Elizabeth Cady Stanton  Speeches & Writings File   Untitled and undated
writing 4

1                                     (no date)
It may seem remarkable to many
thoughtful Liberals, even, that in our
republic where in the state we have
proclaimed individual rights, & in the
church individual conscience & judgement
that it should now be necessary to form 
Leagues to protect the rights of free
thought  & free speech on questions
 
2
of theology & yet such is the fact.
Though we have passed beyond the
Inquisition, the stake, the rack &
the thumb screw, yet those who dare
publicly question the popular theology,
are as effectually persecuted to day, as
ever, though in different ways, from
the coarse, brutal modes of the past.

.3.
We have more refined methods of 
torturing the spirit rather than the 
flesh. Go into any community, & if
there is a person or family who does 
not belong to some one of the leading 
sects, who expresses doubts as to the 
truth of any of the dogmas, traditions, 
& superstitions of the popular theology 

.4.
& you will invariably find such a person 
or family, ignored, ostracized, slandered
unless by great wealth, or genius 
they conquer by power, the positions
denied them by right.
     Hence Liberal Leagues are 
needed to make all forms of 
of religion, all shades of thought

.5.
equally respectable.  We occasionally
hear, even in our country at this
late day, of physical inflictions for
opinions sake, as the recent case in
Texas proves.  It was stated in the
leading Journals, that a respectable
physician who was supposed to entertain
liberal theological opinions, was

.6.
taken from his home severely beaten
tarred & feathered. - the assailants
declaring that all infidels in that
state should be similarly [dressed?]
& treated.  When Col Robert [Ingersol]
lectured in the chief cities of New York
last winter, the press & the pulpit
at once put him in the pillory

.7.
of abuse & denunciation.  Bishop Drane
of Albany wrote a protest against him
as a dangerous man, unfit to be heard & tried to secure
the signatures of all the leading clergy.
Some declined.  The people crowded
to hear him, were enchained with
his eloquence & in spite of Bishop
Drane's protest was invited there
a second time

.8.
The clergy throughout the state attacked
him fiercely, & treated him with as
much arrogance as if the constitution
of the United Stated had not said in
it's first amendment, Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment
of religion; or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof, or abridging the

.9.
freedom of speech"  The question
naturally arises, shall the clergy
in this land be permitted to do by
clamor, what Congress is forbidden
to do by law?   It may be a
small matter to denounce one man
in every pulpit from Maine to
Texas, but if the principle of free

.10.
speech & free thought be questioned
& religious persecution tolerated, we
have rung the death knell of American
liberties.  We cannot watch with too
jealous an eye the slightest aggression
on individual rights by the church
remembering that the worst wrongs
oppressions & persecutions inflicted on

.11.
humanity through the centuries have
all been in the name of religion
Let us then carefully guard the
religious freedom of all citizens
under our flag, impartially protecting
the rights of Catholic' & Protestant, Jew
& Gentile, Christian & Pagan, remem-
-bering that in every human soul

.12.
& every form of religion there is bound
up some truth & some error 
& that each one brings to the world
of thought what no other one possesses
Q. B. Farthingham, a man of great
intellectual power, moral rectitude,
& religious earnestness, a cultured
scholar & polished gentleman

. 13.
I notice is never selected for the
posts of honor in any of the public
gatherings in our Metropolis.

The preference is invariably given
to those who sustain the popular faith
With all his resources in himself, he
is often made to feel painfully conscious
of his isolation from human sympathy

.14.
One of the most touching chapters in the
Autobiography of Theodore Parker is that
in which he describes his sense of loneliness.
While conscious of his own unflinching integrity
to principle, his lofty aspirations for all
that is is good &, true in a noble manhood,
his devotion to the best interests of humanity,
he was traduced & shunned, almost

15
to the end of his life, beyond human
sympathy.  Many who read his great
thoughts now, would not have dared
to listen to the living voice that 
first uttered them.
     I recently met a young woman
just ordained in the Universalist Church
& installed over a congregation.

