Produced by David Widger








THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

"HE LOVES HIS COUNTRY BEST WHO STRIVES TO MAKE IT BEST."

IN TWELVE VOLUMES, VOLUME IX.

POLITICAL

NEW YORK THE DRESDEN PUBLISHING CO., C. P. FARRELL

DRESDEN EDITION




CONTENTS OF VOLUME IX.


AN ADDRESS TO THE COLORED PEOPLE.

(1867.)

Slavery and its Justification by Law and Religion--Its Destructive
Influence upon Nations--Inauguration of the Modern Slave Trade by the
Portuguese Gonzales--Planted upon American Soil--The Abolitionists,
Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Others--The Struggle in England--Pioneers
in San Domingo, Oge and Chevannes--Early Op-posers of Slavery in
America--William Lloyd Garrison--Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, John
Brown--The Fugitive Slave Law--The Emancipation Proclamation--Dread of
Education in the South--Advice to the Colored People.


INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH.

(1868.)

Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus--Precedent Established by the
Revolutionary Fathers--Committees of Safety appointed by the
Continental Congress--Arrest of Disaffected Persons in Pennsylvania
and Delaware--Interference with Elections--Resolution of Continental
Congress with respect to Citizens who Opposed the sending of Deputies
to the Convention of New York--Penalty for refusing to take Continental
Money or Pray for the American Cause--Habeas Corpus Suspended during the
Revolution--Interference with Freedom of the Press--Negroes Freed and
allowed to Fight in the Continental Army--Crispus Attacks--An Abolition
Document issued by Andrew Jackson--Majority rule--Slavery and the
Rebellion--Tribute to General Grant.


SPEECH NOMINATING BLAINE.

(1876.)

Note descriptive of the Occasion--Demand of the Republicans of the
United States--Resumption--The Plumed Knight.


CENTENNIAL ORATION.

(1876.)

One Hundred Years ago, our Fathers retired the Gods from Politics--The
Declaration of Independence--Meaning of the Declaration--The Old Idea
of the Source of Political Power--Our Fathers Educated by their
Surroundings--The Puritans--Universal Religious Toleration declared by
the Catholics of Maryland--Roger Williams--Not All of our Fathers in
favor of Independence--Fortunate Difference in Religious Views--Secular
Government--Authority derived from the People--The Declaration and
the Beginning of the War--What they Fought For--Slavery--Results of
a Hundred Years of Freedom--The Declaration Carried out in Letter and
Spirit.


BANGOR SPEECH.

(1876.)

The Hayes Campaign--Reasons for Voting the Republican Ticket--Abolition
of Slavery--Preservation of the Union--Reasons for Not Trusting the
Democratic Party--Record of the Republican Party--Democrats Assisted
the South--Paper Money--Enfranchisement of the Negroes--Samuel J.
Tilden--His Essay on Finance.


COOPER UNION SPEECH, NEW YORK.

(1876.)

All Citizens Stockholders in the United States of America--The
Democratic Party a Hungry Organization--Political Parties
Contrasted--The Fugitive Slave Law a Disgrace to Hell in its Palmiest
Days--Feelings of the Democracy Hurt on the Subject of Religion--Defence
of Slavery in a Resolution of the Presbyterians, South--State of the
Union at the Time the Republican Party was Born--Jacob Thompson--The
National Debt--Protection of Citizens Abroad--Tammany Hall: Its Relation
to the Penitentiary--The Democratic Party of New York City--"What
Hands!"--Free Schools.


INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH.

(1876.)

Address to the Veteran Soldiers of the Rebellion--Objections to
the Democratic Party--The Men who have been Democrats--Why I am a
Republican--Free Labor and Free Thought--A Vision of War--Democratic
Slander of the Greenback--Shall the People who Saved the Country Rule
It?--On Finance--Government Cannot Create Money--The Greenback Dollar
a Mortgage upon the Country--Guarantees that the Debt will be Paid-'The
Thoroughbred and the Mule--The Column of July, Paris--The Misleading
Guide Board, the Dismantled Mill, and the Place where there had been a
Hotel,


CHICAGO SPEECH.

(1876.)

The Plea of "Let Bygones be Bygones"--Passport of the Democratic
Party--Right of the General Government to send Troops into Southern
States for the Protection of Colored People--Abram S. Hewitt's
Congratulatory Letter to the Negroes--The Demand for Inflation of the
Currency--Record of Rutherford B. Hayes--Contrasted with Samuel J.
Tilden--Merits of the Republican Party--Negro and Southern White--The
Superior Man--"No Nation founded upon Injustice can Permanently Stand."


EIGHT TO SEVEN ADDRESS.

(1877.)

On the Electoral Commission--Reminiscences of the Hayes-Tilden Camp--
Constitution of the Electoral College--Characteristics of the Members--
Frauds at the Ballot Box Poisoning the Fountain of Power--Reforms
Suggested--Elections too Frequent--The Professional Office-seeker--A
Letter on Civil Service Reform--Young Men Advised against Government
Clerkships--Too Many Legislators and too Much Legislation--Defect in the
Constitution as to the Mode of Electing a President--Protection of
Citizens by State and General Governments--The Dual Government in South
Carolina--Ex-Rebel Key in the President's Cabinet--Implacables and
Bourbons South and North--"I extend to you each and all the Olive Branch
of Peace."


HARD TIMES AND THE WAY OUT.

(1878.)

Capital and Labor--What is a Capitalist?--The Idle and the Industrious
Artisans--No Conflict between Capital and Labor--A Period of Inflation
and Speculation--Life and Fire Insurance Agents--Business done on
Credit--The Crash, Failure, and Bankruptcy--Fall in the Price of Real
Estate a Form of Resumption--Coming back to Reality--Definitions of
Money Examined--Not Gold and Silver but Intelligent Labor the Measure
of Value--Government cannot by Law Create Wealth--A Bill of Fare not
a Dinner--Fiat Money--American Honor Pledged to the Maintenance of the
Greenbacks--The Cry against Holders of Bonds--Criminals and Vagabonds to
be supported--Duty of Government to Facilitate Enterprise--More Men must
Cultivate the Soil--Government Aid for the Overcoming of Obstacles too
Great for Individual Enterprise--The Palace Builders the Friends of
Labor--Extravagance the best Form of Charity--Useless to Boost a Man
who is not Climbing--The Reasonable Price for Labor--The Vagrant and his
strange and winding Path--What to tell the Working Men.


SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.

(1880.)

The Right to Vote--All Women who desire the Suffrage should have
It--Shall the People of the District of Columbia Manage their Own
Affairs--Their Right to a Representative in Congress and an Electoral
Vote--Anomalous State of Affairs at the Capital of the Republic--Not the
Wealthy and Educated alone should Govern--The Poor as Trustworthy as the
Rich--Strict Registration Laws Needed.


WALL STREET SPEECH.

(1880.)

Obligation of New York to Protect the Best Interests of the
Country--Treason and Forgery of the Democratic Party in its Appeal to
Sword and Pen--The One Republican in the Penitentiary of Maine--The
Doctrine of State Sovereignty--Protection for American Brain and
Muscle--Hancock on the Tariff--A Forgery (the Morey letter) Committed
and upheld--The Character of James A. Garfield.


BROOKLYN SPEECH.

(1880.)

Introduced by Henry Ward Beecher (note)--Some Patriotic
Democrats--Freedom of Speech North and South--An Honest Ballot--




AN ADDRESS TO THE COLORED PEOPLE.

     * An address delivered to the colored people at Galesburg,
     Illinois, 1867.


FELLOW-CITIZENS--Slavery has in a thousand forms existed in all ages,
and among all people. It is as old as theft and robbery.

Every nation has enslaved its own people, and sold its own flesh and
blood. Most of the white race are in slavery to-day. It has often been
said that any man who ought to be free, will be. The men who say this
should remember that their own ancestors were once cringing, frightened,
helpless slaves.

When they became sufficiently educated to cease enslaving their own
people, they then enslaved the first race they could conquer. If they
differed in religion, they enslaved them. If they differed in color,
that was sufficient. If they differed even in language, it was enough.
If they were captured, they then pretended that having spared their
lives, they had the right to enslave them. This argument was worthless.
If they were captured, then there was no necessity for killing them. If
there was no necessity for killing them, then they had no right to
kill them. If they had no right to kill them, then they had no right to
enslave them under the pretence that they had saved their lives.

Every excuse that the ingenuity of avarice could devise was believed to
be a complete justification, and the great argument of slaveholders in
all countries has been that slavery is a divine institution, and thus
stealing human beings has always been fortified with a "Thus saith the
Lord."

Slavery has been upheld by law and religion in every country. The word
Liberty is not in any creed in the world. Slavery is right according to
the law of man, shouted the judge. It is right according to the law of
God, shouted the priest. Thus sustained by what they were pleased to
call the law of God and man, slaveholders never voluntarily freed the
slaves, with the exception of the Quakers. The institution has in all
ages been clung to with the tenacity of death; clung to until it sapped
and destroyed the foundations of society; clung to until all law became
violence; clung to until virtue was a thing only of history; clung to
until industry folded its arms--until commerce reefed every sail--until
the fields were desolate and the cities silent, except where the poor
free asked for bread, and the slave for mercy; clung to until the slave
forging the sword of civil war from his fetters drenched the land in the
master's blood. Civil war has been the great liberator of the world.

Slavery has destroyed every nation that has gone down to death. It
caused the last vestige of Grecian civilization to disappear forever,
and it caused Rome to fall with a crash that shook the world. After
the disappearance of slavery in its grossest forms in Europe, Gonzales
pointed out to his countrymen, the Portuguese, the immense profits that
they could make by stealing Africans, and thus commenced the modern
slave-trade--that aggregation of all horror--that infinite of all
cruelty, prosecuted only by demons, and defended only by fiends. And
yet the slave-trade has been defended and sustained by every civilized
nation, and by each and all has been baptized "Legitimate commerce," in
the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost:

It was even justified upon the ground that it tended to Christianize the
negro.

It was of the poor hypocrites who had used this argument that Whittier
said,

     "They bade the slaveship speed from coast to coast,
     Fanned by the wings of the Holy Ghost."

Backed and supported by such Christian and humane arguments slavery was
planted upon our soil in 1620, and from that day to this it has been
the cause of all our woes, of all the bloodshed--of all the
heart-burnings--hatred and horrors of more than two hundred years, and
yet we hated to part with the beloved institution. Like Pharaoh we would
not let the people go. He was afflicted with vermin, with frogs--with
water turned to blood--with several kinds of lice, and yet would not let
the people go. We were afflicted with worse than all these combined--the
Northern Democracy--before we became grand enough to say, "Slavery
shall be eradicated from the soil of the Republic." When we reached this
sublime moral height we were successful. The Rebellion was crushed and
liberty established.

A majority of the civilized world is for freedom--nearly all the
Christian denominations are for liberty. The world has changed--the
people are nobler, better and purer than ever.

Every great movement must be led by heroic and self-sacrificing
pioneers. In England, in Christian England, the soul of the abolition
cause was Thomas Clarkson. To the great cause of human freedom he
devoted his life. He won over the eloquent and glorious Wilberforce,
the great Pitt, the magnificent orator, Burke, and that far-seeing and
humane statesman, Charles James Fox.

In 1788 a resolution was introduced in the House of Commons declaring
that the slave trade ought to be abolished. It was defeated. Learned
lords opposed it. They said that too much capital was invested by
British merchants in the slave-trade. That if it were abolished the
ships would rot at the wharves, and that English commerce would be swept
from the seas. Sanctified Bishops--lords spiritual--thought the scheme
fanatical, and various resolutions to the same effect were defeated.

The struggle lasted twenty years, and yet during all those years in
which England refused to abolish the hellish trade, that nation had the
impudence to send missionaries all over the world to make converts to
a religion that in their opinion, at least, allowed man to steal his
brother man--that allowed one Christian to rob another of his wife, his
child, and of that greatest of all blessings--his liberty. It was not
until the year 1808 that England was grand and just enough to abolish
the slave-trade, and not until 1833 that slavery was abolished in all
her colonies.

The name of Thomas Clarkson should be remembered and honored through all
coming time by every black man, and by every white man who loves liberty
and hates cruelty and injustice.

Clarkson, Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox, Burke, were the Titans that swept the
accursed slaver from that highway--the sea.

In St. Domingo the pioneers were Oge and Chevannes; they headed
a revolt; they were unsuccessful, but they roused the slaves to
resistance. They were captured, tried, condemned and executed. They were
made to ask forgiveness of God, and of the King, for having attempted to
give freedom to their own flesh and blood. They were broken alive on the
wheel, and left to die of hunger and pain. The blood of these martyrs
became the seed of liberty; and afterward in the midnight assault, in
the massacre and pillage, the infuriated slaves shouted their names
as their battle-cry, until Toussaint, the greatest of the blacks, gave
freedom to them all.

In the United States, among the Revolutionary fathers, such men as John
Adams, and his son John Quincy--such men as Franklin and John Jay were
opposed to the institution of slavery. Thomas Jefferson said, speaking
of the slaves, "When the measure of their tears shall be full--when
their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness--doubtless a
God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light
and liberality among their oppressors, or at length by his exterminating
thunder manifest his attention to the things of this world, and that
they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality."

Thomas Paine said, "No man can be happy surrounded by those whose
happiness he has destroyed." And a more self-evident proposition was
never uttered.

These and many more Revolutionary heroes were opposed to slavery and
did what they could to prevent the establishment and spread of this most
wicked and terrible of all institutions.

You owe gratitude to those who were for liberty as a principle and not
from mere necessity. You should remember with more than gratitude that
firm, consistent and faithful friend of your downtrodden race, Wm.
Lloyd Garrison. He has devoted his life to your cause. Many years ago in
Boston he commenced the publication of a paper devoted to liberty.
Poor and despised--friendless and almost alone, he persevered in that
grandest and holiest of all possible undertakings. He never stopped, or
stayed, or paused until the chain was broken and the last slave could
lift his toil-worn face to heaven with the light of freedom shining down
upon him, and say, I am a Free Man.

You should not forget that noble philanthropist, Wendell Phillips, and
your most learned and eloquent defender, Charles Sumner.

But the real pioneer in America was old John Brown. Moved not by
prejudice, not by love of his blood, or his color, but by an infinite
love of Liberty, of Right, of Justice, almost single-handed, he attacked
the monster, with thirty million people against him. His head was wrong.
He miscalculated his forces; but his heart was right. He struck the
sublimest blow of the age for freedom. It was said of him that, he
stepped from the gallows to the throne of God. It was said that he
had made the scaffold to Liberty what Christ had made the cross to
Christianity. The sublime Victor Hugo declared that John Brown was
greater than Washington, and that his name would live forever.

I say, that no man can be greater than the man who bravely and
heroically sacrifices his life for the good of others. No man can be
greater than the one who meets death face to face, and yet will not
shrink from what he believes to be his highest duty. If the black people
want a patron saint, let them take the brave old John Brown. And as the
gentleman who preceded me said, at all your meetings, never separate
until you have sung the grand song,

     "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
     But his soul goes marching on."

You do not, in my opinion, owe a great debt of gratitude to many of the
white people.

Only a few years ago both parties agreed to carry out the Fugitive
Slave Law. If a woman ninety-nine one-hundredths white had fled from
slavery--had traveled through forests, crossed rivers, and through
countless sufferings had got within one step of Canada--of free
soil--with the light of the North Star shining in her eyes, and her babe
pressed to her withered breast, both parties agreed to clutch her and
hand her back to the dominion of the hound and lash. Both parties, as
parties, were willing to do this when the Rebellion commenced.

The truth is, we had to give you your liberty. There came a time in
the history of the war when, defeated at the ballot box and in the
field--driven to the shattered gates of eternal chaos--we were forced
to make you free; and on the first day of January, 1863, the justice so
long delayed was done, and four millions of people were lifted from
the condition of beasts of burden to the sublime heights of freedom.
Lincoln, the immortal, issued, and the men of the North sustained the
great proclamation.

As in the war there came a time when we were forced to make you free, so
in the history of reconstruction came a time when we were forced to make
you citizens; when we were forced to say that you should vote, and that
you should have and exercise all the rights that we claim for ourselves.

And to-day I am in favor of giving you every right that I claim for
myself.

In reconstructing the Southern States, we could take our choice, either
give the ballot to the negro, or allow the rebels to rule. We preferred
loyal blacks to disloyal whites, because we believed liberty safer in
the hands of its friends than in those of its foes.

We must be for freedom everywhere. Freedom is progress--slavery is
desolation, cruelty and want.

Freedom invents--slavery forgets. The problem of the slave is to do the
least work in the longest space of time. The problem of free men is to
do the greatest amount of work in the shortest space of time. The free
man, working for wife and children, gets his head and his hands in
partnership.

Freedom has invented every useful machine, from the lowest to the
highest, from the simplest to the most complex. Freedom believes in
education--the salvation of slavery is ignorance.

The South always dreaded the alphabet. They looked upon each letter as
an abolitionist, and well they might. With a scent keener than their own
bloodhounds they detected everything that could, directly or indirectly,
interfere with slavery. They knew that when slaves begin to think,
masters begin to tremble. They knew that free thought would destroy
them; that discussion could not be endured; that a free press would
liberate every slave; and so they mobbed free thought, and put an end to
free discussion and abolished a free press, and in fact did all the
mean and infamous things they could, that slavery might live, and that
liberty might perish from among men.

You are now citizens of many of the States, and in time you will be
of all. I am astonished when I think how long it took to abolish the
slave-trade, how long it took to abolish slavery in this country. I am
also astonished to think that a few years ago magnificent steamers went
down the Mississippi freighted with your fathers, mothers, brothers,
and sisters, and maybe some of you, bound like criminals, separated from
wives, from husbands, every human feeling laughed at and outraged, sold
like beasts, carried away from homes to work for another, receiving for
pay only the marks of the lash upon the naked back. I am astonished
at these things. I hate to think that all this was done under the
Constitution of the United States, under the flag of my country, under
the wings of the eagle.

The flag was not then what it is now. It was a mere rag in comparison.
The eagle was a buzzard, and the Constitution sanctioned the greatest
crime of the world.

I wonder that you--the black people--have forgotten all this. I wonder
that you ask a white man to address you on this occasion, when the
history of your connection with the white race is written in your blood
and tears--is still upon your flesh, put there by the branding-iron and
the lash.

I feel like asking your forgiveness for the wrongs that my race has
inflicted upon yours. If, in the future, the wheel of fortune should
take a turn, and you should in any country have white men in your power,
I pray you not to execute the villainy we have taught you.

One word in conclusion. You have your liberty--use it to benefit your
race. Educate yourselves, educate your children, send teachers to the
South. Let your brethren there be educated. Let them know something of
art and science. Improve yourselves, stand by each other, and above all
be in favor of liberty the world over.

The time is coming when you will be' allowed to be good and useful
citizens of the Great Republic. This is your country as much as it is
mine. You have the same rights here that I have--the same interest
that I have. The avenues of distinction will be open to you and your
children. Great advances have been made. The rebels are now opposed
to slavery--the Democratic party is opposed to slavery, _as they say_.
There is going to be no war of races. Both parties want your votes in
the South, and there will be just enough negroes without principle to
join the rebels to make them think they will get more, and so the rebels
will treat the negroes well. And the Republicans will be sure to treat
them well in order to prevent any more joining the rebels.

The great problem is solved. Liberty has solved it--and there will be no
more slavery. On the old flag, on every fold and on every star will be
liberty for all, equality before the law. The grand people are marching
forward, and they will not pause until the earth is without a chain, and
without a throne.




SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS.

     * Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll, Attorney-General of Illinois,
     spoke at the Rink last night to a large and appreciative
     audience among whom were many ladies. The distinguished
     speaker was escorted to the Rink by the battalion of the
     Fighting Boys in Blue. Col. Ingersoll spoke at a great
     disadvantage in having so large a hall to fill, but he has a
     splendid voice and so overcame the difficulty. The audience
     liberally applauded the numerous passages of eloquence and
     humor in Col. Ingersoll's speeeh, and listened with the best
     attention to his powerful argument, nor could they have done
     otherwise, for the speaker has a national reputation and did
     himself full justice last night--The Journal, Indianapolis,
     Indiana, September 23, 1868.


GRANT CAMPAIGN

THE Democratic party, so-called, have several charges which they make
against the Republican party. They give us a variety of reasons why the
Republican party should no longer be entrusted with the control of this
country. Among other reasons they say that the Republican party
during the war was guilty of arresting citizens without due process of
law--that we arrested Democrats and put them in jail without indictment,
in Lincoln bastiles, without making an affidavit before a Justice
of the Peace--that on some occasions we suspended the writ of _habeas
corpus_, that we put some Democrats in jail without their being
indicted. I am sorry we did not put more. I admit we arrested some
of them without an affidavit filed before a Justice of the Peace. I
sincerely regret that we did not arrest more. I admit that for a few
hours on one or two occasions we interfered with the freedom of the
press; I sincerely regret that the Government allowed a sheet to exist
that did not talk on the side of this Government.

I admit that we did all these things.

It is only proper and fair that we should answer these charges.
Unless the Republican party can show that they did these things
either according to the strict letter of law, according to the highest
precedent, or from the necessity of the case, then we must admit that
our party did wrong. You know as well as I that every Democratic
orator talks about the fathers, about Washington and Jackson, Madison,
Jefferson, and many others; they tell us about the good old times when
politicians were pure, when you could get justice in the courts, when
Congress was honest, when the political parties differed, and differed
kindly and honestly; and they are shedding crocodile tears day after
day--praying that the good old honest times might return again. They
tell you that the members of this radical party are nothing like the men
of the Revolution. Let us see.

I lay this down as a proposition, that we had a right to do anything to
preserve this Government that our fathers had a right to do to found
it. If they had a right to put Tories in jail, to suspend the writ of
_habeas corpus_, and on some occasions _corpus_, in order to found this
Government, we had a right to put rebels and Democrats in jail and to
suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ in order to preserve the Government
they thus formed. If they had a right to interfere with the freedom of
the press in order that liberty might be planted upon this soil, we had
a right to do the same thing to prevent the tree from being destroyed.
In a word, we had a right to do anything to preserve this Government
which they had a right to do to found it.

Did our fathers arrest Tories without writs, without indictments--did
they interfere with the personal rights of Tories in the name of
liberty--did they have Washington bastiles, did they have Jefferson
jails--did they have dungeons in the time of the Revolution in which
they put men that dared talk against this country and the liberties of
the colonies? I propose to show that they did--that where we imprisoned
one they imprisoned a hundred--that where we interfered with personal
liberty once they did it a hundred times--that they carried on a war
that _was_ a war--that they knew that when an appeal was made to
force that was the end of law--that they did not attempt to gain their
liberties through a Justice of the Peace or through a Grand Jury; that
they appealed to force and the God of battles, and that any man who
sought their protection and at the same time was against them and their
cause they took by the nape of the neck and put in jail, where he ought
to have been.

The old Continental Congress in 1774 and 1776 had made up their minds
that we ought to have something like liberty in these colonies, and the
first step they took toward securing that end was to provide for the
selection of a committee in every county and township, with a view to
examining and finding out how the people stood touching the liberty of
the colonies, and if they found a man that was not in favor of it, the
people would not have anything to do with him politically, religiously,
or socially. That was the first step they took, and a very sensible step
it was.

What was the next step? They found that these men were so lost to every
principle of honor that they did not hurt them any by disgracing them.

So they passed the following resolution which explains itself:

_Resolved_. That it be recommended to the several provincial assemblies
or conventions or councils, or committees of safety, to arrest and
secure every person in their respective colonies whose going at
large, may, in their opinion, endanger the safety of the colony or the
liberties of America.--Journal of Congress, vol. 1, page 149.

What was the Committee of Safety? Was it a Justice of the Peace? No. Was
it a Grand Jury? No. It was simply a committee of five or seven persons,
more or less, appointed to watch over the town or county and see that
these Tories were attending to their business and not interfering with
the rights of the colonies. Whom were they to thus arrest and secure?
Every man that had committed murder--that had taken up arms against
America, or voted the Democratic or Tory ticket? No. "Every person whose
going at large might in their opinion, endanger the safety of the
colony or the liberties of America." It was not necessary that they
had committed any overt act, but if in the opinion of this council of
safety, it was dangerous to let them run at large they were locked up.
Suppose that we had done that during the last war? You would have had to
build several new jails in this county. What a howl would have gone up
all over this State if we had attempted such a thing as that, and yet we
had a perfect right to do anything to preserve our liberties, which our
fathers had a right to do to obtain them.

What more did they do? In 1777 the same Congress that signed the
immortal Declaration of Independence (and I think they knew as much
about liberty and the rights of men as any Democrat in Marion county)
adopted another resolution:

_Resolved_. That it be recommended to the Executive powers of the
several States, forthwith to apprehend and secure all persons who have
in their general conduct and conversation evinced a disposition inimical
to the cause of America, and that the persons so seized be confined in
such places and treated in such manner as shall be consistent with their
several characters and security of their persons.---Journal of Congress,
vol. 2, p. 246.

If they had talked as the Democrats talked during the late war--if
they had called the soldiers, "Washington hirelings," and if when they
allowed a few negroes to help them fight, had branded the struggle for
liberty as an abolition war, they would be "apprehended and confined
in such places and treated in such manner as was consistent with their
characters and security of their persons," and yet all they did was to
show a disposition inimical to the independence of America. If we had
pursued a policy like that during the late war, nine out of ten of the
members of the Democratic party would have been in jail--there would
not have been jails and prisons enough on the face of the whole earth to
hold them. .

Now, when a Democrat talks to you about Lincoln bastiles, just quote
this to him:

_Whereas_, The States of Pennsylvania and Delaware are threatened with
an immediate invasion from a powerful army, who have already landed at
the head of Chesapeake Bay; and whereas, The principles of sound
policy and self-preservation require that persons who may be reasonably
suspected of aiding or abetting the cause of the enemy may be prevented
from pursuing measures injurious to the general weal,

_Resolved_, That the executive authorities of the States of Pennsylvania
and Delaware be requested to cause all persons within their respective
States, notoriously disaffected, to be apprehended, disarmed and secured
until such time as the respective States think they may be released
without injury to the common cause.---Journal of Congress, vol. 2, p.
240.

That is what they did with them. When there was an invasion threatened
the good State of Indiana, if we had said we will imprison all men who
by their conduct and conversation show that they are inimical to our
cause, we would have been obliged to import jails and corral Democrats
as we did mules in the army. Our fathers knew that the flag was never
intended to protect any man who wanted to assail it.

What more did they do? There was a man by the name of David Franks, who
wrote a letter and wanted to send it to England. In that letter he gave
it as his opinion that the colonies were becoming disheartened and sick
of the war. The heroic and chivalric fathers of the Revolution violated
the mails, took the aforesaid letter and then they took the aforesaid
David Franks by the collar and put him in jail. Then they passed
a resolution in Congress that inasmuch as the said letter showed a
disposition inimical to the liberties of the United States, Major
General Arnold be requested to cause the said David Franks to be
forthwith arrested, put in jail and confined till the further order of
Congress. (Jour. Cong., vol. 3, p. 96 and 97.)

How many Democrats wrote letters during the war declaring that the North
never could conquer the South? How many wrote letters to the soldiers in
the army telling them to shed no more fraternal blood in that suicidal
and unchristian war? It would have taken all the provost marshals in the
United States to arrest the Democrats in Indiana who were guilty of that
offence. And yet they are talking about our fathers being such good men,
while they are cursing us fordoing precisely what they did, only to a
less extent than they did.

We are still on the track of the old Continental Congress. I want you to
understand the spirit that animated those men. They passed a resolution
which is particularly applicable to the Democrats during the war:

With respect to all such unworthy Americans as, regardless of their duty
to their Creator, their country, and their posterity, have taken part
with our oppressors, and, influenced by the hope or possession of
ignominious rewards, strive to recommend themselves to the bounty of
the administration by misrepresenting and traducing the conduct and
principles of the friends of American liberty, and opposing every
measure formed for its preservation and security,

_Resolved_, That it be recommended to the different assemblies,
conventions and committees or councils of safety in the United Colonies,
by the most speedy and effectual measures, to frustrate the mischievous
machinations and restrain the wicked practices of these men. And it is
the opinion of this Congress that they ought to be disarmed and the
more dangerous among them either kept in safe custody or bound with
sufficient sureties for their good behavior.

And in order that the said assemblies, conventions, committees or
councils of safety may be enabled with greater ease and facility to
carry this resolution into execution,

_Resolved_, That they be authorized to call to their aid whatever
Continental troops stationed in or near their respective colonies
that may be conveniently spared from their more immediate duties, and
commanding officers of such troops are hereby directed to afford the
said assemblies, conventions, committees or councils of safety, all such
assistance in executing this resolution as they may require, and which,
consistent with the good of the service, may be supplied--Journal of
Congress, vol. i, p. 22,

Do you hear that, Democrat? The old Continental Congress said to these
committees and councils of safety: "Whenever you want to arrest any
of these scoundrels, call on the Continental troops." And General
Washington, the commander-in-chief of the army, and the officers under
him, were directed to aid in the enforcement of all the measures adopted
with reference to disaffected and dangerous persons. And what had these
persons done? Simply shown by their conversation, and letters directed
to their friends, that they were opposed to the cause of American
liberty. They did not even spare the Governors of States. They were not
appalled by any official position that a Tory might hold. They simply
said, "If you are not in favor of American liberty, we will put you
'where the dogs won't bite you.'" One of these men was Governor Eden of
Maryland. Congress passed a resolution requesting the Council of Safety
of Maryland to seize and secure his person and papers, and send such of
them as related to the American dispute to Congress without delay. At
the same time the person and papers of another man, one Alexander Ross,
were seized in the same manner. Ross was put in jail, and his papers
transmitted to Congress.

There was a fellow by the name of Parke and another by the name of
Morton, who presumed to undertake a journey from Philadelphia to New
York without getting a pass. Congress ordered them to be arrested and
imprisoned until further orders. They did not wait to have an affidavit
filed before a Justice of the Peace. They took them by force and put
them in jail, and that was the end of it. So much for the policy of the
fathers, in regard to arbitrary arrests.

During the war there was a great deal said about our occasionally
interfering with the elections. Let us see how the fathers stood upon
that question.

They held a convention in the State of New York in Revolutionary times,
and there were some gentlemen in Queens County that were playing the
role of Kentucky--they were going to be neutral--they refused to vote to
send deputies to the convention--they stood upon their dignity just as
Kentucky stood upon hers--a small place to stand on, the Lord knows.
What did our fathers do with them? They denounced them as unworthy to be
American citizens and hardly fit to live. Here is a resolution adopted
by the Continental Congress on the 3d of January, 1776:

_Resolved_, That all such persons in Queens County aforesaid as voted
against sending deputies to the present Convention of New York, and
named in a list of delinquents in Queens County, published by the
Convention of New York, be put out of the protection of the United
Colonies, and that all trade and intercourse with them cease; that none
of the inhabitants of that county be permitted to travel or abide in any
part of these United Colonies out of their said colony without a
certificate from the Convention or Committee of Safety of the Colony of
New York, setting forth that such inhabitant is a friend of the American
cause, and not of the number of those who voted against sending deputies
to the said Convention, and that such of the inhabitants as shall be
found out of the said county without such certificate, be apprehended
and imprisoned three months.

_Resolved_, That no attorney or lawyer ought to commence, prosecute or
defend any action at law of any kind, for any of the said inhabitants of
Queens County, who voted against sending deputies to the Convention
as aforesaid, and such attorney or lawyer as shall countenance this
revolution, are enemies to the American cause, and shall be treated
accordingly.

What had they done? Simply voted against sending delegates to the
convention, and yet the fathers not only put them out of the protection
of law, but prohibited any lawyer from appearing in their behalf in a
court. Democrats, don't you wish we had treated you that way during the
war?

What more did they do? They ordered a company of troops from
Connecticut, and two or three companies from New Jersey, to go into the
State of New York, and take away from every person who had voted against
sending deputies to the convention, all his arms, and if anybody refused
to give up his arms, they put him in jail. Don't you wish you had lived
then, my friend Democrat? Don't you wish you had prosecuted the war as
our fathers prosecuted the Revolution?

I now want to show you how far they went in this direction. A man by the
name of Sutton, who lived on Long Island, had been going around giving
his constitutional opinions upon the war. They had him arrested, and
went on to resolve that he should be taken from Philadelphia, pay the
cost of transportation himself, be put in jail there, and while in jail
should board himself. Wouldn't a Democrat have had a hard scramble for
victuals if we had carried out that idea? Just see what outrageous and
terrible things the fathers did. And why did they do it? Because they
saw that in order to establish the liberties of America it was necessary
they should take the Tory by the throat just as it was necessary for us
to take rebels by the throat during the late war.

They had paper money in those days--shin-plasters--and some of the
Democrats of those times had legal doubts about this paper currency. One
of these Democrats, Thomas Harriott, was called before a Committee of
Safety of New York, and there convicted of having refused to receive in
payment the Continental bills. The committee of New York conceiving that
he was a dangerous person, informed the Provincial Congress of the facts
in the case, and inquired whether Congress thought he ought to go at
large. Upon receipt of this information by Congress an order for the
imprisonment of the offender was passed, as follows:

_Resolved_, That the General Committee of the city of New York be
requested and authorized, and are hereby requested and authorized to
direct that Thomas Harriott be committed to close jail in this city,
there to remain until further orders of this Congress.--Amer. Archives,
4th series, vol. 6, P. i, 344.

And yet all that he had done was to refuse to take Continental money.
He had simply given his opinion on the legal tender law, just as the
Democrats of Indiana did in regard to greenbacks, and as a few circuit
judges decided when they declared the Legal Tender Act unconstitutional.
It would have been perfectly proper and right that they, every man of
them, should be, like Thomas Harriott, "committed to close jail, there
to remain until further orders."

Did our forefathers ever interfere with religion? Yes, they did with
a preacher by the name of Daniels, because he would not pray for the
American cause. He thought he could coax the Lord to beat us. They said
to him, "You pray on our side, sir." He would not do it, and so they put
him in jail and gave him work enough to pray himself out, and it took
him some time to do it. They interfered with a _lack_ of religion. They
believed that a Tory or traitor in the pulpit was no better than anybody
else. That is the way I have sometimes felt during the war. I have
thought that I would like to see some of those white cravatted gentlemen
"snaked" right out of the pulpits where they had dared to utter their
treason, and set to playing checkers through a grated window.

It is not possible that our fathers ever interfered with the writ of
_habeas corpus_, is it? Yes sir. Our fathers advocated the doctrine
that the good of the people is the supreme law of the land. They also
advocated the doctrine that in the midst of armies law falls to the
ground; the doctrine that when a country is in war it is to be governed
by the laws of war. They thought that laws were made for the protection
of good citizens, for the punishment of citizens that were bad, when
they were not too bad or too numerous; then they threw the law-book down
while they took the cannon and whipped the badness out of them; that is
the next step, when the stones you throw, and kind words, and grass have
failed. They said, why did we not appeal to law? We did; but it did no
good. A large portion of the people were up in arms in defiance of law,
and there was only one way to put them down, and that was by force of
arms; and whenever an appeal is made to force, that force is governed by
the law of war.

The fathers suspended the writ in the case of a man who had committed
an offence in the State of New York. They sent him to the State of
Connecticut to be confined, just as men were sent from Indiana to Fort
Lafayette. The attorneys came before the convention of New York to hear
the matter inquired into, but the committee of the convention to whom
the matter was referred refused to inquire into the original cause of
commitment--a direct denial of the authority of the writ. The writ of
_habeas corpus_ merely brings the body before the judge that he may
inquire why he is imprisoned. They refused to make any such inquiry.
Their action was endorsed by the convention and the gentleman was sent
to Connecticut and put in jail. They not only did these things in one
instance, but in a thousand. They took men from Maryland and put them in
prison in Pennsylvania, and they took men from Pennsylvania and confined
them in Maryland, Whenever they thought the Tories were so thick at
one point that the rascals might possibly be released, they took them
somewhere else.

They did not interfere with the freedom of the press, did they? Yes,
sir. They found a gentleman who was speaking and writing against the
liberties of the colonies, and they just took his paper away from him,
and gave it to a man who ran it in the interest of the colonies, using
the Tory's type and press. [A voice--That was right.] Right! of course
it was right. What right has a newspaper in Indiana to talk against the
cause for which your son is laying down his life on the field of battle?
What right has any man to make it take thousands of men more to crush a
rebellion? What right has any man protected by the American flag to do
all in his power to put it in the hands of the enemies of his country?
The same right that any man has to be a rascal, a thief and traitor--no
other right under heaven. Our fathers had sense enough to see that, and
they said, "One gentleman in the rear printing against our noble cause,
will cost us hundreds of noble lives at the front." Why have you a right
to take a rebel's horse? Because it helps you and weakens the enemy.
That is by the law of war. That is the principle upon which they seized
the Tory printing press. They had the right to do it. And if I had had
the power in this country, no man should have said a word, or written a
line, or printed anything against the cause for which the heroic men of
the North sacrificed their lives. I would have enriched the soil of this
country with him before he should have done it. A man by the name of
James Rivington undertook to publish a paper against the country. They
would not speak to him; they denounced him, seized his press, and made
him ask forgiveness and promise to print no more such stuff before they
would let him have his sheet again. No person but a rebel ever thought
that was wrong. There is no common sense in going to the field to fight
and leaving a man at home to undo all that you accomplish.

Our fathers did not like these Tories, and when the war was over they
confiscated their estates--took their land and gave it over to good
Union men.

How did they do it? Did they issue summons, and have a trial? No, sir.
They did it by wholesale--they did it by resolution, and the estates of
hundreds of men were taken from them without their having a day in court
or any notice or trial whatever. They said to the Tories: "You cast
your fortunes with the other side, let them pay you. The flag you fought
against protects the land you owned and it will prevent you from having
it." Nor is that all. They ran thousands of them out of the country away
up into Nova Scotia, and the old blue-nosed Tories are there yet.

In his letter to Governor Cooke of Rhode Island, Washington enumerates
an act of that colony, declaring that "none should speak, write, or act
against the proceedings of Congress or their Acts of Assembly, under
penalty of being disarmed and disqualified from holding any office,
and being further punished by imprisonment," as one that met his
approbation, and which should exist in other colonies. There is the
doctrine for you Democrats. So I could go on by the hour or by the
day. I could show you how they made domiciliary visits, interfered
with travel, imprisoned without any sort of writ or affidavit--in other
words, did whatever they thought was necessary to whip the enemy and
establish their independence.

What next do they charge against us? That we freed negroes. So we did.
That we allowed those negroes to fight in the army. Yes, we did,
That we allowed them to vote. We did that too. That we have made them
citizens. Yes, we have, and what are you Democrats going to do about it?

Now, what did our fathers do? Did they free any of the negroes? Yes,
sir. Did they allow any of them to fight in the army? Yes, sir. Did they
permit any of them to vote? Yes, sir. Did they make them citizens? Yes,
sir. Let us see whether they did or not.

Before we had the present Constitution we had what were called Articles
of Confederation. The fourth of those articles provided that every
free inhabitant of the colony should be a citizen. It did not make any
difference whether he was white or black; and negroes voted by the side
of Washington and Jefferson. Just here the question arises, if negroes
were good enough in 1787 and 1790 to vote by the side of such men,
whether rebels and their sympathizers are good enough now to vote
alongside of the negro.

Did they let any of these negroes fight? In 1750, when Massachusetts had
slaves, there appeared in the Boston Gazette the following notice:

"Ran away from his master, Wm. Brown, of Framingham, on the 30th
September last, a mulatto fellow, about 27 years of age, named Crispus,
about 6 feet high, short curly hair, had on a light colored bear-skin
coat, brown jacket, new buckskin breeches, blue yarn stockings and check
woolen shirt," etc.

This "mulatto fellow" did not come back, and so they advertised the next
week and the week following, but still the toes of the blue yarn socks
pointed the other way. That was in 1750. 1760 came and 1770, and the
people of this continent began to talk about having their liberties. And
while wise and thoughtful men were talking about it, making petitions
for popular rights and laying them at the foot of the throne, the King's
troops were in Boston. One day they marched down King street, on their
way to arrest some citizen. The soldiery were attacked by a mob, and at
its head was a "mulatto fellow" who shouted "here they are," and it was
observed that this "mulatto fellow" was about six feet high--that his
knees were nearer together than common, and that he was about 47 years
of age. The soldiers fired upon the mob and he fell, shot through
with five balls--the first man that led a charge against British
aggression--the first martyr whose blood was shed for American liberty
upon this soil. They took up that poor corpse, and as it lay in Faneuil
Hall it did more honor to the place than did Daniel Webster defending
the Fugitive Slave Law.

They allowed him to fight. Would our fathers have been brutal enough,
if he had not been killed, to put him back into slavery? No! They would
have said that a man who fights for liberty should enjoy it. If a man
fights for that flag it shall protect him. Perish forever from the
heavens the flag that will not defend its defenders, be they white or
black.

Thus our fathers felt. They raised negro troops by the company and the
regiment, and gave his liberty to every man that fought for liberty. Not
only that, but they allowed them to vote. They voted in the Carolinas,
in Tennessee, in New York, in all the New England States. Our fathers
had too much decency to act upon the Democratic doctrine.

In the war of 1812, negroes fought at Lake Erie and at New Orleans, and
then the fathers, as in the Revolution, were too magnanimous to turn
them back into slavery. You need not get mad, my Democratic friends,
because you hate Ben. Butler. Let me read you an abolition document.

You will all say it is right; you cannot say anything else when you hear
it. Butler, you know, was down in New Orleans, and he made some of those
rebels dance a tune that they did not know, and he made them keep pretty
good time too:

_To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana:_

Through a mistaken policy you have heretofore been deprived of a
participation in the glorious struggle for national rights in which our
country is engaged. This shall no longer exist. As sons of freedom
you are now called upon to defend our most inestimable blessing. As
Americans, your country looks with confidence to her adopted children
for a valorous support as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed
under her mild and equitable government. As fathers, husbands and
brothers you are summoned to rally around the standard of the eagle--to
defend all which is dear in existence. Your country, although calling
for your exertions, does not wish you to engage in her cause without
amply remunerating you for the services rendered. Your intelligent minds
can not be led away by false representations. Your love of honor would
cause you to despise a man who should attempt to deceive you. In the
sincerity of a soldier and the language of truth I address you. To every
noble-hearted, generous free man of color volunteering to serve during
the present contest and no longer, there will be paid the same bounty in
money and lands now received by the white soldiers of the United
States, viz: $124 in money and one hundred and sixty acres of land. The
noncommissioned officers and privates will also be entitled to the
same monthly pay and daily rations and clothing furnished any American
soldier.

On enrolling yourselves in companies, the Major General commanding will
select officers for your government from your white fellow-citizens.
Your non-commissioned officers will be appointed from among yourselves.
Due regard will be paid to their feelings as freemen and soldiers.
You will not by being associated with white men in the same corps,
be exposed to improper companions or unjust sarcasm. As a distinct
battalion or regiment pursuing the path of glory, you will undivided
receive the applause and gratitude of your countrymen.

To assure you of the sincerity of my intentions and my anxiety to engage
your valuable services to our country, I have communicated my wishes
to the Governor of Louisiana, who is fully informed as to the manner of
enrollment, and give you every necessary information on the subject of
this address.

This is a terrible document to a Democrat. Let us look back over it a
little. "Through a mistaken policy." We had not sense enough to let the
negroes fight during the first part of the war. "As sons of freedom" we
had got sense by this time. "Americans." Oh! shocking! Think of calling
negroes Americans. "Your country!" Is that not enough to make a Democrat
sick? "As fathers, husbands, brothers." Negro brothers. That is too
bad. "Your intelligent minds." Now, just think of a negro having an
intelligent mind. "Are not to be led away by false representations."
Then precious few of them will vote the Democratic ticket. "Your sense
of honor will lead you to despise the man who should attempt to deceive
you." Then how they will hate the Democratic party. Then he goes on to
say that the same bounty, money and land that the white soldiers receive
will be paid to these negroes. Not only that, but they are to have the
same pay, clothing and rations. Only think of a negro having as much
land, as much to eat and as many clothes to wear as a white man. Is
not this a vile abolition document? And yet there is not a Democrat in
Indiana that dare open his mouth against it, full of negro equality as
it is. Now, let us see when and by whom this proclamation was issued.
You will find that it is dated, "Headquarters 7th Military District,
Mobile, September 21st, 1814," and signed "Andrew Jackson, Major General
Commanding."

Oh, you Jackson Democrats. You gentlemen that are descended from
Washington and Jackson--great heavens, what a descent! Do you think.
Jackson was a Democrat? He generally passed for a good Democrat; yet
he issued that abominable abolition proclamation and put negroes on an
equality with white men. That is not the worst of it, either; for after
he got these negroes into the army he made a speech to them, and what
did he say in that speech? Here it is in full:

_To the Men of Color:_

Soldiers--From the shores of Mobile I called you to arms. I invited
you to share in the perils and to divide the glory with your white
countrymen. I expected much from you, for I was not uninformed of those
qualities which must render you so formidable to an invading foe. I knew
that you could endure hunger, thirst, and all the hardships of war. I
knew that you loved the land of your nativity, and that like ourselves
you had to defend all that is most dear to man. But you surpass
my hopes. I have found in you united to these qualities that noble
enthusiasm which impels to great deeds. Soldiers, the President of the
United States shall be informed of your conduct on the present occasion
and the voice of the representatives of the American nation shall
applaud your valor as your General now praises your ardor. The enemy
is near. His sails cover the lakes. But the brave are united, and if he
finds' us contending among ourselves, it will be only for the prize of
valor, its noblest reward.

There is negro equality for you. There is the first man since the heroes
of the Revolution died that issued a proclamation and put negroes on an
equality with white men, and he was as good a Democrat as ever lived in
Indiana. I could go on and show where they voted, and who allowed them
to vote, but I have said enough on that question, and also upon the
question of their fighting in the army, and of their being citizens, and
have established, I think conclusively, this:

_First_. That our fathers, in order to found this Government, arrested
men without warrant, indictment or affidavit by the hundred and by the
thousand; that we, in order to preserve the Government that they thus
founded, arrested a few people without warrant.

_Second_. That our fathers, for the purpose of founding the Government,
suspended the writ of _habeas corpus_; that we, for the purpose of
preserving the same Government, did the same thing.

_Third_. That they, for the purpose of inaugurating this Government,
interfered with the liberty of the press; that we, on one or two
occasions, for the purpose of preserving the Government, interfered with
the liberty of the press.

_Fourth_. That our fathers allowed negroes to fight in order that they
might secure the liberties of America; that we, in order to preserve
those liberties, allow negroes to fight.

_Fifth_. That our fathers, out of gratitude to the negroes in the
Revolutionary war, allowed them to vote; that we have done the same.
That they made them citizens, and we have followed their example.

As far as I have gone, I have shown that the fathers of the Revolution
and the War of 1812 set us the example for everything we have done.
Now, Mr. Democrat, if you want to curse us, curse them too. Either quit
yawping about the fathers, or quit yawping about us.

Now, then, was there any necessity, during this war, to follow the
example of our fathers? The question was put to us in 1861: "Shall
the majority rule?" and also the balance of that question: "Shall the
minority submit?" The minority said they would not. Upon the right of
the majority to rule rests the entire structure of our Government. Had
we, in 1861, given up that principle, the foundations of our Government
would have been totally destroyed. In fact there would have been no
Government, even in the North. It is no use to say the majority shall
rule if the minority consents. Therefore, if, when a man has been
duly elected President, anybody undertakes to prevent him from being
President, it is your duty to protect him and enforce submission to the
will of the majority. In 1861 we had presented to us the alternative,
either to let the great principle that lies at the foundation of our
Government go by the board, or to appeal to arms, and to the God of
battles, and fight it through.

The Southern people said they were going out of the Union; we implored
them to stay, by the common memories of the Revolution, by an apparent
common destiny; by the love of man, but they refused to listen to
us--rushed past us, and appealed to the arbitrament of the sword; and
now I, for one, say by the decision of the sword let them abide.

Now, I want to show how mean the American people were in 1861. The vile
and abominable institution of slavery had so corrupted us that we did
not know right from wrong. It crept into the pulpit until the sermon
became the echo of the bloodhound's bark. It crept upon the bench,
and the judge could not tell whether the corn belonged to the man that
raised it, or to the fellow that did not, but he rather thought it
belonged to the latter. We had lost our sense of justice. Even the
people of Indiana were so far gone as to agree to carry out the Fugitive
Slave Law. Was it not low-lived and contemptible? We agreed that if we
found a woman ninety-nine one hundredths white, who, inspired by the
love of liberty, had run away from her masters, and had got within
one step of free soil, we would clutch her and bring her back to the
dominion of the Democrat, the bloodhound and the lash. We were just mean
enough to do it. We used to read that some hundreds of years ago a lot
of soldiers would march into a man's house, take him out, tie him to a
stake driven into the earth, pile fagots around him, and let the
thirsty flames consume him, and all because they differed from him about
religion. We said it was horrible; it made our blood run cold to think
of it; yet at the same time many a magnificent steamboat floated down
the Mississippi with wives and husbands, fragments of families torn
asunder, doomed to a life of toil, requited only by lashes upon the
naked back, and branding irons upon the quivering flesh, and we thought
little of it. When we set out to put down the Rebellion the Democratic
party started up all at once and said, "You are not going to interfere
with slavery, are you?" Now, it is remarkable that whenever we were
going to do a good thing, we had to let on that we were going to do a
mean one. If we had said at the outset, "We will break the shackles from
four millions of slaves" we never would have succeeded. We had to come
at it by degrees. The Democrats scented it out. They had a scent keener
than a bloodhound when anything was going to be done to affect slavery.
"Put down rebellion," they said, "but don't hurt slavery." We said, "We
will not; we will restore the Union as it was and the Constitution as it
is." We were in good faith about it. We had no better sense then than
to think that it was worth fighting for, to preserve the cause of
quarrel--the bone of contention--so as to have war all the time. Every
blow we struck for slavery was a blow against us. The Rebellion was
simply slavery with a mask on. We never whipped anybody but once so long
as we stood upon that doctrine; that was at Donelson; and the victory
there was not owing to the policy, but to the splendid genius of the
next President of the United States. After a while it got into our
heads that slavery was the cause of the trouble, and we began to edge up
slowly toward slavery. When Mr. Lincoln said he would destroy slavery
if absolutely necessary for the suppression of the Rebellion, people
thought that was the most radical thing that ever was uttered. But the
time came when it was necessary to free the slaves, and to put muskets
into their hands. The Democratic party opposed us with all their might
until the draft came, and they wanted negroes for substitutes; and I
never heard a Democrat object to arming the negroes after that.

     [The speaker from this point presented the history of the
     Republican policy of reconstruction, and touched lightly on
     the subject of the national debt. He glanced at the
     finances, reviewing in the most scathing manner the history
     and character of Seymour, paid a most eloquent tribute to
     the character and public services of General Grant, and
     closed with the following words: ]

The hero of the Rebellion, who accomplished at Shiloh what Napoleon
endeavored at Waterloo; who captured Vicksburg by a series of victories
unsurpassed, taking the keystone from the rebel arch; who achieved at
Missionary Ridge a success as grand as it was unexpected to the country;
who, having been summoned from the death-bed of rebellion in the West,
marched like an athlete from the Potomac to the James, the grandest
march in the history of the world. This was all done without the least
flourish upon his part. No talk about destiny--without faith in a
star--with the simple remark that he would "fight it out on that line,"
without a boast, modest to bashfulness, yet brave to audacity, simple as
duty, firm as war, direct as truth--this hero, with so much common
sense that he is the most uncommon man of his time, will be, in spite of
Executive snares and Cabinet entanglements, of competent false witnesses
of the Democratic party, the next President of the United States. He
will be trusted with the Government his genius saved.



SPEECH AT CINCINNATI.*


     * The nomination of Blaine was the passionately dramatic
     scene of the day. Robert G. Ingersoll had been fixed upon to
     present Blaine's name to the Convention, and, as the result
     proved, a more effective champion could not have been
     selected in the whole party conclave.

     As the clerk, running down the list, reached Maine, an
     extraordinary event happened. The applause and cheers which
     had heretofore broken out in desultory patches of the
     galleries and platform, broke in a simultaneous, thunderous
     outburst from every part of the house.

     Ingersoll moved out from the obscure corner and advanced to
     the central stage. As he walked forward the thundering
     cheers, sustained and swelling, never ceased. As he reached
     the platform they took on an increased volume of sound, and
     for ten minutes the surging fury of acclamation, the wild
     waving of fans, hats, and handkerchiefs transformed the
     scene from one of deliberation to that of a bedlam of
     rapturous delirium. Ingersoll waited with unimpaired
     serenity, until he should get a chance to be heard. * * *
     And then began an appeal, impassioned, artful, brilliant,
     and persuasive. * * *

     Possessed of a fine figure, a face of winning, cordial
     frankness, Ingersoll had half won his audience before he
     spoke a word. It is the attestation of every man that heard
     him, that so brilliant a master stroke was never uttered
     before a political Convention. Its effect was indescribable.
     The coolest-headed in the hall were stirred to the wildest
     expression. The adversaries of Blaine, as well as his
     friends, listened with unswerving, absorbed attention.
     Curtis sat spell-bound, his eyes and mouth wide open, his
     figure moving in unison to the tremendous periods that fell
     in a measured, exquisitely graduated flow from the
     Illinoisan's smiling lips. The matchless method and manner
     of the man can never be imagined from the report in type. To
     realize the prodigious force, the inexpressible power, the
     irrestrainable fervor of the audience requires actual sight.

     Words can do but meagre justice to the wizard power of this
     extraordinary man. He swayed and moved and impelled and
     restrained and worked in all ways with the mass before him
     as if he possessed some key to the innermost mechanism that
     moves the human heart, and when he finished, his fine, frank
     face as calm as when he began, the overwrought thousands
     sank back in an exhaustion of unspeakable wonder and
     delight.--Chicago Times, June 16, 1876.


SPEECH NOMINATING BLAINE.

June 75, 1876.

MASSACHUSETTS may be satisfied with the loyalty of Benjamin H. Bristow;
so am I; but if any man nominated by this convention can not carry the
State of Massachusetts, I am not satisfied with the loyalty of that
State. If the nominee of this convention cannot carry the grand old
Commonwealth of Massachusetts by seventy-five thousand majority, I would
advise them to sell out Faneuil Hall as a Democratic headquarters. I
would advise them to take from Bunker Hill that old monument of glory.

The Republicans of the United States demand as their leader in the great
contest of 1876 a man of intelligence, a man of integrity, a man of
well-known and approved political opinions. They demand a statesman;
they demand a reformer after as well as before the election. They demand
a politician in the highest, broadest and best sense--a man of superb
moral courage. They demand a man acquainted with public affairs--with
the wants of the people; with not only the requirements of the hour,
but with the demands of the future. They demand a man broad enough to
comprehend the relations of this Government to the other nations of
the earth. They demand a man well versed in the powers, duties and
prerogatives of each and every department of this Government. They
demand a man who will sacredly preserve the financial honor of the
United States; one who knows enough to know that the national debt must
be paid through the prosperity of this people; one who knows enough to
know that all the financial theories in the world cannot redeem a single
dollar; one who knows enough to know that all the money must be made,
not by law, but by labor; one who knows enough to know that the people
of the United States have the industry to make the money, and the honor
to pay it over just as fast as they make it.

The Republicans of the United States demand a man who knows that
prosperity and resumption, when they come, must come together; that
when they come, they will come hand in hand through the golden harvest
fields; hand in hand by the whirling spindles and the turning wheels;
hand in hand past the open furnace doors; hand in hand by the flaming
forges; hand in hand by the chimneys filled with eager fire, greeted and
grasped by the countless sons of toil.

This money has to be dug out of the earth. You cannot make it by passing
resolutions in a political convention.

The Republicans of the United States want a man who knows that this
Government should protect every citizen, at home and abroad; who knows
that any government that will not defend its defenders, and protect its
protectors, is a disgrace to the map of the world. They demand a man who
believes in the eternal separation and divorcement of church and school.
They demand a man whose political reputation is spotless as a star;
but they do not demand that their candidate shall have a certificate of
moral character signed by a Confederate congress. The man who has, in
full, heaped and rounded measure, all these splendid qualifications, is
the present grand and gallant leader of the Republican party--James G.
Blaine.

Our country, crowned with the vast and marvelous achievements of its
first century, asks for a man worthy of the past, and prophetic of her
future; asks for a man who has the audacity of genius; asks for a man
who is the grandest combination of heart, conscience and brain beneath
her flag--such a man is James G. Blaine.

For the Republican host, led by this intrepid man, there can be no
defeat.

This is a grand year--a year filled with recollections of the
Revolution; filled with proud and tender memories of the past; with
the sacred legends of liberty--a year in which the sons of freedom will
drink from the fountains of enthusiasm; a year in which the people call
for the man who has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won upon
the field; a year in which they call for the man who has torn from the
throat of treason the tongue of slander--for the man who has snatched
the mask of Democracy from the hideous face of rebellion; for the man
who, like an intellectual athlete, has stood in the arena of debate and
challenged all comers, and who is still a total stranger to defeat.

Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched
down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full
and fair against the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his country
and the maligners of his honor. For the Republican party to desert this
gallant leader now, is as though an army should desert their general
upon the field of battle.

James G. Blaine is now and has been for years the bearer of the sacred
standard of the Republican party. I call it sacred, because no human
being can stand beneath its folds without becoming and without remaining
free.

Gentlemen of the convention, in the name of the great Republic, the
only republic that ever existed upon this earth; in the name of all her
defenders and of all her supporters; in the name of all her soldiers
living; in the name of all her soldiers dead upon the field of battle,
and in the name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch of famine
at Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly remembers,
Illinois--Illinois nominates for the next President of this country,
that prince of parliamentarians--that leader of leaders--James G.
Blaine.




CENTENNIAL ORATION.

     * Delivered on the one hundredth Anniversary of the
     Declaration of Independence, at Peoria, Ill., July 4, 1876.


July 4, 1876.

THE Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the bravest, and
the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the
representatives of a people. It is the embodiment of physical and moral
courage and of political wisdom.

I say of physical courage, because it was a declaration of war against
the most powerful nation then on the globe; a declaration of war by
thirteen weak, unorganized colonies; a declaration of war by a few
people, without military stores, without wealth, without strength,
against the most powerful kingdom on the earth; a declaration of war
made when the British navy, at that day the mistress of every sea, was
hovering along the coast of America, looking after defenceless towns and
villages to ravage and destroy. It was made when thousands of English
soldiers were upon our soil, and when the principal cities of America
were in the substantial possession of the enemy. And so, I say, all
things considered, it was the bravest political document ever signed by
man. And if it was physically brave, the moral courage of the document
is almost infinitely beyond the physical. They had the courage not only,
but they had the almost infinite wisdom, to declare that all men are
created equal.

Such things had occasionally been said by some political enthusiast in
the olden time, but, for the first time in the history of the world,
the representatives of a nation, the representatives of a real, living,
breathing, hoping people, declared that all men are created equal. With
one blow, with one stroke of the pen, they struck down all the cruel,
heartless barriers that aristocracy, that priestcraft, that kingcraft
had raised between man and man. They struck down with one immortal blow
that infamous spirit of caste that makes a god almost a beast, and a
beast almost a god. With one word, with one blow, they wiped away and
utterly destroyed, all that had been done by centuries of war--centuries
of hypocrisy--centuries of injustice.

One hundred years ago our fathers retired the gods from politics.

What more did they do? They then declared that each man has a right to
live. And what does that mean? It means that he has the right to make
his living. It means that he has the right to breathe the air, to work
the land, that he stands the equal of every other human being beneath
the shining stars; entitled to the product of his labor--the labor of
his hand and of his brain.

What more? That every man has the right to pursue his own happiness in
his own way. Grander words than these have never been spoken by man.

And what more did these men say? They laid down the doctrine that
governments were instituted among men for the purpose of preserving the
rights of the people. The old idea was that people existed solely for
the benefit of the state--that is to say, for kings and nobles.

The old idea was that the people were the wards of king and priest--that
their bodies belonged to one and their souls to the other.

And what more? That the people are the source of political power. That
was not only a revelation, but it was a revolution. It changed the ideas
of people with regard to the source of political power. For the first
time it made human beings men. What was the old idea? The old idea was
that no political power came from, or in any manner belonged to, the
people. The old idea was that the political power came from the clouds;
that the political power came in some miraculous way from heaven; that
it came down to kings, and queens, and robbers. That was the old idea.
The nobles lived upon the labor of the people; the people had no rights;
the nobles stole what they had and divided with the kings, and the kings
pretended to divide what they stole with God Almighty. The source, then,
of political power was from above. The people were responsible to the
nobles, the nobles to the king, and the people had no political rights
whatever, no more than the wild beasts of the forest. The kings were
responsible to God; not to the people. The kings were responsible to the
clouds; not to the toiling millions they robbed and plundered.

And our forefathers, in this Declaration of Independence, reversed this
thing, and said: No; the people, they are the source of political power,
and their rulers, these presidents, these kings are but the agents and
servants of the great sublime people. For the first time, really, in the
history of the world, the king was made to get off the throne and the
people were royally seated thereon. The people became the sovereigns,
and the old sovereigns became the servants and the agents of the people.
It is hard for you and me now to even imagine the immense results of
that change. It is hard for you and for me, at this day, to understand
how thoroughly it had been ingrained in the brain of almost every man,
that the king had some wonderful right over him; that in some strange
way the king owned him; that in some miraculous manner he belonged, body
and soul, to somebody who rode on a horse--to somebody with epaulettes
on his shoulders and a tinsel crown upon his brainless head.

Our forefathers had been educated in that idea, and when they first
landed on American shores they believed it. They thought they belonged
to somebody, and that they must be loyal to some thief who could trace
his pedigree back to antiquity's most successful robber.

It took a long time for them to get that idea out of their heads and
hearts. They were three thousand miles away from the despotisms of
the old world, and every wave of the sea was an assistant to them. The
distance helped to disenchant their minds of that infamous belief, and
every mile between them and the pomp and glory of monarchy helped to put
republican ideas and thoughts into their minds. Besides that, when
they came to this country, when the savage was in the forest and three
thousand miles of waves on the other side, menaced by barbarians on
the one hand and famine on the other, they learned that a man who had
courage, a man who had thought, was as good as any other man in the
world, and they built up, as it were, in spite of themselves, little
republics. And the man that had the most nerve and heart was the best
man, whether he had any noble blood in his veins or not.

It has been a favorite idea with me that our forefathers were educated
by Nature, that they grew grand as the continent upon which they landed;
that the great rivers--the wide plains--the splendid lakes--the lonely
forests--the sublime mountains--that all these things stole into and
became a part of their being, and they grew great as the country in
which they lived. They began to hate the narrow, contracted views of
Europe. They were educated by their surroundings, and every little
colony had to be to a certain extent a republic. The kings of the old
world endeavored to parcel out this land to their favorites. But there
were too many Indians. There was too much courage required for them to
take and keep it, and so men had to come here who were dissatisfied with
the old country--who were dissatisfied with England, dissatisfied with
France, with Germany, with Ireland and Holland. The kings' favorites
stayed at home. Men came here for liberty, and on account of certain
principles they entertained and held dearer than life. And they were
willing to work, willing to fell the forests, to fight the savages,
willing to go through all the hardships, perils and dangers of a new
country, of a new land; and the consequence was that our country was
settled by brave and adventurous spirits, by men who had opinions of
their own and were willing to live in the wild forests for the sake of
expressing those opinions, even if they expressed them only to trees,
rocks, and savage men. The best blood of the old world came to the new.

When they first came over they did not have a great deal of political
philosophy, nor the best ideas of liberty. We might as well tell the
truth. When the Puritans first came, they were narrow. They did not
understand what liberty meant--what religious liberty, what political
liberty, was; but they found out in a few years. There was one feeling
among them that rises to their eternal honor like a white shaft to the
clouds--they were in favor of universal education. Wherever they went
they built schoolhouses, introduced books and ideas of literature. They
believed that every man should know how to read and how to write, and
should find out all that his capacity allowed him to comprehend. That is
the glory of the Puritan fathers.

They forgot in a little while what they had suffered, and they forgot
to apply the principle of universal liberty--of toleration. Some of
the colonies did not forget it, and I want to give credit where credit
should be given. The Catholics of Maryland were the first people on the
new continent to declare universal religious toleration. Let this be
remembered to their eternal honor. Let it be remembered to the disgrace
of the Protestant government of England, that it caused this grand law
to be repealed. And to the honor and credit of the Catholics of Maryland
let it be remembered that the moment they got back into power they
re-enacted the old law. The Baptists of Rhode Island also, led by Roger
Williams, were in favor of universal religious liberty.

No American should fail to honor Roger Williams. He was the first grand
advocate of the liberty of the soul. He was in favor of the eternal
divorce of church and state. So far as I know, he was the only man at
that time in this country who was in favor of real religious liberty.
While the Catholics of Maryland declared in favor of religious
_toleration_, they had no idea of religious liberty. They would not
allow anyone to call in question the doctrine of the Trinity, or the
inspiration of the Scriptures. They stood ready with branding-iron and
gallows to burn and choke out of man the idea that he had a right to
think and to express his thoughts.

So many religions met in our country--so many theories and dogmas came
in contact--so many follies, mistakes, and stupidities became acquainted
with each other, that religion began to fall somewhat into disrepute.
Besides this, the question of a new nation began to take precedence of
all others.

The people were too much interested in this world to quarrel about the
next. The preacher was lost in the patriot. The Bible was read to find
passages against kings.

Everybody was discussing the rights of man. Farmers and mechanics
suddenly became statesmen, and in every shop and cabin nearly every
question was asked and answered.

During these years of political excitement the interest in religion
abated to that degree that a common purpose animated men of all sects
and creeds.

At last our fathers became tired of being colonists--tired of writing
and reading and signing petitions, and presenting them on their bended
knees to an idiot king. They began to have an aspiration to form a new
nation, to be citizens of a new republic instead of subjects of an
old monarchy. They had the idea--the Puritans, the Catholics, the
Episcopalians, the Baptists, the Quakers, and a few Freethinkers, all
had the idea--that they would like to form a new nation.

Now, do not understand that all of our fathers were in favor of
independence. Do not understand that they were all like Jefferson; that
they were all like Adams or Lee; that they were all like Thomas Paine
or John Hancock. There were thousands and thousands of them who were
opposed to American independence. There were thousands and thousands who
said: "When you say men are created equal, it is a lie; when you say the
political power resides in the great body of the people, it is false."
Thousands and thousands of them said: "We prefer Great Britain." But
the men who were in favor of independence, the men who knew that a new
nation must be born, went on full of hope and courage, and nothing could
daunt or stop or stay the heroic, fearless few.

