The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-29
T aft's Unltarianism.
From the New York Herald.

From the New York Herald.
 Tafts Unitarianism' was the indirect
 subject of sermon preached yesterday
 morning in the Church of Messiah. IJni-
 tarian, at East Thirty-fourth street and
 Park avenue, by the associate pastor.
 the Rev. John Taynes Holmes. The ser-
 mon was announced as the first of two on
 contributions of Unitarianism to Ameri- can Civilization.' He took for his text
 the words of Jesus: By their fruits ye
 shall know them," and said in part:
 'For the first time in more than 100 years this country is in the midst of a political Campaign in which religion and religious belief have been raised as an issue against one of the candidates. Will
 liam Howard Taft is a Unitarian, while William Jennings Bryan is consistently a Presbyterian.
 MT. Taft came by his Unitariansm
 naturally. His father, Alfonso Taft was one of the leading lawyers in the middle west, Attorney General in General Grants cabinet, and one of the founders of the Unitarian church in Cincinnati. William Howard Taft Is Unitarian himself, the child of Unitarian parents, and a mem Der and attendant of All Souls Unitarian
 church in his home city.
 Since the republican national conven- ton, at which Judge Taft was nominated, there have been words of regret and shouts of alarm from many sources One clergyman in Washington said shortly after the convention that President Roose- welt and MT. Taft were engaged in con- spiracy to overthrow loyalty to orthodox views in this country. Another clergy man, the Rev. Robert Watson, rector of the Episcopal church of which brother laf ATr rraf ic frttc hoe cfoto ftak
 he doubted whether a consistent Chris tian could vote for the republican candi- date.
 Now, all this would be very amusing
 were it not so serious We are living in the United States of America, in the con- stituton of which it is distinctly pro- vided that no religious test shall ever bg applied to those who are candidates for public office Yet here is a concerted att | tack from some quarters upon a man for no other reason than that he is Uni | taran.
 "Enter the Boston public library and on | the walls read the names of the men of 1 letters and fame. Four-fifths of them are those of Unitarians Then we have the | 29 names inscribed in our own New York hall of fame. 12 of which are those of | Untarians On the committee of five ap- | pointed by the members of the first con- i tinental congress to draught the Declara- ton of Independence, three-Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were Unitarians. President Washington's Vice President, Secretary of State and Attorney General were Unitarians. The great supreme court presiding justice. | John Marshall, and the great associate ! justice of the same court, Joseph Story, were both Unitarians. During the period | from 1920 to the Civil War, when all of | the Presidents were comparatively inslg-
 nificant men and the destiny of the coun- | try was worked out in the halls of Con- gress, John c. Calhoun. Daniel Webster and Henry Clay stand forth as the great | triumvirate; and of these Calhoun and l Webster were Unitarians
 l we have had four Unitarian Presidents Jefferson. John Adams John Quincy Adams, Willard Fillmore, and if you please, Abraham Lincoln--although he did
 not unite with our church. We have had
 five Unitarian Vice Presidents, seven Sec
 retaries of State and so on in other of 1 fces."
 1 In conclusion he stated that if all of | the good works which had been performed by Unitarians were taken out of the country the American people would have | to say, with the mother of Israeli '.fch-
 abod! Thy glory is departed"