Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1896-12-18

have sufficient intelligence to become
acquainted with the responsibilities of
citizenship and they have no more
right to yield their judgment in respect
OF the exercise of the franchise than
have any set of men to attempt to con
troll that judgment. Whatever the cost,
with the knowledge now guiding me |
must still stand where I have stood for
years.
My whole life and its work contradict
the charge that I should seek Office on
a platform antagonistic to any church.
should oppose any man who stood
upon such a platform. did say that IL
the voters of the state of "youug Utah."
believed that represented principles
they deemed deserving recognition, and
was, therefore, rendered the United
States senatorship, would accept. For
the information of those interested,
1t must be understood that am a Dem
ocrat, with all the word signifies. AS a
Democrat | hold 1t a duty for every
citizen to enjoy the privileges Conferred
upon him by our government, and that
is given to no man, to no corporation,
and to no body of men to control the
citizen in the exercise of his franchise.
l believe in that Democracy which
declares for equal and exact justice to
all with special privileges to none.
am for Jeffersonian government,
in which so far at least as legislation
makes to that end, there shall be no ex-
tremely rich and no abjectly poor.
favor the principle of an income tax
am for the money of the constitu-
ton as interpreted In the democratic
platform adopted at Chicago this year.
am for tariff that will realize the
amount necessary to conduct the gov
eminent without running 1t into debt
in times of peace; but that tariff must be
so levied and so adjusted that its burdens
and advantages all be borne and shared
alike by all industries and by all parts of
our common country.
/ am with the slate constitution In
the declaration that there shall be an
absolute separation of church and state:
that the state shall not control the
church, nor the church encroach on the
prerogatives of the state, and to this
end | have endorsed and still endorse
the declarations of the Democratic re-
convened convention of year ago.
| invite neither the support nor the
opposition of the church. II has no
concern in political issues. The mem
bers of my former quorum have deemed
1t expedient to deprive me of my priest
hood. If discuss their action, 1t is as q
church member. AS citizen and
Democrat, | concede their right to dis
cipline me for any cause whatever. As
member of the Democratic party, as a
citizen, deny their right or their inten-
ton to interfere with my politics, the
threat of the Deseret News, as the
church organ, to the contrary notwith-
standing.
In conclusion desire to say that
do not complain of the treatment accord.
ed me, nor do murmur at the humilia
ton to which have been subject But
cannot think the threatened excom-
munication from the church, as init.
mated in some quarters, can be seriously
entertained. Am to be driven out of
the church because of this manifesto?
shall try and live the religion of our
Savior. | want to live and die among
my brethren and friends. | desire to do
my duty to my church, wish my
children to observe the principles of the
gospel, that they, too, may desire to live
die and be buried by the side of their
father, when they ehall reach, on the
hillside, final place of peace and rest
With Sentiments of esteem, am, as
heretofore, your brother in the gospel.
MOSES THATCHER.