{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:frank-b-carpenter-dinner",
  "slug": "frank-b-carpenter-dinner",
  "title": "The Frank B. Carpenter Dinner",
  "subtitle": "Tribute to the painter Frank B. Carpenter.",
  "excerpt": "After-dinner tribute to Frank B. Carpenter — the painter of Lincoln's Cabinet deliberating over the Emancipation Proclamation.",
  "year": 1892,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "After-Dinner",
  "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/frank-b-carpenter-dinner/",
  "wordCount": 3570,
  "body": "The Frank B. Carpenter Dinner\n\nNew York, December 1, 1891\n  • There was a notable gathering of leading artists, authors,\n    scientists, journalists, lawyer, clergymen and other\n    professional men at Sherry's last evening. The occasion was\n    a dinner tendered to Mr. F. B. Carpenter, the famous\n    portrait and portrait group artist, by his immediate friends\n    to celebrate the completion of his new historical painting,\n    entitled \"International Arbitration,\" which is to be sent to\n    Queen Victoria next week as the gift of a wealthy American\n    lady. No such tribute has ever been paid before to an artist\n    of-this country. Let us hope that the extraordinary\n    attention thus paid to Mr. Carpenter will give our \"English\n    cousins\" some idea of how he is prized and his work indorsed\n    at home. The dinner to Mr. Carpenter was a great success—\n    most enjoyable in every way. The table was laid in the form\n    ol a horse shoe with a train of smilax, and sweet flowers\n    extending the entire length of the table, amid pots of\n    chrysanthemums and roses. Ex-Minister Andrew D White\n    presided in the absence of John Russell\n    Young..........Mr. White said: \"During the entire course of\n    these proceedings we have been endeavoring to find a\n    representative of the great Fourth Estate who would present\n    its claims in relation to arbitration on this occasion.\n    There are present men whose names are household words in\n    connection with the press throughout this land. There is\n    certainly one distinguished as orator: there is another\n    distinguished as a scholar. But they prefer to be silent. We\n    will therefore consider that the toast of 'The Press in\n    Connection with War and Peace' has been duly honored\n    although it has not been responded to, and now there is one\n    subject which I think you will consider as coming strangely\n    at this late hour. It is a renewal of the subject with which\n    we began, and I am to ask to speak to it a man who is\n    admired and feared throughout the country. At one moment he\n    smashes the most cherished convictions of the country, and\n    at another he raises our highest aspirations for the future\n    of humanity.\n    \"It happened several years ago that I was crossing the\n    Atlantic, and when I had sufficiently recovered from\n    seasickness to sit out on the deck I came across Colonel\n    Ingersoll, and of all subjects of discussion you can imagine\n    we fell upon the subject of art, and we went at it hot and\n    heavy. So I said to him to-night that I had a rod in pickle\n    for him and that he was not to know anything about it until\n    it was displayed.\n    \"I now call upon him to talk to us about art, and if he\n    talks now as he talked on the deck of the steamer I do not\n    know whether it would clear the room, but it would make a\n    sensation in this State and country. I have great pleasure\n    in announcing Colonel Ingersoll, to speak on the subject of\n    art—or on any other subject, for no matter upon what he\n    speaks his words are always welcome.\"\n    New York Press, December 2, 1891.\n\nTOAST: ART.\n\nI PRESUME I take about as much interest in what that picture represents\nas anybody else. I believe that it has been said this evening that the\nworld will never be civilized so long as differences between nations\nare settled by gun or cannon or sword. Barbarians still settle their\npersonal differences with clubs or arms, and finally, when they agree\nto submit their differences to their peers, to a court, we call them\ncivilized. Now, nations sustain the same relations to each other that\nbarbarians sustain; that is, they settle their differences by force;\neach nation being the judge of the righteousness of its cause, and its\njudgment depending entirely—or for the most part—on its strength; and\nthe strongest nation is the nearest right. Now, until nations submit\ntheir differences to an international court—a court with the power to\ncarry its judgment into effect by having the armies and navies of all\nthe rest of the world pledged to support it—the world will not be\ncivilized. Our differences will not be settled by arbitration until more\nof the great nations set the example, and until that is done, I am in\nfavor of the United States being armed. Until that is done it will give\nme joy to know that another magnificent man-of-war has been launched\nupon our waters. And I will tell you why. Look again at that picture.