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Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
Boone Papers. Chapter on President Coolidge from the Memoirs of His Physician, Joel T. Boone.
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Ted Joslin in his article to which I have referred said that Mr. Stearns was nei
g
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her a Mark Hanna nor a Colonel Edward M. House. Mark Hanna was a spokesman for President William McKinley. They had been in politics together in Ohio for a long period of years and knew each other most intimately. Colonel Edward M. House, philanthropist
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, very close to President Woodrow Wilson, had the reputation of being able to speak for the President on many occasions and represented him at various and sundry places.
Joslin recounts that Mr. Stearns had urged Mr. Coolidge to become a candidate for Republican nomination of Lieutenant Governor of the State of Massachusetts. Mr. Stearns could get no reply whatsoever to the proposal. Legislature was in session at that time and Mr. Coolidge was engrossed in its proceedings. Joslin says: "One night following the adjournment of the Legislature Mr. Coolidge handed Mr. Stearns a piece of paper, on which was writted: 'I am a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Calvin Coolidge.'"
Later Mr. Stearns had asked him why he had delayed so long in making the announcement. Mr. Stearns recalled to him that a gentleman of high standing in the community had been a candidate for almost a year and Mr. Stearns felt that the delay had injured those interested in Mr. Coolidge, to which Mr. Coolidge responded, "Can't you see that any other course would not have been the right one? The Legislature was in session and if I had announced my candidacy then, every word and action of mine would have been twisted. Legislation would have
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been in a mess. The public business would have suffered. I had to take that chance."
He was elected as Lieutenant Governor and served three times in that office, subsequently two times as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
As time passed on, Ted Joslin, in accounting instances in the life of Mr. Stearns, referred to the fact that unexpectedly the death of President Harding had come upon the nation as a tremendous shock. Mr. Stearns was in New York when the news of Mr. Harding's death was announced. He was requested to remain there until the special train bearing the new President, Calvin Coolidge, came in from Vermont. Mr. Stearns' greatest ambition had been realized, but it was a realization that was tinged with a sincere regret in the sadness
of
felt by every American because of the passing of one of the most lovable men who had held national office in a great many years.
Joslin said that one fact that should be emphasized was that Mr. Stearns, unskilled in the ways of statesm
e
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nship or national politics,
his way in a manner so simple and straightforward that he never seemed to see the dangers that lurked on every. "In an atmosphere that is heavy with suspicion and cynicism, he gave an example of abiding faith that was as refreshing as it was unusual....
"He was neither a Hanna nor a House nor anything like any of the men who have been credited at least with making a President. He did not try to be. Indeed, he did not try to be like anyone except himself. All but unknown to national political life, he went his quiet way, with the simple purpose of revealing in his own way to the American
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people the greatness that he saw in the man in the White House....
"... Despite every effort made to smoke him out, he held to the decision he made during his early acquaintance with the President that there was but one man who could speak for Calvin Coolidge, and that was Mr. Coolidge himself. Consequently, no secrets from the presidential study have ever leaked out via Mr. Stearns....
"No one will ever know how much Mr. Stearns has influenced the President, and, strangely enough, least of all these two men themselves. Mr. Stearns frequently has been referred to as the President's political adviser, but the truth is that Mr. Coolidge has never had any one man who could be so classified. .... Mr. Stearns has obliged whenever the President has sought information of him, but it is safe to say that on no single occasion has he volunteered advice. In all these years, to put it a bit differently, Mr. Stearns has tried, and with remarkable success, to be a true friend, that rare kind of friendship that
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gives everything without a thought of receiving anything."
Joslin concludes his article:
"Somehow, from somewhere, the country got the true picture of the President that helped it to have faith after several restless years. However much or however little Mr. Stearns contributed to this result no one can tell with any degree of accuracy. But it is a certainty tha t thisis the end that he was most eager to achieve. In realization there is satisfaction for him. He knows the general public have the same high opinion of his President that he had before the name of Coolidge was known outside the borders of the New England States.
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"The curtain is slowly descending. His President shortly will leave the national stage. He will go at the same time. When he does he can say, and, if he doesn't, others will say it for him--'A task well done.'"
These tributes to Mr. Stearns who was such a vital factor in the life of Mr. Coolidge for so many years, certainly great assistance to him in becoming President of the United States, in a very quiet and unobtrusive way without ever wishing or desiring any payment except true and abiding
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friendship of Calvin Coolidge. Mr. Stearns played a greater part in the life of Calvin Coolidge and his Presidency than people have any idea. As I was so close to him, so close to the White House, most intimate contacts with it and the people therein that I can say that Mr. Stearns was a tower of strength in the life of Calvin Coolidge, an intangible contributor to the President's difficult years in the White House. He always knew that Mr. Stearns was standing in the wings to be of service of any description, no matter how menial, if those services were requested of him, required of him. Never did he presume to project himself.
