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
I admit to-night that the Democrats earned their share of the money
to resume with. All I claim is that the Republican party furnished the
honesty to pay it over. That is what I claim; and the Republican party
set the day, and the Republican party worked to the promise. That is
what I say. And had it not been for the Republican party this Nation
would have been financially dishonored. I am for honest money, and I am
for the payment of every dollar of our debt, and so is every Democrat
now, I take it. But what did you say a little while ago? Did you say we
could resume? No; you swore we could not, and you swore our bonds would
be worthless as the withered leaves of winter. And now when a Democrat
goes to England and sees an American four per cent, quoted at one
hundred and ten he kind of swells up, and says: "That's the kind of man
I am." In that country he pretends he was a Republican in this. And I do
not blame him. I do not begrudge him enjoying respectability when away
from home. The Republican party is entitled to the credit for keeping
this Nation grandly and splendidly honest. I say, the Republican party
is entitled to the credit of preserving the honor of this Nation.
In 1873 came the crash, and all the languages of the world cannot
describe the agonies suffered by the American people from 1873 to 1879.
A man who thought he was a millionaire came to poverty; he found
his stocks and bonds ashes in the paralytic hand of old age. Men who
expected to live all their lives in the sunshine of joy found themselves
beggars and paupers. The great factories were closed, the workmen were
demoralized, and the roads of the United States were filled with tramps.
In the hovel of the poor and the palace of the rich came the serpent
of temptation and whispered in the American ear the terrible word
"Repudiation." But the Republican party said, "No; we will pay every
dollar. No; we have started toward the shining goal of resumption and we
never will turn back." And the Republican party struggled until it had
the happiness of seeing upon the broad shining forehead of American
labor the words "Financial Honor."
The Republican party struggled until every paper promise was as good
as gold. And the moment we got back to gold then we commenced to rise
again. We could not jump until our feet touched something that they
could be pressed against. And from that moment to this we have been
going, going, going higher and higher, more prosperous every hour. And
now they say, "Let us have a change." When I am sick I want a change;
when I am poor I want a change; and if I were a Democrat I would have a
personal change. We are prosperous to-day, and must keep so. We are back
to gold and silver. Let us stay there; and let us stay with the party
that brought us there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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