“In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man.... [These ideals] have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. 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....
“We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things.... [However, the] things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity...will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed.”
– U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, speaking 100 years ago on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
