New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1908-11-18
MIXING RELIGION WITH POLITICS
A Word From the President.

A candidates religious faith, in the
opinion of Theodore Roosevelt, is
purely his own private concern and
not a matter for general discussion
and political discrimination.
During the campaign the president
received any number of communica-
tons from people of both parties ex-
pressing dissatisfaction with Mr.. Taft
on religious grounds, some OF them
on the ground that he was Unitar-
ian. and others on the ground that he
was suspected of being in sympathy
with the Catholics. To the author of
one of these letters he has made pub
lie reply as follows:
II did not answer any of these let
tiers during the campaign because [
regarded it as an outrage even to ag-
itate such question as mans re-
ligious convictions, with the purpose
of influencing a political election.
But now that the campaign is over,
when there is an opportunity for men
calmly to consider whittier such pro-
positions as those you make in your
letter would lead, I wish to invite you
to consider them, and I have selected
your letter to answer rbecaue you ad-
vance both the objections commonly
urged against Mr.. Taft, namely, that
he is Unitarian and also that he is
suspected of sympathy with the Cath
Olics.
"YOu ask that Mr.. Taft shall let
the world know what his religious be-
lief is This is purely his own pri-
vate concern, and it is a matter be-
tween him and his Maker, matter
for his own conscience, and to require
it to be made public under penalty Of
political discrimination is to Mega
alive the first principles of our gov
eminent, which guarantee complete
religious liberty, and the right to
each man to act in religious affairs
as his own conscience dictates.
''Mr. Taft never asked my advice in
the natter, but if he had asked it, [
should have emphatically advised
him against thus stating publicly his
religious belief. The demand for a
statement of a candidates religious
belief can have no meaning except
that there may be discrimination for
or against him because of that belief.
Discrimination against the holder Of
one faith means retaliatory discrimi-
nation against men of other faiths.
The inevitable result of entering
upon such practice would be an
abandonment of our real free
dom OF conscience and reversion to
the dreadful conditions of religious
dissension which, in so many lands,
have proved fatal to true liberty, to
true religion and to all advance in
civilization.
"To discriminate against a thor
oughly upright citizen because he be.
longs to some particular church, or
because, like Abraham Lincoln, be
has not avowed his allegiance to any
church, is an outrage against thai
liberty of conscience which is one Of
the foundations Of American life
You are entitled to know whether q
man seeking your sutfrages is mar
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 candidate, but you are not en-
titled to know matters which lie pure
ly between himself and his Maker
If it is proper or legitimate to oppose
man for being a Unitarian, as wa
John Quincy Adams, for instance, a.
is the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, a
the present moment chaplain of tn