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Show B 'IB WHY THE PROTESTS. B U ' 1 BB A11 Mormons and some Gentiles cannot see why Blr lB th6re are protests against the seating of Apostle -fllli MB Smooth in the Senate of the United States, just Hll Iff because of his religious beliefs. B S 'j W& lt ls nojt because of his beliefs that objection BB 'I mm IS made;'but because his beliefs have caused him HL l IB t0 take upon llImself obligations which make it Hi' B HI1 w PWm B' llj f mum impossible for him to be in the true sense of the word an American Senator. Mormons affect to believe that he is opposed simply because the country's prejudiced against his creed. We'll, suppose a case. Suppose Cardinal Cardi-nal Gibbons of the Roman Catholic Church had been nominated and elected Senator just as Apostle Apos-tle Smoot was, what would happen then? Even if the discipline of the Catholic Church did not make such a thing impossible, there would be a feeling among all Catholics that one of the Princes of their church had dishonored the religion he professed pro-fessed by engaging in the scramble for a political office, and that to serve as Senator he was dragging drag-ging his robes in the mire. The feeling of non-Catholics non-Catholics would be that his election was intended to neutralize that principle of our government which forbids any union of Church and State in the civil government of our country; an attempt to fasten upon our soil such a conflict as soaked the soil of Europe with blood for a thousand gloomy years. When Mormons consider that, they ought to realize that a vast mistake was made when Mr. Smoot was elected to a political office. It was, in truth, an act of defiance on the part of the Chiefs of the Mormon Church; an act of defiance de-fiance and of shamefully bad faith. It was defiance de-fiance because it was on its face a proof that those chiefs do not care for the mandate that forbids a union of Church and State in this Republic; that they do believe in such union or, more properly speaking, in the domination of the State by the Church., It was bad-faith, because statehood was obtaired on the promise by those same chiefs of the Church, that their continued interference in politics, which, in times past, cost them so much heartburning and sorrow, should cease. It was bad faith with the Government and people of the United States; it was an act of contemptuous defiance of the Gentiles of Utah, who, on their promise joined in asking for statehood; it was an outrage on the Mormon rank and file, for it was an offensive notice to them that they are but hewers of wood and drawers of water; that the honors, emoluments and rewards of the state are for those who are in priestly authority and that the only path for promotion lies through the Church. This may be unpalatable reading to our Mormon friends, but it is all true. |
