Coolidge’s Philosophy

“Deep in the Heart of”…South Dakota, July 12, 1927

/ gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment
President Coolidge posing in his new gear with photographers, near the Game Lodge in Custer State Park, South Dakota.

President Coolidge posing in his new gear with photographers, near the Game Lodge in Custer State Park, South Dakota.

“I doubt if I can continue horseback riding after I get back to the capital, and I don’t know what I shall do about taking the horse that was presented to me back with me. I enjoy horseback riding, but when I am in Washington it takes too much time to get my boots on and off, change my clothes, and then my horseback riding experience was all in the country, about what it is around the Lodge. What we have in Washington I didn’t find very satisfactory with the necessity of crossing a road every little while and looking out for automobiles” — Calvin Coolidge, press conference, July 29, 1927 (The Talkative President, Eds. Howard Quint and Robert Ferrel, University of Massachusetts Press, 1964, p.49).

On the Oath

/ gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Office holders and citizens of all stripes would do well to hold the public oath or affirmation with the same seriousness of mind Coolidge did.

gouverneurmorris's avatarThe Importance of the Obvious

Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution prescribes the oath each President is to promise and observe as he carries out the responsibilities of his office, ‘I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’

When the occasion arose to succeed the President in the early hours of the morning on August 3, 1923, Coolidge did not have to consult a team of legal experts or “brainstorm” with Cabinet members over the telephone about what comes next. He simply consulted the Constitution which sat on his father’s bookshelf and found the oath to be taken by the President, the same he had affirmed over two years before. The answer, to anyone able to read and understand, was accessible simply by looking…

View original post 359 more words