One of Dr. Edward Connery Lathem’s many invaluable services to scholarship on Coolidge and his Era includes the wonderful collection of letters written by Calvin Coolidge to his father, Colonel John Coolidge, spanning the years 1887 to 1926, when the older man died.

It was an awaited highlight for the proud father when he could walk across the street from the family’s Homestead to the General Store, where the post office box belonging to the Colonel often held letters not only from the President, his son, but also from senders all over the large, growing country.

Here is the letter son wrote to father on November 1, 1920, just as the political campaign of that year was coming to a close. It would sweep in Republican majorities across the states and vote Coolidge, with Harding, into national office.

 

My Dear Father:–The campaign is over. Some mistakes were made, always are I suppose, but the ones this year were so foolish I do not see how they could have been made by men really trying to elect the ticket.

     I am at home today. Came home yesterday. Boys are well. Your dog is growing well. She has bitten the ice man, the milkman, and the grocerman. It is good to have some way to get even with them for the high prices they charge for everything.

     In the morning Mr. Stearns will try to find out how to telephone returns to you. I shall be passing the evening at my headquarters in the Touraine.

     Tell Aurora I hope she is well.

Your Son  Calvin Coolidge

 

The Salient Cal Project is looking for letters (and photos) YOU, dear readers, may be willing to share with us from the 1920s. We would like to publish selections from that decade, perhaps there is a letter from your family that might end up within our book? Reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you!