1106 lines
52 KiB
Plaintext
1106 lines
52 KiB
Plaintext
17 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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Contents of this file page
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CENTENNIAL ORATION. 1
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ORGANIZED CHARITIES. 14
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THE BIGOTRY OF COLLEGES. 17
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**** ****
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This file, its printout, or copies of either
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are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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**** ****
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CENTENNIAL ORATION.
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One hundred years ago, our fathers retired the gods from
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politics.
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THE Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the bravest,
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and the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the
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representatives of a people. It is the embodiment of physical and
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moral courage and of political wisdom.
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I say of physical courage, because it was a declaration of war
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against the most powerful nation then on the globe; a declaration
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of war by thirteen weak, unorganized colonies; a declaration of war
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by a few people, without military stores, without wealth, without
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strength, against the most powerful kingdom on the earth; a
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declaration of war made when the British navy, at that day the
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mistress of every sea, was hovering along the coast of America,
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looking after defenseless towns and villages to ravage and destroy.
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It was made when thousands of English soldiers were upon our soil,
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and when the principal cities of America were in the substantial
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possession of the enemy. And so, I say, all things considered, it
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was the bravest political document ever signed by man. And if it
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was physically brave, the moral courage of the document is almost
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infinitely beyond the physical. They had the courage not only, but
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they had the almost infinite wisdom, to declare that all men are
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created equal.
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Such things had occasionally been said by some political
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enthusiast in the olden time, but, for the first time in the
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history of the world, the representatives of a nation, the
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representatives of a real, living, breathing, hoping people,
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declared that all men are created equal. With one blow, with one
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stroke of the pen, they struck down all the cruel, heartless
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barriers that aristocracy, that priestcraft, that king-craft had
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raised between man and man. They struck down with one immortal blow
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that infamous spirit of caste that makes a God almost a beast, and
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a beast almost a god. With one word, with one blow, they wiped away
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and utterly destroyed, all that had been done by centuries of war
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-- centuries of hypocrisy -- centuries of injustice.
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What more did they do? They then declared that each man has a
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right to live. And what does that mean? It means that he has the
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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CENTENNIAL ORATION.
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right to make his living. It means that he has the right to breathe
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the air, to work the land, that he stands the equal of every other
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human being beneath the shining stars; entitled to the product of
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his labor -- the labor of his hand and of his brain.
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What more? That every man has the right to pursue his own
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happiness in his own way. Grander words than. these have never been
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spoken by man.
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And what more did these men say? They laid down the doctrine
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that governments were instituted among men for the purpose of
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preserving the rights of the people. The old idea was that people
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existed solely for the benefit of the state -- that is to say, for
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kings and nobles.
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The old idea was that the people were the wards of king and
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priest -- that their bodies belonged to one and their souls to the
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other.
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And what more? That the people are the source of political
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power. That was not only a revelation, but it was a revolution. It
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changed the ideas of people with regard to the source of political
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power. For the first time it made human beings men. What was the
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old idea? The old idea was that no political power came from, or in
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any manner belonged to, the people. The old idea was that the
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political power came from the clouds; that the political power came
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in some miraculous way from heaven; that it came down to kings, and
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queens, and robbers. That was the old idea. The nobles lived upon
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the labor of the people; the people had no rights; the nobles stole
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what they had and divided with the kings, and the kings pretended
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to divide what they stole with God Almighty. The source, then, of
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political power was from above. The people were responsible to the
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nobles, the nobles to the king, and the people had no political
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rights whatever, no more than the wild beasts of the forest. The
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kings were responsible to God; not to the people. The kings were
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responsible to the clouds; not to the toiling millions they robbed
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and plundered.
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And our forefathers, in this Declaration of Independence,
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reversed this thing, and said: No; the people, they are the source
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of political power, and their rulers, these presidents, these kings
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are but the agents and servants of the great sublime people. For
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the first time, really, in the history of the world, the king was
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made to get off the throne and the people were royally seated
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thereon. The people became the sovereigns, and the old sovereigns
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became the servants and the agents of the people. It is hard for
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you and me now to even imagine the immense results of that change.
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It is hard for you and for me, at this day, to understand how
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thoroughly it had been ingrained in the brain of almost every man
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that the king had some wonderful right over him that in some
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strange way the king owned him; that in some miraculous manner he
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belonged, body and soul, to somebody who rode on a horse -- to
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somebody with epaulets on his shoulders and a tinsel crown upon his
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brainless head.
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Our forefathers had been educated in that idea, and when they
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first landed on American shores they believed it. They thought they
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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CENTENNIAL ORATION.
