Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed.: A Collection of Speeches and MessagesCoolidge, Calvin
History
Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed.: A Collection of Speeches and Messages
Coolidge, Calvin
Massachusetts
It is a time to keep our faith in our State, our Nation, our
institutions, and in each other. Doing that, the war will be won in the
field and won in civil life at home.
XXIV
FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR
JANUARY 2, 1919
You are coming to a new legislative session under the inspiration of the
greatest achievements in all history. You are beholding the fulfilment
of the age-old promise, man coming into his own. You are to have the
opportunity and responsibility of reflecting this new spirit in the laws
of the most enlightened of Commonwealths. We must steadily advance. Each
individual must have the rewards and opportunities worthy of the
character of our citizenship, a broader recognition of his worth and a
larger liberty, protected by order--and always under the law. In the
promotion of human welfare Massachusetts happily may not need much
reconstruction, but, like all living organizations, forever needs
continuing construction. What are the lessons of the past? How shall
they be applied to these days of readjustment? How shall we emerge from
the autocratic methods of war to the democratic methods of peace,
raising ourselves again to the source of all our strength and all our
glory--sound self-government?
It is your duty not only to reflect public opinion, but to lead it.
Whether we are to enter a new era in Massachusetts depends upon you. The
lessons of the war are plain. Can we carry them on into peace? Can we
still act on the principle that there is no sacrifice too great to
maintain the right? Shall we continue to advocate and practise thrift
and industry? Shall we require unswerving loyalty to our country? These
are the foundations of all greatness.
Let there be a purpose in all your legislation to recognize the right of
man to be well born, well nurtured, well educated, well employed, and
well paid. This is no gospel of ease and selfishness, or class
distinction, but a gospel of effort and service, of universal
application.
Such results cannot be secured at once, but they should be ever before
us. The world has assumed burdens that will bear heavily on all peoples.
We shall not escape our share. But whatever may be our trials, however
difficult our tasks, they are only the problems of peace, and a
victorious peace. The war is over. Whatever the call of duty now we
should remember with gratitude that it is nothing compared with the
heavy sacrifice so lately made. The genius and fortitude which conquered
then cannot now fail.
XXV
STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The people of our Commonwealth have learned with profound sorrow of the
death of Theodore Roosevelt. No other citizen of the Nation would have
brought in so large a degree the feeling of a common loss. During the
almost eight years he was President, the people came to see in him a
reflection of their ideals of the true Americanism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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