| Show ECHi OF HON orl shi 0 N W H HOOPER OF UTAH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF representatives FEBRUARY 25 20 5 1869 aw y t jy we take pleasure in presenting to our readers the following I 1 reprint of a speech in agress congress of hon uon W H hooper hoopers dele delegate aate kate froni from utah utah territory on the bill to extend the boundaries of the states of or nevada minnesota and nebraska and aad the tho territories of colorado montana and ana wyoming mr lir HOOPER of utah mr speaker it shall be in order I 1 pro ose to odfer offer the following amendment to the bill offered by mr ASHLEY of ohio to extend the boundaries of nevada minnesota and nebraska and the territories ri of colorado montana Mon tatia tarla and Wy wyoming orning namely S out the first and fifth and so muo muc lucli I 1 U of the sixt sixth section of the bill ag as relates to Utah Territory and on this amendment I 1 propose to speak at this time sir in the interior of the north american continent peopling the narrow valleys that lie between mountains from which the snows never disappear exists a colony of this republic anun a hundred thousand strong prospering marvelously siy sly ly in spite of rigors of climate and unfriendliness of soil and distin dasting dished by all the characteristics of tle the most thriving and moral american communities this colony planted some twenty years ago in a savage wilderness remote from other civilized associations divided from either ocean by vast spaces of desert was like the kindred colonies of massachusetts of maryland and of the carolina Carolinas the offspring of religious persecution a persecution which had not then the excuse since alleged that the marriage institution s of the mormons cormons are antagonistic to civilization the of the age for at that time the question of polygamy had not entered into th the 2 pu public lie ile discussion of their religious faith but which was simply an outburst of the blind intolerance which has haa so often before driven the sincere disciples of a new religious faith from their homes with the loss of property and good fame and forced them to seek such asylum as god in his providence opener for their occupation three times before had these people founded a community and erected their altars to the christians god whom they worshiped though with forms somewhat different from those of the various sects which compose the visible church of this nation yet relying on the bible as the foundation of their faith and each time they were pioneers in civilization and the useful arts and like the pilgrims in massachusetts the catholics in maryland and the huguenots Huguen in carolina had bad based their community on the foundations of religion and law and introduced the habits of industry and the aids of mechanical ch anical invention the newspaper and the school were indigenous in their settlements nor guided as were their movements by men born orn on american soil and reared in the fullest devotion to american institutions and composed as they were in great part of immigrants escaped from the gi luding grinding despotism of european poverty and inspired by fervent faith in our government did they ever fail fall in their fealty to the republic Ee public nor exist a single hour without the overshadowing presence of the american flag these are not mere mer rhetorical figures but serious statements of fact for which I 1 personally vouch and which I 1 am prepared incontestably to prove this people healthily grown now to the stature of a state having subdued the hostile forces of nature in a region before considered a desert adebert and filled the valleys of utah with fertile farms with successful manufactories manu factories with work shops with homes having built unlit up numerous cities and villages and constructed hundreds of miles of roads aud telegraphs having diffused the mou mountain streams over the barren plains till ali all ail the fruits and grains of the temperate zone now flourish where only the sagebrush grew before having established schools for all the children and built U a system of territorial government no inferior in practical excellence to other in the land having as the and crowning labor accomplished the grading of between three and four hundred miles of the great railway whose center rests on utah while its extremities reach the older states this people with this record stands arraigned as though these acts were crimes and its very existence an of lense rense and 1 I as its irel ee find myself compelled to an attitude of defense and ask the interposition of the just and reflecting in I 1 members of thi this house sHouse between the c citizens g izen of the tho territory of utah and an act which confessedly threatens its very existence and seeks again to make those citizens the vIc victims of a persecution which they are justified in believing forever ended while I 1 shall indulge in ti no undue severity of language in opposing a measure which must have its origin either in fanaticism or in motives still less excusable and while I 1 shall refrain from unk unkind in d allusion to the chief sponsor of the bill notwithstanding his want of personal courtesy and all common fairness in seeking to pass it in the absence of the delegate representing the people whose