| Show LAW AND LIBERTY We me not IJoinnns but we believe aa did thc early Roman patriots that liberty in its true sense does not imply that people may do as they please but that liberty implies im-plies that a person may be free to do that which is right and that which is in keeping with justice honor law and the nobler instincts in-stincts of humanity Hence those parties who have an idea that they can trifle with the injunctions of morality and justice by abusing our principles of magnanimity will wake up and find themselves suddenly nt the end of their tether Such is the conclusion of an editorial which appeared in the Jfomf Sentinel of Friday last The occasion of the editorial was the recent speech of Minister Phelps in London In the same article reference i is made to the scheme of the Salvation Army to gather up the fallen women of London and transport them to America and the Sentinel very properly condemns any such plan But there is a j > eculiar aptness in the concluding sentence of the extract above quoted in leference to the I condition of affairs in Utah The Mormon I I people in Utah above all others have I the idea that they may do as they choose in Utah notwithstanding the laws of the United States The Sentinel is right when it says that liberty in its true t sense does not imply that I people may do as they please Yet such is the interpretation that the people of Utah put upon liberty Such a construction is but a license The people of Utah have maintained hat 1 the religious liberty which the Constitution guarantees to all means that they may set up a marriage system which is forbidden iFS the law not only forbidden by the law but is made a crime by the law they have construed that clause to mean that they may do as i they please They have set up individual i likings and church dictation as the sole criterion i cri-terion of the extent of their libeity and the constitutionality of any laws that Con gress may pass What t has been the 1 con sequence < < of such an interpretation of theorist the-orist it at ion and the t laws made in pursuance pursu-ance thereof I I Tho consequence has been I that I the < itoorili > linvn I flofioil tl < ho Inxvc mr1 I derided the courts so long that to a ery I gioat extent tilt condition of things here i may be I bo described 1 ItS lawlessness j i rocogniod a If religion the law as an invasion I in-vasion of the rights of the citizen and r its I enfonomont as persecution Everything I Every-thing in flah has grown up on the t theory t that tho I Church is dominant and the State suboidinato that I where there is a question as to the rightful authority of I either over any particular thing I pertaining I pertain-ing to the people in their civil capacity I the Church must f take predence of the State The theory and practice in Utah have neon to I treat t Itahand 1 the t Mormon people as greater than the United States and tho American people the part haR been considered l greater than the whole As a partial consequence of this state of things a uroat many of tIll people of Utah have violated the laws of Congress with impunity and now when the supremacy su-premacy of the law is being asserted many men are forced to fly and they and their families look upon the law as a blow aimed at them Children whose lives II have never been of the happiest see their parents refugees from justice and they cannot hut think that a law which I makes their parents refugees a harsh and I cruel law But this in not the worst These same children are taught that 1 this t law is unconstitutional and I that Congress and the Supreme j Court are trampling the t Constitution Con-stitution under foot merely to destroy i i righteouhiies on tho earth Of course this i is all pure nonsense but it has a wonderful i I wonder-ful influence just tIll same And nil this I is the outcome of that false tl pernicious doctrine of liberty which has grown with I such rankness in Utah and which the 1 XrHtinrl condemn If the t Sentinel and I the other pajxjrs of tIll Mormon peoplo would but apply the true doctrine of lib pity to the ol case those t who ate con1 linually t violating the Edmunds law they t I i would poi form a great and good work and then all would tee the Mormon problem on the way to a complete and satisfactory scitlement but if they do not 1 the Mormon people who have an idea that they can trifle with the injunctions of morality and justice by abusing our principles of liberty and magnanimitv will wake up and find themselves Middenly al the end of their tether |
