President Coolidge believed in limited government, especially limited federal government. He permitted state and Cabinet officials to decide as many issues as they could. At the time he took office, the U. Coolidge tried to maintain that prosperity. He did not regulate businesses too much, and he sharply reduced taxes, especially on the wealthy. More and more people began to invest their money in the stock market. Some put their dollars in dangerous investments.
And business owners produced more goods than most members of the public could really afford. Increasingly, people borrowed money on credit to pay for luxury goods. At the same time, the economic situation of many American farmers was getting worse.
The weather had been unusually dry in some places. And the price of food was falling. Farmers asked the federal government for assistance. But Coolidge rejected several bills that might have helped them. The bills had other problems, Coolidge reasoned, and he did not think that the federal government should intervene in the situation. But most voters remained supportive of Coolidge. Even though the president was considered a quiet person, he spoke often on the radio, appeared in a talking film, met with reporters regularly, and posed in funny costumes for photographers.
He easily won elected in Historians believe he could have won another term, too, in But Coolidge chose not to seek office. Some believed he was too saddened by the death of his teenaged son. Shortly after Coolidge became president, the boy had been playing tennis and slightly wounded his toe. The wound became infected. A few days later, he died. But when he decided not to seek re-election, he did not talk about his feelings. His secretary of commerce, Herbert Hoover, was elected instead.
Coolidge retired to his home in Massachusetts and led a quiet private life. President Coolidge was well-liked by most Americans. Later presidents — including Ronald Reagan — sought to follow some of his economic policies.
We cannot permit any inquisition either within or without the law or apply any religious test to the holding of office. 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. Fast Facts Birth Date July 4, Death Date January 5, Birth Place Plymouth Notch, Vermont.
Education Amherst College graduated Marriage October 4, , to Grace Anna Goodhue — Children John — , Calvin — Inauguration Date August 3, Enough cash flowed in to keep the federal budget balanced and to cut the debt by one-third.
When Coolidge left office, the budget was actually smaller than when he had come in 67 months before. History books and fiction sometimes treat the s as an economic bubble. Instead of working six days, employees could earn enough by working only five. In the s, both parties overwhelmingly backed immigration restriction. When a blister he got while playing tennis on the White House court became infected, the infection spread throughout his body.
There were no antibiotics in those days and, after a week, Calvin Jr. Like Lincoln, another president who lost a young son while in office, Coolidge persevered, winning his first campaign for president the same year with a majority larger than those of his opponents combined. Coolidge received electoral votes to Democrat John W. In , the Republicans expected him to run for president a second time. After all, he had been elected only once before, in Coolidge noted, however, that the longer a president stayed in office, the more he seemed like royalty.
An imperial presidency threw the three-branch system of government out of balance. Coolidge is sometimes blamed for the Great Depression of the s. But although the stock market of the late s was due for a drop, he was not responsible for its increase nor for the factors that made the Depression endure a decade; they were policies that mostly came into effect after his presidency. Realizing that the power to tax is the power to destroy and that the power to take a certain amount of property or of income is only another way of saying that for a certain proportion of his time a citizen must work for the Government, the authority to impose a tax on the people has been most carefully guarded.
Our own Constitution requires that revenue bills should originate in the House, because that body is supposed to be more representative of the people. These precautions have been taken because of the full realization that any oppression laid upon the people by excessive taxation, any disregard of their right to hold and enjoy the property which they have rightfully acquired, would be fatal to freedom.
A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny.
One of the first signs of the breaking down of free government is a disregard by the taxing power of the right of the people to their own property.
Unless the people can enjoy that reasonable security in the possession of their property, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, against unreasonable taxation, freedom is at an end.
Which of the following figures from earlier periods in U. Coolidge, Calvin. Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge. New York: Cosmopolitan Press, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, New York: J. Little and Ives, Economy in the s. Washington, DC: Regnery, Upcoming Events Explore our upcoming webinars, events and programs. View All Events. Invest In Our Future The most effective way to secure a freer America with more opportunity for all is through engaging, educating, and empowering our youth.
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