Declaration of Independence
by Robert G. Ingersoll

(Given on the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence).
www.skeptical-christian.net/lectures/declaration_independence.html


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the
bravest, and the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the
representatives of a people. It is the embodiment of physical and moral
courage, and of political wisdom.

I say of physical courage because it was a declaration of war against the
most powerful nation then on the globe; a declaration of war by thirteen
weak, unorganized colonies, a declaration of war by a few people, without
military stores, without wealth, without strength, against the most powerful
kingdom on the earth; a declaration of war made when the British navy -- at
that day the mistress of every sea -- was hovering along the coast of
America, looking after defenseless towns and villages to ravish and destroy.
It was made when thousands of English soldiers were upon our soil, and when
the principle cities of America were in the substantial possession of the
enemy. And so, I say, all things considered, it was the bravest political
document ever signed by man. And if it was physically brave, the moral
courage of the document is almost infinitely beyond the physical. They had
the courage not only, but they had the almost infinite wisdom to declare
that all men are created equal. (Applause.)

With one blow, with one stroke of the pen, they struck down all the cruel,
heartless barriers that aristocracy, that priestcraft, that kingcraft had
raised between man and man. They struck down with one immortal blow that
infamous spirit of caste that makes a God almost a beast, and a beast almost
a god. With one word, with one blow they wiped away and utterly destroyed
all that had been done by centuries of war -- centuries of hypocrisy --
centuries of injustice.

What more did they do? They then declared that each man has a right to live.
And what does that mean? It means that he has the right to make his living.
It means that he has the right to breathe the air, to work the land, that he
stands the equal of every other human being beneath the shining stars,
entitled to the product of his labor -- the labor of his hand and of his
brain.

What more? That every man has right to pursue his own happiness in his own
way. Grander words than these have never been spoken by man.

And what more did these men say? They laid down the doctrine that
governments were instituted among men for the purpose of preserving the
rights of the people. The old idea was that people existed solely for the
benefit of the state -- that is to say, for kings and nobles.

The old idea was that the people were the wards of the kind and priest --
that their bodies belong to one and their souls to the other.

And what more? That the people are the source of political power. That was
not only a revelation, but it was a revolution. It changed the ideas of
people with regard to the source of political power. For the first time it
made human beings men. What was the old idea? The old idea was that no
political power came from, nor in any manner belonged to the people. The old
idea was that the political power came from the clouds; that the political
power came in some miraculous way from heaven; that it came down to kings,
and queens and robbers. That was the old idea. The nobles lived upon the
labor of the people; the people had no rights; the nobles stole what they
had and divided with the kings, and the kings pretended to divide what they
stole with God Almighty. The source, then, of political power was from
above. The people were responsible to the nobles, the nobles to the king,
and the people had no political right whatever, no more than the wild beasts
of the forest. The kings were responsible to God; not the people. They were
responsible to the clouds, not to the toiling millions they robbed and
plundered.

And our forefathers, in this declaration of independence, reversed this
thing, and said; No, the people, they are the source of political power, and
their rulers -- these presidents, these kings -- are but the agents and
servants of the great, sublime people. For the first time, really, in the
history of the world, the kind was made to get off the throne, and the
people were royally seated thereon. The people became the sovereigns, and
the old sovereigns became the servants and the agents of the people. It is
hard for you and me now to imagine even the immense results of the change.
It is hard for you and me, at this day, to understand how thoroughly it had
been ingrained in the brain of almost every man, that the king had some
wonderful right over him; that in some strange way the king owned him; that
in some miraculous manner he belonged, body and soul, to somebody who rode
on a horse, to somebody with epaulettes on his shoulders and a tinsel crown
upon his brainless head. (Applause.)

Our forefathers had been educated in that idea, and when they first landed
on American shores they believed it. They thought they belonged to somebody,
and that they must be loyal to some thief, who could trace his pedigree back
to antiquity's most successful robber.

It took a long time for them to get that idea out of their heads and hearts.
They were three thousand miles away from the despotisms of the old world,
and every wave of the sea was an assistant to them. The distance helped to
disenchant their minds of that infamous belief, and every miles between them
and the pomp and glory of monarchy helped to put republican ideas and
thoughts into their minds. Besides that, when they came to this country, and
three thousand miles of waves on the other side, menaced by barbarians on
the one side, and famine on the other, they learned that a man who had
courage, a man who had thought, was as good as any other man in the world,
and they built up, as it were in spite of themselves, little republics. And
the man that had the most nerve and heart was the best man, whether he had
any noble blood in his veins or not. (Applause.)

