Show A BRAVE AND CAPABLE YOUTH A SHORT time since the collegiate and polytechnic nic I 1 institute astl tute of the city of brooklyn closed for vacation the commencement exercises were unique and according to the report of them given in the columns of the fagle eagle highly interesting besides the musical and other proceedings ce a number of graduates had subjects assigned them to speak upon they were ably handled and the young orators received enthusiastic applause as the reward of their intelligent treatment of the respective themes among which were the negro in the united states J bernanda Her nanda cortes 11 1 industrial education mr gladstone poetry of the future stability of our republic CoD congress gress ani an I 1 the mormon church pl I 1 edgar jackson was the youth who treated the subject named last he had evidently given it intelligent consideration this being what he said during the last congress a bill was passed providing for the disestablishment of the mormon church all its assets in excess of not used exclusively for religious purposes were to be delivered into the hards of a receiver its ite affairs wound up aud and its property was to escheat to the united states under the provisions of this bill the rou receiver elver obtained possession of farm lands coal lands gas stock telegraph stock droves of cattle flocks of sheep and other property worth in all about and today the mormon church is paying to the united states government rent for the use of its former possessions it is claimed that the mormon church is dangerous but is it anymore closely united does it have greater weight in politics than the church of rome borne has it ever taken such a decided political stand as the methodist church took at its recent conference in new york where the platform of the prohibition party was enthusiastically endorsed the mormon doctrine sanctioning polygamy has been the principle source of truble trouble congress very properly undertook to root out this practice and senator edmunds bill in 1882 met with satisfactory success but congress was not content to stop there after enacting the most stringent laws against polygamy it pawed passed the confiscation bill which can be regarded only as a direct attack attach upon a religious corporation this measure is of a piece with the treatment to which the mormons cormons have been subjected throughout their history in 1844 officers of illinois arrested two men and con confined fined them in jail at carthage A mob collected broke open the doors of the jail seized the prisoners and murdered er them people said then and some still assert that justice was meted out to joseph smith and his brother but is lynch law likely to secure the justice which american citizens wish to see enforced on the banks of the mississippi the mormons cormons built a flourishing flourishing flouris city but the people of illinois did id not want such neighbors and so for three days they bombarded nauvoo in the opening of winter men women and children were driven from their homes compelled to forsake their possessions and flee they knew not whither we glorify our persecuted pilgrim fathers who planted amid the snows and rocks of a wilderness the seeds of free government and their chosen religion Is their case essentially unlike that of the mor mons literally hunted from state to state they too resolved to found a home where they might enjoy religious freedom through an unknown desert over the rocky mountains encompassed by dangers they pushed their way until they reached the salt lake basin in subsequent years the persecutors of the puritans did not withhold from the settlers of new england their due meed of praise and all men who believe in the progress of the world though condemning to the lowest inferno the mormon creed should laud the principle that folded guided both puritan and mormon m n their wanderings when roger boger williams preached religious freedom in massachusetts they drove drova him blin from the colony but they permitted him to enjoy his religious opinions in his new home the church of utah was hounded from place to place till it found a refuge fi in the western desert and the descendants of the new england puritans are not satisfied to allow it to rest even there while a dollar remains to the church of cormons mormons 8 the carpetbag politicians liticia ns of butali utah will clamor for ft rt and congress in granting it will imagine that it is rooting out poly polygamy gainy the cause of the mormon church is the cause of every church in the territories if the united states government can confiscate the property of one religious corporation what is to prevent it from doing the same to any other denomination at anytime any time it shall please when the profligate john wilkes championed the liberty of the press and advocated parliamentary reform he be became a hero the mormon C hurch church of utah represents today as sacred a principle as john wilkes or roger williams ever stood for and congress in combat ting this principle is not checking the influences of mormonism it is making war on the inalienable right of liberty of con conscience mience ap A youth who would fearlessly stand up in defense of an unjustly unpopular people and their rights will develop into a man of no ordinary calibre his clear exposition of the wrongs perpetrated by the national legislature and of the rights of the people upon whom they have been inflicted indicates an incisive intellect and a comprehensive mind his oration is in long may he live to denounce wrong and champion the clause cause of the oppressed we believe mr jackson will be heard from in after years |