| OCR Text |
Show AMNESTY OK PERSECUTION. It will bo a misfortune if the present pres-ent congress odiouru3 without taking boq?o action on the Utah question, looking to tho relief of polygamista. Letting matters rest as tbey aro cannot can-not fail in cauaiug great hardship and injustice to many people who are only technically su'iUy of violating b law, and to others who are entirely free from ofleneo. It is truo tbo decision de-cision of the BUprome court doea not niako Ihe anti-polygamy act any more a law than it was aixteen yeare ago, nor doea the opinion devise new methods for conducting proeocutions. ' Everything rcmaina aa it was. But the decision lends encouragement to over-zealona officials, and iDBpixes thorn to extraordinary exertions, Where they have been idle and negligent neg-ligent during the many years that the law has been in the (statute hooka, they will now bo extremely active, and particularly oo aa the official fees multiply with the convictions con-victions brought about. With the average official this latter circumstanco goes further towards inciting in-citing to a vigorous enforcement of the law than any desire to perform his duty. Utah will preieut a most inviting field for the operationa of a tbirftv. money-making prosecutor. The gontlemau who occupied the placo before th present incumbent was appointed, would have fairly chuckled over sucb an opportunity for the exercise of hid ability for blackmailing aud official robbery. We believe the present district attor ney ia a moro honest aud honorable man than hin predecessor, but under the circumstances he ia wholly unfitted un-fitted fjr the important pos tion that be occupies, lie haa bUowu himself to be a bitter partisan, extreme iu bis prejudices and unfair in his methods. Ho has also shown that ho will not scruple to rceort to .questionable means for accomplishing ao end. Ho is in commuuicAtiou with the moat violently radical psople of the city, and is uuder the control of, and deriveB inspiration from newspaper people who would laugh to ee an indiscriminate indiscrimi-nate slaughter of Mormons instituted without going to the trouble of bold-iug bold-iug trials; men who wculd openly and uubluahiugly perjure themselves in efijitj to get on a jury to hang Mormons. Judge VaoZde may be Bcrupuloiidly houoot, yet without some check ho would occasion moro harm at the present I'me in Utah than a corrupt official. A fanatic, under the influence of fanatics, cauoot bo expected to ba lenient, or even just. People who are clamoring for the prosecution of all polygAmisla talk without reason. Tbey cannot appreciate appre-ciate or understand the harm that would result from sucb a couroo. They certainly do not know that these people number mmy thousands, that they own the land, tbo houses, tho towns aud cities of I tab, or they would utter think ct instituting prosecutions against the tii by tbo wholesale .Such a course could result only iu desolating the territory, and bringing bardsbip aud suffering upon the in-Docent in-Docent as well as the olleudera. If congress will pass no law for the protection of tho Mormon people, as to tho past, thtti the administration should be made t tee ihe importance of bavins lederal officers here who aro nut so much of ftnaties as to ba beyond tho punvr of reasoning, and who wiit exercise that moderation and wicJom that tbo situation demands. |
