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Show The failure of the present Utah commission to accomplish the half of what the "Liberals" hoped for is now so plainly forecast, that they are, beginning to canvass the next measure to be pushed through Congress for the purpose of placing this Territory more completely in their power. We take a paragraph from a recent issue of the Ogden Pilot, a feeble echo of the Salt Lake ring organ: When Governor Murray in the course of his speech at the Liberal meeting held in the Opera House at Salt Lake City, last Wednesday, said: "The power of the General Government over the Territories is absolute. To secure good government to Utah, the President, who is the chief representative of fifty millions of people, should name a Legislature for It," he was loudly applauded by the large audience, indicating that the Americans of Utah are willing to be disfranchised if thereby theocratic government can be overthrown and the authority of the United States fully established in the Territory. Until that is done, Utah will continue to be a theocracy of the most objectionable kind. Congress must assert its authority and relegate the false priests to private life. Here are plainly intimated some of the principles of the "Liberal" party of Utah. "The power of the general government over the Territories is absolute." Without in the least distorting, misconstruing or extending the significance of this sentence, it simply means that the relations existing between the general government and the inhabitants of a Territory are precisely the same as those existing between the head of an "absolute" despot and subjects. No constitutional bulwarks guarantee the citizen any rights. One day he may possess the franchise and the next be stripped of it, without the process of law. If accused, there are no principles of constitution, common law or jurisprudence that guarantee him a trial by a jury of his peers, nor for the matter of that, any trial at all. He can be condemned and punished, under ex parte testimony, without being confronted with the witnesses against him, and without any opportunity of making a defense. He may be taxed without representation, and his property, limbs and life are at the disposal of the "general government," for its "power over the Territories is absolute!" This is the doctrine of the regenerators of Utah. This they pronounce from the rostrum and advocate in their organs. Trace an utterance of the kind we have quoted, a kind that abounds in the speeches and writings of representatives of the "Liberal" party, to its legitimate conclusion, and where would it lead? It would lead to the simple, complete, total annihilation of the last vestige, not only of a republican but of a civilized government. The Journal is not an ultra states-rights newspaper. It is prepared to concede to the general government a great deal of power. It believes in a strong, efficient, just and impartial government, and it believes that Congress may lawfully require every state, county, precinct and parish in all the land to be governed accordingly to Republican institutions. It believes further that the general government may inquire whether any class of citizens, in any town, county or state are being protected in the rights guaranteed by the constitution, and if there are any citizens not receiving that protection, the general government may lawfully extend it to them. The Journal believes, in the language of Joseph Smith, that "Congress is as almighty in its sphere as Jehovah is in His," but to assert that the power of the general government over the Territories is absolute is to propose a doctrine so shocking to a mind educated in the principles of American liberty, as to cause it to regard the author of such a sentiment with abhorrence. The putting forth of such declarations as this is done in order to better prepare the way for the appointment of a legislative commission for Utah having absolute legislative power over the rights, liberties property and lives of its inhabitants. The spirit that actuates the "Liberal" party leaders will be satisfied with nothing less than the utter extinction of the people and religion they hate so much. |