| Show PEOPLES LEIS PARTY declaration of by the peoples party of I utah territory the peoples party struggling for supremacy of constitutional law and the sacred privilege of local self government submit the follow f ing declaration of principles principle we believe that the protection of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness is is the object of free governa government ent and thai that tho the constitution of the united states was ordained and established to secure the greatest possible liberty to man woman and child consistent with the public welfare 2nd and we believe that freo government can only exist where tho the people governed participate in the administration thereof 3rd ard we believe that any party or faction of a political community that seeks to subvert the institutions of local self government aims a deadly y thrust at the constitution and that buch such party or faction is unworthy the suf frages of a free people fth we believe alint any official who attempts to stifle the popular vol voice i expressed at tho the ballot box guilty of treason against the sovereign people ath pcs I we c believe that the right to frame laws suited to th tho requirements of the territory having been vested by congress h 10 the legislature elected by its citizens to deprive arl them of that right by substituting tt i n a commis tion eion arbitrarily appointed and thus to disfranchise a hund hundred red and fifty thousand people and reduce them to a condition of serfdom would be unprecedented in ill the history of the nation an act that could not be justified by any actual necessity and that the attempt bya pretended political party to create such a revolution in the government of thia this territory df ry is worthy only of conspirators and political adventurers ath we believe in the right of the people of a territory ryas as well as mg of a state to test in tha the courts established by the government the or construction of any enactment local al and express our astonishment at the public declaration of ft a high federal official of tb this is territory and the enunciation by a so called toli political party that the people lia had no rights except such aa its congress may grant to them and that to differ with tho the territorial executive about the construction of a statute is nullification wo we utterly repudiate such a monstrous doctrine as worthy of the most absolute fan united I t states constitution n ti i tu ti i coign provisions extends alike over th the states t adeis and territories of the american union and that it is the bounden duty of the governor as much aa as the humblest citizen to yield obedience to tho the laws as th they are constructed by the Courts wo utterly repudiate the unconstitutional attempt by any executive to usurp judicial or legislative functions and to hold tho the american citizen az n bound by the partial prejudiced unfair and illegal construction which he lie may aee see fit to pa place ace upon any statute ath d tal citizenship is the basis of tho right of suffrage rage while the elective frome franchise bise is a privilege conferred bt bv law the qualifications for its exercise exercise grow out of the condition of and as citizenship is not dependent upon sex or regu thereby whatever right of voting originates in the citizenship of men inheres also in the citizenship of women female citizens equal with male citizens arc are agenal amenable to the law cheref therefore ore they diey arc are entitled to an equal voice with men in in tho the framing of the law As all just joist powers of government are derived from the consent of the gov arned and that consent is expressed bythe by the suffrage rage and as women as well as men arc are made subject to the government government overn ment of this country the kial denial of the suffrage to women is inconsistent with the principles which underlie our national institutions the moral and intellectual as well as the physical excellence of our sons and daughters being largely dependent upon the mothers who bear and train them the women of the nation should be endowed with full political freedom that being mado made familiar with political rights and principles they be able to in stil into the hearts of the rising generation gen the spirit of patriotism patri otis m the tb e joys of liberty and a reverence for republican an institutions F or years cars tho the women citizens of utah kave have enjoyed the right to vote at all elections in this territory and have exercised it with credit to themselves and to the benefit odthe of the community and the peoples party hereby denounces the attempts which have been made to deprive debri ve women voters as illiberal and unmanly assaults upon vested rights and upon justice equality and the principle of popular sovereignty ath we believe in a honest and economical administration of government ern ment and point with pride to the economy and honesty with which public affairs fairs rif have been administered by officers elected from the ranks of the peoples part Y yand and also to the fact that tho the taxes in utah are lia lighter liter than any other territory the territory is out of debt the counties with one or two exceptions are in the samo same satisfactory condition the records fail to furnish any airy instance of embezzlement or mm misappropriation appropriation of public funds by any official of that party on the other ther band when wh i by frauds com committed bitted at tho the polls county was wrested from the popular control tho the taxes of the con county rity were shamefully mis appropriated and embezzled county scrip depreciated precia ted from par to less than fifteen cents on oil the dollar and even by tho the economy aud and honesty of ta the 10 peoples officials who have resumed ed control of its affairs and although it its paper is worth ninety per cent county is not yet quite out of debt and has not fully recovered from tho the evils of liberal rule jtb we repudiate and deny tho the charges of lawlus lawlessness ness which have be been en made against the people of utah and as proof that those slander slanders are without foundation we paint point to the records of the courts the chief of which are not vot in any way in the control of which demonstrate the striking fact that the so called liberal class c constituting leas less than twe twenty n t pe per r cent of the population of the territory arri furnishes over eighty per cent of tho the criminals we further repudiate and deny the charges that a church dominates tho the state I that priestly colit control rol is exercised in any manner to infringe upon the freedom of the individual cither either at the polls in convention or in any official capacity that pe perjury ury or falsehood of any kind for the protection of persons from tho the action of law or for any other purpose whatever that intolerance rance 13 exhibited cither either for the discouragement of em emigration agra i ti 10 n the settlement of public bublic blomain or invasion invasion of the rights rieux of any individual that any unequal taxation is either encouraged cou raged or permitted that public accounts are not given of tho the expenditure of public moneys that tho the tenets of aChurch arc are taught in the district schools or that the people arc are influenced to disloyalty or antagonism to the government of the united states or any of ita its representatives senta tives alth wo vo affirm that it is the duty of every ameri american can citizen to render obedience to the constitution of the united states and every law enacted in pursuance thereof we affirm the confidence that the territory of utah having tho the requisite population and exhibiting all the qualifications necessary sa to self government its people being beg exceptionally honest thrifty sober frugal and peaceable is entitled to admission into tho the union as a BOTe sovereign reign state we pledge ourselves as a party a t y to the maintenance and defense ferrie of constitutional principles and the inalienable rights of mankind and proclaim ourselves the friends of true liberty civil political and religious to all peo people le in every part odthe of the habitable glotte globe |
