HAVE FAITH
IN
MASSACHUSETTS
[Illustration: Portrait of Calvin Coolidge _Copyright, Notman_]
HAVE FAITH
IN
MASSACHUSETTS
_A Collection of Speeches and Messages_
BY
CALVIN COOLIDGE
_Governor of Massachusetts_
SECOND EDITION ENLARGED
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
_The Riverside Press Cambridge_
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
There are certain fundamental principles of sound community life which
cannot be stated too emphatically or too often. Few public men of to-day
have shown a finer combination of right feeling and clear thinking about
these principles, with a gift for the pithy expression of them, than has
Governor Calvin Coolidge. It was an accurate phrase that President
Meiklejohn used when, in conferring the degree of Doctor of Laws on him
at Amherst College last June, he complimented him on teaching the lesson
of "adequate brevity."
His speeches and messages abound in evidences of this gift, but in the
main the speeches are not easily accessible. It has seemed to some of
Governor Coolidge's admirers, as it has to the publishers of this little
volume, that a real public service might be rendered by making a
careful selection from the best of the speeches and issuing them in an
attractive and convenient form. With his permission this has been done,
and it is hoped that many readers will welcome the book in this time of
special need of inspiring and steadying influences.
It is a time when all men should realize that, in the words of Governor
Coolidge himself, "Laws must rest on the eternal foundations of
righteousness"; that "Industry, thrift, character are not conferred by
act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil." It is a time when
we must "have faith in Massachusetts. 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."
THE EDITORS
_Boston, September_, 1919
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION
In the issue of a second edition of this collection of Governor
Coolidge's speeches and messages, the opportunity has been taken to add
a proclamation and three recently delivered addresses, which bring the
volume practically up to the date of publication.
_Boston, October, 1919_
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
_By His Excellency_
CALVIN COOLIDGE
GOVERNOR
A PROCLAMATION
Massachusetts has many glories. The last one she would wish to surrender
is the glory of the men who have served her in war. While such devotion
lives the Commonwealth is secure. Whatever dangers may threaten from
within or without she can view them calmly. Turning to her veterans she
can say "These are our defenders. They are invincible. In them is our
safety."
War is the rule of force. Peace is the reign of law. When Massachusetts
was settled the Pilgrims first dedicated themselves to a reign of law.
When they set foot on Plymouth Rock they brought the Mayflower Compact,
in which, calling on the Creator to witness, they agreed with each other
to make just laws and render due submission and obedience. The date of
that American document was written November 11, 1620.
After more than five years of the bitterest war in human experience, the
last great stronghold of force, surrendering to the demands of America
and her allies, agreed to cast aside the sword and live under the law.
The date of that world document was written November 11, 1918.
Now, therefore, in grateful commemoration of the unsurpassed deeds of
heroism performed by the service men of Massachusetts, of the sacrifice
of her people, sometimes greater than life itself, of the service
rendered by every war charity and organization, to honor those who bore
arms, to recognize those who supported the government, in accordance
with the law of the current year
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1919
is set apart as a holiday for general observance and celebration of the
home coming of Massachusetts soldiers, sailors and marines. In that
welcome may we dedicate ourselves to a continued support of the cause
for which they freely offered life, that there may be wiped away
everywhere the burden of, injustice and every attempt to rule by force,
and that there may be ushered in a reign of law, that will ease the weak
of their great burdens, and leave the strong, unhampered by the
opposition of evil men, the opportunity to exert their whole energy for
the welfare of their fellow men. Let war and all force end, and peace
and all law reign.
GIVEN at the Executive Chamber, in Boston, this twenty-eighth day of
October, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen,
and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred
and forty-fourth.
[Illustration: Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts]
By His Excellency the Governor.
