Monday, July 4, 2016

The Declaration of Independence Is Final

Via comment by SCextremist on Rethinking the Declaration of Independence
 "I found this on the inter-web yesterday.
From Calvin Coolidge. He speaks of The Declaration of Independence and other founding documents. This is so brilliant and yet so basic and self evidently true. Beware anyone that would argue this point."

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7Hg75cpf_L5xYr73CTFj8QezQr8WNIL1OeNYP6aonyUNtyC7QBgxTK3KzL9fS7bde_kYEo90Jt0z68r0g2oSFkWcLTG_9sD4lGCeWUfoZ_UePbGapmYE4oVgXFskUQX1Hv65KrVdgqU/s1600/silent+cal.jpg


“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 cannot 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.”

No comments:

Post a Comment