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
They swear their plank and platform meant nothing. They say in effect:
"When we put that in we lied; and now having made that confession we
hope you will have perfect confidence in us from this out." Hancock says
that the object of the party is to get the tariff out of politics. That
is the reason, I suppose, why they put that plank in the platform. I
presume he regards the tariff as a little local issue, but I tell you
to-day that the great question of protecting American labor never will
be taken out of politics. As long as men work, as long as the laboring
man has a wife and family to support, just so long will he vote for the
man that will protect his wages.
And you can no more take it out of politics than you can take the
question of Government out of politics. I do not want any question
taken out of politics. I want the people to settle these questions for
themselves, and the people of this country are capable of doing it. If
you do not believe it, read the returns from Ohio and Indiana. There
are other persons who would take the question of office out of politics.
Well, when we get the tariff and office both out of politics, then, I
presume, we will see two parties on the same side. It will not do.
David A. Wells has come to the rescue of the Democratic party on the
tariff, and shed a few pathetic tears over scrap iron. But it will not
do. You cannot run this country on scraps.
We believe in the tariff because it gives skilled labor good pay.
We believe in the tariff because it allows the laboring man to have
something to eat. We believe in the tariff because it keeps the hands
of the producer close to the mouth of the devourer. We believe in the
tariff because it developed American brain; because it builds up our
towns and cities; because it makes Americans self-supporting; because it
makes us an independent Nation. And we believe in the tariff because the
Democratic party does not.
That plank in the Democratic party was intended for a dagger to
assassinate the prosperity of the North. The Northern people have become
aroused and that is the plank that is broken in the Democratic platform;
and that plank was wide enough when it broke to let even Hancock
through.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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