[Illustration: signatures of Calvin Coolidge and Albert P. Langley]
_Secretary of the Commonwealth._
God Save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
CONTENTS
I. To the State Senate on Being Elected its President,
January 7, 1914
II. Amherst College Alumni Association, Boston, February 4, 1916
III. Brockton Chamber of Commerce, April 11, 1916
IV. At the Home of Daniel Webster, Marshfield, July 4, 1916
V. Riverside, August 28, 1916
VI. At the Home of Augustus P. Gardner, Hamilton, September, 1916
VII. Lafayette Banquet, Fall River, September 4, 1913
VIII. Norfolk Republican Club, Boston, October 9, 1916
IX. Public Meeting on the High Cost of Living, Faneuil Hall,
December 9, 1916
X. One Hundredth Anniversary Dinner of the Provident Institution
for Savings, December 13, 1916
XI. Associated Industries Dinner, Boston, December 15, 1916
XII. On the Nature of Politics
XIII. Tremont Temple, November 3, 1917
XIV. Dedication of Town-House, Weston, November 27, 1917
XV. Amherst Alumni Dinner, Springfield, March 15, 1918
XVI. Message for the Boston _Post_, April 22, 1918
XVII. Roxbury Historical Society, Bunker Hill Day, June 17, 1918
XVIII. Fairhaven, July 4, 1918
XIX. Somerville Republican City Committee, August 7, 1918
XX. Written for the Sunday _Advertiser_ and _American_,
September 1, 1918
XXI. Essex County Club, Lynnfield, September 14, 1918
XXII. Tremont Temple, November 2, 1918
XXIII. Faneuil Hall, November 4, 1918
XXIV. From Inaugural Address as Governor, January 2, 1919
XXV. Statement on the Death of Theodore Roosevelt
XXVI. Lincoln Day Proclamation, January 30, 1919
XXVII. Introducing Henry Cabot Lodge and A. Lawrence Lowell at the
Debate on the League of Nations, Symphony Hall, March 19, 1919
XXVIII. Veto of Salary Increase
XXIX. Flag Day Proclamation, May 26, 1919
XXX. Amherst College Commencement, June 18, 1919
XXXI. Harvard University Commencement, June 19, 1919
XXXII. Plymouth, Labor Day, September 1, 1919
XXXIII. Westfield, September 3, 1919
XXXIV. A Proclamation, September 11, 1919
XXXV. An Order to the Police Commissioner of Boston,
September 11, 1919
XXXVI. A Telegram to Samuel Gompers, September 14, 1919
XXXVII. A Proclamation, September 24, 1919
XXXVIII. Holy Cross College, June 25, 1919
XXXIX. Republican State Convention, Tremont Temple, October 4, 1919
XL. Williams College, October 17, 1919
XLI. Concerning Teachers' Salaries, October 29, 1919
XLII. Statement to the Press, Election Day, November 4, 1919
XLIII. Speech at Tremont Temple, Saturday, November 1, 1919, 8 P.M.
HAVE FAITH
IN
MASSACHUSETTS
I
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.
II
AMHERST COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, BOSTON
FEBRUARY 4, 1916
We live in an age which questions everything. The past generation was
one of religious criticism. This is one of commercial criticism.
We have seen the development of great industries. It has been
represented that some of these have not been free from blame. In this
development some men have seemed to prosper beyond the measure of their
service, while others have appeared to be bound to toil beyond their
strength for less than a decent livelihood.
As a result of criticising these conditions there has grown up a too
well-developed public opinion along two lines; one, that the men engaged
in great affairs are selfish and greedy and not to be trusted, that
business activity is not moral and the whole system is to be condemned;
and the other, that employment, that work, is a curse to man, and that
working hours ought to be as short as possible or in some way abolished.
After criticism, our religious faith emerged clearer and stronger and
freed from doubt. So will our business relations emerge, purified but
justified.
The evidence of evolution and the facts of history tell us of the
progress and development of man through various steps and ages, known by
various names. We learn of the stone age, the bronze, and the iron age.
We can see the different steps in the growth of the forms of government;
how anarchy was put down by the strong arm of the despot, of the growth
of aristocracy, of limited monarchies and of parliaments, and finally
democracy.
But in all these changes man took but one step at a time. Where we can
trace history, no race ever stepped directly from the stone age to the
iron age and no nation ever passed directly from depotism to democracy.
Each advance has been made only when a previous stage was approaching
perfection, even to conditions which are now sometimes lost arts.
We have reached the age of invention, of commerce, of great industrial
enterprise. It is often referred to as selfish and materialistic.
