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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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IS AVARICE TRIUMPHANT?
There are many people, in all countries, who seem to enjoy
individual and national decay. They love to prophesy the triumph of
evil. They mistake the afternoon of their own lives for the evening
of the world. To them everything has changed. Men are no longer
honest or brave. and women have ceased to be beautiful. They are
dyspeptic, and it gives them the greatest pleasure to say that the
art of cooking has been lost.
For many generations many of these people occupied the
pulpits. They lifted the hand of warning whenever the human race
took a step in advance. As wealth increased, they declared that
honesty and goodness and self-denial and charity were vanishing
from the earth. They doubted the morality of well dressed people --
considered it impossible that the prosperous should be pious. Like
owls sitting on the limbs of a dead tree. they hooted the obsequies
of spring, Believing it would come no more.
There are some patriots who think it their duty to malign and
slander the land of their birth. They feel that they have a kind of
Cassandra mission, and they really seem to enjoy their work. They
honestly believe that every kind of crime is on the increase, that
the courts are all corrupt, that the legislators are bribed, that
the witnesses are suborned, that all holders of office are
dishonest; and they feel like a modern Marius sitting amid the
ruins of all the virtues.
It is useless to endeavor to persuade these people that they
are wrong. They do not want arguments, because they will not heed
them. They need medicine. Their case is not for a philosopher, but
for a physician.
General Hawkins is probably right when he says that some
fraudulent shoes, some useless muskets, and some worn-out vessels
were sold to the Government during the war; but we must remember
that there were millions and millions of as good shoes as art and
honesty could make, millions of the best muskets ever constructed,
and hundreds of the most magnificent ships ever built, sold to the
Government during the same period. We must not mistake an eddy for
the main stream. We must also remember another thing: there were
millions of good, brave, and patriotic men to wear the shoes, to
use the muskets, and to man the ships.
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So it is probably true that Congress was extravagant in land
subsidies voted to railroads; but that this legislation was secured
by bribery is preposterous. It was all done in the light of noon.
There is not the slightest evidence tending to show that the
general policy of hastening the construction of railways through
the Territories of the United States was corruptly adopted -- not
the slightest. At the same time, it may he that some members of
Congress were induced by personal considerations to vote for such
subsidies. As a matter of fact, the policy was wise, and through
the granting of the subsidies thousands of miles of railways were
built, and these railways have given to civilization vast
territories which otherwise would have remained substantially
useless to the world. Where at that time was a wilderness, now are
some of the most thriving cities in the United States -- great, an
industrious, and a happy population. The results have justified the
action of Congress.
It is also true that some railroads have been "wrecked" in the
United States, but most of these wrecks have been the result of
competition. It is the same with corporations as with individuals
-- the powerful combine against the weak. In the world of commerce
and business is the great law of the survival of the strongest.
Railroads are not eleemosynary institutions. They have but little
regard for the rights of one another. Some fortunes have been made
by the criminal "wrecking" of roads, but even in the business of
corporations honesty is the best policy, and the companies that
have acted in accordance with the highest standard, other things
being equal, have reaped the richest harvest.
Many railways were built in advance of a demand; they had to
develop the country through which they passed. While they waited
for immigration, interest accumulated; as a result foreclosure took
place; then reorganization. By that time the country had been
populated; towns were springing up along the line; increased
business was the result. On the new bonds and the new stock the
company paid interest and dividends. Then the ones who first
invested and lost their money felt that they had been defrauded.
So it is easy to say that certain men are guilty of crimes --
easy to indict the entire nation, and at the same time impossible
to substantiate one of the charges. Everyone who knows the history
of the Star-Route trials knows that nothing was established against
the defendants, knows that every effort was made by the Government
to convict them, and also knows that an unprejudiced jury of twelve
men, never suspected of being improperly influenced, after having
heard the entire case, pronounced the defendants not guilty. After
this, of course, any one can say, who knows nothing of the evidence
and who cares nothing for the facts, that the defendants were all
guilty.
