Bisbee daily review., 1908-11-13

WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 12.- Secretary Taft's religious faith i purely his own private concern, an not a matter for general discussion and. political discrimination" say President Roosevelt, in a letter h made public tonight, in which he ar swers numerous correspondents. Tn president says he deferred the publ cation of the letter until now to avol any agitation likely to influence tn election. The letter follows:
 My Dear Sir: have receives your letter running in part as fol lows.
 While 1t is claimed almost uni
 yersally that religion should not
 enter into politics, yet there is
 no denying that 1t does, and the
 mass of the voters that are not
 Catholics will not support a man
 for any office, especially for pres
 ident of the United. States, who
 is a Roman Catholic.
 Since he has been nominated
 for president by the Republican
 party, 1t is being circulated and
 is constantly urged as reason for
 not voting for Taft that he is an
 inf1del (UnitarianG and his wife
 and brother Roman Catholics.
 If his feelings are in sympa-
 thy with tn Roman Catholic
 church on account of ais wife and
 brother being Catholics. that
 would be objectionable to a suffi-
 cient number of voters to defeat
 him. On the other hand, If he Is
 an infdel, that would ne sure to
 mean defeat.
 I am writing this latter for the
 sole purpose of giving Mir. Taft
 an opportunity to let the world
 know what his religious belief is.
 T received many such letters as yours during the campaingn, expres sing dissatisfaction with Mir. Tai. Cu religious grounds; some of them on the ground that he was a Unitarian. lnu others on the ground that he was sus- pected to be in symDathy with Caihu. lies. I did not ahswer any of there letters during the campaign becaus regarded it as au outrage even tn agitate such a question as q mans re- ligious convict 1ns with the purpose of influencing political campainkn. But now that the campaign is ever, when there is an opportunity for men calmly to consider whither such Drup letter would lead. i wish to invite them to consider them all. have selected your le ter to answer because you advance bo5h the objections com monIy urged against Mir. Taft name Iy that he is a Unitarian, and alsC that ne is suspected of sympathy with the Catholics.
 You ask that Mir Taft should let the world know what his religious belief is That is purely his own private concern; it is a matter be tween him and his Maker, matter for his own conscience; and to rc, quire it to be made public under pen. atty of political discrimination is to negative the first principles of our government, which guarantees com plete religious liberty and the right 10 each man to act in religious af- fairs as his own conscience dictates.
 MT. Taft never asked my advice H. he matter, but if he 1ad asked it ,hTuld have emphatically advised him against thus stating publicly his re igious belief. The demand for statement of candidates religious be- ief can have no meaning except that here may be discrimination for or .eainst him because of that belief against the holder ur me faith means retaliatory discrimi- iation against men of other faiths. The inevitable result of entering upon uch a practice would be an abandon nent of our real freedom of con cience and a reversion to the dread ul conditions of religious dissension which in so many lands have proved atal to true liberty, to true religion nd to all advance in civilization.
 ITO discriminate against 8 thor ughly upright citizen because he be- ongs to some particular church or ecause, like Abraham Lincoln, he has ot avowed his allegiance to any hurch, is an outrage to that liberty f conscience which is one of the foun. ations of Amercan life. You are en- tiled to know whether man seek ng your suffrag is a man of clean nd upright life, honorable in all his ealings with his fellows and fit ps and purpose to do well D the great office for which he is h and date; but you are not entitled tu now matters which lie purely be- ween himself and his Maker.
 If 1t is proper or legitimate to op- ose man for being a Unitarian, a. vas John Quincy Adams, for instance, s Is the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, t the present moment chaplain of the enate and an American whose life ah ood Americans are proud, then it 'ould be equally proper to support r oppose man because of his views n justification by faith, or the method