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Show THAT IDAHO BISHOP'S APPOINTMENT. j H Senator Heyburn of Idaho has .secured the" H appointment of a Mormon Bishop to the office H of United States assayer of tho assay office at t Boise. Tho Idaho papers axo scrapping over the I ,j appointment. The News of this city has once or 1 twice taken a hand; the last article that we "have I noticed declaring that Mormon Bishops and peo- I pie have all the rights of citizenship, and clos- I fj ing by telling the Idaho papers and people to I h "mind your own busines." This last is surely ! f I a persuasive argument. We do not care particu- 1 1. ji larly about the appointment of this Bishop as HI J ; i superintendent of the Boise assay ofllce, ecept Hi i . ' I i that the general objection lies against him; his Bf I1 ' mi f firs'' temporal allegiance does not belong to the if I fl i United States. In that office his work will be H 1 n If simply to honestly keep the accounts of the of- H $ I It ficG' mamS honest returns of the same and has H m I ! ' no such significance as has that of a man given a H Mill ' hgli Ptical station, where by virtue of his posi- H i 111 v tion he becomes one of the law-makers of the H i Iff j nation. Still, he should not have the place be- H I :I I cause it should be reserved for a real citizen; H 11 f j for one who under any contingency would be true H I If ! to the government that pays him his salary. If H if j the matter were reversed no Gentile would be H ill given the place. "We saw enough of that in this H r 11 cIty and territory. When in this city the Gen: H 11 ' tiles were paying half the taxes and numbered H I nearly 50 per cent of the population not one of H I JL i them could obtain any place of honor or emolu- H 1 1 I ment under the city or territorial government; H !1 if not one could obtain the place of teacher in the H ; 1 1, public schools no matter how competent and no H I I f matter how incompetent were scores of the teach- H s i ers then employed. I liiit Te reasons Svei1 fr this were that such lil ill I applicants did not believe that Joseph Smith was I p1 'If i I a PrPhet, that they would not obey counsel; would H 'I II 1 f i not pay tithing, were not of "our kingdom' The Hi ' li ill ' . office of superintendent of the Boise assay office is Hj I fl P L more clerical than anything else, and the man Hj J ill ;f' could do little harm there no matter what might B !r II' arise, but it should be given to a real citizen for ' if if ltd , two reasons. One is that none but a real citizen should have the place, the second is that by every such an appointment made at the request of a Gentile United States Senator, the impression in th'e east is deepened that there is nothing more sinister to free institutions in the Mormon sys tern than in the real churches of the country. An organization which claims and compels the absolute obedience of its members, in tem-poial tem-poial as well as spiritual matters, to a chief who claims authority to rule from God himself; an organization the heads of which do not scruple to intentionally make false pledges to the Government Gov-ernment of the United States in order to carry a point; an organization the highest desire and purpose of which is to as much subordinate free government in this country as free government is subordinated in Turkey or Persia is not a good preparatbry school in which to train men and fit them to hold office under the government of the United States. We would treat them as they would treat Americans if they were in the majority ma-jority and continue that treatment until they, too, should decide that the Government of the fathers is a good enough government for them. |