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belonged to somebody, and that they must be loyal to some thief who
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could trace his pedigree back to antiquity's most successful
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robber.
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It took a long time for them to get that idea out of their
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heads and hearts. They were three thousand miles away from the
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despotisms of the old world, and every wave of the sea was an
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assistant to them. The distance helped to disenchant their minds of
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||
that infamous belief, and every mile between them and the pomp and
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glory of monarchy helped to put republican ideas and thoughts into
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their minds. Besides that, when they came to this country, when the
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savage was in the forest and three thousand miles of waves on the
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other side, menaced by barbarians on the one hand and famine on the
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other, they learned that a man who had courage, a man who had
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thought, was as good as any other man in the world, and they built
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up, as it were, in spite of themselves, little republics. And the
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man that had the most nerve and heart was the best man, whether he
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had any noble blood in his veins or not.
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It has been a favorite idea with me that our fore-fathers were
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educated by Nature, that they grew grand as the continent upon
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which they landed; that the great rivers -- the wide plains -- the
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splendid lakes -- the lonely forests -- the sublime mountains --
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that all these things stole into and became a part of their being,
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and they grew great as the country in which they lived. They began
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||
to hate the narrow, contracted views of Europe. They were educated
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by their surroundings, and every little colony had to be to a
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certain extent a republic. The kings of the old world endeavored to
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parcel out this land to their favorites. But there were too many
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Indians. There was too much courage required for them to take and
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keep it, and so men had to come here who were dissatisfied with the
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old country -- who were dissatisfied with England, dissatisfied
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||
with France, with Germany, with Ireland and Holland. The kings'
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favorites stayed at home. Men came here for liberty, and on account
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of certain principles they entertained and held dearer than life.
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And they were willing to work, willing to fell the forests, to
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fight the savages, willing to go through all the hardships, perils
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||
and dangers of a new country, of a new land; and the consequence
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||
was that our country was settled by brave and adventurous spirits,
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by men who had opinions of their own and were willing to live in
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the wild forests for the sake of expressing those opinions, even if
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they expressed them only to trees, rocks, and savage men. The best
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blood of the old world came to the new.
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When they first came over they did not have a great deal of
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political philosophy, nor the best ideas of liberty. We might as
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||
well tell the truth. When the Puritans first came, they were
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narrow. They did not understand what liberty meant -- what
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religious liberty, what political liberty, was; but they found out
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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
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in favor of universal education. Wherever they went they built
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||
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
|
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comprehend. That is the glory of the Puritan fathers.
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|
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
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3
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CENTENNIAL ORATION.
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They forgot in a little while what they had suffered, and they
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forgot to apply the principle of universal liberty -- of
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||
toleration. Some of the colonies did not forget it, and I want to
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give credit where credit should be given. The Catholics of Maryland
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were the first people on the new continent to declare universal
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religious toleration. Let this be remembered to their eternal
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honor. Let it be remembered to the disgrace of the Protestant
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government of England, that it caused this grand law to be
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repealed. And to the honor and credit of the Catholics of Maryland
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let it be remembered that the moment they got back into power they
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re-enacted the old law. The Baptists of Rhode Island also, led by
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Roger Williams, were in favor of universal religious liberty.
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No American should fail to honor Roger Williams. He was the
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first grand advocate of the liberty of the soul. He was in favor of
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the eternal divorce of church and state. So far as I know, he was
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the only man at that time in this country who was in favor of real
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religious liberty. While the Catholics of Maryland declared in
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||
favor of religious toleration, they had no idea of religious
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||
liberty, They would not allow anyone to call in question the
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||
doctrine of the Trinity, or the inspiration of the Scriptures. They
|
||
stood ready with branding-iron and gallows to burn and choke out of
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man the idea that, he had a fight to think and to express his
|
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thoughts.
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So many religions met in our country -- so many theories and
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||
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.
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The people were too much interested in this world to quarrel
|
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about the next. The preacher was lost in the patriot. The Bible was
|
||
read to find passages against kings.
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Everybody was discussing the rights of man. Farmers and
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mechanics suddenly became statesmen, and in every shop and cabin
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nearly every question was asked and answered.
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During these years of political excitement the interest in
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religion abated to that degree that a common purpose animated men
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||
of all sects and creeds.
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At last our fathers became tired of being colonists -- tired
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||
of writing and reading and signing petitions, and presenting them
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||
on their bended knees to an idiot king. They began to have an
|
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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
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Puritans, the Catholics, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, the
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Quakers, and a few Freethinkers, all had the idea -- that they
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would like to form a new nation.