They met in Philadelphia; and the resolution was moved by Lee of
Virginia, that the colonies ought to be independent states, and ought to
dissolve their political connection with Great Britain.

They made up their minds that a new nation must be formed. All nations
had been, so to speak, the wards of some church. The religious idea as
to the source of power had been at the foundation of all governments,
and had been the bane and curse of man.

Happily for us, there was no church strong enough to dictate to the
rest. Fortunately for us, the colonists not only, but the colonies
differed widely in their religious views. There were the Puritans who
hated the Episcopalians, and Episcopalians who hated the Catholics,
and the Catholics who hated both, while the Quakers held them all in
contempt. There they were, of every sort, and color and kind, and how
was it that they came together? They had a common aspiration. They
wanted to form a new nation. More than that, most of them cordially
hated Great Britain; and they pledged each other to forget these
religious prejudices, for a time at least, and agreed that there should
be only one religion until they got through, and that was the religion
of patriotism. They solemnly agreed that the new nation should not
belong to any particular church, but that it should secure the rights of
all.

Our fathers founded the first secular government that was ever founded
in this world. Recollect that. The first secular government; the first
government that said every church has exactly the same rights and no
more; every religion has the same rights, and no more. In other words,
our fathers were the first men who had the sense, had the genius, to
know that no church should be allowed to have a sword; that it should be
allowed only to exert its moral influence.

You might as well have a government united by force with Art, or with
Poetry, or with Oratory, as with Religion. Religion should have the
influence upon mankind that its goodness, that its morality, its
justice, its charity, its reason, and its argument give it, and no more.
Religion should have the effect upon mankind that it necessarily has,
and no more. The religion that has to be supported by law is without
value, not only, but a fraud and curse. The religious argument that has
to be supported by a musket, is hardly worth making. A prayer that must
have a cannon behind it, better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not
to go in partnership with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and
revolvers.

So our fathers said: "We will form a secular government, and under the
flag with which we are going to enrich the air, we will allow every man
to worship God as he thinks best." They said: "Religion is an individual
thing between each man and his creator, and he can worship as he pleases
and as he desires." And why did they do this? The history of the world
warned them that the liberty of man was not safe in the clutch and grasp
of any church. They had read of and seen the thumbscrews, the racks, and
the dungeons of the Inquisition. They knew all about the hypocrisy of
the olden time. They knew that the church had stood side by side with
the throne; that the high priests were hypocrites, and that the kings
were robbers. They also knew that if they gave power to any church, it
would corrupt the best church in the world. And so they said that power
must not reside in a church, or in a sect, but power must be wherever
humanity is--in the great body of the people. And the officers and
servants of the people must be responsible to them. And so I say again,
as I said in the commencement, this is the wisest, the pro-foundest, the
bravest political document that ever was written and signed by man.

They turned, as I tell you, everything squarely about. They derived
all their authority from the people. They did away forever with the
theological idea of government.

And what more did they say? They said that whenever the rulers abused
this authority, this power, incapable of destruction, returned to the
people. How did they come to say this? I will tell you. They were pushed
into it. How? They felt that they were oppressed; and whenever a man
feels that he is the subject of injustice, his perception of right and
wrong is wonderfully quickened.

Nobody was ever in prison wrongfully who did not believe in the writ
of _habeas corpus_. Nobody ever suffered wrongfully without instantly
having ideas of justice.

And they began to inquire what rights the king of Great Britain had.
They began to search for the charter of his authority. They began to
investigate and dig down to the bed-rock upon which society must be
founded, and when they got down there, forced there, too, by their
oppressors, forced against their own prejudices and education, they
found at' the bottom of things, not lords, not nobles, not pulpits, not
thrones, but humanity and the rights of men.

And so they said, We are men; we are men. They found out they were men.
And the next thing they said, was, "We will be free men; we are weary of
being colonists; we are tired of being subjects; we are men; and these
colonies ought to be states; and these states ought to be a nation; and
that nation ought to drive the last British soldier into the sea." And
so they signed that brave Declaration of Independence.

I thank every one of them from the bottom of my heart for signing
that sublime declaration. I thank them for their courage--for their
patriotism--for their wisdom--for the splendid confidence in themselves
and in the human race. I thank them for what they were, and for what
we are--for what they did, and for what we have received--for what they
suffered, and for what we enjoy.

What would we have been if we had remained colonists and subjects? What
would we have been to-day? Nobodies--ready to get down on our knees and
crawl in the very dust at the sight of somebody that was supposed to
have in him some drop of blood that flowed in the veins of that mailed
marauder--that royal robber, William the Conqueror.

They signed that Declaration of Independence, although they knew that it
would produce a long, terrible, and bloody war. They looked forward and
saw poverty, deprivation, gloom, and death. But they also saw, on the
wrecked clouds of war, the beautiful bow of freedom.

These grand men were enthusiasts; and the world has been raised only
by enthusiasts. In every country there have been a few who have given
a national aspiration to the people. The enthusiasts of 1776 were the
builders and framers of this great and splendid Government; and they
were the men who saw, although others did not, the golden fringe of
the mantle of glory that will finally cover this world. They knew, they
felt, they believed that they would give a new constellation to
the political heavens--that they would make the Americans a grand
people--grand as the continent upon which they lived.

The war commenced. There was little money, and less credit. The new
nation had but few friends. To a great extent each soldier of freedom
had to clothe and feed himself. He was poor and pure, brave and good,
and so he went to the fields of death to fight for the rights of man.

What did the soldier leave when he went?

He left his wife and children.

Did he leave them in a beautiful home, surrounded by civilization, in
the repose of law, in the security of a great and powerful republic?

No. He left his wife and children on the edge, on the fringe of the
boundless forest, in which crouched and crept the red savage, who was at
that time the ally of the still more savage Briton. He left his wife to
defend herself, and he left the prattling babes to be defended by their
mother and by nature. The mother made the living; she planted the corn
and the potatoes, and hoed them in the sun, raised the children, and,
in the darkness of night, told them about their brave father and the
"sacred cause." She told them that in a little while the war would be
over and father would come back covered with honor and glory.

Think of the women, of the sweet children who listened for the footsteps
of the dead--who waited through the sad and desolate years for the dear
ones who never came.

The soldiers of 1776 did not march away with music and banners. They
went in silence, looked at and gazed after by eyes filled with tears.
They went to meet, not an equal, but a superior--to fight five times
their number--to make a desperate stand to stop the advance of the
enemy, and then, when their ammunition gave out, seek the protection of
rocks, of rivers, and of hills.

Let me say here: The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear
defeat without losing heart. That army is the bravest that can be
whipped the greatest number of times and fight again.

Over the entire territory, so to speak, then settled by our forefathers,
they were driven again and again. Now and then they would meet the
English with something like equal numbers, and then the eagle of victory
would proudly perch upon the stripes and stars. And so they went on as
best they could, hoping and fighting until they came to the dark and
somber gloom of Valley Forge.

There were very few hearts then beneath that flag that did not begin to
think that the struggle was useless; that all the blood and treasure had
been shed and spent in vain. But there were some men gifted with
that wonderful prophecy that fulfills itself, and with that wonderful
magnetic power that makes heroes of everybody they come in contact with.

And so our fathers went through the gloom of that terrible time, and
still fought on. Brave men wrote grand words, cheering the despondent;
brave men did brave deeds, the rich man gave his wealth, the poor man
gave his life, until at last, by the victory of Yorktown, the old banner
won its place in the air, and became glorious forever.

Seven long years of war--fighting for what? For the principle that
all men are created equal--a truth that nobody ever disputed except a
scoundrel; nobody, nobody in the entire history of this world. No man
ever denied that truth who was not a rascal, and at heart a thief;
never, never, and never will. What else were they fighting for? Simply
that in America every man should have a right to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. Nobody ever denied that except a villain; never,
never. It has been denied by kings--they were thieves. It has been
denied by statesmen--they were liars. It has been denied by priests, by
clergymen, by cardinals, by bishops, and by popes--they were hypocrites.

What else were they fighting for? For the idea that all political power
is vested in the great body of the people. The great body of the people
make all the money; do all the work. They plow the land, cut down the
forests; they produce everything that is produced. Then who shall say
what shall be done with what is produced except the producer?

Is it the non-producing thief, sitting on a throne, surrounded by
vermin?

Those were the things they were fighting for; and that is all they
were fighting for. They fought to build up a new, a great nation; to
establish an asylum for the oppressed of the world everywhere. They knew
the history of this world. They knew the history of human slavery.

The history of civilization is the history of the slow and painful
enfranchisement of the human race. In the olden times the family was a
monarchy, the father being the monarch. The mother and children were the
veriest slaves. The will of the father was the supreme law. He had the
power of life and death. It took thousands of years to civilize this
father, thousands of years to make the condition of wife and mother and
child even tolerable. A few families constituted a tribe; the tribe
had a chief; the chief was a tyrant; a few tribes formed a nation; the
nation was governed by a king, who was also a tyrant. A strong nation
robbed, plundered, and took captive the weaker ones. This was the
commencement of human slavery.

It is not possible for the human imagination to conceive of the horrors
of slavery. It has left no possible crime uncommitted, no possible
cruelty unperpetrated. It has been practiced and defended by all nations
in some form. It has been upheld by all religions. It has been defended
by nearly every pulpit. From the profits derived from the slave trade
churches have been built, cathedrals reared and priests paid. Slavery
has been blessed by bishop, by cardinal, and by pope. It has received
the sanction of statesmen, of kings, and of queens. It has been defended
by the throne, the pulpit and the bench. Monarchs have shared in
the profits. Clergymen have taken their part of the spoils, reciting
passages of Scripture in its defence at the same time, and judges have
taken their portion in the name of equity and law.

Only a few years ago our ancestors were slaves. Only a few years ago
they passed with and belonged to the soil, like the coal under it and
rocks on it.

Only a few years ago they were treated like beasts of burden, worse far
than we treat our animals at the present day. Only a few years ago it
was a crime in England for a man to have a Bible in his house, a crime
for which men were hanged, and their bodies afterward burned. Only a few
years ago fathers could and did sell their children. Only a few
years ago our ancestors were not allowed to speak or write their
thoughts--that being a crime. Only a few years ago to be honest, at
least in the expression of your ideas, was a felony. To do right was a
capital offence; and in those days chains and whips were the incentives
to labor, and the preventives of thought. Honesty was a vagrant,
justice a fugitive, and liberty in chains. Only a few years ago men were
denounced because they doubted the inspiration of the Bible--because
they denied miracles, and laughed at the wonders recounted by the
ancient Jews.

Only a few years ago a man had to believe in the total depravity of the
human heart in order to be respectable. Only a few years ago, people
who thought God too good to punish in eternal flames an unbaptized child
were considered infamous.

As soon as our ancestors began to get free they began to enslave others.
With an inconsistency that defies explanation, they practiced upon
others the same outrages that had been perpetrated upon them. As soon
as white slavery began to be abolished, black slavery commenced. In this
infamous traffic nearly every nation of Europe embarked. Fortunes were
quickly realized; the avarice and cupidity of Europe were excited; all
ideas of justice were discarded; pity fled from the human breast; a
few good, brave men recited the horrors of the trade; avarice was deaf;
religion refused to hear; the trade went on; the governments of Europe
upheld it in the name of commerce--in the name of civilization and
religion.

Our fathers knew the history of caste. They knew that in the despotisms
of the Old World it was a disgrace to be useful. They knew that a
mechanic was esteemed as hardly the equal of a hound, and far below
a blooded horse. They knew that a nobleman held a son of labor in
contempt--that he had no rights the royal loafers were bound to respect.

The world has changed.

The other day there came shoemakers, potters, workers in wood and iron,
from Europe, and they were received in the city of New York as though
they had been princes. They had been sent by the great republic of
France to examine into the arts and manufactures of the great republic
of America. They looked a thousand times better to me than the Edward
Alberts and Albert Edwards--the royal vermin, that live on the body
politic. And I would think much more of our Government if it would fete
and feast them, instead of wining and dining the imbeciles of a royal
line.

Our fathers devoted their lives and fortunes to the grand work of
founding a government for the protection of the rights of man. The
theological idea as to the source of political power had poisoned the
web and woof of every government in the world, and our fathers banished
it from this continent forever.

What we want to-day is what our fathers wrote down. They did not attain
to their ideal; we approach it nearer, but have not reached it yet. We
want, not only the independence of a State, not only the independence of
a nation, but something far more glorious--the absolute independence of
the individual. That is what we want. I want it so that I, one of the
children of Nature, can stand on an equality with the rest; that I can
say this is my air, my sunshine, my earth, and I have a right to live,
and hope, and aspire, and labor, and enjoy the fruit of that labor, as
much as any individual or any nation on the face of the globe.

We want every American to make to-day, on this hundredth anniversary, a
declaration of individual independence. Let each man enjoy his liberty
to the utmost--enjoy all he can; but be sure it is not at the expense
of another. The French Convention gave the best definition of liberty
I have ever read: "The liberty of one citizen ceases only where the
liberty of another citizen commences." I know of no better definition. I
ask you to-day to make a declaration of individual independence. And
if you are independent be just. Allow everybody else to make his
declaration of individual independence. Allow your wife, allow your
husband, allow your children to make theirs. Let everybody be absolutely
free and independent, knowing only the sacred obligations of honesty and
affection. Let us be independent of party, independent of everybody and
everything except our own consciences and our own brains. Do not belong
to any clique. Have the clear title-deeds in fee simple to yourselves,
without any mortgage on the premises to anybody in the world.

It is a grand thing to be the owner of yourself. It is a grand thing to
protect the rights of others. It is a sublime thing to be free and just.

Only a few days ago I stood in Independence Hall--in that little room
where was signed the immortal paper. A little room, like any other;
and it did not seem possible that from that room went forth ideas,
like cherubim and seraphim, spreading their wings over a continent, and
touching, as with holy fire, the hearts of men.

In a few moments I was in the park, where are gathered the
accomplishments of a century. Our fathers never dreamed of the things I
saw. There were hundreds of locomotives, with their nerves of steel and
breath of flame--every kind of machine, with whirling wheels and curious
cogs and cranks, and the myriad thoughts of men that have been wrought
in iron, brass and steel. And going out from one little building were
wires in the air, stretching to every civilized nation, and they could
send a shining messenger in a moment to any part of the world, and it
would go sweeping under the waves of the sea with thoughts and words
within its glowing heart. I saw all that had been achieved by this
nation, and I wished that the signers of the Declaration--the soldiers
of the Revolution--could see what a century of freedom has produced.
I wished they could see the fields we cultivate--the rivers we
navigate--the railroads running over the Alleghanies, far into what was
then the unknown forest--on over the broad prairies--on over the vast
plains--away over the mountains of the West, to the Golden Gate of the
Pacific. All this is the result of a hundred years of freedom.

Are you not more than glad that in 1776 was announced the sublime
principle that political power resides with the people? That our fathers
then made up their minds nevermore to be colonists and subjects, but
that they would be free and independent citizens of America?

I will not name any of the grand men who fought for liberty. All should
be named, or none. I feel that the unknown soldier who was shot down
without even his name being remembered--who was included only in a
report of "a hundred killed," or "a hundred missing," nobody knowing
even the number that attached to his august corpse--is entitled to as
deep and heartfelt thanks as the titled leader who fell at the head of
the host.

Standing here amid the sacred memories of the first, on the golden
threshold of the second, I ask, Will the second century be as grand
as the first? I believe it will, because we are growing more and more
humane. I believe there is more human kindness, more real, sweet human
sympathy, a greater desire to help one another, in the United States,
than in all the world besides.

We must progress. We are just at the commencement of invention. The
steam engine--the telegraph--these are but the toys with which science
has been amused. Wait; there will be grander things, there will be wider
and higher culture--a grander standard of character, of literature and
art.

We have now half as many millions of people as we have years, and many
of us will live until a hundred millions stand beneath the flag. We are
getting more real solid sense. The schoolhouse is the finest building in
the village. We are writing and reading more books; we are painting
and buying more pictures; we are struggling more and more to get at
the philosophy of life, of things--trying more and more to answer
the questions of the eternal Sphinx. We are looking in every
direction--investigating; in short, we are thinking and working. Besides
all this, I believe the people are nearer honest than ever before. A few
years ago we were willing to live upon the labor of four million slaves.
Was that honest? At last, we have a national conscience. At last, we
have carried out the Declaration of Independence. Our fathers wrote
it--we have accomplished it. The black man was a slave--we made him a
citizen. We found four million human beings in manacles, and now the
hands of a race are held up in the free air without a chain.

I have had the supreme pleasure of seeing a man--once a slave--sitting
in the seat of his former master in the Congress of the United States.
I have had that pleasure, and when I saw it my eyes were filled
with tears. I felt that we had carried, out the Declaration of
Independence--that we had given reality to it, and breathed the breath
of life into its every word. I felt that our flag would float over and
protect the colored man and his little children, standing straight in
the sun, just the same as though he were white and worth a million.
I would protect him more, because the rich white man could protect
himself.

All who stand beneath our banner are free. Ours is the only flag that
has in reality written upon it: Liberty, Fraternity, Equality--the three
grandest words in all the languages of men.

Liberty: Give to every man the fruit of his own labor--the labor of his
hands and of his brain.

Fraternity: Every man in the right is my brother.

Equality: The rights of all are equal: Justice, poised and balanced in
eternal calm, will shake from the golden scales in which are weighed the
acts of men, the very dust of prejudice and caste: No race, no color, no
previous condition, can change the rights of men.

The Declaration of Independence has at last been carried out in letter
and in spirit.

The second century will be grander than the first.

Fifty millions of people are celebrating this day. To-day, the black man
looks upon his child and says: The avenues to distinction are open to
you--upon your brow may fall the civic wreath--this day belongs to you.

We are celebrating the courage and wisdom of our fathers, and the glad
shout of a free people the anthem of a grand nation, commencing at the
Atlantic, is following the sun to the Pacific, across a continent of
happy homes.

We are a great people. Three millions have increased to fifty--thirteen
States to thirty-eight. We have better homes, better clothes, better
food and more of it, and more of the conveniences of life, than any
other people upon the globe.

The farmers of our country live better than did the kings and princes
two hundred years ago--and they have twice as much sense and heart.
Liberty and labor have given us all. I want every person here to believe
in the dignity of labor--to know that the respectable man is the useful
man--the man who produces or helps others to produce something of value,
whether thought of the brain or work of the hand.

I want you to go away with an eternal hatred in your breast of
injustice, of aristocracy, of caste, of the idea that one man has more
rights than another because he has better clothes, more land, more
money, because he owns a railroad, or is famous and in high position.
Remember that all men have equal rights. Remember that the man who acts
best his part--who loves his friends the best--is most willing to
help others--truest to the discharge of obligation--who has the best
heart--the most feeling--the deepest sympathies--and who freely gives
to others the rights that he claims for himself is the best man. I am
willing to swear to this.

What has made this country? I say again, liberty and labor. What would
we be without labor? I want every farmer when plowing the rustling corn
of June--while mowing in the perfumed fields--to feel that he is
adding to the wealth and glory of the United States. I want every
mechanic--every man of toil, to know and feel that he is keeping the
cars running, the telegraph wires in the air; that he is making the
statues and painting the pictures; that he is writing and printing the
books; that he is helping to fill the world with honor, with happiness,
with love and law.

Our country is founded upon the dignity of labor--upon the equality
of man. Ours is the first real Republic in the history of the world.
Beneath our flag the people are free. We have retired the gods from
politics. We have found that man is the only source of political
power, and that the governed should govern. We have disfranchised the
aristocrats of the air and have given one country to mankind.




BANGOR SPEECH.

     * Yesterday was a glorious day for the Republicans of
     Bangor. The weather was delightful and all the imposing
     exercises of the day were conducted with a gratifying and
     even inspiring success.

     The noon train from Waterville brought Gov. Connor, Col.
     Ingersoll and Senator Blaine.

     At 3 p. m. the speakers arrived at the grounds and were
     received with applause as they ascended the platform, where
     a number of the most prominent citizens of Bangor and
     vicinity were assembled. At this time the platform was
     surrounded by a dense mass of people, numbering thousands.
     The meeting was called to order by C. A. Boutelle, in behalf
     of the Republican State Committee. As Col. Ingersoll was
     introduced by Gov. Connor he was welcomed by tumultuous
     cheers, which he gracefully acknowledged.

     As we said before, no report could do justice to such a
     masterly effort as that of the great Western Orator, and we
     have not attempted to convey any adequate impression of an
     address which is conceded on all hands to be the most
     remarkable for originality, power and eloquence ever heard
     in this section.

     Such a speech by such a man--if there is another--must be
     heard; the magnetism of the speaker must be felt; the
     indescribable influence must be experienced, in order to
     appreciate his wonderful power. The vast audience was
     alternately swayed from enthusiasm for the grand principles
     advocated, to indignation at the crimes of Democracy, as the
     record of that party was scorched with his invective; from
     laughter at the ludicrous presentment of Democratic
     inconsistencies, to tears brought forth by the pathos and
     eloquence of his appeals for justice and humanity. During
     portions of his address there was moisture in the eyes of
     every person in the audience, and from opening to close he
     held the assemblage by a spell more potent than that of any
     man we have ever heard speak. It was one of the grandest,
     most cogent and thrilling appeals in behalf of the great
     principles of liberty, loyalty and justice to all men, ever
     delivered, and we wish it might have been heard by every
     citizen of our beloved Republic. The Colonel was repeatedly
     urged by the audience to go on, and he spoke for about two
     hours with undiminished fervor. His hearers would gladly
     have given him audience for two hours longer, but with a
     splendid tribute to Mr. Blaine as the strongest tie between
     New England and the West, he took his seat amid the ringing
     cheers and plaudits of the assemblage.--The Whig and
     Courier, Bangor, Maine, August 25,1876.


HAYES CAMPAIGN

1876.

I HAVE the honor to belong to the Republican party; the grandest, the
sublimest party in the history of the world. This grand party is not
only in favor of the liberty of the body, but also the liberty of the
soul. This sublime party gives to all the labor of their hands and of
their brains. This party allows every person to think for himself and
to express his thoughts. The Republican party forges no chains for the
mind, no fetters for the souls of men. It declares that the intellectual
domain shall be forever free. In the free air there is room for every
wing. The Republican party endeavors to remove all obstructions on the
highway of progress. In this sublime undertaking it asks the assistance
of all. Its platform is Continental. Upon it there is room for
the Methodist, the Baptist, the Catholic, the Universalist, the
Presbyterian, and the Freethinker. There is room for all who are in
favor of the preservation of the sacred rights of men.

I am going to give you a few reasons for voting the Republican ticket.
The Republican party depends upon reason, upon argument, upon education,
upon intelligence and upon patriotism. The Republican party makes no
appeal to ignorance and prejudice. It wishes to destroy both.

It is the party of humanity, the party that hates caste, that honors
labor, that rewards toil, that believes in justice. It appeals to all
that is elevated and noble in man, to the higher instincts, to the
nobler aspirations. It has accomplished grand things.

The horizon of the past is filled with the glory of Republican
achievement. The monuments of its wisdom, its power and patriotism crowd
all the fields of conflict. Upon the Constitution this party wrote
equal rights for all; upon every statute book, humanity; upon the flag,
liberty. The Republican party of the United States is the conscience of
the nineteenth century. It is the justice of this age, the embodiment
of social progress and honor. It has no knee for the past. Its face is
toward the future. It is the party of advancement, of the dawn, of the
sunrise.

The Republican party commenced its grand career by saying that the
institution of human slavery had cursed enough American soil; that the
territories should not be damned with that most infamous thing; that
this country was sacred to freedom; that slavery had gone far enough.
Upon that issue the great campaign of 1860 was fought and won. The
Republican party was born of wisdom and conscience.

The people of the South claimed that slavery should be protected; that
the doors of the territories should be thrown open to them and to their
institutions. They not only claimed this, but they also insisted that
the Constitution of the United States protected slave property, the same
as other property everywhere. The South was defeated, and then appealed
to arms. In a moment all their energies were directed toward the
destruction of this Government. They commenced the war--they fired upon
the flag that had protected them for nearly a century.

The North was compelled to decide instantly between the destruction of
the nation and civil war.

The division between the friends and enemies of the Union at once took
place. The Government began to defend itself. To carry on the war money
was necessary. The Government borrowed, and finally issued its notes and
bonds. The Democratic party in the North sympathized with the Rebellion.
Everything was done to hinder, embarrass, obstruct and delay. They
endeavored to make a rebel breastwork of the Constitution; to create
a fire in the rear. They denounced the Government; resisted the draft;
shot United States officers; declared the war a failure and an outrage;
rejoiced over our defeats, and wept and cursed at our victories.

To crush the Rebellion in the South and keep in subjection the
Democratic party at the North, thousands of millions of money were
expended--the nation burdened with a fearful debt, and the best blood of
the country poured out upon the fields of battle.

In order to destroy the Rebellion it became necessary to destroy
slavery. As a matter of fact, slavery was the Rebellion. As soon as
this truth forced itself upon the Government--thrust as it were into
the brain of the North upon the point of a rebel bayonet--the Republican
party resolved to destroy forever the last vestige of that savage and
cruel institution; an institution that made white men devils and black
men beasts.

The Republican party put down the Rebellion; saved the nation; destroyed
slavery; made the slave a citizen; put the ballot in the hands of the
black man; forgave the assassins of the Government; restored nearly
every rebel to citizenship, and proclaimed peace to, and for each and
all.

For sixteen years the country has been in the hands of that great party.
For sixteen years that grand party, in spite of rebels in arms--in spite
of the Democratic party of the North, has preserved the territorial
integrity, and the financial honor of the country. It has endeavored to
enforce the laws; it has tried to protect loyal men at the South; it has
labored to bring murderers and assassins to justice, and it is working
now to preserve the priceless fruits of its great victory.

The present question is, whom shall we trust? To whom shall we give the
reins of power? What party will best preserve the rights of the people?

What party is most deserving of our confidence? There is but one way
to determine the character of a party, and that is, by ascertaining its
history.

Could we have safely trusted the Democratic party in 1860? No. And why
not? Because it was a believer in the right of secession--a believer
in the sacredness of human slavery. The Democratic party then solemnly
declared--speaking through its most honored and trusted leaders--that
each State had the right to secede. This made the Constitution a _nudum
pactum_, a contract without a consideration, a Democratic promise, a
wall of mist, and left every State free to destroy at will the fabric of
American Government--the fabric reared by our fathers through years of
toil and blood.

Could we have safely trusted that party in 1864, when, in convention
assembled, it declared the war a failure, and wished to give up the
contest at a moment when universal victory was within the grasp of the
Republic? Had the people put that party in power then, there would have
been a Southern Confederacy to-day, and upon the limbs of four million
people the chains of slavery would still have clanked. Is there one man
present who, to-day, regrets that the Vallandigham Democracy of 1864 was
spurned and beaten by the American people? Is there one man present who,
to-day, regrets the utter defeat of that mixture of slavery, malice and
meanness, called the Democratic party, in 1864?

Could we have safely trusted that party in 1868?

At that time the Democracy of the South was trying to humble and
frighten the colored people or exterminate them. These inoffensive
colored people were shot down without provocation, without mercy. The
white Democrats were as relentless as fiends. They killed simply to
kill. They murdered these helpless people, thinking that they were in
some blind way getting their revenge upon the people of the North. No
tongue can exaggerate the cruelties practiced upon the helpless freedmen
of the South. These white Democrats had been reared amid and by slavery.
Slavery knows no such thing as justice, no such thing as mercy. Slavery
does not dream of governing by reason, by argument or persuasion.
Slavery depends upon force, upon the bowie-knife, the revolver, the
whip, the chain and the bloodhound. The white Democrats of the South had
been reared amid slavery; they cared nothing for reason; they knew of
but one thing to be used when there was a difference of opinion or a
conflict of interest, and that was brute force. It never occurred to
them to educate, to inform, and to reason. It was easier to shoot than
to reason; it was quicker to stab than to argue; cheaper to kill than
to educate. A grave costs less than a schoolhouse; bullets were cheaper
than books; and one knife could stab more than forty schools could
convert.

They could not bear to see the negro free--to see the former slave
trampling on his old chains, holding a ballot in his hand. They could
not endure the sight of a negro in office. It was gall and wormwood
to think of a slave occupying a seat in Congress; to think of a negro
giving his ideas about the political questions of the day. And so these
white Democrats made up their minds that by a reign of terrorism they
would drive the negro from the polls, drive him from all official
positions, and put him back in reality in the old condition. To
accomplish this they commenced a system of murder, of assassination,
of robbery, theft, and plunder, never before equaled in extent and
atrocity. All this was in its height when in 1868 the Democracy asked
the control of this Government.

Is there a man here who in his heart regrets that the Democrats failed
in 1868? Do you wish that the masked murderers who rode in the darkness
of night to the hut of the freedman and shot him down like a wild beast,
regardless of the prayers and tears of wife and children, were now
holding positions of honor and trust in this Government? Are you sorry
that these assassins were defeated in 1868?

In 1872 the Democratic party, bent upon victory, greedy for office, with
itching palms and empty pockets, threw away all principle--if Democratic
doctrines can be called principles--and nominated a life-long enemy
of their party for President. No one doubted or doubts the loyalty
and integrity of Horace Greeley. But all knew that if elected he would
belong to the party electing him; that he would have to use Democrats as
his agents, and all knew, or at least feared, that the agents would own
and use the principal. All believed that in the malicious clutch of
the Democratic party Horace Greeley would be not a President, but a
prisoner--not a ruler, but a victim. Against that grand man I have
nothing to say. I simply congratulate him upon his escape from being
used as a false key by the Democratic party.

During all these years the Democratic party prophesied the destruction
of the Government, the destruction of the Constitution, and the
banishment of liberty from American soil.

In 1864 that party declared that after four years of failure to restore
the Union by the experiment of war, there should be a cessation of
hostilities. They then declared "that the Constitution had been violated
in every part, and that public liberty and private rights had been
trodden down."

And yet the Constitution remained and still remains; public liberty
still exists, and private rights are still respected.

In 1868, growing more desperate, and being still filled with the spirit
of prophecy, this same party in its platform said: "Under the repeated
assaults of the Republican party, the pillars of the Government are
rocking on their base, and should it succeed in November next, and
inaugurate its President, we will meet as a subjected and conquered
people, amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of the
Constitution."

The Republican party did succeed in November, 1868, and did inaugurate
its President, and we did not meet as a subjected and conquered
people amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of
the Constitution. We met as a victorious people, amid the proudest
achievements of liberty, protected by a Constitution spotless and
stainless--pure as the Alpine snow thrice sifted by the northern blast.

You must not forget the condition of the Government when it came into
the hands of the Republican party. Its treasury was empty, its means
squandered, its navy dispersed, its army unreliable, the offices filled
with rebels and rebel spies; the Democratic party of the North rubbing
its hands in a kind of hellish glee and shouting, "I told you so."

When the Republican party came into power in 1861, it found the Southern
States in arms; it came into power when human beings were chained hand
to hand and driven like cattle to market; when white men were engaged
in the ennobling business of raising dogs to pursue and catch men and
women; when the bay of the bloodhound was considered as the music of the
Union. It came into power when, from thousands of pulpits, slavery was
declared to be a divine institution. It took the reins of Government
when education was an offence, when mercy, humanity and justice were
political crimes.

The Republican party came into power when the Constitution of the United
States upheld the crime of crimes, a Constitution that gave the lie
direct to the Declaration of Independence, and, as I said before, when
the Southern States were in arms.

To the fulfillment of its great destiny it gave all its energies. To the
almost superhuman task, it gave its every thought and power. For four
long and terrible years, with vast armies in the field against it; beset
by false friends; in constant peril; betrayed again and again; stabbed
by the Democratic party, in the name of the Constitution; reviled and
slandered beyond conception; attacked in every conceivable manner--the
Republican party never faltered for an instant. Its courage increased
with the difficulties to be overcome. Hopeful in defeat, confident
in disaster, merciful in victory; sustained by high aims and noble
aspirations, it marched forward, through storms of shot and shell--on to
the last fortification of treason and rebellion--forward to the shining
goal of victory, lasting and universal.

During these savage and glorious years, the Democratic party of the
North, as a party, assisted the South. Democrats formed secret societies
to burn cities--to release rebel prisoners. They shot down officers who
were enforcing the draft; they declared the war unconstitutional;
they left nothing undone to injure the credit of the Government; they
persuaded soldiers to desert; they went into partnership with rebels
for the purpose of spreading contagious diseases through the North. They
were the friends and allies of persons who regarded yellow fever and
smallpox as weapons of civilized warfare. In spite of all this, the
Republicans succeeded.

The Democrats declared slavery to be a divine institution; The
Republican party abolished it. The Constitution of the United States was
changed from a sword that stabbed the rights of four million people to a
shield for every human being beneath our flag.

The Democrats of New York burned orphan asylums and inaugurated a reign
of terror in order to co-operate with the raid of John Morgan. Remember,
my friends, that all this was done when the fate of our country trembled
in the balance of war; that all this was done when the great heart of
the North was filled with agony and courage; when the question was,
"Shall Liberty or Slavery triumph?"

No words have ever passed the human lips strong enough to curse the
Northern allies of the South.

The United States wanted money. It wanted money to buy muskets and
cannon and shot and shell, it wanted money to pay soldiers, to buy
horses, wagons, ambulances, clothing and food. Like an individual, it
had to borrow this money; and, like an honest individual, it must pay
this money. Clothed with sovereignty, it had, or at least exercised, the
power to make its notes a legal tender. This quality of being a legal
tender was the only respect in which these notes differ from those
signed by an individual. As a matter of fact, every note issued was
a forced loan from the people, a forced loan from the soldiers in the
field--in short, a forced loan from every person that took a single
dollar. Upon every one of these notes is printed a promise. The belief
that this promise will be made good gives every particle of value to
each note that it has. Although each note, by law, is a legal tender,
yet if the Government declared that it never would redeem these
notes, the people would not take them if revolution could hurl such a
Government from power. So that the belief that these notes will finally
be paid, added to the fact that in the meantime they are a legal tender,
gives them all the value they have. And, although all are substantially
satisfied that they will be paid, none know at what time. This
uncertainty as to the time, as to when, affects the value of these
notes.

They must be paid, unless a promise can be delayed so long as to amount
to a fulfillment. They must be paid. The question is, "How?" The answer
is, "By the industry and prosperity of the people." They cannot be paid
by law. Law made them; labor must pay them; and they must be paid out
of the profits of the people. We must pay the debt with eggs, not with
goose. In a terrible war we spent thousands of millions; all the bullets
thrown; all the powder burned; all the property destroyed, of every
sort, kind, and character; all the time of the people engaged--all these
things were a dead loss. The debt represents the loss. Paying the debt
is simply repairing the loss. When we, as a people, shall have made
a net amount, equal to the amount thrown, as it were, away in war,
or somewhere near that amount, we will resume specie payment; we will
redeem our promises. We promised on paper, we shall pay in gold and
silver. We asked the people to hold this paper until we got the money,
and they are holding the paper and we are getting the money.

As soon as the slaves were free, the Republican party said, "They must
be citizens, not vagrants." The Democratic party opposed this just, this
generous measure. The freedmen were made citizens. The Republican party
then said, "These citizens must vote; they must have the ballot, to keep
what the bullet has won." The Democratic party said "No." The negroes
received the ballot. The Republican party then said, "These voters must
be educated, so that the ballot shall be the weapon of intelligence, not
of ignorance." The Democratic party objected. But schools were founded,
and books were put in the hands of the colored people, instead of whips
upon their backs. We said to the Southern people, "The colored men are
citizens; their rights must be respected; they are voters, they must
be allowed to vote; they were and are our friends, and we are their
protectors."

All this was accomplished by the Republican party.

It changed the organic law of the land, so that it is now a proper
foundation for a free government; it struck the cruel shackles from four
million human beings; it put down the most gigantic rebellion in the
history of the world; it expunged from the statute books of every
State, and of the Nation, all the cruel and savage laws that Slavery
had enacted; it took whips from the backs, and chains from the limbs, of
men; it dispensed with bloodhounds as the instruments of civilization;
it banished to the memory of barbarism the slave-pen, the auction block,
and the whipping-post; it purified a Nation; it elevated the human race.

All this was opposed by the Democratic party; opposed with a bitterness,
compared to which ordinary malice is sweet. I say the Democratic party,
because I consider those who fought against the Government, in the
fields of the South, and those who opposed in the North, as
Democrats--one and all. The Democratic party has been, during all these
years, the enemy of civilization, the hater of liberty, the despiser of
justice.

When I say the Democratic party sympathized with the Rebellion, I mean
a majority of that party. I know there are in the Democratic party,
soldiers who fought for the Union. I do not know why they are there, but
I have nothing to say against them. I will never utter a word against
any man who bared his breast to a storm of shot and shell, for the
preservation of the Republic. When I use the term Democratic party, I do
not mean those soldiers.

There are others in the Democratic party who are there just because
their fathers were Democrats. They do not mean any particular harm.
Others are there because they could not amount to anything in the
Republican party. A man only fit for a corporal in the Republican ranks,
will make a leader in the Democratic party. By the Democratic party,
I mean that party that sided with the South--that believed in
secession--that loved slavery--that hated liberty--that denounced
Lincoln as a tyrant--that burned orphan asylums--that gloried in our
disasters--that denounced every effort to save the nation--they are the
gentlemen I mean, and they constitute a large majority of the Democratic
party.

The Democrats hate the negro to-day, with a hatred begotten of a
well-grounded fear that the colored people are rapidly becoming their
superiors in industry, intellect and character.

The colored people have suffered enough. They were and are our friends.
They are the friends of this country, and cost what it may they must
be protected. The white loyal man must be protected. They have been
ostracized, slandered, mobbed, and murdered. Their very blood cries from
the ground.

These two things--payment of the debt and protection of loyal citizens,
are the things to be done. Which party can be trusted?

Which will be the more apt to pay the debt?

Which will be the more apt to protect the colored and white loyalist at
the South?

Who is Samuel J. Tilden?

Samuel J. Tilden is an attorney. He never gave birth to an elevated,
noble sentiment in his life. He is a kind of legal spider, watching in
a web of technicalities for victims. He is a compound of cunning and
heartlessness--of beak and claw and fang. He is one of the few men who
can grab a railroad and hide the deep cuts, tunnels and culverts in a
single night. He is a corporation wrecker. He is a demurrer filed by the
Confederate congress. He waits on the shores of bankruptcy to clutch the
drowning by the throat. He was never married. The Democratic party
has satisfied the longings of his heart. He has looked upon love as
weakness. He has courted men because women cannot vote. He has contented
himself by adopting a rag-baby, that really belongs to Mr. Hendricks,
and his principal business at present is explaining how he came to adopt
this child.

Samuel J. Tilden has been for years without number a New York Democrat.

New York has been, and still is, the worst governed city in the world.
Political influence is bought and sold like stocks and bonds. Nearly
every contract is larceny in disguise--nearly every appointment is a
reward for crime, and every election is a fraud. Among such men Samuel
J. Tilden has lived; with such men he has acted; by such men he has been
educated; such men have been his scholars, and such men are his friends.
These men resisted the draft, but Samuel J. Tilden remained their
friend. They burned orphan asylums, but Tilden's friendship never
cooled. They inaugurated riot and murder, but Tilden wavered not. They
stole a hundred millions, and when no more was left to steal--when the
people could not even pay the interest on the amount stolen--then these
Democrats, clapping their hands over their bursting pockets, began
shouting for reform. Mr. Tilden has been a reformer for years,
especially of railroads. The vital issue with him has been the issue
of bogus stock. Although a life-long Democrat, he has been an
amalgamationist--of corporations. While amassing millions, he has
occasionally turned his attention to national affairs. He left his
private affairs (and his reputation depends upon these affairs being
kept private) long enough to assist the Democracy to declare the war for
the restoration of the Union a failure; long enough to denounce Lincoln
as a tyrant and usurper. He was generally too busy to denounce the
political murders and assassinations in the South--too busy to say a
word in favor of justice and liberty; but he found time to declare the
war for the preservation of the country an outrage. He managed to spare
time enough to revile the Proclamation of Emancipation--time enough to
shed a few tears over the corpse of slavery; time enough to oppose
the enfranchisement of the colored man; time enough to raise his voice
against the injustice of putting a loyal negro on a political level with
a pardoned rebel; time enough to oppose every forward movement of the
nation.

No man should ever be elected President of this country who raised his
hand to dismember and destroy it. No man should be elected President who
sympathized with those who were endeavoring to destroy it. No man should
be elected President of this great nation who, when it was in deadly
peril, did not endeavor to save it by act and word. No man should
be elected President who does not believe that every negro should be
free--that the colored people should be allowed to vote. No man
should be placed at the head of the nation--in command of the army
and navy--who does not believe that the Constitution, with all its
amendments, should be sacredly enforced. No man should be elected
President of this nation who believes in the Democratic doctrine of
"States Rights;" who believes that this Government is only a federation
of States. No man should be elected President of our great country
who aided and abetted her enemies in war--who advised or countenanced
resistance to a draft in time of war, who by slander impaired her
credit, sneered at her heroes, and laughed at her martyrs. Samuel J.
Tilden is the possessor of nearly every disqualification mentioned.

Mr. Tilden is the author of an essay on finance, commonly called a
letter of acceptance, in which his ideas upon the great subject are
given in the plainest and most direct manner imaginable. All through
this letter or essay there runs a vein of honest bluntness really
refreshing. As a specimen of bluntness and clearness, take the following
extracts:

How shall the Government make these notes at all times as good as
specie? It has to provide in reference to the mass which would be kept
in use by the wants of business a central reservoir of coin, adequate
to the adjustment of the temporary fluctuations of the international
balance, and as a guaranty against transient drains, artificially
created by panic or by speculation. It has also to provide for the
payment in coin of such fractional currency as may be presented
for redemption, and such inconsiderable portion of legal tenders as
individuals may from time to time desire to convert for special use, or
in order to lay by in coin their little store of money. To make the
coin now in the treasury available for the objects of this reserve, to
gradually strengthen and enlarge that reserve, and to provide for such
other exceptional demands for coin as may arise, does not seem to me a
work of difficulty. If wisely planned and discreetly pursued, it ought
not to cost any sacrifice to the business of the country. It should
tend, on the contrary, to the revival of hope and confidence.

In other words, the way to pay the debt is to get the money, and the
way to get the money is to provide a central reservoir of coin to adjust
fluctuations. As to the resumption he gives us this:

The proper time for the resumption is the time when wise preparation
shall have ripened into perfect ability to accomplish the object with
a certainty and ease that will inspire confidence and encourage the
reviving of business.

The earliest time in which such a result can be brought about is best.
Even when preparations shall have been matured, the exact date would
have to be chosen with reference to the then existing state of trade and
credit operations in our own country, and the course of foreign commerce
and condition of exchanges with other nations. The specific measure and
actual date are matters of details, having reference to ever-changing
conditions. They belong to the domain of practical, administrative
statesmanship. The captain of a steamer, about starting from New York to
Liverpool, does not assemble a council over his ocean craft, and fix
an angle by which to lash the rudder for the whole voyage. A human
intelligence must be at the helm to discern the shifting forces of water
and winds. A human mind must be at the helm to feel the elements day by
day, and guide to a mastery over them. Such preparations are everything.
Without them a legislative command fixing a day--an official promise
fixing a day, are shams. They are worse. They are a snare and a delusion
to all who trust them. They destroy all confidence among thoughtful men
whose judgment will at last sway public opinion. An attempt to act on
such a command, or such a promise without preparation, would end in a
new suspension. It would be a fresh calamity, prolific of confusion,
distrust, and distress.

That is to say, Congress has not sufficient intelligence to fix the
date of resumption. They cannot fix the proper time. But a Democratic
convention has human intelligence enough to know that the first day of
January, 1879, is not the proper date. That convention knew what the
state of trade and credit in our country and the course of foreign
commerce and the condition of exchanges with other nations would be on
the first day of January, 1879. Of course they did, or else they
never would have had the impudence to declare that resumption would be
impossible at that date.

The next extract is more luminous still:

The Government of the United States, in my opinion, can advance to a
resumption of specie payments on its legal tender notes by gradual and
safe processes tending to relieve the present business distress. If
charged by the people with the administration of the executive office, I
should deem it a duty so to exercise the powers with which it has or may
be invested by Congress, as the best and soonest to conduct the country
to that beneficent result.

Why did not this great statesman tell us of some "gradual and safe
process"? He promises, if elected, to so administer the Government that
it will soon reach a beneficent result. How is this to be done? What is
his plan? Will he rely on "a human intelligence at the helm," or on "the
central reservoir," or on some "gradual and safe process"?

I defy any man to read this letter and tell me what Mr. Tilden really
proposes to do. There is nothing definite said. He uses such general
terms, such vague and misty expressions, such unmeaning platitudes, that
the real idea, if he had one, is lost in fog and mist.

Suppose I should, in the most solemn and impressive manner, tell
you that the fluctuations caused in the vital stability of shifting
financial operations, not to say speculations of the wildest character,
cannot be rendered instantly accountable to a true financial theory
based upon the great law that the superfluous is not a necessity, except
in vague thoughts of persons unacquainted with the exigencies of the
hour, and cannot, in the absence of a central reservoir of coin with
a human intelligence at the head, hasten by any system of convertible
bonds the expectation of public distrust, no matter how wisely planned
and discreetly pursued, failure is assured whatever the real result may
be.

Must we wage this war for the right forever? Is there no time when the
soldiers of progress can rest? Will the bugles of the great army of
civilization never sound even a halt? It does seem as though there
can be no stop, no rest. It is in the world of mind as in the physical
world. Every plant of value has to be cultivated. The land must be
plowed, the seeds must be planted and watered. It must be guarded every
moment. Its enemies crawl in the earth and fly in the air. The sun
scorches it, the rain drowns it, the dew rusts it. He who wins it must
fight. But the weeds they grow in spite of all. Nobody plows for them
except accident. The winds sow the seeds, chance covers them, and they
flourish and multiply. The sun cannot burn them--they laugh at rain and
frost--they care not for birds and beasts. In spite of all they grow. It
is the same in politics. A true Republican must continue to grow, must
work, must think, must advance. The Republican party is the party of
progress, of ideas, of work. To make a Republican you must have schools,
books, papers. To make a Democrat, take all these away. Republicans are
the useful; Democrats the noxious--corn and wheat against the dog fennel
and Canada thistles.

Republicans of Maine, do not forget that each of you has two votes in
this election--one in Maine and one in Indiana.

Remember that we are relying on you. There is no stronger tie between
the prairies of Illinois and the pines of Maine--between the Western
States and New England, than James G. Blaine.

We are relying on Maine for from twelve to fifteen thousand on the
12th of September, and Indiana will answer with from fifteen to twenty
thousand, and hearing these two votes the Nation in November will
declare for Hayes and Wheeler.*

     * This being a newspaper report, and never revised by the
     author, is of necessity incomplete, but the publisher feels
     that it should not be lost




COOPER UNION SPEECH, NEW YORK.

     *Col. Robert G. Ingersoll of Illinois last night, at Cooper
     Union, spoke on the political issues of the day, at unusual
     length, to the largest and most enthusiastic audience which,
     during the last ten years, any single speaker has attracted.
     His address was in his happiest epigrammatic style, and was
     interrupted every few moments either by the most uproarious
     laughter or enthusiastic cheering. It is no exaggeration to
     say that the meeting was the largest Cooper Institute has
     seen since the war. Not merely the main hall was filled, but
     the wide corridor in Third Avenue, the entrance hall in
     Eighth Street, and every Committee-room to which his voice
     could reach, though the speaker was unseen, were crowded--in
     fact, literally packed. Half an hour before the hour named
     for the organization of the meeting, admission to the body
     of the hall was almost impossible; and selected officers,
     and the speaker of the evening himself had to beg their way
     to the platform. The latter was as painfully crowded with
     invited guests as the body of the hall; and ingress was
     impossible after the speaker began, and egress was almost as
     difficult owing to the pressure in the committee-room
     through which the platform is approached.

     Not only in numbers alone, but in the prominence of the
     persons present, was the meeting impressive. Besides the
     usual large quota of active politicians always seen at such
     meetings, there were seen numbers of leading merchants,
     financiers, and lawyers of New York, prominent officials not
     only of the City but the State and National Government.

     The speech was nearly two hours In length, but as the
     interruptions were frequent, indeed almost continuous, it
     seemed very short, and when Mr. Ingersoll concluded his fire
     of epigrams, there were loud calls and appeals to him to go
     on. There were suggestions by some of the managers, of other
     speakers who might follow him, but the presiding officer
     wisely decided to submit no other speaker to the too severe
     test of speaking on the same occasion with Mr. Ingersoll.

     Chauncey M. Depew, on leaving the hall, remarked that it was
     the greatest speech he ever heard, and numbers of old
     campaigners were equally enthusiastic. At its conclusion,
     the reception which Mr. Ingersoll held on the platform
     lasted over half-an-hour, and when finally Commissioner
     Wheeler piloted him through the crowd to his coach, three or
     four hundred of the audience followed and gave him lusty
     cheers as he drove off.--New York Tribune, September
     11,1876.


HAYES CAMPAIGN.

1876.

I AM just on my way home from the grand old State of Maine, and there
has followed me a telegraphic dispatch which I will read to you. If it
were not good, you may swear I would not read it: "Every Congressional
district, every county in Maine, Republican by a large majority. The
victory is overwhelming, and the majority will exceed 15,000." That
dispatch is signed by that knight-errant of political chivalry, James G.
Blaine.

I suppose we are all stockholders in the great corporation known as the
United States of America, and as such stockholders we have a right to
vote the way we think will best subserve our own interests. Each one has
certain stock in this Government, whether he is rich, or whether he is
poor, and the poor man has the same interest in the United States of
America that the richest man in it has. It is our duty, conscientiously
and honestly, to hear the argument upon both sides of the political
question, and then go and vote conscientiously for the side that we
believe will best preserve our interest in the United States of America.
Two great parties are before you now asking your support--the Democratic
party and the Republican party. One wishes to be kept in power, the
other wishes to have a chance once more at the Treasury of the United
States. The Democratic party is probably the hungriest organization that
ever wandered over the desert of political disaster in the history of
the world. There never was, in all probability, a political stomach
so thoroughly empty, or an appetite so outrageously keen as the one
possessed by the Democratic party. The Democratic party has been howling
like a pack of wolves looking in with hungry and staring eyes at the
windows of the National Capitol, and scratching at the doors of the
White House. They have been engaged in these elegant pursuits for
sixteen long, weary years. Occasionally they have retired to some
convenient eminence and lugubriously howled about the Constitution.
The Democratic party comes and asks for your vote, not on account of
anything it has done, not on account of anything it has accomplished,
but on account of what it promises to do; the Democratic party can make
just as good a promise as any other party in the world, and it will
come farther from fulfilling it than any other party on this globe. The
Republican party having held this Government for sixteen years, proposes
to hold it for four years more. The Republican party comes to you with
its record open, and asks every man, woman and child in this broad
country to read its every word. And I say to you, that there is not a
line, a paragraph, or a page of that record that is not only an honor
to the Republican party, but to the human race. On every page of that
record is written some great and glorious action, done either for the
liberty of man, or the preservation of our common country. We ask every
body to read its every word. The Democratic party comes before you with
its record closed, recording every blot and blur, and stain and treason,
and slander and malignity, and asks you not to read a single word, but
to be kind enough to take its infamous promises for the future.

Now, my friends, I propose to tell you, to-night, something that has
been done by the Democratic party, and then allow you to judge for
yourselves. Now, if a man came to you, you owning a steamboat on the
Hudson River, and he wished to hire out to you as an engineer, and you
inquired about him, and found he had blown up and destroyed and wrecked
every steamboat he had ever been engineer on, and you should tell him:
"I can't hire you; you blew up such an engine, you wrecked such a ship,"
he would say to you, "My Lord! Mister, you must let bygones be bygones."
If a man came to your bank, or came to a solitary individual here to
borrow a hundred dollars, and you went and inquired about him and found
he never paid a note in his life, found he was a dead-beat, and you say
to him, "I cannot loan you money." "Why?" "Because, I have ascertained
you never pay your debts." "Ah, yes," he says, "you are no gentleman
going prying into a man's record," I tell you, my good friends, a good
character rests upon a record, and not upon a prospectus, a good record
rests upon a deed accomplished, and not upon a promise, a good character
rests upon something really done, and not upon a good resolution, and
you cannot make a good character in a day. If you could, Tilden would
have one to-morrow night.

I propose now to tell you, my friends, a little of the history of the
Republican party, also a little of the history of the Democratic party.

And first, the Republican party. The United States of America is a free
country, it is the only free country upon this earth; it is the only
republic that was ever established among men. We have read, we have
heard, of the republics of Greece, of Egypt, of Venice; we have heard of
the free cities of Europe. There never was a republic of Venice; there
never was a republic of Rome; there never was a republic of Athens;
there never was a free city in Europe; there never was a government not
cursed with caste; there never was a government not cursed with slavery;
there never was a country not cursed with almost every infamy, until the
Republican party of the United States made this a free country. It is
the first party in the world that contended that the respectable man was
the useful man; it is the first party in the world that said, without
regard to previous conditions, without regard to race, every human being
is entitled to life, to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and it is
the only party in the world that has endeavored to carry those sublime
principles into actual effect. Every other party has been allied to
some piece of rascality; every other party has been patched up with some
thieving, larcenous, leprous compromise. The Republican party keeps
its forehead in the grand dawn of perpetual advancement; the Republican
party is the party of reason; it is the party of argument; it is
the party of education; it believes in free schools, it believes in
scientific schools; it believes that the schools are for the public and
all the public; it believes that science never should be interfered with
by any sectarian influence whatever.

The Republican party is in favor of science; the Republican party, as
I said before, is the party of reason; it argues; it does not mob; it
reasons; it does not murder; it persuades you, not with the shot gun,
not with tar and feathers, but with good sound reason, and argument.

In order for you to ascertain what the Republican party has done for us,
let us refresh ourselves a little; we all know it, but it is well enough
to hear it now and then. Let us then refresh our recollection a little,
in order to understand what the grand and great Republican party has
accomplished in the land.

We will consider, in the first place, the condition of the country when
the Republican party was born. When this Republican party was born there
was upon the statute books of the United States of America a law known
as the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, by which every man in the State of
New York was made by law a bloodhound, and could be set and hissed upon
a negro, who was simply attempting to obtain his birthright of freedom,
just as you would set a dog upon a wolf. That was the Fugitive Slave Law
of 1850. Around the neck of every man it put a collar as on a dog, but
it had not the decency to put the man's name on the collar. I said in
the State of Maine, and several other States, and expect to say it again
although I hurt the religious sentiment of the Democratic party, and
shocked the piety of that organization by saying it, but I did say then,
and now say, that the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 would have disgraced
hell in its palmiest days.

I tell you, my friends, you do not know how easy it is to shock the
religious sentiments of the Democratic party; there is a deep and pure
vein of piety running through that organization; it has been for years
spiritually inclined; there is probably no organization in the world
that really will stand by any thing of a spiritual character, at least
until it is gone, as that Democratic party will. Everywhere I have been
I have crushed their religious hopes. You have no idea how sorry I am
that I hurt their feelings so upon the subject of religion. Why, I did
not suppose that they cared anything about Christianity, but I have been
deceived. I now find that they do, and I have done what no other man in
the United States ever did--I have made the Democratic party come to the
defence of Christianity. I have made the Democratic party use what
time they could spare between drinks in quoting Scripture. But
notwithstanding the fact that I have shocked the religious sentiment
of that party, I do not want them to defend Christianity any more; they
will bring it into universal contempt if they do. Yes, yes, they will
make the words honesty and reform a stench in the nostrils of honest
men. They made the words of the Constitution stand almost for treason,
during the entire war, and every decent word that passes the ignorant,
leprous, malignant lips of the Democratic party, becomes dishonored from
that day forth.

At the same time, in 1850, when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, in
nearly all of the Western States, there was a law by which the virtues
of pity and hospitality became indictable offences. There was a law by
which the virtue of charity became a crime, and the man who performed
a kindness could be indicted, imprisoned, and fined. It was the law of
Illinois--of my own State--that if one gave a drop of cold water, or a
crust of bread, to a fugitive from slavery, he could be indicted, fined
and imprisoned, under the infamous slave law of 1850, under the infamous
black laws of the Western States.

At the time the Republican party was born, (and I have told this many
times) if a woman ninety-nine one-hundredths white had escaped from
slavery, carrying her child on her bosom, having gone through morass and
brush and thorns and thickets, had crossed creeks and rivers, and had
finally got within one step of freedom, with the light of the North
star shining in her tear-filled eyes--with her child upon her withered
breast--it would have been an indictable offence to have given her a
drop of water or a crust of bread; not only that, but under the slave
law of 1850, it was the duty of every Northern citizen claiming to be a
free man, to clutch that woman and hand her back to the dominion of her
master and to the Democratic lash. The Democrats are sorry that those
laws have been repealed. The Republican party with the mailed hand
of war tore from the statute books of the United States, and from the
statute books of each State, every one of those infamous, hellish laws,
and trampled them beneath her glorious feet.

Such laws are infamous beyond expression; one would suppose they had
been passed by a Legislature, the lower house of which were hyenas, the
upper house snakes, and the executive a cannibal king. The institution
of slavery had polluted, had corrupted the church, not only in the
South, but a large proportion of the church in the North; so that
ministers stood up in their pulpits here in New York and defended the
very infamy that I have mentioned. Not only that, but the Presbyterians,
South, in 1863, met in General Synod, and passed two resolutions.

The first resolution read, "Resolved, that slavery is a divine
institution" (and as the boy said, "so is hell").

_Second_, "Resolved, that God raised up the Presbyterian Church, South,
to protect and perpetuate that institution."

Well, all I have to say is that, if God did this, he never chose a more
infamous instrument to carry out a more diabolical object. What more had
slavery done? At that time it had corrupted the very courts, so that in
nearly every State in this Union if a Democrat had gone to the hut of
a poor negro, and had shot down his wife and children before his very
eyes, had strangled the little dimpled babe in the cradle, there was no
court before which this negro could come to give testimony. He was not
allowed to go before a magistrate and indict the murderer; he was not
allowed to go before a grand jury and swear an indictment against the
wretch. Justice was not only blind, but deaf; and that was the idea
of justice in the South, when the Republican party was born. When the
Republican party was born the bay of the bloodhound was the music of the
Union; when this party was born the dome of our Capitol at Washington
cast its shadow upon slave-pens in which crouched and shuddered women
from whose breasts their babes had been torn by wretches who are now
crying for honesty and reform. When the Republican party was born,
a bloodhound was considered as one of the instrumentalities of
republicanism. When the Republican party was born, the church had made
the cross of Christ a whipping-post. When the Republican party was
born, courts of the United States had not the slightest idea of justice,
provided a black man was on the other side. When this party came into
existence, if a negro had a plot of ground and planted corn in it, and
the rain had fallen upon it, and the dew had lain lovingly upon it, and
the arrows of light shot from the exhaustless quiver of the sun, had
quickened the blade, and the leaves waved in the perfumed air of June,
and it finally ripened into the full ear in the golden air of autumn,
the courts of the United States did not know to whom the corn belonged,
and if a Democrat had driven the negro off and shucked the corn, and
that case had been left to the Supreme Court of many of the States in
this Union, they would have read all the authorities, they would have
heard all the arguments, they would have heard all the speeches, then
pushed their spectacles back on their bald and brainless heads and
decided, all things considered, the Democrat was entitled to that
corn. We pretended at that time to be a free country; it was a lie. We
pretended at that time to do justice in our courts; it was a lie, and
above all our pretence and hypocrisy rose the curse of slavery, like
Chimborazo above the clouds.

Now, my friends, what is there about this great Republican party? It is
the party of intellectual freedom. It is one thing to bind the hands of
men; it is one thing to steal the results of physical labor of men, but
it is a greater crime to forge fetters for the souls of men. I am a free
man; I will do my own thinking or die; I give a mortgage on my soul to
nobody; I give a deed of trust on my soul to nobody; no matter whether I
think well or I think ill; whatever thought I have shall be my thought,
and shall be a free thought, and I am going to give cheerfully, gladly,
the same right to thus think to every other human being.

I despise any man who does not own himself. I despise any man who does
not possess his own spirit. I would rather die a beggar, covered with
rags, with my soul erect, fearless and free, than to live a king in a
palace of gold, clothed with the purple of power, with my soul slimy
with hypocrisy, crawling in the dust of fear. I will do my own thinking,
and when I get it thought, I will say it. These are the splendid things,
my friends, about the Republican party; intellectual and physical
liberty for all.

Now, my friends, I have told you a little about the Republican party.
Now, I will tell you a little more about the Republican party. When that
party came into power it elected Abraham Lincoln President of the United
States. I live in the State that holds within its tender embrace the
sacred ashes of Abraham Lincoln, the best, the purest man that was
ever President of the United States. I except none. When he was elected
President of the United States, the Democratic party said: "We will not
stand it;" the Democratic party South said: "We will not bear it;" and
the Democratic party North said: "You ought not to bear it."

James Buchanan was then President. James Buchanan read the Constitution
of the United States, or a part of it, and read several platforms made
by the Democratic party, and gave it as his deliberate opinion that a
State had a right to go out of the Union. He gave it as his deliberate
opinion that this was a Confederacy and not a Nation, and when he said
that, there was another little, dried up, old bachelor sitting over in
the amen corner of the political meeting and he squeaked out: "That is
my opinion too," and the name of that man was Samuel J. Tilden.

The Democratic party then and now says that the Union is simply a
Confederacy; but I want this country to be a Nation. I want to live in
a great and splendid country. A great nation makes a great people. Your
surroundings have something to do with it. Great plains, magnificent
rivers, great ranges of mountains, a country washed by two oceans--all
these things make us great and grand as the continent on which we live.
The war commenced, and the moment the war commenced the whole country
was divided into two parties. No matter what they had been
before, whether Democrats, Freesoilers, Republicans, old Whigs, or
Abolitionists--the whole country divided into two parties--the friends
and enemies of the country--patriots and traitors, and they so continued
until the Rebellion was put down. I cheerfully admit that thousands
of Democrats went into the army, and that thousands of Democrats were
patriotic men. I cheerfully admit that thousands of them thought more of
their country than they did of the Democratic party, and they came with
us to fight for the country, and I honor every one of them from the
bottom of my heart, and nineteen out of twenty of them have voted the
Republican ticket from that day to this. Some of them came back and went
to the Democratic party again and are still in that party; I have not
a word to say against them, only this: They are swapping off
respectability for disgrace. They give to the Democratic party all the
respectability it has, and the Democratic party gives to them all the
disgrace they have.

Democratic soldier, come out of the Democratic party. There was a man in
my State got mad at the railroad and would not ship his hogs on it, so
he drove them to Chicago, and it took him so long to get them there that
the price had fallen; when he came back, they laughed at him, and said
to him, "You didn't make much, did you, driving your hogs to Chicago?"
"No," he said, "I didn't make anything except the company of the hogs on
the way." Soldier of the Republic, I say, with the Democratic party all
you can make is the company of the hogs on the way down. Come out, come
out and leave them alone in their putridity--in their rottenness. Leave
them alone. Do not try to put a new patch on an old garment. Leave them
alone. I tell you the Democratic party must be left alone; it must be
left to enjoy the primal curse, "On thy belly shalt thou crawl and dust
shalt thou eat all the days of thy life," O Democratic party.

Now, my friends, I need not tell you how we put down the Rebellion. You
all know. I need not describe to you the battles you fought. I need not
tell you of the men who sacrificed their lives. I need not tell you of
the old men who are still waiting for footsteps that never will return.
I need not tell you of the women who are waiting for the return of their
loved ones. I need not tell you of all these things. You know we put
down the Rebellion; we fought until the old flag triumphed over every
inch of American soil redeemed from the clutch of treason.

Now, my friends, what was the Democratic party doing when the Republican
party was doing these splendid things? When, the Republican party said
this was a nation; when the Republican party said we shall be free;
when the Republican party said slavery shall be extirpated from American
soil; when the Republican party said the negro shall be a citizen, and
the citizen shall have the ballot, and the citizen shall have the right
to cast that ballot for the government of his choice peaceably--what was
the Democratic party doing?

I will tell you a few things that the Democratic party has done within
the last sixteen years. In the first place, they were not willing that
this country should be saved unless slavery could be saved with it.
There never was a Democrat, North or South--and by Democrat I mean the
fellows who stuck to the party all during the war, the ones that stuck
to the party after it was a disgrace; the ones that stuck to the party
from simple, pure cussedness--there never was one who did not think
more of the institution of slavery than he did of the Government of the
United States; not one that I ever saw or read of. And so they said to
us for all those years: "If you can save the Union with slavery, and
without any help from us, we are willing you should do it; but we do not
propose that this shall be an abolition war." So the Democratic
party from the first said, "An effort to preserve this Union is
unconstitutional," and they made a breastwork of the Constitution for
rebels to get behind and shoot down loyal men, so that the first charge
I lay at the feet of the Democratic party, the first charge I make in
the indictment, is that they thought more of slavery than of liberty and
of this Union, and in my judgment they are in the same condition this
moment. The next thing they did was to discourage enlistments in the
North. They did all in their power to prevent any man's going into the
army to assist in putting down the Rebellion. And that grand reformer
and statesman, Samuel J. Tilden, gave it as his opinion that the South
could sue, and that every soldier who put his foot on sacred Southern
soil would be a trespasser, and could be sued before a Justice of the
Peace. The Democratic party met in their conventions in every State
North, and denounced the war as an abolition war, and Abraham Lincoln
as a tyrant. What more did they do? They went into partnership with
the rebels. They said to the rebels just as plainly as though they had
spoken it: "Hold on, hold out, hold hard, fight hard, until we get the
political possession of the North, and then you can go in peace."

