Date: July 14, 1930
Location: Northampton, MA
Summary: Calvin Coolidge celebrates the anniversary of the granting of the first charter to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and reflects on its historical significance.
(Original document available here)
In Massachusetts we are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the granting of the first charter to the old Bay Colony. That event had not only national but world significance. It was one of the early and potential beginnings of constitutional government. It started a new train of thought and action which has changed the whole foundation of human relationship. An era that was begun by an English document transplanted to this commonwealth and developed by people who came from the ends of the earth to share in its responsibilities and its benefits will be commemorated by the presence of representatives of many states and nations all bearing testimony to their allegiance to the principle of liberty under the law, local self-government, and civil and religious freedom which Massachusetts has established and disseminated with so much power and success. To enumerate the inestimable blessings that it has conferred, the great names that it has produced, the glories that it has encompassed, would be to restate the record of modern civilization. Never before were the rights of man advanced so far in three centuries. It is a heritage that lays on all humanity the gravest responsibilities but endows them with the largest promise of future progress.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Fr. Stephen Lawson who prepared this document for digital publication.