A SPIKED CANNON.
UTAH'S DELEGATE IN TROUBLE.
George Q. Cannon Proven an Unnaturalized Foreigner and a Polygamist, and not Eligible as a Delegate in Con-gress—A Governor Who has a Backbone.
By Telegraph to the Record
SALT LAKE, Jan. 8.—When the re-turns of the late election for delegate in Congress were canvassed by Secretary Thomas, in December, the Gentile can-didate, Allen Campbell, filed a peti-tion with Governor Murray, protest-ing against the issue of a certificate of election to Apostle Cannon, although it appeared that he had a large major-ity of the votes cast, ou the grounds, among others, that he is not a citizen of the United States, and being a polygamist is not capable of becoming a citizen in good faith. These facts had long been notorious, and therefore the votes cast for Cannon at said election must be held void, he (Campbell) be-ing the only eligible candidate run-ning at said election must have been elected, and the Governor's certificate should be issued accordingly. Can-non's reply, in which he claims that he was naturalized in legal form twenty-six years ago, and that if he was a polygamist as charged by Camp-bell it would not disqualify him from the office of delegate, was filed with Governor Murray yesterday. The case was argued at length before the Gov-ernor by counsel for the respective parties. It was shown by a copy of the actual record of the court in which Cannon claims to have been natural-ized, properly certified by the clerk of said court, that on the day when Can-non claims to have been naturalized no such naturalization proceedings took place. The clerk also certifies under his seal, that from the organi-zation until the present time, he hav-ing examined them carefully, he was unable to find any record in any of said records, of the naturalization of George S. Cannon. The pretended certificate relied upon by Cannon does not purport to be an exemplification of any records of any court of records, and is therefore void on its face. No record of the naturalization of Cannon in open court signed by the Judge exists, and the naturalization act in force at that time makes such record the only proof of the fact, without which the statute says no party should be deemed to be a citizen. It was argued by Cannon's counsel that if all this were true the Governor was not authorized to take cognizance of it. It should be left to the House of Rep-resentatives, The Governor did not take that view of it. The act of Con-gress organizing Utah says, the Gov-ernor shall declare the person who received the greatest number of votes duly elected, and shall certify accord-ingly. An act of Congress, approved June 8th, 1872, provided that no per-son shall be capable of voting or of holding office in any Territory who is not a citizen of the United States, ex-cluding such as had merely declared their intention to become such. The Governor held that this action of Con-gress and of the Territory bound him to take cognizance of the fact, which he considered established, that Cannon is an alien and is ineligible to hold the of-fice of delegate. Under other circum-stances, says the Governor, Cannon might become naturalized before his term of office begins, but it is charged by Campbell, and not de-nied by Cannon, that the latter is living in violation of the law of 1862, making polygamy a felony, and cannot therefore be well disposed towards the government of the United States. Not being a citizen, and be-ing incapable from his profession and manner of life of taking the oath of naturalization in good faith, and these facts having been notorious for years, it follows that the votes cast for him as delegate are lost. Allen G. Campbell being the person, a citizen of the United States, and possessing all the other necessary qualifications, who received the greatest number of votes at said election, the Governor is bound by the law to declare said Campbell duly elected, and to certify accordingly. The Governor awarded the certificate of election to Allen G. Campbell this morning, and at once left Salt Lake, bound for Louisville, Kentucky, on important business, which he has postponed several days that he might hear the argument and decide this question.
