Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge (1923)

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. (born July 4, 1872 in Plymouth Notch , Vermont , † January 5, 1933 in Northampton , Massachusetts ) was an American politician of the Republican Party and from 1923 to 1929 the 30th  President of the United States .

After serving as Governor of Massachusetts, he was US Vice President under Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923 . After Harding's death in August 1923, he became president. He completed the remaining year and a half of Harding's tenure and was re- elected for a full term in the next presidential election in November 1924 .

Coolidge's main achievements were a rapidly growing, poorly regulated economy, a budget surplus, a reduction in national debt and multiple tax cuts. He pursued a (not undisputed) laissez-faire policy and largely refrained from interfering with the public sector. In terms of foreign policy, the Briand-Kellogg Pact , which outlawed war, was the most important result of his otherwise relatively isolationist policy.

Life to the presidency

Coolidge's birthplace in the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District

Calvin Coolidge was the son of the congregationalist John Calvin Coolidge (March 21, 1845 - March 18, 1926) and Victoria Josephine Moor (March 14, 1846 - March 14, 1885). He had a sister, Abigail Grace Coolidge (1875-1890). His father was politically active and a member of both the Vermont House of Representatives and the Senate of that state. Coolidge graduated from Amherst College . He then learned the profession of lawyer in Northampton until 1897 . On October 4, 1905, Coolidge married Grace Anna Goodhue , with whom he had two sons. His younger son Calvin Jr. died of blood poisoning in July 1924, less than a year after Coolidge moved into the White House.

In 1906 he was elected as a Republican candidate to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. After two years at the Massachusetts State House , he returned to Northampton and won the mayor election there. After a successful re-election the following year, the Republicans successfully nominated him in 1911 for a vacant seat in the Massachusetts Senate . After four years in office in the Senate, he was elected lieutenant governor of the state under Samuel W. McCall in 1915 . In 1919 he became governor of the state of Massachusetts himself and held this office until 1921. For the presidential election in 1920 , the Republicans nominated him for Vice President on Warren G. Harding's ticket . He took the oath of office as Vice President on March 4, 1921. However, he exercised little influence on government policy during his almost two and a half year vice presidency.

Presidency (1923–1929)

Inauguration, cabinet and re-election in 1924

Coolidge at his desk in the White House, 1923

Coolidge was the only president sworn in by his father. When President Harding, under whom Coolidge had been vice-president, died suddenly on August 2, 1923, Coolidge was on his summer vacation in his hometown of Plymouth Notch with his father. This swore him in because he was justice of the peace and notary.

Coolidge was also the first president to be sworn in by a predecessor (1925). As a rule, the Chief Justice swears in the President; at Coolidge's re-election, former President William Howard Taft held that office.

Coolidge took over some of Harding's ministers into his cabinet , and retained three of them throughout his tenure.

Coolidge quickly rose to become one of the most popular presidents. The innovation of nationwide radio speeches, which he was the first to hold, played a major role in this . They brought the president closer to the population acoustically and emotionally. In his private life, on the other hand, he was known as an unusually quiet person who generally did not take part in small talk and table discussions. This earned him the nickname "Silent Cal". His political style was also emphatically calm and characterized by the rejection of any kind of actionism, thus counterbalancing the economic overheating of those years.

For his own election campaign in 1924 , he used the most modern communication strategies such as the MGM film company , the use of stars such as Al Jolson and a specially composed hit song, Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge . It was confirmed by a clear majority in the presidential election on November 4, 1924: 54 percent of the electorate voted for it. John W. Davis , the Democratic candidate, reached only 28.8 percent, the candidate of the Progressive Party , Robert Marion La Follette Sr. , accounted for 16.6 percent. Coolidge obtained a majority in 35 states, getting 382 of 531 votes in Electoral College . His full term as president began with the second swearing in on March 4, 1925. His vice-president during that term was Charles Gates Dawes .