What more? A man by the name of Jacob Thompson--a nice man and a good
Democrat, who thinks that of all the men to reform the Government Samuel
J. Tilden is the best man--Jacob Thompson had the misfortune to be
a very vigorous Democrat, and I will show you what I mean by that. A
Democrat during the war who had a musket--you understand, a musket--he
was a rebel, and during the war a rebel that did not have a musket was
a Democrat. I call Mr. Thompson a vigorous Democrat, because he had a
musket. Jacob Thompson was the rebel agent in Canada, and when he went
there he took between six and seven hundred thousand dollars for the
purpose of co-operating with the Northern Democracy. He got himself
acquainted with and in connection with the Democratic party in Ohio, in
Indiana, and in Illinois. The vigorous Democrats, the real Democrats,
in these States had organized themselves under the heads of "Sons of
Liberty," "Knights of the Golden Circle," "Order of the Star," and
various other beautiful names, and their object was to release rebel
prisoners from Camp Chase, Camp Douglass in Chicago, and from one camp
in Indianapolis and another camp at Rock Island. Their object was to
raise a fire in the rear, as they called it--in other words, to burn
down the homes of Union soldiers while they were in the front fighting
for the honor of their country. That was their object, and they put
themselves in connection with Jacob Thompson. They were to have an
uprising on the 16th of August, 1864. It was thought best to hold a few
public meetings for the purpose of arousing the public mind. They held
the first meeting in the city of Peoria, where I live. That was August
3rd, 1864. Here they came from every part of the State, and were
addressed by the principal Democratic politicians in Illinois.

To that meeting Fernando Wood addressed a letter, in which he said that
although absent in body he should be present in spirit. George Pendleton
of Ohio, George Pugh of the same State, Seymour of Connecticut, and
various other Democratic gentlemen, sent acknowledgments and expressions
of regret to this Democratic meeting that met at this time for the
purpose of organizing an uprising among the Democratic party. I saw that
meeting, and heard some of their speeches. They denounced the war as an
abolition nigger war. They denounced Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant. They
carried transparencies that said, "Is there money enough in the land to
pay this nigger debt? Arouse, brothers, and hurl the tyrant Lincoln from
the throne." And the men that promulgated that very thing are running
for the most important political offices in the country, on the ground
of honesty and reform. And Jacob Thompson says that he furnished the
money to pay the expenses of that Democratic meeting. They were all paid
by rebel gold, by Jacob Thompson. He has on file the voucher from these
Democratic gentlemen in favor of Tilden and Hendricks. The next meetings
were held in Springfield, Illinois, and Indianapolis, Indiana, the
expenses of which were paid in the same way. They shipped to one town
these weapons of our destruction in boxes labeled Sunday school books!

That same rebel agent, Jacob Thompson, hired a Democrat by the name
of Churchill to burn the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Thompson coolly
remarked: "I don't think he has had much luck, as I have only heard of a
_few_ fires."

In Indianapolis a man named Dodds was arrested--a sound Democrat--so
sound that the Government had to take him by the nape of the neck and
put him in Fort Lafayette. The convention of Democrats then met in the
city of Chicago, and declared the war a failure. There never was a more
infamous lie on this earth than when the Democratic convention declared
in 1864 that the war was a failure. It was but a few days afterward that
the roar of Grants cannon announced that a lie. Rise from your graves,
Union soldiers, one and all, that fell in support of your country--rise
from your graves, and lift your skeleton hands on high, and swear that
when the Democratic party resolved that the war for the preservation
of your country was a failure, that the Democratic party was a vast
aggregated liar. Well, we grew magnanimous, and let Dodds out of Fort
Lafayette; and where do you suppose Dodds is now? He is in Wisconsin.
What do you suppose Dodds is doing? Making speeches. Whom for? Tilden
and Hendricks--"Honesty and reform!" This same Jacob Thompson, Democrat,
hired men to burn New York, and they did set fire in some twenty places,
and they used Greek fire, as he said in his letter, and ingenuously
adds: "I shall never hereafter advise the use of Greek fire." They
knew that in the smoke and ruins would be found the charred remains of
mothers and children, and that the flames leaping like serpents would
take the child from the mothers arms, and they were ready to do it to
preserve the infamous institution of slavery; and the Democratic party
has never objected to it from that day to this. They burned steamboats,
and many men with them, and the hounds that did it are skulking in the
woods of Missouri. While these things were going on, Democrats in the
highest positions said: "Not one cent to prosecute the war."

The next question we have to consider is about paying the debt. This
is the first question. The second question is the protection of the
citizen, whether he is white or black. We owe a large debt. Two-thirds
of that debt was incurred in consequence of the action and the meanness
of the Democrats. There are some people who think that you can defer
the payment of a promise so long that the postponement of the debt will
serve in lieu of its liquidation--that you pay your debts by putting off
your creditors.

The people have to support the Government; the Government cannot support
the people. The Government has no money but what it received from the
people. It had therefore to borrow money to carry on the war. Every
greenback that it issued was a forced loan. My notes are not a legal
tender, though if I had the power I might possibly make them so. We
borrowed money and we have to pay the debt. That debt represents the
expenses of war. The horses and the gunpowder and the rifles and the
artillery are represented in that debt--it represents all the munitions
of war. Until we pay that debt we can never be a solvent nation. Until
our net profits amount to as much as we lost during the war we can never
be a solvent people. If a man cannot understand that, there is no use in
talking to him on the subject. The alchemists in olden times who fancied
that they could make gold out of nothing were not more absurd than the
American advocates of soft money. They resemble the early explorers of
our continent who lost years in searching for the fountain of eternal
youth, but the ear of age never caught the gurgle of that spring. We
all have heard of men who spent years of labor in endeavoring to produce
perpetual motion. They produced machines of the most ingenious character
with cogs and wheels, and pulleys without number, but these ingenious
machines had one fault, they would not go. You will never find a way to
make money out of nothing. It is as great nonsense as the fountain of
perpetual youth. You cannot do it.

Gold is the best material which labor has yet found as a measure of
value. That measure of value must be as valuable as the object it
measures.

The value of gold arises from the amount of labor expended in producing
it. A gold dollar will buy as much labor as produced that dollar.

     [Here the speaker opened a telegram from Maine, which he
     read to the audience amid a perfect tempest of applause. It
     contained the following words:] "We have triumphed by an
     immense majority, something we have not achieved since
     1868." [The speaker resumed.] And this despatch is signed by
     the man who clutched the throats of the Democrats and held
     them until they grew black in the face, James G. Blaine. ***


Now, gentlemen, to pass from the financial part of this, and I will say
one word before I do it. The Republican party intends to pay its debts
in coin on the 1st of January, 1879. Paper money means probably the
payment of the Confederate debt; a metallic currency, the discharge of
honest obligations. We have touched hard-pan prices in this country, and
we want to do a hard-pan business with hard money.

We now come to the protection of our citizens. A government that cannot
protect its citizens, at home and abroad, ought to be swept from the map
of the world. The Democrats tell you that they will protect any citizen
if he is only away from home, but if he is in Louisiana or any other
State in the Union, the Government is powerless to protect him. I say
a government has a right to protect every citizen at home as well as
abroad, and the Government has the right to take its soldiers across
the State line, to take its soldiers into any State, for the purpose of
protecting even one man. That is my doctrine with regard to the power of
the Government. But here comes a Democrat to-day and tells me, (and
it is the old doctrine of secession in disguise), that the State of
Louisiana must protect its own citizens, and that if it does not, the
General Government has nothing to do unless the Governor of that State
asks assistance, no matter whether anarchy prevails or not. That is
infamous. The United States has the right to draft you and me into the
army and compel us to serve there, if its powers are being usurped. It
is the duty of this Government to see to it that every citizen has
all his rights in every State in this Union, and to protect him in the
enjoyment of those rights, peaceably if it can, forcibly if it must.

Democrats tell us that they treat the colored man very well. I have
frequently read stories relating how two white men were passing along
the road when suddenly they were set upon by ten or twelve negroes, who
sought their lives; but in the fight which ensued, the ten or twelve
negroes were killed, and not a white man hurt. I tell you it is
infamous, and the Democratic press of the North laughs at it, and Mr.
Samuel J. Tilden does not care. He knows that many of the Southern
States are to be carried by assassination and murder, and he knows that
if he is elected it will be by assassination and murder. It is infamous
beyond the expression of language. Now, I ask you which party will be
the most likely to preserve the liberty of the negro--the party who
fought for slavery, or the men who gave them freedom? These are the
two great questions--the payment of the debt, and the protection of our
citizens. My friends, we have to pay the debt, as I told you, but it is
of greater importance to make sacred American citizenship.

Now, these two parties have a couple of candidates. The Democratic
party has put forward Mr. Samuel J. Tilden. Mr. Tilden is a Democrat who
belongs to the Democratic party of the city of New York; the worst party
ever organized in any civilized country. I wish you could see it. The
pugilists, the prizefighters, the plug-uglies, the fellows that run with
the "masheen;" nearly every nose is mashed, about half the ears have
been chawed off; and of whatever complexion they are, their eyes are
nearly always black. They have fists like tea-kettles and heads like
bullets. I wish you could see them. I have been in New York every few
weeks for fifteen years; and whenever I am here I see the old banner of
Tammany Hall, "Tammany Hall and Reform;" "John Morrissey and Reform;"
"John Kelley and Reform;" "William M. Tweed and Reform;" and the
other day I saw the same old flag; "Samuel J. Tilden and Reform."
The Democratic party of the city of New York never had but two
objects--grand and petit larceny. Tammany Hall bears the same relation
to the penitentiary that the Sunday school does to the church.

I have heard that the Democratic party got control of the city when it
did not owe a dollar, and have stolen and stolen until it owes a hundred
and sixty millions, and I understand that every election they have had
was a fraud, every one. I understand that they stole everything they
could lay their hands on; and what hands! Grasped and grasped and
clutched, until they stole all it was possible for the people to pay,
and now they are all yelling for "Honesty and Reform."

I understand that Samuel J. Tilden was a pupil in that school, and that
now he is the head teacher. I understand that when the war commenced
he said he would never aid in the prosecution of that old outrage. I
understand that he said in 1860 and in 1861 that the Southern States
could snap the tie of confederation as a nation would break a treaty,
and that they could repel coercion as a nation would repel invasion. I
understand that during the entire war he was opposed to its prosecution,
and that he was opposed to the Proclamation of Emancipation, and
demanded that the document be taken back. I understand that he regretted
to see the chains fall from the limbs of the colored man. I understand
that he regretted when the Constitution of the United States was
elevated and purified, pure as the driven snow. I understand that he
regretted when the stain was wiped from our flag and we stood before the
world the only pure Republic that ever existed. This is enough for me
to say about him, and since the news from Maine you need not waste your
time in talking about him.

     [A voice: "How about free schools?"]

I want every schoolhouse to be a temple of science in which shall be
taught the laws of nature, in which the children shall be taught actual
facts, and I do not want that schoolhouse touched, or that institution
of science touched, by any superstition whatever. Leave religion with
the church, with the family, and more than all, leave religion with each
individual heart and man.

Let every man be his own bishop, let every man be his own pope, let
every man do his own thinking, let every man have a brain of his own.
Let every man have a heart and conscience of his own.

We are growing better, and truer, and grander. And let me say, Mr.
Democrat, we are keeping the country for your children. We are keeping
education for your children. We are keeping the old flag floating for
your children; and let me say, as a prediction, there is only air enough
on this continent to float that one flag.

     Note.--This address was not revised by the author for
     publication.




INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH.

     * Col. Ingersoll was introduced by Gen'l Noyes, who said: "I
     have now the exquisite pleasure of introducing to you that
     dashing cavalry officer, that thunderbolt of war, that
     silver tongued orator, Col. Robert G. Ingersoll of Illinois."
     The Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana. September 2lst, 1876.


HAYES CAMPAIGN.

1876

Delivered to the Veteran Soldiers of the Rebellion.

LADIES and Gentlemen, Fellow Citizens and Citizen Soldiers:--I am
opposed to the Democratic party, and I will tell you why. Every State
that seceded from the United States was a Democratic State. Every
ordinance of secession that was drawn was drawn by a Democrat. Every man
that endeavored to tear the old flag from the heaven that it enriches
was a Democrat. Every man that tried to destroy this nation was a
Democrat. Every enemy this great Republic has had for twenty years has
been a Democrat. Every man that shot Union soldiers was a Democrat.
Every man that denied to the Union prisoners even the worm-eaten crust
of famine, and when some poor, emaciated Union patriot, driven to
insanity by famine, saw in an insane dream the face of his mother, and
she beckoned him and he followed, hoping to press her lips once again
against his fevered face, and when he stepped one step beyond the dead
line the wretch that put the bullet through his loving, throbbing heart
was and is a Democrat.

Every man that loved slavery better than liberty was a Democrat. The
man that assassinated Abraham Lincoln was a Democrat. Every man that
sympathized with the assassin--every man glad that the noblest President
ever elected was assassinated, was a Democrat. Every man that wanted the
privilege of whipping another man to make him work for him for nothing
and pay him with lashes on his naked back, was a Democrat. Every man
that raised bloodhounds to pursue human beings was a Democrat. Every man
that clutched from shrieking, shuddering, crouching mothers, babes from
their breasts, and sold them into slavery, was a Democrat. Every man
that impaired the credit of the United States, every man that swore we
would never pay the bonds, every man that swore we would never
redeem the greenbacks, every maligner of his country's credit, every
calumniator of his country's honor, was a Democrat. Every man that
resisted the draft, every man that hid in the bushes and shot at Union
men simply because they were endeavoring to enforce the laws of their
country, was a Democrat. Every man that wept over the corpse of slavery
was a Democrat. Every man that cursed Abraham Lincoln because he
issued the Proclamation of Emancipation--the grandest paper since the
Declaration of Independence--every one of them was a Democrat. Every man
that denounced the soldiers that bared their breasts to the storms of
shot and shell for the honor of America and for the sacred rights of
man; was a Democrat. Every man that wanted an uprising in the North,
that wanted to release the rebel prisoners that they might burn down
the homes of Union soldiers above the heads of their wives and children,
while the brave husbands, the heroic fathers, were in the front fighting
for the honor of the old flag, every one of them was a Democrat. I am
not through yet. Every man that believed this glorious nation of ours
is a confederacy, every man that believed the old banner carried by our
fathers over the fields of the Revolution; the old flag carried by our
fathers over the fields of 1812; the glorious old banner carried by our
brothers over the plains of Mexico; the sacred banner carried by
our brothers over the cruel fields of the South, simply stood for a
contract, simply stood for an agreement, was a Democrat. Every man who
believed that any State could go out of the Union at its pleasure, every
man that believed the grand fabric of the American Government could
be made to crumble instantly into dust at the touch of treason, was a
Democrat. Every man that helped to burn orphan asylums in New York, was
a Democrat; every man that tried to fire the city of New York, although
he knew that thousands would perish, and knew that the great serpent of
flame leaping from buildings would clutch children from their mothers'
arms--every wretch that did it was a Democrat. Recollect it! Every man
that tried to spread smallpox and yellow fever in the North, as the
instrumentalities of civilized war, was a Democrat. Soldiers, every scar
you have on your heroic bodies was given you by a Democrat. Every scar,
every arm that is lacking, every limb that is gone, is a souvenir of a
Democrat. I want you to recollect it. Every man that was the enemy of
human liberty in this country was a Democrat. Every man that wanted
the fruit of all the heroism of all the ages to turn to ashes upon the
lips--every one was a Democrat.

I am a Republican. I will tell you why: This is the only free Government
in the world. The Republican party made it so. The Republican party took
the chains from four millions of people. The Republican party, with the
wand of progress, touched the auction-block and it became a schoolhouse.
The Republican party put down the Rebellion, saved the nation, kept the
old banner afloat in the air, and declared that slavery of every kind
should be extirpated from the face of this continent. What more? I am a
Republican because it is the only free party that ever existed. It is a
party that has a platform as broad as humanity, a platform as broad as
the human race, a party that says you shall have all the fruit of the
labor of your hands, a party that says you may think for yourself, a
party that says, no chains for the hands, no fetters for the soul.*

     * At this point the rain began to descend, and it looked as
     if a heavy shower was impending. Several umbrellas were put
     up. Gov. Noyes--"God bless you! What is rain to soldiers"
     Voice--"Go ahead; we don't mind the rain." It was proposed
     to adjourn the meeting to Masonic Hall, but the motion was
     voted down by an overwhelming majority, and Mr. Ingersoll
     proceeded.

I am a Republican because the Republican party says this country is a
Nation, and not a confederacy. I am here in Indiana to speak, and I
have as good a right to speak here as though I had been born on this
stand--not because the State flag of Indiana waves over me--I would
not know it if I should see it. You have the same right to speak in
Illinois, not because the State flag of Illinois waves over you, but
because that banner, rendered sacred by the blood of all the heroes,
waves over you and me. I am in favor of this being a Nation. Think of a
man gratifying his entire ambition in the State of Rhode Island. We want
this to be a Nation, and you cannot have a great, grand, splendid people
without a great, grand, splendid country. The great plains, the sublime
mountains, the great rushing, roaring rivers, shores lashed by two
oceans, and the grand anthem of Niagara, mingle and enter, into the
character of every American citizen, and make him or tend to make him a
great and grand character. I am for the Republican party because it says
the Government has as much right, as much power, to protect its citizens
at home as abroad. The Republican party does not say that you have to go
away from home to get the protection of the Government. The Democratic
party says the Government cannot march its troops into the South to
protect the rights of the citizens. It is a lie. The Government claims
the right, and it is conceded that the Government has the right, to go
to your house, while you are sitting by your fireside with your wife and
children about you, and the old lady knitting, and the cat playing with
the yarn, and everybody happy and serene--the Government claims the
right to go to your fireside and take you by force and put you into the
army; take you down to the valley of the shadow of hell, put you by the
ruddy, roaring guns, and make you fight for your flag. Now, that being
so, when the war is over and your country is victorious, and you go back
to your home, and a lot of Democrats want to trample upon your rights, I
want to know if the Government that took you from your fireside and made
you fight for it, I want to know if it is not bound to fight for you.
The flag that will not protect its protectors is a dirty rag that
contaminates the air in which it waves. The government that will not
defend its defenders is a disgrace to the nations of the world. I am
a Republican because the Republican party says, "We will protect the
rights of American citizens at home, and if necessary we will march
an army into any State to protect the rights of the humblest American
citizen in that State." I am a Republican because that party allows
me to be free--allows me to do my own thinking in my own way. I am a
Republican because it is a party grand enough and splendid enough and
sublime enough to invite every human being in favor of liberty and
progress to fight shoulder to shoulder for the advancement of mankind.
It invites the Methodist, it invites the Catholic, it invites the
Presbyterian and every kind of sectarian; it invites the Freethinker;
it invites the infidel, provided he is in favor of giving to every other
human being every chance and every right that he claims for himself.
I am a Republican, I tell you. There is room in the Republican air
for every wing; there is room on the Republican sea for every sail.
Republicanism says to every man: "Let your soul be like an eagle; fly
out in the great dome of thought, and question the stars for yourself."
But the Democratic party says; "Be blind owls, sit on the dry limb of a
dead tree, and hoot only when that party says hoot."

In the Republican party there are no followers. We are all leaders.
There is not a party chain. There is not a party lash. Any man that does
not love this country, any man that does not love liberty, any man that
is not in favor of human progress, that is not in favor of giving
to others all he claims for himself; we do not ask him to vote the
Republican ticket. You can vote it if you please, and if there is any
Democrat within hearing who expects to die before another election,
we are willing that he should vote one Republican ticket, simply as a
consolation upon his death-bed. What more? I am a Republican because
that party believes in free labor. It believes that free labor will give
us wealth. It believes in free thought, because it believes that free
thought will give us truth. You do not know what a grand party you
belong to. I never want any holier or grander title of nobility than
that I belong to the Republican party, and have fought for the liberty
of man. The Republican party, I say, believes in free labor. The
Republican party also believes in slavery. What kind of slavery? In
enslaving the forces of nature.

We believe that free labor, that free thought, have enslaved the
forces of nature, and made them work for man. We make old attraction of
gravitation work for us; we make the lightning do our errands; we make
steam hammer and fashion what we need. The forces of nature are the
slaves of the Republican party. They have no backs to be whipped,
they have no hearts to be torn--no hearts to be broken; they cannot be
separated from their wives; they cannot be dragged from the bosoms of
their husbands; they work night and day and they never tire. You cannot
whip them, you cannot starve them, and a Democrat even can be trusted
with one of them. I tell you I am a Republican. I believe, as I told
you, that free labor will give us these slaves. Free labor will produce
all these things, and everything you have to-day has been produced by
free labor, nothing by slave labor.

Slavery never invented but one machine, and that was a threshing machine
in the shape of a whip. Free labor has invented all the machines. We
want to come down to the philosophy of these things. The problem of free
labor, when a man works for the wife he loves, when he works for the
little children he adores--the problem is to do the most work in the
shortest space of time. The problem of slavery is to do the least work
in the longest space of time. That is the difference. Free labor, love,
affection--they have invented everything of use in this world. I am a
Republican.

I tell you, my friends, this world is getting better every day, and the
Democratic party is getting smaller every day. See the advancement we
have made in a few years, see what we have done. We have covered this
nation with wealth, with glory and with liberty. This is the first free
Government in the world. The Republican party is the first party that
was not founded on some compromise with the devil. It is the first party
of pure, square, honest principle; the first one. And we have the first
free country that ever existed.

And right here I want to thank every soldier that fought to make it
free, every one living and dead. I thank you again and again and again.
You made the first free Government in the world, and we must not forget
the dead heroes. If they were here they would vote the Republican
ticket, every one of them. I tell you we must not forget them.

* The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great
struggle for national life. We hear the sounds of preparation--the
music of boisterous drums--the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see
thousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators. We see
the pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of men; and in those
assemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with flowers.
We lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they enlist in the
great army of freedom. We see them part with those they love. Some are
walking for the last time in quiet, woody places, with the maidens they
adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of eternal love as
they lingeringly part forever. Others are bending over cradles, kissing
babes that are asleep. Some are receiving the blessings of old men. Some
are parting with mothers who hold them and press them to their
hearts again and again, and say nothing. Kisses and tears, tears and
kisses--divine mingling of agony and love! And some are talking with
wives, and endeavoring with brave words, spoken in the old tones, to
drive from their hearts the awful fear. We see them part. We see the
wife standing in the door with the babe in her arms--standing in the
sunlight sobbing. At the turn of the road a hand waves--she answers by
holding high in her loving arms the child. He is gone, and forever.

We see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags,
keeping time to the grand, wild music of war--marching down the streets
of the great cities--through the towns and across the prairies--down to
the fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right.

We go with them, one and all. We are by their side on all the gory
fields--in all the hospitals of pain--on all the weary marches. We stand
guard with them in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are with
them in ravines running with blood--in the furrows of old fields. We are
with them between contending hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst,
the life ebbing slowly away among the withered leaves. We see them
pierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches, by forts, and
in the whirlwind of the charge, where men become iron, with nerves of
steel.

We are with them in the prisons of hatred and famine; but human speech
can never tell what they endured.

We are at home when the news comes that they are dead. We see the maiden
in the shadow of her first sorrow. We see the silvered head of the old
man bowed with the last grief.

The past rises before us, and we see four millions of human beings
governed by the lash--we see them bound hand and foot--we hear the
strokes of cruel whips--we see the hounds tracking women through
tangled swamps. We see babes sold from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty
unspeakable! Outrage infinite!

Four million bodies in chains--four million souls in fetters. All the
sacred relations of wife, mother, father and child trampled beneath
the brutal feet of might. And all this was done under our own beautiful
banner of the free.

The past rises before us. We hear the roar and shriek of the bursting
shell. The broken fetters fall. These heroes died. We look. Instead of
slaves we see men and women and children. The wand of progress touches
the auction-block, the slave-pen, the whipping-post, and we see homes
and firesides and schoolhouses and books, and where all was want and
crime and cruelty and fear, we see the faces of the free.

These heroes are dead. They died for liberty--they died for us. They
are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag
they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks,
the tearful willows, and the embracing vines. They, sleep beneath the
shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in
the windowless Palace of Rest. Earth may run red with other wars--they
are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they
found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers living
and dead: cheers for the living; tears for the dead.

     * This poetic flight of oratory has since become universally
     known as "A. Vision of War."

Now, my friends, I have given you a few reasons why I am a Republican. I
have given you a few reasons why I am not a Democrat. Let me say another
thing. The Democratic party opposed every forward movement of the
army of the Republic, every one. Do not be fooled. Imagine the meanest
resolution that you can think of--that is the resolution the Democratic
party passed. Imagine the meanest thing you can think of--that is what
they did; and I want you to recollect that the Democratic party did
these devilish things when the fate of this nation was trembling in the
balance of war. I want you to recollect another thing; when they tell
you about hard times, that the Democratic party made the hard times;
that every dollar we owe to-day was made by the Southern and Northern
Democracy.

When we commenced to put down the Rebellion we had to borrow money, and
the Democratic party went into the markets of the world and impaired the
credit of the United States. They slandered, they lied, they maligned
the credit of the United States, and to such an extent did they do this,
that at one time during the war paper was only worth about thirty-four
cents on the dollar. Gold went up to $2.90. What did that mean? It meant
that greenbacks were worth thirty-four cents on the dollar. What became
of the other sixty-six cents? They were lied out of the greenback,
they were slandered out of the greenback, they were maligned out of the
greenback, they were calumniated out of the greenback, by the Democratic
party of the North. Two-thirds of the debt, two-thirds of the burden
now upon the shoulders of American industry, were placed there by the
slanders of the Democratic party of the North, and the other third by
the Democratic party of the South. And when you pay your taxes keep an
account and charge two-thirds to the Northern Democracy and one-third to
the Southern Democracy, and whenever you have to earn the money to pay
the taxes, when you have to blister your hands to earn that money, pull
off the blisters, and under each one, as the foundation, you will find a
Democratic lie.

Recollect that the Democratic party did all the things of which I have
told you, when the fate of our nation was submitted to the arbitrament
of the sword. Recollect that the Democratic party did these things when
your brothers, your fathers, and your chivalric sons were fighting,
bleeding, suffering, and dying upon the battle-fields of the South; when
shot and shell were crashing through their sacred flesh. Recollect that
this Democratic party was false to the Union when your husbands, your
fathers, and your brothers, and your chivalric sons were lying in the
hospitals of pain, dreaming broken dreams of home, and seeing fever
pictures of the ones they loved; recollect that the Democratic party was
false to the nation when your husbands, your fathers, and your brothers
were lying alone upon the field of battle at night, the life-blood
slowly oozing from the mangled and pallid lips of death; recollect that
the Democratic party was false to your country when your husbands, your
brothers, your fathers, and your sons were lying in the prison pens of
the South, with no covering but the clouds, with no bed but the frozen
earth, with no food except such as worms had re-p fused to eat, and with
no friends except Insanity and Death. Recollect it, and spurn that party
forever.

I have sometimes wished that there were words of pure hatred out of
which I might construct sentences like snakes; out of which I might
construct sentences that had fanged mouths, and that had forked tongues;
out of which I might construct sentences that would writhe and hiss;
and then I could give my opinion of the Northern allies of the Southern
rebels during the great struggle for the preservation of the country.

There are three questions now submitted to the American people. The
first is, Shall the people that saved this country rule it? Shall the
men who saved the old flag hold it? Shall the men who saved the ship
of State sail it, or shall the rebels walk her quarter-deck, give the
orders and sink it? That is the question. Shall a solid South, a united
South, united by assassination and murder, a South solidified by the
shot-gun; shall a united South, with the aid of a divided North, shall
they control this great and splendid country? We are right back where we
were in 1861. This is simply a prolongation of the war. This is the war
of the idea, the other was the war of the musket. The other was the war
of cannon, this is the war of thought; and we have to beat them in
this war of thought, recollect that. The question is, Shall the men who
endeavored to destroy this country rule it? Shall the men that said,
This is not a Nation, have charge of the Nation?

The next question is, Shall we pay our debts? We had to borrow some
money to pay for shot and shell to shoot Democrats with. We found that
we could get along with a few less Democrats, but not with any less
country, and so we borrowed the money, and the question now is, will we
pay it? And which party is the more apt to pay it, the Republican party
that made the debt--the party that swore it was constitutional, or the
party that said it was unconstitutional?

Every time a Democrat sees a greenback, it says to him, "I vanquished
you." Every time a Republican sees a greenback, it says, "You and I put
down the Rebellion and saved the country."

Now, my friends, you have heard a great deal about finance. Nearly
everybody that talks about it gets as dry--as dry as if they had been in
the final home of the Democratic party for forty years.

I will now give you my ideas about finance. In the first place
the Government does not support the people, the people support the
Government.

The Government is a perpetual pauper. It passes round the hat, and
solicits contributions; but then you must remember that the Government
has a musket behind the hat. The Government produces nothing. It does
not plow the land, it does not sow corn, it does not grow trees. The
Government is a perpetual consumer. We support the Government. Now, the
idea that the Government can make money for you and me to live on--why,
it is the same as though my hired man should issue certificates of my
indebtedness to him for me to live on.

Some people tell me that the Government can impress its sovereignty on
a piece of paper, and that is money. Well, if it is, what's the use of
wasting it making one dollar bills? It takes no more ink and no more
paper--why not make one thousand dollar bills? Why not make a hundred
million dollar bills and all be billionaires?

If the Government can make money, what on earth does it collect taxes
from you and me for? Why does it not make what money it wants, take
the taxes out, and give the balance to us? Mr. Greenbacker, suppose the
Government issued a billion dollars to-morrow, how would you get any
of it? [A voice, "Steal it."] I was not speaking to the Democrats. You
would not get any of it unless you had something to exchange for it. The
Government would not go around and give you your aver-: age. You have to
have some corn, or wheat, or pork to give for it.

How do you get your money? By work. Where from? You have to dig it out
of the ground. That is where it comes from. Men have always had a kind
of hope that something could be made out of nothing. The old alchemists
sought, with dim eyes, for something that could change the baser metals
to gold. With tottering steps, they searched for the spring of Eternal
Youth. Holding in trembling hands retort and crucible, they dreamed of
the Elixir of Life. The baser metals are not gold. No human ear has ever
heard the silver gurgle of the spring of Immortal Youth. The wrinkles
upon the brow of Age are still waiting for the Elixir of Life.

Inspired by the same idea, mechanics have endeavored, by curious
combinations of levers and inclined planes, of wheels and cranks and
shifting weights, to produce perpetual motion; but the wheels and levers
wait for force. And, in the financial world, there are thousands now
trying to find some way for promises to take the place of performance;
for some way to make the word dollar as good as the dollar itself; for
some way to make the promise to pay a dollar take the dollar's place.
This financial alchemy, this pecuniary perpetual motion, this fountain
of eternal wealth, are the same old failures with new names. Something
cannot be made out of nothing. Nothing is a poor capital to, carry on
business with, and makes a very unsatisfactory balance at your bankers.

Let me tell you another thing. The Democrats seem to think that you can
fail to keep a promise so long that it is as good as though you had kept
it. They say you can stamp the sovereignty of the Government upon paper.

I saw not long ago a piece of gold bearing the stamp of the Roman
Empire. That Empire is dust, and over it has been thrown the mantle of
oblivion, but that piece of gold is as good as though Julius Cæsar were
still riding at the head of the Roman Legions.

Was it his sovereignty that made it valuable? Suppose he had put it upon
a piece of paper--it would have been of no more value than a Democratic
promise.

Another thing, my friends: this debt will be paid; you need not worry
about that. The Democrats ought to pay it. They lost the suit, and they
ought to pay the costs. But we in our patriotism are willing to pay our
share.

Every man that has a bond, every man that has a greenback dollar has
a mortgage upon the best continent of land on earth. Every one has a
mortgage on the honor of the Republican party, and it is on record.
Every spear of grass; every bearded head of golden wheat that grows upon
this continent is a guarantee that the debt will be paid; every field of
bannered corn in the great, glorious West is a guarantee that the debt
will be paid; every particle of coal laid away by that old miser the
sun, millions-of years ago, is a guarantee that every dollar will be
paid; all the iron ore, all the gold and silver under the snow-capped
Sierra Nevadas, waiting for the miners pick to give back the flash of
the sun, every ounce is a guarantee that this debt will be paid; and all
the cattle on the prairies, pastures and plains which adorn our broad
land are guarantees that this debt will be paid; every pine standing
in the sombre forests of the North, waiting for the woodman's axe, is a
guarantee that this debt will be paid; every locomotive with its muscles
of iron and breath of flame, and all the boys and girls bending over
their books at school, every dimpled babe in the cradle, every honest
man, every noble woman, and every man that votes the Republican ticket
is a guarantee that the debt will be paid--these, all these, each and
all, are the guarantees that every promise of the United States will be
sacredly fulfilled.

What is the next question? The next question is, will we protect the
Union men in the South? I tell you the white Union men have suffered
enough. It is a crime in the Southern States to be a Republican. It is
a crime in every Southern State to love this country, to believe in the
sacred rights of men.

The colored people have suffered enough. For more than two hundred years
they have suffered the fabled torments of the damned; for more than two
hundred years they worked and toiled without reward, bending, in the
burning sun, their bleeding backs; for more than two hundred years,
babes were torn from the breasts of mothers, wives from husbands, and
every human tie broken by the cruel hand of greed; for more than two
hundred years they were pursued by hounds, beaten with clubs, burned
with fire, bound with chains; two hundred years of toil, of agony, of
tears; two hundred years of hope deferred; two hundred years of
gloom and shadow and darkness and blackness; two hundred years of
supplication, of entreaty; two hundred years of infinite outrage,
without a moment of revenge.

The colored people have suffered enough. They were and are our friends.
They are the friends of this country, and, cost what it may, they must
be protected.

There was not during the whole Rebellion a single negro that was not our
friend. We are willing to be reconciled to our Southern brethren when
they will treat our friends as men. When they will be just to the
friends of this country; when they are in favor of allowing every
American citizen to have his rights--then we are their friends. We are
willing to trust them with the Nation when they are the friends of the
Nation. We are willing to trust them with liberty when they believe in
liberty. We are willing to trust them with the black man when they cease
riding in the darkness of night, (those masked wretches,) to the hut of
the freedman, and notwithstanding the prayers and supplications of his
family, shoot him down; when they cease to consider the massacre of
Hamburg as a Democratic triumph, then, I say, we will be their friends,
and not before.

Now, my friends, thousands of the Southern people and thousands of the
Northern Democrats are afraid that the negroes are going to pass them in
the race of life. And, Mr. Democrat, he will do it unless you attend
to your business. The simple fact that you are white cannot save you
always. You have to be industrious, honest, to cultivate a sense of
justice. If you do not the colored race will pass you, as sure as you
live. I am for giving every man a chance. Anybody that can pass me is
welcome.

I believe, my friends, that the intellectual domain of the future, as
the land used to be in the State of Illinois, is open to pre-emption.
The fellow that gets a fact first, that is his; that gets an idea
first, that is his. Every round in the ladder of fame, from the one that
touches the ground to the last one that leans against the shining summit
of human ambition, belongs to the foot that gets upon it first.

Mr. Democrat, (I point down because they are nearly all on the first
round of the ladder) if you can not climb, stand one side and let the
deserving negro pass.

I must tell you one thing. I have told it so much, and you have all
heard it fifty times, but I am going to tell it again because I like it.
Suppose there was a great horse race here to-day, free to every horse
in the world, and to all the mules, and all the scrubs* and all the
donkeys.

At the tap of the drum they come to the line, and the judges say "it is
a go." Let me ask you, what does the blooded horse, rushing ahead, with
nostrils distended, drinking in the breath of his own swiftness, with
his mane flying like a banner of victory, with his veins standing out
all over him, as if a network of life had been cast upon him--with his
thin neck, his high withers, his tremulous flanks--what does he care how
many mules and donkeys run on that track? But the Democratic scrub,
with his chuckle-head and lop-ears, with his tail full of cockle-burrs,
jumping high and short, and digging in the ground when he feels the
breath of the coming mule on his cockle-burr tail, he is the chap that
jumps the track and says, "I am down on mule equality."

I stood, a little while ago, in the city of Paris, where stood the
Bastile, where now stands the Column of July, surmounted by a figure of
liberty. In its right hand is a broken chain, in its left hand a
banner; upon its glorious forehead the glittering and shining star of
progress--and as I looked upon it I said: "Such is the Republican party
of my country."

The other day going along the road I came to a place where the road had
been changed, but the guide-board did not know it. It had stood there
for twenty years pointing deliberately and solemnly in the direction of
a desolate field; nobody ever went that way, but the guide-board thought
the next man would. Thousands passed, but nobody heeded the hand on the
guide-post, and through sunshine and storm it pointed diligently into
the old field and swore to it the road went that way; and I said to
myself: "Such is the Democratic party of the United States."

The other day I came to a river where there had been a mill; a part
of it was there still. An old sign said: "Cash for wheat." The old
water-wheel was broken; it had been warped by the sun, cracked and split
by many winds and storms. There had not been a grain of wheat ground
there for twenty years.

The door was gone, nobody had built a new dam, the mill was not worth a
dam; and I said to myself: "Such is the Democratic party."

I saw a little while ago a place on the road where there had once been
an hotel. But the hotel and barn had burned down and there was nothing
standing but two desolate chimneys, up the flues of which the fires of
hospitality had not roared for thirty years. The fence was gone, and the
post-holes even were obliterated, but in the road there was an old sign
upon which were these words: "Entertainment for man and beast." The old
sign swung and creaked in the winter wind, the snow fell upon it, the
sleet clung to it, and in the summer the birds sang and twittered and
made love upon it. Nobody ever stopped there, but the sign swore to it,
the sign certified to it! "Entertainment for man and beast," and I said
to myself: "Such is the Democratic party of the United States," and
I further said, "one chimney ought to be called Tilden and the other
Hendricks."

Now, my friends, I want you to vote the Republican ticket. I want you
to swear you will not vote for a man who opposed putting down the
Rebellion. I want you to swear that you will not vote for a man opposed
to the Proclamation of Emancipation. I want you to swear that you will
not vote for a man opposed to the utter abolition of slavery.

I want you to swear that you will not vote for a man who called the
soldiers in the field, Lincoln hirelings. I want you to swear that you
will not vote for a man who denounced Lincoln as a tyrant. I want you
to swear that you will not vote for any enemy of human progress. Go and
talk to every Democrat that you can see; get him by the coatcollar,
talk to him, and hold him like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, with your
glittering eye; hold him, tell him all the mean things his party ever
did; tell him kindly; tell him in a Christian spirit, as I do, but tell
him. Recollect, there never was a more important election than the
one you are going to hold in Indiana. I tell you we must stand by the
country. It is a glorious country. It permits you and me to be free.
It is the only country in the world where labor is respected. Let us
support it. It is the only country in the world where the useful man is
the only aristocrat. The man that works for a dollar a day, goes home
at night to his little ones, takes his little boy on his knee, and he
thinks that boy can achieve anything that the sons of the wealthy man
can achieve. The free schools are open to him; he may be the richest,
the greatest, and the grandest, and that thought sweetens every drop
of sweat that rolls down the honest face of toil. Vote to save that
country.

My friends, this country is getting better every day. Samuel J. Tilden
says we are a nation of thieves and rascals. If that is so he ought to
be the President. But I denounce him as a calumniator of my country;
a maligner of this nation. It is not so. This country is covered with
asylums for the aged, the helpless, the insane, the orphans and wounded
soldiers. Thieves and rascals do not build such things. In the cities
of the Atlantic coast this summer, they built floating hospitals, great
ships, and took the little children from the sub-cellars and narrow,
dirty streets of New York City, where the Democratic party is the
strongest--took these poor waifs and put them in these great hospitals
out at sea, and let the breezes of ocean kiss the roses of health back
to their pallid cheeks. Rascals and thieves do not so. When Chicago
burned, railroads were blocked with the charity of the American people.
Thieves and rascals do not so.

I am a Republican. The world is getting better. Husbands are treating
their wives better than they used to; wives are treating their husbands
better. Children are better treated than they used to be; the old whips
and clubs are out of the schools, and they are governing children by
love and by sense. The world is getting better; it is getting better in
Maine, in Vermont. It is getting better in every State of the North, and
I tell you we are going to elect Hayes and Wheeler and the world will
then be better still. I have a dream that this world is growing better
and better every day and every year; that there is more charity, more
justice, more love every day. I have a dream that prisons will not
always curse the land; that the shadow of the gallows will not always
fall upon the earth; that the withered hand of want will not always
be stretched out for charity; that finally wisdom will sit in the
legislatures, justice in the courts, charity will occupy all the
pulpits, and that finally the world will be governed by justice and
charity, and by the splendid light of liberty. That is my dream, and
if it does not come true, it shall not be my fault. I am going to do my
level best to give others the same chance I ask for myself. Free thought
will give us truth; Free labor will give us wealth.




CHICAGO SPEECH.

     * Col. Robert G. Ingersoll spoke last night at the
     Exposition Building to the largest audience ever drawn by
     one man In Chicago. From 6.30 o'clock the sidewalks fronting
     along the building were jammed. At every entrance there were
     hundreds, and half-an-hour later thousands were clamoring
     for admittance. So great was the pressure the doors were
     finally closed, and the entrances at either end cautiously
     opened to admit the select who knew enough to apply In those
     directions. Occasionally a rush was made for the main door,
     and as the crowd came up against the huge barricade they
     were swept back only for another effort. Wabash Avenue,
     Monroe, Adams, Jackson, and Van Buren Streets were jammed
     with ladies and gentlemen who swept into Michigan Avenue and
     swelled the sea that surged around the building.

     At 7.30 the doors were flung open and the people rushed in.
     Seating accommodations supposed to be adequate to all
     demands, had been provided, but in an Instant they were
     filled, the aisles were jammed and around the sides of the
     building poured a steady stream of humanity, Intent only
     upon some coign of vantage, some place, where they could see
     and where they could hear. Prom the fountain, beyond which
     the building lay in shadow to the northern end, was a
     swaying, surging mass of people.

     Such another attendance of ladies has never been known at a
     political meeting in Chicago. They came by the hundreds, and
     the speaker looked down from his perch upon thousands of
     fair upturned faces, stamped with the most intense interest
     in his remarks.

     The galleries were packed. The frame of the huge elevator
     creaked, groaned, and swayed with the crowd roosting upon
     it. The trusses bore their living weight. The gallery
     railings bent and cracked. The roof was crowded, and the sky
     lights teemed with heads. Here and there an adventurous
     youth crept out on the girders and braces. Towards the
     northern end of the building, on the west side, is a smaller
     gallery, dark, and not particularly strong-looking. It was
     fairly packed--packed like a sardine-box--with men and boys.
     Up in the organ-loft around the sides of the organ,
     everywhere that a human being could sit, stand or hang, was
     pre-empted and filled.

     It was a magnificent, outpouring, at east 50,000 In number,
     a compliment alike to the principle it represented, and the
     orator.--Chicago Tribune., October 21st, 1876.


HAYES CAMPAIGN.

1876.

LADIES and Gentlemen:--Democrats and Republicans have a common interest
in the United States. We have a common interest in the preservation of
good order. We have a common interest in the preservation of a common
country. And I appeal to all, Democrats and Republicans, to endeavor
to make a conscientious choice; to endeavor to select as President and
Vice-President of the United States the men and the parties, which, in
your judgment, will best preserve this nation, and preserve all that is
dear to us either as Republicans or Democrats.

The Democratic party comes before you and asks that you will give this
Government into its hands; and you have a right to investigate as to the
reputation and character of the Democratic organization. The Democratic
party says, "Let bygones be bygones." I never knew a man who did a
decent action that wanted it forgotten. I never knew a man who did some
great and shining act of self-sacrifice and heroic devotion who did
not wish that act remembered. Not only so, but he expected his loving
children would chisel the remembrance of it upon the marble that marked
his last resting place. But whenever a man does an infamous thing;
whenever a man commits some crime; whenever a man does that which
mantles the cheeks of his children with shame; he is the man that says,
"Let bygones be bygones." The Democratic party admits that it has a
record, but it says that any man that will look into it, any man that
will tell it, is not a gentleman. I do not know whether, according to
the Democratic standard, I am a gentleman or not; but I do say that in a
certain sense I am one of the historians of the Democratic party.

I do not know that it is true that a man cannot give this record and be
a gentleman, but I admit that a gentleman hates to read this record;
a gentleman hates to give this record to the world; but I do it, not
because I like to do it, but because I believe the best interests
of this country demand that there shall be a history given of the
Democratic party.

In the first place, I claim that the Democratic party embraces within
its filthy arms the worst elements in American society. I claim that
every enemy that this Government has had for twenty years has been and
is a Democrat; every man in the Dominion of Canada that hates the great
Republic, would like to see Tilden and Hendricks successful. Every
titled thief in Great Britain would like to see Tilden and Hendricks the
next President and Vice-President of the United States.

I say more; every State that seceded from this Union was a Democratic
State. Every man who hated to see bloodhounds cease to be the
instrumentalities of a free government--every one was a Democrat. In
short, every enemy that this Government has had for twenty years, every
enemy that liberty and progress has had in the United States for twenty
years, every hater of our flag, every despiser of our Nation, every man
who has been a disgrace to the great Republic for twenty years, has been
a Democrat. I do not say that they are all that way; but nearly all who
are that way are Democrats.

The Democratic party is a political tramp with a yellow passport. This
political tramp begs food and he carries in his pocket old dirty scraps
of paper as a kind of certificate of character. On one of these papers
he will show you the ordinance of 1789; on another one of those papers
he will have a part of the Fugitive Slave Law; on another one some
of the black laws that used to disgrace Illinois; on another Governor
Tilden's Letter to Kent; on another a certificate signed by Lyman
Trumbull that the Republican party is not fit to associate with--that
certificate will be endorsed by Governor John M. Palmer and my friend
Judge Doolittle. He will also have in his pocket an old wood-cut,
somewhat torn, representing Abraham Lincoln falling upon the neck of
S. Corning Judd, and thanking him for saving the Union as
Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Liberty. This political tramp will
also have a letter dated Boston, Mass., saying: "I hereby certify that
for fifty years I have regarded the bearer as a thief and robber, but
I now look upon him as a reformer. Signed, Charles Francis Adams."
Following this tramp will be a bloodhound; and when he asks for food,
the bloodhound will crouch for employment on his haunches, and the drool
of anticipation will run from his loose and hanging lips. Study the
expression of that dog.

Translate it into English and it means "Oh! I want to bite a nigger!"
And when the dog has that expression he bears a striking likeness to his
master. The question is, Shall that tramp and that dog gain possession
of the White House?

The Democratic party learns nothing; the Democratic party forgets
nothing. The Democratic party does not know that the world has advanced
a solitary inch since 1860. Time is a Democratic dumb watch. It has not
given a tick for sixteen years. The Democratic party does not know that
we, upon the great glittering highway of progress, have passed a single
mile-stone for twenty years. The Democratic party is incapable of
learning. The Democratic party is incapable of anything but prejudice
and hatred. Every man that is a Democrat is a Democrat because he hates
something; every man that is a Republican is a Republican because he
loves something.

The Democratic party is incapable of advancement; the only stock that
it has in trade to-day is the old infamous doctrine of Democratic State
Rights. There never was a more infamous doctrine advanced on this
earth, than the Democratic idea of State Rights. What is it? It has its
foundation in the idea that this is not a Nation; it has its foundation
in the idea that this is simply a confederacy, that this great
Government is simply a bargain, that this great splendid people have
simply made a trade, that the people of any one of the States are
sovereign to the extent that they have the right to trample upon the
rights of their fellow-citizens, and that the General Government cannot
interfere. The great Democratic heart is fired to-day, the Democratic
bosom is bloated with indignation because of an order made by General
Grant sending troops into the Southern States to defend the rights of
American citizens! Who objects to a soldier going? Nobody except a man
who wants to carry an election by fraud, by violence, by intimidation,
by assassination, and by murder.

The Democratic party is willing to-day that Tilden and Hendricks should
be elected by violence; they are willing to-day to go into partnership
with assassination and murder; they are willing to-day that every man in
the Southern States, who is a friend of this Union, and who fought for
our flag--that the rights of every one of these men should be trampled
in the dust, provided that Tilden and Hendricks be elected President
and Vice-President of this country. They tell us that a State line is
sacred; that you never can cross it unless you want to do a mean thing;
that if you want to catch a fugitive slave you have the right to cross
it; but if you wish to defend the rights of men, then it is a sacred
line, and you cannot cross it. Such is the infamous doctrine of the
Democratic party. Who, I say, will be injured by sending soldiers into
the Southern States? No one in the world except the man who wants to
prevent an honest citizen from casting a legal vote for the Government
of his choice. For my part, I think more of the colored Union men of the
South than I do of the white disunion men of the South. For my part, I
think more of a black friend than I do of a white enemy. For my part, I
think more of a friend black outside, and white in, than I do of a man
who is white outside and black inside. For my part, I think more of
black justice, of black charity, and of black patriotism, than I do of
white cruelty, than I do of white treachery and treason. As a matter
of fact, all that is done in the South to-day, of use, is done by the
colored man. The colored man raises everything that is raised in the
South, except hell. And I say here to-night that I think one hundred
times more of the good, honest, industrious black man of the South than
I do of all the white men together that do not love this Government, and
I think more of the black man of the South than I do of the white man of
the North who sympathizes with the white wretch that wishes to trample
upon the rights of that black man.

I believe that this is a Government, first, not only of power, but that
it is the right of this Government to march all the soldiers in the
United States into any sovereign State of this Union to defend the
rights of every American citizen in that State. If it is the duty of the
Government to defend you in time of war, when you were compelled to go
into the army, how much more is it the duty of the Government to defend
in time of peace the man who, in time of war, voluntarily and gladly
rushed to the rescue and defence of his country; and yet the Democratic
doctrine is that you are to answer the call of the Nation, but the
Nation will be deaf to your cry, unless the Governor of your State makes
request of your Government. Suppose the Governors and every man trample
upon your rights, is the Nation then to let you be trampled upon? Will
the Nation hear only the cry of the oppressor, or will it heed the cry
of the oppressed? I believe we should have a Government that can hear
the faintest wail, the faintest cry for justice from the lips of the
humblest citizen beneath the flag. But the Democratic doctrine is that
this Government can protect its citizens only when they are away from
home. This may account for so many Democrats going to Canada during the
war. I believe that the Government must protect you, not only abroad but
must protect you at home; and that is the greatest question before the
American people to-day.

I had thought that human impudence had reached its limit ages and ages
ago. I had believed that some time in the history of the world impudence
had reached its height, and so believed until I read the congratulatory
address of Abram S. Hewitt, Chairman of the National Executive
Democratic Committee, wherein he congratulates the negroes of the South
on what he calls a Democratic victory in the State of Indiana. If human
impudence can go beyond this, all I have to say is, it never has. What
does he say to the Southern people, to the colored people? He says to
them in substance: "The reason the white people trample upon you is
because the white people are weak. Give the white people more strength,
put the white people in authority, and, although they murder you now
when they are weak, when they are strong they will let you alone. Yes;
the only trouble with our Southern white brethren is that they are in
the minority, and they kill you now, and the only way to save your lives
is to put your enemy in the majority." That is the doctrine of Abram S.
Hewitt, and he congratulates the colored people of the South upon the
Democratic victory in Indiana. There is going to be a great crop of
hawks next season--let us congratulate the doves. That is it. The
burglars have whipped the police--let us congratulate the bank. That
is it. The wolves have killed off almost all the shepherds--let us
congratulate the sheep.

In my judgment, the black people have suffered enough. They have
been slaves for two hundred years, and more than all, they have been
compelled to keep the company of the men that owned them. Think of that!
Think of being compelled to keep the society of the man who is stealing
from you! Think of being compelled to live with the man that sold your
wife! Think of being compelled to live with the man that stole your
child from the cradle before your very eyes! Think of being compelled
to live with the thief of your life, and spend your days with the white
robber, and be under his control! The black people have suffered enough.
For two hundred years they were owned and bought and sold and branded
like cattle. For two hundred years every human tie was rent and torn
asunder by the bloody, brutal hands of avarice and might. They have
suffered enough. During the war the black people were our friends not
only, but whenever they were entrusted with the family, with the wives
and children of their masters, they were true to them. They stayed at
home and protected the wife and child of the master while he went into
the field and fought for the right to sell the wife and the right to
whip and steal the child of the very black man that was protecting him.
The black people, I say, have suffered enough, and for that reason I am
in favor of the Government protecting them in every Southern State, if
it takes another war to do it. We can never compromise with the South
at the expense of our friends. We never can be friends with the men that
starved and shot our brothers. We can never be friends with the men
that waged the most cruel war in the world; not for liberty, but for
the right to deprive other men of their liberty. We never can be their
friends until they are the friends of our friends, until they treat the
black man justly; until they treat the white Union man respectfully;
until Republicanism ceases to be a crime; until to vote the Republican
ticket ceases to make you a political and social outcast. We want no
friendship with the enemies of our country. The next question is, who
shall have possession of this country--the men that saved it,--or the
men that sought to destroy it? The Southern people lit the fires of
civil war. They who set the conflagration must be satisfied with the
ashes left. The men that saved this country must rule it. The men
that saved the flag must carry it. This Government is not far from
destruction when it crowns with its highest honor in time of peace, the
man that was false to it in time of war. This Nation is not far from
the precipice of annihilation and destruction when it gives its highest
honor to a man false, false to the country when everything we held
dear trembled in the balance of war, when everything was left to the
arbitrament of the sword.

The next question prominently before the people--though I think the
great question is, whether citizens shall be protected at home--the
next question I say, is the financial question. With that there is no
trouble. We had to borrow money, and we have to pay it. That is all
there is of that, and we are going to pay it just as soon as we make
the money to pay it with, and we are going to make the money out of
prosperity.

We have to dig it out of the earth. You cannot make a dollar by law. You
cannot redeem a cent by statute. You cannot pay one solitary farthing by
all the resolutions, by all the speeches ever made beneath the sun.

If the greenback doctrine is right, that evidence of national
indebtedness is wealth, if that is their idea, why not go another step
and make every individual note a legal tender? Why not pass a law that
every man shall take every other man's note? Then I swear we would have
money in plenty. No, my friends, a promise to pay a dollar is not a
dollar, no matter if that promise is made by the greatest and most
powerful nation on the globe. A promise is not a performance. An
agreement is not an accomplishment and there never will come a time when
a promise to pay a dollar is as good as the dollar, unless everybody
knows that you have the dollar and will pay it whenever they ask for it.
We want no more inflation. We want simply to pay our debts as fast as
the prosperity of the country allows it and no faster. Every speculator
that was caught with property on his hands upon which he owed more
than the property was worth, wanted the game to go on a little longer.
Whoever heard of a man playing poker that wanted to quit when he was
a loser? He wants to have a fresh deal. He wants another hand, and he
don't want any man that is ahead to jump the game. It is so with the
speculators in this country. They bought land, they bought houses, they
bought goods, and when the crisis and crash came, they were caught with
the property on their hands, and they want another inflation, they
want another tide to rise that will again sweep this driftwood into the
middle of the great financial stream. That is all. Every lot in this
city that was worth five thousand and that is now worth two thousand--do
you know what is the matter with that lot? It has been redeeming. It has
been resuming. That is what is the matter with that lot. Every man that
owned property that has now fallen fifty per cent., that property has
been resuming; and if you could have another inflation to-morrow, the
day that the bubble burst would find thousands of speculators who paid
as much for property as property was worth, and they would ask for
another tide of affairs in men. They would ask for another inflation.
What for? To let them out and put somebody else in.

We want no more inflation. We want the simple honest payment of the
debt, and to pay out of the prosperity of this country. But, says the
greenback man, "We never had as good times as when we had plenty of
greenbacks."

Suppose a farmer would buy a farm for ten thousand dollars and give
his note. He would buy carriages, horses, wagons and agricultural
implements, and give his note. He would send Mary, Jane and Lucy to
school. He would buy them pianos, and send them to college, and would
give his note, and the next year he would again give his note for the
interest, and the next year again his note, and finally they would come
to him and say, "We must settle up; we have taken your notes as long as
we can; we want money." "Why," he would say to the gentleman, "I never
had as good a time in my life as while I have been giving those notes.
I never had a farm until the man gave it to me for my note. My children
have been clothed as well as anybody's. We have had carriages; we have
had fine horses; and our house has been filled with music, and laughter,
and dancing; and why not keep on taking those notes?" So it is with the
greenback man; he says, "When we were running in debt we had a jolly
time--let us keep it up." But, my friends, there must come a time when
inflation would reach that point when all the Goverment notes in the
world would not buy a pin; when all the Government notes in the world
would not be worth as much as the last year's Democratic platform. I
have no fear that these debts will not be paid. I have no fear that
every solitary greenback dollar will not be redeemed; but, my friends,
we shall have some trouble doing it. Why? Because the debt is a great
deal larger than it should have been. In the first place, there should
have been po debt. If it had not been for the Southern Democracy there
would have been no war. If it had not been for the Northern Democracy
the war would not have lasted one year.

There was a man tried in court for having murdered his father and
mother. He was found guilty, and the judge asked him, "What have you to
say that sentence of death shall not be pronounced on you?" "Nothing in
the world Judge," said he, "only I hope your Honor will take pity on me
and remember that I am a poor orphan."

I have no doubt that this debt will be paid. We have the honor to pay
it, and we do not pay it on account of the avarice or greed of the
bondholder. An honest man does not pay money to a creditor simply
because the creditor wants it. The honest man pays at the command of his
honor and not at the demand of the creditor.

The United States will pay its debts, not because the creditor demands,
but because we owe it.

The United States will liquidate every debt at the command of its honor,
and every cent will be paid. War is destruction, war is loss, and all
the property destroyed, and the time that is lost, put together, amount
to what we call a national debt. When in peace we shall have made as
much net profit as there was wealth lost in the war, then we shall be a
solvent people. The greenback will be redeemed, we expect to redeem
it on the first day of January, 1879. We may fail; we will fail if the
prosperity of the country fails; but we intend to try to do it, and if
we fail, we will fail as a soldier fails to take a fort, high upon the
rampart, with the flag of resumption in our hands. We will not say that
we cannot pay the debt because there is a date fixed when the debt is to
be paid. I have had to borrow money myself; I have had to give my note,
and I recollect distinctly that every man I ever did give my note to
insisted that somewhere in that note there should be some vague hint
as to the cycle, as to the geological period, as to the time, as to
the century and date when I expected to pay those little notes. I never
understood that having a time fixed would prevent my being industrious;
that it would interfere with my honesty; or with my activity, or with my
desire to discharge that debt. And if any man in this great country owed
you one thousand dollars, due you the first day of next January, and he
should come to you and say: "I want to pay you that debt, but you must
take that date out of that note." "Why?" you would say. "Why," he would
reply in the language of Tilden, "I have to make wise preparation."
"Well," you would say, "why don't you do it?" "Oh," he says, "I cannot
do it while you have that date in that note." "Another thing," he says,
"I have to get me a central reservoir of coin." And do you know I have
always thought I would like to see the Democratic party around a central
reservoir of coin.

Suppose this debtor would also tell you, "I want the date out of that
note, because I have to come at it by a very slow and gradual process."
"Well," you would say, "I do not care how slow or how gradual you are,
provided that you get around by the time the note is due."

What would you think of a man that wanted the date out of the note? You
would think he was a mixture of rascal and Democrat. That is what you
would think.

Now, my friends, the Democratic party (if you may call it a party)
brings forward as its candidate Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. I am
opposed to him, first, because he is an old bachelor. In a country like
ours, depending for its prosperity and glory upon an increase of the
population, to elect an old bachelor is a suicidal policy. Any man that
will live in this country for sixty years, surrounded by beautiful women
with rosy lips and dimpled cheeks, in every dimple lurking a Cupid, with
pearly teeth and sparkling eyes--any man that will push them all aside
and be satisfied with the embraces of the Democratic party, does not
even know the value of time. I am opposed to Samuel J. Tilden, because
he is a Democrat; because he belongs to the Democratic party of the city
of New York; the worst party ever organized in any civilized country.

No man should be President of this Nation who denies that it is a
Nation. Samuel J. Tilden denounced the war as an outrage. No man should
be President of this country that denounced a war waged in its defence
as an outrage. To elect such a man would be an outrage.

Samuel J. Tilden said that the flag stands for a contract; that it
stands for a confederation; that it stands for a bargain. But the great,
splendid Republican party says, "No! That flag stands for a great,
hoping, aspiring, sublime Nation, not for a confederacy."

I am opposed, I say, to the election of Samuel J. Tilden for another
reason. If he is elected he will be controlled by his party, and his
party will be controlled by the Southern stockholders in that party.
They own nineteen-twentieths of the stock, and they will dictate the
policy of the Democratic Corporation.

No Northern Democrat has the manliness to stand up before a Southern
Democrat. Every Democrat, nearly, has a face of dough, and the Southern
Democrat will swap his ears, change his nose, cut his mouth the other
way of the leather, so that his own mother would not know him, in
fifteen minutes. If Samuel J. Tilden is elected President of the
United States, he will be controlled by the Democratic party, and the
Democratic party will be controlled by the Southern Democracy--that is
to say, the late rebels; that is to say, the men that tried to destroy
the Government; that is to say, the men who are sorry they did not
destroy the Government; that is to say, the enemies of every friend of
this Union; that is to say, the murderers and the assassins of Union men
living in the Southern country.

Let me say another thing. If Mr. Tilden does not act in accordance with
the Southern Democratic command, the Southern Democracy will not allow
a single life to stand between them and the absolute control of this
country. Hendricks will then be their man. I say that it would be an
outrage to give this country into the control of men who endeavored to
destroy it, to give this country into the control of the Southern rebels
and haters of Union men.

And on the other hand, the Republican party has put forward Rutherford
B. Hayes. He is an honest man. The Democrats will say, "That is
nothing." Well, let them try it. Rutherford B. Hayes has a good
character.

Rutherford B. Hayes, when this war commenced, did not say with Tilden,
"It is an outrage." He did not say with Tilden, "I never will contribute
to the prosecution of this war." But he did say this, "I would go into
this war if I knew I would be killed in the course of it, rather than
to live through it and take no part in it." During the war Rutherford
B. Hayes received many wounds in his flesh, but not one scratch upon his
honor. Samuel J. Tilden received many wounds upon his honor, but not
one scratch on his flesh. Rutherford B. Hayes is a firm man; not an
obstinate man, but a firm man; and I draw this distinction: A firm man
will do what he believes to be right, because he wants to do right. He
will stand firm because he believes it to be right; but an obstinate
man wants his own way, whether it is right or whether it is wrong.
Rutherford B. Hayes is firm in the right, and obstinate only when he
knows he is in the right. If you want to vote for a man who fought for
you, vote for Rutherford B. Hayes. If you want to vote for a man
that carried our flag through the storm of shot and shell, vote for
Rutherford B. Hayes. If you believe patriotism to be a virtue, vote for
Rutherford B. Hayes. If you believe this country wants heroes, vote for
Rutherford B. Hayes. If you want a man who turned against his country in
time of war, vote for Samuel J. Tilden. If you believe the war waged for
the salvation of our Nation was an outrage, vote for Samuel J. Tilden.
If you believe it is better to stay at home and curse the brave men in
the field, fighting for the sacred rights of man, vote for Samuel J.
Tilden. If you want to pay a premium upon treason, if you want to pay a
premium upon hypocrisy, if you want to pay a premium upon chicanery,
if you want to pay a premium upon sympathizing with the enemies of your
country, vote for Samuel J. Tilden.

If you believe that patriotism is right, if you believe the brave
defender of liberty is better than the assassin of freedom, vote for
Rutherford B. Hayes.

I am proud that I belong to the Republican party. It is the only party
that has not begged pardon for doing right. It is the only party that
has said: "There shall be no distinction on account of race, on account
of color, on account of previous condition." It is the only party that
ever had a platform broad enough for all humanity to stand upon.

It is the first decent party that ever lived. The Republican party made
the first free government that was ever made. The Republican party made
the first decent constitution that any nation ever had. The Republican
party gave to the sky the first pure flag that was ever kissed by the
waves of air. The Republican party is the first party that ever said:
"Every man is entitled to liberty," not because he is white, not because
he is black, not because he is rich, not because he is poor, but because
he is a man.

The Republican party is the first party that knew enough to know that
humanity is more than skin deep. It is the first party that said,
"Government should be for all, as the light, as the air, is for all."

And it is the first party that had the sense to say, "What air is to the
lungs, what light is to the eyes, what love is to the heart, liberty is
to the soul of man." The Republican party is the first party that ever
was in favor of absolute free labor, the first party in favor of giving
to every man, without distinction of race or color, the fruits of the
labor of his hands. The Republican party said, "Free labor will give us
wealth, free thought will give us truth." The Republican party is the
first party that said to every man, "Think for yourself, and express
that thought." I am a free man. I belong to the Republican party. This
is a free country. I will think my thought. I will speak my thought or
die. I say the Republican party is for free labor.

Free labor has invented all the machines that ever added to the power,
added to the wealth, added to the leisure, added to the civilization of
mankind. Every convenience, everything of use, everything of beauty in
the world, we owe to free labor and to free thought. Free labor, free
thought!

Science took the thunderbolt from the gods, and in the electric spark,
freedom, with thought, with intelligence and with love, sweeps under all
the waves of the sea; science, free thought, took a tear from the cheek
of unpaid labor, converted it into steam, and created the giant that
turns, with tireless arms, the countless wheels of toil.

The Republican party, I say, believes in free labor. Every solitary
thing, every solitary improvement made in the United States has been
made by the Republican party. Every reform accomplished was inaugurated,
and was accomplished by the great, grand, glorious Republican party.

The Republican party does not say: "Let bygones be bygones." The
Republican party is proud of the past and confident of the future. The
Republican party brings its record before you and implores you to read
every page, every paragraph, every line and every shining word. On the
first page you will find it written: "Slavery has cursed American soil
long enough;" on the same page you will find it written: "Slavery
shall go no farther." On the same page you will find it written: "The
bloodhounds shall not drip their gore upon another inch of American
soil." On the second page you will find it written: "This is a Nation,
not a Confederacy; every State belongs to every citizen, and no State
has a right to take territory belonging to any citizens in the United
States and set up a separate Government." On the third page you will
find the grandest declaration ever made in this country: "Slavery shall
be extirpated from the American soil." On the next page: "The Rebellion
shall be put down." On the next page: "The Rebellion has been put down."
On the next page: "Slavery has been extirpated from the American soil."
On the next page: "The freedmen shall not be vagrants; they shall be
citizens." On the next page: "They are citizens." On the next page: "The
ballot shall be put in their hands;" and now we will write on the next
page: "Every citizen that has a ballot in his hand, by the gods! shall
have a right to cast that ballot." That in short, that in brief, is the
history of the Republican party. The Republican party says, and it means
what it says: "This shall be a free country forever; every man in it
twenty-one years of age shall have the right to vote for the Government
of his choice, and if any man endeavors to interfere with that right,
the Government of the United States will see to it that the right of
every American citizen is protected at the polls."

