{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-9:decoration-day-address",
  "slug": "decoration-day-address",
  "title": "Decoration Day Address",
  "subtitle": "Metropolitan Opera House, New York.",
  "excerpt": "A Decoration Day address delivered before the veterans of the Republic at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.",
  "year": 1888,
  "volume": 9,
  "category": "Political",
  "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/decoration-day-address/",
  "wordCount": 3734,
  "body": "• Empty sleeves worn by veterans with scanty locks and\n    grizzled mustaches graced the Metropolitan Opera House last\n    night. On the breasts of their faded uniforms glittered the\n    badges of the legions in which they had fought and suffered,\n    and beside them sat the wives and daughters, whose hearts\n    had ached at home while they served their country at the\n    front.\n    Every seat in the great Opera House was filled, and hundreds\n    stood, glad to And any place where they could see and hear.\n    And the gathering and the proceedings were worthy of the\n    occasion.\n    Mr. Depew upon taking the chair said that he had the chief\n    treat of the evening to present to the audience, and that\n    was Robert G. Ingersoll, the greatest living orator, and one\n    of the great controversialists of the age.\n    Then came the orator of the occasion Col. Ingersoll, whose\n    speech is printed herewith.\n    Enthusiastic cheers greeted all his points, and his audience\n    simply went wild at the end. It was a grand oration, and it\n    was listened to by enthusiastic and appreciative hearers,\n    upon whom not a single word was lost, and in whose hearts\n    every word awoke a responsive echo.\n    Nor did the enthusiasm which Col. Ingersoll created end\n    until the very last, when the whole assemblage arose and\n    sang \"America\" in a way which will never be forgotten by any\n    one present. It was a great ending of a great evening.—The\n    New York Times, May 31st, 1888.\n\nNew York City.\n\n1888.\n\nTHIS is a sacred day—a day for gratitude and love.\n\nTo-day we commemorate more than independence, more than the birth of\na nation, more than the fruits of the Revolution, more than physical\nprogress, more than the accumulation of wealth, more than national\nprestige and power.\n\nWe commemorate the great and blessed victory over ourselves—the triumph\nof civilization, the reformation of a people, the establishment of a\ngovernment consecrated to the preservation of liberty and the equal\nrights of man.\n\nNations can win success, can be rich and powerful, can cover the earth\nwith their armies, the seas with their fleets, and yet be selfish, small\nand mean. Physical progress means opportunity for doing good. It means\nresponsibility. Wealth is the end of the despicable, victory the purpose\nof brutality.\n\nBut there is something nobler than all these—something that rises above\nwealth and power—something above lands and palaces—something above\nraiment and gold—it is the love of right, the cultivation of the moral\nnature, the desire to do justice, the inextinguishable love of human\nliberty.\n\nNothing can be nobler than a nation governed by conscience, nothing more\ninfamous than power without pity, wealth without honor and without the\nsense of justice.\n\nOnly by the soldiers of the right can the laurel be won or worn.\n\nOn this day we honor the heroes who fought to make our Nation just and\nfree—who broke the shackles of the slave, who freed the masters of the\nSouth and their allies of the North. We honor chivalric men who made\nAmerica the hope and beacon of the human race—the foremost Nation of\nthe world.\n\nThese heroes established the first republic, and demonstrated that\na government in which the legally expressed will of the people is\nsovereign and supreme is the safest, strongest, securest, noblest and\nthe best.\n\nThey demonstrated the human right of the people, and of all the people,\nto make and execute the laws—that authority does not come from the\nclouds, or from ancestry, or from the crowned and titled, or from\nconstitutions and compacts, laws and customs—not from the admissions of\nthe great, or the concessions of the powerful and victorious—not from\ngraves, or consecrated dust—not from treaties made between successful\nrobbers—not from the decisions of corrupt and menial courts—not from\nthe dead, but from the living—not from the past but from the present,\nfrom the people of to-day—from the brain, from the heart and from the\nconscience of those who live and love and labor.