It may also be true that some settlers in the far West have
taken timber from the public lands, and it may be that it was a
necessity. Our laws and regulations were such that where a settler
was entitled to take up a certain amount of land he had to take it
all in one place; he could not take a certain number of acres on
the plains and a certain number of acres in the timber. The
consequence was that when he settled upon the land -- the land that
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IS AVARICE TRIUMPHANT?
he could cultivate -- he took the timber that he needed from the
Government land, and this has been called stealing. So I suppose it
may be said that the cattle stole the Government's grass and
possibly drank the Governments water.
It will also be admitted with pleasure that stock has been
"watered" in this country. And what is the crime or practice know
as watering stock? For instance, you have a railroad one hundred
miles long, worth, we will say, $3,000,000 -- able to pay interest
on that sum at the rate of six per cent. Now, we all know that the
amount of stock issued has nothing to do with the value of the
thing represented by the stock. If there was one share of stock
representing this railroad, it would be worth three million
dollars, whether it said on its face it was one dollar or one
hundred dollars. If there were three million shares of stock issued
on this property, they would be worth one dollar apiece, and, no
matter whether it said on this stock that each share was a hundred
dollars or a thousand dollars, the share would be worth one dollar
-- no more, no less. If any one wishes to find the value of stock,
he should find the value of the thing represented by the stock. It
is perfectly clear that, if a pie is worth one dollar, and you cut
it into four pieces, each piece is worth twenty-five cents; and if
you cut it in a thousand pieces, you do not increase the value of
the pie.
If then, you wish to find the value of a share of stock, find
its relation to the thing represented by all the stock.
It can also be safely admitted that trusts have been formed.
The reason is perfectly clear. Corporations are like individuals --
they combine. Unfortunate corporations become socialistic,
anarchistic, and cry out against the abuses of trusts. It is
natural for corporations to defend themselves -- natural for them
to stop ruinous competition by a profitable pool; and when strong
corporations combine, little corporations suffer. It is with
corporations as with fishes -- the large eat the little; and it may
be that this will prove a public benefit in the end. When the large
corporations have taken possession of the little ones, it may be
that the Government will take possession of them -- the Government
being the largest corporation of them all.
It is to be regretted that all houses are not fireproof; but
certainly no one imagines that the people of this country build
houses for the purpose of having them burned, or that they erect
hotels having in view the broiling of guests. Men act as they must;
that is to say, according to wants and necessities. In a new
country the buildings are cheaper than in an old one, money is
scarcer, interest higher, and consequently people build cheaply and
take the risks of fire. They do not do this on account of the
Constitution of the United States, or the action of political
parties, or the general idea that man is entitled to be free. In
the hotels of Europe it may be that there is not as great danger of
fire as of famine.
The destruction of game and of the singing birds is to be
greatly regretted, not only in this country, but in all others. The
people of America have been too busy felling forests, plowing
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fields, and building houses, to cultivate, to the highest degree,
the restful side of their natures. Nature has been somewhat
ruthless with us. The storms of winter breasted by the Western
pioneer, the whirlwinds of summer, have tended, it may be, to
harden somewhat the sensibilities; in consequence of which they
have allowed their horses and cattle to bear the rigors of the same
climate.
It is also true that the seal-fisheries are being destroyed,
in the interest of the present, by those who care nothing for the
future. All these things are to be deprecated, are to be spoken
against; but we must not hint, provided we are lovers of the
Republic, that such things are caused by free institutions.
General Hawkins asserts that "Christianity has neither
preached nor practiced humanity towards animals," while at the same
time "Sunday school children by hundreds of thousands are taught
what a terrible thing it is to break the Sabbath;" that "museum
trustees tremble with pious horror at the suggestion of opening the
doors leading to the collections on that day," and that no protests
have come "from lawmakers or the Christian clergy."
