"_All governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed_."
IN this country it is admitted that the power to govern resides in the
people themselves; that they are the only rightful source of authority.
For many centuries before the formation of our Government, before the
promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, the people had but
little voice in the affairs of nations. The source of authority was not
in this world; kings were not crowned by their subjects, and the sceptre
was not held by the consent of the governed. The king sat on his throne
by the will of God, and for that reason was not accountable to the
people for the exercise of his power. He commanded, and the people
obeyed. He was lord of their bodies, and his partner, the priest, was
lord of their souls. The government of earth was patterned after the
kingdom on high. God was a supreme autocrat in heaven, whose will was
law, and the king was a supreme autocrat on earth whose will was law.
The God in heaven had inferior beings to do his will, and the king on
earth had certain favorites and officers to do his. These officers were
accountable to him, and he was responsible to God.
The Feudal system was supposed to be in accordance with the divine
plan. The people were not governed by intelligence, but by threats and
promises, by rewards and punishments. No effort was made to enlighten
the common people; no one thought of educating a peasant--of developing
the mind of a laborer. The people were created to support thrones and
altars. Their destiny was to toil and obey--to work and want. They were
to be satisfied with huts and hovels, with ignorance and rags, and their
children must expect no more. In the presence of the king they fell upon
their knees, and before the priest they groveled in the very dust. The
poor peasant divided his earnings with the state, because he imagined it
protected his body; he divided his crust with the church, believing that
it protected his soul. He was the prey of Throne and Altar--one deformed
his body, the other his mind--and these two vultures fed upon his toil.
He was taught by the king to hate the people of other nations, and by
the priest to despise the believers in all other religions. He was made
the enemy of all people except his own. He had no sympathy with the
peasants of other lands, enslaved and plundered like himself., He was
kept in ignorance, because education is the enemy of superstition,
and because education is the foe of that egotism often mistaken for
patriotism.
The intelligent and good man holds in his affections the good and true
of every land--the boundaries of countries are not the limitations of
his sympathies. Caring nothing for race, or color, he loves those who
speak other languages and worship other gods. Between him and those who
suffer, there is no impassable gulf. He salutes the world, and extends
the hand of friendship to the human race. He does not bow before a
provincial and patriotic god--one who protects his tribe or nation, and
abhors the rest of mankind.
Through all the ages of superstition, each nation has insisted that it
was the peculiar care of the true God, and that it alone had the true
religion--that the gods of other nations were false and fraudulent, and
that other religions were wicked, ignorant and absurd. In this way the
seeds of hatred had been sown, and in this way have been kindled the
flames of war. Men have had no sympathy with those of a different
complexion, with those who knelt at other altars and expressed their
thoughts in other words--and even a difference in garments placed
them beyond the sympathy of others. Every peculiarity was the food of
prejudice and the excuse for hatred.
The boundaries of nations were at last crossed by commerce. People
became somewhat acquainted, and they found that the virtues and vices
were quite evenly distributed. At last, subjects became somewhat
acquainted with kings--peasants had the pleasure of gazing at princes,
and it was dimly perceived that the differences were mostly in rags and
names.
In 1776 our fathers endeavored to retire the gods from politics. They
declared that "all governments derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed." This was a contradiction of the then political ideas
of the world; it was, as many believed, an act of pure blasphemy--a
renunciation of the Deity. It was in fact a declaration of the
independence of the earth. It was a notice to all churches and priests
that thereafter mankind would govern and protect themselves. Politically
it tore down every altar and denied the authority of every "sacred
book," and appealed from the Providence of God to the Providence of Man.
Those who promulgated the Declaration adopted a Constitution for the
great Republic.
What was the office or purpose of that Constitution?
Admitting that all power came from the people, it was necessary, first,
that certain means be adopted for the purpose of ascertaining the will
of the people, and second, it was proper and convenient to designate
certain departments that should exercise certain powers of the
Government. There must be the legislative, the judicial and the
executive departments. Those who make laws should not execute them.
Those who execute laws should not have the power of absolutely
determining their meaning or their constitutionality. For these reasons,
among others, a Constitution was adopted.
This Constitution also contained a declaration of rights. It marked out
the limitations of discretion, so that in the excitement of passion, men
shall not go beyond the point designated in the calm moment of reason.
When man is unprejudiced, and his passions subject to reason, it is well
he should define the limits of power, so that the waves driven by the
storm of passion shall not overbear the shore.
A constitution is for the government of man in this world. It is the
chain the people put upon their servants, as well as upon themselves. It
defines the limit of power and the limit of obedience.
It follows, then, that nothing should be in a constitution that cannot
be enforced by the power of the state--that is, by the army and navy.
