The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 12 (of 12): Dresden Edition—MiscellanyIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 12 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Miscellany
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
I believe in this country. I am so young and so full of enthusiasm
that I am a believer in National growth. I want this country to be
territorial and to become larger than it is. I want a country worthy of
Chicago. I want to pick up the West Indies, take in the Bermudas,
the Bahamas and Barbadoes. They are our islands. They belong to this
continent and it is a piece of impudence for any other nation to think
of owning them. We want to grow. Such is the extravagance of my ambition
that I even want the Sandwich Islands. They say that these islands are
too far away from us; that they are two thousand miles from our shores.
But they are nearer to our shores than to any other. I want them. I want
a naval station there. I want America to be mistress of the Pacific.
Then there is another thing in my mind. I want to grow North and South.
I want Canada--good people--good land. I want that country. I do not
want to steal it, but I want it. I want to go South with this Nation. My
idea is this: There is only air enough between the Isthmus of Panama and
the North Pole for one flag. A country that guarantees liberty to
all cannot be too large. If any of these people are ignorant, we
will educate them; give them the benefit of our free schools. Another
thing--I might as well sow a few seeds for next fall. I have heard many
reasons why the South failed in the Rebellion, and why with the help of
Northern dissensions and a European hatred the South did not succeed. I
will tell you. In my judgment, the South failed, not on account of its
army, but from other conditions. Luckily for us, the South had always
been in favor of free trade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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