| Show ARSON AS AN aitt MORMON ARGUMENT SEVERAL newspapers have published brief accounts of the treatment of john W metz in ili west virginia wh who 0 it ap pears as has already been shown in the NEWS has been shamefully persecuted 1 on account of his religious con i vict dictions ions but none of them so far as we are aware have denounced the in amous proceedings against himor him or called for the prosecution find punishment of his cowardly and criminal assailants sai lants it will perhaps be remembered that the story was to the effect that some seme mormon missionaries bad been holding meetings in west virginia and had succeeded in making an impression cupoli tile the mads m ads of weir headers among them was mr metz residing resi aing on yellow creek in Cal callhoun Calli lioun oua county some excitement having been created because of conversions in that neighborhood bo rhoud the elders moved away to avoid disturbances but bu ibis was not enough for the bigots and lawlest prof essora of piety there the converts also were rf required quiren to leave mr metz believing in thy tho liberty of the citon in this tree free republic pubic re simply and quietly remained on his farm the gowd people who were so incensed against mormonism nim imal had him bian ejected he rented another f farm arai but before he could occupy the house it was burned to he ground lotain I 1 daunted after much brou trou trouble ble lie he procured another ano which was waa also burned and a third house suffered a similar fai fate e dispatches to the press state that there appears to be no disposition to trace up and pr prosecute 0 the offenders thus the law is violated and toe the principle of religious liberty supposed t be dear to every is outraged and the officers of toe law wink at the wrong and make no effort to capture the guilty why sim 1 ply because the laith that mr metz is said to have embraced is unpopular and aad this is the nineteenth een eeD iury tury and these things are permitted and encouraged in a country consecrated sec rated to civil and religious liberty it is idle for enose wao desire to apologize for these crimes to cr polygamy P no such excuse it it had any force in itself can be offered in this instance on missionaries do not preach poly polygamy gainy these people were not nos converts to it they rhey only became convinced that the gospel offered to them oy the elders is the gospel of jesus christ and acted on oa law iha belief they broke no law they injured no one by their faith or their adopt adoption ioa thereof no matter how absurd their belief might appear to objectors it should have been held sacred from violence the protection ol of ve tie law belongs to the heterodox equally with tue the orthodox and we do not envy the feelings of any person editor preacher or officer who will condone moo and smile at arson because the victims are called cormons mormons Mor mons nor would we like to 0 stand in the place of any being who is too cowardly to condemn such mies the weapons with which mormonism is assailed ciare are potent evidences of its strength streng ti and the weak weakness nebs of the cause of its adversaries if it is attacked by pretended fact or argument falsehood is invariably resorted to its doctrines are never fairly presented by its enemies the straight and unadulterated truth is never told when they attempt to explain it very few of anem ever n vesti gate they merely adopt the views of others of their own class repeat the stale scandals and warm over the highly seasoned hash dished up oy unscrupulous theological cooks and fling mud at a system they do not understand der stand and have never examined beyond its surface polemics failing the brand and the rifle the club and the tar bucket the might of mob f force orce and appeals to the passions of the untutored multitude are the rort of the foiled and chagrined emissaries of the prince of darkness A fair field has never been allowed to the ot of tile the latter day gospel the champions of orthodoxy are not only unwilling to ilea hear r it but bat they will not suffer others to listen it they can help it their treatment of our elders and of the principles we hold is a standing reproach it is a virtual admission of alarm if hev did noi nob fear the power of this faith they would not so belie their own professions and creeds as to treat it WJ ath th false falsehood nood on the one hand and force on the other and we think the press of the coun I 1 ry has not been consistent in its ita treatment of the mormon question with but few exceptions violence has been e ither either approved or condoned when the sufferers have been mormons cormons Mor mons and oat religious freedom which the founders of this nation lived and died to establish is trampled upon and denied defiled by its professed wor shippers and supporters these are strong complaints but the they are only a mild presentation of the facts facts and to make this clear the course coarse taken in relation to the case related in the commencement men Den cement of this article is amply sufficient as an illustration |
