The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
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The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
The Democratic party is willing to-day that Tilden and Hendricks should
be elected by violence; they are willing to-day to go into partnership
with assassination and murder; they are willing to-day that every man in
the Southern States, who is a friend of this Union, and who fought for
our flag--that the rights of every one of these men should be trampled
in the dust, provided that Tilden and Hendricks be elected President
and Vice-President of this country. They tell us that a State line is
sacred; that you never can cross it unless you want to do a mean thing;
that if you want to catch a fugitive slave you have the right to cross
it; but if you wish to defend the rights of men, then it is a sacred
line, and you cannot cross it. Such is the infamous doctrine of the
Democratic party. Who, I say, will be injured by sending soldiers into
the Southern States? No one in the world except the man who wants to
prevent an honest citizen from casting a legal vote for the Government
of his choice. For my part, I think more of the colored Union men of the
South than I do of the white disunion men of the South. For my part, I
think more of a black friend than I do of a white enemy. For my part, I
think more of a friend black outside, and white in, than I do of a man
who is white outside and black inside. For my part, I think more of
black justice, of black charity, and of black patriotism, than I do of
white cruelty, than I do of white treachery and treason. As a matter
of fact, all that is done in the South to-day, of use, is done by the
colored man. The colored man raises everything that is raised in the
South, except hell. And I say here to-night that I think one hundred
times more of the good, honest, industrious black man of the South than
I do of all the white men together that do not love this Government, and
I think more of the black man of the South than I do of the white man of
the North who sympathizes with the white wretch that wishes to trample
upon the rights of that black man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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