As you all know, we are in the midst of a contentious presidential election, among the most contentious in American history.Yet last night the two major party candidates met for an evening of mostly well-mannered frivolity at the Al Smith Dinner in New York, for the benefit of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation. This occasion brings to mind the race to succeed our own President Calvin Coolidge in 1928, when Republican candidate Herbert Hoover faced off against Democratic candidate Al Smith.

Recently our Foundation Chairman, Amity Shlaes, unearthed a Library of Congress audio recording of President Coolidge speaking about the institutions of our government. In the recording, the President says “the first duty of a government is to be true to itself. This does not mean perfection, it means a plan to strive for perfection. It means loyalty to ideals. The ideals of America were set out in the Declaration of Independence, and adopted in the Constitution. They did not represent perfection attained, but perfection found. The fundamental principle of freedom. The fathers knew that this was not yet apprehended. They formed a government firm in the faith that it was ever to press toward this high mark.”

As the 1924 presidential election approached, two lead­ing African American Republican Party leaders, longtime as­sociates of President Calvin Coolidge, were divided on their endorsements. William Clarence Matthews (1877 – 1928) endorsed Calvin Coolidge and William Henry Lewis (1868-1949) endorsed the Democratic Party nominee John W. Davis of West Virginia.

During the late 19th century and into the 20th century the farm block of American politics began to demand more from state governments and the federal government. The Populist Party movement, sometimes referred to as “Agrarian Radicalism” took shape in the late 19th century as farmers demanded regulation of railroads, crop supports, the free and unlimited coinage of silver, among other reforms.