Show CONGRESS i AND LAW i t t c f With a Glimpse Into the History His-tory of the Past GOVERNMENT AND MORMONS Before Man Made Us Citizens Great Nature Made us Men Standing Stand-ing the rest To the Editor of THE HERALD Will our nation ever learn pradence and wisdom or must she like other nations before her learn to her sorrow the fatal results arising from their utter disregard To a candid and unbiased mind it would seem not if the action of Congress aided by an avaricious crew in Utah and a portion of the outside prc as are to be given a literal interpretation interpre-tation It appears that the history of the past is an insufficient guide to those assumed monarchs of the souls of men in the duties assigned them Under the Constitution precedent goes for naught and well might we arraign them under the head of those whom Shakespeare denominated as Drest In a little brief authority Most ignorantof what hes most assurd His glassy essence like an angry ape Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep But assuming that all history is written writ-ten for the benefit of man and to profit withal let us in the light of the past see how long our own country is likely to maintain her honor at home and abroad by her recent action in dealing with thevexed Mormon question Let us disquet and bring up the awful shadows of empires buried long ago and I learn a lesson from the tomb Assyria Nineveh and Babylon were hnrled down from their lofty sphere by their own misrule and injustice Mighty Persia suffered a like fate because of her misdeeds and tyranny over her people Greece with fell her art philosophy and greatness came to ruin because she scorned the law of God banished and imprisoned wise just men She loved the loveliness of thought and treasured that in more than Parian speech but her misrule her injustice and utter disregard dis-regard for principle brought her low in the dust How singular that Rome that once mighty empire and master of the world should now be a pile of ruined greatness For her great Law Book is prefaced by these words Justice is the unchanged and everlasting will to give each man his rights Had they maintained that law and sought to deal out evenhanded justice to all classes of her citizens all might have been well But not likethose to whom are entrusted the sacred obligation of framing fram-ing and executing our own laws they arrogated to themselves the right to enact special laws against the peace and prospeIty of one class of her citizens while other classes among whom can be found ereater evils were left nntrnm meled and in full possession of all their rights claimed under the law The breath of poison and vituperation without measure is the weapon used m their mad career to suppress a supposed evil The sacred Constitution our country which guarantees to its citizens th precious pre-cious boon of life liberty and the pursuit pur-suit ot happiness are disregarded and treated as though they had never found a place in that heaveninspired document docu-ment The right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of our own consciences is no longer tolerated and must be suppressed by ex post facto law and bills of all order Have our lawmakers ever read or if so have they forgotten the able and eloquent speeches made by some of Americas brightest and rribst worthy statesmen on the question of religions testoaths and spiritual intolerence If such is the Case let refer us to a few of themremem jbertng that these men were not seeking any personal or selfish enas but were faithful devotees to the cause of liberty in its broadest sense n ill the laud In those days political preferment came by virtue of a mans integrity to truth liberty and the rights of man but alas how far have we wandered in bye and forbidden paths since then Rev Mr Bachus of Masson religious tesfS ays Many seems much concerned about the religious test but nothing is more evident both in reason and the Holy Scriptures than that religion is ever a matter between God and individuals indi-viduals and that therefore no man or body of men can impose any religious test without invading the essential prerogatives pre-rogatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Ministers first assumed this power under the Christian name and then Constantine approved of the practice prac-tice of Christanity as an engine of State policy and let the history of all nations be searched from that day to this and it will appear that the imposing of religious tests has been the greatest engine of tyranny in the world Olive Wolcot of Connecticut on the same subject did not oelieve that the American nation would ever be disposed to establish such a precedent but said he Not knowing what might take place hereafter did not think it improper im-proper to add a clause in the Constitu tion which would secure us from the possibility of such oppression Mr Madison said that the Government i Govern-ment should have no jurisdiction in them the-m te Mr Iredell of North Carolina was equally just and logical on this point for said he under the color of religious religi-ous tests the utmost cruelties have been exercised Those in power have generally gener-ally considered all wisdom centered in themselves that they alone had the right to dictate to the rest of mankind and that all opposition to their tenets was profane and impious Such would seen to be the position of those arrayed against Utah and her people They seam to forget the fact that a man may be of a religious sentiment differing from theirs and still be a good member of society and to show to the world i ttat they are the narrowminded men ihat they are utterly disregarding the 1 above facts by forcing 50000 peopleinto their mode of thinking bv eatablishing religious test oaths and bills of attain der 0 shame Would that for the honor and good name of America abroad this dastardly piece of legisla tion could be confined within the borders of our own land for our institu tions are too great any our name too much honored and respected for the world toknow that we have reached the zenith of our glory and are now returning return-ing backward to barbarism If the nadon thinks it is going to add glory and renown to its present great ness by adopting such a course against I the Mormons all well and good butwe cannot be forced into that way of thinking think-ing because we hold that H f Before man made us cltizens < j 9 Great nature made us men q C S T Among the Mormons as among other people of other times there are to be found men and women who are true to themselves and God and they will not recant or belie their conscience though they may meet with death at the block but just as long as they enjoy life even if deprived of liberty Jiey will maintain the right and bequeath their legacy to future generations It was Lovelace who said Stone walls do not a prison make Nor iron bars a cage Minds Innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage Men may die but their deeds live after them as is amply exemplified in the punishment and death of nearly all the martyrs w oso > seemingly unhappy fate it was to champion an unpopular cause Martin Luther that great and good man to whom we are indented as much as to any one man of the past for the liberation of human thought and tho right of man to follow conscience consci-ence come what matt His able defence before the Diet at Worms is on record and furnishes one of the brightest pages inr history for said he firmlysirs unless I am convinced of my error by the testimony of the Scripture or by manifest evidence I cannot and will not retract for we cannot be true unless we follow conscience This man had to do his duty to obey the orders of a higher power than that of kings and he did it at all hazards He stood the test as against the entire world and today his nobility of character and honesty of purpose come down to us as a bright and illustrious star on the shores of > time bidding us emulate his worthy attributes Sir Thomas Moore marched willingly to the scaffold and died cheerfully there rather than prove false to his conscience consci-ence The Earl of Stafford the Royalist of England and Sir John Eliot met the same fate the latter saying Ten thousand deaths rather than defile my conscience the chastity and purity of which I value beyond all the world The fate of Socrates Bruno Galileo Roger Bacon Latimer Ridley and John Rogers together with many others furnish us bright examples of character and manhood such as is only found in the hearts of bravo true men The Mormon people find in the cause they have espoused conviction just as strong and sacred to them as is attributed attri-buted to those illustrious heroes They are devout sincere and God fearing are willing to confide in the arm of God and not man Let this unholy crusade then go oa let the spirit of injustice and religious intolerence be kept up continue to rob the people of every vestige of right left them under the Constitution shackle them hand and foot immure wise and just men in the midnight of your prison cells bring down upon them all the suffering and privation that your fiendish planswhich if consummated will evidently accomplish accom-plish still from this Golgotha of unwarrantable un-warrantable suffering there will arise a sphinx who ascending on high will perch on the index finger of the eternal infinite and record to succeeding succeed-ing generations the atrociousness of the act known as the EdmundsTucker bill Biz |