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Show B ALL WRONG. B The clergyman who in Los Angeles in a public B harangue declared that "Mormonism must be B stamped out," made a precious tool of himself B and moreover, showed that he has but a dim B conception of the spirit of American institutions. B This happens to be a perfectly free country, B where absolute liberty under the laws prevails. B Tne flrst essential of the citizen is to obey the B laws. The necessity for this comes from a double B cause. The difference between a savage and a B civilized community is that the civilized man, B having learned that to maintain society and fur- B ther progress, it was necessary that each citizen B should, for the good of the whole, surrender cer- B tain primary rights, and that there must be a B basis on which all alike-might stand, and, with it, B rules through which differences could be adjusted. B has accepted the requirements. Moses B drafted a code for the government of the B Israelites. That, like other Ancient Codes, was B arbitrary, and the power to execute the law in B ancient days was assumed to lie in the hands of B one wno was above the rest and who appointed B his own agents. It was precisely like the rule B which Brigham Young established and maintained B forsome years after 1847, except his assumption B was that the President of the Church was God's B vicegerent here on earth and that the Govern- B ment he prescribed was in fact God's govern- B ment. The form was later modiiied, but the sub- B stance remains to this day in the government of B the Mormon people. B Bllt the men of '76 believed that the real sov- B ereignty rested in the people themselves, those B who raised the food, paid tho taxes and fought the B battles of a country; that only such agents as B they might select should rule through them and B that such agents should be the servants, not the B masters, of the people. They further established B that each citizen should kno but two restraints. B He might do anything that he pleased so that he B dIl not trench upon any rights of his fellow men, B aid so that his acts were permissible under the B aws- There is another reason for this, namely, B that under the theory of our laws each Individual B helps to make the laws and he must not dishonor B his own work. B There is nothing in this which authorizes any man to say that tho creed of any man or any class of men which does not correspond with his, should be "stamped out." Rather the man who makes such a declaration, makes it in defiance of the laws which he pretends to revere. If the Mormons are not wronging any man, and if they are living within the laws, each one has as much right to the law's perfect protection as has the Rev. Charles Thompson, D. D., of New York. All the friction in Utah has been caused by two things. One has been polygamy and that was pursued, and still is, to a limited extent, in direct di-rect defiance of both the civil and ecclesiastical laws of all civilized countries. It was and is right to fight that. The other was the introduction upon the soil of the United States of tho tyranous one-man one-man rule. This was and is a direct wrong to every ev-ery American citizen, a violation of the spirit of free institution, a dishonor to the ballot, and so far as it goes, a menace to our form of government. govern-ment. It is right to fight it to a finish, and if it can be defeated in no other way, to disfranchise every man and woman who accepts that rule. The pleading of a religious belief in justification does not mitigate the offence In the least, for on the basis of tho laws which all real Americans are bound to submit to, this offense is intolerable, for it aims at nothing less than the destruction of our form of government and the substituting in Its place the old tyranous rule which has kept Asia in barbarism since before the Christ came, and has left only bandits to guard the spot where the cradle of civilization was flrst rocked. With these two offenses wiped out there can be no objection to Mormonism. If it cannot be combatted by showing that there is a nobler fait i then it- will continue as have the religion of Mohammed Mo-hammed and Buddha indefinitely. But whether it does or not is no concernment of the Government Govern-ment so long as it trenches upon no law and injures in-jures no man. There was a time, some two years after Utah was admitted into the Union, when it was not known that any form of plural marriage had been solemnized and when the chiefs of the church kept 'their word and left the people to conduct their political affairs in their own way, and there was no happier spot than was Utah. The head of the church could bring back that reign of peace in a day if he pleased to. If he does not, what is unlawful and a menace to free institutions in Mormonism will be fought to a finish, but it will be fought by lawful methods. The result can be only one way. The Church, backed by a devoted people and renegade Gentiles, Gen-tiles, will doubtless win many local triumphs. But witTi everyone the methods followed will be more and more clearly revealed to the men of the United Unit-ed States and by and by there will be such a demand de-mand for justice and a vindication of the Nation's Na-tion's self respect that it will net be possible to resist it. For the peace of Utah and the dlsin-thrallment dlsin-thrallment of the Mormon people, we can all hope that a new light may be given the President of the Church, but if this is not to be, there will be nothing left but to fight out the battle on the old lines. |