Our economic system has been attacked from above and from below. But the
short answer lies in the teachings of history. The hope of a Watt or an
Edison lay in the men who chipped flint to perfection. The seed of
democracy lay in a perfected despotism. The hope of to-morrow lies in
the development of the instruments of to-day. The prospect of advance
lies in maintaining those conditions which have stimulated invention and
industry and commerce. The only road to a more progressive age lies in
perfecting the instrumentalities of this age. The only hope for peace
lies in the perfection of the arts of war.
"We build the ladder by which we rise ...
* * * * *
And we mount to the summit round by round."
All growth depends upon activity. Life is manifest only by action. There
is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and
effort means work. Work is not a curse, it is the prerogative of
intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of
civilization. Savages do not work. The growth of a sentiment that
despises work is an appeal from civilization to barbarism.
I would not be understood as making a sweeping criticism of current
legislation along these lines. I, too, rejoice that an awakened
conscience has outlawed commercial standards that were false or low and
that an awakened humanity has decreed that the working and living
condition of our citizens must be worthy of true manhood and true
womanhood.
I agree that the measure of success is not merchandise but character.
But I do criticise those sentiments, held in all too respectable
quarters, that our economic system is fundamentally wrong, that commerce
is only selfishness, and that our citizens, holding the hope of all that
America means, are living in industrial slavery. I appeal to Amherst men
to reiterate and sustain the Amherst doctrine, that the man who builds a
factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there,
and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.
III
BROCKTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
APRIL 11, 1916
Man's nature drives him ever onward. He is forever seeking development.
At one time it may be by the chase, at another by warfare, and again by
the quiet arts of peace and commerce, but something within is ever
calling him on to "replenish the earth and subdue it."
It may be of little importance to determine at any time just where we
are, but it is of the utmost importance to determine whither we are
going. Set the course aright and time must bring mankind to the ultimate
goal.
We are living in a commercial age. It is often designated as selfish and
materialistic. We are told that everything has been commercialized. They
say it has not been enough that this spirit should dominate the marts
of trade, it has spread to every avenue of human endeavor, to our arts,
our sciences and professions, our politics, our educational institutions
and even into the pulpit; and because of this there are those who have
gone so far in their criticism of commercialism as to advocate the
destruction of all enterprise and the abolition of all property.
Destructive criticism is always easy because, despite some campaign
oratory, some of us are not yet perfect. But constructive criticism is
not so easy. The faults of commercialism, like many other faults, lie in
the use we make of it. Before we decide upon a wholesale condemnation of
the most noteworthy spirit of modern times it would be well to examine
carefully what that spirit has done to advance the welfare of mankind.
Wherever we can read human history, the answer is always the same. Where
commerce has flourished there civilization has increased. It has not
sufficed that men should tend their flocks, and maintain themselves in
comfort on their industry alone, however great. It is only when the
exchange of products begins that development follows. This was the case
in ancient Babylon, whose records of trade and banking we are just
beginning to read. Their merchandise went by canal and caravan to the
ends of the earth. It was not the war galleys, but the merchant vessel
of Phoenicia, of Tyre, and Carthage that brought them civilization and
power. To-day it is not the battle fleet, but the mercantile marine
which in the end will determine the destiny of nations. The advance of
our own land has been due to our trade, and the comfort and happiness of
our people are dependent on our general business conditions. It is only
a figure of poetry that "wealth accumulates and men decay." Where wealth
has accumulated, there the arts and sciences have flourished, there
education has been diffused, and of contemplation liberty has been born.
The progress of man has been measured by his commercial prosperity. I
believe that these considerations are sufficient to justify our business
enterprise and activity, but there are still deeper reasons. I have
intended to indicate not only that commerce is an instrument of great
power, but that commercial development is necessary to all human
progress. What, then, of the prevalent criticism? Men have mistaken the
means for the end. It is not enough for the individual or the nation to
acquire riches. Money will not purchase character or good government. We
are under the injunction to "replenish the earth and subdue it," not so
much because of the help a new earth will be to us, as because by that
process man is to find himself and thereby realize his highest destiny.
Men must work for more than wages, factories must turn out more than
merchandise, or there is naught but black despair ahead.
