John Garibaldi Sargent served as U.S. attorney general from 1925 to 1929 under President Calvin Coolidge. Sargent, a little known Vermont attorney with some state government experience, was well respected within the Republican Party for his efforts in getting both Coolidge and his predecessor Warren Harding elected president. His term as attorney general was relatively tranquil, in marked contrast to the Harding administration's problems with the Teapot Dome Scandal.

Sargent was born on October 13, 1860 in Ludlow, Vermont. He graduated from Tufts College in 1887 and then returned to Ludlow to study law. Although by the late nineteenth century most major universities had law schools, most attorneys continued to be educated through a legal apprenticeship. Sargent performed clerical duties, researched the law and was tutored by the attorney in the firm. This regimen of "reading the law" took as long or longer as attending law school, but Sargent earned a small...