WHOM shall we thank? Standing here at the close of the 19th
century--amid the trophies of thought--the triumphs of genius--here
under the flag of the Great Republic--knowing something of the history
of man--here on this day that has been set apart for thanksgiving, I
most reverently thank the good men, the good women of the past, I thank
the kind fathers, the loving mothers of the savage days. I thank the
father who spoke the first gentle word, the mother who first smiled upon
her babe. I thank the first true friend. I thank the savages who hunted
and fished that they and their babes might live. I thank those who
cultivated the ground and changed the forests into farms--those who
built rude homes and watched the faces of their happy children in the
glow of fireside flames--those who domesticated horses, cattle and
sheep--those who invented wheels and looms and taught us to spin and
weave--those who by cultivation changed wild grasses into wheat and
corn, changed bitter things to fruit, and worthless weeds to flowers,
that sowed within our souls the seeds of art. I thank the poets of the
dawn--the tellers of legends--the makers of myths--the singers of joy
and grief, of hope and love. I thank the artists who chiseled forms
in stone and wrought with light and shade the face of man. I thank the
philosophers, the thinkers, who taught us how to use our minds in
the great search for truth. I thank the astronomers who explored
the heavens, told us the secrets of the stars, the glories of the
constellations--the geologists who found the story of the world in
fossil forms, in memoranda kept in ancient rocks, in lines written by
waves, by frost and fire--the anatomists who sought in muscle, nerve and
bone for all the mysteries of life--the chemists who unraveled Nature's
work that they might learn her art--the physicians who have laid
the hand of science on the brow of pain, the hand whose magic touch
restores--the surgeons who have defeated Nature's self and forced her to
preserve the lives of those she labored to destroy.
I thank the discoverers of chloroform and ether, the two angels who give
to their beloved sleep, and wrap the throbbing brain in the soft robes
of dreams. I thank the great inventors--those who gave us movable type
and the press, by means of which great thoughts and all discovered facts
are made immortal--the inventors of engines, of the great ships, of the
railways, the cables and telegraphs. I thank the great mechanics, the
workers in iron and steel, in wood and stone. I thank the inventors and
makers of the numberless things of use and luxury.
I thank the industrious men, the loving mothers, the useful women. They
are the benefactors of our race.
The inventor of pins did a thousand times more good than all the popes
and cardinals, the bishops and priests--than all the clergymen and
parsons, exhorters and theologians that ever lived.
The inventor of matches did more for the comfort and convenience
of mankind than all the founders of religions and the makers of all
creeds--than all malicious monks and selfish saints.
I thank the honest men and women who have expressed their sincere
thoughts, who have been true to themselves and have preserved the
veracity of their souls.
I thank the thinkers of Greece and Rome, Zeno and Epicurus, Cicero and
Lucretius. I thank Bruno, the bravest, and Spinoza, the subtlest of men.
I thank Voltaire, whose thought lighted a flame in the brain of man,
unlocked the doors of superstition's cells and gave liberty to
many millions of his fellow-men. Voltaire--a name that sheds light.
Voltaire--a star that superstition's darkness cannot quench.
I thank the great poets--the dramatists. I thank Homer and Aeschylus,
and I thank Shakespeare above them all. I thank Burns for the
heart-throbs he changed into songs, for his lyrics of flame. I thank
Shelley for his Skylark, Keats for his Grecian Urn and Byron for his
Prisoner of Chillon. I thank the great novelists. I thank the great
sculptors. I thank the unknown man who moulded and chiseled the Venus de
Milo. I thank the great painters. I thank Rembrandt and Corot. I thank
all who have adorned, enriched and ennobled life--all who have created
the great, the noble, the heroic and artistic ideals.
I thank the statesmen who have preserved the rights of man. I thank
Paine whose genius sowed the seeds of independence in the hearts of '76.
I thank Jefferson whose mighty words for liberty have made the circuit
of the globe. I thank the founders, the defenders, the saviors of the
Republic. I thank Ericsson, the greatest mechanic of his century, for
the monitor. I thank Lincoln for the Proclamation. I thank Grant for his
victories and the vast host that fought for the right,--for the freedom
of man. I thank them all--the living and the dead.
I thank the great scientists--those who have reached the foundation,
the bed-rock--who have built upon facts--the great scientists, in whose
presence theologians look silly and feel malicious.
The scientists never persecuted, never imprisoned their fellow-men. They
forged no chains, built no dungeons, erected no scaffolds--tore no flesh
with red hot pincers--dislocated no joints on racks--crushed no bones
in iron boots--extinguished no eyes--tore out no tongues and lighted
no fagots. They did not pretend to be inspired--did not claim to
be prophets or saints or to have been born again. They were only
intelligent and honest men. They did not appeal to force or fear. They
did not regard men as slaves to be ruled by torture, by lash and chain,
nor as children to be cheated with illusions, rocked in the cradle of an
idiot creed and soothed by a lullaby of lies.
They did not wound--they healed. They did not kill--they lengthened
life. They did not enslave--they broke the chains and made men free.
They sowed the seeds of knowledge, and many millions have reaped, are
reaping, and will reap the harvest of joy.
I thank Humboldt and Helmholtz and Haeckel and Buechner. I thank Lamarck
and Darwin--Darwin who revolutionized the thought of the intellectual
world. I thank Huxley and Spencer. I thank the scientists one and all.
I thank the heroes, the destroyers of prejudice and fear--the dethroners
of savage gods--the extinguishers of hate's eternal fire--the heroes,
the breakers of chains--the founders of free states--the makers of just
laws--the heroes who fought and fell on countless fields--the heroes
whose dungeons became shrines--the heroes whose blood made scaffolds
sacred--the heroes, the apostles of reason, the disciples of truth, the
soldiers of freedom--the heroes who held high the holy torch and filled
the world with light.
With all my heart I thank them all.