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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN#/ISBN# issue/book “The False Portrait” cc&d, v281 (the March 2018 issue) Order this as a 6"x9" paperback book:  |
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It Played in Peoria
Michael Ceraolo
July 4, 1876
Excerpts from A Centennial Oration,
a speech given here on this date
by Robert Ingersoll,
with commentary
“One hundred years ago,
our fathers retired the gods from politics”
[but their spokespeople on Earth
won’t let them remain retired
even now, a hundred forty years later]
“THE Declaration of Independence
is the grandest,
the bravest,
and the profoundest
political document that was ever signed
by the representatives of a people”
[I can occasionally be guilty of hyperbole;
after all, I called an ordinary politician
The Plumed Knight when nominating him
for President earlier this year,
but
I believe I’m correct about the Declaration]
“the representatives of a
real, living, breathing, hoping people
declared that all men are created equal”
[it was the standard usage of the time,
but as the standard usage changes,
and so that my belief be made clear,
this includes women and should be read as such
wherever the word men in mentioned]
“declared that each man has a right to live”
“entitled to the product of his labor----
the labor of his hand and of his brain”
[“The working people should be protected by law”]
“that every man has the right to pursue
his own happiness in his own way”
[“Happiness is the legal tender of the soul”]
“They laid down the doctrine that governments
were instituted among men for the purpose
of preserving the rights of the people”
[the idea that corporations can
commit human actions or have human rights
is a pernicious legal fiction
dating from my time and greatly expanded since]
“Our fathers founded the first secular government
that was ever founded in this world
Recollect that”
[“If the people of the Republic . . .
put God in the Constitution of the United States,
the experiment in self-government will have failed”]
“The history of civilization is the history
of the slow and painful enfranchisement
of the human race”
[“Republicanism means justice in politics
Republicanism means progress in civilization”
Should this ever change,
I could, and would, no longer call myself
“a good, square Republican”]
“It is not possible
for the human imagination
to conceive of the horrors of slavery
It has left no possible crime uncommitted
no possible cruelty un-perpetuated
It has been practiced and defended
by all nations in some form
It has been upheld by all religions”
[“Brain without heart
is far more dangerous
than heart without brain”]
“Let each man enjoy his liberty . . .
[but be sure it is not
at the expense of another”]
“It is a grand thing
to be the owner of yourself
It is a grand thing
to protect the rights of others”
[This is the ultimate balancing act,
protecting the rights of others
while simultaneously allowing
them to remain owners of themselves]
“I want you to go away with
an eternal hatred in your breast
of injustice,
of aristocracy,
of caste,
of the idea that one man has more rights
than another because he has
better clothes,
more land,
more money,
because he owns a railroad,
or
is famous and in high position”
[The particulars may change,
but no future changes will ever give
one person more rights than another]
“who freely gives to others
the rights that he claims for himself
is the best man”
[“I see a race without disease
of flesh or brain,
shapely and fair,
the married harmony of form and use”
I believe it can happen]
“What would we be without labor?”
[I know there are some who want to find out
the answer to that question,
but labor
“is helping to fill the world with honor,
with happiness,
with love and law”]
My full speech, an artifact
of the days when political speeches
were the entertainment equivalent
of latter-day movies and sporting events,
can be found in many places
It played in Peoria then,
and I hope it can do so now