.16.
She is as grand a type of womanhood as
I ever met. Well developed in body
& mind, beautiful to look upon, fine
intellect, pure, earnest, moral nature
elevated in thought, & conversation, a
charming companion, & effective preacher
A woman whose influence in any
community must be most desirable

.17.
In expressing for her the enthusiasm
I felt to the wife of a clergyman, a 
very inferior type of womanhood, narrow,
bigoted, morose, ah! she replied
"Miss K. is a very dangerous woman
she does not believe in the personality
of the Devil, in Hell, & eternal punishment
She is a Universalist, & my one regret

.18.
is that she is so lady like, so charming
so unexceptionable in thought word
& deed, for that only makes her
the more dangerous."  And thus
everywhere we find character, influence
development, all made secondary
to belief in unimportant dogmas.
A mere speculative faith of which

.19.
lies beyond our earthly horizon
of which no mortal can possibly
know anything, is made friend
to all the great facts in existence
which we do know, & for the right
use of which we are responsible
When we sum up all that the generations
have lost in development, & suffered

.20.
through fear of the power of the Devil,
& the torments of Hell. We feel 
that the Canons of Westminster
have been far too slow in rolling
back the huge iron gates of the 
bottomless pit, & letting the oppressed
go free. Seeing that with all their
learning they have been so lamentably

21
tardy in lifting humanity out of such
gloomy depths, it would be well for
us now one & all to begin to do our
own thinking, & not to blindly
henceforward trust to the leadership 
of those no wiser than ourselves.
A new thought in morals & religion 
is as important as in in all science 
discovery, & invention 

.22.
& instead of persecuting those who utter
it. We should encourage the expression
of individual opinion, resting in the
faith that truth is more powerful
than error & must conquer at last
[The National Liberal League is 
effecting great good in several ways.]

22 1/2
In estimating the character of the 
noble men & women identified
with the Liberal movement 
compared with their assailants, I 
am forcibly reminded of the morality
& religion of the Fegee Islands.

a 22 1/2
The United States exploring Expedition 
in their reports of uncivilized nations 
compare the Samoans & Fejians.
While the Samoans have no religion,
no gods, no rites, they are kind 
good humored, desirous of pleasing
& very hospitable. Both sexes show
great regard & love for their children

b.
& age is much respected. The men
cannot bear to be called stingy, & disobliging.
The women are remarkably domestic, & virtuous.
Infanticide after birth is unknown.
Their cannibal neighbors the Fejians
are indifferent to human life; they live in
constant dread of each other; shedding
blood is no crime but a glory. They kill

.c.
the decrepit maimed & sick, & treachery
is an accomplishment. Infanticide
[was?] one half the births & the first lesson
taught - the child is to strike its mother
a chiefs wives courtiers, & aides-de-camp are strangled
at his death. Cannibalism is rampant
they sometime roast their victims alive
Their Gods have like characters. They

.d.
live on the souls of those devoured by men
and yet these Fegians look with horror
on the Samoans because they have 
no Gods, no rites, no religion. What 
better are we who measure men character
by their creeds rather than character?
The National Liberal League is
effecting great good in several ways

.23.
1st It is training a class of minds to think
on radical questions of church, & state
policy to exact ideas on theology 
& government. To a nice sense of 
individual rights - to a broad charity
2nd It is ennabling the leaders of
liberal thought in this country to

24
to estimate to estimate the strength
& growth of the new faith in numbers
Though truth is seldom found with
majorities, it encourages & strengthens 
opinions after all, to know that they
who accept them are steadily on
the increase

25.
I am often asked what do these Liberals
mean by a complete secularization 
of the government. Surely we have
no established church in this country
We have not in theory: - but we
have practically, so long as all church
property is exempt from taxation
so long as the Protestant Bible

.26.
is read in our schools, & the state 
enforces by law the observance of 
the Holy days of any one religion
in preference to all others. If the 
seventh day Baptists, & the Jews prefer 
to observe Saturday as holy time
they should not be forbidden to work
on Sunday & the masses compelled

