As Americans prepare to go to the polls next week, we might consider Coolidge’s thoughts on voting. Here’s a selection from his November 3, 1924 radio address on the duties of citizenship:

We are always confronted with the question of whether we wish to be ruled by all the people or a part of the people, by the minority or the majority; whether we wish our elections to be dominated by those who have been misled, through the presentation of half truths, into the formation of hasty, illogical and unsound conclusions; or whether we wish those to determine the course of our Government who have through due deliberation and careful consideration of all the factors involved reached a sound and mature conclusion. We shall always have with us an element of discontent, an element inspired with more zeal than knowledge. They will always be active and energetic, and they seldom fail to vote on election day. But the people at large in this country are not represented by them. They are greatly in the minority. But their number is large enough to be a decisive factor in many elections, unless it is offset by the sober second thought of the people who have something at stake, whether it be earnings from in vestment or from employment, who are considering not only their own welfare, but the welfare of their children and of coming generations. Our institutions never contemplated that the conduct of this country, the direction of its affairs, the adoption of its policies, the maintenance of its principles, should be decided by a minority moved in part by self-interest and prejudice. They were framed on the theory that decisions would be made by the great body of voters inspired by patriotic motives. Faith in the people does not mean faith in a part of the people. It means faith in all the people. Our country is always safe when decisions are made by a majority of those who are entitled to vote. It is always in peril when decisions are made by a minority.

via Calvin Coolidge: Radio Address from the White House on the Duties of Citizenship, November 3, 1924.

Incidentally, the slideshow at the top of this post shows Calvin and Grace Coolidge completing their absentee ballots for the 1924 election. All photos are courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

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C-Span has posted a short clip from the August 3 Coolidge event at the Library of Congress. Organized to mark the publication of Why Coolidge Matters, the event doesn’t seem to be available in its entirety anywhere on the web (despite suggestions from the LOC press release that it will be.) But the clip is worth a quick look anyway.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlwGmXJTAro]

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As presidents go, Coolidge hasn’t gotten a lot of ink from historians. Sure, there are some biographies out there — and Amity’s in the works, of course. But for the most part, the literature is pretty thin. Among 20th century presidents, only Warren Harding can give Coolidge a run for his money in the “unexamined life” category.

The relative paucity of the Coolidge historiography extends beyond books to articles. But there have been at several important efforts to coordinate new Coolidge scholarship, including conferences at the Kennedy presidential library (papers here at the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation) and a 1995 symposium at the Library of Congress (papers published in 1998 but out of print now).

Coolidge buffs are well familiar with these essays, but I thought it might be useful to highlight them for people not in the know already. The Library of Congress volume is especially had to find. Or even turn up on a Google search unless you know what you’re after.

It’s important to point out that the most sustained effort to encourage Coolidge scholarship has come from the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. They keep the flame alive.

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