CALVIN COOLIDGE
  Governor of Massachusetts

XXXVII

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

By His Excellency Calvin Coolidge, Governor_

A PROCLAMATION

There appears to be a misapprehension as to the position of the police of Boston.  In the deliberate intention to intimidate and coerce the Government of this Commonwealth a large body of policemen, urging all others to join them, deserted their posts of duty, letting in the enemy.  This act of theirs was voluntary, against the advice of their well wishers, long discussed and premeditated, and with the purpose of obstructing the power of the Government to protect its citizens or even to maintain its own existence.  Its success meant anarchy.  By this act through the operation of the law they dispossessed themselves.  They went out of office.  They stand as though they had never been appointed.

Other police remained on duty.  They are the real heroes of this crisis.  The State Guard responded most efficiently.  Thousands have volunteered for the Guard and the Militia.  Money has been contributed from every walk of life by the hundreds of thousands for the encouragement and relief of these loyal men.  These acts have been spontaneous, significant, and decisive.  I propose to support all those who are supporting their own Government with every power which the people have entrusted to me.

There is an obligation, inescapable, no less solemn, to resist all those who do not support the Government.  The authority of the Commonwealth cannot be intimidated or coerced.  It cannot be compromised.  To place the maintenance of the public security in the hands of a body of men who have attempted to destroy it would be to flout the sovereignty of the laws the people have made.  It is my duty to resist any such proposal.  Those who would counsel it join hands with those whose acts have threatened to destroy the Government.  There is no middle ground.  Every attempt to prevent the formation of a new police force is a blow at the Government.  That way treason lies.  No man has a right to place his own ease or convenience or the opportunity of making money above his duty to the State.  This is the cause of all the people.  I call on every citizen to stand by me in executing the oath of my office by supporting the authority of the Government and resisting all assaults upon it.

Given at the Executive Chamber, in Boston, this twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-fourth.

  CALVIN COOLIDGE

By His Excellency the Governor,

HERBERT H. BOYNTON

Deputy, Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth