The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-02

6iCISO Vi ldl lhO I'm
gressionsI legislation for Utah, which
merely provided that the voter should
swear that individually he was not
bigamist or polygamist, ard to which
no sincere advocate of the abolition OF
polygemy as a personal crime could
object, whereas this statute Is direct
attack on a mans religious belief. vi
course it was challenged in the courts,
but the full Territorial bench decided
that it was constitutional, while the
Supreme Court of Nevada decided that
Q similar enactment in that State was
rot so. An appeal has been taken from
The Idaho decision to the Supreme
Court of the United States. In the
meantime, it is the law, and it was sue
cessful in carrying the election OF an
anti-Mormon to the last Congress. On
the eve of this new electi On, the Terrl-
toryis in a turmoil because the MOI
mons have determined to swallow the
obnoxious test oath. In view OF the
late action of their church in abstain
Ing from preaching the doctrine or
practice of polygamy, they say that
they do not belong to any such organl-
cation as that specified. On the other
side, their opponents say that they will
cause every Mormon who takes the
oath to be arrested for perjury. To
make it all the more difficult for them,
the district attorney has sent to the
voting precincts this series of questions
of his own concoction, to which the ap-
plicant at the polls is required to an
swer:
Q-Are you a member of the order, or
organization, or association known as the
"Charch Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints" or Mormon Church,"
Q-is the practice of bigamy or polygamy
still extant as tenet or part OF the talth OF
the Church of Jesus Christ of Lstter-day
Saints" or IN 0rmoR Church,
Q-Is not the practice of polygamy still
enjoined upon members of that Church as
a religious duty?
Q-Do not the preachers and teachers OF
that Church still preach and teach from the
| book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Gov
enants?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
Q-Has the order organization or associa-
! ton known as the Church of Jesus Christ
OF Latter-day Saints" or Mormon Church,
| in any DAY, to your knowledge, either pub:
licly or privately, renowned the practice OF
polygamy?
If the test oath and this additional
cstechism are insisted upon, it GER
tainly places the Mormons in an awk'
ward predicament. A teuder con-
science may be strengthened by mental
reservation. but Mormons have NOR
tai fear of anyone who threatens 10
take the law" on them. | doubt, If
under the circumstances, they will at
tempt 10 vote generally. They wi
rather prefer to await the reversal of
the decision by the Supreme Court at
Washington, on which they rely with
confidence. 1 believe firmly that the
church intends 10 let the doctrine t
polygamy become a dead letter, but it
has not the courage to openly repudi
ate it. This can scarcely be expected
after its insistence upon it for so many
years. 1t dares not 10 say to its votaries
that it has been mistaken in one divine
revelation, lest the authority Of all its
revelations should be called in question:
1t prefers to leave it to the logic Ct
events. 1t lost its golden opportunity
when the constitutionality of the pro-
hibitory law was affirmed at the final
tribunal. By a ready acauiescence,
without the surrender of what it term
ed principle in one of its own tenets, in
being Subject to the powers that be, y
in might have saved the results OF sub
sequent legislation, by which it was de-
prived of its property and its adherents
were imprisoned, and Utah might have
already become State of the Union
Now she must wait, and she should
wait, until the church becomes en-
phatic in its abandonment of polyg-
amy or until there are outsiders enough
i to neutrallze her influence. The bier
archy is a mere catch word, which neet
not give US any anxiety for the presen
| or the future. &c.