Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation

06/20/2026

Things That Are Unseen

in 1923, then-Vice President Coolidge gives the commencement address at Wheaton College.

"We do not need more material development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen."

You can read Coolidge's full address here: https://coolidgefoundation.org/resources/the-things-that-are-unseen/

06/17/2026

“Only in a limited way.”

Coolidge and…Hayek? In 1931 Calvin Coolidge pointed out that governments are not omniscient, anticipating Hayek’s Knowledge Problem argument.

“A free people can plan for the future only in a limited way. We do not know the future amount of consumption, wages, prices or production. …Freedom of action prevents that.”

06/12/2026

Old Glory

95 years ago, in advance of Flag Day on June 14th, Coolidge writes on the meaning of the American Flag: “It represents our peace and security, our civil and political liberty, our freedom of religious worship, our family, our friends, our home.”

Read Coolidge’s full column here: https://coolidgefoundation.org/resources/calvin-coolidge-says-june-12-1931/

06/10/2026

Radical and Conservative

Yuval Levin, writing in the Coolidge Review, argues the American Revolution was both radical and conservative.

“These traditions have often existed in tension, as was the case in Britain in the late eighteenth century. But one striking aspect of the American Founding was that the two strands complemented rather than competed with each other.”

The forgotten balance at the heart of the American Revolution

06/08/2026

First Lady at Flower Show

100 years ago, First Lady Grace opens the American Horticultural Society's spring flower show. The Washington Post reports “little Lydia Bisset” presents Grace with a bouquet of roses.

Pictured with the First Lady and little Lydia are Alice Roosevelt Longworth (at left), daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and wife of the U.S. House Speaker Nicholas Longworth III, and Second Lady Caro Dawes (at right), wife of Vice President Charles Dawes.

06/03/2026

Dear Graduates:

95 years ago, Coolidge offered both warning and encouragement to graduates.

“Some … will discover they put too much emphasis in their student days on how to get a living and not enough emphasis on how to live. [...] One great benefit of a college education is a better appreciation of the real values of life.”

06/01/2026

Not a Warlike Nation

100 years ago, President Coolidge commemorated America’s fallen at Arlington National Cemetery

“Such wars as we have waged have been for the purpose of securing conditions under which peace would be more permanent.”

Read Coolidge’s full speech here: https://coolidgefoundation.org/resources/ways-to-peace/

05/29/2026

100 years ago, Coolidge hosted the Prince and Princess of Sweden for the dedication of the John Ericsson memorial.

Ericsson was a Swedish immigrant, businessman, engineer, and inventor. Celebrating the contributions of immigrants to business, Coolidge noted “we assemble here to-day ...to glory in the name of John Ericsson...as a preeminent example of the superb contribution which has been made by many different nationalities to the cause of our country."

https://coolidgefoundation.org/resources/john-ericsson-statue-dedication/

05/27/2026

For Free Trade

95 years ago, Calvin Coolidge advocated foreign trade and free market principles.

“The opportunity for world progress through foreign trade is boundless.”