Chapter 1

Produced by An Anonymous volunteer

Transcriber's note:

Footnotes that describe the subject or circumstances of the interview are placed immediately after its title, or where they occur in the narrative. Other footnotes are at the end of the interview.

The digraph "ae" has been spelled out for clarity. "Employe", used throughout with no accent, has been replaced by "employee". "Buechner" appeared with the umlaut in the original.

Typographical and grammatical errors and misspellings have been corrected, but 19th-century variants have been retained. Question marks have been added where required.

LoC call number: BL2720.A2

[Frontispiece: v8.jpg] "_With daughters' babes upon his knees, the white hair mingling with the gold_." EVA INGERSOLL-BROWN ROBERT G. INGERSOLL BROWN.

Dresden Edition

THE WORKS OF _Robert G. Ingersoll_

"HAPPINESS IS THE ONLY GOOD, REASON THE ONLY TORCH, JUSTICE THE ONLY WORSHIP, HUMANITY THE ONLY RELIGION, AND LOVE THE ONLY PRIEST."

IN TWELVE VOLUMES VOLUME VIII.

INTERVIEWS

NEW YORK THE DRESDEN PUBLISHING CO., C. P. FARRELL MCMXV

COPYRIGHT, 1900 BY C. P. FARRELL

COPYRIGHT, 1901 BY THE DRESDEN PUBLISHING CO.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. INTERVIEWS.

THE BIBLE AND A FUTURE LIFE, Washington Post

MRS. VAN COTT, THE REVIVALIST, Buffalo Express

EUROPEAN TRIP AND GREENBACK QUESTION, Washington Post

THE PRE-MILLENNIAL CONFERENCE, Buffalo Express

THE SOLID SOUTH AND RESUMPTION, Cincinnati Commercial

SUNDAY LAWS OF PITTSBURG, Pittsburg Leader

POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS, Chicago Times

POLITICS AND GEN. GRANT, Indianapolis Journal

POLITICS, RELIGION AND THOMAS PAINE, Chicago Times

REPLY TO CHICAGO CRITICS, Chicago Tribune

THE REPUBLICAN VICTORY, New York Herald

INGERSOLL AND BEECHER, New York Herald

POLITICAL, Washington Post

RELIGION IN POLITICS, New York Evening Express

MIRACLES AND IMMORTALITY, Pittsburg Dispatch

THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK, Cincinnati Commercial

MR. BEECHER, MOSES AND THE NEGRO, Brooklyn Eagle

HADES, DELAWARE AND FREETHOUGHT, Brooklyn Eagle

A REPLY TO THE REV. MR. LANSING, New Haven Sunday Union

BEACONSFIELD, LENT AND REVIVALS, Brooklyn Eagle

ANSWERING THE NEW YORK MINISTERS, Chicago Times

GUITEAU AND HIS CRIME, Washington Sunday Gazette

DISTRICT SUFFRAGE, Washington Capital

FUNERAL OF JOHN G. MILLS AND IMMORTALITY, Washington Post

STAR ROUTE AND POLITICS, New York Herald

THE INTERVIEWER, New York Morning Journal

POLITICS AND PROHIBITION, Chicago Times

THE REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN OHIO, Dayton Democrat

THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL, Washington National Republican

JUSTICE HARLAN AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL, Chicago Inter-Ocean

POLITICS AND THEOLOGY, Denver Tribune

MORALITY AND IMMORTALITY, Detroit News

POLITICS, MORMONISM AND MR. BEECHER, Denver News

FREE TRADE AND CHRISTIANITY, Denver Republican

THE OATH QUESTION, London Secular Review

WENDELL PHILLIPS, FITZ JOHN PORTER AND BISMARCK, Chicago Times

GENERAL SUBJECTS, Kansas City Times

REPLY TO KANSAS CITY CLERGY, Kansas City Journal

SWEARING AND AFFIRMING, Buffalo Courier

REPLY TO A BUFFALO CRITIC, Buffalo Times

BLASPHEMY, Philadelphia Press

POLITICS AND BRITISH COLUMBIA, San Francisco Evening Post

INGERSOLL CATECHISED, San Francisco San Franciscan

BLAINE'S DEFEAT, Topeka Commonwealth

BLAINE'S DEFEAT, Louisville Commercial

PLAGIARISM AND POLITICS, Cleveland Plain Dealer

RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE, New York Mail and Express

