Show WILLIAMS SPEECH The Rights and Wrongs of the I People of Utah i MURRAY AND THE COMMISSION I I Consistent Compromise Concession and Conciliation of Both Parties I j Advised and Advocated We printed the other day a brief outline of Judge Williams speech in the Ogden mass meeting Since then we have been enabled to obtain a complete com-plete synopsis of his address which our readers will take interest in perusing Jr Chairman Ladies and Gentlemen You must not expect a systematic speech on the few minutes notice I have had of a desire to hear from me I am not a member of any church nor do I agree precisely with any but I have a profound respect for all sincere worshipers wor-shipers You must recognize that the people of this Territory are now in amoral a-moral revolution You must see that a hundred and twenty thousand people are brought face to face with fifty millions mil-lions of people and that the latter have a mighty organization a government thatrates as one of the first powers of the world that these make the Congress of the United States elect the President and that he and the Senate make the Federal judiciary Thus they have the law making the law executing and the law administering power in their hands whilst you have only the pitiful power to elect a Delegate to Congress who cannot vote on any measure mea-sure when there You must recognize that the Pres ident and Senate make your District and Supreme Territorial Judges and they being the same makes an extremely ex-tremely infirm system of judicature I am talking about the system as ap plicable to all the Territories without any intended reflection upon our judiciary judi-ciary Your lives characters and prop erty as it were are held in the hollow of the hand of the three judges thus made for you for there are only two classes of criminal pSenses that can be appealed to the United States Supreme Court that is murder cases and polyg amy cases and now no civil case can be appealed to it unless there be of the value of 5000 involved So you see how important your Territorial District and Supreme Courts are to you and as the same judge who tries the case in the District Court constitutes onethird of the Supreme Court the chances of getting errors corrected are much more remote than if YOU had a Supreme o t vuusistmg ot juagca Writs nan nothing to do with the trial of causes in the District Courts There are now eight Territories several sev-eral of which in point of population wealth ana commerce are far superior to some of the States and with a great and rich government that has a daily revenue of at least a million of dollars the parsimony that prevents the mak ing of one or two Supreme Courts of a different body of men from the nisi I priiis judges is almost inconceivable While this infirmity attaches to all the Territories owing to your peculiar con dition and the fierce conflicts peculiar to th e people pf thisTerritory it is felt in an aggravated degree here You must also recognize another solemn sol-emn fact in all its lengths and breadths heights and depths that the American people have solemnly compacted in the Constitution of the United States that the Supreme Court of the United States shall be the final and ultimate tribunal to decide all constitutional con-stitutional questions and that from its decision there is no appeal but obedience must be rendered to it until through the proper law making power the statutes can be repealed or modified or the decision overruled by the same court and even this cannot affect its past adjudications No matter what your grievance a forcible revolution is not to be thought of or tolerated but your right to assemble peaceably and petition for for the redress of wrong is a constitu tional one written in plain language in your constitution and you have chosen a wise ahd constitutional means of re dress The treedom from excitement and the seriousness depicted on the counten ances of this vast assemblage indicates the solemnity of this crisis andhow acutely you feel on the subject There is 11 world of truth in the test that has been read in your hearing pro The Governor sent here to execute and enforce the laws of the United States early in his administration became be-came a violator of the law in giving a certificate of election to a candidate re ceivin3 a fraction of over thirteen hun dred votes whilst his opponent received over eighteen thousand This was not only a violation of law but a violation I if the political Precedent of both the Republican and Democratic parties and was a crime against the principles of a Republican government and the majes ty of the people and majorities and of course rendered him odious to the majority and so far as they are con I corned impotent for good Whilst at the same time it was a usurpation oi the powers of the House of Representa I tives in Congress which is made by the Constitution the judge of the election and qualification of its own members And other charges against him are also true for lIe has attempted at-tempted to usurp the appointing appoint-ing powers by a false and wrongful construction con-struction of the Hoar amendment and then denounced you as disloyal because you would not accept his construction but chose to exercise your legal and constitutional rights of appeal to the courts of the country He has also attempted to usurp the appointing power in direct contravention contraven-tion of your Territorial statutes which have passed the ordeal of the Supreme Court of the United States in principle in the case of Snow vs the United States 18 Wallace Reports 319 It is astonishing with what zeal they I uphold the decision of that august tribunal when it happens to suit them and with what cool indifference indiffer-ence they ignore it when it does not snit them Your statutes are in accordance accord-ance with the general if not the universal univer-sal practice of the other Territories whilst the same provisions substantially is found in all the Organic Acts It is true that Congress rebuked this violation of law and this usurpation of its powers by your Governor first by the almost unanimous rejection of the gentleman bearing his certificate and secondly by taking from him the power to again perpetuate such an offense and conferring on the Commission provided pro-vided in the Edmunds statute the exclusive ex-clusive power to certify the election of all officers and leaving only the duty of commissioning on such certificates in the Territorial executive And whilst this Commission have made Some grave mistakes to its honor be it said and most truthfully that it has never yet certifieil the election of any man who has received only a minority mi-nority vote and has never failed to certify cer-tify the election of the man receiving a majority It is the duty of all citizens who live in a government and claim its protection pro-tection in their person property character etc to give that government a loyal obedience to its laws and it is the peculiar duty of all its officers and agents whilst demanding legal submission sub-mission on the part of others to render implicit obedience to its laws themselves them-selves and to fail to do so shows either an incompetency or perversity The Utah Commission went far beyond their legal powers in prescribing an illegal il-legal expurgatory oath and excluding from registration legal voters but since the decision of the United States I Supreme Court in the Commissioners cases they have modified their action and it is to be hoped that they will conform con-form to the Territorial statutes and decision de-cision of the United States Supreme Court in ordering at the proper time an election for the other Territorial offices which they have failed so far to do Another hope may be indulged that when the present administration shall send you a new Governor Gover-nor that he will be a fair and impartial man who will execute the laws as the Governor of the whole Territory and not as the mere partizan of a small minority one that will sign the wholesome acts of the Legislative Assembly and who will give his assent as-sent to such an act as is contemplated by the Edmunds Statute and thereby rid the Territory of an unwelcome commission com-mission and the United States treasury of a heavy extravagant and unnecessary unneces-sary expense > Of course you understand me as making no personal allegations against the gentlemen constituting this Commission Com-mission for I suppose they are quite as much respected as any other five that could be sent from abroad but such a commission is a useless and expensive appendage and an unwelcome guest to the people of the Territory It is impossible to ignore the fact that your surroundings are most grave for in the enlightened civilization and broad Christianity of the ninteenth century no Christian government can afford to persecute the religion of a hundred hun-dred and twenty thousand people and no people of that number can afford to resist the laws of fifty million people Hence this question must be settled on the principles of broad statesmanship in a spirit of compromise and concession conces-sion and conciliation of both parties consistent with justice and generosity on the part of the government and of loyalty honor and obedience by the DP Horace Greeley in the conception of abroad a-broad statesmanship realized that the Southern people felt the infliction and imprisonment Jeff Davis the Presi dentof the defunct Confederacy as their infliction that his cause wastheir cause and in the generosity and justice of his great soul he was for amnesty and opposed to trial conviction and punishment pun-ishment and gave unanswerable reasons rea-sons therefor He said that no trial and conviction could be had that would not be the result of scandalously packing pack-ing of the jury for if it was taken from southern sympathizers he would be cleared and if taken from the northern sympathizers he would be convicted and there without much reference to the law or the evidence and which would result in the disgrace of the Government Gov-ernment in the future impartial history of the times And now permit me to suggest that this is now very much the condition of affairs in this Territory |