Calvin Coolidge



Click here to hear a recording of Calvin Coolidge's voice.

• Vice President to:       Warren G. Harding - Republican, from Ohio.
  
  
  • Warren G. Harding served 1921 - 1923. He died in office, in 1923, at the age of 58.
    
    
• Dates Served: Coolidge served as Vice President from 1921 - 1923, then as President till 1929.
  
• Political Party: Coolidge was a Republican, from Massachusetts.
  
• Born: 1872.
  
• Died: 1933, at the age of 61.
  
• The presidential opponent during the 1920 campaign was:
  
  
  • James Cox - Democrat - Ohio Governor
    (His running-mate was future-president Franklin D. Roosevelt)
    
    
• Campaign issues in 1920:
  
  
  • The main issue this year was the League of Nations. With the end of the Great War Americans wanted to go back to focusing on domestic issues, and Wilson's proposal for the League of Nations wasn't something that many voters wanted to bother with. It was viewed as a tool by which the United States would loose it's ability to act unilaterally in foreign affairs, and few were willing to give up American sovereignty in international decisions. The Republicans were running Harding as their candidate, who gave consistently non-commital answers when asked for his position on the League of Nations. He had also voted for Prohibition, which the anti-Prohibition Democrats made an issue of in their campaign. Their candidate, Cox, spoke out against the poverty and illiteracy (17% at the time) that existed in the United States, supposedly the land of plenty. With most people dead-set against the US joining any multi-national entity like the League of Nations, Harding won the election by a large margin. This was the first election in which women were allowed to vote and they went for Warren, and Warren went for them.
    
    
  
  
• Notable Facts about Calvin Coolidge:
  
  
  • Religious affiliation: Coolidge was a Congregationalist. He never formally joined any congregation, though he regularly attended services. Religion was not a subject he discussed often, and kept his views mostly to himself.
    
    
  • Calvin was born on the 4th of July, the only Vice or real President to do so.
    
    
  • Originally a lawyer, Coolidge began his political career by being elected to the Northampton, Massachusetts City Council, serving from 1899 - 1900. He served as City Solicitor from 1900 - 1902, then was elected the chairman of the local chapter of the Republican Party in 1904.
    
    
  • He served in the State Legislature from 1907 - 1908, then was elected Mayor of Northampton in 1910, in which capacity he served for 2 years.
    
    
  • In 1912 he was elected to the State Senate, serving from 1912 - 1915. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1916 - 1918, then as Governor of the state from 1919 - 1920.
    
    
  • While he was Governor he was once punched in the eye by the Mayor of Boston. Reason unknown.
    
    
  • In 1920 he was nominated to run for Vice President on Warren G. Harding's Presidential campaign, due to his popularity in the Party. When told of his nomination he supposedly said simply, "I suppose I'll have to take it?". Calvin was not the excitable sort.
    
    
  • Coolidge was the first Vice President to be invited to attend Cabinet meetings.
    
    
  • Calvin didn't like to waste time staying awake. He slept an average of 9 hours a day and took daily naps lasting from 2 to 4 hours.
    
    
  • Coolidge learned of President Harding's death while visiting his parents in Vermont, and was sworn in as President in his father's study.
    
    
  • After the end of his term as President, Coolidge spent his time writing and sat on the Board of Directors of a Life Insurance company in New York. Due to his appearance on a radio talkshow, warning listeners about shady practices used by some Life Insurance salesmen, Coolidge was sued in 1931 by an insurance salesman who accused Coolidge of being responsible for his loss of several customers. Coolidge settled out of court, paying him $2,500 in order to avoid a public trial.
    
    
  • Prior to 1974, Vice Presidents didn't have an official residence, like their assistant, the President, did. They usually lived where ever they could find a place, sometimes residing in hotels. Coolidge was one such VP who called a room at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC his home. He later recalled that there was an incident at the hotel one night in which all occupants were evacuated due to a small fire which had broken out. After waiting outside for an extended period of time, Coolidge decided to go back inside, even though the firemen still had the hotel sealed off. He started to walk back inside and a fireman initially let him through, thinking he was a hotel official. But when Coolidge informed him he was the Vice President of America, the fireman changed his mind and told Coolidge to go back and wait outside with everyone else. The office of Vice President is the Rodney Dangerfield of Washington posts.
    
