Show AX OLD CRY In H sermon which he preached in tho Logan Tabernaclo August 23d 1885 Apostle Moses Thatcher among other things said When persecuted driven and many killed tho Saints implored the President of this fjront nation for redress ho answered Your cause is just but I can do nothing foryou That remark of Martin Van Burens has probably been more often repeated in Utah than the Lords Prayer It is always cited when those who address the Mormon people wish to fire their besets with the remembrance of their wrongs It is made use of to convey the idea that a President of the United States while he acknowledged the justice of the cause presented to him sat supinely by and did nothing to protect men who were being be-ing wronged It is quoted to convey the idea to the Mormon people that it was the duty of Martin Van Buren to interfere inter-fere in their behalf when thcv were be ing mobbed in one of the States and I that he refused to perform his plain duty I for fear of the popular clamor To wish to inculcate such an idea shows a great lack of a true appreciation of f the relation of the States to the General Gen-eral Government and of the right of control I con-trol by the States of all internal and domestic do-mestic affairs For Martin Van Buren to have interfered in tho domestic affairs of either Illinois or Missouri at the request re-quest of the delegation which waited upon him in behalf of the Mormons would have been for him to have broken his oath of office violated the Constitution and to have infringed upon the exclusive jurisdiction of a soverign Stato j and surely none so often and so strongly protest their loyalty to the Constitution and its covenants coven-ants as the people of Utah The people of Utah are forever talking about the i right of local selfgovernment and its J sacredness and they are also continually citing Martin Van Burens remark Your cause is just but I can do nothing for you which was the very epitome of local selfgovernment as a reproach to the nation and a stain upon Martin Van I Burens character a very inconsistent proceeding surely Mr Thatcher did not explain this remark of President Van Burons and so he must have assumed that his listeners knew perfectly well its true import or that his listeners were so ignorant of the Democratic doctrine con corning tho rights of the States that his implied meaning of the remark would be accepted as the true one In the one case it was an uncalled for reference to a most proper remark while in the other it was putting tho remark to a false and pernicious use If the people of Utah would devote some of their time to tho study and investigation of the true theory of the American Government they would not have so many false notions concerning concern-ing political affairs and when a commonsense common-sense remark which shows a high regard for the right of local selfgovernment is made they would understand it in its true light and would givo no heed to such erroneous interpretations as Mr Thatch ers use of this remark of Martin Van Burens implies I |