The New York _Evening Post_ in its greatest days, when edited by William
Cullen Bryant, spoke boldly on the subject of church exemption. Hear it:
"The _Evening Post_ has long been of the opinion that the American
theory of a self-supporting church ought to be carried out to its full
and legitimate conclusion, and that the separation of church and state
ought to be complete. It should include the total discontinuance of
contributions of public money, direct or indirect, to the support of any
religious establishment. We have never been able to see the slightest
difference in principle between the appropriation of a certain sum of
money raised by tax to a particular church, and a release of that church
from a tax on its property to the same amount. The cost of the act in
either case falls upon the taxpayers generally."
An admirable summary of the vital principles involved is contained in
the following editorial from the San Antonio _Express_:
"The _Express_ is not antagonistic to the churches. It believes that
many of them are doing a great and noble work; but it does not believe
in exempting sectarian property from taxation in a land of alleged
religious liberty at the expense of men who regard the church as a brake
on the wheels of progress, an incubus on civilization, the preservator
of antique ignorance, the storehouse of foolish superstition. It does
not approve of the church posing as an almoner while the thin purse of
labor is annually mulct to make it a present of several millions. Let
it be just before it attempts to be generous. Let it assume its due
proportion of the public burdens, and perchance there will not be so
much need of its dole. The church should not profit at the expense
of the poor; it certainly should not fatten at the cost of those who
despise it."
Even the New York _Independent_, when it was a distinctly clerical
magazine, allowed the following clear statement of principle to appear:
"The time has come when all religious denominations must affirm that no
public moneys shall be used for sectarian instruction; the time-honored
principle of the separation of church and state must be again
emphasized. If a church is not willing to support its own schools, it
cannot come to the state for aid. I would go so far in the application
of this principle as to be willing to see all our churches taxed as is
other property. We have no right to tax unbelievers that churches may be
maintained; no more right than they would have to tax churches for the
support of Infidel clubs."