Liberty on Tap since 1984

Self-evident Truth vs. 'Progress'

Calvin Coolidge is remembered, incorrectly, for not saying very much. But the 30th president delivered one of the finest analyses of the Declaration of Independence on the 150th anniversary celebration of independence in 1926. It's a long speech. You should read the whole thing. In the context of the ongoing argument between "conservatives" and "progressives," however, one part is worth highlighting:

"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. 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."

Tags: 1776, American-Founding, Calvin-Coolidge, Declaration-of-Independence, July-4, liberty, progressives, truth

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Comment by Ronald A. Lau on July 5, 2010 at 5:16pm: There is a difference between trying to advance the rights in the Constitution to all people (women/minorities, etc) and trying to progress (change/alter) the rights to mean different things.

The 'left' of the past is not the 'left' of today.

Today's left is guided by the tenants of socialism. It believes equality requires equity. It believes Government's job is to enforce equity.

Comment by Rick Henderson on July 4, 2010 at 7:28am: ... of course, "self-evident truths" ... D'oh.

Comment by Rick Henderson on July 4, 2010 at 7:28am: (I decided to remove and revise a comment I posted that was far too uncharitable, and certainly not the tone I wanted to express. Here's what I should have posted initially.)

Thanks for taking me (too) literally! Of course I should have noted the great advances that were made after the Founding for those excluded at that time: blacks, women, immigrants from all over (whatever you think of our birthright policies), gays. And I celebrate all those gains.

But those advances merely extended the basic vision of equality from the Declaration. We only needed to make sure the self-evident trusts were applied to everyone. No modifications of the essential formula needed.

And while no one holds a monopoly on virtue, the vision of Jeffersonian liberals offers a far better blueprint for a "more perfect union" than that of Progressives, in my view. But that's why we discuss these things!

Comment by Joel Mathis on July 4, 2010 at 6:23am: Don't forget about women, gays and almost any other racial minority that you can name, Jim. There are lots of people who've been treated as less-than-equal during the history of this country, and it's been almost entirely due to people on the left tugging and cajoling and haranguing the rest of the country that that's less the case than it's ever been.

Can't let the sins go unmentioned.

Well, no, I don't think we should. Because all you have in the absence of sin is mindless and context-free triumphalism that doesn't match the reality of our history. We are a great country, but we're not great merely because the Founders said some awesome words in 1776 -- history didn't end then, but if it had the contrast between what the Founders did and the world they made would've rendered those worlds laughably hollow: We're great because many people have fought, died and paid awful sacrifices over the last 234 years to make the promise of those of words mean something.

Like I said, the Founders got us off to a great start. But if you really value a country and a world where "all men are created equal," the only right and proper thing to do today is to go find a liberal and thank them.

Comment by Jim Lakely on July 3, 2010 at 9:45pm: I'm going to come to Joel's defense here (at least a little). We all know what he means — blacks (any non-white Protestant, really) did not always enjoy the fruits of liberty in America. It's the box every liberal must check off whenever this kind of discussion breaks out. Every time. Can't let the sins go unmentioned. Changing that reality made us a better country, and that was "progress."

However, as Rick says, the left is never satisfied with the current state of progress — or at least hasn't been for most of the 20th and 21st centuries. And the question we conservatives ask is: Are we done yet? It still gives me chills ... OK, not chills ... but I'm creeped out by two of FDR's "four freedoms": Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear. I'm also troubled by the expansion of rights — from what the government can't do to you, to what the government must do for you. I believe it was the otherwise ho-hum Gerald Ford who said the government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything away.

Modern "progress" since the end of Jim Crow is pushing the country far from where the Founders perfectly envisioned but imperfectly executed — so I read Coolidge's words, and applaud them.

Comment by Rick Henderson on July 3, 2010 at 9:21pm: Seriously, my view of the "progress" side of the equation is that they think the "self-evident truths" are wonderful things ... until their application leads to results they're uncomfortable with.

So "all men are created equal," but if they don't wind up roughly equal in socioeconomic status, then we have to modify the tax/regulatory/social structure to make them more equal.

"Government by consent of the governed" is all well and good unless we end up with something other than a "progressive" government. When that happens, the experts in the regulatory/nanny state have to step in and set things on the path to progress.

"Inalienable rights" -- same deal. Just ask Susette Kelo.

Comment by Rick Henderson on July 3, 2010 at 9:08pm: "All men are created equal" but some are more equal than others? I don't get the role of "progress" in improving the essential formula.

Comment by Joel Mathis on July 3, 2010 at 6:53pm: Very briefly: The propositions are fine. It's the reality that needed changing -- but you wouldn't know that from reading Coolidge's words ... and in that, he's no different from any generation of American who quoted the Declaration and celebrated his era as the apotheosis of liberty, freedom and equality.

But the history of "progress" in this country hasn't been -- for the most part -- about finding something better than "all men are created equal" or that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." It's been about forcing our governments and culture to change to fulfill the promise of those words. That's a fight that -- while perhaps not as intense as 50 or 150 years ago -- still stands today. At least, in my humble opinion.

"Self-evident truths" versus "progress" is really a false dichotomy, then. Progress is the only reason those self-evident truths have any tangible meaning to anybody beyond a few landowning men.

Sorry. Don't want to be a turd in the punchbowl. I think the Founders got the United States off to a pretty good start. Lots of people who came after made the country even better.

Comment by Ben Boychuk on July 3, 2010 at 6:26pm: "Calvin Coolidge was wrong -- or, at least, incomplete." Care to elaborate a bit?

Comment by Joel Mathis on July 3, 2010 at 6:15pm: "About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. 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."

Calvin Coolidge was wrong -- or, at least, incomplete.

Self-evident Truth vs. 'Progress'

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