geekyOn January 5, 1933 (83 years ago last Tuesday) John Calvin Coolidge Jr., the 30th President of the United States, died at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts (known as "the Beeches") from coronary thrombosis. He was 60 years old.
Born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont on the 4th of July in 1872, Coolidge became a lawyer and moved to Northampton to practice law. He worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts city and state politics, becoming city solicitor, state legislator, mayor of Northampton, lieutenant-governor and eventually becoming governor of that state. His conduct during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into national prominence, leading to his selection to the second spot on the GOP ticket in the 1920 presidential election. He was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man of few words.
Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity. Assessments of his presidency are divided between those who approve of his reduction in the size of government and those who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating and controlling the economy.
Coolidge spoke in favor of the civil rights of African Americans and of Catholics. In 1924, when he received a letter from a letter from a prominent citizen which claimed the United States was a "white man's country", Coolidge responded "I was amazed to receive such a letter. During the war 500,000 colored men and boys were called up under the draft, not one of whom sought to evade it. As president, I am one who feels a responsibility for living up to the traditions and maintaining the principles of the Republican Party. Our Constitution guarantees equal rights to all our citizens, without discrimination on account of race or color. I have taken my oath to support that Constitution." Coolidge also signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted full U.S. citizenship to all American Indians, while permitting them to retain tribal land and cultural rights. He repeatedly called for anti-lynching laws to be enacted, but Congressional attempts to pass this legislation were filibustered by Southern Democrats.
After his presidency, Coolidge retired to Northampton where be built a home known as "The Beeches". He often went boating on the Connecticut River and he also served as chairman of the non-partisan Railroad Commission, as honorary president of the American Foundation for the Blind, as a director of New York Life Insurance Company, as president of the American Antiquarian Society, and as a trustee of Amherst College. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
Coolidge published his autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column called "Calvin Coolidge Says", from 1930 to 1931. When some Republicans realized that the defeat of Herbert Hoover looked like a certainty in the 1932 presidential election, they tried to draft Coolidge to run, but Coolidge made it clear that he was not interested in running again, and that he would publicly repudiate any effort to draft him. He supported Hoover in the election campaign and made several radio addresses in support of him. (He did so despite the fact that he didn't like Hoover much. He one told a confidant, "Hoover has given me much unsolicited advice, all of it bad.")
Coolidge died suddenly from coronary thrombosis at The Beeches at 12:45 p.m. January 5, 1933. He is buried beneath a simple headstone in Notch Cemetery, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where the family home is maintained as one of the original buildings on the site, all of which comprise the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District. The State of Vermont dedicated a new visitors' center nearby to mark Coolidge's 100th birthday on July 4, 1972.