[The following is from a speech by Hon. Thomas C. McRae, of Arkansas, in the House of Representatives, April 2, 1896. The special point under consideration was an appropriation for Howard University, a private and Congressional institution. This appropriation came in as an amendment to the appropriation bill for civil expenses of the government. The speech, especially that part quoted from Judge Jeremiah Black, is worthy of a place among some of the famous documents drawn by Jefferson, Madison, and Johnson.]
“THIS evil spirit of persecution is indeed very far from confining itself to the ignorant and depraved. It has often brutalized the kindliest natures, and under its influence the man of genius drivels like an idiot. I think no one can read the writings of St. Francis Xavier without being touched by the deep tone of his personal piety, yet he was the author of that diabolical invention, the Spanish Inquisition. That Calvin was the profoundest thinker of his age everybody admits; to deny the sincerity of his devotion would be simply absurd; but his name is inseparably linked with one of the foulest murders that ever blackened the face of the sky. Even the matchless intellect of Milton was subdued to the service of the same demon. When all his faculties were roused in defense of free conscience, there was one class of his opponents that he gave up without hesitation to the sword and the fagot. The great heart which conceived all the glories of the Paradise Lost had no drop of pity in it for the sufferings of the Irish. The loftiest hymn of his praise was sung to the man who carried the ‘curse of Cromwell’ through that devoted island.
“It not only nourishes those violent passions which lead to bloodshed and tyranny, it is almost equally objectionable for its meaner vices of treachery and fraud. It seldom approaches you in fair hostility, with its weapon drawn and its visor up; it hides its hideous face under some plausible disguise, and surrounds itself with all the machinery of false pretenses. It takes its adversary by the beard and affectionately inquires, ‘Art thou in health, my brother?’ while it stabs him under the fifth rib. Charles IX. invited the leading Protestants of his kingdom to a royal wedding, and took such order for their entertainment during the night that their mangled and lifeless bodies were scattered next morning through all the streets of Paris. This and other outrages were committed on the absurd allegation that Protestants were not, and could not be, faithful subjects or sound in their private morals. The statesmen of England, meanwhile, with a disregard of truth equally base, made the same accusation against Catholics, and on that hypocritical pretense compelled them, for more than a century, to groan under oppression compared to which the bondage of Egypt was mild and merciful.
“It engenders dissimulation of another kind. It pays an enormous premium for hypocrisy, and crushes out all independence and truth from the hearts of the people. Sincerity, even when it clings to an erroneous faith, is the first of virtues. But the brave, true men, who would rather suffer than belie their honest convictions, are hunted down and sent to the stake, or at least are banished in disgrace from the public councils, while the knave or the coward, who is willing to profess whatever creed is safe or profitable, is rewarded for his baseness with influence, power, and place. Bigotry applies an infallible test to the merits of men. With unerring certainty she divides the chaff from the wheat, but the wheat she condemns to the unquenchable fire of her hatred, while the chaff is carefully stored away in her garner. Therefore it is that, when bigotry reigns, the public service is always crowded with the worst men. Hostility against an unpopular religion is easily simulated. When you make that a virtue, the infidel and the ribald scorner can be as virtuous as anybody. When that becomes a passport to the sovereign’s favor, the state will be served, not by religious men, but by ‘hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.’
“It is useless to describe any further the features of this monstrous demon. It is the Moloch of the earth, who sits on his shrine up to the ears in blood and compels the children of men ‘to pass through fire to his grim idol.’ It corrupts the morals, it pollutes the religion, it endangers the safety of any people who permit it to gain a foothold among them.
“But we may safely felicitate ourselves upon one thing. Our establishment of perfect religious liberty and equality has not only given happiness and peace to ourselves, but it has revolutionized the sentiments of the Christian world. We have led the grandest reform that has ever been since the days of the apostles. England, under the admitted influence of our example, has in a great measure knocked away the shackles from the minds of her people. She has removed one political disability after another, until at last she welcomes men of every creed to her service. A Jew is sheriff of London, Catholics sit in her Parliament, and a Presbyterian was, not long ago, at the head of her cabinet.
“France has made a progress still greater. No one there thinks of excluding a man from office on account of his religion. For many years the prime minister, who mainly wielded the power and patronage of the kingdom, was the zealous defender of a creed which the king and four-fifths of the people rejected. Even the fund raised by taxation for purposes of religious instruction is distributed to preachers of the Protestant as well as the Catholic faith. In those parts of Germany where the religious wars were conducted with the greatest ferocity, the Catholic and the Protestant sit side by side at the same council board, and even worship alternately in the same churches. The Inquisition has been abolished in Spain and auto-da-fé are heard of no longer in Portugal. Each government in Europe still supports what it chooses to call the national faith, but offenses against the religion of the state are nowhere visited with those cruel and sanguinary7punishments which used to disgrace the Christian name. The great light of religious freedom, which was seen at first only from the mountain ranges of the intellectual world, has already illumined the hillsides, and promises soon to expel the deep darkness from the lowest valleys. May the time be speeded when the whole earth shall be bathed in its radiance!
“That America should now give up the proud position she occupies in the front of the world’s great march, and skulk back like a recreant into the rear, is a thought which can not enter an American mind without causing a blush of insupportable shame. She stands pledged to this principle in the face of the world; she has solemnly devoted herself to its championship; she has deliberately promised it—not only to her own people, but to all others who should fly to her for protection—and, if she breaks her faith, it will be such perfidy as never blackened the brow of any power before.
“To avert a calamity so grievous, and to prevent a disgrace so indelible, the country looks to her educated men. The unbroken and uncorrupted heart of the people will always be with you on the right side. But you are the body-guard of freedom, and it is your special duty to carry her oriflambe in the van of every battle. Perhaps no dangerous service will be needed soon. You may safely sit still while your enemies merely talk against the equal rights of all the people. But if at any time hereafter, during the long lives which I hope you will all enjoy, some great combination should arise to stir up the bitter waters of sectarian strife, and to marshal ignorance, prejudice, and selfishness into a body compact enough to endanger the bulwarks of the Constitution, then let your flag stream out upon the wind.”
Then stand you up,
Shielded, and helmed, and weaponed with the truth.
And drive before you into uttermost shame
Those recreant caitiffs.