Economic and financial policy

A group of Indians visits the President after being formally declared citizens of the United States by law in 1924

Coolidge awards medals to members of the armed forces (1927)

Official portrait of Calvin Coolidge in the White House

He quickly gained a reputation as a conservative who preferred a small government. Under his administration, the economy showed tremendous growth, national debt was significantly reduced, there was a budget surplus every year, taxes were cut significantly, and the federal government shrank both in absolute terms and relative to state governments and the growing private sector. Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after his predecessor's administration scandals. This policy was in marked contrast to the government activism of his successor Herbert Hoover , which led to a budget deficit and probably contributed greatly to the deepening of the Great Depression , and the experimental policies of Hoover's successor Franklin D. Roosevelt , who created the American welfare state. In his inaugural speech in 1924, Coolidge reinforced Harding's statement “no new experiments” by stating that “if we want to set up new structures, we must first have a certain knowledge of the old foundations”. On the other hand, while the barely regulated, fast-growing economy brought in increased tax revenue despite lower tax rates, Coolidge went to great lengths to reduce government spending. In his weekly meetings with the director of the newly created Bureau of the Budget , Herbert Lord , Coolidge cut federal spending from around $ 3.2 billion in 1923 to $ 3.053 billion in 1924.

Under Coolidge, the Dow Jones , which has oscillated around 100 points for years , rose steadily . The economy grew, unemployment decreased, there was a budget surplus every year, and taxes were cut significantly several times. The United States, under Coolidge, also succeeded in significantly reducing the national debt that was accumulated during the First World War . Coolidge saw the regulation of the economy as negative through his experience with problems caused by the heavy regulation of the railways and highways and tried to give it free rein as president as much as possible. So the rampant stock market speculation and the credit bubble under Coolidge were not contained, but actually promoted. While consumer loans were $ 100 million in 1919, that figure rose to over $ 7 billion by 1929. Coolidge thus became the “epitome of conservative laissez-faire politics in favor of free enterprise, the natural regulating factor of which was free competition in the marketplace”. It is characterized by his statement from 1925: "The business of America is business." John Kenneth Galbraith ruled in his book Crash on Coolidge's role in the preparation of the Great Depression ". President Coolidge neither knew nor cared what what going on" ( "Neither did President Coolidge, what was going on, nor did he care ”).

His finance minister Andrew Mellon convinced Coolidge from the then-new concept of scientific taxation ( scientific taxation ). The concept aims to absolutely maximize tax revenue. Increasing tax rates is often counterproductive to this goal, as the additional taxation can slow economic growth. Lower rates, on the other hand, could increase absolute tax revenues as they allow the private sector to grow faster, which increases the tax base.

Domestic politics

Coolidge turned against the state administration of the waterways, for example against the dam project on the Colorado River , which was driven by Coolidge's Secretary of Commerce and successor Herbert Hoover. However, he partially continued the protective tariff policy .

Coolidge's relationship with Congress was characterized by vetoes and so-called pocket vetoes. That is, Coolidge often refused to sign laws passed by Congress during the summer recess. In general, the conflicts with Congress were characterized by the fact that it increased government spending while Coolidge wanted to reduce it. One of Coolidge's well-known statements was: "I am for thrift, after that I am for more thrift" ("I am for economy, after that I am for more economy"). As the son of a farmer, Coolidge understood the economic concerns of farmers, but doubted the government could ever change the fact that agriculture doesn't make a lot of money. He believed that, just as he had made his career in town, it was the best option for many farmers. For example, he refused to sign the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill of May 4, 1928, which had been in preparation for many years, in support of hundreds of thousands of bankrupt farmers who could no longer pay their mortgages, four times because he feared rising agricultural prices - albeit with the dubious argument that they could fall even further due to government guarantees. In this rejection he was supported by the lobby of the industrialized states.

As the governor of Massachusetts , Coolidge was known earlier in his political career for breaking the Boston police strike. “Nobody has the right to strike against public safety anywhere and at any time” was part of his widely publicized telegram to the police union leaders. All the striking police officers were released. Coolidge's resolute stance on law and order helped calm a very volatile situation and made him known nationwide.

