A President for Children to Emulate
Yesterday I told you the story of Calvin Coolidge taking the oath of office from his own father in his father’s parlor in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Yesterday afternoon I found the first statement that Coolidge made about President Warren G. Harding’s sudden death. Coolidge released this statement in the early morning hours of August 3, 1923, shortly before taking the oath:
Reports have reached me, which I fear are correct, that President Harding is gone. The world has lost a great and good man. I mourn his loss. He was my chief and my friend.
It will be my purpose to carry out the policies which he has begun for the service of the American people and for meeting their responsibilities wherever they may arise.
For this purpose I shall seek the cooperation of all those who have been associated with the President during his term of office.
Those who have given their efforts to assist him I wish to remain in office that they may assist me. I have faith that God will direct the destinies of our nation.
It is my intention to remain here until I can secure the correct form for the oath of office, which will be administered to me by my father, who is a notary public, if that will meet the necessary requirement. I expect to leave for Washington during the day.
As I told yesterday, Coolidge did secure “the correct form for the oath of office.” After taking that oath by the light of a coal oil lamp, witnesses signed copies of the oath and his father stamped his notary seal on one of them. The new president went back upstairs at his father’s house and went to sleep.
The next morning he and his wife Grace took a train back to their apartment in Washington, D.C., until Mrs. Harding had time to move out of the White House. The United States did not have a residence for vice presidents until 1974. Coolidge’s salary was only $12,000 per year. Therefore, he and Grace could not afford a grand home in the nation’s capital. Again, they rented, this time a suite in the new Willard Hotel at a cost of $8.00 per day.
Grace Coolidge in Washington, D.C., on August 6, 1923, just three days after becoming First Lady
President Harding’s funeral train crossed the country from California and arrived in Washington on August 7. Flowers had been arriving since the morning of August 3. First his body was placed in the East Room of the White House. At 10:00 a.m., it began the long procession to the U.S. Capitol, where the funeral was held.
First Lady Grace Coolidge and President Calvin Coolidge leave President Harding’s funeral.
Coolidge had long believed in hard work for himself and for other politicians. In perhaps his most famous speech, “Have Faith in Massachusetts,” which he gave in 1916, he said:
“We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.”
As illustrated in the photo below, he continued working hard when he became president.
Coolidge at his desk on August 15, 1923, just 12 days after becoming president
President Harding had been a conservative president in his policies, but several men of high rank in his administration were corrupt. Later information revealed that his personal life had several scandals. President Coolidge continued Harding’s conservative policies and brought positive changes to the country. He also brought true integrity into the White House when he and his family moved in on August 21, 1923.
Coolidge had relished sitting on his front porch after dinner but soon found that this was impossible because of all the passersby who stopped to stare at their new president.
Though he was nicknamed Silent Cal, Coolidge made many public appearances as president and spoke on the radio about 50 times. He held 520 press conferences, beginning with the first one on the day he moved into the White House. He spoke to the press several times a month, averaging more per month that Franklin Roosevelt, who became famous for his radio fireside chats.
Newspaper men cheer the president at his first news conference as president.
In his Autobiography, Coolidge wrote:
“I have often said that there was no cause for feeling disturbed at being misrepresented in the press. It would be only when they began to say things detrimental to me which were true that I should feel alarm.”
Coolidge has often been characterized as dour, but he actually had a good sense of humor. Folksy comedian and social commentator Will Rogers believed that Coolidge had more subtle humor than almost any public man he had ever met. When a messenger from the Treasury Department delivered his first presidential paycheck, Coolidge told him: “Come again.” One time Coolidge invited a friend who was a U.S. senator to take an evening walk near the White House. When they got back to the residence, the senator joked, saying that he wondered who lived there. Coolidge quipped: “Nobody. They just come and go.”
President Theodore Roosevelt and his family were famous for the animals they brought into the White House. President and Mrs. Coolidge had loved animals and kept them in their house since the early days of their marriage. They had a real menagerie both in their suite at the Willard Hotel and in the White House. During their marriage, their pets included:
- Olive green birds named Nip and Tuck
- Canaries named Snowflake and Peter Piper
- A yellow bird named Goldy
- A mockingbird, but when Grace Coolidge found out it was illegal to keep a pet mockingbird in Washington, D.C., she gave it away.
- Do-Funny, a yellow and blue bird from South America, that was a favorite of the First Lady and that whistled along with her
- A dog named Peter Pan that was the first dog to live with them in the White House
- A dog named Paul Pry that was especially fond of President Coolidge and wouldn’t let housekeepers into the room with him
- A collie named Rob Roy that got scared the first time he went up the White House elevator
- A Boston bulldog named Beans that later went to live with Grace Coolidge’s mother
- A white collie named Prudence Prim that went to tea parties with Mrs. Coolidge and liked to wear a straw bonnet
Prudence Prim and another White House dog with Mrs. Coolidge
- A red chow-chow named Tiny Tim that didn’t get along with President Coolidge even though they had both been born on the 4th of July
- A black chow-chow named Diana of Wildwood that Mrs. Coolidge called Calamity Jane
- A Belgian Groenendael named King Cole
- A cat named Tiger (or Tige) that was from Vermont, that President Coolidge liked to wear around his neck, and that once ran away all the way to the Lincoln Memorial
One time when Tiger ran away, Washington radio stations
announced it. Benjamin Fink, a guard at the Navy Department,
found him there and brought him home.
- A cat named Blackie that was also from Vermont and that disappointed Mrs. Coolidge for bringing home too many presents that he caught while hunting
Blackie and Tiger
- A cat named Bounder that President Coolidge liked to hide in different places around the house, including in the hall clock, and that got to ride down the laundry chute on Sundays
People sent many exotic pets as gifts to the Coolidges. These included:
- A raccoon that someone sent to the Coolidges for them to eat at a Thanksgiving dinner. The Coolidges liked her so much that they kept her and named her Rebecca. She liked to take baths and play with soap.
Rebecca and Mrs. Coolidge
- A black bear named Bruno sent from Chihuahua, Mexico. Mrs. Coolidge sent him to live in a zoo.
- A wallaby that also went to live in a zoo
- Twin lion cubs from Johannesburg, Africa. President Coolidge named them Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau.
Twin lion cubs
- A duiker that came from Africa with the lion cubs
- Thirteen Pekin ducks that were Easter gifts for Mrs. Coolidge. She tried to raise them in a bathroom but when they got too big, they had to go to the zoo, too.
And you think your house feels like a zoo sometimes!
One of the many joys and benefits of homeschooling is the opportunity to introduce children to God’s Word and to people of noble character. Calvin Coolidge once said:
“Education which is not based on religion and character is not education.”
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 9:10
To read Charlene’s entire series on Calvin Coolidge, click here.