| Show SPECIA special constitutional century magazine for october among the topics of the times has an article on the present situation in utah itis ibis entitle entitles I 1 the alast hope of the mormon 11 it ft is written in a candid unimpassioned spirit and without that strong animus which generally spoils such contributions to current literature there are some statements statement and arguments in it that might be easily controvert ed b bu u we do not wish to be captious we refer to the article particularly on account of the reference t contains to the c conditions ons under which Mis missouri soui was admitted into the union it has been contended by a number of would be thought wise objectors to admission as a state in the union that the special provisions in proposed ber constitution vitiate that instrument because they are special and tat thus utah would not enter the union on an equal tooting with the exl ehlting ting states this has bas been met with I 1 the he argument argain ent not yet con trover ted that the rhe People have a con right to put what restriction they please upon themselves even if congress has not the right to impose unusual conditions upon them gut but the article in the century goes a a step further it gives a brief history of the missouri compromise and the means by which that state was admitted into the union from this it app appears ars that a special condition was imposed by congress upon mi missouri requiring the passage ii of a public and irrevocable act agreeing never to construe or to execute certain provisions of the state constitution so as to bar free negroes the right of entrance into the state this was passed under protest the preamble to the act reciting the special requirement and declaring that it was agreed to because we cannot obtain our constitutional rights in any other mode than by giving our hiir assent to the same it was on this agreement forced upon missouri by congress that the state was declared admitted by proclaim proclamation a by president monroe august 1821 thus missouri became a state under special provisions not required in other state constitutions and these wera were imposed upon that state by congress if these unusual features did not vitiate massouris Mis souris constitution why should unusual provisions operate against constitution the country has clamored for just such restrictions strict ions as the latter instrument contains and to meet that they have been adopted by the delegates of the legal voters in convention assembled of course this does not meet the question of the power of af the people to carry out or repudiate the special provisions adopted but in the case of missouri although it was known that the great majority of its people were opposed to the adoption of the obnoxious provisions their probable rejection of them in practice did not act as a bar to the admission of the state why should this question then be raised against utah when the people have voted at the polls to sustain these special restrictions and there is far more probability of their them than there was for massouris Mis souris acting in good faith such stich quibbles dire are raised in the place of arguments they are interposed by those who expect to profit by the continuation of the territorial system with all its anti reau b ican and anti Arn american erlean features if peculiar customs require peculiar provisions to ensue that political harmony widely thought to be essential to national unity such provisions instead of being opposed by technical ech and hairsplitting hair splitting object eions one would suppose would be welcomed on every hand and the fact that the people 1 I utah lu in order to meet the public demand take upon themselves them the task of framing and adopt adopting ine those required provisions without any special demand by congress ought glit in itself to eb evidence of good faith and A guaranty lor the future there is nothing in the whole history of the mormon Hor people which justi fles the pretended pra tended tear lear that they will violate auy any cow compact act t tiey aey may make with the federal government it has been manufactured by those who have an interest ie IB opposing the movement for statehood and act adopted opted dy by bigots and antl 11 mormons cormons Mor mons generally 11 ene rally without much thought as to its weakness ess and puerility that special provisions may be introduced into state constitutions not embodied in oi others and that these rio no rational or constitutional objection to the formation and adais sion of states adopting them has been amply proven by ane history of other states asides mi missouri misouri and the absurd surd arguments to the contrary which have been advanced by one or two leading journals and echoed by a number of the little ones are aie evidence of the poverty of the reasoning and shabbiness of the cause of political and sectarian enemies |