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Now, do not understand that all of our fathers were in favor
|
||
of independence. Do not understand that they were all like
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||
Jefferson; that they were all like Adams or Lee; that they were all
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||
like Thomas Paine or John Hancock. There were thousands and
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||
thousands of them who were opposed to American independence. There
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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4
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CENTENNIAL ORATION.
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||
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were thousands and thousands who said: "When you say men are
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created equal, it is a lie when you say the political power resides
|
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in the great body of the people, it is false." Thousands and
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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.
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They met in Philadelphia; and the resolution was moved by Lee
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||
of Virginia, that the colonies ought to be independent states, and
|
||
ought to dissolve their political connection with Great Britain.
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They made up their minds that a new nation must be formed. All
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nations had been, so to speak, the wards of some church. The
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religious idea as to the source of power had been at the foundation
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of all governments, and had been the bane and curse of man.
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Happily for us, there was no church strong enough to dictate
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to the rest. Fortunately for us, the colonists not only, but the
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colonies differed widely in their religious views. There were the
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Puritans who hated the Episcopalians, and Episcopalians who hated
|
||
the Catholics, and the Catholics who hated both, while the Quakers
|
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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
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common aspiration. They wanted to form a new nation. More than
|
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that, most of them cordially hated Great Britain; and they pledged
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each other to forget these religious prejudices, for a time at
|
||
least, and agreed that there should be only one religion until they
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got through, and that was the religion of patriotism. They solemnly
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agreed that the new nation should not belong to any particular
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church, but that it should secure the rights of all.
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Our fathers founded the first secular government that was ever
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founded in this world. Recollect that. The first secular
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||
government; the first government that said every church has exactly
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the same rights and no more; every religion has the same rights,
|
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and no more. In other words, our fathers were the first men who had
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the sense, had the genius, to know that no church should be allowed
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to have a sword; thai it should be allowed only to exert its moral
|
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influence.
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You might as well have a government united by force with Art,
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or with Poetry, or with Oratory, as with Religion. Religion should
|
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have the influence upon mankind that its goodness, that its
|
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morality, its justice, its charity, its reason, and its argument
|
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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
|
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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,
|
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better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership
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with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and revolvers.
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So our fathers said: "We will form a secular government, and
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under the flag with which we are going to enrich the air, we will
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allow every man to worship God as he thinks best." They said:
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"Religion is an individual thing between each man and his creator,
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|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
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5
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CENTENNIAL ORATION.
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and he can worship as he pleases and as he desires." And why did
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||
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 thumb-screws, the racks, and the dungeons of
|
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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 profoundest, the bravest political document that
|
||
ever was written and signed by man.
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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.
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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 the 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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
6
|
||
|
||
CENTENNIAL ORATION.
|
||
|
||
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 I 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
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
7
|
||
|
||
CENTENNIAL ORATION.
|
||
|
||
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
|
||
bean 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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
8
|
||
|
||
CENTENNIAL ORATION.
|
||
|
||
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 un-perpetrated. 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 few years ago our ancestors
|
||
were not allowed to 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
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
9
|
||
|
||
CENTENNIAL ORATION.
|
||
|
||
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 a was 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
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
10
|
||
|
||
CENTENNIAL ORATION.
|
||
|
||
except our own consciences and our own brains. Do not belong to any
|
||
clique. Have clear title-deeds in fee simple to yourselves, without
|
||
any mortgages 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 heir 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
|
||
accomplishment 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 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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
11
|
||
|
||
CENTENNIAL ORATION.
|
||
|
||
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 rears 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.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
12
|
||
|
||
CENTENNIAL ORATION.
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
END
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
13
|
||
|
||
ORGANIZED CHARITIES.
|
||
|
||
I HAVE no great confidence in organized charities.
|
||
|
||
Money is left and buildings are erected and sinecures provided
|
||
for a good many worthless people. Those in immediate control are
|
||
almost, or when they were appointed were almost, in want
|
||
themselves, and they naturally hate other beggars.
|
||
|
||
They regard persons who ask assistance as their enemies. There
|
||
is an old story of a tramp who begged a breakfast. After breakfast
|
||
another tramp came to the same place to beg his breakfast, and the
|
||
first tramp with blows and curses drove him away, saying at the
|
||
same time: "I expect to get dinner here myself."
|
||
|
||
This is the general attitude of beggar toward beggar.
|
||
|
||
Another trouble with organized charities is the machinery, the
|
||
various methods they have adopted to prevent what they call fraud.
|
||
They are exceedingly anxious that the needy, that those who ask
|
||
help, who have been without fault, shall be attended to, their rule
|
||
apparently being to assist only the unfortunate perfect.