If material rewards be the only measure of success, there is no hope of
a peaceful solution of our social questions, for they will never be
large enough to satisfy. But such is not the case. Men struggle for
material success because that is the path, the process, to the
development of character. We ought to demand economic justice, but most
of all because it is justice. We must forever realize that material
rewards are limited and in a sense they are only incidental, but the
development of character is unlimited and is the only essential. The
measure of success is not the quantity of merchandise, but the quality
of manhood which is produced.
These, then, are the justifying conceptions of the spirit of our age;
that commerce is the foundation of human progress and prosperity and the
great artisan of human character. Let us dismiss the general indictment
that has all too long hung over business enterprise. While we continue
to condemn, unsparingly, selfishness and greed and all trafficking in
the natural rights of man, let us not forget to respect thrift and
industry and enterprise. Let us look to the service rather than to the
reward. Then shall we see in our industrial army, from the most exalted
captain to the humblest soldier in the ranks, a purpose worthy to
minister to the highest needs of man and to fulfil the hope of a fairer
day.
IV
AT THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD
JULY 4, 1916
History is revelation. It is the manifestation in human affairs of a
"power not ourselves that makes for righteousness." Savages have no
history. It is the mark of civilization. This New England of ours
slumbered from the dawn of creation until the beginning of the
seventeenth century, not unpeopled, but with no record of human events
worthy of a name. Different races came, and lived, and vanished, but the
story of their existence has little more of interest for us than the
story the naturalist tells of the animal kingdom, or the geologist
relates of the formation of the crust of the earth. It takes men of
larger vision and higher inspiration, with a power to impart a larger
vision and a higher inspiration to the people, to make history. It is
not a negative, but a positive achievement. It is unconcerned with
idolatry or despotism or treason or rebellion or betrayal, but bows in
reverence before Moses or Hampden or Washington or Lincoln or the Light
that shone on Calvary.
July 4, 1776, was a day of history in its high and true significance.
Not because the underlying principles set out in the Declaration of
Independence were new; they are older than the Christian religion, or
Greek philosophy, nor was it because history is made by proclamation or
declaration; history is made only by action. But it was an historic day
because the representatives of three millions of people there vocalized
Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill, which gave notice to the world
that they were acting, and proposed to act, and to found an independent
nation, on the theory that "all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The wonder and
glory of the American people is not the ringing declaration of that day,
but the action, then already begun, and in the process of being carried
out in spite of every obstacle that war could interpose, making the
theory of freedom and equality a reality. We revere that day because it
marks the beginnings of independence, the beginnings of a constitution
that was finally to give universal freedom and equality to all American
citizens, the beginnings of a government that was to recognize beyond
all others the power and worth and dignity of man. There began the first
of governments to acknowledge that it was founded on the sovereignty of
the people. There the world first beheld the revelation of modern
democracy.
Democracy is not a tearing-down; it is a building-up. It is not a denial
of the divine right of kings; it supplements that claim with the
assertion of the divine right of all men. It does not destroy; it
fulfils. It is the consummation of all theories of government, to the
spirit of which all the nations of the earth must yield. It is the great
constructive force of the ages. It is the alpha and omega of man's
relation to man, the beginning and the end. There is and can be no more
doubt of the triumph of democracy in human affairs, than there is of the
triumph of gravitation in the physical world; the only question is how
and when. Its foundation lays hold upon eternity.
These are some of the ideals that the founders of our institutions
expressed, in part unconsciously, on that momentous day now passed by
one hundred and forty years. They knew that ideals do not maintain
themselves. They knew that they there declared a purpose which would be
resisted by the forces, on land and sea, of the mightiest empire of the
earth. Without the resolution of the people of the Colonies to resort to
arms, and without the guiding military genius of Washington, the
Declaration of Independence would be naught in history but the vision of
doctrinaires, a mockery of sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Let us
never forget that it was that resolution and that genius which made it
the vitalizing force of a great nation. It takes service and sacrifice
to maintain ideals.
