Calvin Coolidge: The 30th US President, 'Silent Cal', and the Roaring Twenties Boom

1. Born on the Fourth of July: Plymouth Notch & Amherst College

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in the mountain village of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, remaining the only US president born on Independence Day. Graduating with high honors from Amherst College in 1895, Coolidge practiced law in Northampton, Massachusetts, methodically rising through nineteen political offices from city councilman to Governor of Massachusetts.

Coolidge rocketed to national fame during the Boston Police Strike of September 1919. When striking police officers left Boston exposed to riots and looting, Governor Coolidge mobilized the State Guard and fired back at union leader Samuel Gompers with the defining declaration: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." This moral resolve won him the 1920 Vice Presidential nomination.

3. The Midnight Kerosene Lamp Inauguration (August 3, 1923)

On the night of August 2, 1923, Coolidge was vacationing at his family's homestead in Plymouth Notch, which had neither electricity nor a telephone. A messenger arrived at 2:00 AM with a telegram announcing Harding's death.

At 2:47 AM on August 3, 1923, in the family sitting room, Coolidge was administered the presidential oath of office by his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., a state notary public, over the family Bible by the light of a kerosene lamp—one of the most poetic and humble inaugurations in American history.

4. Coolidge Prosperity: Tax Cuts, Debt Reduction & Roaring Twenties Boom

Elected in his own right in a 1924 landslide under the slogan "Keep Cool with Coolidge", Coolidge presided over the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties ("Coolidge Prosperity").

Partnering with Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, Coolidge championed the Revenue Acts of 1924, 1926, and 1928, slashing top marginal income tax rates from 73% down to 25%, eliminating taxes entirely for two million working-class Americans, and paying down over one-third of the entire national debt while running consecutive budget surpluses. In a famous 1925 speech to newspaper editors, Coolidge declared: "The chief business of the American people is business."

5. The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 & The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge signed the historic Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (Snyder Act), officially granting full United States citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

In foreign policy, his Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, an international treaty signed by 62 nations renouncing war as an instrument of national policy (for which Kellogg was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize).

7. "I Do Not Choose to Run": Voluntary Retirement & Enduring Legacy

On August 2, 1927, while vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Coolidge handed reporters small slips of paper containing his famous ten-word declaration: "I do not choose to run for President in nineteen twenty-eight."

Stepping down in March 1929 at the height of his immense popularity, Coolidge retired to Northampton, Massachusetts. He passed away peacefully of a heart attack on January 5, 1933, at age 60, and was buried beneath a simple granite headstone in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.

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