The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 08 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Interviews — John Shaqi
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 08 (of 12): Dresden Edition—InterviewsIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 08 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Interviews
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
_Answer_. I have heard two or three speak of a new party to be
called the National party, or National Union party, but whether
there is anything in such a movement I have no means of knowing.
Any party in opposition to the Republican, no matter what it may
be called, must win on a new issue, and that new issue will determine
the new party. Parties cannot be made to order. They must grow.
They are the natural offspring of national events. They must embody
certain hopes, they must gratify, or promise to gratify, the feelings
of a vast number of people. No man can make a party, and if a new
party springs into existence it will not be brought forth to gratify
the wishes of a few, but the wants of the many. It has seemed to
me for years that the Democratic party carried too great a load in
the shape of record; that its autobiography was nearly killing it
all the time, and that if it could die just long enough to assume
another form at the resurrection, just long enough to leave a grave
stone to mark the end of its history, to get a cemetery back of
it, that it might hope for something like success. In other words,
that there must be a funeral before there can be victory. Most of
its leaders are worn out. They have become so accustomed to defeat
that they take it as a matter of course; they expect it in the
beginning and seem unconsciously to work for it. There must be
some new ideas, and this only can happen when the party as such
has been gathered to its fathers. I do not think that the advice
of Senator Hill will be followed. He is willing to kill the
Democratic party in the South if we will kill the Republican party
in the North. This puts me in mind of what the rooster said to
the horse: "Let us agree not to step on each other's feet."
_Question_. Your views of the country's future and prospects must
naturally be rose colored?
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