Not A Great Man

"It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man.  When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of its institutions."

- The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, which I'm reading now.

Coolidge wrote these words as he recounted the events of the evening of August 2, 1923 when he was awoken by his father, at whose house in Vermont he was staying, with the news that President Harding had died and Coolidge, as the current Vice-President, would become his successor.

Coolidge writes:

I was awakened by my father coming up the stairs calling my name.  I noticed that his voice trembled.  As the only times I had ever observed that before were when death had visited our family, I knew that something of the gravest nature had occurred.

He then looked at his copy of the Constitution to determine "what might be necessary for qualifying by taking the oath of office."  He goes on:

Having found this form in the Constitution [the oath of office] I had it set up on the typewriter and the oath was administered by my father in his capacity as a notary public, an office he had held for a great many years.

The oath was taken in what we always called the sitting room by the light of the kerosene lamp, which was the most modern form of lighting that had then reached the neighborhood.  The Bible which had belonged to my mother lay on the table at my hand.  It was not officially used, as it is not the practice in Vermont or Massachusetts to use a Bible in connection with the administration of an oath.

This room was one which was already filled with sacred memories for me.  In it my sister and my stepmother passed their last hours.  It was associated with my boyhood recollections of my own mother, who sat and reclined there during her long invalid years, though she passed away in an adjoining room where my father was to follow her within three years from this eventful night.

When I started for Washington that morning I turned aside from the main road to make a short devotional visit to the grave of my mother.

With some persons the protestations that one is not a great man might be seen as false modesty.  Given what we know of Coolidge's character, I believe he was quite sincere.