Show A fictitious VITAL POINT timm to is no use for the Liberali organ to quibble about the attitude of the ex candidate for delegate while ahil on that junketing tour atthe at the expense of a few now disgusted friends that he did try to dodge the main question in his case namely his purpose to disfranchise the mor mons who had broken no law and who had taken au oath not to break the laws in the future is beyond successful dispute that he be also dodged the question of his bis advocacy of the force bill Is ie too a settled and irrefutable fact this ought to be now dismissed and will be if he and his apologists have sense enough to let it go 0 the only important matter connected with his attempt to jump into mr caines cai lies official shoes is the which he continues to repe repeat SU now that his scheme is defeated that citizens bre bore did not vote for him and did vote for his opponent because they were so ordered by the priests here is his latest utterance on this matter given as what he declares he set before the p people eo p I 1 e on his peregrina eions the statement was that up to this ume time the mormon peo people de have implicitly obeyed their priests that their priests had assumed the right to dictate to them politically how they should vote that the people bad accepted it and that until the gribat hood had relinquished that rule rate or the people would t throw row it off of they were of ri right disqualified from casting a ballot in th this republic whatever else was said in the various speeches made that point was wa never once lost sight ot of because that is th the vital point now in dealing with the mormon question if mr goodwin made this statement wherever he could get a mormon audience which was not very often he did so to people who knew that every word of it wao wag was false nobody dictated to them how or for whom they should vote no one holding the priesthood made any claim of right to rule them IR IB political affairs they were a great deal freer to exercise the voting power than the man and his associated who were insulting them by his ridiculous charges and yet he wonders why some of them did not vote fur him we can understand this on no other hypothesis than that the detainer defamer of the 6 Mor cormons mormons mons nsf is afflicted with softening ening of the brain he still calls his persis persistent teut lie the vital point in the IMor mormon mou question and yet be has never proved his point he cannot do so because it does not exist except in his bis unsupported sentences we do not believe it exists oven even in his disordered imagination WO we think he knows well enough that it is without foundation in truth but it suits his purpose and so he reiterates it as ae a settled fact and makes no attempt to support it by anything that has substantial force his vital point is made up of awo fallacies one that the mormon priests assume the right to dictate how the people shall vote she other that the people have accepted the claim and implicitly obey we have challenged him to prove either parts of his point lie he has not answered except to rave and bluster and call names and talk round the question aa he did around the force bill li matter without touching it or even ai approaching pro aching it the mormon priesthood means the mormon people that is the adult male members of the imor mormon church when they unite sk as citizens on any question or candidate they do so from choice there are men among them whom they recognize as church leaders the living mormon n leaders make no such claim to rule as this continually declares they assume and exercise if they do let him quote their language if such a claim is part of their authority let him cite some recognized standard that gives them such authority the personal opinion of some man on some extraordinary occasion will not count let him show something which the mormons cormons Mor mons accept as a rule or command that sets forth his theory then let him produce somebody who has been ordered or commanded or required to vote in a certain way or for a certain candidate and if he cannot do either then let him hold bold his bis peace or change his charges or stand branded before the public as a self con vinced liar the young men and the old men of who have heard his falsehoods or have heard oj of them know that there is no basis for them and that they are perfectly free to vote as they choose this for two reasons one because no priest or other church dignitary attempts to coerce them the other because they have a strictly secret ballot which completely protects them if they choose to vote contrary to the choice of their associates the reasoning which concludes that because C C goodwin says the mormons cormons Mor mons vote as their priests dictate therefore they are of right disqualified from casting a ballot in this republic may be reasoning like a philosopher in some mens minds but to an ordinary person it is reasoning like a fool there is no reason in it yet that is the whole of his vital point vve ve maintain that the whole the ory of mormonism as set forth in its standards will bear us out that liberty in all things compatible with the general welfare is essential to the system we uphold also that no one in the mormon church is compelled or required to submit to priestly dictation in political affairs and tile the young men and the old men who have engaged in recent politics will willfully fully corroborate our statement goodwins vital t a I 1 point is an insubstantial fiction |