I shall do it kindly, distinctly; but I am going to do it. I know there
are thousands of men who substantially agree with me, but who are not
in a condition to express their thoughts. They are poor; they are in
business; and they know that should they tell their honest thought,
persons will refuse to patronize them--to trade with them; they wish
to get bread for their little children; they wish to take care of their
wives; they wish to have homes and the comforts of life. Every such
person is a certificate of the meanness of the community in which he
resides: And yet I do not blame these people for not expressing their
thought. I say to them: "Keep your ideas to yourselves; feed and clothe
the ones you love; I will do your talking for you. The church can not
touch, can not crush, can not starve, cannot stop or stay me; I will
express your thoughts."
As an excuse for tyranny, as a justification of slavery, the church has
taught that man is totally depraved. Of the truth of that doctrine, the
church has furnished the only evidence there is. The truth is, we are
both good and bad. The worst are capable of some good deeds, and the
best are capable of bad. The lowest can rise, and the highest may fall.
That mankind can be divided into two great classes, sinners and saints,
is an utter falsehood. In times of great disaster, called it may be, by
the despairing voices of women, men, denounced by the church as totally
depraved, rush to death as to a festival. By such men, deeds are done
so filled with self-sacrifice and generous daring, that millions pay
to them the tribute, not only of admiration, but of tears. Above all
creeds,-above all religions, after all, is that divine thing,--Humanity;
and now and then in shipwreck on the wide, wild sea, or 'mid the rocks
and breakers of some cruel shore, or where the serpents of flame writhe
and hiss, some glorious heart, some chivalric soul does a deed
that glitters like a star, and gives the lie to all the dogmas of
superstition. All these frightful doctrines have been used to degrade
and to enslave mankind.
Away, forever away with the creeds and books and forms and laws and
religions that take from the soul liberty and reason. Down with the idea
that thought is dangerous! Perish the infamous doctrine that man can
have property in man. Let us resent with indignation every effort to put
a chain upon our minds. If there is no God, certainly we should not bow
and cringe and crawl. If there is a God, there should be no slaves.