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
While the Government cannot create gold and silver, while it cannot
by its fiat make money, it can furnish facilities for the creation
of wealth. It can aid in the distribution of products, and in the
distribution of men; it can aid in the opening of new territories;
it can aid great and vast enterprises that cannot be accomplished by
individual effort. The Government should see to it that every facility
is offered to honorable adventure, enterprise and industry. Our ships
ought to be upon every sea; our flag ought to be flying in every port.
Our rivers and harbors ought to be improved. The usefulness of the
Mississippi should be increased, its banks strengthened, and its channel
deepened. At no distant day it will bear the commerce of a hundred
millions of people. That grand river is the great guaranty of
territorial integrity; it is the protest of nature against disunion, and
from its source to the sea it will forever flow beneath one flag.
The Northern Pacific Railway should be pushed to completion. In this
way labor would be immediately given to many thousands of men. Along
the line of that thoroughfare would spring up towns and cities; new
communities with new surroundings; and where now is the wilderness there
would be thousands and thousands of happy homes.
The Texas Pacific should also be completed. A vast agricultural and
mineral region would be opened to the enterprise and adventure of the
American people. Probably Arizona holds within the miserly clutches of
her rocks greater wealth than any other State or territory of the world.
The construction of that road would put life and activity into a hundred
industries. It would give employment to many thousands of people, and
homes at last to many millions. It would cause the building of thousands
of miles of branches to open, not only new territory, but to connect
with roads already built. It would double the products of gold and
silver, open new fields to trade, create new industries, and make it
possible for us to supply eight millions of people in the Republic of
Mexico with our products. The construction of this great highway will
enable the Government to dispense with from ten to fifteen regiments of
infantry and cavalry now stationed along the border. People enough will
settle along this line to protect themselves. It will permanently settle
the Indian question, saving the people millions each year. It will
effectually destroy the present monopoly, and in this way greatly
increase production and consumption. It will double our trade with
China and Japan, and with the Pacific States as well. It will settle
the Southern question by filling the Southern States with immigrants,
diversifying the industries of that section, changing and rebuilding the
commercial and social fabric; it will do away with the conservatism of
regret and the prejudice born of isolation. It will transmute to wealth
the unemployed muscle of the country. It will rescue California from
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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