|
||
|
||
The trouble is that Nature produces very few specimens of that
|
||
kind. As a rule, men come to want on account of their
|
||
imperfections, on account of their ignorance, on account of their
|
||
vices, and their vices are born of their lack of capacity, of their
|
||
want of brain. In other words, they are failures of Nature, and the
|
||
fact that they need help is not their own fault, but the fault of
|
||
their construction, their surroundings.
|
||
|
||
Very few people have the opportunity of selecting their
|
||
parents, and it is exceedingly difficult in the matter of
|
||
grandparents. Consequently, I do not hold people responsible for
|
||
hereditary tendencies, traits and vices. Neither do I praise them
|
||
for having hereditary virtues.
|
||
|
||
A man going to one of these various charitable establishments
|
||
is cross-examined. He must give his biography. And after he has
|
||
answered all the supercilious, impudent questions, he is asked for
|
||
references.
|
||
|
||
Then the people referred to are sought out, to find whether
|
||
the statements made by the applicant are true. By the time the
|
||
thing is settled the man who asked aid has either gotten it
|
||
somewhere else or has, in the language of the Spiritualists,
|
||
"passed over to the other side."
|
||
|
||
Of course this does not trouble the persons in charge of the
|
||
organized charities, because their salaries are going on.
|
||
|
||
As a rule, these charities were commenced by the best of
|
||
people. Some generous, philanthropic man or woman gave a life to
|
||
establish a "house," it may be, for aged women, for orphans, for
|
||
the waifs of the pavements.
|
||
|
||
These generous people, filled with the spirit of charity,
|
||
raised a little money, succeeded in hiring or erecting a humble
|
||
building, and the money they collected, so honestly given, they
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
14
|
||
|
||
ORGANIZED CHARITIES.
|
||
|
||
honestly used to bind up the wounds and wipe away the tears of the
|
||
unfortunate, and to save, if possible, some who had been wrecked on
|
||
the rocks and reefs of crime.
|
||
|
||
Then some very rich man dies who had no charity and who would
|
||
not have left a dollar could he have taken his money with him. This
|
||
rich man, who hated his relatives and the people he actually knew,
|
||
gives a large sum of money to some particular charity -- not that
|
||
he had any charity, but because he wanted to be remembered as a
|
||
philanthropist.
|
||
|
||
Then the organized charity becomes rich, and the richer the
|
||
meaner, the richer the harder of heart and the closer of fist.
|
||
|
||
Now, I believe that Trinity Church, in this city, would be
|
||
called an organized charity. The church was started to save, if
|
||
possible, a few souls from eternal torment, and on the plea of
|
||
saving these souls money was given to the church.
|
||
|
||
Finally the church became rich. It is now a landlord -- has
|
||
many buildings to rent. And if what I hear is true there is no
|
||
harder landlord in the city of New York.
|
||
|
||
So, I have heard it said of Dublin University, that it is
|
||
about the hardest landlord in Ireland.
|
||
|
||
I think you will find that all such institutions try to
|
||
collect the very last cent, and, in the name of pity, drive pity
|
||
from their hearts.
|
||
|
||
I think it is Shakespeare who says, "Pity drives out pity,"
|
||
and he must have had organized charities in his mind when he
|
||
uttered this remark. Of course a great many really good and
|
||
philanthropic people leave vast sums of money to charities.
|
||
|
||
I find that it is sometimes very difficult to get an injured
|
||
man, or one seized with some sudden illness, taken into a city
|
||
hospital. There are so many rules and so many regulations, so many
|
||
things necessary to be done, that while the rules are being
|
||
complied with the soul of the sick or injured man, weary of the
|
||
waiting, takes its flight. And after the man is dead, the doctors
|
||
are kind enough to certify that he died of heart failure.
|
||
|
||
So -- in a general way -- I speak of all the asylums, of all
|
||
the homes for orphans. When I see one of those buildings I feel
|
||
that it is full of petty tyranny, of what might be called pious
|
||
meanness, devout deviltry, where the object is to break the will of
|
||
every recipient of public favor.
|
||
|
||
I may be all wrong. I hope I am. At the same time I fear that
|
||
I am somewhere near right.
|
||
|
||
You may take our prisons; the treatment of prisoners is often
|
||
infamous. The Elmira Reformatory is a worthy successor of the
|
||
Inquisition, a disgrace, in my judgment, to the State of New York,
|
||
to the civilization of our day. Every little while something comes
|
||
to light showing the cruelty, the tyranny, the meanness, of these
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
15
|
||
|
||
ORGANIZED CHARITIES.
|
||
|
||
professional distributors of public charity -- of these professed
|
||
reformers.
