OBJECTS TO THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATIONS.
DR. J. E. ROBERTS, of Kansas City, objects, according to the Journal, to Thanksgiving-day proclamations by the President, on the following grounds:— “There is ground for the objection to this proclamation which has now grown into custom—first of all, on the score of etiquet. Surely a dignified and reasonable request made by the chief officer of a great nation ought to be treated with a becoming respect, but it is not. The call to assemble on a day and give thanks, makes no impression, is, in fact, treated with amiable disregard and good-natured indifference. “There is ground for objection to this custom on the score that it is a violation of the principle of religious liberty. It is the more subtle because the danger is masked. If the President were, by the authority of his position, to order people to observe a day of religious service, and should seek to enforce that order, it would be less dangerous because the people would summarily resent that invasion of their religious freedom, but the fact that it is tentative, hortatory, and apologetic, helps to establish it in custom because the peril is not seen, and it thus becomes more dangerous. “There are laws upon the statute-books of this state which, if enforced, would make this a very unhappy town one day in seven. Nothing but an enlightened public opinion stands now between us and a Sabbatarian despotism. There is an organization with salaried officers and headquarters in the capital of the nation whose avowed purpose is to put God in the Constitution and emblazon the sign of the cross on the Stars and Stripes. Already the church property in every State of the Union but one is exempt from taxation, and in that State within a few days the people have voted upon an amendment to the Constitution exempting their church property from taxation. Thus, the Lord, and the very rich, escape their just measure of taxation, and the poor people pay for both.”