{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:police-captains-dinner",
  "slug": "police-captains-dinner",
  "title": "The Police Captains' Dinner",
  "subtitle": "After-dinner speech.",
  "excerpt": "After-dinner address to the New York City police captains.",
  "year": 1890,
  "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/police-captains-dinner/",
  "wordCount": 1506,
  "body": "The Police Captains' Dinner\n\nNew York, January 24, 1888.\n\nTOAST: DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES OF THE PRESS.\n\nONLY a little while ago, the nations of the world were ignorant and\nprovincial. Between these nations there were the walls and barriers of\nlanguage, of prejudice, of custom, of race and of religion. Each\nlittle nation had the only perfect form of government—the only genuine\nreligion—all others being adulterations or counterfeits.\n\nThese nations met only as enemies. They had nothing to exchange but\nblows—nothing to give and take but wounds.\n\nMovable type was invented, and \"civilization was thrust into the brain\nof Europe on the point of a Moorish lance.\" The Moors gave to our\nancestors paper, and nearly all valuable inventions that were made for a\nthousand years.\n\nIn a little while, books began to be printed—the nations began to\nexchange thoughts instead of blows. The classics were translated. These\nwere read, and those who read them began to imitate them—began to write\nthemselves; and in this way there was produced in each nation a local\nliterature. There came to be an exchange of facts, of theories, of\nideas.\n\nFor many years this was accomplished by books, but after a time the\nnewspaper was invented, and the exchange increased.\n\nBefore this, every peasant thought his king the greatest being in the\nworld. He compared this king—his splendor, his palace—with the\npeasant neighbor, with his rags and with his hut. All his thoughts were\nprovincial, all his knowledge confined to his own neighborhood—the\ngreat world was to him an unknown land.\n\nLong after papers were published, the circulation was small, the means\nof intercommunication slow, painful, few and costly.\n\nThe same was true in our own country, and here, too, was in a great\ndegree, the provincialism of the Old World.\n\nFinally, the means of intercommunication increased, and they became\nplentiful and cheap.\n\nThen the peasant found that he must compare his king with the kings\nof other nations—the statesmen of his country with the statesmen of\nothers—and these comparisons were not always favorable to the men of\nhis own country.\n\nThis enlarged his knowledge and his vision, and the tendency of this was\nto make him a citizen of the world.\n\nHere in our own country, a little while ago, the citizen of each State\nregarded his State as the best of all. To love that State more than all\nothers, was considered the highest evidence of patriotism.\n\nThe Press finally informed him of the condition of other States. He\nfound that other States were superior to his in many ways—in climate,\nin production, in men, in invention, in commerce and in influence.\nSlowly he transferred the love of State, the prejudice of locality—what\nI call mud patriotism—to the Nation, and he became an American in the\nbest and highest sense.\n\nThis, then, is one of the greatest things to be accomplished by\nthe Press in America—namely, the unification of the country—the\ndestruction of provincialism, and the creation of a patriotism broad as\nthe territory covered by our flag.\n\nThe same ideas, the same events, the same news, are carried to millions\nof homes every day. The result of this is to fix the attention of\nall upon the same things, the same thoughts and theories, the same\nfacts—and the result is to get the best judgment of a nation.\n\nThis is a great and splendid object, but not the greatest.\n\nIn Europe the same thing is taking place. The nations are becoming\nacquainted with each other. The old prejudices are dying out. The people\ncf each nation are beginning to find that they are not the enemies of\nany other. They are also beginning to suspect that where they have no\ncause of quarrel, they should neither be called upon to fight, nor to\npay the expenses of war.\n\nAnother thing: The kings and statesmen no longer act as they\nformerly did. Once they were responsible only to their poor and\nwretched-subjects, whose obedience they compelled at the point of the\nbayonet. Now a king knows, and his minister knows, that they must give\naccount for what they do to the civilized world. They know that kings\nand rulers must be tried before the great bar of public opinion—a\npublic opinion that has been formed by the facts given to them in the\nPress of the world. They do not wish to be condemned at that great bar.