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Show r ' MORONISM AND MASONRY. The Smoot inquiry is on at Washington for the second time. The intention of those responsible for the investigation is to oust Reed Smoot from" the senate, claiming that as an apostle of the Mormon Mor-mon church he holds first allegiance to that church by virtue of such position. Hence, they argue, he is bound to subordinate all else to the will and instructions in-structions of the First Presidency of tho church, regardless of his oath as United States senator; i and, therefore, his presence in the senate is a men-" ace to the political life of the country. I This is the crux of the motion to bar apostles and other high officials in the Mormon church from the exercise of political rights not to be denied j others occupying inferior position and authority, j Citizen Reed Smoot has violated no law, federal or state, upon which to base expulsion from the senate on constitutional grounds. He is not, neither has he been, a polygamist. In this respect his case is different from that of Roberts, expelled from the lower house of congress on fhe ground of self-confessed polygamy. The attack is not made against Citizen Reed Smoot, but against Apostle Reed Smoot. In a plainer way, it might be made to read, The United States vs. Senator Reed Smoot, apostle aud representative of the Mormon church in the congress. In the first investigation prior to the last adjournment ad-journment of congress, testimony was presented showing that polygamy was practiced by some of the higher officials of the church, notwithstanding the "manifesto" urging its discontinuance and admonishing ad-monishing obedience to the law -ef the state and nation. Children were born of such polygamous relations. Joseph Smith, president' of the church, upon oath testified that he continued marital relations rela-tions with plural wives, and such " acts' were in obedience to his conscience and faith. Thus-was the manifesto discredited by those who should be ' foremost in teaching it through example. In like manner was "revelation"' discredited, because the manifesto was the product 'of revelation, so crdlod. At the beginning of. the second session of the Smoot inquiry the inquisition extends to the secret work of the "church in the endowment house andi temple; though how information thus obtained could be applied 4o a purely constitutional matter affecting a senator's seat is not apparent to the unprejudiced student of jurisprudence. Evidently it is an intention to prove that no person taking the oaths prescribed by this higher ritual of the church can be a loyal citizen and a consistent Mormon Mor-mon ct one and the same time. A Mormon shoemaker shoe-maker of this city, evidently an apostate, described these ceremonies and gave from memory the language lan-guage of the penalties, invoking the most excruciating excru-ciating torments to the flesh to follow treason to the oaths taken. The shoemaker's testimony was corroborate by another witness. Both produced a sensation. No Catholic will believe that any sect preferring to exercise certain portions of dogmatic creed in secret can be in harmony wfth revealed religion. Nothing was concealed in the religion taught by Christ and the apostles. To be open and above board in everything is the spirit of Christianity. The internal holiness of the true Church is visible in its external beauty. It has been so from the beginning. It will be so to the end. After all is said that may or will be told at Washington, what can the inquisitors find against the Mormon church as a religious body that may not be applied to the Free Masons ? Masonry is a religion, if we believe its grand masters; and one more exalted than other creeds. The Mormons say the same. Free Masons go through an ordeal in j principle the same as the Mormon submits to the ordeal of the endowment house. The forms are different, but ihe penalties are substantially the same, both inviting death for the transgressor, j Does the Mormon church threaten the political life ! of the country if The Free Masons have France by the throat. Ts the Mormon church hounded by its' enemies because of its doctrines and practices? So were the Free Masons in the early political life of this republic. Would the Mormon church start ''avenging angels" after apostates who revealed its secrets if it had the chance? That is what avenging aveng-ing Masons didVhcn. they slew Morgan and threw his body into the Niagara river. Out of this incident inci-dent enough hostility was aroused against Masonry to form a political party, when such men as Thurr low Weed and others equally prominent bloomed in the heyday of Whig politics. Thus .we trace kinship between Masonry and the Mormon church in religious aspiration and analogy of ritual, so far as these things are made known through the testimony of traitors and apostates. The Mormon church 'is sorely vexed by trials and tribulations. We fail to see how any Mason, especially the one of exalted degree, can refuse sympathy for the Saints. |