_Question_. How do you regard the present political situation?
_Answer_. My opinion is that the ideas the North fought for upon
the field have at last triumphed at the ballot-box. For several
years after the Rebellion was put down the Southern ideas traveled
North. We lost West Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York
and a great many congressional districts in other States. We lost
both houses of Congress and every Southern State. The Southern
ideas reached their climax in 1876. In my judgment the tide has
turned, and hereafter the Northern idea is going South. The young
men are on the Republican side. The old Democrats are dying. The
cradle is beating the coffin. It is a case of life and death, and
life is ahead. The heirs outnumber the administrators.
_Question_. What kind of a President will Garfield make?
_Answer_. My opinion is that he will make as good a President as
this nation ever had. He is fully equipped. He is a trained
statesman. He has discussed all the great questions that have
arisen for the last eighteen years, and with great ability. He is
a thorough scholar, a conscientious student, and takes an exceedingly
comprehensive survey of all questions. He is genial, generous and
candid, and has all the necessary qualities of heart and brain to
make a great President. He has no prejudices. Prejudice is the
child and flatterer of ignorance. He is firm, but not obstinate.
The obstinate man wants his own way; the firm man stands by the
right. Andrew Johnson was obstinate--Lincoln was firm.
_Question_. How do you think he will treat the South?
_Answer_. Just the same as the North. He will be the President
of the whole country. He will not execute the laws by the compass,
but according to the Constitution. I do not speak for General
Garfield, nor by any authority from his friends. No one wishes to
injure the South. The Republican party feels in honor bound to
protect all citizens, white and black. It must do this in order
to keep its self-respect. It must throw the shield of the Nation
over the weakest, the humblest and the blackest citizen. Any other
course is suicide. No thoughtful Southern man can object to this,
and a Northern Democrat knows that it is right.
_Question_. Is there a probability that Mr. Sherman will be retained
in the Cabinet?
_Answer_. I have no knowledge upon that question, and consequently
have nothing to say. My opinion about the Cabinet is, that General
Garfield is well enough acquainted with public men to choose a
Cabinet that will suit him and the country. I have never regarded
it as the proper thing to try and force a Cabinet upon a President.
He has the right to be surrounded by his friends, by men in whose
judgment and in whose friendship he has the utmost confidence, and
I would no more think of trying to put some man in the Cabinet that
I would think of signing a petition that a man should marry a
certain woman. General Garfield will, I believe, select his own
constitutional advisers, and he will take the best he knows.
_Question_. What, in your opinion, is the condition of the Democratic
party at present?
_Answer_. It must get a new set of principles, and throw away its
prejudices. It must demonstrate its capacity to govern the country
by governing the States where it is in power. In the presence of
rebellion it gave up the ship. The South must become Republican
before the North will willingly give it power; that is, the great
ideas of nationality are greater than parties, and if our flag is
not large enough to protect every citizen, we must add a few more
stars and 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 every human right.
The election is over, the passions aroused by the campaign will
soon subside, the sober judgment of the people will, in my opinion,
indorse the result, and time will indorse the indorsement.
--_The Evening Express_, New York City, November 19, 1880.