Title: Statement to the Press
Date: November 4, 1919
Location: Boston, MA
Context: Coolidge thanks the people of Massachusetts for supporting the rule of law after the Boston Police Strike
My thanks are due to the millions of my fellow citizens of Massachusetts. I offer them freely, without undertaking to specify, to all who have supported the great cause of the supremacy of the law. The heart of the people has proven again sound and true. No misrepresentation has blinded them, no sophistry has turned them. They have listened to the truth and followed it. They have again disappointed those who distrusted them. They have turned away from those who sought to play upon their selfishness. They have justified those who trusted them. They have justified America.
The attempt to appeal to class prejudice has failed. The men of Massachusetts are not labor men, or policemen, or union men, or poor men, or rich men, or any other class of men first; they are Americans first. The wage-earners have vindicated themselves. They have shown by their votes that they resent trying to use them for private interests, or to employ them to resist the operation of the Government. They are for the Government. They are against those who are against the Government. American institutions are safe in their hands. Some of those who have posed as their leaders and argued that the wage-earners were patriotic because those leaders told them to be may well now inquire whether the case did not stand the other way about. It begins to look as if those who attempt to lead the wage-earners must first show that they themselves are patriotic if they are to have any following. The patriotism of some alleged leaders was not the cause but the effect of the patriotism of the wage-earners.
Three words tell the result. Massachusetts is American. The election will be a welcome demonstration to the Nation and to people everywhere who believe that liberty can only be secured by obedience to law.
Citation: Have Faith in Massachusetts
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Robert Manchester, who prepared this document for digital publication.
Political campaigns are full of promises some of which are not in the best interests of the people. Governor Coolidge praises the voters of Massachusetts for supporting the supremacy of the law and good government.