Now, my friends, there is one thing that troubles the average Democrat,
and that is the idea that somehow, in some way, the negro will get to be
the better man. It is the trouble in the South to-day. And I say to my
Southern friends (and I admit that there are a great many good men in
the South, but the bad men are in an overwhelming majority; the great
mass of the population is vicious, violent, virulent and malignant; the
great mass of the population is cruel, revengeful, idle, hateful,) and
I tell that population: "If you do not go to work, the negro, by his
patient industry, will pass you." In the long run, the nation that is
honest, the people who are industrious, will pass the people who are
dishonest, and the people who are idle, no matter how grand an ancestry
they may have had, and so I say, Mr. Northern Democrat, look out!

The superior man is the man that loves his fellow-man; the superior man
is the useful man; the superior man is the kind man, the man who lifts
up his down-trodden brothers; and the greater the load of human sorrow
and human want you can get in your arms, the easier you can climb
the great hill of fame. The superior man is the man who loves his
fellow-man. And let me say right here, the good men, the superior
men, the grand men are brothers the world over, no matter what their
complexion may be; centuries may separate them, yet they are hand in
hand; and all the good, and all the grand, and all the superior men,
shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, are fighting the great battle for
the progress of mankind.

I pity the man, I execrate and hate the man who has only to boast that
he is white. Whenever I am reduced to that necessity, I believe shame
will make me red instead of white. I believe another thing. If I cannot
hoe my row, I will not steal corn from the fellow that hoes his row. If
I belong to the superior race, I will be so superior that I can make my
living without stealing from the inferior. I am perfectly willing that
any Democrat in the world that can, shall pass me. I have never seen one
yet, except when I looked over my shoulder. But if they can pass I shall
be delighted.

Whenever we stand in the presence of genius, we take off our hats.
Whenever we stand in the presence of the great, we do involuntary homage
in spite of ourselves. Any one who can go by is welcome, any one in the
world; but until somebody does go by, of the Democratic persuasion,
I shall not trouble myself about the fact that may be, in some future
time, they may get by. The Democrats are afraid of being passed, because
they are being passed.

No man ever was, no man ever will be, the superior of the man whom he
robs. No man ever was, no man ever will be, the superior of the man he
steals from. I had rather be a slave than a slave-master. I had rather
be stolen from than be a thief. I had rather be the wronged than the
wrong-doer. And allow me to say again to impress it forever upon every
man that hears me, you will always be the inferior of the man you wrong.
Every race is inferior to the race it tramples upon and robs. There
never was a man that could trample upon human rights and be superior
to the man upon whom he trampled. And let me say another thing: No
government can stand upon the crushed rights of one single human being;
and any compromise that we make with the South, if we make it at the
expense of our friends, will carry in its own bosom the seeds of its
own death and destruction, and cannot stand. A government founded upon
anything except liberty and justice cannot and ought not to stand. All
the wrecks on either side of the stream of time, all the wrecks of the
great cities and nations that have passed away--all are a warning that
no nation founded upon injustice can stand. From sand-enshrouded Egypt,
from the marble wilderness of Athens, from every fallen, crumbling stone
of the once mighty Rome, comes as it were a wail, comes as it were the
cry, "No nation founded upon injustice can permanently stand." We must
found this Nation anew. We must fight our fight. We must cling to our
old party until there is freedom of speech in every part of the United
States. We must cling to the old party until I can speak in every State
of the South as every Southerner can speak in every State of the North.
We must vote the grand old Republican ticket until there is the same
liberty in every Southern State that there is in every Northern, Eastern
and Western State. We must stand by the party until every Southern man
will admit that this country belongs to every citizen of the United
States as much as to the man that is born in that country. One more
thing. I do not want any man that ever fought for this country to vote
the Democratic ticket. You will swap your respectability for disgrace.
There are thousands of you--great, grand, splendid men--that have fought
grandly for this Union, and now I beseech of you, I beg of you, do not
give respectability to the enemies and haters of your country. Do not
do it. Do not vote with the Democratic party, of the North. Sometimes
I think a rebel sympathizer in the North worse than a rebel, and I will
tell you why. The rebel was carried into the rebellion by public opinion
at home,--his father, his mother, his sweetheart, his brother, and
everybody he knew; and there was a kind of wind, a kind of tornado, a
kind of whirlwind that took him into the army. He went on the rebel side
with his State. The Northern Democrat went against his own State; went
against his own Government; and went against public opinion at home. The
Northern Democrat rowed up stream against wind and tide. The Southern
rebel went with the current; the Northern rebel rowed against the
current from pure, simple cussedness.

And I beg every man that ever fought for the Union, every man that ever
bared his breast to a storm of shot and shell, that the old flag might
float over every inch of American soil redeemed from the clutch of
treason; I beg him, I implore him, do not go with the Democratic party.
And to every young man within the sound of my voice I say, do not tie
your bright and shining prospects to that old corpse of Democracy. You
will get tired of dragging it around. Do not cast your first vote
with the enemies of your country. Do not cast your first vote with the
Democratic party that was glad when the Union army was defeated. Do not
cast your vote with that party whose cheeks flushed with the roses of
joy when the old flag was trailed in disaster upon the field of battle.
Remember, my friends, that that party did every mean thing it could,
every dishonest and treasonable thing it could. Recollect that that
party did all it could to divide this Nation, and destroy this country.

For myself I have no fear; Hayes and Wheeler will be the next President
and Vice-President of the United States of America. Let me beg of
you--let me implore you--let me beseech you, every man, to come out on
election day. Every man, do your duty; every man do his duty with regard
to the State ticket of the great and glorious State of Illinois.

This year we need Republicans; this year we need men that will vote for
the party; and I tell you that a Republican this year, no matter what
you have against him, no matter whether you like him or do not like him,
is better for the country, no matter how much you hate him, he is better
for the country than any Democrat Nature can make, or ever has made.

We must, in this supreme election, we must at this supreme moment, vote
only for the men who are in favor of keeping this Government in
the power, in the custody, in the control of the great, the sublime
Republican party.

Ladies and gentlemen, if I were insensible to the honor you have done me
by this magnificent meeting--the most magnificent I ever saw on earth--a
meeting such as only the marvelous City of Pluck could produce; if I
were insensible of the honor, I would be made of stone. I shall remember
it with delight; I shall remember it with thankfulness all the days of
my life. And I ask in return of every Republican here to remember all
the days of his life, every sacrifice made by this nation for liberty;
every sacrifice made by every private soldier, every sacrifice made by
every patriotic man and patriotic woman.

I do not ask you to remember in revenge, but I ask you never, never to
forget. As the world swings through the constellations year after year,
I want the memory, I want the patriotic memory of this country to sit
by the grave of every Union soldier, and, while her eyes are filled with
tears, to crown him again and again with the crown of everlasting
honor. I thank you, I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, a thousand times.
Good-night.

     Note:--There was no full report made of this speech, the
     above are simply extracts.




EIGHT TO SEVEN ADDRESS.

(On the Electoral Commission.)

     * The reputation of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll had taken
     possession of the Boston mind to such an extent that his
     expected address was spoken of as "The Lecture." People
     talked about going to it, as If on that night all other
     places were to be closed, and the whole population of the
     City turned into Tremont Temple. Long before the appointed
     hour a rare audience, for even lecture loving Boston, had
     assembled. Col. Ingersoll stepped upon the platform preceded
     by Governor Rice, and followed by William Lloyd Garrison,
     James T. Fields and others. After the presentation of two
     large and exquisite bouquets Governor Rice introduced
     Colonel Ingersoll, and the audience, the most acute and
     determined looking I ever saw In Boston, poured out their
     welcome! It seemed as if all the cheers that had been
     suppressed between the first of November and the decision of
     the Electoral Commission, found vent at that moment and the
     vigorous clapping was renewed and prolonged until it became
     an unmistakable salute to the recent brilliant campaigning
     of the great Western orator. It is hardly possible to speak
     in too high terms of the lecture which, under the title of
     "8 to 7," contained a witty, philosophical and intensely
     patriotic review of the political contest preceding and
     following the recent election, with wise and timely
     suggestions for preventing similar perils in the future.--
     Boston, October 22nd,1877.


1877.

I HAVE sometimes wondered whether our country was to be forever governed
by parties full of hatred, full of malice, full of slander. I have
sometimes wondered whether or not in the future there would not be
discovered such a science as the science of government. I do not know
what you think, but what little I do know, and what little experience
has been mine, is, I must admit, against it. We have passed through the
most remarkable campaign of our history--a campaign remarkable in every
respect.

It was bitter, passionate, relentless and desperate, and I admit, for
one, that I added to its bitterness and relentlessness. I told, and
frankly told, my real, honest opinion of the Democratic party of the
North. I told, and cheerfully told, my opinion of the Democratic party
of the South. And I have nothing to take back. But, to show you that my
heart is not altogether wicked; I am willing to forgive and do forgive
with all my heart, every person and every party that I ever said
anything against. I believe that the campaign of 1876 was the
turning-point, the midnight in the history of the American Republic.

I believe, and firmly believe, that if the Democratic party had swept
into power, it would have been the end of progress, and the end of what
I consider human liberty, beneath our flag. I felt so, and I went into
the campaign simply because the rights of American citizens in at least
sixteen States of the Union were trampled under foot. I did what little
I could. I am glad I did it. We had, as I say, a wonderful campaign, and
each party said and did about all that could be said and done. Everybody
attended to politics. Business was suspended. Everything was given
over to processions and torches, and flags and transparencies; and
resolutions and conventions and speeches and songs. Old arguments were
revamped. Old stories were pressed into service. The old story of
the Rebellion was told again and again. The memories of the war were
revived. The North was arrayed against the South as though upon the
field of battle. Party cries were heard on every hand. Each party leaped
like a tiger upon the reputation of the other, and tore with tooth and
claw, with might and main, to the very end of the campaign.

I felt that it was necessary to arouse the North. I felt that it was
necessary to tell again the story of the Rebellion, from Bull Run to
Appomattox. I felt that it was necessary to describe what the Southern
people were doing with Union men, and with colored men; and I felt it
necessary so to describe it that the people of the North could hear the
whips, and could hear the drops of blood as they fell upon the withered
leaves. I did all I could to arouse the people of the North. I did all I
could to prevent the Democratic party from getting into power. The first
morning after the election, the Democracy had a banquet of joy, but
all through the feast they saw sitting at the head of the table the
dim outline of the skeleton of defeat. And, when the tide turned,
Republicans rejoiced with a face ready at any moment to express the
profoundest grief. Then came despatches and rumors, and estimated
majorities, and vague talk about Returning Boards, and intimidating
voters, and stuffed ballot boxes, and fraudulent returns, and bribed
clerks, and injunctions, and contempts of courts, and telegrams in
cipher, and outrages, and octoroon balls in which reverend Senators
were whirled in love's voluptuous waltz. Everybody discussed the
qualifications of Electors and the value of Governors' certificates, and
how to get behind returns, and how to buy an Elector, and who had the
right to count; and persons expecting offices of trust, honor and profit
began to threaten war and extermination, calls were made for a hundred
thousand men, and there were no end of meetings, and resolutions and
denunciations, and the downfall of the country was prophesied; and yet,
notwithstanding all this, the name of the person who really was elected
remained unknown. The last scene of this strange, eventful history, so
far as the election by the people was concerned, was Cronin. I see him
now as he leaves the land "where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound
save his own dashings." Cronin, the last surviving veteran of the grand
army of "honesty and reform." Cronin, a quorum of one. Cronin, who
elected the two others by a plurality of his own vote.

I see him now, armed with Hoadley's opinion and Grover's certificate,
trudging wearily and drearily over the wide and wasted saleratus deserts
of the West, with a little card marked "S. J. T. i5 G. P."

Then came the great question of who shall count the electoral vote. The
Vice-President being a Republican, it was generally contended, at least
by me, that he had a right to count that vote. My doctrine was, if the
Vice-President would count the vote right, he had the right to count it.

The Vice-President not being a Democrat, the members of that party
claimed that the House could prevent the Vice-President from counting
it, and this was simply because the House was not Republican. Nearly all
decided according to their politics. The Constitution is a little blind
on this point, and where anything is blind I always see it my way.
It was about this time that some of the Democrats began to talk about
bringing one hundred thousand unarmed men to Washington to superintend
the count. Others, however, got up a scheme to create, a court in the
United States where politics should have no earthly influence. Nothing
could be easier, they thought, after we had gone through such a hot and
exciting campaign, than to pick out men who have no prejudices whatever
on the subject. Finally a bill was passed creating a tribunal to count
the vote, if any, and hear testimony, if any, and declare what man had
been elected President, if any. This tribunal consisted of fifteen men,
ten being chosen on account of their politics--five from the Senate
and five from the House,--and they chose four judges from purely
geographical considerations. I was there, and I know exactly how it was.
Those four men were picked with a map of the United States in front of
the pickers. The Democrats chose Justice Field, not because he was a
Democrat, but because he lived on the Pacific slope. They chose Justice
Clifford, not because he was a Democrat, but because he lived on the
Eastern slope; that was fair. Thereupon the Republicans chose Justice
Strong, not because he was a Republican, but because he lived on the
Eastern slope. You can see the point. The Republicans chose Justice
Miller, not because he was a Republican, but because he represented the
great West. They then allowed these four to select a fifth man.

Well, it was impossible to select the fifth man from geographical
considerations, you can see that yourselves. There was nothing left to
choose between, you know, as far as geography was concerned. They then
agreed that they would not take a Justice from any State in which the
candidate for President lived. They left out Justice Hunt, from New
York, and Justice Swayne, from Ohio. They knew of course that that would
not influence them, but they did that simply--well, they did not want
them there; that was all, and it would be unhandy to pick one man out of
four. So they left Swayne and Hunt out. And then they would pick one
man as between Justice Bradley and Justice Davis. Just at that time the
people of the State of Illinois happened to be out of a Senator, and
Judge Davis was there and expressed a willingness to go to the Senate.
And the people of the State of Illinois elected him, and therefore
there was nobody to choose from except Justice Bradley, and he was a
Republican.

Now, you know this runs in families. His record was good--by marriage.
He married a daughter of Chief Justice Hornblower, of New Jersey. Now,
Hornblower was what you might call a partisan. Do you know they went to
him--it was in the old times, and he was a kind of Whig,--they went to
him with a petition, in the State of New Jersey, a petition addressed to
the Legislature for the abolition of capital punishment, and Hornblower
said, "I'll be damned if I sign it while there is a Democrat in the
State of New Jersey."

As a matter of fact, however, I believe that Justice Bradley and all the
other Justices, and all other persons on that tribunal decided as they
honestly thought was right.

Judge Davis is as broad mentally as he is physically; he has an
immensity of common sense, and as much judgment as any one man ever
needs to use, and, in my judgment, he would have come to the same
conclusion as Judge Bradley, precisely. These men were appointed--it
was a Democratic scheme, and I am glad they got it up--and during that
entire investigation, so much were the members of that party controlled
by old associations and habits, and by partisan feeling that there was
not a solitary one of the seven Democrats that ever once voted on the
Republican side. And, as a necessity, the Republicans had to stand
together. And so, notwithstanding the seven Democrats voted constantly
together, the eight Republicans kept having a majority of one, until the
last disputed State was given against the great party of "honesty and
reform." And, finally, when they found they were defeated, they made
up their minds to prevent the counting of the vote. They made up their
minds to wear out the session and prevent the election of a President.
Just at that point, for a wonder, (nothing ever astonished me more), the
members from the South said: "We do not want any more war; we have had
war enough and we say that a President shall be peacefully elected, and
that he shall be peacefully inaugurated!" As soon as I heard that I felt
under a little obligation to the Democracy of the South, and when they
stood in the gap and prevented the Democracy of the North from plunging
this Government into the hell of civil war, I felt like taking them by
the hand and saying, "We have beaten the enemy once, let us keep on. Let
us join hands." I felt like saying to the Democracy of the South, "You
never will have a day's prosperity in the South until you join the
great, free, progressive party of the North--never!" And they never
will.

Now, I say, I felt as though I were under a certain obligation to these
people. They prevented this thing, and they made it possible for the
Vice-President to declare Rutherford B. Hayes President of the United
States. Now, right here, I want you to observe that this shows the real
defects in our system of government. In the first place, our Government
is being governed by fraud. If the very fountain of power is poisoned by
fraud, then the whole Government is impure. We must find out some way
to prevent fraudulent voting in the United States or our Government is
a failure. Great cities were the mothers of election frauds. They
inaugurated violence and intimidation. They produced the repeaters
and the false boxes. They invented fan-tail tickets and pasters, and
gradually these delightful and patriotic arts and practices have spread
over almost the entire country.

Unless something is done to preserve the purity of the ballot-box our
form of government must cease. The fountain of power is poisoned.
The sovereignty of the people is stolen and destroyed. The Government
becomes organized fraud, and all respect will soon be lost for the
laws and decisions of the courts. The legislators are elected in many
instances by fraud. The judges are in many instances chosen by fraud.
Every department of the Government becomes tainted and corrupt. It is
no longer a Republic, unless something can be devised to ascertain with
certainty the really honest will of the sovereign people.

For the accomplishment of this object the good and patriotic men of all
parties should most heartily unite. To cast an illegal vote should
be considered by all as a crime. We must if possible get rid of the
mob--the vagrants, the vagabonds who have no home and who take no
interest in the cities where they vote. We must get rid of the rich
mob too; and by the rich mob I mean the men who buy up these vagabonds.
Various States have passed laws for the registration of voters; but they
all leave wide open all the doors of fraud. Men are allowed to vote if
they have been for one year in the State, and thirty or sixty days in
the ward or precinct; and when they have failed to have their names
registered before the day of election, they can avoid the effect of
this neglect by making a few affidavits, certified to by reputable
householders. Of course all necessary affidavits are made, with hundreds
and thousands to spare. My idea is that the period of registration, in
the first place, is too short, and, in the second place, no way
should be given by which they can vote unless they have been properly
registered, affidavit or no affidavit. Every man, when he goes into a
ward or precinct, should be registered. It should be his duty to see
that he is registered. Officers should be kept for that purpose, and he
should never be allowed to cast a vote until he has been registered
at least one year. Sixty days, say, or thirty days--sixty would be
better--sixty days before the election the registry lists should be
corrected, and every citizen should have the right to enter a complaint
or objection as against any name found upon that list. Thirty days,
or twenty days before the election, that list should be published
and should be exposed in several public places in each ward and each
precinct, and upon the day of election no man should be allowed to
vote whose name was not upon the registry list. Our wards and precincts
should be made smaller, so that people can vote without violence,
without wasting an entire day, so that the honest business man that
wishes to cast his ballot for the Government of his choice can walk
to the polls like a gentleman and deposit his vote and go about his
affairs. Allow me to say that unless some such plan is adopted in
the United States, there never will be another fair election in this
country. During the last campaign all the arts and artifices of the
city, all the arts and artifices of the lowest wards were spread over
this entire country, and unless something is done to preserve the purity
of the ballot-box, and guard the sovereign will of the people, we will
cease to be a Republican Government.

Another thing--and I cannot say it too often--fraud at the ballot-box
undermines all respect in the minds of the people for the Government.
When they are satisfied that the election is a fraud they despise the
officers elected. When they are satisfied it is a fraud, they despise
the law made by the legislators. When they are satisfied it is a fraud,
they hold in utter contempt the decisions of our highest and most august
tribunals.

Another trouble in this country is that our terms of office are too
short. Our elections are too frequent. They interfere with the business
of our country. When elections are so frequent, men make a business
of politics. If they fail to get one office they immediately run for
another, and they keep running until the people elect them for the
simple purpose of getting rid of the annoyance. Lengthen the terms,
purify the ballot, and the present scramble for office will become
contests for principles. A man who cannot get a living--unless he
has been disabled in the service of his country or from some other
cause--without holding office, is not fit for an office.

A professional office-seeker is one of the meanest, and lowest, and
basest of human beings--a little higher than the lower animals and a
little lower than man. He has no earthly or heavenly independence; not a
particle; not a particle. A successful office-seeker is like the center
of the earth; he weighs nothing himself, and draws all things towards
the office he wants. He has not even a temper. You cannot insult him.
Shut the door in his face, and, so far as he is concerned, it is left
wide open, and you are standing on the threshold with a smile, extending
the hand of welcome. He crawls and cringes and flatters and lies and
swaggers and brags and tells of the influence he has in the ward he
lives in. We cannot too often repeat that splendid saying, "The office
should seek the man, not man the office." If you will lengthen the
term of office it will be so long between meals that he will have to do
something else or starve. Adopt the system of registration, as I have
suggested; have small and convenient election districts, so that, as I
said before, the honest, law-abiding, and peaceable citizen can attend
the polls; so that he will not be compelled to risk his life to deposit
his ballot that will be stolen or thrown out, or forced to keep the
company of ballots caused by fraudulent violence. Lengthen the term of
office, drive the professional hunter and seeker of office from the
field, and you will go far toward strengthening and vivifying and
preserving the fabric of the Constitution. That is the kind of civil
service reform I am in favor of, and as I am on that subject, I will say
a word about it. There is but one vital question--but one question of
real importance--in fact I might say in the whole world, and that is
the great question of Civil Service Reform. There may be some others
indirectly affecting the human race, and in which some people take a
languid kind of interest, but the only question worth discussing and
comprehending in all its phases is the one I have mentioned. This great
question is in its infancy still. The doctrine as yet has been applied
only to politics.*

     * Colonel Ingersoll then read the following letter, of which
     he was the author.


My Dear Sir:--In the olden times, during the purer days of the Republic,
the motto was, "To the victors belong the spoils." The great object of
civil service reform is to reverse this motto. Our people are thoroughly
disgusted with machine politics, and demand politics without any
machine.

In every precinct and ward there are persons going about lauding one
party and crying down the other. They make it their business to attend
to the affairs of the Nation. They call conventions, pass resolutions;
they put notices in papers of the times and places of meetings; they
select candidates for office, and then insist upon having them elected;
they distribute papers and political documents; they crowd the mails
with newspapers, platforms, resolutions, facts and figures, and with
everything calculated to help their party and hurt the other. In short,
they are the disturbers of the public peace.

They keep the community in a perpetual excitement. In the last campaign,
wherever they were was turmoil. They fired cannon, carried flags,
torches and transparencies; they subsidized brass bands, and shouted and
hurrahed as though the world had gone insane. They were induced to do
these things by the hope of success and office. Take away this hope and
there will be peace once more. This thing is unendurable. The staid,
the quiet and respectable people, the moderate and conservative men who
always have an idea of joining the other side just to show their candor,
are heartily tired of the entire performance. These gentlemen demand
a rest. They are not adventurers; they have incomes; they belong to
families; they have monograms and liveries. They have succeeded, and
they want quiet. Growth makes a noise; development, as they call it,
is nothing but disturbance. We want stability, we want political
petrifaction, and we therefore demand that these meetings shall be
dismissed, that these processions shall halt, that these flags shall be
furled. But these things never will be stopped until we stop paying men
with office for making these disturbances. You know that it has been
the habit for men elected to bestow political favors upon the men
who elected them. This is a crying shame. It is a kind of bribery and
corruption. Men should not work with the expectation of reward and
success. The frightful consequences of rewarding one's friends cannot be
contemplated by a true patriot without a shudder. Exactly the opposite
course is demanded by the great principle of civil service reform. There
is no patriotism in working for place, for power and success. The true
lover of his country is stimulated to action by the hope of defeat,
and the prospect of office for his opponent. To such an extent has the
pernicious system of rewarding friends for political services gone in
this country, that until very lately it was difficult for a member of
the defeated party to obtain a respectable office.

The result of all this is, that the country is divided, that these
divisions are kept alive by these speakers, writers and convention
callers. The great mission of civil service reform is not to do
away with parties, but with conflicting opinion, by taking from all
politicians the hope of reward. There is no other hope for peace. What
do the people know about the wants of the nation? There are in every
community a few quiet and respectable men, who know all about the wants
of the people--gentlemen who have retired from business, who take no
part in discussion and who are therefore free from prejudice. Let these
men attend to our politics. They will not call conventions, except
in the parlors of hotels. They will not put out our eyes with flaring
torches. They will not deafen us with speeches. They will carry on a
campaign without producing opposition. They will have elections but no
contests. All the offices will be given to the defeated party. This of
itself will insure tranquillity at the polls. No one will be deprived of
the privilege of casting a ballot. When campaigns are conducted in this
manner a gentleman can engage in politics with a feeling that he is
protected by the great principle of civil service reform. But just so
long as men persist in rewarding their friends, as they call them, just
so long will our country be cursed with political parties. Nothing can
be better calculated to preserve the peace than the great principle of
rewarding those who have confidence enough in our institutions to keep
silent while peace will sit with folded wings upon the moss-covered
political stump of a ruder age. I am satisfied that to civil service
reform the Republican party is indebted for the last great victory. Upon
this question the enthusiasm of the people was simply unbounded. In
the harvest field, the shop, the counting-room, in the church, in the
saloon, in, the palace and in the hut, nothing was heard and nothing
discussed except the great principle of civil service reform.

Among the most touching incidents of the campaign was to see a few
old soldiers, sacred with scars, sit down, and while battles and
hair-breadth escapes, and prisons of want, were utterly forgotten,
discuss with tremulous lips and tearful eyes the great question of civil
service reform.

During the great political contest I addressed several quite large
and intelligent audiences, and no one who did not has or can have the
slightest idea of the hold that civil service reform had upon the
very souls of our people. Upon all other subjects the indifference was
marked. I dwelt upon the glittering achievements of my party, but they
were indifferent. I pictured outrages perpetrated upon our citizens, but
they did not care. All this went idly by, but when I touched upon
civil service reform, old men, gray-haired and strong, broke down
utterly--tears fell like rain. The faces of women grew ashen with the
intensity of anguish, and even little children sobbed as though their
hearts would break. To one who has witnessed these affecting scenes,
civil service reform is almost a sacred thing. Even the speeches
delivered upon this subject in German affected to tears thousands of
persons wholly unacquainted with that language. In some instances those
who did not understand a word were affected even more than those who
did. Surely there must be something in the subject itself, apart from
the words used to explain it, that can under such circumstances lead
captive the hearts of men. During the entire campaign the cry of civil
service reform was heard from one end of our land to the other. The
sailor nailed those words to the mast. The miner repeated them between
the strokes of the pick. Mothers explained them to their children.
Emigrants painted them upon their wagons. They were mingled with the
reaper's song and the shout of the pioneer. Adopt this great principle
and we can have quiet and lady-like campaigns, a few articles in monthly
magazines, a leader or two in the "Nation," in the pictorial papers
wood-cuts of the residences of the respective candidates and now and
then a letter from an old Whig would constitute all the aggressive
agencies of the contest. I am satisfied that this great principle
secured us our victories in Florida and Louisiana, and its effect on
the High Joint Commission was greater than is generally supposed. It was
this that finally decided the action of the returning boards.

Cronin is the only man upon whom this great principle was an utter
failure. Let it be understood that friends are not to be rewarded.
Let it be settled that political services are a barrier to political
preferment, and my word for it, machine politics will never be heard of
again.

Yours truly,----


I do not believe in carrying civil service reform to the extent that
you will not allow an officer to resign. I do not believe that that
principle should be insisted upon to that degree that there would only
be two ways left to get out of office--death or suicide. I believe,
other things being equal, any party having any office within its gift
will give that office to the man that really believes in the principles
of that party, and who has worked to give those principles ultimate
victory. That is human nature. The man that plows, the man that sows,
and the man that cultivates, ought to be the man that reaps. But we have
in this country a multitude of little places, a multitude of clerkships
in Washington; and the question is whether on the incoming of a new
administration, these men shall all be turned out. In the first place,
they are on starvation salaries, just barely enough to keep soul and
body together, and respectability on the outside; and if there is a
young man in this audience, I beg of him:

Never accept a clerkship from this Government. Do not live on a little
salary; do not let your mind be narrowed; do not sell all the splendid
possibilities of the future; do not learn to cringe and fawn and crawl.

I would rather have forty acres of land, with a log cabin on it and the
woman I love in the cabin--with a little grassy winding path leading
down to the spring where the water gurgles from the lips of earth
whispering day and night to the white pebbles a perpetual poem--with
holly-hocks growing at the corner of the house, and morning-glories
blooming over the low latched door--with lattice work over the window
so that the sunlight would fall checkered on the dimpled babe in
the cradle, and birds--like songs with wings hovering in the summer
air--than be the clerk of any government on earth.

Now, I say, let us lengthen the term of office--I do not care much how
long--send a man to Congress at least for five years. And it would be a
great blessing if there were not half as many of them sent.

We have too many legislators and too much legislation; too little about
important matters, and too much about unimportant matters. Lengthen the
term of office so that the man can turn his attention to something else
when he gets in besides looking after his re-election. There is another
defect we must remedy in our Constitution, in my judgment, and that is
as to the mode of electing a President. I believe it of the greatest
importance that the Executive should be entirely independent of the
legislative and judicial departments of the country. I do not believe
that Congress should have the right to create a vacancy which it can
fill. I do not believe that the Senate of the United States, or the
lower house of Congress, by a simple objection, should have the right to
deprive any State of its electoral vote. Our Constitution now provides
that the electors chosen in each State shall meet in their respective
States upon a certain day and there cast their votes for President and
Vice-President of the United States. They shall properly certify to the
votes which are cast, and shall transmit lists of them, together with
the proper certificates, to the Vice-President of the United States.
And it is then declared that upon a certain day in the presence of both
houses of Congress, the Vice-President shall open the certificates and
the votes shall then be counted. It does not exactly say who shall count
these votes. It does not in so many words say the Vice-President shall
do it, or may do it, or that both houses of Congress shall do it, or may
do it, or that either house can prevent a count of the votes. It leaves
us in the dark, and, to a certain degree, in blindness. I believe there
is a way, and a very easy way, out of the entire trouble, and it is
this: I do not care whether the electors first meet in their respective
States or not, but I want the Constitution so amended that the electors
of all the States shall meet on a certain day in the city of Washington,
and count the votes themselves; to allow that body to be the judge of
who are electors, to allow it to choose a chairman, and to allow
the person so chosen to declare who is the President, and who is the
Vice-President of the United States. The Executive is then entirely
free and independent of the legislative department of Government. The
Executive is then entirely free from the judicial department, and I tell
you, it is a public calamity to have the ermine of the Supreme Court
of the United States touched or stained by a political suspicion. In
my judgment, this country can never stand such a strain again as it has
now.

Now, my friends, all these questions are upon us and they have to be
settled. We cannot go on as we have been going. We cannot afford to live
as we have lived--one section running against the other. We cannot go
along that way. It must be settled, either peaceably or there must again
be a resort to the boisterous sword of civil war.

The people of the South must stop trampling on the rights of the colored
men. It must not be a crime in any State of this Union to be a lover of
this country. I have seen it stated in several papers lately that it is
the duty of each State to protect its own citizens. Well, I know that.
Suppose that the State does not do it; what then I say? Well, then, say
these people, the Governor of the State has the right to call on the
General Government for assistance. But suppose the Governor will not
call for assistance, what then? Then, they tell us, the Legislature can
do so by a joint resolution. But suppose the Legislature will not do it,
what then? Then, say these people, it is a defect in the Constitution.
In my judgment, that is the absurdest kind of secession. If the State of
Illinois must protect me, if I have no right to call for the protection
of the General Government, all I have to say is that my allegiance must
belong to the Government that protects me. If Illinois protects me, and
the General Government has not the power, then my first allegiance is
due to Illinois; and should Illinois unsheathe the sword of civil war,
I must stand by my State, if that doctrine is true. I say, my first
allegiance is due to the General Government, and not to the State of
Illinois, and if the State of Illinois goes out of the Union, I swear to
you that I will not. What does the General Government propose to give
me in exchange for my allegiance? The General Government has a right to
take my property. The General Government has a right to take my body
in its necessary defence. What does that Government propose to give in
exchange for that right? Protection, or else our Government is a fraud.
Who has a right to call for the protection of the United States? I say,
the citizen who needs it. Can our Government obtain information only
through the official sources? Must our Government wait until the
Government asks the proofs, while the State tramples upon the rights of
the citizens? Must it wait until the Legislature calls for assistance
to help it stop robbing and plundering citizens of the United States? Is
that the doctrine and the idea of the Northern Democratic party? It is
not mine. A Government that will not protect its citizens is a
disgrace to humanity. A Government that waits until a Governor calls--a
Government that cannot hear the cry of the meanest citizen under its
flag when his rights are being trampled upon, even by citizens of a
Southern State--has no right to exist.

It is the duty of the American citizen to see to it that every State
has a Government, not only republican in form, but it is the duty of the
United States to see to it that life, liberty and property are protected
in each State. If they are not protected, it is the duty of the United
States to protect them, if it takes all her military force both upon
land and upon the sea. The people whose Government cannot always hear
the faintest wail of the meanest man beneath its flag have no right to
call themselves a nation. The flag that will not protect its protectors
and defend its defenders is a rag that is not worth the air in which it
waves.

How are we going to do it? Do it by kindness if you can; by conciliation
if you can, but the Government is bound to try every way until it
succeeds. Now, Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President. The Democracy
will say, of course, that he never was elected, but that does not make
any difference. He is President to-day, and all these things are about
him to be settled.

What shall we do? What can we do? There are two Governors in South
Carolina and two Legislatures and not one cent of taxes has been
collected by either. A dual government would seem to be the most
economical in the world. Now, the question for us to decide, the
question to be decided by this administration is, how are we to
ascertain which is the legal Government of the State, and what
department of the Government has a right to ascertain that fact? Must it
be left to Congress? Has the Senate alone the right to determine it?
Can it be left in any way to the Supreme Court, or shall the Executive
decide it himself? I do not say that the Executive has the power to
decide that question for himself. I do not say he has not, but I do not
say he has. The question, so far as Louisiana and South Carolina are
concerned--that question is now in the Senate of the United States.
Governor Kellogg is asking for admission as a Senator from the State
of Louisiana, and the question is to be decided by the Senate first,
whether he is entitled to his seat, and that question of course, rests
upon the one fact--was the Legislature that elected him the legal
Legislature of the State of Louisiana? It seems to me that when that
question is pending in the Senate of the United States the President has
not the right, or at least it would be improper for him to decide it on
his own motion, and say this or that Government is the real and legal
Government of the State of Louisiana. But some mode must be adopted,
some way must be discovered to settle this question, and to settle it
peacefully. We are an enlightened people. Force is the last thing that
civilized men should resort to. As long as courts can be created, as
long as courts of arbitration can be selected, as long as we can reason
and think, and urge all the considerations of humanity upon each other,
there should be no appeal to arms in the United States upon any question
whatever. What should the President do? He could only spare twenty-five
hundred men from the Indian war--that is the same army that has so
long been trampling on the rights of the South, the same army that
the Democratic Congress wished to reduce, and that army of twenty-five
hundred men is all he has to spare to protect American citizens in the
Southern States. Is there any sentiment in the North that would uphold
the Executive in calling for volunteers? Is there any sentiment here
that would respond to a call for twenty, fifty, or a hundred thousand
men? Is there any Congress to pass the necessary act to pay them if
there was?

And so the President of the United States appreciated the situation, and
the people of the South came to him and said, "We have had war enough,
we have had trouble enough, our country languishes, we have no trade,
our pockets are empty, something must be done for us, we are utterly and
perfectly disgusted with the leadership of the Democratic party of the
North. Now, will you let us be your friends?" And he had the sense to
say, "Yes." The President took the right hand of the North, and put it
into the right hand of the South and said "Let us be friends. We parted
at the cannon's mouth; we were divided by the edge of the glittering
sword; we must become acquainted again. We are equals. We are all
fellow-citizens. In a Government of the people, by the people and for
the people, there shall not be an outcast class, whether white or
black. To this feast, every child of the Republic shall be invited and
welcomed." It was a grand thing grandly done. If the President succeeds
in his policy, it will be an immense compliment to his brain. If he
fails, it will be an equal compliment to his heart. He has opened the
door; he has advanced; he has extended his hand, he has broken the
silence of hatred with the words of welcome. Actuated by this broad and
catholic spirit he has selected his constitutional advisors, and
allow me to say right here, the President has the right to select his
constitutional advisors to suit himself, and the idea of men endeavoring
to force themselves or others into the Cabinet of the President,
against, as it were, his will, why I would as soon think of circulating
a petition to compel some woman to marry me.

He has gathered around him the men he considers the wisest and the best,
and I say, let us give them a fair chance. I say, let us be honest with
the President of the United States and his Cabinet, and give his policy
a fair and honest chance. In order to show his good faith with the
South he chose as a member of his Cabinet an ex-rebel from Tennessee.
I confess, when I heard of it I did not like it. It did not seem to
be exactly what I had been making all this fuss about. But I thought I
would be honest about it, and I went and called on Mr. Key, and really
he begins already to look a good deal like a Republican. A real honest
looking man. And then I said to myself that he had not done much more
harm than as though he had been a Democrat at the North during those
four years, and had cursed and swore instead of fought about it. And so
I told him "I am glad you are appointed."

And I am. Give him a chance, and so far as the whole Cabinet is
concerned--I have not the time to go over them one by one now, it is
perfectly satisfactory to me. The President made up his mind that to
appoint that man would be to say to the South: "I do not look upon you
as pariahs in this Government. I look upon you as fellow-citizens; I
want you to wipe forever the color line, or the Union line, from the
records of this Government on account of what has been done heretofore."
What are you now? is the only question that should be asked. It was
a strange thing for the President to appoint that man. It was an
experiment. It is an experiment. It has not yet been decided, but I
believe it will simply be a proof of the President's wisdom. I can stand
that experiment taken in connection with the appointment of Frederick
Douglass as Marshal of the District of Columbia. I was glad to see
that man's appointment. He is a good, patient, stern man. He has been
fighting for the liberty of his race, and at the same time for our
liberty. This man has done something for the freedom of my race as well
as his own. This is no time for war. War settles nothing except the mere
question of strength. That is all war ever did settle. You cannot shoot
ideas into a man with a musket, or with cannon into one of those old
Bourbon Democrats of the North. You cannot let prejudices out of a man
with a sword.

This is the time for reason, for discussion, for compromise. This is the
time to repair, to rebuild, to preserve. War destroys. Peace creates.
War is decay and death. Peace is growth and life,--sunlight and air. War
kills men. Peace maintains them. Artillery does not reason; it asserts.
A bayonet has point enough, but no logic. When the sword is drawn,
reason remains in the scabbard. It is not enough to win upon the field
of battle, you must be victor within the realm of thought. There must be
peace between the North and South some time; not a conquered peace, but
a peace that conquers. The question is, can you and I forget the past?
Can we forget everything except the heroic sacrifices of the men who
saved this Government? Can we say to the South, "Let us be brothers"?
Can we? I am willing to do it because, in the first place, it is right,
and in the second place, it will pay if it can be carried out. We have
fought and hated long enough. Our country is prostrate. Labor is in
rags. Energy has empty hands. Industry has empty pockets. The wheels of
the factory are still. In the safe of prudence money lies idle, locked
by the key of fear. Confidence is what we need--confidence in each
other; confidence in our institutions; confidence in our form of
government; in the great future; confidence in law, confidence in
liberty, confidence in progress, and in the grand destiny of the Great
Republic. Now, do not imagine that I think this policy will please
every body. Of course there are men South and North who can never be
conciliated. They are the Implacables in the South--the Bourbons in the
North.

Nothing will ever satisfy them. The Implacables want to own negroes
and whip them; the Bourbons never will be satisfied until they can help
catch one. The Implacables with violent hands drive emigration from
their shores. They are poisoning the springs and sources of prosperity.
They dine on hatred and sup on regret. They mourn over the lost cause
and partake of the communion of revenge. They strike down the liberties
of their fellow-citizens and refuse to enjoy their own. They remember
nothing but wrongs, and they forget nothing but benefits. Their bosoms
are filled with the serpents of hate. No one can compromise with them.
Nothing can change them. They must be left to the softening influence
of time and death. The Bourbons are the allies of the Implacables. A
Bourbon in the majority is an Implacable in the minority. An Implacable
in the minority is a Bourbon. We do not appeal to, but from these men.
But there are in the South thousands of men who have accepted in good
faith the results of the war; men who love and wish to preserve this
nation, men tired of strife--men longing for a real Union based upon
mutual respect and confidence. These men are willing that the colored
man shall be free--willing that he shall vote, and vote for the
Government of his choice--willing that his children shall be
educated--willing that he shall have all the rights of an American
citizen. These men are tired of the Implacables and disgusted with the
Bourbons. These men wish to unite with the patriotic men of the North in
the great work of reestablishing a government of law. For my part, call
me of what party you please, I am willing to join hands with these men,
without regard to race, color or previous condition.

With a knowledge of our wants--with a clear perception of our
difficulties, Rutherford B. Hayes became President.

Nations have been saved by the grandeur of one man. Above all things a
President should be a patriot. Party at best is only a means--the good
of the country, the happiness of the people, the only end.

Now, I appeal to you Democrats here--not a great many, I suppose--do
not oppose this policy because you think it is going to increase the
Republican strength. If it strengthens the Government, no matter whether
it is Republican or Democratic, it is for the common good.

And you Republicans, you who have had all these feelings of patriotism
and glory, I ask you to wait and let this experiment be tried. Do not
prophesy failure for it and then work to fulfill the prophecy. Give the
President a chance. I tell you to-night that he is as good a Republican
as there is in the United States; and I tell you that if this policy is
not responded to by the South, Rutherford B. Hayes will change it,
just as soon and as often as is necessary to accomplish the end. The
President has offered the Southern people the olive branch of peace,
and so far as I am concerned, I implore both the Southern people and
the Northern people to accept it. I extend to you each and all the olive
branch of peace. Fellow-citizens of the South, I beseech you to take it.
By the memory of those who died for naught; by the charred remains of
your remembered homes; by the ashes of your statesman dead; for the sake
of your sons and your daughters and their fair children yet to be,
I implore you to take it with loving and with loyal hands. It will
cultivate your wasted fields. It will rebuild your towns and cities. It
will fill your coffers with gold. It will educate your children. It
will swell the sails of your commerce. It will cause the roses of joy
to clamber and climb over the broken cannon of war. It will flood the
cabins of the freedman with light, and clothe the weak in more than coat
of mail, and wrap the poor and lowly in "measureless content." Take it.
The North will forgive if the South will forget. Take it! The negro
will wipe from the tablet of memory the strokes and scars of two hundred
years, and blur with happy tears the record of his wrongs. Take it! It
will unite our nation. It will make us brothers once again. Take it! And
justice will sit in your courts under the outspread wings of Peace. Take
it! And the brain and lips of the future will be free. Take it! It will
bud and blossom in your hands and fill your land with fragrance and with
joy.




HARD TIMES AND THE WAY OUT.

     * Boston, October 20, 1878.

LADIES and Gentlemen:--The lovers of the human race, the
philanthropists, the dreamers of grand dreams, all predicted and all
believed that when man should have the right to govern himself, when
every human being should be equal before the law, pauperism, crime, and
want would exist only in the history of the past. They accounted
for misery in their time by the rapacity of kings and the cruelty of
priests. Here, in the United States, man at last is free. Here, man
makes the laws, and all have an equal voice. The rich cannot oppress the
poor, because the poor are in a majority. The laboring men, those who
in some way work for their living, can elect every Congressman and every
judge; they can make and interpret the laws, and if labor is oppressed
in the United States by capital, labor has simply itself to blame.
The cry is now raised that capital in some mysterious way oppresses
industry; that the capitalist is the enemy of the man who labors. What
is a capitalist? Every man who has good health; every man with good
sense; every one who has had his dinner, and has enough left for supper,
is, to that extent, a capitalist. Every man with a good character, who
has the credit to borrow a dollar or to buy a meal, is a capitalist; and
nine out of ten of the great capitalists in the United States are simply
successful workingmen. There is no conflict, and can be no conflict, in
the United States between capital and labor; and the men who endeavor
to excite the envy of the unfortunate and the malice of the poor are the
enemies of law and order.

As a rule, wealth is the result of industry, economy, attention
to business; and as a rule, poverty is the result of idleness,
extravagance, and inattention to business, though to these rules there
are thousands of exceptions. The man who has wasted his time, who has
thrown away his opportunities, is apt to envy the man who has not. For
instance, there are six shoemakers working in one shop. One of them
attends to his business. You can hear the music of his hammer late and
early. He is in love with some girl on the next street. He has made up
his mind to be a man; to succeed; to make somebody else happy; to have
a home; and while he is working, in his imagination he can see his own
fireside, with the firelight falling upon the faces of wife and child.
The other five gentlemen work as little as they can, spend Sunday in
dissipation, have the headache Monday, and, as a result, never advance.
The industrious one, the one in love, gains the confidence of his
employer, and in a little while he cuts out work for the others. The
first thing you know he has a shop of his own, the next a store; because
the man of reputation, the man of character, the man of known integrity,
can buy all he wishes in the United States upon a credit. The next thing
you know he is married, and he has built him a house, and he is happy,
and his dream has been realized. After awhile the same five shoemakers,
having pursued the old course, stand on the corner some Sunday when he
rides by. He has a carriage, his wife sits by his side, her face covered
with smiles, and they have two children, their eyes beaming with joy,
and the blue ribbons are fluttering in the wind. And thereupon, these
five shoemakers adjourn to some neighboring saloon and pass a resolution
that there is an irrepressible conflict between capital and labor.

There is, in fact, no such conflict, and the laboring men of the United
States have the power to protect themselves. In the ballot-box the
vote of Lazarus is on an equality with the vote of Dives; the vote of
a wandering pauper counts the same as that of a millionaire. In a land
where the poor, where the laboring men have the right and have the power
to make the laws, and do, in fact, make the laws, certainly there should
be no complaint. In our country the people hold the power, and if any
corporation in any State is devouring the substance of the people,
every State has retained the power of eminent domain, under which it
can confiscate the property and franchise of any corporation by
simply paying to that corporation what such property is worth. And yet
thousands of people are talking as though the rich combined for the
express purpose of destroying the poor, are talking as though there
existed a widespread conspiracy against industry, against honest toil;
and thousands and thousands of speeches have been made and numberless
articles have been written to fill the breasts of the unfortunate with
hatred.

We have passed through a period of wonderful and unprecedented
inflation. For years we enjoyed the luxury of going into debt, the
felicity of living upon credit. We have in the United States about
eighty thousand miles of railway, more than enough to make a treble
track around the globe. Most of these miles were built in a period of
twenty-five years, and at a cost of at least five thousand millions
of dollars. Think of the ore that had to be dug, of the iron that was
melted; think of the thousands employed in cutting bridge timber and
ties, and giving to the wintry air the music of the axe; think of the
thousands and thousands employed in making cars, in making locomotives,
those horses of progress with nerves of steel and breath of flame; think
of the thousands and thousands of workers in brass and steel and iron;
think of the numberless industries that thrived in the construction
of eighty thousand miles of railway, of the streams bridged, of the
mountains tunneled, of the plains crossed; and think of the towns and
cities that sprang up, as if by magic, along these highways of iron.

During the same time we had a war in which we expended thousands of
millions of dollars, not to create, not to construct, but to destroy.
All this money was spent in the work of demolition, and every shot and
every shell and every musket and every cannon was used to destroy. All
the time of every soldier was lost. An amount of property inconceivable
was destroyed, and some of the best and bravest were sacrificed. During
these years the productive power of the North was strained to the
utmost; every wheel was in motion; there was employment for every kind
and description of labor, and for every mechanic. There was a constantly
rising market--speculation was rife, and it seemed almost impossible
to lose. As a consequence, the men who had been toiling upon the farm
became tired. It was too slow a way to get rich. They heard of their
neighbor, of their brother, who had gone to the city and had suddenly
become a millionaire. They became tired with the slow methods of
agriculture. The young men of intelligence, of vim, of nerve became
disgusted with the farms. On every hand fortunes were being made. A
wave of wealth swept over the United States; huts became houses; houses
became palaces with carpeted floors and pictured walls; tatters became
garments; rags became robes; and for the first time in the history of
the world, the poor tasted of the luxuries of wealth. We wondered how
our fathers could have endured their poor and barren lives.

Every business was pressed to the snow line. Old life insurance
associations had been successful; new ones sprang up on every hand.
The agents filled every town. These agents were given a portion of the
premium. You could hardly go out of your house without being told of the
uncertainty of life and the certainty of death. You were shown pictures
of life insurance agents emptying vast bags of gold at the feet of a
disconsolate widow. You saw in imagination your own fatherless children
wiping away the tears of grief and smiling with joy.

These agents insured everybody and everything. They would have insured a
hospital or consumption in its last hemorrhage.

Fire insurance was managed in precisely the same way. The agents
received a part of the premium, and they insured anything and
everything, no matter what its danger might be. They would have insured
powder in perdition, or icebergs under the torrid zone with the same
alacrity. And then there were accident companies, and you could not
go to the station to buy your ticket without being shown a picture of
disaster. You would see there four horses running away with a stage, and
old ladies and children being thrown out; you would see a steamer being
blown up on the Mississippi, legs one way and arms the other, heads
one side and hats the other; locomotives going through bridges, good
Samaritans carrying off the wounded on stretchers.

The merchants, too, were not satisfied to do business in the old way. It
was too slow; they could not wait for customers. They filled the country
with drummers, and these drummers convinced all the country merchants
that they needed about twice as many goods as they could possibly sell,
and they took their notes on sixty and ninety days, and renewed them
whenever desired, provided the parties renewing the notes would take
more goods. And these country merchants pressed the goods upon their
customers in the same manner. Everybody was selling, everybody was
buying, and nearly all was done upon a credit. No one believed the day
of settlement ever would or ever could come. Towns must continue to
grow, and in the imagination of speculators there were hundreds of
cities numbering their millions of inhabitants. Land, miles and miles
from the city, was laid out in blocks and squares and parks; land that
will not be occupied for residences probably for hundreds of years to
come, and these lots were sold, not by the acre, not by the square
mile, but by so much per foot. They were sold on credit, with a partial
payment down and the balance secured by a mortgage.

These values, of course, existed simply in the imagination; and a deed
of trust upon a cloud or a mortgage upon a last year's fog would have
been just as valuable. Everybody advertised, and those who were not
selling goods and real estate were in the medicine line, and every rock
beneath our flag was covered with advice to the unfortunate; and I have
often thought that if some sincere Christian had made a pilgrimage
to Sinai and climbed its venerable crags, and in a moment of devotion
dropped upon his knees and raised his eyes toward heaven, the first
thing that would have met his astonished gaze would in all probability
have been:

     "St. 1860 X Plantation Bitters."

Suddenly there came a crash. Jay Cooke failed, and I have heard
thousands of men account for the subsequent hard times from the fact
that Cooke did fail. As well might you account for the smallpox by
saying that the first pustule was the cause of the disease. The failure
of Jay Cooke & Co. was simply a symptom of a disease universal.

No language can describe the agonies that have been endured since 1873.
No language can tell the sufferings of the men that have wandered over
the dreary and desolate desert of bankruptcy. Thousands and thousands
supposed that they had enough, enough for their declining years,
enough for wife and children, and suddenly found themselves paupers and
vagrants.

During all these years the bankruptcy law was in force, and whoever
failed to keep his promise had simply to take the benefit of this law.
As a consequence, there could be no real, solid foundation for business.
Property commenced to decline; that is to say, it commenced to resume;
that is to say, it began to be rated at its real instead of at its
speculative value.

Land is worth what it will produce, and no more. It may have speculative
value, and, if the prophecy is fulfilled, the man who buys it may become
rich, and if the prophecy is not fulfilled, then the land is simply
worth what it will produce. Lots worth from five to ten thousand dollars
apiece suddenly vanished into farms worth twenty-five dollars per acre.
These lots resumed. The farms that before that time had been considered
worth one hundred dollars per acre, and are now worth twenty or thirty,
have simply resumed. Magnificent residences supposed to be worth one
hundred thousand dollars, that can now be purchased for twenty-five
thousand, they have simply resumed. The property in the United States
has not fallen in value, but its real value has been ascertained. The
land will produce as much as it ever would, and is as valuable to-day
as it ever was; and every improvement, every invention that adds to the
productiveness of the soil or to the facilities for getting that product
to market, adds to the wealth of the nation.

As a matter of fact, the property kept pace with what we were pleased to
call our money. As the money depreciated, property appreciated; as the
money appreciated, property depreciated. The moment property began to
fall speculation ceased. There is but little speculation upon a falling
market. The stocks and bonds, based simply upon ideas, became worthless,
the collaterals became dust and ashes.

At the close of the war, when the Government ceased to be such a vast
purchaser and consumer, many of the factories had to stop. When the
crash came the men stopped digging ore; they stopped felling the forest;
the fires died out in the furnaces; the men who had stood in the glare
of the forge were in the gloom of want. There was no employment for
them. The employer could not sell his product; business stood still,
and then came what we call the hard times. Our wealth was a delusion and
illusion, and we simply came back to reality. Too many men were doing
nothing, too many men were traders, brokers, speculators. There were not
enough producers of the things needed; there were too many producers of
the things no one wished. There needed to be a re-distribution of men.

Many remedies have been proposed, and chief among these is the remedy
of fiat money. Probably no subject in the world is less generally
understood than that of money. So many false definitions have been
given, so many strange, conflicting theories have been advanced, that
it is not at all surprising that men have come to imagine that money
is something that can be created by law. The definitions given by the
hard-money men themselves have been used as arguments by those who
believe in the power of Congress to create wealth. We are told that gold
is an instrumentality or a device to facilitate exchanges. We are told
that gold is a measure of value. Let us examine these definitions.

"_Gold is an instrumentality or device to facilitate exchanges._"

That sounds well, but I do not believe it. Gold and silver
are commodities. They are the products of labor. They are not
instrumentalities; they are not devices to facilitate exchanges; they
are the things exchanged for something else; and other things are
exchanged for them. The only device about it to facilitate exchanges is
the coining of these metals. Whenever the Government or any government
certifies that in a certain piece of gold or silver there are a certain
number of grains of a certain fineness, then he who gives it knows that
he is not giving too much, and he who receives, that he is receiving
enough, so that I will change the definition to this:

The _coining_ of the precious metals is a device to facilitate
exchanges.

The precious metals themselves are property; they are merchandise; they
are commodities, and whenever one commodity is exchanged for another it
is barter, and gold is the last refinement of barter.

The second definition is:

"_Gold is the measure of value_."

We are told by those who believe in fiat money that gold is a measure of
value just the same as a half bushel or a yardstick.

I deny that gold is a measure of value. The yardstick is not a measure
of value; it is simply a measure of quantity. It measures cloth worth
fifty dollars a yard precisely as it does calico worth four cents. It
is, therefore, not a measure of value, but of quantities. The same with
the half bushel. The half bushel measures wheat precisely the same,
whether that wheat is worth three dollars or one dollar. It simply
measures quantity; not quality, or value. The yardstick, the half
bushel, and the coining of money are all devices to facilitate
exchanges. The yardstick assures the man who sells that he has not sold
too much; it assures the man who buys that he has received enough; and
in that way it facilitates exchanges. The coining of money facilitates
exchange, for the reason that were it not coined, each man who did any
business would have to carry a pair of scales and be a chemist.

It matters not whether the yardstick or half bushel are of gold, silver,
or wood, for the reason that the yardstick and half bushel are not the
things bought. We buy not them, but the things they measure.

If gold and silver are not the measure of value, what is? I
answer--intelligent labor. Gold gets its value from labor. Of course, I
cannot account for the fact that mankind have a certain fancy for gold
or for diamonds, neither can I account for the fact that we like certain
things better than others to eat. These are simply facts in nature, and
they are facts, whether they can be explained or not. The dollar in gold
represents, on the average, the labor that it took to dig and mint it,
together with all the time of the men who looked for it without finding
it. That dollar in gold, on the average, will buy the product of the
same amount of labor in any other direction.

Nothing ever has been money, from the most barbarous to the most
civilized times, unless it was a product of nature, and a something to
which the people among whom it passed as money attached a certain value,
a value not dependent upon law, not dependent upon "fiat" in any degree.

Nothing has ever been considered money that man could produce.

A bank bill is not money, neither is a check nor a draft. These are all
devices simply to facilitate business, but in or of themselves they have
no value.

We are told, however, that the Government can create money. This I deny.
The Government produces nothing; it raises no wheat, no corn; it digs no
gold, no silver. It is not a producer, it is a consumer.

The Government cannot by law create wealth. And right here I wish to
ask one question, and I would like to have it answered some time. If
the Government can make money, if it can create money, if by putting
its sovereignty upon a piece of paper it can create absolute money, why
should the Government collect taxes? We have in every district
assessors and collectors; we have at every port customhouses, and we are
collecting taxes day and night for the support of this Government. Now,
if the Government can make money itself, why should it collect taxes
from the poor? Here is a man cultivating a farm--he is working among the
stones and roots, and digging day and night; why should the Government
go to that man and make him pay twenty or thirty or forty dollars taxes
when the Government, according to the theory of these gentlemen, could
make a thousand-dollar fiat bill quicker than that man could wink? Why
impose upon industry in that manner? Why should the sun borrow a candle?

And if the Government can create money, how much should it create, and
if it should create it who will get it? Money has a great liking for
money. A single dollar in the pocket of a poor man is lonesome; it never
is satisfied until it has found its companions. Money gravitates towards
money, and issue as much as you may, as much as you will, the time will
come when that money will be in the hands of the industrious, in the
hands of the economical, in the hands of the shrewd, in the hands of the
cunning; in other words, in the hands of the successful.

The other day I had a conversation with one of the principal gentlemen
upon that side, and I told him, "Whenever you can successfully palm off
on a man a bill of fare for a dinner, I shall believe in your doctrine;
and when I can satisfy the pangs of hunger by reading a cook-book, I
shall join your party." Only that is money which stands for labor. Only
that is money which will buy, on the average, in all other directions
the result of the same labor expended in its production. As a matter
of fact, there is money enough in the country to transact the business.
Never before in the history of our Government was money so cheap; that
is to say, was interest so low; never. There is plenty of money, and we
could borrow all we wished had we the collaterals. We could borrow
all we wish if there was some business in which we could embark that
promised a sure and reasonable return. If we should come to a man who
kept a ferry, and find his boat on a sandbar and the river dry, what
would he think of us should we tell him he had not enough boat? He would
probably reply that he had plenty of boat, but not enough water. We have
plenty of money, but not enough business. The reason we have not enough
business is, we have not enough confidence, and the reason we have not
confidence is because the market is slowly falling, and the reason it is
slowly falling is that things have not yet quite resumed; that we have
not quite touched the absolute bedrock of valuation. Another reason is
because those that left the cultivation of the soil have not yet all
returned, and they are living, some upon their wits, some upon their
relatives, some upon charity, and some upon crime.

The next question is: Suppose the Government should issue a thousand
millions of fiat money, how would it regulate the value thereof? Every
creditor could be forced to take it, but nobody else. If a man was in
debt one dollar for a bushel of wheat, he could compel the creditor to
take the fiat money; but if he wished to buy the wheat, then the owner
could say, "I will take one dollar in gold or fifty dollars in fiat
money, or I will not sell it for fiat money at any price." What will
Congress do then? In order to make this fiat money good it will have to
fix the price of every conceivable commodity; the price of painting
a picture, of trying a lawsuit, of chiseling a statue, the price of a
day's work; in short, the price of every conceivable thing. This even
will not be sufficient. It will be necessary, then, to provide by
law that the prices fixed shall be received, and that no man shall be
allowed to give more for anything than the price fixed by Congress.
Now, I do not believe that any Congress has sufficient wisdom to tell
beforehand what will be the relative value of all the products of labor.

When the volume of currency is inflated it is at the expense of the
creditor class; when it is contracted it is contracted at the expense
of the debtor class. In other words, inflation means going into debt;
contraction means the payment of the debt.

A gold dollar is a dollar's worth of gold.

A real paper dollar is a dollar's worth of paper.

Another remedy has been suggested by the same persons who advocate fiat
money. With a consistency perfectly charming, they say it would have
been much better had we allowed the Treasury notes to fade out. Why
allow fiat money to fade out when a simple act of Congress can make it
as good as gold? When greenbacks fade out the loss falls upon the chance
holder, upon the poor, the industrious, and the unfortunate. The rich,
the cunning, the well-informed manage to get rid of what they happen to
hold. When, however, the bills are redeemed, they are paid by the
wealth and property of the whole country. To allow them to fade out
is universal robbery; to pay them is universal justice. The greenback
should not be allowed to fade away in the pocket of the soldier or in
the hands of his widow and children. It is said that; the Continental
money faded away. It was and is a disgrace to our forefathers. When the
greenback fades away there will fade with it honor from the American
heart, brain from the American head, and our flag from the air of
heaven.

A great cry has been raised against the holders of bonds. They have been
denounced by every epithet that malignity can coin. During the war our
bonds were offered for sale and they brought all that they then appeared
to be worth. They had to be sold or the Rebellion would have been a
success. To the bond we are indebted as much as to the greenback. The
fact is, however, we are indebted to neither; we are indebted to the
soldiers. But every man who took a greenback at less than gold committed
the same crime, and no other, as he who bought the bonds at less than
par in gold. These bonds have changed hands thousands of times. They
have been paid for in gold again and again. They have been bought at
prices far above par; they have been laid away by loving husbands
for wives, by toiling fathers for children; and the man who seeks to
repudiate them now, or to pay them in fiat rags, is unspeakably cruel
and dishonest. If the Government has made a bad bargain it must live up
to it. If it has made a foolish promise the only way is to fulfill it.

A dishonest government can exist only among dishonest people.

When our money is below par we feel below par.

We cannot bring prosperity by cheapening money; we cannot increase
our wealth by adding to the volume of a depreciated currency. If the
prosperity of a country depends upon the volume of its currency, and if
anything is money that people can be made to think is money, then the
successful counterfeiter is a public benefactor. The counterfeiter
increases the volume of currency; he stimulates business, and the money
issued by him will not be hoarded and taken from the channels of trade.

During the war, during the inflation--that is to say, during the years
that we were going into debt--fortunes were made so easily that people
left the farms, crowded to the towns and cities. Thousands became
speculators, traders, and merchants; thousands embarked in every
possible and conceivable scheme. They produced nothing; they simply
preyed upon labor and dealt with imaginary values. These men must
go back; they must become producers, and every producer is a paying
consumer. Thousands and thousands of them are unable to go back. To a
man who begs of you a breakfast you cannot say, "Why don't you get
a farm?" You might as well say, "Why don't you start a line of
steamships?" To him both are impossibilities. They must be helped.

We should all remember that society must support all of its members, all
of its robbers, thieves, and paupers. Every vagabond and vagrant has
to be fed and clothed, and society must support in some way all of its
members. It can support them in jails, in asylums, in hospitals, in
penitentiaries; but it is a very costly way. We have to employ judges
to try them, juries to sit upon their cases, sheriffs, marshals, and
constables to arrest them, policemen to watch them, and it may be,
at last, a standing army to put them down. It would be far cheaper,
probably, to support them all at some first-class hotel. We must either
support them or help them support themselves. They let us go upon the
one hand simply to take us by the other, and we can take care of them as
paupers and criminals, or, by wise statesmanship, help them to be honest
and useful men. Of all the criminals transported by England to Australia
and Tasmania, the records show that a very large per cent.--something
over ninety--became useful and decent people. In Australia they found
homes; hope again spread its wings in their breasts. They had different
ambitions; they were removed from vile and vicious associations. They
had new surroundings; and, as a rule, man does not morally improve
without a corresponding improvement in his physical condition.
One biscuit, with plenty of butter, is worth all the tracts ever
distributed.

Thousands must be taken from the crowded streets and stifling dens, away
from the influences of filth and want, to the fields and forests of the
West and South. They must be helped to help themselves.

While the Government cannot create gold and silver, while it cannot
by its fiat make money, it can furnish facilities for the creation
of wealth. It can aid in the distribution of products, and in the
distribution of men; it can aid in the opening of new territories;
it can aid great and vast enterprises that cannot be accomplished by
individual effort. The Government should see to it that every facility
is offered to honorable adventure, enterprise and industry. Our ships
ought to be upon every sea; our flag ought to be flying in every port.
Our rivers and harbors ought to be improved. The usefulness of the
Mississippi should be increased, its banks strengthened, and its channel
deepened. At no distant day it will bear the commerce of a hundred
millions of people. That grand river is the great guaranty of
territorial integrity; it is the protest of nature against disunion, and
from its source to the sea it will forever flow beneath one flag.

The Northern Pacific Railway should be pushed to completion. In this
way labor would be immediately given to many thousands of men. Along
the line of that thoroughfare would spring up towns and cities; new
communities with new surroundings; and where now is the wilderness there
would be thousands and thousands of happy homes.

The Texas Pacific should also be completed. A vast agricultural and
mineral region would be opened to the enterprise and adventure of the
American people. Probably Arizona holds within the miserly clutches of
her rocks greater wealth than any other State or territory of the world.
The construction of that road would put life and activity into a hundred
industries. It would give employment to many thousands of people, and
homes at last to many millions. It would cause the building of thousands
of miles of branches to open, not only new territory, but to connect
with roads already built. It would double the products of gold and
silver, open new fields to trade, create new industries, and make it
possible for us to supply eight millions of people in the Republic of
Mexico with our products. The construction of this great highway will
enable the Government to dispense with from ten to fifteen regiments of
infantry and cavalry now stationed along the border. People enough will
settle along this line to protect themselves. It will permanently settle
the Indian question, saving the people millions each year. It will
effectually destroy the present monopoly, and in this way greatly
increase production and consumption. It will double our trade with
China and Japan, and with the Pacific States as well. It will settle
the Southern question by filling the Southern States with immigrants,
diversifying the industries of that section, changing and rebuilding the
commercial and social fabric; it will do away with the conservatism of
regret and the prejudice born of isolation. It will transmute to wealth
the unemployed muscle of the country. It will rescue California from
the control of a single corporation, from the government of an oligarchy
united, watchful, despotic, and vindictive. It will liberate the
farmers, the merchants, and even the politicians of the Pacific coast.
Besides, it must not be forgotten so to frame the laws and charters that
Congress shall forever have the control of fares and freights. In this
way the public will be perfectly protected and the Government perfectly
secured.

