Show TEST OATH U UNDER q D im t this his caption the st louls louis is in its issue of last saturday february esth published the an article as ito itis leading editorial I 1 it is high toned clear and logically unanswerable its perusal is commended to the leading liberal anti constitution demagogues and opponents of human freedom in utah the religious test oath has always alway been odious free peoples lee and in america test oaths of any kind except those pledging the affiant to support the constitutions state and federal have been looked upon as a part of the machinery of despotism the spirit of americanism requires required that chat punishment shall not be inflicted for any uncommitted wrong and rejects the doctrine that any man may be rightly punished by human law for his thoughts however criminal when a crime has been committed and the perpetrator convicted of it infamy involving loss of citizenship and the privilege of office holding rightly follows as a part of the punishment A citizen in of such mental aberration as may come to any in ill times of great gabat excitement ent may have believed it his hia dut duty to 2 kill 1 may atay have associated Wl with thIers others of itile mind and shared a com common on purpose appose to commit the worst and most moat Ef infamous ivious felony but if he con control contrail himself if hi he e resist the temptation slid and do noli toom commit mit the crime or givre give any manifestation of intention to commit it he is not amenable im enable to punishment for hid hia thoughts the law sup poses that he will control himself it boses does oes not seek to take him in the moment when hia he is struggling with to arime ana by any pro ess his thoughts and so unish U him for entertaining them WI he must not be punished for thinking a wrong axe Ij lemay may be punished only 4 my a stong this is a principle of justice sties growing opt t of universal fiam human weakness it thab all men may contemplate plate orime that none aone are exempt worn koni thoughts of wrongdoing wrong doing it does not seek therefore tho Wore to force anyone ae to reveal those wrongs of which he to is loons conscious olous with himself alone it respects the 6 diete of self that bof is of amonoo ano noo oe and it grants liberty of self knowledge freedom of con ele a ce atit until I 1 it has led to the actual of crime en me the crime must not merely have been thought thought ox no matter how bev long the thought though by a have persisted or how bow strong the tomp temptation n may have been thore there must be criminal action before legal infamy can rightly follow the test oath bath which hiah pries into thoughts to find whether or not they swe are criminal that infamy il a may be inflicted Alc ted violates this afe ig KEW ale of justice the idaho oath eath directed against cormons mormons Mar Mor mons is intended to be such a test teat of thought carrying with it the necessity either or of perjury brof br of the infamy which attaches ony y to criminal acts chieh chic h cannot rightly attach to any uncommitted crime since uncommitted crime is a contradiction of arms a berf mer grammatical error in the use usa of word words il illogical inconceivable and a absurd infamy follows crime came but bat crime astar as far as a laws ate are rightly concerned with it is an act not a thought or a belief bellef however however wrong the thought or belief may be those who will examine the idaho idabo test oath will easily see that its whole intention is 18 to punish the thought of uncommitted wherefore nonexistent non existent crime the in ro quites aires the citizen to avam t am adt no t a mAiri member bev of toy or organization organisation which teaches advises or encourages 04 cou the practice of bice bigamy or pol polygamy AW or any y other crime do benned denned e mab by y law aw as a daiy or privilege resulting 51 or arising from t the e faife fat or arg practice 2 fee of side such order sect or cr organization or that teaches counsels encourages cou aDu rages or advises any person or 01 persons ta t commit the ertme aj of ierson bigamy 1 16 or polygamy ej or any other crime do defined ne by law aw as a religious duty that I 1 att am not a bigamist biga talat polygamist or polygamist that I 1 do not either publicly ho y I 1 or privately teach counsel encourage or advise any ny person or persons persona to enter itolo do fie bigamous or polygamous relations or A into ko the relation known as plural or celestial ha in marriage e that I 1 regard the constitution tion of we the nifty states and the laws jaws hereof and of this interpreted by t the courts rs as th the 0 supreme eme law of f the tend d and t h a 1 will 1 I sup support sua ort and awk d uphold old the he sa same ah the r teachings a 0 of any order rd s sect or r or ua to t the e contrary tr notwithstanding t ith BO 0 help no me god mohammedan or mormonism is not the religion of this country this try ican can rightfully prohibit any specific apeci fiu set ael of crime as bigamy or polygamy as it may prohibit such human heman sacrifices as practiced occasionally sio nally in hayti by negro voodoo worshippers wor shippers but no state of the union unions Uni ony may rightfully require ZI U i re a alegra alegro to wear swear jt bat he is not himself M elf a voodoo worshipper wor shipper and that he is n not at the time of taking the oath thinking of committing the crime of murder either iwa asa religious act or for any other reason if if he manifests any intention of commit i ry the crime he dabi can be legally and add ti rightly locked up it if he commits it he can be hanged but if he were the lowest and most do de braved barbeln barb barbarian on earth justice demands mands that he be not put pat upon the rack and forced to confess hits his thoughts the mohammedan or of the mormon must not commit bigamy in the united states but the law which forces him to swear whether or not he has thought of or is now edw tri thinking h aking of living with more than ond one woman as a conditioner conditi onOr any reason to him seemingly desir desirable desirably ablo is I 1 ss itself In haidus Ini ramous with all the infamy it seeks to inflict on him in case it does not force him to the crime of perjury in case he confesses that he regards or that he has regarded any clesia designated crime as desirable it is alleged that tufit those who have hav 0 been thus persecuted by the republican party have become democrats in opposing their per bouto and this with wita many anany republicans is sufficient reason for forever denying them mercy or justice but if it were politically pa b iti cally tight right to visit infamy on the thou thought lit of wrong doing louisiana or mississippi might frame a test oath against and sorcery with their horrible practices which would disfranchise two thirds of the republicans in those states if louisiana aud and mississippi republicans were required to wear swear 11 1 I do not believe in or practice conjuring or any form of sorcery or devil worship I 1 two thirds of the republicans in those states dould be forced either to lo perjure themselves to accept legal infamy as a punishment or to accomplish the pr practically impossible by becoming intelligent enough to see the folly of their ignorant superstitions besides when we begin these tests of belief and conscience where are they to end colonel robert G ingersoll delights in saying of rians worse worde and more bitter things than its strongest opponents have known how to say of mormonism whose thoughts are to be the standard of right thinking who can be trusted to inflict infamy for thought which is extorted on oath from the self knowl edge of those who have committed no act of crime |