OCR Text |
Show Moses Thatcher I T IS moat difficult to give a clear idea of what J Moses Thatcher was in lite, in arfew lines in a newspaper. He was a most winsome man personally, a natural orator, a subtle thinker, 1 a natural leader of men. He failed in his am bition whdn it was not right that he should fail, and our belief is that his natural sense of honor and the sincerity of his religious convictions were what closed his life when he was falsely assailed; as-sailed; when personal hate set the tongues to wagging, that he was exceeding his privileges under un-der his religious obligation; that whatever the reasons given for pursuing him may have been, j, the real reason was the hate of one who knew how easy it would be for Mr. Thatcher to denounce de-nounce him and give the reasons, but who trusted to Mr. Thatcher's loyalty to his church, to prevent his speaking. However this may be, In the supreme su-preme moment Mr. Thatcher failed and without plaint took up his burden and died with his lips still sealed. Manj times, thinking of him, there has come to mind the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, but the feet part of iron and part of clay. There was nothing wrong until the clay in the feet crumbled and the whole image was shattered. shat-tered. The raci of Logan will always hold his memory mem-ory in deop reverence. He was a sterling man, he had the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, but his feet had with the iron a mixture of common clay and because of this his life's just ambitions weie shattered. He was anatural American; he had an American's just ambition; we believe that above all else he desired to see this church and people in full accord, with the Great Republic, and that he carried to his grave a vast regret that thin cannot be. He was one of the foremost men who ever joined the Mormon Mor-mon church We believe he was sincere in that and that the 1 egret of his life was that the institution in-stitution would not come into perfect accord with the nation. We also believe that when he became a can- i didate for senator his honest belief was that the promise of the church chiefs that they would no lpnger interfere in the politics of Utqh, would be kept, and that the charge made against him that he was a candidate without permission, was trumped up to cover the personal hate of an en- f emy, high in the priesthood for religion does "" not kill the natural fierce passions of men, even J when they become high priests who was deter- mined that the high honor should never be Mr. j Thatcher's; that the same influence deposed him from the Apostleship. , That he never denounced these enemies and made clear the real facts, was because of the vows he had taken, which vows bound him even , when he saw the insincerity and wickedness of some who had taken the same obligations. He lias at last found peace and he goes to his grave the foremost man of his creed in this generation |