escaped taxation under the exemption of property devoted to 

 religious worship. 



We boast that in Massachusetts there is absolute freedom of 

 religious opinion ; that no citizen is compelled by law to support 

 a Church whose creed his conscience does not approve. Free- 

 dom to worship or not worship is the unalienable right of all. 

 In fact, ever}^ taxpayer in Massachusetts is compelled by legal 

 process, when he pays his tax, to aid in the support not only of 

 the Church, but of every sj'stem of religion that owns a house of 

 religious worship, or so-called religious worship, within the 

 limits of the State. The exemption of the Church from taxation 

 is a violation of the principle of religious freedom. It is incom- 

 patible with Republican government. It is a relic of the cruel 

 past. It increases the burdens of the already overburdened tax- 

 payers. Let the Church stand independent of the State, sepa- 

 rate from the civil government and without compulsory aid, 

 direct or indirect. 



The laiv ought to be that all property, real aiid personal, of 

 every name and natiire, shall pay its equal and propordonate tax. 



No tax ought to be established without the consent ol the 

 people. How is that consent expressed ? Not b}' prox}- , not b}^ 

 substitutes, manifestly by the individual through the ballot box. 



The second subject of which I speak, then, is the right of 

 suftrage. The right to vote and the right to be taxed have ever 

 been considered in Massachusetts as co-extensive. It is true that 

 the prepayment of a tax is no longer essential to the casting 

 of a ballot, but the right to cast a ballot must be proved in every 

 iUvStance by showing that the elector is a taxpayer. The tax- 

 payer only under our law is entitled to a voice in the Govern- 

 ment. This results from the devotion of our people to the prin- 

 ciple that taxation and representation go hand in hand. The 

 citizen without voice in the government is not represented. You 

 can never know his will except as he is permitted to express it 

 when casting a vote. It is said that in Massachusetts the people 

 rule, the ballot is free and this is the best government in the 

 world because the whole people are wiser than any one and wiser 

 than any privileged few. We find fault with some of the sister 

 States of the Republic because, as we allege, they deny a free 

 ballot and a fair count without distinction of race or color. By 

 the law of Massachusetts we enfranchise the felon who has served 

 out his sentence, even the murderer who has been pardoned, and 

 deny the ballot to an intelligent, conscientious tax paying citizen 



