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Contents of this file page
CHICAGO SPEECH -- 1876 1
THE CHILDREN OF THE STAGE. 14
WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS. 16
**** ****
This file, its printout, or copies of either
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
**** ****
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. From 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
creaked. 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 northers end of the building, on the west
side, is a small 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 least 50,000 in number, a
compliment alike to the principle it represented, and the orator.
-- Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1876.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
1
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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 wherever 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.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
2
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
3
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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 Hancocks 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, 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
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
4
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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
can never 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.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
5
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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 forthing 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 bough
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 tomorrow, 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.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
6
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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
Government 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 no
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 yo 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 man pays at the command
of his honor and not 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
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
7
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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 ever 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," be 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 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
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
8
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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 minuets. 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 this 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, whither 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 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,
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
9
CHICAGO SPEECH.
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, 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 eyes, what love is to the
heart, liberty is to the soul of man." The Republican party is the
firs 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 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
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CHICAGO SPEECH.
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 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 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
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 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 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 fellowman; 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
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CHICAGO SPEECH.
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 fellowmen. 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 actually 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 take 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 storm 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
Eastern and Western State. We must stand by the party until every
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CHICAGO SPEECH.
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; 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, everyman
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
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 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 that 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 in the custody, in the control of the great, the
sublime Republican party.
Ladies and gentlemen, if I were insensible to the you honor
you have done me by this magnificent meeting -- the most
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CHICAGO SPEECH.
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.
END
**** ****
THE CHILDREN OF THE STAGE.
New York, March 23, 1899.
DISGUISE it as we may, we live in a frightful world, with
evils, with enemies, on every side. From the hedges along the path
of life, leap the bandits that murder and destroy; and every human
being, no matter how often he escapes, at last will fall beneath
the assassin's knife.
To change the figure: We are all passengers on the train of
life. The tickets give the names of the stations where we boarded
the car, but the destination is unknown. At every station some
passengers, pallid, breathless, dead, are put away, and some with
the light of morning in their eyes, get on.
To change the figure again: On the wide sea of life we are all
on ships or rafts or spars, and some by friendly winds are borne to
the fortunate isles, and some by storms are wrecked on the cruel
rocks. And yet upon the isles the same as upon the rocks, death
waits for all. And death alone can truly say, "All things come to
him who waits."
And yet, strangely enough, there is in this world of misery,
of misfortune and of death, the blessed spirit of mirth. The
travelers on the path, on the train, on the ships, the rafts
and spars, sometimes forget their perils and their doom.
All blessings on the man whose face was first illuminated by
a smile!
All blessings on the man who first gave to the common air the
music of laughter -- the music that for the moment drove fears from
the heart, tears from the eyes, and dimpled cheeks with joy!
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THE CHILDREN OF THE STAGE.
All blessings on the man who sowed with merry hands the seeds
of humor, and at the lipless skull of death snapped the reckless
fingers of disdain! Laughter is the blessed boundary line between
the brute and man.
Who are the friends of the human race? They who hide with vine
and flower the cruel rocks of fate -- the children of genius, the
sons and daughters of mirth and laughter, of imagination, those
whose thoughts, like moths with painted wings, fill the heaven of
the mind.
Among these sons and daughters are the children of the stage,
the citizens of the mimic world -- the world enriched by all the
wealth of genius -- enriched by painter, orator, composer and poet.
The world of which Shakespeare, the greatest of human beings, is
still the unchallenged emperor. These children of the stage have
delighted the weary travelers on the thorny path, amused the
passengers on the fated train, and filled with joy the hearts of
the clingers to spars, and the floaters on rafts.
These children of the stage, with fancy's wand rebuild the
past. The dead are brought to life and made to act again the parts
they played. The hearts and lips that long ago were dust, are made
to beat and speak again. The dead kings are downed once more, and
from the shadows of the past emerge the queens, jeweled and scepter
as of yore. Lovers leave their graves and breathe again their
burning vows; and again the white breasts rise and fall in
passion's storm. The laughter that died away beneath the touch of
death is heard again and lips that fell to ashes long ago are
curved once more with mirth. Again the hero bares his breast to
death; again the patriot falls, and again the scaffold, stained
with noble blood, becomes a shrine,
The citizens of the real world gain joy and comfort from the
stage. The broker, the speculator ruined by rumor, the lawyer
baffled by the intelligence of a jury or the stupidity of a judge,
the doctor who lost his patience because he lost his patients, the
merchant in the dark days of depression, and all the children of
misfortune, the victims of hope deferred, forget their troubles for
a little while when looking on the mimic world. When the shaft of
wit flies like the arrow of Ulysses through all the rings and
strikes the center; when words of wisdom mingle with the clown's
conceits; when folly laughing shows her pearls, and mirth holds
carnival; when the villain fails and the right triumphs, the trials
and the griefs of life for the moment fade away.