|
||
|
||
I know that they are visited now and then by committees from
|
||
the Legislature, and I know that the keepers of these places know
|
||
when the "committee" may be expected.
|
||
|
||
I know that everything is scoured and swept and burnished for
|
||
the occasion; and I know that the poor devils that have been abused
|
||
or whipped or starved, fear to open their mouths, knowing that if
|
||
they do they may not be believed and that they will be treated
|
||
afterward as though they were wild beasts,
|
||
|
||
I think these public institutions ought to be open to
|
||
inspection at all times. I think the very best men ought to be put
|
||
in control of them. I think only those doctors who have passed, and
|
||
recently passed, examinations as to their fitness, as to their
|
||
intelligence and professional acquirements, ought to be put in
|
||
charge,
|
||
|
||
I do not think that hospitals should be places for young
|
||
doctors to practice sawing off the arms and legs of paupers or
|
||
hunting in the stomachs of old women for tumors. I think only the
|
||
skillful, the experienced, should be employed in such places.
|
||
Neither do I think hospitals should be places where medicine is
|
||
distributed by students to the poor.
|
||
|
||
Ignorance is a poor doctor, even for the poor, and if we
|
||
pretend to be charitable we ought to carry it out.
|
||
|
||
I would like to see tyranny done away with in prisons, in the
|
||
reformatories, and in all places under the government or
|
||
supervision of the State.
|
||
|
||
I would like to have all corporal punishment abolished, and I
|
||
would also like to see the money that is given to charity
|
||
distributed by charity and by intelligence. I hope all these
|
||
institutions will be overhauled.
|
||
|
||
I hope all places where people are pretending to take care of
|
||
the poor and for which they collect money from the public, will be
|
||
visited, and will be visited unexpectedly and the truth told.
|
||
|
||
In my judgment there is some better way. I think every
|
||
hospital, every asylum, every house for waifs and orphans should be
|
||
supported by taxation, not by charity; should be under the care and
|
||
control of the State absolutely.
|
||
|
||
I do not believe in these institutions being managed by any
|
||
individual or by any society, religious or secular, but by the
|
||
State. I would no more have hospitals and asylums depend on charity
|
||
than I would have the public school depend on voluntary
|
||
contributions.
|
||
|
||
I want the schools supported by taxation and to be controlled
|
||
by the State, and I want the hospitals and asylums and charitable
|
||
institutions founded and controlled and carried on in the same way.
|
||
Let the property of the State do it.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
16
|
||
|
||
ORGANIZED CHARITIES.
|
||
|
||
Let those pay the taxes who are able. And let us do away
|
||
forever with the idea that to take care of the sick of the
|
||
helpless, is a charity. It is not a charity. It is a duty. It is
|
||
something to be done for our own sakes. It is no more a charity
|
||
than it is to pave or light the streets, no more a charity than it
|
||
is to have a system of sewers.
|
||
|
||
It is all for the purpose of protecting society and of
|
||
civilizing ourselves.
|
||
|
||
END
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
THE BIGOTRY OF COLLEGES.
|
||
|
||
UNIVERSITIES are naturally conservative. They know that if
|
||
suspected of being really scientific, orthodox Christians will keep
|
||
their sons away, so they pander to the superstitions of the times.
|
||
|
||
Most of the universities are exceedingly poor, and poverty is
|
||
the enemy of independence. Universities, like people, have the
|
||
instinct of self-preservation. The University of Kansas is like the
|
||
rest.
|
||
|
||
The faculty of Cornell, upon precisely the same question, took
|
||
exactly the same action, and the faculty of the University of
|
||
Missouri did the same. These institutions must be the friends and
|
||
defenders of superstition.
|
||
|
||
The Vanderbilt College, or University of Tennessee, discharged
|
||
Professor Winchell because he differed with the author of Genesis
|
||
on geology.
|
||
|
||
There colleges act as they must, and we should blame nobody.
|
||
If Humboldt and Darwin were now alive they would not be allowed to
|
||
teach in these institutions of learning."
|
||
|
||
We need not find fault with the president and professors. They
|
||
want to keep their places. The probability is that they would like
|
||
to do better -- that they desire to be free, and, if free, would,
|
||
with all their hearts, welcome the truth. Still, these universities
|
||
seem to do good. The minds of their students are developed to that
|
||
degree, that they naturally turn to me as the defender of their
|
||
thoughts.
|
||
|
||
This gives me great hope for the future. The young, the
|
||
growing, the enthusiastic, are on my side. All the students who
|
||
have selected me are my friends, and I thank them with all my
|
||
heart.
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
||
|
||
The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
|
||
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
|
||
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
|
||
us, we need to give them back to America.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
17
|
||
|