{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:american-secular-union-convention",
  "slug": "american-secular-union-convention",
  "title": "Convention of the American Secular Union",
  "subtitle": "Albany, N.Y., September 13, 1885 — presidential address.",
  "excerpt": "Ingersoll's presidential address to the American Secular Union, accepting the office of president.",
  "year": 1885,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Address",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/american-secular-union-convention/",
  "wordCount": 1767,
  "body": "Albany, N. Y., September 13, 1885.\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN: While I have never sought any place in any\norganization, and while I never intended to accept any place in any\norganization, yet as you have done me the honor to elect me president of\nthe American Secular Union, I not only accept the place, but tender to\nyou each and all my sincere thanks.\n\nThis is a position that a man cannot obtain by repressing his honest\nthought. Nearly all other positions he obtains in that way. But I\nam glad that the time has come when men can afford to preserve\ntheir manhood in this country. Maybe they cannot be elected to the\nLegislature, cannot become errand boys in Congress, cannot be placed as\nweather-vanes in the presidential chair, but the time has come when a\nman can express his honest thought and be treated like a gentleman\nin the United States. We have arrived at a point where priests do not\ngovern, and have reached that stage of our journey where we, as Harriet\nMartineau expressed it, are \"free rovers on the breezy common of the\nuniverse.\" Day by day we are getting rid of the aristocracy of the air.\nWe have been the slaves of phantoms long enough, and a new day, a day\nof glory, has dawned upon this new world—this new world which is far\nbeyond the old in the real freedom of thought.\n\nIn the selection of your officers, without referring to myself, I think\nyou have shown great good sense. The first man chosen as vice-president,\nMr. Charles Watts, is a gentleman of sound, logical mind; one who\nknows what he wants to say and how to say it; who is familiar with the\norganization of Secular societies, knows what we wish to accomplish and\nthe means to attain it. I am glad that he is about to make this country\nhis home, and I know of no man who, in my judgment, can do more for the\ncause of intellectual liberty.\n\nThe next vice-president, Mr. Remsburg, has done splendid work all over\nthe country. He is an absolutely fearless man, and tells really and\ntruly what his mind produces. We need such men everywhere.\n\nYou know it is almost a rule, or at any rate the practice, in political\nparties and in organizations generally, to be so anxious for success\nthat all the offices and places of honor are given to those who will\ncome in at the eleventh hour. The rule is to hold out these honors as\nbribes for newcomers instead of conferring them upon those who have\nborne the heat and burden of the day. I hope that the American Secular\nUnion will not be guilty of any such injustice. Bestow your honors upon\nthe men who stood by you when you had few friends, the men who enlisted\nfor the war when the cause needed soldiers. Give your places to them,\nand if others want to join your ranks, welcome them heartily to the\nplaces of honor in the rear and let them learn how to keep step.\n\nIn this particular, leaving out myself as I have said, you have done\nmagnificently well. Mrs. Mattie Krekel, another vice-president, is a\nwoman who has the courage to express her opinions, and she is all the\nmore to be commended because, as you know, women have to suffer a little\nmore punishment than men, being amenable to social laws that are more\nexacting and tyrannical than those passed by Legislatures.\n\nOf Mr. Wakeman it is not necessary to speak. You all know him to be an\nable, thoughtful, and experienced man, capable in every respect; one\nwho has been in this organization from the beginning, and who is now\npresident of the New York society. Elizur Wright, one of the patriarchs\nof Freethought, who was battling for liberty before I was born, and who\nwill be found in the front rank until he ceases to be. You have honored\nyourselves by electing James Parton, a thoughtful man, a scholar, a\nphilosopher, and a philanthropist—honest, courageous, and logical—with\na mind as clear as a cloudless sky. Parker Pillsbury, who has always\nbeen on the side of liberty, always willing, if need be, to stand\nalone—a man who has been mobbed many times because he had the goodness\nand courage to denounce the institution of slavery—a man possessed\nof the true martyr spirit. Messrs. Algie and Adams, our friends from\nCanada, men of the highest character, worthy of our fullest confidence\nand esteem—conscientious, upright, and faithful.\n\nAnd permit me to say that I know of no man of kinder heart, of gentler\ndisposition, with more real, good human feeling toward all the world,\nwith a more forgiving and tender spirit, than Horace Seaver. He and Mr.