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Address at Bennington, Vermont: "Vermont is a State I Love"

September 21, 1928

My Fellow Vermonters:

For two days we have been traveling through this state. We have been up the East side, across and down the West side. We have seen Brattleboro, Bellows Falls, Windsor, White River Junction and Bethel. We have looked toward Montpelier. We have visited Burlington and Middlebury. Returning we have seen Rutland.

I have had an opportunity of visiting again the scenes of my childhood. I want to express to you, and through the press to the other cities of Vermont, my sincere appreciation for the general hospitality bestowed upon me and my associates on the occasion of this journey.

It is gratifying to note the splendid recovery from the great catastrophe which overtook the state nearly a year ago. Transportation has been restored. The railroads are in a better condition than before. The highways are open to traffic for those who wish to travel by automobile.

Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox, without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me. It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride, here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our everlasting hills. I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and her invigorating climate. But most of all because of her people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves in the service of others. If the spirit of Liberty should vanish from other parts of our Union and the support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of the brave little state of Vermont.

APP NOTE:  In the third paragraph, the President refers to "the great catastrophe which overtook the state nearly a year ago." This is a reference to widespread flooding in New England in early November 1927.  The New York Times wrote that "the damage was greatest" in Vermont (November 4, 1927, p1).  Earlier in the Summer of 1927 "the Great Mississippi Flood" caused massive destruction in the lower Mississippi valley, and Coolidge was criticized for his resistance to giving aid and personally visiting the affected areas.

Calvin Coolidge, Address at Bennington, Vermont: "Vermont is a State I Love" Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/275766

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