Behind every provision of the Constitution should stand the force of the
nation. Every sword, every bayonet, every cannon should be there.
Suppose, then, that we amend the Constitution and acknowledge the
existence and supremacy of God--what becomes of the supremacy of the
people, and how is this amendment to be enforced? A constitution does
not enforce itself. It must be carried out by appropriate legislation.
Will it be a crime to deny the existence of this constitutional God? Can
the offender be proceeded against in the criminal courts? Can his lips
be closed by the power of the state? Would not this be the inauguration
of religious persecution?
And if there is to be an acknowledgment of God in the Constitution, the
question naturally arises as to which God is to have this honor. Shall
we select the God of the Catholics--he who has established an infallible
church presided over by an infallible pope, and who is delighted with
certain ceremonies and placated by prayers uttered in exceedingly
common Latin? Is it the God of the Presbyterian with the Five Points
of Calvinism, who is ingenious enough to harmonize necessity and
responsibility, and who in some way justifies himself for damning most
of his own children? Is it the God of the Puritan, the enemy of joy--of
the Baptist, who is great enough to govern the universe, and small
enough to allow the destiny of a soul to depend on whether the body it
inhabited was immersed or sprinkled?
What God is it proposed to put in the Constitution? Is it the God of the
Old Testament, who was a believer in slavery and who justified polygamy?
If slavery was right then, it is right now; and if Jehovah was right
then, the Mormons are right now. Are we to have the God who issued a
commandment against all art--who was the enemy of investigation and of
free speech? Is it the God who commanded the husband to stone his wife
to death because she differed with him on the subject of religion? Are
we to have a God who will re-enact the Mosaic code and punish hundreds
of offences with death? What court, what tribunal of last resort, is
to define this God, and who is to make known his will? In his presence,
laws passed by men will be of no value. The decisions of courts will be
as nothing. But who is to make known the will of this supreme God? Will
there be a supreme tribunal composed of priests?
Of course all persons elected to office will either swear or affirm to
support the Constitution. Men who do not believe in this God, cannot
so swear or affirm. Such men will not be allowed to hold any office of
trust or honor. A God in the Constitution will not interfere with the
oaths or affirmations of hypocrites. Such a provision will only exclude
honest and conscientious unbelievers. Intelligent people know that 110
one knows whether there is a God or not. The existence of such a Being
is merely a matter of opinion. Men who believe in the liberty of man,
who are willing to die for the honor of their country, will be excluded
from taking any part in the administration of its affairs. Such a
provision would place the country under the feet of priests.
To recognize a Deity in the organic law of our country would be the
destruction of religious liberty. The God in the Constitution would have
to be protected. There would be laws against blasphemy, laws against the
publication of honest thoughts, laws against carrying books and papers
in the mails in which this constitutional God should be attacked.
Our land would be filled with theological spies, with religious
eavesdroppers, and all the snakes and reptiles of the lowest natures, in
this sunshine of religious authority, would uncoil and crawl.
It is proposed to acknowledge a God who is the lawful and rightful
Governor of nations; the one who ordained the powers that be. If
this God is really the Governor of nations, it is not necessary to
acknowledge him in the Constitution. This would not add to his power. If
he governs all nations now, he has always controlled the affairs of men.
Having this control, why did he not see to it that he was recognized in
the Constitution of the United States? If he had the supreme authority
and neglected to put himself in the Constitution, is not this, at least,
_prima facie_ evidence that he did not desire to be there?
For one, I am not in favor of the God who has "ordained the powers that
be." What have we to say of Russia--of Siberia? What can we say of the
persecuted and enslaved? What of the kings and nobles who live on the
stolen labor of others? What of the priest and cardinal and pope who
wrest, even from the hand of poverty, the single coin thrice earned?
Is it possible to flatter the Infinite with a constitutional amendment?
The Confederate States acknowledged God in their constitution, and yet
they were overwhelmed by a people in whose organic law no reference to
God is made. All the kings of the earth acknowledge the existence of
God, and God is their ally; and this belief in God is used as a means to
enslave and rob, to govern and degrade the people whom they call their
subjects.
The Government of the United States is secular. It derives its power
from the consent of man. It is a Government with which God has nothing
whatever to do--and all forms and customs, inconsistent with the
fundamental fact that the people are the source of authority, should be
abandoned. In this country there should be no oaths--no man should be
sworn to tell the truth, and in no court should there be any appeal
to any supreme being. A rascal by taking the oath appears to go in
partnership with God, and ignorant jurors credit the firm instead of the
man. A witness should tell his story, and if he speaks falsely should
be considered as guilty of perjury. Governors and Presidents should not
issue religious proclamations. They should not call upon the people to
thank God. It is no part of their official duty. It is outside of
and beyond the horizon of their authority. There is nothing in
the Constitution of the United States to justify this religious
impertinence.
