Calvin Coolidge Institute

June 9, 2014June 9, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Following Coolidge’s lead to preserve our foundational principles from neglect and misuse, the Calvin Coolidge Institute is performing a vital work in the state of Nevada. They are setting an example for what is desperately needed all across America: to encourage and elect candidates with Cal’s integrity, courage and conviction. In fact, a Coolidge Coalition is forming in our area of Gulf Coast Florida. How about where you live? In studying Coolidge for some time, the more I have learned the more I come to respect and admire what he accomplished through a genuine leadership grounded on moral consistency, political wisdom, and personal resolve. While he would not have wanted any institution to bear his name, he would have taken great satisfaction in those who shoulder the high demands, not merely the blessings, of citizenship and public service. He praised those who kept our institutions true to the ideals of limited government, economic freedom, religious liberty, and individual responsibility. Anchored by the Golden Rule, progress is measured not by cutting ties with the past but by doing what is right not what is expedient, upholding the good of all not favoring the benefit of a few. Hardly outmoded, these ideals are downright indispensable. Party platforms and campaign pledges are not things to be cast aside on victory night, they furnish the direction of leadership and are the substance of a voter’s voice. This is why party cohesion is so crucial to sound government. He also understood that principles mean nothing if not kept practiced and practical, requiring brave and involved citizens prepared to govern their own government. The government, as he often paraphrased President Cleveland, works for the people, not the people for the government. In this way, we grow worthy of America. The Calvin Coolidge Institute deserves every encouragement and support.

“If there is to be responsible party government, the party label must be something more than a mere device for securing office. Unless those who are elected under the same party designation are willing to assume sufficient responsibility and exhibit sufficient loyalty and coherence, so that they can cooperate with each other in the support of the broad general principles of the party platform, the election is merely a mockery, no decision is made at the polls, and there is no representation of the popular will. Common honesty and good faith with the people who support a party at the polls require that party, when it enters office, to assume the control of that portion of the Government to which it has been elected. Any other course is bad faith and a violation of the party pledges. When the country has bestowed its confidence upon a party by making it a majority in the Congress, it has a right to expect such unity of action as will make the party majority an effective instrument of government” — March 4, 1925.

On Remembering Our Shared Fallen

May 29, 2014January 11, 2015 / gouverneurmorris / 1 Comment

The Confederate Monument today, looking south at Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D. C.

“If I am correctly informed by history, it is fitting that the Sabbath should be your Memorial Day. This follows from the belief that except for the forces of Oliver Cromwell no army was ever more thoroughly religious than that which followed General Lee. Moreover, these ceremonies necessarily are expressive of a hope and a belief that rise above the things of this life. It was Lincoln who pointed out that both sides prayed to the same God. When that is the case, it is only a matter of time when each will seek a common end. We can now see clearly what that end is. It is the maintenance of our American form of government, of our American institutions, of our American ideals, beneath a common flag, under the blessings of Almighty God.

“It was for this purpose that our Nation was brought forth. Our whole course of history has been proceeding in that direction. Out of a common experience, made more enduring by a common sacrifice, we have reached a common conviction. On this day we pause in memory of those who made their sacrifice in one way. In a few days we shall pause again in memory of those who made their sacrifice in another way. They were all Americans, all contending for what they believed were their rights. On many a battlefield they sleep side by side. Here, in a place set aside for the resting place of those who have performed military duty, both make a final bivouac. But their country lives.

Americans North and South gather with Coolidge to honor all Americans who fought and died for our ideals, but especially those who wore the gray, 1924.

Americans North and South gather with Coolidge to honor all who fought and died for our ideals, but especially those who wore the gray, 1924. Coolidge could have used Presidential rhetoric to withhold recognition, instead he upheld the honor and importance of what they died to preserve. He helped to heal, not inflame, division and to reunite all Americans around our love of country founded on principles we share in common. See a silent film from the gathering here.

“The bitterness of conflict is passed. Time has softened it; discretion has changed it. Your country respects you for cherishing the memory of those who wore the gray. You respect others who cherish the memory of those who wore the blue. In that mutual respect may there be a firmer friendship, a stronger and more glorious Union…

“…A mightier force than ever followed Grant or Lee has leveled both their hosts, raised up an united Nation, and made us all partakers of a new glory. It is not for us to forget the past but to remember it, that we may profit by it. But it is gone; we cannot change it. We must put our emphasis on the present and put into effect the lessons the past has taught us. All about us sleep those of many different beliefs and many divergent actions. But America claims them all…” — President Calvin Coolidge, May 25, 1924

The Confederate Memorial at Arlington in 1922, two years before President Coolidge spoke the words above. In the years to follow, the markers of those who wore the gray would multiply as the great warriors of the South shed mortality.

Coolidge Crossword #1

May 24, 2014May 31, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / 2 Comments

Coolidge Crossword #1

Here is the first of our Coolidge Crosswords with quoted highlights from four of our most recent articles, “On Lessons from Phillips Andover,” “On the Future Soundness of Medicine,” “On Garman” and “On the Ideals of Art.” Enjoy the challenge!

Across
2. “It is especially the ___________ side of art that requires more emphasis.”
4. “As human beings gain ____________ perfection, so the world will gain in social perfection, and we may hope to come into an era of right living and right thinking, of good will, and of peace, in accordance with the teachings of the Great Physician.”
6. “What an incalculable loss to the world may have been the premature blotting out of a single brilliant creative _______ which might have been saved through modern healing or preventive measures.”
8. “Knowledge without _________ is dangerous.”
10. “In a wider sense, the arts include all those manifestations of _______ created by man which broaden and enrich life.”
11. “______ is the expression of intelligent action for a specified end.”

Down
1. “The only hope of perfecting human relationship is in accordance with the law of __________ under which men are not so solicitous about what they shall get as they are about what they shall give.”
3. Speaking of Amherst’s teachers in the 1890s, Coolidge said, “The great distinguishing mark of all of them was that they were men of _____________.”
4. “It is not _________, but idleness, that is degrading.”
5. “When the world holds its examinations it will require the same standards of accuracy and ________ which the student bodies impose upon themselves.”
7. “We may be certain that our country is altogether _______ of us. It will be necessary to demonstrate that we are _______ of our country.”
9. “For our chartered institutions of learning to turn back to the material and neglect the _________ would be treason, not only to the cause for which they were founded but to man and to God.”