The St. Johns herald., 1890-04-24
The Quorum QuestIOn-Test Oath.

tOOhAlC h1bAiOuS etlAlCAtniA1NAb tA4N
 matter is to be carried to the Su
 preme Court on tue ground that the bill was declared passed in thC House by less than the required number of votes. The Constitution does not require a majority of all the members elected in order to pass a bill, but it does require the majority of a quorum. The Dem ocratic contention is that the quo- rum must consist of majority of the whole House present and voting, the evidence being the record of yeas and nays. The Republican contention, now made for the first time in a hundred years, is that it consists of a majority of the whole House present, whether voting or not, the Speaker determining from his own observation and not from the record of votes how many are present. As only 130 me mbers were present and voting when the Idaho bill passed, the record of yeas and nays does not disclose a quorum, and the Speakers order to enter certain names as "present and not voting" was necessary to make a constructive quorum. It is not inn probable that the question will be evaded by the Senate amending the bill in some particular and sending it back to the House, where care will be taken to have a Republican quo rum present when the vote IS again taken. There are many Republican members who are by no means con- vinced of the legal soundness of their party position on the quorum question.-Cleveland Plain Dealer.
 This is case which Illustrates the iniquity and tyranny of Mr. Reeds rule. The constitution adopt ed in Idaho is of such u character us to Inuko tho bill providing for admission most fragrant partisan outrage. It is even worse than the intended crime in Montana, for it fixes upon the community an unjust and corrupt fundamental law. It is provided that Mormons shall not vote. For the first time a religious test has been made in a State con- stitution. Under the Edmunds- Tucker law polygamous Mormons are disfranchised. These constitute about ten per cent of the voting population of Utah. The Idaho constitution disfranchiseS citizen because he is Mormon, whether or not he has been guilty of polygamy. Moreover, the constitution is prob ably the first in which a gerryman- der has been perpetrated. Springer contended in the debate that Sho- shone county, which is Republican, having a population of $500, has been given four members of the House, while Bear Lake and Cassia counties, Democratic, with a popu- lation of 1O,400 were given only two members.-New York World.
 The test-oath clause of the Idaho | constitution, for which every Repub- lican in both Houses of Congress will vote, contains remarkable dec laration of absolute State sover- eighty. The clause disfranchises and renders civilly infamous Nor mons and all who "teach or advise that the laws of this State prescrib- ing rules of civil conduct are not the supreme law of the State" The intention of this is merely to deny | all right of private judgment as against the action of the State leg
 
 islature, and to render impossible among citizens of the State what is commonly called liberty of con- science; but the declaration is as much a bar against loyalty to the Constitution of the United States as it is against loyalty to conscience in matters of religion. It makes the legislating majority supreme and absolute.-St. Louis Republic.