Show THE RIGHTS OF IAN ftfansurs Speech on the Idaho Admission Bill I IS THE MORMONS RELIGION That Is Seine Attacked Today Tomorrow i Mill be the Catholics The Committee Com-mittee of One Hundred WASHINGTON April 2Spccial tele groin to Tim HERALD The debate on the Idaho bill today Lad the effect of filling J the galleries with crowds of interested spectators who sat patiently through the lour hours debate occasionally punctuating punctuat-ing the remarks of the different speakers with hearty bursts of applause according as the latters sentiments Iound a corresponding corres-ponding echo in their own hearts I the discussion this afternoon the Democrats bore off the honors The Republicans put forward none of their frst class talent and the affirmative side of the cass tent t question was argued by such second rate men as Dorsey of Nebraska Dubois of Idaho and Peters of Kansas The Democrats on the other hand were such brilliant orators as Mansur of Missouri Chipman of Michigan and Smith of Arizona No better evidence of the relative interest felt i the debate 4 could be seen than in the rapid thinning out of the galleries while tno Republicans i were speaking and the speediness with > which they led up again when these giants of debate Mansur and Chipman took the floor Mr Mansur spoke for an hour He began be-gan by saying that while he had no sympathy I sym-pathy nor did he believe that any person on that side of the House had any sympathy with the institution oi bigamy or of polygamy yet we find in this bill there is a mode of striking at these offenses that is in violation of a the best of our doctrines and tenets of liberty awe a-we have universally understood and enforced en-forced them in all times past to the present time Mr Mansur then sketched at some length the injustice done to the Mormons in Idaho in the pending bill I is stated that the reason the Mormons tat I mons are t be disfranchised is because be-cause they vote the Democratic ticket Continuing he said Just pass across the line an imaginary one a that into Wyoming Wy-oming territory which you admitted as a state the other day and while there are not so many Mormons there as in Idaho yet they are nearly all Republicans and i because of the wellunderstood fact that every Mormon there votes the Republican I ticket you let them vote and not merely I that but you provided the other day that their wives should have laye the right t vote thus giving to every Mormon and wife in Wyoming two votes while in Idaho you deny the right t 1 vole even t Mormon men Let those things be understood a we go along L tit t-it be understood that it is not a question of principle anywhere but is in every instance 1 question of expediency alone for the Republican Re-publican party Let it be further under btood from fortyeight hours after the Republicans Re-publicans began 10 think that they had carried the presidential election of 1SSS the whole political world of the United States was fled with rumors of the new programme to be inaugurated by that party One feature of the programme was the admission of the new states to 4 strengthen the party in the Senate It V was also reported and published that there > 7 was to be a revolutionizing of the rules of J parliamentary proceedings that there was t be the unseating of divers members on the Democratic side and that the Republicans were to fortify themselves them-selves in this Congress and pass such bills as they deemed from their standpoint necessary to be passed and if new territories tories were admitted as states the Republican Repub-lican party being thus strengthened in the Senate it would be many years before under any circumstances the legislation of this Congress could be repealed or done away with These are the circumstance that led up t the admission of the youngest young-est of our remaining territories certainly the smallest in population and not the best equipped in financial ability t maintain statehood I the Mormons Mr Mansu said were black they would be protected f under the fifteenth amendment to the con stitutJun But he added impressively they are white and Democrats and so they are your victims Quoting Judge Wilson the speaker showed that out of 3000 Mormon voters in Idaho not more than 2 per cent were bigamist or polygamists and that of the total of 25000 Mormons in the territory bigamists and polygamists were scarcely onehalf of 1 per cent Mr Mansur next quoted ludge Carlton of the Utah commIS sion Dr Miller the editor of the Omaha Jiaald Representative Struble of Iowa Bayard Taylor Chief Justice Wait and others to show the thrift industry and general morality of the Mormon people j He then proceeded t ask the question Why on account of the few men who are engaged i the practice of bigamy or polygamy whether the number be one hundred and twentyfive a Mr Wilson in the whole Idaho estimates i territory of or whether it should be greater should we insert the penalty of disfranchisement upon every male adult of that church merely because he i a Mormon And why should we refuse him even the poor pitiful right of purging himself by anoath In which be shall swear that he does not thus believe For gentlemen please observe that in said section 3 which It is sought t engraft into the constitutioil of Idaho there are quite a number of provisions whereby a man is H de9lared t have the right of trial by jury and shall not suffer the penalty of disfranchisement disfran-chisement until after his conviction whereas offenses connected with the Mormon Mor-mon church are taken outside of the list of ordinary offenses and i man cannot purge himtclf ly his own oath that he doesot believe in bigamous or polygamous prac tices does not countenance them and does not assist in their perpetration When that is done he cannot complain i he be deprived of his privileges if convicted con-victed That i the universal law in all the states and it Is correct I have been at the trouble of collecting the law from a the several states and there i not t be found r In one pfthe states of the union any differ ent law than that they must be first con victod of crime before you can degrade a Ii man or deprive him of the inestimable right the right to vote the right to serve on a jury the right to hold an office In no stat of the union can such rights be taken from him without conviction for crime first being made I ask each and every gentleman on the other side if you vote to strike down these men without parting you go home and the men in your district ask you how you could deprive citizens of Idaho these privileges without a hearing what would your answer be > when you know the people universally in your own state believe in a different doctrine and decreed that it should become a part of the fundamental constitution of each and every one of your states How I repeat will you answer your own people when they put that question to youl Mr Mansur then referred to the recent creation in the city of Boston of the Committee Com-mittee of One Hundred The commit mittee said he has issued a pamphlet reviewing the last encyclical letter of tho I Pope and taking the position that according accord-ing to the encyclical no man can be an obe dient and loyal Catholic and at tho same time be a lawful citizen of the United States This pamphlet takes the position that the relation of Catholics towards our government is similar to that of Mormons Mor-mons who have taken the oath of the taen endowment house and then declares No ballot for the man who takes his politics from the Vatican This is a remarkable length for such a organization t go and it shows the extent to which some leading citizens are aroused over the attitude of the Catholic authorities towards the public schools Mr Mansur quoted at length from the pamphlet one of tho paragraphs being as follows We have no hesitation in affirm lag that the oath of allegiance to our government rnment taken by Romanists and by which the have obtained the rights of the ballot of citizenship and of office amounts to noth ing if they are good Romanist and has no binding obligation where the church of the pontiff requires it to be disregarded We do not hesitate to say as a measure for the nations selfprotection that no man who confesses allegiance to the pontiff should be allowed to participate a a citizen in either holding an office or casting a ballot The United States supreme court has decided de-cided that the law of one of our states disfranchising franchising Mormons is constitutional on he theory that the man who takes the oath the Mormons are required to take cannot be a good citizen Why should not this principle be applied to those who confess allegiance to the papal heirarchy P Continuing the speaker said This is the address now being issued by a committee commit-tee of 100 citizens of Boston I think I can fairly say to the Catholics that if the Mormons Mor-mons are stricken down if this bill is to be carried into effect in this way thus emboldening oldening the dominant majority i will not be long before we shall find certain denominations de-nominations and certain classes of people I in this country inaugurating a crusade against the Catholic because he is a Catholic Cath-olic A vote will be reached on the bill at 3 oplock tomorrow afternoon |