The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-01-10
COL. INGERsoLL ON ABRAHAM
LINCOLN.

Col. Robert G. Ingersoll delivered a
two hours lecture in the Grand opera
house on Thursday evening on Abraham
Lincoln. Much of the lecture was enter
tanning. 1t was full of interesting Incl
dents, many times told before by many
orators and historians; but never told in
better style.
Col Ingersoll is an attractive figure on
the lecture platform, and if he would
Condense his lecture to about an hour
and half and eliminate the many state
ments that falsify history it would be
very much improved.
Any person hearing Col. Ingersolls
lecture, not familiar with the political
history of his country, would infer that
the Republican party was organized to
advocate protective tariff, when every
intelligent student of our history knows
that the protective tariff was dead when
the Republican party was organized, and
that the Republican party was organized
to resist the aggressions of the slave
power in the free territories of
the United States. If you
want to know the status of the tariff
question, at the time the Republican
party was organized, read James G.
Blaine's history. Blaine is Bob Inger-
soils patron saint, and Blaine says, in
his great political history, that all parties
in the United States had accepted the
low tariff, that prevailed during the time
the great anti-slavery movement took
an organized force, in the birth Of the
Republican party,
That portion of lngersoll's lecture de-
voted to the tariff is from his stump
speech, which he delivered around the
country two years ago, at so much per
speech, which the National Republican
committee paid for. We read it at the
time, and he slandered Abraham Lin
coin by claiming that he would have en-
dOrsed the Mckinley tariff law, if alive.
Now, there may be some excuse for a
stump orator, who is paid $50 per hour
to falsify history and preach public rob-
berry for the benefit of the robbers, but
there is no excuse for platform orator
to make use of an immortal character to
tortlfy played out political policy, and
| assess every hearer 81 for the imposition.
Col. Ingersoll's political history is not
only sadly defective, but his war history
is more so. He has grand opportunity
in his theme, to give his hearers some ad-
equate idea of the magnitude Of the
great contest of arms, that racked this
land with such awful agony in the four
years of war, in which Abraham Lincoln
was Commanderin-C Chief; but in his
lecture he shows an utter lack, either Of
| appreciation or grasp of his theme.
During the entire civil war Lincoln
never exhibited any party bias towards
the soldiers of his own party. The most
conspicuous generals of the armies of the
Potomac, and of the Ohio, and the
Cumberland and the Tennessee were all
Democrats The General who stormed
the Gibraltar of the Cumberland, ,
after the disgrace at Bull Run,
and sent our flag to sky again, ike a
| rainbow in summer. was q Democrat
| And the man who saved the day at
Chicamauga, when all seemed lost, and
who saved from rout and disaster the
army of the Cumberland, was q Demo-
| Crat. And the man who saved the day
at Gettysburgh, in the only great battle
| ever fought on Northern soil, was also a
Democrat.
And yet Bob Ingersoll tells us in his
lecture that, after Lincoln's emancipation
proclamation, the principal business of
Democrats was in denOuncing the war as
"nigger war" and proclalming that the
| proclamation was unconstitutional. His
whole lecture is permeated with narrow
| and malignant partisan malice, and he
utterly fails to comprehend the shining
traits of Lncoln's character, and his
great faith that the justice of our cause
| would evoke the Divine favor.
Ingersoll does not believe in God; he
does not believe in Christianity, or in
the potency for better humanity in the
| teachings of our Divine Master; hence
| he has no business to lecture on Abra.
ham Lincoln, because he has not in his
nature an adequate comprehension
Of LinColn's character lngersoll is
anecdote; he is eloquent and ornate and
sensational and picturesque, but he IL
not great man or great orator, be-
cause no man can be truly great who
has not a moral character. We do not
mean that Ingersoll is not moral and up
right in his behavior, but we mean he il
lacking in moral attributes. He bear:
the same relation to the lecture platform
that John L. Sullivan does to the stage
He is a sensational bruiser.
Ingersoll is highly gifted man intel
lectually, but he has not used his intel
lectual powers to help his fellow man
and he has never uttered a sentiment
that any Christian mother will ever care
to teach her child, in his whole 62 years
| of life.
| And if Ingersoll and Sullivan should
| both be buried in the same grave, like
two soldiers, who fell fighting in some
war for pelf and plunder, no eulogist
could ever be found whose tribute tc
either would not be as fitting over both
| graves.