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
Secondly--The South raised and sold raw material, and when the war came
it had no foundries, no factories, and no looms to weave the cloth for
uniforms; no shops to make munitions of war, and it had to get what
supplies it could by running the blockade. We of the North had the
cloth to clothe our soldiers, shops to make our bayonets; we had all the
curious wheels that invention had produced, and had labor and genius,
the power of steam, and the water to make what we needed, and we did
not require anything from any other country. Suppose this whole country
raised raw material and shipped it out, we would be in the condition
that the South was. We want this Nation to be independent of the whole
world. A nation to be ready to settle questions of dispute by war should
be in a condition of absolute independence. For that reason I want all
the wheels turning in this country, all the chimneys full of fire,
all the looms running, the iron red hot everywhere. I want to see all
mechanics having plenty of work with good wages and good homes for their
families, good food, schools for their children, plenty of clothes, and
enough to take care of a child if it happens to take sick. I am for the
independence of America, the growth of America physically, mentally,
and every other way. The time will come when all nations combined cannot
take that flag out of the sky. I want to see this country so that if
a deluge sweeps every other nation from the face of the globe we would
have all we want made right here by our factories, by American brain and
hand.
I thank you that the Republic still lives. I thank you that we are all
lovers of freedom. I thank you for having helped establish a Government
where every child has an opportunity, and where every avenue of
advancement if open to all.
LOTOS CLUB DINNER IN HONOR OF ANTON SEIDL.
New York, February 2, 1895.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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