Look at the map, and you will see the immense advantages its
construction will give to the entire country, not only to the South, but
to the East and West as well. It is one hundred and fifty miles nearer
from Chicago to San Diego than to San Francisco. You will see that the
whole of Texas, a State containing two hundred and ten thousand square
miles; a State four times as large as Illinois, five times as large
as New York, capable of supporting a population of twenty millions of
people, is put in direct and immediate communication with the whole
country. Territory to the extent of nearly a million square miles
will be given to agriculture, trade, commerce, and mining, by the
construction of this line.

Let this road be built, and we shall feel again the enthusiasm born
of enterprise. In the vast stagnation there will be at last a current.
Something besides waiting is necessary to secure, or to even hasten, the
return of prosperity. Secure the completion of this line and extend the
time for building the Northern Pacific, and confidence and employment
will return together.

More men must cultivate the soil. In the older States lands are too
high. It requires too much capital to commence. There are so many
failures in business; so many merchants, traders, and manufacturers have
been wrecked and stranded upon the barren shores of bankruptcy, that
the people are beginning to prefer the small but certain profits of
agriculture to the false and splendid promises of speculation. We must
open new territories; we must give the mechanics now out of employment
an opportunity to cultivate the soil--not as day-laborers but as owners;
not as tenants, but as farmers. Something must be done to develop the
resources of this country. With the best lands of the world; with a
population intellectual, energetic, and ingenious far beyond the average
of mankind; with the richest mines of the globe; with plenty of capital;
with a surplus of labor; with thousands of arms folded in enforced
idleness; with billions of gold asking to be dug; with millions of acres
waiting for the plow, thousands upon thousands are in absolute want.

New avenues must be opened. All our territory must be given to
immigration. Greater facilities must be offered. Obstacles that cannot
be overcome by individual enterprise must be conquered by the Government
for the good of all. Every man out of employment is impoverishing the
country. Labor transmutes muscle into wealth. Idleness is a rust that
devours even gold. For five years we have been wasting the labor of
millions--wasting it for lack of something to do. Prosperity has been
changed to want and discontent. On every hand the poor are asking for
work. That is a wretched government where the honest and industrious
beg, unsuccessfully, for the right to toil; where those who are willing,
anxious, and able to work, cannot get bread. If everything is to be left
to the blind and heartless working of the laws of supply and demand, why
have governments? If the nation leaves the poor to starve, and the weak
and unfortunate to perish, it is hard to see for what purpose the nation
should be preserved. If our statesmen are not wise enough to foster
great enterprises, and to adopt a policy that will give us prosperity,
it may be that the laboring classes, driven to frenzy by hunger, the
bitterness of which will be increased by seeing others in the midst of
plenty, will seek a remedy in destruction.

The transcontinental commerce of this country should not be in the
clutch and grasp of one corporation. All sections of the Union should,
as far as possible, be benefited. Cheap rates will come, and can be
maintained only by competition. We should cultivate commercial relations
with China and Japan. Six hundred millions of people are slowly awaking
from a lethargy of six thousand years. In a little while they will have
the wants of civilized men, and America will furnish a large proportion
of the articles demanded by these people. In a few years there will be
as many ships upon the Pacific as upon the Atlantic. In a few years our
trade with China will be far greater than with Europe. In a few years
we will sustain the same relation to the far East that Europe once
sustained to us. America for centuries to come will supply six hundred
millions of people with the luxuries of life. A country that expects to
control the trade of other countries must develop its own resources to
the utmost. We have pursued a small, a mean, and a penurious course.
Demagogues have ridden into office and power upon the cry of economy,
by opposing every measure looking to the improvement of the country, by
endeavoring to see how cheaply nothing could be done. A government, like
an individual, should live up to its privileges; it should husband its
resources, simply that it may use them. A nation that expects to control
the commerce of half a world must have its money equal with gold and
silver. It must have the money of the world.

Whenever the laboring men are out of employment they begin to hate the
rich. They feel that the dwellers in palaces, the riders in carriages,
the wearers of broadcloth, silk, and velvet have in some way been
robbing them. As a matter of fact, the palace builders are the friends
of labor. The best form of charity is extravagance. When you give a man
money, when you toss him a dollar, although you get nothing, the man
loses his manhood. To help others help themselves is the only real
charity. There is no use in boosting a man who is not climbing. Whenever
I see a splendid home, a palace, a magnificent block, I think of the
thousands who were fed--of the women and children clothed, of the
firesides made happy.

A rich man living up to his privileges, having the best house, the
best furniture, the best horses, the finest grounds, the most beautiful
flowers, the best clothes, the best food, the best pictures, and all the
books that he can afford, is a perpetual blessing.

The prodigality of the rich is the providence of the poor.

The extravagance of wealth makes it possible for the poor to save.

The rich man who lives according to his means, who is extravagant in the
best and highest sense, is not the enemy of labor. The miser, who lives
in a hovel, wears rags, and hoards his gold, is a perpetual curse. He is
like one who dams a river at its source.

The moment hard times come the cry of economy is raised. The press, the
platform, and the pulpit unite in recommending economy to the rich. In
consequence of this cry, the man of wealth discharges servants, sells
horses, allows his carriage to become a hen-roost, and after taking
employment and food from as many as he can, congratulates himself that
he has done his part toward restoring prosperity to the country.

In that country where the poor are extravagant and the rich economical
will be found pauperism and crime; but where the poor are economical and
the rich are extravagant, that country is filled with prosperity.

The man who wants others to work to such an extent that their lives are
burdens, is utterly heartless. The toil of the world should continually
decrease. Of what use are your inventions if no burdens are lifted from
industry--if no additional comforts find their way to the home of labor;
why should labor fill the world with wealth and live in want?

Every labor-saving machine should help the whole world. Every one should
tend to shorten the hours of labor.

Reasonable labor is a source of joy. To work for wife and child, to toil
for those you love, is happiness; provided you can make them happy. But
to work like a slave, to see your wife and children in rags, to sit at
a table where food is coarse and scarce, to rise at four in the morning,
to work all day and throw your tired bones upon a miserable bed at
night, to live without leisure, without rest, without making those you
love comfortable and happy--this is not living--it is dying--a slow,
lingering crucifixion.

The hours of labor should be shortened. With the vast and wonderful
improvements of the nineteenth century there should be not only the
necessaries of life for those who toil, but comforts and luxuries as
well.

What is a reasonable price for labor? I answer: Such a price as will
enable the man to live; to have the comforts of life; to lay by a little
something for his declining years, so that he can have his own home, his
own fireside; so that he can preserve the feelings of a man.

Every man ought to be willing to pay for what he gets. He ought to
desire to give full value received. The man who wants two dollars' worth
of work for one is not an honest man.

I sympathize with every honest effort made by the children of labor
to improve their condition. That is a poorly governed country in which
those who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when men
are obliged to beg for leave to toil. We are not yet a civilized people;
when we are, pauperism and crime will vanish from our land.

There is one thing, however, of which I am glad and proud, and that is,
that society is not, in our country, petrified; that the poor are not
always poor.

The children of the poor of this generation may, and probably will, be
the rich of the next. The sons of the rich of this generation may be the
poor of the next; so that after all, the rich fear and the poor hope.

I sympathize with the wanderers, with the vagrants out of employment;
with the sad and weary men who are seeking for work. When I see one of
these men, poor and friendless--no matter how bad he is--I think that
somebody loved him once; that he was once held in the arms of a mother;
that he slept beneath her loving eyes, and wakened in the light of her
smile. I see him in the cradle, listening to lullabies sung soft and
low, and his little face is dimpled as though touched by the rosy
fingers of Joy.

And then I think of the strange and winding paths, the weary roads he
has traveled from that mother's arms to vagrancy and want.

There should be labor and food for all. We invent; we take advantage of
the forces of nature; we enslave the winds and waves; we put shackles
upon the unseen powers and chain the energy that wheels the world. These
slaves should release from bondage all the children of men.

By invention, by labor--that is to say, by working and thinking--we
shall compel prosperity to dwell with us.

Do not imagine that wealth can be created by law; do not for a moment
believe that paper can be changed to gold by the fiat of Congress.

Do not preach the heresy that you can keep a promise by making another
in its place that is never to be kept. Do not teach the poor that the
rich have conspired to trample them into the dust.

Tell the workingmen that they are in the majority; that they can make
and execute the laws.

Tell them that since 1873 the employers have suffered about as much as
the employed.

Tell them that the people who have the power to make the laws should
never resort to violence. Tell them never to envy the successful. Tell
the rich to be extravagant and the poor to be economical.

Tell every man to use his best efforts to get him a home. Without a
home, without some one to love, life and country are meaningless words.
Upon the face of the patriot must have fallen the firelight of home.

Tell the people that they must have honest money, so that when a man has
a little laid by for wife and child, it will comfort him even in death;
so that he will feel that he leaves something for bread, something that,
in some faint degree, will take his place; that he has left the coined
toil of his hands to work for the loved when he is dust.

Tell your representatives in Congress to improve our rivers and harbors;
to release our transcontinental commerce from the grasp of monopoly;
to open all our territories, and to build up our trade with the whole
world.

Tell them not to issue a dollar of fiat paper, but to redeem every
promise the nation has made.

If fiat money is ever issued it will be worthless, for the folly that
would issue has not the honor to pay when the experiment fails.

Tell them to put their trust in work. Debts can be created by law, but
they must be paid by labor.

Tell them that "fiat money" is madness and repudiation is death.




SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.

     * This address was delivered at a Suffrage Meeting in
     Washington, D. C., January 24,1880


1880.

LADIES and Gentlemen: I believe the people to be the only rightful
source of political power, and that any community, no matter where, in
which any citizen is not allowed to have his voice in the making of
the laws he must obey, that community is a tyranny. It is a matter of
astonishment to me that a meeting like this is necessary in the Capital
of the United States. If the citizens of the District of Columbia are
not permitted to vote, if they are not allowed to govern themselves,
and if there is no sound reason why they are not allowed to govern
themselves, then the American idea of government is a failure. I do not
believe that only the rich should vote, or that only the whites should
vote, or that only the blacks should vote. I do not believe that
right depends upon wealth, upon education, or upon color. It depends
absolutely upon humanity. I have the right to vote because I am a man,
because I am an American citizen, and that right I should and am willing
to share equally with every human being. There has been a great deal
said in this country of late in regard to giving the right of suffrage
to women. So far as I am concerned I am willing that every woman in the
nation who desires that privilege and honor shall vote. If any woman
wants to vote I am too much of a gentleman to say she shall not. She
gets her right, if she has it, from precisely the same source that I get
mine, and there are many questions upon which I would deem it desirable
that women should vote, especially upon the question of peace or war.
If a woman has a child to be offered upon the altar of that Moloch, a
husband liable to be drafted, and who loves a heart that can be entered
by the iron arrow of death, she surely has as much right to vote for
peace as some thrice-besotted sot who reels to the ballot-box and
deposits a vote for war. I believe, and always have, that there is
only one objection to a woman voting, and that is, the men are not
sufficiently civilized for her to associate with them, and for several
years I have been doing what little I can to civilize them. The only
question before this meeting, as I understand it, is, Shall the people
of this District manage their own affairs--whether they shall vote their
own taxes and select their own officers who are to execute the laws they
make? and for one, I say there is no human being with ingenuity enough
to frame an argument against this question. It is all very well to say
that Congress will do this, but Congress has a great deal to do
besides. There is enough before that body coming from all the States and
Territories of the Union, and the numberless questions arising in the
conduct of the General Government. I am opposed to a government where
the few govern the many. I am opposed to a government that depends upon
suppers, and upon flattery; upon crooking the hinges of the knee; upon
favors, upon subterfuges. We want to be manly men in this District. We
must direct and control our own affairs, and if we are not capable of
doing it, there is no part of the Union where they are capable. It is
said there is a vast amount of ignorance here. That is true; but that
is also true of every section of the United States. There is too much
ignorance and there will continue to be until the people become great
enough, generous enough, and splendid enough to see that no child shall
grow up in their midst without a good, common-school education. The
people of this District are capable of managing their educational
affairs if they are allowed to do so. The fact is, a man now living in
the District lives under a perpetual flag of truce. He is nobody. He
counts for nothing. He is not noticed except as a suppliant. Nothing as
a citizen. That day should pass away. It will be a perpetual education
for this people to govern themselves, and until they do they cannot
be manly men. They say, though, that there is a vast rabble here. Very
well. Make your election laws so as to exclude the vast rabble. Let it
be understood that no man shall vote who has not lived here at least one
year.

Let your registration laws prohibit any man from voting unless he has
been registered at least six months. We do not want to be governed by
people who have no abode here--who are political Bedouins of the desert.
We want to be governed by people who live with us--who live somewhere
among us, and whom somebody knows, and if a law is properly framed there
will be no trouble about self-government in the District of Columbia.
Let the experiment be tried here of a perfect, complete and honest
registration; let every man, no matter who he is or where he comes from,
vote only by strict compliance with a good registry law. We can have a
fair election, and wherever there is a fair election there will be
good government. Our Government depends for its stability upon honest
elections. The great principle underlying our system of government is
that the people have the virtue and the patriotism to govern themselves.
That is the foundation stone, the corner and the base of our edifice,
and upon it our Government is on trial to-day. And until a man is
considered infamous who casts an illegal vote, our Government will not
be safe. Whoever casts an illegal vote knowingly is a traitor to the
principle upon which our Government is founded. And whoever deprives a
citizen of his right to vote is also a traitor to our Government. When
these things are understood; when the finger of public scorn shall be
pointed at every man who votes illegally, or unlawfully prevents an
honest vote, then you will have a splendid Government. It is humiliating
for one hundred and seventy-five thousand people to depend simply upon
the right of petition. The few will disregard the petition of the many.

I have not one word to say against the officers of the District. Not a
word. But let them do as well as they can; that is no justification. It
is no justification of a monarchy that the king is a good man; it is no
justification of a tyranny that the despot does justice. There may come
another who will do injustice; and a free people like ours should not be
satisfied to be governed by strangers. They would better have bad men
of their own choosing than to have good men forced upon them. You
have property here, and you have a right to protect it, and a right to
improve it. You have life and liberty and the right to protect it. You
have a right to say what money shall be assessed and collected and paid
for that protection. You have laws and you have a right to have them
executed by officers of your own selection, and by nobody else. In my
judgment, all that is necessary to have these things done is to have the
subject properly laid before Congress, and let that body thoroughly
and perfectly understand the situation. There is no member there,
who rightly understanding our wishes, will dare continue this
disfranchisement of the people. We have the same right to vote that
their constituents have, precisely--no more and no less.

This District ought to have one representative in Congress, a
representative with a right to speak--not a tongueless dummy. The idea
of electing a delegate who has simply the privilege of standing around!
We ought to have a representative who has not only the right to
talk, but who will talk. This District has the right to a vote in the
committees of Congress, and not simply the privilege of receiving a
little advice. And more than that, this District ought to have at least
one electoral vote in a selection of a President of the United States.
A smaller population than yours is represented not only in Congress, but
in the Electoral College. If it is necessary to amend the Constitution
to secure these rights let us try and have it amended; and when
that question is put to the people of the whole country they will be
precisely as willing that the people of the District of Columbia shall
have an equal voice as that they themselves should have a voice.

Let us stop at no half-way ground, but claim, and keep claiming all
our rights until somebody says we shall have them. And let me tell you
another thing: Once have the right of self-government recognized here,
have a delegate in Congress, and an electoral vote for President,
and thousands will be willing to come here and become citizens of
the District. As it is, the moment a man settles here his American
citizenship falls from him like dead leaves from a tree. From that
moment he is nobody. Every American citizen wants a little political
power--wants to cast his vote for the rulers of the nation. He wants to
have something to say about the laws he has to obey, and they are not
willing to come here and disfranchise themselves. The moment it is known
that a man is from the District he has no influence, and no one cares
what his political opinions may be. Now, let us have it so that we can
vote and be on an equality with the rest of the voters of the United
States. This Government was founded upon the idea that the only
source of power is the people. Let us show at the Capital that we have
confidence in that principle; that every man should have a vote and
voice in the South, in the North, everywhere, no matter how low his
condition, no matter that he was a slave, no matter what his color is,
or whether he can read or write, he is clothed with the right to
name those who make the laws he is to obey. While the lowest and most
degraded in every State in this Union have that right, the best and most
intelligent in the District have not that right. It will not do. There
is no sense in it--there is no justice in it--nothing American in it.
If this were the case in some of the capitals of Europe we would not be
surprised; but here in the United States, where we have so much to say
about the right of self-government, that two hundred thousand people
should not have the right to say who shall make, and who shall execute
the laws is at least an anomaly and a contradiction of our theory of
government, and for one, I propose to do what little I can to correct
it. It has been said that you had once here the right of self-government.
If I understand it, the right you had was to elect somebody to some
office, and all the other officers were appointed. You had no control
over your Legislature; you had very little control over your other
officers, and the people of the District were held responsible for what
was actually done by the appointing power. We want no appointing power.
If it is necessary to have a police magistrate, I say the people are
competent to elect that magistrate; and if he is not a good man they
are qualified to select another in his place. You ought to elect your
judges. I do not want the office of the Judiciary so far from the people
that it may feel entirely independent. I want every officer in this
District held-accountable to the people, and, unless he discharges his
duties faithfully, the people will put him out, and select another in
his stead.

I want it understood that no American citizen can be forced to pay
a dollar in a State or in the district where he lives who is not
represented, and where he has not the right to vote. It is all tyranny,
and all infamous. The people of the United States wonder to-day that you
have submitted to this outrage as long as you have.

Neither do I believe that only the rich should have the right to vote;
that only they should govern; or that only the educated should govern.
I have noticed among educated men many who did not know enough to
govern themselves. I have known many wealthy men who did not believe
in liberty, in giving the people the same rights they claimed for
themselves. I believe in that government where the ballot of Lazarus
counts as much as the vote of Dives. Let the rich, let the educated,
govern the people by moral suasion and by example and by kindness, and
not by brute force. And in a community like this, where the avenues to
distinction are open alike to all, there will be many more reasons for
acting like men. When you can hold any position, when every citizen can
have conferred upon him honor and responsibility, there is some stimulus
to be a man. But in a community where but the few are clothed with power
by appointment, no incentive exists among the people. If the avenues to
distinction and honor are open to all, such a government is beneficial
on every hand, and the poorest man in the community may say to himself,
"If I pursue the right course the very highest place is open to me." And
the poorest man, with his little tow-headed boy on his knee, can say,
"John, all the avenues are open to you; although I am poor, you may be
rich, and while I am obscure, you may become distinguished."

That idea sweetens every hour of toil and renders holy every drop of
sweat that rolls down the face of labor. I hate tyranny in every form.
I despise it, and I execrate a tyrant wherever he may be, and in every
country where the people are struggling for the right of self-government
I sympathize with them in their struggle. Wherever the sword of
rebellion is drawn in favor of human rights I am a rebel. I sympathize
with all the people in Europe who are endeavoring to push kings from
thrones and struggling for the right to govern themselves. America ought
to send greeting to every part of the world where such a struggle is
pending, and we of the District of Columbia ought to be able to join
in the greeting, but we never shall be until we have the right of
self-government ourselves. No man who is a good citizen can have any
objection to self-government here. No man can be opposed to it who
believes that our people have enough wisdom, enough virtue, enough
patriotism to govern themselves. The man who doubts the right of the
people to govern themselves casts a little doubt upon the question,
simply because he is not man enough himself to believe in liberty. I
would trust the poor of this country with our liberties as soon as I
would the rich. I will trust the huts and hovels, just as soon as I will
the mansions and palaces. I will trust those who work by the day in the
street as soon as I will the bankers of the United States. I will trust
the ignorant--even the ignorant. Why? Because they want education, and
no people in this country are so anxious to have their children educated
as those who are not educated themselves. I will trust the ignorant with
the liberties of this country quicker than I would some of the educated
who doubt the principles upon which our Government is founded. But
let the intelligent do what they can to instruct the ignorant. Let the
wealthy do what they can to give the blessings of liberty to the poor,
and then this Government will remain forever. The time is passing away
when any man of genius can be respected who will not use that genius
in elevating his fellow-man. The time is passing away when men, however
wealthy, can be respected unless they use their millions for the
elevation of mankind. The time is coming when no man will be called an
honest man who is not willing to give to every other man, be he white or
black, every right that he asks for himself.

For my part, I am willing to live under a government where all govern,
and am not willing to live under any other. I am willing to live where
I am on an equality with other men, where they have precisely my rights,
and no more; and I despise any government that is not based upon this
principle of human equality. Now, let us go just for that one
thing, that we have the same right as any other people in the
United States--that is, to govern this District ourselves. Let us be
represented in the lawmaking power, and let us advocate a change in the
fundamental law so that the people of this District shall be entitled
to one vote as to who shall be President of the United States. And when
that is done and our people are clothed with the panoply of citizenship,
you will find this District growing not to two hundred thousand, but
in a little while one million of people will live here. Now, for one, I
have not the slightest feeling against members of Congress for what
has been done. I believe when this matter is laid before them fully and
properly you will find few men in that august body who will vote against
the proposition. They have had trouble enough. They do not understand
our affairs. They never did, never will, never can. No one who does not
live here will. The public interests are so many and so conflicting, and
touch the sides of so many, that the people must attend to this matter
themselves. They know when they want a market, a judge, or a collector
of taxes, and nobody else does and nobody else has a right to.

And instead of going up to Congress and standing around some
committee-room with a long petition in your hands, begging somebody to
wait just one moment, it will be far better that you should go to the
polls and elect your representative, who can attend to your interests in
Congress. But above all things, I want to warn you, charge you, beseech
you, that in any legislation upon this subject you must secure a
registration law that will prevent the casting of an illegal vote.
Do this before it is known whether the District is Republican or
Democratic. I do not care. No matter how much of a Republican I am,
absolutely, I would rather be governed by Democrats who live here than
by Republicans who do not. And now, while it is not known whether this
is a Democratic or Republican community, let us get up a registration
that no one can violate; because the moment you have an election, and
it is ascertained to be either Democratic or Republican, the victorious
party may be opposed to any registration or any legislation that will
put in jeopardy their power. I have lived long enough to be satisfied
that any State in this Union, no matter whether Democratic or
Republican, will be safe as long as the people have the right to vote,
and to see that the ballots will be counted. This country is now upon
trial. In nearly every State in this Union there is liable to happen
just the same thing that only the other day happened in Maine.

In every State there can be two legislatures, one in the State-house and
the other on the fence. Let us in this District so guard the right
to vote and the counting of the ballots, that we shall know after the
election who has been elected and know with certainty the men who have
been elected by the legal voters of the District.

It becomes us all, whether Republicans or Democrats, to unite in
securing such a law. Let us act together, Democrats and Republicans,
black and white, rich and poor, educated and ignorant--let us all unite
upon the principle that we have the right to govern ourselves. Then
it will make no difference whether the District of Columbia shall be
Democratic or Republican, provided it is the will of a legal majority of
her people.

Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you.




WALL STREET SPEECH.

     * A political demonstration was made in Wall Street
     yesterday afternoon that stands without a rival among the
     many out-door meetings in that place, which for years have
     been memorable features of Presidential campaigns.

     Bankers and brokers, members of the Produce Exchange, and
     dry goods merchants assembled at their respective rendezvous
     and marched in Imposing processions to the open space in
     front of the Sub-Treasury building, from the steps of which
     Col. Ingersoll delivered an address. Written words are
     entirely inadequate to describe this demonstration of Wall
     Street business men. It never was equaled in point of
     numbers, respectability or enthusiasm, even during the
     excitement caused by the outbreak of the Rebellion.
     Throughout the day the business houses, banking offices and
     public buildings down town were gay with flags and bunting.
     Business was practically suspended all day, and the
     principal topic of conversation on the Exchanges and m
     offices and stores was the coming meeting. Long before the
     hour set, well-dressed people began to gather near the Sub-
     Treasury Building and by two o'clock Wall Street, from Broad
     and Nassau half way down to William, was passable only with
     difficulty. While the crowd was fast gathering on every
     hand, Graiulla's band, stationed upon the corner buttress
     near the Sub-Treasury, struck up a patriotic air, and in a
     few minutes the throngs had swelled to such proportions that
     the police had all they could do to maintain a thoroughfare.
     A few minutes more ana the distant strains of another band
     attracted all eyes toward Broadway, where the head of the
     procession was seen turning into Wall Street. Ten abreast
     and every man a gentleman, they marched by. At this time
     Wall street from half way to William Street to half way to
     Broadway, Nassau Street half way to Pine, and Broad Street
     as far as the eye could reach, were densely packed with
     people from side to side. Everything else, except the
     telegraph-poles and the tops of the lamp-posts, was hidden
     from view. Every window, roof, stoop, and projecting point
     was covered. The Produce Exchange men finding Broad Street
     impassable made a detour to the east and marched up Wall
     Street, filling that thoroughfare to William. It was a
     tremendous crowd In point of numbers, and its composition
     was entirely of gentlemen--men with refined, intelligent
     faces--bankers, brokers, merchants of all kinds--real
     business men. Thousands of millions of dollars were
     represented in It. On the left of the Sub-Treasury steps a
     platform had been erected, with a sounding board covering
     the rear and top. A national flag floated from its roof, and
     its railing was draped with other flags. After the arrival
     of the several organizations the banners they bore were hung
     at the sides by way of further ornamentation. Mr. Jackson S.
     Schultz then introduced Col. Ingersoll, the speaker of the
     day. The cheering was terrific for several minutes. Raising
     his hand for silence, Col. Ingersoll then delivered his
     address.--New York Times, October 29th, 1880.


N.Y. CITY.

(Garfield Campaign.)

1880.

FELLOW-CITIZENS of the Great City of New York: This is the grandest
audience I ever saw. This audience certifies that General James A.
Garfield is to be the next President of the United States. This audience
certifies that a Republican is to be the next mayor of the city of
New York. This audience certifies that the business men of New York
understand their interests, and that the business men of New York are
not going to let this country be controlled by the rebel South and the
rebel North. In 1860 the Democratic party appealed to force; now it
appeals to fraud. In 1860 the Democratic party appealed to the sword;
now it appeals to the pen. It was treason then, it is forgery now. The
Democratic party cannot be trusted with the property or with the honor
of the people of the United States.

The city of New York owes a great debt to the country. Every man that
has cleared a farm has helped to build New York; every man that helped
to build a railway helped to build up the palaces of this city. Where
I am now speaking are the termini of all the railways in the United
States. They all come here. New York has been built up by the labor of
the country, and New York owes it to the country to protect the best
interests of the country.

The farmers of Illinois depend upon the merchants, the brokers and the
bankers, upon the gentlemen of New York, to beat the rabble of New York.
You owe to yourselves; you owe to the great Re public; and this city
that does the business of a hemisphere--this city that will in ten years
be the financial centre of this world--owes it to itself, to be true to
the great principles that have allowed it to exist and flourish.

The Republicans of New York ought to say that this shall forever be a
free country. The Republicans of New York ought to say that free speech
shall forever be held sacred in the United States. The Republicans of
New York ought to see that the party that defended the Nation shall
still remain in power. The Republicans of New York should see that
the flag is safely held by the hands that defended it in war. The
Republicans of New York know that the prosperity of the country depends
upon good government, and they also know that good government
means protection to the people--rich and poor, black and white. The
Republicans of New York know that a black friend is better than a white
enemy. They know that a negro while fighting for the Government, is
better than any white man who will fight against it.

The Republicans of New York know that the colored party in the South
which allows every man to vote as he pleases, is better than any white
man who is opposed to allowing a negro to cast his honest vote. A black
man in favor of liberty is better than a white man in favor of slavery.
The Republicans of New York must be true to their friends. This
Government means to protect all its citizens, at home and abroad, or it
becomes a byword in the mouths of the nations of the world.

Now, what do we want to do? We are going to have an election next
Tuesday, and every Republican knows why he is going to vote the
Republican ticket; while every Democrat votes his without knowing why.
A Republican is a Republican because he loves something; a Democrat is a
Democrat because he hates something. A Republican believes in progress;
a Democrat in retrogression. A Democrat is a "has been." He is a "used
to be." The Republican party lives on hope; the Democratic on memory.
The Democrat keeps his back to the sun and imagines himself a great man
because he casts a great shadow. Now, there are certain things we want
to preserve--that the business men of New York want to preserve--and,
in the first place, we want an honest ballot. And where the Democratic
party has power there never has been an honest ballot. You take the
worst ward in this city, and there is where you will find the greatest
Democratic majority. You know it, and so do I.

There is not a university in the North, East or West that has not in it
a Republican majority. There is not a penitentiary in the United States
that has not in it a Democratic majority--and they know it. Two
years ago, about two hundred and eighty-three convicts were in
the penitentiary of Maine. Out of that whole number there was one
Republican, and only one. [A voice--"Who was the man?"] Well, I do
not know, but he broke out. He said that he did not mind being in the
penitentiary, but the company was a little more than he could stand.

You cannot rely upon that party for an honest ballot. Every law that
has been passed in this country in the last twenty years, to throw
a safeguard around the ballot-box, has been passed by the Republican
party. Every law that has been defeated has been defeated by the
Democratic party. And you know it. Unless we have an honest ballot the
days of the Republic are numbered; and the only way to get an honest
ballot is to beat the Democratic party forever. And that is what we are
going to do. That party can never carry its record; that party is loaded
down with the infamies of twenty years; yes, that party is loaded down
with the infamies of fifty years. It will never elect a President in
this world. I give notice to the Democratic party to-day that it will
have to change its name before the people of the United States will
change the administration. You will have to change your natures; you
will have to change your personnel, and you will have to get enough
Republicans to join you and tell you how to run a campaign. If you want
an honest ballot--and every honest man does--then you will vote to keep
the Republican party in power. What else do you want? You want honest
money, and I say to the merchants and to the bankers and to the brokers,
the only party that will give you honest money is the party that resumed
specie payments. The only party that will give you honest money is the
party that said a greenback is a broken promise until it is redeemed
with gold. You can only trust the party that has been honest in
disaster. From 1863 to 1879--sixteen long years--the Republican party
was the party of honor and principle, and the Republican party saved the
honor of the United States. And you know it.

During that time the Democratic party did what it could to destroy our
credit at home and abroad.

We are not only in favor of free speech, and an honest ballot and honest
money, but we are for law and order. What part of this country believes
in free speech--the South or the North? The South would never give free
speech to the country; there was no free speech in the city of New York
until the Republican party came into power. The Democratic party has
not intelligence enough to know that free speech is the germ of this
Republic. The Democratic party cares little for free speech because it
has no argument to make--no reasons to offer. Its entire argument is
summed up and ended in three words--"Hurrah for Hancock!" The Republican
party believes in free speech because it has something to say; because
it believes in argument; because it believes in moral suasion; because
it believes in education. Any man that does not believe in free speech
is a barbarian. Any State that does not support it is not a civilized
State.

I have a right to express my opinion, in common with every other human
being, and I am willing to give to every other human being the right
that I claim for myself. Republicanism means justice in politics.
Republicanism means progress in civilization. Republicanism means that
every man shall be an educated patriot and a gentleman. I want to say to
you to-day that it is an honor to belong to the Republican party. It
is an honor to have belonged to it for twenty years; it is an honor to
belong to the party that elected Abraham Lincoln President. And let
me say to you that Lincoln was the greatest, the best, the purest, the
kindest man that has ever sat in the presidential chair. It is an honor
to belong to the Republican party that gave four millions of men the
rights of freemen; it is an honor to belong to the party that broke the
shackles from four millions of men, women and children. It is an honor
to belong to the party that declared that bloodhounds were not the
missionaries of civilization. It is an honor to belong to the party that
said it was a crime to steal a babe from its mother's breast. It is an
honor to belong to the party that swore that this is a Nation forever,
one and indivisible. It is an honor to belong to the party that elected
U. S. Grant President of the United States. It is an honor to belong to
the party that issued thousands and thousands of millions of dollars
in promises--that issued promises until they became as thick as the
withered leaves of winter; an honor to belong to the party that issued
them to put down a rebellion; an honor to belong to the party that put
it down; an honor to belong to the party that had the moral courage
and honesty to make every one of the promises made in war, as good
as shining, glittering gold in peace. And I tell you that if there is
another life, and if there is a day of judgment, all you need say upon
that solemn occasion is, "I was in life and in my death a good square
Republican."

I hate the doctrine of State Sovereignty because it fostered State
pride; because it fostered the idea that it is more to be a citizen of a
State than a citizen of this glorious country. I love the whole country.
I like New York because it is a part of the country, and I like the
country because it has New York in it. I am not standing here to-day
because the flag of New York floats over my head, but because that flag
for which more heroic blood has been shed than for any other flag that
is kissed by the air of heaven, waves forever over my head. That is the
reason I am here.

The doctrine of State Sovereignty was appealed to in defence of the
slave-trade; the next time in defence of the slave trade as between the
States; the next time in defence of the Fugitive Slave Law; and if
there is a Democrat in favor of the Fugitive Slave Law he should be
ashamed--if not of himself--of the ignorance of the time in which he
lived.

That Fugitive Slave Law was a compromise so that we might be friends of
the South. They said in 1850-52: "If you catch the slave we will be your
friend;" and they tell us now: "If you let us trample upon the rights of
the black man in the South, we will be your friend." I do not want their
friendship upon such terms. I am a friend of my friend, and an enemy
of my enemy. That is my doctrine. We might as well be honest about
it. Under that doctrine of State Rights, such men as I see before
me--bankers, brokers, merchants, gentlemen--were expected to turn
themselves into hounds and chase a poor fugitive that had been lured by
the love of liberty and guided by the glittering North Star.

The Democratic party wanted you to keep your trade with the South, no
matter to what depths of degradation you had to sink, and the Democratic
party to-day says if you want to sell your goods to the Southern people,
you must throw your honor and manhood into the streets. The patronage of
the splendid North is enough to support the city of New York.

There is another thing: Why is this city filled with palaces, covered
with wealth? Because American labor has been protected. I am in favor
of protection to American labor, everywhere. I am in favor of protecting
American brain and muscle; I am in favor of giving scope to American
ingenuity and American skill. We want a market at home, and the only
way to have it is to have mechanics at home; and the only way to have
mechanics is to have protection; and the only way to have protection is
to vote the Republican ticket. You, business men of New York, know that
General Garfield understands the best interests not only of New York,
but of the entire country. And you want to stand by the men who will
stand by you. What does a simple soldier know about the wants of the
city of New York? What does he know about the wants of this great and
splendid country? If he does not know more about it than he knows about
the tariff he does not know much. I do not like to hit the dead. My
hatred stops with the grave, and I tell you we are going to bury the
Democratic party next Tuesday. The pulse is feeble now, and if that
party proposes to take advantage of the last hour, it is time it should
go into the repenting business. Nothing pleases me better than to see
the condition of that party to-day. What do the Democrats know on the
subject of the tariff? They are frightened; they are rattled.

They swear their plank and platform meant nothing. They say in effect:
"When we put that in we lied; and now having made that confession we
hope you will have perfect confidence in us from this out." Hancock says
that the object of the party is to get the tariff out of politics. That
is the reason, I suppose, why they put that plank in the platform. I
presume he regards the tariff as a little local issue, but I tell you
to-day that the great question of protecting American labor never will
be taken out of politics. As long as men work, as long as the laboring
man has a wife and family to support, just so long will he vote for the
man that will protect his wages.

And you can no more take it out of politics than you can take the
question of Government out of politics. I do not want any question
taken out of politics. I want the people to settle these questions for
themselves, and the people of this country are capable of doing it. If
you do not believe it, read the returns from Ohio and Indiana. There
are other persons who would take the question of office out of politics.
Well, when we get the tariff and office both out of politics, then, I
presume, we will see two parties on the same side. It will not do.

David A. Wells has come to the rescue of the Democratic party on the
tariff, and shed a few pathetic tears over scrap iron. But it will not
do. You cannot run this country on scraps.

We believe in the tariff because it gives skilled labor good pay.
We believe in the tariff because it allows the laboring man to have
something to eat. We believe in the tariff because it keeps the hands
of the producer close to the mouth of the devourer. We believe in the
tariff because it developed American brain; because it builds up our
towns and cities; because it makes Americans self-supporting; because it
makes us an independent Nation. And we believe in the tariff because the
Democratic party does not.

That plank in the Democratic party was intended for a dagger to
assassinate the prosperity of the North. The Northern people have become
aroused and that is the plank that is broken in the Democratic platform;
and that plank was wide enough when it broke to let even Hancock
through.

Gentlemen, they are gone. They are gone--honor bright. Look at the
desperate means that have been resorted to by the Democratic party,
driven to the madness of desperation. Not satisfied with having worn the
tongue of slander to the very tonsils, not satisfied with attacking the
private reputation of a splendid man, not satisfied with that, they
have appealed to a crime; a deliberate and infamous forgery has been
committed. That forgery has been upheld by some of the leaders of
the Democratic party; that forgery has been defended by men calling
themselves respectable. Leaders of the Democratic party have stood by
and said that they were acquainted with the handwriting of James A.
Garfield; and that the handwriting in the forged letter was his, when
they knew that it was absolutely unlike his. They knew it, and no man
has certified that that was the writing of James A. Garfield who did not
know that in his throat of throats he told a falsehood.

Every honest man in the city of New York ought to leave such a party
if he belongs to it. Every honest man ought to refuse to belong to the
party that did such an infamous crime.

Senator Barnum, chairman of the Democratic Committee, has lost control.
He is gone, and I will tell you what he puts me in mind of. There was an
old fellow used to come into town every Saturday and get drunk. He had a
little yoke of oxen, and the boys out of pity used to throw him into the
wagon and start the oxen for home. Just before he got home they had
to go down a long hill, and the oxen, when they got to the brow of it,
commenced to run. Now and then the wagon struck a stone and gave the old
fellow an awful jolt, and that would wake him up. After he had looked
up and had one glance at the cattle he would fall helplessly back to
the bottom, and always say, "Gee a little, if anything." And that is the
only order Barnum has been able to give for the last two weeks--"Gee a
little, if anything." I tell you now that forgery makes doubly sure the
election of James A. Garfield. The people of the North believe in honest
dealing; the people of the North believe in free speech and an honest
ballot. The people of the North believe that this is a Nation; the
people of the North hate treason; the people of the North hate forgery;
the people of the North hate slander. The people of the North have made
up their minds to give to General Garfield a vindication of which any
American may be forever proud.

James A. Garfield is to-day a poor man, and you know that there is not
money enough in this magnificent street to buy the honor and manhood of
James A. Garfield. Money cannot make such a man, and I will swear to you
that money cannot buy him. James A. Garfield to-day wears the glorious
robe of honest poverty. He is a poor man; I like to say it here in Wall
Street; I like to say it surrounded by the millions of America; I like
to say it in the midst of banks and bonds and stocks; I love to say it
where gold is piled--that although a poor man, he is rich in honor; in
integrity he is wealthy, and in brain he is a millionaire. I know him,
and I like him. So do you all, gentlemen. Garfield was a poor boy, he
is a certificate of the splendid form of our Government. Most of these
magnificent buildings have been built by poor boys; most of the success
of New York began almost in poverty. You know it. The kings of this
street were once poor, and they may be poor again; and if they are fools
enough to vote for Hancock they ought to be. Garfield is a certificate
of the splendor of our Government, that says to every poor boy, "All the
avenues of honor are open to you." I know him, and I like him. He is a
scholar; he is a statesman; he is a soldier; he is a patriot; and above
all, he is a magnificent man; and if every man in New York knew him as
well as I do, Garfield would not lose a hundred votes in this city.

Compare him with Hancock, and then compare General Arthur with William
H. English. If there ever was a pure Republican in this world, General
Arthur is one.

You know in Wall Street, there are some men always prophesying disaster,
there are some men always selling "short." That is what the Democratic
party is doing to-day. You know as well as I do that if the Democratic
party succeeds, every kind of property in the United States will
depreciate. You know it. There is not a man on the street, who if he
knew Hancock was to be elected would not sell the stocks and bonds of
every railroad in the United States "short." I dare any broker here to
deny it. There is not a man in Wall or Broad Street, or in New York,
but what knows the election of Hancock will depreciate every share
of railroad stock, every railroad bond, every Government bond, in the
United States of America. And if you know that, I say it is a crime to
vote for Hancock and English.

I belong to the party that is prosperous when the country is prosperous.
I belong to the party that believes in good crops; that is glad when a
fellow finds a gold mine; that rejoices when there are forty bushels of
wheat to the acre; that laughs when every railroad declares dividends,
that claps both its hands when every investment pays; when the rain
falls for the farmer, when the dew lies lovingly on the grass. I belong
to the party that is happy when the people are happy; when the laboring
man gets three dollars a day; when he has roast beef on his table; when
he has a carpet on the floor; when he has a picture of Garfield on the
wall. I belong to the party that is happy when everybody smiles, when
we have plenty of money, good horses, good carriages; when our wives
are happy and our children feel glad. I belong to the party whose banner
floats side by side with the great flag of the country; that does not
grow fat on defeat.

The Democratic party is a party of famine; it is a good friend of an
early frost, it believes in the Colorado beetle and the weevil. When the
crops are bad the Democratic mouth opens from ear to ear with smiles of
joy; it is in partnership with bad luck; a friend of empty pockets; rags
help it. I am on the other side. The Democratic party is the party of
darkness. I believe in the party of sunshine; and in the party that even
in darkness believes that the stars are shining and waiting for us.

Now, gentlemen, I have endeavored to give you a few reasons for voting
the Republican ticket; and I have given enough to satisfy any reasonable
man. And you know it. Do not go with the Democratic party, young man.
You have a character to make.

You cannot make it, as the Democratic party does, by passing a
resolution.

If your father voted the Democratic ticket, that is disgrace enough for
one family. Tell the old man you can stand it no longer. Tell the old
gentleman that you have made up your mind to stand with the party of
human progress; and if he asks you why you cannot vote the Democratic
ticket you tell him: "Every man that tried to destroy the Government,
every man that shot at the holy flag in heaven, every man that starved
our soldiers, every keeper of Libby, Andersonville and Salisbury, every
man that wanted to burn the negro, every one that wanted to scatter
yellow fever in the North, every man that opposed human liberty, that
regarded the auction-block as an altar and the howling of the bloodhound
as the music of the Union, every man who wept over the corpse of
slavery, that thought lashes on the naked back were a legal tender for
labor performed, every one willing to rob a mother of her child--every
solitary one was a Democrat."

Tell him you cannot stand that party. Tell him you have to go with the
Republican party, and if he asks you why, tell him it destroyed slavery,
it preserved the Union, it paid the national debt; it made our credit as
good as that of any nation on the earth.

Tell him it makes every dollar in a four per cent, bond worth a
dollar and ten cents; that it satisfies the demands of the highest
civilization. Tell the old man that the Republican party preserved the
honor of the Nation; that it believes in education; that it looks upon
the schoolhouse as a cathedral. Tell him that the Republican party
believes in absolute intellectual liberty; in absolute religious
freedom; in human rights, and that human rights rise above States.
Tell him that the Republican party believes in humanity, justice, human
equality, and that the Republican party believes this is a Nation and
will be forever and ever; that an honest ballot is the breath of the
Republic's life; that honest money is the blood of the Republic;
and that nationality is the great throbbing beat of the heart of the
Republic. Tell him that. And tell him that you are going to stand by
the flag that the patriots of the North carried upon the battle-field of
death. Tell him you are going to be true to the martyred dead; that you
are going to vote exactly as Lincoln would have voted were he living.
Tell him that if every traitor dead were living now, there would issue
from his lips of dust, "Hurrah for Hancock!" that could every patriot
rise, he would cry for Garfield and liberty; for union and for human
progress everywhere. Tell him that the South seeks to secure by the
ballot what it lost by the bayonet; to whip by the ballot those who
fought it in the field. But we saved the country; and we have the heart
and brains to take care of it. I will tell you what we are going to do.
We are going to treat them in the South just as well as we treat the
people in the North. Victors cannot afford to have malice. The North is
too magnanimous to have hatred. We will treat the South precisely as we
treat the North. There are thousands of good people there. Let us give
them money to improve their rivers and harbors; I want to see the sails
of their commerce filled with the breezes of prosperity; their fences
rebuilt; their houses painted. I want to see their towns prosperous; I
want to see schoolhouses in every town; I want to see books in the hands
of every child, and papers and magazines in every house; I want to see
all the rays of light, of civilization of the nineteenth century, enter
every home of the South; and in a little while you will see that country
full of good Republicans. We can afford to be kind; we cannot afford to
be unkind.

I will shake hands cordially with every believer in human liberty; I
will shake hands with every believer in Nationality; I will shake hands
with every man who is the friend of the human race. That is my doctrine.
I believe in the great Republic; in this magnificent country of ours.
I believe in the great people of the United States. I believe in the
muscle and brain of America, in the prairies and forests. I believe in
New York. I believe in the brains of your city. I believe that you
know enough to vote the Republican ticket. I believe that you are grand
enough to stand by the country that has stood by you. But whatever
you do, I never shall cease to thank you for the great honor you have
conferred upon me this day.

     Note.--This being a newspaper report it is necessarily
     incomplete.




BROOKLYN SPEECH.

     * The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and Colonel Robert G.
     Ingersoll spoke from the same platform last night, and the
     great preacher introduced the great orator and free-thinker
     to the grandest political audience that was ever assembled
     in Brooklyn. The reverend gentleman presided over the
     Republican mass meeting held in the Academy of Music. When
     he introduced Ingersoll he did it with a warmth and
     earnestness of compliment that brought the six thousand
     lookers-on to their feet to applaud. When the expounder of
     the Gospel of Christ took the famous atheist by the hand,
     and shook it fervently, saying that while he respected and
     honored him for the honesty of his convictions and his
     splendid labors for patriotism and the country, the
     enthusiasm knew no bounds, and the great building trembled
     and vibrated with the storm of applause. With such a scene
     to harmonize the multitude at the outstart it is not strange
     that the meeting continued to the end such a one as has no
     parallel even in these days of feverish political excitement
     and turmoil. The orator spoke in his best vein and his
     audience was responsive to the wonderful magical spell of
     his eloquence. And when his last glowing utterance had lost
     its echo in the wild storm of applause that rewarded him at
     the close, Mr. Beecher again stepped forward and, as if to
     emphasize the earnestness of his previous compliments,
     proposed a vote of thanks to the distinguished speaker. The
     vote was a roar of affirmation, whose voice was not stronger
     when Mr. Ingersoll in turn called upon the audience to give
     three cheers for the great preacher. They were given, and
     repeated three times over. Men waved their ats and
     umbrellas, ladies, of whom there were many hundreds present,
     waved their handkerchiefs, and men, strangers to each other,
     shook hands with the fervency of brotherhood. It was indeed
     a strange scene, and the principal actors in it seemed not
     less than the most wildly excited man there to appreciate
     its peculiar import and significance. Standing at the front
     of the stage, underneath a canopy of nags, at either side
     great baskets of flowers, they clasped each other's hands,
     and stood thus for several minutes, while the excited
     thousands cheered themselves hoarse and applauded wildly.

     As Mr. Beecher began to speak, however, the applause that
     broke out was deafening.

     In substance Mr. Beecher spoke as follows:--"I am not
     accustomed to preside at meetings like this; only the
     exigency of the times could induce me to do It. I am not
     here either to make a speech, but more especially to
     introduce the eminent orator of the evening. * * * I stand
     not as a minister, but as a man among men, pleading the
     cause of fellowship and equal rights. We are not here as
     mechanics, as artists, merchants, or professional men, but
     as fellow-citizens. The gentleman who will speak to-night is
     in no Conventicle or Church. He is to speak to a great body
     of citizens, and I take the liberty of saying that I respect
     him as the man that for a full score and more of years has
     worked for the right in the great, broad field of humanity,
     and for the cause of human rights. I consider it an honor to
     extend to him, as I do now, the warm, earnest, right hand of
     fellowship." (As Mr. Beecher said this he turned to Mr.
     Ingersoll and extended his hand. The palms of the two men
     met with a clasp that was heard all over the house, and was
     the signal for tumultuous cheering and applause, which
     continued for several minutes.)

     "I now introduce to you," continued Mr. Beecher, leading Mr.
     Ingersoll forward, "a man who--and I say it not
     flatteringly--is the most brilliant speaker of the English
     tongue of all men on this globe. But as under the brilliancy
     of the blaze or light we find the living coals of fire,
     under the lambent flow of his wit and magnificent antithesis
     we find the glorious flame of genius and honest thought.
     Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ingersoll."--New York Herald,
     October 81st, 1880.


(Garfield Campaign.)

1880.

LADIES and Gentlemen: Years ago I made up my mind that there was no
particular argument in slander. I made up my mind that for parties, as
well as for individuals, honesty in the long-run is the best policy.
I made up my mind that the people were entitled to know a man's honest
thoughts, and I propose to-night to tell you exactly what I think. And
it may be well enough, in the first place, for me to say that no party
has a mortgage on me. I am the sole proprietor of myself. No party, no
organization, has any deed of trust on what little brains I have, and as
long as I can get my part of the common air I am going to tell my honest
thoughts. One man in the right will finally get to be a majority. I am
not going to say a word to-night that every Democrat here will not know
is true, and, whatever he may say, I will compel him in his heart to
give three cheers.

In the first place, I wish to admit that during the war there were
hundreds of thousands of patriotic Democrats. I wish to admit that if it
had not been for the War Democrats of the North, we never would have put
down the Rebellion. Let us be honest. I further admit that had it
not been for other than War Democrats there never would have been a
rebellion to put down. War Democrats!

Why did we call them War Democrats? Did you ever hear anybody talk about
a War Republican? We spoke of War Democrats to distinguish them from
those Democrats who were in favor of peace upon any terms.

I also wish to admit that the Republican party is not absolutely
perfect. While I believe that it is the best party that ever existed,
while I believe it has, within its organization, more heart, more brain,
more patriotism than any other organization that ever existed beneath
the sun, I still admit that it is not entirely perfect. I admit, in its
great things, in its splendid efforts to preserve this nation, in its
grand effort to keep our flag in heaven, in its magnificent effort to
free four millions of slaves, in its great and sublime effort to save
the financial honor of this Nation, I admit that it has made some
mistakes. In its great effort to do right it has sometimes by mistake
done wrong. And I also wish to admit that the great Democratic party,
in its effort to get office has sometimes by mistake done right. You see
that I am inclined to be perfectly fair.

I am going with the Republican party because it is going my way; but if
it ever turns to the right or left, I intend to go straight ahead.

In every government there is something that ought to be preserved, in
every government there are many things that ought to be destroyed.
Every good man, every patriot, every lover of the human race, wishes to
preserve the good and destroy the bad; and every one in this audience
who wishes to preserve the good will go with that section of our common
country--with that party in our country that he honestly believes will
preserve the good and destroy the bad. It takes a great deal of trouble
to raise a good Republican. It is a vast deal of labor. The Republican
party is the fruit of all ages--of self-sacrifice and devotion. The
Republican party is born of every good thing that was ever done in
this world. The Republican party is the result of all martyrdom, of
all heroic blood shed for the right. It is the blossom and fruit of the
great world's best endeavor. In order to make a Republican you have to
have schoolhouses. You have to have newspapers and magazines. A good
Republican is the best fruit of civilization, of all there is of
intelligence, of art, of music and of song. If you want to make
Democrats, let them alone. The Democratic party is the settlings of
this country. Nobody hoes weeds. Nobody takes especial pains to raise
dog-fennel, and yet it grows under the very hoof of travel, The seeds
are sown by accident and gathered by chance. But if you want to raise
wheat and corn you must plough the ground. You must defend and you must
harvest the crop with infinite patience and toil. It is precisely that
way--if you want to raise a good Republican you must work. If you wish
to raise a Democrat give him wholesome neglect. The Democratic party
flatters the vices of mankind. That party says to the ignorant man, "You
know enough." It says to the vicious man, "You are good enough."

The Republican party says, "You must be better next year than you are
this." A Republican takes a man by the collar and says, "You must do
your best, you must climb the infinite hill of human progress as long as
you live." Now and then one gets tired. He says, "I have climbed enough
and so much better than I expected to do that I do not wish to travel
any farther." Now and then one gets tired and lets go all hold, and he
rolls down to the very bottom, and as he strikes the mud he springs upon
his feet transfigured, and says: "Hurrah for Hancock!"

There are things in this Government that I wish to preserve, and there
are things that I wish to destroy; and in order to convince you that you
ought to go the way that I am going: it is only fair that I give to
you my reasons. This is a Republic founded upon intelligence and
the patriotism of the people, and in every Republic it is absolutely
necessary that there should be free speech. Free speech is the gem of
the human soul. Words are the bodies of thought, and liberty gives to
those words wings, and the whole intellectual heavens are filled with
light. In a Republic every individual tongue has a right to the general
ear. In a Republic every man has the right to give his reasons for the
course he pursues to all his fellow-citizens, and when you say that a
man shall not speak, you also say that others shall not hear. When
you say a man shall not express his honest thought you say his
fellow-citizens shall be deprived of honest thoughts; for of what use
is it to allow the attorney for the defendant to address the jury if the
jury has been bought? Of what use is it to allow the jury to bring in a
verdict of "not guilty," if the defendant is to be hung by a mob? I ask
you to-night, is not every solitary man here in favor of free speech? Is
there a solitary Democrat here who dares say he is not in favor of free
speech? In which part of this country are the lips of thought free--in
the South or in the North? Which section of our country can you trust
the inestimable gem of free speech with? Can you trust it to the
gentlemen of Mississippi or to the gentlemen of Massachusetts? Can you
trust it to Alabama or to New York? Can you trust it to the South or
can you trust it to the great and splendid North? Honor bright--honor
bright, is there any freedom of speech in the South? There never was and
there is none to-night--and let me tell you why.

They had the institution of human slavery in the South, which could
not be defended at the bar of public reason. It was an institution that
could not be defended in the high forum of human conscience. No man
could stand there and defend the right to rob the cradle--none to defend
the right to sell the babe from the breast of the agonized mother--none
to defend the claim that lashes on a bare back are a legal tender for
labor performed. Every man that lived upon the unpaid labor of another
knew in his heart that he was a thief. And for that reason he did not
wish to discuss that question. Thereupon the institution of slavery
said, "You shall not speak; you shall not reason," and the lips of free
thought were manacled. You know it. Every one of you. Every Democrat
knows it as well as every Republican. There never was free speech in the
South.

And what has been the result? And allow me to admit right here, because
I want to be fair, there are thousands and thousands of most excellent
people in the South--thousands of them. There are hundreds and hundreds
of thousands there who would like to vote the Republican ticket. And
whenever there is free speech there and whenever there is a free ballot
there, they will vote the Republican ticket. I say again, there are
hundreds of thousands of good people in the South; but the institution
of human slavery prevented free speech, and it is a splendid fact in
nature that you cannot put chains upon the limbs of others without
putting corresponding manacles upon your own brain. When the South
enslaved the negro, it also enslaved itself, and the result was an
intellectual desert. No book has been produced, with one exception, that
has added to the knowledge of mankind; no paper, no magazine, no poet,
no philosopher, no philanthropist, was ever raised in that desert. Now
and then some one protested against that infamous institution, and
he came as near being a philosopher as the society in which he lived
permitted. Why is it that New England, a rock-clad land, blossoms like a
rose? Why is it that New York is the Empire State of the great Union?
I will tell you. Because you have been permitted to trade in ideas.
Because the lips of speech have been absolutely free for twenty years.

We never had free speech in any State in this Union until the Republican
party was born. That party was rocked in the cradle of intellectual
liberty, and that is the reason I say it is the best party that ever
existed in the wide, wide world. I want to preserve free speech, and, as
an honest man, I look about me and I say, "How can I best preserve
it?" By giving it to the South or North; to the Democracy or to the
Republican party? And I am bound, as an honest man, to say free speech
is safest with its earliest defenders. Where is there such a thing as
a Republican mob to prevent the expression of an honest thought? Where?
The people of the South are allowed to come to the North; they are
allowed to express their sentiments upon every stump in the great East,
the great West, and in the great Middle States; they go to Maine, to
Vermont, and to all our States, and they are allowed to speak, and we
give them a respectful hearing, and the meanest thing we do is to answer
their arguments.

I say to-night that we ought to have the same liberty to discuss these
questions in the South that Southerners have in the North. And I say
more than that, the Democrats of the North ought to compel the Democrats
of the South to treat the Republicans of the South as well as the
Republicans of the North treat them. We treat the Democrats well in the
North; we treat them like gentlemen in the North; and yet they go into
partnership with the Democracy of the South, knowing that the Democracy
of the South will not treat Republicans in that section with fairness. A
Democrat ought to be ashamed of that.

If my friends will not treat other people as well as the friends of the
other people treat me, I'll swap friends.

First, then, I am in favor of free speech, and I am going with that
section of my country that believes in free speech; I am going with
that party that has always upheld that sacred right. When you stop
free speech, when you say that a thought shall die in the womb of the
brain,--why, it would have the same effect upon the intellectual world
that to stop springs at their sources would have upon the physical
world. Stop the springs at their sources and they cease to gurgle,
the streams cease to murmur, and the great rivers cease rushing to the
embrace of the sea. So you stop thought. Stop thought in the brain in
which it is born, and theory dies; and the great ocean of knowledge to
which all should be permitted to contribute, and from which all should
be allowed to draw, becomes a vast desert of ignorance.

I have always said, and I say again, that the more liberty there is
given away, the more you have. I endeavor to be consistent in my life
and action. I am a believer in intellectual liberty, and wherever the
torch of knowledge burns the whole horizon is filled with a glorious
halo. I am a free man. I would be less than a man if I did not wish
to hand this flame to my child with the flame increased rather than
diminished.

Whom will we trust to take care of free speech? Let us consider and be
honest with one another. The gem of the brain is the innocence of the
soul.

I am not only in favor of free speech, but I am also in favor of an
absolutely honest ballot. There is only one emperor in this country;
there is one czar; only one supreme crown and king, and that is the
will, the legally expressed will of the majority. Every American citizen
is a sovereign. The poorest and humblest may wear that crown, the beggar
holds in his hand that sceptre equally with the proudest and richest,
and so far as his sovereignty is concerned, the poorest American, he
who earns but one dollar a day, has the same voice in controlling the
destiny of the United States as the millionaire. The man who casts an
illegal vote, the man who refuses to count a legal vote, poisons the
fountain of power, poisons the springs of justice, and is a traitor
to the only king in this land. The Government is upon the edge of
Mexicanization through fraudulent voting. The ballot-box is the throne
of America; the ballot-box is the ark of the covenant. Unless we see to
it that every man who has a right to vote, votes, and unless we see
to it that every honest vote is counted, the days of this Republic are
numbered.

When you suspect that a Congressman is not elected; when you suspect
that a judge upon the bench holds his place by fraud, then the people
will hold the law in contempt and will laugh at the decisions of courts,
and then come revolution and chaos.

It is the duty of every good man to see to it that the ballot-box is
kept absolutely pure. It is the duty of every patriot, whether he is
a Democrat or Republican--and I want further to admit that I believe
a large majority of Democrats are honest in their opinions, and I know
that all Republicans _must_ be honest in their opinions. It is the duty,
then, of all honest men of both parties to see to it that only honest
votes are cast and counted. Now, honor bright, which section of this
Union can you trust the ballot-box with?

Do you wish to trust Louisiana, or do you wish to trust Alabama that
gave, in 1872, thirty-four thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight
Republican majority and now gives ninety-two thousand Democratic
majority? And of that ninety-two thousand majority, every one is a lie!
A contemptible, infamous lie! Because if every voter had been allowed
to vote, there would have been forty thousand Republican majority.
Honor bright, can you trust it with the masked murderers who rode in
the darkness of night to the hut of the freedman and shot him down,
notwithstanding the supplication of his wife and the tears of his babe?
Can you trust it to the men who since the close of our war have killed
more men, simply because those men wished to vote, simply because they
wished to exercise a right with which they had been clothed by the
sublime heroism of the North--who have killed more men than were killed
on both sides in the Revolutionary war; than were killed on both sides
during the War of 1812; than were killed on both sides in both wars?
Can you trust them? Can you trust the gentlemen who invented the
tissue ballot? Do you wish to put the ballot-box in the keeping of the
shot-gun, of the White-Liners, of the Ku Klux? Do you wish to put the
ballot-box in the keeping of men who openly swear that they will not be
ruled by a majority of American citizens if a portion of that majority
is made of black men? And I want to tell you right here, I like a black
man who loves this country better than I do a white man who hates it. I
think more of a black man who fought for our flag than for any white man
who endeavored to tear it out of heaven!

I say, can you trust the ballot-box to the Democratic party? Read the
history of the State of New York. Read the history of this great and
magnificent city--the Queen of the Atlantic--read her history and tell
us whether you can implicitly trust Democratic returns? Honor bright!

I am not only, then, for free speech, but I am for an honest ballot;
and in order that you may have no doubt left upon your minds as to which
party is in favor of an honest vote, I will call your attention to this
striking fact. Every law that has been passed in every State of this
Union for twenty long years, the object of which was to guard the
American ballot-box, has been passed by the Republican party, and in
every State where the Republican party has introduced such a bill for
the purpose of making it a law; in every State where such a bill has
been defeated, it has been defeated by the Democratic party. That ought
to satisfy any reasonable man to satiety.

I am not only in favor of free speech and an honest ballot, but I am in
favor of collecting and disbursing the revenues of the United States. I
want plenty of money to collect and pay the interest on our debt. I want
plenty of money to pay our debt and to preserve the financial honor of
the United States. I want money enough to be collected to pay pensions
to widows and orphans and to wounded soldiers. And the question is,
which section in this country can you trust to collect and disburse that
revenue? Let us be honest about it. Which section can you trust? In the
last four years we have collected four hundred and sixty-eight million
dollars of the internal revenue taxes. We have collected principally
from taxes upon high wines and tobacco, four hundred and sixty-eight
million dollars, and in those four years we have seized, libeled and
destroyed in the Southern States three thousand eight hundred and
seventy-four illicit distilleries. And during the same time the Southern
people have shot to death twenty-five revenue officers and wounded
fifty-five others, and the only offence that the wounded and dead
committed was an honest effort to collect the revenues of this country.
Recollect it--don't you forget it. And in several Southern States
to-day every revenue collector or officer connected with the revenue is
furnished by the Internal Revenue Department with a breech-loading
rifle and a pair of revolvers, simply for the purpose of collecting the
revenue.

I don't feel like trusting such people to collect the revenue of my
Government.

During the same four years we have arrested and have indicted seven
thousand and eighty-four Southern Democrats for endeavoring to defraud
the revenue of the United States. Recollect--three thousand eight
hundred and seventy-four distilleries seized. Twenty-five revenue
officers killed, fifty-five wounded, and seven thousand and eighty-four
Democrats arrested. Can we trust them?

The State of Alabama in its last Democratic convention passed a
resolution that no man should be tried in a Federal Court for a
violation of the revenue laws--that he should be tried in a State Court.
Think of it--he should be tried in a State Court! Let me tell you how it
will come out if we trust the Southern States to collect this revenue. A
couple of Methodist ministers had been holding a revival for a week, and
at the end of the week one said to the other that he thought it time to
take up a collection. When the hat was returned he found in it pieces of
slate-pencils and nails and buttons, but not a single solitary cent--not
one--and his brother minister got up and looked at the contribution, and
said, "Let us thank God!" And the owner of the hat said, "What for?" And
the brother replied, "Because you got your hat back." If we trust the
South we shan't get our hats back.

I am next in favor of honest money. I am in favor of gold and silver,
and paper with gold and silver behind it. I believe in silver, because
it is one of the greatest of American products, and I am in favor of
anything that will add to the value of an American product. But I want
a silver dollar worth a gold dollar, even if you make it or have to make
it four feet in diameter. No government can afford to be a clipper of
coin. A great Republic cannot afford to stamp a lie upon silver or gold.
Honest money, an honest people, an honest Nation. When our money is only
worth eighty cents on the dollar, we feel twenty per cent, below par.
When our money is good we feel good. When our money is at par, that is
where we are. I am a profound believer in the doctrine that for nations
as well as men, honesty is the best policy, always, everywhere, and
forever.

What section of this country, what party, will give us honest
money--honor bright--honor bright? I have been told that during the war,
we had plenty of money. I never saw it. I lived years without seeing a
dollar. I saw promises for dollars, but not dollars. And the greenback,
unless you have the gold behind it, is no more a dollar than a bill
of fare is a dinner. You cannot make a paper dollar without taking a
dollar's worth of paper. We must have paper that represents money. I
want it issued by the Government, and I want behind every one of these
dollars either a gold or silver dollar, so that every greenback under
the flag can lift up its hand and swear, "I know that my redeemer
liveth."

When we were running into debt, thousands of people mistook that for
prosperity, and when we began paying they regarded it as adversity. Of
course we had plenty when we bought on credit. No man has ever starved
when his credit was good, if there were no famine in that country. As
long as we buy on credit we shall have enough. The trouble commences
when the pay-day arrives. And I do not wonder that after the war
thousands of people said, "Let us have another inflation." Which party
said, "No, we must pay the promise made in war"? Honor bright! The
Democratic party had once been a hard money party, but it drifted from
its metallic moorings and floated off in the ocean of inflation, and you
know it. They said, "Give us more money;" and every man that had bought
on credit and owed a little something on what he had purchased, when the
property went down commenced crying, or many of them did, for inflation.
I understand it.

A man, say, bought a piece of land for six thousand dollars; paid five
thousand dollars on it; gave a mortgage for one thousand dollars, and
suddenly, in 1873, found that the land would not pay the other thousand.
The land had resumed, and then he said, looking lugubriously at his note
and mortgage, "I want another inflation." And I never heard a man call
for it that did not also say, "If it ever comes, and I don't unload, you
may shoot me."

It was very much as it is sometimes in playing poker, and I make this
comparison knowing that hardly a person here will understand it. I have
been told that along toward morning the man that is ahead suddenly
says, "I have got to go home. The fact is, my wife is not well." And the
fellow who is behind says, "Let us have another deal; I have my opinion
of the fellow that will jump a game." And so it was in the hard times
of 1873. They said: "Give us another deal; let us get our driftwood back
into the centre of the stream." And they cried out for more money.
But the Republican party said: "We do want more money, but not more
promises. We have got to pay this first, and if we start out again
upon that wide sea of promise we may never touch the shore." A thousand
theories were born of want; a thousand theories were born of the fertile
brain of trouble; and these people said, "After all, what is money? Why,
it is nothing but a measure of value, just the same as a half bushel or
yardstick." True; and consequently it makes no difference whether your
half bushel is of wood or gold or silver or paper; and it makes no
difference whether your yardstick is gold or paper. But the trouble
about that statement is this: A half bushel is not a measure of value;
it is a measure of quantity, and it measures rubies, diamonds and pearls
precisely the same as corn and wheat. The yardstick is not a measure of
value; it is a measure of length, and it measures lace worth one hundred
dollars a yard precisely as it does cent tape. And another reason why it
makes no difference to the purchaser whether the half bushel is gold or
silver, or whether the yardstick is gold or paper, you do not buy the
yardstick; you do not get the half bushel in the trade. And if it were
so with money--if the people that had the money at the start of the
trade, kept it after the consummation of the bargain--then it would not
make any difference what you made your money of. But the trouble is the
money changes hands. And let me say to-night, money is a thing--it is a
product of nature--and you can no more make a "fiat" dollar than you
can make a fiat star. I am in favor of honest money. Free speech is the
brain of the Republic; an honest ballot is the breath of its life, and
honest money is the blood that courses through its veins.

