Show CAPITAL NEWS your readers have been informed by tel telegraph e raph of the progress and close close of of the hearing before the house committee on territories as to the admission of utah as a state but in addition to the dispatches and the letters on this subject more needs to be said to give the readers of the WEEKLY pryer proper information as to the hearing an and its effects the governor made a miserable attempt to work his way out of the hole into which he fell when he stated that no person could hold stock in Z C M 1 I unless he was a member of the mormon church and that this provision was in the articles of incorporation when the articles and the proofs that gentiles do hold stock in the institution were produced he tried to fall back on an a circular issued some years previous to the incorporation and relating to a preliminary association but the committee saw through his effort and valued his other assertions accordingly E R N baskin who was the last speaker in opposition found himself in a worse box even than the governor it was in this wise when before the senate cammi committee e last year he pretended to quote some of the writings of franklin D richards in the sullen mcuen nw star ar on the suba subject ec t of th theocracy y with a view to making things unpleasant for FB richa he apos ties alesson tl esson son reference to we e milen nial aar showed that apostle 5 richards was not the author of the articles referred totham they were not in the volume from which they were alleged to be quoted and that from other volumes isolated sentences had been culled and tacked together without a star or a mark to show any hiatus and then used in that shape to suit mr baskins purpose this was fully exposed in mr F S jk Richards reply at this present hearing baskin repeated his old story in the same form and when challenged by mr richards attempted to bluster his way out but when he found this could not be done he jauntily admitted that he learned last year after he went home that franklin D richards was not the author of ther the remarks yet he had come here and repeated the error when judge wilson got t T after him in the closing speech te he exposed this second attempt to throw discredit on mr richards and baskin denied that he had atte attempted ted to do anything of the kind men then judge wilson sprang the record of the hearing upon him as taken by the cammi committee es stenographer an and he was figuratively knocked out and flattened mr baskins whole speech was a shallow attempt to establish the position that the priesthood in utah asaumi assume to direct every member where he shall live where he shall go what shall be his employment and for whom he shall vote these are his exact words and in their support he read revelations from the doctrine and covenants given from 1881 to 1841 or from forty eight to fifty eight years ago under a different condition of things and to persons most if not all of whom are dead but when this was waa called to his attention he said the people now were receiving these revelations all the time members of the committee asked him to produce or quote from one and being unable to do so hei he pretended to be ina in a hurry for time but he could not escape the miserable subterfuge was too palpable I 1 able and the significant looks of ze the committee showed how clearly they perceived his reliability and what estimate to attach to his argument in the same 8 spirit irit he cited obsolete provisions of of utah statutes long repealed and endeavored to make it appear that the legislature had tried to I 1 legalize alize polygamy bemuse because they I 1 had Z excluded from court practice citations from any other authorities than the laws of the territory and of congress this was a worse amorse stretch of the imagination than the i tion of directions to individuals more than half a century ago to the living people of the present his next flight was into the space between the first six paragraphs of the revelation on celestial marriage and sections sixty one sixty two and sixty three which he linked together without informing the committee of this surreptitious u s and d illicit connection and endeavored n a v od to prove that the mandates of the former applied to the latter addge wilson took note of this to a will be seen later on he next tried to prove that the marriage of a mormon to his first wife was not a legal marriage going goin gover over to england this time for the ruling or of a court there in hyde vs hyde and sHyde drawing conclusions vi that t if utah utah were a state the courts therein would make absurd rulings contrary to established jurisprudence on the marriage e question he a also quoted from the works of mrs Sten stenhouse bouse and some isolated sentences from president jedediah M grants discourses with the usual comments on endowment oaths lood blood atonement and other horrors and exaggerations common to anti mormon hax harangues angues but after all this stuff mr baskin declared if I 1 believed polygamy bigamy and theocratic rule rule were at an end in utah nothing would give me greater pleasure than to advocate the admission of utah as a state after all the and twi stings misapplications applications mis of old sermons and disquisitions distortions of facts and baseless of imaginary mormon proceedings roco edin in the event of statehood t to w which idich the committee had been treated by west mcbride baskin and their appendages the contrast by the calm logical keen and forcible address of age judge jere M wilson in summing up the arguments and presenting the solid and their legitimate deductions was truly refreshing and interesting the synopsis which appeared in the new york world was a fair e epitome I 1 I 1 of the main points in t the speech gut but of course a great many happy thou thoughts crusts lits witty replies and add sharp home thrusts had bad to be omitted from that report because of lack of space ace these will be worthy of another other letter hon M A smith of arizona voluntarily appeared before the committee and made the following brief address which is here produced verbatim that the people of utah and their friends in arizona may learn of the courage and fairness displayed by a friend in need mr smith said mr Cha chairman and gentlemen of the committee while ignorant of the mormon faith I 1 am somewhat acquainted