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national secular society
THE LIBERTY OF
MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD.
BY
COL. R. G. INGERSOLL.
LIBERTY SUSTAINS THE SAME RELATION TO MIND THAT SPACE
DOES TO MATTER.
LONDON:
FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,
63,
FLEET
STREET, E.C.
1883.
PRICE
SIXPENCE.
�LONDON:
PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AND CHARLES BRADLAUGH,
63, FLEET STREET, E.C.
�THE LIBERTY OF
MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD.
Thebe is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty is the child of
intelligence.
The history of man is simply the history of slavery, of in
justice and brutality, together with the means by which he
has, through the dead and desolate years, slowly and pain
fully advanced. He has been the sport and prey of priest
and king, the food of superstition and cruel might. Crowned
force has governed ignorance through fear. Hypocrisy and
tyranny—two vultures—have fed upon the liberties of man.
From all these there has been, and is, but one means of
escape—intellectual development.
Upon the back of in
dustry has been the whip. Upon the brain have been the
fetters of superstition. Nothing has been left undone by the
enemies of freedom. Every art and artifice, every cruelty
and outrage, have been practiced and perpetrated to destroy
the rights of man. In this great struggle every crime has
been rewarded and every virtue has been punished. Reading,
writing, thinking, and investigating have all been crimes.
Every science has been an outcast.
All the altars and all the thrones united to arrest the
forward march of the human race. The king said that man
kind must not work for themselves. The priest said that
mankind must not think for themselves. One forged chains
for the hands, the other for the soul. Under this infamous
regime the eagle of the human intellect was for ages a slimy
serpent of hypocrisy.
The human race was imprisoned. Through some of the
prison bars came a few struggling rays of light. Against
these bars Science pressed its pale and thoughtful face, wooed
by the holy dawn of human advancement. Bar after bar
�4
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
was broken away. A few grand men escaped and devoted
their lives to the liberation of their fellows.
5 Only a few years ago there was a great awakening of the
human mind. Men began to enquire by what right a crowned
robber made them work for him ? The man who asked this
question was called a traitor. Others asked, by what right
does a robed hypocrite rule my thought ? Such men were
called infidels. The priest said, and the king said, where is
this spirit of investigation to stop ? They said then and they
say now, that it is dangerous for man to be free. I deny it.
Out on the intellectual sea there is room enough for every
sail. In the intellectual air there is space enough for every
wing.
The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and
is a traitor to himself and to his fellowmen.
Every man should stand under the blue and stars, under
he infinite flag of nature, the peer of every other man.
Standing in the presence of the Unknown, all have the
same right to think, and all are equally interested in the
great questions of origin and destiny. All I claim, all I plead
for, is liberty of thought and expression. That is all. I do
not pretend to tell what is absolutely true, but what I think
is true. I do not pretend to tell all the truth.
I do not claim that I have floated level with the heights
of thought, or that I have descended to the very depths of
things. I simply claim that what ideas I have, I have a
right to express; and that any man who denies that right to
me is an intellectual thief and robber. That is all.
Take those chains from the human soul. Break those
fetters. If I have no right to think, why have I a brain ? If
I have no such right, have three or four men, or any number,
who may get together, and sign a creed, and build a house,
and put a steeple upon it, and a bell in it—have they the
right to think ? The good men, the good women are tired of
the whip and lash in the realm of thought. They remember
the chain and faggot with a shudder. They are free, and
they give liberty to others. Whoever claims any right that
he is unwilling to accord to his fellow-men is dishonest and
infamous.
In the good old times, our fathers had the idea that they
could make people believe to suit them. Our ancestors, in
the ages that are gone, really believed that by force you could
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
5
convince a man. You cannot change the conclusion of the
brain by torture ; nor by social ostracism. But I will tell
you what you can do by these, and what you have done. You
can make hypocrites by the million. You can make a man
say that he has changed his mind; but he remains of the
same opinion still. Put fetters all over him ; crush his feet
in iron boots; stretch him to the last gasp upon the holy
rack; burn him, if you please, but his ashes will be of the
same opinion still,
Our fathers in the good old times—and the best thing I
can say about them is, that they have passed away—had an
idea that they could force men to think their way. That
idea is still prevalent in many parts, even of this country.
Even in our day, some extremely religious people say: “We
will not trade with that man ; we will not vote for him ; we
will not hire him if he is a lawyer ; we will die before we
will take his medicine if he is a doctor; we will not invite
him to dinner; we will socially ostracise him ; he must come
to our church ; he must believe our doctrines ; he must wor
ship our God or we will not in any way contribute to his
support.”
In the old times of which I have spoken, they desired to
make all men think exactly alike. All the mechanical inge
nuity of the world cannot make two clocks run exactly alike,
and how are you going to make hundreds of millions of
people, differing in brain and disposition, in education and
aspiration, in conditions and surroundings, each clad in a
living robe of passionate flesh—how are you going to make
them think and feel alike ? If there is an infinite God, one
who made us, and wishes us to think alike, why did he give
a spoonful of brains to one, and a magnificent intellectual de
velopment to another ? Why is it that we have all degrees
of intelligence, from orthodoxy to genius, if it was intended
that all should think and feel alike ?
I used to read in books how our Fathers persecuted man
kind. But I never appreciated it. I read it, but it did not
burn itself into my soul. I really did not appreciate the
infamies that have been committed in the name of religion,
until I saw the iron arguments that Christians used. I saw
the Thumbscrew—two little pieces of iron, armed on the
inner surfaces with protuberances, to prevent their slipping ;
through each end a screw uniting the two pieces. And when
�6
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
some man denied the efficacy of baptism, or may be said: “
do not believe that a fish ever swallowed a man to keep him
from drowning,” then they put his thumb between these
pieces of iron, and in the name of love and universal forgive
ness, began to screw these pieces together. When this was
done most men said: “I will recant.” Probably I should
have done the same. Probably I would have said : “ Stop, I
will admit anything that you wish; I will admit that there
is one God or a million, one hell or a billion ; suit yourselves ;
but stop.”
But there was now and then a man who would not swerve
the breadth of a hair. There was now and then some sub
lime heart, willing to die for an intellectual conviction. Had
it not been for such men we would be savages to-night. Had
it not been for a few brave, heroic souls in every age, we
would have been cannibals, with pictures of wild beasts tat
tooed upon our flesh, dancing around some dried snake fetich.
Let us thank every good and noble man who stood so
grandly, so proudly, in spite of opposition, of hatred and
death, for what he believed to be the truth.
Heroism did not excite the respect of our fathers. The
man who would not recant was not forgiven. They screwed
the thumbscrews down to the last pang, and then threw their
victim into some dungeon, where, in the throbbing silence
and darkness, he might suffer the agonies of the fabled
damned. This was done in the name of love—in the name
of mercy—in the name of the compassionate Christ.
I saw, too, what they called the Collar of Torture.
Imagine a circle of iron, and on the inside a hundred points
almost as sharp as needles. This argument was fastened
about the throat of the sufferer. Then he could not walk,
nor sit down, nor stir without the neck being punctured by
these points. In a little while the throat would begin to
swell, and suffocation would end the agonies of that man.
This man, it may be, had committed the crime of saying,
with tears upon his cheeks : “ I do not believe that God, the
father of us all, will damn to eternal perdition any of the
children of men.”
I saw another instrument, called the Scavenger’s Daughter.
Think of a pair of shears with handles, not only where they
now are, but at the points as well, and just above the pivot
that unites the blades, a circle of iron. In the upper handles
�The Liberty oj Man, Woman and Child.
7
the hands would he placed; in the lower, the feet; and
through the iron ring, at the centre, the head of the victim
would be forced. In this condition he would be thrown prone
upon the earth, and the strain upon the muscles produced
such agony that insanity would in pity end his pain.
This was done by gentlemen who said: “ Whosoever
smiteth thee upon one cheek turn to him the other also.”
I saw the Rack. This was a box like the bed of a waggon,
with a windlass at each end, with levers, and rachets to pre
vent slipping; over each windlass went chains ; some were
fastened to the ankles of the sufferer; others to his wrists.
And then priests, clergymen, divines, saints, began turning
these windlasses, and kept turning, until the ankles, the
knees, the hips, the shoulders, the elbows, the wrists of the
victim were all dislocated, and the sufferer was wet with the
sweat of agony, And they had standing by a physician to
feel his pulse. What for ? To save his life ? Yes. In
mercy ? No ; simply that they might rack him once again.
This was done, remember, in the name of civilisation; in
the name of law and order; in the name of mercy ; in the
name of religion ; in the name of the most merciful Christ.
Sometimes, when I read and think about these frightful
things, it seems to me that I have suffered all these horrors
myself. It seems sometimes, as though I had stood upon the
shore of exile and gazed with tearful eyes toward home and
native land; as though my nails had been tom from my
hands, and into the bleeding quick needles had been thrust;
as though my feet had been crushed in iron boots ; as though
I had been chained in the cell of the Inquisition and listened
with dying ears for the coming footsteps of release; as
though I had stood upon the scaffold and had seen the
glittering axe fall upon me ; as though I had been upon,.the
rack and had seen, bending above me, the white faces of
hypocrite priests; as though I had been taken from my fire
side, from my wife and children, taken to the public square,
chained ; as though faggots had been piled about me; as
though the flames had climbed around my limbs and scorched
my eyes to blindness, and as though my ashes had been scat
tered to the four winds, by all the countless hands of hate.
And when I so feel, I swear that while I live I will do what
little I can to preserve and to augment the liberties of man,
woman, and child.
�8
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
It is a question of justice, of mercy, of honesty, of
intellectual development. If there is a man in the world who
is not willing to give to every human being every right he
claims for himself, he is just so’critich nearer a barbarian than
I am. It is a question of honesty. The man who is not
willing to give to every other the same intellectual rights he
claims for himself, is dishonest, selfish, and brutal.
It is a question of intellectual development. Whoever
holds another man responsible for his honest thought, has a
deformed and distorted brain. It is a question of intellectual
development.
A little while ago I saw models of nearly everything that
man has made. I saw models of all the water craft, from
the rude dug-out in which floated a naked savage—one of our
ancestors—a naked savage, with teeth two inches in length,
with a spoonful of brains in the back of his head—I saw
models of all the water craft of the world, from that dug-out
up to a man-of-war, that carries a hundred guns and miles
of canvas—from that dug-out to the steamship that turns
its brave prow from the port of New York, with a compass
like a conscience, crossing three thousand miles of billows
without missing a throb or beat of its mighty iron heart.
I saw at the same time the weapons that man has made,
from a club, such as was grasped by that same savage, when
he crawled from his den in the ground and hunted a snake
for his dinner; from that club to the boomerang, to the
sword, to the cross-bow, to the blunderbuss, to the flint-lock,
to the cap-lock, to the needle-gun, up to a cannon cast by
Krupp, capable of hurling a ball weighing two thousand
pounds through eighteen inches of solid steel.
I saw, too, the armour from the shell of a turtle, that one
of our brave ancestors lashed upon his breast when he went
to fight for his country ; the skin of a porcupine, dried with
the quills on, which this same savage pulled over his orthodox
head, up to the shirts of mail, that were worn in the Middle
Ages, that laughed at the edge of the sword and defied the
point of the spear ; up to a monitor clad in complete steel.
I saw at the same time their musical instruments, from the
tom-tom—that is, a hoop with a couple of strings of raw hide
drawn across it—from that tom-tom, up to the instruments
we have to-day, that make the common air blossom with
melody. -
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
9
I saw, too, their paintings, from a daub of yellow mud, to
the great works which now adorn the galleries of the world.
I saw also their sculpture, from the rude god with four legs,
a half-dozen arms, severalties, and two or three rows of
ears, and one little, contemptible brainless head, up to the
figures of to-day—to the marbles that genius has clad in such
a personality that it seems almost impudent to touch them
without an introduction.
