Calvin Coolidge

On July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Calvin Coolidge was born into a rural family shaped by local Republican politics and small-town discipline. He graduated from Amherst College in 1895, studied law in Northampton, Massachusetts, and rose through municipal and state office by reputation for restraint and reliability. The Boston Police Strike of 1919 turned him into a national figure when he declared that public safety outranked union militancy.

Coolidge became president in 1923 after Warren G. Harding's death and then won election in his own right in 1924. He supported Andrew Mellon's tax program, signed the Immigration Act of 1924, and presided over a decade identified with business optimism and weak federal intervention in the economy. His administration also reflected the tensions of the 1920s, including nativism, uneven prosperity, and the political limits of laissez-faire governance.

Coolidge's presidency remained a touchstone for advocates of small government and low taxation, especially during later conservative revivals. The contrast between the 1920s economy and the crash of 1929 also kept his years in office central to debates about regulation, federal responsibility, and the causes of the Great Depression.