‘Silent Cal’ born on the 4th of July

I’m a Yankee Doodle dandy,

A Yankee Doodle, do or die;

A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam’s

Born on the Fourth of July.

I have no way of knowing if George M. Cohan had our taciturn 30th president, “Silent Cal” Coolidge, in mind when he wrote the lyrics to his classic.

But in the spirit of the looming Independence Day, let me suggest that Coolidge would have been as good a model as any for the popular 20th century song. The only president of the United States born on the Fourth of July – in 1872 at Plymouth Notch, Vt. – he certainly was a Yankee. And a dandy. And, if Cohan’s use of “doodle” could be construed to mean a caricature, I suppose Coolidge was that, as well. His alleged eccentricities must surely have been public fodder by the time that Cohan, who was born six years after Coolidge, sat down to write.

Having talked politics with old-timers – most no longer with us – who remembered the six-year Coolidge presidency that began in 1923 when he took over the job upon the death of Warren G. Harding, I have the impression that the man was much maligned.

I suspect that he was neither silent, nor weaned on a pickle, as his tormentor, Alice Roosevelt, claimed. Granted, he was not considered lively enough for the critics of his day, as an oft-chronicled remark by one of them, Dorothy Parker, suggests. Upon learning of Coolidge’s death in 1933, Parker exclaimed: “Coolidge dead? How can they tell?”

True, the man could be painfully obvious, as when he allegedly said, “When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.” And he could also be a man of few words. Once, when a matron bet that she could get him to say more than two words, Coolidge is purported to have replied, “You lose.” When he was asked what a clergyman preaching against sin had told his congregation, he answered, “He said he was against it.”

But he was pretty much on the money when he said things like, “There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.” And, “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called upon to repeat it.”

Probably no one would dispute the accuracy of his reply when he was asked how many people worked for him in the White House: “Oh, I’d say about half of them…”

The cum laude graduate of Amherst College was no dummy. He practiced law in Northampton, Mass., then got into politics and worked his way through the Republican chairs in the state legislature before becoming governor of Massachusetts.

The history books record his motto as “Do The Day’s Work” and his personal attributes as caution, dependability, fairness, honesty, industry, thrift, tolerance and unpretentiousness. Add courteous, kind, reverent and obedient to the list and he’d have out-Boy Scouted the Boy Scouts.

When Harding died while away from Washington, Silent Cal, his vice president, was sworn in by his father in his rural Vermont home at 2:47 a.m. by the light of a kerosene lamp, and then boogied off to Washington to take over the reins of leadership. Running on his own for the job in 1924, he was elected on a slogan of “Keep Cool With Cal.”

And cool the man was when he delivered his inaugural address. “The fundamental precept of liberty is toleration,” he said. “The mind of America must be forever free…”

It has been written that Coolidge understood his countrymen as well as anyone could, and that he suffered few illusions. He was aware that people criticized him for harping on the obvious. “Perhaps some day I’ll write an article on The Importance of The Obvious,” he said on one occasion. “If all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.”

More than 75 years before President George W. Bush assured us that America harbors no territorial ambitions in its fight against world terrorism, Silent Cal voiced essentially the same sentiments in behalf of his country. “America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force,” he said in his 1924 inaugural speech. “No ambition, no temptation lures her to thoughts of foreign dominions…”

On this Independence Day, even as American GIs continue to mop up the residue from our latest war, we trust that the promise of this 20th century Yankee Doodle Dandy holds true.

NEWS columnist Kent Ward lives in Winterport. He e-mail address is olddawg@bangordailynews.net.