But it is far more than the Declaration of Independence that brings us
here to-day. That was, indeed, a great document. It was drawn up by
Thomas Jefferson when he was at his best. It was the product of men who
seemed inspired. No greater company ever assembled to interpret the
voice of the people or direct the destinies of a nation. The events of
history may have added to it, but subtracted nothing. Wisdom and
experience have increased the admiration of it. Time and criticism have
not shaken it. It stands with ordinance and law, charter and
constitution, prophecy and revelation, whether we read them in the
history of Babylon, the results of Runnymede, the Ten Commandments, or
the Sermon on the Mount. But, however worthy of our reverence and
admiration, however preëminent, it was only one incident of a great
forward movement of the human race, of which the American Revolution was
itself only a larger incident. It was not so much a struggle of the
Colonies against the tyranny of bad government, as against wrong
principles of government, and for self-government. It was man realizing
himself. It was sovereignty from within which responded to the alarm of
Paul Revere on that April night, and which went marching, gun in hand,
against sovereignty from without, wherever it was found on earth. It
only paused at Concord, or Yorktown, then marched on to Paris, to
London, to Moscow, to Pekin. Against it the powers of privilege and the
forces of despotism could not prevail. Superstition and sham cannot
stand before intelligence and reality. The light that first broke over
the thirteen Colonies lying along the Atlantic Coast was destined to
illuminate the world. It has been a struggle against the forces of
darkness; victory has been and is still delayed in some quarters, but
the result is not in doubt. All the forces of the universe are ranged on
the side of democracy. It must prevail.
In the train of this idea there has come to man a long line of
collateral blessings. Freedom has many sides and angles. Human slavery
has been swept away. With security of personal rights has come security
of property rights. The freedom of the human mind is recognized in the
right of free speech and free press. The public schools have made
education possible for all, and ignorance a disgrace. A most significant
development of respect for man has come to be respect for his
occupation. It is not alone for the learned professions that great
treasures are now poured out. Technical, trade, and vocational schools
for teaching skill in occupations are fostered and nourished, with the
same care as colleges and universities for the teaching of sciences and
the classics. Democracy not only ennobled man; it has ennobled industry.
In political affairs the vote of the humblest has long counted for as
much as the vote of the most exalted. We are working towards the day
when, in our industrial life, equal honor shall fall to equal endeavor,
whether it be exhibited in the office or in the shop.
These are some of the results of that great world movement, which, first
exhibiting itself in the Continental Congress of America, carried her
arms to victory, through the sacrifice of a seven years' revolutionary
war, and wrote into the Treaty of Paris the recognition of the right of
the people to rule: since which days existence on this planet has had a
new meaning; a result which, changing the old order of things, putting
the race under the control and guidance of new forces, rescued man from
every thraldom, but laid on him every duty.
We know that only ignorance and superstition seek to explain events by
fate and destiny, yet there is a fascination in such speculations born,
perhaps, of human frailty. How happens it that James Otis laid out in
1762 the then almost treasonable proposition that "Kings were made for
the good of the people, and not the people for them," in a pamphlet
which was circulated among the Colonists? What school had taught Patrick
Henry that national outlook which he expressed in the opening debates of
the first Continental Congress when he said, "I am not a Virginian, but
an American," and which hurried him on to the later cry of "Liberty or
death?" How was it that the filling of a vacancy sent Thomas Jefferson
to the second Continental Congress, there to pen the immortal
Declaration we this day celebrate? No other living man could have
excelled him in preparation for, or in the execution of, that great
task. What circumstance put the young George Washington under the
military instruction of a former army officer, and then gave him years
of training to lead the Continental forces? What settled Ethan Allen in
the wilderness of the Green Mountains ready to strike Ticonderoga?
Whence came that power to draft state papers, in a new and unlettered
land, which compelled the admiration of the cultured Earl of Chatham?
What lengthened out the days of Benjamin Franklin that he might
negotiate the Treaty of Paris? What influence sent the miraculous voice
of Daniel Webster from the outlying settlements of New Hampshire to
rouse the land with his appeal for Liberty and Union? And finally who
raised up Lincoln, to lead, to inspire, and to die, that the opening
assertion of the Declaration might stand at last fulfilled?
These thoughts are overpowering. But let us beware of fate and destiny.
Barbarians have decreased, but barbarism still exists. Rome boasted the
name of the Eternal City. It was but eight hundred years from the sack
of the city by one tribe of barbarians to the sack of the city by
another tribe of barbarians. Between lay something akin to a democratic
commonwealth. Then games, and bribes for the populace, with dictators
and Cæsars, while later the Prætorian Guard sold the royal purple to the
highest bidder. After which came Alaric, the Goth, and night. Since when
democracy lay dormant for some fifteen centuries. We may claim with
reason that our Nation has had the guidance of Providence; we may know
that our form of government must ultimately prevail upon earth; but what
guaranty have we that it shall be maintained here? What proof that some
unlineal hand, some barbarism, without or within, shall not wrench the
sceptre of democracy from our grasp? The rule of princes, the privilege
of birth, has come down through the ages; the rule of the people has not
yet marked a century and a half. There is no absolute proof, no positive
guaranty, but there is hope and high expectation, and the path is not
uncharted.
It may be some help to know that, however much of glory, there is no
magic in American democracy. Let us examine some more of this
Declaration of ours, and examine it in the light of the events of those
solemn days in which it was adopted.
Men of every clime have lavished much admiration upon the first part of
the Declaration of Independence, and rightly so, for it marked the entry
of new forces and new ideals into human affairs. Its admirers have
sometimes failed in their attempts to live by it, but none have
successfully disputed its truth. It is the realization of the true
glory and worth of man, which, when once admitted, wrought vast changes
that have marked all history since its day. All this relates to natural
rights, fascinating to dwell upon, but not sufficient to live by. The
signers knew that well; more important still, the people whom they
represented knew it. So they did not stop there. After asserting that
man was to stand out in the universe with a new and supreme importance,
and that governments were instituted to insure life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, they did not shrink from the logical conclusion of
this doctrine. They knew that the duty between the citizen and the State
was reciprocal. They knew that the State called on its citizens for
their property and their lives; they laid down the proposition that
government was to protect the citizen in his life, liberty, and pursuit
of happiness. At some expense? Yes. Those prudent and thrifty men had no
false notions about incurring expense. They knew the value of
increasing their material resources, but they knew that prosperity was a
means, not an end. At cost of life? Yes. These sons of the Puritans, of
the Huguenots, of the men of Londonderry, braved exile to secure peace,
but they were not afraid to die in defence of their convictions. They
put no limit on what the State must do for the citizen in his hour of
need. While they required all, they gave all. Let us read their
conclusion in their own words, and mark its simplicity and majesty: "And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." There is no cringing
reservation here, no alternative, and no delay. Here is the voice of the
plain men of Middlesex, promising Yorktown, promising Appomattox.
The doctrine of the Declaration of Independence, predicated upon the
glory of man, and the corresponding duty of society, is that the rights
of citizens are to be protected with every power and resource of the
State, and a government that does any less is false to the teachings of
that great document, of the name American. Beyond this, the principle
that it is the obligation of the people to rise and overthrow government
which fails in these respects. But above all, the call to duty, the
pledge of fortune and of life, nobility of character through nobility of
action: this is Americanism.
"Woe for us if we forget, we that hold by these."
Herein are the teachings of this day--touching the heights of man's
glory and the depths of man's duty. Here lies the path to national
preservation, and there is no other. Education, the progress of science,
commercial prosperity, yes, and peace, all these and their accompanying
blessings are worthy and commendable objects of attainment. But these
are not the end, whether these come or no; the end lies in
action--action in accord with the eternal principles of the Declaration
of Independence; the words of the Continental Congress, but the deeds of
the Army of the Revolution.
This is the meaning of America. And it is all our own. Doctrinaires and
visionaries may shudder at it. The privilege of birth may jeer at it.
The practical politician may scoff at it. But the people of the Nation
respond to it, and march away to Mexico to the rescue of a colored
trooper as they marched of old to the rescue of an emperor. The
assertion of human rights is naught but a call to human sacrifice. This
is yet the spirit of the American people. Only so long as this flame
burns shall we endure and the light of liberty be shed over the nations
of the earth. May the increase of the years increase for America only
the devotion to this spirit, only the intensity of this flame, and the
eternal truth of Lowell's lines:
"What were our lives without thee?
What all our lives to save thee?
We reck not what we gave thee;
We will not dare to doubt thee,
But ask whatever else and we will dare."
V
RIVERSIDE
AUGUST 28, 1916
It may be that there would be votes for the Republican Party in the
promise of low taxes and vanishing expenditures. I can see an
opportunity for its candidates to pose as the apostles of retrenchment
and reform. I am not one of those who believe votes are to be won by
misrepresentations, skilful presentations of half truths, and plausible
deductions from false premises. Good government cannot be found on the
bargain-counter. We have seen samples of bargain-counter government in
the past when low tax rates were secured by increasing the bonded debt
for current expenses or refusing to keep our institutions up to the
standard in repairs, extensions, equipment, and accommodations. I
refuse, and the Republican Party refuses, to endorse that method of
sham and shoddy economy. New projects can wait, but the commitments of
the Commonwealth must be maintained. We cannot curtail the usual
appropriations or the care of mothers with dependent children or the
support of the poor, the insane, and the infirm. The Democratic
programme of cutting the State tax, by vetoing appropriations of the
utmost urgency for improvements and maintenance costs of institutions
and asylums of the unfortunates of the State, cannot be the example for
a Republican administration. The result has been that our institutions
are deficient in resources--even in sleeping accommodations--and it will
take years to restore them to the old-time Republican efficiency. Our
party will have no part in a scheme of economy which adds to the misery
of the wards of the Commonwealth--the sick, the insane, and the
unfortunate; those who are too weak even to protest.
Because I know these conditions I know a Republican administration
would face an increasing State tax rather than not see them remedied.
The Republican Party lit the fire of progress in Massachusetts. It has
tended it faithfully. It will not flicker now. It has provided here
conditions of employment, and safeguards for health, that are surpassed
nowhere on earth. There will be no backward step. The reuniting of the
Republican Party means no reaction in the protection of women and
children in our industrial life. These laws are settled. These
principles are established. Minor modifications are possible, but the
foundations are not to be disturbed. The advance may have been too rapid
in some cases, but there can be no retreat. That is the position of the
great majority of those who constitute our party.
We recognize there is need of relief--need to our industries, need to
our population in manufacturing centres; but it must come from
construction, not from destruction. Put an administration on Beacon
Hill that can conserve our resources, that can protect us from further
injuries, until a national Republican policy can restore those
conditions of confidence and prosperity under which our advance began
and under which it can be resumed.
This makes the coming State election take on a most important
aspect--not that it can furnish all the needed relief, but that it will
increase the probability of a complete relief in the near future if it
be crowned with Republican victory.
VI
AT THE HOME OF AUGUSTUS P. GARDNER, HAMILTON
SEPTEMBER, 1916
Standing here in the presence of our host, our thoughts naturally turn
to a discussion of "Preparedness." I do not propose to overlook that
issue; but I shall offer suggestions of another kind of "preparedness."
Not that I shrink from full and free consideration of the military needs
of our country. Nor do I agree that it is now necessary to remain silent
regarding the domestic or foreign relations of this Nation.
I agree that partisanship should stop at the boundary line, but I assert
that patriotism should begin there. Others, however, have covered this
field, and I leave it to them and to you.
I do, however, propose to discuss the "preparedness" of the State to
care for its unfortunates. And I propose to do this without any party
bias and without blame upon any particular individual, but in just
criticism of a system.
In Massachusetts, we are citizens before we are partisans. The good name
of the Commonwealth is of more moment to us than party success. But
unfortunately, because of existing conditions, that good name, in one
particular at least, is now in jeopardy.
Massachusetts, for twenty years, has been able honestly to boast of the
care it has bestowed upon her sick, poor, and insane. Her institutions
have been regarded as models throughout the world. We are falling from
that proud estate; crowded housing conditions, corridors used for
sleeping purposes, are not only not unusual, but are coming to be the
accepted standard. The heads of asylums complain that maintenance and
the allowance for food supply and supervision are being skimped.
On August 1 of this year, the institutions throughout the State housed
more than 700 patients above what they were designed to accommodate, and
I am told the crowding is steadily increasing. That is one reason I have
been at pains to set forth that I do not see the way clear to make a
radical reduction in the annual State budget. I now repeat that
declaration, in spite of contradiction, because I know the citizens of
this State have no desire for economies gained at such a sacrifice. The
people have no stomach for retrenchment of that sort.
A charge of overcrowding, which must mean a lack of care, is not to be
carelessly made. You are entitled to facts, as well as phrases. I gave
the whole number now confined in our institutions above the stated
capacity as over 700. About August 1, Danvers had 1530 in an institution
of 1350 capacity. Northampton, my home town, had 913, in a hospital
built for 819. In Boston State Hospital, there were 1572, where the
capacity was 1406. Westboro had 1260 inmates, with capacity for 1161,
and Medfield had 1615, where the capacity was 1542. These capacities are
given from official recorded accommodations.
