stripes. Personally I have no hatreds in this matter.
The present is not only the child of the past, but the necessary
child. A statesman must deal with things as they are. He must
not be like Gladstone, who divides his time between foreign wars
and amendments to the English Book of Common Prayer.

_Question_. How do you regard the religious question in politics?

_Answer_. Religion is a personal matter--a matter that each
individual soul should be allowed to settle for itself. No man
shod in the brogans of impudence should walk into the temple of
another man's soul. While every man should be governed by the
highest possible considerations of the public weal, no one has the
right to ask for legal assistance in the support of his particular
sect. If Catholics oppose the public schools I would not oppose
them because they are Catholics, but because I am in favor of the
schools. I regard the public school as the intellectual bread of
life. Personally I have no confidence in any religion that can be
demonstrated only to children. I suspect all creeds that rely
implicitly on mothers and nurses. That religion is the best that
commends itself the strongest to men and women of education and
genius. After all, the prejudices of infancy and the ignorance of
the aged are a poor foundation for any system of morals or faith.
I respect every honest man, and I think more of a liberal Catholic
than of an illiberal Infidel. The religious question should be
left out of politics. You might as well decide questions of art
and music by a ward caucus as to govern the longings and dreams of
the soul by law. I believe in letting the sun shine whether the
weeds grow or not. I can never side with Protestants if they try
to put Catholics down by law, and I expect to oppose both of these
until religious intolerance is regarded as a crime.

_Question_. Is the religious movement of which you are the chief
exponent spreading?

_Answer_. There are ten times as many Freethinkers this year as
there were last. Civilization is the child of free thought. The
new world has drifted away from the rotting wharf of superstition.
The politics of this country are being settled by the new ideas of
individual liberty; and parties and churches that cannot accept
the new truths must perish. I want it perfectly understood that
I am not a politician. I believe in liberty and I want to see the
time when every man, woman and child will enjoy e