interest in the measure is fourfold greater than that of any other constituency I 1 whose stake in thia this issue is so great mastbe must be pardoned for some intensity of feeling when I 1 reflect upon its nature if Inde indeed edib edit it were possible as I 1 hopefully believe it is not by destroying the autonomy of utah and partitioning out its settlements among neighboring territories and states whose capitals are remote and the exercise of whose authority over them must of necessity be feeble if it were possible to exasperate this people to the point of resistance to lawand law u d thus invite the fearful calamities of civil strife how infinitely more terrible would ba be the consequence consequences i than on any ot the previous occasions when they have been smitten and scattered by the hand ind of violence I 1 am reminded of the description given by colonel kane in a lecture delivered before the historical society of philadelphia of a scene which had been visited by a similar calamity and I 1 must be excused for quoting his words as a fragment of history full of warning against future dangers here follows ni an extract from colonel kanes work which was published in our columns last fall and with which our readers are doubtless familiar but I 1 trust sir air that any apprehensions sio s of such evils may not be prophetic I 1 trust so because I 1 know the deep seated respect of the mormons cormons for the forms of law and because I 1 cannot for a moment believe that while the wounds inflicted in the late national struggle are still unhealed and while amnesty and conciliation are the watchwords of all parties and while all men are inspired by a generous emulation to excel in works of charity and forgiveness and to inaugurate a lasting reign of peace I 1 cannot believe I 1 say that under these circumstances a majority of the peoples representatives will deliberately libera tely so 9 outrage the feelings and violate the rights of the citizens of utah as to enact a against ainest them measures as despotic as g those os which within our recollection gained for poland the sympathies and drew down on her oppressors the execration of the whole unprejudiced portion of the tho civilized world I 1 trust sir bir that no member of this house will vote on this bill without a careful examination of its provisions and of orthe the changes which it meditates on ou the tho map of the region affected the boundaries of utah as will be seen at a glance are already those indicated by nature as fitted to divide adjoining states and its limits are much less than those of any other territory its ita form is nearly square and the geographical center is made conformable to the probable centre of population but this bill so cuts and mangles the territory as to diminish its size to the point of insignificance and to shear it of its fair proportions and utterly destroy its sym matery As though in very mockery of the wishes of its inhabitants it is sought to reduce it to a narrow strip of country running north and south containing only about twenty two th thousand ous square miles and even cutting kofl from its northern frontier all the settle ments nearest to the pacific railroad thus preventing that great thorough far which the tho c citizens 1 of utah have so ardently longed and which they have so cordially welcomed and have so gladly assisted to build from even touching the territory within which it is intended to confine them are gentlemen afraid to allow a direct contact between their own civilization and that of utah that they should thus seek to build up artificial boundaries between the two and confine the latter within a chinese wall of territorial limits were the question of mormonism not involved or some other appealing equally to special prejudice I 1 do not hesitate to say that a mal map thus disfigured with mutilations would not for a moment bo be contemplated with favor will the members of this house allow this prejudice so to overcome their judgment and sense of justice justlee as to blind them to the enormity of the proposed change I 1 do not believe belleve it moreover to accomplish the end in view the boundaries of three states and four territories are also to be changed and one territory is to be blotted from existence in fact it is as though a legislative earthquake had prevailed upa upon the map and so transposed the parts that each could scarcely identify any longer that which formerly bo longed belonged to it the states of nebraska and minnesota minne sota already eonta tonta containing ining the one sixty thousand square miles and the other fifty thousand square miles are each to be doubled in size while nevada containing one hundred and eight thousand square miles is given some twenty two thousand square miles now belonging to utah and containing some ten tem thousand of its people an even larger amount of its population is to be DO tra transferred ns to wyoming a territory now without local government and nearly destitute of inhabitants except the transient settlers drawn there by the work on the railroad while a generous slice is appropriated to colorado though six hundred miles from its capital and all practical local government but the authors of the bill hope it is said to gain some votes for the measure by reason of this wholesale mutilation