CLEVELAND AND HIS CABINET, New York Mail and Express

RELIGION, PROHIBITION AND GEN. GRANT, Iowa State Register

HELL OR SHEOL AND OTHER SUBJECTS, Boston Evening Record

INTERVIEWING, POLITICS AND SPIRITUALISM, Cleveland Plain Dealer

MY BELIEF, Philadelphia Times

SOME LIVE TOPICS, New York Truth Seeker

THE PRESIDENT AND THE SENATE, Chicago Inter-Ocean

ATHEISM AND CITIZENSHIP, New York Herald

THE LABOR QUESTION, Cincinnati Enquirer

RAILROADS AND POLITICS, Cincinnati Times Star

PROHIBITION, Boston Evening Traveler

HENRY GEORGE AND LABOR, New York Herald

LABOR QUESTION AND SOCIALISM, New York World

HENRY GEORGE AND SOCIALISM, Chicago Times

REPLY TO THE REV. B. F. MORSE, New York Herald

INGERSOLL ON McGLYNN, Brooklyn Citizen

TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS, New York Mail and Express

THE STAGE AND THE PULPIT, New York Truth Seeker

ROSCOE CONKLING, New York Herald

THE CHURCH AND THE STATE, New York Dramatic Mirror

PROTECTION--FREE TRADE, New York Press

LABOR AND TARIFF REFORM, New York Press

CLEVELAND AND THURMAN, New York Press

THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1888, New York Press

JAMES G. BLAINE AND POLITICS, New York Press

THE MILLS BILL, New York Press

SOCIETY AND ITS CRIMINALS, New York World

WOMAN'S RIGHT TO DIVORCE, New York World

SECULARISM, Toronto Secular Thought

SUMMER RECREATION--MR. GLADSTONE, Unpublished

PROHIBITION, New York World

ROBERT ELSMERE, New York World

WORKING GIRLS, New York World

PROTECTION FOR AMERICAN ACTORS, New York Star

LIBERALS AND LIBERALISM, Toronto Secular Thought

POPE LEO XIII., New York Herald

THE SACREDNESS OF THE SABBATH, New York Journal

THE WEST AND SOUTH, Indianapolis Journal

THE WESTMINSTER CREED AND OTHER SUBJECTS, Rochester Post-Express

SHAKESPEARE AND BACON, Minneapolis Tribune

GROWING OLD GRACEFULLY, AND PRESBYTERIANISM, Toledo Blade

CREEDS, New York Morning Advertiser

THE TENDENCY OF MODERN THOUGHT, Chicago Tribune

WOMAN SUFFRAGE, HORSE RACING, AND MONEY, Chicago Inter-Ocean

MISSIONARIES, Cleveland Press

MY BELIEF AND UNBELIEF, Toledo Blade

MUST RELIGION GO? New York Evening Advertiser

WORD PAINTING AND COLLEGE EDUCATION, Indianapolis News

PERSONAL MAGNETISM AND THE SUNDAY QUESTION, Cincinnati Commercial Gazette

AUTHORS, Kansas City Star

INEBRIETY, Unpublished

MIRACLES, THEOSOPHY AND SPIRITUALISM, Unpublished

TOLSTOY AND LITERATURE, Buffalo Evening Express

WOMAN IN POLITICS, New York Advertiser

SPIRITUALISM, St. Louis Globe-Democrat

PLAYS AND PLAYERS, New York Dramatic Mirror

WOMAN, A Fragment

STRIKES, EXPANSION AND OTHER SUBJECTS, New York, May 5, 1893

SUNDAY A DAY OF PLEASURE, New York Times

THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, New York Herald

CLEVELAND'S HAWAIIAN POLICY, Chicago Inter-Ocean

ORATORS AND ORATORY, London Sketch

CATHOLICISM AND PROTESTANTISM.--THE POPE.--THE A. P. A., AGNOSTICISM AND THE CHURCH, New York Herald

WOMAN AND HER DOMAIN, Grand Rapids Democrat

PROFESSOR SWING, Chicago Inter-Ocean

SENATOR SHERMAN AND HIS BOOK, St. Louis Globe-Democrat

REPLY TO THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORERS, New York Journal

SPIRITUALISM, New York Journal

A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING, Rochester Herald

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?--CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND POLITICS, Chicago Inter-Ocean

