"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 of 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 the great charter... 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 a time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more "modern," but more ancient than those of our Revolutionary ancestors."
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1776Founding Fathers of the United States of AmericaHistorical documentsUnited Kingdom–United States relations
Original Language: English
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Sources
Calvin Coolidge, as quoted in Foundations of the Republic; Speeches and Addresses (1926), p. 451
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
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United States Declaration of Independence
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