Liberty and Equality

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 4, 1907

Liberty and Equality

MR. CHAS. J. BONAPARTE, the Roman Catholic Attorney-General of the United States, in a lecture at Carnegie Hall, New York City, on March 24, made the following striking declaration in reference to the fundamental principles of our government—the liberty and equality of men:—

As I have said on another occasion, the root of socialism is the doctrine that all men of right ought to be, and should therefore be, made and kept precisely equal. This doctrine is a wholly arbitrary dogma, a pure assumption, justified neither by reason nor by history, and, in fact, contradicted by the daily experience of all mankind; but it is so earnestly and so widely preached by the precursors and apostles of the French Revolution, and has so gravely affected legislation, custom, and public opinion wherever the influence of the revolution extends, that to question its truth even now seems to a certain class of teachers and thinkers little short of blasphemy.

He accounts for the prevalence in this country of the doctrine of the equality of men by stating that it was introduced in the Declaration of Independence along with the demand for liberty. He deprecates the prevalence of the doctrine and denounces it, and declares that the equality of men is inconsistent with the idea of liberty. This is practically the same doctrine that is being put forward by the National Reformers at the present time. It is a combined attack upon the very fundamental principles of our government by a power which has always stood for the enslavement of conscience, and another power that is practising her dogmas under the cloak of Protestantism. Years ago Catholicism would not have been so outspoken against a fundamental American doctrine; but now that Protestantism is such largely in name only, Rome does not fear to let her antagonism to the basic principles of a free government shine forth. This declaration of our attorney-general is in harmony with the pope's expressed determination now to do for the United States what he has done for other nations. He has interfered, through his representatives, to mold other governments into harmony with his ideas of what governments should be. So he has struck early and struck straight at the most vital principle of our national government. National Reformers are attacking the same principle, and seeking to turn all the forces of Protestantism into that attack. When they have succeeded in accomplishing such a grand rally under the banner of Rome, we shall see the prophecy fulfilled which declares that “all the world wondered after the beast.”