Show THE WORK OF TIlE COMMITTEE The committee who arc to present the Declaration of Grievances and Protest to the President left yesterday morning The gentlemen will have a pleasant time bee many people esi > ecially if they present pre-sent their petition to all the people of the i United States individually and they should as it is addressed to the People of the United Statesand probably do no good Most of the grievances detailed 1 in thfiir etition are too vague to make an issue i upon and are also barred by I the statute The issue of today is the thing to which the petition should have confined itself and that issue is the suppression of polygamy in Utah The Declaration in which it shall no way suggests a plan by be continued or discontinued it neither asks for amnesty nor says whether the people of Utah will still insist upon it asa as-a religious right In fact the Declaration is a masterpiece in the way of how not to do it Who was the Montague Tigg of I the instrument it is diflicult to say as all who had anything to do with it have been raised in that school i The Declaration makes some grave charges against Federal officials and when tho President and AttorneyGeneral ask for satisfactory evidence in support of the charges it will be rather a hard matter to 1 produce it Is there a gentleman on the committee who has had the requisite legal training to say wherein the conduct of the Chief Justice and the District Attorney At-torney has been at variance with the wellestablished of law Supposing the President says to the committee that he acknowledges the truth of everything which the Declaration charges and then asks them what they and those whom they represent propose to do in future so far as the practice of polygamy is concerned what will the gentlemen reply re-ply If they say they and those whom they represent propose to obey the law will not the question naturally arise in the minds of the President and his Cabinet Cabi-net why did you not so say in your Declaration If they say they do not propose to obey the law will it not be reasonable for President Cleveland to say 10 the committee that it is an insult to him and the nation to wait upon him with their Declaration and that they had better go home as he proposes to enforce the law notwithstanding their Declaration J and Protest These are questions which lit is very likely will I be asked and the answers should be ready and honest The Declaration specially says that juries are packed to convict That can only refer to the fact that those who believe be-lieve in polygamy are excluded from the panel in polygamy trials and to the open venire Those who are excluded from the jury in trials for polygamy or unlawful unlaw-ful cohabitation are excluded by an act of Congress and the power of the District Courts in Utah to issue an open venire has been sustained by 1 the t Supreme Court of the United Slates Mr Cleveland may use these facts as an argument in refutation of this charge and the gentlemen of the I committee will scarce have the hardihood I to say that the decision of the Supreme I Court is unconstitutional although they may say that the act of Congress is invalid in-valid Perhaps Mr Cleveland and the gentlemen gentle-men composing the Cabinet will smile when they read in the Declaration that the effort of their subordinates to enforce the laws here is a crusade and Chat business relations are disturbed values of every kind unsettled neighborhoods neighbor-hoods agitated and alarmed and property prop-erty of the people generally jeopardized ruil l they may say that this part of the Declaration reads very much like the Epistle which Mr Taylor andJIrCan < non issued from the Presidents Oiiice April 1885 which solemnly declared that they considered Uit an act of great injustice to the ninetyeight per i cent do be abused and outraged and have all their business relations disturbed values of every kind unsettled neighborhoods agitated and alarmed l > and the property of the people i generally jeopardized I I because J of this raid upon these alleged breakers of the law An explanation for this seeming jc mblancc may be found in the fact tfiatgroi viinds run in the same chan nets i oome coarse and vulgar mind uie thought that the two documents docu-ments u < > re written by the same hand lint was ever such solicitude shown for a minority before as the pUtlt ml the Declaration show In most i immunities the major ity an k looking ui J1 i < their own interests and if Ihf i oi J persist in such a course of nnr viil upset an entire community and in t ilt t as bad for the innocent as for till gnili the majority I generally make flue 10 Ill lity come to But the course of action hero is highly I Christian and whei tlio minority the two per cent smite ono cheek the major ity turn the olhr one to them and have that smote Viy jmnkc so much ado about the crusade if only 1 about one per cent of tho entire popula tion Js suspected of violating the law If the overwhelming majority of the Mormon people i are monogamists would t it not be for the interest of the overwhelming over-whelming majority of the Mormons to make the small percentage who are suspected sus-pected of violating the law conform to I their practice and tt the same time bring I them into obedience to the laws If the committee represent how Email a per cent of the Mormons are only suspected of violating the law what answer will they make if Mr Cleveland I shall suggest that the majority ought to control and direct affairs and that it is notrepublican toallow the minority to do it in fact to do so is to undermine the I Constitution It is to be presumed that I the committee has thought over all these i i I things and are prepared to meet all arguments argu-ments and facts But how glorious will be their triumph when they come back and to the assembled multitude they say We have met the enemy and we are theirs |