I saw their books—books written upon skins of wild beasts
—upon shoulder-blades of sheep—books written upon leaves,
upon bark, up to the splendid volumes that enrich the
libraries of our day. When I speak of libraries, I think of
the remark of Plato : “A house that has a library in it has
a soul.”
I saw their implements of agriculture, from a crooked
stick that was attached to the horn of an ox by some twisted
straw, to the agricultural implements of this generation, that
make it possible for a man to cultivate the,soil without being
an ignoramus.
While looking upon these things I was forced to say that
man advanced only as he mingled his thought with his labor,
—only as he got into partnership with the forces of natureonly as he learned to take advantage of his surroundings—
only as he depended upon himself—only as he lost confidence
in the Gods.
I saw at the same time a row of human skulls, from the
lowest skull that has been found, the Neanderthal skull—
skulls from Central Africa, skulls from the bushmen of
Australia, skulls from the farthest isles of the Pacific
sea—Up to the best skulls of the last generation;—and
I noticed that there was the same difference between the
products of those skulls, and I said to myself: “ After all,
it is a simple question of intellectual development.” There
was the same difference between those skulls, the lowest and
highest skulls, that there was between the dug-out and the
man-of-war and the steamship, between the club and the
Krupp gun, between the yellow daub, and the landscape,
between the tom-tom and an opera by Verdi.
The first and lowest skull in this row was the den in which
crawled the base and meaner instincts of mankind, and the
last was a temple in which dwelt joy, liberty, and love.
It is all a question of brain, of intellectual development.
�10
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
If we are nearer free than were our fathers, it is because we
have better heads upon the average, and more brains in them.
Now, I ask you to be honest with me. It makes no differ
ence to you what I believe, nor what I wish to prove. I simply ask you to be honest. Divest your minds, for a moment
at least, of all religious prejudice. Act, for a few moments, as
though you were men and women.
Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, if there
was one, at the time this gentleman floated in the dug-out,
and charmed his ears with the music of the tom-tom, had
said : “ That dug-out is the best boat that ever can be built
by man ; the pattern of that came from on high, from the
great God of storm and flood, and any man who says that he
can improve it by putting a mast in it, with a sail upon it, is
an infidel, and shall be burned at the stake,” what, in your
judgment—honor bright—would have been the effect upon
the circumnavigation of the globe ?
Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest if
there was one—and I presume there was a priest, because
it was a very ignorant age—suppose this king and priest
had said : “ That tom-tom is the most beautiful instru
ment of music of which any man can conceive; that
is the kind of music they have in heaven; an angel
sitting upon the edge of a fleecy cloud, golden in the
setting sun, playing upon that tom-tom, became so enraptured,
so entranced with her own music, that in a kind of ecstacy
she dropped it—that is how we obtained it; and any man
who says that it can be improved by putting a back and
front to it, and four strings, and a bridge, and getting a bow
of hair with resin, is a blaspheming wretch, and shall die the
death.” I ask you, what effect would that have had upon
music ? If that course had been pursued, would the human
ears, in your judgment, ever have been enriched with the
divine symphonies of Beethoven ?
Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, had
said : “ That crooked stick is the best plough that can be in
vented : the pattern of that plough was given to a pious farmer
in a holy dream, and that twisted straw is the ne plus ultra
of all twisted things, and any man who says he can make an
improvement upon that plough is an atheistwhat, in your
judgment, would have been the effect upon the science of
agriculture ?
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
11
But the people said, and the king and priest said: “We
want better weapons with which to kill our fellow Christians ;
we want better ploughs, better music, better paintings, and
whoever will give us better weapons, and better music, better
houses to live in, better clothes, we will robe him in wealth
and crown him with honor.” Every incentive was held out
to every human being to improve these things. That is the
reason the club has been changed to a cannon, the dug-out
to a steamship, the daub to a painting; that is the reason
that the piece of rough and broken stone finally became a
glorified statue.
You must not, however, forget that the gentleman in the
dug-out, the gentleman who was enraptured with the music
of the tom-tom, and cultivated his land with a crooked stick,
had a religion of his own. That gentleman in the dug-out
was orthodox. He was never troubled with doubts. He
lived and died settled in his mind. He believed in hell; and
he thought he would be far happier in heaven, if he could
just lean over and see certain people who expressed doubts as
to the truth of his creed, gently but everlastingly broiled
and burned.
It is a very sad and unhappy fact that this man has had a
great many intellectual descendants. It is also an unhappy
fact in nature, that the ignorant multiply much faster than
the intellectual. This fellow in the dug-out believed in a
personal devil. His devil had a cloven hoof, a long tail,
aimed with a fiery dart; and his devil breathed brimstone.
This devil was at least the equal of God ; not quite so stout,
but a little shrewder. And do you know there has not been
a patentable improvement made upon that devil for six
thousand years ?
This gentleman in the dug-out believed that God was a
tyrant; that he would eternally damn the man who lived in
accordance with his highest and grandest ideal. He believed
that the earth was flat. He believed in a literal, burning,
seething hell of fire and sulphur. He had also his idea of
politics ; and his doctrine was, might makes right. And it
will take thousands of years before the world will reverse this
■doctrine, and believingly say: “Right makes might.”
All I ask is the same privilege to improve upon that
gentleman’s theology as upon his musical instrument; the
same right to improve upon his politics as upon his dug-out.
�12
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
That is all. I ask for the human soul the same liberty in
every direction. That is the only crime I have committed.
I say, let us think. Let each one express his thought. Let
us become investigators, not followers, not cringers and
crawlers. If there is in heaven an infinite being, he never
will be satisfied with the worship of coward and hypocrite.
Honest unbelief, honest infidelity, honest atheism, will be a
perfume in heaven when pious hypocrisy, no matter how
religious it may be outwardly, will be a stench.
This is my doctrine : Give every other human being every
right you claim for yourself. Keep your mind open to the
influences of nature. Receive new thoughts with hospitality.
Let us advance.
The religionist of to-day wants the ship of his soul to lie
at the wharf of orthodoxy and rot in the sun. He delights
to hear the sails of old opinions flap against the masts of old
creeds. He loves to see the joints and the sides open and
gape on the sun, and it is a kind of bliss for him to repeat
again and again : “ Do not disturb my opinions. Do not
unsettle my mind; I have it all made up, and I want no
infidelity. Let me go backward rather than forward.”
As far as I am concerned I wish to be out on the high
seas. I wish to take my chances with wind, and wave, and
star. And I had rather go down in the glory and grandeur
of the storm, than rot in any orthodox harbor whatever.
After all, we are improving from age to age. The most
orthodox people in this country two hundred years ago would
have been burned for the crime of heresy.
The ministers
who denounce me for expressing my thought would have been
in the Inquisition themselves.
Where once burned and
blazed the bivouac fires of the army of progress, now glow
the altars of the church. The religionists of oui’ time are
occupying about the same ground occupied by heretics and
infidels of one hundred years ago. The church has advanced
in spite, as it were, of itself. It has followed the army of
progress protesting and denouncing, and had to keep within
protesting and denouncing distance. If the church had not
made great progress I could not express my thoughts.
Man, however, has advanced just exactly in the proportion
with which he has mingled his thought with his labor. The
sailor, without control of the wind and wave, knowing
nothing or very little of the mysterious currents and pulses of
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
13
the sea, is superstitious. So also is the agriculturist, whose
prosperity depends upon something he cannot control. But
the mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of
dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some
divine power. He knows there is a reason. He knows that
something is too large or too small; that there is something
wrong with his machine ; and he goes to work and he makes
it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel will turn.
Now, just in proportion as man gets away from being, as it
were, the slave of his surroundings, the serf of the elements,
—of the heat, the frost, the snow, and the lightning—just to
the extent that he has gotten control of his own destiny, just
to the extent that he has triumphed over the obstacles of
nature, he has advanced physically and intellectually. As
man develops, he places a greater value upon his own rights.
Liberty becomes a grander and diviner thing. As he values
his own rights, he begins to value the rights of others. And
when all men give to all others all the rights they claim for
themselves, this world will be civilised.
A few years ago the people were afraid to question the
king, afraid to question the priest, afraid to investigate a
creed, afraid to deny a book, afraid to denounce a dogma,
afraid to reason, afraid to think. Before wealth they bowed
to the very earth, and in the presence of titles they became
abject. All this is slowly but surely changing. We no
longer bow to men simply because they are rich. Our fathers
worshipped the golden calf. The worst you can say of an
American now is, he worships the gold of the calf. Even the
calf is beginning to see this distinction.
It no longer satisfies the ambition of a great man to be
king or emperor. The last Napoleon was not satisfied with
being Emperor of the French. He was not satisfied with
having a circlet of gold about his head. He wanted some
evidence that he had something of value within his head. So
he wrote the life of Julius Caesar, that he might become a
member of the French Academy. The emperors, the kings,
the popes, no longer tower above their fellows. Compare
King William with the philosopher Haeckel. The king is one
of the anointed by the most high, as they claim—one upon
whose head has been poured the divine petroleum of au
thority. Compare this king with Haeckel, who towers an
intellectual colossus above the crowned mediocrity. Compare
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George Eliot with Queen Victoria. The queen is clothed in
garments given her by blind fortune and unreasoning chance,
while George Eliot wears robes of glory woven in the loom of
her own genius.
The world is beginning to pay homage to intellect, to
genius, to art.
We have advanced. We have reaped the benefit of every
sublime and heroic self-sacrifice, of every divine and brave
act; and we should endeavor to hand the torch to the next
generation, having added a little to the intensity and glory of
the flame.
When I think of how much this world has suffered ; when
I think of how long our fathers were slaves, of how they
cringed and crawled at the foot of the throne, and in the
dust of the altar, of how they abased themselves, of how
abjectly they stood in the presence of superstition robed and
crowned, I am amazed.
This world has not been fit for a man to live in fifty years.
It was not until the year 1808 that Great Britain abolished
the slave trade. Up to that time her judges, sitting upon
the bench in the name of justice, her priests, occupying her
pulpits, in the name of universal love, owned stock in the
slave ships, and luxuriated upon the profits of piracy and
murder. It was not until the same year that the United
States of America abolished the slave trade between this and
other countries, but carefully preserved it as between the
States. It .was not until the 28th day of August, 1833, that
Great Britain abolished human slavery in her colonies ; and
it was not until the 1st day of January, 1863, that Abraham
Lincoln, sustained by the sublime and heroic North, rendered
our flag pure as the sky in which it floats.
Abraham Lincoln was, in my judgment, in many respects
the grandest man ever President of the United States. Upon
his monument these words should be written: “ Here sleeps
the only man in the history of the world, who, having been
clothed with almost absolute power, never abused it, except
upon the side of mercy.”
Think how long we clung to the institution of human
slavery, how long lashes upon the naked back were a legal
tender for labor performed. Think of it. The pulpit of this
country deliberately and willingly, for a hundred years,
turned the cross of Christ into a whipping post.
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
15
With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form
of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love
liberty.
What do I mean by liberty ? By physical liberty I mean
the right to do anything which does not interfere with the
happiness of another. By intellectual liberty I mean the
right to think right and the right to think wrong. Thought
is the means by which we endeavor to arrive at truth. If we
know the truth already, we need not think. All that can be
required is honesty of purpose. You ask my opinion about
anything ; I examine it honestly, and when my mind is made
up, what should I tell you? Should I tell you my real
thought ? What should I do ? There is a book put in my
hands. I am told this is the Koran ; it was written by inspi
ration. I read it, and when I get through, suppose that I
think in my heart and in my brain, that it is utterly untrue,
and you then ask me, what do you think ? Now, admitting
that I live in Turkey, and have no chance to get any office
unless I am on the side of the Koran, what should I say ?