    
  • Calvin was the only Vice President to play the harmonica.
    
    
  • During his term as President, Coolidge began the tradition of erecting the National Christmas Tree on the White House lawn.
    
    
  • Coolidge was the last President to ride a horse to an official function, travelling to give the dedication-speech at the work beginning on Mount Rushmore.
    
    
  • Coolidge died of a heart attack on the afternoon of January 5th, 1933 after working on a crossword puzzle.
    

Notable Events during his Vice Presidency:

• Much like President Grant, there was a fair share of scandals during Harding's term as President. Some of the more notorious ones were:
  
  
  • The Teapot Dome scandal. Harding's Secretary of Interior was not particularly cozy with Conservationists, perfering to acquire natural resources where ever they could be found. He convinced Harding to transfer the federal oil reserves to his personal control, and then secretly allowed an oil company to tap into one of them at a site in Wyoming called Teapot Dome. In exchange he was payed around $300,000 in cash and given a herd of cattle. He also allowed another oil company to tap into a federal reserve in a site in California called Elk Hills, and then pocketed his "fee" of $100,000. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
    
    
  • The Alien Property scandal. Members of Harding's staff working for the government Alien Property custodian were accused of accepting bribes, and during the investigation papers were destroyed and Harding's Attorney General committed suicide after being asked to resign by Harding.
    
    
  • The Veterans Bureau scandal. The Director of the Veteran's Bureau had been skimming profits from the sale of war surplus goods and then buying government supplies at inflated prices. He also saw to it that medicine and alcohol from Veterans hospitals made their way into the hands of bootleggers and drug dealers, at a nice personal profit. He was accused of fraud, one of his aids committed suicide, and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
    
    
• The League of Nations failure, in 1921. Harding refused to support any US role in the League of Nations which had been proposed by President Wilson. He did, however, support a US role in the World Court, created by the League of Nations to handle international legal issues. The Senate, however, did not support him in this.
  
  
• President Harding often snuck out of the White House to attend burlesque shows.
  
  
• Jacob Cohen, later to become Rodney Dangerfield, is born on Nov. 22, 1921. According to Rodney, at birth the doctor turned him over and said, "Look, twins!"
  
  
• The death of the President while in office. On Aug 2, 1923 President Harding was in San Francisco, the latest stop on a long tour he was undertaking pitching his agenda to the people. He had been suffering from high blood pressure and increasing cramps and indigestion. In San Francisco he developed pneumonia and a high fever, forcing him to remain bed-ridden. On the evening of August 2nd, Harding's wife spent several hours with him in his room reading the paper to him. He drifted off to sleep and she left the room. During her absence, Harding suffered a stroke in his sleep and died, being discovered later by a nurse. Harding's wife refused permission for an autopsy and rumors have long lingered that the President may have been poisoned by his wife, in relatiation for the years of philandering he had endulged in behind her back. It's never been proven, but it makes for a good conspiracy theory.
  
  
• Vice President Coolidge received the news the next day, since he had no telephone in his house. He was sworn in at 2:47 AM on August 3rd in his father's study-rom, by his father, who had the authority to do so since he was a Justice of the Peace. He was the only father to swear his son in as President.
  

Notable events during his completion of Harding's Presidential term:

• Immigration Act of 1924. Immigration quotas were cut in such a way that immigrants from Northern Europe were given favored status, and immigrants from Japan were essentially excluded.
  
  
• The Veteran's Bonus, in 1924. This legislation gave all World War I veterans full insurance, based on the amount of time served in the war. It wasn't immediate, but could be redeemed in 20 years. It was this promise from the government that led to the march on Washington during the Great Depression, with veterans claiming the commitment from then-President Hoover.
  
  
• Kleenex tissues are invented in 1924.