Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-09
TETS RELIGION
Cardinal Gibbons Says Read
 Roosevelt Letter.
INQUIRIES ARE ANSWERED
President Writes, "i Do Not Believe That Our Fellow Citizens Can Bs In. dueed by Narrow Bisotry to Refuse to Vote For Any Thoroughly Upright Man Because He Happens to Have a Particular Religious Creed"

70 vote TOT Any thoroughly Upright
 Man Because He Happens to Have a
 Particular Religious Creed"
 Washington, Nov. 9. - President Roosevelt made public letter written to one of many persons who addressed to him inquiries concerning the re- ligion of w. H. Taft This letter is intended as a reply to all. It reads:
 received many letters during the cam paign expressing dissatisfaction with Mir. 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 oics. l did not answer any of these let- ters during the campaign because I re- garded 1t as an outrage even to agitats such question as a mans religious con- victions with the purpose of influencing a political election.
 You ask that MT. 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 1t 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. Mir Taft never asked my advice in the matter, but if he had asked it l should have emphstically advised him against thus stating publicly his religious belief. The demand for statement of 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 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 An erican life.
 Mentions John Quincy Adams.
 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 well in the great office for which he is a candi- date, but you are not entitled to know matters which lie purely between him. self and his Maker
 If 1t is proper or legitimate to oppose man for being 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 if they were or if he were a Roman Catholic himself 1t 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 a man for any office, especially for president of the United States, who is Roman Catholic" I believe that when you say this you foully islander your fellow countrymen. I do not for one moment believe that the mass of our fellow citizens or that any considerable number of our fellow citizens can be in fiuenced 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 you aware that there are several states in this Union where the majority of the people are now Catholics? l should rep rebate in the severest terms the Cath olics who in those states refused to vote for the most fit man because he happened to be Protestant, and my condemnation would be exactly as severe for Protestants who under reversed cir cumstances refused to vote for a Cath olic.
 Refers to His Cabinet.
 know Catholics who have for many years represented constituencies mainly Protestant and Protestants who have for many years represented constituencies mainly Catholic, and among the congress- men whom l know particularly we'll was one man of Jewish faith who represented district in which they were hardly any Jews at all.
 I believe that this republic will endure for many centuries. If so, there will doubtless be among its presidents Prot estants and Catholics and very probably at some time Jews
 In my cabinet there sit side by side Catholic and Protestant. Christian and 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 the office to which have appointed him.
 Baltimore, Nov. g. - Cardinal Gib- bons upon being shown copy Of President RooseveIt's letter relative to the religious belief of MT. Taft said:
 "I would like to say two things about the letter First. it is well worth reading and pondering over; secondly, knew it was coming out
 HITCHCOCK TO SEE TAFT.