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Show BH ; CONSIDERING DISFRANCHISEMENT. BH j Some good Saints are indignant when, the pos- HH ' sibility of disfranchisement is broached. It is a B Bj i high privilege to be an elector In a great republic II ' like ours, but do the saints ever stop to reflect I j that the Gentiles of Utah, some of them pretty Bfl good men, too, have been practically disfranchised B ever since they have been here. Further, that B ' the masses of the Saints have practically kept B themselves disfranchised by holding their votes fl subject to the dictation of their church? Do B ' they over stop to think that every time they do B that they violate and in effect spit upon that B i Constitution which they affect to revere? Do B J they ever reflect that the right of self-preserva- ,B , tion pertains to governments as well as to indl B i vtduals? This is more especially the case under BH , a government such as ours, wl h gives to the B j citizen absolute freedom and the right to do any H legitimate thing. The lands of the Great Re H j public are most ample but they are not broad H ' onough to sustain upon them two governments, the HB ' one a Republic, the other a Kingdom. But there JHH is no Gentile who desires the disfranchisment of H a single Saint except as a last resort. That BH ought to have been made clear enough when BH J Statehood, without a single reservation, was given R ! to Utah. But when that statehood was given the H very act of receiving it carried with it an im-flH im-flH plied obligation on the part of Saints to be real BB ! American citizens, to be jealous of the honor of BB this country and to help maintain the purity of PJB tlie American ballot. Has this obligation been BB kept? Has this trust been vindicated? Have BB the Mormon people demonstrated that while good BB Mormons they can at the same time be good BB Americans? The matter is up to them. Their BB ' honor, their happiness, their business interests BB ' 11 demand that they shall, by their acts and votes BB ! demonstrate that with them there shall be no BB I1 union of Church and State. BB t |