This book takes up the political thought of Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge won his reputation as “Silent Cal” through the careful cultivation of that image—a crisp, sparse writing style combined with a reputation for saying very little in public or private. If such an image were in fact the true Coolidge, the task of interpreting his political thought would be daunting, if not impossible. Yet Coolidge was not silent. He spoke regularly on public occasions, not least of which were his frequent press conferences during his six years as president of the United States.[3] Three volumes of his collected speeches, published usually in conjunction with or in anticipation of political campaigns (being released in 1919/1920 for the presidential election year, 1924 when Coolidge was at the head of the Republic ticket, and again in 1926 for the midterms), do much to improve the evidentiary base for Coolidge studies.[4] Moreover, his later presidential speeches exist in unpublished form in the Library of Congress.[5] Beyond his speeches, the student of the mind of Calvin Coolidge can consult the collection of Coolidge’s letters to his father; the published collection of his daily column, Calvin Coolidge Says, which ran from 1930 to 1931; and his articles printed for magazines and journals from 1921 through 1934 (the last posthumously published by the Saturday Evening Post).[6] Of course, his autobiography constitutes another obvious point of reference.[7] These writings add up to a considerable volume, testifying not to a silent president, but a president who chose to speak often and according to his own mind.[8]
Beyond the unexamined record of Coolidge’s speeches and writings, he makes a fit figure for understanding constitutional conservatism due to the trajectory of his career. Coolidge’s unique personal and public biography indicate that he was sympathetic to progressive reforms during the early phases of the Progressive Era, but he opposed Roosevelt in the 1912 election and came to oppose and criticize a number of Progressive ideas during his time in national politics. He stood firmly for the U.S. Constitution, articulated a clear view of the development and purpose of the United States, and explained the role the United States should take on the international scene. While he was not the most philosophical of the critics of Progressivism, he was nonetheless a defender of the American regime as he understood it. Consequently, as much as I hope to shed new light on Coolidge, my overarching concern is to understand constitutionalism in the Progressive era, broadly understood.
Coolidge’s Life
A brief sketch of the life and career of Calvin Coolidge will help set the stage for understanding his ideas in their context. John Calvin Coolidge—his given name, though he would later become simply Calvin Coolidge—was born on July 4, 1872, in rural Plymouth, Vermont. Coolidge was named for his father, John Coolidge, a disciplined, responsible, and from all accounts talented man. His mother, Victoria Moor Coolidge, was dear to Calvin, the more so after she passed away in 1885. Calvin was then twelve years old. He had a younger sister, Abigail, who also died young, in 1890. This left Calvin and his father alone, though his father would in time remarry a local schoolteacher, Carrie Brown. John Coolidge was active in local and state politics, and he ultimately rose to become a Vermont state senator. As a boy, Coolidge would join his father at the Plymouth Notch version of the renowned New England town meeting, during which the citizens would discuss, vote, and set taxes and payrates for their public servants. He witnessed firsthand what responsible self-government could be.
In due time, young Calvin Coolidge began his formal education. First he went south from Plymouth to Ludlow, Vermont, where he enrolled at Black River Academy. Coolidge was not reputed an outstanding student, but biographers record his passion for the study of Latin, particularly of Cicero and the power of oratory. In 1890, Coolidge graduated from the academy and sought entrance at Amherst College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Due to some illness, alleged by some to be a severe head cold, he failed the entrance examination but matriculated the following year. At Amherst, Coolidge quietly grew into a man and, through his oratory, a class leader. His autobiography records in glowing praise the influence of his college professors on his own intellectual maturation. By his senior year, Coolidge was known to all his fellow classmates as a speechmaker and debater, and thus he was chosen to give one of the senior addresses at his commencement. He gave more evidence of his impressive rhetorical skill by winning a national essay contest around the same time.
From college Coolidge entered into the study of law, and then he went into politics. The Northampton law firm Hammond and Field gave him a position to read the law and observe its practice. He studied hard and passed the Massachusetts bar examination in two years, following which he opened his own law office in Northampton. As he narrated in his Autobiography, he entered into local politics as a means of improving his legal business—to make himself better known to his neighbors and community. Yet this entry into political service in 1897 marked the beginning of an almost unbelievable political career that would span the entirety of the Progressive Era. In the early years, Coolidge held low-level positions in local government, such as Republican city committee ward member, city councilman, and city solicitor. In public elections, Coolidge lost but two races: when he broke precedent and ran a third time for city solicitor in 1902, and when he ran for school committeeman in 1905. But his political ascent was otherwise so regular and methodical as to be phenomenal—elected to the Massachusetts General Court in 1906, then mayor of Northampton in 1909, state senator in 1911, president of the Senate in 1913, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1915, and governor in 1918. He was nominated for vice president on the Republican ticket in 1920, and with Warren G. Harding at the head of that ticket, won the election. Coolidge succeeded Harding as president upon Harding’s sudden death in 1923, then won the office in his own right in 1924.
Meanwhile, Coolidge had married and begun a family. He met Grace Anna Goodhue, a teacher at the Clarke Institute for the Deaf, in 1904. She also hailed from Vermont and had been educated at the University of Vermont. Calvin and Grace married in 1905. Their oldest son, John Coolidge (named of course for Calvin’s father), was born in 1906. Their second son, Calvin Jr., was born in 1908. Together they lived in a split-family home on Massasoit Street in Northampton.
Coolidge’s political success stemmed in part from his good fortune, as envious politicians would remark, but more from his honesty, diligence, administrative talents, and his determination to uphold the law. The former talents helped him rise in the esteem of his neighbors in Northampton and constituents in Massachusetts. The latter characteristics sustained him as governor and president. In 1919, the combination of economic depression, labor unrest, and fears of Bolshevism across the nation led to labor strikes, riots, and general uneasiness. In Boston, the police force had begun talks of unionizing and striking for better pay and working conditions. When almost the entire police force walked off the job in September of that year, rioting in Boston culminated in Governor Coolidge calling for the State National Guard to restore order. Following its restoration, the governor would not permit the strikers to resume their former jobs, and his stern telegram to labor leader Samuel Gompers catapulted Coolidge to national fame: “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.” Newspapers all around the United States celebrated Coolidge’s firmness in defense of law and order. It led to his choice as vice president at the Republican Convention in 1920, which led directly to his presidency after the death of Warren G. Harding.
But Coolidge’s years as president were to be marked by personal tragedy. The death of his son, Calvin, Jr., in the summer of 1924 cast a pall over the rest of his time in the White House. The passing of his father in 1926 was another blow, and he was entirely ready to retire from the office when the time came.