| Show CO IDEAS A aind TERNS TERMS quite frequently if not oftener the press of the country in referring to what is ie generally ch charged aged as the objective fei features tures of mormonism namely brighams Brig hams liams two tenets polygamy and blood atonement dont stop to pal lieu clarize and nicely discriminate but blurt out their horror as american citizens are accustomed and authorized to do about all topics and call these practices mormonism this occasionally grates rates harshly ou on the cars of such of ase those 4 of the mormon Llor nion faith as aa are not blood and either in theory or practice and we know that there are a large number here in salt lake city who affect nearly as much horror at such things as the distant awe struck people of eastern western and northern civilization the people here are arc not in the habit of breaking of themselves so as to desi designate 0 their nativity as they do in every other locality in m america as ag 1 I am a yankee a texan an old virginian a western man an englishman a swede a welchman a scotchman Scot ebman or a norwegian or what is 13 a prouder title still an honest boat of being an american citizen they unfailingly class themselves as cormons mormons Mor mons a religious sect in contradistinction to all other sects and those not overburdened with either cither humility or modesty ai rogate the title of saint Cou consequently in speaking of the objectionable features of the dominant faction in the mormon church in utah it is usually called mormonism many well meaning minds in the mormon church exemplary e xem plary members of society and good american citizens are misled by the terms of the principal american journalists the fact is that the american people care as little about mormonism niem as any other religious religions ism they concede to it the same rights that all other isms iams enjoy no more and aad a ad no less and as an ism ism 1 it will have to be content with that equality to engraft on the body of a religion horrible revolting practices characteristic of sensual remorseless barbarity in opposition to the mild healthy ind and judicious teachings 0 of christianity and to the enlightened experience of society is carrying the freedom of conscience too far for the a genius of our institutions it is a system entirely at war with the idea of organized society and which is being freely and justly condemned in ill giving vent to their views about it they dont always stop to make a nice distinction between the mormon who is a polygamist and the mormon who aint it is well known that the polygamist cormons mormons are alic ones who claim clai nithe the right to speak for foi this thia people and tile the anti polygamists have heretofore quietly acquiesced in all that was advanced as an authoritative exposition of f their peculiar views 1 the people are arc not hostile to the mormon mormon belief it is to some of the lilleous practices indulged in b by y the votaries vot aries of that reli religion 0 ion that their opposition goes of course we are aware that the inconsiderate enthusiasts will hurl out at us were we to admit that the american people were to bamo forthe for the disturbances that occurred there it would not provo prove their me case nor help its appearances one bit persecutions have raged against all religious religions more or less as far back as history can chronicle events in our own time we have heard beard of congregationalists Congregation alisle and worth north methodists being hung in texas arkansas and missouri of ministers being murdered in the car carolinas alinas of catholic churches being burned and convents packed sacked in pennsylvania and massachusetts and the members of that denomination killed and burned by a mob iu in kentucky but what of it Is the american people to blame for these things lings ti not a bit of it the uprisings of mobs is something that no power can at all times prevent catholics th olics methodists and congregationalists have in their turn done very baety andrash and rash acts acte when there was no necessity for doing such things the unprejudiced reasoning mormon must admit y that joe smiths death was the result in ill consequence of the destruction st of dr william laws news n e ws pap exly lahe nauvoo observer by joe smith and a few of his followers and his subsequent refusal to obey a le legal leal 0 al writ it matters not for the purpose of this argument whether the destruction of lawal L abla property was effected by legal means mcana or not it is ia sufficient 1 nt 1 that law having considered his rights outraged and himself injured by the destruction of his hie property had fe recourse to the proper legal tribunal nals and its ita process was resisted by smith the result insult we all know ended in a manner that should be regretted by good citizens everywhere mob law for a time ruled rulea with all its horrid excesses baj bupt it was was not the american people iho caus caused edit it any more than they caused the thousand and one other excesses of the mobs in boston new e york baltimore mobile new orleans orlean s saint louis chicago milwaukee and other places we again assert that thai aside from the practices so eo repugnant to intelligence maralit morality and virtue there is no hostility to tm amon among 0 the american people any more than to other religions it appears to flourish undisturbed under tho the auspices of young 0 joe smith like all the other religions surely that iano is no proof ul oi hostility look at the matter carefully f and dont be misled |