VIVISECTION, New York Evening Telegram

DIVORCE, New York Herald

MUSIC, NEWSPAPERS, LYNCHING AND ARBITRATION, Chicago Inter-Ocean

A VISIT TO SHAW'S GARDEN, St. Louis Republic

THE VENEZUELA BOUNDARY DISCUSSION AND THE WHIPPING POST, New York Journal

COLONEL SHEPARD'S STAGE HORSES, New York Morning Advertiser

A REPLY TO THE REV. L. A. BANKS, Cleveland Plain Dealer

CUBA--ZOLA AND THEOSOPHY, Louisville Courier-Journal

HOW TO BECOME AN ORATOR, New York Sun

JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG AND EXPANSION, Philadelphia Press

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND THE BIBLE, New York Mind

THIS CENTURY'S GLORIES, New York Sun

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND THE WHIPPING POST, Chicago Tribune

EXPANSION AND TRUSTS, Philadelphia North American

INTERVIEWS

THE BIBLE AND A FUTURE LIFE

_Question_. Colonel, are your views of religion based upon the Bible?

_Answer_. I regard the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the same as I do most other ancient books, in which there is some truth, a great deal of error, considerable barbarism and a most plentiful lack of good sense.

_Question_. Have you found any other work, sacred or profane, which you regard as more reliable?

_Answer_. I know of no book less so, in my judgment.

_Question_. You have studied the Bible attentively, have you not?

_Answer_. I have read the Bible. I have heard it talked about a good deal, and am sufficiently well acquainted with it to justify my own mind in utterly rejecting all claims made for its divine origin.

_Question_. What do you base your views upon?

_Answer_. On reason, observation, experience, upon the discoveries in science, upon observed facts and the analogies properly growing out of such facts. I have no confidence in anything pretending to be outside, or independent of, or in any manner above nature.

_Question_. According to your views, what disposition is made of man after death?

_Answer_. Upon that subject I know nothing. It is no more wonderful that man should live again than he now lives; upon that question I know of no evidence. The doctrine of immortality rests upon human affection. We love, therefore we wish to live.

_Question_. Then you would not undertake to say what becomes of man after death?

_Answer_. If I told or pretended to know what becomes of man after death, I would be as dogmatic as are theologians upon this question. The difference between them and me is, I am honest. I admit that I do not know.

_Question_. Judging by your criticism of mankind, Colonel, in your recent lecture, you have not found his condition very satisfactory?

_Answer_. Nature, outside of man, so far as I know, is neither cruel nor merciful. I am not satisfied with the present condition of the human race, nor with the condition of man during any period of which we have any knowledge. I believe, however, the condition of man is improved, and this improvement is due to his own exertions. I do not make nature a being. I do not ascribe to nature intentions.

_Question_. Is your theory, Colonel, the result of investigation of the subject?

_Answer_. No one can control his own opinion or his own belief. My belief was forced upon me by my surroundings. I am the product of all circumstances that have in any way touched me. I believe in this world. I have no confidence in any religion promising joys in another world at the expense of liberty and happiness in this. At the same time, I wish to give others all the rights I claim for myself.

_Question_. If I asked for proofs for your theory, what would you furnish?

_Answer_. The experience of every man who is honest with himself, every fact that has been discovered in nature. In addition to these, the utter and total failure of all religionists in all countries to produce one particle of evidence showing the existence of any supernatural power whatever, and the further fact that the people are not satisfied with their religion. They are continually asking for evidence. They are asking it in every imaginable way. The sects are continually dividing. There is no real religious serenity in the world. All religions are opponents of intellectual liberty. I believe in absolute mental freedom. Real religion with me is a thing not of the head, but of the heart; not a theory, not a creed, but a life.

_Question_. What punishment, then, is inflicted upon man for his crimes and wrongs committed in this life?

_Answer_. There is no such thing as intellectual crime. No man can commit a mental crime. To become a crime it must go beyond thought.

_Question_. What punishment is there for physical crime?

_Answer_. Such punishment as is necessary to protect society and for the reformation of the criminal.

_Question_. If there is only punishment in this world, will not some escape punishment?

_Answer_. I admit that all do not seem to be punished as they deserve. I also admit that all do not seem to be rewarded as they deserve; and there is in this world, apparently, as great failures in matter of reward as in matter of punishment. If there is another life, a man will be happier there for acting according to his highest ideal in this. But I do not discern in nature any effort to do justice.

--_The Post_, Washington, D. C., 1878.

MRS. VAN COTT, THE REVIVALIST

_Question_. I see, Colonel, that in an interview published this morning, Mrs. Van Cott (the revivalist), calls you "a poor barking dog." Do you know her personally?

_Answer_. I have never met or seen her.

_Question_. Do you know the reason she applied the epithet?

