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_. The effect in Maine has been to defeat the Republican
party. I do not believe any party can permanently succeed in the
United States that does not believe in and advocate actual money.
I want to see the greenback equal with gold the world round. A
money below par keeps the people below par. No man can possibly
be proud of a country that is not willing to pay its debts. Several
of the States this fall may be carried by the Greenback party, but
if I have a correct understanding of their views, that party cannot
hold any State for any great length of time. But all the men of
wealth should remember that everybody in the community has got, in
some way, to be supported. I want to see them so that they can
support themselves by their own labor. In my judgment real prosperity
will begin with actual resumption, because confidence will then
return. If the workingmen of the United States cannot make their
living, cannot have the opportunity to labor, they have got to be
supported in some way, and in any event, I want to see a liberal
policy inaugurated by the Government. I believe in improving rivers
and harbors.
I do not believe the trans-continental commerce of this country
should depend on one railroad. I want new territories opened. I
want to see American steamships running to all the great ports of
the world. I want to see our flag flying on all the seas and in
all the harbors. We have the best country, and, in my judgment,
the best people in the world, and we ought to be the most prosperous
nation on the earth.
_Question_. Then you only consider the Greenback movement a
temporary thing?
_Answer_. Yes; I do not believe that there is anything permanent
in anything that is not sound, that has not a perfectly sound
foundation, and I mean sound, sound in every sense of that word.
It must be wise and honest. We have plenty of money; the trouble
is to get it. If the Greenbackers will pass a law furnishing all
of us with collaterals, there certainly would be no trouble about
getting the money. Nothing can demonstrate more fully the
plentifulness of money than the fact that millions of four per
cent. bonds have been taken in the United States. The trouble is,
business is scarce.
_Question_. But do you not think the Greenback movement will help
the Democracy to success in 1880?
_Answer_. I think the Greenback movement will injure the Republican
party much more than the Democratic party. Whether that injury
will reach as far as 1880 depends simply upon one thing. If
resumption--in spite of all the resolutions to the contrary--
inaugurates an era of prosperity, as I believe and hope it will,
then it seems to me that the Republican party will be as strong in
the North as in its palmiest days. Of course I regard most of the
old issues as settled, and I make this statement simply because I
regard the financial issue as the only living one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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