For many years priests have attempted to give to our Government a
religious form. Zealots have succeeded in putting the legend upon our
money: "In God We Trust;" and we have chaplains in the army and navy,
and legislative proceedings are usually opened with prayer. All this is
contrary to the genius of the Republic, contrary to the Declaration
of Independence, and contrary really to the Constitution of the United
States. We have taken the ground that the people can govern themselves
without the assistance of any supernatural power. We have taken the
position that the people are the real and only rightful source of
authority. We have solemnly declared that the people must determine what
is politically right and what is wrong, and that their legally
expressed will is the supreme law. This leaves no room for national
superstition--no room for patriotic gods or supernatural beings--and
this does away with the necessity for political prayers.
The government of God has been tried. It was tried in Palestine several
thousand years ago, and the God of the Jews was a monster of cruelty and
ignorance, and the people governed by this God lost their nationality.
Theocracy was tried through the Middle Ages. God was the Governor--the
pope was his agent, and every priest and bishop and cardinal was armed
with credentials from the Most High--and the result was that the noblest
and best were in prisons, the greatest and grandest perished at the
stake. The result was that vices were crowned with honor, and virtues
whipped naked through the streets. The result was that hypocrisy swayed
the sceptre of authority, while honesty languished in the dungeons of
the Inquisition.
The government of God was tried in Geneva when John Calvin was his
representative; and under this government of God the flames climbed
around the limbs and blinded the eyes of Michael Servetus, because he
dared to express an honest thought. This government of God was tried
in Scotland, and the seeds of theological hatred were sown, that bore,
through hundreds of years, the fruit of massacre and assassination. This
government of God was established in New England, and the result was
that Quakers were hanged or burned--the laws of Moses re-enacted and the
"witch was not suffered to live." The result was that investigation was
a crime, and the expression of an honest thought a capital offence. This
government of God was established in Spain, and the Jews were expelled,
the Moors were driven out, Moriscoes were exterminated, and nothing
left but the ignorant and bankrupt worshipers of this monster. This
government of God was tried in the United States when slavery was
regarded as a divine institution, when men and women were regarded as
criminals because they sought for liberty by flight, and when others
were regarded as criminals because they gave them food and shelter. The
pulpit of that day defended the buying and selling of women and babes,
and the mouths of slave-traders were filled with passages of Scripture,
defending and upholding the traffic in human flesh.
We have entered upon a new epoch. This is the century of man. Every
effort to really better the condition of mankind has been opposed by the
worshipers of some God. The church in all ages and among all peoples
has been the consistent enemy of the human race. Everywhere and at all
times, it has opposed the liberty of thought and expression. It has been
the sworn enemy of investigation and of intellectual development. It has
denied the existence of facts, the tendency of which was to undermine
its power. It has always been carrying fagots to the feet of Philosophy.
It has erected the gallows for Genius. It has built the dungeon for
Thinkers. And to-day the orthodox church is as much opposed as it ever
was to the mental freedom of the human race.
Of course, there is a distinction made between churches and individual
members. There have been millions of Christians who have been believers
in liberty and in the freedom of expression--millions who have fought
for the rights of man--but churches as organizations, have been on
the other side. It is true that churches have fought churches--that
Protestants battled with the Catholics for what they were pleased to
call the freedom of conscience; and it is also true that the moment
these Protestants obtained the civil power, they denied this freedom of
conscience to others.
'Let me show you the difference between the theological and the secular
spirit. Nearly three hundred years ago, one of the noblest of the human
race, Giordano Bruno, was burned at Rome by the Catholic Church--that
is to say, by the "Triumphant Beast." This man had committed certain
crimes--he had publicly stated that there were other worlds than
this--other constellations than ours. He had ventured the supposition
that other planets might be peopled. More than this, and worse than
this, he had asserted the heliocentric theory--that the earth made its
annual journey about the sun. He had also given it as his opinion that
matter is eternal. For these crimes he was found unworthy to live, and
about his body were piled the fagots of the Catholic Church. This man,
this genius, this pioneer of the science of the nineteenth century,
perished as serenely as the sun sets. The Infidels of to-day find
excuses for his murderers. They take into consideration the ignorance
and brutality of the times. They remember that the world was governed by
a God who was then the source of all authority. This is the charity of
Infidelity,--of philosophy. But the church of to-day is so heartless, is
still so cold and cruel, that it can find no excuse for the murdered.
This is the difference between Theocracy and Democracy--between God and
man.