It has been a favorite idea with me that our forefathers were educated by
Nature; that they grew grand as the continent upon which they landed; that
the great rivers -- the wide plains -- the splendid lakes -- the lonely
forests -- the sublime mountains -- that all these things stole into and
became a part of their being, and they grew great as the country in which
they lived. They began to hate the narrow, contracted views of Europe. They
were educated by their surroundings, and every little colony had to be, to a
certain extent, a republic. The kings of the old world endeavored to parcel
out this land to their favorites. But there were too many Indians. There was
too much courage required for them to take and keep it, and so men had to
come here who were dissatisfied with the old country -- who were
dissatisfied with England, dissatisfied with France, with Germany, with
Ireland and Holland. The kings' favorites stayed at home. Men came here for
liberty and on account of certain principles they entertained and held
dearer than life. And they were willing to work, willing to fell the
forests, willing to go through all the hardships, perils and dangers of a
new country, of a new land; and the consequence was that our country was
settled by brave and adventurous spirits; by men who had opinions of their
own and were willing to live in the wild forests for the sake of expressing
these opinions, even if they expressed them only to trees and rocks. The
best blood of the old world came to the new.

When they first came over they did not have a great deal of political
philosophy, nor the best ideas of liberty. We might as well tell the truth.
When the Puritans first came, they were narrow. They did not understand what
liberty meant -- what religious liberty, what political liberty, was; but
they found out in a few years. There was one feeling among them that rises
to their eternal honor like a white shaft to the clouds -- they were in
favor of education. Where they went they built school houses, introduced
books, and ideas of literature. They believed that every man should know how
to read and write, and should find out all that his capacity allowed him to
comprehend. That is the glory of the Puritan fathers.

They forgot in a little while what they had suffered, and they forgot to
apply the principle of universal liberty -- of toleration. Some of the
colonies did not forget it, and I want to give credit where credit should be
given. The Catholics of Maryland were the first people on the continent to
declare universal religious toleration. Let this be remembered to their
eternal honor. Let it be remembered to the disgrace of the Protestant
government of England, that it caused this grand law to be repealed. And to
the honor and credit of the Catholics of Maryland let it be remembered, that
the moment they got back into power they reenacted the old law. The Baptists
of Rhode Island also, lead by Roger Williams, were in favor of universal
religious liberty.

No American should fail to honor Roger Williams. He was the first grand
advocate of the liberty of the soul. He was in favor of the eternal divorce
of church and state. So far as I know, he was the only man at that time in
this country who was in favor of real religious liberty. While the Catholics
of Maryland declared in favor of religious toleration, they had no idea of
religious liberty. They would not allow any one to call in question the
doctrine of the Trinity, or the inspiration of the Scriptures. They stood
ready with branding iron and gallows to burn and choke out of a man the idea
that he had a right to think and to express his thoughts.

So many religions met in our country -- so many theories and dogmas came in
contact -- so many follies, mistakes and stupidities became acquainted with
each other, that religion began to fall somewhat into disrepute. Besides
this, the question of a new nation began to take precedence of all others.

The people were too much interested in this world to quarrel about the next.
The preacher was lost in the patriot. The Bible was read to find passages
against kings.

Everybody was discussing the rights of man. Farmers and mechanics suddenly
became statesmen, and in every shop and cabin nearly every question was
asked and answered.

During these years of political excitement the interest in religion bated to
that degree that a common purpose animated men of all sects and creeds.
(Applause.)

At last our fathers became colonists -- tired of writing and reading and
signing petitions and presenting them on their bended knees to an idiot
king. They began to have an aspiration to form a new nation; to be citizens
of a new republic instead of subjects of an old monarchy. They had the idea.
The Puritans, the Catholics, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, the Quakers,
and a few Free Thinkers, all had the idea that they would form a new nation.