And so the maiden longing to be loved, the young man waiting
for the "Yes" deferred; the unloved wife, hear the old, old story
told again, -- and again within their hearts is the ecstasy of
requited love.
The stage brings solace to the wounded, peace to the troubled,
and with the wizard's wand touches the tears of grief and they are
changed to the smiles of joy.
The stage has ever been the altar, the pulpit, the cathedral
of the heart. There the enslaved and the oppressed, the erring, the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE STAGE.
fallen, even the outcast, find sympathy, and pity gives them all
her tears -- and there, in spite of wealth and power, in spite of
caste and cruel pride, true love has ever triumphed over all.
The stage has taught the noblest lesson, the highest truth,
and that is this: It is better to deserve without receiving than to
receive without deserving. As a matter of fact, it is better to be
the victim of villainy than to be a villain. Better to be stolen
from than to be a thief, and in the last analysis the oppressed,
the slave, is less unfortunate than the oppressor, the master.
The children of the stage, these citizens of the mimic world,
are not the grasping, shrewd and prudent people of the mart; they
are improvident enough to enjoy the present and credulous enough to
believe the promises of the universal liar known as Hope. Their
hearts and hands are open. As a rule genius is generous, luxurious,
lavish, reckless and royal. And so, when they have reached the
ladder's topmost round, they think the world is theirs and that the
heaven of the future can have no cloud. But from the ranks of youth
the rival steps. Upon the veteran brows the wreaths begin to fade,
the leaves to fall; and failure sadly sups on memory. They tread
the stage no more. They leave the mimic world, fair fancy's realm;
they leave their palaces and thrones; their crowns are gone, and
from their hands the scepters fall. At last, in age and want, in
lodgings small and bare, they wait the prompter's call; and when
the end is reached, maybe a vision glorifies the closing scene.
Again they are on the stage; again their hearts throb high; again
they utter perfect words; again the flowers fall about their feet;
and as the curtain falls, the last sound that greets their ears, is
the music of applause, the "bravos" for an encore.
And then the silence falls on darkness.
Some loving hands should close their eyes, some loving lips
should leave upon their pallid brows a kiss; some friends should
lay the breathless forms away, and on the graves drop blossoms
jeweled with the tears of love.
This is the work of the generous men and women who contribute
to the Actors Fund. This is charity; and these generous men and
women have taught, and are teaching, a lesson that all the world
should learn, and that is this: The hands that help are holier than
the lips that pray.
END
**** ****
WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS.
If I had the power to produce exactly what I want for next
Christmas, I would have all the kings and emperors resign and allow
the people to govern themselves.
I would have all the nobility crop their titles and give their
lands back to the people. I would have the Pope throw away his
tiara, take off his sacred vestments, and admit that he is not
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WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS.
acting for God -- is not infallible -- but is just an ordinary
Italian. I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops,
priests and clergymen admit that they know nothing about theology,
nothing about hell or heaven, nothing about the destiny of the
human race, nothing about devils or ghosts, gods or angels. I would
have them tell all their "flocks" to think for themselves, to be
manly men and womanly women, and to do all in their power to
increase the sum of human happiness.
I would have all the professors in colleges, all the teachers
in schools of every kind, including those in Sunday schools, agree
that they would teach only what they know, that they would not palm
off guesses as demonstrated truths.
I would like to see all the politicians changed to statesmen,
-- to men who long to make their country great and free, -- to men
who care more for public good than private gain -- men who long to
be of use.
I would like to see all the editors of papers and magazines
agree to print the truth and nothing but the truth, to avoid all
slander and misrepresentation, and to let the private affairs of
the people alone.
I would like to see drunkenness and prohibition both
abolished.
I would like to see corporal punishment done away with in
every home, in every school, in every asylum, reformatory, and
prison. Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and
ennobles.
I would like to see the millionaires unite and form a trust
for the public good.
I would like to see a fair division of profits between capital
and labor, so that the toiler could save enough to mingle a little
June with the December of his life.
I would like to see an international court established in
which to settle disputes between nations, so that armies could be
disbanded and the great navies allowed to rust and rot in perfect
peace.
I would like to see the whole world free -- free from
injustice -- free from superstition.
This will do for next Christmas. The following Christmas, I
may want more.
The Arena, Boston, December 1897.
**** ****
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**** ****
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