Show BOTH DEFINITE AND authoritative FOR a long time the press of the country and many influential per sons have repeatedly stated that if in some authoritative way it should be announced that the solemnization of plural marriages by the mormon church should be discontinued there would be no DO further issue between the government and the lat ter day saints in this announcement the liberal organ in this c ity city has been the most prominent and pronounced repeating the statement over and over again for years compliance with the laws was said to be the object to be effected federal officials great and small echoed this cry and while many of them showed but little reverence for such laws as came in cc contact intact with their appetites or ambitions they strutted as the champions and embodiment of or national authority and in word were the most devout adorers of the letter of united states statutes they placed this above the commands of deity and maintained that the edicts of the government were superior to the flat of the most high but their desire for this demanded submission has been all along a deception and a pretence predence pre tence what has been sought for is the complete destruction st of the mormon church and tho the entire disfranchisement of the il mormon people so that this territory might be controlled by persons of their own kind the declaration made by president woodruff has proven this beyond question they never wanted any such announcement as he has made and all their pretended pleas for its publication were m ide for show and were mere sham nothing could be more direct and unambiguous than the langua ae e of president woodruff nor could anat anything be more authoritative but it does not satisfy those who have been the audest loudest to clamor for it they now say it but cannot show in it a single indefinite sentence they object that it dors does not come in the usual manner but fall fail to explain wherein it is unusual we have commented upon the shifting and paltry objections made by bv govern and the sophist ical and untruthful car pings of commissioner robertson Ro berteon their organ no now w attempts I 1 in n two co columns lu in us and a half of incoherent inc ravings to defend them and ami misrepresent the declaration this was to be expected no one supposed that anything the president of the church could do or say would please or satisfy the kind of persons who daily slander good men and for argument heap vile abuse upon the their r oppose opponents ats no matter what may be the subject in dispute the declaration la was not published to please them or with auy any consideration concerning them but we will notice one or two of their pretended object objections lons which are sufficiently respectable to be quoted in our colu columns colun anns ns here to is one governor thomas thoma 4 had a right to say that the language of the manifesto was inde indefinite finito because it was if the editor of the NEWS was put under oath te explain that language he would be forced to say that it was the advice of president woodruff as a man there is not the slightest need for any explanation of that language it to is definite enough foy for any person that can read and he who on reading it declares that it is simply i the advice of president woodruff u C as a man 21 proclaims his own inability to understand ordinary words or his utter disregard of honor and truth the language of the declaration is 7 13 therefore 09 president of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints 11 tt it is in his boffl ial position as president of the church the one man who can speak with authority to and for the church on such a matter as this that president woodruff makes five definite deti nite announcements they are these first he says the statement telegraphed as be being ng in the commissioners eriv report that forty or more ply plural ral marriages have been contracted in utah within a certain period is false second he declares that the leaders eis of the church are not teaching plural marriage or permitting any person to enter into its practice third he denies that any number of plural marriages have been sol in the period mentioned either in our kremples or in any other place in the territory fourth he declares his intention to submit to the laws forbidding plural marriage and to use his bis influence to have the members of the church over which he presides do likewise fifth he be publicly a his advice to the latter day saints to refrain from contracting any mar ariage forbidden by the law of the land the document is signed by wilford woodruff as pr president aident of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints with any person who cannot understand der stand this language and its purport it is useless to dispute and add the dishonesty of one who dee declares lares this to be only the advice of ef wilford woodruff as a man there is no DO need to denounce the tribune writer says in relation to the denial mentioned in the third announcement above 6 our oar recollection is that he says he knows nothing of such ni marriages no one has told him of them since hence he knows nothing of them I 1 he then proceeds to argue on the basis of his false I 1 I 1 recollection that is to call names and pile up pitr ration which form the essence of tribune reasoning beyeren Be Re feren e to the declaration would have corrected this alleged recollection collection le but that would have spoilt the excuse for this wilful misrepresentation the objection is made that this is not an edict by the head beat of the church pronounced in the usual way who can produce any ednot edid by the head of the church the president does not issue Il edicts the first presidency in matters that require their concurrent action do not utter edicts 11 there are no such things in the church the power of the priesthood is exercised by persuasion by counsel by instruction st by enlightenment and not by force command or constraint president woodruffs declaration comes with all the authority that attaches to any epistle or other document of a similar character that has been issued by the presidency of the church A nother assertion of this utterly unscrupulous sheet is that it is not considered a crime by any member of the mormon church to commit perjury in behalf of what he thinks is IB the best interest of the church to this we can only point to the doctrines of the church as contained in its standards and to the character and reputation of its members there is no person er sonin in the church so far as we are aware that entertains such an abominable sentiment and if there is his conceptions of mor monism are the very opposite of all that he be has been taught by the letter and spirit of his creed the writer of the vile libel is 18 but reflecting upon others the image of his own character exhibited through a series of years in almost daily wilful falsehoods and misrepresentations until doubt overshadows everything he writes no matter what may be the subject and we will dismiss further notice of his latest disgraceful effort with two lines from the article we have briefly reviewed and which contains his favorite epithet and his stereotyped and most powerful argument every man has his own status and the sneer of a scrub has no weight 12 |