After asserting that man was to stand out in the universe with a new and supreme importance, and that governments were instituted to insure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they did not shrink from the logical conclusion of…
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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The signers knew that well; more important still, the people whom they represented knew it.
It is the realization of the true glory and worth of man, which, when once admitted, wrought vast changes that have marked all history since its day.
Its admirers have sometimes failed in their attempts to live by it, but none have successfully disputed its truth.
Men of every clime have lavished much admiration upon the first part of the Declaration of Independence, and rightly so, for it marked the entry of new forces and new ideals into human affairs.
It may be some help to know that, however much of glory, there is no magic in American democracy.
There is no absolute proof, no positive guaranty, but there is hope and high expectation, and the path is not uncharted.
The rule of princes, the privilege of birth, has come down through the ages; the rule of the people has not yet marked a century and a half.
What proof that some unlineal hand, some barbarism, without or within, shall not wrench the sceptre of democracy from our grasp?
We may claim with reason that our Nation has had the guidance of Providence; we may know that our form of government must ultimately prevail upon earth; but what guaranty have we that it shall be maintained here?
We know that only ignorance and superstition seek to explain events by fate and destiny, yet there is a fascination in such speculations born, perhaps, of human frailty.
We are working towards the day when, in our industrial life, equal honor shall fall to equal endeavor, whether it be exhibited in the office or in the shop.
In political affairs the vote of the humblest has long counted for as much as the vote of the most exalted.
Democracy not only ennobled man; it has ennobled industry.
A most significant development of respect for man has come to be respect for his occupation.
The public schools have made education possible for all, and ignorance a disgrace.
The freedom of the human mind is recognized in the right of free speech and free press.
All the forces of the universe are ranged on the side of democracy.
It has been a struggle against the forces of darkness; victory has been and is still delayed in some quarters, but the result is not in doubt.
The light that first broke over the thirteen Colonies lying along the Atlantic Coast was destined to illuminate the world.
Superstition and sham cannot stand before intelligence and reality.
It was sovereignty from within which responded to the alarm of Paul Revere on that April night, and which went marching, gun in hand, against sovereignty from without, wherever it was found on earth.
It was not so much a struggle of the Colonies against the tyranny of bad government, as against wrong principles of government, and for self-government.
It stands with ordinance and law, charter and constitution, prophecy and revelation, whether we read them in the history of Babylon, the results of Runnymede, the Ten Commandments, or the Sermon on the Mount.
It takes service and sacrifice to maintain ideals.
Politicians like Calvin Coolidge
