# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1908_S518
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

518 Kirchlich⸗Zeitgeschichtliches.

between himself and his Maker. If it is proper or legitimate to oppose
a man for being à Unitarian, as was John Quincy Adams, for instance,
as is 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 à man because of
his views on justification by faith, or the method of administering the
sacrament, or the Gospel of salvation by Works. If you once enter on
such a career, there is absolutely no limit at which you can legitimately
stop. So much for your objections to Mr. Taft because he is à Unitarian.
Now for your objections to him bécause you think his wife and brother
to be Roman Catholics. As it happens, they are not; but if they were,
or if he were a Roman Catholie himself, it ought not to afféct in the
slightest degree any man's supporting him for the position of President.
Vou say that the mass of the voters that are not Catholies will not sup⸗
port à man for any office, especially for President of the United States,
who is a Roman Catholie.“ I believe that when you say this, yvou foully
slander your fellow-eountrymen. I do not for one moment believe that
the mass of our fellow-eitizens, or that any considerable number of our
kellow-eitizens, can be influenced by such narrow bigotry as to refuse to
vote for any thoroughly upright and fit man beécause he happens to have
a particular religious ereed. Such a consideration should never be treated
as à reason for either supporting or opposing à candidate for a political
office. Are you aware that there are several states in this Union where
the majority of the people are now Catholics? I should reprobate in the
severest terms the Catholies in those states (or in any other states) who
refused to vote for the most fit man because he happened to be a Protes-
tant; and my condemnation would be exactly as severe for Protestants
who, under reversed circumstances, refused to vote for a Catholie
Ibelieve that this republic will endure for many centuries. If so, there-
will doubtless be among its Presidents Protestants and Catholics, and very
probably at some time Jews. I have consistently tried while President to
act in relation to my fellow-Americans of Catholie faith as I hope that
any future President who happens to be aà Catholie will act toward his
fellow-Americans of Protestant faith. Had I followed any other course,
Ishould have felt that I was unfit to represent the American people. In
my cabinet at the present moment there sit side by side Catholie and Prot-
estant, Christian and Jew, each man chosen bécause in my belief he is
pechliarly fit to exercise on behalf of all our people the duties of the
office to which I have appointed him. In no case does the man's religious
belief in any way influence his discharge of his duties, save as it makes
him moreé eager to act justly and uprightly in his relations to all men.“
Kardinal Gibbons erklärte am 8. November das Schreiben Roosevelts be⸗
treffend: „There are two things I would like to say about the letter: it is
well worth reading and pondering over, and I knew it was coming out.“
Roosevelt scheint also durch römische Prälaten mit bestimmt worden zu sein,
obiges Schreiben zu veröffentlichen. Gibbons sagt: I knew it was coming
out.“ Zum Inhalt des Schreibens bekennt sich Gibbons nicht, was er auch
nach seinen Prinzipien nicht konnte. Was nämlich Roosevelt sagt von der
Pflicht der Katholiken gegen die Protestanten, und daß auch der katholische
Wähler nicht fragen dürfe nach der religiösen Stellung politischer Kandida⸗