This was not the practice of the past, and there can be no question as
to where the responsibility rests. The General Court has done its best,
but there has been a halt elsewhere. A substantial appropriation was
made for a new State Hospital for the Metropolitan District, and an
additional appropriation for a new institution for the feeble-minded in
the western part of the State. In its desire to hasten matters, the
legislature went even further and granted money for plans for a new
hospital in the Metropolitan District, to relieve part of the outside
congestion, but the needed relief is still in the future.
I feel the time has come when the people must assert themselves and show
that they will tolerate no delay and no parsimony in the care of our
unfortunates. Restore the fame of our State in the handling of these
problems to its former lustre.
I repeat that this is not partisan. I am not criticising individuals. I
am denouncing a system. When you substitute patronage for patriotism,
administration breaks down. We need more of the Office Desk and less of
the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight
oil for the limelight. Let Massachusetts return to the sound business
methods which were exemplified in the past by such Democrats in the East
as Governor Gaston and Governor Douglas, and by such Republicans in the
West as Governor Robinson and Governor Crane.
Above all, let us not, in our haste to prepare for war, forget to
prepare for peace. The issue is with you. You can, by your votes, show
what system you stamp with the approval of enlightened Massachusetts
Public Opinion.
VII
LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER
SEPTEMBER 4, 1916
Seemingly trifling events oft carry in their train great consequences.
The firing of a gun in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, Macaulay tells us,
started the Seven Years' War which set the world in conflagration,
causing men to fight each other on every shore of the seven seas and
giving new masters to the most ancient of empires. We see to-day fifteen
nations engaged in the most terrific war in the history of the human
race and trace its origin to the bullet of a madman fired in the
Balkans. It is true that the flintlock gun at Lexington was not the
first, nor yet the last, to fire a "shot heard round the world." It was
not the distance it travelled, but the message it carried which has
marked it out above all other human events. It was the character of
that message which, claimed the attention of him we this day honor, in
the far-off fortress of the now famous Metz; it was because it roused in
the listener a sympathetic response that it was destined to link forever
the events of Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill and Dorchester
Heights, in our Commonwealth, with the name of Lafayette.
For there was a new tone in those Massachusetts guns. It was not the old
lust of conquest, not the sullen roar of hatred and revenge, but a
higher, clearer note of a people asserting their inalienable
sovereignty. It is a happy circumstance that one of our native-born,
Benjamin Franklin, was instrumental in bringing Lafayette to America;
but beyond that it is fitting at this time to give a thought to our
Commonwealth because his ideals, his character, his life, were all in
sympathy with that great Revolution which was begun within her borders
and carried to a successful conclusion by the sacrifice of her treasure
and her blood. It was not the able legal argument of James Otis against
the British Writs of Assistance, nor the petitions and remonstrances of
the Colonists to the British throne, admirable though they were, that
aroused the approbation and brought his support to our cause. It was not
alone that he agreed with the convictions of the Continental Congress.
He saw in the example of Massachusetts a people who would shrink from no
sacrifice to defend rights which were beyond price. It was not the
Tories, fleeing to Canada, that attracted him. It was the patriots,
bearing arms, and he brought them not a pen but a sword.
"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to law," and "obedience to law is
liberty." Those are the foundations of the Commonwealth. It was these
principles in action which appealed to that young captain of dragoons
and brought the sword and resources of the aristocrat to battle for
democracy. I love to think of his connection with our history. I love
to think of him at the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument receiving
the approbation of the Nation from the lips of Daniel Webster. I love to
think of the long line of American citizens of French blood in our
Commonwealth to-day, ready to defend the principles he fought for,
"Liberty under the Law," citizens who, like him, look not with apology,
but with respect and approval and admiration on that sentiment inscribed
on the white flag of Massachusetts, "_Ense petit placidam sub libertate
quietem_" (With a sword she seeks secure peace under liberty).
VIII
NORFOLK REPUBLICAN CLUB, BOSTON
OCTOBER 9, 1916