Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge became president after Warren G. Harding’s death in 1923 and won a full term in 1924. A former Massachusetts governor, he emphasized restrained government, fiscal discipline, and confidence in private enterprise. His presidency coincided with substantial economic growth, persistent distress in agriculture, and deep inequalities in the distribution of prosperity. ^{1, 3}

Coolidge kept the United States outside the League of Nations while supporting diplomatic efforts to stabilize Europe. American participation in the Dawes Plan of 1924 helped reorganize German reparations payments and encouraged a flow of American lending. The arrangement linked European recovery to international credit and to the unresolved relationship between reparations and Allied war debts. ²

The Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928 renounced war as an instrument of national policy, but it provided no effective enforcement machinery. In Latin America, the United States continued to use military force, including in Nicaragua, while negotiations eased a dispute with Mexico over oil and property rights. Commercial expansion and protection of American interests remained central to Coolidge’s foreign policy. ²

Coolidge supported tax reductions, balanced budgets, and a lighter regulatory role for the federal government. He vetoed major farm relief proposals and signed the Immigration Act of 1924, which imposed restrictive national quotas and excluded Japanese immigrants. He also signed the Indian Citizenship Act, though citizenship did not remove the many barriers to Native voting and autonomy. He declined to run in 1928 and left office before the financial crash. ^{3, 4}