OCR Text |
Show I desdrt, threaded the land with railroads, and addid states to the Unton. There must be a powerful influence upon these people ia Utah, restraining them from consent to a liberation from the territorial conditions. Mir. Perkins next takes up the history of the statehood movement from June 17, 1SS7. It q iotes J. B. Rosborough's stinging reply, as hairman of the democratic territorial con mittee, under date of June 24, and says tha Die reasons of his opposition then are stil u: ged by the non-mormon people. It que us from the reply of the republican commit com-mit e, and gives extracts from Governor W pa report for that year, all as evidence of t e view taken of existiag conditions under un-der Cleveland's administration. It gives volu. minous extracts from Governor Thomas' rep.: rt for 1891, to show how the matter is 1 uked upon by federal officials under un-der the present administration, and con-tin: con-tin: :s: L is not altogether remarkable that, after so I any years of contention against the govern gov-ern eut, much bitterness of spirit should stil :e manifested. The desire on the part of t 3 mormon population for any relief is con )icuous and, in a measure, excusable. Pri; euce would Lave Suggested Some Delay in" ic matter of bringing forward this bill, whi h, with much delay, might have given pla to a bill for statehood outright, but the impatience has been such as to crowd events, and the presumption cannot be avoided that si! lias been done in the way of record -'iakrng for this session of congress. The prejBnce of federal officers with authority, the ftmin i ssion, the governor, and tho secre-tarylas secre-tarylas well as the judges of tiie courts, is con8cuously galliug to the mormon mind. Aiiyfclan which will give the people early CK.itBol is feverishly desired. The memorial bj IWz legislative assembly to the senate and houA of representatives displays thisfeeiing in ! following paragraph: " the most vicious interference with the veste remaining of our local liberties is in the Siaintenance and action of the Utah commission, who, in their appointment of reriftration officers, have often selected cor-ru;Bpind cor-ru;Bpind irresponsible persons. These have the registration lists with ficticious namVs and resorted to other devices by w repeating and other frauds might be suoyofuHy perpetrated at elections.' Yet an Indorsement of that can hardly be ex-peeffi ex-peeffi from sober-minded people here or elAjfftaere. B memorial of the representatives of t fceral party is then quoted, and the re- ioniludes as follows: "This bill docs toi.ose to trust the people of Utah with Vd: it proposes to make tlieni a pecu-, pecu-, it propose to transfer to them uiaWv the honors of a state government, andvfto leave them subject to an act of congress at any time, that shall withdraw these! honors and place them in such other territloriiii relations as congress may provide. To tt e minority of your committee it seems t t this proposition involves an added ljuniilliation upon that people, which just at this jtimes ought not to be written in the national law. If it be agreed that mormon church, as there represented and dominant, is sincerely moving to free itself of the principles acknowledged as Obnoxious to American Law. WHY THEY OBJECT, Congressman Perkins of Iowa Completes the Minority Report on the Fauikner-Oaine Fauikner-Oaine Bill for Home Eule for Utah. It Gives Solid Eeasons for Opposition to the Measure and is Signed by all the Republican Members. THE MORMONS IN POLITICS In View of the Past in Utah the Minority Thinks a Further Period of Probation Proba-tion Not Unreasonable. WORK OF THE LIBERALS, .Some Inductions Drawn From tlie Anti-Polygumy Anti-Polygumy Menifesto and l'resirilent AVootlriifl"s Speeches in liegfarci to tlie SiLme r in t lie Iteliel's of ilie CliurcU Congressman Perkins of Iowa lias con-pletcd con-pletcd the report of the minority of the house committee on territories on the Fuulkner-C uine bill. It is sinned by all the republican members of the committee, Geo O. Perkins, John W. Rife, James O'Donncll and (ieorffe V. Smith. The following extracts from the report are from the Washington special to the Tribune. The report betrins with reference to the anomalous charac ter of the bill. Under tbe title of -"A Glance Backward" it shows what the conditions were which are said to be now changed, viz., that since 183$ plural marriage was practiced; that for fifty years the church has been at enmity with tbe government: gov-ernment: that, by the open professions of its leaders, the church was above the law, acting under divine authority, aud owning no allegiance to the law otherwise proclaimed. pro-claimed. 'There is no evidence that the fundamentals fundamen-tals of the creed have as yet materially changed. The faith is founded upon direct revelations from God In that faith, so far as it is unbroken, the presidency of the church holds power over the people. ''The people are seeking to escape from government dictation. The Novel Propocition embraced in this bill has its explanation in this long contention. It is a confession ou the part of the promoters of the measure that the people of the United States are not yet prepared to remove the barriers congress has been compelled to set up in Utah, in consequence con-sequence of th resistance of the dominant church to the laws of the country, supported as they are in this instance, by the moral iu-llueuce iu-llueuce of our eivilizationr "It is alleged in support of this bill that the particular cause of difference has been rmo -d by . iJtbaji.dmiaJi-nl-fiir-w-by thy mormon people; that they have accepted ac-cepted in good faith the decrees of the courts, and that further resistance to the laws or support of plural marriage will not be made or encouraged. The bill is evidence, however, that a further period of probation is not an unreasonable request on the .'art of the government, from the causes of such jrreat expense and anxiety, in consequence of a resistance covering up the many years to its authority, or on the part of the people in whose moral sense the government has proceeded. The minority of your committee call particular attention to this judgment, as expressed by the bill itself. It may well be judged that if I'tah is entitled to the 'Home Kuie' here proposed, it is Kntifletl to Statehood. TLn publie policy would suggest that r,:-ljt--- "' w..irW-,Ws',-jiii.iii pea and under the terms amnesty and justiUe provided by a generous government. If