It was late at night when word of President Warren G. Harding's death reached the Coolidge family homestead in Plymouth, Vermont, where son Calvin, the nation's vice president, was visiting. Awakened from his sleep, Calvin was administered the oath of office as President of the United States by his father, John Coolidge, a notary and longtime state legislator, by the light of a kerosene lamp.
Much has been written about this historic event - a good deal of it inaccurate, author Vrest Orton discovered while conducting the research that led to this book. While chair of the Vermont Historic Sites Commission, Orton set out to unravel the mysteries and misconceptions that had developed over the years about the night Calvin Coolidge - "Silent Cal" as he was nicknamed due to his economy of words - became America's 30th president.
The result of Orton's years of research into the topic, The Swearing In of 'Silent Cal': The Unique Inauguration of Calvin Coolidge clears up many longstanding myths and inaccuracies associated with the events of August 3, 1923, when Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency. It also tells for the first time the complete, dramatic and often humorous story of the fateful night that put the tiny hamlet of Plymouth, Vermont, on the map.
Paperback.