The St. Johns herald., 1890-05-22
Secretary iIurphy and DiSfran-
 franchiSement of the MOrm0nS.

rltories this morning, and advo- cated the admission of Arizona as a State. He said he was Repub- lican, and had resided in Arizona seven years and thought he knew the wishes of the Republicans of that territory in regard to it's admis- sion to statehood.
 Speaking first as to the resources of the country, he followed by sta ting the desire of the people to come into the Union with a constitution that had all the "safeguards" of the Idaho Constitution in it as against Mormons; that they did not desire to see their State admitted under conditions that would permit the Mormons of the surrounding terri tories to be unloaded on their Ter ritory or State.
 Mir. Mansur Of Missouri, mem- Der of the subcommittee in charge of the bill to admit Arizona as d State, then asked him this question |:
 How many Mormons are there in the Territory of Arizona?" Mr. Murphy said he estimated them at 1 200 voters, and they were gener- ally Democrats.
 Mr. Mansur said: "You propose, then, to disfranchise them outright, the same as you would the Chin ese?" MT. Murphy replied, "Yes."
 Mr. Mansur asked how many MT. Murphy knew or could vouch for that were living in that Territory in open polygamy or bigamy. He sai ih he did not know.
 Mr. Mansur then asked him if le were certain there were 25 in the Territory? He said he thought there were. He was then asked if he would not compromise by requiring them to take test oath and not ask to have them absolutely disfran- chised from voting. MT. Murphy refused, saying he wanted a safe guard put in the enabling act of Congress as a precedent obligation to their admission.
 Mr. Mansur said: "Then you are unwilling to submit this question to the people of Arizona in the formation of their own cOnstitu- tion" He said he was; that if it were left to the people of the terri tory they would vote down that proposition.
 Mir. Mansur, then said to him ioc- ularly (but Mr. Murphy took it se- .riously): Are you not willing to take the conditions of the Consti- tuition of Wyoming in your ena- bling act, and, inasmuch as the wo- men are the better part of creation, we will let, in Arizona as in Wyo- ming, the Mormon women vote if you will let the Mormon men vote" The answer was that Murphy did not want to make any compromise in the matter; he wanted the con- stitution of Idaho with its safe guards.
 It is proper to sayin this connec- ton that practically all the Nor mon voters in Arizona, as in Idaho, are Democrats, while in Wyoming the Mormon voters are generally Republicans.
 This tells its own story. It shows that the Republican effort to dis franchise the Mormons is surely for party purposes. Murphy, the Re publican Secretary of Arizona Ter ritory, 1t will be seen, was quite willing that Arizona should be let into the Union provided all the citi- zens of certain religious belief, irrespective of the question of po- lygamy or bigamy, should be dis franchised. He also advocated talk ing the determination of that ques- tion away from the people of Ari- zona; in other words, depriving the people of Arizona of the right to re0ulate their own suffrage"