John Calvin Coolidge (4 July 1872 – 5 January 1933) was President of the United States from 2 August 1923 to 4 March 1929, succeeding Warren G. Harding and preceding Herbert Hoover. He previously served as Governor of Massachusetts (R) from 2 January 1919 to 6 January 1921, succeeding Samuel W. McCall and preceding Channing H. Cox.
Biography[]
Calvin Coolidge was born to a middle-class family in Plymouth Notch, Vermont on 4 July 1872. He studied at Amherst in Massachusetts, graduated with a BA in 1895, and became a lawyer in 1897. He became active in municipal politics in Northampton, and he was elected as a Republican Party member to the State House in 1906, to the State Senate in 1911, and to the Lieutenant-Governorship in 1915. He became governor after the election of 1915, succeeding Samuel W. McCall. Tough action in response to a police strike in Boston in 1919 made him a national figure, and he won election as Vice-President in 1920.
Presidency[]
Coolidge in 1926
Following the death of President Warren G. Harding in 1923, he became President. His integrity in office and firm action against corrupt officers of the Harding administration, combined with national prosperity, caused him to be re-elected in 1924. The national debt fell and taxees were cut whilst relations were re-established with Mexico and improved with Latin America. However, some argued Coolidge's general indifference to governence (his hands-off approach earned him the nickname "Silent Cal") frustrated many who were used to a more activist presidency and may have contributed to the unregulated speculation which precipitated the Wall Street crash in 1929. He suffered from clinical depression following the death of his son in July 1924, and he refused to run for the nomination in 1928, despite the public believing him to be a certain candidate. He left office, and he then left public life in March 1929, still grieving for his son. He died in Northampton in 1933 at the age of 60.