Coolidge’s Love For Vermont

The parting address given by President Coolidge as he left the boundaries of Vermont at Bennington after a two days’ sojourn among the green hills of his native state, was perhaps, the clearest reflection of the innermost thoughts of that distinguished personage that it has been since Coolidge went into the White House. His theme was Vermont, Anything about Vermont and Vermont people touches Coolidge deeply, “Vermont is a state I love,” declared the nation’s chief executive.

There is no doubt of the deep affection which President Coolidge has for the state which gave him birth, which reared him to manhood, which gave him his bride, which now holds the still forms of so many of his kin, which gave him that sturdy brand of manhood and of citizenship that stands forth so strongly in his life and his actions. It was not for political or official honor that Coolidge loves Vermont, for Vermont has played but a very little part, indeed, in the actual bestowal of such honors upon him. Massachusetts is the state which furnished him the pathway to the highest position in the nation; and, no doubt, Coolidge loves Massachusetts. Yet he loves Vermont for those things which, after all, lie nearest to the heart and to the spiritual life.

And when it comes to an occasion like that at Bennington where Coolidge was bidding a temporary farewell to that state on which his affection was centered as a state, it was only natural that there should be an outpouring of the sincere thought of the inner Coolidge. So he said,”Vermont is the state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Whittier and Mansfield without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me.” Then he went on to speak briefly of some of the reasons why Vermont occupies such a compelling place in his heart. Taken altogether‹for its compact brevity, for its portrayal of the real Coolidge beneath that shell of phlegmatism, for its tribute to a state and its people past, at least, for its hope in the future of Vermont’s influence, the speech at Bennington was a remarkable statement.