HOW THE POLITICIANS DODGE.
By Editor
The Boston Sunday Herald of Oct. 19, 1879, publishes an article from Elizur Wright, headed “Church and State,” advocating the secular view of national government in opposition to the religious. In this article he presents certain questions which he has addressed to the four persons who are running as candidates for governor in the State of Massachusetts; among which we find the following:— - Should property devoted to religious uses be exempted from taxation?
- Should persons consecrated to religious services be, on that account, exempted from any burdens or duties required by the government of other citizens of the same sex?
- Should the public money be expended on officers who exercise no other than religious functions?
- Should any citizen be punished for doing on Sunday any act which would be lawful or laudable on any other day?
It is this last question, containing the inevitable allusion to the Sunday movement, which particularly interests us, and which, as we read it, immediately excited our curiosity regarding the reply which the politicians would make. The two leading ones, B. F. Butler and J. D. Long, replied; the former simply remarking that his views had been more or less before the public for thirty-six years, and he must refer to the opinions he had publicly expressed for full satisfaction upon the questions; and the latter declining to give his opinions in writing but calling for a personal interview with Mr. Wright, which, being granted, he expressed himself, in private conversation, as in favor of the entire secularization of state and school. The other two candidates are not yet heard from. All of which shows that they are waiting to see which way the tide sets before they will know where to jump.