Now, do not understand that all our fathers were in favor of independence.
Do not understand that they were all like Jefferson; that they were all like
Adams or Lee; that they were all like Thomas Paine or John Hancock. There
were thousands and thousands of them who were opposed to American
independence. There were thousands and thousands who said "When you say men
are created equal, it is a lie; when you say the political power resides in
the great body of the people, it is false." Thousands and thousands of them
said: "We prefer Great Britain." But the men who were in favor of
independence, the men who knew that a new nation must be born, went on full
of hope and courage, and nothing could daunt or stop or stay the heroic,
fearless few.

They met in Philadelphia; and the resolution was moved by Lee or Virginia
that the colonies ought to be independent states, and ought to dissolve
their political connections with Great Britain.

They made up their minds that a new nation must be formed. All nations had
bee, so to speak, the wards of some church. The religious idea as to the
source of power had been at the foundation, of all governments and had been
the bane and curse of man.

Happily for us, there was no church strong enough to dictate to the rest.
Fortunately for us, the colonists not only but the colonies differed widely
in their religious views. There were the Puritans, who hate the
Episcopalians; the Episcopalians, who hated the Catholics; and the
Catholics, who hated both, while the Quakers held them all in contempt.
There they were, of every sort and color and kind, and how was it that they
came together? They had a common aspiration. They wanted to form a new
nation. More than that, most of them cordially hated Great Britain; and they
pledged each other to forget their religious prejudices for a time, at
least, and agreed that there should be only one religion until they got
through -- and that was the religion of patriotism. They solemnly agreed
that the new nation should not belong to any particular church but that it
should secure the rights of all.

Our fathers founded the first secular government that was ever founded in
this world. Recollect that. The first secular government; the first
government that said every church has exactly the same rights, and no more;
every religion has the same rights, and no more. In other words, our fathers
were the first men who had the sense, who had the genius, to know that no
church should be allowed to have a sword; that it should be allowed only to
exert its moral influence. (Applause.)

You might as well have a government united by force with Art, or with
Poetry, or with Oratory as with Religion. Religion should have the
influence upon mankind that its goodness, that its morality, its justice,
its charity, its reason, and its argument give it, and no more. Religion
should have the effect upon mankind that it necessarily has, and no more.
The religion that has to be supported by law is without value not only but a
fraud and a curse. The religious argument that has to be supported by a
musket is hardly worth making. A prayer that must have a cannon behind it
better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership with
shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and revolvers.

So our fathers said: "We will form a secular government, and under the flag
which we are going to enrich our air we will allow every man to worship God
as he thinks best." They said: "Religion is an individual thing between each
man and his Creator, and he can worship as he pleases and as he desires."
And why did they do this? The history of the world warned them that the
liberty of man was not safe in the clutch and grasp of any church. They had
read of and seen the thumb-screws, the racks and the dungeons of the
Inquisition. They knew all about the hypocrisy of the olden time. They knew
that the church had stood side by side with the throne; that the high
priests were hypocrites, and that the kings were robbers. They also knew
that if they gave to any church power, it would corrupt the best church in
the world. And so they said that power must not reside in a church, nor in a
sect, but power must be wherever humanity is - in the great body of the
people. And the officers and servants of the people must be responsible to
them. And so I say again, as I said in the commencement, this is the wisest,
the profoundest, the bravest political document that was ever written.

They turned, as I tell you, everything squarely about. They derived all
their authority from the people. They did away forever with the theological
idea of government.

And what more did they say? They said that wherever the rules abused this
authority, the power, incapable of destruction, returned to the people. How
did they come to say this? I will tell you; they were pushed into it. How?
They felt that they were oppressed; and whenever a man feels that he is the
subject of injustice, his perception of right and wrong is wonderfully
quickened.

Nobody was ever in prison wrongfully who did not believe in the writ of
habeas corpus. Nobody ever suffered wrongfully without instantly having
ideas of justice.

And they began to inquire what rights the king of Great Britain had. They
began to search for the charter of his authority. They began to investigate
and dig down to the bedrock upon which society must be founded, and when
they got down there -- forced there, too, by their oppressors; forced
against their own prejudices and education -- they found at the bottom of
things, not lords, not nobles, not pulpits, not thrones, but humanity and
the rights of men. (Tremendous cheering.)

And so they said, we are men; we are men. They found out they were men. And
the next they said was: "We will be free men; we are weary of being
colonists; we are tired of being subjects; we are men; and these colonies
ought to be states and these states ought to be a nation; and that nation
ought to drive the last British soldier into the sea." And so they signed
that brave declaration of independence.

