Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
6 Quotes: Calvin Coolidge on religion and the Declaration of Independence
6 Quotes: Calvin Coolidge on religion and the Declaration of Independence
Feb 19, 2026 10:46 AM

Tomorrow, for the 243rd anniversary celebration of Independence Day, President Trump will give a speech on the National Mall. As with all such addresses in the modern age, Trump’s remarks will pared to the presidential gold standard for Fourth of July speeches—Calvin Coolidge’s speech on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Coolidge was so famous for his taciturnity that he earned the nickname “Silent Cal.” But when he did speak he could be moving and profound. Such was the case in his speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 5, 1926. Here are six quotes you should know from the speech about God, religion, and the Declaration.

1. “The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.”

2. “While the written word was the foundation, it is apparent that the spoken word was the vehicle for convincing the people. This came with great force and wide range from the successors of Hooker and Wise. It was carried on with a missionary spirit which did not fail to reach the Scotch-Irish of North Carolina, showing its influence by significantly making that Colony the first to give instructions to its delegates looking to independence. This preaching reached the neighborhood of Thomas Jefferson, who acknowledged that his “best ideas of democracy” had been secured at church meetings.”

3. “When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should open with a reference to Nature’s God and should close in the final paragraphs with an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world and an assertion of a firm reliance on Divine Providence. Coming from these sources, having as it did this background, it is no wonder that Samuel Adams could say, ‘The people seem to recognize this resolution as though it were a decree promulgated from heaven.’”

4. “No one can examine this record and escape the conclusion that in the great outline of its principles the Declaration was the result of the religious teachings of the preceding period. The profound philosophy which Jonathan Edwards applied to theology, the popular preaching of George Whitefield, had aroused the thought and stirred the people of the Colonies in preparation for this great event. No doubt the speculations which had been going on in England, and especially on the Continent, lent their influence to the general sentiment of the times. Of course, the world is always influenced by all the experience and all the thought of the past. But when e to a contemplation of the immediate conception of the principles of human relationship which went into the Declaration of Independence we are not required to extend our search beyond our own shores. They are found in the texts, the sermons, and the writings of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit.”

5. “Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.”

6. “Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship. While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who paratively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the Scriptures. Over a period as great as that which measures the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power. No other theory is adequate to explain prehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Steven Spielberg’s woke West Side Story is a self-contradictory disaster
The original midcentury musical had its own problems, but this updated plete with untranslated Spanish, only makes things unintelligible and unintentionally funny. Read More… Steven Spielberg has recently made a number of movies nostalgic for midcentury liberalism, Bridge of Spies and The Post, especially, very mediocre stories that won him Oscar nominations and praise in the mainstream press at the price of the popularity he once enjoyed. Indeed, he has sacrificed his place as America’s most important director in pursuit...
Reply to The New York Times: Online worship is still worship
A Lutheran pastor takes issue with a recent Times essay declaring that online religious services should end. But what does it mean to be church? And what does it mean to worship the God es to us wherever we are? Read More… I love watching men’s college basketball. Three e to mind that I’m so thankful to have seen on TV—Chris Jenkins’ buzzer beater to lift Villanova over North Carolina in 2016, Christian Laettner’s dagger to catapult Duke past Kentucky...
House of Gucci is Ridley Scott’s “Basta!” to the commercialization of art
Starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, and Al Pacino, this mockery of elites as little more than decadent mafiosi may grab some Oscar nods, but The Godfather it isn’t. Read More… My first Oscars essay presented Wes Anderson, the Hollywood dandy’s Francophilia, The French Dispatch, and gentle criticism of liberal intellectual pretense. The 2022 Oscar contenders also include an examination of American Italophilia—veteran Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, as full of today’s stars as Anderson’s movies are of yesteryear’s. Lady Gaga...
A year after coup, Burmese people continue to resist brutal military rule
February 1 marked the one-year anniversary of the military coup that has seen widespread chaos and destruction in Burma. Nevertheless, a younger generation continues to fight for democratic ideals against terrible odds. Read More… A year ago Burma’s military staged a coup.The juntahas since killed at least 1,500 people and detained another 12,000, of whom nearly 9,000 remain in custody. A couple thousand sought by the regime are in hiding. TheUnited Nations estimatesthat 2,200 civilian homes and other buildings have...
Modesty for thee but not for me: Brian Sauvé, Beth Moore, and Ephesians 4
A recent Twitter engagement on the subject of Christian women and modesty is the perfect jumping off point for a larger discussion of what it means to be modest, and obsessed. Read More… For those of us who have dealt pulsive behavior or addiction in our families or our own lives, there are clues—perhaps too seemingly unrelated for some to notice—that tip us off that someone might be engaged in an internal battle. Everyone remembers the Jimmy Swaggart saga. Once...
Why we need more O’Rourke Conservatives
The 74-year-old former National Lampooner and conservative humorist has died and left behind a wealth of mentary and good feeling, even among those who did not share his politics. No small legacy. Read More… So by now you’ve heard that P.J. O’Rourke, journalist, essayist, and, of course, humorist, has died at the age of 74. Those who knew him and those who read him have been pouring out ia like so much best-for-last wine. John Podhoretz shared a lovely personal...
Terrorists and your valentine have more in common than you think
What may seem a bizarre polarity—terrorism and dating—actually speaks to the calculations we all make when investing not just our money but our very selves into any activity. Read More… Economics is the study of human action; it’s the study of individuals making choices. As a result, we can use the “economic way of thinking” to understand the decisions people make when es to all types of behavior, including dating and marriage, Spring break and Vegas vacations, and, yes, even...
Joe Rogan is not a problem, but a mirror
The controversial podcaster has e a lightning rod for those who don’t want to be associated with unvetted ideas expressed by either him or his guests. Yet those ideas may not be novel as much as reflective of what the silent majority is already thinking. Read More… The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the world’s most popular podcasts and, for the past two weeks, the world’s most controversial. Launched in 2009 edian and martial arts enthusiast Joe Rogan, the...
Is The Lost Daughter this generation’s A Doll’s House?
A fine performance by Olivia Colman and a Euro-style directorial debut by Maggie Gyllenhaal have garnered rave reviews, but this film about a mother abandoning her children is amazing in ways that should give pause. Read More… In Henrik Ibsen’s seminal play A Doll’s House, protagonist Nora Helmer, a hitherto devoted wife and mother, walks out on her husband and their three children, significantly slamming the door behind her in the last scene. The idea of a mother leaving her...
Ilya Shapiro’s ill-worded tweet and the crying game
When a Georgetown law mented on the relative merits of a potential SCOTUS pick, all hell broke loose. Black students demanded a form of “reparations” in response, including a room to “cry.” Have we reached peak “white guilt” yet? Read More… Ilya Shapiro, a Russian émigré, a serious scholar of the American Constitution, and formerly of the libertarian Cato Institute until he was scheduled on February 1 to begin running Georgetown’s Center for the Constitution, has found himself in a...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved