President Coolidge bestowing the Medal of Honor upon Lieutenant Christian Schilt for his actions under fire in Quilali, Nicaragua, six months before.

First Lieutenant Schilt, with his Vought O2U-1 Corsair, volunteered to rescue the Marines cut off by ambushing forces at Quilali, Nicaragua. On January 6, 7, and 8, 1928, Schilt volunteered and flew 10 missions to rescue wounded Marines and bring vital supplies to those on the ground. Landing on the road, he quickly unloaded the supplies and rescued 18 Marines, saving 3 lives, all under heavy enemy fire. As his citation reads: “Lieutenant Schilt…succeeded in accomplishing his mission.” Coolidge bestowed on him the Medal of Honor at the White House, June 9, 1928.

Happy 240th Birthday, Marines! Semper Fi!

Continuing our “Best of Coolidge” series through the Presidential years, we come to the letter Calvin Coolidge wrote to Sergeant Charles F. Gardner, stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, New York. Gardner, offended by the candidacy of a black man nominated by Harlem Republicans, Dr. Charles H. Roberts, the irate enlisted man dashes off a request and newspaper clipping to the President of the United States in order for Coolidge to do something about it, to at least publicly condemn Dr. Roberts. The President, writing back on August 9, 1924, did do something but in this stinging rebuke of Gardner, Coolidge’s actions prove not to be the something the Sergeant intended.

Though Dr. Roberts would go on to lose the election, it is revealing that Coolidge gives so strong an endorsement here. This is a remarkable piece of the Coolidge record and deserves to be included in any consideration of this President’s views on race and how he handled it at a time when the Jim Crow era could have kept him silent, especially that summer, right before the 1924 Presidential election. Coolidge’s words could just as easily have been written this week.

Leading off our “Best of Coolidge” Readings for the Presidential years is the First Annual Message delivered before the joint session of Congress on December 6, 1923. In it he outlines more than five dozen proposals informing the country what to expect from him and his administration after four months of quiet study and preparation (subsequent, of course, to the two and a half years in Washington as Vice President) on the variety of issues needing attention after the death of President Harding.

He would later write that most of these recommendations would go on to become law by the time he left office in 1929. This result came without White House coercion or reprisal, tactics Coolidge despised in executive leadership. He accomplished much without seeking credit while entrusting subordinates with their responsibilities. By and large, they did not let him down. Their competent reliability and both his administrative talents and mind for detail kept the ship on course and efficiently directed in faithful service to the country, not merely themselves. By this measure, Coolidge was one of our most effective Presidents.

We are left to wonder how differently history (and the country as a whole) would have gone had visionary proposals like the reorganization of the federal departments – eliminating redundancy and needless bureaucracy – succeeded with so many of the others.