July 4th has been an historic moment in the lives of several of our Presidents, usually forming a counterpoint to America’s birth with their own deaths. We readily recall the passing of Adams and Jefferson on the fiftieth anniversary in 1826. We may even know it was Monroe who joined them in death on that day five years later in 1831. Madison almost made four in 1836, dying on June 28 of that year. Cleveland would likewise come close, succumbing on June 24, 1908. Taylor first manifested the symptoms on this day that would take his life in 1850. Garfield would be shot just two days before this in 1881 and tragically languish until September. Grant, after contending with cancer, pushed past his last Independence Day in 1885 to finish the last lines of his autobiography, dying on July 23.

Only one has marked this day with the unique distinction of sharing birthdays with the United States of America. As Mr. Coolidge himself describes it in his Autobiography:

“Of course, the Fourth of July meant a great deal to me, because it was my birthday. The first one I can remember was when I was four years old. My father took me fishing in the meadow brook in the morning. I recall that I fell in the water, after which we had a heavy thundershower, so that we both came home very wet. Usually there was picnic celebration on that day.”

Photo credit: Fishing In Vietnam

Happy Birthday, Mr. Coolidge!

President and Mrs. Coolidge traveling around the Black Hills, summer 1927. When the wagon got stuck on the way, the President got down and helped push it free.

“This country was not made on the theory that we should ‘eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.’ Its founders were more accustomed to prepare themselves with fasting and prayer that they might meet the serious obligation to live through the morrow. They had their feast days, too, for they found a great happiness in their work. But these were a time of thanksgiving and praise.

“Instead of falling back and falling down on the claim that the world owed them a living, they moved forward and moved up on the principle that they owed the world the duty of providing for themselves. They sought to live in the things of the spirit. They put first things first. They set small store on the things that are temporal, but strove mightily for the things that are eternal.

“If this nation is to endure we shall have to continue to walk by their light. We cannot give all our thought to material success. We cannot be relieved of all hardships. We should not faint at the first obstacle. We must accept the lot of finite beings and with deeper faith and higher courage work out our own salvation through our own sacrifice.”

— Calvin Coolidge, July 1, 1930