If God is allowed in the Constitution, man must abdicate. There is no
room for both. If the people of the great Republic become superstitious
enough and ignorant enough to put God in the Constitution of the United
States, the experiment of self-government will have failed, and the
great and splendid declaration that "all governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed" will have been denied, and in
its place will be found this: All power comes from God; priests are his
agents, and the people are their slaves.
Religion is an individual matter, and each soul should be left entirely
free to form its own opinions and to judge of its accountability to a
supposed supreme being. With religion, government has nothing whatever
to do. Government is founded upon force, and force should never
interfere with the religious opinions of men. Laws should define the
rights of men and their duties toward each other, and these laws should
be for the benefit of man in this world.
A nation can neither be Christian nor Infidel--a nation is incapable of
having opinions upon these subjects. If a nation is Christian, will all
the citizens go to heaven? If it is not, will they all be damned? Of
course it is admitted that the majority of citizens composing a nation
may believe or disbelieve, and they may call the nation what they
please. A nation is a corporation. To repeat a familiar saying, "it has
no soul." There can be no such thing as a Christian corporation. Several
Christians may form a corporation, but it can hardly be said that the
corporation thus formed was included in the atonement. For instance:
Seven Christians form a corporation--that is to say, there are seven
natural persons and one artificial--can it be said that there are eight
souls to be saved?
No human being has brain enough, or knowledge enough, or experience
enough, to say whether there is, or is not, a God. Into this darkness
Science has not yet carried its torch. No human being has gone beyond
the horizon of the natural. As to the existence of the supernatural, one
man knows precisely as much, and exactly as little as another. Upon
this question, chimpanzees and cardinals, apes and popes, are upon exact
equality. The smallest insect discernible only by the most powerful
microscope, is as familiar with this subject, as the greatest genius
that has been produced by the human race.
Governments and laws are for the preservation of rights and the
regulation of conduct. One man should not be allowed to interfere with
the liberty of another. In the metaphysical world there should be no
interference whatever, The same is true in the world of art. Laws cannot
regulate what is or is not music, what is or what is not beautiful--and
constitutions cannot definitely settle and determine the perfection of
statues, the value of paintings, or the glory and subtlety of thought.
In spite of laws and constitutions the brain will think. In every
direction consistent with the well-being and peace of society, there
should be freedom. No man should be compelled to adopt the theology
of another; neither should a minority, however small, be forced to
acquiesce in the opinions of a majority, however large.
If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help--we need not
waste our energies in his defence. It is enough for us to give to every
other human being the liberty we claim for ourselves. There may or may
not be a Supreme Ruler of the universe--but we are certain that man
exists, and we believe that freedom is the condition of progress; that
it is the sunshine of the mental and moral world, and that without
it man will go back to the den of savagery, and will become the fit
associate of wild and ferocious beasts.
We have tried the government of priests, and we know that such
governments are without mercy. In the administration of theocracy, all
the instruments of torture have been invented. If any man wishes to
have God recognized in the Constitution of our country, let him read
the history of the Inquisition, and let him remember that hundreds of
millions of men, women and children have been sacrificed to placate the
wrath, or win the approbation of this God.
There has been in our country a divorce of church and state. This
follows as a natural sequence of the declaration that "governments
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." The priest
was no longer a necessity. His presence was a contradiction of the
principle on which the Republic was founded. He represented, not the
authority of the people, but of some "Power from on High," and to
recognize this other Power was inconsistent with free government. The
founders of the Republic at that time parted company with the priests,
and said to them: "You may turn your attention to the other world--we
will attend to the affairs of this." Equal liberty was given to all. But
the ultra theologian is not satisfied with this--he wishes to destroy
the liberty of the people--he wishes a recognition of his God as the
source of authority, to the end that the church may become the supreme
power.
But the sun will not be turned backward. The people of the United States
are intelligent. They no longer believe implicitly in supernatural
religion. They are losing confidence in the miracles and marvels of the
Dark Ages. They know the value of the free school. They appreciate the
benefits of science. They are believers in education, in the free play
of thought, and there is a suspicion that the priest, the theologian,
is destined to take his place with the necromancer, the astrologer, the
worker of magic, and the professor of the black art.
We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the
theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for
the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children
of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in
rags and skins--they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of
Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities
of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences
and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But
above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of
value in the brain of an average man of to-day--of a master-mechanic, of
a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain
of the world four hundred years ago.
These blessings did not fall from the skies, These benefits did not
drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in
cathedrals or behind altars--neither were they searched for with holy
candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did
they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children
of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience--and for
them all, man is indebted to man.
Let us hold fast to the sublime declaration of Lincoln. Let us insist
that this, the Republic, is "A government of the people, by the people,
and for the people."--The Arena, Boston, Mass., January, 1890.