Show iie9 I i THE BEAU LAKE CASEJ lI The paper presented to Chief Justice Morgan of Idaho by the thirteen Mormons who had been empaneled ands and-s sworn as Grand Jurors for the District I Court term being held in Bear Lake t County and which paper was published l Y in Fridays issue of THE HBBALD was a J 1i remarkable document It should i tinduce some serious thinking on the J part of governnent officials in Idaho and Washington As is well known l If the Idaho Legislature last winter ii Ii passed a law depriving all of the rights t i of citizenship who belonged to a religious ftt d or other organization or society which iiq believed in practiced or taught the r rightfulness polygamy Chief Justice tilt Morgan was one of the conspirators j 1 I who devised the infamous act and the li I wasconnteJ upon by his fellows in the cI plot io maintain the law when should I I some before him True to the compact i when the act was brought into his court I I t on the question of its constitutionality I t he held that the law was good the I Legislature having a right to pass it I The bill itself was outrageous but not I more so than was the sustaining opinion of the Chief Justice Finally I Il1 it became necessary to hold court in 5 5 Bear Late County where the population I i popula-tion is almostexclusively Mormons or members of the disfranchised class I belonging to an organization that i S teaches that nolvcamv is right Mor I s I gan realized the ugly predicanant in I which his decision had placed him that it had made it impossible far him to hold court in the county with grand I i and pettit lories hence he retreated T somewhat saying that persons who had + not heared the rightfulness of plural I 1 marriage taught by the leader fi of their society or organization I I i organiza-tion since the passage of the H I i law could actas jurors Under this ruling thirteen Mormons were em l I I paneled and sworn but before entering i t enter-ing on their duties they drew up and I I signed the explanation and request to I I be relieved from slrvice published yesterday morning They set forth 14 that the law prohibits them from serving j i1 serv-ing as jurors and that they cannot r conscientiously undertake to discharge jt the duties of GrandJurors under the A ban of law as we now understand it i without degrading our manhood as I i citizens and before God doing violence I to consciences1 Hence they ask toe UI to-e relieved from the performance of a duty which they can neither conscientiously J consci-entiously n jr legally discharge j1 i No wonder Morgan was sick at his RI stomach when heread the statement I pas our c correspondent puts it A healthier man than he would have been made sick when he was forced to l face and contemplate the infamous work l 1 of which he had been guilty What will be the outcome of the r business can only be guessed at At present there is chaos in Bear Lake I i County as far as laws are concerned S It will be utterly impossible to obtain l 1 < either grand or petit juries mat are legal according to the new law and I without puch juries courts are useless IH l > and society becomes without restraint IHH I The innocent cannot be protected nor H the guilty punished and civil suits cannot 1 can-not be tried The awkward and I flnomalonscondition of things should soon be changed for the better Meantime the thirteen men who declined de-clined to be placed in the position of violating a law unjust and unconstitu tional as that law clearly is and also I I though they had the sanction and encouragement of the judge to assume the position are to be congratulated on the manly stand they took |