Should I make a clean breast and say, that upon my honor I
do not believe it? What would you think then of my
fellow citizens if they said : “ That man is dangerous, he is
dishonest.”
Suppose I read the Bible, and when I get through I make
up my mind that it was written by men. A minister asks
me : “ Did you read the Bible ?” I answer that I did. “ Do
you think it divinely inspired ?” What should I reply ?
Should I say to myself: “ If I deny the inspiration of the
scriptures, the people will never clothe me with power.”
What ought I to answer ? Ought I not say like a man : “ I
have read it; I do not believe it.” Should I not give the
real transcript of my mind ? Or should I turn hypocrite and
pretend what I do not feel, and hate myself for ever after for
being a cringing coward ? For my part I would rather a man
would tell me what he honestly thinks. I would rather he
would preserve his manhood. I had a thousand times rather
be a manly unbeliever than an unmanly believer. And if there
is a judgment day, a time when all will stand before some
supreme being, I believe I will stand higher, and stand a
better chance of getting my case decided in my favor, than
any man sneaking through life pretending to believe what he
does not.
�16
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
_ I have made up my mind to say my say. I shall do it
kindly, distinctly; but I am going to do it. I know there
are thousands of men who substantially agree with me, but
who are not in a condition to express their thoughts. They
are poor ; they are in business; and they know that should
they tell their honest thought, persons will refuse to patronise
them—to trade with them ; they wish to get bread for their
little children ; they wish to take care of their wives; they
wish to have homes and the comforts of life. Every such
person is a certificate of the meanness of the community in
which he resides. And yet I do not blame these people for
notexpressing their thought. I say to them: “Keep your
ideas to yourselves ; feed and clothe the ones you love ; I
will do your talking for you. The church cannot touch,
cannot crush, cannot starve, cannot stop or stay me; I will
express your thoughts.”
As an excuse for tyranny, as a justification of slavery, the
church has taught that man is totally depraved. Of the
truth of that doctrine, the church has furnished the only
evidence there is. The truth is, we are both good and bad.
The worst are capable of some good deeds, and the best are
capable of bad. The lowest can rise, and the highest may
fall. That mankind can be divided into two great classes,
sinners and saints, is an utter falsehood. In times of great
disaster, called it may be, by the despairing voices of women,
men, denounced by the church as totally depraved, rush to
death as to a festival. By such men, deeds are done so filled
with self-sacrifice and generous daring, that millions pay to
them the tribute not only of admiration, but of tears. Above
all creeds, above all religions, after all, is that divine thing—
Humanity; and now and then in shipwreck on the wide, wild
sea, or ’mid the rocks and breakers of some cruel shore, or
where the serpents of flame writhe and hiss, some glorious
heart, some chivalric soul does a deed that glitters like a
star, and gives the lie to all the dogmas of superstition. All
these frightful doctrines have been used to degrade and to
enslave mankind.
Away, for evei' away, with the creeds and books and forms
and laws and religions that take from the soul liberty and
reason. Down with the idea that thought is dangerous!
Perish the infamous doctrine that man can have property in
man. Let us resent with indignation every effort to put a
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
17
chain upon our minds. If there is no God, certainly we
should not bow and cringe and crawl. If there is a God,
there should be no slaves.
LIBERTY OF WOMAN.
Women have been the slaves of slaves ; and in my judg
ment it took millions of ages for woman to come from the
condition of abject slavery up to the institution of marriage.
Let me say right here, that I regard marriage as the holiest
institution among men. Without the fireside there is no
human advancement; without the family relation there is no
life worth living. Every good government is made up of
good families. The unit of good government is the family,
and anything that tends to destroy the family is perfectly
devilish and infamous. I believe in marriage, and I hold in
utter contempt the opinions of those long-haired men and
short-haired women who denounce the institution of mar
riage.
The grandest ambition that any man can possibly have, is
to so live, and so improve himself in heart and brain, as to
be worthy of the love of some splendid woman; and the
grandest ambition of any girl is to make herself worthy of
the love and adoration of some magnificent man. That is my
idea. There is no success in life without love and marriage.
You had better be the emperor of one loving and tender
heart, and she the empress of yours, than to be king of the
world. The man who has really won the love of one good
woman in this world, I do not care if he dies in the ditch a
beggar, his life has been a success.
I say it took millions of years to come from the condition
of abject slavery up to the condition of marriage. Ladies,
the ornaments you wear upon your persons to-night are but
the souvenirs of your mother’s bondage. The chains around
your necks, and the bracelets clasped upon your white arms
by the thrilled hand of love, have been changed by the wand
of civilisation from iron to shining, glittering gold.
But nearly every religion has accounted for all the devil
ment in this world by the crime of woman. What a gallant
�18
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
thing that is ! And if it is true, I had rather live with the
woman I love in a world full of trouble, than to live in
heaven with nobody but men.
I read in a book—and I will say now that I cannot give
the exact language, as my memory does not retain the words,
but I can give the substance—I read in a book that the
Supreme Being concluded to make a world and one man ;
that he took some nothing and made a world and one man,
and put this man in a garden. In a little while he noticed
that the man got lonesome ; that he wandered around as if
he was waiting for a train, There was nothing to interest
him ; no news ; no papers ; no politics; no policy ; and, as
the devil had not yet made his appearance, there was no
chance for reconciliation ; not even for civil service reform.
Well, he wandered about the garden in this condition, until
finally the Supreme Being made up his mind to make him
a companion.
Having used up all the nothing he originally took in
making the world and one man, he had to take a part of the
man to start a woman with. So he caused a sleep to fall on
this man—now understand me, I do not say this story is true.
After the sleep fell upon this man, the Supreme Being took a
rib, or as the French would call it, a cutlet, out of this man,
and from that he made a woman. And considering the
amount of raw material used, I look upon it as the most suc
cessful job ever performed. Well, after he got the woman
done, she was brought to the man; not to see how she liked
him, but to see how he liked her. He liked her, and they
started housekeeping; and they were told of certain things
they might do and of one thing they could not do—and of
course they did it. I would have done it in fifteen minutes,
and I know it. There wouldn’t have been an apple on that
tree half an hour from date, and the limbs would have been
full of clubs. And then they were turned out of the park,
and extra policemen were put on to keep them from getting
back.
Devilment commenced. The mumps, and the measles,
and the whooping' cough, and the scarlet fever started in
their race for man. They began to have the toothache, roses
began to have thorns, snakes began to have poisoned teeth,
and people began to divide about religion and politics, and
the world has been full of trouble from that day to this.
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
19
Nearly all of the religions of this world account for the
existence of evil by such a story as that!
I read in another book what appeared to be an account of
the same transaction. It was written about four thousand
years before the other, All commentators agree that the
one that was written last was the original, and that the one
that was written first was copied from the one that was writ
ten last. But I would advise you all not to allow your creed
to be disturbed by a little matter of four or five thousand
years. In this other story, Brahma made up his mind to
make the world and a man and woman. He made the world,
and he made the man and then the woman, and put them on
the island of Ceylon. According to the account it was the
most beautiful island of which man can conceive. Such
birds, such songs, such flowers and such verdure ! And the
branches of the trees were so arranged that when the wind
swept through them every tree was a thousand TFlolian
harps.
Brahma, when he put them there, said : “ Let them have
a period of courtship, for it is my desire and will that true
love should for ever precede marriage.” When I read that, it
was so much more beautiful and lofty than the other, that I
said to myself : “ If either one of these stories ever turns
out to be true, I hope it will be this one.”
Then they had their courtship, with the nightingale
singing, and the stars shining, and the flowers blooming, and
they fell in love. Imagine that courtship ! No prospective
fathers or mothers-in-law; no prying and gossiping neigh
bors; nobody to say: “Young man, how do you expect to
support her?” Nothing of that kind. They were married
by the Supreme Brahma, and he said to them : “ Remain
here ; you must never leave this island.” Well, after a little
while the man—and his name was Adami, and the woman’s
name was Heva—said to Heva : “ I believe I’ll look about a
little.” He went to the northern extremity of the island
where there was a little narrow neck of land connecting it
with the mainland, and the devil, who is always playing
pranks with us, produced a mirage, and when he looked over
to the mainland, such hills and vales, such dells and dales,
such mountains crowned with snow, such cataracts clad in
bows of glory did he see there, that he went back and told
Heva: “ The country over there is a thousand times better
�20
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
than this ; let us migrate.” She, like every other woman
.that ever lived, said : “ Let well enough alone ; we have all
we want; let us stay here.” But he said : “ No, let us go
so she followed him, and when they came to this narrow neck
of land, he took her on his back like a gentleman, and carried
her over. But the moment they got over they heard a crash,
and looking back, discovered that this narrow neck of land
had fallen into the sea. The mirage had disappeared, and
there were naught but rocks and sand ; and then the Su
preme Brahma cursed them both to the lowest hell.
Then it was that the man spoke—and I have liked him
ever since for it—“ Curse me, but curse not her, it was not
her fault, it was mine.”
That’s the kind of man to start a world with.
The Supreme Brahma said : “I will save her, but not
thee.” And then she spoke out of her fullness of love, out
of a heart in which there was love enough to make all her
daughters rich in holy affection, and said : “If thou wilt not
spare him, spare neither me; I do not wish to live without
him; I love him.” Then the Supreme Brahma said—and I
have liked him ever since I read it—“ I will spare you both
and watch over you and your children for ever.”
Honor bright, is not that the better and grander story ?
And from that same book I want to show you what ideas
some of these miserable heathen had; the heathen we are
trying to convert. We send missionaries over yonder to con
vert heathen there, and we send soldiers out on the plains to
kill heathen here. If we can convert the heathen, why not
convert those nearest home ? Why not convert those we can
get at ? Why not convert those who have the immense ad
vantage of the example of the average pioneer ? But to show
you the men we are trying to convert: In this book it says :
“ Man is strength, woman is beauty ; man is courage, woman
is love. When the one man loves the one woman and the
one woman loves the one man, the very angels leave heaven
and come and sit in that house and sing for joy.”
They are the men we are converting. Think of it! I tell
you, when I read these things, I say that love is not of any
country; nobility does not belong exclusively to any race, and
through all the ages, there have been a few great and tender
souls blossoming in love and pity.
In my judgment, the woman is the equal of the man.
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
21
Slie has all the rights I have and one more, and that is the
right to be protected. That is my doctrine. You are mar
ried ; try to make the woman you love happy. Whoever
marries simply for himself will make a mistake ; but who
ever loves a woman so well that he says : “ I will make her
happy,” makes no mistake. And so with the woman who
says : “ I will make him happy.” There is only one way to
be happy, and that is to make somebody else so; and you
cannot be happy by going cross lots, you have got to go the
regular turnpike road.
If there is any man I detest, it is the man who thinks he is
the head of a family—the man who thinks he is “ boss ” I
The fellow in the dug-out used that word “ boss ; ” that was
one of his favorite expressions.
Imagine a young man and a young woman courting, walk
ing out in the moonlight, and the nightingale singing a song
of pain and love, as though the thorn touched her heart—
imagine them stopping there in the moonlight and starlight
and song, and saying: “ Now, here, let us settle who is
‘ boss.’ ” I tell you it is an infamous word and an infamous
feeling—I abhor a man who is “boss,” who is going to
govern in his family, And when he speaks orders all the rest
to be still as some mighty idea is about to be launched from
his mouth. Do you know I dislike this man unspeakably ?
I hate above all things a cross man. What right has he
to murder the sunshine of a day ? What right has he to
assassinate the joy of life ? When you go home you ought to
go like a ray of light—so that it will, even in the night, burst
out of the doors and windows and illuminate the darkness.
