right to guess as though I had been through five theological
seminary. I have as much interest in the great absorbing questions of
origin and destiny as though I had D.D., L. L. D. at the end of my name.

All I claim, all I plead is simple liberty of thought. That is all. I
do not pretend to tell what is true and all the truth. I do not claim
that I have floated level with the heights of thought, or that I have
descended to the depths of things; I simply claim that what idea I have
I have a right to express, and any man that denies it to me is an
intellectual thief and robber. That is all. I say, take those chains
off from the human soul; I say, break these orthodox fetters, and if
there are wings to the spirit let them be spread. That is all I say.
And I ask you if I have not the same right to think that any other
human has? If I have no right to think, why have I such a thing as a
thinker. Why have I a brain? And if I have no right to think, who has?
If I have lost my right, Mr. Smith, where did you find yours? If I
have no right, have three or four men or 300 or 400, who get together
and sign a card and build a house and put a steeple on it with a bell
in it--have they any more right to think than they had before? That is
the question. And I am sick of the whip and lash in the region of mind
and intellect. And I say to these men, "Let us alone. Do your own
thinking; express your own thoughts." And I want to say tonight that I
claim no right that I am not willing to give to every other human being
beneath the stars--none whatever. And I will fight tonight for the
right of those who disagree with me to express their thoughts just as
soon as I will fight for my own right to express mine.

In the good old times, our fathers had an idea that they could make
people believe to suit them. Our ancestors in the ages that are gone
really believed that by force you could convince a man. You cannot
change the conclusion of the brain by force, but I will tell you what
you can do by force, and what you have done by force. You can make
hypocrites by the million. You can make a man say that he has changed
his mind, but he remains of the same opinion still. Put fetters all
over him; crush his feet in iron boots; lash him to the stock; burn him
if you please, but his ashes are of the same opinion still. I say our
fathers, in the good old times--and the best thing I can say about them
is, they are dead--they had an i