Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1910-06-03
CONE. LET US REASON.

SOFlE, LEI OS kEASUN.
Los ANGELES, Cal, May a, 10.
ED. STANDARD:
Is it not strange that the men who
have done most for the benefit of hu-
manity have been more maligned,
abused and misrepresented than
any others ? My attention has just
been called to the account of some
muck making in the early politics of
our country, in which the RepuJH-
can -A"rorn, a paper of those days,
paid George Washington this queer
compliment: If ever nation has
been deceived by a man. the Ameri-
can nation has been debauched by
Washington" Not to be outdone,
the New York Gazette of that day
had this to say of the Father of his
Country: Now should the people
rejoice exceedingly, and let their
hearts be glad. for now is the source
of all misfortune brought down to
the level of his fellow-man. Now
will political iniquity cease to be le-
galized by name" Adams also
came in, following Washington, for
even worse treatment at the hands
of the men who had blackguarded
Washington. In one of the papers
occurs this TRADE: THE historian
will ask why the United States de-
graded themselves to the choice of a
wretch whose soul came blasted from
the hand of nature; of a wretch that
has neither the science of q magis-
trate, the politeness of a courtier,
nor the courage of a man. But in
order to give the President full JUS
tice we must recollect that the per-
fidy and imposture of his kidneys
have corresponding proportion to
the crack in his upper story; that, as
Dryden says, every inch which is
not fool, is rogue that the now
blasted tyrant of America. that ruff
fan who stigmatized the Governor of
Virginia as minister recalled in dis
grace. is supereminently entitled not
only to laughter, but likewise to the
curses of mankind" In like manner
Jefferson, John @. Adams and An
drew Jackson came in for their share
of abuse. Going back still farther
we find the names of Caesar, Julian,
Bruno, Diderot, David Hume and
Thos. Paine subjected to the same
abuse. Among all the galaxy of
great men-men who had ideas be-
yond the ken of the common herd-we
find no exception. Everyone was
illuminated.
From among the names of the he
roes have mentioned l wish to call
the readers attention, specifically, to
two OF the most prominent. The
first is Giordano Bruno. He was
born in the year 1850. He was a Do
minican friar - Catholic-and after
wards changed his mind. The rea-
son he changed was because he had
mind. He was lover of nature, and
said to the poor hermits of the caves,
to the monks in their monasteries, to
the nuns in the cells: Come out in
the glad fields; come and breathe the
fresh, free air; como and enjoy all the
beauty there is in the world. There
is no God who can be made happier
by you being miserable; there is no
God who delights to see upon the hu-
man face the tears of pain, of grief,
of agony. Come out and enjoy all
there is of human life"
AsSIngersoll said, He revolted at
the idea of transubstantiation; he re-
VOTED at the idea that the eternal
God could be in wafer. He revolt
ed at the idea that you could make
the Trinity out OF dough- bake God in
an oven as you would q biscuit. |
should think he would have revolted.
The idea of a man devouring the Gre
atOr of the universe by swallowing a
piece of bread.
Bruno declared: That he fought
not what men really believed but
what they pretended to believe. He
was driven from his native country
because he taught the rotation of the
earth, a fact that no one disputes to-
day. He had found fact and a fact
has the same effect upon religion that
dynamite has upon a Russian Ear
He went to England and delivered
lectures at Oxford. He found there
was nothing taught there but super
stitiOn. Then they told him they
didn't want him any more. He went
back to Italy. He was arrested for
teaching that there were other
worlds, and that stars are suns
around which revolve other planets.
He was in prison six years. Six
years in dungeon; and then, he was
tried. denounced by the Inauisition,
accommodated, condemned by brute
force, pushed upon his knees while he
received the benediction of the church
and on the 10th Of February, in the
year 1900, was burned at the stake.
Now as to Thos. Paine. What
were his faults ? Why he attacked
the Trinity and the Bible. His argu-
ments were SO good that his reputa-
tion got bad. He did more for the
independence of the United States
than any. man of his day. He was
the first man who wrote these words:
" United States of America" and
was the first to suggest the Federal
constitution. He did more for lib
erty with his pen than any soldier
with his sword, his Crisis was the
pillar of fire by night and a cloud
by day" his Common Sense" was
the one star in the horizon of despot-
ism and yet he was maligned, ridi-
culed and misrepresented by the very
people whose battles he fought.
Such men as Bryan, Cummings, La
toilette ct al, should rejoice in the
fact that they are such shining
marks for the shafts of maligners.