Do The Best That Can Be Done

Every Man That Tried To Destroy The Government, Every Man That Shot At The Holy Flag In Heaven, Every Man That Starved Our Soldiers... Every Man That Wanted To Burn The Negro, Every One That Wanted To Scatter Yellow Fever In The North, Every Man That Opposed Human Liberty, That Regarded The Auction-block As An Altar And The Howling Of The Bloodhound As The Music Of The Union, Every Man Who Wept Over The Corpse Of Slavery, That Thought Lashes On The Naked Back Were A Legal Tender For Labour Performed, Every One Willing To Rob A Mother Of Her Child - Every Solitary One Was A Democrat.

The Falling Leaf That Tells Of Autumn's Death Is, In A Subtler Sense, A Prophecy Of Spring.

Our Civilization Is Not Christian. It Does Not Come From The Skies. It Is Not A Result Of Inspiration. It Is The Child Of Invention, Of Discovery, Of Applied Knowledge - That Is To Say, Of Science. When Man Becomes Great And Grand Enough To Admit That All Have Equal Rights; When Thought Is Untrammeled; When Worship Shall Consist In Doing Useful Things; When Religion Means The Discharge Of Obligations To Our Fellow-men, Then, And Not Until Then, Will The World Be Civilized.

In All Ages The People Have Honored Those Who Dishonored Them. They Have Worshiped Their Destroyers; They Have Canonized The Most Gigantic Liars, And Buried The Great Thieves In Marble And Gold. Under The Loftiest Monuments Sleeps The Dust Of Murder.

Christianity Did Not Come With Tidings Of Great Joy, But With A Message Of Eternal Grief. It Came With The Threat Of Everlasting Torture On Its Lips. It Meant War On Earth And Perdition Hereafter.