The 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was commemorated in a 1926 oration by President Calvin Coolidge, delivered in Philadelphia. Born of the Fourth of July, 1872, Coolidge explained the eternal truth of our nation’s founding document.
In 1926, as today, some persons held theories that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were obsolete. They might have been alright in their time, but social and technological changes had made them impractical. Such had been the view of President Woodrow Wilson (1913-21). Others insisted that that the Declaration’s words “all men are created equal,” were false. Supposedly, people were unequal because of inherent racial or ethnic difference; according to the Ku Klux Klan, which was powerful in American politics at the time, racial difference obliterated common humanity.
President Coolidge debunked anti-Declaration notions. He traced the history of the three key ideas of the Declaration. The principle of consent of the governed had been present earlier English and Dutch history. So had the idea of inalienable rights.
One idea was new: “All men are created equal.” As Coolidge “But we should search these [historic European] charters in vain for an assertion of the doctrine of equality. This principle had not before appeared as an official political declaration of any nation. It was profoundly revolutionary. It is one of the corner stones of American institutions.”
As Coolidge well knew, the United States of 1926 and 1776 were hardly perfect in equality, security for inalienable rights, or consent of the governed. In his first State of the Union speech, he stated:
Numbered among our population are some 12,000,000 colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and a private duty to protect those rights. The Congress ought to exercise all its powers of prevention and punishment against the hideous crime of lynching, of which the negroes are by no means the sole sufferers, but for which they furnish a majority of the victims.
Coolidge favored strict economy in government. Apparently essential, in Coolidge’s view of government, was new federal funding to support medical education at Howard University–the most venerable of historically black universities in America, located in D.C. Further, Coolidge urged, there should be a commission “composed of members from both races, to formulate a better policy for mutual understanding and confidence.” Such an effort is to be commended. Everyone would rejoice in the accomplishment of the results which it seeks. But it is well to recognize that these difficulties are to a large extent local problems which must be worked out by the mutual forbearance and human kindness of each community. Such a method gives much more promise of a real remedy than outside interference.
openedthesegmentofthisspeechonracialreformwiththeringingdeclarationthatundertheConstitution,”therightsofcoloredcitizenswereassacredasthoseofanyothercitizen”andthatit was”botha publicandprivatedutytoprotecttheserights.”ThePresidentwentontourgetheCongress”toexerciseallitspowerofpreventionandpunishmentagainstthehideouscrimeoflynching.”Healsoacknow
Born on the Fourths of July, 1872,e
Calvin Coolidge—Speech on Economy in Government
Half-hour documentary Calvin Coolidge: Our American Journey.
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation.
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