I thank every one of them from the bottom of my heart for signing that
sublime declaration. I thank them for their courage -- for their
patriotism -- for their wisdom -- for the splendid confidence in themselves
and in the human race. I thank them for what they did and for what we have
received -- for what they suffered and for what we enjoy. (Applause.)

What would we have been if we have remained colonists and subjects? What
would we have been to-day? Nobodies -- ready to get down on our knees and
crawl in the very dust at the sight of somebody that was supposed to have in
him some drop of blood that flowed in the veins of that mailed marauder,
that royal robber William the Conqueror.

They signed that declaration of independence, although they knew that it
would produce a long, terrible and bloody war. they looked forward and saw
poverty, deprivation, gloom and death. But they also saw on the wrecked
clouds of war the beautiful bow of freedom.

These grand men were enthusiastic; and the world had only been raised by
enthusiasts. In every country there has been a few who have given a national
aspiration to the people. The enthusiasts of 1776 were the builders and
framers of this great and splendid government; and they were the men who
saw, although others did not, the golden fringe of the mantle of glory that
will finally cover this world. They knew, they felt, they believed that they
would give a new constellation to the political heavens -- that they would
make the Americans a grand people -- grand as the continent upon which they
lived.

The war commenced. There was little money, and less credit. The new nation
had but few friends. To a great extent each soldier of freedom had to clothe
and feed himself. He was poor and pure -- brave and good -- and so he went
to the fields of death to fight for the rights of man.

What did the soldier have when he went?
He left his wife and children.
Did he leave them in a beautiful home, surrounded by civilization, in the
repose of law, in the security of a great and powerful republic?

No. He left his wife and children on the edge, on the fringe of the
boundless forest. He left his wife to defend herself, and he left the
prattling babes to be defended by their mother and by Nature. The mother
made the living; she planted the corn and the potatoes and hoed them in the
sun, raised the children, and in the darkness of night told them about their
brave father and the "sacred cause". She told them that in a little while
the war would be over and father would come back covered with honor and
glory.

Think of the women, of the sweet children who listened for the footsteps of
the dead -- who waited through the sad and desolate years for the ones who
never came.

The soldiers of 1776 did not march away with music and banners. They went in
silence, looked at and gazed after by eyes filled with tears. They went to
meet, not an equal but a superior -- to fight five times their number -- to
make a desperate stand -- to stop the advance of the enemy -- and then, when
the ammunition gave out, seek the protection of rocks, of rivers, and of
hills.

Let me say here: The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat
without losing heart. That army is the bravest that can be whipped the
greatest number of times and fight again.

Over the entire territory, so to speak, then settled by our forefathers,
they were driven again and again. Now and then they would meet the English
with something like equal numbers, and then the eagle of victory would
proudly perch upon the stripes and stars. And so they went on as best they
could, hoping and fighting, until they came to the dark and somber gloom of
Valley Forge.

There were very few hearts then beneath that flag which did not begin to
think that the struggle was useless; that all the blood and treasure had
been spent and shed in vain. But there were some men gifted with that
wonderful prophecy that fulfills itself, and that wonderful magnetic power
that makes heroes of everybody they come in contact with.

And so our fathers went through the gloom of that terrible time and still
fought on. Brave men wrote grand words, cheering the despondent; brave men
did brave deeds; the rich man gave his wealth; the poor man gave his life,
until at last, by the victory at Yorktown, the old banner won its place in
the air and became glorious forever. (Applause.)

Seven long years of war -- fighting for what? For the principle that all men
are created equal -- a truth that nobody ever disputed except a scoundrel;
nobody, nobody in the entire history of the world. No man ever denied that
truth who was not a rascal and at heart a thief; never, never and never
will. What else were they fighting for? Simply that in America every man
should have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nobody
ever denied that except a villain; never, never. It has been denied by
kings; they were thieves. It has been denied by statesmen; they were liars.
It has been denied by priests, by clergymen, by cardinals, by bishops, and
by popes; they were hypocrites. (Vociferous cheering.)

What else were they fighting for? For the idea that all political power is
vested in the great body of people. The great body of the people make all
the money; do all the work. They plow the land; cut down the forests. They
produce everything that is produced. Then who shall say what shall be done
with what is produced except the producer? Is it the non-producing thief
sitting on a throne surrounded by vermin?

