| Show THE ISSUES I In its preamble the Democratic platform plat-form that was adopted by the Chicago Convention July 10th 1884 began as follows I The Democratic party of the Union through its representatives in the National I Convention assembled recognizes that as the Nation grows older new issues are born of time and progress and old issues perish Looking at the issues in Utah and their causes it may aptly be said that as the Nation grows older old issues are born again and that which once was but has perished and is of the past has become again of the present That which has existed in countries old as civilization itself and has passed away to give place I to progress and the rights of the citizen I is seen in Utah as it was seen in Europe i some centuries since That which was i the ause of half of Europes woes and is the cause of Utahs unhappy condition Ii is the union of Church and State That j t union is the wellspring from which flow I all our ills and evils The cure for such a j state of affairs must come from within to i be effectual and permanent The people i j I of Utah must recognize that their political i rights in Utah came from the fact that i i I they are American citizens and not from j j the fact that they are professors of a creed j or members of a party The great majority j 1 ma-jority of the people of this Territory have I thought that their right to participate in the control of the political affairs has been derived from something other and beyond the fact that they were citizens of the United States So believing they have rendered homage and allegiance I to that other power which power was their church Their politics have been to do the will and wishes of that church I and if at times men have become restive and have felt that the burdens that they bore were heavy and oppressive still they have said to those who were their ecclesiastical ecclesi-astical superiors Thy will be done Reason has been subordinated to authority author-ity and individuality to organization The I people of Utah have sought to preserve their rights and privileges by surrendering surrender-ing them They have thought that which the law protected was higher than the law l which protected They have subordinated their country to their 1 church and that subordination has i brought evil upon them And why Because j I Be-cause they have ignored the great fact that all their civil and political rights are i derived from their citizenship and are I protected and guaranteed by the laws of their common country Such being the I case it is easy to trace out the causes of i I the present condition of affairs in Utah I I and the issues consequent thereon As I I we said about the people of Utah believing believ-ing that their rights in the United States I come from a higher source than their citizenship so they have set up a I marriage system that Is distasteful to the I i ntiment of modern civilization I It 9 Itanti l 11 h I and which the exp t ffi rl tian nations has condemned To suppress sup-press this system of marriage a system I i that the Legislatures of Utah which I until 1882 were very largely composed of I polygamists never once did anything to give it recognition and legality Congress i < passed a law so early us 1862 and the people of Utah have continued their j system of marriage and their defiance of i a paramount law of Congress In J 1882 twenty years after the passage of the first law against polygamy Congress i Con-gress passed another law depriving polygamists I polyg-amists of the elective franchise punishing punish-ing unlawful cohabitation and legitima 1 tizing the issue of polygamous marriages i Polygamous marriages have continued to i be made since 1882 the same as after I 1862 But since 1882 there have been I more convictions for polygamy and unlawful un-lawful cohabitation than for the twenty II I I years prior thereto and never in all those I years was there ever once seen so great despondency among the people as at i present And 1 why is the despondency I among the people so great now Because I they see that their leaders are in hiding that their friends and neighbors are in I hiding and that no man who is violating I the laws be he high or be he low is safe j from prosecution Their consternation arises from the fact that they see the laws I are being enforced because the laws are II I supreme and for that reason alone Already j Al-ready they recognize that their troubles have conic from the fart that they I have thought their church above all law I and that their political control of Utah I because of their majority was a sovereign I control and that in reality Utah is a J part of the Union still in tutelage and dependent depen-dent upon the will of Congress for the exercise ex-ercise of political power The people of Utah have been acting upon and living i in accordance with the theories of the I long past and are only becoming conscious con-scious that they dwell in the present and j that the ideas of today are better than JI those of esterday j and these ideas of today I to-day condemn a union of Church and State j because such a union is productive of naught but evil and great unhappiness I for where it does exist there will ever be i strife and turmoil as there ever has been I Polygamy itself in Utah and the United iI I States is forever an issue of the past and I I be Utah a Territory or be Utah a State i the practice of polygamy will stand upon i i tho statute book a crime The solution t of its existence today is to be found in < Ij j I the enforcement of the law There still j remains much to be done but the simple j I fact that the people recognize that something I some-thing must be done augurs well that something will be done i I |
