Show THE IDAHO INFAMY THE republicans who have had control of the idaho constitutional convention and have jumped as fred T dubols dubois pulled the have succeeded in their work of incorporating corp orating the infamous test oath in the instrument under which they intend to ask addiss admission ion into the union of states they have even gone further under the territorial statutes no member of the mormon church could vote or hold office but mor mons were eligible to jury service the section of the alleged constitution relating to the suffrage also excludes them from serving as jurors unless a great change shall come 4 quickly in the character of the population of some parts of idaho the courts will have hav e to remain idle for lack of a jury should this provision ever become the law there may be some inaccuracies in the dispatch which we copy in another part of the paper but we suppose that in the main it is correct if the clause in section tb three ree is properly given the wise men of the convention tave have fallen into a common error which is about on a par with the effort of the late disreputable legislature of that territory in making regulations respecting spec ting naturalization it speaks of criminals being restored to citizenship this is simply nonsense A person may be deprived 41 of certain civil or political rights and privileges through conviction of an infamous crime but he cannot be thereby deprived of his citizenship that goes with his life unless he is expatriated by his own act and becomes a citizen of another A country there is no such thing as restoration st to citizenship by executive 11 clemency as supposed A pardon may restore civil or political rights and privileges leges lost by conviction of crime but a citizen is still a citizen no matter how many ot such privileges he may have lost un under der legal penalties if born jn in the united states he is a citizen A thereof f whether he violates th the e laws or not so with one who becomes a citizen by naturalization Y he remains a citizen when deprived of some of the rights i and privileges of citizenship if they are restored to him by executive clemency or otherwise he is no more of a citizen after than before such clemency he can simply ay exercise certain rights and privileges privilege leg es of which he had been deprived there are other defects in the section which will be pointed out at the time and place where they will do the mos most t good and so we will 4 leave their discussion until then but the provision in our opinion will defeat its own object it is so utterly and undemocratic that it will vitiate the entire instrument which contains it we do not believe it will be accepted by congress as securing to the citizens of idaho a republican form of government ern ment which the national government Is bound to see established in ID every state that the citizens of full age and rest residence dence who have broken no law and who are required to pay taxes and bear their portion of the public burden shall have no representation in the local or national government is a proposition that will strike 17 WV every mind not Infect infected eJ with the virus of mormon cormons hating bating as absurd in this republic antagonistic to the spirit and letter of the constitution and destructive of the institutions that each of the great parties S al pledged to maintain under the section considered not only is every person who belongs to a particular church debarred barred de by 7 his membership from any participation in the affairs of the government to which he is made amenable but one who is not a member who contributes anything by way of a voluntary donation or otherwise or renders any assistance to that particular church is also shut out from all political rights and privileges and this does not necessarily affect in any way the actual practice of polygamy or of anything else considered out of harmony with OF the laws it operates upon any member of that particular church or person who contributes in any way to its support no matter how much he may be personally opposed to the objectionable practice nor ho how remote may be lils his assistance from aiding or assisting it the provision is not against any act that will promote or assist polygamy but against membership in a certain society or the contributing to its support no matter how bow innocently such support may be used in chart charity ty education or what not nor how foreign that use may be b to the promotion of what is ostensibly sought to be suppressed if a non don mormon desiring to assist in providing for some aged feeble or indigent person through the effir lent methods of the mormon 11 church should donate anything whatever to that church for that specific purpose believing that the object in view would be better attained that way than in any jtb other er at hand this provision would disfranchise him forthwith and he could neither vote nor hold bold office nor serve on a jury but for his act of benevolence he would be reduced du ced to the position of a tax pay ing serf without a single political prerogative the folly vindictiveness and positive diabolism which seem to possess people who succumb to the spirit of anti mormonism form remarkable evidence of the rightfulness of our cause it is only by doing something that is inherently wrong that our enemies can cam obtain any advantage over us and they are imbued with such hatred and i are ready to go to such lengths of evil of passion of malevolence misrepresentation and oppression that their course forms a striking kinq contrast to that of the people whom they pursue with such bitter hatred and it bears out the theory that in opposing the spirit of truth they are possessed with the spirit of the evil one and are led to do his works the objects and ambitions of the dominating spirits of the idaho convention must be obvious to their political opponents it remains to be seen whether the latter will continue to be puppets in the hands of the former and to aid them in their transparent purposes if we are not greatly mistaken there will not be much enthusiasm over the premature movement for statehood in idaho and that the scarcity of population the divisions that which ensue concerning the offices and above all the un lican nature of the organic law of the proposed commonwealth will serve to defeat this scheme for the benefit of a few place hunters and plunderers and postpone the entrance of our northern neighbor into the union of states until a more propitious occasion |