with the mormon people and while ignorant of their creed I 1 know their conduct I 1 am not here to criticise criticism critic ise any religious belief no matter how far it may diverge from mine but I 1 am here for the purpose of briefly filing my protest against the persecution of any people on account of their religious belief white while religion la IS sacred to the soul of the believer civil liberty is ia the birthright of every american citizen and abenr ever it is stabbed the lifeblood life blood of our matchless republic flows from the wound polygamy is a crime under the law and should be punished as the law directs but simple belief in polygamy is no more a crime than any other mere mental conclusion I 1 am of those who believe that polygamy will find its burial in the statch statehood of utah the world wo ald moves and our world moves westward with proper safeguards against the t h e constitution of utah so far as it ft prohibits pro hibits polygamous marriages will w secure forever its prohibition hibi tion in n that state and insure conviction in federal courts what more can we ask in the face of the promises which have been made us Is this committee ready to say that every mormon promise is made in order to be broken if so I 1 beg to place my experience with these people against your conjectures therl there are many of these people in arizona and I 1 have taken occasion to study somewhat closely the effect of their peculiar belief on citizenship I 1 was for a time district attorney in cochise county arizona during my term of office no mormon was ever called to plead to any indictment for no mormon was accused of crime so far as I 1 know even before a justice sti of the peace 1 n my practice of this th law covering some seven years in arizona I 1 know of no indictment in my county save one and he was cleared there beings being up evidence against him he was malicious mischief in doing in a certain water case what he had the legal right to do in my territory they have the just reputation of being an industrious law abiding and law loving people unas unassuming sumin in their habits sober in their lives dionest honest in their dealings they are in no sense or by any standard unworthy of american citizenship in its ite broadest sense of all people with whom I 1 have come in contact they if you will permit the paraphrase of all others along the hot and sandy plains of life they keep the noiseless tenor of their way I 1 am free to say that in Arizona they are very different from the people of that faith as pictured by my friend idaho mr dubois the delegate from idaho prejudice is still abroad in the land fanaticism still runs rampant r mant fj I 1 have 9 v great respect for my friend from IL idaho ho mr dubois and in common with him desire io to see his territory and mine soon admitted to the union of states but I 1 go further than he in desiring to see every territory stripped dripped of the vassalage under which they labor and place addition stars in the field on our national banner america can take care of polygamy it will die of itself the author of that most wonderful of all poems paradise lost in his prose works reviews this question fully and I 1 commend his wise e conclusion to your consideration he simply demonstrates the impossibility of general polygamous relations in a thickly settled community what killed it among the jews what has killed it among all modern nations population the same will do it in utah but it is claimed that polygamy is not the question that disturbs but it is ecclesiastical interference in secular affairs church domination of the state Is this worthy of your consideration does not this alarm arise from a minority who want the prestee prest fe 0 of f power and thus have been unable finable to obtain it there is no possibility of alt any ol 01 church domination for any length of time in any state in this great the foundation of our re republic ls is not shaken by the mormon faith th the constitution guarantees protection then why this alarm when wb we remember that thirteen states locked together in the strong embrace of fraternal affection and a common interest battled in vain with dauntless courage against the union the jews hoped hopert under their theocratic government to dominate the world they were ordered by the king of rings kings to invade the land of hittites Hitt ites and je bu sites and destroy men women and children yea even the babe at the breast this is not all peter looked forward to the establishment of a politico ecclesiastical kingdom on the earth and when it came not thrice denied his god the mother morhet of two odthe A leewens lee went to chrls praying that w when en he came into his earthly kingdom one of her sons should sit on his right hand and the other on his left yet the church of which peter is the foundation stone whichever of the many churches that may be has not seriously affected any of our state governments ern ments neither will the mormon 1 1 creed we have heard much of gentile proscription by the mor moms we have seen much of mormon proscription by the gentiles it is thus ihus far a simp simple 1 e que question adon of majority statehood it IN the simplest plainest la ineat straightest and proper road to a quick settlement of our differences I 1 think utah honest in its effort to secure the blessings of statehood I 1 believe they are sincere and believing dare to maintain even in opposition to the advice of some friends of mine on this committee if you gentlemen had suffered in your states as we have suffered in our territory from federal interference in our simplest affairs if you had endured as we endure a swarm of carpetbag carpet bag officeholders with no interest in common with ours isyou if you had borne the thousand burdens we bear suffered indignities di atles we hourly meet under this ious infamous territorial rule i you would with me say give all the territories oriee statehood even if populated by hot tenta ten tots and trust to the manhood of america and the future to rub of all angularities and heal all wounds this his speech deli evered in excellent style was so much more than an n omet to the vile misrepresentations ns of the delegate from idaho that it filled the ring ites with ulger er but made a strong impression 10 good on the committee e and was very ery gratifying to X wi washington jan 26 1889 |