to make which legal the consent of alee three state legislatures must be obtained besides that of congress by giving to the states of nevada and minnesota and nebraska additional territory it is claimed that the representatives of those states on this floor will be brought to sustain the bill this may be so sir were those states now small in size I 1 could understand the temptation on the part of their representatives to plead local interest in extenuation of an act violat lve ive of real justice and particularly in the case of that state which lying contiguous to utah would absorb a large portion of its industrious dust rious population to assist in paying the taxes already so onerously bearing on her citizens but if these gentlemen are at present swayed by an argument of self interest like this it cannot be that they have reflected on the great injustice inflicted on the people thus ex patria ted for while utah by industry and economy has thus far escaped all territorial indebtedness the citizens thus forcibly transferred sold bold like serfs with the soil they till would be made r for obligations they never incurred and in fact compelled to pay the debts contracted by their neighbors surely no mans sense of right can cin be so blunted as to permit his approval of a wrong ron g like this no 0 t the 11 e end sought by this measure is not the promotion of justice nor the benefit of the region affected it is the destruction of un tin obnoxious system of religious faith through the temporal ruin of its disel disciples that it would woold result iles as intended of course I 1 do not believe for all the persecutions of the mormons cormons thus far have eventuated in the increase of their prosperity it is true still as it ever has been that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church but if it were possible thus to extinguish mormonism in the united states it could only be done by the expatriation patria a striation tria tion of the entire people similar t ph ahinga ings have been done in other ages agea and lands it is tru true but at what fearful cost A hundred thousand of the citizens af pf of france were destroyed and expelled during the great religious contests of that country in a single century and the result was the emigration of the best of her scholars and artisans to holland and britain and america and the Ingra grafting In fling upon the learning and industry of those countries and the rapid growth grow thunder under the influence of free in of those sciences a and nd u useful s eaul arts that have contributed so greatly to tor their th air g glory I 1 ory and prosperity but can such a thing in this age of enlightenment occur in free and tolerant america can this republic institute oppressive measures against her own citizens for the purpose of driving them weeping from her soil Is S it possible that she can be so indifferent indi rent to the growth of new states to the increase of population to the production of material wealth as deliberately to wage war on a whole community like that of utah which has so triumphantly demonstrated rated its power of self support and self government I 1 am confident sir that this cannot be and in order that the people of the country and their representatives presenta tives may not be ignorant of the tho true character and history of the people ac against ainest whose prosperity the measure is directed I 1 must be pardoned for a rapid review of their past record and their present condition at the early history of the mormons cormons I 1 shall but glance their expulsion from missouri and from illinois will in after times constitute one of the darkest the most painful and most shameful chapters in ih american history long before a suspicion existed of their practice of polygamy they were driven from state to state by the bigotry aldava and avarice of their neighbors who impiously coveted their valuable improvements while their piety could not tolerate a difference in religious faith I 1 trust there is no such feeling in the land today and everywhere as this ted people in search of freedom of con science planted colony after colony on the frontiers of civilization did they establish monuments of their industry and intelligence which were the wonder of all beholders in missouri they introduced implements of culture and mills for grinding grain tind and laid the cornerstone corner stone which still remains of a temple to be reared for the worship of the ever living god their industrial achievements are well known and not even mob violence and the ravages of time and the elements have been able yet to obliterate the evidences of their industry and skill after the bloody extinction of their hopes in that state they turned their faces again westward resolved like the israelites of old to dare even the terrors of the unexplored wilderness and the tender mercies of the beasts of prey rather than longer trust to the charity 9 ond and nd justice of their fellow christians with this stern resolve they crossed partially settled iowa in 1846 being scantily clad and but poorly provisioned many perished by the way the close of the autumn found them encamped upon the banks of the missouri in what was then called the pottawatomie country here herd they wintered laying out the town now known as council bluffs in |
