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Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed. / A Collection of Speeches and Messages by Calvin Coolidge
Chapter 1 TO THE STATE SENATE ON BEING ELECTED ITS PRESIDENT
JANUARY 7, 1914
Honorable Senators:-I thank you-with gratitude for the high honor given, with appreciation for the solemn obligations assumed-I thank you.
This Commonwealth is one. We are all members of one body. The welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound together. Industry cannot flourish if labor languish. Transportation cannot prosper if manufactures decline. The general welfare cannot be provided for in any one act, but it is well to remember that the benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all. The suspension of one man's dividends is the suspension of another man's pay envelope.
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.
Courts are established, not to determine the popularity of a cause, but to adjudicate and enforce rights. No litigant should be required to submit his case to the hazard and expense of a political campaign. No judge should be required to seek or receive political rewards. The courts of Massachusetts are known and honored wherever men love justice. Let their glory suffer no diminution at our hands. The electorate and judiciary cannot combine. A hearing means a hearing. When the trial of causes goes outside the court-room, Anglo-Saxon constitutional government ends.
The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support.
Man is born into the universe with a personality that is his own. He has a right that is founded upon the constitution of the universe to have property that is his own. Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing. The one cannot be preserved if the other be violated. Each man is entitled to his rights and the rewards of his service be they never so large or never so small.
History reveals no civilized people among whom there were not a highly educated class, and large aggregations of wealth, represented usually by the clergy and the nobility. Inspiration has always come from above. Diffusion of learning has come down from the university to the common school-the kindergarten is last. No one would now expect to aid the common school by abolishing higher education.
It may be that the diffusion of wealth works in an analogous way. As the little red schoolhouse is builded in the college, it may be that the fostering and protection of large aggregations of wealth are the only foundation on which to build the prosperity of the whole people. Large profits mean large pay rolls. But profits must be the result of service performed. In no land are there so many and such large aggregations of wealth as here; in no land do they perform larger service; in no land will the work of a day bring so large a reward in material and spiritual welfare.
Have faith in Massachusetts. In some unimportant detail some other States may surpass her, but in the general results, there is no place on earth where the people secure, in a larger measure, the blessings of organized government, and nowhere can those functions more properly be termed self-government.
Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation.
We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people-a faith that men desire to do right, that the Commonwealth is founded upon a righteousness which will endure, a reconstructed faith that the final approval of the people is given not to demagogues, slavishly pandering to their selfishness, merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to statesmen, ministering to their welfare, representing their deep, silent, abiding convictions.
Statutes must appeal to more than material welfare. Wages won't satisfy, be they never so large. Nor houses; nor lands; nor coupons, though they fall thick as the leaves of autumn. Man has a spiritual nature. Touch it, and it must respond as the magnet responds to the pole. To that, not to selfishness, let the laws of the Commonwealth appeal. Recognize the immortal worth and dignity of man. Let the laws of Massachusetts proclaim to her humblest citizen, performing the most menial task, the recognition of his manhood, the recognition that all men are peers, the humblest with the most exalted, the recognition that all work is glorified. Such is the path to equality before the law. Such is the foundation of liberty under the law. Such is the sublime revelation of man's relation to man-Democracy.
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Chapter 1 TO THE STATE SENATE ON BEING ELECTED ITS PRESIDENT
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Chapter 2 AMHERST COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, BOSTON
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Chapter 3 BROCKTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
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Chapter 4 AT THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD
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Chapter 5 RIVERSIDE
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Chapter 6 AT THE HOME OF AUGUSTUS P. GARDNER, HAMILTON
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Chapter 7 LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER
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Chapter 8 NORFOLK REPUBLICAN CLUB, BOSTON
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Chapter 9 PUBLIC MEETING ON THE HIGH COST OF LIVING, FANEUIL HALL
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Chapter 10 ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY DINNER OF THE PROVIDENT INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS
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Chapter 11 ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES DINNER, BOSTON
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Chapter 12 ON THE NATURE OF POLITICS
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Chapter 13 TREMONT TEMPLE
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Chapter 14 DEDICATION OF TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON
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Chapter 15 AMHERST ALUMNI DINNER, SPRINGFIELD
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Chapter 16 MESSAGE FOR THE BOSTON POST
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Chapter 17 ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BUNKER HILL DAY
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Chapter 18 FAIRHAVEN
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Chapter 19 SOMERVILLE REPUBLICAN CITY COMMITTEE
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Chapter 20 WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY ADVERTISER AND AMERICAN
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Chapter 21 ESSEX COUNTY CLUB, LYNNFIELD
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Chapter 22 TREMONT TEMPLE 22
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Chapter 23 FANEUIL HALL
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Chapter 24 FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR
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Chapter 25 STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
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Chapter 26 LINCOLN DAY PROCLAMATION
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Chapter 27 INTRODUCING HENRY CABOT LODGE AND A. LAWRENCE LOWELL AT THE DEBATE ON THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS SYMPHONY HALL
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Chapter 28 VETO OF SALARY INCREASE
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Chapter 29 FLAG DAY PROCLAMATION
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Chapter 30 AMHERST COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
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Chapter 31 HARVARD UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT
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Chapter 32 PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY
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Chapter 33 WESTFIELD
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Chapter 34 No.34
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Chapter 35 AN ORDER
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Chapter 36 A TELEGRAM
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Chapter 37 No.37
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Chapter 38 HOLY CROSS COLLEGE
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Chapter 39 REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION, TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON
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Chapter 40 WILLIAMS COLLEGE
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