The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-10-20

ton, which is the worst kind of perjury
that mortal man can lay upon his soul.
1t is well-settled rule of Interpretation
that no such imputatlon shall ever be
made against the legislative depart
ment, unless the evil intent be express
ed so plainly that no other construc-
ton is possible. Neither the Congress
nor any other power in this country
can disfrauchise citizens by Legislative
decree any more than it can order them
to be killed, and Congress did not try
to do it. This infamous Legislation is
the work of the commissioners them
selves. ....
"You ask why it is infamous9 That
question can be easily answered. The
reasons are innumerable. Here in biief
are some of them: 1t is bill of pains
and penalties; second, it is punishment
without trial; third, it assumes that all
men are guilty who refuse to clear
themselves by an expurgatory oath,
reversing the rules of evidence which
lie at the foundation of civil liberty;
fourth, it is es post .tdcto in its ope a.
ton, going back nearly whole gener
alton to disfranchise people for offenses
supposed to have been committed long
before there was any law to infict that
penalty upon them by denying these
principles. NO man shall be bound to
testify against himself. You cannot
put his conscience on the rack any
more than you can break his body on
the wheel to extort a confession. All
test oaths for punitive purposes or to
deprive men of their civil rights are
odious and forbidden by every consti
tuition and by all charters of liberty in
every free country"
"Does not your prejudice against
things of this kind--pardon me, l will
put the question in a more compliment.
airy form. Does not your love of equal
justice to all men cause you to make
your condemnation too strong?'
Judge Black: mo, it is 80 written
in the Constitution, and the Supreme
Court of the United States in the test
oath cases Fourth Wallace) solemnly
affirmed every proposition contend
for. So did the Supreme Court Of
Pennsylvania in Huber VS.. Reilly e,
Z. f. Smith, No American court of
respectable authority ever disgraced
itself by denying these principles. 81
"To see the iniquity of the commits
sioners rule look how it would work in
other cases. In some places, where
the United States have exclusive juris
diction, negro concubiuage prevails to
a frightful extent. Your political met
ropolis swarms with hybrids, of whom
hardly one in a thousand is the off
spring of legal marriage. 1t might
be proper enough to punish this beastly
decentralization and pernicious crime
with disfranchisement. But could you
deprive man of his right to vote OF
hold Office, unless he swears that he has
had no criminal relations with a negress
for quarter of a century!
DEFENSE ON THE SIDE OF HUMANITY
'If the Prohibitionists should get q
law to disfranchise all who make, sell
or drink strong liquor it would be ex
tremely unjust and wholly inconsistent
with the Constitution to deprive mer
of their citizenship who could not or
would not take an oath that they had
never been drunk or made anybody
else drunk by selling them whisky.
ELECTION frauds and false returns
ought to be punished with disfranchise
ment. 1t is the worst species of crinae,
.talsi, and most dangerous to public
liberty. Polygamy, even as anti-Mor
mons paint it, is an act of white-robet
innocence in comparison. But woult
it do to punish past offenses, and fore,
men by a test oath toreveal their guilt
1t would be borrid persecution of ou
great politicians, which they would no
stand at all, to go back upon them only
as far as 1876.
again There is an offense now
impudently and openly practiced o
taxing salaries for political purposes
whereby the high h-placed man uses hi
subordinates as mere instruments fo
drawing money out of the treasury
and putting it in fund which is use
to manufacture public judgment ant
COZ fupt elections. 1t is the worst form
that public theft has yet taken. 1t i
forbidden by law but the law is evad
Ell. Now, think of statute to disfrar
chise these criminals and all who pai
take of their guilt; and imagine con
mission sweeping out every executiv
officer who refuses to swear that he ha
neither done the criminal act himself
as yet, nor got member of Congress
to do it for him.
"In truth, this iniquitous rul
could not and would not be practicet
or even thought of, against anybod
except the Mormons. But very man
regard Mormons as beyond the pale O
Constitutional protection, and woul
greet any outrage upon them, howeve
treacherous or illegal, with acclaim;
tons of applause. do not ask tha
they be exempted from punishment fo
what is amiss in their conduct. Bu
give a trial and leave them in posse
sion of their rights until they are d
privcd of them by due process of Law
| l. udI 10 Ouly Wndt WOulu ueiudil
: for myself, for You, and tor a
, Others"
at is generally believed that pol
gamous Mormons in Utah are n,
numerous that their votes can be spa
ed, and that the great body of the pc
pie who are non polygamous Mo,mol
can still outnumber their enemies al
have the election their own way
that be true, will it not all come rigt
notw 'thstaudin G the rule of the comm
sioni'
LAWS THAT ENCOURAGE VICE.
Judge Black 81 cannot speak wi
accurancy, but l believe that the en-
mics of free government in Utah are
. nearly as possible one'fifteenth of h
!. population. OF the other fourteen.f
I, teenths something above ten per ce
!, are accused truly or falsely of polygam
= Excluding these last from the polls, 4
= people can still beat the inimical facti
:, ten to one. But it is feared that ma
e others will Indignantly refuse to ia
: the unlawful oath or let their names