“Survey of the Presidents of the United States”

March 13, 2014March 13, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

So many Presidential surveys through the years have been encumbered by the subjective biases of the participants rather than the objective standards of fidelity to one’s oath and faithful execution of the laws and Constitution. At long last Franklin’s Opus has conducted such a study with some very unexpected results…at least for the “consensus” in much of modern academia. Of Calvin Coolidge, they said,

“He understood not only the constitutional limits of the presidency and of the central government, but adhered to a strong policy of fiscal discipline and also understood the cultural underpinnings that made free government in America possible.” –Dr. Gary Gregg

“A man of supreme integrity and humility, ‘Silent Cal’ believed not only that the ‘business of the American people is business’ but also, as he said in the same speech, that peace, honor, and charity were the higher things of life. A fiscal conservative, he understood that the limitation of government was the foundation of individual liberty.” –Dr. Stephen Klugewicz

Check out where the Presidents rank (and how different Mount Rushmore would look) when the promises of the solemn oath they take are applied to their administrations. Rankings by others have proceeded with a presupposition against liberty and prosperity but toward centralized power and grand intentions. This time, the scholars on the panel look for who advanced our republican principles in office, not merely campaigned on them to secure support.

Check out Kai’s superb assessment of this research as well and, while there, spend some time learning more about Cal Coolidge.

“The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation”

March 11, 2014March 11, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Here is an excellent recap of the first Coolidge Gala Dinner held last November. We look forward to many more to come. The fresh introduction to Calvin Coolidge for many who do not know who he is, what he accomplished and why he is important is thrilling to behold.

What a tremendous way to bring back our thirtieth President from an unjust “exile” by historians and to relearn the principles of limited government, engaged citizenship, and fiscal discipline by which he lived and led. These truths, along with many others, lack none of the necessity or power now than they did in his time. This is NOT out of some simplistic nostalgia about the “good old days” but rather strikes at something far more profound and fundamental: A government held to proper limits by a sovereign citizenry is the only foundation for social progress, economic opportunity and individual liberty.

In this period where so many assume “Big Government” is permanently here to handle every human contingency, we are inescapably bound by the reality of Coolidge’s precepts. As much as we may wish otherwise, we cannot indefinitely spend what we do not have just as we cannot reap what we have not sown, whether as individuals or nations. We have no more outgrown Coolidge’s belief in self-government, exemplified by such virtues as hard work, personal initiative and self-control, than the earth has outgrown a need for the sun.

As Mr. Cal Thomas, quoting his Presidential namesake, brings to our attention, “We can not continue to enjoy the result” of all our success “if we neglect and abandon the cause.”

“Caught ’em myself!”

March 9, 2014February 2, 2017 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

When it became known that President Coolidge would be spending three weeks in the Black Hills of South Dakota during the summer of 1927, a plot was “hatched” by Governor Bulow and Cal’s future hosts to devise a means of diversion and entertainment for the President away from the hustle and pressures of the Office. It had to be something capitalizing on the natural grandeur and beauty of the outdoors. It would carry the additional advantage of attracting sportsmen to the state if President Coolidge could really enjoy his stay. How could they ensure such results?

The hatcheries of Spearfish provided some 2,000 answers. Fat, unsuspecting trout, farm-raised on liver and horsemeat, would soon find themselves being driven the 80 miles south from the Northern hills to Squaw Creek, running conveniently right beside the State Game Lodge, the very place the Coolidges were to stay. Not released all at once, stealth deliveries would rumble down the old bootlegging trails along the creek putting in unwitting replacements every fourth night, Rex Smith records (The Carving of Mount Rushmore p.145-147). This would go on not for a mere three weeks, but a stay that turned into three months as the Coolidges came to thoroughly love South Dakota and her people and they the President and his wife.

President Coolidge fishing on Squaw Creek, June 16, 1927

Having loaded the stream with more trout than ever naturally inhabited those waters, it guaranteed that Coolidge would catch something! Nature seemed ready to thwart their plans, though, when a hard rain fell that first week, washing mud into the stream. No fish with any sense of prolonging its life would venture out to feed when it could not see what was above the water. These pampered fish, however, were too hungry to let so little a thing as impossible visibility get in the way of one easy meal after another being cast in their midst. Coolidge, having been persuaded to give fishing a try on his second day, geared up and with rod, bait and basket cast a line out. In a matter of minutes, he had hauled in five keepers!

Mr. Coolidge showing what he caught to Grace as the collies watch eagerly out of the shot.

Fascinated, but still skeptical, he brought his cache back to the Lodge and showed them to Grace. Encouraged to continue, he went back that evening and snagged still more huge trout. He came back “pleased,” as Mrs. Coolidge reported, “as a boy with his first pair of red-topped boots,” proudly displaying to “Mammy” these latest fruits of but their first week in South Dakota. He was “hooked” from then onward. He would develop into a fly fisherman of ability on the Brule River in Wisconsin the following summer. Yet, it all began with this small scheme to lure the fisherman out of Mr. Coolidge that hectic, historic June of 1927. After leaving the White House, he would continue developing his new fascination along the rivers and lakes of Connecticut and near the Homestead in Vermont. He would even plan a cross-country fishing trip with his old friend, Colonel Starling. Though the trip never happened, he would usually fall back on the old rod and worm that first worked so well at Squaw Creek.

The President fishing next to the Cabin on the Brule River, Wisconsin, summer of 1928

The President fishing at the game refuge of his friend, Senator George P. McLean, Simsbury, Connecticut. Thanks go out to reader Mr. Kevin Gallagher for providing the corrected background info on this snapshot.

Enthused by so successful a catch, he had the trout served at dinner the next evening. At the head of his party would be none other than Governor Bulow, who, unbeknownst to his Presidential guest, had helped make this bounty possible. The Governor, not relishing the pervasive taste of liver awaiting him in that meat, looked down at the fish on his plate that night and whispered, “Seems to me I’ve seen you before.” The President hearing something, asked, “What did you say, Governor?”