| Show washington the passage of the be infamy learned Ife benator nater vest vent its enebak senator butler cannot understand it moors eloquent and con vinding speech of benumor cau call discomfort etc te NEWS special Correspond enoa washington feb 17 1887 agreeable to notice made by senator edmunds he cafield up in the senate today to day the conference report on th the e anti mormon bill senator vest be gan the opposition he said eaid he was wa aware of the tae fact that the bill would pass the senate but buta he be proposed to vote against it and would give his reasons for it he denounced the section regarding the disposition of church ro perty after all debts had been paid property iro nd ad challenged any senator to show a parallel case in any statute book he denounced the right to arrest witnesses who were not in contempt as an invasion of constitutional rights and declared that the section prescribing the oath to be taken by all applicants for registration was sa a TEST OATH and fundamentally contravened the constitutional inhibition of test oaths he realized that his opposition wound be f futile attle but he knew something about test oaths for he bad lived where they had bad een enforced for some years senator edmunds seated that mr vest misunderstood the bill it provided that the property was after all debts hid had been paid to be distributed conformably to law As for the test at oath the one in question ont 1 was nothing noth it ng more nor noi less than every citizen had bad to take than every senator had bad to take huar hoar of massachusetts had bad asked edmunds edmands prior to this if there was anything whatever in the section which h could infringe upon the he rights of conscience and the vermont st jerome declared there was nothing that could be so construed not in the slightest degree again took the floor saying it was not surprising that he should be mistaken as the report bad only been printed this morning and he had bad been looking cooki it over only since the clerk began ang the he reading of the bill he averred that he be was not mistaken however and that even were the organizations declared illegal the only legal way to spose of the property was to distribute pro rats rata agreeable to contributions among the members this was confiscation pure ai and ad simple he had remembrance of a similar cry to this against the roman catholics years ears ago when ministers and men T in a the pulpits all over the land held that a catholic could not be a loyal citizen of the government and that the catholic church organization was a treasonable one and the doctrine wis was boldly advanced that its property should be confiscated it is idle idle to talk about this oath being like that which officers of the government bad to take just rew read it by no course of reasoning however subtle could there be established 1 I ANY ANALOGY ALO GY between the one provided in this bill and that which officers to take it is a test oath designed to be such guell and to interfere with the conscience ot of a mormon when the day cones comes that the safety of republican institutions depends upon a test oath then republican institutions are at an end if f th the mormons cormons are in open or secret rebellion as is charged they will perjure themselves by taking this olith oath and thus continue the rebellion it can do no good but may force them to add to treason the crime of perjury 1 I shall not vote tor for the bill senator ingalls next arose and in a speech unusually temperate for him defended we the action of of the conference committee and declared that he had opposed many of the HARSH FEATURES in the bill as it came from the house his argument regarding the seizure of on property was one of expediency an and it w was as worthy worth of note that neither he nor senator edmunds attempted to defend it on legal grounds regarding the test oath he affirmed emphatically that notwithstanding his bis support of df the Vie measure asure he would vote against it if in the faintest fain cesi way a line or a word atit 01 it could be construed as an infringement upon the right of conscience no man had greater re tor for sincere religious belief than be and he made no exception to a mormon while I 1 deman demana A and revere the right to believe as I 1 will and my reason approves approved I 1 am willing to accord the same ito the Mor monand I 1 1 and to everybody else the sena senator 0 r f from rom missouri must know that test oaths are not a rare thing but I 1 am as greatly opposed to any infringement upon the right of conscience cor or of I 1 I 1 interposed ater posed senator edmunds yes or of opinion as the senator from vermont suggests and I 1 would vote against this bill if I 1 could see in any way tiow how the language can be so construed 11 SENATOR BUTLER of south carolina asked what the meaning of the word status was in the test oath to which mr ingalls replied with the concurrence of edmunds that it meant his social status his married condition condit condi ioB tiou and an any court would so construe it i would like to know said mr air butler how a man can denne define his 0 own w status under oath I 1 confess this language is not plain to me senator ca call IT who so vigorously opposed the original senate bill took the floor against the one under consideration era tion section by section he considered it all that he be ssie said being so much to the point that it is almost idl idla to make selections hiu hill speech should be republished and I 1 am told that able as lie he is at all times he fairly eclipsed himself today to day EDMUNDS during the address sat uneasily and I ii IA A do 0 not recollect a man ever ta to have been so thoroughly ehly denounced in a christian manner and in temperate language as mr call condemned amne d the actions of the modern and heartless st jerome hi said laid that it was abase and unworthy subterfuge on the part ot of the senate to state that the language came