The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-03-30

| that joined IN the cry or the plot
that is not guilty OF persecution and
the more stOutly and persistently he
denies it the more guilty, the more
manifestly guilty he is. Edmunds
| is prosecutor. So is Murray. So
is every member of Congress who
voted for that persecutive bill. So
is every person who sustains it,
either openly or tacitly. Their
names, so far as known, will be ex-
ecrated in all future ages. When
they go before the bar for final
judgment, they will go as persecu-
tors of the saints, and they will be
| judged and condemned as such, I'M
less they shall have repented and
been converted and had their sins
remitted in the name of Jesus
Christ, and by virtue of his atone
! ment.
I proclaim the Edmunds bill as
persecutiVe bill, as expressly in
tended to be such, which it GER
tainly was. I will not sanction it.
L wash my hands of it. / will have
no part nor lot in the matter of har-
rying, raiding and robbiDg a COM
munity, peaceable, industrious,
orderly, law-abiding community. l
denounce the whole scheme in toto.
The entire movement against the
MormOns is a persecutiVe move
ment, pure and simple, with malice
aforothought. There is not a
shadow Of doubt about it. Fifty
millions Of people holly banding
together to Cypress, rob and destroy
10000 people, because they worship
God according to the dictates Of
their consciencesi What noble
spectacle for gods and men to gaze
upon! What a magnanimous ma
ton to be sure! Getting excited by
lies, prejudice and blind passion
into state of hot and eager mad
ness, and in that disgraceful condi-
ton driving through Congress, with
indecent haste, that brooks no
chance for reasons sway, a bill of
pains and penalties that upturns
the very foundations of American
liberty! This is the beginning of
folly, wickedness and sorrow.
What will be the end there
of? The prospect is most dis
couraging to the real lovers of civil
and religious liberty everywhere,
because this land is proclaimed as
pre-eminently the land Of liberty,
and is looked up to as such by the
nations. Now there is a rushing in
hot haste to belle that boastful
proclamation, to give the living lie
to the proud assertion that
| America is freedom sfaVOrite habitat
and to demonstrate that it is rather
the lair of license. If l know it I
will not consent to the robbing of a
people of their constitutional privi-
leges and rights, especially small
and feeble people, and again, and
more especially on account of their
religion, for that is "a sacred matter
between them and their God. This
perSecutive bill is not the work of
honest men nor of wise men. 1t is
the work of fools, rascals and mad
men. 1t is the worst bill that was
ever passed by Congress and signed
by the President. 1t is the inaugu-
ration of bad things, not for Utah
only, but for the whole Union. 1t is
easy to begin the letting out OF
water, but is hard to stop 1t and
harder still to pay the damage.
| The time has not yet come when
the preparation of crimes in the
name of liberty has ceased. All
nations have their rise and fall,
their growth and their decay.
and the fall comes from corruption.
When American liberty is destroyed,
it will be done in the name of
liberty, and the Edmunds bill is the
entering wedge of that most un-
welcome and most portentous de-
StructiOn. AS true lover of liberty,
l mourn the sad and solemn fact
ard would avert the awful conse-
quenceS ii [ could. But when a
nation determinedly destroys its
own liberties, and seals its own
doom, what can a man do to hinder
it? Nothing, absolutely nothing. 1t
must and will go down, and no
power can help it, for it is merely a
matter of time. The people of the
Union, entirely without reason, are
exceedingly mad against the Nor
| JNoU hOWs AAoCA1OoO 10
neither proper legislative nor a
proper executive mood. 1t was a
proverb centuries ago that whom
the gods would destroy, they first
make mad. The ancient proYerb
may hold good yet. After the
oligarchy, the deluge, the deluge of
anarchy. If Utah is to be afflicted
with the oligarchy, it will be nothing
but fair and right that other
parts of the country be af-
tiicted with the deluge of
anarchy when it comes. This will
also be i'll accordance with the
Scriptures, which tell us that what
we SOW we shall reap, and that
whatsoever measure we mete to
others shall be measured to us in
return. The whole spirit of this
new persecution and of the Ed
munds bill is that the Mormons
have no rights that other people
need respect. Therefore, in devel-
opment of the Scriptural principles
above referred to, the time must
and will come when the prosecuting
| anti Oru1ODc will ho lOOlod u,oOr