Two days before Inauguration Mrs. Hoover visited the White House. She and Mrs. Coolidge being intimate friends, she had a most pleasant time going through the White House from top to bottom to familiarize Mrs. Hoover {begin inserted text}(with it to){end inserted text} completeness. Both agreed there were not enough closets. I am sure Mrs. Coolidge found great soul-satisfaction in turning over the {begin inserted text}her{end inserted text} White House home to a person she admired so much as she did Mrs. Hoover. The Hoovers had lived in very large establishments in various parts of the world, particularly in recent years. They were
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accustomed to it on an economic scale which they were able to afford. They liked to entertain and did it very well. The Coolidges had entertained admirably. Mr. Coolidge was never parsimonious,
,as it were, in making the most generous provision for the entertainment of his
guests.
and Mrs. Coolidge's guests.
Captain Wilson, senior Naval Aide, said in his book, to which I have several times referred, in writing of the last days of the Coolidges in the White House,
that the
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President would not allow his son John when home on vacation from colleges to entertain any of his friends or even to accept invitations to parties, lest it lead to stories of a White House clique, a
d
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had happened in many previous administrations. We felt that he would not allow Mrs. Coolidge to have her friends feel free to visit her for the same reason. None of the previous Presidents whose portraits look gravely down from the walls of the reception rooms and halls ever tried more faithfully to preserve the prestige of the Presidency. And now the thirtieth President was about to leave; if only the party convention in Chicago, rushing to nominate Mr. Hoover, had taken time to say in some way to the man who
had
did not choose to run, 'Well done', I think he would have been content."
While Captain Brown's book, as I have taken excerpts from it, did not mention that he himself as the senior Naval aide accompanied President Coolidge to the station when he and Mrs. Coolidge departed from Washington after Inauguration on the train for Northampton. I believe Captain Brown did by assignment President and Mrs. Coolidge to Union Station and was present with him for their
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departure.
Mr. Coolidge
{begin inserted text}{begin handwritten}Captain Brown{end handwritten}{end inserted text}
states in his book (?): "Mr. Coolidge was pale, drawn, and emotionally upset. He seemed to us almost at the point of collapse
said goodbye. Must have seem
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d strange for hem, at first, to be left to themselves after so many years of being
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attended by a routine wherever they went. I don't know why there were none of his cabinet or others at the station to see him off. I suppose he wanted it that way. I never sa
?
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Mr. Coolidge again."
As I have stated,
Vice
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President Coolidge had asked President
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Hoover
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permission to take one of
the
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doctors and Mr. Hoover, as I have also stated, replied that he might take both of us with him if he so wished, informing Mr. Coolidge that
{begin inserted text}{begin handwritten}he would{end handwritten}{end inserted text}
have no use for Colonel Coupal after Inauguration, but he
had
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very definite duty for me
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duties for me to perform. Therefore, Colonel Coupal accompanied President Coolidge from Washington to Northampton.
Inauguration morning at the White House I went to the living quarters to say goodbye alone with President and Mrs. Coolidge, and there were exchanges between us pertaining to my services to them and our intimate relationships.
Then I Joined my wife on the first floor of the White House and she and I, as arranged for all immediate officials of the White House, entered the Blue Room and took our assigned places with the Coolidge Cabinet and the Hoover Cabinet which
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stood in the Blue Room with their wives in assigned places.
President-Elect and Mrs. Hoover stood at the head of the semicircular line. My wife and I were at the opposite end of that line. Coupal did not present himself in the Blue Room with his wife. Neither
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was present at this farewell ceremony. Coupal, I later lea
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ned, did not dress in his blue uniform, which was the prescribed one for the Inaugural ceremonies for the Army, but dressed in
ka
khaki and did not appear until we arrived at the Capitol for the Inauguration. He then left with President and Mrs. Coolidge from the speakers' stand and accompanied them to the Union Station and departed, as I have stated, for Northampton by train with them.
Everyone was most kind and gracious to Helen and me when we went in the Blue Room and while we were there, when we departed in the assigned cars for us for the Capitol.
We were seated on the presidential platform. Photographs of the stand showed me seated right behind Mrs. Coolidge. Of course, I was dressed in my full-dress daytime Navy uni
r
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o
f
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m: cocked hat, frock coat, railroad trousers, epaulettes, sword, medals, and white gloves; as was the senior Naval Aide and all the Naval aides assigned to the White House.
As I said, it was a very rainy and blustery day. All us officials were assigned specific and definite duties.
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/Although{end inserted text}
those
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who had served with the Coolidges
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regretted very much the ci
e
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cumstance do not permit them to go to the station to see former President and Mrs. Coolidge depart from Washington. All of us were required, who were in attendance on President and Mrs. Hoover, to return with them in the procession and be with them throughout the parade from the Capitol to the White House.
Information about SGML version of this document.
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