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.

In the presidential campaign of 1932 President Herbert Hoover was fighting a two-front war not only trying to battle the Great Depression, but also defend his record and win reelection against the Democrats and the New Deal candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover’s reelection campaign was an uphill battle against the Depression and the charismatic Franklin D. Roosevelt, but his campaign was more than just a defense of his economic policies. Hoover’s campaign was also a defense of what he considered to be constitutional government versus the regimentation and socialism of the New Deal. Hoover was similar to John the Baptist as a voice of one calling in the wilderness for the American people to repent and turn away from New Deal progressivism.

“Mr. Coolidge Tells Them.” So read the headline on a story covering former President Coolidge’s speech back in another October, that being the October prior to the fateful election of 1932. Speaking at Madison Square Garden, President Coolidge loyally backed his fellow Republican, saying of the incumbent Herbert Hoover, “The more this campaign has progressed, the more I am convinced that he should be elected.” The editors of the paper, the Daily Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi, described Coolidge’s speech as full of “stock arguments” and wrote that Coolidge “re-put-forward old saws.” The paper wasn’t exactly friendly to Coolidge, Hoover, or the GOP.

As you all know, we are in the midst of a contentious presidential election, among the most contentious in American history. Yet recently 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.