On Advice for Legislators

September 10, 2013September 10, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Writing to his father, who was about to take his seat in the Senate of Vermont in September 1910, Calvin Coolidge, about to be reelected Mayor of Northampton, offered advice that legislators around the country would do well to follow as legislative sessions convene this fall. Coolidge wrote: “You need not hesitate to give the other members your views on any subject that arises. It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones, and better to spend your time on your own committee work than to be bothering with any bills of your own except in some measure that your own County or some other persons may want you to introduce for them. See that the bills you recommend from your committee are so worded that they will do just what they intend and not a great deal more that is undesirable. Most bills cant stand that test. It will usually be a good plan to see what the…statute is on the point.”

The “secret” of Coolidge’s success as a legislator is so simple as to be discounted by many a legislator since his time. He explained it this way: “I made progress because I studied subjects sufficiently to know a little more about them than any one else on the floor. I did not often speak but talked much with the Senators personally and came in contact with many of the business men of the state” (The Autobiography, p.103). It is often the reason many legislators do not experience success during their time in office, they overlook the importance of managing the small tasks well. In the end, they attempt to preserve a legacy through compromise of who they are and the reason they were sent because some short-cut to greatness lures them away from applying themselves to their work, learning competence.

After the Presidency, Coolidge had more to say to legislators, writing in 1931 from Northampton: “State legislatures are now in session. Almost as much as the Congress, they will affect the public welfare. They should face all facts. That will be difficult. It is axiomatic that half the world does not know how the other half lives. But state legislatures are fresh from the people. They know the conditions of their own neighborhoods much better than Congressmen know them.

“Some people are suffering from lack of work, some from lack of water, many more from lack of wisdom. These facts have been emphasized all out of proportion to their importance. Other facts of abundant supplies of food, raw materials, credit, productive capacity and the ability of a free people to take care of themselves when necessary are being almost entirely ignored. Cities and towns are responsible for relief. Give them all needed authority to raise and expend their own money for that purpose. That and local charity will be sufficient. Recall the principle of President Cleveland that it is the business of the people to support the government, not of the government to support the people. We can supply enough of our own lack of wisdom. We do not need to increase it by unwise legislation.”

On Reverence

September 9, 2013September 9, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Few individuals had as remote a likelihood of reaching the highest position of leadership in America as Calvin Coolidge. He enjoyed none of the privileged connections of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He had little of the physical charm of a John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan. He never led armies to battle like Washington or Eisenhower did. Yet he understood that leadership is more than these. Leadership is not held by birthright. Leadership is not being served, but serving, as Christ made clear. Coolidge looked back over his public life and recognized that it was not his own greatness on display, for “[a]ny man who has been placed in the White House can not feel that it is the result of his own exertions or his own merit. Some power outside and beyond him becomes manifest through him. As he contemplates the workings of his office, he comes to realize with an increasing sense of humility that he is but an instrument in the hands of God” (The Autobiography, p.235).

To acknowledge such a truth is not the indication of weakness. Weakness is the hubris of far too many of our sitting politicians who have come back to their states and districts with something more dangerous than deluded self-importance. Passionately voicing our will, be it in phone calls, emails, or now in town halls is a personal affront to their superior ability and judgment. Senator McCain’s recent town hall comments about “not needing to be lectured to” (be it by the very people he is supposed to represent) reiterates the arrogance of the Washington culture. What is missing in nearly every area of culture is reverence. It is mocked and assaulted, but it anchors us to the solid foundation of our first principles.

Coolidge’s abiding sense of humble perspective is more than a cynical political calculation, it was a genuine attitude of reverence for the source of our nation’s power, success and future — none other than God Himself. Speaking to the Holy Name Society gathered in Washington eighty-nine years ago this September, a grateful President recognized something greater than he or the almighty establishment was there. He said, “The foundation of our independence and our Government rests upon our basic religious convictions. Back of the authority of our laws is the authority of the Supreme Judge of the world, to whom we still appeal for their final justification…It seems to me perfectly plain that the authority of law, the right to equality, liberty and property, under American institutions, have for their foundation reverence for God. If we could imagine that to be swept away, these institutions of our American government could not long survive. But that reverence will not fail. It will abide…The institutions of our country stand justified both in reason and in experience. I am aware that they will continue to be assailed. But I know they will continue to stand. We may perish, but they will endure. They are founded on the Rock of Ages.”

On the Power of the President

September 6, 2013September 6, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

“While it is wise for the President to get all the competent advice possible, final judgments are necessarily his own. No one can share with him the responsibility for them. No one can make his decisions for him. He stands at the center of things where no one else can stand. If others make mistakes, they can be relieved, and oftentimes a remedy can be provided. But he can not retire. His decisions are final and usually irreparable. This constitutes the appalling burden of his office. Not only the welfare of…his countrymen, but oftentimes the peaceful relations of the world are entrusted to his keeping. At the turn of his hand the guns of an enormous fleet would go into action anywhere in the world, carrying the iron might of death and destruction. His appointment confers the power to administer justice, inflict criminal penalties, declare acts of state legislatures and of the Congress void, and sit in judgment over the very life of the nation. Practically all the civil and military authorities of the government, except the Congress and the courts, hold their office at his discretion. He appoints, and he can remove. The billions of dollars of government revenue are collected and expended under his direction. The Congress makes the laws, but it is the President who causes them to be executed. A power so vast in its implications has never been conferred upon any ruling sovereign” — Calvin Coolidge, The Autobiography, pp.199-200 [1929]