Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States
In 1923, President Warren Harding died in office while on a trip to San Francisco, leaving Vice President Calvin Coolidge as the 30th president of the United States. Coolidge took over during a decade known in history as the “Roaring Twenties” for its new technologies and the more abundant lifestyle enjoyed by many Americans. However, Coolidge was the antithesis of roaring. His governing style and quiet demeanor earned him the nickname “Silent Cal.” In fact, as historian and Coolidge biographer Amity Shlaes described him, he was the “great refrainer” as president, preferring more of a “don’t do” philosophy rather than embracing the more ambitious agendas of other presidents. This style had merit, as his presidency was marked by low unemployment, low taxes, higher wages, and a budget deficit that was actually lower when he left office than when he took office.
History placed “Silent Cal” in office for the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. On July 5, 1926, Coolidge gave a speech in Philadelphia to commemorate the occasion. He gave what many historians consider his finest speech, one that traces the historical origins of the Declaration and, above all, places it in a spiritual context.
Coolidge started the speech by explaining that the ideas of the Declaration of Independence were not developed quickly, rather they were the careful thoughts of many people going back to the early colonies. The Declaration “did not partake of dark intrigue or hidden conspiracy” rather, it “took on the dignity of a resistance to illegal usurpations.”
Coolidge discusses other attempts at self-government outside of the American colonies but believed they lacked the new principles the Declaration created. He quotes these principles directly from the document itself. These being the doctrine that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights and that the source of just power comes from the consent of the governed.
The speech then introduces two early figures in American history, both part of the clergy. The first was Reverend Thomas Hooker of Connecticut, who, as early as 1638, was stating in sermons that “the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people.” The other was Reverend John Wise of Massachusetts, whose 1710 treatise, “The Church’s Quarrel Espoused,” about freedom and civil government became an important source for the Founding Fathers. Wise wrote, among many thought-provoking passages, that “Democracy is Christ’s government in church and state.”
The ideas of Hooker and Wise, as well as the ideas of other early clergy members, were used by George Mason when he drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776. Mason’s work is widely accepted as a major influence on Thomas Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration of Independence that followed shortly thereafter. For Coolidge, this progression shows the religious influence the early American clergy made on the Declaration as well as making its message “profoundly American.” He goes on to describe the Declaration as a “great spiritual document” because, to him, the source of its greatness lies in its religious convictions.
Coolidge goes on to make another important point about the Declaration of Independence. He states, “About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful.” While it is human nature to want progress, any progress that deviates from the Declaration’s basic principles is not progress but rather a dramatic step backward to a time without these principles. These principles have finality in them because they are God-given and no progress can be made beyond them. He later touches on this theme again, warning that radical reform of American institutions will cause more harm than good because it takes the country away from its founding ideals.
Coolidge ends his speech discussing the Declaration, in part, this way: “It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them.”
Every American should read the full speech at the link below: