American heroes (5): Robert Green Ingersoll

«They knew that to put God in the Constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her keeping, or in the keeping of her God, the sacred rights of man. They intended that all should have the right to worship, or not to worship; that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed. They intended to found and frame a government for man, and for man alone. They wished to preserve individuality of all; to prevent the few from governing the many, and the many form persecuting and destroying the few.»

(Robert Green Ingersoll, 1833-1899; conhecido como «o Grande Agnóstico», Ingersoll foi durante toda a vida um defensor do laicismo, da liberdade de expressão, do direito de voto das mulheres e do fim da escravatura.)