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Show AN ILL-INFORMED GOVERNMENT. The various officials at Washington who conduct the governmental machinery of the country, are wonderfully and ridiculously ignorant of the true condition of affairs in Utah. This ignorance becomes actually culpable, in view of the many ready means at the command of the government for ascertaining the true status of affairs here. In another column appears a dispatch announcing that two companies of troops have been ordered from Nebraska to Fort Douglas, Utah, for the reason, as is intimated, that fears of a "Mormon" up-rising over the coming election are entertained by the government! Some of the moves made by the general government in relation to the "Mormon" people indicate an increditable degree of stupidity and credulity on the part of heads of departments and other governmental officials. In not Territory of the United States is there less danger of a violent demonstration over an election, than in Utah, and in not one is the population so strongly characterized by peacefulness, good order, and conservative traits, as are the people of the Honey-bee Commonwealth. Send more troops to Utah, for fear of a "Mormon" uprising! How absurd! There is as good reason for sending troops to any other state or Territory in the Union, or to the capital itself. "Mormon" up-rising! How long will this great and glorious government permit itself to be duped into absurd measures by this ridiculous cry? How many more times will the sensational telegraphist in Salt Lake succeed in making laughing-stocks of government officials? His practical jokes in this line have been repeated so often, only varying slightly in form, that one would imagine that heads of departments in Washington would exercise some slight degree of caution and deliberation before acting on the wild and ridiculous "news" that reaches them, concerning Utah affairs. Well, send on the troops. The "Mormons" have no objection. They can't vote with the opposition, and they increase trade. They help to build up the country by consuming, and so furnishing a market for the produce of "ye honest "Mormon" yeomandry. Send them on by all means. But dont't [don't] repeat, as a reason for sending them here, a ridiculous libel upon the people of the Territory. |