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Show IT IS HARD ON THE INNOCENT. Tho church leaders and politicians havo been able once more to shield themselves behind the body of the Mormon people. They have once more been able to persuade them into the folly of believing that an effort to held tho apostolic dodgers to tho fulfillment ful-fillment of their voluntary pledges (for which they received large and valuable consideration), is an attack upon the Mormon people. It is an adroit game, but It cannot win in tho long run. In tho words of the great and Immortal Lincoln, you can fool all tho people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time. This Is a great truth that the tricksters and self-seekers among tho high church politicians have yet to learn. But they will learn It yet, for tho lesson will bo Imparted to them so well nnd strong that there will be no escape from the knowledge Imparted. As an illustration ot now inorougniy the wool Is pulled over the eyes of the Mormon people this time, note tho reports re-ports of the speakers in the different meeting-houses of that sect on Sunday afternoon. At a considerable number of those meetings, the speakers took occasion oc-casion to rail at the American party; at others, the counsel was given for Mormons to stand together, and cast their ballots for "the right men," these being, of course, the men selected by the church apostolic politicians for the different positions. In most of the meetings where this subject was spoken spo-ken of it was In the vein that "their enemies" were harassing the Saints, and that It behooved all to stand together, to-gether, and offer a compact resistance to the attacks of the foe. One old gentleman gen-tleman In the Sixteenth ward was so full of bitterness of his recollections of tho times at Nauvoo that he actually considered the spirit of thieves and murderers to be the actuating motive of the American party. All that Is pitiful In the supreme degree. de-gree. Poor, deluded souls, when will you ever throw off the wicked thralldom which blinds your eyes and warps your minds? It strikes every American with a shock of surprise and commiseration when he finds that some people really believe that the organization of the American party Is an attack upon the Mormon people. For no one who understands un-derstands the spirit of that party can for a moment harbor such a wrong opinion. The fact is precisely the reverse. Every one having to do with tho organization or-ganization or management of that party means only good and help to tho Mormon people. The Idea is to free them from the shackles that bind them politically, and which their adroit and unscrupulous leaders, repudiating all their pledges to refrain from 9uc-h acts, seek to make complete and perpetual. per-petual. The American party Is not the party of hostility, but the party of friendliness; friendli-ness; the force that would protect the masses of the people from the leaders' who havo brought them to contumely and shame, not for anything that tho people themselves have done, but on account of tc faith-breaking of those leaders, and their shameless proclamation proclama-tion In the face of an outraged public, that they were living, had for fourteen years been living, and intended to continue con-tinue to live, In defiance of the laws of God and of man. Is It not the most singular thing In the world, the most marvelous piece of self-deception Imaginable, that the Mormon people can persuade themselves them-selves that they should bear the odium that comes In consequence of that lawless law-less and law-defying course of action on the part of their reckless leaders? Here are men and women by the thousands, thou-sands, who have nothing In common with that law-defying life. .who would not break a pledge for all the honors and money that could be placed before be-fore them, standing in the breach f0 sustain others In a course that they would utterly and wrathfully repudiate for themselves. From the earliest records of mankind, man-kind, a disposition for self-sacrifice" has the human race; but there has always been some redeeming feature about tho sacrifice, either in sentlmenL or loyalty. It has remained for Utah to set a new and lower standard; for a people to sacrifice themselves on the altar of lawlessness, and to take upon them-solves them-solves a guilt they have not earned; to defy for others the laws In the name of patriotism, that they themselves have not violated, nnd while protesting their obedience to the laws of the land, and their fervant patriotism, range themselves In front of their betrayers In order to shield pledge-breakers and defiers of their country's law, as well as of the laws to which the church leaders and they themselves have given giv-en assent. It Is a fearful spectacle of misdirected staunchness, a dreadful lesson In the arts of deception and humiliation, and a shocking example of the bdtrayal of confidence, devotion, and trust. |