“Silent Cal: A Public Role Model”

December 13, 2013December 13, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

This excellent piece by College Conservative Alex Uzarowicz defines in cogent terms why overlooking Coolidge and his accomplishments deprives us of the immense benefit of Coolidge’s humble example of service. It was a model Americans expected in 1928 and which is glaringly absent now. Coolidge’s platform resonates not only because it succeeded so well but because it demonstrated how our Founding principles work. The governing principles of “Silent Cal” remain a winning message going into 2016.

On Our Capitalist System

November 24, 2013November 24, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / 3 Comments

“Our system of property rights has been devised out of much hard experience for the purpose of confirming the liberty and independence of the people. It cannot be limited or destroyed without limiting or destroying the opportunity of the people…

“Our system does not put property rights above human rights. We regard our material resources as a means to a higher life. We undertake to protect property rights for the sole purpose of protecting human rights.

“No one should deny that there have been abuses of property. We have had thieves and swindlers since the world began. But that is no reason for discarding a sound system. Guilt is personal. If a bookkeeper by accident or design falsifies his ledger we do not condemn the rules of arithmetic; we try to reform the bookkeeper. The trouble with him was that he did not observe the rules. Because we sometimes suffer from ignorance and dishonesty is no reason for changing our system of property rights. We cannot make the exception the rule. We must make the offenders observe the system. Besides, the great mass of the people are honest and the great mass of business transactions are scrupulously correct.

“There is always a temptation in time of adversity to think anything would be better than that which we have. Naturally we ask ourselves why, if our system is sound, it does not work better. The answer is that our system has worked better than any other that was ever devised. Under it we have had more progress and more comfort than ever came to any other people. Even in our present distress we are better taken care of than we could be under any other system. We are wise enough to know that there is no system of property rights that is proof against human folly and greed. We cannot expect perfection. We do expect improvement. But that is no reason why we should agree with those who would persuade us that all our hard-won victories were mistakes which we ought now to abandon. Our greatest hope of success materially and spiritually lies in the continued support of those political and economic institutions which were established by the Constitution of the United States” — former President Calvin Coolidge, excerpt of “Everyman’s Property,” Collier’s, July 23, 1932.

On the Gettysburg Address

November 19, 2013November 19, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / 2 Comments

To express our devotion we have come to the field of Gettysburg. It ranks as one of the great historic battle grounds of this continent. In the magnitude of its importance it compares with the Plains of Abraham, with Saratoga, and with Yorktown. It is associated with a great battle between the Union and Confederate forces and with one of the greatest addresses ever delivered by one of the greatest men ever in the world, Abraham Lincoln. – See more at: http://www.calvin-coolidge.org/address-at-gettysburg-battle-field.html#sthash.LvYMuGW1.dpuf

The “Nicolay Copy,” earliest known handwritten version of the Gettysburg Address.

One hundred and fifty years ago, President Lincoln ascended the speaker’s platform to give over the course of two, short minutes one of the most eloquent speeches ever uttered. His words stand in timeless tribute to those, on both sides of those vast fields and hills of Gettysburg, who gave all they had to preserve freedom and government by consent.

President Coolidge being presented an original parchment of the Gettysburg Address by the Italian Republican League of New York, February 12, 1927.

President Coolidge being presented an original parchment of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address by the Italian Republican League of New York, February 12, 1927.

One of six Presidents to visit the battlefield at Gettysburg up to that time, Calvin Coolidge came here in 1928, honoring not only what brave men did there but what one man said there,

“We do not come to lament, but to give thanks. With one acclaim the people bestow upon them all that divine salutation, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ To express our devotion we have come to the field of Gettysburg. It ranks as one of the great historic battle grounds of this continent. In the magnitude of its importance it compares with the Plains of Abraham, with Saratoga, and with Yorktown. It is associated with a great battle between the Union and Confederate forces and with one of the greatest addresses ever delivered by one of the greatest men ever in the world, Abraham Lincoln.”