Show PRESIDENT SMITHS REASONS Some two years since there appeared In the Herald an article under the caption cap-tion of Plain Talk to which Piesi dent Smith replied under the caption of Another llain Talk This has been taken and revamped and is republished re-published by the republican campaign committee It may be considered presumptuous pre-sumptuous in a plain man of the secular order to disagree with so illustrious illus-trious churchman as President Smith Is or to dispute his predicate or call in question his conclusions We shall not call In question his right to enter the domain of politics yet sumehow or other we have all along read President Woodruffs declarations as being against the entrance of the higher authorities of the church into politics as partisans But that is neither here nor there bat to the presidents most falacious arguments that the Mormons should belong to the republican party instead of the democratic We leave to others to settle the matter mat-ter of the inspiration of the constitution constitu-tion One thing we do claim for that instrument however It was certainly cer-tainly written by patriotic statesmen great men indeed many of whom most of whom indeed were democrats The president consumes much space and uses many words in discussing the right of the democracy to the name It is quite true that in the formative stages of this government names got mixed a little The federal or strong government party of that day are the present republicans and what was called the republican party of that day is now the democratic party We are afraid the president is either un frank or ignorant when he aserts that Thomas Jefferson ran for president asa as-a republican without stating explicitly to his readers the exact situation of the parties then in the light of the names as we understand them today There is not a school boy of fifteen in all Utah but will at once detect the authors attempt to befog the reader and get a bit of advantage at the start One would not only imagine but he would be absolutely certain that the democrats had always maintained the constitution if he is honest and well informed in politics The progenitors of the republican party of today the old federal or strong government party I the whigs the know nothings the free soilers etc were not known then nor are they today noted for their regard for the constitution It has ever been to them a loosely fitting garment to be worn when advantageous or to be thrown aside when inclination or interest inter-est dictates while the democratic party from the first favored a strict construction of that document In fact this has always been one of the cardinal articles of the democratic faith Unlike our friend Saxey Mr Smith does not go back to Illinois and Missouri Miss-ouri to find reasons why the people peo-ple t f Utah or rather the Mormons should hate the democratic party Under Fillmores administration administra-tion says Mr S Brigham Young was appointed governor of Utahand asks if the democracy with all of its pretended pre-tended love of home rule has done as much for us as that Now we defy any petty pothouse politician or petty Jogging lawyer to ask an unfranker or more misleading question tbap tDat < I < < i2 Why when the democratic congress passed the enabling act and the democratic demo-cratic president signed it the democracy democ-racy did more for us than the republican repub-lican party and its progenitors ever dreamed of or could do in a thousand years of uninterrupted sway It did all Nothing more is left to be done It made a state of Utah dud placed in her hands the power to take care of herself to shape her own destinies and directher own course as any other of the sovereign states of the union has and that is all Utah wants or cares for or ever did want or co for For more than thirty JOL years the republican party had this earue power and used it not The first time the democratic party exercised supreme power for only eighteen months ahe conferred statehood all that Utih asked for or needed And yet this good president of ours says the Mormon Mor-mon people of Utah should be republicans repub-licans and not democrats If he is not a juster religiousleader in the church than he is in POlitlCS may God pity his misled people Yes home rule is a favorite democratic demo-cratic tenet and notwithstanding Fillmore Fill-more gave Utah one home governor away back there in the 50s the democracy de-mocracy has given her home governors gover-nors and home officers of all kinds forever hereafter Should the people of Utah be republican or democratic Which The good Smith doesnt appear ap-pear to like the home rule bill of 1892 He seems displeased because it was a probationary measure He forgets the republican probation of thirty odd years duration Mr Tellers bill certainly cer-tainly proposed admission but Mr Rawlins bill procured it Yet according ac-cording to Mr Smith the people of Utah should be republicans and not democrats Mr ith comes on down to Mr Buchanans day He states simply what action Buchanans government govern-ment took but gives not a line of explanation ex-planation as to why his policy was so chosen it iIS i not done because Mr Smith is ignorant of the causes but simply that ho wishes to argue unfairly un-fairly and succeeds most perfectly This remarkable pamphlet takes the ground that because all tue world believed be-lieved Utah democratic on national lines therefore the republican party was justifiable iu keeping her out of the union and in leading strings all the years she did Not only this but in the eyes of its author the cruel policy of that party in one aye all of its ueaaures regarding Utah were josh lied because of this belief If any other man inside or outside of