Some men think their mighty brains have been in a turmoil;
They have been thinking about who will be aiderman from
the fifth ward; they have been thinking about politics;
great and mighty questions have been engaging their minds ;
they have bought calico at five cents or six, and want to sell
it for seven. Think of the intellectual strain that must have
been upon that man, and when he gets home everybody else
in the house must look out for his comfort. A woman who
has only taken care of five or six children, and one or two of
them sick, has been nursing them, and singing to them, and
trying to make one yard of cloth do the work of two, she, of
course, is fresh and fine and ready to wait upon this gentle
man—the head of the family—the boss !
�22
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
Do you know another thing ? I despise a stingy man. I
do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth fifty
million of dollars, or ten million of dollars, in a city full of
want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of
beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can with
stand all that, and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or
thirty million of dollars, is past my comprehension. I do
not see how he can do it. I should not think he could do it
any more than he could keep a pile of lumber on the beach,
where hundreds and thousands of men were drowning in the
sea.
Do you know that I have known men who would trust
their wives with their hearts and their honor, but not with
their pocket-book ; not with a dollar. When I see a man
of that kind, I always think he knows which of these articles
is the most valuable. Think of making your wife a beggar!
Think of her having to ask you every day for a dollar, or for
two dollars, or fifty cents! “ What did you do with that
dollar I gave you last week ? ” Think of having a wife that
is afraid of you! What kind of children do you expect to
have with a beggar and a coward for their mother ? Oh, I
tell you if you have but a dollar in the world, and you have
got to spend it, spend it like a king ; spend it as though it
were a dry leaf and you the owner of unbounded forests!
That’s the way to spend it! I had rather be a beggar and
spend my last dollar like a king, then be a king and spend
my money like a beggar I If it has got to go, let it go !
Get the best you can for your family—try to look as well
as you can yourself. When you used to go courting, how
elegantly you looked! Ah, your eye was blight, your step
was light, and you looked like a prince. Do you know that
it is insufferable egotism in you to suppose a woman is going
to love you always looking as slovenly as you can! Think
of it! Any good woman on earth will be true to you for ever
when you do your level best.
Some people tell me: “ Your doctrine about loving, and
wives, and all that, is splendid for the rich, but it won’t do
for the pcor.” I tell you to-night there is more love in the
homes of the poor than in the palaces of the rich. The
meanest hut with love in it is a palace fit for the gods, and a
palace without love is a den only fit for wild beasts. That is
my doctrine! You cannot be so poor that you cannot help
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
23
somebody. Good nature is the cheapest commodity^in the
world; and love is the only thing that will pay ten per cent,
to borrower and lender both. Do not tell me that you have
got to be rich! We have a false standard of greatness in the
United States. We think here that a man must be great,
that he must be notorious ; that he must be extremely
wealthy, or that his name must be upon the putrid lips of
rumor. It is all a mistake. It is not necessary to be rich or
to be great, or to be powerful, to be happy. The happy
man is the successful man.
Happiness is the legal tender of the soul!
Joy is wealth.
A little while ago, I stood by the grave of the old Napoleon
—a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost for a dead
deity—and gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless
marble, where rest at last the ashes of that restless man. I
leaned over the balustrade and thought about the career of
the greatest soldier of the modem world.
I saw him walking upon the banks of the Seine, contem
plating suicide. I saw him at Toulon—I saw him putting
down the mob in the streets of Paris—I saw him at the head
of the army of Italy—I saw him crossing the bridge of Lodi
with the tricolor in his hand—I saw him in Egypt in the
shadows of the Pyramids—I saw him conquer the Alps and
mingle the eagles of France with the eagles of the crags. I
saw him at Marengo—at Ulm and Austerlitz. I saw him in
Russia, where the infantry of the snow and the cavalry of the
wild blast scattered his legions like winter’s withered leaves.
I saw him at Leipsic in defeat and disaster—driven by a
million bayonets back upon Paris—clutched like a wild beast
—banished to Elba. I saw him escape and retake an empire
by the force of his genius. I saw him upon the frightful
field of Waterloo, where Chance and Fate combined to wreck
the fortunes of their former king. And I saw him at St.
Helena, with his hands crossed behind him, gazing out upon
the sad and solemn sea.
I thought of the orphans and widows he had made—of the
tears that had been shed for his glory, and of the only woman
who ever loved him, pushed from his heart by the cold hand
of ambition. And I said I would rather have been a French
peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would rather have lived
in a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes
�24
The, Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
growing purple in the kisses of the autumn sun. I would
rather have been that poor peasant with my loving wife by
my side, knitting as the day died out of the sky—with my
children upon my knees and their arms about me—I would
rather have been that man and gone down to the tongueless
silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial
impersonation of force and murder.
It is not necessary to be great to be happy; it is not neces
sary to be rich to be just and generous and to have a heart
filled with divine affection. No matter whether you are rich
or poor, treat your wife as though she were a splendid flower,
and she will fill your life with perfume and with joy.
And do you know, it is a splendid thing to think that the
woman you really love will never grow old to you. Through
the wrinkles of time, through the mask of years, if you really
love her, you will always see the face you loved and won.
And a woman who really loves a man does not see that he
grows old ; he is not decrepit to her; he does not tremble ;
he is not old; she always sees the same gallant gentleman
who won her hand and heart. I like to think of it in that
way ; I like to think that love is eternal. And to love in
that way and then go down the hill of life together, and as
you go down, hear, perhaps, the laughter of grandchildren,
while the birds of joy and love sing once more in the leafless
branches of the tree of age.
I believe in the fireside. I believe in the democracy of
home. I believe in the republicanism of the family. I
believe in liberty, equality and love.
THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN.
If women have been slaves, what shall I say of children;
of the little children in alleys and sub-cellars; the little
children who turn pale when they hear their father’s foot
steps ; little children who run away when they only hear their
names called by the lips of a mother; little children—the
children of poverty, the children of crime, the children of
brutality, wherever they are—flotsam and jetsam upon the
wild, mad sea of life—my heart goes out to them, one and
all.
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
25
I tell you the children have the same rights that we have,
and we ought to treat them as though they were human
beings. They should be reared with love, with kindness,
with tenderness, and not with brutality. That is my idea
of children.
When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though
the world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with
him. A tyrant father will have liars for his children ; do
you know that ? A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand
and weakness upon the other, and when you rush at a poor
little boy with a club in your hand, of course he lies.
I thank thee, Mother Nature, that thou hast put ingenuity
enough in the brain of a child, when attacked by a brutal
parent, to throw up a little breastwork in the shape of a lie.
When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him ;
tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell
him it is not the best way ; that you have tried it. Tell him
as the man did in Maine when his boy left home : “ John,
honesty is the best policy ; I have tried both.” Be honest
with him. Suppose a man as much larger than you as you
are larger than a child five years old, should come at you
with a liberty pole in his hand, and in a voice of thunder
shout: “ Who broke that plate ? ” There is not a solitary one
of you who would not swear you never saw it, or that it was
cracked when you got it. Why not be honest with these
children ? Just imagine a man who deals in stocks whipping
his boy for putting false rumors afloat! Think of a lawyer
beating his own flesh and blood for evading the truth when
he makes half of his own living that way! Think of a minister
punishing his child for not telling all he thinks! Just
think of it!
When your child commits a wrong, take it in your arms ;
let it feel your heart beat against its heart; let the child
know that you really and truly and sincerely love it. Yet
some Christians, good Christians, when a child commits a
fault, drive it from the door and say : “ Never do you darken
this house again.” Think of that! And then these same
people will get down on their knees and ask God to take care
of the child they have driven from home. I will never ask
God to take care of my children unless I am doing my level
best in that same direction.
But I will tell you what I say to my children : “Go where
�24
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
growing purple in the kisses of the autumn sun. I would
rather have been that poor peasant with my loving wife by
my side, knitting as the day died out of the sky—with my
children upon my knees and their arms about me—I would
rather have been that man and gone down to the tongueless
silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial
impersonation of force and murder.
It is not necessary to be great to be happy; it is not neces
sary to be rich to be just and generous and to have a heart
filled with divine affection. No matter whether you are rich
or poor, treat your wife as though she were a splendid flower,
and she will fill your life with perfume and with joy.
And do you know, it is a splendid thing to think that the
woman you really love will never grow old to you. Through
the wrinkles of time, through the mask of years, if you really
love her, you will always see the face you loved and won.
And a woman who really loves a man does not see that he
grows old ; he is not decrepit to her; he does not tremble ;
he is not old; she always sees the same gallant gentleman
who won her hand and heart. I like to think of it in that
way ; I like to think that love is eternal. And to love in
that way and then go down the hill of life together, and as
you go down, hear, perhaps, the laughter of grandchildren,
while the birds of joy and love sing once more in the leafless
branches of the tree of age.
I believe in the fireside. I believe in the democracy of
home. I believe in the republicanism of the family. I
believe in liberty, equality and love.
THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN.
If women have been slaves, what shall I say of children;
of the little children in alleys and sub-cellars; the little
children who turn pale when they hear their father’s foot
steps ; little children who run away when they only hear their
names called by the lips of a mother; little children—the
children of poverty, the children of crime, the children of
brutality, wherever they are—flotsam and jetsam upon the
wild, mad sea of life—my heart goes out to them, one and
all.
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
25
I tell you the children have the same rights that we have,
and we ought to treat them as though they were human
beings. They should be reared with love, with kindness,
with tenderness, and not with brutality. That is my idea
of children.
When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though
the world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with
him. A tyrant father will have liars for his children ; do
you know that ? A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand
and weakness upon the other, and when you rush at a poor
little boy with a club in your hand, of course he lies.
I thank thee, Mother Nature, that thou hast put ingenuity
enough in the brain of a child, when attacked by a brutal
parent, to throw up a little breastwork in the shape of a lie.
When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him ;
tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell
him it is not the best way ; that you have tried it. Tell him
as the man did in Maine when his boy left home : “ John,
honesty is the best policy; I have tried both.” Be honest
with him. Suppose a man as much larger than you as you
are larger than a child five years old, should come at you
with a liberty pole in his hand, and in a voice of thunder
shout: “ Who broke that plate ? ” There is not a solitary one
of you who would not swear you never saw it, or that it was
cracked when you got it. Why not be honest with these
children ? Just imagine a man who deals in stocks whipping
his boy for putting false rumors afloat! Think of a lawyer
beating his own flesh and blood for evading the truth when
he makes half of his own living that way ! Think of a minister
punishing his child for not telling all he thinks! Just
think of it!
When your child commits a wrong, take it in your arms ;
let it feel your heart beat against its heart; let the child
know that you really and truly and sincerely love it. Yet
some Christians, good Christians, when a child commits a
fault, drive it from the door and say : “ Never do you darken
this house again.” Think of that! And then these same
people will get down on their knees and ask God to take care
of the child they have driven from home. I will never ask
God to take care of my children unless I am doing my level
best in that same direction.
But I will tell you what I say to my children : “ Go where
�26
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
you will; commit what crime you may ; fall to what depth
of degradation you may ; you can never commit any crime
that will shut my door, my arms, or my heart to you. As
long as I live you shall have one sincere friend.”
Do you know that I have seen some people who acted as
though they thought that when the Savior said : “ Suffer
little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of
heaven,” he had a raw-hide under his mantle, and made that
remark simply to get the children within striking distance ?
I do not believe in the government of the lash. If any one
of you ever expects to whip your children again, I want you
to have a photograph taken of yourself when you are in the
act, with your face red with vulgar anger, and the face of the
little child, with eyes swimming in tears and the little chin
dimpled with fear, like a piece of water struck by a sudden
cold wind. Have the picture taken. If that little child
should die, I cannot think of a sweeter way to spend an
autumn afternoon than to go out to the cemetery, when the
maples are clad in tender gold, and little scarlet runners are
coming, like poems of regret, from the sad heart of the earth
—and sit down upon the grave and look at that photograph,
and think of the flesh now dust that you beat. I tell you it
is wrong; it is no way to raise children! Make your home
happy. Be honest with them. Divide fairly with them in
everything.
