What was calvin coolidge known for

Harding of Ohio. The Harding-Coolidge ticket won the election in a landslide and the men took office in March The differences served Coolidge well as he worked to clean up the corruption that had plagued the Harding administration.

He appointed a special counsel to investigate the Teapot Dome oil-lease scandal in which the U. Daugherty Coolidge ran for president in and won decisively over the Democratic candidate, U.

Representative John W. Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin. He cut taxes, limited government spending and stacked regulatory commissions with people sympathetic to business. Coolidge remained popular throughout his presidency. The Roaring Twenties were a time of fast-paced social, cultural and technological changes, and many Americans lived boisterously and spent extravagantly. Women also voted, having won that right with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.

Constitution in Jazz music and Art Deco architecture flourished. Charles Lindbergh made his pioneering solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in More people owned automobiles and purchased mass-produced goods such as canned foods. During this era of societal transformation, Coolidge served as a sort of father figure. The quiet, respectable and frugal president provided a comforting symbol of old-fashioned responsibility and virtue.

Although many people believed that Coolidge could have won re-election in , he publicly announced his decision not to run on August 2, , in a simple note delivered to reporters at a press conference. The physical strain of the job, as well as the death of his father and his youngest son, had depleted his energy and interest in another term. The Republican Party turned to Herbert Hoover , who had served as secretary of commerce under both Harding and Coolidge, as its candidate. After departing the White House , Coolidge retired to Northampton, where he occupied himself by writing his memoirs and contributing political commentary to magazines.

Less than a year after he left office, the U. Although Coolidge had received a great deal of credit for the prosperity of the s, he recognized that he bore some responsibility for the severe economic downturn. Start your free trial today. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Notch was a place he would always hold dear and to which he would frequently return for renewal. As president, he became closely associated with it. Coolidge would always admire and respect him and ever sought to please him through his achievements in life. As president, Coolidge would sign legislation granting all Native Americans U. While not rich, his father was a man of substance for that time and place.

He engaged in farming and various business pursuits, including operating the local store and serving as postmaster. His fellow citizens respected and trusted him. Over many years, he played a prominent part in community affairs, serving in local and state offices. His mother was Victoria Josephine Moor Coolidge, a beautiful lady, we are told, bearing the name of two empresses. She and her husband John grew up together in the Notch and were married there on May 6, It is neither artificial nor superficial, but is kept close to the realities.

His grades were good but unexceptional. There was nothing to set him apart, other than, perhaps, his shyness and frailty. He performed chores faithfully; the wood box was always full. He worked on the farm, helping with haying, bringing in the grain, and husking the corn. He also hunted and fished and liked to ride. He attended dances in the room over the country store, but he himself did not take to the floor.

One of his favorite times of the year was the maple sugar season. Cal, his father said, could get more sap out of a tree than anyone else. In March of , when he was but 12 years old, death took his mother away. His father and grandmother Coolidge did their best to make up for the loss.

Life was never to seem the same again. His deep and abiding love for her is revealed in his Autobiography. He would carry with him a locket containing her portrait until he went to join her. Coolidge had known Carrie, as she was called, all his life. She was a good, caring woman who treated him as if he were her own son.

In February of , at 13 years, Calvin Coolidge broke with the past when he entered the Black River Academy—an institution similar to a high school—at Ludlow. It was, he said, his first great adventure. To prepare for future college work, Coolidge took the classical course, with its focus on Latin, Greek, history, and mathematics. During his first term, he began his lifelong study of the Constitution of the United States. Coolidge graduated from the Black River Academy on the 23 rd of May His class consisted of five boys and four girls.

Johnsbury Academy. In August of , Coolidge beheld his first president, Benjamin Harrison, when he attended with his father the dedication of the Bennington Battle Monument. On September 17, , the year-old Coolidge entered Amherst College. His years there were critical to his intellectual, personal, and career development.

Garman, who taught philosophy. Garman re-enforced in Coolidge his beliefs in the common man and in the value of work and gave him a broader outlook on life, one that would allow him to grow as a person over time. It would form the basis for his long career of public service. Coolidge enjoyed the social life of the college, although, because of his shyness, he remained in the background.

Yet he made acquaintances, men such as Dwight Morrow, a future financier. These men, along with other Amherst alumni, such as Frank W. Stearns, a wealthy Boston merchant, would later play a significant role in urging and cheering him on in his political career.

Stearns, in particular, would become his friend and principal backer. He joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, in which he would take a lifelong interest. Recognizing his oratorical skills, at commencement time, his classmates honored him by choosing him to be Grove Orator. In this role, he was charged with making his audience laugh, and laugh they did.

On the 26 th day of June , Calvin Coolidge graduated A. The contest was opened to all seniors at American colleges and universities. His paper won the silver medal at Amherst and then went on to be awarded first prize—a gold medal about 7.

This was quite an academic honor for the young Coolidge. It demonstrated his scholarly abilities and writing skills, which would later reappear in his public papers. Coolidge had decided upon a career in law and wished to attend law school.

His father, however, thought it best that he read the law at an established law firm—an old-fashion but practical and inexpensive way of learning the law.

Hammond and Henry P. Field, both Amherst graduates, located in Northampton, Massachusetts, a city then of about 15, souls. In a sense, Coolidge was returning to his ancestral home, for his ancestors had lived in Massachusetts for years before migrating to Vermont. It was on September 23, , that Coolidge began his lawyer apprenticeship. Hammond and Field, both fine attorneys, took the young man under their wing. As always with Coolidge, he applied himself fully and in time, became proficient at his new profession.

Just two days before his 25th birthday in , Coolidge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. The following year, on February 1, , he opened his own law office on the second floor of the Masonic block on Main Street.

Inspiring confidence and trust, he built a solid reputation for himself and slowly his practice grew. Over time, he would become an attorney for the Springfield Brewery and counsel for the Nonotuck Savings Bank, the largest savings institution in Northampton.

He willingly helped all, including the poor, who came to him for assistance. His fees were so low that his colleagues in the law upbraided him for not charging more. By the turn of the century, Coolidge had become an established lawyer and was active in civic affairs.

All that was missing from his life was a wife. This problem was remedied when he met the beautiful and charming, Grace Anna Goodhue, a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf. Love bloomed at first sight. Grace was truly the love of his life. And no citizen of the United States knows the truth of this statement more than I.

As a companion, with her friendly, outgoing personality, she compensated for his silent reserve. Their first child, who they called John, arrived on September 7, He would live a long and productive life, dying in May of A second child, Calvin, Jr. This child, who resembled his father both in looks and in his ways, would die tragically in July of at the beginning of the presidential election campaign. Calvin Coolidge was born into politics.

Later, he would attend town meetings with his father and observe how he handled himself and dealt with issues facing the community. His faith in the people was absolute. The importance of elections was brought home to Coolidge in the Garfield-Hancock presidential campaign of , when he was eight years old. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B.

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The mind of America must be forever free. Inaugural Address. Overview A quiet and somber man whose sour expression masked a dry wit, Calvin Coolidge was known as "Silent Cal.