Basic Facts:
Birth: July 4, 1892 at Plymouth Notch, Vermont as John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
Death: January 5, 1933 North Hampton, Massachusetts
Married: Grace Ann Goodhue (1879-1957) on October 4, 1905
Children: 2: John and Calvin
President: Two terms beginning August 3, 1923 and March 4, 1925
Family
As First Lady, she was a popular hostess. She was also the first First Lady to speak in sound newsreels. The social highlight of the Coolidge years was the party for Charles Lindbergh following his transatlantic flight in 1927. The Coolidges were a particularly devoted couple, although the president never discussed state matters with her. She did not even know that he had decided not to seek re-election in 1928 until he announced it to the press. She received a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Science. In 1931 she was voted one of America’s twelve greatest living women.
The first family was given a raccoon in 1926 as a Thanksgiving gift, and the family raised it as a pet. President Coolidge even gave the animal a collar that was sewn with the words “White House Racoon.” After the Coolidge’s left the White House, the raccoon went to live at a zoo.
The Coolidges had two sons, John (1906–2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908–1924) On July 7, 1924, Calvin Jr., died from blood poisoning. John rarely spoke of the tragedy beyond acknowledging the terrible sadness it caused the family, especially his father.
Per Wikipedia: On the afternoon of June 30, 1924, he (John) was playing tennis with his brother, Calvin Jr., on the White House grounds when Calvin Jr. suffered a blister on his right foot because he wore his tennis shoes without socks, which became infected and progressed into blood poisoning, resulting in his death a week later. John described the loss of his brother as producing a depression in President Coolidge that lasted the rest of his life. As John Coolidge told Life magazine in 1992: “Though father was tenderhearted, he rarely showed his feelings. But when they were taking my brother’s casket from the White House after the services, my father broke down and wept momentarily. Calvin was my father’s favorite. It hurt him terribly. It hurt us all.”
Other
Coolidge was 5′ 10″ tall.
Coolidge is the only President born on July 4th.
When word of Harding’s death reached him, Calvin was in Vermont, visiting his family. His father, John Calvin Coolidge was a notary public and administered the oath of office to his son.
Coolidge minimized government interference and satisfied voters who believed bureaucracy had become too overwhelming.
He was the first president to visit Cuba.
He had two lion cubs that he wryly named Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau.
His tax and debt reduction are a point of pride:
- National debt of $22.3 billion in 1923 lowered to $16.9 billion by 1929.
- Federal expenditures (budget) of $5.1 billion in 1921 were reduced to $3.3 billion in 1929.
- Cut taxes four out of his six years as president.
- Cut effective tax rate on the wealthy was 50 percent (1922) to 20 percent. Revenue from that tax bracket then rose from $77 million to $230 million.
- By 1927, 98% of the population paid no income tax
- Tax burden on those making under $10,000 fell from $130 million in 1923 to under $20 million in 1929.
Quotes of Coolidge:
From Brainy Quote:
Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery
The business of America is business
Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business
If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.
To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.
Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.
More Coolidge Quotes:
From ammo.com
“Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.”
“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”
“Whenever the state of the Treasury can permit, I believe in a reduction of taxes. But I am not advocating tax reduction merely for the benefit of the taxpayer; I am advocating it for the benefit of the country.”
“I want the people of America to be able to work less for the Government …to have the rewards of their own industry. That is the chief meaning of freedom.”
“If ever the citizen comes to feel that our government does not protect him in the free and equal assertion of his rights… he will withdraw his allegiance from that government…”
“Where the people themselves are the government, it needs no argument to demonstrate that what the people cannot do, their government cannot do.”
Return to The Presidents main page.
Sources:
Internet Public Library
Brainy Quote
Coolidge Foundation.org
ammo.com
Greenman, Barbara. The Timeline History of U. S. Presidents and First Ladies. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, California, 2009.