within the letter of the constitution when every student 0 of f legal history at the threshold of the profession was told that the spirit of the law must the understood the question put bh by the senator from massachusetts hoar oar as to whether this tais test oath infringed the rights of conscience was a deliberate attempt to cover up the subtle meaning of the words it was base and unworthy such a law to is a disgrace to the statute books of any country and it will bring this body into contempt before the world WOULD what is the purpose of this bin bill we are told that it is not ilot intended to trench upon the rights of conscience in every section in every line it is aimed at the mormon people to destroy their right of conscientious worship by no do sophistry nor reasoning could this design be concealed and an vet et this bod body is asked to look ok at the fetter letter of the thewl IMI when the spirit breathed into every word is one of religious persecution not content with punishing u a wag inhumanly the offense of the up father t hn r the innocent offspring with which the creator in his economy has seen fit to crown even the guilty act of its parents is to be brought within the revengeful reach of the senator irom Vermont gibe GUILTY is forced by this bill to be made more guilty to desert his bis offspring to deny to it that protection which properly bestowed might nurture it to a manhood which would mad it the peer 0 of even the senator from vermont or 0 of f men anywhere aluen in p ahe he world this is is inhumanly cruel you may tell we me such mich is the law of civili civilization IOA I 1 care not come whence it may it t was born in barbarism and inhumanity we are to punish also forthe for the crime ot t adultery where in utah among what people aogle among the mormons cormons Mor mons this flo is t the a spirit of the bill we set ourselves up as the pharisee of old thau thank k god I 1 am holier thin than thou we should punish those people ea p la who have more crying crimes ru an fn 0 our u r midst we would legislate agali against at mormon polygamy while WB our own awn there was wag a legislator onto onte who was tile the peer of the senator from vermont a law gihei who was the great master and when they brought before him the woman caught in adultery and asked him what they should do with her he wrote in the sand saad and answered that he be who was without sin should cast the first stone and of that great throng not one was there to rebuke the woman are we prepared to cast the first stone la is this notion nation prepared ared to take it up against a peaceful honest f frugal industrious people because they are guilty of things we do not approve then women who have been brought frotz from shame and want beastly want wan in foreign lands and given the comforts of I 1 life ite and educated they are to be diba ran chided why because athey believe that which has BETTERED TREM THEM and in those who have benefited them and yet we are told this bill is not designed to infringe on the right of conscience twenty members of this body who will vote for this bill voted for the right of suffrage to women not long since why will they vote the reverse way now because these women are mormons cormons Mor mons anere is a test oath here who is it designed for forthe for the mormon to keep him from the polls because ot of his bis belief he I 1 is 0 required to say he will not violate t the he 10 law w in ih th the e fut futtere if re it is again the pharisee cry of 1 I am holier than thou thank god I 1 am not as that publican who confessed his sin and was received again into the fold no man can say he will never sin he may say he will try not to but only by DIVINE HELP can he keep from doing wrong and yet this law makes the mormon swear abear that he will not do a thing while he may not be able to keep that oath mak T the a whole thing is intended to affect the mormon church and to destroy the he rights of conscience and in its spirit the entire bill is intended to suppress the mormon religion it Is a disgrace to civilization as it is subversive of the religion of christ at which it is a blow the bill is barbarous and inhuman it is a fanatical attack upon the religion of christ establish this bill as law and the religion of christ to is no longer the rule but it to is one of ef persecution every minister and priest should assail it irom from the pulpit as an attack upon the gospel ol of the divine master so began A THU THIS inquisition in spain not from the church but from in men en W who had political ends in view so it is with everk persecution the passage of this bill ushers in ia the era of persecution the sentences in quotations are amone those that d dropped r aped irom senator I 1 ills lips as he denounced the 0 basure senator butler brie briefly objected d to the bill he watt was not only in favor of suppressing polygamy in utah but also als s 0 in eve every ry other part of the country and after the arguments meats of the senators from missouri and ami florida he be could not see how bo wit it vias possible to vote for the measure 1 I would infinitely prefer to abolish the whole territorial rit orial government and govern it by a commission as ia done liere here than to vote for this bill I 1 must vote against this bill and I 1 went want to state why abak ALSO opposed the bill because because of the abolition 1 of WC women man suffrage as did blair and dolph the motion was waa then put the ayes and nays being taken there were thirty seven for and thirteen against the b ill it was noticeable that practically aUy no attempt was made to defeat it that there was a unanimous and emphatic denial on the part of those who favored and framed the measure that the oath was in any way whatsoever designed to or could be cona construed trued as trenching drenching tren ching upon the rights of conscience or opan conand that it was infinitely less leas ha harsh than its predecessors WALTON WOLD |