Utah had made such a plea the world would have spent the next hundred years of its lIfe JaughinK President mith says It the democratic dem-ocratic party sent an army with the avowed intention of crushing the people peo-ple of Utah Now he knows or aas the means of knowuigthat whatever the intention of the administration may have been it was never disclosed for the reasonlthat General Johnson came to Utah uiider sealed orders that were not opened until un-til after all matters of difference between be-tween the Mormons and the government govern-ment were satisfactorily adjusted and President Buchanans universal amnesty am-nesty proclamation had been issued and accepted The terms under which the army entered Utah were strictly complied with by President Buchanan but Were violated by President Lincoln in the first year of republican adrnistration Mr Buchanan was misled by false reports of the situation principally by exJudge Drumond who repoited that the recorus of his court were destroyed which records are still in custody of the proper officer Quartermaster Van Vleit came into Utah in advance of the army to purchase supplies and learned something of the true situation which he reported On learning this President Presi-dent Buchanan sent Colonel Kane Mr Cooper and others to inquire into the real situation of affairs and dispatched dis-patched Governor Powell and General McCulloch as peace commissioners with an universal pardon of all itizens of Utah for all offenses they might have committed against the United States and that pardon was presented to and accepted by the thousands of Utah citzens assembled at Provo to hear what the president had to say t them before the army entered Utah But remained for another adminis tion to right the great wrong by conferring con-ferring the greatest possible good upon the territory by admitting her to a perfectly per-fectly equal position and one where she can at all times fully protect herself her-self How dare Mr Smith say that had the republican party known Utah as favorably as the democrats did they would not have passed the act of 62 What warrant has he for saying any such thing That is simply and only a partisan exculpatory assertion and it has not a single fact remote or near to support it However Jut of that act came confiscation and robbery which continued uttil a democratic administration ad-ministration restored what a republican republi-can administration had robbed Utah of Still according to President Smiths way of looking at it the peo pie of Utah should be republican and not democratic When the law establishing the Utah commission was passed President Smith conveniently excuses it upon the plea that the republican administra tion supposed the people of Utah were democrats and opponents of the republican re-publican party Was there anything ever half as naive as this How much comfort com-fort President Smith has drawn from this republican supposition while while preparing this precious pamphlet pam-phlet In the matter of the aloption of the EdmundsTuckur law Tucker being a democrat was a great villain but Sdmundsbeing a republican of course the people of tltab ghould be Fepub F lican Tn the name of the Good Lord was ever ouch logic taught before by saint or sinner by church or state It would haye ben fairer had Mr Smith said that chose OJ people who inside the walls of the penitentiary i i had leisure to ponder upon the hollowness hollow-ness of democratic professions had put it republican and democratic because be-cause Edmunds was as distinguished as a republican as Tucker wa as a democrat This only proves that the I church in politics yields to the prevailing pre-vailing political modee and instead of elevating politics to its own level it helplessly sinks to tho level of politics This good president of ours claims it as a superlative virtue that the republi C4ns inflicted tn s wrongs under the EdmundsTucker act openly and boldly and as an unforgiveable crime that the democrats did it haltingly and appologeticilly Thats too fine an argument ar-gument for us We fear we cannot refute re-fute it so must simply put em both together to-gether and say the Lord pity poor human nature Tho old federal party now called the I republican party was in favor of making mak-ing George Washington king and would have made Grant king if that great patriot had consented All remember re-member the Imperialist move in 1869 I There is a history to that which TEE DISPATCH will give its readers one oft of-t tefce days Undar this head this good president of ours feebly waves tho bloody shirt a little but we can overlook over-look that because it has lost its power to array men on an issue dead and buried thirty years since This backward back-ward glance of President Smiths is harmless and only furnished him an opportunity to do a bit of fine writing but helps not his argument nor hurts the dumociatic position The democratic party has never hesitated when in power to deal us deadly blows says Mr Smith Yes it dealt Otah republicans a series of deadly blows when it passed the statehood state-hood bill gave back the escheated churoh property opened the Uintah and Uncomphagre reservations refused re-fused to permit the carrying out of the scheme of unloading uuon Utah of tho Colorado Utes aud a good many other things of that sort These were deadly blows to Utah republicanism we admit ad-mit but they are received as they should be by Utah proper as great blessings rather and these deadly blows if nothing else would will result re-sult in a groat and overpo ering democratic demo-cratic victory True the republican party brought the great civil war to a close but it did not give statehood to Utah or return the escheated property to the church |