Guest columnist Richard Szlosek: What son’s death did to Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge

By RICHARD SZLOSEK

Published: 07-06-2024 7:01 AM

 

To a casual observer on July 4, 1924, Calvin Coolidge must have seemed the most fortunate man in the nation. It was his 52nd birthday, and just weeks before he had secured the Republican nomination for the presidency. His election appeared a shoo-in as the Democrats were in disarray.

His wife, Grace, had quickly charmed Washington society and they had two handsome sons, John and Calvin. The president had come remarkably far from his birth in a rear room of his father’s general store in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The Coolidges seemed to have it all.

In reality, on that day the president, his wife and son John were in deep emotional turmoil. The youngest son, Calvin, was in physical agony and facing hospitalization for treatment of a case of blood poisoning that had eluded all the efforts by doctors to control it. The Coolidge family would soon be in a bedside vigil in their son’s hospital room.

Calvin had just completed his junior year at Mercersburg Academy. He was an avid reader, a skilled debater and a hurdler on the track team. Despite being an excellent student, he had a reputation for being a prankster. During his junior year, Calvin underwent a dramatic growth spurt and, in the final family picture taken just before his illness, he was taller than both his father and brother.

At the conclusion of the school year, both brothers went briefly to Camp Devens for a cadet training program and then to Vermont to visit their grandfather. After that stay they returned to Washington, where they had seldom spent extended periods of time. The brothers’ favorite activity was to take weekend excursions on the presidential yacht, Mayflower. This was especially true for Calvin as he was friendly with the boat’s crew and Marine honor guard.

On Monday, June 30, John and Calvin played several sets of tennis on the White House court. A tiny blister, which initially seemed a minor annoyance, arose on a toe of Calvin’s right foot. By Tuesday evening, Calvin’s leg began to stiffen and he was lethargic all day Wednesday. On Thursday, the doctors diagnosed his condition as blood poisoning and Calvin was in great agony on Friday, the Fourth of July.

Calvin had been born on April 13, 1908, which date that year happened to be close to Easter Sunday. Because of that proximity, Coolidge nicknamed his son “bunny.” Mary Randolph, Mrs. Coolidge’s social secretary, wrote in her book, “Presidents and First Ladies,” that in a last-ditch effort to help his son, the president found a rabbit on the White House grounds and, in a surreal scene, carried it to Calvin’s bedside hoping for some miracle.

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For a few minutes it did bring a smile to Calvin’s face, but it was all to no avail. On Saturday, July 5 Calvin was transported to Walter Reed Hospital and his condition continued to worsen. Again, according to Mary Randolph, after a bout of serious delirium Calvin turned to a nurse and said, “I surrender.” A few hours later, he died in the arms of the president on the evening of July 7 at 10:30 p.m. His mother and brother helplessly looked on beside the bed.

The next day every newspaper in the land headlined a story about Calvin’s death. In a gesture of respect, the Democratic convention adjourned its activities for a day. Calvin lay in state in the East room of the White House with the Marine honor guard from the Mayflower standing at attention. The honor guard accompanied the Coolidge family and Calvin’s body to Northampton, where another ceremony was held in Edwards Church.

They continued to stay with the casket as it proceeded by train to Ludlow, Vermont and then to the Coolidge family burial site in Plymouth Notch.

The president, Mrs. Coolidge and John all maintained dry-eyed, stoic faces in public but internally they were devastated. The president wrote in his autobiography that “when he went, the power and the glory of the Presidency went with him.”

Years later, John wrote how his father broke down as the casket was removed from the White House. The reporter, John T. Lambert, said that, when he was interviewing Coolidge a week after the funeral, the president again broke down at the mention of Calvin’s name.

Five years after the death, Mrs. Coolidge was still thinking of her son and wrote a poem:

You, my son

Have shown me God.

Your kiss upon my cheek

Has made me feel the gentle touch

Of Him who leads us on.

The memory of your smile, when young,

Reveals His face.

As mellowing years come on apace.

And when you went before,

You left the Gates of Heaven ajar

That I might glimpse

Approaching from afar

The glories of His grace.

Hold, son, my hand,

Guide me along the path,

That, coming,

I may stumble not,

Nor roam,

Nor fail to show the way

Which leads us — home.

Coolidge easily won the election as the nation seemed to admire the manner in which he and Grace continued on after the death of Calvin. For Coolidge, the gaining of the office was inadequate compensation for the loss of his son and likely played a major part in his decision to give up politics a few years later.

Richard Szlosek lives in Northampton.