What is progress?

President Calvin Coolidge celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926, with a speech providing a magisterial review of the history and thought underlying the Declaration. His speech on the occasion deserves to be read and studied in its entirety. The following paragraph, however, is particularly relevant to the challenge that confronts us in the variants of the progressive dogma that pass themselves off today as the higher wisdom:

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.

THE ETERNAL MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE DAY (2)

"Ryan represents the most serious national challenger to the essential premises of the Left since Calvin Coolidge"

Steven Hayward, posting on PowerLine nailed it:

I’ll happily declare interest behind my enthusiasm for Paul Ryan: he’s read my Reagan and Churchill books.  And I’ve seen him up close and in person displaying his facility with the deeper principles of the American Founding, and his (correct) perception of how the Progressive Era represents the decisive break in American political thought. In this respect he has more depth than Reagan.  Forget the budget issues for a moment–Ryan represents the most serious national challenger to the essential premises of the Left since Calvin Coolidge.

Here is the full speech, thanks to Legal Insurrection

And from Gateway Pundit:

Romney Raises $1.2 Million in Three Hours Since of Picking Paul Ryan

Naval Warfare: 3/9/1862

The Confederate iron-plated ship Merrimac destroyed two Union boats during the Civil War. The Union responded with the ironclad Monitor.

Dedicating a statue to the Monitor's designer, John Ericsson, May 29, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge stated: "When the ironclad Merrimac went out on the morning of MARCH 9, 1862, to complete its work of destruction it was at once surprised by this new naval innovation...After a battle lasting four hours in which the Monitor suffered no material damage...the Merrimac...badly crippled, withdrew, never to venture out again...

The London Times stated that the day before this battle England had 149 first-class warships. The day after she had but two, and they were iron-plated only amidships. Naval warfare had been revolutionized."

When offered payment in 1882, John Ericsson replied: "Nothing could induce me to accept any remuneration for the Monitor...it was my contribution to the glorious Union cause...which freed 4 million bondsmen." John Ericsson wrote to President Lincoln: "Attachment to the Union alone impels me to offer my services at this frightful crisis -my life if need be- in the great cause which Providence has caused you to defend."

American Minute with Bill Federer

Inauguration Day: 3/4/1937

Until 1937, MARCH 4th was Inauguration Day.

Each President acknowledged faith upon assuming office, for example, President John Adams in 1797 gave: "Veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians...to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service."

In 1809, President James Madison referred to the: "Guidance of that Almighty Being." President John Quincy Adams stated in 1825: "'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain.'" In 1841, President William Harrison said: "I deem the present occasion sufficiently important...in expressing to my fellow citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion." President Franklin Pierce, in 1853, stated: "There is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God." President James Buchanan, 1857, said: "Cultivate peace...with all nations...in a spirit of Christian benevolence." In 1861, Abraham Lincoln wrote: "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty." President Calvin Coolidge said in 1925: "America...cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God."

American Minute with Bill Federer

All this, of course, was before we had a Muslim President...

The Boys Scouts of America was incorporated FEBRUARY 8, 1910

Sir Robert Baden-Powell began the movement in England two years prior. A hero of the South African Boer Wars, Sir Baden-Powell's troops were besieged 200 days by an overwhelming army, but his resourcefulness saved his men.

The Boy Scouts are now the largest voluntary youth movement in the world, with membership over 25 million. In the pamphlet Scouting & Christianity, 1917, Baden-Powell wrote: "Scouting is nothing less than applied Christianity." The Scout Oath states: "On my honor, I will do my best: To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law, To help other people at all times. To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge addressed a gathering of Boy Scouts in New York: "The three fundamentals of scouthood are reverence for nature...reverence for law...and reverence for God. It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Doubters do not achieve." President Coolidge concluded: "No man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is part of an unending plan."

American Minute with Bill Federer