John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was born in Plymouth, Vermont on July 4, 1872. He graduated from Amherst College with honors, then began his career in law and politics in Northampton, Massachusetts. Coolidge served as a republican lawyer from Vermont, and was put in the public eye in 1919 during the Boston Police Strike. He worked up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming the governor of the state. He became the twenty-ninth Vice President in 1920, succeeding to the presidency after Warren G. Harding died, then was elected for the office in 1924.
Coolidge was the 30th president, in office from July 1923 to January 1929. He had a reputation as a small government conservative, and a presidential style that was considered a throwback to the 19th century. As the president, he was determined to form cohesion between the moral and economic standards of the past with the new material prosperity the United States was seeing. He was a proponent for Laissez-faire government, which is system in which the government does not interfere with trade. It is a doctrine maintaining the ideology that production and private initiative exist best with minimal economic intervention from the government.
Coolidge would not allow the economic power of the government to monitor the depressed conditions of some industries, made tax cuts, and ordered limited aid to be distributed to farmers. He became very popular in 1924 for what was called “Coolidge Prosperity”, pledging in his inaugural address to maintain the status quo of content that the country was enjoying. His political genius has been described by political writer Walter Lippmann as talent for doing nothing. Lippmann explained that by not interfering, or doing nothing as he put it, Coolidge matched the mood of the country in regard to most businesses and individuals who thought the government was too involved and complicated.
His dry wit and frugal conversations became legendary. Coolidge often responded to questions with only “yes” or “no” hoping not to incite further questions. He restored public confidence in the White House after scandals of his predecessor’s administration and left office with immense popularity.
