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Show IPcerpsciDim&iIl jpaufagDaiipDiis Election pits Gentiles against Mormons l(1lliflKCTTy) by Kcttina Moench Dooley "Don't fail to cast your vote against John T. Caine and polygamy!' poly-gamy!' The boldfaced advertisement in the Park M ining Record was rallying support for the November 1884 elections, during which a U.S. Congressional delegate would be elected. (Since Utah had not attained statehood, it was allowed to elect territorial delegates who could delegate, although not vote. ) In a speech a few weeks earlier. Mormon delegate Caine had worried that the Gentiles' hatred for the LDS was so strong that some of them might "actually stand complacently by and see many of our people burned at the stake." There was some basis for his assessment of the depth of the discord between the groups. For instance, the Park Record held blameless the Gentiles who had massacred a group of Mormons in Tennessee. Apparently one of the party of masked men who attacked the Mormons had been deserted by his wife as a result of the religious teachings of the missionaries. According to the Record's story, a number of married women and young girls had left their husbands and parents in anticipation of moving to Utah and marrying Mormons. The anti-Mormon sentiment was not confined to Park City. A dispatch from the Arizona Chief was printed in the Park Record which said: "There is now no question but that the Mormons and Navajo Indians have formed a coalition. We have it from reliable sources, and further, the Mormons are getting in a large supply of arms and ammunition. Every Mormon now is armed. The first move the Mormons make looking toward a breakout will be their last, as there will not be enough men left to dig graves for the balance. The Gentiles are prepared." pre-pared." To the Park Record, the Mormons were a vexation, and polygamy a curse. "Congress and the American people have fooled with this question long enough, and the sooner they get at it in a way that means business, the better it will be for all concerned." The Record worried that the issue had gone unchecked too long already, "let Congress set down on this matter at once and real hard, or else let it go until the institution gains strength enough to openly and by armed resistance defy the U.S. Government. "Then the broad West will take the matter in hand, and whip the Mormon Church out of their boots." "We do not' blame any man for protecting the honor of the household," house-hold," said the Record in defense of the attack. "If it becomes necessary to shoot and : kill the lecherous scoundrel that enters and destroys the peace and happiness of the family, it is his duty to do so." The Record made no pretense about its feelings for the Mormons. Nearly eveiy week there was an editorial jab at the members of the church. In one, the Record noted that the "beastly practice of polygamy is an infamy and a relic of barbarism." In another it charged the Mormon Church with "enslaving the souls and bodies of men, women and children by making them adherents, in fact slaves and vassals, under a pretense of providing for them a liberty that is sacred." |