Coolidge supported restricting immigration. He demanded that the United States should be able to accept immigrants and that immigrants fit into their new country. However, Coolidge has been able to gain political support from some immigrant groups (e.g. the Irish in Boston) throughout his career. Coolidge expressed opposition to racial discrimination in a speech . He rarely criticized the Ku Klux Klan in public - especially early in his term in office. He did not share the general reservations about Irish immigrants and Catholics among adherents of the clan. However, immigration legislation was tightened under Coolidge with fixed quotas, which was one of the main demands of the Ku Klux Klan. Eastern and southern Europeans were deliberately discriminated against, while Japanese were banned from immigration. Coolidge wrote a clear letter to Congress severely criticizing the anti-Japanese immigration law. Japan is already controlling the emigration of its citizens and the Congress has "worsened relations with Japan for absolutely no reason or benefit".

However, Coolidge granted the American Indians citizenship rights in 1924. Coolidge also campaigned for anti-lynching laws to be passed. However, these were blocked by Democratic MPs from the southern states. His crisis management during the Mississippi flood in 1927 was criticized. For reasons of the strict separation of federal and state governments, Coolidge did not visit the disaster areas.

With Genevieve R. Cline , he appointed the first woman to be a federal judge in 1928 .

For Steven F. Hayward, as for many other conservative Republicans, Coolidge is "the last serious and self-conscious anti-Progressive Republican president until Reagan came along".

Foreign policy

Calvin Coolidge in the White House Garden (1924)

In foreign policy, Coolidge relied on maintaining the economic and financial primacy of the USA. With the Dawes Plan , Coolidge and his Foreign Secretary Charles Evans Hughes succeeded in reorganizing German war debts in 1924. In 1926 he had American marines intervene in Nicaragua during the Guerra Constitucionalista . This second military intervention in Nicaragua was to last until 1933. The occupation of Haiti continued under his aegis. Under Coolidge, direct investment in South America continued to rise, increasing the region's economic dependence on the United States.

In 1928, Coolidge's Foreign Minister Frank Billings Kellogg signed the Briand-Kellogg Pact , a war ostracism pact. He himself had doubts about the effectiveness of this contract and attributed symbolic importance to it. Despite this, Kellogg was the second member of his government to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after Charles Gates Dawes had previously received it.

During Coolidge's tenure, Fascist Italy was openly financially supported with the help of the JP Morgan banking house ; it received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. The US ambassador to Italy, Richard Washburn Child , was even involved as a ghostwriter on Benito Mussolini's autobiography .

End of the presidency

Surprisingly for the public and politicians, Coolidge announced as early as August 1927 that he would no longer run in the 1928 election despite its considerable popularity and good chances of re-election. The officially tired Coolidge justified his decision with the fact that "the regular change in the office of the president is the best chance for an honest public service". But the real reason was rather private. In the summer before the 1924 presidential election, which he was to win by an overwhelming majority, Coolidge's firstborn, underage son, while playing tennis in the Rose Garden of the White House suffered blood poisoning from a bladder, of which he died shortly afterwards. In his second term in office, the already shy and reserved Coolidge appeared even less in public due to increasing depression and left office on March 4, 1929.

Appeals to the Supreme Court

Calvin Coolidge appointed one of the nine judges to the US Supreme Court in the five years of his reign :

• Harlan Fiske Stone , 1925

Stone was also appointed presiding judge by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 . Further appeals were made to lower federal courts.

Later years and death

Coolidge's grave in Plymouth

Although Coolidge publicly supported his successor Herbert Hoover , who was Minister of Commerce under him , as a party member against the Democrats, he did not like him privately and referred to him as a "Wonder Boy". Coolidge was concerned about Hoover's policies of increasing government spending and running into debt. He feared that this could ultimately lead to problems because, in the event of a crisis, there would be no means of combating it.

Coolidge published his biography in 1929. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack on January 5, 1933, at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts, at the age of 60. Before his death, he regretted the election defeat of his successor. Hoover had lost the 1932 presidential election to Franklin D. Roosevelt . After his death, until Hoover left office on March 4, 1933, no ex-president was alive for a short time.

Coolidge is the only US president to the American national holiday, Independence Day , was born. The Coolidge effect of sexology is named after an anecdote from Coolidge's life , although it was not tested experimentally until the 1950s.

additional

The city of Coolidge, Arizona is named after him.

