She made her living in the
slave trade for centuries. I admit that all the blessings that that
country enjoyed flowed naturally from Catholicism, and we believe in
the same scriptures. If you don't believe it, read the history of the
persecution of the Jewish people. I admit that Germany is a Christian
nation; that is, Christians are in power. When the bill was introduced
for the purpose of ameliorating the condition of the Jews, Bismark
spoke against it, and said "Germany is a Christian nation, and
therefore, we cannot pass the bill." Austria is another Christian
nation. If you don't believe it, read the history of Hungary, and, if
you still have doubts, read the history of the partition of Poland.
But there is one good thing in that country. They believe in education,
and education is the enemy of ecclesiasticism. Every thoroughly
educated man is his own church, and his own pope, and his own priest.

They tell me that the United States--our country--is Christian. I deny
it. It is neither Christian nor pagan; it is human. Our fathers
retired all the gods from politics. Our fathers laid down the doctrine
that the right to govern comes from the consent of the governed, and
not from the clouds. Our fathers knew that if they put an infinite God
in the Constitution there would be no room left for the people. Our
fathers used the language of Lincoln, and they made a government for
the people by the people. This is not a Christian country. Some
gentleman said, "How about Delaware?" I told him there was a man in
Washington some twenty or thirty years ago who came there and said he
was a Revolutionary soldier and wanted a pension. He was so bent and
bowed over that the wind blew his shoestrings into his eyes. They
asked him how old he was, and he said fifty years. "Why, good man, you
can't get a pension, because the war was over before you were born.
You mustn't fool us." "Well," said he, "I'll tell you the truth: I
lived sixty years in Delaware, but I never count it, and hope God
won't." And these Christian nations which have been brought forward as
the witnesses of the truth of the scriptures owe $25,000,000,000, which
represents Christian war, Christian cannon, Christian shot, and
Christian shell. The sum is so great that the imagination is dazed in
its contemplation. That is the result of loving your neighbor as
yourself.

The next great argument brought forward by these gentlemen is the
persecution of