| Show A Protest from kehi Luni UTAH Co Feb 23 1882 Editors Herald 1 herewith transmit an account of a mass meeting held in the Lehi meeting house called to consider the prescriptive legislation now pending in Congress and to consider con-sider the propriety of protesting against it The house was crowded about 800 people baing present Organized Or-ganized by electing T R Cuttler Esq chairman and John Wood house secretary The chairman in brief stated the object of the meeting remarking on the objectionable features of the Edmunds bill that if passed it would deliver the territorial government govern-ment into the hands of a small minority and they our avowed enemies etc It was mOTed and carried that we have the bill read The bill was read and commented on Hon Wm H Winn then said that under the Constitution of the United States he had the right to believe and practice what he chose so long as his acts did not encroach upon the belief or practice of others and amidst all the diversity of beliefs be-liefs aud practice that existed in no instance was it claimed that one man could prescrile for another except in the case of the Mormons They proposed to take exceptions to our morality when the facts are that not in all this broad land does there exist a fatherless child or an abandoned mother chargeable to us whilst nearer home so much evil exists that they do not seem to notice it Our past experience has proven to us that it is neither our religion nor our morals that is the object for the chief ones in this crusade cru-sade care for neither but it is the government of the territory we have made The little they hare done has shown us of what kind that government would be should it fall into their hands The present cry is polygamy but II we know from our past history that it was not polygamy that was the cause of our being driven here but our belief in direct revelation from God We came to this territory when no one else desired it We have made it desirable and now other people and they are a small minority desire to rule here and to rule to our harm We have petitioned peti-tioned before but without avail We have the right to petition and I propose we use it and to ask Congress Con-gress not to act hastily in this matter mat-ter but to give it due consideration The territory is now prosperous but a measure of this kind would damage dam-age our prospects and retard our growth Gecrge Webb Esq said We ac knowlege mankind to be endowed w th certain rights namely life liberty and the pursuit of happiness The bill read here tonight is calculated calcu-lated to curtail us in thoso rights We realize at this time that our territory is virtally governed by one man an appointed Governor He has the power to nullify the whole sixty days labor of our Legislature Leg-islature more power than even the President possesses The jury law was changed to give the Gentile population equal rights with us and they are only about onefifteenth of the whole population This has failed to check this socalled evil 1 The present bill proposes to deprive us of our votes and is intended to place men over us to govern not in sympathy with usA us-A truthful and pointed letter was read from the Salt Lake HERALD and received with applause I P H Allred Esq said it had been remarked it was not polygamy 1 that was the real trouble I saw the Prophet Joseph Smith arrested with many others and dragged to Liberty Jail The charge then was treason and the charge of treason I was as reasonable then as polygamy is now Both are used to cover over other and deeper objects I afterwards saw the same when they returned after having been kidnapped kid-napped to Missouri under similar charges I went to Carthage Jail after he was shotwithout law 0 No polygamy was charged then and now as then it is only used to cover over a deeper object We all know and so do our enemies that nothing exists here to shock any oae A draft of a memorial was then read and adopted when the meeting adjourned to give opportunity for signatures REPORTER |