\n\nThe history of this world for the most part is the history of conflict\nand war, of invasion, of conquest, of victorious wrong, of the many\nenslaved by the few.\n\nMillions have fought for kings, for the destruction and enslavement of\ntheir fellow-men. Millions have battled for empire, and great armies\nhave been inspired by the hope of pillage; but for the first time in the\nhistory of this world millions of men battled for the right, fought to\nfree not themselves, but others, not for prejudice, but for principle,\nnot for conquest, but for conscience.\n\nThe men whom we honor were the liberators of a Nation, of a whole\ncountry, North and South—of two races. They freed the body and the\nbrain, gave liberty to master and to slave. They opened all the highways\nof thought, and gave to fifty millions of people the inestimable legacy\nof free speech.\n\nThey established the free exchange of thought. They gave to the air a\nflag without a stain, and they gave to their country a Constitution\nthat honest men can reverently obey. They destroyed the hateful, the\negotistic and provincial—they established a Nation, a national spirit,\na national pride and a patriotism as broad as the great Republic.\n\nThey did away with that ignorant and cruel prejudice that human rights\ndepend on race or color, and that the superior race has the right\nto oppress the inferior. They established the sublime truth that the\nsuperior are the just, the kind, the generous, and merciful—that the\nreally superior are the protectors, the defenders, and the saviors of\nthe oppressed, of the fallen, the unfortunate, the weak and helpless.\nThey established that greatest of all truths that nothing is nobler than\nto labor and suffer for others.\n\nIf we wish to know the extent of our debt to these heroes, these\nsoldiers of the right, we must know what we were and what we are. A few\nyears ago we talked about liberty, about the freedom of the world, and\nwhile so talking we enslaved our fellow-men. We were the stealers\nof babes and the whippers of women. We were in partnership with\nbloodhounds. We lived on unpaid labor. We held manhood in contempt.\nHonest toil was disgraceful—sympathy was a crime—pity was\nunconstitutional—humanity contrary to law, and charity was treason. Men\nwere imprisoned for pointing out in heaven's dome the Northern Star—for\ngiving food to the hungry, water to the parched lips of thirst, shelter\nto the hunted, succor to the oppressed. In those days criminals and\ncourts, pirates and pulpits were in partnership—liberty was only a\nword standing for the equal rights of robbers.\n\nFor many years we insisted that our fathers had founded a free\nGovernment, that they were the lovers of liberty, believers in equal\nrights. We were mistaken. The colonists did not believe in the freedom\nof to-day. Their laws were filled with intolerance, with slavery and\nthe infamous spirit of caste. They persecuted and enslaved. Most of them\nwere narrow, ignorant and cruel. For the most part, their laws were more\nbrutal than those of the nations from which they came. They branded the\nforehead of intelligence, bored with hot irons the tongue of truth. They\npersecuted the good and enslaved the helpless. They were believers in\npillories and whipping-posts for honest, thoughtful men.\n\nWhen their independence was secured they adopted a Constitution that\nlegalized slavery, and they passed laws making it the duty of free men\nto prevent others from becoming free. They followed the example of kings\nand nobles. They knew that monarchs had been interested in the slave\ntrade, and that the first English commander of a slave-ship divided his\nprofits with a queen.\n\nThey forgot all the splendid things they had said—the great principles\nthey had so proudly and eloquently announced. The sublime truths faded\nfrom their hearts. The spirit of trade, the greed for office, took\npossession of their souls. The lessons of history were forgotten. The\nvoices coming from all the wrecks of kingdoms, empires and republics on\nthe shores of the great river were unheeded and unheard.\n\nIf the foundation is not justice, the dome cannot be high enough, or\nsplendid enough, to save the temple.\n\nBut above everything in the minds of our fathers was the desire for\nunion—to create a Nation, to become a Power.\n\nOur fathers compromised.