its annual luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, when toasting and introducing Coolidge, the invited speaker. After the introduction and before his prepared remarks, Coolidge told the membership, "Your President [Noyes] has given you a perfect example of one of those rumors now current in Washington which is without any foundation."