The great work before us is to keep this new spirit in the right path.
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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A righteous purpose has not only strengthened our arms abroad but exalted the Nation at home.
Everywhere selfishness is giving way to service, idleness to industry, wastefulness to thrift.
And with this has come the discovery of new powers, not only in the slouch whom military drill has transformed into a man, but to labor that has found a new joy, satisfaction and efficiency in its work.
The call for man power has given a new idea of the importance of the individual, so that there has been brought to the humblest the knowledge that he was not only important but his importance was realized.
When the idle see the necessity of work, when we begin to recognize industry as essential, the working man begins to have paid him the honor which is his due.
Labor has taken on a new dignity and nobility.
We are united now; every one is first an American.
We have marshalled the righteousness of America to overwhelm the wickedness of Germany.
We have recognized that evil is only to be overcome by good.
No; we have taken more than the sword, lest we perish by the sword; we have summoned the moral power of the Nation.
Are we seeking merely to match infamy with infamy, merely to pillage and destroy those who threatened to pillage and destroy us?
A wicked purpose, which a vain attempt to realize has involved its authors in more and more wickedness.
We see at last not only the hideous wickedness which perpetrated the war, we see that it is a world war, that Germany struck not only at Belgium, she struck at us, she struck at our whole system of civilization.
This attempt to declare law for America by an edict from Potsdam we resisted by the sword.
We come to pledge anew our faith in all that America means and to declare our firm determination to defend her within and without from every foe.
We meet here to-day as the inheritors of those principles which preserved our Nation and extended its constitutional guaranties to all its citizens.
Massachusetts by its Homestead Commission is encouraging its citizens to own real estate because such ownership is a sheet anchor to self-government.
This means justice, nothing more, nothing less--justice to the tenant, justice to the landlord.
We do not care how humble he may be, we do not care how exalted the landlord may be, justice shall be done.
It does not rest on any silly assumption that virtue is the reward of anything but effort or that liberty can be secured at the price of anything but eternal vigilance.
We believe in him not because of what he has, but what he is.
America is built on faith in the individual, faith in his will and power to do right of his own accord, but equally is the determination that the individual shall be protected against whatsoever force may be brought against him.
When they are not observed--when the strong refuse voluntary justice to the weak--then it is time for the strong arm of the law through the public officers to intervene and see that the weak are protected.
He must use his property for the general good or the very right to hold private property is lost.
Politicians like Calvin Coolidge
