OCR Text |
Show RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION. On Monday next, May 22nd, an election will be held throughout the Territory for the purpose of giving citizens an opportunity of accepting or rejecting the constitution submitted to them by the late convention. Every citizen of Utah Territory without regard to party or creed, who has the least desire to see Utah redeemed and made free and independent, or who has the slightest regard or respect for the principles of human rights and liberty of which the nation was originally founded, should affirm his or her sentiments on these subjects by voting for the constitution. No excuse nor business of any kind should deter any person having the right to vote for it, from going and casting their ballot in favor of the charter of their liberties that is now submitted to them for their approval or disapproval. The fact that the people of Utah have not received definite encouragement that Congress would accept of the constitution if they did ratify it, should only make them more united and earnest in the protest against being longer deprived of their rights. A vote in favor of the constitution means such a protest as this, and when a strong people unite as one man and ask at the polls for the rights to which they are entitled under the constitution of their country, the laws of nature and the statutes of Jehovah, the moral effect upon the world will be marked and lasting, whether their request is granted or not. This constitutional election is not an affair of an ordinary kind. The document that has been prepared is of a most sweeping character, in its guarantees of human liberty and the rights of conscience, principles which the people of Utah are charged with subverting and disbelieving, and they now have an opportunity to show to the world in a most emphatic manner, what are their real and genuine sentiments upon those subjects. The occasion of this election is one which should rouse an earnest enthusiasm in every person in this Territory who has a right to vote upon the question involved in it-an enthusiasm which should impel the casting of the ballot in favor of the rescue of our Territory from further tyrannical misrule, and the surfdom [serfdom] that, in the near future, threatens not only a [unreadable] posterity. Record your protest, against tyranny and religious thralldom, and show to the world that you know what your rights are, and that you are earnest and united in striving by all legitimate means to secure them. Any citizen of the United States, over 21 years of age, residing in the Territory my vote on the constitution without registration, or further qualifications. |