The Declaration Will Never Be Outmoded

[ndrosen]

People do not typically think of “Silent Cal” Coolidge as an orator, but, although often taciturn in conversation, he was quite capable of writing and speaking with eloquence. It is also worth remembering of him that, although called a conservative, he was anti-racist by the standards of his time, a time when “scientific racism” was in vogue among some leading Progressives, and he urged Congress to pass a national anti-lynching law, to remedy the deplorable unwillingness of many of the states to enforce their laws against murder when the victims were black.

My friends may therefore be interested in reading about his 1926 Independence Day address, in which he set forth why the Declaration of Independence will never be outmoded. This was at a time when many Southerners and others denied the equality of the dark-skinned, and when some on the Left believed that progress required, not only some adjustments to existing arrangements, but the wholesale rejection of limited government and respect for the rights of the individual. Woodrow Wilson comes to mind.

Comments

[filkferengi]

I just shared the link with ze spouse, who's quite the Coolidge fan. He enjoyed the Amity Shlaes book. Have you read it?

[ndrosen]

I haven’t read Ms. Shlaes’s book on Coolidge, although I have read her book about FDR’s New Deal; she has also written a book rather recently about LBJ’s Great Society.

John Calvin Coolidge and I are fellow alumni of Amherst College.