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Show I THE CASE OF APOSTLE SMOOT. A great many men and women are clamoring for the dismissal of Apostle Smoot from the senate on the ground that he believes in polygamy. poly-gamy. That is a serious matter only because we know that he but awaits the command of one man to cause him to go out and proclaim its righteousness. But that command, so far as we know, has not yet been given, and no matter what men's beliefs may be, they cannot be pun-'ished pun-'ished for them until, following those beliefs, they commit some overt act which makes them lawbreakers. law-breakers. But in his article in Out West the president of the . Mormon church gave the status of the priesthood of the church. He explains that there is. a lesser and greater priesthood; the former subject to the latter, the Aaronic and Melchisedek, the. former to manage temporal affairs, the latter those who have charge of the spiritual affairs of the people. After naming the classes into which the two orders are divided he says: "A full equipment equip-ment is thus shown for the government and conduct con-duct of the church, both spiritually and temporally." tem-porally." In the same article he declares that the temporal tem-poral part of the Church of Christ is essential to its existence in this material world, almost as essential es-sential as the spiritual part. Those are the statements of the facts. Now let us see by the status of this higher priesthood what they claim under their system. Joseph Smith organized an army, had himself created a lieutenant general and devised and adopted a new flag. He also organized courts and a bank, and when he went to Missouri he had a revelation which was in effect that in as much as the people were working in the Lord's cause they might take anything they needed. Naturally the Missourians objected. Then they went to Nauvoo. In about four or five years the men of Illinois could not stand their methods and drove them out. They came to Salt Lake and founded here a purely theocratic government in which the people were but slaves, the chiefs everything. They have since changed the form but the spirit is the very same. How they feel has been publicly expressed by more than one of their leaders, which, in substance, sub-stance, is that "the earth is the Lord's, he created it; he has a right to rule it, and' does rule it through his priesthood and all other earthly governments gov-ernments are usurpations." Moreover, we know that there has never been a command from the head of this Melchisedek priesthood that the people have not obeyed. We know that the church courts have more than once reversed the decisions of our higher courts, and' compelled obedience toheir mandates. man-dates. X, What more does the senate of the United States want to know about the Smoot case? Mr. Smoot is of the highest class of the Melc. oedek priesthood, in direct succession to the presidency. presi-dency. He has taken the oath of hostility to this republic. Mr. Smoot before and since his election to the senate has used his pristly power to compel com-pel the election of his creatures to political offices. of-fices. He has shown his utter contempt for the free American ballot. From the commencement this system has sought, incessantly, commercial and political power. They are the vital and underlying under-lying bases on which the whole sinister structure has been upreared. And no scruples have restrained re-strained the chiefs in the exercise of this power. Polygamy has been but the nasty cement to hold the thing together, for when men and women are so involved what can they do but declare that the whole business is divine? What would the senate do were it to learn that ten thousand Turks had settled, say in Florida, Flor-ida, had established a perfect government, had received their laws from the sultan of Turkey; that to him they paid annual tribute and obeyed without question his commands? Further that they had become naturalized and on every election elec-tion day voted as they were commanded from Constantinople to vote, and that they made the balance of power in Florida, and were stretching out into Georgia and Alabama? Substitute Joseph F. Smith for the Sultan and Salt Lake City for Constantinople and the above is the perfect description de-scription of the status of Mormons in Idaho and Wyoming. In Utah Mr. Smoot is grand visier to our American sultan. That is, while the majority are native born, they are aliens, for their highest fealty is not to the government of the United States, but to a perfecly organized government within the gov-ernnient gov-ernnient of the republic, and their aim .as proclaimed pro-claimed through three score years by their chiefs is to eventually overthrow free government in this country and to fasten upon it precisely such a rule as that which has held Western Asia in semi-barbarism since before the coming of the Christ. It is whispered that the Republican senators dare not vote to oust Mr. Smoot, lest all this inter-mountain inter-mountain region be lost to the Republican party. Well can it be held to that party if Mr. Smoot is. retained. Eighty per cent of the Gentiles here are naturally Republicans, but above party they are self-respecting men, and men who love justice. jus-tice. Let the Republican senate sustain Smoot in his position and we tell the jugglers in Washington Washing-ton that Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada may thenceforth be permanently included in the Democratic Demo-cratic column. But suppose it were otherwise. There are sixteen electoral votes in Utah and the states surrounding it. But if a Republican senate takes that cowardly view, what about Michigan, Ohio and Indiana? What will Senator Burrows have to answer to the pure women of Michigan? What excuse will Senator Sen-ator Foraker make to the true women of Ohio? What will the splendid women of Indiana have to say to Senator Beveridge? Has it come to this that a power which has broken the most solemn covenants with the government, and is teaching insidious treason to all its adherents, cannot be called to a reckoning because of the fear that a few votes might be lost? It wouH be easy for the senate to pass a joint resolution to read something like this: Whereas, the Melchisedek priesthood of the Mormon church claims political and temporal ; power superior to that of the government of the United States; now, therefore, no member of that ' priesthood shall ever hold any position of honor i under the government of the United States. ij |
