{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:thirteen-club-dinner",
  "slug": "thirteen-club-dinner",
  "title": "Thirteen Club Dinner",
  "subtitle": "On the superstitions of public men.",
  "excerpt": "After-dinner address at the Thirteen Club — the anti-superstition society that deliberately broke every lucky taboo on record.",
  "year": 1887,
  "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/thirteen-club-dinner/",
  "wordCount": 1543,
  "body": "Thirteen Club Dinner\n  • Response of Col. R. G. Ingersoll to the sentiment \"The\n    Superstitions of Public Men,\" at the regular monthly dinner\n    of the Thirteen Club. Monday evening, December 18, 1886.\n\nNew York, December 13, 1886,\n\nThe Superstitions of Public Men\n\nMR. CHIEF RULER-AND GENTLEMEN: I suppose that the superstition most\nprevalent with public men, is the idea that they are of great importance\nto the public. As a matter of fact, public men,—that is to say, men in\noffice,—reflect the average intelligence of the people, and no more.\nA public man, to be successful, must not assert anything unless it is\nexceedingly popular. And he need not deny anything unless everybody is\nagainst it. Usually he has to be like the center of the earth,—draw all\nthings his way, without weighing anything himself.\n\nOne of the difficulties, or rather, one of the objections, to a\ngovernment republican in form, is this: Everybody imagines that he is\neverybody's: master. And the result has been to make most of our public\nmen exceedingly conservative in the expression of their real opinions.\nA man, wishing to be elected to an office, generally agrees with 'most\neverybody he meets. If he meets a Prohibitionist, he says: \"Of course I\nam a temperance man. I am opposed to all excesses; my dear friend,\nand no one knows better than myself the evils that have been caused by\nintemperance.\" The next man happens to keep a saloon, and happens to\nbe quite influential in that part of the district, and the candidate\nimmediately says to him:—\"The idea that these Prohibitionists can take\naway the personal liberty of the citizen is simply monstrous!\" In a\nmoment after, he is greeted by a Methodist, and he hastens to say, that\nwhile he does not belong to that church himself, his wife does; that he\nwould gladly be a member, but does not feel that he is good enough. He\ntells a Presbyterian that his grandfather was of that faith, and that he\nwas a most excellent man, and laments from the bottom of his heart that\nhe himself is not within that fold. A few moments after, on meeting a\nskeptic, he declares, with the greatest fervor, that reason is the only\nguide, and that he looks forward to the time when superstition will be\ndethroned. In other words, the greatest superstition now entertained by\npublic men is, that hypocrisy is the royal road to success.\n\nOf course, there are many other superstitions, and one is, that the\nDemocratic party has not outlived its usefulness. Another is, that the\nRepublican party should have power for what it has done, instead of what\nit proposes to do.\n\nIn my judgment, these statesmen are mistaken. The people of the United\nStates, after all, admire intellectual honesty and have respect for\nmoral courage. The time has come for the old ideas and superstitions in\npolitics to be thrown away—not in phrase, not in pretence, but in fact;\nand the time has come when a man can safely rely on the intelligence and\ncourage of the American people.\n\nThe most significant fact in this world to-day, is, that in nearly every\nvillage under the American flag the school-house is larger than the\nchurch. People are beginning to have a little confidence in intelligence\nand in facts. Every public man and every private man, who is actuated\nin his life by a belief in something that no one can prove,—that no one\ncan demonstrate,—is, to that extent, a superstitious man.\n\nIt may be that I go further than most of you, because if I have any\nsuperstition, it is a superstition against superstition. It seems to\nme that the first things for every man, whether in or out of office, to\nbelieve in,—the first things to rely on, are demonstrated facts.\nThese are the corner stones,—these are the columns that nothing can\nmove,—these are the stars that no darkness can hide,—these are the\ntrue and only foundations of belief.