Robert Green Ingersoll

Thirteen Club

THIRTEEN CLUB DINNER. New York, December 13, 1886. TOAST. The Superstitions of Public Men. MR. CHIEF RULER AND GENTLEMEN: I suppose that the superstitionmost prevalent with public men, is the idea that they are of greatimportance to the public. As a matter of fact, public men, -- thatis to say, men in office, -- reflect the average intelligence ofthe people, and no more. A public man, to be successful, must notassert anything unless it is exceedingly popular. And he need notdeny anything unless everybody is against it. Usually he has to belike the center of the earth, -- draw all things his way, withoutweighing anything himself. One of the difficulties, or rather, one of the objections, toa government republican in form, is this: Everybody imagines thathe is everybody's master. And the result has been to make most ofour public men exceedingly conservative in the expression of theirreal opinions. A man, wishing to be elected to an office, generallyagrees with most everybody he meets. If he meets a Prohibitionist,he says: "Of course I am a temperance man. I am opposed to allexcesses, my dear friend, and no one knows better than myself theevils that have been caused by intemperance." The next man happensto keep a saloon, and happens to be quite influential in that partof the district, and the candidate immediately says to him -- "Theidea that these Prohibitionists can take away the personal libertyof the citizen is simply monstrous!" In a moment after, he isgreeted by a Methodist, and he hastens to say, that while he doesnot belong to that church himself, his wife does; that he wouldgladly be a member, but does not feel that he is good enough. Hetells a Presbyterian that his grandfather was of that faith, andthat he was a most excellent man, and laments from the bottom ofhis heart that he himself is not within that fold. A few momentsafter, on meeting a skeptic, he declares, with the greatest fervor,that reason is the only guide, and that he looks forward to thetime when superstition will be dethroned. In other words, thegreatest superstition now entertained by public men is thathypocrisy is the royal road to success. Of course, there are many other superstitions, and one is,that the Democratic party has not outlived its usefulness. Anotheris, that the Republican party should have power for what it hasdone, instead of what it proposes to do, In my judgment, these statesmen are mistaken. The people ofthe United States, after all, admire intellectual honesty and haverespect for moral courage. The time has come for the old ideas andsuperstitions in politics to be thrown away -- not in phrase, notin pretence, but in fact; and the time has come when a man cansafely rely on the intelligence and courage of the American people. The most significant fact in this world to-day, is, that innearly every village under the American flag the school-house islarger than the church. People are beginning to have a littleconfidence in intelligence and in facts. Every public man and everyprivate man, who is actuated in his life by a belief in something Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 13 THIRTEEN CLUB DINNER. that no one can prove, -- that no one can demonstrate, -- is, tothat extent, a superstitious man. It may be that I go further than most of you, because if Ihave any superstition, it is a superstition against superstition.It seems to me that the first things for every man, whether in orout of office, to believe in, -- the first things to rely on, aredemonstrated facts. These are the corner stones, -- these are thecolumns that nothing can move, -- these are the stars that nodarkness can hide, -- these are the true and only foundations ofbelief. Beyond the truths that have been demonstrated is the horizonof the Probable, and in the world of the Probable every man has theright to guess for himself. Beyond the region of the Probable isthe Possible, and beyond the Possible is the Impossible, and beyondthe Impossible are the religions of this world. My idea is this:Any man who acts in view of the improbable or of the Impossible -that is to say, of the Supernatural -- is a superstitious man. Anyman who believes that he can add to the happiness of the Infinite,by depriving himself of innocent pleasure, is superstitions. Anyman who imagines that he can make some God happy, by making himselfmiserable, is superstitious, Any one who thinks he can gainhappiness in another world, by raising hell with his fellow-men inthis, is simply superstitious. Any man who believes in a Being ofinfinite wisdom and goodness, and yet believes that that Being haspeopled a world with failures, is superstitious. Any man whobelieves that an infinitely wise and good God would take pains tomake a man, intending at the time that the man should be eternallydamned, is absurdly superstitious. In other words, he who believesthat there is, or that there can be, any other religious duty thanto increase the happiness of mankind, in this world, now and here,is superstitious. I have known a great many private men who were not men ofgenius. I have known some men of genius about whom it was keptprivate, and I have known many public men, and my wonder increasedthe better I knew them, that they occupied positions of trust andhonor. But, after all, it is the people's fault. They who demandhypocrisy must be satisfied with mediocrity. Our public men will bebetter and greater and less superstitious, when the people becomegreater and better and less superstitious. There is an old story,that we have all heard, about Senator Nesmith. He was elected aSenator from Oregon. When he had been in Washington a little while,one of the other Senators said to him: "How did you feel when youfound yourself sitting here in the United States Senate?" Hereplied: "For the first two months, I just sat and wondered how adamned fool like me ever broke into the Senate. Since that, I havedone nothing but wonder how the other fools got here." To-day the need of our civilization is public men who have thecourage to speak as they think. We need a man for President whowill not publicly thank God for earthquakes. We need somebody withthe courage to say that all that happens in nature happens withoutdesign, and without reference to man; somebody who will say that Bank of Wisdom Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 14 THIRTEEN CLUB DINNER. the men and women killed are not murdered by supernatural beings,and that everything that happens in nature, happens without maliceand without mercy. We want somebody who will have courage enoughnot to charge an infinitely good and wise Being with all thecruelties and agonies and sufferings of this world. We want suchmen in public places, -- men who will appeal to the reason of theirfellows, to the highest intelligence of the people; men who willhave courage enough, in this the nineteenth century, to agree withthe conclusions of science. We want some man who will not pretendto believe, and who does not in fact believe, the stories thatSuperstition has told to Credulity. The most important thing in this word is the destruction ofsuperstition. Superstition interferes with the happiness ofmankind. Superstition is a terrible serpent, reaching in frightfulcoils from heaven to earth and thrusting its poisoned fangs intothe hearts of men. While I live, I am going to do what little I canfor the destruction of this monster. Whatever may happen in anotherworld -- and I will take my chances there, -- I am opposed tosuperstition in this. And if, when I reach that other world, itneeds reforming, I shall do what little I can there for thedestruction of the false. Let me tell you one thing more, and I am done. The only way tohave brave, honest, intelligent, conscientious public men, menwithout superstition, is to do what we can to make the averagecitizen brave, conscientious and intelligent. If you wish to seecourage in the presidential chair, conscience upon the bench,intelligence of the highest order in Congress; if you expect publicmen to be great enough to reflect honor upon the Republic, privatecitizens must have the courage and the intelligence to elect, andto sustain, such men. I have said, and I say it again, that neverwhile I live will I vote for any man to be President of the UnitedStates, no matter if he does belong to my party, who has not wonhis spurs on some field of intellectual conflict. We have hadenough mediocrity, enough policy, enough superstition, enoughprejudice, enough provincialism, and the time has come for theAmerican citizen to say: "Hereafter I will be represented by menwho are worthy, not only of the great Republic, but of theNineteenth Century." END

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