Part 1: http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/08/21/calvin-coolidge-on-the-ideals-of-the-declaration/
Part 2:http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/08/22/calvin-coolidge-on-the-ideals-of-the-declaration-of-independence-part-2/
Continuing the excerpt from a speech President Coolidge made on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
Ours is a government of the people. It represents their will. Its officers may sometimes go astray, but that is not a reason for criticizing the principles of our institutions. The real heart of the American Government depends upon the heart of the people. It is from that source that we must look for all genuine reform*. It is to that cause that we must ascribe all our results.
It was in the contemplation of these truths that the fathers made their declaration and adopted their Constitution. It was to establish a free government, which must not be permitted to degenerate into the unrestrained authority of a mere majority or the unbridled weight of a mere influential few.
They undertook the balance [to] balance these interests against each other and [to] provide the three separate independent branches, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial departments of the Government, with checks against each other in order that neither one might encroach upon the other. These are our guarantees of liberty.
As a result of these methods enterprise has been duly protected from confiscation, the people have been free from oppression, and there has been an ever-broadening and deepening of the humanities of life.
Under a system of popular government there will always be those who will seek for political preferment by clamoring for reform. While there is very little of this which is not sincere, there is a large portion that is not well informed.
In my opinion very little of just criticism can attach to the theories and principles of our institutions. There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical change.
…Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed.
We must think the thoughts they which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship. While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live.
*thus Mark Levin’s new book, The Liberty Amendments, stands on Article V of the Constitution, which provides for a convention of the states (which is distinct from “a constitutional convention”) in order to protect what has been attacked and reform what has been distorted.
Do we need to remind ourselves that the word reform means to form again – it does not mean to produce something that is essentially different in character or form or purpose.
(Part 4 to come)