Give them a little liberty and love, and you cannot drive
them out of your house. They will want to stay there.
Make home pleasant. Let them play any game they wish.
Do not be so foolish as to say : ‘‘You may roll balls on the
ground, but you must not roll them on a green cloth. You
may knock them with a mallet, but you must not push them
with a cue. You may play with little pieces of paper which
have ‘ authors ’ written on them, but you must not have
‘cards.’” Think of it! “You may go to a minstrel show
where people blacken themselves and imitate humanity below
them, but you must not go to a theatre, and see the charac
ters created by immortal genius put upon the stage.” Why ?
Well, I can’t think of any reason in the world except
“ minstrel ” is a word of two syllables, and “ theatre ” has
three.
Let children have some daylight at home if you want to
keep them there, and do not commence at the cradle and
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
27
shout: “Don’t!” “Don’t!” “Stop!” That is nearly all
that is said to a child from the cradle until J^e is twenty-one
years old, and when he comes of age other people begin say
ing: “Don’t!” And the church says : “Don’t?” and the
party he belongs to says : “ Don’t! ”
I despise that way of going through this world. Let us
have liberty—just a little. Call me infidel, call me atheist,
call me what you will, I intend so to treat my children, that
they can come to my grave and truthfully say : “ He who
sleeps here never gave us a moment of pain. From his lips,
now dust, never came to us an unkind word.
People justify all kinds of tyranny towards children upon
the ground that they are totally depraved. At the bottom of
ages of cruelty lies this infamous doctrine of total depravity.
Religion contemplates a child as a living crime—heir to an
infinite curse—doomed to eternal fire.
In the olden time, they thought some days were too good
for a child to enjoy himself. When I was a boy Sunday was
considered altogether too holy to be happy in. Sunday used
to commence then when the sun went down on Saturday
night. We commenced at that time for the purpose of get
ting a good ready, and when the sun fell below the horizon
on Saturday evening, there was a darkness fell upon the
house ten thousand times deeper than that of night. Nobody
said a pleasant word ; nobody laughed ; nobody smiled ; the
child that looked the sickest was regarded as the most pious.
That night you could not even crack hickory nuts. If you
were caught chewing gum it was only another evidence of the
total depravity of the human heart. It was an exceedingly
solemn night. Dyspepsia was in the very air you breathed.
Everybody looked sad and mournful. I have noticed all my
life that many people think they have religion when they are
troubled with dyspepsia. If there could be found an absolute
specific for that disease, it would be the hardest blow the
church has ever received.
On Sunday morning the solemnity had simply increased.
Then we went to church. The minister was in a pulpit
about twenty feet high, with a little sounding-board above
“him, and he commenced at “ firstly ” and went on and on
to about “twenty-thirdly.” Then he made a few remarks by
way of application ; and then took a general view of the
�28
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
subject, and in about two hours reached the last chapter
in Revelations.
In those days, no matter how cold the weather was, there
was no fire in the church. It was thought to be a kind of
sin to be comfortable while you were thanking God. The
first church that ever had a stove in it in New England,
divided on that account. So the first church in which they
sang by note was torn in fragments.
After the sermon we had an intermission. Then came the
catechism with the chief end of man. We went through with
that. We sat in a row with our feet coming to about six
inches of the floor. The minister asked us if we knew that
we all deserved to go to hell, and we all answered : “Yes.”
Then we were asked if we would be willing to go to hell if it
was God’s will, and every little liar shouted : “Yes.” Then
the same sermon was preached once more, commencing at
the other end going back. After that, we started for home,
sad and solemn—overpowered with the wisdom displayed in
the scheme of the atonement. When we got home, if we had
been good boys, and the weather was warm, sometimes they
would take us out to the graveyard to cheer us up a little. It
did cheer me. When I looked at the sunken tombs and the
leaning stones, and read the half-effaced inscriptions through
the moss of silence and forgetfulness, it was a great comfort.
The reflexion came to my mind that the observance of the
Sabbath could not last always. Sometimes they would sing
that beautiful hymn in which occurs these cheerful lines :
“ Where congregations ne’er break up,
And Sabbaths never end.”
These lines, I think, prejudiced me a little against even
heaven. Then we had good books that we read on Sundays
by way of keeping us happy and contented. There were
Milners’ “ History of the Waldenses,” Baxter’s “ Call to the
Unconverted,” Yahn’s “Archaeology of the Jews,” and
Jenkyns’ “ On the Atonement.” I used to read Jenkyns’
“ On the Atonement.” I have often thought that an atone
ment would have to be exceedingly broad in its provisions to
cover the case of a man who would write a book like that for
a boy.
But at last the Sunday wore away, and the moment the
sun went down we were free. Between three and four o’clock
�The, Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
we would go out to see how the sun was coining on. Some
times it seemed to me that it was stopping from pure mean
ness. But finally it went down. It had to. And when the
last rim of light sank below the horizon, off would go our
caps, and we would give three cheers for liberty once more,
Sabbaths used to be prisons. Every Sunday was a Bastille.
Every Christian was a kind of turnkey, and every child was a
prisoner—a convict. In that dungeon, a smile was a crime.
It was thought wrong for a child to laugh upon this holy
day. Think of that!
A little child would go out into the garden, and there
would be a tree laden with blossoms, and the little fellow
would lean against it, and there would be a bird on one of
the boughs, singing and swinging, and thinking about four
little speckled eggs, warmed by the breast of its mate
singing and swinging, and the music in happy waves rippling
out of its tiny throat, and the flowers blossoming, the air
filled with perfume and the great white clouds floating in the
sky, and the little boy would lean up against that tree and
think about hell and the worm that never dies.
I have heard them preach, when I sat in the pew and my
feet did not touch the floor, about the final home of the
unconverted. In order to impress upon the children the
length of time they would probably stay if they settled in
that country, the preacher would frequently give us the
following illustration : “ Suppose that once in a billion years
a bird should come from some far-distant planet, and carry
off in its little bill a grain of sand, a time would finally come
when the last atom composing this earth would be carried
away; and when this last atom was taken, it would not even
be sun up in hell.” Think of such an infamous doctrine
being taught to children!
The laugh of a child will make the hcliest day more sacred
still. Strike with hand of fire, 0 weird musician, thy harp
strung with Apollo’s golden hair; fill the vast cathedral
aisles with symphonies sweet and dim, deft toucher of the
organ keys ; blow, bugler, blow, until thy silver notes do
touch and kiss the moonlit waves, and charm the lovers
wandering ’mid the vine clad hills. But know, your sweetest
strains are discords all, compared with childhood’s happy
laugh—the laugh that fills the eyes with light and every
heart with joy. 0 rippling river of laughter, thou art the
�30
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
“blessed boundary line between the beasts and men ; and
every wayward wave of thine doth drown some fretful fiend
of care. 0 Laughter, rose-lipped daughter of Joy, there are
dimples enough in thy cheeks to catch and hold and glorify
all the tears of grief.
And yet the minds of children have been polluted by this
infamous doctrine of eternal punishment. I denounce it to
day as a doctrine, the infamy of which no language is suffi
cient to express.
Where did that doctrine of eternal punishment for men and
women and children come from ? It came from the low and
“beastly skull of that wretch in the dug-out. Where did he
get it ? It was a souvenir from the animals. The doctrine
of eternal punishment was bom in the glittering eyes of
■snakes—snakes that hung in fearful coils watching for their
prey. It was born of the howl and bark and growl of wild
Leasts. It was bom of the grin of hyenas and of the depraved
chatter of unclean baboons. I despise it with every drop of
my blood. Tell me there is a God in the serene heavens that
will damn his children for the expression of an honest belief 1
More men have died in their sins, judged by your orthodox
creeds than there are leaves on all the forests in the wide
world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men are in
hell; that these men are in torment; that these children are
in eternal pain, and that they are to be punished for ever and
for ever ! I denounce this doctrine as the most infamous of
lies.
When the great ship containing the hopes and aspirations
of the world, when the great ship freighted with mankind
goes down in the night of death, chaos and disaster, I am
willing to go down with the ship. I will not be guilty of the
ineffable meanness of paddling away in some orthodox canoe.
I will go down with the ship, with those who love me, and
with those whom I have loved. If there is a God who will
damn his children for ever, I would rather go to hell than to
go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant.
I make my choice now. I despise that doctrine. It has
covered the cheeks of this world with tears. It has polluted
the hearts of children, and poisoned the imaginations of men.
It has been a constant pain, a perpetual terror to every good
man and woman and child. It has filled the good with
horror and with fear; but it has had no effect upon the in-
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
31
famous and base. It has wrung the hearts of the tender:
it has furrowed the cheeks of the good. This doctrine never
■should be preached again. What right have you, sir, Mr.
clergyman, you, minister of the gospel, to stand at the portals
of the tomb, at the vestibule of eternity, and fill the future
with horror and with fear ? I do not believe this doctrine :
neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep one moment.
Any man who believes it, and has within his breast a decent,
throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who believes that
doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a snake and
the conscience of a hyena.
Jonathan Edwards, the dear old soul, who, if his doctrine
is true, is now in heaven rubbing his holy hands with glee, as
he hears the cries of the damned, preached this doctrine ; and
he said : “ Can the believing husband in heaven be happy
with his unbelieving wife in hell ? Can the believing father
in heaven be happy with his unbelieving children in hell ?
Can the loving wife in heaven be happy with her unbelieving
husband in hell ? ” And he replies : “I tell you, yea. Such
will be their sense of justice, that it will increase rather than
diminish their bliss.” There is no wild beast in the jungles
of Africa whose reputation would not be tarnished by the
expression of such a doctrine.
These doctrines have been taught in the name of religion,
in the name of universal forgiveness, in the name of infinite
love and charity. Do not, I pray you, soil the minds of your
children with this dogma. Let them read for themselves ;
let them think for themselves.
Do not treat your children like orthodox posts to be set in
a row. Treat them like trees that need light and sun and
air. Be fair and honest with them ; give them a chance.
Recollect that their rights are equal to yours. Do not have
it in your mind that you must govern them ; that they must
obey. Throw away for ever the idea of master and slave.
In old times they used to make the children go to bed when
they were not sleepy, and get up when they were sleepy. I
say let them go to bed when they are sleepy, and get up when
they are not sleepy.
But you say, this doctrine will do for the rich but not for
the poor. Well, if the poor have to waken their children
early in the morning it is as easy to wake them with a kiss as
with a blow. Give your children freedom ; let them preserve
�32
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
their individuality. Let your children eat what they desire,
and commence at the end of a dinner they like. That is
their business and not yours. They know what they wish to
eat. If they are given their liberty from the first, they know
what they want better than any doctor in the world can pre
scribe. Do you know that all the improvement that has ever
been made in the practice of medicine has been made by the
recklessness of patients and not by the doctors ? For thou
sands and thousands of years the doctors would not let a man
suffering from fever have a drop of water. Water they
looked upon as poison. But every now and then some man
got reckless and said: “ I had rather die than not to slake
my thirst.” Then he would drink two or three quarts of
water and get well. And when the doctor was told of what
the patient had done, he expressed great surprise that he was
still alive, and complimented his constitution upon being able
to bear such a frightful strain. The reckless men, however,
kept on drinking the water, and persisted in getting well,
and finally the doctors said: “ In a fever water is the very
best thing you can take.” So, I have more confidence in the
voice of nature about such things than I have in the conclu
sions of the medical schools.
Let your children have freedom and they will fall into your
ways; they will do substantially as you do ; but if you try to
make them, there is some magnificent, splendid thing in the
human heart that refuses to be driven. And do you know
that it is the luckiest thing that ever happened for this world,
that people are that way. What would have become of the
people five hundred years ago if they had followed strictly
the advice of the doctors ? They would have all been dead.
