| Show south carolina utah it A 1 ia said sald to be almost certain that the bill for the regulation of affairs in the territory of utah passed some days daya ago by the house will bo be passed by the senate and approved by the president the provisions of the bill have been heretofore stated dat at length in the trib unc ule and do not need to be repeated it is sufficient lelent to say that its effect is to turn every mormon thormon sherif sherlf rout out of office and deprive every member of the mormon church of one of the most valuable rights of citizenship by excluding them from the jury box it is in short to do for utah what has been done already for south carolina vve we vye be beg the tiie senate to consider this question seriously as one not of sentiment but purely of good government and safe precedent to turn the owners of the fruitful farms and productive octive fields of utah out of the apro jury juny ury box and disfranchise them from one of the most important an privileges of the tho citizen is a step involving the gravest consequences not alone to the men whose rights of life liberty and property are thus put at the mercy of a minority but to the whole structure of our government we leave entirely out of the question now the fact that the minority in that territory known as gentiles are for the most part landless and irresponsible having baving b little ornu orno or nu stake in the territory and th further fact patent to all who are familiar with ith the affairs of utah that thit this law is asked for by men whose sole object is to secure the offices and enrich themselves at the expense of the original settlers and present property owners we make no account of the fact that these men are making malting a burlesque of morality and religion when they pretend to be actuated only by a desire to purify the morals moral of the territory and maintain the christian religion we ve ask the senate to lay aside the social and religious aspects of the case and treat the subject from a purely political point of view the bill passed the house under the stress of appeals to sentiment prejudice and passion upon the theory that the disgraceful crime of polygamy must bo be suppressed at all hazards this bill which is a worse political crime than the one it is aimed at since it is a blow at self government and a denial of popular pc lular iular rights has been rushed through one branea branci branch of the national legislature the offenses of the tile mormons cormons are not to be overlooked or defended X a but neither their past of offenses nor their continued disregard of the laws prohibiting polygamy can justify so sweep sweeping ing a measure as this the blow which this bill aims ata at a single community and a single clime elme strikes it at our system of government it establishes a precedent fraught with most dangerous da nerous derous D 0 erous crous consequences to the country and the people in the case of south carolina there was the excuse that her citizens had committed a political crime in engaging enga eDga glug in rebellion that they had thereby disfranchise ed themselves and furthermore that the emancipated and enfranchised blacks needed protection but here t there here is no such argument with south carolina lying prostrate and helpless under the foot of the spoiler her citizens impoverished business ruined enter enterprise se destroyed lands sold for taxes her ller people at the mercy of an ignorant and dishonest rabble her legislators and her rulers a gang of unprincipled adventurers and shameless thieves and the whole state crying to the president to congress and even to the passerby passer by for succor and relief with such an example of the eff effect act of this sort bott of legislation under the very eyes of congress it is almost incredible tl that thab lat the same policy toward the territory of utah should be proposed ed south carolina should be a sufficient lelent warning the decent and reputable citizens taxpayers tax payers of bf that state have sent delegations to washington praying for some measure of relief both the president and congress have listened to them coldly and while admitting the hardships of their situation have said they could give them no help Is it possible that in face of these facts the process which has brought south carolina low is to be applied to utah mew mem yora labun tribune june |
