OCR Text |
Show "ENLIGHTENED PUBLIC SENTIMENT." SEN-TIMENT." Is It JsjncriuT To Lsul Ilic Teachings Teach-ings of History. Cquist nishli Demanded. TUB "ilorraon- l'o-lllon Defined. Tuscou, Arizona, 3Iay 7, lbOJ. Editor GattUc' Society has a perfect per-fect right to prohibit offenses again't an enlighleucd public sentiment." The foregoing is an extract from the late decision of the Supreme Court ot the United States, In tho appeal of the Latter-day taints from a decision de-cision of tho Supremo Court of Utah which justified confiscating the prorperty of the Mormon Church. Let us see w hat this moans, liy an "enlightened public sentiment" is doubtless meant the public ojiuioa of tbc majority of any nation or people. This principle ccrtainlv has tlie sanction of antiquity in its favor. As fir back A history can take us it has been in force; and it seems strange, very strange, that the misguided Mormons should object ob-ject to it. To show how universal lias been thenpphcatiou of this principle in all ages, and bow unreasonable the Mormons are in opposing it, we present a few examples from sacred and p-ufaue h'stury, prombing, however, how-ever, that they are uut a tithe if those we might produce. Going back no further tiiau Xouh, w e find he predicted a flood, and warned lple toprtjarefor it. Uut public opinion at uuco voted him a fool, or iusanc. How could such a thing be It was simply absurd. So the public went on ill its regulation manner, whilepoor oah drank to its dregs thu cup of unpopularity. Hut somehow it caino about that Noah was right after nil. We cannot can-not at this date tell exactly hou.il w as that public oi inionawata so mis? taken in this uiajier,'asrionc of its advocattas lived to give lo the world the irside of the question. ISut cf one thing we aru certain: pulilic opinion was umversally ugaiLst oab, and ns a good, lev al citizen he should have glv en in and acknowledged his error. A man named alaulel once got into a had imsition thruugh venturing to bravo public opinion. It had been made a uiw of the land that no one should pray to ani God except the one ado) teal and titrunlzcd bv the "en lightened public sentiment" of tht iiation. With brazen effrontery Diniel prated to the Cod tf his tuther, thus showing un unjiardoii able contempt for public opinion i ml atioiieu di-obedience to the law' such hardihood, such evident treason, treas-on, merited thogeverct punishment, souiclhiug worse than disfrancht-e-meut or confiscation of worldly gear, and he got it, he was thrown to the fions as a tld bit, 1 scnteuco fully endorsed by "society." To cap the climax of offense, the God to whom Dinielpraveil actually delivered de-livered him front death' Ws "ever before -uch disregard shown to the dictum of nn "enlightened public sentiment?" In later times we Hud that Jesus of izareth was put to death I13 the power of public opinion; true.PiIate, the Roman governor, In giving him to death, said hccould find noevll In nim, butt lie wealth and enlightenment enlighten-ment of his li.itlin were tmemtv-octlly tmemtv-octlly against him, and according to the decision of tlie supreme-court his execution was perfcctlyjustlfiable.as it officially announces tint society hasa erfcct right to prohil It offenses offens-es against an enlightened iiublk hi-timeut. hi-timeut. As to the means to do this it is inrnatcria); we are led to suppose, sup-pose, nnv thing will do; "the end justifies the nu-in," as the Jesuits! I roved to their own satisfaction al least, long ago. I Strange as It may appear, although I Jesus wos 1 ut to death with the full sanction of "society," there weru some who would not take warning" by his ftte, and although '-society " endeavored tore movo so foul ablet by hanging, burning, sawing asunder asun-der and by other menu equally efficient, those ignirant, misguided people who had no status whatuvi r In society, Lut wero unanimously voted its offscourings, steadily continued con-tinued to grow iu number until the I toman empire was obliged to take tlie matter Iu hand Undeniably the Roman empire at this timu was the most enlightened on earth. It contained within itself all there was of enlightened government, of lit r-iturc, r-iturc, and of art, and uuler Mi'-li circumstances had an undeniable right to prohibit bo grave an offense igalust "public sentlnii nt" as the religious belief of these Christians. So In the name of moralitv, religion reli-gion and "an enlightened j ub-iic ub-iic sentiment," various emperors employed all their now r to put an end to tlie heresy. Hundreds oi thou-lands thou-lands of these ptrnl Iojs arnlc1!-es arnlc1!