What would the people have been, if at any age of the
world they had followed implicitly the direction of the
church ? They would all have been idiots. It is a splendid
thing that there is always some grand man who will not
mind, and who will think for himself.
I believe in allowing the children to think for themselves.
I believe in the democracy of the family. If in this world
there is anything splendid, it is a home where all are
equals.
You will remember that only a few years ago parents
would tell their children to “ let their victuals stop their
mouths.” They used to eat as though it were a religious
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
33
ceremony—a very solemn thing. Life should not be treated
as a solemn matter. I like to see the children at table, and
hear each one telling of the wonderful things he has seen and
heard. I like to hear the clatter of knives and forks and
spoons mingling with their happy voices. I had rather hear
it than any opera that was ever put upon the boards. Let
the children have liberty. Be honest and fair with them ;
be just; be tender, and they will make you rich in love and
i°yMen are oaks, women are vines, children are flowers.
The human race has been guilty of almost countless crimes;
but I have some excuse for mankind. This world, after all,
is not very well adapted to raising good people. In the first
place, nearly all of it is water. It is much better adapted to
fish culture than to the production of folks. Of that portion
which is land not one-eighth has suitable soil and climate to
produce great men and women. You cannot raise men and
women of genius, without the proper soil and climate, any
more than you can raise corn and wheat upon the ice fields of
the Arctic sea. You must have the necessary conditions and
surroundings. Man is a product; you must have the soil and
food. The obstacles presented by nature must not be so
great that man cannot, by reasonable industry and courage,
overcome them. There is upon this world only a narrow
belt of land, circling zigzag the globe, upon which you can
produce men and women of talent. In the Southern Hemi
sphere the real climate that man needs falls mostly upon the
sea, and the result is, that the southern half of our world has
never produced a man or woman of great genius. In the far
north there is no genius—it is too cold. In the far south
there is no genius—it is too warm. There must be winter,
and there must be summer. In a country where man needs
no coverlet but a cloud, revolution is his normal condition.
Winter is the mother of industry and prudence. Above all,
it is the mother of the family relation. Winter holds in
its icy arms the husband and wife and the sweet children. If
upon this earth we ever have a glimpse of heaven, it is when
we pass a home in winter, at night, and through the windows
the curtains drawn aside, we see the family about tho
pleasant hearth; the old lady knitting; the cat playing with the
yarn ; the children wishing they had as many dolls or dollars
or knives or somethings, as there are sparks going out to join
�34
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
the roaring blast ; the father reading and smoking, and the
clouds rising like incense from the altar of domestic joy. I
never passed such a house without feeling that I had received
a benediction.
Civilisation, liberty, justice, charity, intellectual advance
ment, are all flowers that blossom in the drifted snow.
I do not know that I can better illustrate the great truth
that only part of the world is adapted to the production of
great men and women than by calling your attention to the
difference between vegetation in valleys and upon mountains.
In the valley you find the oak and elm tossing their branches
defiantly to the storm, and as you advance up the mountain
side the hemlock, the pine, the birch, the spruce, the fir, and
finally you come to little dwarfed trees, that look like other
trees seen through a telescope reversed—every limb twisted
as though in pain—getting a scanty subsistence from the
miserly crevices of the rocks. You go on and on, until at last
the highest crag is freckled with a kind of moss, and vegeta
tion ends. You might as well try to raise oaks and elms
where the mosses grow, as to raise great men and great
women where their surroundings are unfavorable.
You
must have the proper climate and soil.
A few years ago we were talking about the annexation of
Santo Domingo to this country. I was in Washington at the
time. I was opposed to it. I was told that it was a most
delicious climate ; that the soil produced everything. But I
said : “ We do not want it; it is not the right kind of country
in which to raise American citizens. Such a climate would
debauch us. You might go there with five thousand Congre
gational preachers, five thousand ruling elders, five thousand
professors in colleges, five thousand of the solid men of Boston
and their wives ; settle them all in Santo Domingo, and you
will see the second generation riding upon a mule, bareback,
no shoes, a grapevine bridle, hair sticking out at the top of
their sombreros, with a rooster under each arm, going to a
cock fight on Sunday.” Such is the influence of climate.
Science, however, is gradually widening the area within
which men of genius can be produced. We are conquering
the north with houses, clothing, food, and fuel. We are in
many ways overcoming the heat of the south. If we attend
to this world instead of another, we may in time cover the
land with men and women of genius.
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
35
I have still another excuse. I believe that man came up
from the lower animals. I do not say this as a fact. I
simply say I believe it to be a fact. Upon that question I
stand about eight to seven, which for all practical purposes, is
very near a certainty. When I first heard of that doctrine
I did not like it. My heart was filled with sympathy for
those people who have nothing to be proud of except ances
tors. I thought, how terrible this will be upon the nobility
of the old world. Think of their being forced to trace their
ancestry back to the duke Orang Outang, or to the princess
Chimpanzee. After thinking it all over, I came to the
conclusion that I liked that doctrine. I became convinced in
spite of myself. I read about rudimentary bones and muscles.
I was told that everybody had rudimentary muscles extend
ing from the ear into the cheek. I asked: “ What are
they ? ” I was told: “ They are the remains of muscles ;
that they became rudimentary from lack of use; they went
into bankruptcy. They are the muscles with which your
ancestors used to flap their ears.” I do not now so much
wonder that we once had them, as that we have outgrown
them.
After all I had rather belong to a race that started from the
skull-less vertebrates in the dim Laurentian seas, vertebrates
wiggling without knowing why they wiggled, swimming
without knowing where they were going, but that in some
way began to develop, and began to get a little higher and a
little higher in the scale of existence; that came up by
degrees through millions of ages through all the animal
world, through all that crawls and swims and floats and
climbs and walks, and finally produced the gentleman in the
dug-out: and then from this man, getting a little grander,
and each one below calling every one above him a heretic,
calling every one who had made a little advance an infidel or
an atheist—for in the history of this world the man who is
ahead has always been called a heretic—I would rather come
from a race that started from that skull-less vertebrate, and
came up and up and up and finally produced Shakspere,
the man who found the human intellect dwelling in a hut,
touched it with the wand of his genius and it became a palace
domed and pinnacled; Shakspere, who harvested all the
fields of dramatic thought, and from whose day to this, there
have been only gleaners of straw and chaff—I would rather
�36
The, Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
belong to that race that commenced a skull-less vertebrate and
produced Shakspere, a race that has before it an infinite
future, with the angel of progress leaning from the far horizon,
beckoning men forward, upward and onward for ever—I had
rather belong to such a race, commencing there, producing
this, and with that hope, than to have sprung from a perfect
pair upon which the Lord has lost money every moment from
that day to this.
CONCLUSION.
I have given you my honest thought. Surely investigation
is better than unthinking faith. Surely reason is a better
guide than fear. This world should be controlled by the
living, not by the dead. The grave is not a throne, and a
corpse is not a king. Man should not try to live on ashes.
The theologians dead, knew no more than the theologians
now living. More than this cannot be said. About this
world little is known,—about another world, nothing.
Oui’ fathers were intellectual serfs, and their fathers were
slaves. The makers of our creeds were ignorant and brutal.
Every dogma that we have, has upon it the mark of whip,
the rust of chain, and the ashes of fagot.
Our fathers reasoned with instruments of torture. They
^believed in the logic of fire and sword. They hated reason.
They despised thought. They abhorred liberty.
Superstition is the child of slavery. Free thought will
give us truth. When all have the right to think and to ex
press their thoughts, every brain will give to all the best it
has. The world will then be filled with intellectual wealth.
As long as men and women are afraid of the church, as
long as a minister inspires fear, as long as people reverence a
thing simply because they do not understand it, as long as it
is respectable to lose your self respect, as long as the church
has power, as long as mankind worship a book, just so long
will the world be filled with intellectual paupers and vagrants,
covered with the soiled and faded rags of superstition.
As long as woman regards the Bible as the charter of her
rights, she will be the slave of man. The Bible was not writ
ten by a woman. Within its lids there is nothing but humi-
�The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.
37
liation and shame for her. She is regarded as the property
of man. She is made to ask forgiveness for becoming a
mother. She is as much below her husband, as her husband
is below Christ. She is not allowed to speak. The gospel is
too pure to be spoken by her polluted lips. Woman should
learn in silence.
.
In the Bible will be found no description of a civilised
home. The free mother, surrounded by free and loving
children, adored by a free man, her husband, was unknown
to the inspired writers of the Bible. They did not believe in
the democracy of home—in the republicanism of the fireside.
These inspired gentlemen knew nothing of the rights of
children. They were the advocates of brute force—the disci
ples of the lash.
They knew nothing of human rights.
Their doctrines have brutalized the homes of millions, and
filled the eyes of infancy with tears.
Let us free ourselves from the tyranny of a book, from the
slavery of dead ignorance, from the aristocracy of the ail.
There has never been upon the earth a generation of free
men and women. It is not yet time to write a creed. Wait
until the chains are broken—until dungeons are not regarded
as temples. Whit until solemnity is not mistaken for wisdom
__ until mental cowardice ceases to be known as reverence.
Wait until the living are considered the equal of the dead—until
the cradle takes precedence of the coffin. Wait until what
we know can be spoken without regard to what others may
believe. Whit until teachers take the place of pieachers
until followers become investigators. Wait until the world is
free before you write a creed.
In this creed there will be but one word—Liberty.
Oh Liberty, float not for ever in the far horizon—remain
not for ever in the dream of the enthusiast, the philanthropist
and poet, but come arid make thy home among the children
of men !
I know not what discoveries, what inventions, what thoughts
may leap from the brain of the world. I know not what
garments of glory may be woven by the years to come. I
cannot dream of the victories to be won upon the fields of
thought; but I do know, that coming from the infinite sea of
the future, there will never touch this “bank and shoal of
time ” a richer gift, a rarer blessing than liberty for man, for
woman, and for child.
�Works by CHAS. BRADLAUGH—
The Freethinker’s Text-Book. Parti. Section I.—“ The Story
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Hints to Emigrants, containing important information on tbo
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R. A. Armstrong, in Nottingham ; with Three Discourses by
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God, Man, and the Bible. A verbatim report of a three nights’
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Is.
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Fourth Speech at the Bar of the House of Commons. 30th
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May the House of Commons Commit Treason? ...
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A Cardinal’s Broken Oath
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Civil Lists and Grants to Royal Family
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Real Representation of the People
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A Few Words about the Devil
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Heresy; its Morality and Utility. A Plea and a Justifica
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The Laws Relating to Blasphemy and Heresy ...
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land) 1882
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................................................. 0
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Repeal of the Corn Laws”; No. 2, “The History of the
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London: Freethought Publishing Company, 63, Fleet Street, E.C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
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The liberty of man, woman, and child
Creator
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 37 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh. Works by Bradlaugh and Besant listed on unnumbered pages at the end. No. 46b in Stein checklist. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Freethought Publishing Company
Date
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1883
Identifier
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N368
Subject
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Human rights
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The liberty of man, woman, and child), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Human Rights
Liberty
NSS
-
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PDF Text
Text
Phases of Human Rights.
if
7i
ft PHASES OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
BY JOHN T. SARGENT.
The old anti-slavery enterprise in
its inception, purpose, and prosecu
tion had, of course, as its main mo
tive, the great radical idea of human
rights. Though organized primarilyon behalf of the colored race, yet
the great underlying principle of the
whole movement was the dignity and
worth of human nature, the equal
claim of all human beings to the
same social and civil privileges. It
insisted on the unity, eternity, and
singleness of this claim for all classes
of humanity, however degraded, whe
ther black or white, male or female.
As dependents on the same over
ruling providence, children of the
same heavenly Father, heirs of the
same inheritance, it could see no
distinction between them ; and,
though it worked and pleaded main
ly for freedom to the black man, it
could see in him, and through him,
as it were, only the type of human
ity’s rights and humanity’s wrongs.
