Speaking at the Associated Industries Dinner in Boston on December 15, 1916, Calvin Coolidge, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts at the time, said, “It is our endeavor to extend equal blessings to all. It can be done approximately if we establish the correct standards. We are coming to see that we are dependent upon commercial and industrial prosperity, not only for the creation of wealth, but for the solving of the great problem of the distribution of wealth. There is just one condition on which men can secure employment and a living, nourishing, profitable wage, for whatever they contribute to the enterprise, be it labor or capital, and that condition is that some one make a profit by it. That is the sound basis for the distribution of wealth and the only one. It cannot be done by law, it cannot be done by public ownership, it cannot be done by socialism. When you deny the right to a profit you deny the right of a reward to thrift and industry.”
On “The Limitations of the Law”
It was on the occasion of the 45th meeting of the American Bar Association, that the Vice President of the United States rose to speak on August 10, 1922. As he prepared to explain here what law cannot do, none could have foreseen that almost a year to the day later he would be President. Known for writing all his own speeches, this one was no less the product of years of careful thought affirmed by his own twenty-four continuous years in public service, up to that time. He saw that law had limitations. When the national government is expected to encompass all decision-making, it will prove itself incapable of the task, however well-intentioned, well-supplied or well-led. Such is the result of ignoring the limits of law. There is no “magic” road to perfection by “nationalizing” morals through legislation. Besides, people cannot defer powers to Washington that they themselves do not possess, Coolidge would observe. That is the safeguard of federalism. Federalism limits responsibilities to those best able to handle them: local affairs belong to local citizens, states making their own decisions in statewide matters, and national government, defined and limited, making decisions through representatives of the people, while each respects their proper sphere of authority.
On a more basic level, the limits of law reside not in a denial of society’s growth and advancement but acknowledges the universal truth that law cannot do everything. It certainly cannot do all we would like it to do. As Coolidge would observe, “Real reform does not begin with a law, it ends with a law.” For the received standards of society — the “laws” they embrace — come not by government deciding such and such is so, but originates from the people themselves. In this way, Coolidge foresees the failure of every measure to make people conform to “laws” handed down to them rather than as the acknowledgment in law of long-practiced and accepted norms of sovereign citizens. As Coolidge would remind his listeners, the limits of what law can properly do should not be a cause to despair for the future. On the contrary, Coolidge, full of optimism, pointed ahead to the inexhaustible resourcefulness of engaged citizens. “It is time to supplement the appeal to law, which is limited, with an appeal to the spirit of the people, which is unlimited.” Solutions lie not in the halls of government offices but in the ingenuity, character and competent hands of informed citizens.
On the Nature of Law
“Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. That state is most fortunate in its form of government which has the aptest instruments for the discovery of laws. The latest, most modern, and nearest perfect system that statesmanship has devised is representative government. Its weakness is the weakness of us imperfect human beings who administer it. Its strength is that even such administration secures to the people more blessings than any other system ever produced. No nation has discarded it and retained liberty. Representative government must be preserved” — Calvin Coolidge, President of the Massachusetts Senate, January 7, 1914.
The Importance of the Obvious 