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
"No, I don't want to go," and then they put a lot of pieces of paper in
a wheel and on one of those pieces is his name, and another man turns
the crank, and then they pull it out and there is his name, and
they say, "Come," and so he goes. And they stand him in front of the
brazen-throated guns; they make him fight for his native land, and when
the war is over he goes home and he finds the war has been unpopular
in his neighborhood, and they trample on his rights, and he says to the
Federal Government, "Protect me." And he says to the Government, "I owe
my allegiance to you. You must protect me." What will you say of
that Government if it says to him, "You must look to your State for
protection"? "Ah, but," he says, "my State is the very power trampling
upon me," and, of course, the robber is not going to send for the
police, It is the duty of the Government to defend even its drafted
men; and if that is the duty of the Government, what shall I say of the
volunteer, who for one moment holds his wife in a tremulous and agonized
embrace, kisses his children, shoulders his musket, goes to the field
and says, "Here I am, ready to die for my native land"? A Nation that
will not defend its volunteer defenders is a disgrace to the map of this
world. This is a Nation. Free speech is the brain of the Republic; an
honest ballot is the breath of its life; honest money is the blood of
its veins; and the idea of nationality is its great, beating, throbbing
heart. I am for a Nation. And yet the Democrats tell me that it is
dangerous to have centralized power. How would you have it? I believe in
the localization of power; I believe in having enough of it localized in
one place to be effectively used; I believe in a localization of brain.
I suppose Democrats would like to have it spread all over your body, and
they act as though theirs was.
There is another thing in which I believe: I believe in the protection
of American labor. The hand that holds Aladdin's lamp must be the hand
of toil. This Nation rests upon the shoulders of its workers, and I want
the American laboring man to have enough to wear; I want him to have
enough to eat:
I want him to have something for the ordinary misfortunes of life; I
want him to have the pleasure of seeing his wife well-dressed; I want
him to see a few blue ribbons fluttering about his children; I want him
to see the flags of health flying in their beautiful cheeks; I want him
to feel that this is his country, and the shield of protection is above
his labor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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