The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
INTOLERANCE IS THING
OF DIM, DISTANT PAST
Celebration at Norwich ls Great Sue
cess and Taft Is Center of Inter
est to Thousands of His
Fellow Citizens.

Norwich, Conn.,, July 5.--Presideut
Taft was the chief figure today IN tho
celebration of the 250th anniversary
of this historic old New England town.
In an address to the people, after u
fine military parade and civic display,
the President, finding a theme in the
church influence in the foundation of
Norwich, took occasion to express his
views of the liberty of religious te-
l!ef.
He pleaded that every man sh olld be-
allowed to worship God in his own
way. The President declared, amid
laughter, that the American forefath-
ers oarle to ibis country ostensIbly to
escape religious intolerance, buc as a
matter of fact in order that they might
follow out their own religious ideas in
their own way and with large dogree
of intorlerancc toward any other form
of belief.
I'VE have passed beyond that row"
said the President, and are CO ming
more and more TO realize the right of
the individua. to worship God as he
may choose
historical in character
Historical Incident.
The day was replete with mist o~ic
incidents. An open air pageant dur
| ing the morning depicted scenes lead
ing down from the wars between tho
| Mohegan and Narragansett trihcs Of
Indians to the present day.
The President on arriving at Beverly
ty special train at 10 a. m. was driven
direct to the pageants at Rockwell
Terrace.
Later he reviewed a parade which
was notable In many features. al
Ill essed the people from the review-
ing srand, held L reception in the buck
insham Memorial and witnessed to-
night brilliant display of fireworks.
The President left late tonight for
Albany, N. Y, where he will be Joined
tomorrow by other prominent gucsis en-
route to the tercentenary celebration
at Lake Champlain.
The President dined with Mr. Will
liam and painted a tree on tn. Will
iams estate. He also rode for a time
at the head of thu parade, being .r.-
mediately followed by the entire bat
TALON of midshipmen from the United
States Naval academy at Annapolis.
Taft introduced.
After reviewing the parade Presi-
dent Taft was introduced by Cow
ernor Weeks and spoke in part as fol-
lows:
IT think 1t was last year that had
the pleasure OF addressing a Norwich
audience. Then I talked of the Panama
canal. and 1 promised to come back here
at the 250th anniversary of your citys
founding. whether l was nominated and
elected to the presidency or not. l said
that probably you would not want me II
I was not elected, but 1 have not had
an opportunity to test you on that"
You are all right, Bill" said one in
the crowd
1T Is a great pleasure to come back
to this beautiful town." continued the
President. We'll may 1t be called the
rose OF New England. It's beauties to-
day and It's sweet memories of the past
justify the use of that term
I'VE speak with great satisfaction of
the fact that our ancestors (and claim
New England ancestry came to this
country In order to establish freedom of
religion.
Object Of Travel.
WELL II you are going to be exact,
they came to establish freedom of their
own religion. In those days such
thing as freedom of religion was not UNI
derstood. We look with considerable hor-
ror and with a great deal of condemnation
on these particular denominations that
punished our ancestors because our an
cestors wished to have a different kind
of religion, but when our ancestors got
here in this country and ruled they In
tended to have their own religion and no
other
But we have passed beyond that and
out of the friction, out OF the denomina-
tional prejudces of the past, we have
developed freedom of religion that came
naturally and logically as we went on to
f. ee institutions. 1t came from those very
men who built up your community and
made Its character. The Rev. James
Fitch could not lok upon any other re-
lig'on in this community with any de-
gree of patience, but his descendants, as
firm In their faith he was now see
that the best way to promote Christianity
and the worship of God and religion is to
let every man worship God as he chooses
This community was we'll supervised by
the clergy and they did well by the
clergy