The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-18
THE IDAHO TEST OATH.

The american Sentinel prints at the head
of its columns the words of JEFFERSON,
Equal and exact justice to all men. of
whatever state or persuasion, religious or
political" On the same page it says, 'As
for Mormonism in general, apart from its
polygamous doctrine or practice, it is alien
to the National Reform association, the
American Sunday Law Union, and allied
associations, in that it involves a union of
church and state and aims to accomplish
and constantly to carry on that which it in
wolves. But from this plea, specious as
it is, the remarkable conclusion is finally
evolved through a few columns of arru
ment, that the Mormons should be dis
franchised for this alleged union of church
and state but not that the members of the
Reform Association or the Sunday union
should. Such paradox, however, seems
| to startle the editor, and he says:
Therefore, as this test oath makes the state
supreme in religious things, as well as in civil
it goes too far If it confined itself to mems re-
lationship with one another with the relation
ship OF the citizen to his fellow-citizen or to the
state. then nobody could object, and it woud
hibiting polygamy as it really does; but when it
goes far beyond this and puts itself in the do
main of GOD, and makes itself supreme in all
things religo Is, in all matters of religious duty
as well as otherwise, then in that it has gone
too far.
The Sentinel misses the mark altogether.
The Idaho test oath did not disfranchise
any one for practising polygamy, or for
teaching it, as by an act of Congress these
classes had already been disfranchised. The
test oath was framed for the dlisfrancbise.
ment of those members of the Mormon
church who neither taught nor practised
the doctrine of polygamy, and who had
taken special oath that they would do
neither of those things The talk about the
test cath being for the suppression of
polygamy, therefore, is absurd, as it neither
increased nor diminished the punishment
for teaching or practising that doctrine
The test oath simply punished men for
their belief. The Idaho courts, to be sure
explained that man might believe anv-
thing he pleased, provided thai he did not
practice mis- belief, but that membership in
a church was an open, overt act, and there
fore punishable. A few men were foolish
enough to withdraw from the church. as the
courts had, in effect, instructed them TO do.
and they were promptly indicted for con
spiracy, and threatened with the peniten.
tiary for endeavoring to avoid the covert
act'' of church membership. What were
they to dos They could neither remain in the
church nor withdraw from it; the result
was, they had to take the punishment for
belief only, which the test oath had been
designed to bring upon them. Being power
less to change their belief, they are pun
ished by denial of the substantial rights of
free men.
T. The Sentinel is laboring under the i'm
preston that the test oath was enacted for
the suppression of polygamous teaching
and practice. whereas the only change it
added to existing laws was the addition of
words providing for the disfranchisement
OF men solely because of their membership
in certain church. Thus, the paper saws:
We are willing to give our opinion of the
Idaho test oath: and that opinion is that it goes
too far. The article published In the Sentinel of
last week, on the subject of polygamy, shows,
and justifes us in saying. that il the Idaho test
oath stopped with the prohibition of bieamv
ana polygamy, no one could have any lust