It’s entirely true that America presently is in dire straights, but the resilience of its people are greater than the problems that face it. What’s needed is a true conservative to lead the people in jettisoning the constraints that bind the nation, statist legislation, bloated welfare state, debt, divisive racial politics and a porous border. And above all, a return to virtue in both public and private life which is crucial in maintaining the civil society.
REBUILDING AMERICAN CIVIC TRADITIONS ON THE 4TH OF JULY
Americans celebrate the 4th of July with fireworks, barbecues, picnics and all other kinds of enjoyable festivities. It’s wonderful that we live in a free country and are able to enjoy the fruits of our prosperity and freedom. However, merely wearing red,white, and blue, shirts with bald eagles on them, and other patriotic symbols is only a superficial way to celebrate America’s hard-fought for independence.
On top of the enjoyable celebrations of America’s birth, some time should be dedicated each Independence Day to recognizing and coming to a better understanding of the noble traditions that we have inherited from the founders. The sacred torch of liberty is a precious gift that has been passed down by generations of Americans, it is our duty to keep it alive and pass it on to the next.
On July 5, 1926, the 150th anniversary of the birth of our country, President Calvin Coolidge delivered an address at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Coolidge spoke about the causes of the Revolution and the curtailment of rights that occurred at the hands of the British government. He explained how in separating from the British, America created a new government, with new principles; a far more profound act than than simply creating a new country out of the ashes of the old.
“It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history,” Coolidge said. He described the origins of American institutions as grounded in Western philosophy and in the American colonial experience. He spoke about how the timeless truths and rights “endowed by our creator,” articulated so eloquently in the Declaration, became cemented by the wise construction of the Constitution.
Coolidge said that the Constitution was created, “to establish a free government, which must not be permitted to degenerate into the unrestrained authority of a mere majority or the unbridled weight of a mere influential few,” he continued. “They undertook to balance these interests against each other and provide the three separate independent branches, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial departments of the Government, with checks against each other in order that neither one might encroach upon the other. These are our guarantees of liberty.”
Finally, Coolidge stressed how America must not fall into the trap of pure materialism, how the grand Declaration came from the “influence of a great spiritual development.”
Coolidge concluded:
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.