The history of civilization is the history of the slow and painful
enfranchisement of the human race. In the olden times the family was a
monarchy, the father being the monarch. The mother and children were the
veriest slaves. The will of the father was the supreme law. He had the power
of life and death. It took thousands of years to civilize this father;
thousands of years to make the conditions of wife and mother and child even
tolerable. A few families constituted a tribe; the tribe had a chief; the
chief was a tyrant; a few tribes formed a nation; the nation was governed by
a king, who was also a tyrant. A strong nation robbed, plundered, and took
captive the weaker ones. This was the commencement of human slavery.

It is not possible for the human imagination to conceive of the horrors of
slavery. It has left no possible crime uncommitted, no possible cruelty
unperpetrated. It has been practiced and defended by all nations in some
form. It has been upheld by all religions. It has been defended by nearly
every pulpit. From the profits derived from the slave trade churches have
been built, cathedrals reared, and priests paid. Slavery has been blessed by
bishop, by cardinal, and by pope. It has received the sanction of statesmen,
of kings, and queens. It has been defended by the throne, the pulpit, and
the bench. Monarchs have shared in the profits. Clergymen have taken their
part of the spoil, reciting passages of Scripture in its defense at the same
time, and judges have taken their portion in the name of equity and law.

Only a few years ago our ancestors were slaves. Only a few years ago they
passed with and belonged to the soil, like coal under it and rocks on it.
Only a few years ago they were treated like beasts of burden, worse far than
we treat our animals at the present day. Only a few years ago it was a crime
in England for a man to have a Bible in his house -- a crime for which men
were hanged and their bodies afterward burned. Only a few years ago fathers
could, and did, sell their children. Only a few years ago our ancestors were
not allowed to speak or write their thoughts -- that being a crime. Only a
few years ago to be honest, at least in the expression of your ideas, was a
felony. To do right was a capital offense; and in those days chains and
whips were the incentives to labor and the prevention of thought. Honesty
was a vagrant, Justice a fugitive, and Liberty in chains. Only a few years
ago men were denounced because they doubted the inspiration of the Bible --
because they denied miracles and laughed at the wonders recounted by the
ancient Jews. (Applause.)

Only a few years ago a man had to believe in the total depravity of the
human heart in order to be respectable. Only a few years ago people who
thought God too good to punish in eternal flames an unbaptised child were
considered infamous. (Applause.)

As soon as our ancestors began to get free they began to enslave others.
With an inconsistency that defies explanation, they practiced upon others
the same outrages that had been perpetrated upon them. As soon as white
slavery began to be abolished black slavery commenced. In this infamous
traffic nearly every nation of Europe embarked. Fortunes were quickly
realized; the avarice and cupidity of Europe was excited; all ideas of
justice were discarded; pity fled from the human breast; a few good, brave
men recited the horrors of the trade; avarice was deaf; religion refused to
hear; the trade went on; the governments of Europe upheld it in the name of
commerce -- in the name of civilization and of religion.

Our fathers knew the history of caste. They knew that in the despotisms of
the old world it was a disgrace to be useful. They knew that a mechanic was
esteemed as hardly the equal of a hound, and far below a blooded horse. They
knew that a nobleman held a son of labor in contempt; that he had no rights
the royal loafers were bound to respect.

The world was changed.

The other day there came shoemakers, potters, workers in wood and iron, from
Europe and they were received in the city of New York as though they had
been princes. They had been sent by the great republic of France to examine
into the arts and manufactures of the great republic of America. They looked
a thousand times better to me than Edward Alberts and Albert Edwards -- the
royal vermin that live on the holy politic. And I would think much more of
our government if it would fete and feast them, instead of wining and dining
the imbeciles of a royal line. (Loud and long continued applause.)

Our fathers devoted their lives and fortunes to the grand work of founding a
government for the protection of the rights of man. The theological idea as
to the source of political power has poisoned the web and wool of every
government in the world, and our fathers banished it from this continent
forever.

What we want today is what our fathers wrote down. They did not attain to
their ideal; we approach it nearer, but have not reached it yet. We want not
only the independence of state, not only the independence of a nation, but
something far more glorious -- the absolute independence of the individual.
That is what we want. I want it so that I, one of the children of Nature,
can stand on an equality with the rest; that I can say this is my air, my
sunshine, my earth, and I have a right to live, and hope, and aspire, and
labor and enjoy the fruit of that labor, as much as any individual or any
nation on the face of the globe.