\n\nA compromise is a bargain in which each party defrauds the other, and\nhimself.\n\nThe compromise our fathers made was the coffin of honor and the cradle\nof war.\n\nA brazen falsehood and a timid truth are the parents of compromise.\n\nBut some—the greatest and the best—believed in liberty for all. They\nrepeated the splendid sayings of the Roman: \"By the law of nature all\nmen are free;\"—of the French King: \"Men are born free and equal;\"—of\nthe sublime Zeno: \"All men are by nature equal, and virtue alone\nestablishes a difference between them.\"\n\nIn the year preceding the Declaration of Independence, a society for the\nabolition of slavery was formed in Pennsylvania and its first President\nwas one of the wisest and greatest of men—Benjamin Franklin. A society\nof the same character was established in New York in 1785; its first\nPresident was John Jay—the second, Alexander Hamilton.\n\nBut in a few years these great men were forgotten. Parties rivaled each\nother in the defence of wrong. Politicians cared only for place and\npower. In the clamor of the heartless, the voice of the generous was\nlost. Slavery became supreme. It dominated legislatures, courts and\nparties; it rewarded the faithless and little; it degraded the honest\nand great.\n\nAnd yet, through all these hateful years, thousands and thousands of\nnoble men and women denounced the degradation and the crime. Most of\ntheir names are unknown. They have given a glory to obscurity. They have\nfilled oblivion with honor.\n\nIn the presence of death it has been the custom to speak of the\nworthlessness, and the vanity, of life. I prefer to speak of its value,\nof its importance, of its nobility and glory.\n\nLife is not merely a floating shadow, a momentary spark, a dream that\nvanishes. Nothing can be grander than a life filled with great and noble\nthoughts—with brave and honest deeds. Such a life sheds light, and the\nseeds of truth sown by great and loyal men bear fruit through all the\nyears to be. To have lived and labored and died for the right—nothing\ncan be sublimer.\n\nHistory is but the merest outline of the exceptional—of a few great\ncrimes, calamities, wars, mistakes and dramatic virtues. A few mountain\npeaks are touched, while all the valleys of human life, where countless\nvictories are won, where labor wrought with love—are left in the\neternal shadow.\n\nBut these peaks are not the foundation of nations. The forgotten words,\nthe unrecorded deeds, the unknown sacrifices, the heroism, the industry,\nthe patience, the love and labor of the nameless good and great have for\nthe most part founded, guided and defended States. The world has\nbeen civilized by the unregarded poor, by the untitled nobles, by the\nuncrowned kings who sleep in unknown graves mingled with the common\ndust.\n\nThey have thought and wrought, have borne the burdens of the world. The\npain and labor have been theirs—the glory has been given to the few.\n\nThe conflict came. The South unsheathed the sword. Then rose the\nembattled North, and these men who sleep to-night beneath the flowers of\nhalf the world, gave all for us.\n\nThey gave us a Nation—a republic without a slave—a republic that is\nsovereign, and to whose will every citizen and every State must bow.\nThey gave us a Constitution for all—one that can be read without shame\nand defended without dishonor. They freed the brain, the lips and hands\nof men.\n\nAll that could be done by force was done. All that could be accomplished\nby the adoption of constitutions was done. The rest is left to\neducation—the innumerable influences of civilization—to the\ndevelopment of the intellect, to the cultivation of the heart and the\nimagination.\n\nThe past is now a hideous dream.\n\nThe present is filled with pride, with gratitude, and hope.\n\nLiberty is the condition of real progress. The free man works for wife\nand child—the slave toils from fear. Liberty gives leisure and leisure\nrefines, beautifies and ennobles. Slavery gives idleness and idleness\ndegrades, deforms and brutalizes.\n\nLiberty and slavery—the right and wrong—the joy and grief—the day and\nnight—the glory and the gloom of all the years.\n\nLiberty is the word that all the good have spoken.\n\nIt is the hope of every loving heart—the spark and flame in every noble\nbreast—the gem in every splendid soul—the many-colored dream in every\nhonest brain.\n\nThis word has filled the dungeon with its holy light,—has put the halo\nround the martyr's head,—has raised the convict far above the king,\nand clad even the scaffold with a glory that dimmed and darkened every\nthrone.