With this view, then, of its breadth
of motive and philosophy, it can
hardly rest or be remitted, even now,
but in the fuller consummation of
those great interests everywhere, and
the assurance of those rights to every
mortal man and woman. In every
right construction of its motive-purpose it is still, in a certain sense,
pressing for the recognition of these
rights, the admission of these claims,
whether for the colored man, not yet.
socially recognized; or the poor
white laborer, not yet invested with
industrial rights ; the long-suffering
Indians, so cruelly down-trodden and
crowded from their homesteads by
a murderous treachery; the meek
Chinese, those poor victims of com
mercial fraud ; or for woman, every
where a compeer and claimant with
us in social influence, authority, posi
tion, and suffrage. And here let me
say how I hope that in its advocacy
of these great interests this monthly
periodical, The Standard, which is,
after all, but the old Anti-Slavery
Standard transfigured by the needs
of the time, will listen to no compro
mise and allow of no prevarication !
True to its antecedents, its habits,
and its pledge, we hope and believe
it will be satisfied with nothing short
of the recognition and maintenance
of human rights, all human rights,
here, now, and everywhere. It were
surely a great mistake to suppose
that the whole philosophy of the
anti-slavery enterprise were exhaust
ed, and the whole aim of that great
reform had culminated merely by .
the abolition of the chattel system
of the South, or the taking off the
iron fetters from the limbs of the
poor Southern slaves when President
Lincoln issued his Emancipation
edict; as if the Southern tyrants,
who had, all their lives long, been
treating the poor slaves so like
brutes and ridiculing their claim to
humanity, were, all at once, to be
come sublimated saints, and cordial
ly concede without a question the
rights and equality of a race they
had so long brutalized and de
�72
Phases of Human Rights.
graded ! Oh ! no, such a social mil
lennium as that we certainly have
not, as yet, realized. Hardly dare
we say, in the strength of our faith,
we have it fully in prospect. Just
look at it. What is our actual so
cial status, and what the condition
of the colored man even here at the
North ? Socially ostracized, shun
ned, excluded from our churches,
avoided as if he were a nuisance or
an offense, debarred from the com
monest privileges, shut out from all
familiar assemblings, forbidden even
a lodgment in our public-houses,
while at the South he is still more
signalized by scorn and shamefully
maltreated. What does such freedom
as that amount to? Of what use
were it, and how much better than a
mere tantalizing mockery and pre
tense, to give to the black man a
nominal freedom by merely taking
off from his wrists and ankles the
chains of a chattel servitude, if you
still leave him only the more rigidly
overborne by social prejudice, and
manacled by the worse fetters of a
social exclusion and outlawry. Of
what use and how much better than
bitterness to say to him, “There,
now, go where you will, you are
free P' if, at the same time, you have
closed against him every avenue to
advancement, every path to social
progress ? What an inexpressibly
potent insult to talk thus of the
liberty you have given him, if, at the
same time, you deny him the com
monest rights of a man—the rights
of a citizen and of social recognition
—which alone constitute a genuine
liberty, forcing him thus to bite the
very dust of social degradation, and
to feed on the dire ignominy of a
caste exclusion ! In what sense can
freedom be his except as the un
questioned equal and peer of other
men in social relations, their rival
even, and competitor, if need be, for
the very offices and distinctions in
society, so that, instead of one Sena
tor Revels, we might have a score of
such complexions foreshadowing our
duty ? Look, too, at the shameful
treatment of colored people in our
churches ! How invidious and dis
reputable their marked separation
from the rest of the congregation in
most of our so-called Christian as
semblies. O shame, shame on such
a Christianity as that! reenacting
the odious exclusiveness of the
Scribes and Pharisees, and with a
social rancor even worse than the
Jews of old had toward the Samari
tans. Again, look at the condition
of but too many of what I am con
strained to call a servile class among
ourselves—our white domestics.
How much better than serfdom,
think you, is the position of many
of the young women in our fashion
able, wealthy, and aristocratic fami
lies ? What know they, and what
are they allowed to know, of oppor
tunities for self-culture, intellectual
discipline, or moral progress ? How
much is there even of intelligent
sympathetic converse between them
and their employers ? What chances
have they for the indulgence of a
taste for reading, or any other form
of aesthetic and mental recreation ?
And how slight the concern, gene
rally, for their welfare and improve
ment on the part of the more fa
vored class 1 So, of all classes of
our operatives, and of either sex,
much the same might be said of
their need of our better sympathy.
Woe be unto us, as a people, if we
�%
Christianity and Reform.
fail seasonably to heed and to an
swer their appeals. What a benefi
cent work might we accomplish for
the elevation and welfare of humanity were we but unanimous on this
one great principle—the recognition
of all human rights, and to all
classes. We need, above all else, to
have this radical element of human
ity and its claims so inherent in our
social ethics, so installed in our daily
intercourse that we shall recognize
in every laboring man and woman
73
an equal, and, as it were, a brother
and a sister, having constant claim on
our good-will. “ He who loveth not
his brother, whom he hath seen, how
can he love God, whom he hath not
seen ?” Here, surely, is a direct re
cognition of a true philanthropy as
the only genuine indication and defi
nition of true piety and religion.
Let us see to it that we have such a
religion by the fulfillment of its con
ditions.
CHRISTIANITY AND REFORM.
BY MRS.
JULIA WARD HOWE.
ADDRESS IN APOLLO HALL, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NEW-YORK REFORM
LEAGUE.
I have gone to church in the
streets to-day, and whereas I came
here to New-York to preach, NewYork has preached to me. Not that
what I have seen has caused me to
dismiss a single conviction ; but that,
standing and looking at the multi
form current of life that rushes by,
I have been compelled to acknow
ledge the insufficiency of foregone
conclusions to deal with an element
so uncertain, so difficult of govern
ment. The material distance be
tween New-York and New-Eng
land is but about eight hours by
railroad, but the moral distance
has the whole breadth of the Atlantic in it. Europe is visibly here.
The power with which your city
draws to itself this vast arterial
current of life illustrates to me the
two-fold character of human nature.
Rascality hovers here like the moth
about the candle. Villainy is no
where more desperate, more unscru
pulous. On the other hand, thought
ful souls also must come to you.
Hidden under your rank and florid
prosperity are elements so precious,
sympathies so sincere, that the house
hold of faith itself would be incom
plete without the New-York rela
tions. So we who hear accounts of
disorder and misrule, who read Mr.
Parton’s record of the City Hall,
and Mr. Adams’s account of Erie,
know that you have better things
than these with which to meet and
stem the tide of unrepublican ten
dency which ever threatens you. Woe
to you and to us if you had not!
The time that each of us can oc
cupy this evening is necessarily so
short, and the subject given to us to
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
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Title
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Phases of human rights
Creator
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Sargent, John T.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [Chicago]
Collation: 71-73 p. ; 25 cm.
Notes: From The Standard, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 1870. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed in double columns.
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Date
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[1870]
Identifier
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G5440
Subject
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Human rights
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Phases of human rights), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Human Rights
Slavery
-
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886288a581847bf131b6db30f68a8de7
PDF Text
Text
Our Indian Relations.
one. The world is all complex to
the child, to the savage. Science
simplifies by formulating laws and
grouping results. Religion needs
to be simplified in like manner.
The Gospel as an abstraction is as
perplexed as other abstractions. Ap
ply it in life, and you will find that it
simplifies itself more and more. Peo
ple may talk as much as they will of
the subtleties which it delights man
kind both to invent and to refute.
This may be a harmless, even a useful
mental gymnastic. But let us seek
more and more for this applied
Gospel, and for such purity of
prescription and stringency of ex
ample as may help us more and
more to its application. And one
word more about simplicity. There
are two opposite views of God, which,
like other oppositions, should illusstrate instead of excluding each
other. God may be considered in
his three-fold aspect, for every true
unity is capable of a three-fold in
terpretation. But the unity of God
remains for Christianity the cardinal
doctrine, the simplest, most scien
tific and practical. So pray let us
hold to this divine unity, which does
not exclude the study of trinity, but
which must preclude any such divi
sion. I think you ought to have
more Unitarian churches in NewYork—more, and other. The want
of centrality makes itself felt in this.
Much thought which orthodoxy
fails to crystallize does not enter
into the faithful combination which
forms a church; and this is the last
place in the world in which such a
concourse of consciences can be dis
pensed with. Here the faithful
should constantly meet, and uphold
each other in the constant, peaceable
warfare against the wrongs that un
dermine society.
OUR INDIAN RELATIONS.
BY
COLONEL
S.
F.
Y?;
TAPPAN.
“ A sound of war is on the western wind ;
The sun, with fiery flame, sweeps down the sky ;
Athwart his breast the crimson shadows fly
Of fearless forms no fetters e’er can bind.
-3
“ The eagle plunges from his mountain nest,
And screaming, soars above the distant plain,
/
Plucking his plumes without a pang of pain,
Though stained with blood from his own beating breast.”
Again is the country startled by
reports of an impending conflict, the
hurrying of troops to the plains, and
active preparations for an armed
contest with the Sioux Indians. The
excitement is temporarily allayed by
an occasional telegram from Wash
ington, that the general of the army
is confident that there is to be no
serious trouble after all. He is
alarmed, and foolishly imagines that,
having raised the storm, he can coni
trol it. He very well knew—for he is
not an idiot—that when he, with his
�Otir Indian Relations.
Meutenant, as early as last October,
deliberately planned the betrayal and
assassination of a small camp of
Piegans, when the winter and small
pox should have rendered them com
pletely helpless ; a conspiracy that
culminated, in January last, in a mas
sacre so atrocious as to fill the coun
try with amazement and horror; that
such a deed of shame would drive
the Indians to make common cause
and retaliate, and a general war
would be the result. Having for
months failed to force the Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, Arrapahoes, and Apaches to open hostilities,
by massacre and the most excessive
cruelties, he made sure work of it by
the destruction of the Piegans. And
now, while making extensive pre
parations for war, and demanding an
increase of the army, he assures the
country that the trouble will soon be
at an end.
War threatens us, which, under the
circumstances, will prove the greatest
of calamities, a calamity not so much
in the loss of life and treasure, as in
the loss of our national honor and
fame. The government, not the
Indians, is at fault; for it refuses
them simple, even-handed justice,
which is all they demand, as a condi
tion of a permanent and honorable
peace. This nation is guilty of a
wanton, persistent violation of sacred
obligations, entered into with the red
men of the west, and thereby forces
them on to the war-path as their
only means of self-preservation and
safety, as their only tribunal for a re
dress of grievance, their only way of
resisting the terrible and infamous
edict proclaimed against them, that
they are to be “ exterminated, men,
women, and childrenthat the
17
dreaded fate of the poor sick Piegans
is to be theirs, whenever an oppor
tunity offers the troops for the con
summation of such transcendent trea
chery and atrocity. They see the
black and piratical flag displayed in
their country by our army, and com
prehend its villainous and bloody
import. They understand fully the
design of their Christian, civilized,
and cowardly enemy who refuses them
quarter, and glories in the massacre
of helpless men, women, and children.
They know very well that if they
submit they are lost; if they rely upon
the plighted faith of the nation, they
are betrayed and assassinated.
The regular army, in its fear of re
duction, becomes a scourge to the
Indians, and to the country as well;
it afflicts them with suffering and
death, while it fastens upon us as
a people dishonor and shame. It
commends them to the eternal sympa
thy of mankind as victims, while we
are doomed to be execrated for all
time to come as the assassins. Of
the two give me the fate of the In
dian. “ Better the victim than the
assassin.” Better leave the world by
the hand of violence, the last of a
noble race more sinned against than
sinning, than to remain forever with
untold wealth, unlimited power and
fame, with the consciousness of hav
ing aided in the destruction of an en
tire people, for no crime, but upon
the miserable, cowardly, and false
assumption, criminal in the ex
treme, that we could not govern or
civilize it.
