| Show GEORG Q OAJfXOX WITHDRAWS I In another column of The Herald I this morning will be found an open letter from George Q Cannon on his senatorial candidacy The letter appeared ap-peared in last nights News and was the sensation of the day in political circles Sir Cannon assigns as a reason rea-son for withdrawing from the senatorial sena-torial struggle the danger there is in the prevailing uncertainty as to his attitude and that this uncertainty may lead to divisions in the party ranks This In the view of Mr Cannon Can-non would be most unfortunate as he thinks the Republican party having won a victory are entitled to the legitimate fruits of itthe selection of the senators and any division that would prevent that result Mr Cannon would regard as deplorable I cannot can-not therefore he adds in the remotest re-motest degree contribute to division by allowing my name to appear as a candidate for United States senator Then follows the important part of the communication I have stated this repeatedly to my friends and I I now state it to the public that there may be no longer any uncertainty upon I the question I desire in this public manner to saytto all my friends and especially to those who have been so kind as to express themselves in favor fa-vor of my being elected to the United States senate that I am not a candidate can-didate for senator and could not accept ac-cept that office I It may well be imagined that Mr Cannons Republican friends will scarcely relish the set back his open I I letter will give their ardor Mr Can I non has been a candidate for the senate sen-ate and his friends with his full knowledge and sanction have steadily pushed him to the front as a candidate candi-date but in the crisis he failed them Many will be the reasons assigned for the action of Mr Cannon The Herald Her-ald has but one to suggestweakness I If Republican unity was so dear to Mr I Cannon as he now makes it appear in his open letter he could have contributed I I con-tributed to it quite as well eight or ten days ago as now and there never was a timenor would it have arisen in the futurewhen his candidacy would so far have threatened the Republican Re-publican party with disunion as to rob it of the power to elect the senators and therefore to assign that as a reason for withdrawing withdraw-ing from the field is rather a lame excuse ex-cuse to say the least of it That Mr Cannon thinks the political office not inconsistent with his ecclesiastical ecclesi-astical position appears In this that he assigns no such reason as the cause of withdrawing from the senatorial contest con-test and for the further reason that gentlemen authorized to speak for him have declared it to be his opinion that the position of senator was not inconsistent with his church office and that he has not yielded to the cry of his candidacy being in any sense a union of church and state appears both from the fact of his own silence on the subject in his open letter and the strong editorial in the News on that subject which follows the letter of Mr Cannon in the News and which we quote below Democrats may congratulate themselves them-selves upon the fact that the candidacy candi-dacy of Mr Cannon for the senate has made clear that gentlemans politics Men who represented him and his political po-litical views have stated in his behalf that both from belief in the cardinal doctrines of Republicanism and by financial support to the Republican party Mr Cannon has declared himself him-self a Republican I Following is the News editorial referred I re-ferred to above > o Church Influence In the present discussion about the senatorship of Utah the question of Church influence should be eliminated elimin-ated for the sufficient reason that it has no foundation in fact at least not I in the quarter where it is so eagerly looked for There is a growing conviction con-viction among those who are intelligently I intelli-gently watching developments that the hueandcry has been raised solely to I frighten those concerned from performing I perform-ing their duties to the state as their I personal and patriotic convictions would prompt them for the purpose of Inducing them to follow the lead of ambitious aspirants for political honors How far this impression is correct we do not presume to say but we do most emphatically state that wherever such tactics may be adopted the plan should be frustrated at once The legislators are here not in the interest of individuals They cannot turn over to ambitious politicians the allegiance they owe the state and their respective parties without betraying the sacred trust of the people and branding themselves as unworthy of confidence They understand this and know very well that their duty is to see that none but the best qualified I are sent f the seat of the national I government as the representatives of the new state Qualification and political po-litical affiliations not creed must be the only considerations Were this not so the greater part of the male population in this state would I be barred from the rights accorded I every citizen in the United States since they belong to a church in which I nearly every man holds some ecclesiastical eccles-iastical office some portion of the holy priesthood To maintain that this fact operates against the performance of any duties to the state is to take issue with the constitution itself to urge that some ecclesiastical officers can properly hold civil offices while others cannot without mingling together to-gether two opposite elements Is an apparent absurdity The very position of the ecclesiastical ecclesias-tical office of the Latterday Saints from the highest to the lowest is such that other denominations present pre-sent no parallel cases The latter have officers specially trained for eccesiasti cal service In many instances the training has been obtained at somebody some-body elses expense with the understanding under-standing that heIr lives should be devoted de-voted to the spiritual service of the denomination Almost without excep tion they are by oath or promise bourd to devote their time to that kind > of work and they generally receive a salary sal-ary for their services It Is their njins of securing a livelihood They are the paid servants of the denominationand cannot properly as such engage ift any other line of business whatever There is as far as known no other objection i1 to their entering the political arena than there would be to their establishing establish-ing a tailor shop or a grocery business But as stated the cases are not paralleL paral-leL The ecclesiastical officers of the Saints occupy an entirely different po siti n The priesthood is not to them a means of making a living They engage very properly in all the different differ-ent honorable pursuits of life and can with as much propriety discharge the duties of state officers as those of an honest merchant laborer or farmer The Mormons according to their own creed do not believe in mingling religious re-ligious influence with civil government and as a corelative It follows that they do not believe in making religious creed or ecclesiastical position a bar to serving serv-ing the people in any way the people may demand It 5s perfectly useless to try to work up a scare in this matter unless the intention is to spread the false impression abroad that Utah is a priestridden country and thus antagonize an-tagonize her progress to whatever extent ex-tent this may be still possible |
