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Show WHY PERSIST IN WRONG? There is a good deal of insistency in the opposition press, and especially in the chief church orgnn, from time to time, upon the desirability of abating slrifo here, of restoring "peace5' and of establishing a raign of harmony and good will. Tho loyal people of Utah, however, have been betrayed into that sort of an era, and are justly insistent upon guarantees. That "era of peace" was used so that the church might take advantage of it to ostracise and punish ovory Ono that it hated, and to establish estab-lish polygamy and church dominance in civil affairs on a Armor basis than ever before; and all this insolently, insultingly, insult-ingly, and despotically; so the American Ameri-can citizens may well be excused from entering unwarily into the spider's parlor again. But who is it. thai is looping up the slrifel It surely . cannot bo charged upon the Americans, for all that the Americans desire is the very things that the church chiefs pretend lo favor and lo bo acting upon. Jt is because the church leaders do not do in fact what they pretend lo do that there is strife. The real strife-breeders, therefore, there-fore, aro the church leaders, who say ono thing with their mouths and do another thing with their hands. They r . 1 , . i : betray I heir own proicssious, aim iiviu-their iiviu-their own protestations. Another thing that keeps up the strife is the constant misrepresentation of the American party and its uims and purposes, by the church press and church speakers. The American party is habitually spoken of by' the church organ as the anti-Mormon party, and yet the News knows perfectly well that there is no such thing as an anli Mormon Mor-mon party. , In continually harping upon this ffcrm bf describing the American Amer-ican parly the News discredits itself, and shows' forth lo its own readers the falsity of it's positions and its claims.' Thousands of Mormons arc coming to comprehend fully the vicious and untruthful un-truthful attitude of the News in tliua describing the American party.' They arc coming to understand, ns the f: -t is, that the American party is not in the least an anti-Mormon party, is not a party that takes account of any one's religions affiliations, but invites all to come upon the platform of American freedom in the support of American institutions. And hundreds of good . it... A ,iiApi.i ,i f-lf I.-i-t. ;il I IMUl IIIDIla AUii.ii mv w the rcccnl flection, which I hey could not have been induced to do if they believed it was an anti-Mormon ticket. Another, thing which tends do prejudice preju-dice the people of the community is the News's constant reference lo The Tribune, as the anti-Mormon or anti-church anti-church organ. Of course The Tribune is nothing of the kind. It is simply the organ of American principles and of American' freedom. H makes no war upon tho Mormon people: it makes no war upon the' Mormon church. II. docs despise iho tricky leaders that aro con stantly botr.rying the people, and who have constantly kept Utah in a turmoil of usurpations of political and ciil authority. Thoso leaders claim to speak by divine authority, and" claim the right to direct'their pcoplo in their voting, vot-ing, in thrjir civil affairs, in their business, busi-ness, and in their social relations As .Joseph F. Smith proclaimed the doc trine in his Provo speech, the man who acknowledges his right to tjovern spiritually spir-itually and denies his right to govern temporally, lies in tho face of Cod. That is such an absolute, tyrannical assertion of temporal authority that it is iinpossiblo for any free. American citizen to concede it. N.o ecclcsiast, no temporal monarch even, under any form of civilized government, has Iho least right, to assort biicIi personal right to govern Iho people in their temporal alfairs. The king of Croat Britain has no claim of such right. Tho Kinpcror of Germany docs not claim it. Fven tho Czar of Russia slops short of the claim of temporal power that Joseph F. Smith asserts for himself. Tho Tribuno. Trib-uno. 4lwrnfirn in iliamil !nrr 'mil liitlif. ing against this claim of temporal rule of I ho ceclesiasls, is simply opposing an nttompl. lo tyrannize o?cr Iho people, peo-ple, and lo deprive the Individual of his personal rights; and is asserting Iho American idea of personal liberty and the denial of tho righlof any personal per-sonal rule by any ecclcsiast in civil affairs. af-fairs. The Tribuno idmply conforms to the best traditions of the Declaration of Independence, of the American revolution, rev-olution, ami of the guarantees of tho Federal Constitution. It is a perfectly plain case, therefore, there-fore, that what over strife there is here, is tho strife caused by the disloyal priesthood. which assert, and. undertake to onforcp, their right lo a despotic rulo that is not enjoyed by any rulor among civilized mankind. Their efforts ef-forts lo establish thoir claims to temporal tem-poral rulo and to defy the laws that were passed for the protection of society, so-ciety, constitute tho whole trouble hero. Let the priesthood givo up that claim to temporal rulo, let thcni submit cheerfully and loyally to tho laws as other cilizons do, nnd square their lives upon the statutes and upon good moral principles, and Iho slrifo will c.easo at once. The sole question is whether these ceclesiasls are going to do what l.hoy of right ought to do, or not. If they insist upon usurping the civil and political po-litical control that in no wise belongs to them, and persist in living lives "in defiance of the Jaws of Cod and man," then necessarily there will be strife, and thai strife will be of their makinfr. If they adopt the contrary course, however, how-ever, square their lives upon morality and the law, and leave the temporal affairs of tho people to those officials who are elected to attend lo those temporal tem-poral affairs, in stt far as thoy pertain lo public functions, and let the people alone altogether in the conduct of their temporalities, then all will bo well in Utah. |