ction of the
American citizen. Wherever he wanders, whether in Africa, or Europe,
or Asia, or Germany, or Ireland, or Cuba, or Mexico, the American
citizen must and shall be protected. [Applause.] It is difficult for
men coming from Europe, where men are contemplated in masses, to
realize the potency of individuality; but it underlies our free
institutions.

Fourthly, he is an American, whether native-born or foreign-born, who
accepts the bold venture of the fathers to segregate public education
from the teachings of the church. It was a bold move in political
science. There is no authority under the Constitution of the United
States, there should be no authority in the constitution of any
State, there should be no authority in the municipality of any part of
the country, to impose religious instruction upon the childhood of
America. You and I may tremble in the presence of this tremendous
fact, this daring project in the science of statecraft, but then you
must remember that, according to the organic law of our country, we
know no class but citizens, we know no obligation but protection, no
duty but the welfare of the people. In all the nations abroad there is
the combination of secular and religious instruction. Arithmetic,
geometry, geography, physiology, must be taught under the sanctions of
religion. But in this country public education is separated from
sectarian religious teaching. We may pause in the presence of such a
fact. We know that intelligence is almost a boundless power.
Intelligence has produced as much evil as it has good; the greatest
monsters who have damned humanity have been men of the highest
possible culture, and the men who are sowing the seed in this country
of discord are men of sublime intellects and polished education. And
therefore the founders of the Republic recognized the duty of the
individual citizen to add home instruction, instruction in the church,
instruction in the Sunday-school, to sanctify this intelligence.
Whenever they expounded constitutional law, or spoke in behalf of the
perpetuity of our institutions, they never failed to give pre-eminence
to private virtue and public morality; nor did they hesitate to say
that this virtue in private life and this morality in the public
society must flow out of that religion which we esteem divine.

Those great men ventured on another and a desperate mission, the
segregation of State from Church. In the nations of the old world
these a