| Show THE MORMONS IN IDAHO THE idaho cormons mormons Mor mons 11 seem still to be an element of agitation in the minds mind and sand plans of idaho politicians although those defrauded citizens attempted to take no part aft W the state election and are cutting no figure in the politics of the present the fear that they will make some new effort to obtain and exercise the rights of which they have been robbed disturbs the equanimity of the schemers who know that mormon voters would not act in their interest the worst demagogues of the new state are not content with what hab been done in the way of disfranchisement chi for church membership but desire that some further measures shall be devised the shaky candidate for the united states senate lahip oseg new legislation to fit the new alguar tion created by the recent action of the mormon church in relation to PolY polygamy gAbaY he wants the state legislature to invent some fresh provisions to prolong the disfranchisement chi of the cormons cormons mormons Mor mons his views and desires however are not shared by all the active politicians of idaho and the indications are that his influence is orr the wane A very comprehensive letter on idaho affairs from boise city appeared in the chicago times of the alt it discusses the question of irti irrigation gation in an able manner and touches on the subject of the ator ship the following paragraphs paragraph in it relate to the mormon question the next subject of Import importance anoe to engage the attention of the legislature will be as to how the mormons cormons can be kept away from the polls this element prevails largely in the four I 1 ftc ern counties cn unties bingham Bing bam harn bear make lake cassia and oneida during the month of february 1886 1885 a law was passed providing that a test oath be administered to the voters of the territory T or by the terms of which the eleo tor must mast make that he did not belong to any order organization or association that taught advised counseled or encouraged its members or devotees or any other person to commit m the crime or of bigamy or polygamy or any other crime defined by la v or to enter into what is known as plural or celestial marriage the oath is much longer but the foregoing to is its substance if it was not taken the elector could not vote if a recusant saut mormon took it and voted the democratic ticket he be was indicted for conspiracy in attempting to tg evade the law and as none of his creed were allowed to sit upon juries the conviction was quite certain those who took such oaths were men who had withdrawn from the church but no amount of evidence could be adduced to convince the court and jury that the accused w was honest in his recantation the mor mor mons have always contended that rat polygamy was no 00 part of their creed bat was only permissible and that any or all of them could take the proscribed prescribed oath but the courts and juries seemed to know more about such matters than did the mormons cormons themselves or at least assumed to t know in Yani january jary 1889 the legislature su supplemented e en the e ae act 0 of 1885 by providing vi in that any person witha withdrawing wing fro from t the e mormon ormon church might a appear before a clerk of the dietr ct court and subscribe to the test oath when he might receive his first papers rs after the la lapse P so of two years the Coi backslider slider could again appear and with the aid of two witnesses who were not mormons cormons Mor mons show to the court that he had kept the provisions of his oath when the court might make an order permitting the registration of the applicant the act of 1886 has been declared legal by the supreme court of the united states but the latter has not been passed upon on the day of september president woodruff the head of the church issued a manifesto denying that celestial or plural marriage had been practiced for a series of years or was now being performed within the pale of the church he also forbade all mormons cormons from entering into the prescribed relation the twelve apostles ratified the edict the act of 1889 passed by the idaho legislature relates only to such as have I 1 withdrawn from the mormon church and not to any change of creed the mormons cormons are therefore at the present time legal voters As there are but about out of the 50 to voters Z 1 of that class in the state who are republicans I 1 public ans and these were permitted to vote at the last election through thel the connivance of federal of officers floers some legislation will be presented by which the mormons cormons can be kept from the polls in the future it would be difficult to tell how this can be successfully i accomplished without the enactment of an ex post facto law but our republican republics friends will be found equal to the occasion they avow openly that they intend to keep the proscribed I 1 sect seat continually in the supreme court ind and durin during the interval from the voting places 11 the next paragraph alleges something that will be new to most of our readers the hon alexander H mayhew may hew has announced his bis intention of contesting the seat of willis sweet in the next congress the grounds for such contest will be open bribery practiced practice and the mormon votes received by sweet it is intended to compel the republicans to take the ground that the mormon vote mat for sweet was legal or lose their representative in the house from this state if six hundred mormon voted in idaho at the last election it is something that people here know nothing about we regard the story as mere rumor but bat at the same t time me we know that the very republicans who were the most violent in denunciation nuncia tion of the mormons Mor mons J would move all earth and the lower regions if pos possible silde to gain the votes of those mormons cormons Mor mons whom they affect to despise the anaconda montana mand standard gets still further away from the mark and takes lakes it for granted that the mormons cormons Mor mons voted generally in idaho and that they supported the republican ticket it says it was the twelve hundred mor mons in bingham bear lake ano and cassia counties the sixty dagges on the big ditch in ads ada county and the four hundred colonized voters oteis in Wa washington washinton shoshone and latah counties that made mr shoup governor and gave a large majority mao rity of idaho a legislature to the republicans one does not require to look fa far for r convincing proof as to the relia reliability I 1 I 1 of these assertions no one denies that the entire mormon vote in idaho was cast for the republican party the mormons cormons boast of it the republicans admit it the returns prove it it every man upon that ticket was elected and the big mormon vote cast indirect in direct violation of the law of the state helped make the grand republican lican victory P the standard is away off the mormon vote was waa not mot at an all A few persons who had been mor 1 mons may have deposited their ballots ballets but no recent se ceders any more than the genuine mormons cormons Mor mons participated in the idaho ate election neither do they appear to be atall at all anxious at present toen to engage in politics or use their influence on behalf of any party for they have been shamefully treated by all still it is very sure that a people so prosperous and so thoroughly posse possessed shed of all the qualities that make good citizens cannot long be kept under the heel of oppression or be ignored in the midst of a republican commonwealth they are bound to be free and also to be influx estial and though they may be quiescent for years in the very nature of things it is certain that their time will come |