.27.
to toil six days should be protected
in all rational amusements on
the seventh. Yet in most of our
towns and cities there is no provision
whatever for the amusement & instruction
of the masses.

a.
We must guard with vigilence all
approaches at union of church & state
& keep a close watch of that class
of unwise religionists, who have been 
at Washington for several years
urging a 16th amendment (so 
cunningly worded as to mislead 
the hasty leader) to the constitution

b.
to the Jew & liberal thinker, quite
forgetting that in establishing as
our fathers did justice, liberty, & equality
the essential elements of Deity were already
incorporated in the constitution.
They had seen the dangers of church
power in the old world, & anxiously
tried to hedge the young republic
against its undue influence

.c.
Though we see its crippling power 
in France & Italy, the enemy of
science, & liberal ideas in both
politics and religion. Yet we imagine
we have no danger to apprehend
from that quarter, forgetting that
even in our republic the clergy are
a privileged order, & all church 

d
[property exempt from taxation]. 
     By the law of New York $15.00 of a
clergyman's property is exempt from taxation
as long as the pastor lives the collector 
halts not at his portals but the moment
he dies, the name of wife or daughter is
at once written in the assessors book &
the annual calls are never forgotten.

.E.
And so will parsonages & all kinds of
church property.  Within ten miles of
the City Hall in New York the property
thus held by the Catholics is estimated
at 80,000,000.  Trinity Church holds
60,000,000.  And churches worth
half a million or more apiece are
dotted all through our large cities

.29.
But mothers give their sons no lessons
on these great questions because they
are not yet awake to their importance
themselves, and yet the portion of
woman is the great factor in civilization
today.   During the discussion on Catholicism
a few years ago in England Gladstone said
in one of his pamphlets, the most ready
converts to this religion as might be

.30.
expected are women, & through them the
men are made victims of priest craft
& superstition. A recent writer on
Turkish civilization says the great block
to all progress in that nation is the condition
of the women, & their improvement is
hopeless, because they are taught by their
religion that their position is ordained of
heaven. Thus has the religious nature

.31.
of woman been played in all
ages and under all forms of religion
for her own complete subjugation & our
religion in the republic of America is no
exception. See how many liberal
clergymen we have seen in the last
ten years brought before synods &
general assemblies, tried and condemned
for preaching the doctrine of woman's equality

32.
& admitting women to their pulpits.
Our scriptures, & our religion as taught
by the majority of our ordained leaders
assign woman the same subject position as
under all other forms, & it is through
the perversion of her religious element that
she is held in that condition.
As the son always reaps the disadvantages
suffered by the mother, we need not

.33.
wonder that the man who dares to
think, reason, investigate, & protest
against the traditions, & superstitions
of our popular religion is considered
the marvel of this day & generation.
How many men have we who dare
stand up in Congress, & the state
legislature & talk on the real interests
of the people, to tell what he knows to be

34
the absolute truth on any subject.
We shall never have brave men until
we first have free women.
And yet all classes of men alike are
afraid of slightest change in her 
position.  Those who are bigoted in religion
are afraid to have her know too much
afraid to have her think & reason
lest she get beyond the reach of church

.35.
& clergy altogether.   The radical
Liberal thinkers, are equally afraid
that her influence would be in the
direction of a union of church & state.
They say if she had a voice in politics
she would be in favor of rigid Sunday
laws, the Bible in the schools, an
established religion & God in the
constitution.    And thus you see these
                                              wise men

. 36 .
[know] consider that, [she] woman is dangerous where 
she is; - & equally dangerous if she moves 
onward: & they are at a loss to know 
what to do
             Let the rising generation of 
young men learn that justice, freedom 
& equality are principles on which it is 
safe, to build alike the state the church 
& the home, & that it is impossible for 

. 37 .
them to ever realize a full complete 
noble mankind, until their mothers 
nieces & sisters are recognized as equal 
factors in the problem of civilization 
[We often hear the question asked 
why is it in this age of discovery and 
invention, intellectual achievement

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