Show ASSAILING GOVERNOR WEST It is believed that duce Governor West camo to Utah he has endeavored to the very best of his excellent abiliij to perform the duties of his office faithfully faith-fully honestly and fairly It is little thatbe JiltS had to do but that little bas been done in a way to indicate that his Excellency understands the requirements require-ments of his potion and is brave and independent enough to act as be deems right and proper He came here as Governor of the Territory of Utah and so far he has been Governor Recognizing Re-cognizing the fact that while there are mOe than one church more than one political party and more than one social 1 class his office requires him to be Governor of all the people to whatever sect party or society they may belong Because his Excellency has assumed that his commission made him Governor of the Territory and not of a faction and because he has endeavored to be Governor laboring for what he deemed the best interests of the community be is entirely unlike his predecessor and his course is directly oppoite to that so closely followed by tbe late Executive The consequence is that supporters and admirers of Murray do not like West and the latter is coming in for criticisms and malicious assaults at the hands of the vicious and unreasoning Last Thursday Thurs-day the New York Herald a newspaper with which it is chronic to be wrong on all Utah matters had a dirty attack on Governor West which is mademore malicious by its praise of Murray A liberal quotation from the article will give the reader an idea of how mean a journal can be when it is determined togo to-go wrong j wrongPresidentCleseland President Cleveland aehort time ago displaced Mr Eli Murray of Kentucky from the of icu of Governor of Utah Territory and put Mr Caleb Wet of the same State into the place From a message sent to Congress it was in ferred that the President was displeased with some vetoes by which Governor Murray had annulled several Dnanci bills of tbe Territorial Legislature We never hate investigated the matter enough to have a positive posi-tive opinion of the merits of the controversy but it is already mani fest that in the struggle of the United btates to enforce Federal law in Utah the Federal government has been weakened weak-ened by tbe change Whatever may have been Governor Murrays vanities and other weaknesses he understood the Mormon hierarchy It could not fool him Mr West on the contrary knew little or nothing about it He bad no special fitness for a very difficult office which requires peculiar qualifications I qualifica-tions for its beat administration Our understanding is that he wanted a conspicuous con-spicuous appointment and hIS political friends wanted one for him and it did not matter much to him or to them what or where he should be He might I as well have been appointed to any other Territory as to Utah or to any otherconspicuous place as to a Governorship Gover-norship Some of Governor Wests performances since bis arrival in Salt Lake City confirm this understanding under-standing He seems to fancy that he can convert the Mormons to Chris tianity aud loyal citizenship by goody goody talk to them as if that has not been tried so often during the last thirty years that any repetition out is ridiculous ridic-ulous One afternoon about the middle of May ho drove out to the Utah Penitentiary Peni-tentiary where fortynine convict ilor mon polygamists are serving their sentences sen-tences and made a goodygoody speech to them in which be proposed to persuade President Cleveland to pa don them due if they would rrotnise to renounce polygamy after getting out They artfully askea for time consider his proposition and have just tent him a reply which ba been concocted dur ing the interval by Jhc head men of the Mormon Church It is not difficult to trace the inspiration inspira-tion for the above to its source The Salt Lake Tribune dared not assail Governor Gov-ernor West in the above manner lint it could furnish material for other and braver journals to make the attack That the Tribune supplied inspirationfor the article is evidenced evi-denced by the tone of tbe paper as well as by its several references to mutters that have appeared in tbe Tribute as that the prisoners reply was concocted during the interval by tbe head men of the Mormon Church and that a horse thief in the same penitentiary writes a letter promising that he will never steal another horsa if UtG senior will let him off Coernor Wests visit to the Peri tertiary was prompted by the best ot motives and there was nothing un fignifietl or humiliating about it The proposition iTemade to + the imprisoiiSl Mormons vas jusE such an offer oa a humane = official would be jtistiQalln making and it was approved by all fair and intelligent persons who understand under-stand anything of the situation hereOf here-Of course it waS not approved by the Th < KMesanK one of whom is reported as confessing that he was in a flowing perspiration for two hours during the conference out of fear that the prisoners would accept the proffered prof-fered amnesty and thus deprive i him and his crowd of the cruel victory which they hope to achieve over the oppressed Mormons Any proposition which confesses that Mormons are honest upright and virtuous vir-tuous and that their vices in tbe eyes I of the world are confined to the solitary offense of polygamy is treason in the mind of the Tribune and those unreasoning unreason-ing editors who accept its assertions zs truth Persecute and de troy the Mormons Mor-mons is the cry of too many newspapers and any other doctrine than that of hate is heterodox as is all that recognizes recog-nizes that tbe Mormons have any rights whish should be respected The references to Governor Wests ambition for office and his lack of knowledge of the situation here ere simply conlemptib xndbeneatli de cent journalism We know nothing at to Governor Weatsa plratkw regarding regard-ing a Federal appointment but we believe be-lieve he knows more of Utah and her people though be has been here less than two months than exGovernor Murray learned dnrng the six years that he wa the chief executive of Utah Governor West has certainly met mote of the people than Murray lid in all the years that be was here has seen more of Jbim and there is every reason to believe thatbe understands under-stands them better Murray took pains to keep himself in ignornce of the people avoiding them on all occasions oc-casions and contenting himself with tbe stones told by their bitterest enemies while Wen bas not been above meetingabepople LaS listened to them and has noted tn ir acbievemenls i Governor WVat may rest content in I the con cioU ne > s that the attacks upon him so far are nut based on knowledge but are inspired by envy and malice and that therefore they cannot injure him while becintinuei to perform hit duty as Governor honestly faithfully and in a spirit of fairness |