On Decoration Day

Former President Coolidge in the ceremonies of Boston’s Tercentenary, 1930.

May 30, 1921

There are more than four million persons in the nation who know from experience what war service means. There are more than one hundred thousand homes which have been darkened by the irreparable infliction of war. There are hundreds of thousands carrying the marks and disability of war. Unto the whole nation has been revealed the meaning and the sacrifices of war. The thirtieth day of May has been set apart that all the people might think on these things, on the blessings of peace as the result of their righteous victory, on the devotion of the living, on the obligation to recompense the disabled, on the everlasting honor which is due to the dead, that this nation, through the fulfilment of these obligations, may continue worthy of these great sacrifices, and through the cultivation of a like spirit continue to be partakers in like glories.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge

President Coolidge reviews the Atlantic Fleet, 1927.

On ‘The Quiet Man’ among Presidents

A parody we crafted a while ago from a wonderful tribute to Ireland by John Ford and his excellent cast, including John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, and Victor McLaglen. The title for a movie that could have been made for Cal, especially as we have come to the 100th anniversary of his Presidency. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Coolidgeans!

“Bless their honest Irish hearts!”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day on this, the Coolidge Centennial Year!

The Importance of the Obvious

Writing in 1926, medical doctor James J. Walsh in his book, The World’s Debt to the Irish, in his chapter on Irish Intiative, says,

“Our latest president, Calvin Coolidge, derives his Irish blood through the Barrons of Waterford, on the distaff side, according to the pedigree of the Coolidges as made out by Professor Guy Coolidge of Hobart College. Apparently there is good reason to think that every president since Lincoln with the single exception of Rutherford B. Hayes had some Irish blood in him.”

Since the Irish connection came from Coolidge’s mother, Victoria Moor, it is not surprising when we consider the source (at least in part) of his red hair, fiery temper, renowned love of pranks, and the often wry wit delivered with a straight-face but nonetheless accompanied by that characteristic twinkle in his eye.

As Coolidge forged an early base of supporters among grassroots Republicans and…

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