On the Constitution

September 17, 2013September 17, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

“To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race” — President Coolidge speaking from the White House, December 12, 1924

“It is axiomatic that our country can not stand still. It would seem to be perfectly plain from recent events that it is determined to go forward. But it wants no pretenses, it wants no vagaries. It is determined to advance in an orderly, sound and common-sense way. It does not propose to abandon the theory of the Declaration that the people have inalienable rights which no majority and no power of government can destroy. It does not propose to abandon the practice of the Constitution that provides for the protection of these rights. It believes that within these limitations, which are imposed not by the fiat of man but by the law of the Creator, self-government is just and wise. It is convinced that it will be impossible for the people to provide their own government unless they continue to own their own property. These are the very foundations of America” — President Coolidge’s Second Annual Message, December 3, 1924

“What America needs is to hold to its ancient and well-charted course. Our country was conceived in the theory of local self-government. It has been dedicated by long practice to that wise and beneficent policy. It is the foundation principle of our system of liberty. It makes the largest promise to the freedom and development of the individual. Its preservation is worth all the effort and all the sacrifice that it may cost” — December 12, 1924.

Today, September 17, marks the 226th year since the last meeting of the Convention in Philadelphia and the signing of the Constitution. What a remarkable achievement and prescient blueprint has been handed down to us. Happy Constitution Day!

“But I like it!”

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

Edna M. Colman recounts an instance that took place just before President Coolidge’s inauguration ceremony in March of 1925, when much discussion ensued among the staff regarding Presidential handshaking. Colman writes, “The fact that, although in the White House but about twenty months, President Coolidge had shaken hands with ninety thousand people brought forth argument against the practice on the part of some of his close friends. A committee was appointed to attempt to relieve him of some of his routine duties. When the solicitous group had expounded to him their views upon the matter and expressed their desires and intentions, expecting him to acquiesce with pleasure and possibly with praise for their thoughtfulness of him, he electrified them and disposed of the entire matter in his characteristic fashion–‘But I like it!’ “

So much for the mistaken notion that a cold and unfeeling Coolidge lazily slept through the 1920s!

New Year’s Reception by the Coolidges at the White House, 1927

The Coolidges in Brule, 1928

September 8, 2013September 8, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

The Coolidges in Brule, 1928

Depicted here is the President and First Lady leaving the small country church services one of the Sundays during the summer of 1928.

Deliberately avoiding the elaborate churches and ordained preachers of Superior, the Coolidges went to hear “lay-preacher” Mr. John Taylor, a blind man of 70 years. His sermons, on what newspapers have summarized “plain living and high thinking,” were reminders that the truth is often found in the simplest, humblest of circumstances.

If too enamored by the elaborate and sophisticated, the individual often misses the obviousness of truth entirely just as the apostle asked in 1 Corinthians 1:20 and 1:18: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”