If I am fortunate enough to leave a dollar when I die, I want it to be
a good one. I do not wish to have it turn to ashes in the hands of
widowhood, or become a Democratic broken promise in the pocket of the
orphan; I want it money. I want money that will outlive the Democratic
party. They told us--and they were honest about it--they said, "When
we have plenty of money, we are prosperous." And I said, "When we are
prosperous, we have plenty of money." When we are prosperous, then we
have credit, and credit inflates the currency. Whenever a man buys a
pound of sugar and says, "Charge it," he inflates the currency; whenever
he gives his note, he inflates the currency; whenever his word takes the
place of money, he inflates the currency. The consequence is that when
we are prosperous, credit takes the place of money, and we have what we
call "plenty."

But you cannot increase prosperity simply by using promises to pay.
Suppose you should come to a river that was about dry, so dry that the
turtle had to help the catfish over the shoals, and there you would see
the ferryboat, and the gentleman who kept the ferry, up on the sand,
high and dry, and the cracks all opening in the sun, filled with
loose oakum, looking like an average Democratic mouth listening to a
constitutional argument, and you should say to him, "How is business?"
And he would say, "Dull." And then you would say to him, "Now, what you
want is more boat." He would probably answer, "If I had a little more
water I could get along with this one."

Suppose I next came to a man running a railroad, complaining of hard
times. "Why," said he, "I did a million dollars' worth of business the
first year and used five hundred thousand dollars' worth of grease. The
second year I did five hundred thousand dollars' worth of business and
used four hundred thousand dollars' worth of grease." "Well," said
I, "the reason your road fell off was because you did not use enough
grease."

But I want to be fair, and I wish to-night to return my thanks to the
Democratic party. You did a great and splendid work. You went all over
the United States and you said upon every stump that a greenback was
better than gold. You said, "We have at last found the money of the poor
man. Gold loves the rich; gold haunts banks and safes and vaults; but we
have money that will go around inquiring for a man that is dead broke.
We have finally found money that will stay in a pocket with holes in
it." But, after all, do you know that money is the most social thing
in this world? If a fellow has one dollar in his pocket, and he meets
another with two, do you know that dollar is absolutely homesick until
it gets where the other two are? And yet the Greenbackers told us that
they had finally invented money that would be the poor mans friend. They
said, "It is better than gold, better than silver," and they got so many
men to believe it that when we resumed and said, "Here is your gold for
your greenback," the fellows who had the greenback said, "We don't want
it. The greenbacks are good enough for us." Do you know, if they had
wanted it we could not have given it to them? And so I return my thanks
to the Greenback party. But allow me to say in this connection, the days
of their usefulness have passed forever.

Now, I am not foolish enough to claim that the Republican party resumed.
I am not silly enough to say that John Sherman resumed. But I will tell
you what I do say. I say that every man who raised a bushel of corn or a
bushel of wheat or a pound of beef or pork for sale helped to resume. I
say that the gentle rain and the loving dew helped to resume. The soil
of the United States impregnated by the loving sun helped to resume. The
men that dug the coal and the iron and the silver and the copper and the
gold helped to resume. And the men upon whose foreheads fell the light
of furnaces helped to resume. And the sailors who fought with the waves
of the seas helped to resume.

I admit to-night that the Democrats earned their share of the money
to resume with. All I claim is that the Republican party furnished the
honesty to pay it over. That is what I claim; and the Republican party
set the day, and the Republican party worked to the promise. That is
what I say. And had it not been for the Republican party this Nation
would have been financially dishonored. I am for honest money, and I am
for the payment of every dollar of our debt, and so is every Democrat
now, I take it. But what did you say a little while ago? Did you say we
could resume? No; you swore we could not, and you swore our bonds would
be worthless as the withered leaves of winter. And now when a Democrat
goes to England and sees an American four per cent, quoted at one
hundred and ten he kind of swells up, and says: "That's the kind of man
I am." In that country he pretends he was a Republican in this. And I do
not blame him. I do not begrudge him enjoying respectability when away
from home. The Republican party is entitled to the credit for keeping
this Nation grandly and splendidly honest. I say, the Republican party
is entitled to the credit of preserving the honor of this Nation.

In 1873 came the crash, and all the languages of the world cannot
describe the agonies suffered by the American people from 1873 to 1879.
A man who thought he was a millionaire came to poverty; he found
his stocks and bonds ashes in the paralytic hand of old age. Men who
expected to live all their lives in the sunshine of joy found themselves
beggars and paupers. The great factories were closed, the workmen were
demoralized, and the roads of the United States were filled with tramps.
In the hovel of the poor and the palace of the rich came the serpent
of temptation and whispered in the American ear the terrible word
"Repudiation." But the Republican party said, "No; we will pay every
dollar. No; we have started toward the shining goal of resumption and we
never will turn back." And the Republican party struggled until it had
the happiness of seeing upon the broad shining forehead of American
labor the words "Financial Honor."

The Republican party struggled until every paper promise was as good
as gold. And the moment we got back to gold then we commenced to rise
again. We could not jump until our feet touched something that they
could be pressed against. And from that moment to this we have been
going, going, going higher and higher, more prosperous every hour. And
now they say, "Let us have a change." When I am sick I want a change;
when I am poor I want a change; and if I were a Democrat I would have a
personal change. We are prosperous to-day, and must keep so. We are back
to gold and silver. Let us stay there; and let us stay with the party
that brought us there.

Now, I am not only in favor of free speech and an honest ballot-box and
an honest collection of the revenue of the United States, and an honest
money, but I am in favor of the idea, of the great and splendid
truth, that this is a Nation one and indivisible. I deny that we are a
confederacy bound together with ropes of cloud and chains of mist. This
is a Nation, and every man in it owes his first allegiance to the grand
old flag for which more brave blood was shed than for any other flag
that waves in the sight of heaven. There is another thing; we all want
to live in a land where the law is supreme. We desire to live beneath a
flag that will protect every citizen beneath its folds. We desire to be
citizens of a Government so great and so grand that it will command
the respect of the civilized world. Most of us are convinced that our
Government is the best upon this earth. It is the only Government
where manhood, and manhood alone, is not made simply a condition of
citizenship, but where manhood, and manhood alone, permits its possessor
to have his equal share in control of the Government. It is the only
Government in the world where poverty is upon an exact equality with
wealth, so far as controlling the destiny of the Republic is concerned.
It is the only Nation where the man clothed in rags stands upon an
equality with the one wearing purple. It is the only country in the
world where, politically, the hut is upon an equality with the palace.

For that reason every poor man should stand by this Government, and
every poor man who does not is a traitor to the best interests of his
children; every poor man who does not is willing his children should
bear the badge of political inferiority; and the only way to make this
Government a complete and perfect success is for the poorest man to
think as much of his manhood as the millionaire does of his wealth. A
man does not vote in this country simply because he is rich; he does
not vote in this country simply because he has an education; he does
not vote simply because he has talent or genius; we say that he votes
because he is a man, and that he has his manhood to support; and we
admit in this country that nothing can be more valuable to any human
being than his manhood, and for that reason we put poverty on an
equality with wealth. We say in this country manhood is worth more than
gold. We say in this country that without Liberty the Nation is not
worth preserving. Now, I appeal to-day to every poor man; I appeal
to-day to every laboring man, and I ask him, is there another country on
this globe where you can have equal rights with others? There is another
thing; do you want a Government of law or of brute force? In which part
of this country do you find law supreme? In which part of this country
can a man find justice in the courts; in the North or in the South?
Where is crime punished? Where is innocence protected, in the North or
in the South? Which section of this country will you trust?

You can tell what a man is by the way he treats persons in his power,
and the man that will sneak and crawl in the presence of greatness, will
trample the weak when he gets them in his power. What class of people
does the State have in its power? Criminals and creditors; and you
can judge of a State by the way it treats its criminals and creditors.
Georgia is the best State in the South. They have a penitentiary system
by which they hire out their convict labor. Only two years ago the whole
thing was examined by a friend of mine, Col. Allston. He had been in the
rebel army and was my good friend. He used to come to my house day after
day to see me. He got converted and had the grit to say so. Being
a member of the Legislature, he had a committee of investigation
appointed. Now, in order that you may understand the difference, you
must know that in the Northern penitentiaries the average annual death
rate is one per cent.; that is, of one thousand convicts, ten will
die in a year, on the average. That low death rate is because we are
civilized, because we do not kill; but in the Georgia penitentiary it
was as high as fifteen, twenty-seven and forty-seven per cent., at a
time when there was no typhoid or yellow fever, or epidemic of any kind.
They died for four months at a rate of ten per cent, per month. They
crowded the convicts in together, regardless of sex. They treated them
precisely as wild beasts, and many of them were shot down. Persons high
in authority, Senators of the United States, held interests in those
contracts, and Robert Allston denounced them. When on a visit he said,
"I believe when I get home I shall be killed." I told him not to go
back to Georgia, but to stay in the civilized North; but no, he would go
back, and on the very day of his arrival he was murdered in cold blood.
Do you want to trust such men? * * *

The Southern people say this is a Confederacy and they are honest in it.
They fought for it, they believed it. They believe in the doctrine of
State Sovereignty, and many Democrats of the North believe in the same
doctrine. No less a man than Horatio Seymour--standing it may be at the
head of Democratic statesmen--said, if he has been correctly reported,
only the other day, that he despised the word "Nation." I bless that
word. I owe my first allegiance to this Nation, and it owes its first
protection to me. I am talking here to-night, not because I am protected
by the flag of New York. I would not know that flag if I should see it.
I am talking here, and have the right to talk here, because the flag of
my country is above us. I have the same right as though I had been born
upon this very platform. I am proud of New York because it is a part of
my country. I am proud of my country because it has such a State as
New York in it, and I will be prouder of New York on a week from next
Tuesday than ever before in my life. I despise the doctrine of State
Sovereignty. I believe in the rights of the States, but not in the
sovereignty of the States. States are political conveniences. Rising
above States, as the Alps above valleys, are the rights of man. Rising
above the rights of the Government, even in this Nation, are the sublime
rights of the people. Governments are good only so long as they protect
human rights. But the rights of a man never should be sacrificed upon
the altar of the State, or upon the altar of the Nation.

Let me tell you a few objections that I have to State Sovereignty. That
doctrine has never been appealed to for any good. The first time it was
appealed to was when our Constitution was made. And the object then was
to keep the slave-trade open until the year 1808. The object then was
to make the sea the highway of piracy--the object then was to allow
American citizens to go into the business of selling men and women and
children, and feed their cargo to the sharks of the sea, and the sharks
of the sea were as merciful as they. That was the first time that the
appeal to the doctrine of State Sovereignty was made, and the next time
was for the purpose of keeping alive the interstate slave-trade, so that
a gentleman in Virginia could sell the slave who had nursed him, and rob
the cradles of their babes. Think of it! It was made so they could rob
the cradle in the name of law. Think of it! Think of it! And the next
time they appealed to the doctrine of State Sovereignty was in favor of
the Fugitive Slave Law--a law that made a bloodhound of every Northern
man; that made charity a crime; a law that made love a state-prison
offence; that branded the forehead of charity as if it were a felon.
Think of it!

It is a part of my honor to hate such principles. I have no respect
for any man who is so mean, cruel and wicked, as to allow himself to be
transformed into a bloodhound to bay upon the tracks of innocent human
prey. I will follow my logic, no matter where it goes, after it has
consulted with my heart. If you ever come to a conclusion without
calling the heart in, you will come to a bad conclusion.

A good man is pretty apt to be right; a perfectly honest man is like the
surface of the stainless mirror, that gives back by simply looking at
him, the image of the one who looks.

The next time they appealed to the doctrine of State Sovereignty was to
increase the area of human slavery, so that the bloodhound, with clots
of blood dropping from his loose and hanging jaws, might traverse the
billowy plains of Kansas. Think of it!

The Democratic party then said the Federal Government had a right to
cross the State line. And the next time they appealed to that infamous
doctrine was in defence of secession and treason; a doctrine that cost
us six thousand millions of dollars; a doctrine that cost four hundred
thousand lives; a doctrine that filled our country with widows, our
homes with orphans. And I tell you, the doctrine of State Sovereignty
is the viper in the bosom of this Republic, and if we do not kill that
viper it will kill us.

The Democrats tell us that in the olden time the Federal Government had
a right to cross a State line to put shackles upon the limbs of men. It
had the right to cross a State line to trample upon the rights of human
beings, but now it has no right to cross those lines upon an errand
of mercy or justice. We are told that now, when the Federal Government
wishes to protect a citizen, a State line rises like a Chinese wall,
and the sword of Federal power turns to air the moment it touches one of
those lines. I deny it and I despise, abhor and execrate the doctrine of
State Sovereignty. The Democrats tell us if we wish to be protected by
the Federal Government we must leave home. I wish they would try it for
about ten days. They say the Federal Government can defend a citizen
in England, France, Spain or Germany, but cannot defend a child of the
Republic sitting around the family hearth. I deny it. A Government that
cannot protect its citizens at home is unfit to be called a Government.
I want a Government with an ear so good that it can hear the faintest
cry of the oppressed wherever its flag floats. I want a Government with
an arm long enough and a sword sharp enough to cut down treason wherever
it may raise its serpent head. I want a Government that will protect
a freedman, standing by his little log hut, with the same alacrity and
with the same efficiency that it would protect Vanderbilt, living in a
palace of marble and gold. Humanity is a sacred thing, and manhood is a
thing to be preserved. Let us look at it. For instance, here is a war,
and the Federal Government says to a man, "We want you," and he says,
"No, I don't want to go," and then they put a lot of pieces of paper in
a wheel and on one of those pieces is his name, and another man turns
the crank, and then they pull it out and there is his name, and
they say, "Come," and so he goes. And they stand him in front of the
brazen-throated guns; they make him fight for his native land, and when
the war is over he goes home and he finds the war has been unpopular
in his neighborhood, and they trample on his rights, and he says to the
Federal Government, "Protect me." And he says to the Government, "I owe
my allegiance to you. You must protect me." What will you say of
that Government if it says to him, "You must look to your State for
protection"? "Ah, but," he says, "my State is the very power trampling
upon me," and, of course, the robber is not going to send for the
police, It is the duty of the Government to defend even its drafted
men; and if that is the duty of the Government, what shall I say of the
volunteer, who for one moment holds his wife in a tremulous and agonized
embrace, kisses his children, shoulders his musket, goes to the field
and says, "Here I am, ready to die for my native land"? A Nation that
will not defend its volunteer defenders is a disgrace to the map of this
world. This is a Nation. Free speech is the brain of the Republic; an
honest ballot is the breath of its life; honest money is the blood of
its veins; and the idea of nationality is its great, beating, throbbing
heart. I am for a Nation. And yet the Democrats tell me that it is
dangerous to have centralized power. How would you have it? I believe in
the localization of power; I believe in having enough of it localized in
one place to be effectively used; I believe in a localization of brain.
I suppose Democrats would like to have it spread all over your body, and
they act as though theirs was.

There is another thing in which I believe: I believe in the protection
of American labor. The hand that holds Aladdin's lamp must be the hand
of toil. This Nation rests upon the shoulders of its workers, and I want
the American laboring man to have enough to wear; I want him to have
enough to eat:

I want him to have something for the ordinary misfortunes of life; I
want him to have the pleasure of seeing his wife well-dressed; I want
him to see a few blue ribbons fluttering about his children; I want him
to see the flags of health flying in their beautiful cheeks; I want him
to feel that this is his country, and the shield of protection is above
his labor.

And I will tell you why I am for protection, too. If we were all farmers
we would be stupid. If we were all shoemakers we would be stupid. If
we all followed one business, no matter what it was, we would become
stupid. Protection to American labor diversifies American industry,
and to have it diversified touches and develops every part of the human
brain. Protection protects ingenuity; it protects intelligence; and
protection raises sense; and by protection we have greater men, better
looking women and healthier children. Free trade means that our laborer
is upon an equality with the poorest paid labor of this world. And allow
me to tell you that for an empty stomach, "Hurrah for Hancock!" is a
poor consolation. I do not think much of a Government where the people
do not have enough to eat. I am a materialist to that extent; I want
something to eat. I have been in countries where the laboring man had
meat once a year; sometimes twice--Christmas and Easter. And I have seen
women carrying upon their heads a burden that no man in this audience
could carry, and at the same time knitting busily with both hands,
and those women lived without meat; and when I thought of the American
laborer, I said to myself, "After all, my country is the best in the
world." And when I came back to the sea and saw the old flag flying, it
seemed to me as though the air from pure joy had burst into blossom.

Labor has more to eat and more to wear in the United States than in
any other land of this earth. I want America to produce everything that
Americans need. I want it so that if the whole world should declare war
against us, if we were surrounded by walls of cannon and bayonets and
swords, we could supply all our material wants in and of ourselves. I
want to live to see the American woman dressed in American silk; the
American man in everything, from hat to boots, produced in America by
the cunning hand of American toil. I want to see the workingman have
a good house, painted white, grass in the front yard, carpets on the
floor, pictures on the wall. I want to see him a man, feeling that he is
a king by the divine right of living in the Republic. And every man here
is just a little bit a king, you know. Every man here is a part of the
sovereign power. Every man wears a little of purple; every man has a
little of crown and a little of sceptre; and every man that will sell
his vote for money or be ruled by prejudice is unfit to be an American
citizen.

I believe in American labor, and I will tell you why. The other day a
man told me that we had produced in the United States of America one
million tons of steel rails. How much are they worth? Sixty dollars a
ton. In other words, the million tons are worth sixty million dollars.
How much is a ton of iron worth in the ground? Twenty-five cents.
American labor takes twenty-five cents worth of iron in the ground and
adds to it fifty-nine dollars and seventy-five cents. One million tons
of rails, and the raw material not worth twenty-four thousand dollars!
We build a ship in the United States worth five hundred thousand
dollars, and the value of the ore in the earth, of the trees in the
great forest, of all that enters into the composition of that ship
bringing five hundred thousand dollars in gold is only twenty thousand
dollars; four hundred and eighty thousand dollars by American labor,
American muscle, coined into gold; American brains made a legal tender
the world round.

I propose to stand by the Nation. I want the furnaces kept hot. I want
the sky to be filled with the smoke of American industry, and upon that
cloud of smoke will rest forever the bow of perpetual promise. That is
what I am for. Where did this doctrine of a tariff for revenue only come
from? From the South. The South would like to stab the prosperity of the
North. They would rather trade with Old England than with New England.
They would rather trade with the people who were willing to help them in
war than with those who conquered the Rebellion. They knew what gave us
our strength in war. They knew that all the brooks and creeks and rivers
of New England were putting down the Rebellion. They knew that every
wheel that turned, every spindle that revolved, was a soldier in the
army of human progress. It won't do! They were so lured by the greed of
office that they were willing to trade upon the misfortunes of a Nation.
It won't do! I do not wish to belong to a party that succeeds only when
my country fails. I do not wish to belong to a party whose banner went
up with the banner of rebellion. I do not wish to belong to a party that
was in partnership with defeat and disaster. I do not. And there is not
a Democrat here who does not know that a failure of the crops this year
would have helped his party. You know that an early frost would have
been a godsend to them. You know that the potato-bug could have done
them more good than all their speakers.

I wish to belong to that party which is prosperous when the country is
prosperous. I belong to that party which is not poor when the golden
billows are running over the seas of wheat. I belong to that party which
is prosperous when there are oceans of corn, and when the cattle are
upon the thousand hills. I belong to that party which is prosperous when
the furnaces are aflame, and when you dig coal and iron and silver; when
everybody has enough to eat; when everybody is happy; when the children
are all going to school, and when joy covers my Nation as with a
garment. That party which is prosperous then, is my party.

Now, then, I have been telling you what I am for. I am for free speech,
and so ought you to be. I am for an honest ballot, and if you are not
you ought to be. I am for the collection of the revenue. I am for honest
money. I am for the idea that this is a Nation forever. I believe in
protecting American labor. I want the shield of my country above every
anvil, above every furnace, above every cunning head and above every
deft hand of American labor.

Now, then, which section of this country will be the more apt to carry
these ideas into execution? Which party will be the more apt to achieve
these grand and splendid things? Honor bright? Now we have not only
to choose between sections of the country; we have to choose between
parties. Here is the Democratic party, and I admit there are thousands
of good Democrats who went to the war, and some of those that stayed at
home were good men; and I want to ask you, and I want you to tell me
in reply what that party did during the war when the War Democrats were
away from home. What did they do? That is the question. I say to you,
that every man who tried to tear our flag out of heaven was a Democrat.
The men who wrote the ordinances of secession, who fired upon Fort
Sumter; the men who starved our soldiers, who fed them with the crumbs
that the worms had devoured before, they were Democrats. The keepers
of Libby, the keepers of Andersonville, were Democrats--Libby and
Andersonville, the two mighty wings that will bear the memory of the
Confederacy to eternal infamy! The men who wished to scatter yellow
fever in the North and who tried to fire the great cities of the
North--they were all Democrats. He who said that the greenback would
never be paid and he who slandered sixty cents out of every dollar of
the Nation's promises were Democrats. Who were joyful when your brothers
and your sons and your fathers lay dead on a field of battle that the
country had lost? They were Democrats. The men who wept when the old
banner floated in triumph above the ramparts of rebellion--they were
Democrats. You know it. The men who wept when slavery was destroyed, who
believed slavery to be a divine institution, who regarded bloodhounds as
apostles and missionaries, and who wept at the funeral of that infernal
institution--they were Democrats. Bad company--bad company!

And let me implore all the young men here not to join that party. Do not
give new blood to that institution. The Democratic party has a yellow
passport. On one side it says "dangerous." They imagine they have not
changed, and that is because they have not intellectual growth. That
party was once the enemy of my country, was once the enemy of our flag,
and more than that, it was once the enemy of human liberty, and that
party to-night is not willing that the citizens of the Republic should
exercise all their rights irrespective of their color. And allow me to
say right here that I am opposed to that party.

We have not only to choose between parties, but to choose between
candidates. The Democracy have put forward as the bearers of their
standard General Hancock and William H. English. The Democrats have at
last nominated a Union soldier. They nominated George B. McClellan once,
because he failed to whip the South; they nominated Mr. Greeley, when
they despised him, and now they have nominated General Hancock. Do they
think the South loves him? At Gettysburg they say he fought against
them, and that is one great reason why he should be President--that he
shot rebels. Do the men that fought at Gettysburg still believe in
State Sovereignty? Wade Hampton says, "We must vote as Lee and Jackson
fought." They fought for State Sovereignty. Has the South changed?
Hancock went to kill them then; they want to vote for him now. Who
has changed? [A voice: "Hancock."] I think so. They are using him as a
figure-head. They have dressed him in the noble blue, with the patriotic
coat and Union buttons, and they do not like him any better than they
did at Gettysburg. It would be just as consistent for the Republicans
to have nominated Wade Hampton. Did General Hancock believe in State
Sovereignty when he was at Gettysburg? If he did, he was a murderer, and
not a Union soldier--he was killing men he believed to be in the right,
and a man cannot fight unless his conscience approves of what his sword
does, and if he was honest at that time, he did not believe in State
Sovereignty, and it seems to me he would hate to have the men who tried
to destroy this Government cheering him. All the glory he ever got was
in the service of the Republican party, and if he does not look out
he will lose it all in the service of the Democratic party. He had
a conversation with General Grant. It was a time when he had
been appointed at the head of the Department of the Gulf. In that
conversation he stated to General Grant that he was opposed to "nigger
domination." Grant said to him, "We must obey the laws of Congress.
We are soldiers." And that meant, the military is not above the civil
authority. And I tell you to-night, that the army and the navy are the
right and left hands of the civil power. Grant said to him: "Three or
four million ex-slaves, without property and without education, cannot
dominate over thirty or forty millions of white people, with education
and property." General Hancock replied to that: "I am opposed to 'nigger
domination.'" Allow me to say that I do not believe any man fit for
the presidency of the great Republic, who is capable of insulting a
down-trodden race. I never meet a negro that I do not feel like asking
his forgiveness for the wrongs that my race has inflicted on his. I
remember that from the white man he received for two hundred years agony
and tears; I remember that my race sold a child from the agonized breast
of a mother; I remember that my race trampled with the feet of greed
upon all the holy relations of life; and I do not feel like insulting
the colored man; I feel rather like asking the forgiveness of his race
for the crimes that my race have put upon him. "Nigger domination!" What
a fine scabbard that makes for the sword of Gettysburg! It won't do!

What is General Hancock for, besides the presidency? How does he stand
upon the great questions affecting American prosperity? He told us the
other day that the tariff is a local question. The tariff affects every
man and woman, live they in hut, hovel or palace; it affects every man
that has a back to be covered or a stomach to be filled, and yet he says
it is a local question. So is death. He also told us that he heard
that question discussed once, in Pennsylvania. He must have been
eavesdropping. And he tells us that his doctrine of the tariff will
continue as long as Nature lasts. Then Senator Randolph wrote him a
letter. I do not know whether Senator Randolph answered it or not; but
that answer was worse than the first interview; and I understand
now that another letter is going through a period of incubation at
Governor's Island, upon the great subject of the tariff. It won't do!

They say one thing they are sure of, he is opposed to paying Southern
pensions and Southern claims. He says that a man that fought against
this Government has no right to a pension. Good! I say a man that fought
against this Government has no right to office. If a man cannot earn
a pension by tearing our flag out of the sky, he cannot earn power. [A
Voice--"How about Longstreet?"] Longstreet has repented of what he did.
Longstreet admits that he was wrong. And there was no braver officer in
the Southern Confederacy. Every man of the South who will say, "I made a
mistake"--I do not want him to say that he knew he was wrong--all I
ask him to say is that he now thinks he was wrong; and every man of the
South to-day who says he was wrong, and who says from this day forward,
henceforth and forever, he is for this being a Nation.

I will take him by the hand. But while he is attempting to do at the
ballot-box what he failed to accomplish upon the field of battle, I am
against him; while he uses a Northern general to bait a Southern trap,
I won't bite. I will forgive men when they deserve to be forgiven; but
while they insist that they were right, while they insist that State
Sovereignty is the proper doctrine, I am opposed to their climbing into
power.

Hancock says that he will not pay these claims; he agrees to veto a
bill that his party may pass; he agrees in advance that he will defeat
a party that he expects will elect him; he, in effect, says to the
people, "You can not trust that party, but you can trust me." He says,
"Look at them; I admit they are a hungry lot; I admit that they haven't
had a bite in twenty years; I admit that an ordinary famine is satiety
compared to the hunger they feel. But between that vast appetite known
as the Democratic party, and the public treasury, I will throw the
shield of my veto." No man has a right to say in advance what he will
veto, any more than a judge has a right to say in advance how he
will decide a case. The veto power is a distinction with which the
Constitution has clothed the Executive, and no President has a right to
say that he will veto until he has heard both sides of the question. But
he agrees in advance.

I would rather trust a party than a man. Death may veto Hancock, and
Death has not been a successful politician in the United States.
Tyler, Fillmore, Andy Johnson--I do not wish Death to elect any more
Presidents; and if he does, and if Hancock is elected, William H.
English becomes President of the United States. No, no, no! All I need
to say about him is simply to pronounce his name; that is all. You do
not want him. Whether the many stories that have been told about him are
true or not I do not know, and I will not give currency to a solitary
word against the reputation of an American citizen unless I know it to
be true. What I have against him is what he has done in public life.
When Charles Sumner, that great and splendid publicist--Charles Sumner,
the philanthropist, one who spoke to the conscience of his time and to
the history of the future--when he stood up in the United States Senate
and made a great and glorious plea for human liberty, there crept into
the Senate a villain and struck him down as though he had been a wild
beast. That man was a member of Congress, and when a resolution was
introduced in the House, to expel that man, William H. English voted
"No." All the stories in the world could not add to the infamy of that
public act. That is enough for me, and whatever his private life may be,
let it be that of an angel, never, never, never would I vote for a man
that would defend the assassin of free speech. General Hancock, they
tell me, is a statesman; that what little time he has had to spare from
war he has given to the tariff, and what little time he could spare
from the tariff he has given to the Constitution of his country;
showing under what circumstances a Major-General can put at defiance the
Congress of the United States. It won't do!

But while I am upon that subject it may be well for me to state that he
never will be President of the United States. Now, I say that a man who
in time of peace prefers peace, and prefers the avocations of peace; a
man who in the time of peace would rather look at the corn in the air of
June, rather listen to the hum of bees, rather sit by his door with his
wife and children; the man who in time of peace loves peace, and yet
when the blast of war blows in his ears, shoulders a musket and goes to
the field of war to defend his country, and when the war is over goes
home and again pursues the avocations of peace--that man is just as
good, to say the least of it, as a man who in a time of profound peace
makes up his mind that he would like to make his living killing other
folks. To say the least of it, he is as good.

The Republicans have named as their standard bearers James A. Garfield
and Chester A. Arthur. James A. Garfield was a volunteer soldier, and
he took away from the field of Chickamauga as much glory as any one
man could carry. He is not only a soldier--7-he is a statesman. He has
studied and discussed all the great questions that affect the prosperity
and well-being of the American people. His opinions are well known, and
I say to you tonight that there is not in this Nation, there is not in
this Republic a man with greater brain and greater heart than James A.
Garfield. I know him and I like him. I know him as well as any other
public man, and I like him. The Democratic party say that he is not
honest. I have been reading some Democratic papers to-day, and you would
say that every one of their editors had a private sewer of his own into
which has been emptied for a hundred years the slops of hell. They tell
me that James A. Garfield is not honest. Are you a Democrat? Your
party tried to steal nearly half of this country. Your party stole the
armament of a nation. Your party was willing to live upon the unpaid
labor of four millions of people. You have no right to the floor for the
purpose of making a motion of honesty. James A. Garfield has been at the
head of the most important committees of Congress; he is a member of the
most important one of the whole House. He has no peer in the Congress of
the United States. And you know it. He is the leader of the House.
With one wave of his hand he can take millions from the pocket of one
industry and put it into the pocket of another; with a motion of his
hand he could have made himself a man of wealth, but he is to-night a
poor man. I know him and I like him. He is as genial as May and he is as
generous as Autumn. And the men for whom he has done unnumbered favors,
the men whom he had pity enough not to destroy with an argument, the men
who, with his great generosity, he has allowed, intellectually, to live,
are now throwing filth at the reputation of that great and splendid man.

Several ladies and gentlemen were passing a muddy place around which
were gathered ragged and wretched urchins. And these little wretches
began to throw mud at them; and one gentleman said, "If you don't stop
I will throw it back at you." And a little fellow said, "You can't do it
without dirtying your hands, and it doesn't hurt us anyway."

I never was more profoundly happy than on the night of that 12th day
of October when I found that between an honest and a kingly man and his
maligners, two great States had thrown their shining shields. When Ohio
said, "Garfield is my greatest son, and there never has been raised in
the cabins of Ohio a grander man"--and when Indiana held up her hands
and said, "Allow me to indorse that verdict," I was profoundly happy,
because that said to me, "Garfield will carry every Northern State;"
that said to me, "The Solid South will be confronted by a great and
splendid North."

I know Garfield--I like him. Some people have said, "How is it that you
support Garfield, when he was a minister?" "How is it that you support
Garfield when he is a Christian?" I will tell you. There are two
reasons. The first is I am not a bigot; and secondly, James A. Garfield
is not a bigot. He believes in giving to every other human being every
right he claims for himself. He believes in freedom of speech and
freedom of thought; untrammeled conscience and upright manhood. He
believes in an absolute divorce between church and state. He believes
that every religion should rest upon its morality, upon its reason,
upon its persuasion, upon its goodness, upon its charity, and that love
should never appeal to the sword of civil power. He disagrees with me in
many things; but in the one thing, that the air is free for all, we do
agree. I want to do equal and exact justice everywhere.

I want the world of thought to be without a chain, without a wall, and I
wish to say to you, [turning toward Mr. Beecher and directly addressing
him] that I thank you for what you have said to-night, and to
congratulate the people of this city and country that you have
intellectual horizon enough, intellectual sky enough to take the hand
of a man, howsoever much he may disagree in some things with you, on the
grand platform and broad principle of citizenship. James A. Garfield,
believing with me as he does, disagreeing with me as he does, is
perfectly satisfactory to me. I know him, and I like him.

Men are to-day blackening his reputation, who are not fit to blacken
his shoes. He is a man of brain. Since his nomination he must have made
forty or fifty speeches, and every one has been full of manhood and
genius. He has not said a word that has not strengthened him with the
American people. He is the first candidate who has been free to express
himself and who has never made a mistake. I will tell you why he does
not make a mistake; because he spoke from the inside out. Because he was
guided by the glittering Northern Star of principle. Lie after lie has
been told about him. Slander after slander has been hatched and put in
the air, with its little short wings, to fly its day, and the last lie
is a forgery.

I saw to-day the fac-simile of a letter that they pretend he wrote upon
the Chinese question. I know his writing; I know his signature; I am
well acquainted with his writing. I know handwriting, and I tell you
to-night, that letter and that signature are forgeries. A forgery
for the benefit of the Pacific States; a forgery for the purpose of
convincing the American workingman that Garfield is without heart. I
tell you, my fellow-citizens, that cannot take from him a vote. But Ohio
pierced their centre and Indiana rolled up both flanks and the rebel
line cannot re-form with a forgery for a standard. They are gone!

Now, some people say to me, "How long are you going to preach the
doctrine of hate?" I never did preach it. In many States of this Union
it is a crime to be a Republican. I am going to preach my doctrine until
every American citizen is permitted to express his opinion and vote
as he may desire in every State of this Union. I am going to preach my
doctrine until this is a civilized country. That is all.

I will treat the gentlemen of the South precisely as we do the gentlemen
of the North. I want to treat every section of the country precisely as
we do ours-. I want to improve their rivers and their harbors; I want
to fill their land with commerce; I want them to prosper; I want them to
build schoolhouses; I want them to open the lands to immigration to all
people who desire to settle upon their soil. I want to be friends with
them; I want to let the past be buried forever; I want to let bygones
be bygones, but only upon the basis that we are now in favor of absolute
liberty and eternal justice. I am not willing to bury nationality or
free speech in the grave for the purpose of being friends. Let us
stand by our colors; let the old Republican party that has made this a
Nation--the old Republican party that has saved the financial honor of
this country--let that party stand by its colors.

Let that party say, "Free speech forever!" Let that party say, "An
honest ballot forever!" Let that party say, "Honest money forever! the
Nation and the flag forever!" And let that party stand by the great men
carrying her banner, James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. I
would rather trust a party than a man. If General Garfield dies, the
Republican party lives; if General Garfield dies, General Arthur will
take his place--a brave, honest, and intelligent gentleman, upon whom
every Republican can rely. And if he dies, the Republican party lives,
and as long as the Republican party does not die, the great Republic
will live. As long as the Republican party lives, this will be the
asylum of the world. Let me tell you, Mr. Irishman, this is the only
country on the earth where Irishmen have had enough to eat. Let me tell
you, Mr. German, that you have more liberty here than you had in the
Fatherland. Let me tell you, all men, that this is the land of humanity.

Oh! I love the old Republic, bounded by the seas, walled by the wide
air, domed by heaven's blue, and lit with the eternal stars. I love the
Republic; I love it because I love liberty. Liberty is my religion, and
at its altar I worship, and will worship.




ADDRESS TO THE 86TH ILLINOIS REGIMENT.

     * This is only a fragment of a speech made by Col. Ingersoll
     at Peoria, 111., in 1866, to the 86th Illinois Regiment, at
     their anniversary meeting.


PEORIA, ILLS.

1865.

THE history of the past four years seems to me like a terrible dream.
It seems almost impossible that the events that have now passed into
history ever happened. That hundreds of thousands of men, born and
reared under one flag, with the same history, the same future, and, in
truth, the same interests, should have met upon the terrible field of
death, and for four long years should have fought with a bitterness and
determination never excelled; that they should have filled our land with
orphans and widows, and made our country hollow with graves, is
indeed wonderful; but that the people of the South should have thus
fought--thus attempted to destroy and overthrow the Government founded
by the heroes of the Revolution--merely for the sake of perpetuating the
infamous institution of slavery, is wonderful almost beyond belief.

Strange that people should be found in this, the nineteenth century, to
fight against freedom and to die for slavery! It is most wonderful that
the terrible war ceased as suddenly as it did, and that the soldiers of
the Republic, the moment that the angel of peace spread her white wings
over our country, dropped from their hands the instruments of war
and eagerly went back to the plough, the shop and the office, and are
to-day, with the same determination that characterized them in battle,
engaged in effacing every vestige of the desolation and destruction of
war. But the progress we have made as a people is if possible still more
astonishing. We pretended to be the lovers of freedom, yet we defended
slavery. We quoted the Declaration of Independence and voted for the
compromise of 1850.

From servility and slavishness we have marched to heroism. We were
tyrants. We are liberators. We were slave-catchers. We are now the
chivalrous breakers of chains.

From slavery, over a bloody and terrible path, we have marched to
freedom. Hirelings of oppression, we have become the champions of
justice--the defenders of the right--the pillar upon which rests the
hope of the world. To whom are we indebted for this wonderful change?
Most of all to you, the soldiers of the great Republic. We thank you
that the hands of time were not turned back a thousand years--that the
Dark Ages did not again come upon the world--that Prometheus was
not again chained--that the river of progress was not stopped or
stayed--that the dear blood shed during all the past was not rendered
vain--that the sublime faith of all the grand and good did not become
a bitter dream, but a reality more glorious than ever entered into the
imagination of the rapt heroes of the past. Soldiers of the Eighty-sixth
Illinois, we thank you, and through you all the defenders of the
Republic, living and dead. We thank you that the deluge of blood has
subsided, that the ark of our national safety is at rest, that the dove
has returned with the olive branch of peace, and that the dark clouds of
war are in the far distance, covered with the beautiful bow.

In the name of humanity, in the name of progress, in the name of
freedom, in the name of America, in the name of the oppressed of the
whole world, we thank you again and again. We thank you, that in the
darkest hour you never despaired of the Republic, that you were not
dismayed, that through disaster and defeat, through cruelty and famine,
through the serried ranks of the enemy, in spite of false friends, you
marched resolutely, unflinchingly and bravely forward. Forward through
shot and shell! Forward through fire and sword! Forward past the corpses
of your brave comrades, buried in shallow graves by the hurried hands
of heroes! Forward past the scattered bones of starved captives! Forward
through the glittering bayonet lines, and past the brazen throats of the
guns! Forward through the din and roar and smoke and hell of war! Onward
through blood and fire to the shining, glittering mount of perfect and
complete victory, and from the top your august hands unfurled to the
winds the old banner of the stars, and it waves in triumph now, and
shall forever, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande, and from the
Atlantic to the Pacific!

We thank you that our waving fields of golden wheat and rustling corn
are not trodden down beneath the bloody feet of invasion--that our homes
are not ashes--that our hearthstones are not desolate--that our towns
and cities still stand, that our temples and institutions of learning
are secure, that prosperity covers us as with a mantle, and, more than
all, we thank you that the Republic still lives; that law and order
reign supreme; that the Constitution is still sacred; that a republican
government has ceased to be only an experiment, and has become a
certainty for all time; that we have by your heroism established the
sublime and shining truth that a government by the people, for the
people, can and will stand until governments cease among men; that you
have given the lie to the impudent and infamous prophecy of tyranny, and
that you have firmly established the Republic upon the great ideas of
National Unity and Human Liberty.

We thank you for our commerce on the high seas, upon our lakes and
beautiful rivers, for the credit of our nation, for the value of our
money, and for the grand position that we now occupy among the nations
of the earth. We thank you for every State redeemed, for every star
brought back to glitter again upon the old flag, and we thank you
for the grand future that you have opened for us and for our children
through all the ages yet to come; and, not only for us and our children,
but for mankind.

Thanks to your efforts our country is still an asylum for the oppressed
of the Old World; the arms of our charity are still open, we still
beckon them across the sea, and they come in multitudes,'leaving home,
the graves of their sires, and the dear memories of the heart, and with
their wives and little ones come to this, the only free land upon which
the sun shines--and with their countless hands of labor add to the
wealth, the permanence and the glory of our country. And let them come
from the land of Luther, of Hampden and Emmett. Whoever is for freedom
and the sacred rights of man is a true American, and as such, we welcome
them all. We thank you to-day in the name of four millions of people,
whose shackles you have so nobly and generously broken, and who, from
the condition of beasts of burden, have by your efforts become men. We
thank you in the name of this poor and hitherto despised and insulted
race, and say that their emancipation was, and is, the crowning glory
of this most terrible war. Peace without liberty could have been only a
bloody delusion and a snare. Freedom is peace; Slavery is war.

We must act justly and honorably with these emancipated men, knowing
that the eyes of the civilized world are upon us. We must do what is
best for both races. We must not be controlled merely by party.

If the Government is founded upon principle, it will stand against the
shock of revolution and foreign war as long as liberty is sacred, the
rights of man respected, and honor dwells in the hearts of men.

We thank you for the lesson that has been taught the Old World by your
patriotism and valor; believing that when the people shall have learned
that sublime and divine lesson, thrones will become kingless, kings
crownless, royalty an epitaph, the purple of power the shroud of death,
the chains of tyranny will fall from the bodies of men, the shackles
of superstition from the souls of the people, the spirit of persecution
will fly from the earth, and the banner of Universal Freedom, with the
words "Civil and Religious Liberty for the World" written upon every
fold, blazing from every star, will float over every land and sea under
the whole heavens.

We thank you for the glorious past, for the still more glorious future,
and will continue to thank you while our hearts are warm with life. We
will gather around you in the hour of your death and soothe your last
moments with our gratitude. We will follow you tearfully to the narrow
house of the dead, and over your sacred remains erect the whitest and
purest marble. The hands of love will adorn your last abode, and the
chisel will record that beneath rests the sacred dust of the Heroic
Saviors of the Great Republic. Such ground will be holy, and future
generations will draw inspiration from your tombs, courage from your
heroic examples, patience and fortitude from your sufferings, and
strength eternal from your success.

I cannot stop without speaking of the heroic dead. It seems to me as
though their spirits ought to hover over you to-day--that they might
join with us in giving thanks for the great victory,--that their faces
might grow radiant to think that their blood was not shed in vain,--that
the living are worthy to reap the benefits of their sacrifices, their
sufferings and death, and it almost seems as if their sightless eyes are
suffused with tears. Then we think of the dear mothers waiting for their
sons, of the devoted wives waiting for their husbands, of the orphans
asking for fathers whose returning footsteps they can never hear; that
while they can say "my country," they cannot say "my son," "my husband,"
or "my father."

My heart goes out to all the slain, to those heroic corpses sleeping far
away from home and kindred in unknown and lonely graves, to those poor
pieces of dear, bleeding earth that won for me the blessings I enjoy
to-day.

Shall I recount their sufferings? They were starved day by day with
a systematic and calculating cruelty never equaled by the most savage
tribes. They were confined in dens as though they had been beasts, and
then they slowly faded and wasted from life. Some were released from
their sufferings by blessed insanity, until their parched and fevered
lips, their hollow and glittering eyes, were forever closed by the angel
of death. And thus they died, with the voices of loved ones in their
ears; the faces of the dear absent hovering over them; around them their
dying comrades, and the fiendish slaves of slavery.

And what shall I say more of the regiment before me? It is enough that
you were a part of the great army that accomplished so much for America
and mankind.

It is but just, however, to say that you were at the bloody field of
Perryville, that you stood with Thomas at Chickamauga and kept at bay
the rebel host, that you marched to the relief of Knoxville through
bitter cold, hunger and privations, and had the honor of relieving that
heroic garrison.

It is but just to say that you were with Sherman in his wonderful march
through the heart of the Confederacy; that you were in the terrible
charge at Kenesaw Mountain, and held your ground for days within a few
steps of the rebel fortifications; that you were at Atlanta and took
part in the terrible conflict before that city and marched victoriously
through her streets; that you were at Savannah; that you had the honor
of being present when Johnson surrendered, and his ragged rebel horde
laid down their arms; that from there you marched to Washington and
beneath the shadow of the glorious dome of our Capitol, that lifts from
the earth as though jealous of the stars, received the grandest national
ovation recorded in the annals of the world.




DECORATION DAY ORATION.


     * At the Memorial Celebration of the Grand Army of the
     Republic last evening the Academy of Music was filled to
     overflowing, within a few minutes after the opening of the
     doors.

     Gen. Hancock was the first arrival of importance. The
     Governor's Island band accepted this as a signal for the
     overture. The Academy was tastefully decorated. The three
     balconies were covered, the first with blue cloth, the
     second with white and national bunting, studded with the
     insignia of the original thirteen States, and the family
     circle with red. Over the centre of the stage the national
     flag and device hung suspended, and was held In its place by
     flying streamers extending to the boxes. The latter were
     draped with flags, relieved by antique armor and weapons--
     shields, casques and battle axes and crossed swords and
     pikes.

     At 8.05 the curtain slowly rose, and discovered to the view
     of the audience, a second audience reaching back to the
     farthest depths of the scenes. These were the fortunate
     holders of stage tickets, and comprised a great number of
     distinguished men.

     Among them were noticed Gen. Horace Porter, Gen. Lloyd
     Aspinwall, Gen. Daniel Butterfield, Gen. D. D. Wylie, Gen.
     Charles Roome, Gen. W. Palmer, Gen. John Cochrane, Gen. H.
     G. Tremaine, the Hon. Edward Pierrepont, Dep't. Commander
     James M. Fraser, the Hon. Carl Schurz, August Belmont, Henry
     Clews, Dr. Lewis A. Sayre, Charles Scribner, Jesse Seligman,
     William Dowa, Henry Bergh and George William Curtis. Gen.
     Bamum came upon the stage followed by President Arthur,
     Gen's. Grant and Hancock, Secretaries Folger and Brewster,
     ex-Senator Roscoe Conkling, Mayor Grace and the Rev. J. P.
     Newman. Gen. Hancock's brilliant uniform made him a very
     conspicuous figure, and he served as a foil to the plain
     evening dress of Gen. Grant, who was separated from him by
     the portly form of the President.

     Gen. James McQuade, the President of the day, rose and
     uncovering a flag which draped a sort of patriotic altar in
     front of him, announced that It was the genuine flag upon
     which was written the famous order, "If any man pull down
     the American flag, shoot him on the spot.' * This was the
     signal for round after round of applause, while Gen. McQuade
     waved this precious relic of the past. The time had now come
     for the introduction of the orator of the evening, Col.
     Robert G. Ingersoll. Col. Ingersoll stepped across the stage
     to the reading desk, and was received with an ovation of
     cheering and waving of handkerchiefs.

     After the enthusiasm had somewhat abated, a gentleman in one
     of the boxes shouted: "Three-cheers for Ingersoll."
     These were given with a will, the excitement quieted down
     and the orator spoke as follows '.--The New York Times. May
     31st, 1883.


New York City.


1882.

THIS day is sacred to our heroes dead. Upon their tombs we have lovingly
laid the wealth of Spring.

This is a day for memory and tears. A mighty Nation bends above its
honored graves, and pays to noble dust the tribute of its love.

Gratitude is the fairest flower that sheds its perfume in the heart.

To-day we tell the history of our country's life--recount the lofty
deeds of vanished years--the toil and suffering, the defeats and
victories of heroic men,--of men who made our Nation great and free.

We see the first ships whose prows were gilded by the western sun. We
feel the thrill of discovery when the New World was found. We see the
oppressed, the serf, the peasant and the slave, men whose flesh had
known the chill of chains--the adventurous, the proud, the brave,
sailing an unknown sea, seeking homes in unknown lands. We see the
settlements, the little clearings, the blockhouse and the fort, the rude
and lonely huts. Brave men, true women, builders of homes, fellers of
forests, founders of States.

Separated from the Old World,--away from the heartless distinctions
of caste,--away from sceptres and titles and crowns, they governed
themselves. They defended their homes; they earned their bread. Each
citizen had a voice, and the little villages became republics. Slowly
the savage was driven back. The days and nights were filled with fear,
and the slow years with massacre and war, and cabins' earthen floors
were wet with blood of mothers and their babes.

But the savages of the New World were kinder than the kings and nobles
of the Old; and so the human tide kept coming, and the places of the
dead were filled. Amid common dangers and common hopes, the prejudiced
and feuds of Europe faded slowly from their hearts. From every land,
of every speech, driven by want and lured by hope, exiles and emigrants
sought the mysterious Continent of the West.

Year after year the colonists fought and toiled and suffered and
increased. They began to talk about liberty--to reason of the rights of
man. They * t asked no help from distant kings, and they began to doubt
the use of paying tribute to the useless. They lost respect for dukes
and lords, and held in high esteem all honest men. There was the dawn
of a new day. They began to dream of independence. They found that
they could make and execute the laws. They had tried the experiment of
self-government. They had succeeded. The Old World wished to dominate
the New. In the care and keeping of the colonists was the destiny of
this Continent--of half the world.

On this day the story of the great struggle between colonists and kings
should be told. We should tell our children of the contest--first
for justice, then for freedom. We should tell them the history of
the Declaration of Independence--the chart and compass of all human
rights:--All men are equal, and have the right to life, to liberty and
joy.

This Declaration uncrowned kings, and wrested from the hands of titled
tyranny the sceptre of usurped and arbitrary power. It superseded royal
grants, and repealed the cruel statutes of a thousand years. It gave the
peasant a career; it knighted all the sons of toil; it opened all the
paths to fame, and put the star of hope above the cradle of the poor
man's babe.

England was then the mightiest of nations--mistress of every sea--and
yet our fathers, poor and few, defied her power.

To-day we remember the defeats, the victories, the disasters, the weary
marches, the poverty, the hunger, the sufferings, the agonies, and above
all, the glories of the Revolution. We remember all--from Lexington to
Valley Forge, and from that midnight of despair to Yorktown's cloudless
day. We remember the soldiers and thinkers--the heroes of the sword and
pen. They had the brain and heart, the wisdom and courage to utter
and defend these words: "Governments derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed." In defence of this sublime and self-evident
truth the war was waged and won.

To-day we remember all the heroes, all the generous and chivalric men
who came from other lands to make ours free. Of the many thousands who
shared the gloom and glory of the seven sacred years, not one remains.
The last has mingled with the earth, and nearly all are sleeping now
in unmarked graves, and some beneath the leaning, crumbling stones from
which their names have been effaced by Time's irreverent and relentless
hands. But the Nation they founded remains. The United States are still
free and independent. The "government derives its just power from
the consent of the governed," and fifty millions of free people remember
with gratitude the heroes of the Revolution.

Let us be truthful; let us be kind. When peace came, when the
independence of a new Nation was acknowledged, the great truth for
which our fathers fought was half denied, and the Constitution was
inconsistent with the Declaration. The war was waged for liberty, and
yet the victors forged new fetters for their fellow-men. The chains our
fathers broke were put by them upon the limbs of others. "Freedom for
All" was the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, through seven
years of want and war. In peace the cloud was forgotten and the pillar
blazed unseen.

Let us be truthful; all our fathers were not true to themselves. In
war they had been generous, noble and self-sacrificing; with peace came
selfishness and greed. They were not great enough to appreciate the
grandeur of the principles for which they fought. They ceased to regard
the great truths as having universal application. "Liberty for
All" included only themselves. They qualified the Declaration. They
interpolated the word "white." They obliterated the word "All."

Let us be kind. We will remember the age in which they lived. We will
compare them with the citizens of other nations. They made merchandise
of men. They legalized a crime. They sowed the seeds of war. But they
founded this Nation.

Let us gratefully remember.

Let us gratefully forget.

To-day we remember the heroes of the second war with England, in which
our fathers fought for the freedom of the seas--for the rights of the
American sailor. We remember with pride the splendid victories of Erie
and Champlain and the wondrous achievements upon the sea--achievements
that covered our navy with a glory that neither the victories nor
defeats of the future can dim. We remember the heroic services and
sufferings of those who fought the merciless savage of the frontier.
We see the midnight massacre, and hear the war-cries of the allies of
England. We see the flames climb around the happy homes, and in the
charred and blackened ruins the mutilated bodies of wives and children.
Peace came at last, crowned with the victory of New Orleans--a victory
that "did redeem all sorrows" and all defeats.

The Revolution gave our fathers a free land--the War of 1812 a free sea.

To-day we remember the gallant men who bore our flag in triumph from the
Rio Grande to the heights of Chapultepec.

Leaving out of question the justice of our cause--the necessity for
war--we are yet compelled to applaud the marvelous courage of our
troops. A handful of men, brave, impetuous, determined, irresistible,
conquered a nation. Our history has no record of more daring deeds.

Again peace came, and the Nation hoped and thought that strife was at
an end. We had grown too powerful to be attacked. Our resources were
boundless, and the future seemed secure. The hardy pioneers moved to the
great West. Beneath their ringing strokes the forests disappeared, and
on the prairies waved the billowed seas of wheat and corn. The great
plains were crossed, the mountains were conquered, and the foot of
victorious adventure pressed the shore of the Pacific. In the great
North all the streams went singing to the sea, turning wheels and
spindles, and casting shuttles back and forth. Inventions were springing
like magic from a thousand brains. From Labor's holy altars rose and
leaped the smoke and flame, and from the countless forges ran the chant
of rhythmic stroke.

But in the South, the negro toiled unpaid, and mothers wept while babes
were sold, and at the auction-block husbands and wives speechlessly
looked the last good-bye. Fugitives, lighted by the Northern Star,
sought liberty on English soil, and were, by Northern men, thrust back
to whip and chain. The great statesmen, the successful politicians,
announced that law had compromised with crime, that justice had been
bribed, and that time had barred appeal. A race was left without a
right, without a hope. The future had no dawn, no star--nothing but
ignorance and fear, nothing but work and want. This, was the conclusion
of the statesmen, the philosophy of the politicians--of constitutional
expounders:--this was decided by courts and ratified by the Nation.

We had been successful in three wars. We had wrested thirteen colonies
from Great Britain. We had conquered our place upon the high seas. We
had added more than two millions of square miles to the national domain.
We had increased in population from three to thirty-one millions. We
were in the midst of plenty. We were rich and free. Ours appeared to
be the most prosperous of Nations. But it was only appearance. The
statesmen and the politicians were deceived. Real victories can be won
only for the Right. The triumph of Justice is the only Peace. Such is
the nature of things. He who enslaves another cannot be free. He who
attacks the right, assaults himself. The mistake our fathers made had
not been corrected. The foundations of the Republic were insecure. The
great dome of the temple was clad in the light of prosperity, but
the corner-stones were crumbling. Four millions of human beings were
enslaved. Party cries had been mistaken for principles--partisanship
for patriotism--success for justice.

But Pity pointed to the scarred and bleeding backs of slaves; Mercy
heard the sobs of mothers reft of babes, and Justice held aloft the
scales, in which one drop of blood shed by a master's lash, outweighed a
Nation's gold. There were a few men, a few women, who had the courage to
attack this monstrous crime. They found it entrenched in constitutions,
statutes, and decisions--barricaded and bastioned by every department
and by every party. Politicians were its servants, statesmen its
attorneys, judges its menials, presidents its puppets, and upon its
cruel altar had been sacrificed our country's honor. It was the crime of
the Nation--of the whole country--North and South responsible alike.

To-day we reverently thank the abolitionists. Earth has no grander
men--no nobler women. They were the real philanthropists, the true
patriots. When the will defies fear, when the heart applauds the
brain, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to
compromise with death,--this is heroism. The abolitionists were heroes.
He loves his country best who strives to make it best. The bravest men
are those who have the greatest fear of doing wrong. Mere politicians
wish the country to do something for them. True patriots desire to do
something for their country. Courage without conscience is a wild beast.
Patriotism without principle is the prejudice of birth, the animal
attachment to place. These men, these women, had courage and conscience,
patriotism and principle, heart and brain.

The South relied upon the bond,--upon a barbarous clause that stained,
disfigured and defiled the Federal pact, and made the monstrous claim
that slavery was the Nation's ward. The spot of shame grew red in
Northern cheeks, and Northern men declared that slavery had poisoned,
cursed and blighted soul and soil enough, and that the Territories must
be free. The radicals of the South cried: "No Union without Slavery!"
The radicals of the North replied: "No Union without Liberty!" The
Northern radicals were right. Upon the great issue of free homes for
free men, a President was elected by the free States. The South appealed
to the sword, and raised the standard of revolt. For the first time in
history the oppressors rebelled.

But let us to-day be great enough to forget individuals,--great enough
to know that slavery was treason, that slavery was rebellion, that
slavery fired upon our flag and sought to wreck and strand the mighty
ship that bears the hope and fortune of this world. The first shot
liberated the North. Constitution, statutes and decisions, compromises,
platforms, and resolutions made, passed, and ratified in the interest of
slavery became mere legal lies, base and baseless. Parchment and paper
could no longer stop or stay the onward march of man. The North was
free. Millions instantly resolved that the Nation should not die--that
Freedom should not perish, and that Slavery should not live.

Millions of our brothers, our sons, our fathers, our husbands, answered
to the Nation's call.

The great armies have desolated the earth. The greatest soldiers have
been ambition's dupes. They waged war for the sake of place and pillage,
pomp and power,--for the ignorant applause of vulgar millions,--for the
flattery of parasites, and the adulation of sycophants and slaves.

Let us proudly remember that in our time the greatest, the grandest, the
noblest army of the world fought, not to enslave, but to free; not to
destroy, but to save; not for conquest, but for conscience; not only for
us, but for every land and every race.

With courage, with enthusiasm, with a devotion' never excelled, with an
exaltation and purity of purpose never equaled, this grand army fought
the battles of the Republic. For the preservation of this Nation, for
the destruction of slavery, these soldiers, these sailors, on land and
sea, disheartened by no defeat, discouraged by no obstacle, appalled by
no danger, neither paused nor swerved until a stainless flag, without
a rival, floated over all our wide domain, and until every human being
beneath its folds was absolutely free.

The great victory for human rights--the greatest of all the years--had
been won; won by the Union men of the North, by the Union men of the
South, and by those who had been slaves. Liberty was national, Slavery
was dead.

The flag for which the heroes fought, for which they died, is the symbol
of all we are, of all we hope to be.

It is the emblem of equal rights.

It means free hands, free lips, self-government and the sovereignty of
the individual.

It means that this continent has been dedicated to freedom.

It means universal education,--light for every mind, knowledge for every
child.

It means that the schoolhouse is the fortress of Liberty.

It means that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of
the governed;" that each man is accountable to and for the Government;
that responsibility goes hand in hand with liberty.

It means that it is the duty of every citizen to bear his share of the
public burden,--to take part in the affairs of his town, his county, his
State and his country.

It means that the ballot-box is the Ark of the Covenant; that the source
of authority must not be poisoned.

It means the perpetual right of peaceful revolution. It means that every
citizen of the Republic--native or naturalized--must be protected; at
home, in every State,--abroad, in every land, on every sea.

It means that all distinctions based on birth or blood, have perished
from our laws; that our Government shall stand between labor and
capital, between the weak and the strong, between the individual and the
corporation, between want and wealth, and give the guarantee of simple
justice to each and all.

It means that there shall be a legal remedy for every wrong.

It means national hospitality,--that we must welcome to our shores the
exiles of the world, and that we may not drive them back. Some may
be deformed by labor, dwarfed by hunger, broken in spirit, victims of
tyranny and caste,--in whose sad faces may be read the touching record
of a weary life; and yet their children, born of liberty and love, will
be symmetrical and fair, intelligent and free.

That flag is the emblem of a supreme will--of a Nation's power. Beneath
its folds the weakest must be protected and the strongest must obey. It
shields and canopies alike the loftiest mansion and the rudest hut.
That flag was given to the air in the Revolution's darkest days. It
represents the sufferings of the past, the glories yet to be; and like
the bow of heaven, it is the child of storm and sun.

This day is sacred to the great heroic host who kept this flag above
our heads,--sacred to the living and the dead--sacred to the scarred and
maimed,--sacred to the wives who gave their husbands, to the mothers who
gave their sons.

Here in this peaceful land of ours,--here where the sun shines, where
flowers grow, where children play, millions of armed men battled for the
right and breasted on a thousand fields the iron storms of war.

These brave, these incomparable men, founded the first Republic. They
fulfilled the prophecies; they brought to pass the dreams; they realized
the hopes, that all the great and good and wise and just have made and
had since man was man.

But what of those who fell? There is no language to express the debt we
owe, the love we bear, to all the dead who died for us. Words are but
barren sounds. We can but stand beside their graves and in the hush and
silence feel what speech has never told.

They fought, they died; and for the first time since man has kept a
record of events, the heavens bent above and domed a land without a
serf, a servant or a slave.




DECORATION DAY ADDRESS.

     * Empty sleeves worn by veterans with scanty locks and
     grizzled mustaches graced the Metropolitan Opera House last
     night. On the breasts of their faded uniforms glittered the
     badges of the legions in which they had fought and suffered,
     and beside them sat the wives and daughters, whose hearts
     had ached at home while they served their country at the
     front.

     Every seat in the great Opera House was filled, and hundreds
     stood, glad to And any place where they could see and hear.
     And the gathering and the proceedings were worthy of the
     occasion.

     Mr. Depew upon taking the chair said that he had the chief
     treat of the evening to present to the audience, and that
     was Robert G. Ingersoll, the greatest living orator, and one
     of the great controversialists of the age.

     Then came the orator of the occasion Col. Ingersoll, whose
     speech is printed herewith.

     Enthusiastic cheers greeted all his points, and his audience
     simply went wild at the end. It was a grand oration, and it
     was listened to by enthusiastic and appreciative hearers,
     upon whom not a single word was lost, and in whose hearts
     every word awoke a responsive echo.

     Nor did the enthusiasm which Col. Ingersoll created end
     until the very last, when the whole assemblage arose and
     sang "America" in a way which will never be forgotten by any
     one present. It was a great ending of a great evening.--The
     New York Times, May 31st, 1888.


New York City.

1888.

THIS is a sacred day--a day for gratitude and love.

To-day we commemorate more than independence, more than the birth of
a nation, more than the fruits of the Revolution, more than physical
progress, more than the accumulation of wealth, more than national
prestige and power.

We commemorate the great and blessed victory over ourselves--the triumph
of civilization, the reformation of a people, the establishment of a
government consecrated to the preservation of liberty and the equal
rights of man.

Nations can win success, can be rich and powerful, can cover the earth
with their armies, the seas with their fleets, and yet be selfish, small
and mean. Physical progress means opportunity for doing good. It means
responsibility. Wealth is the end of the despicable, victory the purpose
of brutality.

But there is something nobler than all these--something that rises above
wealth and power--something above lands and palaces--something above
raiment and gold--it is the love of right, the cultivation of the moral
nature, the desire to do justice, the inextinguishable love of human
liberty.

Nothing can be nobler than a nation governed by conscience, nothing more
infamous than power without pity, wealth without honor and without the
sense of justice.

Only by the soldiers of the right can the laurel be won or worn.

On this day we honor the heroes who fought to make our Nation just and
free--who broke the shackles of the slave, who freed the masters of the
South and their allies of the North. We honor chivalric men who made
America the hope and beacon of the human race--the foremost Nation of
the world.

These heroes established the first republic, and demonstrated that
a government in which the legally expressed will of the people is
sovereign and supreme is the safest, strongest, securest, noblest and
the best.

They demonstrated the human right of the people, and of all the people,
to make and execute the laws--that authority does not come from the
clouds, or from ancestry, or from the crowned and titled, or from
constitutions and compacts, laws and customs--not from the admissions of
the great, or the concessions of the powerful and victorious--not from
graves, or consecrated dust--not from treaties made between successful
robbers--not from the decisions of corrupt and menial courts--not from
the dead, but from the living--not from the past but from the present,
from the people of to-day--from the brain, from the heart and from the
conscience of those who live and love and labor.

The history of this world for the most part is the history of conflict
and war, of invasion, of conquest, of victorious wrong, of the many
enslaved by the few.

Millions have fought for kings, for the destruction and enslavement of
their fellow-men. Millions have battled for empire, and great armies
have been inspired by the hope of pillage; but for the first time in the
history of this world millions of men battled for the right, fought to
free not themselves, but others, not for prejudice, but for principle,
not for conquest, but for conscience.

The men whom we honor were the liberators of a Nation, of a whole
country, North and South--of two races. They freed the body and the
brain, gave liberty to master and to slave. They opened all the highways
of thought, and gave to fifty millions of people the inestimable legacy
of free speech.

They established the free exchange of thought. They gave to the air a
flag without a stain, and they gave to their country a Constitution
that honest men can reverently obey. They destroyed the hateful, the
egotistic and provincial--they established a Nation, a national spirit,
a national pride and a patriotism as broad as the great Republic.

They did away with that ignorant and cruel prejudice that human rights
depend on race or color, and that the superior race has the right
to oppress the inferior. They established the sublime truth that the
superior are the just, the kind, the generous, and merciful--that the
really superior are the protectors, the defenders, and the saviors of
the oppressed, of the fallen, the unfortunate, the weak and helpless.
They established that greatest of all truths that nothing is nobler than
to labor and suffer for others.

If we wish to know the extent of our debt to these heroes, these
soldiers of the right, we must know what we were and what we are. A few
years ago we talked about liberty, about the freedom of the world, and
while so talking we enslaved our fellow-men. We were the stealers
of babes and the whippers of women. We were in partnership with
bloodhounds. We lived on unpaid labor. We held manhood in contempt.
Honest toil was disgraceful--sympathy was a crime--pity was
unconstitutional--humanity contrary to law, and charity was treason. Men
were imprisoned for pointing out in heaven's dome the Northern Star--for
giving food to the hungry, water to the parched lips of thirst, shelter
to the hunted, succor to the oppressed. In those days criminals and
courts, pirates and pulpits were in partnership--liberty was only a
word standing for the equal rights of robbers.

