Religious Liberty Association DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES 1. We believe in God, in the Bible as the word of God, and in the separation of church and state as taught by Jesus Christ. 2. We believe that the ten commandments are the law of God, and that they comprehend man's whole duty to God and man. 3. We believe that the religion of Jesus Christ is founded in the law of love of God, and needs no human power to support or enforce it. Love cannot be forced. 4. We believe in civil government as divinely ordained to protect men in the enjoyment of their natural rights and to rule in civil things, and that in this realm it is entitled to the respectful obedience of all. 5. We believe it is the right, and should be the privilege, of every individual to worship or not to worship, according to the dictates of his own conscience, provided that in the exercise of this right he respects the equal rights of others. 6. We believe that all religious legislation tends to unite church and state, is subversive of human rights, persecuting in character, and opposed to the best interests of both church and state. 7. We believe, therefore, that it is not within the province of civil government to legislate on religious questions. 8. We believe it to be our duty to use every lawful and honorable means to prevent religious legislation, and oppose all movements tending to unite church and state, that all may enjoy the inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty. 9. We believe in the inalienable and constitutional right of free speech, free press, peaceable assembly, and petition. 10. We also believe in temperance, and regard the liquor traffic as a curse to society. For further information regarding the principles of this association, address the Religious Liberty Association, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. (secretary, C. S. Longacre), or any of the affiliated organizations given below: NO. 4 It is a grave injustice to the Pilgrims that they still have to be the scapegoat of Puritanism and bear the aspersion of hanging innocent persons for witchcraft, cutting off the ears of Quakers, whipping and banishing Baptists, and similar outrages which besmirch the annals of their haughty neighbors of Massachusetts Bay, who by superior numbers, wealth, and influence attempted to lord it over the little plantation at Plymouth and make the Pilgrims their allies in war, oppression, and persecu tion. free from such proceedings, to live at peace with all men, and of whom it has been said, "They left unstained what there they found, Freedom to worship God." Pilgrims Distinguished from Puritans I know it is a current saying that "our Pilgrim Fathers fled from . . the Old World to the bleak shores of New England to escape religious persecution, yet they were here but a short space of time before they began a persecution equally cruel."- Hon. William H. Murray, Congressional Record, Oct. 6, 1914. The "Mayflower" by Moonlight Let the odium rest where it belongs, however, with the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, but not upon the character of the Pilgrim people of Plymouth Colony, who sought to keep The prevalence of this opinion is doubtless due to the popular confusion. of thought in which the Pilgrims are not clearly distinguished from the Puritans. When even a President of the United States in an address upon the Pilgrim Fathers discoursed eloquently about the Puritans, an educated English official may be excused for saying on a public |