\nMendum are the editors of the Investigator, the first Infidel paper\nI ever saw, and I guess the first that any one of you ever saw—a paper\nonce edited by Abner Kneeland, who was put in prison for saying, \"The\nUniversalists believe in a God which I do not.\" The court decided that\nhe had denied the existence of a Supreme Being, and at that time it was\nnot thought safe to allow a remark of that kind to be made, and so, for\nthe purpose of keeping an infinite God from tumbling off his throne, Mr.\nKneeland was put in jail. But Horace Seaver and Mr. Mendum went on with\nhis work. They are pioneers in this cause, and they have been absolutely\ntrue to the principles of Freethought from the first day until now.\n\nIf there is anybody belonging to our Secular Union more enthusiastic and\nbetter calculated to impart something of his enthusiasm to others than\nSamuel P. Putnam, our secretary, I do not know him. Courtlandt Palmer,\nyour treasurer, you all know, and you will presently know him better\nwhen you hear the speech he is about to make, and that speech will speak\nbetter for him than I possibly can. Wait until you hear him, as he is\nnow waiting for me to get through that you may hear him. He will give\nyou the definition of the true gentleman, and that definition will be a\ntruthful description of himself.\n\nMr. Reynolds is on our side if anybody is or ever was, and Mr.\nMacdonald, editor of The Truth Seeker, aiming not only to seek the\ntruth but to expose error, has done and is doing incalculable good in\nthe cause of mental freedom.\n\nAll these men and women are men and women of character, of high purpose;\nin favor of Freethought not as a peculiarity or as an eccentricity of\nthe hour, but with all their hearts, through and through, to the very\ncenter and core of conviction, life, and purpose.\n\nAnd so I can congratulate you on your choice, and believe that you have\nentered upon the most prosperous year of your existence. I believe that\nyou will do all you can to have every law repealed that puts a hypocrite\nabove an honest mail. We know that no man is thoroughly honest who does\nnot tell his honest thought. We want the Sabbath day for ourselves and\nour families. Let the gods have the heavens. Give us the earth. If the\ngods want to stay at home Sundays and look solemn, let them do it; let\nus have a little wholesome recreation and pleasure. If the gods wish to\ngo out with their wives and children, let them go. If they want to play\nbilliards with the stars, so they don't carom on us, let them play.\n\nWe want to do what we can to compel every church to pay taxes on its\nproperty as other people pay on theirs. Do you know that if church\nproperty is allowed to go without taxation, it is only a question\nof time when they will own a large per cent, of the property of the\ncivilized world? It is the same as compound interest; only give it time.\nIf you allow it to increase without taxing it for its protection, its\ngrowth can only be measured by the time in which it has to grow. The\nchurch builds an edifice in some small town, gets several acres of land.\nIn time a city rises around it. The labor of others has added to the\nvalue of this property, until it is worth millions. If this property is\nnot taxed, the churches will have so much in their hands that they will\nagain become dangerous to the liberties of mankind. There never will be\nreal liberty in this country until all property is put upon a perfect\nequality. If you want to build a Joss house, pay taxes. If you want\nto build churches, pay taxes. If you want to build a hall or temple in\nwhich Freethought and science are to be taught, pay taxes. Let there be\nno property untaxed. When you fail to tax any species of property, you\nincrease the tax of other people owning the rest. To that extent, you\nunite church and state. You compel the Infidel to support the\nCatholic. I do not want to support the Catholic Church. It is not worth\nsupporting. It is an unadulterated evil. Neither do I want to reform\nthe Catholic Church. The only reformation of which that church or any\northodox church is capable, is destruction. I want to spend no more\nmoney on superstition. Neither should our money be taken to support\nsectarian schools. We do not wish to employ any chaplains in the navy,\nor in the army, or in the Legislatures, or in Congress. It is useless to\nask God to help the political party that happens to be in power. We want\nno President, no Governor \"clothed with a little brief authority,\" to\nissue a proclamation as though he were an agent of God, authorized to\ntell all his loving subjects to fast on a certain day, or to enter their\nchurches and pray for the accomplishment of a certain object. It is\nnone of his business. When they called on Thomas Jefferson to issue\na proclamation, he said he had no right to do it, that religion was a\npersonal, individual matter, and that the state had no right, no power,\nto interfere.\n\nI now have the pleasure of introducing Mr. Courtlandt Palmer, who will\nspeak to you on the \"Aristocracy of Freethought,\" in my judgment the\naristocracy not only of the present, but the aristocracy of the future.\n"
}