the boston globe
President Calvin Coolidge was the governor of Massachusetts first, but lacks a statue in Boston.
WHILE VISITING Boston, I picked up a copy of the Globe and read Scot Lehigh’s July 4 column calling for Boston to do a better job honoring presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Calvin Coolidge, by erecting statues in their honor (“Boston needs to end the limitation of statues,” Op-ed). I agree. But I was surprised and bothered by his statement that “none ranks among the nation’s great leaders.” Does Lehigh really believe John Adams was not one of this nation’s greatest leaders?
John Adams helped give birth to this nation and helped forge much of what it embodies (and many take for granted) today. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He served our nation as a diplomat during our critical first days as a free and independent nation. Then, Adams nurtured this fledgling nation during its infancy by following Washington, a man many would have made a king, as president, helping to set precedents and traditions the executive branch follows even today.
Not among the nation’s great leaders? Nonsense.