(Quotes transcribed by author of this blog, who takes full responsibility for any mistakes in the transcription, taken from audiobook of above title, checked out via Hoopla app)
"The smallest unit of government [in Plymouth, VT, at that time] was the school district, and much of what went on in Plymouth focused on that. The room-and-board for teachers were subject to bid, and the family with the lowest bid got the contract. The amount, Coolidge later remembered, tended to hang around $1.25 for two weeks in winter and $0.50 for the same period in summer. It was during his childhood that Plymouth first gave women the chance to vote on school issues.
As the boy [Calvin] soon learned, the political life of Plymouth ran on its own annual cycle. Town officers were chosen at a March meeting, where the town also set the tax rates. There was also bonded debt to manage due to road construction and costs incurred during the Civil War and by the freshet of 1869, one of the many floods that plagued Vermont. Come September there was another meeting, a freeman's meeting, where the town elected its delegates to the State government as well as to Congress and presidential electors.
At an annual district meeting at the school house, villagers chose the school officers, such as Calvin's father [John], and set the rate of the school tax. Everything happened on a small scale of pennies and dollars -- collection of a snow tax, for care of an indigent. But the town felt itself the basis of all that was above it, the county authorities and the State authorities in Montpelier.
The records John Coolidge kept showed the painstaking effort of town leaders to budget and manage a small amount of cash. The town paid Coolidge's father $11.50 for superintending the schools, $1.00 to someone else unnamed in a town report for a day's labor, $0.50 to someone else for half-day of work on a road in winter, $104 to a woman Mary A.Sawyer for keeping a sick man C.J. for one year. That year, the town also paid $1.00 for a pair of shoes for a child. In all Plymouth's expenses in that year were $3182.
One year the other men of the town wanted to raise a large amount of money with a new tax. John Coolidge abstained from voting, saying that he did not wish to place so large a burden on those who were less able, and so was leaving them to make their own decision, Coolidge later remembered.
At the store, too, the boy could see the clockwork that was commerce. His father spent $40 rent for the store, and turned over $10,000 a year in goods. That left room for fat profits, but John and Victoria would not charge high prices on their neighbors. That might turn away business. It was better to operate on narrow margins, and hope to sustain volume and trust. John paid his blacksmith $1.00 a day to run the blacksmith shop. In the store he had to set prices and decide whether to haggle. In the end, he took only $100 or so a month profit out of the store business. That was enough to pay for a maid-servant around the house and some other expenses, but not enough to live richly. Many people who came to the store borrowed small sums to buy items on credit. Remarkably few did not pay the money back."
Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (biography), Ch.1, 2014
"The school itself [Black River Academy, Ludlow, VT] was its own illumination, and there were others like it all over New England. The school, Black River Academy, Baptist in background, enjoyed great independence. Its Head could shape its curriculum and had time to get to know the children. Secondary school was not compulsory. Parents contracted with schools and paid them. Schools did not always have dormitories. Coolidge would board with friends or acquaintances, then attend the school. After a few terms, he might return home to Plymouth, as his father and grandmother had, to farm or run the store. At first, it seemed that he wanted to."
Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (biography), Ch.1, 2014
"I am in first rate health and having a good time, but I wish I was at home, for if I was there, I could have a better time. But having a good time is not everything to think about in this world."
Calvin Coolidge, writing to his grandmother in 1887 (original citation not found by blogger), quoted by Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (biography), Ch.1, 2014
"For graduation in May 1890, Calvin wrote and memorized a speech about the power of oratory. He noted that it was Cicero's voice, the force of Cicero's oratory, that had helped drown out dictators, and made even Caesar tremble. His speech was also about the advances of Great Britain had enjoyed after free traders had won their case there. What mighty changes have been wrought in England's political system within the last fifty years by the indomitable energy of such orators as Vincent, [Richard] Cobdon, [John] Bright, and scores of others who traversed the kingdom advocating the repeal of the Corn Laws and other measures which were once deemed utopian and hopeless.
There was an inconsistency between his praise for the free-trade Britons and the pro-tariff rule in his region. It was actually an inconsistency typical of New England, which like to see old England's markets open even when some of its own were closed.
The Vermont Tribune lavished praise on him. 'Calvin Coolidge gave a historical resume of the influence of oratory in the formation of public opinion and in the great movement of history.'"
Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (biography), Ch.1, 2014
"The school itself [Black River Academy, Ludlow, VT] was its own illumination, and there were others like it all over New England. The school, Black River Academy, Baptist in background, enjoyed great independence. Its Head could shape its curriculum and had time to get to know the children. Secondary school was not compulsory. Parents contracted with schools and paid them. Schools did not always have dormitories. Coolidge would board with friends or acquaintances, then attend the school. After a few terms, he might return home to Plymouth, as his father and grandmother had, to farm or run the store. At first, it seemed that he wanted to."
Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (biography), Ch.1, 2014
"I am in first rate health and having a good time, but I wish I was at home, for if I was there, I could have a better time. But having a good time is not everything to think about in this world."
Calvin Coolidge, writing to his grandmother in 1887 (original citation not found by blogger), quoted by Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (biography), Ch.1, 2014
"For graduation in May 1890, Calvin wrote and memorized a speech about the power of oratory. He noted that it was Cicero's voice, the force of Cicero's oratory, that had helped drown out dictators, and made even Caesar tremble. His speech was also about the advances of Great Britain had enjoyed after free traders had won their case there. What mighty changes have been wrought in England's political system within the last fifty years by the indomitable energy of such orators as Vincent, [Richard] Cobdon, [John] Bright, and scores of others who traversed the kingdom advocating the repeal of the Corn Laws and other measures which were once deemed utopian and hopeless.
There was an inconsistency between his praise for the free-trade Britons and the pro-tariff rule in his region. It was actually an inconsistency typical of New England, which like to see old England's markets open even when some of its own were closed.
The Vermont Tribune lavished praise on him. 'Calvin Coolidge gave a historical resume of the influence of oratory in the formation of public opinion and in the great movement of history.'"
Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (biography), Ch.1, 2014
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