For many years we insisted that our fathers had founded a free
Government, that they were the lovers of liberty, believers in equal
rights. We were mistaken. The colonists did not believe in the freedom
of to-day. Their laws were filled with intolerance, with slavery and
the infamous spirit of caste. They persecuted and enslaved. Most of them
were narrow, ignorant and cruel. For the most part, their laws were more
brutal than those of the nations from which they came. They branded the
forehead of intelligence, bored with hot irons the tongue of truth. They
persecuted the good and enslaved the helpless. They were believers in
pillories and whipping-posts for honest, thoughtful men.

When their independence was secured they adopted a Constitution that
legalized slavery, and they passed laws making it the duty of free men
to prevent others from becoming free. They followed the example of kings
and nobles. They knew that monarchs had been interested in the slave
trade, and that the first English commander of a slave-ship divided his
profits with a queen.

They forgot all the splendid things they had said--the great principles
they had so proudly and eloquently announced. The sublime truths faded
from their hearts. The spirit of trade, the greed for office, took
possession of their souls. The lessons of history were forgotten. The
voices coming from all the wrecks of kingdoms, empires and republics on
the shores of the great river were unheeded and unheard.

If the foundation is not justice, the dome cannot be high enough, or
splendid enough, to save the temple.

But above everything in the minds of our fathers was the desire for
union--to create a Nation, to become a Power.

Our fathers compromised.

A compromise is a bargain in which each party defrauds the other, and
himself.

The compromise our fathers made was the coffin of honor and the cradle
of war.

A brazen falsehood and a timid truth are the parents of compromise.

But some--the greatest and the best--believed in liberty for all. They
repeated the splendid sayings of the Roman: "By the law of nature all
men are free;"--of the French King: "Men are born free and equal;"--of
the sublime Zeno: "All men are by nature equal, and virtue alone
establishes a difference between them."

In the year preceding the Declaration of Independence, a society for the
abolition of slavery was formed in Pennsylvania and its first President
was one of the wisest and greatest of men--Benjamin Franklin. A society
of the same character was established in New York in 1785; its first
President was John Jay--the second, Alexander Hamilton.

But in a few years these great men were forgotten. Parties rivaled each
other in the defence of wrong. Politicians cared only for place and
power. In the clamor of the heartless, the voice of the generous was
lost. Slavery became supreme. It dominated legislatures, courts and
parties; it rewarded the faithless and little; it degraded the honest
and great.

And yet, through all these hateful years, thousands and thousands of
noble men and women denounced the degradation and the crime. Most of
their names are unknown. They have given a glory to obscurity. They have
filled oblivion with honor.

In the presence of death it has been the custom to speak of the
worthlessness, and the vanity, of life. I prefer to speak of its value,
of its importance, of its nobility and glory.

Life is not merely a floating shadow, a momentary spark, a dream that
vanishes. Nothing can be grander than a life filled with great and noble
thoughts--with brave and honest deeds. Such a life sheds light, and the
seeds of truth sown by great and loyal men bear fruit through all the
years to be. To have lived and labored and died for the right--nothing
can be sublimer.

History is but the merest outline of the exceptional--of a few great
crimes, calamities, wars, mistakes and dramatic virtues. A few mountain
peaks are touched, while all the valleys of human life, where countless
victories are won, where labor wrought with love--are left in the
eternal shadow.

But these peaks are not the foundation of nations. The forgotten words,
the unrecorded deeds, the unknown sacrifices, the heroism, the industry,
the patience, the love and labor of the nameless good and great have for
the most part founded, guided and defended States. The world has
been civilized by the unregarded poor, by the untitled nobles, by the
uncrowned kings who sleep in unknown graves mingled with the common
dust.

They have thought and wrought, have borne the burdens of the world. The
pain and labor have been theirs--the glory has been given to the few.

The conflict came. The South unsheathed the sword. Then rose the
embattled North, and these men who sleep to-night beneath the flowers of
half the world, gave all for us.

They gave us a Nation--a republic without a slave--a republic that is
sovereign, and to whose will every citizen and every State must bow.
They gave us a Constitution for all--one that can be read without shame
and defended without dishonor. They freed the brain, the lips and hands
of men.

All that could be done by force was done. All that could be accomplished
by the adoption of constitutions was done. The rest is left to
education--the innumerable influences of civilization--to the
development of the intellect, to the cultivation of the heart and the
imagination.

The past is now a hideous dream.

The present is filled with pride, with gratitude, and hope.

Liberty is the condition of real progress. The free man works for wife
and child--the slave toils from fear. Liberty gives leisure and leisure
refines, beautifies and ennobles. Slavery gives idleness and idleness
degrades, deforms and brutalizes.

Liberty and slavery--the right and wrong--the joy and grief--the day and
night--the glory and the gloom of all the years.

Liberty is the word that all the good have spoken.

It is the hope of every loving heart--the spark and flame in every noble
breast--the gem in every splendid soul--the many-colored dream in every
honest brain.

This word has filled the dungeon with its holy light,--has put the halo
round the martyr's head,--has raised the convict far above the king,
and clad even the scaffold with a glory that dimmed and darkened every
throne.

To the wise man, to the wise nation, the mistakes of the past are the
torches of the present. The war is over. The institution that caused it
has perished. The prejudices that fanned the flames are only ashes now.
We are one people. We will stand or fall together. At last, with clear
eyes we see that the triumph of right was a triumph for all. Together we
reap the fruits of the great victory. We are all conquerors. Around the
graves of the heroes--North and South, white and colored--together
we stand and with uncovered heads reverently thank the saviors of our
native land.

We are now far enough away from the conflict--from its hatreds, its
passions, its follies and its glories, to fairly and philosophically
examine the causes and in some measure at least to appreciate the
results.

States and nations, like individuals, do as they must. Back of
revolution, of rebellion, of slavery and freedom, are the efficient
causes. Knowing this, we occupy that serene height from which it is
possible to calmly pronounce a judgment upon the past.

We know now that the seeds of our war were sown hundreds and thousands
of years ago--sown by the vicious and the just, by prince and peasant,
by king and slave, by all the virtues and by all the vices, by all the
victories and all the defeats, by all the labor and the love, the loss
and gain, by all the evil and the good, and by all the heroes of the
world.

Of the great conflict we remember only its glory and its lessons. We
remember only the heroes who made the Republic the first of nations, and
who laid the foundation for the freedom of mankind.

This will be known as the century of freedom. Slowly the hosts of
darkness have been driven back.

In 1808 England and the United States united for the suppression of the
slave-trade. The Netherlands joined in this holy work in 1818. France
lent her aid in 1819 and Spain in 1820. In the same year the United
States declared the traffic to be piracy, and in 1825 the same law was
enacted by Great Britain. In 1826 Brazil agreed to suppress the traffic
in human flesh. In 1833 England abolished slavery in the West Indies,
and in 1843 in her East Indian possessions, giving liberty to more than
twelve millions of slaves. In 1846 Sweden abolished slavery, and in
1848 it was abolished in the colonies of Denmark and France. In 1861
Alexander II., Czar of all the Russias, emancipated the serfs, and on
the first day of January, 1863, the shackles fell from millions of
the citizens of this Republic. This was accomplished by the heroes
we remember to-day--this, in accordance with the Proclamation of
Emancipation signed by Lincoln,--greatest of our mighty dead--Lincoln
the gentle and the just--and whose name will be known and honored to
"the last syllable of recorded time." And this year, 1888, has been made
blessed and memorable forever--in the vast empire of Brazil there stands
no slave.

Let us hope that when the next century looks from the sacred portals of
the East, its light will only fall upon the faces of the free.

     * By request, Col. Ingersoll closed this address with his
     "Vision of War,"  to which he added "A Vision of the
     Future." This accounts for its repetition in this volume.

The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great
struggle for national life. We hear the sounds of preparation--the
music of boisterous drums--the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see
thousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators. We see
the pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of men; and in those
assemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with flowers.
We lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they enlist in the
great army of freedom. We see them part with those they love. Some are
walking for the last time in quiet, woody places, with the maidens they
adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of eternal love as
they lingeringly part forever. Others are bending over cradles, kissing
babes that are asleep. Some are receiving the blessings of old men. Some
are parting with mothers who hold them and press them to their
hearts again and again, and say nothing. Kisses and tears, tears and
kisses--divine mingling of agony and love! And some are talking with
wives, and endeavoring with brave words, spoken in the old tones, to
drive from their hearts the awful fear. We see them part. We see the
wife standing in the door with the babe in her arms--standing in the
sunlight sobbing. At the turn of the road a hand waves--she answers by
holding high in her loving arms the child. He is gone, and forever.

We see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags,
keeping time to the grand, wild music of war--marching-down the streets
of the great cities--through the towns and across the prairies--down to
the fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right.

We go with them, one and all. We are by their side on all the gory
fields--in all the hospitals of pain--on all the weary marches. We stand
guard with them in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are with
them in ravines running with blood--in the furrows of old fields. We are
with them between contending hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst,
the life ebbing slowly away among the withered leaves. We see them
pierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches, by forts, and
in the whirlwind of the charge, where men become iron, with nerves of
steel.

We are with them in the prisons of hatred and famine; but human speech
can never tell what they endured.

We are at home when the news comes that they are dead. We see the maiden
in the shadow of her first sorrow. We see the silvered head of the old
man bowed with the last grief.

The past rises before us, and we see four millions of human beings
governed by the lash--we see them bound hand and foot--we hear the
strokes of cruel whips--we see the hounds tracking women through
tangled swamps. We see babes sold from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty
unspeakable! Outrage infinite!

Four million bodies in chains--four million souls in fetters. All the
sacred relations of wife, mother, father and child trampled beneath
the brutal feet of might. And all this was done under our own beautiful
banner of the free.

The past rises before us. We hear the roar and shriek of the bursting
shell. The broken fetters fall. These heroes died. We look. Instead of
slaves we see men and women and children. The wand of progress touches
the auction block, the slave pen, the whipping post, and we see homes
and firesides and school-houses and books, and where all was want and
crime and cruelty and fear, we see the faces of the free.

These heroes are dead. They died for liberty--they died for us. They
are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag
they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the
tearful willows, and the embracing vines.

They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine
or of storm, each in the windowless Palace of Rest. Earth may run red
with other wars--they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar
of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for
soldiers living and dead: Cheers for the living; tears for the dead.

A vision of the future rises:

I see our country filled with happy homes, with firesides of
content,--the foremost land of all the earth.

I see a world where thrones have crumbled and where kings are dust. The
aristocracy of idleness has perished from the earth.

I see a world without a slave. Man at last is free. Nature's forces have
by Science been enslaved. Lightning and light, wind and wave, frost
and flame, and all the secret, subtle powers of earth and air are the
tireless toilers for the human race.

I see a world at peace, adorned with every form of art, with music's
myriad voices thrilled, while lips are rich with words of love and
truth; a world in which no exile sighs, no prisoner mourns; a world on
which the gibbet's shadow does not fall; a world where labor reaps its
full reward, where work and worth go hand in hand, where the poor girl
trying to win bread with the needle--the needle that has been called
"the asp for the breast of the poor,"--is not driven to the desperate
choice of crime or death, of suicide or shame.

I see a world without the beggar's outstretched palm, the miser's
heartless, stony stare, the piteous wail of want, the livid lips of
lies, the cruel eyes of scorn.

I see a race without disease of flesh or brain,--shapely and fair,--the
married harmony of form and function,--and, as I look, life lengthens,
joy deepens, love canopies the earth; and over all, in the great dome,
shines the eternal star of human hope.




RATIFICATION SPEECH.


     * Delivered at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, June
     29,1688.

Harrison and Morton.

1888.

FELLOW-CITIZENS, Ladies and Gentlemen--The speaker who is perfectly
candid, who tells his honest thought, not only honors himself, but
compliments his audience. It is only to the candid that man can afford
to absolutely open his heart. Most people, whenever a man is nominated
for the presidency, claim that they were for him from the very start--as
a rule, claim that they discovered him. They are so anxious to be with
the procession, so afraid of being left, that they insist that they got
exactly the man they wanted.

I will be frank enough with you to say that the convention did not
nominate my choice. I was for the nomination of General Gresham,
believing that, all things considered, he was the best and most
available man--a just judge, a soldier, a statesman. But there is
something in the American blood that bows to the will of the majority.
There is that splendid fealty and loyalty to the great principle upon
which our Government rests; so that when the convention reached its
conclusion, every Republican was for the nominee. There were good men
from which to select this ticket. I made my selection, and did the best
I could to induce the convention to make the same. Some people think,
or say they think, that I made a mistake in telling the name of the man
whom I was for. But I always know whom I am for, I always know what I am
for, and I know the reasons why I am for the thing or for the man.

And it never once occurred to me that we could get a man nominated, or
elected, and keep his name a secret. When I am for a man I like to stand
by him, even while others leave, no matter if at last I stand alone. I
believe in doing things above board, in the light, in the wide air.
No snake ever yet had a skin brilliant enough, no snake ever crawled
through the grass secretly enough, silently or cunningly enough, to
excite my admiration. My admiration is for the eagle, the monarch of the
empyrean, who, poised on outstretched pinions, challenges the gaze of
all the world. Take your position in the sunlight; tell your neighbors
and your friends what you are for, and give your reasons for your
position; and if that is a mistake, I expect to live making only
mistakes. I do not like the secret way, but the plain, open way; and I
was for one man, not because I had anything against the others, who were
all noble, splendid men, worthy to be Presidents of the United States.

Now, then, leaving that subject, two parties again confront each other.
With parties as with persons goes what we call character. They have
built up in the nation in which they live reputation, and the reputation
of a party should be taken into consideration as well as the reputation
of a man. What is this party? What has it done? What has it endeavored
to do? What are the ideas in its brain? What are the hopes, the emotions
and the loves in its heart? Does it wish to make the world grander and
better and freer? Has it a high ideal? Does it believe in sunrise, or
does it keep its back to the sacred east of eternal progress? These
are the questions that every American should ask. Every man should
take pride in this great Nation--America, with a star of glory in her
forehead!--and every man should say, "I hope when I lie down in death I
shall leave a greater and grander country than when I was born."

This is the country of humanity. This is the Government of the poor.
This is where man has an even chance with his fellow-man. In this
country the poorest man holds in his hand at the day of election the
same unit, the same amount, of political power as the owner of a hundred
millions. That is the glory of the United States.

A few days ago our party met in convention. Now, let us see who we are.
Let us see what the Republican party is. Let us see what is the spirit
that animates this great and splendid organization.

And I want you to think one moment, just one moment: What was this
country when the first Republican President was elected? Under the
law then, every Northern man was a bloodhound, pledged to catch human
beings, who, led by the light of the Northern Star, were escaping
to free soil. Remember that. And remember, too, that when our first
President was elected we found a treasury empty, the United States
without credit, the great Republic unable to borrow money from day to
day to pay its current expenses. Remember that. Think of the glory and
grandeur of the Republican party that took the country with an empty
exchequer, and then think of what the Democratic party says to-day of
the pain and anguish it has suffered administering the Government with a
surplus!

We must remember what the Republican party has done--what it has
accomplished for nationality, for liberty, for education and for the
civilization of our race. We must remember its courage in war, its
honesty in peace. Civil war tests to a certain degree the strength, the
stability and the patriotism of a country. After the war comes a greater
strain. It is a great thing to die for a cause, but it is a greater
thing to live for it. We must remember that the Republican party not
only put down a rebellion, not only created a debt of thousands and
thousands of millions, but that it had the industry and the intelligence
to pay that debt, and to give to the United States the best financial
standing of any nation.

When this great party came together in Chicago what was the first thing
the convention did? What was the first idea in its mind? It was to honor
the memory of the greatest and grandest men the Republic has produced.
The first name that trembled upon the lips of the convention was that of
Abraham Lincoln--Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest and grandest men
who ever lived, and, in my judgment, the greatest man that ever sat
in the presidential chair. And why the greatest? Because the kindest,
because he had more mercy and love in his heart than were in the heart
of any other President. And so the convention paid its tribute to the
great soldier, to the man who led, in company with others, the great
army of freedom to victory, until the old flag floated over every inch
of American soil and every foot of that territory was dedicated to the
eternal freedom of mankind.

And what next did this convention do? The next thing was to send
fraternal greetings to the Americans of Brazil. Why? Because Brazil
had freed every slave, and because that act left the New World, this
hemisphere, without a slave--left two continents dedicated to the
freedom of man--so that with that act of Brazil the New World,
discovered only a few years ago, takes the lead in the great march of
human progress and liberty. That is the second thing the convention did.
Only a little while ago the minister to this country from Brazil, acting
under instructions from his government, notified the President of the
United States that this sublime act had been accomplished--notified
him that from the bodies of millions of men the chains of slavery had
fallen--an act great enough to make the dull sky of half the world glow
as though another morning had risen upon another day.

And what did our President say? Was he filled with enthusiasm? Did his
heart beat quicker? Did the blood rush to his cheek? He simply said,
as it is reported, "that he hoped time would justify the wisdom of the
measure." It is precisely the same as though a man should quit a life of
crime, as though some gentleman in the burglar business should finally
announce to his friends: "I have made up my mind never to break into
another house," and the friend should reply: "I hope that time will
justify the propriety of that resolution."

That was the first thing, with regard to the condition of the world,
that came into the mind of the Republican convention. And why was that?
Because the Republican party has fought for liberty from the day of its
birth to the present moment.

And what was the next? The next resolution passed by the convention was,
"that we earnestly hope, we shall soon congratulate our fellow-citizens
of Irish birth upon the peaceful recovery of home rule in Ireland."

Wherever a human being wears a chain, there you will find the sympathy
of the Republican party. Wherever one languishes in a dungeon for having
raised the standard of revolt in favor of human freedom, there you will
find the sympathy of the Republican party. I believe in liberty for
Ireland, not because it is Ireland, but because they are human beings,
and I am for liberty, not as a prejudice, but as a principle.

The man rightfully in jail who wants to get out is a believer in liberty
as a prejudice; but when a man out of jail sees a man wrongfully in jail
and is willing to risk his life to give liberty to the man who ought to
have it, that is being in favor of liberty as a principle. So I am in
favor of liberty everywhere, all over the world, and wherever one man
tries to govern another simply because he has been born a lord or a duke
or a king, or wherever one governs another simply by brute force, I say
that that is oppression, and it is the business of Americans to do all
they can to give liberty to the oppressed everywhere.

Ireland should govern herself. Those who till the soil should own the
soil, or have an opportunity at least of becoming the owners. A few
landlords should not live in extravagance and luxury while those
who toil live on the leavings, on parings, on crumbs and crusts. The
treatment of Ireland by England has been one continuous crime. There is
no meaner page in history.

What is the next thing in this platform? And if there is anything in it
that anybody can object to, we will find it out to-night. The next thing
is the supremacy of the Nation.-Why, even the Democrats now believe in
that, and in their own platform are willing to commence that word with
a capital N. They tell us that they are in favor of an indissoluble
Union--just as I presume they always have been. But they now believe in
a Union. So does the Republican party. What else? The Republican party
believes, not in State Sovereignty, but in the preservation of all the
rights reserved to the States by the Constitution.

Let me show you the difference: For instance, you make a contract with
your neighbor who lives next door--equal partners--and at the bottom of
the contract you put the following addition: "If there is any dispute
as to the meaning of this contract, my neighbor shall settle it, and any
settlement he shall make shall be final." Is there any use of talking
about being equal partners any longer? Any use of your talking about
being a sovereign partner? So, the Constitution of the United States
says: "If any question arises between any State and the Federal
Government it shall be decided by a Federal Court." That is the end of
what they call State Sovereignty.

Think of a sovereign State that can make no treaty, that cannot levy
war, that cannot coin money. But we believe in maintaining the rights
of the States absolutely in their integrity, because we believe in local
self-government. We deny, however, that a State has any right to deprive
a citizen of his vote. We deny that the State has any right to violate
the Federal law, and we go further and we say that it is the duty of the
General Government to see to it that every citizen in every State shall
have the right to exercise all of his privileges as a citizen of the
United States--"the right of every lawful citizen," says our platform,
"native or foreign, white or black, to cast a free ballot."

Let me say one word about that.

The ballot is the king, the emperor, the ruler of America; it is the
only rightful sovereign of the Republic; and whoever refuses to count
an honest vote, or whoever casts a dishonest vote, is a traitor to the
great principle upon which our Government is founded. The man poisons,
or endeavors to poison, the springs of authority, the fountains of
justice, of rightful dominion and power; and until every citizen can
cast his vote everywhere in this land and have that vote counted, we are
not a republican people, we are not a civilized nation. The Republican
party will not have finished its mission until this country is
civilized. That is its business. It was born of a protest against
barbarism.

The Republican party was the organized conscience of the United States.
It had the courage to stand by what it believed to be right. There is
something better even than success in this world; or in other words,
there is only one kind of success, and that is to be for the right. Then
whatever happens, you have succeeded.

Now, comes the next question. The Republican party not only wants to
protect every citizen in his liberty, in his right to vote, but it wants
to have that vote counted. And what else?

The next thing in this platform is protection for American labor.

I am going to tell you in a very brief way why I am in favor of
protection. First, I want this Republic substantially independent of
the rest of the world. You must remember that while people are
civilized--some of them--so that when they have a quarrel they leave it
to the courts to decide, nations still occupy the position of savages
toward each other. There is no national court to decide a question,
consequently the question is decided by the nations themselves, and you
know what selfishness and greed and power and the ideas of false glory
will do and have done. So that this Nation is not safe one moment from
war. I want the Republic so that it can live although at war with all
the world.

We have every kind of climate that is worth having. Our country embraces
the marriage of the pine and palm; we have all there is of worth; it
is the finest soil in the world and the most ingenious people that ever
contrived to make the forces of nature do their work. I want this Nation
substantially independent, so that if every port were blockaded we would
be covered with prosperity as with a mantle. Then, too, the Nation that
cannot take care of itself in war is always at a disadvantage in peace.
That is one reason. Let me give you the next.

The next reason is that whoever raises raw material and sells it will be
eternally poor. There is no State in this Union where the farmer raises
wheat and sells it, that the farmer is not poor. Why? He only makes one
profit, and, as a rule, that is a loss. The farmer that raises corn does
better, because he can sell, not corn, but pork and beef and horses. In
other words, he can make the second or third profit, and those farmers
get rich. There is a vast difference between the labor necessary to
raise raw material and the labor necessary to make the fabrics used
by civilized men. Remember that; and if you are confined simply to raw
material your labor will be unskilled; unskilled labor will be cheap,
the raw material will be cheap, and the result is that your country will
grow poorer and poorer, while the country that buys your raw material,
makes it into fabrics and sells it back to you, will grow intelligent
and rich. I want you to remember this, because it lies at the foundation
of this whole subject. Most people who talk on this point bring forward
column after column of figures, and a man to understand it would have to
be a walking table of logarithms. I do not care to discuss it that
way. I want to get at the foundation principles, so that you can give a
reason, as well as myself, why you are in favor of protection.

Let us take another step. We will take a locomotive--a wonderful
thing--that horse of progress, with its flesh of iron and steel and
breath of flame--a wonderful thing. Let us see how it is made. Did you
ever think of the deft and cunning hands, of the wonderfully accurate
brains, that can make a thing like that? Did you ever think about it?
How much do you suppose the raw material lying in the earth was worth
that was changed into that locomotive? A locomotive that is worth, we
will say, twelve thousand dollars; how much was the raw material worth
lying in the earth, deposited there millions of years ago? Not as much
as one dollar. Let us, just for the sake of argument, say five dollars.
What, then, has labor added to the twelve thousand dollar locomotive?
Eleven thousand nine hundred and ninety-five dollars. Now, why? Because,
just to the extent that thought is mingled with labor, wages increase;
just to the extent you mix mind with muscle, you give value to labor;
just to the extent that the labor is skilled, deft, apt, just to that
extent or in that proportion, is the product valuable. Think about it.
Raw material! There is a piece of canvas five feet one way, three the
other. Raw material would be to get a man to whitewash it; that is raw
material. Let a man of genius paint a picture upon it; let him put in
that picture the emotions of his heart, the landscapes that have made
poetry in his brain, the recollection of the ones he loves, the prattle
of children, a mother's tear, the sunshine of her smile, and all the
sweet and sacred memories of his life, and it is worth five thousand
dollars--ten thousand dollars.

Noise is raw material, but the great opera of "Tristan and Isolde" is
the result of skilled labor. There is the same difference between simple
brute strength and skilled labor that there is between noise and the
symphonies of Beethoven. I want you to get this in your minds.

Now, then, whoever sells raw material gives away the great profit. You
raise cotton and sell it; and just as long as the South does it and does
nothing more the South will be poor, the South will be ignorant, and it
will be solidly Democratic.

Now, do not imagine that I am saying anything against the Democratic
party. I believe the Democratic party is doing the best it can under the
circumstances. You know my philosophy makes me very charitable. You find
out all about a man, all about his ancestors, and you can account for
his vote always. Why? Because there are causes and effects in nature.
There are sometimes antecedents and subsequents that have no relation
to each other, but at the same time, all through the web and woof of
events, you find these causes and effects, and if you only look far
enough, you will know why a man does as he does.

I have nothing to say against the Democratic party. I want to talk
against ideas, not against people. I do not care anything about their
candidates, whether they are good, bad or indifferent. What, gentlemen,
are your ideas? What do you propose to do? What is your policy? That
is what I want to know, and I am willing to meet them upon the field of
intellectual combat. They are in possession; they are in the rifle pits
of office; we are in the open field, but we will plant our standard, the
flag that we love, without a stain, and under that banner, upon which
so many dying men have looked in the last hour when they thought of
home and country--under that flag we will carry the Democratic
fortifications.

Another thing; we want to get at this business so that we will
understand what we are doing. I do not believe in protecting American
industry for the sake of the capitalist, or for the sake of any class,
but for the sake of the whole Nation. And if I did not believe that it
was for the best interests of the whole Nation I should be opposed to
it.

Let us take this next step. Everybody, of course, cannot be a farmer.
Everybody cannot be a mechanic. All the people in the world cannot go at
one business. We must have a diversity of industry. I say, the greater
that diversity, the greater the development of brain in the country. We
then have what you might call a mental exchange; men are then pursuing
every possible direction in which the mind can go, and the brain is
being developed upon all sides; whereas, if you all simply cultivated
the soil, you would finally become stupid. If you all did only one
business you would become ignorant; but by pursuing all possible
avocations that call for taste, genius, calculation, discovery,
ingenuity, invention--by having all these industries open to the
American people, we will be able to raise great men and great women; and
I am for protection, because it will enable us to raise greater men and
greater women. Not only because it will make more money in less time,
but because I would rather have greater folks and less money.

One man of genius makes a continent sublime. Take all the men of wealth
from Scotland--who would know it? Wipe their names from the pages of
history, and who would miss them? Nobody. Blot out one name, Robert
Burns, and how dim and dark would be the star of Scotland. The great
thing is to raise great folks. That is what we want to do, and we want
to diversify all the industries and protect them all. How much? Simply
enough to prevent the foreign article from destroying the domestic. But
they say, then the manufacturers will form a trust and put the prices
up. If we depend upon the foreign manufacturers will they not form
trusts? We can depend on competition. What do the Democrats want to do?
They want to do away with the tariff, so as to do away with the surplus.
They want to put down the tariff to do away with the surplus. If you put
down the tariff a small per cent, so that the foreign article comes to
America, instead of decreasing, you will increase the surplus. Where you
get a dollar now, you will get five then. If you want to stop getting
anything from imports, you want to put the tariff higher, my friend.

Let every Democrat understand this, and let him also understand that I
feel and know that he has the same interest in this great country that I
have, and let me be frank enough and candid enough and honest enough
to say that I believe the Democratic party advocates the policy it does
because it believes it will be the best for the country. But we differ
upon a question of policy, and the only way to argue it is to keep cool.
If a man simply shouts for his side, or gets mad, he is a long way from
any intellectual improvement.

If I am wrong in this, I want to be set right. If it is not to the
interest of America that the shuttle shall keep flying, that wheels
shall keep turning, that cloth shall be woven, that the forges shall
flame and that the smoke shall rise from the numberless chimneys--if
that is not to the interest of America, I want to know it. But I believe
that upon the great cloud of smoke rising from the chimneys of the
manufactories of this country, every man who will think can see the bow
of national promise.

"Oh, but," they say, "you put the prices so high." Let me give you two
or three facts: Only a few years ago I know that we paid one hundred and
twenty-five dollars a ton for Bessemer steel. At that time the tariff
was twenty-eight dollars a ton, I believe. I am not much on figures. I
generally let them add it up, and I pay it and go on about my business.
With the tariff at twenty-eight dollars a ton, that being a sufficient
protection against Great Britain, the ingenuity of America went to work.
Capital had the courage to try the experiment, and the result was that,
instead of buying thousands and thousands and thousands and tens of
thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of tons of steel from
Great Britain, we made it here in our own country, and it went down as
low as thirty dollars a ton. Under this "rascally protection" it went
down to one-fourth of what free trade England was selling it to us for.

And so I might go on all night with a thousand other articles; all I
want to show you is that we want these industries here, and we want
them protected just as long as they need protection. We want to rock the
cradle just as long as there is a child in it. When the child gets to
be seven or eight feet high, and wears number twelve boots, we will say:
"Now you will have to shift for yourself." What we want is not simply
for the capitalist, not simply for the workingmen, but for the whole
country.

If there is any object worthy the attention of this or any other
government, it is the condition of the workingmen. What do they do? They
do all that is done. They are the Atlases upon whose mighty shoulders
rests the fabric of American civilization. The men of leisure are simply
the vines that run round this great sturdy oak of labor. If there is
anything noble enough, and splendid enough to claim the attention of a
nation, it is this question, and I hope the time will come when labor
will receive far more than it does to-day. I want you all to think of
it--how little, after all, the laboring man, even in America, receives.

[A voice: "Under protection."]

Yes, sir, even under protection. Take away that protection, and he is
instantly on a level with the European serf. And let me ask that good,
honest gentleman one question. If the laborer is better off in other
countries, why does not the American laborer emigrate to Europe?

There is no place in the wide world where, in my judgment, labor reaps
its true reward. There never has been. But I hope the time will come
when the American laborer will not only make a living for himself, for
his wife and children, but lay aside something to keep the roof above
his head when the winter of age may come. My sympathies are all with
them, and I would rather see thousands of... '' palaces of millionaires
unroofed than to see desolation in the cabins of the poor. I know that
this world has been made beautiful by those who have labored and those
who have suffered. I know that we owe to them the conveniences of life,
and I have more conveniences, I live a more luxurious life, than any
monarch ever lived one hundred years ago. I have more conveniences than
any emperor could have purchased with the revenue of his empire one
hundred years ago. It is worth something to live in this age of the
world.

And what has made us such a great and splendid and progressive and
sensible people?

[A voice: "Free thought."]

Free thought, of course. Back of every invention is free thought. Why
does a man invent? Slavery never invents; freedom invents. A slave
working for his master tries to do the least work in the longest space
of time, but a free man, working for wife and children, tries to do the
most work in the shortest possible time. He is in love with what he is
doing, consequently his head and his hands go in partnership; muscle and
brain unite, and the result is that the head invents something to help
the hands, and out of the brain leaps an invention that makes a slave
of the forces of nature--those forces that have no backs to be whipped,
those forces that shed no tears, those forces that are destined to work
forever for the happiness of the human race.

Consequently I am for the protection of American labor, American genius,
American thought. I do not want to put our workingmen on a level with
the citizens of despotisms. Why do not the Democrats and others want the
Chinese to come here? Are they in favor of being protected? Why is it
that the Democrats and others object to penitentiary labor? I will tell
you. They say that a man in the penitentiary can produce cheaper. He has
no family to support, he has no children to look after; and they say, it
is hardly fair to make the father of a family and an honest man compete
with a criminal within the walls of a penitentiary. So they ask to be
protected.

What is the difference whether a man is in the penitentiary, or whether
he is in the despotism of some European state? "Ah, but," they say, "you
let the laborer of Europe come here himself." Yes, and I am in favor of
it always. Why? This world belongs to the human race. And when they come
here, in a little while they have our wants, and if they do not their
children do, and you will find the second generation of Irishmen or
Germans or of any other nationality just as patriotic as the tenth
generation from the first immigrant. I want them to come. Then they get
our habits.

Who wants free trade? Only those who want us for their customers, who
would like to sell us everything that we use--England, Germany, all
those countries. And why? Because one American will buy more than one
thousand, yes, five thousand Asiatics. America consumes more to-day
than China and India, more than ten billion would of semi-civilized and
barbarous peoples. What do they buy--what does England sell? A little
powder, a little whiskey, cheap calico, some blankets--a few things of
that kind. What does the American purchase? Everything that civilized
man uses or that civilized man can want.

England wants this market. Give her free trade, and she will become the
most powerful, the richest nation that ever had her territories marked
upon the map of the world. And what do we become? Nobodies. Poor.
Invention will be lost, our minds will grow clumsy, the wondrous,
deft hand of the mechanic paralyzed--a great raw material producing
country--ignorant, poor, barbaric. I want the cotton that is raised in
this country to be spun here, to be woven into cloth. I want everything
that we use to be made by Americans. We can make the cloth, we can raise
the food to feed and to clothe this Nation, and the Nation is now only
in its infancy.

Somehow people do not understand this. They really think we are getting
filled up. Look at the map of this country. See the valley of the
Mississippi. Put your hand on it. Trace the rivers coming from the Rocky
Mountains and the Alleghanies, and sweeping down to the Gulf, and know
that in the valley of the Mississippi, with its wondrous tributaries,
there can live and there can be civilized and educated five hundred
millions of human beings.

Let us have some sense. I want to show you how far this goes beyond the
intellectual horizon of some people who hold office. For instance: We
have a tariff on lead, and by virtue of that tariff on lead nearly every
silver mine is worked in this country. Take the tariff from lead and
there would remain in the clutch of the rocks, of the quartz misers,
for all time, millions and millions of silver; but when that is put with
lead, and lead runs with silver, they can make enough on lead and silver
to pay for the mining, and the result is that millions and millions are
added every year to the wealth of the United States.

Let me tell you another thing: There is not a State in the Union but
has something it wants protected. And Louisiana--a Democratic State,
and will be just as long as Democrats count the votes--Louisiana has the
impudence to talk about free trade and yet it wants its sugar protected.
Kentucky says free trade, except hemp; and if anything needs protection
it is hemp. Missouri says hemp and lead. Colorado, lead and wool; and so
you can make the tour of the States and every one is for free trade with
an exception--that exception being to the advantage of that State, and
when you put the exceptions together you have protected the industries
of all the States.

Now, if the Democratic party is in favor of anything, it is in favor of
free trade. If President Clevelands message means anything it means free
trade. And why? Because it says to every man that gets protection: If
you will look about you, you will find that you pay for something
else that is protected more than you receive in benefits for what is
protected of yours; consequently the logic of that is free trade. They
believe in it I have no doubt. When the whole world is civilized, when
men are everywhere free, when they all have something like the same
tastes and ambitions, when they love their families and their children,
when they want the same kind of food and roofs above them--if that day
shall ever come--the world can afford to have its trade free, but do not
put the labor of America on a par with the labor of the Old World.

Now, about taxes--internal revenue. That was resorted to in time of war.
The Democratic party made it necessary. We had to tax everything to beat
back the Democratic hosts, North and South. Now, understand me. I know
that thousands and hundreds of thousands of individual Democrats were
for this country, and were as pure patriots as ever marched beneath the
flag. I know that--hundreds of thousands of them. I am speaking of the
party organization that staid at home and passed resolutions that every
time the Union forces won a victory the Constitution had been violated.
I understand that. Those taxes were put on in time of war, because it
was necessary. Direct taxation is always odious. A government dislikes,
to be represented among all the people by a tax gatherer, by an official
who visits homes carrying consternation and grief wherever he goes.
Everybody, from the most ancient times of which I have ever read, until
the present moment, dislikes a tax gatherer. I have never yet seen in
any cemetery a monument with this inscription: "Sacred to the memory of
the man who loved to pay his taxes." It is far better if we can collect
the needed revenue of this Government indirectly. But, they say, you
must not take the taxes off tobacco; you must not take the taxes off
alcohol or spirits or whiskey. Why? Because it is immoral to take off
the taxes. Do you believe that there was, on the average, any more
drunkenness in this country before the tax was put on than there is now?
I do not. I believe there is as much liquor drank to-day, per capita,
as there ever was in the United States. I will not blame the Democratic
party. I do not care what they drink. What they think is what I have to
do with. I will be plain with them, because I know lots of fellows
in the Democratic party, and that is the only bad thing about
them--splendid fellows. And I know a good many Republicans, and I am
willing to take my oath that that is the only good thing about them. So,
let us all be fair.

I want the taxes taken from tobacco and whiskey; and why? Because it is
a war measure that should not be carried on in peace; and in the second
place, I do not want that system inaugurated in this country, unless
there is an absolute necessity for it, and the moment the necessity is
gone, stop it.

The moral side of this question? Only a couple of years ago, I think
it was, the Prohibitionists said that they wanted this tax taken from
alcohol. Why? Because as long as the Government licensed, as long as the
Government taxed and received sixty millions of dollars in revenue, just
so long the Government would make this business respectable, just so
long the Government would be in partnership with this liquor crime. That
is what they said then. Now we say take the tax off, and they say it is
immoral. Now, I have a little philosophy about this. I may be entirely
wrong, but I am going to give it to you. You never can make great men
and great women, by keeping them out of the way of temptation. You have
to educate them to withstand temptation. It is all nonsense to tie a
man's hands behind him and then praise him for not picking pockets. I
believe that temperance walks hand in hand with liberty. Just as life
becomes valuable, people take care of it. Just as life is great, and
splendid and noble, as long as the future is a kind of gallery filled
with the ideal, just so long will we take care of ourselves and avoid
dissipation of every kind. Do you know, I believe, as much as I believe
that I am living, that if the Mississippi itself were pure whiskey and
its banks loaf sugar, and all the flats covered with mint, and all
the bushes grew teaspoons and tumblers, there would not be any more
drunkenness than there is now!

As long as you say to your neighbor "you must not" there is something in
that neighbor that says, "Well I will determine that for myself, and you
just say that again and I will take a drink if it kills me." There is no
moral question involved in it, except this: Let the burden of government
rest as lightly as possible upon the shoulders of the people, and let it
cause as little irritation as possible. Give liberty to the people. I
am willing that the women who wear silks, satins and diamonds; that the
gentlemen who smoke Havana cigars and drink champagne and Chateau Yquem;
I am perfectly willing that they shall pay my taxes and support this
Government, and I am willing that the man who does not do that, but is
willing to take the domestic article, should go tax free.

Temperance walks hand in hand with liberty. You recollect that little
old story about a couple of men who were having a discussion on
this prohibition question, and the man on the other side said to the
Prohibitionist: "How would you like to live in a community where
every body attended to his own business, where every body went to bed
regularly at night, got up regularly in the morning; where every man,
woman and child was usefully employed during the day; no backbiting,
no drinking of whiskey, no cigars, and where they all attended divine
services on Sunday, and where no profane language was used?" "Why," said
he, "such a place would be a paradise, or heaven; but there is no such
place." "Oh," said the other man, "every well regulated penitentiary is
that way." So much for the moral side of the question.

Another point that the Republican party calls the attention of the
country to is the use that has been made of the public land. Oh, say the
Democratic party, see what States, what empires have been given away
by the Republican party--and see what the Republican party did with it.
Road after road built to the great Pacific. Our country unified--the two
oceans, for all practical purposes, washing one shore. That is what
it did, and what else? It has given homes to millions of people in a
civilized land, where they can get all the conveniences of civilization.
And what else? Fifty million acres have been taken back by the
Government. How was this done? It was by virtue of the provisions put in
the original grants by the Republican party.

There is another thing to which the Republican party has called the
attention of the country, and that is the admission of new States where
there are people enough to form a State. Now, with a solid South, with
the assistance of a few Democrats from the North, comes a State, North
Dakota, with plenty of population, a magnificent State, filled with
intelligence and prosperity. It knocks at the door for admission, and
what is the question asked by this administration? Not "Have you the
land, have you the wealth, have you the men and women?" but "Are you
Democratic or Republican?" And being intelligent people, they answer:
"We are Republicans." And the solid South, assisted by the Democrats
of the North, says to that people: "The door is shut; we will not have
you." Why? "Because you would add two to the Republican majority in
the Senate." Is that the spirit in which a nation like this should be
governed? When a State asks for admission, no matter what the politics
of its people may be, I say, admit that State; put a star on the flag
that will glitter for her.

The next thing the Republican party says is, gold and silver shall both
be money. You cannot make every thing payable in gold--that would
be unfair to the poor man. You shall not make every thing payable in
silver--that would be unfair to the capitalist; but it shall be payable
in gold and silver. And why ought we to be in favor of silver? Because
we are the greatest silver producing nation in the world; and the value
of a thing, other things being equal, depends on its uses, and being
used as money adds to the value of silver. And why should we depreciate
one of our own products by saying that we will not take it as money? I
believe in bimetalism, gold and silver, and you cannot have too much
of either or both. No nation ever died of a surplus, and in all the
national cemeteries of the earth you will find no monument erected to a
nation that died from having too much silver. Give me all the silver I
want and I am happy.

The Republican party has always been sound on finance. It always knew
you could not pay a promise with a promise. The Republican party always
had sense enough to know that money could not be created by word
of mouth, that you could not make it by a statute, or by passing
resolutions in a convention. It always knew that you had to dig it out
of the ground by good, honest work. The Republican party always knew
that money is a commodity, exchangeable for all other commodities, but a
commodity just as much as wheat or corn, and you can no more make money
by law than you can make wheat or corn by law. You can by law, make a
promise that will to a certain extent take the place of money until the
promise is paid. It seems to me that any man who can even understand the
meaning of the word democratic can understand that theory of money.

Another thing right in this platform. Free schools for the education of
all the children in the land. The Republican party believes in looking
out for the children. It knows that the a, b, c's are the breastworks of
human liberty. They know that every schoolhouse is an arsenal, a fort,
where missiles are made to hurl against the ignorance and prejudice of
mankind; so they are for the free school.

And what else? They are for reducing the postage one-half. Why? Simply
for the diffusion of intelligence. What effect will that have? It will
make us more and more one people. The oftener we communicate with each
other the more homogeneous we become. The more we study the same books
and read the same papers the more we swap ideas, the more we become true
Americans, with the same spirit in favor of liberty, progress and the
happiness of the human race.

What next? The Republican party says, let us build ships for
America--for American sailors. Let our fleets cover the seas, and let
our men-of-war protect the commerce of the Republic--not that we can
wrong some weak nation, but so that we can keep the world from doing
wrong to us. This is all. I have infinite contempt for civilized people
who have guns carrying balls weighing several hundred pounds, who go and
fight poor, naked savages that can only throw boomerangs and stones.

I hold such a nation in infinite contempt.

What else is in this platform? You have no idea of the number of things
in it till you look them over. It wants to cultivate friendly feelings
with all the governments in North, Central and South America, so that
the great continents can be one--instigated, moved, pervaded, inspired
by the same great thoughts. In other words, we want to civilize this
continent and the continent of South America. And what else? This great
platform is in favor of paying--not giving, but paying--pensions to
every man who suffered in the great war. What would we have said at the
time? What, if the North could have spoken, would it have said to the
heroes of Gettysburg on the third day? "Stand firm! We will empty the
treasures of the Nation at your feet." They had the courage and the
heroism to keep the hosts of rebellion back without that promise, and is
there an American to-day that can find it in his heart to begrudge
one solitary dollar that has found its way into the pocket of a maimed
soldier, or into the hands of his widow or his orphan?

What would we have offered to the sailors under Farragut on condition
that they would pass Forts St. Phillip and Jackson? What would we have
offered to the soldiers under Grant in the Wilderness? What to the
followers of Sherman and Sheridan? Do you know, I can hardly conceive of
a spirit contemptible enough--and I am not now alluding to the President
of the United States--I can hardly conceive of a spirit contemptible
enough to really desire to keep a maimed soldier from the bounty of this
Nation. It would be a disgrace and a dishonor if we allowed them to
die in poorhouses, to drop by life's highway and to see their children
mourning over their poor bodies, glorious with scars, maimed into
immortality. I may do a great many bad things before I die, but I give
you my word that so long as I live I will never vote for any President
that vetoed a pension bill unless upon its face it was clear that the
man was not a wounded soldier.

What next in this platform? For the protection of American homes. I am
a believer in the home. I have said, and I say again--the hearthstone is
the foundation of the great temple; the fireside is the altar where the
true American worships. I believe that the home, the family, is the unit
of good government, and I want to see the aegis of the great Republic
over millions of happy homes.

That is all there is in this world worth living for. Honor, place, fame,
glory, riches--they are ashes, smoke, dust, disappointment, unless there
is somebody in the world you love, somebody who loves you; unless there
is some place that you can call home, some place where you can feel the
arms of children around your neck, some place that is made absolutely
sacred by the love of others.

So I am for this platform. I am for the election of Harrison and Morton,
and although I did nothing toward having that ticket nominated, because,
I tell you, I was for Gresham, yet I will do as much toward electing the
candidates, within my power, as any man who did vote on the winning
side.

We have a good ticket, a noble, gallant soldier at the head; that is
enough for me. He is in favor of liberty and progress. And you have
for Vice-President a man that you all know better than I do, but a good,
square, intelligent, generous man. That is enough for me. And these
men are standing on the best platform that was ever adopted by the
Republican party--a platform that stands for education, liberty, the
free ballot, American industry; for the American policy that has made us
the richest and greatest Nation of the globe.




REUNION ADDRESS.

     * The Elmwood Reunion, participated in by six regiments,
     came to a glorious close last evening. There were thousands
     of people present. The city was gayly decorated with flags
     and hunting, while pictures and busts of Col. Ingersoll were
     in every show window. From early in the morning until noon,
     delegations kept coming in, A special train arrived from
     Peoria at 10.50 o'clock, bearing a large delegation of old
     soldiers together with Col. Ingersoll and his daughter Maud.
     He was met by the reception committee, and marched up the
     street escorted by an army of veterans. When he arrived on
     the west side of the public square, the lines were opened,
     and he marched between, in review of his old friends and
     comrades. The parade started as soon as it could be formed,
     after the arrival of the special train.

     Col. Ingersoll was greeted by a salute of thirteen guns from
     Peoria's historic cannon, as he was escorted to the grand
     stand by Spencer's band and the Peoria Veterans.

     The reviewing stand was on the west side of the park. Here
     the parade was seen by Col. Ingersoll and the other
     distinguished guests, among whom were Congressmen Graff and
     Prince, Mayor Day, Judges N. E. Worthington and I. C.
     Pinkney, and the Hon. Clark E. Carr, who also made a speech
     saying that the people cannot estimate the majesty of the
     eloquence of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, keeping alive the
     flame of patriotism from 1860 to the present time. .

     The parade was an imposing one, there were fully two
     thousand five hundred old veterans in line who passed In
     review before Col. Ingersoll, each one doffing his hat as he
     marched by. The most pleasing feature of the exercises of
     the day was the representation of the Living Flag by one
     hundred and fifty little girls of Elmwood, at ten o' clock
     under the direction of Col. Lem. H. Wiley, of Peoria. The
     flag was presented on a large Inclined amphitheatre at the
     left of the grand stand, and was the finest thing ever
     witnessed lu this part of the country.

     Following the presentation of the Living Flag, Chairman
     Brown called the Reunion to order, and Col. Lem. H. Wiley,
     National Bugler gave the assembly call.

     Following the assembly call a male chorus rendered a song,
     "Ring O Bells." The song was composed for the occasion by
     Mr. E. R. Brown and was as follows:

          "Welcome now that leader fearless,
          Free of thought and grand of brain,
          King of hearts and speaker peerless,
          Hail our Ingersoll again." ***

     Then Chairman, E. R. Brown, took charge of the meeting and
     introduced Col. Ingersoll as the greatest of living orators,
     referring to the time that the Colonel declared, a quarter
     of a century ago, in Rouse's Hall, Peoria, that from that
     time forth there would be one free man in Illinois, and
     expressing Indebtedness to him for what had been done since
     for the freedom and happiness of mankind, by his mighty
     brain, his great spirit and his gentle heart.

     He then spoke of Col. Ingersoll's residence in Peoria
     county, paying an eloquent tribute to him, and concluded by
     leading the distinguished gentleman to the front of the
     stand. The appearance of Col. Ingersoll was a signal for a
     mighty shout, which was heartily joined in by everybody
     present, even the little girls composing the living flag,
     cheering and waving their banners.

     It was fully ten minutes before the cheering had subsided,
     and when Col. Ingersoll commenced to speak it was renewed
     and he was forced to wait for several minutes more. When
     quiet was restored, he opened his address, and for an hour
     and a half he held the vast audience spell-bound with his
     eloquence and wit.

     After Col. Ingersoll's speech the veterans crowded around
     the stand to meet and grasp the hand of their comrade, and
     the boys of the Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, his old regiment,
     were especially profuse in their congratulations and thanks
     for the splendid address he had delivered. His speeeh was
     off-hand, only occasional reference being made to his short
     notes. The Colonel then left the Park amid the yells of
     delight of the old soldiers, every man of whom endeavored to
     grasp his hand.

     In the afternoon the veterans assembled in Liberty Hall by
     themselves, the room being filled. Col. Ingersoll appeared
     and was greeted with such cheers as he had not received
     during the entire day. He then said good-bye to his old
     comrades.--Chicago Inter-ocean and Peoria papers, Sept. 6th,
     1896.


Elmwood, Ills.

1895.

LADIES and Gentlemen, Fellow-citizens, Old Friends and Comrades:

It gives me the greatest pleasure to meet again those with whom I became
acquainted in the morning of my life. It is now afternoon. The sun of
life is slowly sinking in the west, and, as the evening comes, nothing
can be more delightful than to see again the faces that I knew in youth.

When first I knew you the hair was brown; it is now white. The lines
were not quite so deep, and the eyes were not quite so dim. Mingled with
this pleasure is sadness,--sadness for those who have passed away--for
the dead.

And yet I am not sure that we ought to mourn for the dead. I do not know
which is better--life or death. It may be that death is the greatest
gift that ever came from nature's open hands. We do not know.

There is one thing of which I am certain, and that is, that if we could
live forever here, we would care nothing for each other. The fact
that we must die, the fact that the feast must end, brings our souls
together, and treads the weeds from out the paths between our hearts.

And so it may be, after all, that love is a little flower that grows
on the crumbling edge of the grave. So it may be, that were it not
for death there would be no love, and without love all life would be a
curse.

I say it gives me great pleasure to meet you once again; great pleasure
to congratulate you on your good fortune--the good fortune of being a
citizen of the first and grandest republic ever established upon the
face of the earth.

That is a royal fortune. To be an heir of all the great and brave men
of this land, of all the good, loving and patient women; to be in
possession of the blessings that they have given, should make every
healthy citizen of the United States feel like a millionaire.

This, to-day, is the most prosperous country on the globe; and it is
something to be a citizen of this country.

It is well, too, whenever we meet, to draw attention to what has been
done by our ancestors. It is well to think of them and to thank them for
all their work, for all their courage, for all their toil.

Three hundred years ago our country was a vast wilderness, inhabited by
a few savages. Three hundred years ago--how short a time; hardly a tick
of the great clock of eternity--three hundred years; not a second in the
life even of this planet--three hundred years ago, a wilderness; three
hundred years ago, inhabited by a few savages; three hundred years ago
a few men in the Old World, dissatisfied, brave and adventurous, trusted
their lives to the sea and came to this land.

In 1776 there were only three millions of people all told. These men
settled on the shores of the sea. These men, by experience, learned to
govern themselves. These men, by experience, found that a man should
be respected in the proportion that he was useful. They found, by
experience, that titles were of no importance; that the real thing was
the man, and that the real things in the man were heart and brain. They
found, by experience, how to govern themselves, because there was nobody
else here when they came. The gentlemen who had been in the habit of
governing their fellow-men staid at home, and the men who had been in
the habit of being governed came here, and, consequently, they had to
govern themselves.

And finally, educated by experience, by the rivers and forests, by the
grandeur and splendor of nature, they began to think that this continent
should not belong to any other; that it was great enough to count one,
and that they had the intelligence and manhood to lay the foundations of
a nation.

It would be impossible to pay too great and splendid a tribute to the
great and magnificent souls of that day. They saw the future. They saw
this country as it is now, and they endeavored to lay the foundation
deep; they endeavored to reach the bed-rock of human rights, the
bed-rock of justice. And thereupon they declared that all men were born
equal; that all the children of nature had at birth the same rights, and
that all men had the right to pursue the only good,--happiness.

And what did they say? They said that men should govern men; that the
power to govern should come from the consent of the governed, not
from the clouds, not from some winged phantom of the air, not from the
aristocracy of ether. They said that this power should come from
men; that the men living in this world should govern it, and that the
gentlemen who were dead should keep still.

They took another step, and said that church and state should forever be
divorced. That is no harm to real religion. It never was, because real
religion means the doing of justice; real religion means the giving to
others every right you claim for yourself; real religion consists in
duties of man to man, in feeding the hungry, in clothing the naked, in
defending the innocent, and in saying what you believe to be true.

Our fathers had enough sense to say that, and a man to do that in 1776
had to be a pretty big fellow. It is not so much to say it now, because
they set the example; and, upon these principles of which I have spoken,
they fought the war of the Revolution.

At no time, probably, were the majority of our forefathers in favor
of independence, but enough of them were on the right side, and they
finally won a victory. And after the victory, those that had not been
even in favor of independence became, under the majority rule, more
powerful than the heroes of the Revolution.

Then it was that our fathers made a mistake. We have got to praise them
for what they did that was good, and we will mention what they did that
was wrong.

They forgot the principles for which they fought. They forgot the
sacredness of human liberty, and, in the name of freedom, they made a
mistake and put chains on the limbs of others.

That was their error; that was the poison that entered the American
blood; that was the corrupting influence that demoralized presidents
and priests; that was the influence that corrupted the United States of
America.

That mistake, of course, had to be paid for, as all mistakes in nature
have to be paid for. And not only do you pay for your mistake itself,
but you pay at least ten per cent, compound interest. Whenever you do
wrong, and nobody finds it out, do not imagine you have gotten over it;
you have not. Nature knows it.

The consequences of every bad act are the invisible police that no
prayers can soften, and no gold can bribe.

Recollect that. Recollect, that for every bad act, there will be laid
upon your shoulder the arresting hand of the consequences; and it is
precisely the same with a nation as it is with an individual. You have
got to pay for all of your mistakes, and you have got to pay to the
uttermost farthing. That is the only forgiveness known in nature. Nature
never settles unless she can give a receipt in full.

I know a great many men differ with me, and have all sorts of bankruptcy
systems, but Nature is not built that way.

Finally, slavery took possession of the Government. Every man who wanted
an office had to be willing to step between a fugitive slave and his
liberty.

Slavery corrupted the courts, and made judges decide that the child born
in the State of Pennsylvania, whose mother had been a slave, could not
be free.

That was as infamous a decision as was ever rendered, and yet the
people, in the name of the law, did this thing, and the Supreme Court of
the United States did not know right from wrong.

These dignified gentlemen thought that labor could be paid by lashes on
the back--which was a kind of legal tender--and finally an effort was
made to subject the new territory--the Nation--to the institution of
slavery.

Then we had a war with Mexico, in which we got a good deal of glory and
one million square miles of land, but little honor. I will admit that we
got but little honor out of that war. That territory they wanted to give
to the slaveholder.

In 1803 we purchased from Napoleon the Great, one million square miles
of land, and then, in 1821, we bought Florida from Spain. So that, when
the war came, we had about three million square miles of new land. The
object was to subject all this territory to slavery.

The idea was to go on and sell the babes from their mothers until time
should be no more. The idea was to go on with the branding-iron and the
whip. The idea was to make it a crime to teach men, human beings,
to read and write; to make every Northern man believe that he was a
bulldog, a bloodhound to track down men and women, who, with the light
of the North Star in their eyes, were seeking the free soil of Great
Britain.

Yes, in these times we had lots of mean folks. Let us remember that.

And all at once, under the forms of law, under the forms of our
Government, the greatest man under the flag was elected President. That
man was Abraham Lincoln. And then it was that those gentlemen of the
South said: "We will not be governed by the majority; we will be a law
unto ourselves."

And let me tell you here to-day--I am somewhat older than I used to be;
I have a little philosophy now that I had not at the nine o'clock in the
morning portion of my life--and I do not blame anybody. I do not blame
the South; I do not blame the Confederate soldier.

She--the South--was the fruit of conditions. She was born to
circumstances stronger than herself; and do you know, according to my
philosophy, (which is not quite orthodox), every man and woman in the
whole world are what conditions have made them.

So let us have some sense. The South said, "We will not submit; this is
not a nation, but a partnership of States." I am willing to go so far as
to admit that the South expressed the original idea of the Government.

But now the question was, to whom did the newly acquired property
belong? New States had been carved out of that territory; the soil of
these States had been purchased with the money of the Republic, and had
the South the right to take these States out of the Republic? That was
the question.

The great West had another interest, and that was that no enemy, no
other nation, should control the mouth of the Mississippi. I regard
the Mississippi River as Nature's protest against secession. The old
Mississippi River says, and swears to it, that this country shall be
one, now and forever.

What was to be done? The South said, "We will never remain," and the
North said, "You shall not go." It was a little slow about saying it,
it is true. Some of the best Republicans in the North said, "Let it go."
But the second, sober thought of the great North said, "No, this is our
country and we are going to keep it on the map of the world."

And some who had been Democrats wheeled into line, and hundreds and
thousands said, "This is our country," and finally, when the Government
called for volunteers, hundreds and thousands came forward to offer
their services. Nothing more sublime was ever seen in the history of
this world.

I congratulate you to-day that you live in a country that furnished the
greatest army that ever fought for human liberty in any country round
the world. I want you to know that. I want you to know that the North,
East and West furnished the greatest army that ever fought for human
liberty. I want you to know that Gen. Grant commanded more men, men
fighting for the right, not for conquest, than any other general who
ever marshaled the hosts of war.

Let us remember that, and let us be proud of it. The millions who poured
from the North for the defence of the flag--the story of their heroism
has been told to you again and again. I have told it myself many times.
It is known to every intelligent man and woman in the world. Everybody
knows how much we suffered. Everybody knows how we poured out money like
water; how we spent it like leaves of the forest. Everybody knows how
the brave blood was shed. Everybody knows the story of the great, the
heroic struggle, and everybody knows that at last victory came to our
side, and how the last sword of the Rebellion was handed to Gen. Grant.
There is no need to tell that story again.

But the question now, as we look back, is, was this country worth
saving? Was the blood shed in vain? Were the lives given for naught?
That is the question.

This country, according to my idea, is the one success of the world. Men
here have more to eat, more to wear, better houses, and, on the average,
a better education than those of any other nation now living, or any
that has passed away.

Was the country worth saving?

See what we have done in this country since 1860. We were not much of a
people then, to be honor bright about it. We were carrying, in the great
race of national life, the weight of slavery, and it poisoned us; it
paralyzed our best energies; it took from our politics the best minds;
it kept from the bench the greatest brains.

But what have we done since 1860, since we really became a free people,
since we came to our senses, since we have been willing to allow a man
to express his honest thoughts on every subject?

Do you know how much good we did? The war brought men together from
every part of the country and gave them an opportunity to compare their
foolishness. It gave them an opportunity to throw away their prejudices,
to find that a man who differed with them on every subject might be the
very best of fellows. That is what the war did. We have been broadening
ever since.

I sometimes have thought it did men good to make the trip to California
in 1849. As they went over the plains they dropped their prejudices on
the way. I think they did, and that's what killed the grass.

But to come back to my question, what have we done since 1860?

From 1860 to 1880, in spite of the waste of war, in spite of all the
property destroyed by flame, in spite of all the waste, our profits were
one billion three hundred and seventy-four million dollars. Think of it!
From 1860 to 1880! That is a vast sum.

From 1880 to 1890 our profits were two billion one hundred and
thirty-nine million dollars.

Men may talk against wealth as much as they please; they may talk about
money being the root of all evil, but there is little real happiness in
this world without some of it. It is very handy when staying at home
and it is almost indispensable when you travel abroad. Money is a good
thing. It makes others happy; it makes those happy whom you love, and
if a man can get a little together, when the night of death drops the
curtain upon him, he is satisfied that he has left a little to keep the
wolf from the door of those who, in life, were dear to him. Yes, money
is a good thing, especially since special providence has gone out of
business.

I can see to-day something beyond the wildest dream of any patriot who
lived fifty years ago. The United States to-day is the richest nation
on the face of the earth. The old nations of the world, Egypt, India,
Greece, Rome, every one of them, when compared with this great Republic,
must be regarded as paupers.

How much do you suppose this Nation is worth to-day? I am talking about
land and cattle, products, manufactured articles and railways. Over
seventy thousand million dollars. Just think of it.

Take a thousand dollars and then take nine hundred and ninety-nine
thousand; so you will have one thousand piles of one thousand each. That
makes only a million, and yet the United States today is worth seventy
thousand millions. This is thirty-five percent, more than Great Britain
is worth.

We are a great Nation. We have got the land. This land was being made
for many millions of years. Its soil was being made by the great lakes
and rivers, and being brought down from the mountains for countless
ages.

This continent was standing like a vast pan of milk, with the cream
rising for millions of years, and we were the chaps that got there when
the skimming commenced.

We are rich, and we ought to be rich. It is our own fault if we are not.
In every department of human endeavor, along every path and highway,
the progress of the Republic has been marvelous, beyond the power of
language to express.

Let me show you: In 1860 the horse-power of all the engines, the
locomotives and the steamboats that traversed the lakes and rivers--the
entire power--was three million five hundred thousand. In 1890 the
horse-power of engines and locomotives and steamboats was over seventeen
million.

Think of that and what it means! Think of the forces at work for the
benefit of the United States, the machines doing the work of thousands
and millions of men!

And remember that every engine that puffs is puffing for you; every road
that runs is running for you. I want you to know that the average man
and woman in the United States to-day has more of the conveniences of
life than kings and queens had one hundred years ago.

Yes, we are getting along.

In 1860 we used one billion eight hundred million dollars' worth
of products, of things manufactured and grown, and we sent to other
countries two hundred and fifty million dollars' worth.

In 1893 we used three billion eighty-nine million dollars' worth, and
we sent to other countries six hundred and fifty-four million dollars'
worth.

You see, these vast sums are almost inconceivable. There is not a
man to-day with brains large enough to understand these figures; to
understand how many cars this money put upon the tracks, how much coal
was devoured by the locomotives, how many men plowed and worked in the
fields, how many sails were given to the wind, how many ships crossed
the sea.

I tell you, there is no man able to think of the ships that were built,
the cars that were made, the mines that were opened, the trees that were
felled--no man has imagination enough to grasp the meaning of it all. No
man has any conception of the sea till he crosses it. I knew nothing of
how broad this country is until I went over it in a slow train.

Since 1860 the productive power of the United States has more than
trebled.

I like to talk about these things, because they mean good houses,
carpets on the floors, pictures on the walls, some books on the shelves.
They mean children going to school with their stomachs full of good
food, prosperous men and proud mothers.

All my life I have taken a much deeper interest in what men produce than
in what nature does. I would rather see the prairies, with the oats and
the wheat and the waving corn, and the schoolhouse, and hear the thrush
sing amid the happy homes of prosperous men and women--I would rather
see these things than any range of mountains in the world. Take it as
you will, a mountain is of no great value.

In 1860 our land was worth four billion five hundred million dollars; in
1890 it was worth fourteen billion dollars.

In 1860 all the railroads in the United States were worth four hundred
million dollars, now they are worth a little less than ten thousand
million dollars.

I want you to understand what these figures mean.

For thirty years we spent, on an average, one million dollars a day in
building railroads.--I want you to think what that means. All that money
had to be dug out of the ground. It had to be made by raising something
or manufacturing something. We did not get it by writing essays on
finance, or discussing the silver question. It had to be made with the
ax, the plow, the reaper, the mower; in every form of industry; all to
produce these splendid results.

We have railroads enough now to make seven tracks around the great
globe, and enough left for side tracks. That is what we have done here,
in what the European nations are pleased to call "the new world."

I am telling you these things because you may not know them, and I did
not know them myself until a few days ago. I am anxious to give away
information, for it is only by giving it away that you can keep it. When
you have told it, you remember it. It is with information as it is
with liberty, the only way to be dead sure of it is to give it to other
people.

In 1860 the houses in the United States, the cabins on the frontier, the
buildings in the cities, were worth six thousand million dollars. Now
they are worth over twenty-two thousand million dollars. To talk about
figures like these is enough to make a man dizzy.

In 1860 our animals of all kinds, including the Illinois deer--commonly
called swine--the oxen and horses, and all others, were worth about one
thousand million dollars; now they are worth about four thousand million
dollars.

Are we not getting rich? Our national debt today is nothing. It is like
a man who owes a cent and has a dollar.

Since 1860 we have been industrious. We have created two million five
hundred thousand new farms. Since 1860 we have done a good deal of
plowing; there have been a good many tired legs. I have been that way
myself. Since 1860 we have put in cultivation two hundred million acres
of land. Illinois, the best State in the Union, has thirty-five million
acres of land, and yet, since 1860, we have put in cultivation enough
land to make six States of the size of Illinois. That will give you some
idea of the quantity of work we have done. I will admit I have not done
much of it myself, but I am proud of it.

In 1860 we had four million five hundred and sixty-five thousand farmers
in this country, whose land and implements were worth over sixteen
thousand million dollars. The farmers of this country, on an average,
are worth five thousand dollars, and the peasants of the Old World, who
cultivate the soil, are not worth, on an average, ten dollars beyond the
wants of the moment. The farmers of our country produce, on an average,
about one million four hundred thousand dollars' worth of stuff a day.

What else? Have we in other directions kept pace with our physical
development? Have we developed the mind? Have we endeavored to develop
the brain? Have we endeavored to civilize the heart? I think we have.

We spend more for schools per head than any nation in the world. And the
common school is the breath of life.

Great Britain spends one dollar and thirty cents per head on the common
schools; France spends eighty cents; Austria, thirty cents; Germany,
fifty cents; Italy, twenty-five cents, and the United States over two
dollars and fifty cents.

I tell you the schoolhouse is the fortress of liberty. Every schoolhouse
is an arsenal, filled with weapons and ammunition to destroy the
monsters of ignorance and fear.

As I have said ten thousand times, the school-house is my cathedral. The
teacher is my preacher.

