From a Speech given by Calvin Coolidge on January 7, 1914 to the Massachusetts legislator -

"Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support. Man is born into the universe with a personality that is his own. He has a right that is founded upon the Constitution of the universe to have property that is his own. Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing. The one cannot be preserved if the other be violated. Each man is entitled to his rights and the rewards of his service, be they never so large or never so small."

"The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is one. We are all members of one body. The welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound together. Industry cannot flourish if labor languish. Transportation cannot prosper if manufactures decline. The general welfare cannot be provided for in any one act, but it is well to remember that the benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all..."

"Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better serve the people, what ever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but do not be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but do not be a demagogue. Do not hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. do not hurry to legislate. Give administration a change to catch up with legislation."

"We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people - a faith that men desire to do right, that the Commonwealth is founded upon a righteousness which will endure, a reconstructed faith that the final approval of the people is given not to demagogues, slavishly pandering to their selfishness, merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to statesmen, ministering to their welfare, and representing their deep, silent, and abiding convictions."

Calvin Coolidge was born on the 4th of July in 1872, Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He was the 30th President of the United States of America. He supported a small government and believed in the good of the people, as did Ronald Reagan.

Please take time to learn more about our leaders. They have blessed us with their wisdom, toil and service.