Would it not be better to put up a fence that did not please every one's fancy, rather than keep disputing about it until the wild beasts came in and devoured the crop?
Calvin Coolidge
The Public Record
Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A member of the Republican Party, he was known for his quiet demeanor and strong support for business and limited government. Coolidge's presidency is often associated with the economic prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, and he famously advocated for a hands-off approach to the economy, believing that government should interfere as little as possible in the lives of citizens and businesses.
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Suppose two or three of you had been at the pains to break up a piece of rough land and sow it with wheat: would you let it lie waste because you could not agree what sort of a fence to make?
Shall we throw the Constitution overboard because it does not please us all alike?
These lawyers, these moneyed men, these men of learning, are all embarked in the same cause with us, and we must all sink or swim together.
They that are honest men themselves are not apt to suspect other people....
But I don't think the worse of the Constitution because lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men are fond of it.
President, when I saw this Constitution, I found that it was a cure for these disorders.
Having totally thrown off the authority of foreign power, they came suspicious of all outside authority.
But the principles of government and of citizenship which they so well represent, and nobly illustrate, will never be untimely or unworthy of reiteration.
Stupendous results, the product of a people working with an everlasting purpose.
The power to preserve America, with all that it now means to the world, all the great hope that it holds for humanity, lies in the hands of the people.
Such a course saved us in war; only such a course can preserve us in peace.
The trained business man and the humblest workman must each contribute.
It is not money that the nation or the world needs to-day, but the products of labor.
But it is the best country on earth, and the man who will not work for it, who will not fight for it, and if need be die for it, is unworthy to live in it.
Having accomplished this great task, having emerged from the war the strongest, the least burdened nation on earth, are we now to fail before our lesser task?
All counsels of selfishness were unheeded, and America responded with a spirit which united our people as never before to the call of duty.
The voices that would have lured us to destruction were unheeded.
That loyalty and that wisdom will not desert us now.
They were answered from beginning to end by the loyalty of the American workingmen and the wisdom of their leaders.
In general they appealed to the lower impulses of the people, for in their ignorance they believed the most powerful motive of this Nation was a sodden selfishness.
Had their counsels prevailed, America would have been destroyed.
That power is with the people themselves; not one class, but all classes; not one occupation, but all occupations; not one citizen, but all citizens.
The power to preserve America is in the same hands to-day that it was when the German army was almost at the gates of Paris.
The great question now is whether the American people can endure their prosperity.
Politicians like Calvin Coolidge
