| Show THE GOVERNOR AS A METHODIST ARTHUR L Tia THOMAS omAs who by the territorial system is forced upon utah as its governor took advantage of a religious occasion at ogden august jtb ath to vomit a stream of bitterness and false falsehood bood against the mormon church and its leaders the occasion was the laying of the corner stone of a methodist university the speech is reported in his organ in we this city it is from beginning to end an anti mormon stump speech and with the exception of odeas tw in about half a dozen lines has no relevance to the ceremony here are the two ideas this at the beginning we regard it as one more agency established to help accomplish the emancipation emancipation of the majority of the people eople of 09 the territory of utah from the thralldom of intolerance and bigotry and A ad this at the close 11 because the methodist haf has never approved adroved the utterance of a q disloyal thought thong t or urged or approved the commission co in of a disloyal act we welcome welcom its university and wish it godspeed god speed tae chief purpose of this metho i diet university as seen by governor thomas is to operate against an other religious denomination for this he considers it is to be commended the other reason for it success is of a negative character it has never done certain ain things and therefore it is wel coded coined if its promoters can find no better reasons for its establishment than the flabby and sectarian platitudes of the governor it is sadly in need of bolstering an institution of learning which has for its object the dissemination of light the development of immature minds the education or drawing out of intellectual and r spiritual p powers is to be both welcomed and encouraged in and by any civilized community but the mere claim that the society which establishes a school haq not done anything dislo disloyal as understood by a partisan politician is a very poor and paltry argument for its support while the fact that it is built for the purpose of aiding in secular as assaults saulis upon the members of a religious body with whose tenets its promoters differ is a potent reason I 1 in a its disfavor the governor admitted that it was on political grounds that he welcomed the founding of au institution of learning which is to be under the control of a religious denomination and yeto yet one neof of the most prominent charges he made against the church which this university is to fight was that its priestly leaders make mahe their re belief a political and bustness business commodity the gAser assertion tion is ii a falsehood but supposing it were true what becomes of his welcome on political grounds of an insel tation of lehr learning ning which is to be used for political ends and abid how does he reconcile the following with his political welcome of a religious concern concern and its employment for political purposes purposes in assisting the government in a substantial way he says the experience of a later better and alid higher civilization teaches us that the church and the state should be irrevocably separated and that to force the church to take part in political affairs would rob it of that reverence which mankind is now pleased to pay it on this line of reasoning how much reverence should mankind pay to the methodist university which it is to be forced into the political affairs of utah the church 1 and the state should be irrevocably se separated pa rated 91 except in the case of a methodist comb combination leation with political schemers schemers to rob the mormons cormons Mor mons of their political rights and privileges all through the speech governor thomas injected spurts of misrepresentation resen tation and jets of absolute untruth under the pretense of eulogizing a methodist establishment be squirted venom at the mormon l church and a bani band of priestly leaders repeating the term no and again he charged that they claim the privilege under 1 61 cvine right to say what particular laws 1 w the I 1 land and they will obey how baay V ctr vt and who neither respect wt not obey the laws of pong congress tess nor the of the supreme court of the united w when hen these laws or decisions a a la in MUA flicht iet with their peculiar belief or 4 and who claim under ther the authority of OM pretended revelation from the almighty iw this government which has given t m the land and on which they live and protects ahrem inthe in the possession of it will finally be overthrown and be suc succeeded ceded by a government w which they alone can control he asked why this attempt by designing priest to to break it down and to esia establish blish im in AN ato place a system of oc government which is un alace alti known to out our laws find and foreign batt ite civilization 11 it is a testimony to the generous a tw be bearance crance that long ago were not d a law that would have strip stripped oed these ly y leaders of all power except that Which appropriately belongs to them in their religious capacity but not content with cwg gentlemen who are as far far 0 ahot O him in personal character melitos endowments and the of people as the shining stare e above the flickering firebug he fae broadened his attack to cover vw entire mormon population san sam he A strange spectacle is presented to boxe A pe people 0 ae of the united states and of the corid 0 frfd rfd by the attitude ef the majority 04 roh peo people pie of the territory toward their 0 ikc I 1 1 1 I now it governor thomaa d doe not know that all the accusations lj in the sentences we have cited I 1 from his speech are positive falsehood uh Si he has spent his time in utah fa to little account or his mental calibre mus must t be such as to rink rank him with wl th the imbeciles imbe ciles why cannot these anti I 1 mor mormon echoers of liberal lies iles fabricated fabo for political purposes find some oame thing more solid to hurl at the prie etly leaders and the lav javi obeying mormon people thaid these stale chunks of exploded atoa der these malignant emanations of at diseased and fanatical minds mands and now will the honorable 7 official who instead of using usi nithe the time for which he was paid in a business interest spent it largely in hi striving to rob good citizens citizen s of the franchise and in striving to gain icib uc repa republican alican and despotic powers ex plain how he would 9 strip them theae priestly leaders of any powers thad thy Y I 1 possess und under er the I 1 laws aw a of the states stat va just please te tell III us wak it those powers are and then show how they can be taken away WO with out killing those priestly leader leadem Ps outright in hill bis land and pro methodist zeal the GO govern nor WAs as silly as he was un ful and some of his sentences are as vapid as others are venomous t the principal leaders ot of the 0 o I 1 mon men church are dis franchised they neither vote nor hold office they do not figure in political gatherings or titter political speeches they mind their own W business kh es s and attend to such affairs sam as are of right under their direction such power as they exercise no governor or other secular authority or great can strip from them ai it is all legitimate view it from etther either a spiritual or secular standpoint the majority of the people of this territory whom the governor assails in this wholesale gayare quiet pea peaceable ce able citizens whose attitude towards the government cannot be truthfully impeached they are better citizens of the united states than thItu any soy place hunter who seeks to teal kl from them their sacred fran 04 aine that he may become an autocrat 1 this attack of governor thomas wn the mormon church and people is particularly mean cont attl prible and despicable it reveals 64 ismall soul in its true size and quality there was no cause for it agtane dmd no excuse it mitter matter much of course it was but a juWa dorous effervescence from a bottle it is of no more or consequence than a little biroth uth but it manifests what is with A 0 and sizes up and fixes the value of that from which it came the governor may be a big methodist ten the pe occasion but he be certainly is loot bet much of f a man |
