Looking back at the beginning of the book I have written, I am not sure when President Calvin Coolidge makes an entrance, but his intrusion into the story now seems providential. I suppose I did pick the year 1925 out of a hat–it seemed like a good period for a leap back into time; it was between the two world wars and before the Great Depression. It reminded me of the images illustrated in such loving detail by that preserver of the Best of America, Normal Rockwell. My original suspicion that Coolidge was president at the time was supported by research; I knew he became president upon the untimely death President Warren G. Harding on August 2, 1923; he was elected in his own right in 1924 and served one full term that ended on March 4th, 1929.
Then, I discovered why Calvin Coolidge would be the perfect archetype to be the president in an idyllic period when the people would be of “one heart, one mind, under God, indivisible and devoted to the principle of liberty and justice for all.” So, my search was over–Calvin Coolidge was indeed the man of the hour.
Let me tell you why.
In Chapter 3, our lead character Joey Kunz learns what kind of man Coolidge was when he and his wife Dana spend a night in the Roosevelt Hotel in the magical town of Salem Crossing. Joey discovers that the “Sphinx,” as some newspapers of the day dubbed the president, made war on the Klu Klux Klan, appointed Blacks to high government position, advocated for anti-lynching laws and in 1924, signed the Indian Citizenship Act (before that, believe it or not, Native Americans were officially “not American!”). He was the first president in the 20th century who had a firm grasp on human rights, and one of just a few who openly expressed why faith in God is essential for the effective functioning of our constitutional republic.
That’s what really made me a Calvin Coolidge fan—he understood–as John Adams and the Founders did—that the foundation of the American Republic rested firmly on the bedrock of faith in God. Remember what Adams said to a group of Massachusetts militiamen shortly after the Constitution was adopted: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people–it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
In 1924. Coolidge asserted that “government rests on religion…’the claim to the right to freedom, the claim to the right to equality, with the resultant right to self-government–the rule of the people–have no foundation other than the common brotherhood of man derived from the common fatherhood of god. if this faith is set aside, the foundations of our institutions fail, the citizen is deposed from his high estate…society reverts to a system of class and caste, and the government instead of being imposed from reason from within is imposed by force from without. freedom and democracy would give way to despotism and slavery. I do not know of any adequate support for our form of government except that which comes from religion.
As he said in his inaugural address in 1925, “Here stands its Government, aware of its might but obedient to its conscience. Here it will continue to stand, seeking peace and prosperity, solicitous for the welfare of the wage earner, promoting enterprise, developing waterways and natural resources, attentive to the intuitive counsel of womanhood, encouraging education, desiring the advancement of religion, supporting the cause of justice and honor among the nations. America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force.No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions.The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.”
I find Calvin Coolidge a perfect candidate for “resurrection” and an ideal person to lead “one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all, ” if only in my imagination in a place like Salem Springs. It seemed like a good place to start,
GM JARRARD
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