The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-10-09
Political Test naths.

1t is quite evident that Acknowledgement
in Idaho is about done for. The decision of
Judge STooKsLAGER in the Cassis county
litigation is probably but the forerunner of
that of the supreme court in the one 10 be
taken up tomorrow. A correspondent of
the Tribune at Boise says, indications are
not wanting that Judge SrocKsL AGER's de-
cision viii be upheld" II certainly will be
whenever any decision is rendered in the
case
Besides being eD post fdcto, the legisla-
tive test oath Of Idaho imposes disabil
ity in manner not incurred in the ordi-
nary course of law" 1t ''infiicts penalty
contrary 10 the common law, to serve a
special purpose 1t assumes judicial
maglstrscy," deciding what law applies TO
past acts and providing means of its own
20 ascertain offenders, without assistance
from the courts. 1t changes the rules of
evidence, does away with accusation and
proofs and jury trial, assumes guilt, and
requires the citizen to prove his innocence.
1t also snnuls the pardoning power.
This is definition of bill of pains and
penalties from the horn books-from
BLACKSTONE, from WooDEssoN and SToRY.
They are cenons of the law. For the last
one hundred and fifty years the great
questions of liberty involved in this con-
troyersy have been under discussion both in
England and America. They have been
investigated in legislative bodies and in
courts. Civil rights and privileges, religi-
Gus obligations, the limit of human au-
thority over the dictates OF conscience,
freedom of opinion, Of speech and OF the
press, suffrage-these have all been dis
cussed and constantly discussed, and have
created, moulded and shaped the constitu-
ticnal guarantees that are an American
boast today.
When law requires, as qualidcs-
tons to the liberty Of suffrage,
age, residence. citizenship and a
pledge of fidelity to our govern
ment, we not only concede the wisdom and
justice Of the requirement. but we remem-
Der that they are in conformity to the
usage of the freest and most enlightened
nations. But that citizen is in point Of
fact disqualified to exercise his liberty Of
suffrage discrestly and wisely because he
time prohibited, ls falsehood so glazing
that no honest man should assert it.
Sometimes it is Claimed in behalf of
test oaths that the state has right to
limit the suffrage by making moral char
acter condition. But this was not the
case with Idaho. The constitution which
prescribed an oath for Mormons, and
authorized the legislature to carry it into
effect, did not declare that no man should
vote who had ever stolen, or robbed, or
murdered, or cheated, or desecrated the
Sabbath, or denied GOD or the truth of
the Christian religion. There is not
on the face Of the earth single
government based on the idea that its
members must be persons of good moral
character. The men who made the Idaho
constitution did not claim TO be reformers
They aspired to nothing higher than the
ordinary part of q political faction. They
aimed their legislation not against all Grim
inals, all desperadoes and law-breakere, but
against only a class of law-breakers A
man who murdered bis friend for his money
might vote, but not man who belonged to
church which had once taught polygamy,
though he himself had never practiced it,
1t was not only to prevent the Mormon
from voting, but to attaint and blacken
him and cast him out Of the government be-
cause he was suspected of an intention to
vote against them at elections.
The courts OF the country are the palla-
dunn OF It's civil rights. To them the OPP
pressed must turn. The judgments now
demanded win go into history, and be read
with the burning interest which belongs to
the great contests involving human liberty