\nThere is another face; it is not painted there, and yet without it\nthat picture would not have been painted, and that is the face of U.\nS. Grant. The olive branch, to be of any force, to be of any beneficent\npower, must be offered by the mailed hand. It must be offered by a\nnation which has back of the olive branch the force. It cannot be\noffered by weakness, because then it will excite only ridicule. The\npowerful, the imperial, must offer that branch. Then it will be accepted\nin the true spirit; otherwise not. So, until the world is a little more\ncivilized I am in favor of the largest guns that can be made and the\nbest navy that floats. I do not want any navy unless we have the best,\nbecause if you have a poor one you will simply make a present of it to\nthe enemy as soon as war opens. We should be ready to defend ourselves\nagainst the world. Not that I think there is going to be any war, but\nbecause I think that is the best way to prevent it. Until the whole\nworld shall have entered into the same spirit as the artist when he\npainted that picture, until that spirit becomes general we have got to\nbe prepared for war. And we cannot depend upon war suasion. If a fleet\nof men-of-war should sail into our harbor, talk would not be of any\ngood; we must be ready to answer them in their own way.\n\nI suppose I have been selected to speak on art because I can speak on\nthat subject without prejudice, knowing nothing about it. I have on this\nsubject no hobbies, no pet theories, and consequently will give you not\nwhat I know, but what I think. I am an Agnostic in many things, and the\nway I understand art is this: In the first place we are all invisible\nto each other. There is something called soul; something that thinks and\nhopes and loves. It is never seen. It occupies a world that we call the\nbrain, and is forever, so far as we know, invisible. Each soul lives in\na world of its own, and it endeavors to communicate with another soul\nliving in a world of its own, each invisible to the other, and it does\nthis in a variety of ways. That is the noblest art which expresses the\nnoblest thought, that gives to another the noblest emotions that this\nunseen soul has. In order to do this we have to seize upon the seen, the\nvisible. In other words, nature is a vast dictionary that we use simply\nto convey from one invisible world to another what happens in our\ninvisible world. The man that lives in the greatest world and succeeds\nin letting other worlds know what happens in his world, is the greatest\nartist.\n\nI believe that all arts have the same father and the same mother, and no\nmatter whether you express what happens in these unseen worlds in mere\nwords—because nearly all pictures have been made with words—or whether\nyou express it in marble, or form and color in what we call painting, it\nis to carry on that commerce between these invisible worlds, and he is\nthe greatest artist who expresses the tenderest, noblest thoughts to\nthe unseen worlds about him. So that all art consists in this commerce,\nevery soul being an artist and every brain that is worth talking about\nbeing an art gallery, and there is no gallery in this world, not in the\nVatican or the Louvre or any other place, comparable with the gallery\nin every great brain. The millions of pictures that are in every\nbrain to-night; the landscapes, the faces, the groups, the millions of\nmillions of millions of things that are now living here in every brain,\nall unseen, all invisible forever! Yet we communicate with each other by\nshowing each other these pictures, these studies, and by inviting others\ninto our galleries and showing them what we have, and the greatest\nartist is he who has the most pictures to show to other artists.\n\nI love anything in art that suggests the tender, the beautiful. What is\nbeauty? Of course there is no absolute beauty. All beauty is relative.\nProbably the most beautiful thing to a frog is the speckled belly of\nanother frog, or to a snake the markings of another snake. So there\nis no such thing as absolute beauty. But what I call beauty is what\nsuggests to me the highest and the tenderest thought; something that\nanswers to something in my world. So every work of art has to be born in\nsome brain, and it must be made by the unseen artist we call the soul.\nNow, if a man simply copies what he sees, he is nothing but a copyist.\nThat does not require genius. That requires industry and the habit of\nobservation. But it is not genius; it is not art. Those little daubs and\nshreds and patches we get by copying, are pieces of iron that need to be\nput into the flame of genius to be molten and then cast in noble forms;\notherwise there is no genius.