The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
History
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Now, you know this runs in families. His record was good--by marriage.
He married a daughter of Chief Justice Hornblower, of New Jersey. Now,
Hornblower was what you might call a partisan. Do you know they went to
him--it was in the old times, and he was a kind of Whig,--they went to
him with a petition, in the State of New Jersey, a petition addressed to
the Legislature for the abolition of capital punishment, and Hornblower
said, "I'll be damned if I sign it while there is a Democrat in the
State of New Jersey."
As a matter of fact, however, I believe that Justice Bradley and all the
other Justices, and all other persons on that tribunal decided as they
honestly thought was right.
Judge Davis is as broad mentally as he is physically; he has an
immensity of common sense, and as much judgment as any one man ever
needs to use, and, in my judgment, he would have come to the same
conclusion as Judge Bradley, precisely. These men were appointed--it
was a Democratic scheme, and I am glad they got it up--and during that
entire investigation, so much were the members of that party controlled
by old associations and habits, and by partisan feeling that there was
not a solitary one of the seven Democrats that ever once voted on the
Republican side. And, as a necessity, the Republicans had to stand
together. And so, notwithstanding the seven Democrats voted constantly
together, the eight Republicans kept having a majority of one, until the
last disputed State was given against the great party of "honesty and
reform." And, finally, when they found they were defeated, they made
up their minds to prevent the counting of the vote. They made up their
minds to wear out the session and prevent the election of a President.
Just at that point, for a wonder, (nothing ever astonished me more), the
members from the South said: "We do not want any more war; we have had
war enough and we say that a President shall be peacefully elected, and
that he shall be peacefully inaugurated!" As soon as I heard that I felt
under a little obligation to the Democracy of the South, and when they
stood in the gap and prevented the Democracy of the North from plunging
this Government into the hell of civil war, I felt like taking them by
the hand and saying, "We have beaten the enemy once, let us keep on. Let
us join hands." I felt like saying to the Democracy of the South, "You
never will have a day's prosperity in the South until you join the
great, free, progressive party of the North--never!" And they never
will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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