| Show MORMON TRUTH AND INTEGRITY As OUR readers have learned from our local reports several more of our brethren have gone to the penitentiary because they would not bind themselves by their word to the courts to place the will and law of god below the renderings and opinions of men upon a ligman human enactment brothers H S gowans and W ff lee of tooele thoele john P ball thomas C jones john Y smith james moyle george H taylor samuel dball F ball and obdue 0 F due of salt lake city james 0 poulsen of west jordan W G saunders and C H greenwell of ogden and H H tracy of marriotti Marri otts weber county have retired from the public gaze because they were true to their faith since our last editorial notice of the victims to a strained interpretation of an u unjust a JU s t anac enactment ame 11 t if these gentlemen had been as unfaithful as thair benemie 14 would I 1 like ike to have it appear they could easily have made the promise exacted of them even if they had no intention of keeping it it is a simple verbal agreement that the courts demand and it is for declining to make it that our brethren go to prison their tion is in fact a voluntary they are not criminals they could escape punish punishment if they would answer a question as desired by the court I 1 it follows that the penalty imposed upon them is not for an offense committed but for ref refusing using to make a promise not for anything they have done in the past but for lailure failure to promise romise what they will or will not do in in regard to one thing in the f future attire there Is a singularity about all these proceedings agair against st the cormons mormons Mor mons mODS that is not a little remarkable in the first place the law under which they were prosecuted was spec specially balty framed to catch them in reference to a feature of their religion next that law had to receive a special lal and forced construction and we well known terms had to bear an unprecedented interpretation then the meaning api applied plIed to the law in one case had to be changed so as to apply it to another and either mens own testimony or testimony forced from their wives and children had to be obtained to gain their conviction also jurless juries ilcken for their antagonism to the faith kicked alth of the defendant became necessary in the process without th these ese pecullar peculiar they would not be made to appear ason u ero against the law and lastly oo 00 concu con vU brought about by such means they were promised immunity from punishment if they would hive give their word not to te do so any more soch proceedings edinga were never heard of i in a the courts here for the prosecution of real crime neither are criminals plied with questions as to their for the future persons found guilty of crime cri meare are not set free on saying they will not do it any more they are punished for what they have done not for what they fall fail to agree to do it is a deserved compliment that to our bret brethren breD when the court s virtually admit reliance relian cn upon the bare word of those who stand aland up for sentence it is a standing refutation ot of the falsehood that the mormons cormons Mor mons are perjurers per jurers they go to prison rather than make a simple promise ingord that they blanot ly not keep in deed and the courts show their confidence in the truthfulness of the brethren by exhibiting willingness lin gness to accept their verbal agreement to observe the law in future as an equivalent for the penalties for nonobservance of the jaw in the past we honor our friends for their heir integ rit yand rejoice thit that so many are willing to suffer all things rather than prove recreant to their sacred covenants and we trust that the time of their retirement will flit by ason as on airy wings and that they will bp be comfor comforted teo and sustained by the divine hand while the period of their trial shall last |
