| Show SOME OF THE EVENTS OF FIVE YEARS THE autumn of 1881 found utah in a condition of great prosperity probably in no year since its bettl settlement ement was the financial condition of the people so good as at that time money was more plentiful plentie al than it had ever been before and real estate improve ments and all kinds of business enterprises were pushed with unprecedented vigor politically the people were still f free ree their liberties being restricted only by certain conditions from f rom which all of ed alike and which were features of the territorial system without special reference to toem their rights had often been assailed but up to the date mentioned without material success to the assailants the year 1882 opened with this condition of affairs prevailing in the territory but with a black and threatening cloud hanging over the heads of the people in the shape of the edmunds bill which was pending in congress it seemed incredible that that measure should pass and every prospect seemed to indicate a long period of prosperity ro to the territory betat but it became became a law in utah alone alone from to citizens were made aliens in a day A galling punishment was inflicted upon them without withof t trial or opportunity tor for defense and they were robbed of vested rights whose value cannot be estimated litigation for testing the shameful provision of disfranchisement was carried to the court of last resort only to end in the exaltation of wrong next came the crusade having tor for its object tae destruction of families the ruin and degradation ot pure add aad honored women and the branding with infamy of children by the thousand husbands and fathers chosen from among the best citizens of the territory began to be thrown into alson prison in large numbers but the ferocious e appetite of tiger like persecutors of an unpopular religion so far from being sated was only whetted the twin tw in infamies amies of packed juries and segregated indictments were introduced to f urther further gratify it trials were farces and arrest meant cot cor diction with unerring certainty then as if to close up every possible avenue of escape from a severe punishment ish ment interpretations of the law followed each other fast each new one changing that which preceded it and making it more and more difficult for the most law abiding among the oppressed class to live within its provisions until now a polygamist is required to utterly repudiate cast off disown and abandon his own flesh and blood and irretrievably destroy his own honor and self respect probably in the long list of wrongs incident to the events we are referring to not one shows more plainly the merciless aner ciless character of the spirit of the crusade than the device of segregation by weans means of which an offense which the law says shall be punishable by a fine of and imprisonment for six months is rendered liable to be visited with a penalty that would absorb a fortune in lines fines and a life time in duplicated terms of imprisonment the foregoing brief statement of events sofa millar to our readers is made for the purpose of illustrating the rapidity with which certain consummations have been approaching within the last five years and also to show that if occurrences of such a heretofore incredible character have transpired within the last half decade we may be prepared to see follow within a similar period in the future even greater ones had any man during the closing months of 1881 predicted what has occurred since then then that bat the foundations of our government would have been undermined by a bill of attainder sustained by the supreme court of the united states stales that a war on the peaceful families of this territory having for its object their utter destruction st would have been carried as far as it has that so large a number ot oi men prominent and loved in the community mun ty would be cast into pris onas now languish anguish there that many of our best citizens would so soon become exiles that trials in our courts would become so utterly farci cal as they are that juries would convict with or without evidence with the precision of machinery as we see them do and that the present d ealor able condition of affairs would be brought about in so short a time in our fair air territory he would not have been believed even by many wh claim to have faith in modern prophecy and revelation the occurrences of the last five years afford ample ground for faith that predictions of events in the same line but of even greater magnitude made by men man of inspiration who have lived in modern times will also be strikingly verified we are manufacturing history with marvelous marve lons rapidity |
