Date: November 2, 1894
Context: Coolidge writes about the passing of the nineteenth century
My Dear Father:–
There are a few moments before the lecture so I will write to you.
Will you please send a check for $2,00 in the enclosed envelope? And I am badly bent myself if not quite broken so I hope you can send me some money by monday, shall need $50 very soon now.
I see Holmes is dead, the Autocrat of the Breakfast table on whom the years sat so lightly and who had only just declared that he was 85 years young. No one but Gladstone is left of those great men that were born in 1809. Darwin is gone, the great expounder of evolution, a scientist equal to Newton. Our own Lincoln finished his lifes work when he struck the shackles from four millions of slaves and saw the surrender of General Lee.
The nineteenth century is slipping away. We are to live in the scientific age of the 20th century and must prepare for it now. There are millions who can only be hands and only a few who can be heads.
I believe it is an age where culture and education are going to be more in demand than ever I believe it will be the age of the college man.
I look to America for the future as I look t[o] Europe for the past.
But I must close
With Love
J Calvin Coolidge
Citation: Your Son, Calvin Coolidge
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The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges Marisol Balderas, who prepared this document for digital publication