Date: February 24, 1919
Location: Boston, MA
Context: Transcript of Governor Coolidge’s speech at Mechanics Hall welcoming President Wilson.
(Original source available here)
Mr. Chairman, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
The action of my fellow-citizens has outrun any words of mine in extending a welcome and a greeting to the guest of this afternoon – the President and the Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the United States of America. But Massachusetts has a right to extend a welcome, a right that it has earned, a right that is represented by two hundred thousand of its men who have gone into the service of the nation, a right that is represented by the support of untold millions of its treasure that it has given to support the cause, and in behalf of that right we extend to you, Mr. President, the greetings of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
We have observed with the utmost interest the reception that has been given to the President in Great Britain, in France, in Italy, wherever his travels have taken him, a reception the like of which was never before accorded to an American citizen; and we feel it a mark of especial honor that, returning from all those triumphs, he first sets foot on the historic soil of Massachusetts.
We welcome him here to the great inspiration of her history – to Plymouth Rock, to Bunker Hill, to liberty under the law, and all that he has been trying to accomplish during the past two years of war and through the past months in which he has been sitting at the council table of the nations.
We welcome him here to the headquarters of the 26th Division. We welcome him here in the presence of the gallant commander of that division, Major General Edwards, and may I assist you, Mr. Mayor, in welcoming him to the home city of Colonel Logan.
We have welcomed him with a reception more marked even than that which was accorded to General George Washington, more united than could have been given at any time of his life to President Abraham Lincoln.
We welcome him as the representative of a great people, as a great statesman, as one to whom we have entrusted our destinies and one whom we surely will support in the future in the working out of those destinies, as Massachusetts has supported him in the past.
Citation: Vermont Historical Society
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Isaac Oberman who prepared this document for digital publication.