A republic, if you can keep it

For those of you who want to gain a better understanding of the founding of this country, I would recommend that you listen to the Mike Church show on Sirius Satellite Radio in the morning (6-9AM PST).

This morning he recommended finding & reading the address given by then President Calvin Coolidge on July 5th, 1926. That would be the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is amazing that in a mere 83 years, we could go from the ideals he promotes to what we have now. It takes a few minutes to read, and it also takes more attention span than most these days probably have. But you will be a better person for having read it, so click here.

There were several passages that really jumped out at me; really spoke to my soul, as it were.

It is little wonder that people at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic. That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear to the uninstructed as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell of a former time, useless now because of more modern conveniences, but to those who know they have become consecrated by the use which men have made of them. They have long been identified with a great cause. They are the framework of a spiritual event. The world looks upon them, because of their associations of one hundred and fifty years ago, as it looks upon the Holy Land because of what took place there nineteen hundred years ago. Through use for a righteous purpose they have become sanctified.

It is amazing to me that a politician could actually have such a deep understanding and respect for religion. My faith teaches that the Founding Fathers were truly inspired and directed by God to create this country. It is amazing to see a man - who so far as I know was never taught anything of my faith - acknowledge that God directed that work done by the American colonists.

Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, where no one possessed any right to rule over him, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of self-government.

I’ve heard that stated another way: “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.”

This was their theory of democracy. In those days such doctrines would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country. This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.

The Declaration was inspired of God. America, therefore as it was founded, and as the Fathers intended, was about as close as you could hope to get to God.

If this apprehension of the facts be correct, and the documentary evidence would appear to verify it, then certain conclusions are bound to follow. A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

Could it be any more clear? Yet today, our “leaders” have taught us that it is politically incorrect to ever mention God. They have basically removed God from everything, and put themselves in His place. It is no wonder that our country is ailing and headed down the path it is on.
Of course, the solution is clear. We as a nation need to return to God. We know that that is unlikely to happen, but those who remain righteous and true have the blessing of knowing that they will be watched out for.

We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation. About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful.

Self government works. Socialism does not. I love this next part, as it is 100% correct and completely destroys the arguments that we hear from Reid, Pelosi, Obama, and their ilk. There is nothing for anyone else to say, just read and enjoy.

It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

More talk of how the form of Government that the Founding Fathers established was God’s form of government:

The rights of the individual are held sacred and protected by constitutional guaranties, which even the Government itself is bound not to violate. If there is any one thing among us that is established beyond question, it is self-government–the right of the people to rule. If there is any failure in respect to any of these principles, it is because there is a failure on the part of individuals to observe them. We hold that the duly authorized expression of the will of the people has a divine sanction. But even in that we come back to the theory of John Wise that “Democracy is Christ’s government.” The ultimate sanction of law rests on the righteous authority of the Almighty.

I love this quote:

In the development of its institutions America can fairly claim that it has remained true to the principles which were declared 150 years ago. In all the essentials we have achieved an equality which was never possessed by any other people. Even in the less important matter of material possessions we have secured a wider and wider distribution of wealth.

We are told today that in order to achieve equality, those with many material possessions - including money - must be forced to forfeit them so they can be re-distributed to those who don’t have so much. For this to happen, all of us must relinquish some of our liberties. The reasoning is that then everyone will have the same amount of possessions - everyone will be equal. But President Coolidge correctly states that because individuals maintain all of their liberties, and because individuals have the freedom to work as much or as little as they want, we - all Americans - have, as he so eloquently stated, “have secured a wider and wider distribution of wealth.” So, would you rather follow the current course, where possessions are taken away to make everyone “equal”, as in equally miserable? Or would you prefer to return to the original intent of this country, where everyone is free to choose how hard they will work, and be rewarded for it?

Under a system of popular government there will always be those who will seek for political preferment by clamoring for reform. While there is very little of this which is not sincere, there is a large portion that is not well informed. In my opinion very little of just criticism can attach to the theories and principles of our institutions. There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes. We do need a better understanding and comprehension of them and a better knowledge of the foundations of government in general. Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship. While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the Scriptures.

For as learned as they were, they were founded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, at least what they had of it. Coolidge didn’t just make this statement, he came to understand that by studying their lives.

Over a period as great as that which measures the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power. No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people.

We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

Well said, President Coolidge. Thank you.