The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume III Part 25

There is in Whitman what he calls "The boundless impatience of restraint," together with that sense of justice which compelled him to say, "Neither a servant nor a master am I."

He was wise enough to know that giving others the same rights that he claims for himself could not harm him, and he was great enough to say: "As if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same."

He felt as all should feel, that the liberty of no man is safe unless the liberty of each is safe.

There is in our country a little of the old servile spirit, a little of the bowing and cringing to others. Many Americans do not understand that the officers of the government are simply the servants of the people.

Nothing is so demoralizing as the wors.h.i.+p of place. Whitman has reminded the people of this country that they are supreme, and he has said to them:

"_The President is there in the White House for you, it is not you who are here for him, The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you, not you here for them. Doctrines, politics and civilization exurge from you, Sculpture and monuments and any thing inscribed anywhere are tallied in you_."

He describes the ideal American citizen--the one who

"_Says indifferently and alike 'How are you, friend?' to the President at his levee, And he says 'Good-day, my brother,' to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field_."

Long ago, when the politicians were wrong, when the judges were subservient, when the pulpit was a coward, Walt Whitman shouted:

"_Man shall not hold property in man._"

"_The least develop'd person on earth is just as important and sacred to himself or herself as the most develop'd person is to himself or herself._"

This is the very soul of true democracy.

Beauty is not all there is of poetry. It must contain the truth. It is not simply an oak, rude and grand, neither is it simply a vine. It is both. Around the oak of truth runs the vine of beauty.

Walt Whitman utters the elemental truths and is the poet of democracy.

He is also the poet of individuality.

V. INDIVIDUALITY.

IN order to protect the liberties of a nation, we must protect the individual. A democracy is a nation of free individuals. The individuals are not to be sacrificed to the nation. The nation exists only for the purpose of guarding and protecting the individuality of men and women.

Walt Whitman has told us that: "The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual--namely to You."

And he has also told us that the greatest city--the greatest nation--is "where the citizen is always the head and ideal."

And that

"_A great city is that which has the greatest men and women, If it be a few ragged huts it is still the greatest city in the whole world._"

By this test maybe the greatest city on the continent to-night is Camden.

This poet has asked of us this question:

"_What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior?_"

The man who asks this question has left no impress of his lips in the dust, and has no dirt upon his knees.

He was great enough to say:

"_The soul has that measureless pride which revolts from every lesson but its own._"

He carries the idea of individuality to its utmost height:

"_What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as G.o.d? And that there is no G.o.d any more divine than Yourself?_"

Glorying in individuality, in the freedom of the soul, he cries out:

"O to struggle against great odds, to meet enemies undaunted!

To be entirely alone with them, to find how much one can stand!

To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium, face to face!

To mount the scaffold, to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance!

To be indeed a G.o.d!"

And again:

"O the joy of a manly self-hood!

To be servile to none, to defer to none, not to any tyrant known or unknown,

To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic, To look with calm gaze or with a flas.h.i.+ng eye,

To speak with full and sonorous voice out of a broad chest, To confront with your personality all the other personalities of the earth."

Walt Whitman is willing to stand alone. He is sufficient unto himself, and he says:

"Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune.

Strong and content I travel the open road."

He is one of

"Those that look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and Governors, as to say 'Who are you? '"

And not only this, but he has the courage to say: "Nothing, not G.o.d, is greater to one than one's self." Walt Whitman is the poet of Individuality--the defender of the rights of each for the sake of all--and his sympathies are as wide as the world. He is the defender of the whole race.

VI. HUMANITY.

THE great poet is intensely human, infinitely sympathetic, entering into the joys and griefs of others, bearing their burdens, knowing their sorrows. Brain without heart is not much; they must act together. When the respectable people of the North, the rich, the successful, were willing to carry out the Fugitive Slave Law, Walt Whitman said:

"I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs, h.e.l.l and despair are upon me, crack and again crack the marksmen, I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn'd with the ooze of my skin, I fall on the weeds and stones, The riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close, Taunt my dizzy ears, and beat me violently over the head with whip-stocks.

Agonies are one of my changes of garments, I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person....

I... see myself in prison shaped like another man, And feel the dull unintermitted pain.

For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch, It is I let out in the morning and barr'd at night.

Not a mutineer walks handcuff'd to jail but I am handcuff'd to him and walk by his side.

Judge not as the judge judges, but as the sun falling upon a helpless thing."

Of the very worst he had the infinite tenderness to say: "Not until the sun excludes you will I exclude you."

In this age of greed when houses and lands and stocks and bonds outrank human life; when gold is of more value than blood, these words should be read by all: