Show r s VESTED RIGHTS i id It is the sheerest nonsense for the Mormon Mor-mon papers to talk of the voting franchise as a vested right The decision of 1 j j d common sense and of the courts is tho Ii I 111 reverse of this It is u gift based I d 1 upon certain conditions which have I m never been complied with by the alien churchmen of Utah and even if they ol had their persistent defiance of National I authority and their outrageous treatment i III 1 of American citizens should have caused their disfranchisoment years ago The privilege of voting Iro supposes attachment attach-ment and fealty to the government which Krauts the privilege Deliberate violation i < of tho law of tho land is and always has been u valid reason for disfranchising the 1 d voter A vested right grows out of perfect r obedience to tho provisions of any legislative d legisla-tive grant upon which it U founded Hut the 1 If first exercise ot tho voting privilege with which the disloyal Mormon Church was entrusted was u legislative usurpation of authority in Interfering with tho right of eminent domain inherent in the Nation and to be exercised only by Congress Con-gress In their legislative capacity the Mormons sought to exercise sovereign power in pioclaiming the kingdom king-dom of Deseret In coining money mid in making the Church paramount or rather in thrusting the State within the capacious maw of a polygamous Church They drove away the official representatives of National authority and organized an armed rebellion against the Republic They threatened to annihilate Con nors command If Its intrepid leader should dare to march it through the streets of Salt Lake to a commanding com-manding position at Port Douglas And since they havo been cowed Into less open but equally defiant opposition to the nation they have taught and practiced prac-ticed disloyalty and disobedience to law After forty years of persistent hostility to the Republic Congress provides pro-vides a test oath which every good citizen can conscientiously take and presto t the church toad assumes its original proportions of a disloyal devil and breaks forth with loud and insane cries of vested rights ignored and persecution against harmless Saints Brethren it is too thin |