{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:tribute-to-elizur-wright",
  "slug": "tribute-to-elizur-wright",
  "title": "A Tribute to Elizur Wright",
  "subtitle": "Memorial tribute.",
  "excerpt": "Memorial tribute to Elizur Wright — abolitionist, actuary, and father of the American life-insurance reform.",
  "year": 1885,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Tribute",
  "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/tribute-to-elizur-wright/",
  "wordCount": 1225,
  "body": "A Tribute to Elizur Wright\n\nNew York. December 19, 1885.\n\nANOTHER hero has fallen asleep—one who enriched the world with an\nhonest life.\n\nElizur Wright was one of the Titans who attacked the monsters, the\nGods, of his time—one of the few whose confidence in liberty was never\nshaken, and who, with undimmed eyes, saw the atrocities and barbarisms\nof his day and the glories of the future.\n\nWhen New York was degraded enough to mob Arthur Tappan, the noblest of\nher citizens; when Boston was sufficiently infamous to howl and hoot at\nHarriet Martineau, the grandest Englishwoman that ever touched our soil;\nwhen the North was dominated by theology and trade, by piety and piracy;\nwhen we received our morals from merchants, and made merchandise of our\nmorals, Elizur Wright held principle above profit, and preserved his\nmanhood at the peril of his life.\n\nWhen the rich, the cultured, and the respectable,—when church members\nand ministers, who had been \"called\" to preach the \"glad tidings,\" and\nwhen statesmen like Webster joined with bloodhounds, and in the name\nof God hunted men and mothers, this man rescued the fugitives and gave\nasylum to the oppressed.\n\nDuring those infamous years—years of cruelty and national\ndegradation—years of hypocrisy and greed and meanness beneath the reach\nof any English word, Elizur Wright became acquainted with the orthodox\nchurch. He found that a majority of Christians were willing to enslave\nmen and women for whom they said that Christ had died—that they would\nsteal the babe of a Christian mother, although they believed that the\nmother would be their equal in heaven forever. He found that those who\nloved their enemies would enslave their friends—that people who when\nsmitten on one cheek turned the other, were ready, willing and anxious\nto mob and murder those who simply said: \"The laborer is worthy of his\nhire.\"\n\nIn those days the church was in favor of slavery, not only of the body\nbut of the mind. According to the creeds, God himself was an infinite\nmaster and all his children serfs. He ruled with whip and chain, with\npestilence and fire. Devils were his bloodhounds, and hell his place of\neternal torture.\n\nElizur Wright said to himself, why should we take chains from bodies and\nenslave minds—why fight to free the cage and leave the bird a prisoner?\nHe became an enemy of orthodox religion—that is to say, a friend of\nintellectual liberty.\n\nHe lived to see the destruction of legalized larceny; to read the\nProclamation of Emancipation; to see a country without a slave, a flag\nwithout a stain. He lived long enough to reap the reward for having\nbeen an honest man; long enough for his \"disgrace\" to become a crown of\nglory; long enough to see his views adopted and his course applauded by\nthe civilized world; long enough for the hated word \"abolitionist\" to\nbecome a title of nobility, a certificate of manhood, courage and true\npatriotism.\n\nOnly a few years ago, the heretic was regarded as an enemy of the human\nrace. The man who denied the inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures was\nlooked upon as a moral leper, and the Atheist as the worst of criminals.\nEven in that day, Elizur Wright was grand enough to speak his honest\nthought, to deny the inspiration of the Bible; brave enough to defy\nthe God of the orthodox church—the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the\nEternal Jailer, the Everlasting Inquisitor.\n\nHe contended that a good God would not have upheld slavery and polygamy;\nthat a loving Father would not assist some of his children to enslave or\nexterminate their brethren; that an infinite being would not be unjust,\nirritable, jealous, revengeful, ignorant, and cruel.\n\nAnd it was his great good fortune to live long enough to find the\nintellectual world on his side; long enough to know that the greatest'\nnaturalists, philosophers, and scientists agreed with him; long enough\nto see certain words change places, so that \"heretic\" was honorable\nand \"orthodox\" an epithet. To-day, the heretic is known to be a man of\nprinciple and courage—one blest with enough mental independence to\ntell his thought. To-day, the thoroughly orthodox means the thoroughly\nstupid.\n\nOnly a few years ago it was taken for granted that an \"unbeliever\" could\nnot be a moral man; that one who disputed the inspiration of the legends\nof Judea could not be sympathetic and humane, and could not really love\nhis fellow-men. Had we no other evidence upon this subject, the noble\nlife of Elizur Wright would demonstrate the utter baselessness of these\nviews.\n\nHis life was spent in doing good—in attacking the hurtful, in defending\nwhat he believed to be the truth. Generous beyond his means; helping\nothers to help themselves; always hopeful, busy, just, cheerful; filled\nwith the spirit of reform; a model citizen—always thinking of the\npublic good, devising ways and means to save something for posterity,\nfeeling that what he had he held in trust; loving Nature, familiar\nwith the poetic side of things, touched to enthusiasm by the beautiful\nthought, the brave word, and the generous deed; friendly in manner,\ncandid and kind in speech, modest but persistent; enjoying leisure\nas only the industrious can; loving and gentle in his family;\nhospitable,—judging men and women regardless of wealth, position or\npublic clamor; physically fearless, intellectually honest, thoroughly\ninformed; unselfish, sincere, and reliable as the attraction of\ngravitation. Such was Elizur Wright,—one of the staunchest soldiers\nthat ever faced and braved for freedom's sake the wrath and scorn and\nlies of place and power.\n\nA few days ago I met this genuine man. His interest in all human\nthings was just as deep and keen, his hatred of oppression, his love of\nfreedom, just as intense, just as fervid, as on the day I met him first.\nTrue, his body was old, but his mind was young, and his heart, like\na spring in the desert, bubbled over as joyously as though it had the\nsecret of eternal youth. But it has ceased to beat, and the mysterious\nveil that hangs where sight and blindness are the same—the veil that\nrevelation has not drawn aside—that science cannot lift, has fallen\nonce again between the living and the dead.\n\nAnd yet we hope and dream. May be the longing for another life is but\nthe prophecy forever warm from Nature's lips, that love, disguised as\ndeath, alone fulfills. We cannot tell. And yet perhaps this Hope is but\nan antic, following the fortunes of an uncrowned king, beguiling grief\nwith jest and satisfying loss with pictured gain. We do not know.\n\nBut from the Christian's cruel hell, and from his heaven more heartless\nstill, the free and noble soul, if forced to choose, should loathing\nturn, and cling with rapture to the thought of endless sleep.\n\nBut this we know: good deeds are never childless. A noble life is never\nlost. A virtuous action does not die. Elizur Wright scattered with\ngenerous hand the priceless seeds, and we shall reap the golden grain.\nHis words and acts are ours, and all he nobly did is living still.\n\nFarewell, brave soul! Upon thy grave I lay this tribute of respect and\nlove. When last our hands were joined, I said these parting words: \"Long\nlife!\" And I repeat them now.\n"
}