“Survey of the Presidents of the United States”

March 13, 2014March 13, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

So many Presidential surveys through the years have been encumbered by the subjective biases of the participants rather than the objective standards of fidelity to one’s oath and faithful execution of the laws and Constitution. At long last Franklin’s Opus has conducted such a study with some very unexpected results…at least for the “consensus” in much of modern academia. Of Calvin Coolidge, they said,

“He understood not only the constitutional limits of the presidency and of the central government, but adhered to a strong policy of fiscal discipline and also understood the cultural underpinnings that made free government in America possible.” –Dr. Gary Gregg

“A man of supreme integrity and humility, ‘Silent Cal’ believed not only that the ‘business of the American people is business’ but also, as he said in the same speech, that peace, honor, and charity were the higher things of life. A fiscal conservative, he understood that the limitation of government was the foundation of individual liberty.” –Dr. Stephen Klugewicz

Check out where the Presidents rank (and how different Mount Rushmore would look) when the promises of the solemn oath they take are applied to their administrations. Rankings by others have proceeded with a presupposition against liberty and prosperity but toward centralized power and grand intentions. This time, the scholars on the panel look for who advanced our republican principles in office, not merely campaigned on them to secure support.

Check out Kai’s superb assessment of this research as well and, while there, spend some time learning more about Cal Coolidge.

“The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation”

March 11, 2014March 11, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Here is an excellent recap of the first Coolidge Gala Dinner held last November. We look forward to many more to come. The fresh introduction to Calvin Coolidge for many who do not know who he is, what he accomplished and why he is important is thrilling to behold.

What a tremendous way to bring back our thirtieth President from an unjust “exile” by historians and to relearn the principles of limited government, engaged citizenship, and fiscal discipline by which he lived and led. These truths, along with many others, lack none of the necessity or power now than they did in his time. This is NOT out of some simplistic nostalgia about the “good old days” but rather strikes at something far more profound and fundamental: A government held to proper limits by a sovereign citizenry is the only foundation for social progress, economic opportunity and individual liberty.

In this period where so many assume “Big Government” is permanently here to handle every human contingency, we are inescapably bound by the reality of Coolidge’s precepts. As much as we may wish otherwise, we cannot indefinitely spend what we do not have just as we cannot reap what we have not sown, whether as individuals or nations. We have no more outgrown Coolidge’s belief in self-government, exemplified by such virtues as hard work, personal initiative and self-control, than the earth has outgrown a need for the sun.

As Mr. Cal Thomas, quoting his Presidential namesake, brings to our attention, “We can not continue to enjoy the result” of all our success “if we neglect and abandon the cause.”

On the Courage to Speak Truth

March 1, 2014March 1, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

” ‘There is no right to strike against the public safety by any body, any time, any where’…I felt at the time that the speeches I made and the statements I issued had a clearness of thought and revealed a power I had not before been able to express, which confirmed my belief that, when a duty comes to us, with it a power comes to enable us to perform it. I was not thinking so much of the Governorship, which I already had, as of the grave danger to the country if the voters did not decide correctly. My faith that the people would respond to the truth was justified.

“The requirements of the situation as it developed seem clear and plain now, and easy to decide, but as they arose they were very complicated and involved in many immaterial issues. The right thing to do never requires any subterfuges, it is always simple and direct. That is the reason that intrigue usually falls of its own weight” — Calvin Coolidge, The Autobiography, pp.132, 133.

“Fear is not only contagious, but reaches our representatives. It affects the neighbors and has its reaction on the officeholders…Something is the matter with the country, and they will all feel an irresistible temptation to try to provide a remedy. That would be fine if they had any such power. But only the people themselves have the power to work out of their difficulties, which they can best do without legislative interference.

“The trouble is that efforts will be made to save a situation by legislation when no legislation can save it…When the country needs the courage and confidence that relief from high taxes would give, increasing appropriations only add to the discouragement. What a refreshing spectacle it would be if a little band of officeholders would announce they were ready to risk defeat by resisting these unsound proposals! The whole country would rally to their support” — December 26, 1930