Works

• The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge (1929). LCCN  30-002458

literature

• Peter Schäfer : Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929): The Puritan in the White House. In: Christof Mauch (ed.): The American Presidents: 44 historical portraits from George Washington to Barack Obama. 6th, continued and updated edition. Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-58742-9 , pp. 297-301.
• Amity Shlaes: Coolidge . HarperCollins, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-06-210717-6 .
• David Greenberg: Calvin Coolidge (= The American Presidents Series. Ed. By Arthur M. Schlesinger , Sean Wilentz . The 30th President). Times Books, New York City 2006, ISBN 978-0-8050-6957-0 .
• Robert Sobel: Coolidge: An American Enigma . Regnery Publishing, Washington DC 1998, ISBN 978-0-89526-247-9 .
• Coolidge, Calvin . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 30 : Abbe - English history . London 1922, p. 745 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : Calvin Coolidge  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Wikiquote: Calvin Coolidge  - Quotes

Wikisource: Calvin Coolidge  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Calvin Coolidge in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Calvin Coolidge in the National Governors Association database
• Literature by and about Calvin Coolidge in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Calvin Coolidge in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• American President: Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English, Editor: David Greenberg)
• The American Presidency Project: Calvin Coolidge. University of California, Santa Barbara database ofspeeches and other documents from all American presidents
• Life Portrait of Calvin Coolidge on C-SPAN , September 27, 1999, 156 minutes (English-language documentation and discussion with historian Sheldon Stern as well as a tour of the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District )
• Calvin Coolidge in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ David Greenberg: American President: Calvin Coolidge: Family Life . Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia , accessed on 19 April 2018th
2. ^ Peter Schäfer: Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929). The Puritarier in the White House. In: Christof Mauch (Ed.): The American Presidents. 5th, continued and updated edition. Munich 2009, pp. 297–301, here: pp. 297–298
3. ^ David Greenberg: American President: Calvin Coolidge: Campaigns and Elections . Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia , accessed on 19 April 2018th
4. ^ ^{A b} Peter Schäfer: Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929). The Puritarier in the White House. In: Christof Mauch (Ed.): The American Presidents. 5th, continued and updated edition. Munich 2009, pp. 297–301, here: pp. 299–301
5. ^ Willi Paul Adams: The USA in the 20th Century . Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, p. 48.
6. ^ ^{A b} David Greenberg: American President: Calvin Coolidge: Domestic Affairs . Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia , accessed on 19 April 2018th
7. ↑ Excerpt from the reason for the rejection ( memento of the original from November 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 10 kB) 
8. ^ Peter Schäfer: Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929). The Puritarier in the White House. In: Christof Mauch (Ed.): The American Presidents. 5th, continued and updated edition. Munich 2009, pp. 297–301, here: p. 300
9. ↑ Coolidge Foundation website, accessed October 14, 2016
10. ↑ Nicolas Hansen: Indians become Americans. Deutschlandradio , June 2, 2009, accessed on June 26, 2013 . 
11. ^ Robert Sobel: Coolidge: An American Enigma . Regnery Publishing, 1998, ISBN 978-0-89526-410-7 , pages 249-250
12. ↑ Donald R. McCoy: Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President . Macmillan, 1967, ISBN 978-0-945707-23-3 , pp. 330-331, but worked to raise private donations.
13. ↑ Steven Hayward: Keep Cool with Coolidge , powerlineblog.com July 1, 2011
14. ^ ^{A b} David Greenberg: American President: Calvin Coolidge: Foreign Affairs . Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia , accessed on 19 April 2018th
15. ↑ JP Diggins: Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America . Princeton NY 1972, p. 27 f.
16. ^ Robert E. Gilbert: Calvin Coolidge's Tragic Presidency: The Political Effects of Bereavement and Depression . Ed .: Journal of American Studies Vol. 39, No. 1 (Apr. 2005). Cambridge University Press, April 2005, pp. 87-109 .
17. ^ Peter Schäfer: Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929). The Puritarier in the White House. In: Christof Mauch (Ed.): The American Presidents. 5th, continued and updated edition. Munich 2009, pp. 297–301, here: pp. 300–301
18. ^ David Greenberg: American President: Calvin Coolidge: Life after the Presidency . Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia , accessed on 19 April 2018th
19. ↑ Rolf Degen: The riddle of the flagging libido . In: Die Zeit , No. 24/1998.