_Answer_. I suppose it to be the natural result of what is called vital piety; that is to say, universal love breeds individual hatred.

_Question_. Do you intend making any reply to what she says?

_Answer_. I have written her a note of which this is a copy:

_Buffalo, Feb. 24th, 1878._ MRS. VAN COTT;

My dear Madam:--Were you constrained by the love of Christ to call a man who has never injured you "a poor barking dog?" Did you make this remark as a Christian, or as a lady? Did you say these words to illustrate in some faint degree the refining influence upon women of the religion you preach?

What would you think of me if I should retort, using your language, changing only the sex of the last word?

I have the honor to remain,

Yours truly,

R. G. INGERSOLL

_Question_. Well, what do you think of the religious revival system generally?

_Answer_. The fire that has to be blown all the time is a poor thing to get warm by. I regard these revivals as essentially barbaric. I think they do no good, but much harm, they make innocent people think they are guilty, and very mean people think they are good.

_Question_. What is your opinion concerning women as conductors of these revivals?

_Answer_. I suppose those engaged in them think they are doing good. They are probably honest. I think, however, that neither men nor women should be engaged in frightening people into heaven. That is all I wish to say on the subject, as I do not think it worth talking about.

--_The Express_, Buffalo, New York, Feb., 1878.

EUROPEAN TRIP AND GREENBACK QUESTION

_Question_. What did you do on your European trip, Colonel?

_Answer_. I went with my family from New York to Southampton, England, thence to London, and from London to Edinburgh. In Scotland I visited every place where Burns had lived, from the cottage where he was born to the room where he died. I followed him from the cradle to the coffin. I went to Stratford-upon-Avon for the purpose of seeing all that I could in any way connected with Shakespeare; next to London, where we visited again all the places of interest, and thence to Paris, where we spent a couple of weeks in the Exposition.

_Question_. And what did you think of it?

_Answer_. So far as machinery--so far as the practical is concerned, it is not equal to ours in Philadelphia; in art it is incomparably beyond it. I was very much gratified to find so much evidence in favor of my theory that the golden age in art is in front of us; that mankind has been advancing, that we did not come from a perfect pair and immediately commence to degenerate. The modern painters and sculptors are far better and grander than the ancient. I think we excel in fine arts as much as we do in agricultural implements. Nothing pleased me more than the painting from Holland, because they idealized and rendered holy the ordinary avocations of life. They paint cottages with sweet mothers and children; they paint homes. They are not much on Ariadnes and Venuses, but they paint good women.

_Question_. What did you think of the American display?

_Answer_. Our part of the Exposition is good, but nothing to what is should and might have been, but we bring home nearly as many medals as we took things. We lead the world in machinery and in ingenious inventions, and some of our paintings were excellent.

_Question_. Colonel, crossing the Atlantic back to America, what do you think of the Greenback movement?

_Answer_. In regard to the Greenback party, in the first place, I am not a believer in miracles. I do not believe that something can be made out of nothing. The Government, in my judgment, cannot create money; the Government can give its note, like an individual, and the prospect of its being paid determines its value. We have already substantially resumed. Every piece of property that has been shrinking has simply been resuming. We expended during the war--not for the useful, but for the useless, not to build up, but to destroy--at least one thousand million dollars. The Government was an enormous purchaser; when the war ceased the industries of the country lost their greatest customer. As a consequence there was a surplus of production, and consequently a surplus of labor. At last we have gotten back, and the country since the war has produced over and above the cost of production, something near the amount that was lost during the war. Our exports are about two hundred million dollars more than our imports, and this is a healthy sign. There are, however, five or six hundred thousand men, probably, out of employment; as prosperity increases this number will decrease. I am in favor of the Government doing something to ameliorate the condition of these men. I would like to see constructed the Northern and Southern Pacific railroads; this would give employment at once to many thousands, and homes after awhile to millions. All the signs of the times to me are good. The wretched bankrupt law, at last, is wiped from the statute books, and honest people in a short time can get plenty of credit. This law should have been repealed years before it was. It would have been far better to have had all who have gone into bankruptcy during these frightful years to have done so at once.

_Question_. What will be the political effect of the Greenback movement?

