Show Ii HFRCSm OP1Nlu fs TUB PKCSi O f l l r3 The Tucker Bill is not sweeping tin country by storm as it swept the House of Representatives On the contrary it is not oven meeting with intelligent popular approval We have already quoted the editorial comments of sev oral of the lead ng newspapers of the country in which the bill is denounctd as uncoiititutional and as treading upon dangerous ground With remarkably re-markably few exceptions the great journals of the country like the New ork Tribune New York World New York Evening Post and so on protested against the proposed legislation and some of them denounced it Those editors who justify and approve the measure do so wholly on the ground of expediency the end justifying the means In some matters this rule maybe may-be applied in safety but never in making mak-ing laws In legislation if is subversive < of rights and is revolutionary in the extreJie In addition to the editorial comments which have been reproduced in THE HERALD we give those found below this morning as indicating the fears and impressions of the thinking men of the nation who can afford to look at matters intelligently and in coolness On the 12th the day the Tucker bill came up in theHouse the Washington Post the leading Democratic Demo-cratic newspaper in Washington and one of the ablest journals in the land said It Is understood that tnere Is a good deal of difference of opinion in the House judiciary judici-ary committee touching the constitutionally constitutional-ly of some features of the Mormon bill which is set for consideration to dy it is proposed if we read the bill correctly to extinguish what is known as the Mormon church and divide or scatter its property tsgU eil among those who do not believe in for tenets f-or practic s In other words the Constitution Constitu-tion which prohibts the establishment of any church or form of religion is to be invoked in-voked to disc stablish and extirpate an objectionable ob-jectionable creed This strikes pretty deeply at the root of rel gious freedom and the d s cussiou of theque < n if tis permitted tone I to-ne discussed rationally and impartially will Interest a good any persons who are I neither Mormons nor p Ivcamists It is not presumptions wenope to Invoke members of the douse to proceed with caution and candor On the same day the Washington Republican Re-publican the antiadministration organ of the capital and perhaps the leading newspaper of the city thus cautions against the bill It seems that the judiciary committee are not agreed upon the terms of tl1 Utah bill beicalled up todayjThe principal feature of it Is to authorize tlie ttorneycleneraltb institute 11 suit to abolish and wihd up the Mormon Church and distribute its property This presents quite a grave and interesting question The power of the government to suppress a church by direct proceedings against avowed AttorneyGeneral instituted for that avowed purpose has heretofore been supposed to be wanting If such power ex ists it Includes the power to determine by law what is and what is not religion If this bill should it become a law be sustained by the courts till heresy can by statute tbe I weeded out of oUr theology and Congress will become the great ecumenical council and dogmatic religion put on the firm basis of law The country will naturally watch this controversy with interest On the 14th instant two days after the passage of the bill the Washington Critic an able and independent journal I in an editorial discusssion of the measure said There will ba difference of opinion as to the wisdom and justice of the policy em bodied in the bill Its friends assume that the malady of such a desperate nature as to require heroic treatment Its opponents would prefer On aith upon the slow attn tions of time and the pressure of public opinion to wear out the evil The New York Tribune which stands at the heal of the Republican papers says That the Mormons will if the new law goes into effect contest it on constitutional grounds is already certain and there is ares a-res > ectable body of opinion Washington which holds that such a contest must result in the nullification of the law 0 The Rochester Herald Republican said on the 14th The polygamists had their spokesman Delegate Caine on the floor but though he made a good speech his plea was in vain There are some features of the bill which arc objectionable but on the whole it is a good measure |