Show CAPT JOHN COD MA I Exposes the antiMormon Crusade in Utah Territory DISFRANCHISE3IEST IN IDAHO Shown np Tho Utah Commission Hcndlcd Without GloresA Testimony to the loyalty of the People j V WASHINGTON D C Sept 27ESpecial j telegram to Tun HEUAIU Tne Antfonol j Dcmociat in its issue today under the headIng head-Ing antiMormon crusade published sin able and interesting let from Captain lolm Codman at Soda Springs Idaho Ho I biyst I have carefully read the commuai uUon of Judge Carlton to the Democrat I f ugust 50 and fully endorse every word of it I proof is needed of the veracity of his statements it is furnished by the Salt Lake Tribune which without undertaking a dsprove them attacks their author in the most venomous personal abuse which Ici s tbo staple argument of that newspaper news-paper when it has t deal wit an opponent 111 1 r > been iiitimatey acquainted with theM the-M r > nn people for seventeen years I have traveled through the length and bn a j th o their land before the railroads came there and have had business relations rela-tions with them in which I always found them trustworthy Barring their practice of polygamy now fallen into innocuous desuetude there is not such a lawabiding people within the limits of the United States And et these are the men who are in Idaho where I have resided forman for-man summers and know them to DO the most honest conscientious and industrious people of this new state these are the men who are disfranchised excluded from the jury box and denied every political right excepting that of being taxed Referring to the small number of polygamists po-lygamists l in Idaho he adds Of the 5000 disfranchised voters there arc not 200 who are amenable to punishment for transgressing trans-gressing the law It is not pretended that there are more but their crime is that they belong to an organization that teaches polygamy po-lygamy andit is made a condition of their voting in future that they shall produce satisfactory evidence that they have left tho Mormon church two years before akin ak-in for registration I is in vain that they urge that the Mormon church no longer teaches polygamy and that they produce the authoritative declaration of its president presi-dent to the Associated Press that he bag ba-g en positive orders that no more plural marriages shall bo solemnized They arc asked Do yon believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet Do you believe that he bad a revelation instituting polygamy It might as well bo asked of the Presbyterian Presby-terian Do you believe that Jehovah was God and that he gave wives t David Treating of the loyalty of the Mormons he says The Mormons are accused of disloyalty I the charge were true yet in spite of every advice ad-vice to bring on a rebellion they remain quiet under the iniquities heaped upon them still under the belief that the Declar ation of Independence the constitution of the United States issued Sttes were by the Almighty who in his good time will see that obtain justice at the hands of their country He pays his respects t the Utah commission com-mission in tho following pithy style In the first place this Utah commission never had any raisnn d < < r I has never accomplished accom-plished any work that could not have been done there by the secretary of the territory single handed Itwas the child of perjury per-jury Judge Carlton is the only one of its members who has the candor to admit ad-mit that it was a piece of useless legislation legisla-tion and he values the truth more than the salary of 3COO a year and those who sgned the majority reports their salaries jiorcthan the truth That is the whole of it Hence their labored efforts to prove that their semiannual visits to Utah were necessary for the suppression of polygamy uad disloyalty They are upheld in this pretense by tho newspaper already referred refer-red to but there is not a Mormon or a gentile in the common walks of life who does not look upon them as actors in a ridiculous force He then turns his batteries on the anti Mormon crusade and says The effect of tho antiMormon crusade for all these 3 ear hu dcea for evil and that continu ai > y It has got the community of Salt Lake city by td ears It has demoralized society by introducing obscenity into the papers and into catty codversation even among ladies of culture By giving the impression that life and and capital were not safe in tho territory It has retarded the influx of a good and varied population and has prevented tho investment of money there Ail that was needed was to have male polygamy punishable like any other crime according to its degree Criminals of all sorts frequently escape conviction ever where but In Utah where the whole power of the courts is in the federal courts who construe the laws of evidence to suit themselves Conviction for polygamy is almost always sure though other crimes may be unpunished |