Eighty-seven per cent, of all the people of the United States, over ten
years of age, can read and write. There is no parallel for this in the
history of the wide world.

Over forty-two millions of educated citizens, to whom are opened all the
treasures of literature!

Forty-two millions of people, able to read and write! I say, there is
no parallel for this. The nations of antiquity were very ignorant when
compared with this great Republic of ours. There is no other nation in
the world that can show a record like ours. We ought to be proud of
it. We ought to build more schools, and build them better. Our teachers
ought to be paid more, and everything ought to be taught in the public
school that is worth knowing.

I believe that the children of the Republic, no matter whether their
fathers are rich or poor, ought to be allowed to drink at the fountain
of education, and it does not cost more to teach everything in the free
schools than it does teaching reading and writing and ciphering.

Have we kept up in other ways? The post office tells a wonderful story.
In Switzerland, going through the post office in each year, are letters,
etc., in the proportion of seventy-four to each inhabitant. In England
the number is sixty; in Germany, fifty-three; in France, thirty-nine; in
Austria, twenty-four; in Italy, sixteen, and in the United States, our
own home, one hundred and ten. Think of it. In Italy only twenty-five
cents paid per head for the support of the public schools and only
sixteen letters. And this is the place where God's agent lives. I would
rather have one good schoolmaster than two such agents.

There is another thing. A great deal has been said, from time to time,
about the workingman. I have as much sympathy with the workingman as
anybody on the earth--who does not work. There has always been a desire
in this world to let somebody else do the work, nearly everybody having
the modesty to stand back whenever there is anything to be done. In
savage countries they make the women do the work, so that the weak
people have always the bulk of the burdens. In civilized communities
the poor are the ones, of course, that work, and probably they are never
fully paid. It is pretty hard for a manufacturer to tell how much he
can pay until he sells the stuff which he manufactures. Every man who
manufactures is not rich. I know plenty of poor corporations; I know
tramp railroads that have not a dollar. And you will find some of them
as anarchistic as you will find their men. What a man can pay, depends
upon how much he can get for what he has produced. What the farmer can
pay his help depends upon the price he receives for his stock, his corn
and his wheat.

But wages in this country are getting better day by day. We are getting
a little nearer to being civilized day by day, and when I want to make
up my mind on a subject I try to get a broad view of it, and not decide
it on one case.

In 1860 the average wages of the workingman were, per year, two hundred
and eighty-nine dollars. In 1890 the average was four hundred and
eighty-five. Thus the average has almost doubled in thirty years. The
necessaries of life are far cheaper than they were in 1860. Now, to my
mind, that is a hopeful sign. And when I am asked how can the dispute
between employer and employee be settled, I answer, it will be settled
when both parties become civilized.

It takes a long time to educate a man up to the point where he does not
want something for nothing. Yet, when a man is civilized, he does not.

He wants for a thing just what it is worth; he wants to give labor its
legitimate reward, and when he has something to sell he never wants more
than it is worth. I do not claim to be civilized myself; but all these
questions between capital and labor will be settled by civilization.

We are to-day accumulating wealth at the rate of more than seven million
dollars a day. Is not this perfectly splendid?

And in the midst of prosperity let us never forget the men who helped
to save our country, the men whose heroism gave us the prosperity we now
enjoy.

We have one-seventh of the good land of this world. You see there is a
great deal of poor land in the world. I know the first time I went to
California, I went to the Sink of the Humboldt, and what a forsaken look
it had. There was nothing there but mines of brimstone. On the train,
going over, there was a fellow who got into a dispute with a minister
about the first chapter of Genesis. And when they got along to the Sink
of the Humboldt the fellow says to the minister:

"Do you tell me that God made the world in six days, and then rested on
the seventh?"

He said, "I do."

"Well," said the fellow, "don't you think he could have put in another
day here to devilish good advantage?"

But, as I have said, we have got about one-seventh of the good land of
the world. I often hear people say that we have too many folks here;
that we ought to stop immigration; that we have no more room. The people
who say this know nothing of their country. They are ignorant of their
native land. I tell you that the valley of the Mississippi and the
valleys of its tributaries can support a population of five hundred
millions of men, women, and children. Don't talk of our being
overpopulated; we have only just started.

Here, in this land of ours, five hundred million men and women and
children can be supported and educated without trouble. We can afford to
double two or three times more. But what have we got to do? We have got
to educate them when they come. That is to say, we have got to educate
their children, and in a few generations we will have them splendid
American citizens, proud of the Republic.

We have no more patriotic men under the flag than the men who came from
other lands, the hundreds and thousands of those who fought to preserve
this country. And I think just as much of them as I would if they had
been born on American soil. What matters it where a man was born? It is
what is inside of him you have to look at--what kind of a heart he has,
and what kind of a head. I do not care where he was born; I simply ask,
Is he a man? Is he willing to give to others what he claims for himself?
That is the supreme test.

Now, I have got a hobby. I do not suppose any of you have heard of it.
I think the greatest thing for a country is for all of its citizens to
have a home. I think it is around the fireside of home that the virtues
grow, including patriotism. We want homes.

Until a few years ago it was the custom to put men in prison for debt.
The authorities threw a man into jail when he owed something which he
could not pay, and by throwing him into jail they deprived him of an
opportunity to earn what would pay it. After a little time they got
sense enough to know that they could not collect a debt in this way,
and that it was better to give him his freedom and allow him to earn
something, if he could. Therefore, imprisonment for debt was done away
with.

At another time, when a man owed anything, if he was a carpenter, a
blacksmith or a shoemaker, and not able to pay it, they took his tools,
on a writ of sale and execution, and thus incapacitated him so that he
could do nothing. Finally they got sense enough to abolish that law,
to leave the mechanic his tools and the farmer his plows, horses and
wagons, and after this, debts were paid better than ever they were
before.

Then we thought of protecting the home-builder, and we said: "We will
have a homestead exemption. We will put a roof over wife and child,
which shall be exempt from execution and sale," and so we preserved
hundreds of thousands and millions of homes, while debts were paid just
as well as ever they were paid before.

Now, I want to take a step further. I want, the rich people of this
country to support it. I want the people who are well off to pay the
taxes. I want the law to exempt a homestead of a certain value, say from
two thousand dollars to two thousand five hundred, and to exempt it, not
only from sale on judgment and execution, but to exempt it from taxes of
all sorts and kinds. I want to keep the roof over the heads of children
when the man himself is gone. I want that homestead to belong not only
to the man, but to wife and children. I would like to live to see a roof
over the heads of all the families of the Republic. I tell you, it does
a man good to have a home. You are in partnership with nature when you
plant a hill of corn. When you set out a tree you have a new interest in
this world. When you own a little tract of land you feel as if you and
the earth were partners. All these things dignify human nature.

Bad as I am, I have another hobby. There are thousands and thousands of
criminals in our country. I told you a little while ago I did not blame
the South, because of the conditions which prevailed in the South. The
people of the South did as they must. I am the same about the criminal.
He does as he must.

If you want to stop crime you must treat it properly. The conditions of
society must not be such as to produce criminals.

When a man steals and is sent to the penitentiary he ought to be sent
there to be reformed and not to be brutalized; to be made a better man,
not to be robbed.

I am in favor, when you put a man in the penitentiary, of making him
work, and I am in favor of paying him what his work is worth, so that
in five years, when he leaves the prison cell, he will have from two
hundred dollars to three hundred dollars as a breastwork between him and
temptation, and something for a foundation upon which to build a nobler
life.

Now he is turned out and before long he is driven back. Nobody will
employ him, nobody will take him, and, the night following the day of
his release he is without a roof over his head and goes back to his old
ways. I would allow him to change his name, to go to another State with
a few hundred dollars in his pocket and begin the world again.

We must recollect that it is the misfortune of a man to become a
criminal.

I have hobbies and plenty of them.

I want to see five hundred millions of people living here in peace. If
we want them to live in peace, we must develop the brain, civilize the
heart, and above all things, must not forget education. Nothing should
be taught in the school that somebody does not know.

When I look about me to-day, when I think of the advance of my country,
then I think of the work that has been done.

Think of the millions who crossed the mysterious sea, of the thousands
and thousands of ships with their brave prows towards the West.

Think of the little settlements on the shores of the ocean, on the banks
of rivers, on the edges of forests.

Think of the countless conflicts with savages--of the midnight
attacks--of the cabin floors wet with the blood of dead fathers, mothers
and babes.

Think of the winters of want, of the days of toil, of the nights of
fear, of the hunger and hope.

Think of the courage, the sufferings and hardships.

Think of the homesickness, the disease and death.

Think of the labor; of the millions and millions of trees that were
felled, while the aisles of the great forests were filled with the
echoes of the ax; of the many millions of miles of furrows turned by the
plow; of the millions of miles of fences built; of the countless logs
changed to lumber by the saw--of the millions of huts, cabins and
houses.

Think of the work. Listen, and you will hear the hum of wheels, the
wheels with which our mothers spun the flax and wool. Listen, and you
will hear the looms and flying shuttles with which they wove the cloth.

Think of the thousands still pressing toward the West, of the roads they
made, of the bridges they built; of the homes, where the sunlight fell,
where the bees hummed, the birds sang and the children laughed; of the
little towns with mill and shop, with inn and schoolhouse; of the old
stages, of the crack of the whips and the drivers' horns; of the canals
they dug.

Think of the many thousands still pressing toward the West, passing over
the Alleghanies to the shores of the Ohio and the great lakes--still
onward to the Mississippi--the Missouri.

See the endless processions of covered wagons drawn by horses, by
oxen,--men and boys and girls on foot, mothers and babes inside. See the
glimmering camp fires at night; see the thousands up with the sun and
away, leaving the perfume of coffee on the morning air, and sometimes
leaving the new-made grave of wife or child. Listen, and you will hear
the cry of "Gold!" and you will see many thousands crossing the great
plains, climbing the mountains and pressing on to the Pacific.

Think of the toil, the courage it has taken to possess this land!

Think of the ore that was dug, the furnaces that lit the nights with
flame; of the factories and mills by the rushing streams.

Think of the inventions that went hand in hand with the work; of the
flails that were changed to threshers; of the sickles that became
cradles, and the cradles that were changed to reapers and headers--of
the wooden plows that became iron and steel; of the spinning wheel that
became the jennie, and the old looms transformed to machines that almost
think--of the steamboats that traversed the rivers, making the towns
that were far apart neighbors and friends; of the stages that became
cars, of the horses changed to locomotives with breath of flame, and the
roads of dust and mud to highways of steel, of the rivers spanned and
the mountains tunneled.

Think of the inventions, the improvements that changed the hut to the
cabin, the cabin to the house, the house to the palace, the earthen
floors and bare walls to carpets and pictures--that changed famine to
feast--toil to happy labor and poverty to wealth.

Think of the cost.

Think of the separation of families--of boys and girls leaving the old
home--taking with them the blessings and kisses of fathers and mothers.
Think of the homesickness, of the tears shed by the mothers left by the
daughters gone. Think of the millions of brave men deformed by labor now
sleeping in their honored graves.

Think of all that has been wrought, endured and accomplished for our
good, and let us remember with gratitude, with love and tears the brave
men, the patient loving women who subdued this land for us.

Then think of the heroes who served this country; who gave us this
glorious present and hope of a still more glorious future; think of the
men who really made us free, who secured the blessings of liberty, not
only to us, but to billions yet unborn.

This country will be covered with happy homes and free men and free
women.

To-day we remember the heroic dead, those whose blood reddens the paths
and highways of honor; those who died upon the field, in the charge,
in prison-pens, or in famine's clutch; those who gave their lives that
liberty should not perish from the earth. And to-day we remember the
great leaders who have passed to the realm of silence, to the land of
shadow. Thomas, the rock of Chickamauga, self-poised, firm, brave,
faithful; Sherman, the reckless, the daring, the prudent and the
victorious; Sheridan, a soldier fit to have stood by Julius Cæsar and
to have uttered the words of command; and Grant, the silent, the
invincible, the unconquered; and rising above them all, Lincoln, the
wise, the patient, the merciful, the grandest figure in the Western
world. We remember them all today and hundreds of thousands who are
not mentioned, but who are equally worthy, hundreds of thousands of
privates, deserving of equal honor with the plumed leaders of the host.

And what shall I say to you, survivors of the death-filled days? To you,
my comrades, to you whom I have known in the great days, in the time
when the heart beat fast and the blood flowed strong; in the days of
high hope--what shall I say? All I can say is that my heart goes out to
you, one and all. To you who bared your bosoms to the storms of war; to
you who left loved ones to die, if need be, for the sacred cause. May
you live long in the land you helped to save; may the winter of your
age be as green as spring, as full of blossoms as summer, as generous as
autumn, and may you, surrounded by plenty, with your wives at your sides
and your grandchildren on your knees, live long. And when at last the
fires of life burn low; when you enter the deepening dusk of the last
of many, many happy days; when your brave hearts beat weak and slow,
may the memory of your splendid deeds; deeds that freed your fellow-men;
deeds that kept your country on the map of the world; deeds that kept
the flag of the Republic in the air--may the memory of these deeds fill
your souls with peace and perfect joy. Let it console you to know that
you are not to be forgotten. Centuries hence your story will be told in
art and song, and upon your honored graves flowers will be lovingly laid
by millions' of men and women now unborn.

Again expressing the joy that I feel in having met you, and again saying
farewell to one and all, and wishing you all the blessings of life, I
bid you goodbye.*

     * At the last reunion of the Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, the
     Colonel's old regiment, and the soldiers of Peoria county,
     which Mr. Ingersoll attended, a little incident happened
     which let us into the inner circle of his life. The meeting
     was held at Elmwood. While the soldier were passing in
     review the citizens and young people filled all the seats in
     the park and crowded around the speaker's stand, so as to
     occupy all available space. When the soldiers had finished
     their parade and returned to the park, they found it
     impossible to get near the speaker. Of course we were all
     disappointed, but were forced to stand on the outskirts of
     the vast throng.

     As soon as he ceased speaking, Mr. Ingersoll said to a
     soldier that he would like to meet his comrades in the hall
     at a certain hour in the afternoon. The word spread quickly,
     and at the appointed hour the hall was crowded with
     soldiers. The guard stationed at tue door was ordered to let
     none but soldiers pass into the hall. Some of the comrades,
     however, brought their wives. The guards, true to their
     orders, refused to let the ladies pass. Just as Mr.
     Ingersoll was ready to speak, word came to him that some of
     the comrades' wives were outside and wanted permission to
     pass the guard. The hall was full, but Mr. Ingersoll
     requested all comrades whose wives were within reach to go
     and get them. When his order had been complied with even
     standing room was at a premium. When Mr. Ingersoll arose to
     speak to that great assemblage of white-haired veterans and
     their aged companions his voice was unusually tender, and the
     wave of emotion that passed through the hall cannot be told
     in words. Tears and cheers blended as Mr. Ingersoll arose
     and began his speech with the statement that all present
     were nearing the setting sun of life, and in all probability
     that was the last opportunity many of them would have of
     taking each other by the hand.

     In this half-hour impromptu speech the great-hearted man,
     Robert G. Ingersoll, was seen at his best. It was not a
     clash of opinions over party or creed, but it was a meeting
     of hearts and communion together In the holy of holies of
     human life. The address was a series of word-pictures that
     still hang on the walls of memory. The speaker, in his most
     sympathetic mood, drew a picture of the service of the G. A.
     R., of the women of the republic, and then paid a beautiful
     tribute to home and invoked the kindest and greatest
     influence to guard his comrades and their companions during
     the remainder of life's journey.

     We got very close to the man that day, where we could see
     the heart of Mr. Ingersoll. I have often wished that a
     reporter could have been present to preserve the address.
     Imagine four beautiful word-paintings entitled, "The Service
     of the G. A. R.," "The Influence of Noble Womanhood," "The
     Sacredness of Home," and "The Pilgrimage of Life." Imagine
     these word-paintings as drawn by Mr. Ingersoll under the
     most favorable circumstances, and you have an idea of that
     address. Mr. Ingersoll the Agnostic is a very different man
     from Mr. Ingersoll the man and patriot. I cannot share the
     doubts of this Agnostic. I cannot help admiring the man and
     patriot.--The Rev. Frank McAlpine, Peoria Star, August 1,
     1895.




THE CHICAGO AND NEW YORK GOLD SPEECH.

     * "This world will see but one Ingersoll."

     Such was the terse, laconic, yet potent utterance that came
     spontaneously from a celebrated statesman whose head is now
     pillowed in the dust of death, as he stood in the lobby of
     the old Burnet House in Cincinnati after the famous
     Republican Convention in that city in 1876, at which Colonel
     Robert G. Ingersoll made that powerful speech nominating
     Blaine for the Presidency, one which is read and reread to-
     day, and will be read in the future, as an example of the
     highest art of the platform.

     That same sentiment in thought, emotion or vocal expression
     emanated from upward of twenty thousand citizens last night
     who heard the eloquent and magic Ingersoll in the great
     tent stretched near the corner of Sacramento avenue and Lake
     street as he expounded the living gospel of true
     Republicanism.

     The old warhorse, silvered by long years of faithful service
     to his country, aroused the same all-pervading enthusiasm as
     he did in the campaigns of Grant and Hayes and Garfield.

     He has lost not one whit, not one iota of his striking
     physical presence, his profound reasoning, his convincing
     logic, his rollicking wit, grandiloquence--in fine, all the
     graces of the orator of old, reenforced by increased
     patriotism and the ardor of the call to battle for his
     country, are still his in the fullest measure.

     Ingersoll in his powerful speech at Cincinnati, spoke in
     behalf of a friend; last night he plead for his country. In
     1876 he eulogized a man; last night, twenty years afterward,
     he upheld the principles of democratic government. Such was
     the difference in his theme; the logic, the eloquence of his
     utterances was the more profound In the same ratio.

     He came to the ground floor of human existence and talked as
     man to man. His patriotism, be it religion, sentiment, or
     that lofty spirit inseparable from man's soul, is his life.
     Last night he sought to inspire those who heard him with the
     same loyalty, and he succeeded.

     Those passionate outbursts of eloquence, the wit that fairly
     scintillated, the logic as Inexorable as heaven's decrees,
     his rich rhetoric and immutable facts driven straight to his
     hearers with the strength of bullets, aroused applause that
     came as spontaneous as sunlight.

     Now eliciting laughter, now silence, now cheers, the great
     orator, with the singular charm of presence, manner and
     voice, swayed his immense audience at his own volition.
     Packed with potency was every sentence, each word a living
     thing, and with them he flayed financial heresy, laid bare
     the dire results of free trade, and exposed the dangers of
     Populism.

     It was an immense audience that greeted him. The huge tent
     was packed from center-pole to circumference, and thousands
     went away because they could not gain entrance. The houses
     in the vicinity were beautifully illuminated decorated.

     The Chairman, Wm. P. McCabe, in a brief but forcible speech,
     presented Colonel Ingersoll to the vast audience. As the old
     veteran of rebellion days arose from his seat, one
     prolonged, tremendous cheer broke forth from the twenty
     thousand throats. And it was fully fifteen minutes before
     the great orator could begin to deliver his address.

     In his introductory speech Mr. McCabe said:

     "Friends and Fellow-Citizens: I have no set speech to make
     to-night. My duty Is to introduce to you one whose big heart
     and big brain is filled with love and patriotic care for the
     things that concern the country he fought for and loved so
     well. I now have the honor of introducing to you Hon. Robert
     G. Ingersoll."--The Intrr-Ocean, Chicago, 111., October 9th,
     1895.


1896.

LADIES and Gentlemen: This is our country.

The legally expressed will of the majority is the supreme law of the
land. We are responsible for what our Government does. We cannot excuse
ourselves because of the act of some king, or the opinions of nobles. We
are the kings. We are the nobles. We are the aristocracy of America, and
when our Government does right we are honored, and when our Government
does wrong the brand of shame is on the American brow.

Again we are on the field of battle, where thought contends with
thought, the field of battle where facts are bullets and arguments are
swords.

To-day there is in the United States a vast congress consisting of the
people, and in that congress every man has a voice, and it is the duty
of every man to inquire into all questions presented, to the end that he
may vote as a man and as a patriot should.

No American should be dominated by prejudice. No man standing under our
flag should follow after the fife and drum of a party. He should say to
himself: "I am a free man, and I will discharge the obligations of an
American citizen with all the intelligence I possess."

I love this country because the people are free; and if they are not
free it is their own fault.

To-night I am not going to appeal to your prejudices, if you have any.
I am going to talk to the sense that you have. I am going to address
myself to your brain and to your heart. I want nothing of you except
that you will preserve the institutions of the Republic; that you will
maintain her honor unstained. That is all I ask.

I admit that all the parties who disagree with me are honest. Large
masses of mankind are always honest, the leader not always, but the mass
of people do what they believe to be right. Consequently there is no
argument in abuse, nothing calculated to convince in calumny. To be
kind, to be candid, is far nobler, far better, and far more American. We
live in a Democracy, and we admit that every other human being has the
same right to think, the same right to express his thought, the same
right to vote that we have, and I want every one who hears me to vote
in exact accord with his sense, to cast his vote in accordance with
his conscience. I want every one to do the best he can for the great
Republic, and no matter how he votes, if he is honest, I shall find no
fault.

But the great thing is to understand what you are going to do; the great
thing is to use the little sense that we have. In most of us the capital
is small, and it ought to be turned often. We ought to pay attention, we
ought to listen to what is said and then think, think for ourselves.

Several questions have been presented to the American people for their
solution, and I propose to speak a little about those questions, and I
do not want you to pretend to agree with me. I want no applause unless
you honestly believe I am right.

Three great questions are presented: First, as to money; second, as
to the tariff, and third, whether this Government has the right of
self-defence. Whether this is a Government of law, or whether there
shall be an appeal from the Supreme Court to a mob. These are the three
questions to be answered next Tuesday by the American people.

First, let us take up this money question. Thousands and thousands of
speeches have been made on the subject. Pamphlets thick as the leaves
of autumn have been scattered from one end of the Republic to the other,
all about money, as if it were an exceedingly metaphysical question, as
though there were something magical about it.

What is money? Money is a product of nature. Money is a part of nature.
Money is something that man cannot create. All the legislatures and
congresses of the world cannot by any possibility create one dollar, any
more than they could suspend the attraction of gravitation or hurl a
new constellation into the concave sky. Money is not made. It has to be
found. It is dug from the crevices of rocks, washed from the sands of
streams, from the gravel of ancient valleys; but it is not made. It
cannot be created. Money is something that does not have to be redeemed.
Money is the redeemer. And yet we have a man running for the presidency
on three platforms with two Vice-Presidents, who says that money is the
creature of law. It may be that law sometimes is the creature of money,
but money was never the creature of law.

A nation can no more create money by law than it can create corn and
wheat and barley by law, and the promise to pay money is no nearer money
than a warehouse receipt is grain, or a bill of fare is a dinner. If you
can make money by law, why should any nation be poor?

The supply of law is practically unlimited. Suppose one hundred people
should settle on an island, form a government, elect a legislature. They
would have the power to make law, and if law can make money, if money
is the creature of law, why should not these one hundred people on the
island be as wealthy as Great Britain? What is to hinder? And yet we are
told that money is the creature of law. In the financial world that
is as absurd as perpetual motion in mechanics; it is as absurd as the
fountain of eternal youth, the philosopher's stone, or the transmutation
of metals.

What is a dollar? People imagine that a piece of paper with pictures on
it, with signatures, is money. The greenback is not money--never was;
never will be. It is a promise to pay money; not money. The note of the
nation is no nearer money than the note of an individual. A bank note is
not money. It is a promise to pay money; that is all.

Well, what is a dollar? In the civilized world it is twenty-three grains
and twenty-two one hundredths of pure gold. That is a dollar. Well,
cannot we make dollars out of silver? Yes, I admit it, but in order to
make a silver dollar you have got to put a dollars worth of silver in
the silver dollar, and you have to put as much silver in it as you can
buy for twenty-three grains and twenty-two one-hundredths' of a grain
of pure gold. It takes a dollar's worth of silver to make a dollar.
It takes a dollar's worth of paper to make a paper dollar. It takes a
dollar's worth of iron to make an iron dollar; and there is no way of
making a dollar without the value.

And let me tell you another thing. You do not add to the value of gold
by coining it any more than you add to the value of wheat by measuring
it; any more than you add to the value of coal by weighing it. Why do
you coin gold? Because every man cannot take a chemist's outfit with
him. He cannot carry a crucible and retort, scales and acids, and so
the Government coins it, simply to certify how much gold there is in the
piece.

Ah, but, says this same gentleman, what gives our money--our silver--its
value? It is because it is a legal tender, he says. Nonsense; nonsense.
Gold was not given value by being made a legal tender, but being
valuable it was made a legal tender. And gold gets no value to-day from
being a legal tender. I not only say that, but I will prove it; and I
will not only prove it, but I will demonstrate it. Take a twenty dollar
gold piece, hammer it out of shape, mar the Goddess of Liberty, pound
out the United States of America and batter the eagle, and after you get
it pounded how much is it worth?

It is worth exactly twenty dollars. Is it a legal tender? No. Has its
value been changed? No. Take a silver dollar. It is a legal tender; now
pound it into a cube, and how much is it worth? A little less than fifty
cents. What gives it the value of a dollar? The fact that it is a legal
tender? No; but the promise of the Government to keep it on an equality
with gold. I will not only say this, but I will demonstrate it. I do not
ask you to take my word; just use the sense you have.

The Mexican silver dollar has a little more silver in it than one of our
dollars, and the Mexican silver dollar is a legal tender in Mexico. If
there is any magic about legal tender it ought to work as well in Mexico
as in the United States. I take an American silver dollar and I go
to Mexico. I buy a dinner for a dollar and I give to the Mexican the
American dollar and he gives me a Mexican dollar in change. Yet both of
the dollars are legal tender. Why is it that the Mexican dollar is worth
only fifty cents? Because the Mexican Government has not agreed to keep
it equal with gold; that is all, that is all.

We want the money of the civilized world, and I will tell you now that
in the procession of nations every silver nation lags behind--every one.
There is not a silver nation on the globe where decent wages are paid
for human labor--not one. The American laborer gets ten times as much
here in gold as a laborer gets in China in silver, twenty times as much
as a laborer does in India, four times as much as a laborer gets in
Russia; and yet we are told that the man who will "follow England" with
the gold standard lacks patriotism and manhood. What then shall we
say of the man that follows China, that follows India in the silver
standard?

Does that require patriotism?

It certainly requires self-denial.

And yet these gentlemen say that our money is too good. They might as
well say the air is too pure; they might as well say the soil is too
rich. How can money be too good? Mr. Bryan says that it is so good,
people hoard it; and let me tell him they always will. Mr. Bryan wants
money so poor that everybody will be anxious to spend it. He wants money
so poor that the rich will not have it. Then he thinks the poor can get
it. We are willing to toil for good money. Good money means the comforts
and luxuries of life. Real money is always good. Paper promises and
silver substitutes may be poor; words and pictures may be cheap and may
fade to worthlessness--but gold shines on.

In Chicago, many years ago, there was an old colored man at the Grand
Pacific. I met him one morning, and he looked very sad, and I said to
him, "Uncle, what is the matter?" "Well," he said, "my wife ran away
last night. Pretty good looking woman; a good deal younger than I am;
but she has run off." And he says: "Colonel, I want to give you my idea
about marriage. If a man wants to marry a woman and have a good time,
and be satisfied and secure in his mind, he wants to marry some woman
that no other man on God's earth would have."

That is the kind of money these gentlemen want in the United States.
Cheap money. Do you know that the words cheap money are a contradiction
in terms? Cheap money is always discounted when people find out that it
is cheap. We want good money, and I do not care how much we get. But we
want good money. Men are willing to toil for good money; willing to
work in the mines; willing to work in the heat and glare of the furnace;
willing to go to the top of the mast on the wild sea; willing to work
in tenements; women are willing to sew with their eyes filled with tears
for the sake of good money. And if anything is to be paid in good money,
labor is that thing. If any man is entitled to pure gold, it is the man
who labors. Let the big fellows take cheap money. Let the men living
next the soil be paid in gold. But I want the money of this country as
good as that of any other country.

When our money is below par we feel below par. I want our money, no
matter how it is payable, to have the gold behind it. That is the money
I want in the United States.

I want to teach the people of the world that a Democracy is honest. I
want to teach the people of the world that America is not only capable
of self-government, but that it has the self-denial, the courage, the
honor, to pay its debts to the last farthing.

Mr. Bryan tells the farmers who are in debt that they want cheap money.
What for? To pay their debts. And he thinks that is a compliment to the
tillers of the soil. The statement is an insult to the farmers, and the
farmers of Maine and Vermont have answered him.

And if the farmers of those States with their soil can be honest, I
think a farmer in Illinois has no excuse for being a rascal. I regard
the farmers as honest men, and when the sun shines and the rains fall
and the frosts wait, they will pay their debts. They are good men, and I
want to tell you to-night that all the stories that have been told about
farmers being Populists are not true.

You will find the Populists in the towns, in the great cities, in
the villages. All the failures, no matter for what reason, are on the
Populist's side. They want to get rich by law. They are tired of work.

And yet Mr. Bryan says vote for cheap money so that you can pay your
debts in fifty cent dollars. Will an honest man do it?

Suppose a man has borrowed a thousand bushels of wheat of his neighbor,
of sixty pounds to the bushel, and then Congress should pass a law
making thirty pounds of wheat a bushel. Would that farmer pay his debt
with five hundred bushels and consider himself an honest man?

Mr. Bryan says, "Vote for cheap money to pay your debts," and thereupon
the creditor says, "What is to become of me?" Mr. Bryan says, "We will
make it one dollar and twenty-nine cents an ounce, and make it of the
ratio of sixteen to one, make it as good as gold." And thereupon the
poor debtor says, "How is that going to help me?" And in nearly all the
speeches that this man has made he has taken the two positions, first,
that we want cheap money to pay debts, and second, that the money would
be just as good as gold for creditors.

Now, the question is: Can Congress make fifty cents' worth of silver
worth one dollar? That is the question, and if Congress can, then I
oppose the scheme on account of its extravagance. What is the use of
wasting all that silver? Think about it. If Congress can make fifty
cents' worth of silver worth a dollar by law, why can it not make one
cent's worth of silver worth a dollar by law. Let us save the silver and
use it for forks and spoons. The supply even of silver is limited--the
supply of law is inexhaustible. Do not waste silver, use more law. You
cannot fix values by law any more than you can make cooler summers by
shortening thermometers.

There is another trouble. If Congress, by the free coinage of silver,
can double its value, why should we allow an Englishman with a million
dollars' worth of silver bullion at the market price, to bring it to
America, have it coined free of charge, and make it exactly double the
value? Why should we put a million dollars in his pocket? That is too
generous. Why not buy the silver from him in the open market and let the
Government make the million dollars? Nothing is more absurd; nothing is
more idiotic. I admit that Mr. Bryan is honest. I admit it. If he were
not honest his intellectual pride would not allow him to make these
statements.

Well, another thing says our friend, "Gold has been cornered"; and
thousands of people believe it.

You have no idea of the credulity of some folks. I say that it has not
been cornered, and I will not only prove it, I will demonstrate it.
Whenever the Stock Exchange or some of the members have a corner on
stocks, that stock goes up, and if it does not, that corner bursts.
Whenever gentlemen in Chicago get up a corner on wheat in the Produce
Exchange, wheat goes up or the corner bursts. And yet they tell me there
has been a corner in gold for all these years, yet since 1873 to the
present time the rate of interest has steadily gone down.

If there had been a corner the rate of interest would have steadily
advanced. There is a demonstration. But let me ask, for my own
information, if they corner gold what will prevent their cornering
silver? Or are you going to have it so poor that it will not be worth
cornering?

Then they say another thing, and that is that the demonetization of
silver is responsible for all the hardships we have endured, for all the
bankruptcy, for all the panics. That is not true, and I will not only
prove it, but I will demonstrate it. The poison of demonetization
entered the American veins, as they tell us, in 1873, and has been busy
in its hellish work from that time to this; and yet, nineteen years
after we were vaccinated, 1892, was the most prosperous year ever known
by this Republic. All the wheels turning, all the furnaces aflame,
work at good wages, everybody prosperous. How, Mr. Bryanite, how do you
account for that? Just be honest a minute and think about it.

Then there is another thing. In 1816 Great Britain demonetized silver,
and that wretched old government has had nothing but gold from that day
to this as a standard. And to show you the frightful results of that
demonetization, that government does not own now above one-third of
the globe, and all the winds are busy floating her flags. There is a
demonstration.

Mr. Bryan tells us that free coinage will bring silver 16 to 1. What is
the use of stopping there? Why not make it 1 to 1? Why not make it equal
with gold and be done with it? And why should it stop at exactly one
dollar and twenty-nine cents? I do not know. I am not well acquainted
with all the facts that enter into the question of value, but why should
it stop at exactly one dollar and twenty-nine cents? I do not know. And
I guess if he were cross-examined along toward the close of the trial he
would admit that he did not know.

And yet this statesman calls this silver the money of our fathers. Well,
let us see. Our fathers did some good things. In 1792 they made gold and
silver the standards, and at a ratio of 15 to 1. But where you have two
metals and endeavor to make a double standard it is very hard to keep
them even. They vary, and, as old Dogberry says, "An two men ride of a
horse, one must ride behind." They made the ratio 15 to 1, and who did
it? Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson, the greatest
man, with one exception, that ever sat in the presidential chair. With
one exception. [A voice: "Who was that?"] Abraham Lincoln. Alexander
Hamilton, with more executive ability than any other man that ever
stood under the flag. And how did they fix the ratio? They found the
commercial value in the market; that is how they did it. And they went
on and issued American dollars 15 to 1; and in 1806, when Jefferson was
President, the coinage was stopped. Why? There was too much silver in
the dollars, and people instead of passing them around put them aside
and sold them to the silversmiths.

Then in 1834 the ratios changed; not quite sixteen to one. That was
based again on the commercial value, and instead of sixteen to one they
went into the thousands in decimals. It was not quite sixteen to one.
They wanted to fix it absolutely on the commercial value. Then a few
more dollars were coined; and our fathers coined of these sacred dollars
up to 1873, eight millions, and seven millions had been melted.

In 1853 the gold standard was in fact adopted, and, as I have told you,
from 1792 to 1873 only eight millions of silver had been coined.

What have the "enemies of silver" done since that time? Under the act
of 1878 we have coined over four hundred and thirty millions of these
blessed dollars. We bought four million ounces of silver in the open
market every month, and in spite of the vast purchases silver continued
to go down. We are coining about two millions a month now, and silver is
still going down. Even the expectation of the election of Bryan cannot
add the tenth of one per cent, to the value of silver bullion. It is
going down day by day.

But what I want to say to-night is, if you want silver money, measure it
by the gold standard.

I wish every one here would read the speech of Senator Sherman,
delivered at Columbus a little while ago, in which he gives the history
of American coinage, and every man who will read it will find
that silver was not demonetized in 1873. You will find that it was
demonetized in 1853, and if he will read back he will find that the
apostles of silver now were in favor of the gold standard in 1873.
Senator Jones of Nevada in 1873 voted for the law of 1873. He said from
his seat in the Senate, that God had made gold the standard. He said
that gold was the mother of civilization. Whether he has heard from God
since or not I do not know. But now he is on the other side. Senator
Stewart of Nevada was there at the time; he voted for the act of 1873,
and said that gold was the only standard. He has changed his mind. So
they have said of me that I used to talk another way, and they have
published little portions of speeches, without publishing all that was
said. I want to tell you to-night that I have never changed on the money
question.

On many subjects I have changed. I am very glad to feel that I have
grown a little in the last forty or fifty years. And a man should allow
himself to grow, to bud and blossom and bear new fruit, and not be
satisfied with the rotten apples under the tree.

But on the money question I have not changed. Sixteen years ago in this
city at Cooper Union, in 1880, in discussing this precise question, I
said that I wanted gold and silver and paper; that I wanted the paper
issued by the General Government, and back of every paper dollar I
wanted a gold dollar or a silver dollar worth a dollar in gold. I said
then, "I want that silver dollar worth a dollar in gold if you have
to make it four feet in diameter." I said then, "I want our paper so
perfectly secure that when the savage in Central Africa looks upon a
Government bill of the United States his eyes will gleam as though he
looked at shining gold." I said then, "I want every paper dollar of the
Union to be able to hold up its hand and swear, 'I know that my Redeemer
liveth.'" I said then, "The Republic cannot afford to debase money;
cannot afford to be a clipper of coin; an honest nation, honest
money; for nations as well as individuals, honesty is the best policy
everywhere and forever." I have not changed on that subject. As I told
a gentleman the other day, "I am more for silver than you are because I
want twice as much of it in a dollar as you do."

Ah, but they say, "free coinage would bring prosperity." I do not
believe it, and I will tell you why. Elect Bryan, come to the silver
standard, and what would happen? We have in the United States about six
hundred million dollars in gold. Every dollar would instantly go out
of circulation. Why? No man will use the best money when he can use
cheaper. Remember that. No carpenter will use mahogany when his contract
allows pine. Gold will go out of circulation, and what next would
happen? All the greenbacks would fall to fifty cents on the dollar. The
only reason they are worth a dollar now is because the Government has
agreed to pay them in gold. When you come to a silver basis they fall to
fifty cents. What next? All the national bank notes would be cut square
in two. Why? Because they are secured by United States bonds, and when
we come to a silver basis, United States bonds would be paid in silver,
fifty cents on the dollar. And what else would happen? What else? These
sacred silver dollars would instantly become fifty cent pieces, because
they would no longer be redeemable in gold; because the Government would
no longer be under obligation to keep them on a parity with gold. And
how much currency and specie would that leave for us in the United
States? In value three hundred and fifty million dollars. That is five
dollars per capita. We have twenty dollars per capita now, and yet
they want to go to five dollars for the purpose of producing prosperous
times!

What else would happen? Every human being living on an income would lose
just one-half. Every soldiers' pension would be cut in two. Every human
being who has a credit in the savings bank would lose just one-half.
All the life insurance companies would pay just one-half. All the fire
insurance companies would pay just one-half, and leave you the ashes for
the balance. That is what they call prosperity.

And what else? The Republic would be dishonored. The believers in
monarchy--in the divine right of kings--the aristocracies of the Old
World--would say, "Democracy is a failure, freedom is a fraud, and
liberty is a liar;" and we would be compelled to admit the truth. No;
we want good, honest money. We want money that will be good when we are
dead. We want money that will keep the wolf from the door, no matter
what Congress does. We want money that no law can create; that is what
we want. There was a time when Rome was mistress of the world, and there
was a time when the arch of the empire fell, and the empire was buried
in the dust of oblivion; and before those days the Roman people coined
gold, and one of those coins is as good to-night as when Julius Cæsar
rode at the head of his legions. That is the money we want. We want
money that is honest.

But Mr. Bryan hates the bondholders. Who are the bondholders? Let us be
honest; let us have some sense. When this Government was in the flame
of civil war it was compelled to sell bonds, and everybody who bought a
bond bought it because he believed the great Republic would triumph at
last. Every man who bought a bond was our friend, and every bond that
he purchased added to the chances of our success. They were our friends,
and I respect them all. Most of them are dead, and the bonds they bought
have been sold and resold maybe hundreds of times, and the men who have
them now paid a hundred and twenty in gold, and why should they not be
paid in gold? Can any human being think of any reason? And yet Mr. Bryan
says that the debt is so great that it cannot be paid in gold. How much
is the Republic worth? Let me tell you? This Republic to-day--its
lands in cultivation, its houses, railways, canals, and money--is worth
seventy thousand million dollars. And what do we owe? One billion five
hundred million dollars, and what is the condition of the country? It is
the condition of a man who has seventy dollars and owes one dollar and
a half. This is the richest country on the globe. Have we any excuse for
being thieves? Have we any excuse for failing to pay the debt? No, sir;
no, sir. Mr. Bryan hates the bondholders of the railways. Why? I do not
know. What did those wretches do? They furnished the money to build the
one hundred and eighty thousand miles of railway in the United States;
that is what they did.

They paid the money that threw up the road-bed, that shoveled the
gravel; they paid the men that turned the ore into steel and put it in
form for use; they paid the men that cut down the trees and made the
ties, that manufactured the locomotives and the cars. That is what they
did. No wonder that a presidential failure hates them.

So this man hates bankers. Now, what is a banker? Here is a little town
of five thousand people, and some of them have a little money. They do
not want to keep it in the house because some Bryan man might find it; I
mean if it were silver. So one citizen buys a safe and rents a room
and tells all the people, "You deposit the overplus with me to hold it
subject to your order upon your orders signed as checks;" and so they
do, and in a little while he finds that he has on hand continually about
one hundred thousand dollars more than is called for, and thereupon he
loans it to the fellow who started the livery stable and to the chap
that opened the grocery and to the fellow with the store, and he makes
this idle money work for the good and prosperity of that town. And that
is all he does. And these bankers now, if Mr. Bryan becomes President,
can pay the depositors in fifty cent dollars; and yet they are such
rascally wretches that they say, "We prefer to pay back gold." You can
see how mean they are.

Mr. Bryan hates the rich. Would he like to be rich? He hates the
bondholders. Would he like to have a million? He hates the successful
man. Does he want to be a failure? If he does, let him wait until
the third day of November. We want honest money because we are honest
people; and there never was any real prosperity for a nation or an
individual without honesty, without integrity, and it is our duty to
preserve the reputation of the great Republic.

Better be an honest bankrupt than a rich thief. Poverty can hold in its
hand the jewel, honor--a jewel that outshines all other gems. A thousand
times better be poor and noble than rich and fraudulent.

Then there is another question--the question of the tariff. I admit that
there are a great many arguments in favor of free trade, but I assert
that all the facts are the other way. I want American people as far as
possible to manufacture everything that Americans use.

The more industries we have the more we will develop the American brain,
and the best crop you can raise in every country is a crop of good men
and good women--of intelligent people. And another thing, I want to keep
this market for ourselves. A nation that sells raw material will grow
ignorant and poor; a nation that manufactures will grow intelligent and
rich. It only takes muscle to dig ore. It takes mind to manufacture
a locomotive, and only that labor is profitable that is mixed with
thought. Muscle must be in partnership with brain. I am in favor of
keeping this market for ourselves, and yet some people say: "Give us the
market of the world." Well, why don't you take it? There is no export
duty on anything. You can get things out of this country cheaper than
from any other country in the world. Iron is as cheap here in the
ground, so are coal and stone, as any place on earth. The timber is as
cheap in the forest. Why don't you make things and sell them in Central
Africa, in China and Japan? Why don't you do it? I will tell you why.
It is because labor is too high; that is all. Almost the entire value is
labor. You make a ton of steel rails worth twenty-five dollars; the ore
in the ground is worth only a few cents, the coal in the earth only a
few cents, the lime in the cliff only a few cents--altogether not
one dollar and fifty cents; but the ton is worth twenty-five dollars;
twenty-three dollars and fifty cents labor! That is the trouble. The
steamship is worth five hundred thousand dollars, but the raw material
is not worth ten thousand dollars. The rest is labor. Why is labor
higher here than in Europe? Protection. And why do these gentlemen ask
for the trade of the world? Why do they ask for free trade? Because
they want cheaper labor. That is all; cheaper labor. The markets of
the world! We want our own markets. I would rather have the market
of Illinois than all of China with her four hundred millions. I would
rather have the market of one good county in New York than all of
Mexico. What do they want in Mexico? A little red calico, a few
sombreros and some spurs. They make their own liquor and they live on
red pepper and beans. What do you want of their markets? We want to keep
our own. In other words, we want to pursue the policy that has given us
prosperity in the past. We tried a little bit of free trade in 1892 when
we were all prosperous. I said then: "If Grover Cleveland is elected it
will cost the people five hundred million dollars." I am no prophet, nor
the son of a prophet, nor a profitable son, but I placed the figure too
low. His election has cost a thousand million dollars. There is an old
song, "You Put the Wrong Man off at Buffalo;" we took the wrong man on
at Buffalo. We tried just a little of it, not much. We tried the
Wilson bill--a bill, according to Mr. Cleveland, born of perfidy and
dishonor--a bill that he was not quite foolish enough to sign and
not brave enough to veto. We tried it and we are tired of it, and if
experience is a teacher the American people know a little more than they
did. We want to do our own work, and we want to mingle our thought with
our labor. We are the most inventive of all the peoples. We sustain the
same relation to invention that the ancient Greeks did to sculpture. We
want to develop the brain; we want to cultivate the imagination, and we
want to cover our land with happy homes. A thing is worth sometimes the
thought that is in it, sometimes the genius. Here is a man buys a little
piece of linen for twenty-five cents, he buys a few paints for fifteen
cents, and a few brushes, and he paints a picture; just a little one; a
picture, maybe, of a cottage with a dear old woman, white hair,
serene forehead and satisfied eyes; at the corner a few hollyhocks in
bloom--may be a tree in blossom, and as you listen you seem to hear the
songs of birds--the hum of bees, and your childhood all comes back to
you as you look. You feel the dewy grass beneath your bare feet once
again, and you go back in your mind until the dear old woman on the
porch is once more young and fair. There is a soul there. Genius has
done its work. And the little picture is worth five, ten, may be fifty
thousand dollars. All the result of labor and genius.

And another thing we want is to produce great men and great women here
in our own country; then again we want business. Talk about charity,
talk about the few dollars that fall unconsciously from the hand of
wealth, talk about your poorhouses and your sewing societies and your
poor little efforts in the missionary line in the worst part of your
town! Ah, there is no charity like business. Business gives work to
labor's countless hands; business wipes the tears from the eyes of
widows and orphans; business dimples with joy the cheek of sorrow;
business puts a roof above the heads of the homeless; business covers
the land with happy homes.

We do not want any populistic philanthropy. We want no fiat philosophy.
We want no silver swindles. We want business. Wind and wave are our
servants; let them work. Steam and electricity are our slaves; let them
toil. Let all the wheels whirl; let all the shuttles fly. Fill the air
with the echoes of hammer and saw. Fill the furnace with flame; the
moulds with liquid iron. Let them glow.

Build homes and palaces of trade. Plow the fields, reap the waving
grain. Create all things that man can use. Business will feed the
hungry, clothe the naked, educate the ignorant, enrich the world with
art--fill the air with song. Give us Protection and Prosperity. Do not
cheat us with free trade dreams. Do not deceive us with debased coin.
Give us good money--the life blood of business--and let it flow through
the veins and arteries of commerce.

And let me tell you to-night the smoke arising from the factories' great
plants forms the only cloud on which has ever been seen the glittering
bow of American promise. We want work, and I tell you to-night that my
sympathies are with the men who work, with the women who weep. I
know that labor is the Atlas on whose shoulders rests the great
superstructure of civilization and the great dome of science adorned
with all there is of art. Labor is the great oak, labor is the great
column, and labor, with its deft and cunning hands, has created the
countless things of art and beauty. I want to see labor paid. I want to
see capital civilized until it will be willing to give labor its share,
and I want labor intelligent enough to settle all these questions in the
high court of reason. And let me tell the workingman to-night: You will
never help your self by destroying your employer. You have work to sell.
Somebody has to buy it, if it is bought, and somebody has to buy it that
has the money. Who is going to manufacture something that will not sell.
Nobody is going into the manufacturing business through philanthropy,
and unless your employer makes a profit, the mill will be shut down and
you will be out of work. The interest of the employer and the employed
should be one. Whenever the employers of the continent are successful,
then the workingman is better paid, and you know it. I have some hope in
the future for the workingman. I know what it is to work. I do not think
my natural disposition runs in that direction, but I know what it is
to work, and I have worked with all my might at one dollar and a half a
week. I did the work of a man for fifty cents a day, and I was not sorry
for it. In the horizon of my future burned and gleamed the perpetual
star of hope. I said to myself: I live in a free country, and I have
a chance; I live in a free country, and I have as much liberty as any
other man beneath the flag, and I have enjoyed it.

Something has been done for labor. Only a few years ago a man worked
fifteen or sixteen hours a day, but the hours have been reduced to at
least ten and are on the way to still further reduction. And while the
hours have been decreased the wages have as certainly been increased. In
forty years--in less--the wages of American workingmen have doubled. A
little while ago you received an average of two hundred and eighty-five
dollars a year; now you receive an average of more than four hundred and
ninety dollars; there is the difference. So it seems to me that the star
of hope is still in the sky for every workingman. Then there is another
thing: every workingman in this country can take his little boy on his
knee and say, "John, all the avenues to distinction, wealth, and glory
are open to you. There is the free school; take your chances with the
rest." And it seems to me that that thought ought to sweeten every drop
of sweat that trickles down the honest brow of toil.

So let us have protection! How much? Enough, so that our income at least
will equal our outgo. That is a good way to keep house. I am tired of
depression and deficit. I do not like to see a President pawning bonds
to raise money to pay his own salary. I do not like to see the great
Republic at the mercy of anybody, so let us stand by protection.

There is another trouble. The gentleman now running for the
presidency--a tireless talker--oh, if he had a brain equal to his vocal
chords, what a man! And yet when I read his speeches it seems to me
as though he stood on his head and thought with his feet. This man is
endeavoring to excite class against class, to excite the poor against
the rich. Let me tell you something. We have no classes in the United
States. There are no permanent classes here. The millionaire may be a
mendicant, the mendicant may be a millionaire. The man now working for
the millionaire may employ that millionaire's sons to work for him.
There is a chance for us all. Sometimes a numskull is born in the
mansion, and a genius rises from the gutter. Old Mother Nature has a
queer way of taking care of her children. You cannot tell. You cannot
tell. Here we have a free open field of competition, and if a man passes
me in the race I say: "Good luck. Get ahead of me if you can, you are
welcome."

And why should I hate the rich? Why should I make my heart a den of
writhing, hissing snakes of envy? Get rich. I do not care. I am glad I
live in a country where somebody can get rich. It is a spur in the flank
of ambition. Let them get rich. I have known good men that were
quite rich, and I have known some mean men who were in straitened
circumstances. So I have known as good men as ever breathed the air, who
were poor. We must respect the man; what is inside, not what is outside.

That is why I like this country. That is why I do not want it
dishonored. I want no class feeling. The citizens of America should be
friends. Where capital is just and labor intelligent, happiness dwells.
Fortunate that country where the rich are extravagant and the poor
economical. Miserable that country where the rich are economical and the
poor are extravagant. A rich spendthrift is a blessing. A rich miser is
a curse. Extravagance is a splendid form of charity. Let the rich spend,
let them build, let them give work to their fellow-men, and I will find
no fault with their wealth, provided they obtained it honestly.

There was an old fellow by the name of Socrates. He happened to be
civilized, living in a barbarous time, and he was tried for his life.
And in his speech in which he defended himself is a paragraph that ought
to remain in the memory of the human race forever.

He said to those judges, "During my life I have not sought ambition,
wealth. I have not sought to adorn my body, but I have endeavored to
adorn my soul with the jewels of patience and justice, and above all,
with the love of liberty." Such a man rises above all wealth.

Why should we envy the rich? Why envy a man who has no earthly needs?
Why envy a man that carries a hundred canes? Why envy a man who has that
which he cannot use? I know a great many rich men and I have read about
a great many others, and I do not envy them. They are no happier than
I am. You see, after all, few rich men own their property. The property
owns them. It gets them up early in the morning. It will not let them
sleep; it makes them suspect their friends. Sometimes they think their
children would like to attend a first-class funeral. Why should we
envy the rich? They have fear; we have hope. They are on the top of the
ladder; we are close to the ground. They are afraid of falling, and we
hope to rise.

Why should we envy the rich? They never drank any colder water than I
have. They never ate any lighter biscuits or any better corn bread. They
never drank any better Illinois wine, or felt better after drinking it,
than I have; than you have. They never saw any more glorious sunsets
with the great palaces of amethyst and gold, and they never saw the
heavens thicker with constellations; they never read better poetry. They
know no more about the ecstasies of love than we do. They never got any
more pleasure out of courting than I did. Why should we envy the rich?
I know as much about the ecstasies of love of wife and child and friends
as they. They never had any better weather in June than I have, or you
have. They can buy splendid pictures. I can look at them. And who owns
a great picture or a great statue? The man who bought it? Possibly, and
possibly not. The man who really owns it, is the man who understands
it, that appreciates it, the man into whose heart its beauty and genius
come, the man who is ennobled and refined and glorified by it.

They have never heard any better music than I have.

When the great notes, winged like eagles, soar to the great dome of
sound, I have felt just as good as though I had a hundred million
dollars.

Do not try to divide this country into classes. The rich man that
endeavors to help his fellow-man deserves the honor and respect of the
great Republic. I have nothing against the man that got rich in the
free and open field of competition. Where they combine to rob their
fellow-men, then I want the laws enforced. That is all. Let them play
fair and they are welcome to all they get.

And why should we hate the successful? Why? We cannot all be first. The
race is a vast procession; a great many hundred millions are back of the
center, and in front there is only one human being; that is all. Shall
we wait for the other fellows to catch up? Shall the procession stop?
I say, help the fallen, assist the weak, help the poor, bind up the
wounds, but do not stop the procession.

Why should we envy the successful? Why should we hate them? And why
should we array class against class? It is all wrong. For instance, here
is a young man, and he is industrious. He is in love with a girl around
the corner. She is in his brain all day--in his heart all night, and
while he is working he is thinking. He gets a little ahead, they get
married. He is an honest man, he gets credit, and the first thing you
know he has a good business of his own and he gets rich; educates his
children, and his old age is filled with content and love. Good! His
companions bask in the sunshine of idleness. They have wasted their
time, wasted their wages in dissipation, and when the winter of life
comes, when the snow falls on the barren fields of the wasted days, then
shivering with cold, pinched with hunger, they curse the man who has
succeeded. Thereupon they all vote for Bryan.

Then there is another question, and that is whether the Government has
a right to protect itself? And that is whether the employees of railways
shall have a right to stop the trains, a right to prevent interstate
commerce, a right to burn bridges and shoot engineers? Has the United
States the right to protect commerce between the States? I say, yes.

It is the duty of the President to lay the mailed hand of the Republic
upon the mob. We want no mobs in this country. This is a Government of
the people and by the people, a Government of law, and these laws
should be interpreted by the courts in judicial calm. We have a supreme
tribunal. Undoubtedly it has made some bad decisions, but it has made
a vast number of good ones. The judges do the best they can. Of course
they are not like Mr. Bryan, infallible. But they are doing the best
they can, and when they make a decision that is wrong it will be
attacked by reason, it will be attacked by argument, and in time it will
be reversed, but I do not believe in attacking it with a torch or by a
mob. I hate the mob spirit. Civilized men obey the law. Civilized men
believe in order. Civilized men believe that a man that makes property
by industry and economy has the right to keep it. Civilized men believe
that that man has the right to use it as he desires, and they will judge
of his character by the manner in which he uses it. If he endeavors to
assist his fellow-man he will have the respect and admiration of his
fellow-men. But we want a Government of law. We do not want labor
questions settled by violence and blood.

I want to civilize the capitalist so that he will be willing to give
what labor is worth. I want to educate the workingman so that he will be
willing to receive what labor is worth. I want to civilize them both to
that degree that they can settle all their disputes in the high court of
reason.

But when you tell me that they can stop the commerce of the Nation, then
you preach the gospel of the bludgeon, the gospel of torch and bomb. I
do not believe in that religion. I believe in a religion of kindness,
reason and law. The law is the supreme will of the supreme people, and
we must obey it or we go back to savagery and black night. I stand
by the courts. I stand by the President who endeavors to preserve the
peace. I am against mobs; I am against lynchings, and I believe it is
the duty of the Federal Government to protect all of its citizens at
home and abroad; and I want a Government powerful enough to say to the
Governor of any State where they are murdering American citizens without
process of law--I want the Federal Government to say to the Governor of
that State: "Stop; stop shedding the blood of American citizens. And if
you cannot stop it, we can." I believe in a Government that will protect
the lowest, the poorest and weakest as promptly as the mightiest and
strongest. That is my Government. This old doctrine of State Sovereignty
perished in the flame of civil war, and I tell you to-night that that
infamous lie was surrendered to Grant with Lee's sword at Appomattox.

I believe in a strong Government, not in a Government that can make
money, but in a strong Government.

Oh, I forgot to ask the question, "If the Government can make money why
should it collect taxes?"

Let us be honest. Here is a poor man with a little yoke of cattle,
cultivating forty acres of stony ground, working like a slave in the
heat of summer, in the cold blasts of winter, and the Government makes
him pay ten dollars taxes, when, according to these gentlemen, it could
issue a one hundred thousand dollar bill in a second. Issue the bill and
give the fellow with the cattle a rest. Is it possible for the mind to
conceive anything more absurd than that the Government can create money?

Now, the next question is, or the next thing is, you have to choose
between men. Shall Mr. Bryan be the next President or shall McKinley
occupy that chair? Who is Mr. Bryan? He is not a tried man. If he had
the capacity to reason, if he had logic, if he could spread the wings of
imagination, if there were in his heart the divine flower called pity,
he might be an orator, but lacking all these, he is as he is.

When Major McKinley was fighting under the flag, Bryan was in his
mother's arms, and judging from his speeches he ought to be there still.
What is he? He is a Populist. He voted for General Weaver.

Only a little while ago he denied being a Democrat. His mind is filled
with vagaries. A fiat money man. His brain is an insane asylum without a
keeper.

Imagine that man President. Whom would he call about him? Upon whom
would he rely? Probably for Secretary of State he would choose Ignatius
Donnelly of Minnesota; for Secretary of the Interior, Henry George; for
Secretary of War, Tillman with his pitchforks; for Postmaster-General,
Peffer of Kansas. Once somebody said: "If you believe in fiat money,
why don't you believe in fiat hay, and you can make enough hay out of
Peffer's whiskers to feed all the cattle in the country." For Secretary
of the Treasury, Coin Harvey. For Secretary of the Navy, Coxey, and then
he could keep off the grass. And then would come the millennium. The
great cryptogram and the Bacon cipher; the single tax, State saloons,
fiat money, free silver, destruction of banks and credit, bondholders
and creditors mobbed, courts closed, debts repudiated and the rest of
the folks made rich by law.

And suppose Bryan should die, and then think, think of Thomas Watson
sitting in the chair of Abraham Lincoln. That is enough to give a
patriot political nightmare.

If McKinley dies there is an honest capable man to take his place. A man
who believes in business, in prosperity. A man who knows what money is.
A man who would never permit the laying of a land warrant on a cloud. A
man of good sense, a man of level head. A man that loves his country, a
man that will protect its honor.

And is McKinley a tried man? Honest, candid, level-headed, putting on
no airs, saying not what he thinks somebody else thinks, but what he
thinks, and saying it in his own honest, forcible way. He has made
hundreds of speeches during this campaign, not to people whom he ran
after, but to people who came to see him. Not from the tail end of cars,
but from the doorstep of his home, and every speech has been calculated
to make votes. Every speech has increased the respect of the American
people for him, every one. He has never slopped over. Four years ago
I read a speech made by him at Cleveland, on the tariff. I tell you
to-night that he is the best posted man on the tariff under the flag.
I tell you that he knows the road to prosperity. I read that speech. It
had foundation, proportion, dome, and he handled his facts as skillfully
as Caesar marshaled his hosts on the fields of war, and ever since
I read it I have had profound respect for the intelligence and
statesmanship of William McKinley.

He will call about him the best, the wisest, and the most patriotic
men, and his cabinet will respect the highest and loftiest interests and
aspirations of the American people.

Then you have to make another choice. You have to choose between
parties, between the new Democratic and the old Republican. And I want
to tell you the new Democratic is worse than the old, and that is a
good deal for me to say. In 1861 hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
Democrats thought more of country than of party. Hundreds and hundreds
of thousands shouldered their muskets, rushed to the rescue of the
Republic, and sustained the administration of Abraham Lincoln. With
their help the Rebellion was crushed, and now hundreds and hundreds of
thousands of Democrats will hold country above party and will join
with the Republicans in saving the honor, the reputation, of the United
States; and I want to say to all the National Democrats who feel that
they cannot vote for Bryan, I want to say to you, vote for McKinley.
This is no war for blank cartridges. Your gun makes as much noise, but
it does not do as much execution.

If you vote for Palmer it is not to elect him, it is simply to defeat
Bryan, and the sure way to defeat Bryan is to vote for McKinley. You
have to choose between parties. The new Democratic party, with its
allies, the Populists and Socialists and Free Silverites, represents the
follies, the mistakes, and the absurdities of a thousand years. They are
in favor of everything that cannot be done. Whatever is, is wrong. They
think creditors are swindlers, and debtors who refuse to pay their debts
are honest men. Good money is bad and poor money is good. A promise is
better than a performance. They desire to abolish facts, punish success,
and reward failure. They are worse than the old. And yet I want to be
honest. I am like the old Dutchman who made a speech in Arkansas. He
said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I must tell you the truth. There are
good and bad in all parties except the Democratic party, and in the
Democratic party there are bad and worse." The new Democratic party, a
party that believes in repudiation, a party that would put the stain of
dishonesty on every American brow and that would make this Government
subject to the mob.

You have to make your choice. I have made mine. I go with the party that
is traveling my way.

I do not pretend to belong to anything or that anything belongs to me.
When a party goes my way I go with that party and I stick to it as long
as it is traveling my road. And let me tell you something. The
history of the Republican party is the glory of the United States. The
Republican party has the enthusiasm of youth and the wisdom of old age.
The Republican party has the genius of administration. The Republican
party knows the wants of the people. The Republican party kept this
country on the map of the world and kept our flag in the air. The
Republican party made our country free, and that one fact fills all the
heavens with light. The Republican party is the pioneer of progress; the
grandest organization that has ever existed among men. The Republican
party is the conscience of the nineteenth century. I am proud to belong
to it. Vote the Republican ticket and you will be happy here, and if
there is another life you will be happy there.

I had an old friend down in Woodford County, Charley Mulidore. He won
a coffin on Lincoln's election. He took it home and every birthday he
called in his friends. They had a little game of "sixty-six" on the
coffin lid. When the game was over they opened the coffin and took out
the things to eat and drink and had a festival, and the minister in
the little town, hearing of it, was scandalized, and he went to Charley
Mulidore and he said: "Mr. Mulidore, how can you make light of such
awful things?" "What things?" "Why," he said, "Mr. Mulidore, what did
you do with that coffin? In a little while you die, and then you come
to the day of judgment." "Well, Mr. Preacher, when I come to that day of
judgment they will say, 'What is your name?' I will tell them, 'Charley
Mulidore.' And they will say, 'Mr. Mulidore, are you a Christian?' 'No,
sir, I was a Republican, and the coffin I got out of this morning I won
on Abraham Lincoln's election.' And then they will say, 'Walk in, Mr.
Mulidore, walk in, walk in; here is your halo and there is your harp.'"

If you want to live in good company vote the Republican ticket. Vote
for Black for Governor of the State of New York--a man in favor of
protection and honest money; a man that believes in the preservation of
the honor of the Nation. Vote for members of Congress that are true to
the great principles of the Republican party. Vote for every Republican
candidate from the lowest to the highest. This is a year when we mean
business. Vote, as I tell you, the Republican ticket if you want good
company.

If you want to do some good to your fellow-men, if you want to say when
you die--when the curtain falls--when the music of the orchestra grows
dim--when the lights fade; if you want to live so at that time you can
say "the world is better because I lived," vote the Republican ticket
in 1896. Vote with the party of Lincoln--greatest of our mighty dead;
Lincoln the Merciful. Vote with the party of Grant, the greatest soldier
of his century; a man worthy to have been matched against Cæsar for the
mastery of the world; as great a general as ever planted on the field
of war the torn and tattered flag of victory. Vote with the party of
Sherman and Sheridan and Thomas. But the time would fail me to repeat
even the names of the philosophers, the philanthropists, the thinkers,
the orators, the statesmen, and the soldiers who made the Republican
party glorious forever.

We love our country; dear to us for its reputation throughout the world.
We love our country for her credit in all the marts of the world. We
love our country, because under her flag we are free. It is our duty
to hand down the American institutions to our children unstained,
unimpaired. It is our duty to preserve them for ourselves, for our
children, and for their fair children yet to be.

This is the last speech that I shall make in this campaign, and to-night
there comes upon me the spirit of prophecy. On November 4th you will
find that by the largest majorities in our history, William McKinley has
been elected President of the United States.*

     * The final rally of the McKinley League for the present
     campaign, was held last night in Carnegie Music Hall, ana
     the orator chosen to present the doctrines of the
     Republican party was Robert G. Ingersoll. The meeting will
     remain notable for the high character of the audience. The
     great hall was filled to its utmost capacity. It was crowded
     from the rear of the stage to the last row of seats in the
     deep gallery.

     The boxes were occupied by brilliantly attired women, and
     hundreds of other women vied with the sterner sex In the
     applause that greeted the numerous telling points of the
     speaker. The audience was a very fashionable and exclusive
     one, for admission was only to be had by ticket, and tickets
     were hard to get.

     On the stage a great company of men and women were gathered,
     and over them waved rich masses of color, the American
     colors, of course, predominating in the display Flags hung
     from all the gallery rails, and the whole scheme of
     decoration was consistent and beautiful. At 8.80 o'clock Mr.
     John E. Milholland appeared upon the stage followed by Col.
     Ingersoll.

     Without any delay Mr. Milholland was presented as the
     chairman of the meeting. He spoke briefly of the purpose of
     the party and then said; "There is no Intelligent audience
     under the flag or in any civilized country to whom it would
     be necessary for me to introduce Robert G. Ingersoll." And
     the cheers with which the audience greeted the orator proved
     the truth of his words.

     Col. Ingersoll rose impressively and advanced to the front
     of the stage, from which the speaker's desk had been removed
     in order to allow him full opportunity to indulge in his
     habit of walking to and fro as he talked. He was greeted
     with tremendous applause; the men cheered him and the women
     waved their handkerchiefs and fans for several minutes.

     He was able to secure instant command of his audience, and
     while the applause was wildest, he waved his hand, and the
     gesture was followed by a silence that was oppressive. Still
     the speaker waited. He did not intend to waste any of his
     ammunition. Then, convinced that every eye was centred upon
     him, he spoke, declaring "This is our country." The assembly
     was his from that instant. He followed it up with a summary
     of the issues of the campaign. They were "money, the tariff,
     and whether this Government has the right of self-defence."
     As he said later on in his address, the Colonel has changed
     in a good many things, but he has not changed his politics,
     and he has not altered one whit in his masterful command of
     forceful sayings.--New York Tribune, October 80th, 1896.


     Note:--This was Col. Ingersoll's last political address.