ou
tonight that the obstruction that every science has had is what we have
been pleased to call our religion--or superstition. I had a
conversation with a gentleman once--and these gentlemen are always
mistaking something that goes along with a thing for the cause of the
thing--and he stated to me that his particular religion was the cause
of all advancement. I said to him: "No, Sir; the causes of all
advancement, in my judgment, are plug hats and suspenders." And I said
to him: "You go to Turkey, where they are semi-barbarians, and you
won't find a pair of suspenders or a plug hat in all that country; you
go to Russia, and you will find now and then a pair of suspenders at
Moscow or St. Petersburg; you go on down till you strike Austria, and
black hats begin; then you go on to Paris, Berlin and New York, and you
will find everybody wears suspenders and everybody wears black hats.
Wherever you find education and music there you will find black hats
and suspenders." He said that any man who said to him that plug hats
and suspenders had done more for mankind than the Bible and religion he
would not talk to.

As a matter of fact, we are controlled today by men who do not exist.
We are controlled today by phenomena that never did exist. We are
controlled by ghosts and dead men, and in the grasp of death is a
scepter that controls the living present. I propose that we shall
govern ourselves! I propose that we shall let the past go, and let the
dead past bury the dead past. I believe the American people have
brains enough, and nerve enough, and courage enough, to control and
govern themselves, without any assistance from dust or ghosts. That is
my doctrine, and I am going to do what I can while I live to increase
that feeling of independence and manhood in the American people.--We
can control ourselves. I believe in the gospel of this world; I
believe in happiness right here; I do not believe in drinking skim milk
all my life with the expectation of butter beyond the clouds. I
believe in the gospel, I say, in this world. This is a mighty good
world. There are plenty of good people in this world. There is lots
of happiness in this world and, I say, let us, in every way we can,
increase it. I envy every man who is content with his lot, whether he
is poor or whether he is rich. I tell you, the man that tries to make
somebody else happy, and who owns his own soul, nobody having a
mortgage or deed of trust upon his