\n\nTo the wise man, to the wise nation, the mistakes of the past are the\ntorches of the present. The war is over. The institution that caused it\nhas perished. The prejudices that fanned the flames are only ashes now.\nWe are one people. We will stand or fall together. At last, with clear\neyes we see that the triumph of right was a triumph for all. Together we\nreap the fruits of the great victory. We are all conquerors. Around the\ngraves of the heroes—North and South, white and colored—together\nwe stand and with uncovered heads reverently thank the saviors of our\nnative land.\n\nWe are now far enough away from the conflict—from its hatreds, its\npassions, its follies and its glories, to fairly and philosophically\nexamine the causes and in some measure at least to appreciate the\nresults.\n\nStates and nations, like individuals, do as they must. Back of\nrevolution, of rebellion, of slavery and freedom, are the efficient\ncauses. Knowing this, we occupy that serene height from which it is\npossible to calmly pronounce a judgment upon the past.\n\nWe know now that the seeds of our war were sown hundreds and thousands\nof years ago—sown by the vicious and the just, by prince and peasant,\nby king and slave, by all the virtues and by all the vices, by all the\nvictories and all the defeats, by all the labor and the love, the loss\nand gain, by all the evil and the good, and by all the heroes of the\nworld.\n\nOf the great conflict we remember only its glory and its lessons. We\nremember only the heroes who made the Republic the first of nations, and\nwho laid the foundation for the freedom of mankind.\n\nThis will be known as the century of freedom. Slowly the hosts of\ndarkness have been driven back.\n\nIn 1808 England and the United States united for the suppression of the\nslave-trade. The Netherlands joined in this holy work in 1818. France\nlent her aid in 1819 and Spain in 1820. In the same year the United\nStates declared the traffic to be piracy, and in 1825 the same law was\nenacted by Great Britain. In 1826 Brazil agreed to suppress the traffic\nin human flesh. In 1833 England abolished slavery in the West Indies,\nand in 1843 in her East Indian possessions, giving liberty to more than\ntwelve millions of slaves. In 1846 Sweden abolished slavery, and in\n1848 it was abolished in the colonies of Denmark and France. In 1861\nAlexander II., Czar of all the Russias, emancipated the serfs, and on\nthe first day of January, 1863, the shackles fell from millions of\nthe citizens of this Republic. This was accomplished by the heroes\nwe remember to-day—this, in accordance with the Proclamation of\nEmancipation signed by Lincoln,—greatest of our mighty dead—Lincoln\nthe gentle and the just—and whose name will be known and honored to\n\"the last syllable of recorded time.\" And this year, 1888, has been made\nblessed and memorable forever—in the vast empire of Brazil there stands\nno slave.\n\nLet us hope that when the next century looks from the sacred portals of\nthe East, its light will only fall upon the faces of the free.\n  • By request, Col. Ingersoll closed this address with his\n    \"Vision of War,\"  to which he added \"A Vision of the\n    Future.\" This accounts for its repetition in this volume.\n\nThe past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great\nstruggle for national life. We hear the sounds of preparation—the\nmusic of boisterous drums—the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see\nthousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators. We see\nthe pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of men; and in those\nassemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with flowers.\nWe lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they enlist in the\ngreat army of freedom. We see them part with those they love. Some are\nwalking for the last time in quiet, woody places, with the maidens they\nadore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of eternal love as\nthey lingeringly part forever. Others are bending over cradles, kissing\nbabes that are asleep. Some are receiving the blessings of old men. Some\nare parting with mothers who hold them and press them to their\nhearts again and again, and say nothing. Kisses and tears, tears and\nkisses—divine mingling of agony and love! And some are talking with\nwives, and endeavoring with brave words, spoken in the old tones, to\ndrive from their hearts the awful fear. We see them part. We see the\nwife standing in the door with the babe in her arms—standing in the\nsunlight sobbing. At the turn of the road a hand waves—she answers by\nholding high in her loving arms the child. He is gone, and forever.