Each year some 25,000 tourists make their way to the bucolic hamlet of Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The beauty of this mountainous village alone warrants the trip, but the real draw of course is a visit to the historic village where Calvin Coolidge was born, reared and is laid to rest. Curious tourists and illustrious dignitaries alike have made the trip to the Notch over the years. One of the most famous visits came during the Coolidge Presidency when the site played host to a most curious gathering of “Vagabonds.” Those vagabonds, as they referred to themselves, were none other than industrial titans Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford, and famed inventor Thomas Edison.

I cannot think of anything that represents the American people as a whole so adequately as honest work. We perform different tasks, but the spirit is the same. We are proud of work and ashamed of idleness. With us there is no task which is menial, no service which is degrading. All work is ennobling and all workers are ennobled.[1]

The decade of the 1920s is often referred to as the Republican ascendancy because of the return to conservatism in contrast to the progressivism of the early 20th century. Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover dominated this era and tended to govern with a conservative philosophy. Nevertheless this decade was also a battleground of political philosophy between conservatives and progressives and often the role of government and the Constitution was at the center of this war of ideas. This was especially true in the United States Supreme Court.