We want every American to make to-day, on this hundredth anniversary, a
declaration of individual independence. Let each man enjoy his liberty to
the utmost -- enjoy all he can; but be sure it is not at the expense of
another. The French convention gave the best definition of liberty I ever
read: "The liberty of one citizen ceases only where the liberty of another
citizen commences." I know of no better definition. I ask you to-day to make
a declaration of individual independence. Allow your wife, allow your
husband, allow your children to make theirs. Let everybody be absolutely
free and independent, knowing only the sacred obligation of honesty and
affection. Let us be independent of party, independent of everybody and
everything except our own consciences and our own brains. Do not belong to
any clique. Have the clear title deeds in fee simple to yourselves, without
any mortgage on the premises to anybody in the world.

It is a grand thing to be the owner of yourself. It is a grand thing to
protect the rights of others. It is a sublime thing to be free and just.

Only a few days ago I stood in Independence Hall -- in that little room
where was signed the immortal paper. A little room, like any other; and it
did not seem possible that from that room went forth ideas, like cherubim
and seraphim, which spread their wings over a continent, and touched, as
with holy fire, the hearts of men.

In a few moments I was in the park where are gathered the accomplishments of
a century. Our fathers never dreamed of the things I saw. There were
hundreds of locomotives, with their nerves of steel and breath of flame --
every kind of machine, with whirling wheels and curious cogs and cranks, and
the myriad thoughts of men that have been wrought in iron, brass and steel.
And going out from one little building were wires in the air, stretching to
every civilized nation, and they could send a shining messenger in a moment
to any part of the world, and would go sweeping under the waves of the sea
with thoughts and words within its glowing heart. I saw all that had been
achieved by this nation, and I wished that the signers of the Declaration --
the soldiers of the Revolution -- could see what a century of freedom has
produced. I wished they could see the fields we cultivate -- the rivers we
navigate -- the railroads running over the Alleghenies, far into what was
then the unknown forest -- on over the broad prairies -- on over the vast
plains away over the mountains of the West, to the Golden Gate of the
Pacific.

All this is the result of a hundred years of freedom. (Applause.)

Are you not more than glad that in 1776 was announced the sublime principle
that political power resides with the people -- that our fathers then made
up their minds nevermore to be colonists and subjects, but that they would
be free and independent citizens of America?

I will not name any of the grand men who fought for liberty. All should be
named, or none. I feel that the unknown soldier who was shot down without
even his name being remembered -- who was included only in a report of "a
hundred killed" or "a hundred missing," nobody knowing ever the number that
attached to his august corpse -- is entitled to as deep and heartfelt thanks
as the titled leader who fell at the head of the host.

Standing here amid the sacred memories of the first, on the golden threshold
of the second, I ask: Will the second century be as grand as the first? I
believe it will, because we are growing more and more humane. I believe
there is more human kindness, more real sweet, human sympathy, a greater
desire to help one another, in the United States than in all the world
besides. (Applause.)

We must progress. We are just at the commencement of invention. The steam
engine -- the telegraph -- these are but the toys with which science has
been amused. Wait: there will be grander things; there will be a wider and
higher culture -- a grander standard of character, of literature and art.

We have now half as many millions of people as we have years, and many of us
will live until a hundred millions stand beneath the flag. We are getting
more real solid sense. The schoolhouse is the finest building in the
village. We are writing and reading more books; we are painting and buying
more pictures; we are struggling more and more to get at the philosophy of
life, of things -- trying more and more to answer the questions of the
eternal Sphinx. We are looking in every direction -- investigation; in
short, we are thinking and working.

Besides all this, I believe the people are nearer honest than ever before. A
few years ago we were willing to live upon the labor of 4,000,000 slaves.
Was that honest? At last, we have a national conscience. At last we have
carried our the Declaration of Independence. Our fathers wrote it -- we have
accomplished it. The black man was a slave -- we have made him a citizen. We
found 4,000,000 human beings in manacles, and now the hands of a race are
held up in the free air without a chain.

