Show A BIT OF author of the amnesty petition IT WAS JUDGE GOODWIN so saya male fielda a corres Pon dence to ahe chicago kate field 80 prominently before the country on utah political affairs writes to the chicago times herald from salt lake giving a bit of utah history hii tory as follows SALT LAKE CITY nov 10 all is quiet in zion but war horses sniff a battle in the coming state legislature with two thirds of that body republican topsy must reign to prevent the election of two republicans to tho united states senate As the wooda are full of candidates speculation is rite as to who wila be chosen it is conce eded that both cormons mormons and gentiles must b represented it is also conceded that frank J cannon a son oi george Q cannon and present delegate to congress will be the mormon candidate unless hia own father his rival after what has recently occurred I 1 con dot believe that george Q cannon will enter the senatorial arena with jeorga Q cannon eliminated and hia son taking the mormon prize the con testis confined to gentille gen title candidates among the latter possibilities two only command respect J salisbury the rich miner who married james G blames charming niece and ju dge G C foodwin the able editor of the salt lake tribune As mr salis to consider office on ac bount of his health judge goodwin remains the aole choice of serious thinkers who want utah to bo represented by brains and character what judge goodwin haa done in the last twenty year tor the redemption of a great territory from church domination no one who has not lived here has the faintest conception single handed without fear and without favor be fought for liberty today he is an generous to hia old opponents as grant was to the south after leea burkander Bur rander so it cornea to pasa that judge goodwins friends think this patriot ought to taste a little poetic justice by going to washington as the first gentile senator of utah the judge himself wont say a word in bis own behalf A others would wear a mantle that belongs to hijii fl want to tell QU another bit of history for a long time and until the courts diverted the attention at the people nearly all the concentrated bitterness of the adherents to the mormon church was focused on judge goodwin he said to me one day ten years ago this is not altogether a comfortable place I 1 suppose there are earnest honest people nn and women who every day I 1 pray to almighty god to rid this country of me and I 1 suppose there are a hundred thousand who wish I 1 was dead at the bame time although the people generally do not know the truth he carried no bitterness in his heart toward individuals among the first men sentenced under the edmunds law to the penitentiary waa a man who had two wives A inena of judge goodwine who was a near neighbor to this man told him the circumstances the man himself was a devout mo amod and he certainly had two wives it waa also true by simply stating to the court that be would henceforth live within the lawn be could have evaded both fine and imprisonment but the fellow waa a stubborn scotchman and refused there was a pathetic aide to the case the first wife for two or three beare had been almost an imbecile and this man and his second wife had taken care of her when goodwin heard the story he said 1 I believe I 1 can fix that he wrote the facts to washington and pardon came with the next mail judge goodwin did the same thing in other cases it was a rule with the courts when a polygamist was convicted to sometimes postpone sentence for a month or two antil a man could get his business affairs arranged goodwin I 1 aelred this consideration of ona of the I 1 adges in behalf of a gentilo friend who had business relations with the mormon the judge answered all right but when the man came up tor sentenia sen tenca and his attorney craved the grace which had been granted to many another the judge turned to the district asked if hf heaired it he said he did not but would not oppose it whereupon the judge ordered the man to baand up and gave him the full penalty of the law when this was told goodwin he said all right that man shall not gerve two weeks of his sentence if I 1 can help it in just ten days a dispatch came from washington to turn the man out on another occasion two men were unjustly convicted that is they were convicted under a law which the supreme court a few days latter pronounced unconstitutional but they were in the penitentiary they had passed beyond th jurisdiction of the court and nothing could reach them except a pardon for one the GoTer northe utah commission the prosecuting attorney and the federal judges signed H petition for pardon A friend of the other told judge goodwin about the case and he was pardoned within two weeks the papers in the I 1 first case by some carle ees officer in washington were pigeonholed pigeon holed and the roan waited and waited in the penitentiary tor weeks and montha until tha mattar was laid before goodwin whereupon he wrote to washington in eight days from the time the letter was sent from here that man wa pardoned by telegraph at last a gentleman called upon judge goodwin and asked it he would not use whatever power he had to obtain the pardon of two apostles who were in hiding under indictment why continue this thing any longer why not ask for universal amnesty said goodwin this was in the autumn of 1891 the friend replied that could not be done whereupon goodwin answered 1 I believe I 1 could write a petition for pardon that would bring amnesty after consulting two prominent cormona Mor mona francis armstrong and amos howe this friend came back and asked to have the petition drawn up here it is here follows the well known petition for amnesty when this petition was taken to president wilford woodruff ho signed it with tears in hia eyes then followed georgo Q cannon joseph F smith and the twelve apostles afterward it was sent to a friend of judge goodwin in washington to be presented to president carribon Har ribon that friend had gone to europe BO the petition lay seven weeks without response then the judge wrote to senator paddock and asked him to go to his friends office get the petition and it the next stumbling block was president harri bons eons attorney general who doubt edhe authority of the prisident to grant dueh an amnesty on learning anis doubt through telegrams in the morning papers judge goodwin obtained the authority and by telegraph to senator paddock cited cases which attorney general miller said were conclusive thus three or four months had passed away and president harrison feared if he granted the amnesty it would be put down to a desire to make political capital for his campaign BO the matter rested all through 1892 and the amnesty was not issued until jan thia ia a true story obtained from one of two or three men who two are three years after the work was done found out the real author hadtke the mormon people been asked who among the gentiles ot utah would be least likely to help them they would have declared in chorus the editor of the tribune yet I 1 am told that when john T caine utah delegate was shown that petition in washington he exclaimed there ia but one man who could have briten that paper 0 C goodwin he was right it ia time this story were told for others are claiming credit for the work of a journalist who lets not his right hand know what hia left hand booth whose heart into hia head and makes him magnanimous in mercy FIELD |