| Show FOR POLITICAL CAPITAL AND obstruction IT NEEDS no statement from us that the peculiar investigation in progress in the third district court in this city is in the nature of a political movement the fact is notorious and no attempt is made to disguise it it is 18 of a piece with a plan of campaign that has been in progress for a long time its object is the deprival of the majority of the people of utah of all their political rights the present operation is but a fresh step in the scheme the application of certain members of the church of jesus christ of latter day baines forna for naturalization being seized as a favorable opportunity to set it in motion the hope of the active politicians who figure in the affair Is ie that they will by twisting torturing and disfiguring innocent facts beyond recognition and the manufacture of whole cloth fabrications be able to work upon the credulity of congress to such an extent as to cause that august body to accede to their nefarious and scheme of course the obstruction obet ruction of peoples peopled party registration for and voting at the approaching municipal election cuts a fl fi gurein the proceedings as an object but it may be properly placed as a second secondary nry consideration some of the witnesses used by the liberals in this rough and tumble investigation have been appropriately pria tely selected they belong to the genius lus known as anti cranks who were formerly connected with the church and have apos tati zed they are well known for their unreasoning biti bitterness erness occa L anally exhibiting their spleen in haranguing crowds on the public streets af and telling the most outrageous falsehoods they belong to the same claw class as that known as converted monks and escaped nuns who have at various times raised the hair upon the heads of small minded credulous people about the horrible wickedness of the catholic church we would be sorry to judge that church by the turnings and falsehoods of the bitter ohm class of its apostate sons and daughters it would be manifestly unjust 4 we do not rate all of the wit K nesses in that list while some of them told what we understand to be unqualified falsehoods and distorted matters of fact until they had no resemblance to the truth others may have testified honestly but if they did their memories were ero usand what they did recollect was so mixed up with false reports allegations and charges that have been in circulation for years that they were entangled in their winds minds hence the heterogeneous and contradictory statements not only of the different witnesses but the conflicts in inthe the evidence of the same individual in no instance was the truth told as a whole if it had bad there would have been none of that hobgoblin sanguinary element anti mormon 11 1 1 which delighted the fire eaters one feature of the testimony could not escape the observation of any intelligent person it was a peculiarity that gave the lie direct to some statements that were made it was asserted that those who pass through the endowment take an obligation to obey the priesthood in all things the penalty atta attaches cheu to the violation of this covenant being that the individual making it loses his life according to this testimony a number of those who were on the stand have been going around in this city and elsewhere with their throats cut for upwards of twenty years one witness according to his own evidence must have been in that ghastly condition for a quarter of a century yet he has the appearance of being a healthy old corpse the fact that these fellows who could not well be accused of obedience to the priesthood they so hotly hate were on the stand voiding their blood and th under spleen was sufficient of itself to show their utter unreliability their existence is a flat contradiction of their teotimo testimony ny A party reduced to such expedients and suco sue tools is unworthy of the support of any person with a common sense of self respect |
