Calvin Coolidge to work jointly with Edward T. Clark, a Massachusetts Republican organizer whom he retained from his vice-presidential staff, as Secretaries to the President (a position equivalent to the modern White House Chief of Staff). Perhaps the most powerful person in Coolidge's Cabinet was Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who controlled the administration's financial policies and was regarded by many, including House Minority Leader John Nance Garner, as more powerful than Coolidge himself. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover also held a prominent place in Coolidge's Cabinet, in part because Coolidge found value in Hoover's ability to win positive publicity with
First inauguration of Calvin Coolidge homestead in Vermont, which did not have electricity or a telephone, when he received word by messenger of Harding's death. As the new president, Coolidge intended to take the oath of office and greet reporters who had assembled outside. He dressed in an upstairs bedroom, said a prayer, and came downstairs. In front of a small group of observers, including Coolidge's wife Grace and United States Representative Porter H. Dale, his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., a Vermont notary public and justice of the peace, administered the oath of office. The swearing in took place in John Coolidge's family parlor