Musings from Fayetteville Ft. Bragg North Carolina: Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) Is My Favorite Dead President

Jerm is featured on the Nat’s Community Web page: http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/community/index.jsp#tab-4

When Jerm told me that the Nationals were adding a new President and I figured out that it was Calvin Coolidge, I squealed!! It’s been the highlight of my week. He won his first race tonight, and the Nats beat the Giants! We could have seen the fireworks from our balconies, but we went to the roof instead -- WOW!!! Thank you, Nats!!!

When I was reading Coolidge’s autobiography (published in 1929) (free ebook click here) a while back, I went on and on about how great he was. Jerm was mostly annoyed and said that he’d only be cool if he fished. Well he did. I took notes of my favorite quotes from his book:

Try to do the right thing and sometimes be able to succeed.
He (my father) was a generous and charitable man, but he regarded waste as a moral wrong.
Our ideas of democracy came from the agora of Greece and our ideas of liberty came from the forum of Rome.
In public life it is sometimes necessary in order to appear really natural to be actually artificial.
It is not possible to find men who are perfect. Selection always has to remain limited to human beings, whatever choice is made. It is therefore always possible to point out defects.
And usually one or two garden parties held in the south grounds, one of which was for the disabled veterans who were patients in Washington hospitals. These parties were accompanied with band music and light refreshments, which always seemed to be enjoyed by the veterans.
Like the glory of a morning sunrise, it can only be experienced – it can not be told.
The presidential office differs from everything else. Much of it cannot be described, it can only be felt.
Any man who is placed in the White House can not feel that it is the result of his own exertions or his own merit. Some power outside and beyond him becomes manifest through him.
A president cannot, with success, constantly appeal to the country. After a time he will get no response. The people have their own affairs to look after and can not give much attention to what the Congress is doing. If he takes a position and stands by it, ultimately it will be adopted.
In the Congress where responsibility is divided it has developed that there is much greater danger of arbitrary action.
(The mind of the country) are unorganized, formless, and inarticulate. Against a compact and well drilled minority they do not appear to be very effective. They are nevertheless the great power in our government. I have constantly appealed to them and seldom failed in enlisting their support…in order to get things done he has to work through (the political mind)…It is a strange mixture of vanity and timidity of an obsequious attitude at one time and a delusion of grandeur at another time, of the most selfish preferment combined with the most sacrificing patriotism.
The country is better off tranquilly considering its blessing and merits, and earnestly striving to secure more of them, than it would be in nursing hostile bitterness about its deficiencies and faults.
We made the mistake of talking too much about the deficiencies of our opponents and not enough about the merits of our own candidate. I have never again fallen into that error.
What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems.
I have seen a great many attempts at political strategy in my day and elaborate plans made to encompass the destruction of this or that public man. I cannot not think of any that did not react with overwhelming force upon the perpetrators, sometimes destroying them and sometimes giving them the opportunity to demonstrate his courage, strength and soundness, which increased his standing with the people and raised him to higher office.
Those who trust to chance must abide by chance.
It is a very old saying that you never know what you can do until you try. The more I see of life the more I am convinced of the wisdom of that observation.
Any reward worth having only comes to the industrious. The success which is made in any walk of life is measured almost exactly by the amount of hard work that is put into it.
Regular attendance at all these were required. Of course we did not like to go and talked learnedly about the right of freedom of worship, and the bad mental and moral reactions from which we were likely to suffer as a result of being forced to hear scriptural readings, psalm singings, prayers, and sermons…The good it did I believe was infinite.
Whenever it was sitting, I spent all my time in the court room. In this way I became familiar with the practical side of trial work, I soon came to see the counsel who knew the law were the ones who held the attention of the judge, took the jury with them, and won their cases. They were prepared.
The right thing to do never requires any subterfuges, it is always simple and direct. That is the reason that intrigue usually falls of its own weight.