| Show THE OFFENSE the law by which hawkins has been convicted and sentenced was one enacted by ista against what they consi considered dired adultery to be it was passed by their legislature and signed by brigham young himself if it Is construed by the common dictionaries of the country ib it condemns polygamy which these regard as adulterous if F however polygamy is to be attacked why should nol noc the assault be a fair and open and manly one are we really driven to the trick of imposing our own construction upon a mormon law giving to it a meaning it never had and was never intended to have and putting it to uses ubea which its en enact actors orb ora notoriously could not noi have bave contemplated when this people pitched their tenta on the borders of the great bait salt lake the world felt relieved of them it was about as if they had gone to the moon beyond the great eis cia montane cismontane plains beyond the rocky bocky mountains and still on beyond the wasatch range they disappeared in the almost unexplored regions of the farthest american desert they have meanwhile wrought wonders for themselves and the country have made the tile wilderness to bud and blossom and tiao tia tib solitary place to al sing bing ng they have br er and rich commonwealth of industry beyond colorado have joined the civilized world of the pacific slope with that of the mississippi valley have become a hundred thousand in ila P population and created over oven seventy millions 11 ons of wealth polygamy nevertheless is not to be acquiesced in yet we should attack it with our eyes open there should be first taken an inventory of the facts if we enter upon a relentless crusade against that people to the extent that they are involved in this wrong what bort sort of success shall we have will they not be compelled to resistance what are their powers for mis ml ohler schier will polygamy yield only to go so disastrous an onset vigorous prosecutions to break dow dowa a this system ay stem are needless they aou would I 1 d but evoke retaliation which might even grow to a destruction of the utah settlements settle tle ments and their abandonment for new mexico leaving utah the desert that it was a quarter of a century ago an extensive portion of the railroad to the pacific could be destroyed and indian and mormon hostilities might be inaugurated that would cost th the a government many tens of million millon 0 1 besides beB ides ldes in the settlement of the afar west for all this there would be no appreciable compensation in ithe the improved or preserved virtue of any man woman or child the expelled people would but cherish polygamy more than ever we therefore object to anything like A vindictive crusade against the mor mons the offenses committed under practically dead laws in timea past should remain unnoticed i there is little dim dlf differed dif difference feren dereu ted led in effect between the passage of a law ex post facto and the revival of a law long permitted permitted ermit ted to ife lie dead on the statute took book justice therefore joins with wise statesmanship vates tates manship in dictating that the mormon offense should be dealt with in the judicious feanner manner mannen we hive have indi arted missouri democrat |