Few people will suspect me of going out of my way to take care
of Christianity or of the clergy. At the same time, I can afford to
state the truth. While there is not much in the Bible with regard
to practicing humanity toward animals, there is at least this: "The
merciful man is merciful to his beast." Of course, I am not
alluding now to the example set by Jehovah when he destroyed the
cattle of the Egyptians with hailstones and diseases on account of
the sins of their owners.
In regard to the treatment of animals Christians have been
much like other people.
So, hundreds of lawmakers have not only protested against
cruelty to animals, but enough have protested against it to secure
the enactment of laws making cruelty toward animals a crime. Henry
Bergh, who did as much good as any man who has lived in the
nineteenth century, was seconded in his efforts by many of the
Christian clergy not only, but by hundreds and thousands of
professing Christians -- probably millions. Let us be honest.
It is true that the clergy are apt to lose the distinction
between offenses and virtues, to regard the little as the important
-- that is to say, to invert the pyramid.
It is true that the Indians have been badly treated. It is
true that the fringe of civilization has been composed of many low
and cruel men. It is true that the red man has been demoralized by
the vices of the white. It is a frightful fact that, when a
superior race meets an inferior, the inferior imitates only the
vices of the superior, and the superior those of the inferior. They
exchange faults and failings. This is one of the most terrible
facts in the history of the human race.
Nothing can be said to justify our treatment of the Indians.
There is, however, this shadow of an excuse: In the old times, when
we lived along the Atlantic, it hardly occurred to our ancestors
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IS AVARICE TRIUMPHANT?
that they could ever go beyond the Ohio; so the first treaty with
the Indians drove them back but a few miles. In a little while,
through immigration, the white race passed the line, and another
treaty was made, forcing the Indians still further west; yet the
tide of immigration kept on, and in a little while; again the line
was passed, the treaty violated. Another treaty was made, pushing
the Indians still further toward the Pacific, across the Illinois,
across the Mississippi, across the Missouri, violating at every
step some treaty made; and each treaty born of the incapacity of
the white men who made it to foretell the growth of the Republic.
But the author of "Brutality and Avarice Triumphant" made a
great mistake when he selected the last thirty years of our
national life as the period within which the Americans have made a
change of the national motto appropriate, and asserted that now
there should be in place of the old motto the words, "Plundering
Made Easy."
Most men believe in a sensible and manly patriotism. No one
should be blind to the defects in the laws and institutions of his
country. He should call attention to abuses, not for the purpose of
bringing his country into disrepute, but that the abuses may cease
and the defects be corrected. He should do what he can to make his
country great, prosperous, just, and free. But it is hardly fair to
exaggerate the faults of your country for the purpose of calling
attention to your own virtues, or to earn the praise of a nation
that hates your own. This is what might be called wallowing in the
gutter of reform.
The thirty years chosen as the time in which we as a nation
have passed from virtue to the lowest depths of brutality and
avarice are, in fact, the most glorious years in the life of this
or of any other nation.
In 1861 slavery was, in a legal sense at least, a national
institution. It was firmly imbedded in the Federal Constitution.
The Fugitive Slave Law was in full force and effect. In all the
Southern and in nearly all of the Northern States it was a crime to
give food, shelter, or raiment to a man or woman seeking liberty by
flight. Humanity was illegal, hospitality a misdemeanor, and
charity a crime. Men and women were sold like beasts. Mothers were
robbed of their babes while they stood under our flag. All the
sacred relations of life were trampled beneath the bloody feet of
brutality and avarice. Besides, so firmly was slavery fixed in law
and creed. in statute and Scripture, that the tongues of honest men
were imprisoned. Those who spoke for the slave were mobbed by
Northern lovers of the "Union."
Now, it seems to me that those were the days when the motto
could properly have been, "Plundering Made Easy." Those were the
days of brutality, and the brutality was practiced to the end that
we might make money out of the unpaid labor of others.
It is not necessary to go into details as to the cause of the
then condition; it is enough to say that the whole nation, North
and South, was responsible. There were many years of compromise,
and thousands of statesmen, so-called, through conventions and
platforms, did what they could to preserve slavery and keep the
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IS AVARICE TRIUMPHANT?
