{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-9:the-plumed-knight",
  "slug": "the-plumed-knight",
  "title": "The Plumed Knight",
  "subtitle": "Speech nominating James G. Blaine, June 15, 1876.",
  "excerpt": "The most celebrated nomination speech in American political history — Ingersoll naming James G. Blaine as 'the plumed knight' before the Republican Convention in Cincinnati, June 15, 1876.",
  "year": 1876,
  "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/the-plumed-knight/",
  "wordCount": 945,
  "body": "MASSACHUSETTS may be satisfied with the loyalty of Benjamin H. Bristow;\nso am I; but if any man nominated by this convention can not carry the\nState of Massachusetts, I am not satisfied with the loyalty of that\nState. If the nominee of this convention cannot carry the grand old\nCommonwealth of Massachusetts by seventy-five thousand majority, I would\nadvise them to sell out Faneuil Hall as a Democratic headquarters. I\nwould advise them to take from Bunker Hill that old monument of glory.\n\nThe Republicans of the United States demand as their leader in the great\ncontest of 1876 a man of intelligence, a man of integrity, a man of\nwell-known and approved political opinions. They demand a statesman;\nthey demand a reformer after as well as before the election. They demand\na politician in the highest, broadest and best sense—a man of superb\nmoral courage. They demand a man acquainted with public affairs—with\nthe wants of the people; with not only the requirements of the hour,\nbut with the demands of the future. They demand a man broad enough to\ncomprehend the relations of this Government to the other nations of\nthe earth. They demand a man well versed in the powers, duties and\nprerogatives of each and every department of this Government. They\ndemand a man who will sacredly preserve the financial honor of the\nUnited States; one who knows enough to know that the national debt must\nbe paid through the prosperity of this people; one who knows enough to\nknow that all the financial theories in the world cannot redeem a single\ndollar; one who knows enough to know that all the money must be made,\nnot by law, but by labor; one who knows enough to know that the people\nof the United States have the industry to make the money, and the honor\nto pay it over just as fast as they make it.\n\nThe Republicans of the United States demand a man who knows that\nprosperity and resumption, when they come, must come together; that\nwhen they come, they will come hand in hand through the golden harvest\nfields; hand in hand by the whirling spindles and the turning wheels;\nhand in hand past the open furnace doors; hand in hand by the flaming\nforges; hand in hand by the chimneys filled with eager fire, greeted and\ngrasped by the countless sons of toil.\n\nThis money has to be dug out of the earth. You cannot make it by passing\nresolutions in a political convention.\n\nThe Republicans of the United States want a man who knows that this\nGovernment should protect every citizen, at home and abroad; who knows\nthat any government that will not defend its defenders, and protect its\nprotectors, is a disgrace to the map of the world. They demand a man who\nbelieves in the eternal separation and divorcement of church and school.\nThey demand a man whose political reputation is spotless as a star;\nbut they do not demand that their candidate shall have a certificate of\nmoral character signed by a Confederate congress. The man who has, in\nfull, heaped and rounded measure, all these splendid qualifications, is\nthe present grand and gallant leader of the Republican party—James G.\nBlaine.\n\nOur country, crowned with the vast and marvelous achievements of its\nfirst century, asks for a man worthy of the past, and prophetic of her\nfuture; asks for a man who has the audacity of genius; asks for a man\nwho is the grandest combination of heart, conscience and brain beneath\nher flag—such a man is James G. Blaine.\n\nFor the Republican host, led by this intrepid man, there can be no\ndefeat.\n\nThis is a grand year—a year filled with recollections of the\nRevolution; filled with proud and tender memories of the past; with\nthe sacred legends of liberty—a year in which the sons of freedom will\ndrink from the fountains of enthusiasm; a year in which the people call\nfor the man who has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won upon\nthe field; a year in which they call for the man who has torn from the\nthroat of treason the tongue of slander—for the man who has snatched\nthe mask of Democracy from the hideous face of rebellion; for the man\nwho, like an intellectual athlete, has stood in the arena of debate and\nchallenged all comers, and who is still a total stranger to defeat.\n\nLike an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched\ndown the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full\nand fair against the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his country\nand the maligners of his honor. For the Republican party to desert this\ngallant leader now, is as though an army should desert their general\nupon the field of battle.\n\nJames G. Blaine is now and has been for years the bearer of the sacred\nstandard of the Republican party. I call it sacred, because no human\nbeing can stand beneath its folds without becoming and without remaining\nfree.\n\nGentlemen of the convention, in the name of the great Republic, the\nonly republic that ever existed upon this earth; in the name of all her\ndefenders and of all her supporters; in the name of all her soldiers\nliving; in the name of all her soldiers dead upon the field of battle,\nand in the name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch of famine\nat Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly remembers,\nIllinois—Illinois nominates for the next President of this country,\nthat prince of parliamentarians—that leader of leaders—James G.\nBlaine.\n"
}