Calvin Coolidge: The Man and His Character

Calvin Coolidge's origins, his family, and the small town rural environment in which he was reared, shaped his character.

Calvin Coolidge at 3 years

His idealism, his exaltation of thrift, hard work, and character, were in stark contrast to the revolution that was taking place in business, manners, and behavior during the "Roaring Twenties" when Coolidge served as vice-president and then as our thirtieth president.

On June 19, 1923 after twenty-six months as Vice President, he gave an address at Wheaton College that spelled out quite clearly his abiding moral principles.

"We do not need more material development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen." I

He had developed these principles over a lifetime beginning as one small town farm boy who through diligence, hard work, and most of all, through persistence, had risen steadily through the political ranks of local and state government, to the highest office in the land, President of the United States.

The moral principles Coolidge listed in his address at Wheaton College define him as a man of the Great Generation. The first and overarching principle is his conception of "character" — how he defines the term and how this principle permeates his life.

Calvin Coolidge's Father, John C. Coolidge

In an address to the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C., on May 1, 1926, Coolidge gave his definition of character.

"Character is what a person is; it represents the aggregate of distinctive mental and moral qualities belonging to an individual or race. Good character means a mental and moral fiber of a high order, one which may be woven into the fabric of the community and State, going to make a great nation...." 2

Coolidge's character was principally shaped by two men, his grandfather Calvin Galusha Coolidge, and by his own father John C. Coolidge, and three women, his grandmother Sarah Brewer Coolidge, his mother Victoria Moor Coolidge, and his step­mother Carrie Brown Coolidge. Their influence and the physical surroundings in which he was raised provided the atmosphere that shaped his character.

In September of 1872 Calvin's father, John, was elected to the Senate in the Vermont State Legislature where he served for three terms — a total of six years. His grandfather Calvin Galusha Coolidge took Calvin and his mother to visit him at Montpelier in October of 1875. Calvin writes of this formative experience in his Autobiography.

"I think I was three years and four months old, but I always remembered the experience. Grandfather carried me to the State House and sat me in the Governor's chair, which did not impress me so much as a stuffed catamount that was in the Capital Museum. That was the first of the great many journeys which I have since made to the legislative halls." 3

Endnotes

1) 10 Reasons Why Coolidge and Dawes Should Have Your Support, Republican Presidential Campaign Card, 1924, Coolidge Plymouth Notch Museum Collection. Used with permission.

2) The Quotable Calvin Coolidge, compiled and edited by Peter Hannaford, Images from the Past, Inc., Bennington, Vermont, 2001, p. 45. Used with permission.

3) The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge. Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, New York , N.Y. , 1929, 1989 edition, p. 173-76. This and subsequent quotations from the Autobiography are used with the gracious permission of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Plymouth Notch, VT.