James Wolcott: Sunday Sermonette (from Robert Ingersoll)

"To Paine, Jefferson and Franklin, we are indebted more than to all the others, for a human government, and for a Constitution in which no God is recognized superior to the legally expressed will of the people. they knew that to put God in the Constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying liberty of thought."

"Governors and Presidents should not issue religious proclamations. They should not call upon the people to thank god. It is no part of their official duty. It is outside and beyond the horizon of their authority. There is nothing in the Constitution to justify this religious impertinence."

"We do not wish to employ any chaplains in the navy or in the army, or in the Legislatures or in Congress. It is useless to ask God to help the political party that happens to be in power. We want no President, no Governor 'clothed with a little brief authority,' to issue a proclamation as though he were an agent of God, authorized to tell all his loving subjects to fast on a certain day, or to enter their churches and pray for the accomplishment of a certain object. It is none of his business."

--from the writings and speeches of Robert Ingersoll