\n\nBeyond the truths that have been demonstrated is the horizon of the\nProbable, and in the world of the Probable every man has the right to\nguess for himself. Beyond the region of the Probable is the Possible,\nand beyond the Possible is the Impossible, and beyond the Impossible are\nthe religions of this world. My idea is this: Any man who acts in\nview of the Improbable or of the Impossible—that is to say of the\nSupernatural—is a superstitious man. Any man who believes that he can\nadd to the happiness of the Infinite, by depriving himself of innocent\npleasure, is superstitious. Any man who imagines that he can make some\nGod happy, by making himself miserable, is superstitious. Any one who\nthinks he can gain happiness in another world, by raising hell with his\nfellow-men in this, is simply superstitious. Any man who believes in a\nBeing of infinite wisdom and goodness, and yet belives that that\nBeing has peopled a world with failures, is superstitious. Any man who\nbelieves that an infinitely wise and good God would take pains to make\na man, intending at the time that the man should be eternally damned, is\nabsurdly superstitious. In other words, he who believes that there is,\nor that there can be, any other religious duty than to increase the\nhappiness of mankind, in this world, now and here, is superstitious.\n\nI have known a great many private men who were not men of genius. I\nhave known some men of genius about whom it was kept private, and I have\nknown many public men, and my wonder increased the better I knew them,\nthat they occupied positions of trust and honor.\n\nBut, after all, it is the people's fault. They who demand hypocrisy\nmust be satisfied with mediocrity... Our public men will be better and\ngreater, and less superstitious, when the people become greater and\nbetter and less superstitious. There is an old story, that we have all\nheard, about Senator Nesmith. He was elected a Senator from Oregon. When\nhe had been in Washington a little while, one of the other Senators said\nto him: \"How did you feel when you found yourself sitting here in the\nUnited States Senate?\" He replied: \"For the first two months, I just\nsat and wondered how a damned fool like me ever, broke into the Senate.\nSince that, I have done nothing but wonder how the other fools got\nhere.\"\n\nTo-day the need of our civilization is public men who have the courage\nto speak as they think. We need a man for President who will not\npublicly thank God for earthquakes. We need somebody with the courage to\nsay that all that happens in nature happens without design, and without\nreference to man; somebody who will say that the men and women killed\nare not murdered by supernatural beings, and that everything that\nhappens in nature, happens without malice and without mercy. We want\nsomebody who will have courage enough not to charge, an infinitely good\nand wise Being with all the cruelties and agonies and sufferings of this\nworld. We want such men in public places,—men who will appeal to the\nreason of their fellows, to the highest intelligence of the people; men\nwho will have courage enough, in this the nineteenth century, to agree\nwith the conclusions of science. We want some man who will not\npretend to believe, and who does not in fact believe, the stories that\nSuperstition has told to Credulity.\n\nThe most important thing in this world is the destruction of\nsuperstition. Superstition interferes with the happiness of mankind.\nSuperstition is a terrible serpent, reaching in frightful coils from\nheaven to earth and thrusting its poisoned fangs into the hearts of men.\nWhile I live, I am going to do what little I can for the destruction of\nthis monster. Whatever may happen in another world—and I will take my\nchances there,—I am opposed to superstition in this. And if, when I\nreach that other world, it needs reforming, I shall do what little I can\nthere for the destruction of the false.\n\nLet me tell you one thing more, and I am done. The only way to have\nbrave, honest, intelligent, conscientious public men, men without\nsuperstition, is to do what we can to make the average citizen brave,\nconscientious and intelligent. If you wish to see courage in the\npresidential chair, conscience upon the bench, intelligence of the\nhighest order in Congress; if you expect public men to be great enough\nto reflect honor upon the Republic, private citizens must have the\ncourage and the intelligence to elect, and to sustain, such men. I have\nsaid, and I say it again, that never while I live will I vote for any\nman to be President of the United States, no matter if he does belong\nto my party, who has not won his spurs on some field of intellectual\nconflict. We have had enough mediocrity, enough policy, enough\nsuperstition, enough prejudice, enough provincialism, and the time has\ncome for the American citizen to say: \"Hereafter I will be represented\nby men who are worthy, not only of the great Republic, but of the\nNineteenth Century.\"\n"
}