Calvin Coolidge on the Pilgrims

[Haeralis]

Three centuries ago to-day the Pilgrims of the Mayflower made final landing at Plymouth Rock. They came not merely from the shores of the Old World. It will be in vain to search among recorded maps and history for their origin. They sailed up out of the infinite.

There was among them small trace of the vanities of life. They came undecked with orders of nobility. They were not children of fortune but of tribulation. Persecution not preference, brought them hither; but it was a persecution in which they found a stern satisfaction. They cared little for titles; still less for the goods of this earth; but for an idea they would die. Measured by the standards of men of their time, they were the humble of the earth. Measured by later accomplishments, they were the mighty. In appearance weak and persecuted they came—rejected, despised—an insignificant band; in reality strong and independent, a mighty host of whom the world was not worthy, destined to free mankind. No captain ever led his forces to such a conquest. Oblivious to rank, yet men trace to them their lineage as to a royal house.

Forces not ruled by man had laid their unwilling course. As they landed, a sentinel of Providence, humbler, nearer to nature than themselves, welcomed them in their own tongue. They came seeking only an abiding-place on earth, “but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest country,” says Governor Bradford, “where God hath prepared for them a city.” On that abiding faith has been reared an empire, magnificent beyond their dreams of Paradise.

Amid the solitude they set up hearthstone and altar; the home and the church. With arms in their hands they wrung from the soil their bread. With arms they gathered in the congregation to worship Almighty God. But they were armed, that in peace they might seek divine guidance in righteousness; not that they might prevail by force, but that they might do right though they perished.

What an increase, material and spiritual, three hundred years has brought that little company is known to all the earth. No like body ever cast so great an influence on human history. Civilization has made of their landing-place a shrine. Unto the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been entrusted the keeping of that shrine. To her has come the precious heritage. It will be kept as it was created, or it will perish, not with an earthly pride but with a heavenly vision.

Plymouth Rock does not mark a beginning or an end. It marks a revelation of that which is without beginning and without end—a purpose, shining through eternity with a resplendent light, undimmed even by the imperfections of men; and a response, an answering purpose, from those who, oblivious, disdainful of all else, sailed hither seeking only for an avenue for the immortal soul.


Calvin Coolidge. The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1924.

Delivered at the exercises on the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 21, 1920.

 

[Frosty]

Excellent words from one of our most excellent presidents.

I remember being taught in school growing up, both directly and indirectly, that our greatest presidents were those remembered for "doing a lot".

At the time I didn't realize it, but a short bit later I realized they actually meant our worst presidents are those remembered for "doing a lot".

And can you imagine our current or recent presidents saying something so historically-and spiritually-informed?

 

[Haeralis]

Excellent words from one of our most excellent presidents.

I remember being taught in school growing up, both directly and indirectly, that our greatest presidents were those remembered for "doing a lot".

At the time I didn't realize it, but a short bit later I realized they actually meant our worst presidents are those remembered for "doing a lot".

And can you imagine our current or recent presidents saying something so historically-and spiritually-informed?

Yeah, its really depressing. If you don't remake America into your own image than you are not considered "great" by the historians. A man beloved in his day like Calvin Coolidge, who was classically educated and religiously informed, is considered a failure by those who think that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was perhaps our greatest president. Meanwhile, the 80+% of Americans who distrust the government and find it unaccountable are a testament to FDR's legacy: a massive, centralized bureaucracy which has desecrated popular government.

I'd love a president who could speak as articulately about the American founding and the West's first principles as Mr. Coolidge did. If you read his collection of speeches, its really remarkable how historically informed he was. Not only that, he realized that there "is no surer road to destruction than prosperity without character." This character comes from the Christianity epitomized by the Puritans and Pilgrims.

Coolidge understood that Christianity was essential in preserving America as a force for good in the world.

"Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government."

"The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of law for the virtue of man. Of course we can help to restrain the vicious and furnish a fair degree of security and protection by legislation and police control, but the real reforms which society in these days is seeking will come as a result of our religious convictions, or they will not come at all. Peace, justice, humanity, charity—these cannot be legislated into being. They are the result of a Divine Grace."