Free Republic

Author David Petrusza discusses the pivotal 1924 election for president, won by "Silent Cal Coolidge."

Our President may be a well-educated and a very smart guy, but he seems to have skipped out on his world history classes. He certainly would have learned the absolutely true saying that “history repeats itself.” He would also know that any dithering with ISIS will only cause us more pain and lost lives in the future. History does repeat itself, and regularly. A perfect example has been on display with the debt crisis in Argentina. The country has defaulted on its debt. Its President, Cristina Kirchner, did not accept blame for the default. She pointed the finger at two...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. Whatever may have been the...

A San Fernando Valley lawmaker wants the White House to put a rug woven by Armenian orphans and given to President Calvin Coolidge nearly a century ago on public display. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) is among a bipartisan group of U.S. Congress members calling on President Obama to reverse the White House’s decision to back out of lending the rug out for a Dec. 16 exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute. The Armenian orphan rug, which measures 11′ 7″ x 18′ 5″ and is comprised of 4.4 million individual knots, reportedly took girls in the Ghazir Orphanage of Near East Relief...

Turkey's ongoing denial of the Armenian Genocide is consistent with an unbroken Islamic supremacist pattern: never, ever admit wrongdoing; never, ever take responsibility for actions that cause harm; never, ever acknowledge that jihad actions (such as the Armenian Genocide) cause immeasurable suffering to human beings; always, always instead blame the kuffar who have the temerity to point out the wrongdoing.And Obama, who counts Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a friend, falls right in line."Armenian ‘orphan rug’ is in White House storage, as unseen as genocide is neglected," by Philip Kennicott for the Washington Post, October 21 (thanks to AINA):The rug...

Workmen transporting a house next to the White House. (President Calvin Coolidge apparently had no concern about this.)

Ninety years ago today, on August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. It was sudden, shocking, and has been fodder for conspiracy theorists ever since. His wife, Florence—described derisively by some as “The Duchess”—didn’t allow an autopsy, so we’ll never know exactly what caused the demise of the 29th President of the United States. It might have been congestive heart failure, or food poisoning, or even something more sinister. Seen in retrospect, through the prism of the scandals associated with his White House tenure, Harding is usually ranked well toward the...

Ninety years ago today, on August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. It was sudden, shocking, and has been fodder for conspiracy theorists ever since. His wife, Florence—described derisively by some as “The Duchess”—didn’t allow an autopsy, so we’ll never know exactly what caused the demise of the 29th President of the United States. It might have been congestive heart failure, or food poisoning, or even something more sinister. Seen in retrospect, through the prism of the scandals associated with his White House tenure, Harding is usually ranked well toward the...

Traditional presidential polls give Calvin Coolidge a low ranking. One reason for this is that he is often blamed for egging on the already boisterous stock market of the late 1920s, especially toward the end of his presidency. Particularly disparaging is John Kenneth Galbraith’s account that Coolidge said in 1929 that prosperity was “absolutely sound” and that equities were “cheap at current prices.” This assertion is said to have stoked market fires so that stocks continued heavenward during the first half-year of Herbert Hoover’s presidency. The crash, when it came, was therefore all the more violent. Parts of this older...

Speech on the Occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence Calvin Coolidge July 5, 1926 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to...

Derided by New Dealers, Coolidge gets long-overdue respect in Shlaes’s biography. For years, most Americans’ vision of history has been shaped by the New Deal historians. Writing soon after Franklin Roosevelt’s death, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and others celebrated his accomplishments and denigrated his opponents. They were gifted writers, and many of their books were bestsellers. They have persuaded many Americans — Barack Obama definitely included — that progress means an ever-bigger government. In their view, the prosperous 1920s were a binge of mindless frivolity. The Depression of the 1930s was the inevitable hangover, for which FDR administered the cure.That’s one...

For years, most Americans' vision of history has been shaped by the New Deal historians. Writing soon after Franklin Roosevelt's death, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and others celebrated his accomplishments and denigrated his opponents. They were gifted writers, and many of their books were bestsellers. And they have persuaded many Americans -- Barack Obama definitely included -- that progress means an ever bigger government In their view, the prosperous 1920s were a binge of mindless frivolity. The Depression of the 1930s was the inevitable hangover, for which FDR administered the cure. That's one way to see it. But there are others,...

WASHINGTON -- I am indebted to Amity Shlaes for gently correcting a joke of mine that dates back to July 8, 1972. On that date in the New York Times, I joshed that President Calvin Coolidge "probably spent more time napping than any president in the nation's history" and therefore was a successful president. My joke was a play on an earlier joke by H. L. Mencken, and now Shlaes has corrected both of us. She has written a very impressive biography titled simply "Coolidge," wherein she never mentions Cal's naps but rather what made him the most successful president...

Civility to oneÂ’s opponents, certainty, restraint, federalism, economy, thrift, and respect for faith: these and other Coolidge ideals are needed today. Debt takes its toll. To no one had this ever seemed clearer than to a 61-year-old farmer named Oliver Coolidge, who languished in Woodstock Common Jail in Windsor County, Vermont, in the spring of 1849. Oliver was behind bars because he owed a neighbor, Frederick Wheeler, $24.23. He had not honored a contract because he lacked the money to honor it. Now his debt had climbed to $29.48 because the justice of the peace had ruled that he had...

Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. In no other nation on earth does this principle have such complete application. It comes most naturally from the fundamental doctrine of our land that the people are supreme. Lincoln stated the substance of the whole matter in his famous phrase, "government of the people; by the people, and for the people." The authority of law here is not something which is imposed upon the people; it is the will of the people themselves. The decision of the court here is...

On front page of website, no registration required.Shockingly, neither Carter nor the present occupant of the White House are choices...

On SEPTEMBER 21, 1924, America's 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, addressed the Holy Name Society in Washington, D.C., saying: "The worst evil that could be inflicted upon the youth of the land would be to leave them without restraint and completely at the mercy of their own uncontrolled inclinations. Under such conditions education would be impossible, and all orderly development intellectually or morally would be hopeless." Calvin Coolidge continued: "The Declaration of Independence...claims...the ultimate source of authority by stating...they were... 'appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of' their 'intentions.'... The foundations of our independence and our...

Perry's America may seem familiar to centenarians By JOE HOLLEY August 28, 2011 At first glance, it would seem that the 30th president of the United States and the man who would be the 45th have little in common. Famously silent Calvin Coolidge, after all, not only had little to say but also hated to campaign, unlike White House aspirant Rick Perry, an indefatigable campaigner whose tongue occasionally runs ahead of his brain. Coolidge was a rectitudinous New Englander presiding, paradoxically, over a raucous Jazz Age; Perry is a gregarious Texan who, paradoxically, stands to inherit a nation shaken by...

20 minutes, but he's already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign: "I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can." This will be grand news to Schylar Capo of Virginia. The 11-year-old made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days and, for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish and Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers) who charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species and issued her a $535...

Eighty-eight years ago this week, Calvin Coolidge took office upon the sudden death of President Warren Harding. Like the current administration, the Harding-Coolidge administration faced a tough recession from 1919-1921. But unlike the current administration, the Harding-Coolidge and Coolidge-Dawes administrations cut taxes, balanced budgets and slashed government spending, reducing federal debt by over a third in a decade. The economy grew, averaging just over 7% from 1924 to 1929, the years of his presidency. So did Coolidge's popularity. He was so popular that even during the Great Depression's height song-writer Cole Porter compared his lover to the "Coolidge dollar." Ronald...