I have had the supreme pleasure of seeing a man -- once a slave -- sitting
in the seat of his former master in the Congress of the United States. I
have had that pleasure, and when I saw it my eyes filled with tears. I felt
that we had carried out the Declaration of Independence -- that we had given
reality to it and breathed the breath of life into its every word. I felt
that our flag would float over and protect the colored man and his little
children -- standing straight in the sun -- just the same as thought he were
white and worth a million. I would protect him more, because the rich white
man could protect himself. (Applause.)

All who stand beneath our banner are free. Ours is the only flag that has in
reality written upon it Liberty, Fraternity, Equality -- the three grandest
words in all the languages of men.

Liberty -- Give to every man the fruit of his own labor; the labor of his
hands and of his brain.

Fraternity -- Every man in the right is my brother.

Equality -- The rights of all are equal. Justice poised and balanced in
eternal claim will shake from the golden scales in which are weighed the
acts of men the very dust of prejudice and caste. No race, no color, no
previous conditions, can change the rights of men.

The Declaration of Independence has at last been carried out in letter and
spirit.

Fifty millions of people are celebrating this day. To-day the black man
looks upon his child and says: "The avenues of distinction are open to
you -- upon your brow may fall the civic wreath, This day belongs to you."

We are a great people. Three millions have increased to fifty; thirteen
states to thirty-eight. We have better homes, better clothes, better food
and more of it, and more of the conveniences of life, than any other people
upon the globe.

The farmers of our country live better than did the kings and princes two
hundred years ago -- and they have twice as much sense and heart. Liberty
and labor have been given to all. I want every person here to believe in the
dignity of labor -- to know that the respectable man is the useful man --
the man who produces or helps others to produce something of value, whether
thought of the brain or work of the mind.

I want you to go away with an eternal hatred in your breast of injustice, of
aristocracy, of caste, of the idea that one man has more rights than another
because he has better clothes, more land, more money; because he owns a
railroad, or is famous and in high position. Remember that all men have
equal rights. Remember that the man who acts best his part -- who loves his
friends the best -- is most willing to help others -- truest to the
obligation -- who has the best heart -- the most feeling -- the deepest
sympathies -- and who freely gives to others the rights that he claims for
himself is the best man. I am willing to swear to this.

What has made this country? I say again, liberty and labor. What would we be
without labor? I want every farmer, when lowing the rustling corn of June --
while mowing in the perfumed fields -- to feel that he is adding to the
wealth and glory of the United States. I want every mechanic -- ever man of
toil -- to know and feel that he is keeping the cars running, the telegraph
wires in the air; that he is making the statues and painting the pictures;
that he is writing and printing the books; that he is helping to fill the
world with honor, with happiness, with love and law.

Our country is founded upon the dignity of labor -- upon the equality of
man. Ours is the first real republic in the history of the world. Beneath
our flag the people are free. We have retired the gods from politics. We
have found that man is the only source of political power and that the
government should govern. We have disfranchised the aristocrats of the air
and have given one country to mankind.

http://www.skeptical-christian.net/lectures/lectures_index.html

http://www.skeptical-christian.net
http://www.edwardtbabinski.us

Declaration of Independence
by Robert G. Ingersoll

***** because I don't want to speak to an ***** like you Sancziewicz?

Of course I have intention to post stuff,

and NOT TO DISCUSS with the likes
of violent tempered vermin like you.

Why? Here's a reason...

Only a unpatriotic assw*p like you would snip an article written by a
Patriot who served in the War to keep this country free... only a devil like
you would snip Colonel Robert Ingersoll's article, and curse it as "spam".

You are an unpatriotic HEATHEN... and it is why I HATE YOU.

If others cannot see what you are, they are blind.

You are an imbecile.

I have absolutely no intention of discussing ANY THING, EVER with you.

You are lower than a snake's bunghole.

Learn some respect for the Founding Fathers of this Country,

you moronic anti-American douchebag, go back to Iran or whatever hole
you came from

"David Sienkiewicz" <david.sienkiewicz@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:35fa3772.0309300632.18490d14@posting.google.com...

"sharon" <*...@....com> wrote in message

news:<3f785374_9@athenanews.com>...

Declaration of Independence
by Robert G. Ingersoll

< snip spam >

Just more of the same, eh, Sharon? Usenet is such a den of evil-doers
and iniquity - except, of course, when you want to post your spam.