Coolidge and Al Smith: After Retirement

Even if opposing politicians do not forge a political bond, they seem to have a personal bond – common stresses, family issues and experiences. Coolidge and Al Smith lunching with their wives on Friday, July 16, 1926 at White Pine Camp at Paul Smiths in the Adirondacks is an example. (See the last post.)

Coolidge was born on the fourth of July, 1872 just eighteen months before Al Smith was born on Dec. 30, 1873.  Although nearly the same age, they had different world views that was reflected in their political beliefs, since the president was born in a small town in rural Vermont, and the governor was born on the teeming lower east side of Manhattan. Coolidge was a lawyer who graduated from Amherst College; Al Smith dropped out of school to help support his widowed mother and siblings during the eighth grade.

Their political education was similar. They learned on the job holding many of the same offices. Coolidge was a City Councilor, State Representative, Mayor, State Senator, Lt. Governor, Governor. Smith was Sheriff, State Assemblyman, president of the New York City Board of Aldermen, and four-term Governor.

After 1929, both Smith and Coolidge retired from public life, and they worked together for philanthropic causes. In early 1931, Coolidge was appointed honorary chairman of the National Red Cross fundraising drive to aid people suffering from the drought: Al Smith was one of four vice chairmen.

Conrad Hubert, a Russian Jewish immigrant, was the founder of the Ever Ready Company, which made flashlights and batteries. His will bequeathed about $8,000,000 to be administered jointly by a Protestant, a Catholic, and a Jew and given to organizations that served the general public welfare. Coolidge and Smith were joined by Julius Rosenwald, an owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company as trustees of this estate.

Al Smith came to Northampton, Massachusetts for Coolidge’s funeral in January 1933.  Smith is quoted as saying that Coolidge was "distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement. His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history..." (1)

(1). www. WhiteHouse.gov from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.

Coolidge and Al Smith: Summer 1926

Coolidge had opportunities to meet and work with Democratic leaders during his lengthy career. Despite recent press coverage of President Obama and Governor Christie, working with officials of the other party is not new. The relationship between Calvin Coolidge and Alfred E. (Al) Smith, the Democratic Governor of New York, was based more on the common experiences they had in political life, and less or not at all on their political beliefs.

The summer White House was in New York State’s Adirondack region in 1926. Before the president left Washington, he received a welcoming letter and a fishing license from Governor Smith who expressed interest in greeting the president in person. By an exchange of letters between the principals and later their staffs, the two men and their wives had lunch at White Pine Camp in Paul Smiths, NY, the Coolidges’ headquarters, on Friday, July 16^th.

The President had put the fishing license to good use, and since the Smiths were Catholic, the main course was fish caught by Coolidge.  The President gave Smith a three pound live pike which the governor held up for waiting photographers.

Smith had presidential ambitions and had run for his party’s nomination in both 1920 and 1924. His chance was to come in 1928 when as the Democratic nominee, he lost to Herbert Hoover.  Smith’s Catholic faith was a deciding factor. However, in the summer of 1926, many people might have seen this lunch as a meeting of the two men who would head their party's ticket in 1928.

Calvin Coolidge and Al Smith had huge policy differences. For example, Smith was a notorious ‘wet’ who seemed to not follow the spirit or the letter of the prohibition laws. Coolidge followed the law by not serving alcohol in the White House.

As the Coolidge/Smith lunch was being arranged in writing, Coolidge comments about one of the common bonds:

           “We are anticipating the change, as you know from your own experience it is not possible to get a vacation.”

Sometimes an office holder of one party simply does his job when an official of another party visits his state. Coolidge, while Governor of Massachusetts, welcomed President Woodrow Wilson home, when his ship docked in Boston after the WWI peace conference in Paris. Wilson was promoting the League of Nations which was not supported by many Republicans. Perhaps Smith too was just doing his job in the Adirondacks one day in the summer of 1926.

The Coolidge Museum has just opened a small exhibition titled, Across Party Lines: Coolidge and Al Smith.

The Prince of Wales and Other Royal Visitors

In the 1920s, the President was expected to entertain on a demanding schedule steeped in tradition. Royals and foreign heads of state came to meet the President, even when the purpose of their trip took them primarily to other parts of the country. When compared with the annual receptions for the diplomatic corps, the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court when about 2000 guests were invited each time, the Coolidges’ parties for royalty were smaller and more intimate.

Calvin and Grace’s most famous royal guest was the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) who spent less than two hours in the capital for an informal reception on August 30, 1924, just after death of Calvin Coolidge, Jr. According to a newspaper account, both the Prince and the Coolidges were happy to keep the event low key. The Prince was often in the popular press, a celebrity in his era. He was the great-grandson of Queen Victoria, and later royal visitors were also descendants of the venerable monarch.