\n\nThe great picture should have, not only the technical part of art, which\nis neither moral nor immoral, but in addition some great thought, some\ngreat event. It should contain not only a history but a prophecy. There\nshould be in it soul, feeling, thought I love those little pictures of\nthe home, of the fireside, of the old lady, boiling the kettle, the\nvine running over the cottage door, scenes suggesting to me happiness,\ncontentment. I think more of them than of the great war pieces, and I\nhope I shall have a few years in some such scenes, during which I shall\nnot care what time it is, what day of the week or month it is. Just that\nfeeling of content when it is enough to live, to breathe, to have the\nblue sky above you and to hear the music of the water. All art that\ngives us that content, that delight, enriches this world and makes life\nbetter and holier.\n\nThat, in a general kind of way, as I said before, is my idea of art, and\nI hope that the artists of America—and they ought to be as good here as\nin any place on earth—will grow day by day and year by year independent\nof all other art in the world, and be true to the American or republican\nspirit always. As to this picture, it is representative, it is American.\nThere is one word Mr. Daniel Dougherty said to which I would like to\nrefer. I have never said very much in my life in defence of England, at\nthe same time I have never blamed England for being against us during\nour war, and I will tell you why. We had been a nation of hypocrites. We\npretended to be in favor of liberty and yet we had four or five millions\nof our people enslaved. That was a very awkward position. We had\nbloodhounds to hunt human beings and the apostles setting them on; and\nwhile this was going on these poor wretches sought and found liberty\non British soil. Now, why not be honest about it? We were rather a\ncontemptible people, though Mr. Dougherty thinks the English were wholly\nat fault. But England abolished the slave-trade in 1803; she abolished\nslavery in her colonies in 1833. We were lagging behind. That is all\nthere is about it. No matter why, we put ourselves in the position of\npretending to be a free people while we had millions of slaves, and it\nwas only natural that England should dislike it.\n\nI think the chairman said that there had been no great historic picture\nof the signing of the Constitution. There never should be, never! It was\nfit, it was proper, to have a picture of the signing of the Declaration\nof Independence. That was an honest document. Our people wanted to give\na good reason for fighting Great Britain, and in order to do that they\nhad to dig down to the bed-rock of human rights, and then they said all\nmen are created equal. But just as soon as we got our independence\nwe made a Constitution that gave the lie to the Declaration of\nIndependence, and that is why the signing of the Constitution never\nought to be painted. We put in that Constitution a clause that the\nslave-trade should not be interfered with for years, and another clause\nthat this entire Government was pledged to hand back to slavery any poor\nwoman with a child at her breast, seeking freedom by flight. It was a\nvery poor document. A little while ago they celebrated the one hundredth\nanniversary of that business and talked about the Constitution being\nsuch a wonderful thing; yet what was in that Constitution brought on the\nmost terrible civil war ever known, and during that war they said: \"Give\nus the Constitution as it is and the Union as it was.\" And I said then:\n\"Curse the Constitution as it is and the Union as it was. Don't talk\nto me about fighting for a Constitution that has brought on a war like\nthis; let us make a new one.\" No, I am in favor of a painting that\nwould celebrate the adoption of the amendment to the Constitution that\ndeclares that there shall be no more slavery on this soil.\n\nI believe that we are getting a little more free every day—a little\nmore sensible all the time. A few years ago a woman in Germany made a\nspeech, in which she asked: \"Why should the German mother in pain and\nagony give birth to a child and rear that child through industry and\npoverty, and teach him that when he arrives at the age of twenty-one it\nwill be his duty to kill the child of the French mother? And why should\nthe French mother teach her son, that it will be his duty sometime to\nkill the child of the German mother?\" There is more sense in that than\nin all the diplomacy I ever read, and I think the time is coming when\nthat question will be asked by every mother—Why should she raise a\nchild to kill the child of another mother?\n\nThe time is coming when we will do away with all this. Man has been\ntaught that he ought to fight for the country where he was born; no\nmatter about that country being wrong, whether it supported him or not,\nwhether it enslaved him and trampled on every right he had, still it was\nhis duty to march up in support of that country. The time will come when\nthe man will make up his mind himself whether the country is worth\nwhile fighting for, and he is the greatest patriot who seeks to make\nhis country worth fighting for, and not he who says, I am for it anyhow,\nwhether it is right or not. These patriots will be the force Mr. George\nwas speaking about. If war between this country and Great Britain were\ndeclared, and there were men in both countries sufficient to take a\nright view of it, that would be the end of war. The thing would be\nsettled by arbitration—settled by some court—and no one would dream of\nrushing to the field of battle. So, that is my hope for the world; more\npolicy, more good, solid, sound sense and less mud patriotism.