I send my greetings to the Congress of Freethinkers assembled at
Cleveland, and regret, more than I can express, that I am unable to
be there and hear all the good things you will hear, and see all the
earnest workers you will see.
The Freethinkers of America ought to be a very proud and enthusiastic
body, when they have in their presidential chair the ablest orator
of modern times, and the broadest, bravest, and most comprehensive
intellect that has ever been called "Mr. President" in this land of
bravery and presidents. Washington was a patriot of whom we are all
justly proud. He was liberal in his religion and progressive in his
views of personal rights. And yet he had his limitations. To him liberty
and personal rights were modified by the words, "free, white, adult,
males." He got no farther. He who fought for freedom upheld slavery! And
yet we are all proud and glad to pay honor and respect to the memory of
Washington.
Abraham Lincoln we place still higher on the roll of honor; for, added
to his still more liberal religious views, in his conceptions of freedom
and justice he had at least two fewer limitations than had the patriot
of 1776. He struck both "free" and "white" from his mental black list,
and gave once more an impulse to liberty that thrilled a nation and gave
fresh dignity to the human race.
But what shall we say of our president--Ingersoll? A man who in
ten short years has carried mental liberty into every household in
America--who is without limitations in religion, and modifies justice by
no prefix. A man who, with unequaled oratory, champions Freedom--not the
"free, white, adult, male" freedom of Washington. A man who has breasted
a whirlwind of detraction and abuse for Justice--not the "male, adult"
justice of Lincoln, but the freedom and justice, without limitation, for
"man, woman, and child."
With such a leader, what should not be achieved? With such a champion,
what cause could fail? If the people ever place such a man in the White
House, the nations of this earth will know, for the first time, the real
meaning of a free government under secular administration.
"A government of the people, for the people, by the people," will be
more than simply a high-sounding phrase, which, read by the light of the
past, was only a bitter mockery to a race in chains; and, read by the
light of the present, is a choice bit of grim humor to half of a nation
in petticoats. But so long as the taste of the voter is such that he
prefers to place in the executive chair a type of man so eminently
fitted for private life that when you want to find him you have to
_shake the chair_ to see if he is in it, just so long will there be no
danger that the lightning will strike so as to deprive the Freethinkers
of one man in America who could fill the national executive chair
_full_, and strain the back and sides a little getting in.
Once more I send greetings to the Convention, with the hope that you may
have as grand a time as you ought to have, and that Free thought will
receive a new impulse from the harmony and enthusiasm of this meeting.
Sincerely,
Helen H. Gardener.