Presentation of the first Calvin Coolidge Notary Award to
Matt Blunt, Missouri Secretary of State
By Cyndy Bittinger, Executive Director, CCMF

I bring you greetings from Plymouth, Vermont where over a million Americans since 1923 have come to see the house where Vice President Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office to become the President of the United States. The Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation has as its mission to inspire the public to appreciate and study the legacy of President Coolidge to forge a stronger society for the future.

To set the scene for the homestead inaugural in 1923, I should describe the notary public who qualified the oath of office. John Coolidge was born in 1845 and was 78 years old when he came to fame as a notary. He had owned the village store for over 15 years and was a town leader in Plymouth. He also represented the town in the state legislature and had been a state senator. His family had been among the original settlers of the town after the Revolutionary War and to most of the town, he represented THE LAW. He was a gentleman farmer and skilled mason who relaxed by tapping maple trees!

His son was Calvin Coolidge, born in 1872 in Plymouth, Vermont behind the store his father ran. After attending the town's one room schoolhouse, he went on to the local academy where he was encouraged to go to college, the first one in his family to attend. He traveled to Massachusetts and was AN AMHERST COLLEGE MAN. From there he read the law in Northampton, MA and became involved in the Republican party. Soon he was running for offices and winning! He progressed from state representative to state senator, lt. governor and governor. He achieved national fame with his handling of the Boston Police Strike of 1919. Remember he was the governor to say, "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." His political backers went to the national Republican convention of 1920 waving books entitled Law and Order quoting Calvin's speeches. When the party bosses chose Warren Harding to head the ticket, the unruly delegates rebelled and insisted on Coolidge as the candidate for Vice President. The ticket won and the Coolidges settled into a role as the "second" couple, ready to fill in for the President and First Lady on a moment's notice. When the Hardings left for the West Coast, in 1923, the Coolidges went to Vermont to visit Calvin's father. Little did they know that the president's heart problems would become serious and Warren Harding would die in office.

Let me read from the Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge to describe the oath of office event: (Pages 173-177)
When Calvin's father was later asked, "How did you know you could administer the presidential oath to your own son?" He replied, "I didn't know that I couldn't."
(short reading from Joe Fountain's eyewitness account with 3 copies of the oath typed by Mr. Geiser, the stenographer)

There were three copies of this oath of office. None survive. One of the challenges I suggest to you is to help us find a copy. This is a mystery. Where were the oaths filed? Were they taken back to Washington? Sent to Vermont's capital, Montpelier? Further research is needed.

In conclusion, I wish to thank Ozie Stallworth and Tim Reiniger for inviting me here to St. Louis and I am thrilled that the first Calvin Coolidge Notary award is being presented today.

Presentation of The Calvin Coolidge Notary Award
by Timothy Reiniger, Executive Director of the National Notary Association
September 28, 2004, St. Louis, Missouri

The National Notary Association is proud and honored to be launching today The Calvin Coolidge Notary Award. Calvin Coolidge is a very important President with respect to Notaries for reasons going well beyond the circumstance of his swearing in by his father – a Notary Public.

First, the public trust that Calvin Coolidge earned is reflected by his having held 10 elected positions – a number far greater than that of any other President in our history. How did he do this and what is the lesson for Notaries? In a 1998 symposium sponsored by The Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Hugh Sidey, the distinguished Life and Time magazine journalist who has covered or known every President since Eisenhower, observed that Calvin Coolidge, unlike other Presidents, consistently demonstrated the courage to say "no" when warranted. This is something that Notaries, as public officials, are also expected to do.

Second, an important basis for Calvin Coolidge's high ideals and ethical integrity came from his commitment to the founding principles of our country, including the defense of property and personal rights. In fact, Calvin Coolidge was one of two Presidents (along with Abraham Lincoln) to have been an expert on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and he frequently referred to both documents in his speeches. In his Presidential inaugural address on March 4, 1925, for example, he declared: "We need not concern ourselves much about the rights of property if we will faithfully observe the rights of persons. Under our institutions, their rights are supreme.

It is not property but the right to hold property, both great and small, which our Constitution guarantees." Notaries, being guardians of property and personal rights as their primary function, share President Coolidge's deep commitment to the country's founding principles.

The Calvin Coolidge Notary Award is thus being given to government officials who have spearheaded efforts to strengthen the ability of Notaries to safeguard citizens' property and personal rights. The reform efforts must fall within two or more of the following four categories: mandatory education and ethics standards, identification standards, journal requirements, or seal requirements.
The new Missouri law covers nearly all of these categories. The principle reform contained in the law is the requirement of mandatory Notary education. Missouri is now one of only six states or territories with an education mandate. The law also strengthens the consumer protection role of the journal by mandating that the document signer's signature be captured by the Notary. Also, there is a clarification that the journal is the exclusive property of the Notary, to be kept secure at all times. This is vital for ensuring that, to the extent a Notary has to produce records for a court proceeding, the evidence has remained tamper-free. Finally, the law further enhances the security of the Notary seal by imposing a notification requirement for stolen seals.

As a result of these reforms, Missouri is now at the very top rank of states in terms of its Notary laws and in the ability of Notaries here to say "no," as Calvin Coolidge did. And the ability and courage to say "no" to a notarization can ensure that a criminal goes to jail or an innocent person doesn't lose their property. In addition, because of the unfortunate threat of terrorism in our time, this could result in saving lives. So for these reasons, the National Notary Association is deeply honored to present its first Calvin Coolidge Notary Award to Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt.