OK folks, it’s time to take a little break from the intense coverage of the 2024 presidential election. To relieve our mental and emotional fatigue during this little respite, I thought I would write about the far less contentious election of 1924.

As you might recall, Northampton’s own Calvin Coolidge had succeeded to the presidency on Aug. 3, 1923, after Warren Harding died while on a West Coast trip. Coolidge secured the Republican nomination the following June and, even though he was opposed by Democrat John Davis and Progressive Robert LaFollette, Coolidge decisively won his own term, winning the popular vote and garnering more than twice the Electoral College votes of his opponents combined.

The centennial of Coolidge’s victory has failed to generate any excitement in the Northampton area. The Standing Committee of the Coolidge Museum did sponsor a panel discussion on the Native American naturalization act that Coolidge signed in 1926, and on Nov. 14 there will be another such discussion on the immigration bill he signed into law in May 1924.

That immigration act is often considered the darkest mark on Coolidge’s record. The bill limited the number of immigrants from each European country to 2% of their total in the U.S. according to the 1890 census. It excluded all Japanese immigration and declared that, by 1927, the total number of immigrants would be capped at 165,000. The act was distasteful to many Americans, and Coolidge compounded that sense of revulsion when he remarked that America must be kept American.

With some minor modifications the law remained on the books until 1965, and it had some serious unintended consequences for the nation’s foreign policy. Befor World War II, FDR pointed to its quota provisions as a reason he could not allow more Jews to enter the country. The militaristic Japanese government was genuinely insulted by the exclusion provision, and it marked the beginning of hostile feelings between the nations. Coolidge had objected to that provision, but he still signed the act with the wording intact.

It is important to understand the dilemma in which Coolidge found himself that day in May 1924. He was an accidental president who had been the chief executive for only eight months. The immigration act that was awaiting his signature had been passed overwhelmingly by both houses. He knew it was veto-proof and would inevitably become law.

The Republican national convention was only weeks away and Coolidge was expected to get the presidential nomination. However, it was not a certainty. If Coolidge defied the work of his party’s congressional leaders, they might suddenly endorse another candidate such as Herbert Hoover. For a calculating politician like Coolidge, there was no way he would not sign the act.

In fact, in an era when many believed in the pseudo-science of eugenics, the law was very popular in the country and immigration was not a major issue in the election of 1924. However, immigration did play a large role in the Democratic convention in July. The party was seriously split between rural voters who tended to be isolationist, pro-Prohibition and Protestant, and the growing urban wing of the party which consisted of large numbers of new immigrants who were anti-Prohibition and Catholic.

The rural candidate of choice was William McAdoo, who had been secretary of the treasury in World War I and was Woodrow Wilson’s son-in-law, while the urban wing favored Gov. Al Smith of New York. This was one of the first conventions covered by national radio broadcasts and one must wonder what the populace thought about the often-chaotic scene being described on the convention floor.

It took 103 ballots before the party nominated a compromise selection in John Davis, a Wall Street lawyer and former ambassador to Great Britain. Even though the party was in shambles, one significant thing did happen for the future. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had been partially paralyzed by polio a few years earlier, made his first public appearance there and gave a rousing speech. It was the beginning of his comeback that would lead to the White House in 1932.

The early stages of the campaign were overshadowed by the tragic death of Coolidge’s youngest son in July. Coolidge did carry on but gave very few speeches. He received nearly 16 million votes, while Davis and LaFollette had a combined total of just over 13 million. Coolidge garnered 382 electoral votes for a resounding victory. And believe it or not, it was accomplished without any insulting name-calling, conspiracy theories or debates by the candidates.

Unfortunately, the break is over. I return you now to the regularly scheduled political coverage.

Richard Szlosek lives in Northampton.