Calvin Coolidge

**Calvin Coolidge** (born **John Calvin Coolidge Jr.**; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States between 1923 and 1929. He was a conservative who supported less intervention in business and lower taxes.

## Family

He was the only president of the United States to be born on July 4. He married Grace Coolidge, and they had two children: John Calvin Coolidge III (born September 6, 1906 - died May 31, 2000) and John Calvin IV (born April 13, 1908 - died July 7, 1924). His younger son died at 16 while he was playing tennis at the White House. He was wearing tennis shoes without socks and died from a toe infection. He was buried at the foot of Hill Cemetery. That may have caused President Coolidge to become depressed.

## Political career

Coolidge served as the mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts. He later served as the governor of Massachusetts. As governor, he became famous because of his response during the Boston Police Strike. Coolidge fired the police who went on strike and gave the jobs to unemployed World War I veterans. He gave to the veterans the same bonuses that the striking policemen were asking for.

In 1920, he was nominated vice president under Warren G. Harding. The Harding-Coolidge team won easily. Harding died in 1923, and Coolidge became the next president. He was inaugurated at his family farm in Vermont by his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr.

Coolidge finished Harding's term and was elected in 1924 to continue to be the United States president.

Coolidge was president during a prosperous economy, and the country did not face many challenges. He believed that the federal government should be as small as possible. He supported tax cuts and wanted the federal government to avoid intervening in the economy. He was the first president to lead a public celebration of the Christmas holidays.

Coolidge was criticized for refusing to give subsidies to farmers.Also, when a giant flood happened on the Mississippi River in 1927, he did not want the federal government to be involved. That was part of his belief of federalism in which the country's problems should be solved mainly by state and local governments, rather than the federal government.

He did not run for re-election in 1928 and published his autobiography the following year. He died of a heart attack in Massachusetts when he was 60.

Hislegacy is mixed. People who support more federal government involvement in the economy do not like him. People who support less federal government involvement in the economy like him.

## "Silent Cal"

Coolidge was nicknamed "Silent Cal" because he did not talk much. There is a story that at a dinner party, a woman once told Coolidge that she could get more than two words out of him and that he replied, "You lose."

## Other websites

- Coolidge's White House biography

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **image**: President Calvin Coolidge, 1924 head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly right.tif
- **caption**: Coolidge in 1924
- **order**: 30th
- **office**: President of the United States
- **term start**: August 2, 1923
- **term end**: March 4, 1929
- **vicepresident**: _None_ (1923–1925)

- **predecessor**: Warren G. Harding
- **successor**: Herbert Hoover
- **office2**: 29th Vice President of the United States
- **term start2**: March 4, 1921
- **term end2**: August 2, 1923
- **president2**: Warren G. Harding
- **predecessor2**: Thomas R. Marshall
- **successor2**: Charles G. Dawes
- **order3**: 48th Governor of Massachusetts#List of Governors, Governor of Massachusetts
- **lieutenant3**: Channing H. Cox
- **term start3**: January 2, 1919
- **term end3**: January 6, 1921
- **predecessor3**: Samuel W. McCall
- **successor3**: Channing H. Cox
- **office4**: 46th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
- **governor4**: Samuel W. McCall
- **term start4**: January 6, 1916
- **term end4**: January 2, 1919
- **predecessor4**: Grafton D. Cushing
- **successor4**: Channing H. Cox
- **office5**: President of the Massachusetts Senate
- **term start5**: 1914
- **term end5**: 1915
- **preceded5**: Levi H. Greenwood
- **succeeded5**: Henry Gordon Wells
- **office6**: Massachusetts Senate#Members, Member of the Massachusetts Senate
- **term start6**: 1912
- **term end6**: 1915
- **predecessor6**: Allen T. Treadway
- **successor6**: John B. Hull
- **constituency6**: Berkshire, Hampden, and Hampshire District
- **office7**: Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts
- **term start7**: 1910
- **term end7**: 1911
- **predecessor7**: James W. O'Brien
- **successor7**: William Feiker
- **office8**: Massachusetts House of Representatives#Members, Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
- **term start8**: 1907
- **term end8**: 1908
- **predecessor8**: Moses M. Bassett
- **successor8**: Charles A. Montgomery
- **birth name**: John Calvin Coolidge Jr.
- **birth place**: Plymouth Notch, Vermont
- **death place**: Northampton, Massachusetts
- **death cause**: Heart attack
- **restingplace**: Plymouth Notch Cemetery
- **party**: Republican Party (United States), Republican
- **alma mater**: Amherst College
- **profession**: Politician, lawyer
- **signature**: C Coolidge signature.svg
- **signature alt**: Cursive signature in ink