the! people of Utah, as the majority of them think, have been stigmatized by the ac'j cf the federal government, then it may be ured that no new condition, not common to tne history of our legislation, should now be Imposed. "rull recognition is made of the right of the people in Utah, as elsewhere in this free lanu, to worship God according to the dictates dic-tates of their own consciences. That is not the isne ; that must not be made to appear to 6 the iasue. But the people of Ctah, of whatever religion, of whatever church name, must recognize and obey the constitution aud te laws instituted among men and subject sub-ject toemselves thereto, as the people of any other terrftory or any other state of this federal fed-eral Union must do. Liberty there, as elsewhere else-where must stop short of license. The government of the state must be in the state, Jand not in the church, and this fundamental funda-mental principle of republican government, whicl passes beyond the mere 'suspension' of tie practice of polygamy, is to have recotition in Utah. "lie minority of your committee are. not dispAed to place any obstacle in the way of the Brnission of Utah to a legitimate, whole-somHstatehood. whole-somHstatehood. On the contrary, the dis-posiflon dis-posiflon is to aid in the removal of any ob-stacllj ob-stacllj now apparent. Utah has been A Stumbling Block in the way of western progress. Every impulse im-pulse of patriotism and of good citizenship prompts the hope in the removal of the disability, dis-ability, and the government of the United States in its legislative, judicial or executive departments, may be trusted to take in each instance the initiatory steps toward a for-triveniss for-triveniss of past trangressions and in providing pro-viding for the complete absorption of the people of Utah into the commonwealth of the givernment, a friend with whom, as a member of the common fatiily of states, it may in the long years to come live at peace. Whj- not give a demonstration that conditions con-ditions have changed? Why not have a crop or two of the American spirit in Utah? Old thing are passing away: let it be hoped that ajll things may soon become new. When it shjill be accepted knowledge that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has tijkeu its proper place, or that the temporal tem-poral power has passed from it, then the door 4'f the Union and the arms of its people will oben to Utah. In Utah the issue is not political. It ought not to be that here. Prejudice may exist and may be stimulated ag-aiiut the party in control of the government. govern-ment. That was manifest tinder the last ad-minis' ad-minis' ration, as it is manifest under the present pres-ent administration. The purpose of this bill Is not to establish between the territory of Utah and the government of the United States closer relations. The very opposite is true. The purpose is to separate the dominant domi-nant power or party of Utah from the United State-, and to give to that power or party, free Uom the interference of the general government, authority over all the "State of Descr.-t;" that it maybe insolated within the Union as a territory, yet not of it as a sovereign sov-ereign state. Indeed, it is urged that this bill is preliminary prelimi-nary to Statehood, and that its passage will speedily prepare the way. If this be the confidence of the friends of the bill, them is it not wiser to demonstrate that fitness under un-der existing conditions, to which the people are adjusted, rather than to enter now upon an unsatisfactory condition of abbreviated etaUihood, for which there is ns precedent in the history of the countrv. The dissolution of the people's party is noted, with the comment: "It will be noticed no-ticed that the liberals gained liss than 500 vote9, while the democrats and republicans together gained more than 3000 votes. The figure; indicate that the abandonment of the people's party left the real political situation in Utah practically unchanged." Under the heading of polygamy and politics, poli-tics, the Perkins report reprints Wilford Woodruff's manifesto and the October, 191, endorsement, and says that the declaration aiCainst the presumption of the union of church and state, coupled with the declaration declara-tion that the people's party has been entirely entire-ly and finally dissolved, is suggestive, to say the least. It then prints in full Wilford Woodruff's Provo speech, showing how the Lord told him that, as a matter of policy, polygamy had better be laid on the shelf for a little while, on which Mr. Perkins pertinently per-tinently remarks: "It will be observed that the faitu in direct revelation in regard to the temporal as well as the spitual welfare of the people is not left out of mind. The Unanimity of the Church in accepting this new revelation, it wi 11 also be observed, is not less remarkable than the unanimity of the conference in accepting the proclamation of a dissolution of the people's peo-ple's party." The report proceeds to publish the amnesty am-nesty petitiou of December 10, and remarks: "Let it be observed that in the above is succinctly suc-cinctly stated, in humility, to be sure, the long record of a stubborn contention against the government in behalf of a religious creed, involving a disregard of law and a violation of the moral sense of society. The on tion may well be asked outside of Utah, "Is this enouffhV" "It may be conceded that the practice of polygamy will not be re established in Utah, by revelation or otherwise, though it has only been 'suspended.' All right-minded people will unite in encouraging the mormon mor-mon people in a irrowth in the better way, but the fact cannot be overlooked that this abandonment of plum! marriage has only been made under the strongest pressure of government and society, aim that nowhere has the presidency of the church admitted the wrong or confessed a conversion from tbe authority under which the practice, through so many years, was encouraged, under peril to the soul. The continued existence ex-istence of Ihe liberal party, aud the earnestness earnest-ness with which that organization resists the proposition of the bill, may well arrest serious attention. Salt Lake City is now domiuated by The Gentile Population. That population is of the progressive character char-acter upon which the great west has so marvelously flourished in recent years. It is composed of the elements that hatte built cities in the wilderness, opened tarm ia the.j i |