The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1908-11-11
President Answers Inquiries
Made Before Election.
his OWN PRIVATE CONCERN"
He Points Out That In His Cabinet
Catholic, Protestant, Chris
tian and Jew" Sit Side
by Side.

Washington, Nov. o. - Secretary
Taft's religious faith is purely his own
private concern and not a matter for
general discussion and political dis
elimination" says President Roose-
welt in letter he made public in which
he answers numerous correspondents:
received many letters during the cam
paign expressing dissatisfaction with Mr..
Taft on religious grounds-some of them
ON the ground that he was a Unitarian
and others on the ground that he was
suspected to be in sympathy with Cath
olics. l did not answer any of these let
ters during the campaign because 1 re-
garded 1t as an outrage even to agitats
such question as mans religious con-
victions with the purpose of influencing
4 political election.
You ask that Mr.. Taft shall "let the
world know what his religious belief is"
This is purely his own private concern,
and 1t is a matter between him and his
Maker a matter for his own conscience,
and to require it to be made public un-
der penalty of political discrimination is
| to negative the first principles of our gov
ernment, which guarantee complete re.
ligious liberty. Mr.. Taft never asked my
advice in the matter, but If he had asked
1t l should have emphatically advised him
against thus stating publicly his religious
belief. The demand for statement of q
candidates religious belief can have no
meaning except that there may be dis
elimination for or against him because
| of that belief
To discriminate against a thoroughly
| upright citizen because he belongs to
| some particular church or because. like
| Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his
allegiance to any church is an outrage
| against that liberty of conscience which
| is one of the foundations of American
| life.
You are entitled to know whether a
man seeking your suffrage is a man Of
clean and upright life, honorable in all
his dealings with his fellows and fit by
| qualification and purpose to do we'll in
the great Office for which he is candi-
date, but you are not entitled to know
| matters which lie purely between him
self and his Maker.
| II 1t is proper or legitimate to oppose
man for being a Unitarian, as was
| John Quincy Adams, for instance, as is
| the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, at the
| present moment chaplain of the senate
and an American of whose life all good
| Americans are proud, then it would be
equally proper to support or, oppose a
| man because of his view on justification
| by faith or the method of administering
the sacrament or the gospel of salvation
| by works.
| Now, for your objections to him be-
cause you think his wife and brother to
be Roman Catholics. AS it happened
they are not, but II they were or If he
were a Roman Catholic himself it ought
not to affect in the slightest degree any
man supporting him for the position OF
president. You say that "the mass of the
voters that are not Catholics will not
| support man for any office, especially
for president of the United States, who
is a Roman Catholic" / believe thai
when you say this you foully slandel
your fellow countrymen. | do not fol
one moment believe that the mass of oul
fellow citizens or that any considerable
number sof our fellow citizens can be in
fluenced by such narrow bigotry as to re
fuse to vote for any thoroughly upright
and fit man because he happens to have
a particular religious creed. Are yol
aware that there are several states II
this Union where the majority of thu
people are now Catholics? / should rep
rebate in the severest terms the Cath
olics who in those states refused t.
vote for the most fit man because III
happened to be Protestant, and my
condemnation would be exactly as severe
for Protestants who under reversed cir
cumstances refused to vote for Cath
Ollie.
1 know Catholics who have for man!
years represented constituencies mainl!
Protestant and Protestants who have TO
many years represented constituencies
mainly Catholic, and among the congress
men whom l know particularly we'll wa
one man of Jewish faith who representet
district in which they were hardly an!
Jews at all.
1 believe that this republic will endur
for many centuries. If so, there vii
doubtless be among its presidents Prot
estants and Catholics and very probabl,
at some time Jews.
In my cabinet there sit side by sid
Catholic and Protestant, Christian AM
Jew, each man chosen because in my be
lief he is peculiarly fit to exercise on be
half of all our people the duties of tn
Office to which l have appointed him.