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
We have no more patriotic men under the flag than the men who came from
other lands, the hundreds and thousands of those who fought to preserve
this country. And I think just as much of them as I would if they had
been born on American soil. What matters it where a man was born? It is
what is inside of him you have to look at--what kind of a heart he has,
and what kind of a head. I do not care where he was born; I simply ask,
Is he a man? Is he willing to give to others what he claims for himself?
That is the supreme test.
Now, I have got a hobby. I do not suppose any of you have heard of it.
I think the greatest thing for a country is for all of its citizens to
have a home. I think it is around the fireside of home that the virtues
grow, including patriotism. We want homes.
Until a few years ago it was the custom to put men in prison for debt.
The authorities threw a man into jail when he owed something which he
could not pay, and by throwing him into jail they deprived him of an
opportunity to earn what would pay it. After a little time they got
sense enough to know that they could not collect a debt in this way,
and that it was better to give him his freedom and allow him to earn
something, if he could. Therefore, imprisonment for debt was done away
with.
At another time, when a man owed anything, if he was a carpenter, a
blacksmith or a shoemaker, and not able to pay it, they took his tools,
on a writ of sale and execution, and thus incapacitated him so that he
could do nothing. Finally they got sense enough to abolish that law,
to leave the mechanic his tools and the farmer his plows, horses and
wagons, and after this, debts were paid better than ever they were
before.
Then we thought of protecting the home-builder, and we said: "We will
have a homestead exemption. We will put a roof over wife and child,
which shall be exempt from execution and sale," and so we preserved
hundreds of thousands and millions of homes, while debts were paid just
as well as ever they were paid before.
Now, I want to take a step further. I want, the rich people of this
country to support it. I want the people who are well off to pay the
taxes. I want the law to exempt a homestead of a certain value, say from
two thousand dollars to two thousand five hundred, and to exempt it, not
only from sale on judgment and execution, but to exempt it from taxes of
all sorts and kinds. I want to keep the roof over the heads of children
when the man himself is gone. I want that homestead to belong not only
to the man, but to wife and children. I would like to live to see a roof
over the heads of all the families of the Republic. I tell you, it does
a man good to have a home. You are in partnership with nature when you
plant a hill of corn. When you set out a tree you have a new interest in
this world. When you own a little tract of land you feel as if you and
the earth were partners. All these things dignify human nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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