\n\nWe see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags,\nkeeping time to the grand, wild music of war—marching-down the streets\nof the great cities—through the towns and across the prairies—down to\nthe fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right.\n\nWe go with them, one and all. We are by their side on all the gory\nfields—in all the hospitals of pain—on all the weary marches. We stand\nguard with them in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are with\nthem in ravines running with blood—in the furrows of old fields. We are\nwith them between contending hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst,\nthe life ebbing slowly away among the withered leaves. We see them\npierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches, by forts, and\nin the whirlwind of the charge, where men become iron, with nerves of\nsteel.\n\nWe are with them in the prisons of hatred and famine; but human speech\ncan never tell what they endured.\n\nWe are at home when the news comes that they are dead. We see the maiden\nin the shadow of her first sorrow. We see the silvered head of the old\nman bowed with the last grief.\n\nThe past rises before us, and we see four millions of human beings\ngoverned by the lash—we see them bound hand and foot—we hear the\nstrokes of cruel whips—we see the hounds tracking women through\ntangled swamps. We see babes sold from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty\nunspeakable! Outrage infinite!\n\nFour million bodies in chains—four million souls in fetters. All the\nsacred relations of wife, mother, father and child trampled beneath\nthe brutal feet of might. And all this was done under our own beautiful\nbanner of the free.\n\nThe past rises before us. We hear the roar and shriek of the bursting\nshell. The broken fetters fall. These heroes died. We look. Instead of\nslaves we see men and women and children. The wand of progress touches\nthe auction block, the slave pen, the whipping post, and we see homes\nand firesides and school-houses and books, and where all was want and\ncrime and cruelty and fear, we see the faces of the free.\n\nThese heroes are dead. They died for liberty—they died for us. They\nare at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag\nthey rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the\ntearful willows, and the embracing vines.\n\nThey sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine\nor of storm, each in the windowless Palace of Rest. Earth may run red\nwith other wars—they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar\nof conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for\nsoldiers living and dead: Cheers for the living; tears for the dead.\n\nA vision of the future rises:\n\nI see our country filled with happy homes, with firesides of\ncontent,—the foremost land of all the earth.\n\nI see a world where thrones have crumbled and where kings are dust. The\naristocracy of idleness has perished from the earth.\n\nI see a world without a slave. Man at last is free. Nature's forces have\nby Science been enslaved. Lightning and light, wind and wave, frost\nand flame, and all the secret, subtle powers of earth and air are the\ntireless toilers for the human race.\n\nI see a world at peace, adorned with every form of art, with music's\nmyriad voices thrilled, while lips are rich with words of love and\ntruth; a world in which no exile sighs, no prisoner mourns; a world on\nwhich the gibbet's shadow does not fall; a world where labor reaps its\nfull reward, where work and worth go hand in hand, where the poor girl\ntrying to win bread with the needle—the needle that has been called\n\"the asp for the breast of the poor,\"—is not driven to the desperate\nchoice of crime or death, of suicide or shame.\n\nI see a world without the beggar's outstretched palm, the miser's\nheartless, stony stare, the piteous wail of want, the livid lips of\nlies, the cruel eyes of scorn.\n\nI see a race without disease of flesh or brain,—shapely and fair,—the\nmarried harmony of form and function,—and, as I look, life lengthens,\njoy deepens, love canopies the earth; and over all, in the great dome,\nshines the eternal star of human hope.\n"
}