1903-07-16—New York Evening World—Amasa Thornton Mormon Pleader

Amasa Thornton Mormon Pleader

New York Evening World, July 16, 1903, p. 2

Amasa Thornton Mormon Pleader

Politician Appeared Before Mayor Low to Urge Street-Preaching Permits Be Restored to Latter Day Saints.

Mayor Low gave a hearing to-day to Amasa Thornton, the Republican politician, counsel for the Latter Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormons, and John G. McQuarrie, President of the Eastern States Mission.

The hearing was on the question of the Mayor continuing the issuance of permits to the Mormon missionaries to preach in the open air. The issue of these permits, granted generously to the Mormons under the Van Wick administration, was continued under Mayor Low until the first of the year, when complaints made to the Mayor that the missionaries were advocating the practice of polygamy on the streets of the city caused him to revoke the permission.

Applications have poured in to the Mayor from the Mormons since. Finally a hearing was arranged for to-day, and Attorney Thornton and President McQuarrie were on hand to urge the Mayor to grant the permits again.

Mr. McQuarrie appealed fervently to the Mayor, declaring that any intimation or allegation that the church's preachers referred in any manner to polygamy was an infamous falsehood. He claimed for his people the constitutional privilege of equal rights and declared that his church is a Christian body engaged in a laudable and God-fearing cause and should have the same opportunity to preach the Gospel in the streets of the city as any other law-abiding Christian body.

The Mayor listened to all that President McQuarrie had to say, and then briefly replied without committing himself or intimating why he has refused the Mormon application. He said he would give the words of President McQuarrie, as well as a letter the latter submitted, his careful attention, and decide the case early next week.