Union. These efforts corrupted politics, demoralized our statesmen,
polluted our courts, and poisoned our literature. The Websters,
Bentons, and Clays mistook temporary expedients for principles, and
really thought that the progress of the world could be stopped by
the resolutions of a packed political convention. Yet these men,
mistaken as they really were, worked and wrought unconsciously in
the cause of human freedom. They believed that the preservation of
the Union was the one important thing, and that it could not be
preserved unless slavery was protected -- unless the North would be
faithful to the bargain as written in the Constitution. For the
purpose of keeping the nation true to the Union and false to
itself, these men exerted every faculty and all their strength.
They exhausted their genius in showing that slavery was not, after
all, very bad, and that disunion was the most terrible calamity
that could by any possibility befall the nation, and that the
Union, even at the price of slavery was the greatest possible
blessing. They did not suspect that slavery would finally strike
the blow for disunion. But when the time came and the South
unsheathed the sword, the teachings of these men as to the infinite
value of the Union gave to our flag millions of brave defenders.
Now, let us see what has been accomplished during the thirty
years of "Brutality and Avarice."
The Republic has been rebuilt and reunited, and we shall
remain one people for many centuries to come. The Mississippi is
natures protest against disunion. The Constitution of the United
States is now the charter of human freedom, and all laws
inconsistent with the idea that all men are entitled to liberty
have been repealed. The black man knows that the Constitution is
his shield, that the laws protect him, that our flag is his, and
the black mother feels that her babe belongs to her. Where the
slave-pen used to be you will find the schoolhouse. The dealer in
human flesh is now a teacher; instead of lacerating the back of a
child, he develops and illumines the mind of a pupil.
There is now freedom of speech. Men are allowed to utter their
thoughts. Lips are no longer sealed by mobs. Never before in the
history of our world has so much been done for education.
The amount of business done in a country on credit is the
measure of confidence, and confidence is based upon honesty. So it
may truthfully be said that, where a vast deal of business is done
on credit, an exceedingly large per cent. of the people are
regarded as honest. In our country a very large per cent. of
contracts are faithfully filled. Probably there is no nation in the
world where so much business is done on credit as in the United
States. The fact that the credit of the Republic is second to that
of no other nation on the globe would seem to be at least an
indication of a somewhat general diffusion of honesty.
The author of "Brutality and Avarice Triumphant" seems to be
of the opinion that our country was demoralized by the war. They
who fought for the right are not degraded -- they are ennobled.
When men face death and march to the mouths of the guns for a
principle, they grow great; and if they come out of the conflict,
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they come with added moral grandeur; they become better men, better
citizens, and they love more intensely than ever the great cause
for the success of which they put their lives in pawn.
The period of the Revolution produced great men. After the
great victory the sons of the heroes degenerated, and some of the
greatest principles involved in the Revolution were almost
forgotten.
During the Civil war the North grew great and the South was
educated. Never before in the history of mankind was there such a
period of moral exaltation. The names that shed the brightest, the
whitest light on the pages of our history became famous then.
Against the few who were actuated by base and unworthy motives let
us set the great army that fought for the Republic, the millions
who bared their breasts to the storm. the hundreds and hundreds of
thousands who did their duty honestly, nobly, and went back to
their wives and children with no thought except to preserve the
liberties of themselves and their fellow-men.
Of course there were some men who did not do their duty --
some men false to themselves and to their country. No one expects
to find sixty-five millions of saints in America. A few years ago
a lady complained to the president of a Western railroad that a
brakeman had spoken to her with great rudeness. The president
expressed his regret at the incident, and said among other things:
"Madam, you have no idea how difficult it is for us to get
gentlemen to fill all those places."
It is hardly to be expected that the American people should
excel all others in the arts, in poetry, and in fiction. We have
been very busy taking possession of the Republic. It is hard to
overestimate the courage, the industry, the self-denial it has
required to fell the forests. to subdue the fields, to construct
the roads, and to build the countless homes. What has been done is
a certificate of the honesty and industry of our people.