_Answer_. The effect in Maine has been to defeat the Republican party. I do not believe any party can permanently succeed in the United States that does not believe in and advocate actual money. I want to see the greenback equal with gold the world round. A money below par keeps the people below par. No man can possibly be proud of a country that is not willing to pay its debts. Several of the States this fall may be carried by the Greenback party, but if I have a correct understanding of their views, that party cannot hold any State for any great length of time. But all the men of wealth should remember that everybody in the community has got, in some way, to be supported. I want to see them so that they can support themselves by their own labor. In my judgment real prosperity will begin with actual resumption, because confidence will then return. If the workingmen of the United States cannot make their living, cannot have the opportunity to labor, they have got to be supported in some way, and in any event, I want to see a liberal policy inaugurated by the Government. I believe in improving rivers and harbors.

I do not believe the trans-continental commerce of this country should depend on one railroad. I want new territories opened. I want to see American steamships running to all the great ports of the world. I want to see our flag flying on all the seas and in all the harbors. We have the best country, and, in my judgment, the best people in the world, and we ought to be the most prosperous nation on the earth.

_Question_. Then you only consider the Greenback movement a temporary thing?

_Answer_. Yes; I do not believe that there is anything permanent in anything that is not sound, that has not a perfectly sound foundation, and I mean sound, sound in every sense of that word. It must be wise and honest. We have plenty of money; the trouble is to get it. If the Greenbackers will pass a law furnishing all of us with collaterals, there certainly would be no trouble about getting the money. Nothing can demonstrate more fully the plentifulness of money than the fact that millions of four per cent. bonds have been taken in the United States. The trouble is, business is scarce.

_Question_. But do you not think the Greenback movement will help the Democracy to success in 1880?

_Answer_. I think the Greenback movement will injure the Republican party much more than the Democratic party. Whether that injury will reach as far as 1880 depends simply upon one thing. If resumption--in spite of all the resolutions to the contrary-- inaugurates an era of prosperity, as I believe and hope it will, then it seems to me that the Republican party will be as strong in the North as in its palmiest days. Of course I regard most of the old issues as settled, and I make this statement simply because I regard the financial issue as the only living one.

Of course, I have no idea who will be the Democratic candidate, but I suppose the South will be solid for the Democratic nominee, unless the financial question divides that section of the country.

_Question_. With a solid South do you not think the Democratic nominee will stand a good chance?

_Answer_. Certainly, he will stand the best chance if the Democracy is right on the financial question; if it will cling to its old idea of hard money, he will. If the Democrats will recognize that the issues of the war are settled, then I think that party has the best chance.

_Question_. But if it clings to soft money?

_Answer_. Then I think it will be beaten, if by soft money it means the payment of one promise with another.

_Question_. You consider Greenbackers inflationists, do you not?

_Answer_. I suppose the Greenbackers to be the party of inflation. I am in favor of inflation produced by industry. I am in favor of the country being inflated with corn, with wheat, good houses, books, pictures, and plenty of labor for everybody. I am in favor of being inflated with gold and silver, but I do not believe in the inflation of promise, expectation and speculation. I sympathize with every man who is willing to work and cannot get it, and I sympathize to that degree that I would like to see the fortunate and prosperous taxed to support his unfortunate brother until labor could be found.

The Greenback party seems to think credit is just as good as gold. While the credit lasts this is so; but the trouble is, whenever it is ascertained that the gold is gone or cannot be produced the credit takes wings. The bill of a perfectly solvent bank may circulate for years. Now, because nobody demands the gold on that bill it doesn't follow that the bill would be just as good without any gold behind it. The idea that you can have the gold whenever you present the bill gives it its value. To illustrate: A poor man buys soup tickets. He is not hungry at the time of purchase, and will not be for some hours. During those hours the Greenback gentlemen argue that there is no use of keeping any soup on hand with which to redeem these tickets, and from this they further argue that if they can be good for a few hours without soup, why not forever? And they would be, only the holder gets hungry. Until he is hungry, of course, he does not care whether any soup is on hand or not, but when he presents his ticket he wants his soup, and the idea that he can have the soup when he does present the ticket gives it its value. And so I regard bank notes, without gold and silver, as of the same value as tickets without soup.

--_The Post_, Washington, D. C., 1878.

THE PRE-MILLENNIAL CONFERENCE.

_Question_. What do you think of the Pre-Millennial Conference that was held in New York City recently?

_Answer_. Well, I think that all who attended it were believers in the Bible, and any one who believes in prophecies and looks to their fulfillment will go insane. A man that tries from Daniel's ram with three horns and five tails and his deformed goats to ascertain the date of the second immigration of Christ to this world is already insane. It all shows that the moment we leave the realm of fact and law we are adrift on the wide and shoreless sea of theological speculation.

_Question_. Do you think there will be a second coming?