Ladies, Mr. President and Gentlemen:
I AM here to-night for the purpose of defending your right to differ with me. I want to convince you that you are under no compulsion to accept my creed; that you are, so far as I am concerned, absolutely free to follow the torch of your reason according to your conscience; and I believe that you are civilized to that degree that you will extend to me the right that you claim for yourselves.
First. Thought is a necessary natural product—the result of what is called impressions made through the medium of the senses upon the brain, not forgetting the Fact of heredity.
Second. No human being is accountable to any being-human or divine—for his thoughts.
Third. Human beings have a certain interest in the thoughts of each other, and one who undertakes to tell his thoughts should be honest.
Fourth. All have an equal right to express their thoughts upon all subjects.
Fifth. For one man to say to another, "I tolerate you," is an assumption of authority—not a disclaimer, but a waiver, of the right to persecute.
Sixth. Each man has the same right to express to the whole world his ideas, that the rest of the world have to express their thoughts to him.
Courtlandt Palmer, Esq., President of the Club, in introducing Mr. Ingersoll, among other things said:
"The inspiration of the orator of the evening seems to be that of the great Victor Hugo, who uttered the august saying, 'There shall be no slavery of the mind.'