Arizona republican., 1904-12-26
PHOENIX. ARIZONA. DEC. 26, 1904
The Smoot Case.

, "Congress shall make no law re-
 specting an establishment of religion
 or prohibiting the free exercise there
 of" is the opening sentence Of article
 one of the amendments to the consti-
 tuition of the United States. Never
 theless 1t is now being sought to make
 the law as applied to polygamy stand
 in the way of the exercise of certain
 rights of Reed 5moot, United States
 senator from Utah,
 First it was alleged that Senator
 Shoot was polygamist, but the con trarv was shown quickly. Yet the ef- fort to unseat him, because he was a member of the Mormon church and was presumed to have taken certain oaths at certain times, was continued. There has been nothing whatever pro duced to show that Senator Shoot has not led a proper life, that he has not paid his debts, that he has not obeyed the laws, and that in every respect his private life is not an open book to be read by all creation without discover llS d DICullSlA OAl HIS AASAA-AC- -'N' N@ S--O less because the church which he is a member has a certain code of fantas- tic oaths to which they subscribe 1t IS held that Senator Shoot puts his church ahead of his country and Is faithful to the Mormon tenets. Fidel- ity to ones church is not a valid req son for disbarring any man from hold ing Q public office. Men who have strong religious convictions are faith fuI to their own peculiar form of wor- ship-to their church-yet- it is not to be set against them that they are thus faithful.
 There is nothing whatever shown to indicate that Senator Shoot would disregard the oath he subscribed to when he took his seat in the senate As fact he has been quoted as say ing that he was bound by that oath. This ought to be sufficient. The in vestigation into the forms and regula- tions of the Mormon church has gone on without the slightest reference to the eligibility of Senator Shoot. He is by inference arraigned as represent ing something bad. and the fear seems to be prevalent that the one senator from Utah might have a .deleterious effect upon the morals of the other eighty-nine members of that body If Reed Shoot were the veriest rascal that ever went unhung the eighty-nine other members of the senate would not be expected to be demoralized and led astray.
 Admitting that everything testified to at Washington in respect to the Mormon church be true it is yet a fact that the Mormons have not caused any measure of trouble to the United States government. They have not re- volted and they have been amenable 10 the laws of the land just like or1i- nary mortals who do not believe in revelations. This suggests the idea that there is much of nonsense as folk generally view the Mormon rigmarole, in the supposed revelations that come to the Mormon leaders. For instance one of them testified that the alleged suspension of polygamous marriages was brought about by a revelation. As a fact an act of congress was the rev elation. Thus the church was amen able to the law by having a seasonable revelation make it's appearance. There seems to have been a mass of irrele- want testimony adduced at Washing ton. Senator Shoot is not a polygam- ist, he has not violated the act of con- gress, but he has taken the oath of a United States senator, and thus far he has given no evidence that he in tends to violate that oath. If he should be guilty of a violation of his oath then off should come his official head. And the official head of any member of the senate should be removed when it is discovered that he is a rascal of either high or low degree. whether his offending relates to weird oaths or just common crimes against society.