Coolidge by Robert Sobel

Author:Robert Sobel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2012-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

9

President

When I became president it was perfectly apparent that the key by which the way could be opened to national progress was constructive economy. Only by the use of that policy could the high rates of taxation, which were retarding our development and prosperity, be diminished, and the enormous burden of our public debt be reduced.

The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

THE COOLIDGES WERE NO LONGER in Washington when the Harding party left Washington’s Union Station on June 20 for St. Louis, the first destination on what was planned as a two-month speaking and fact-finding tour. After Congress recessed on March 3, the Coolidges set out for a few days’ vacation in Virginia, and then went to their Northampton home, where Coolidge read, attended to correspondence, visited old friends, and delivered some speeches. Toward the end of the month they packed for a stay with John Coolidge, who had indicated he could use the vice president’s help with some household repairs. The Coolidge boys found work in the area, and so in late July Coolidge was in Plymouth Notch, at his father’s home, taking care of chores, while the president was in Alaska, making speeches, seeing the sights, and doubtless considering what to do about the unraveling scandals that threatened his administration. Harding was asleep when his ship, heading to Washington State, struck another in the fog. One of his aides ran to the presidential cabin and found Harding there, his head in his hands. The president asked what had happened and was told of the collision. “I hope the boat sinks,” he replied.

Harding and his party reached Seattle on July 27. The president was weary and troubled, and reporters wrote of how tired he appeared. His voice was hoarse, his face pallid. There was some thought he might be suffering from ptomaine poisoning. When he arrived in San Francisco two days later, he was met by a heart specialist and a wheelchair. Harding disdained the wheelchair, walking instead to the waiting limousine, which took him to the Palace Hotel. He developed a fever the next day, but soon recovered. Then his situation worsened. He died there on Friday, August 2, at 7:32 PM. While there was some disagreement as to the cause of death, it was given as apoplexy.

What happened next in Plymouth Notch turned out to be the most dramatic moment of the forthcoming Coolidge administration, a near-perfect way for the nation to be introduced to its new president.

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