Show AN EPISTLE TO THE PEOPLE 1 Last evening there appeared in the ii 1 News an epistle from the First Presidency J Presi-dency of the Mormon church which was ii read at the Logan conference It is mainly a sermon interspersed with politics poli-tics and expositions of the Constitution The epistle says that c for a wise purpose t in His providence He permits the wicked in the exercise of their agency from r time to time to afflict His followers It seems then that the wicked are as much His instruments as those who are afflicted and that without the wicked He could not test the righteous In heaven the wicked were in the minority but it seems that here on earth they are in the majority But have the raids of the last few months been wholly without with-out cause Has not the sole object of the prosecutions for polygamy been to enforce a law of Congress And is it not true that that law is supreme in Utah until the Supremo Court of the United t States declares otherwise The jury system sys-tem has been the most valuable safeguard fpr liberty ever devised by law makers but it was devised by man and has continually con-tinually been modified by man Nor is the American Congress bound to follow letter for letter the jury system of England no more than England is bound never to change from what it was in the early Saxon times The juries of this Judicial District have been composed in accordance with the provisions of the Edmunds law and that law excludes all polygamists in practice and those who believe in the doctrine in polygamy trials The Territorial Terri-torial Legislature has also excluded 00 from juries in certain classes of cases those who have conscientious scru Ales against certain punishments i But is the law an outrage fort for-t this reason in crimes where certain persons cannot sit on Territorial cases Has there been a man convicted for polygamy who has not been guilty We do not say that the men who have been convicted were not sincere in their belief of the divinity of their institutions but we do say that there is not one of i them who was not guilty as charged Doubtless also the gentleman who signed the epistle deem these laws unconstitutional un-constitutional but does not good citizenship I citizen-ship consist in obeying all laws no matter mat-ter what opinion each citizen may have of them rather than in saying they believe them unconstitutional and disobeying them In the Mormon church it is not each member who decides what is i and what is not the doctrine of the church and its rightful interpretation but the constituted authorities the highest of all authorities being the First Presidency And is a man not in bad fellowship who disobeys the counsel of the authorities So it is in civil government No it is not necessary in America to have passports and have them vised for gentlemen nor is it necessary for officers to send gentlemen word that they have subpoenas to serve and indictments also to serve on them until the officers see t them The officers have certainly been diligent in trying to see them but have failed so far Are the laws made to entrap en-trap the gentlemen or have the gentlemen gentle-men broken law made to punish and prevent certain practices and made a trap for themselves Is this not a strange statement We are fully conscious of our innocence of all violation of the laws of God or of Constitutional laws enacted by man The reference to the English government govern-ment in India is unfortunate as it recalls the reference which Mr Cannon made some time ago to India when he said that the disfranchisementof the elite of this people reminded him of the manner man-ner in which England had deposed the princes of that country The government of the United States does not care for the sanctity which a Mormon throws around his marriage ceremony cere-mony but it cares that the foundation of the State shall not be changed to give to any body of men independently of the law the right to control it Civil governments governments ments have always regulated and controlled con-trolled the marriage contract and that is merely the determination of the United States a determination to control this relation The denunciation which the epistle makes of the crimes of foeticide and infanticide I 1 in-fanticide will meet with the approval of all citizens or at least should They are crimes against nature and the State and should be most severely and relentlessly punished But what guaranty is there that they would entirely cease if the po lygamic system were prevalent everywhere every-where Non whatever The epistle contains the statement that not over two per cent of the males of the Mormon church are practicing polygamy polyga-my then ninetyeight per cent are cheating God by their professions and are not following the practice which was specially and as they believe divinely revealed for them This percent per-cent would make it little less than one per cent of the whole number of inhabitants inhabit-ants in Utah who are disobeying the antipolygamy law surely a very small per cent to make so much talk about a raid on the whole people If ninety eight per cent arc not practicing polygamy poly-gamy then the rights even the religious rights guaranteed by the Constitution Consti-tution of the majority are not being trampled upon It seems that the rights so called of finis two percent per-cent are to control and outweigh the rights of all others This is neither Republicanism 4 Re-publicanism nor Democracy in fact it I looks like autocracy does it not Saloons and gambling dens are not the j I a i i > j > S S necessary concomitants of monogamy any more than of polygamy but of a partial lawlessness and in Utah when others have came who were not of the church which ruled all they took encouragement en-couragement to over ride local laws because defied cause they saw national laws This is a part explanation of our numerous numer-ous saloons and gambling dens at least After all the epistle is a sermon merely |