Calvin Coolidge Quotes
If you are confirmed, there is one thing you must bear in mind. You will be working for the government of the United states—not for the Republican Party, and not for me. Let this fact guide you, no matter what ugly matters come to light. You may call on me for whatever assistance you may need. Don't hesitate to ask.
The President’s Attorney General and other cabinet members were the targets of the investigation of illegal oil sales rights. After the President decided to appoint a Special Prosecutor, he had to withdraw his first two nominees as they were too close to the oil industry. At this point he was being very careful.
Calvin Coolidge, 1872-1933, 30th President of the United States (Republican, MA), Statement to Owen Roberts one of his nominees for Special Prosecutor in the Teapot Dome scandal, 1924
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Treasury Secretary had discovered a massive fraud between some whiskey distillers and some government officials whereby the government was defrauded of millions of dollars of tax revenue. One of the Federal officials Bristow wanted to indict was O. E. Babcock, the President’s personal secretary and advisor. Bristow marshaled the facts and sent a report to Grant who wrote the quoted material in the margin of the report and sent it back to Bristow. Despite Grant’s lack of personal involvement and his immediate willingness to prosecute his close friend and colleague, the stain of scandal spread to Grant and to this day is a part of any discussion of his presidency.
He was reacting to President Donald Trump's demands of Personal Loyalty of his appointees. Trump was a businessman who ran provate (not public) corporations where it was not unusual for the owner to demand personal loyalty of all his key employees. He had not historical knowledge of experience with public service in America where, unlike campaigns, all officials take an oath of loalty to the Constitution and the nation and not to the President. Trump had fired the then FBI Director who was investigationg his campaign for illegal contacts with the Russians, which Trump regarded as an act of disloyalty, especially when the Director refused to pledge his loyalty to Trump.
Calvin Coolidge was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from New England, born in Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of Massachusetts. His response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight and gave him a reputation as a man of decisive action. The next year, he was elected the 29th vice president of the United States, and he succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative and also as a man who said very little and had a rather dry sense of humor.