Believing that all this trouble ori
ginated with men of prominence, for
the purpose of preventing a threaten
ed or anticipated reduction of our
military establishment; that wars with
�78
*
Our Iudiait Relations,
Indians are wholly unnecessary, can
easily be avoided, and are dishonor
able to all connected with them ;
that the children of the wilderness
only demand simple justice as a con
dition of a permanent and honorable
peace ;. the writer enters his earnest
protest against these warlike proceed
ings, and declares that there is no
necessity or justification for them
whatever; 'that under the circum
stances it is not war but massacre,
and, if persisted in, fastens upon our
beloved country a crime more atro
cious and infamous than that of the
St. Bartholomew massacre in France
a few centuries ago.
With these convictions, the writer
will attempt, in this and future num
bers of The Standard, to present
the true state of this great cause ; to
write from an experience of years
among the Indians of the plains and
the Rocky Mountains ; first, as an
officer in the military service, in com
mand of troops and posts in their
country, and afterward as a member
of the Indian Peace Commission, cre
ated by unanimous vote of Congress,
by an act approved July 20th, 1867 ;
writing with no other wish or desire
than to deal justly with all, arraigning
before the country the real criminals,
whatever their position may be, and
protecting from misrepresentation
and slander the innocent, under what
soever ban they may exist.
The United States Indian Com
mission was organized some two
years ago, by distinguished and phi
lanthropic gentlemen of New-York,
for the benevolent and statesmanlike
purpose of removing the ban of out
lawry from the Indians, making them
citizens of the United States, pro
tected by and amenable to its laws ;
to prevent the government from
waging wars against its wards and
dependents ; to promote their ad
vancement in the useful arts, pursuits,
and education of civilization, and so
far influence the government and
public opinion as to create a whole
some and humane sentiment con
cerning their rights and privileges;
to publish and circulate the best in
formation, from official and other
sources, concerning the condition and
interests of the unfortunately pro
scribed Indian race ; also to facili
tate the organization of similar asso
ciations throughout the country, and,
by agitating this question, create a
better public sentiment, which would
induce Congress to give it sufficient
prominence to command their atten
tion, and thereby secufe the much
required legislation.
For two years this commission has
existed and labored in various ways,
doing splendid service, sending one
of their number, Mr. Vincent Col
yer, to visit the Indians of the plains
and mountains, to examine into and
report their condition and Wants.
Faithfully and ably was this work
performed by their agent, who, return
ing to this city to make preparations
for a visit, under the auspices of this
commission to the native population
of Alaska, was appointed by Presi
dent Grant, in recognition of his
valuable service on the plains, and
the importance of the New-York as
sociation, as one of the Board of In
dian Commissioners, and sent to our
newly acquired territory of the ex
treme north-west, from which he re
turned a few months later and sub
mitted his able and faithful report,
which, more than any thing else, will
prevent a costly war in that quarter.
�Our Indian Relations.
The military were determined to bring
about a conflict with the Indians
by outrages upon them. Now, the
record so unmistakably vindicates
the peaceful character and intentions
of the natives of Alaska, and so
strongly condemns the conduct and
actions of the troops stationed there,
that trouble is averted.
This commission is still at work,
sustained by the public sentiment of
the country, although that sentiment
does not yet find expression in simi
lar organizations which are so much
needed. At a meeting of the com
mission on the evening of the 26th
of April, at the. Cooper Institute,
presided over by the president of the
society, the distinguished and vene
rable Peter Cooper, Esq., resolu
tions were unanimously adopted, call
ing upon the friends of this great
movement throughout the country
to organize for cooperation with this
association, and to meet with it in
convention on the 18 th of May. A
call that the exigencies of the public
service demand, should be generally
responded to by the American peo
ple.
At the April meeting referred to,
the Indian question was discussed in
its broadest and truest sense. One of
the speakers, Hon. Sidney Clarke,
member of Congress from Kansas,
and Chairman of the House Commit
tee on Indian Affairs, in his adddres
stated an important truth when he
said, “All the government wanted in
this crisis was an Indian policy.”
Now, no well-defined arid understood
policy exists. The President, deter
mined on a radical reform in the ad
ministration of Indian affairs, has
sent well-known peace men as the
representatives of the government to
the Plains Indians, with most favor
able results, even while the nation’s
wards rest under the ban of outlawry
and outrage, and are the victims of
the most violent passions and unjust
prejudices, with the army determined
on war, and Congress refusing its aid.
Even under these adverse circum
stances, the policy of the present ad
ministration has commended itself
to the country as a success. What
would it not be if these obstacles
were removed and the President had
a clear field ? It proves beyond ques
tion that the Indians are not opposed
to a permanent and honorable peace.
During the summer of 1865, after
the Sand Creek massacre, and during
the continuance of a war that fol
lowed as a consequence of that cow
ardly and infamous atrocity, Congress
saw the necessity of a radical change
in the administration of Indian affairs,
and delegated a committee of their
own members—including the then
President pro tern, of the Senate—
to proceed at once to the Indian
country, ascertain the cause of trou
bles, and suggest a remedy. These
distinguished gentlemen faithfully
performed the work assigned them,
reported as the cause of Indian wars
the fact that the Indian was an out
law, and the remedy a very simple
one, namely, the extension of the civil
law over the Indian country. To
secure this, they prepared an act
which passed the Senate by a con
siderable majority, but it was after
ward defeated in the House. This
committee had no difficulty in con
ferring with the then hostile tribe.
The Cheyennes heard of their com
ing, and stood ready to meet, and
did meet them in council, when an
agreement of peace was made and
�8o
Our Indian Relations.
faithfully adhered to by the Indians,
until the burning of their village two
years after.
In 1867, war again existed on the
plains, attended with a fearful loss
of life, a serious interference with
settlement and travel, and an im
mense expense of treasure. The
Indian Peace Commission was cre
ated by act of Congress, approved
by the President on the 20th of
July. This commission was sent
out to meet the hostile Indians, which
was easily done. Council with them
was held, hostilities on their part
stayed, and terms of settlement agreed
upon. After which the commis
sion reported to Congress not only
the causes of Indian wars, but sug
gested the remedy: The ban of
outlawry must be removed from the
Indian, the protection of laws ex
tended over him, civilization, edu
cation, liberty, and a permanent
home guaranteed to him and his
forever. Unfortunately for the coun
try and the peace of the plains, these
recommendations have not yet been
acted upon.
Consequently, Congress is not free
from all guilt in this matter; it has
persistently refused to legislate upon
the subject, as advised by its own
commissions ; but, on the contrary,
has repudiated them in a manner
so treacherous and unjust that the
Secretary of the Interior was im
pelled to send in a special message,
indorsed by the President, defending
the Peace Commission and its deal
ings with the Indians from the un
accountable action of the House of
Representatives.
*
The treatment of the Indians for
centuries, by the government and
people, has made them outcasts and
vagabonds, has fastened upon them
the enslaving and degrading ban of
outlawry, given free license to ruf
fians to murder them as if they were
wolves, has encouraged the army to
betray and massacre them while trust
ing in the plighted faith of the re
public, has robbed them of their right
to the soil, and driven them step by
step, by treachery and atrocity, be
yond the pale of civilization, govern
ment, and law; has outraged them
in every possible way, at one mo-|
ment dealing with them with all the
solemnity and dignity of an indepen
dent power, and then spurning them
as if they were poisonous reptiles.
Even with this system of wrong
and outrage, persevered in for hun
dreds of years, we have not yet suc-l
ceeded in destroying the truly noble
and generous characteristics of their
nature, have not converted them into
fiends; they still retain their virtues,
and are, in the words of the Indian
Peace Commission, “ the very embo
diment of courage •” my experience
among them enables me to add, of
honor as well. They have never
yet, from the earliest settlement of
the continent by their enemies, who
hunted them with bloodhounds, maim
ed and murdered them by hundreds
and thousands, and sold their children
into slavery, until now, equaled the
whites in atrocities upon the living
and the dead, in perfidy and treach
ery—never, to our shame, never.
The Indian race is able to present
for the admiration of the world re
presentative men, men like the Che
yenne chieftain Moke-ta-va-ta,
(Black Kettle,) whose peer for all
the manly heroic virtues does not
exist, and never has existed in our his
tory, or the history of any other na-
�Disbanding of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.
The writer, who knew Mokeintimately and well for
years, once told the story of his
■Uft and services, of his magnani
mity, generosity, integrity, and cou
rage, to the celebrated historian,
Mr. Motley, and challenged him
to refer to his equal in any age or
* history; he could not do it. Moketa-va-ta is without a peer, the true
hero, the true man; he sleeps by the
side of his ever faithful and devot
ed wife, Vo-ish-ta, in his bloody
shroud, on the crimson banks of
the Wichata.
tion.
ta-va-ta
“ And thou wert slain. Whoever dared to trace
His name upon the order for thy death
Will wear the sting until his latest breath,
And bind the curse of Cain upon hislrace.”
Betrayed, assassinated, and muti
lated by our troops, in a massacre of
unparalleled atrocity and treachery,
applauded by the commanding gene
rals of the army as a glorious victory.
81
“ Moke-ta-va-ta, thy wrongs shall be redressed,
Thy viewless form fills all the vernal air;
Nor earth’s fair bosom, nor the spring more fair,
Can stay the footsteps of a race oppressed.
Their name is legion, and from mountain slope
And distant plain their fearless forms appear,
All conquering and all potent, without fear
They come with our proud nation now to cope.
And if the rivers shall run red with blood,
And if the plain be strewn with mangled forms,
And cities burned amid the battles' storms,
Ours is the blame—not thine, thou great and good.
Thy name shall live a watchword for all time—
A herald and a beacon-light to all
On whom the tyrant and the despot fall,
Making thy death a heritage sublime.
If of this noble line thou wert the last,
And stood on the extremest ocean verge,
Thy eloquence would all thy people urge,
And in one deadly conflict they would cast
Their gauntlet in our shameful, flaming face,
And then, without a thought of praise or blame.
Would perish to’avenge thy noble name,
And prove that thou wert of a kingly race.
A sound of war is on the western wind;
The sun, with fiery flame, sweeps down the sky;
Athwart his breast the crimson shadows fly,
Of fearless forms no fetters e’er can bind.
Down through the golden gateway they have
The mighty scions of a nation come
In sweeping circles from their shining home.
With weapons from the battle-plains of Go a.
DISBANDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY
. SOCIETY.
BY JOHN K. WILDMAN.
After the consummation of that
act in the progress of liberty which
banished political restrictions on ac
count of color, there seemed to be
nothing left for the anti-slavery so
cieties to do but disband. This be
came a willing service, grateful to
every member. They had witnessed
the fulfillment of the pledge made to
the colored people of the nation, and
saw that the grand purpose of the
anti-slavery movement was thereby
accomplished. All that was essenVol. i.—6
tial in the aim and scope of the con
stitutions of their societies had be
come absorbed in that of the United
States. It was therefore fitting that
they should meet together and ex
change congratulations and fare
wells.
The final meeting of the national
society was followed by that of its
auxiliary of Pennsylvania, which oc
curred on the 5th of May, just a
third of a century from the date of
its organization. Rare indeed was the
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Our Indian relations
Creator
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Taffan, Samuel F. [1831-1913]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [Chicago]
Collation: 76-81 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: Samuel Forster Tappan was an American journalist, military officer, abolitionist and a Native American rights activist. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From The Standard, Vol. 1, no. 2, June 1870.
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[s.n.]
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[1870]
Identifier
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G5442
Subject
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Indigenous peoples
Human rights
USA
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Our Indian relations), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Human Rights
Indigenous Populations
Racism
United States of America