Show bis defense of te momon people BEFORE afie BROOKLYN COLLEGE he reviews their mot innas and persecution A short time since the collegiate and polytechnic institute of the city of brooklyn closed for vacation the commencement exercises ware unique and according to the report of them given in the columns of the eagle highly interesting besides the musical and other proceedings a number of graduates had subjects assigned theato sheab upon they were well handled and the young orators received enthusiastic applause as the reward of their intelligent treatment of he respective themes aaeng which ware the negro in the united states bernanda Her nanda cortez industrial du education mr gladstone poetry of the future stability of our republic congress and the mermon church edgar jackson was the youth who treated the subject named last he had evidently given it intelligent consideration this being what he said during the last congress a bill was passed providing for tha diess of the mormon church all its assents in excess of not used exclusively for religious purposes were to be delivered into the hands of a receiver its affairs wound ap and its property was to escheat to the united states under the provisions of this bill the receiver obtained possession of farm lands coal lands gas stock telegraph stock droves of cattle flocks of sheep and other property cro perty worth in nil about and today to day the mormon church is paying to the united states government rent for the use of its former possessions it is claimed i that the mormon church is dangerous but is it any more closely united does it have greater weight in politics than the church ot home has it ever taken such a decided political stand as the metho diaff church took at its recent conference in new bork where the plat form of the prohibition party was enthusiastically endorsed the mormon doctrine sanctioning polygamy has been the principle source of trouble congress very properly undertook to root out this practice and senator edmunds bill in 1882 met with satisfactory success but congress was not content to stop there after enacting the most laws against polygamy it 1 the confiscation bill which can k regarded only as a direct attack upon a re legious corporation this measure is of a piece with the treatment to which the cormons mormons have been subjected throughout their history in 1814 officers of illinois arrested two men and confined them in jail at carthage A mob collected broke open the doors of the jail seized the prisoners and murdered them people said then and some still assert that justice was meted out to joseph smith and bis brother but is lynch law likely to secure the justice which american citizens wish to aae enforced T on the banks of the mississippi the mor mons built a flourishing city but the people of illinois did not want anca neighbors and so for three days they bombarded nauvoo in the opening of winter men women ard children were driven from their hames compelled to forsake their possessions and flee they kne not whither we glorify our persecuted pilgrim fathers who planted amid the and rocks a wilderness the seeds of free government and their chosen religion Is their case essentially unlike that of the mor mons literally hunted from state to state they too resolved to found a home where they might enjoy religious freedom through an unknown desert over the mountains encompassed by dangers they pushed their way until they reached the salt lake basin in subsequent years the persecutors of the puritans did not withold from the settlers of new england their due meed of praise and all men who believe in the pro gress of the world though condemning to the lowest inferno the mormon creed should laud the principle that guided both puritan and mormon in their wanderings when bagor williams preached religious freedom in massachusetts they drove him rom the colony but they permitted per mittel aim to enjoy his religious opinions in his new home the charca churca of utah was bounded from place to place till it found a refuge in abu vestern desere fc and the ants of the new england are not satisfied to allow it to rest even there while a dollar remains to the church of cormons mormons the carpetbag politicians of utah will clamor for it and congress in granting it will imagine that it is rooting out polygamy the cause of the mormon church is the cause of every church in the territories if the united states government can confiscate the property of one religious corporation what is to prevent it from doing the bame to any other denomination at any time it shall when the profligate john wilkes championed of the press and advocated parliamentary reform he becaro a hero the mormon church of utah represents today to day as sacred a pie as john wilkes or roger williams ever stood for and congress in corn batting this principle is not checking the influence of mormonism it is making war on the inalienable right or liberty of conscience A donth who would fearlessly stand up in defense of an unjustly unpopular people and their rights will develop into a man of no ordinary cali bre his clear exposition of the wrongs perpetuated by the national legislature and of the rights of the people upon whom they have been inflicted indicates an incisive intellect and a comprehensive mind his oration is in long may ha live to denounce wrong and champion the cause of the oppressed we believe mr jackson will be heard from in after years |