“Business” is often portrayed in singular fashion as white collar office jobs overseen by lucratively paid executives. One sector of a very diverse economy is thus peddled to represent everyone. It often fails to be noticed that business is everything our hands find to do not just what happens on Wall Street or in Manhattan high rises. It is blue collar, white collar or no collar. It is rural and urban. It is labor and capital. The medical and tech fields likewise are no less business. It is the small company and the large corporation. It is the manufacturing and service industries, clerical and trade, transportation and administration. All are business.

COVID-19 is reminding us, however, that our own homes demonstrate business on its most basic scale. Things may be crazy out there but we have been reminded that much more rests in our own hands to do than we have assumed was possible for some time. We have “farmed out” so many operations and functions that once took place in the home that it comes as a surprise to many that life still goes on, education (not always the same thing as school) and work continue, the business of living returns to our hands in greater proportion than we have known and yet, we increasingly find we can “swing it.” Self-government still works.

President and First Lady Coolidge, August 1923. Color tinting by Zeldave, 2014.

This was what struck Coolidge from the beginning: that each of us was still capable of being CEOs and Presidents of our own homes and families. It was obvious to him but now and again, the importance of that obviousness needs repeating. “If all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.” He knew it was true. He said that at the early stages of an economic depression that has become the foreboding monster of American history and public policy. This was not some rosy, facts-aside, pronouncement of sunshiny denial. He had seen some of the darkest days America has faced — world war, economic depression, and yes, even pandemic — and they were all weathered. He remained genuinely convinced that people could still govern themselves through these times as well and that, even with all our imperfections, we were up to the task. We could do it. We had the qualifications for the role. Our children would be fine. Life around the dinner table and family room would receive some needed focus and we would prove, perhaps most of all, to ourselves that we can live without many a component we thought was indispensable.

So, take a moment. Breathe. Just as there are times to deplete energy so there are times to restock and take inventory. Wise old Cal knew what can be found there in those stores of reserve power includes a reaffirmation that we are qualified to be free. He knew we are still worthy of self-government. Endless regulation and undying bureaucracy were not meant to dominate our future and inundate our existence. We can yet take charge of our lives capably, operate our households well, get back to basics, and enjoy the blessings of exercising some of that freedom we have, not always for the better, consigned to others.

The Coolidges on a wagon in South Dakota.

Prudence Prim dressed for the garden party.

Mrs. Coolidge at the Homestead, Plymouth Notch.

Mrs. Coolidge at work on one of her many projects.

Coolidge playing with his boys, John & Cal Jr.Photo credit: AP.

Coolidge dances!

Mrs. Coolidge “redeeming the time” with her needle and thread.

The Coolidges with neighbors.

John at work on the farm. Photo credit: Alarmy

The Coolidge boys enjoy a joke from their father.

The Coolidges visiting Wrigley’s aviary, Catalina Island, California.

One of the Coolidge garden parties for veterans.

Mrs. Coolidge with students of the Clarke School for the Deaf.

Mrs. Coolidge at Mercersburg with son, John.

The Coolidges at the circus with Suzanne Boone.

Today is the Presidential Preference Primary in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona.

As each state has already or has still to hold primary or caucus shares in the experience through the weeks ahead in advance of the nomination conventions, keep Coolidge’s words with you (perhaps even pick up a print, Kindle or audio copy of the book Keeping Cool on the Campaign Trail these come from as well):

“When we vote for anything but the best, we cheat ourselves, our families and our country.” — Calvin Coolidge, October 28, 1930

“Persons who have the right to vote are trustees for the benefit of their country and their countrymen. They have no right to say they do not care. They must care. They have no right to say that whatever the result of the election they can get along. They must remember that their country and their countrymen cannot get along, cannot remain sound, cannot preserve its institutions, cannot protect its citizens, cannot maintain its place in the world, unless those who have the right to vote do sustain and do guide the course of public affairs by the thoughtful exercise of that right on election day.” — Coolidge, radio broadcast from the White House, November 3, 1924

“With a careless, indifferent, uninformed electorate a republic will deteriorate into a very bad form of government. It will fall into the hands of the incompetent and the vicious. Good government under our system depends on the ballot box…We cannot receive what we do not give. Put good government into the ballot box.” — Coolidge, October 25, 1930

The Coolidges cast their votes, 1920.

President Coolidge casting his vote, 1928. Photo credit: Alarmy.

President Coolidge with Canadian envoy Vincent Massey and Guard Commander M. K. Greene. Photo credit: Photo Library and Archives Canada.

President Coolidge receives Massey and J. R. King, Director of Public Health Canada, at the White House, 1927. Photo credit: Library of Congress.

Coolidge receives Canadian delegation: the Minister of Justice, Hon. Ernest Lapointe; Minister from Canada to the US, Vincent Massey; and Prime Minister of Quebec, Hon. A. Taschereau, 1928. Photo credit: Library of Congress.

Enduring proof that Calvin Coolidge was neither indifferent to international politics nor uninformed concerning it remains his cogent daily column published after his tenure in the White House, from June 1930 to June 1931. On this day, March 14th, 1931, his thoughts turned to the nation north of the border. He offers these praiseworthy thoughts:

One development after another emphasizes the growing self-sufficiency of Canada. At the opening of Parliament, when the Acting Chief Justice, Lyman P. Duff, represented King George in the absence of the new Governor General, the Earl of Bessborough, the speech from the throne was delivered for the first time by a Canadian.

The spectacle must have touched the pride of the people of the flourishing and resourceful Dominion. It was a recognition of their increasing importance in the empire. A proposal has been made to have a Governor General who is a Canadian citizen. No doubt that will come. It would be natural for a country of ten millions of people with a per capita wealth above that of the United States to supply its own contact with the crown.

Politically Canada looks to England. Economically she looks to us. We have invested there about one-ninth of her national wealth, while England has about one-fourteenth. Her trade with us is three times larger than her trade with the United Kingdom. Her own foreign investments are large. She has financial interests all over the Western Hemisphere. Because we represent the same economic aims, we rejoice in the success of Canada.

Coolidge’s expectation would occur in February 1952 with the appointment of Charles Vincent Massey as the first Canadian citizen to serve as Governor General of Canada. Massey had risen to the King’s Privy Council for Canada during the Coolidge 20s. In fact, Coolidge once played a joke on Massey, asking whether Toronto was near any lakes. The President kept the enjoyment of the astonished reaction to himself. Since that time, eleven Governors General have followed, Canadian citizens all. Two were born abroad, Hong Kong and Haiti, while six of Canada’s ten provinces (and the three territories) have enjoyed the distinction of at least one Governor General able to claim home there. Our investment in her has expanded to over one-fourth of her national wealth, vastly surpassing (for Canada) any other nation on earth.

So, Canada, we take joy in your growth and continued well-being. With glowing hearts we see thee rise!