\nThey seek not only not to be condemned—not only to be acquitted—but\nthey seek to be crowned. They seek the applause, not simply of their own\nnation, but of the civilized world.\n\nThere was for uncounted centuries a conflict between civilization and\nbarbarism. Barbarism was almost universal, civilization local. The torch\nof progress was then held by feeble hands, and barbarism extinguished it\nin the blood of its founders. But civilizations arose, and kept rising,\none after another, until now the great Republic holds and is able to\nhold that torch against a hostile world.\n\nBy its invention, by its weapons of war, by its intelligence,\ncivilization became capable of protecting itself, and there came a time\nwhen in the struggle between civilization and barbarism the world passed\nmidnight.\n\nThen came another struggle,—the struggle between the people and their\nrulers.\n\nMost peoples sacrificed their liberty through gratitude to some great\nsoldier who rescued them from the arms of the barbarian. But there came\na time when the people said: \"We have a right to govern ourselves.\" And\nthat conflict has been waged for centuries.\n\nAnd I say, protected and corroborated by the flag of the greatest of all\nRepublics, that in that conflict the world has passed midnight.\n\nDespotisms were softened by parliaments, by congresses—but at last the\nworld is beginning to say: \"The right to govern rests upon the consent\nof the governed. The power comes from the people—not from kings. It\nbelongs to man, and should be exercised by man.\"\n\nIn this conflict we have passed midnight. The world is destined to be\nrepublican. Those who obey the laws will make the laws.\n\nOur country—the United States—the great Republic—owns the fairest\nportion of half the world. We have now sixty millions of free people.\nLook upon the map of our country. Look upon the great valley of the\nMississippi—stretching from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. See the\ngreat basin drained by that mighty river. There you will see a territory\nlarge enough to feed and clothe and educate five hundred millions of\nhuman beings.\n\nThis country is destined to remain as one. The Mississippi River is\nNature's protest against secession and against division.\n\nWe call that nation civilized when its subjects submit their differences\nof opinion, in accordance with the forms of law, to fellow-citizens who\nare disinterested and who accept the decision as final.\n\nThe nations, however, sustain no such relation to each other. Each\nnation concludes for itself. Each nation defines its rights and its\nobligations; and nations will not be civilized in respect of their\nrelations to each other, until there shall have been established a\nNational Court to decide differences between nations, to the judgment of\nwhich all shall bow.\n\nIt is for the Press—the Press that photographs the human activities\nof every day—the Press that gives the news of the world to each\nindividual—to bend its mighty energies to the unification and the\ncivilization of mankind; to the destruction of provincialism, of\nprejudice—to the extirpation of ignorance and to the creation of a\ngreat and splendid patriotism that embraces the human race.\n\nThe Press presents the daily thoughts of men. It marks the progress\nof each hour, and renders a relapse into ignorance and barbarism\nimpossible. No catastrophe can be great enough, no ruin wide-spread\nenough, to engulf or blot out the wisdom of the world.\n\nFeeling that it is called to this high destiny, the Press should appeal\nonly to the highest and to the noblest in the human heart.\n\nIt should not be the bat of suspicion, a raven, hoarse with croaking\ndisaster, a chattering jay of gossip, or a vampire fattening on the\nreputations of men.\n\nIt should remain the eagle, rising and soaring high in the cloudless\nblue, above all mean and sordid things, and grasping only the bolts and\narrows of justice.\n\nLet the Press have the courage always to defend the right, always\nto defend the people—and let it always have the power to clutch and\nstrangle any combination of men, however intellectual or cunning or\nrich, that feeds and fattens on the flesh and blood of honest men.\n\nIn a little while, under our flag there will be five hundred millions\nof people. The great Republic will then dictate to the world—that is to\nsay, it will succor the oppressed—it will see that justice is done—it\nwill say to the great nations that wish to trample upon the weak: \"You\nmust not—you shall not—strike.\" It will be obeyed.\n\nAll I ask is—all I hope is—that the Press will always be worthy of the\ngreat Republic.\n"
}