Just came across this quote and thought it needs to be read in Washington, but it would be a waste of time to send it to either of my Senators. ::)

     "I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry-this is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of liberty."
President Calvin Coolidge

Jerry

Another quote by Silent Cal on the need for less government, Jerry:


"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business. Government shouldn't play a part in everyday life. Jefferson said that the people should be left to manage their own affairs. His opposition will bear careful analysis, and the country could stand a good deal more of its application. The trouble with us is we talk about Jefferson, but we do not follow him. In this theory that the people should manage their government, and not be managed by it, he was everlastingly right."


One of Reagan's first little chores when he moved into presidency was to replace the two pictures of presidents in the Cabinet Room and hung up Calvin Coolidge as one of his two.

Good stuff, guys.

I just learned the other day that the Coolidges lost their youngest son, 16-year-old Calvin Jr., after moving into the White House. He developed a blister while playing tennis on the White House courts. It  became infected, and he died shortly thereafter. President Coolidge was quoted as saying, "when he died, the power and glory of the Presidency went with him."

My favorite quote from "Silent Cal":

Nothing in the world can take
The place of Persistence.
Talent will not; Nothing is more
Common than unsuccessful
Men with talent; Genius will not;
Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education alone will not;
The world is full
of educated derelicts.
Persistence and Determination
Alone are omnipotent.

'My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world.

I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it.'

- Barack Obama


LMMFAO....How times have changed!!!!  ;D

wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2008 at 6:06pm:

'My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it.' - Barack Obama LMMFAO....How times have changed!!!!  ;D

LMAO² Bro!   ;)

-P.

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Charlie

Funny how on an eve of an election campaign ending to decide the final two we reminisce about past presidents who could say things you could latch onto.  
 Cal cracked me up in his simplicity.  When told he had been nominated for V.P. under Harding his wife asked if he was going to take it.  "I suppose I shall have to."
 V.P. at the time was a fairly nondescript office with no residence provided for the position at the time.  He was living at the Willard Hotel, which caught fire and went in to get his things.  A fire marshall stopped him and Cal had to tell him he was the V.P.  
"Of what?"  
"Of the U.S."

When Pres. Harding died suddenly and he was President, response: "I guess I can swing it."  

His father instilled the importance of the office, was a Justice of Peace, or notary and Cal was visiting him when he got the news.  His father typed up the oath, had a copy of the Constitution and administered the oath of office to his son, which was recited at 2:47am.  Some technicality about it raised an issue and a federal judge repeated it two weeks later.

At a reelection convention he didn't even attend a call came to say his name looked like the leading candidate, everyone was talking about him.  Response:  "And tomorrow the newspaper shall bring something else for them to talk about."

Cal kept his boyhood lessons, his quest was low taxes, low spending, balanced budgets and light regulation.  Not much changed him in office, paying down the federal debt substantially, not seen again until the 90's, doing it though by having few Americans pay taxes at the time with the many exemptions.

He basically had no Cabinet, going at things alone but maintained important aides, like former Pres. William Howard Taft who was then chief justice.  Taft was the other picture along side Cal that Reagan hung in the Cabinet Office when elected.


There were Presidents of the past who's campaigning got funny remarks.  One for Harding, described as: "an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea."


:)


from a Cal bio last year.
 

Kevin,

Thanks for the other quotes by "Silent" Cal.

Brew,
 I have tried to live according to that quotation also.  

What we need in this country is some statesmen who are more interested in the restoration and preservation of the greatness this country has seen in the past instead of personal power and honor.  Unfortunately, there are some really good people who could do a great job in the presidency who will not subject themselves and their families to what it takes to win the office in these times.

That does not mean there were no problems in the past, because there is not such thing as "the good old days".  However, there were some men of real principle on BOTH sides of the aisle that I wish we could find the like of again today.  Sadly, I don't find them in either party now.

Jerry

Callico wrote on Jun 6^th, 2008 at 12:51am:

What we need in this country is some statesmen who are more interested in the restoration and preservation of the greatness this country has seen in the past instead of personal power and honor.   "the good old days".   However, there were some men of real principle on BOTH sides of the aisle that I wish we could find the like of again today.  Sadly, I don't find them in either party now.

You're right Jerry.  What makes the good old days of 1920 different and genuine in a way was that domestic issues replaced international concerns.  We dealt with a "Red Scare" in 1919-20 and six presidents were available at the time as a leader.

Wilson who was president had his own ideas of being elected again after being re-elected in 1916 (England's WWI P.M. David Lloyd George was also re-elected) became incapacitated by 1920 but nonetheless tried.  Teddy Roosevelt tossed his hat in again and was an early frontrunner as a progressive Republican but passed away.  Warren Harding, who was elected.  Calvin Coolidge, Gov of MA who became V.P.  Wonder boy Herbert Hoover who was an efficiency engineer on the homefront mobilizing food supplies and after the war feeding millions on both sides of the trenches ran as Republican. And FDR ran as the V.P. of Harding's opponent.  

1920 was the first presidential election women from every state were allowed to vote and also the first commercial radio broadcast coverage of election returns.  

This is certainly not that time.


from book: "1920, A Year of Six Presidents"

I suppose that it's too complicated a world for this now but there was a time....or at least close to it when the President was a reactionary........meaning that he was there for his advice on things and to smooth over our less than exciting international dealings. He wasn't likely to propose a lot of legislation. The parties of fiscal restraint and enemies of big government are no more.

By the way Kev. Hoover was a genious at dealing with food. Here is a button worn by United States Food Administration workers:
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Charlie