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https://theimaginativeconservative....-declaration-independence-chuck-chalberg.html
This week, we are not only celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but also the 100th anniversary of a somewhat surprising event that also took place in Philadelphia. On July 4 of 1926, President Calvin Coolidge journeyed to the City of Brotherly Love to deliver a speech honoring Thomas Jefferson’s handiwork. Often dismissed as “Silent Cal,” his speech on that day is very much worth both recalling and celebrating–and pondering.
Now let’s fast forward to a few words that he reserved for the celebration of America’s 150th birthday. Coolidge began by reminding his listeners that the celebration of July 4 should never be about the business of “proclaiming new theories and principles,” but rather to “rereaffirm and re-establish old theories and principles.”
Coolidge, however, was quick to add that the Declaration had proclaimed that a “new civilization” had come into being. More than that, a “new spirit had arisen on this side of the Atlantic,” a spirit “more advanced and more developed for the rights of the individual than that which characterized the Old World.”
To be sure, while the Declaration ”represented the movement of a people,” it was “in no sense a rising of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the reason that colonial society had developed no scum.” In a few more Coolidge words, the decision to break from England reflected the “informed and mature convictions of an… independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people.” There was “nothing about it of the lawless and disordered nature of a riotous insurrection.”
The result of their efforts was a new nation based on “new principles.” Three in number, Coolidge made sure to repeat them: 1) “All men are created equal”; 2) They are “endowed with certain inalienable rights”; 3) “Therefore the just powers of the government must be derived from the consent of the governed.” Paradoxically, the actions of the Founders were at once “conservative” (to keep rights that were being transgressed) and “profoundly revolutionary.”
This week, we are not only celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but also the 100th anniversary of a somewhat surprising event that also took place in Philadelphia. On July 4 of 1926, President Calvin Coolidge journeyed to the City of Brotherly Love to deliver a speech honoring Thomas Jefferson’s handiwork. Often dismissed as “Silent Cal,” his speech on that day is very much worth both recalling and celebrating–and pondering.
Now let’s fast forward to a few words that he reserved for the celebration of America’s 150th birthday. Coolidge began by reminding his listeners that the celebration of July 4 should never be about the business of “proclaiming new theories and principles,” but rather to “rereaffirm and re-establish old theories and principles.”
Coolidge, however, was quick to add that the Declaration had proclaimed that a “new civilization” had come into being. More than that, a “new spirit had arisen on this side of the Atlantic,” a spirit “more advanced and more developed for the rights of the individual than that which characterized the Old World.”
To be sure, while the Declaration ”represented the movement of a people,” it was “in no sense a rising of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the reason that colonial society had developed no scum.” In a few more Coolidge words, the decision to break from England reflected the “informed and mature convictions of an… independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people.” There was “nothing about it of the lawless and disordered nature of a riotous insurrection.”
The result of their efforts was a new nation based on “new principles.” Three in number, Coolidge made sure to repeat them: 1) “All men are created equal”; 2) They are “endowed with certain inalienable rights”; 3) “Therefore the just powers of the government must be derived from the consent of the governed.” Paradoxically, the actions of the Founders were at once “conservative” (to keep rights that were being transgressed) and “profoundly revolutionary.”