\n\nI think that this country is going to grow. I think it will take in Mr.\nWiman's country. I do not mean that we are going to take any country.\nI mean that they are going to come to us. I do not believe in conquest.\nCanada will come just as soon as it is to her interest to come, and I\nthink she will come or be a great country to herself. I do not believe\nin those people, intelligent as they are, sending three thousand miles\nfor information they have at home. I do not believe in their being\ngoverned by anybody except themselves. So if they come we shall be glad\nto have them, if they don't want to come I don't want them.\n\nYes, we are growing. I don't know how many millions of people we have\nnow, probably over sixty-two if they all get counted; and they are still\ncoming. I expect to live to see one hundred millions here. I know some\nsay that we are getting too many foreigners, but I say the more that\ncome the better. We have got to have somebody to take the places of the\nsons of our rich people. So I say let them come. There is plenty of land\nhere, everywhere. I say to the people of every country, come; do your\nwork here, and we will protect you against other countries. We will give\nyou all the work to supply yourselves and your neighbors.\n\nThen if we have differences with another country we shall have a strong\nnavy, big ships, big guns, magnificent men and plenty of them, and if we\nput out the hand of fellowship and friendship they will know there is\nno foolishness about it. They will know we are not asking any favor. We\nwill just say: We want peace, and we tell you over the glistening leaves\nof this olive branch that if you don't compromise we will mop the earth\nwith you.\n\nThat is the sort of arbitration I believe in, and it is the only sort,\nin my judgment, that will be effectual for all time. And I hope that we\nmay still grow, and grow more and more artistic, and more and more\nin favor of peace, and I pray that we may finally arrive at being\nabsolutely worthy of having presented that picture, with all that it\nimplies, to the most warlike nation in the world—to the nation that\nfirst sends the gospel and then the musket immediately after, and says:\nYou have got to be civilized, and the only evidence of civilization that\nyou can give is to buy our goods and to buy them now, and to pay for\nthem. I wish us to be worthy of the picture presented to such a nation,\nand my prayer is that America may be worthy to have sent such a token\nin such a spirit, and my second prayer is that England may be worthy\nto receive it and to keep it, and that she may receive it in the same\nspirit that it is sent.\n\nI am glad that it is to be sent by a woman. The gentleman who spoke to\nthe toast, \"Woman as a Peacemaker,\" seemed to believe that woman brought\nall the sorrows that ever happened, not only of war, but troubles of\nevery kind. I want to say to him that I would rather live with the woman\nI love in a world of war, in a world full of troubles and sorrows,\nthan to live in heaven with nobody but men. I believe that woman is a\npeacemaker, and so I am glad that a woman presents this token to another\nwoman; and woman is a far higher title than queen, in my judgment; far\nhigher. There are no higher titles than woman, mother, wife, sister, and\nwhen they come to calling them countesses and duchesses and queens, that\nis all rot. That adds nothing to that unseen artist who inhabits the\nworld called the brain. That unseen artist is great by nature and cannot\nbe made greater by the addition of titles. And so one woman gives to\nanother woman the picture that prophesies war is finally to cease,\nand the civilized nations of the world will henceforth arbitrate their\ndifferences and no longer strew the plains with corpses of brethren.\nThat is the supreme lesson that is taught by this picture, and I\ncongratulate Mr. Carpenter that his name is associated with it and\nalso with the \"Proclamation of Emancipation.\" In the latter work he has\nassociated his name with that of Lincoln, which is the greatest name\nin history, and the gentlest memory in this world. Mr. Carpenter has\nassociated his name with that and with this and with that of General\nGrant, for I say that this picture would never have been possible had\nthere not been behind it Grant; if there had not been behind it the\nvictorious armies of the North and the great armies of the South, that\nwould have united instantly to repel any foreign foe.\n"
}