On August 3, 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. Coolidge, a day after President Warren Harding died suddenly of a heart attack.
I consider Calvin Coolidge to be one of the best presidents in our history. Dedicated to the principles of the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution, he faced down the growing progressive movement in the U.S. that was growing increasingly fond of the Communist regime in the U.S.S.R.
One of my favorite historians, Brion McClanahan said about Coolidge:
“He was in many ways a Jeffersonian, a throwback to the Cleveland and Tyler administrations. Coolidge used the office the way the founding generation intended, and he understood his oath. He protected the balance between the federal and state governments, and used the veto power as a check on unconstitutional legislation.”
Calvin Coolidge was a favorite of Ronald Reagan, too.
They say it is better to speak less and say more. That describes Coolidge, a native of Vermont, called “Silent Cal” by many.
But when he spoke, it was filled with wisdom. The pictured meme is one of his more wonderful quotes.
My favorite quote is his criticism of the progressives who wanted to forget the principles of the Declaration and the Constitution to consolidate their power:
“About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter.
If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.
If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.
Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”
And what better describes how liberty benefits the people, the economy, and the nation than this by Coolidge:
"The sole purpose of government is the preservation of internal order, the provision of national defense, and the administration of justice, and that when government ventures beyond these functions, it accumulates power, which diminishes liberty; that when it interferes with the work of the market economy, it reduces the strength of the nation; and when it takes from one to bestow on another, it diminishes the incentive of the first, the integrity of the second, and the moral autonomy of both."
And how about this?
“I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.”
Tom Glass lives in Northwest Harris County. Click here to reach his email. He is also on Facebook as Tom G Glass. He leads a group called Texas Constitutional Enforcement which can be explored at its website or Facebook group. And given the recent Facebook censorship, there are now Texas Constitutional Enforcement groups on Texan owned and operated Freedom Lake and Blabbook, as well as MeWe, Gab, and Wimkin.