-es were killed with every torment society cou I invent. ot only were the fagot, thu rack, and Hie more merciful ax employed, but tender, refined maidens were thrown into the colhseum, to be chased shrieking shriek-ing around the arena pursued bv bloody -ranged w olves and tlger, and finally torn in pieces before an admiring ad-miring audiencuof tho must enlightened enlight-ened society In the then known woiid. But alas! ail this persistent tffiirt of society was iu vain. The blot would not be washed off by blood, however abundantly used, it only" fixed the blot more Indelibly, strange, tliat a people so professedly meek as the early Christians should be so obstinate, and regardless of the w Ishes of society. During the following centuries men continually hnved "ki1,1Ic rntiment," being called sometimes ilussite!', Waldenscs, Alblgcnsrs and Wickliflltes; but death by fire, the rack, and torture infllctal by an outraged public opinion conclusively con-clusively proved these luretics wrong; a conclusion disputed by none except the few remaining brethren of the dead, who as mm h as jossible and very priperly withdrew from society and lived in caves and forests as outcasts their property confiscated and a price set uon their heads. Let no one say that this was cruel and unjust. These people had voluntarily outraged the "enlightened "enlight-ened public sentiment" of tlie age, and severe measures must bo employed em-ployed against them. If they suf. fered, it was their own fault. AH they had to do to save their lives was to give up their notions and lie in accord with public opinion. If they chose to brave it on the raltry plea that their manhood was at stake let them suffer be made examples ex-amples to deter others from like folly or self-will. Among such joice disturbers Marti u Luther gained a notoriety ery unenviable iu the estimation of society in his day. He certain-iy certain-iy was very contumacious, and bad no regard for "public sentiment," which was almost unanimous that he should be burned alive the prevalent pre-valent method of convincing heretics here-tics but unfortunately for society he was able to die in his bed. This was sad, but it seems that we cin't have everything our way In this world. The Puritans must have been a bad lot In Kngland, for we find that they, too, dared think for them-telveaand them-telveaand omiose public epinion. But they had to sutler for it, many of them, dying as exiles on the dreary coast of New England. Served them right; they should have been like other people. But they got even by persecuting the few Quakers among them who were so insane as to dissent from tlie established public sentiment of Massachusetts. They were promptly lianlshed, under pain of death It they ever returned to Boston, liut the public ojJnion made short work of them upon the gallows, and so society vindicated itself. And now descendants of these Puritans would persecute the Mormons, Mor-mons, just as they themselves had been in England. The ignorant Mormons claim that the Constitution Constitu-tion guarantees equal rights to all citizens of tho republic, irrespective s-HO-Kl of color, religion, absence of religion, idillcs, education, or color of balr and eyes. .... ., They simply ask equal rights; they ask to be conslJervdinDocent until indictee and convicted of crime by establiihedcourseoflaw. Thryplead Sir thu same protection of the law or punishmentliy it as other cIU. xeus no mire, no less. How absurd such a demand, when the highest court in the land enunciates the principle that constitutional law is not to govern In such matters, but an "enlightened public sentiment" In ether wonls. popular eiamof! But a very disquieting .remem-berance .remem-berance here begins to trouble us in tills Mormon question, in vlewofthe fact, as proved by past history, that no persecutIon,howevcr unrelenting, ever did effect Its purpose. This is truly discouraging; Thebloodoftbe rnartvr lias always nourished the Chufch.aud his lost faint, trembllcg sigh, lorn to heaven amid flame and smoke, lias more than onto swelled to a tornado. But tlinughwo cannot extinguish Mormonlsm In this age in blood and flame so uetlilng must be done,tliey are democrats! tliat is much w oir e than being deluded religionists tliat would bo nothing but democrats! demo-crats! they must at least be disfranchised. dis-franchised. Help, republicans! This is no time for equity, fa!rnesor Justice. The spoils of office and of power are at Stake. We uiut retain re-tain them if wu trample nil true republicans re-publicans tinder foot and tear the Constitution to threaK J. 11. it in i'Afrjitifvintona) Gauttc May 3d. |