It is not true that "one of the unwritten mottoes of our
business morals seem to say in the plainest phraseology possible:
'Successful wrong is right.'" Men in this country are not esteemed
simply because they are rich; inquiries are made as to how they
made their money, as to how they use it. The American people do not
fall upon their knees before the golden calf; the worst that can be
said is that they think too much of the gold of the calf -- and
this distinction is seen by the calves themselves.
Nowhere in the world is honesty in business esteemed more
highly than here. There are millions of business men -- merchants,
bankers, and men engaged in all trades and professions -- to whom
reputation is as dear as life.
There is one thing in the article "Brutality and Avarice
Triumphant" that seems even more objectionable than the rest, and
that is the statement, or, rather the insinuation, that all the
crimes and the shortcomings of the American people can be accounted
for by the fact that our Government is a Republic. We are told that
not long ago a French official complained to a friend that he was
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IS AVARICE TRIUMPHANT?
compelled to employ twenty clerks to do the work done by four under
the empire, and on being asked the reason answered: "It is the
Republic." He was told that, as he was the head of the bureau, he
could prevent the abuse, to which he replied: "I know I have the
power; but I have been in this position for more than thirty years,
and am now too old to learn another occupation, and I must make
places for the friends of the deputies. "And then it is added by
General Hawkins: "And so it is here."
It seems to me that it cannot be fairly urged that we have
abused the Indians because we contend that all men have equal
rights before the law, or because we insist that governments derive
their just powers from the consent of the governed. The probability
is that a careful reading of the history of the world will show
that nations under the control of kings and emperors have been
guilty of some cruelty. To account for the bad we do by the good we
believe, is hardly logical. Our virtues should not be made
responsible for our vices.
Is it possible that free institutions tend to the
demoralization of men? Is a man dishonest because he is a man and
maintains the rights of men? In order to be a moral nation must we
be controlled by king or emperor? Is human liberty a mistake? Is it
possible that a citizen of the great Republic attacks the liberty
of his fellow-citizens? Is he willing to abdicate? Is he willing to
admit that his rights are not equal to the rights of others? Is he,
for the sake of what he calls morality, willing to become a serf,
a servant or a slave?
Is it possible that "high character is impracticable" in this
Republic? Is this the experience of the author of "Brutality and
Avarice Triumphant"? Is it true that "intellectual achievement pays
no dividends"? Is it not a fact that America is to-day the best
market in the world for books, for music, and for art?
There is in our country no real foundation for these wide and
sweeping slanders. This, in my judgment, is the best Government,
the best country, in the world. The citizens of this Republic are,
on the average, better clothed and fed and educated than any other
people. They are fuller of life, more progressive, quicker to take
advantage of the forces of nature, than any other of the children
of men. Here the burdens of government are lightest, the
responsibilities of the individual greatest, and here, in my
judgment, are to be worked out the most important problems of
social science.
Here in America is a finer sense of what is due from man to
man than you will find in other lands. We do not cringe to those
whom chance has crowned; we stand erect.
Our sympathies are strong and quick. Generosity is almost a
national failing. The hand of honest want is rarely left unfilled.
Great calamities open the hearts and hands of all.
Here you will find democracy in the family -- republicanism by
the fireside. Say what you will, the family is apt to be patterned
after the government. If a king is at the head of the nation, the
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husband imagines himself the monarch of the home. In this country
we have carried into the family the idea on which the Government is
based. Here husbands and wives are beginning to be equals.
The highest test of civilization is the treatment of women an
children. By this standard America stands first among nations.
There is a magnitude, a scope, a grandeur, about this country
-- an amplitude -- that satisfies the heart and the imagination. We
have our faults, we have our virtues, but our country is the best.
No American should ever write a line that can be sneeringly
quoted by an enemy of the great Republic.
Robert G. Ingersoll.
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