The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-11-01
WHEELING DAILY INTEIIGENoER MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1881

D'Aubigne, Bancroft, Michelet. Free
man Clarke. Daniel Webster, Dollln-
ger, DR.. W. +. Conrad. and concluded
with Luthers own wosSi at the Diet OF
Worms, when commanded by the EN-
peror to recant.
D'Aubigne says:
Luther was the first to profess the
great principles OF humanity and relig-
ious liberty he was far beyond his own
age, and even beyond many OF the Re-
formers. IN liberation.
Bancroft says:
Luther repealed the use OF violence In
religion. He protested against propa-
CATION reform by persecution. and with
a wise moderation he maintained the
sublime doctrine OF freedom OF con-
science.
Mlchelet the distinguished Catholic
historian Of France, says;
II Is not improper TO call Luther the
restorer OF liberty in modern times. II
he did not create, he nevertheless, set
his seal to the mighty revolution which
rendered the right OF examination law
full In Europe. II we now enjoy in all Its
plentitude this first aat' highest princl-
pic vi llltlllkGHIGt II 10 ~ llllN AAlhk VIC
are most indebted for 1t. We can neith-
er think. speak nor write anything
without being made conscious at every
step OF the immense benefits of this in
tellectual Acknowledgement, To whom do
l owe the rlght OF publishing what l
am now inditing. but 20 this llberator
OF modern thought?
Rev, Freeman Clarke says
All Europe Is now pervaded by free
dom of thought. Free thought, born of
the Reformation. rules in every land.
There Is no country-no, not In Rome
itself-where freedom of thought can
now be fettered. Free thought
triumphs everywhere, and this is the
work and triumph of Luther. Despite
all subtiety and sophlstry. Martin
Luther will be regarded during all
coming time as the champion of human
liberty.
Daniel Webster bore the following
testimony 10 the Indebtedness OF
America to Luther:
The Reformation OF Luther klndled
up the minds OF men afresh, leading to
new habits OF thought, and awakening
in individuals energies before unknown
to themselves, - = The spirit OF COM
mercial and foreign adventure, on the
one hand, and, on the other, the asser-
ton and maintenance OF religious lib
erty, having their source in the Re-
formation, and this love .oe religious
liberty drawing after 1t, or bringing
along with It, as 1t always does, an ar
dent devotion to the principle of civil
liberty also, were the powerful influ-
ences under which character was form
ed and men trained for the great work
OF introducing English civilization, Eng
lish law, and, what Is more than all,
Anglo-Saxon blood, into the wilderness
OF North America.
DR.. Ferris. editor OF the Christian In
teillgencer, New York, says:
We Americans must dig deeper than
the Constitution and the Declaration of
observation-disclosures down than the
graves OF our Revolutionary fathers
and Union soldlers-to find the corner
stone of our liberties. Back OF our Pill
grim Fathers and pioneer settlers OF
our warriors and statesmen, our heroes
and martyrs, stands the broad figure of
the man OF Erfurt, and Wittenberg and
Worms, and Speyer, who struck the
dusty clasps from the Bible, and with
one hand wrote Tekel on the walls OF
Rome, and with the other inscribed
over the portals OF the new Protestant
era, 1.-THE Just shall live by faith"
From the purpose OF God and the
philosophy OF history, as thus certified
by the testimony OF It's witnesses, 1t is
manifest that. without Luther and his
writings on freedom, the Protest Of
speyer, the Augsburg Confession and
the League OF Smalcald. there could
have been neither n Washington. n
Declaration of Independence. nor a
Constitution OF the United States-yea,
that without Professionalism and the
Lutheran Reformation. there could
have been neither an American Revo-
luton. nor the great republic OF the
United States. with Its free institutions,
which for more than century have
been breaking the Jokes OF oppression,
undermining the thrones Of despotism,
and spreading the principles of Luther
on civil and religious liberty among all
the nations OF the world,-Dr w f.
Conrad. editor Of the Lutheran obser-
yer