{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:national-liberal-league-convention",
  "slug": "national-liberal-league-convention",
  "title": "Convention of the National Liberal League",
  "subtitle": "Cincinnati, September 14, 1878.",
  "excerpt": "Address to the National Liberal League convention in Cincinnati — on the enfranchisement of the human mind, religious liberty, and the family as the unit of good government.",
  "year": 1878,
  "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/national-liberal-league-convention/",
  "wordCount": 848,
  "body": "Cincinnati, O., September 14.1878.\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Allow me to say that the cause nearest my heart,\nand to which I am willing to devote the remainder of my life, is the\nabsolute, the absolute, enfranchisement of the human mind. I believe\nthat the family is the unit of good government, and that every good\ngovernment is simply an aggregation of good families. I therefore not\nonly believe in perfect civil and religious liberty, but I believe in\nthe one man loving the one woman. I believe the real temple of the human\nheart is the hearthstone, and that there is where the sacrifice of life\nshould be made; and just in proportion as we have that idea in this\ncountry, just in that proportion we shall advance and become a great,\nglorious and splendid nation. I do not want the church or the state to\ncome between the man and wife. I want to do what little I can while I\nlive to strengthen and render still more sacred the family relation. I\nam also in favor of granting every right to every other human being that\nI claim for myself; and when I look about upon the world and see how the\nchildren that are born to-day, or this year, or this age, came into a\nworld that has nearly all been taken up before their arrival; when I see\nthat they have not even an opportunity to labor for bread; when I see\nthat in our splendid country some who do the most have the least,\nand others who do the least have the most; I say to myself there is\nsomething wrong somewhere, and I hope the time will come when every\nchild that nature has invited to our feast will have an equal right with\nall the others. There is only one way, in my judgment, to bring that\nabout; and that is, first, not simply by the education of the head, but\nby the universal education of the heart. The time will come when a man\nwith millions in his possession will not be respected unless with those\nmillions he improves the condition of his fellow-men.\n\nThe time will come when it will be utterly impossible for a man to go\ndown to death, grasping millions in the clutch of avarice. The time will\ncome when it will be impossible for such a man to exist, for he will be\nfollowed by the scorn and execration of mankind. The time will come\nwhen such a man when stricken by death, cannot purchase the favor of\nposterity by leaving a portion of the gains which he has wrung from the\npoor, to some church or Bible society for the glory of God.\n\nNow, let me say that we have met together as a Liberal League. We have\npassed the same platform again; but if you will read that platform you\nwill see that it covers nearly every word that I have spoken—universal\neducation—the laws of science included, not the guesses of\nsuperstition—universal education, not for the next world but for\nthis—happiness, not so much for an unknown land beyond the clouds as\nfor this life in this world. I do not say that there is not another\nlife. If there is any God who has allowed his children to be oppressed\nin this world he certainly needs another life to reform the blunders he\nhas made in this.\n\nNow, let us all agree that we will stand by each other splendidly,\ngrandly; and when we come into convention let us pass resolutions that\nare broad, kind, and genial, because, if you are true Liberals, you will\nhold in a kind of tender pity the most outrageous superstitions in\nthe world. I have said some things in my time that were not altogether\ncharitable; but, after all, when I think it over, I see that men are as\nthey are, because they are the result of every thing that has ever been.\n\nSometimes I think the clergy a necessary evil; but I say, let us be\ngenial and kind, and let us know that every other person has the same\nright to be a Catholic or a Presbyterian, and gather consolation\nfrom the doctrine of reprobation, that he has the same right to be\na Methodist or a Christian Disciple or a Baptist; the same right to\nbelieve these phantasies and follies and superstitions—[_A voice—\"And\nto burn heretics?\"_]\n\nNo—The same right that we have to believe that it is all superstition.\nBut when that Catholic or Baptist or Methodist endeavors to put chains\non the bodies or intellects of men, it is then the duty of every Liberal\nto prevent it at all hazards. If we can do any good in our day and\ngeneration, let us do it.\n\nThere is no office I want in this world. I will make up my mind as to\nthe next when I get there, because my motto is—and with that motto I\nwill close what I have to say—My motto is: One world at a time!\n"
}