Show THE IDAHO OUTRAGE A number of the newspapers of tho country especially those of Democratic leanings arc taking up the Idaho admission admis-sion matter and discussing it much in the manner that tho bill was discussed in tho House of Representatives tho other day The clearest statement of the case that ivo have yet seen is an editorial the Chicago Times which presents tho matter with such convincing logic that one wonders that anybody who has regard for justice right and law can approve tho outrage which is proposed in the admission of Idaho with its republican constitution We publish the Times editorial in full Tho population of Idaho in 1SSO was 32 110 Tho vote of Idaho in 18SS was 10013 It is probable therefore that the present population of the territory is from 80000 to 100000 The Republican majority in 1SS3 teas 1747 A Republican Congress which aw three additional votes in the electoral rollege of Ib92 by the admission of Wyo aiiiig sees three more by the admission of j Idaho New Mexico exceeds either in pop j alation area and wealth but a Republican Congress has no use for a Democratic territory ter-ritory wherefore New Mexico must bo Ignored while Wyoming and Idaho arc pushed to the front The Republican House approves a constitution con-stitution for Wyoming containing a clause for woman suffrage The policy of this proceeding will not be greatly juestioned If Wyoming wants woman suffrage there Is no reason why tho nation should not respect its preference Tho apportionment apportion-ment of Congressmen is made not upon the basis of the elector but upon that of population popula-tion and Wyoming would gain no dispro portioned advantage by its peculiar enactment enact-ment as to suffrage But Idaho in its constitution con-stitution proposes a monstrous injustice totally at variance with tho spirit of religious liberty and even the letter of the federal constitution All states aim to disfranchise dis-franchise convicted felons and in BO far as polygamists are felons It is proper to disfranchise them when their offense is notorious Even if they have not been convicted The Mormon as a polygamist may bo condemned i con-demned to outer political darkness but tho I Mormon who is not a polygamist but is I otherwise tjualilicd as an elector is as much entitled to the exercise of all privileges privi-leges of a citizen as a Methodist a Catholic Catho-lic a Lutheran a Jew cr the professor of I any other religion The states ought not to go the states do not go Into any inquiry touching an electors religious belief The states do net and they ought not assume Ito I-to discriminate between church beliefs I The vice of the Idaho constitution is that It disfranchises a Mormon merely as such I He may be unmarried he may be a monogamist mo-nogamist ho may refuseas many Mormons i Mor-mons doto have a plurality of wives but j I lie is marked for disfranchisement upon the sole ground of his membership in the Mormon church This is a monstrous perversion per-version of the spirit of religious liberty Congress says the constitution shall make no law respecting an establishment nf religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof To disfranchise wholesale as i is proposed in the Idaho constitution all the mea belonging to a particular church is t very materially to intrench upon tho free exercise of religion It is a crime against I liberty The Mormon has as much right to worship God in his own way as the I Presbyterian has Tho I nonpolygamous Mormon has equal rights of citizenship I with the r I nonpolygamous Spiritualist or Infidel or Mussulman It adds to the enormity of the outrage proposed in Idaho and sanctioned by a vote of the Republicans in Congress that this invasion of the right of private opinion upon religious questions Is attempted not from any high if mistaken motive but i solely through desire to silence at the polls a class of mea who it is feared might vote against Republicans A great principle of liberty mighty in its beneficence is to be assailed its beatific > symmetry is to be destroyed de-stroyed merely to bolster Republicanism in Idaho and make certain of three electoral l elec-toral votes for tho Republican party in i 1S92 1S92The Democrats in the House of Representatives Repre-sentatives opposed this monstrous plan to the utmost of their power compelling finally the arbitrary counting of a quorum In order to enable the speaker to declare the bill passed Their purpose is to present pre-sent the subjectmatter to tho supreme court tot an opinion upon the power of tho house to go behind tho roll call for a quorum There ought to be an opinion I from this court on the sufficiency of the disfranchising tution clause in tho Idaho consti |