Show disqualify LAST week vvhs tras conference week of course we had to attend to conference business giving it preference as to time on our hands and space in our pages and also had to hospitably entertain as best we could those of our country friends who might call upon us with all sincere men who make profession of religion their religion is the first and foremost thing and their actions are correspondingly influenced consequently having our attention and space so pre pro engaged and pretty fully occupied we had bad little time or space to spare to pay eur our ur respects to matters judicial we did publish the charge to the grand jury and offered a few very brief comments upon the same and also recorded the most important other acts of the court but little more there are several cognate 0 subjects such as the of the jury the finding of indictments conduct of officials etc upon which a few words might have been profitably said it is to be hoped however that our comparative para tive silence upon these interesting subjects will not be attributed to any lack of respect in the least degree but to the exercise ot that hat intuitional intuit ional fonal judgment which every intelligent and honest professor of religion has of the preference in attention due to the things of the court of heaven above the things of the courts of earth this is all the explanation or apology we have to offer in this matter and we sincerely hope that it will be acceptable to the judicial portion of the community as well as to the public at large in this article we propose to say a word or two upon the eions of persons to sit as grand j bors as insisted upon in the impanel ment tent of the present grandeury gran krand grand djury jury by thel tha U S prosecuting attorney and sustained by the U S judge on the bench non citizenship of course a grand juror must be a citizen hon bon non lon residence A grand juror must be a resident for six months previous opposition to capital punishment A man whose conscience would not allow him to agree to the punishment of death could not be a grand juror this question I 1 is a generally though not invariably put and insisted upon elsewhere to a person drawn for a grand juror it is i a rule devised for the especial benefit of the quakers living or believing in polygamy or plural bardage mar ma niage nage challenges for this cause are not common in intact fact they are peculiar to the U 8 courts in this territory so bo far as we have learned the above four were the urged bythe by the prosecuting attorney the three firt fir t with collateral points being commonly acted upon in courts generally we will passover pass passo over oyer and proceed to consider the fourtin fourth polygamy poly gamy this is not a crime of itself four fifths of mankind hold it to be otherwise it is not an offense offence against any law or of this territory the law or of the united states makes it an of bence lenee but cannot make lake it a crime in the popular acceptation of that word which has a morally guilty mean ing the polygamy or plurality of wives of the mormons cormons Mor mons being behig an establishment of religion byrene by revelation from gody godt god supported by the holy scriptures s and practiced by the ancient prophets of god is therefore not a fit and proper subject for congressional legislation the scope of which is absolutely absolu tely limited in this direction by express prohibition of the constitution of the united states polygamy be ing an establishment of religion congress has no power to make a law either in favor of it or in disfavor of it nor for it is a matter that can only be constitutionally do de aided upon by each citizen as right or wrong for him according to the sed dictates of hia hla own conscience the people of this territory do not consider it a crime they do not consider it an of lence fence but thy they do consider it an honorable estate expressly provided authorized sanctioned commanded and blessed by HI heaven leaven itself and therefore an essential part or of their religion which could not be rejected nor dishonored by them without endangering their acceptance in the sight of god and their eternal salvation in his presence any more than the rejecting or dishonoring of any other principle of divine truth or essential to salvation could be safely indulged in the practice of and belief in this religiously established form of marriage was particularly urged as a matter of disqualification for a grand juror in the poland bill under which the court is acting there was a provision excluding polygamists from serving on juries but the provision was rejected and thrown out showing that congress wa waa not in favor of making that point one of disqualification yet in spite of this action ot of congress the court here allows the point as a a valid one for non challenge and rejection of persons for jurors ors ora what are we to think of tes tal this can it be considered a legitimate exercise of judicial discretion or must murt it be viewed as a determined effort to convict in a certain direction law or no law in consequence of the above action of the court Mormon Mor mons sare sane are ane almost if not completely excluded from the grand jury by which mormons cormons Mor mons are to be indicted and in all probability will be from the petit juries by which mormons cormons Mor mons mona are to be tried Is this law Is this justice Is this republicanism now this unconstitutionally ally aily declared is athe the only one which waa wax urged find and accepted as disqualifying a citizen from being a grand juror no actual crime mala in ve se v e as well as mala maia prohibits prohibit a was urged as a disqualification no man was asked if lie he was a drunk ardithe ardi fhe rhe be was profane if he was a gambler if he was a thief thier if ho he was a seducer if he lle was an adulterer it if he be was a whoremonger if he was a traitor if he lle was a murderer these there crimes passed unmentioned while the honorable condition of plural marriage was viciously pitched upon without fall and one of the gentlemen questioned upon stating that he did not consider that a crime became at once tho the object of concentrated beligio magisterial surprise and wonder a conscientious polygamist no matter how good a citizen no matter how true and honorable a man no matter how low pure and self sacrificing a patriot cannot sit upon mckeand Mc Keans juries liars perjurers per jurers drunkards profane sweaters swear ers gamblers thieves adulterers whore mongers bongers mon gers murderers men guilty of treason or any other real crime on OB the statute book may be sitting on that grand jury now so far as chal chai challenges enges were waro concerned to indict dict citizens ebs ens and similar characters may ba b yet sitting upon the petit juries which will traverse those indictments and pronounce guilty or not guilty while guilty or who has mero mere wives than one or who religiously bel bei believes leves ieves it right to have more wives than one is determinedly rejected though he may kave have been well known all his llis life as a moral virtuous upright useful respected eted citizen entirely without reproach who is responsible for this state of things the officers of the court and directly them alone ajoue it isa is a fearful responsibility what is their object in taking such buch a course that they themselves must declare but it will require a vast amount of explanation and special pleading to convince the public that it has hab been taken in the interest of either law or justice |