| Show d A STRIKINO LIKENESS Theaddress of the delegation who carried car-ried the Declaration and Protest to Washington I Wash-ington is now published in the church papers 1i i9 much in the same strain as the Declaration but is more conservative i In itwe find the following remarkable aislmonj iJ snpt the mere dictum of the Church authorities The First Presidency Presi-dency of the Church had nothing what ever to do withjihe preparation or ratification rati-fication of ttjMdaration of f thbpeoples grievances and thir protest of wrongs inflicted in-flicted upon them The above statement state-ment majbe true in every paiticular but there IB noUone man in a hundred in UtairTerntoTj will Accept it as per fectfy rue or candid < It is strange that the call for mass meetings which was made at the Loran conference was made on the motion MrJleber h J Grant an r t aposHcof the Mormon church immediately immedi-ately after the reading of the epistle which Mr Tavlor and Mr Cannon addressed ad-dressed to the officers and members of the church in conference assembled Mr Grantd motion was in the language following fol-lowing In view of the statement in the epistle that we have heart read that tho proportion propor-tion of tho male members of our Church I whoflrA living in the practice of plural marriage mar-riage is but little if any more than two percent per-cent of the entire membership of the Church It J mQo that n comi itt Q be appointed bv this Conference to1 arrffV a series of resolutions ana n protest pro-test to the President of the United States and to the nation in which the wrongs the people of this Territory havo suffered and are still cnffnrinnr frnm the tvramiical conduct 01 ieuerai pmciai3 shall oe set forth specifically and in detail and asking in respectful language for the same treatment treat-ment to which other citizens of the United States are entitled and leport the same to a mass meetino which snail bo hereafter cele n This seems very like an impromptu affair does it not Delegate Caine in presenting tlie Declaration said that U the people wanted to have formulated formu-lated the facts of their faith such as are made the cause of complaint against them i a This has been done and the people have approved thereof and made it their act andfdeed But still we are assured I that 7 the First Presidency of the Church had nothing whatever to do with the preparation or ratification of the declaration declara-tion To have made the statement complete in every respect the committee shouJOhave said that the First Presidency have nothing whatever to do with anything any-thing in this Territory especially where the doings of the Mormon church are 1 J concerned The committee to draft the N I I Declarations as nominated by l the presi dentof the conference which shows how free from ecclesiastical influence the whole proceeding was It seems that the JD 88mcetinIl8wert to kJflhlfll 11flA1ftfl wh nr Mr Grrant t made his motion and with this also it is to Iw presumed that the First Presidency had nothing to do There was a wonderful similarity in the l language ol the Epistle and the Declaration Declara-tion which we pointed out in parallels some time ago and a gjeat many thought that the two documents werejrom the same hand but they were not as the First Presidency alone drew up the Epistle and with the Declaration we know that t they had nothing to do for Mr Caine told the President they had not The only true and satisfactory explanation ex-planation Which can be given for these the-se ing similarity between the Epistle I an < 1the Declaration is that the First Presidency who promulgated their Epistle at Hiej Logan conference I April 2 1885 must have copied in a sloyenjy Wanner tOO the language and form of the Declaration which the committee who drew up that instrument promulgated to the world Saturday Sat-urday May the second 1885 No other liVDothesis Will rive so satisfactory a re suIt Why was it necessary for Mr Caine to assUre the President in the very outset of hisaddress that the Declaration and Protest Pro-test oi jtlie I people I did not emanate from thedirst Presidency Did there lurk in Mr Caines mind a suspicion sus-picion that the President would think the First Presidency had had everything to do with the declaration and latiflcatipn of the peoples grievances if r he were not assured by the peoples rep resentativoliiat suchwas not the case It was at very strange thing to tell the President that along and JengUiy declara tion which had been ratified by the people peo-ple in a hunclEedmass meelings wasnot j the mere dictum of the church authori tiesh t was 4tRefe Will of airee people peo-ple ireljy expr ssedtlie same will which unanimously elected Mr Caine to Congress Con-gress But it is pleasing to know that J the First Presidency of the church had I nothing whatever to do with the preparation prepara-tion ratification of this declaration of I the peoples grievances and this protest of wrongs inflicted upon them It I I provesone thing i at least that it is neccs saryfto go away from home to learn the latest news about domestic affairs |
