Show HfiDERAL AFFAIRS AND FEBERA I OFFICIALS 1 Saturday night we said there was a most serious condition of affairs here and that things were fast coming to a crisis We repeat it today and are more convinced con-vinced of the fact than we were then Why do we repeat it tonight and what new if any information have we Because Be-cause it is time and wo twant people to know and comprehend it and to fully appreciate it It is because we have had old news confirmed and many suspicions have become facts Further lye have Been high men from both parties in strange places On our old information informa-tion we nail this thesis to the doors of the News and of the Tribune The conflict con-flict of authority in Utah Territory is in check and that each paper knows it anis an-is silent and waiting to see who shall first cry checkmate It is a consultation game on both sides What is this conflict of authority in i in Utah It is this The Mormon peo pie came to Utah when it was Mexican territory and doubtless intended to buildup up a state that would from its strength be able to obtain recognition from Mexico and if the recognition was not voluntarily vol-untarily given to take it This policy was not definitely mapped out hi the beginning but was gradually assuming that shape when the war with Mexico broke out and Utah with other territory was ceded under the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo to the United States It was from the United States they had gone to find a refuge At that time it was a refuge we say and not a kingdom on earth they were seeking Bear this in mind The Mormon church being exclusive was necessarily dominant Churches being as they all think of eternity heed not the changes which time brings The change brought about by this new condition con-dition was much the same as the old one from which they sought to be forever free The Mormons had come under the exclusive ex-clusive jurisdiction of the United States and there was no State government to in anyway interfere The charter of politi cal power in Utah was then as it is now the Organic Act it defined all our powers here and our relations to the Federal government The first legislative notice of Utah politics was the famous law of 62 It was in nowise obeyed and to put the truth as it is was not respected It was sincerely believed by Mormons to be unconstitutional and there was a question ques-tion by nonMormons as to its validity The Reynolds case decided the matter and the law of 02 was sustained During the interim from 62 to 82 we had the Poland law with many suggestions sugges-tions and much agitation In 82 came the Edmunds law and the Utah Commission Commis-sion test oaths and the disfranchisement of numerous voters The balance of I power remained where it had been and must ever be and ought to remain in all government based on the will of the peo pie and that will finding expression at t the polls This being the case wherein was impossible for any conflict of authority author-ity to arise between the parent the Federal government and the child the Territorial government It was hereIn here-In every country of modern Europe in every State composing the American Union as well as in ancient Greece and Romo the family and the power to determine deter-mine and to define its status with its rights and its duties carrying with it as it does the laws of inheritance and the rules governing descents has always been within the domain of civil polity and must there remain The family status in all these countries has ever been based upon the monogami system In Utah the polygamic system was established by the Church and the Territorial Legislature composed of churchmen and controlled by the Church I did nothing in the premises The National Na-tional Legislature did and declared de-clared that to establish a family status alien to and inharmonious with that of the whole country both in sovereign States and Federal Territories was a crime and must be punished as such On the other hand the Mormon church said it is our religion andtheJConstitu tion guarantees noninterference with the free exercise thereof The United States have said it may be your religion and your sincerity we do not doubt but it is the very foundation of our being and to give to another its control is to imperil our life The Church said it is Gods the Govern ment said it is Caesars and to Caesar must and shall be rendered the things that are Caesars > That is the situation here is the conflict Does any man here today doubt the earnestness with which Caesar has spoken The hand of Ca saris sar-is being felt while the hand of God is not seen Part of the trouble has been created by United States officials who have had more interest for themselves than their government It is so today A con etant cry has been that more legislation is needed in Utah and yet no effort until un-til the present one has been made to see how nearly old legislation would meet the situation It is meeting it very well it is telling anew the story of the Farmer and the Lark The whole trouble is that the Church has dictated the State It is but an ancient trouble in new place The interference of any Church isis is-is to be frowned down upon Let us recognize facts and not factions It is an open secret in town that within a fortnight Governor Murray has feasted the ministers minis-ters of all denominations including bishops and rabbis and that all were asked to endorse Republican rule in Utah to a Democratic Administration in Washington Governor Murrays gallantry gal-lantry in the field cannot be doubted nor can Governor Murrays unfitness for his civil position be doubted The evil to be cured is found to come from the union of Church and Stote and 1Ii > I to its cure he brings his churches Ah yes it is an anomolous case and we I must remember the end the end the end True extraordinary ends i need extraordinary means and in vain have we searched Swift to find wherein lay the difference between the Big Endeans and the Little Endeans which he so clearly points out Perhaps the Big Endeans will kindly show us while from the Little Endeans we shall we know we shall receive an explanation explana-tion so lucid that the light of the sun will be as darkness We await them |