In 1926, the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden came to the United States to promote their country’s interests. Prince Gustaf Adolph became king in 1950 at age 67 and reigned until his death in 1973. His wife, Crown Princess Louise was a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria, born Princess Louise of Battenberg (now Mountbattan). She was Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh’s aunt.

During a trip across the country from New York to San Francisco with a stop in Washington, D.C., public interest was great, and the Swedish couple acquired a reputation for having the common touch. On May 28, 1926, the President and First Lady entertained 52 people at an 8 p.m. dinner. The table was decorated with pink roses, snapdragons and maidenhair fern. The White House staff kept good records of these details.

The Princess expressed her strong ideas about the equality of women during the trip, because of her experience as a nurse before her marriage and her work with the Red Cross later. She and Grace Coolidge might have had an interesting chat.

The Queen of Romania and two of her children visited in the same year, 1926. Queen Marie was a celebrity in the 1920s so her visit will be described in our next blog post.

Coolidge Commutes to Boston

Have you ever wondered how Coolidge, who didn’t drive, got to the State House to serve as a state rep, state senator, lieutenant governor and governor? There was no turnpike as we know it so one hundred years ago, he took the train.

When in Boston, Coolidge and some of the other Western Mass legislators stayed at the Adams House. The legislature was in formal session during the first half of the year giving Coolidge a chance to continue his law practice and see his family in Northampton summer and fall. This chart gives information on the sessions during Coolidge’s time in the senate.

Length of Massachusetts State Senate Sessions- 1912-1915

Year	Dates	Total Days	Days Sitting
1912	Jan 3 – June 13	163	113
1913	Jan 1 – June 20	171	120
1914	Jan 7 – July 7	182	127
1915	Jan 6 – June 4	150	104
Average		166.5	116

       Data Source: Dalton, Wirkkala and Thomas. Leading the Way, A History of the Massachusetts General

                       Court, 1629-1980

 

 

 

Preparing for the Great War

Calvin Coolidge’s terms in the Massachusetts Senate coincided with the beginning of World War I in Europe (1912 – 1915). The great debate about America’s role and participation in the conflict began. The Massachusetts legislature appointed a Committee to Study Preparedness in 1915.

The Hampshire Gazette reported on a union service at the Methodist Church marking a day of prayer for peace in its October 5, 1914 issue. Among State Senator Coolidge’s reported remarks were these:

            “Science, while it makes men wiser, makes the instruments of destruction more deadly… Therefore, it seems that the only hope for permanent peace is to be found in the hearts of men.”

A State Senator and His Committees

After serving as mayor of Northampton in 1910 and 1911, Coolidge was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate. He would serve four years before being elected Lieutenant Governor and Governor.

In 1912, Coolidge was appointed to the Cities, Agriculture, and Legal Affairs Committees. He chaired the last two. In the summer, he also led a special recess committee, the Western Mass. Trolleys Committee. These appointments were good for a freshman senator since they related to his background and experience.

He had been the mayor of a small city and a lawyer so the first and third appointments made sense. In Boston, Western Mass still means agriculture so this committee was appropriate.

In 1913, his committees changed completely to the Municipal Finance, Rules, and Railroads Committees (chair). His assignments still seem to fit his background quite well.

During his last two years in the senate (1914-1915), he was its President, a position of great influence, not least of which was the power to appoint members to committees. The museum has a letter in its collection from Coolidge to a fellow Senator asking his preferences for committee assignments.

Note: The display at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum about his Senate career has been refurbished recently so the next few posts will highlight some of the new information.  

Memorial tribute to Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge died at his home, "The Beeches" in Northampton on January 5, 1933. Upon Coolidge's death, The Daily Hampshire Gazette published this tribute to Coolidge from Henry P. Field on January 7, 1933. Calvin Coolidge studied law in the Office of Hammond & Field 1895-1897. Henry P. Field, lawyer, Mayor of Northampton, Judge, Forbes Library Trustee, was a great influence in Calvin's legal and political career.

“This American nation and peoples beyond our borders and across the seas will mourn his departure, but here at home, his home and ours, his death comes as a grievous personal loss. We all knew his fine character, his kindness and consideration for others, his exceptional abilities, his genius for government, his strong common sense, his keen sense of humor. We all knew that he had the courage and perseverance of his Puritan ancestors and their firm and abiding faith. And we also knew how unpretentious he was, how eager to avoid all display. And yet this quiet, unostentatious friend and fellow citizen of ours retired from the Presidency the most highly esteemed and most popular man in all these United States, and in doing so he was passed from this world into a better one. He filled all his man public offices to the entire satisfaction of the people. They trusted him. They felt that in his hands their government was safe. His life has been of infinite value to this country and the nation knows the seriousness of its loss. But to us at home the loss is more intimate. In all the long history of this good city he was its most distinguished citizen, and here in his home town he made life better and finer for every one who came within his influence.”