Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-10-20
HEAVENS HELP.

help themselves. Certainly those who
? help themselves have better chance Of
success than those who sit idly by and
expect and want heaven to do it all. At
the present time in Utah great many
people are imploring heavens help, but
they implore it in blind, fanatical way.
They are imploring heavens help to aid
them in escaping the natural and legiti-
mate result of their violation of the
laws of their country. The one law
which they have broken more than
all others is the Edmunds law.
But this is not the first law on the same
subject as the Edmunds law that they
have broken. The anti-polygamy law of
1862 was as valid law as the Edmunds
law OF 1882, and was enacted for the
same purpose; that purpose was to sup
press polygamy and preserve the mono
gamic system of the family. New pro-
+ visions were introduced into the Ed
munds law to accomplish the object
sought to be accomplished by the anti
polygamy law of 1862. This provision
was the insertion of the unlawful CO.
habitation clause in the Edmunds
law. While it may not have been
so efficacious as could have been
desired, still much has been done in the
way OF Furnishing actual violators of the
law, and this has taught the people of
Utah that law of Congress can be en-
forced, and it has spread terror among
them that is hard to realize by those who
do not move among them occasionally.
To one who has not known the sentiment
of the people of Utah in years past the
change to-day can never be realized.
Once that sentiment was defiant, and
openly and boldly declared that the peo-
pie of Utah would maintain their rights,
as they conceived them, no matter what
laws Congress might pass, or what effort
the Government might make to enforce
the laws of Congress. This same senti
ment occasionally finds utterance
to-day through the press and pulpit of
the Mormon people, but in the hearts Of
that people it finds faint and doubtful
response. To-day the people are asking
when will the change come, when will
the persecution cease and the load be lifted
from them. There was time in Utah
when the people would have answered
these questions, and their answer would
, have been something like this: The
change will come, the persecution will
cease, the load will be lifted when
we, the people of Utah, say to our
enemies, thus far and no farther And
in the days when the people of Utah
would have so answered the questions
which they are propounding to-day, they
would have believed in their power to
accomplish what they declared. If they
were to SO say to-day, they would not be-
lieve themselves. This of itself marks
great change in the sentiment OF the peo-
pie. But there is another change in the
sentiments of the people of Utah, no less
radical, no less hopeful.
Within few days the writer was in
one of the leading towns of the Territory,
and met number of old friends, all
members of the Mormon Church.
In the course of the conversation
the Edmundss law and the prose-
cutions Hereunder came up. One
lady expressed her mind upon the
subject under discussion, and said that
she had great sympathy for those polyg-
amists who had married plural wives and
reared families long before the passage OF
the Edmunds law; but she also said she
had little or no sympathy for those who
had married into polygamy since the pas
sage of the Edmunds law. This lady
thought that the polygamous families
which were formed long years ago should
not be disturbed, for to rend them
asunder now would be to render great
hardship and sorrow to many. The re-
marks of this particular lady were the
sentiments of two other ladies present,
and there was not one dissenting voice.
The existence of such sentiment among
the Mormon people was not new to us,
but we did not know till within few
days how widespread it is.
With such sentiment as this among
the Mormon people, they have the means
of making the change, ceasing the perse-
cutions, lifting the load for which they
have implored heavens help. 1t is our
honest and sincere belief that if the Nor
mon people would honestly and sincerely
discontinue and prohibit plural marriages
among them in the future, and evidence
.Esuch discontinuance in a manner to sat
isfy the Government of their sincerity and
desire to discontinue polygamy, that the
Government would not disturb the old
families that were formed long ago, al
though they were formed in violation of
the law. Why does not some one who
has some influence among the Mormon
people, and who has their interest at
heart, come forward and endeavor to set
tie peacefully question that must be
settled? Last spring a delegation waited
upon President Cleveland and presented
him with Petition and Protest He was
kind and courteous to the gentlemen
composing the delegation, and from
his conversation with the gentlemen,
as reported by themselves, he seemed
very desirous of having those gentlemen
make some suggestions which might
show desire on the part of those whom
they represented to obey the laws, and
at the same time allow the polygamous
families formed prior to the passage of