Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-02
THE DECLARATION AND PROTEST.


The Declaration of Grievances and
Protest" for which the public have been
so long and anxiously awaiting, has at
last appeared The committee appointed
at the Logan conference have been long
in secret session, and as a result Of their
deliberations and profound secrecy, they
have brought forth their Declaration,
which we print elsewhere.
The document is in no way remarkable,
save it be that in no part does 1t offer
any solution for the problem in Utah.
From the gravity of the situation and the
fact that never before in the history of
the Mormon Church have the Mormons
been brought face to face with the govern
ment and the question whether or not
they will obey the laws passed for the
suppression of polygamy, or suffer the
consequences of disobedience to those
laws To-day they must decide for them
selves what their course will be, and say
whether they choose to conform to the
laws willingly, or whether they prefer the
long and tedious but certain process of
trials and convictions, followed by fines
and Imprisonment. One fine and one
imprisonment will not free them from
future trial and punishment, if the law is
again broken by those who have suffered
once for its infraction; and this should be
remembered.
Almost at the outset, the Declaration is
at least seemingly, if not Intentionally,
dishonest, for in paragraph five it says:
They firmly believe that God has revealed this
to them as a command, but while patriarchal
marriage, as it is termed, is part of their faith
and practice, they have no idea that it should
become universal. The equality of the sexes,
if no other reason, would prevent this. 1t is
mistaken idea that our Church favOrs the propa-
CATION of this doctrine or seeks to establish il
as a universal system.
This is a new doctrine in regard to the
equality of the sexes as a reason why
polygamy will not become UNIVERSAL and
heretofore, as we remember, one of the
great arguments in favor of polygamy
was the great inequality of the sexes and
the preponderance of the female sex.
Massachusetts, which heretofore has been
the great ground for supplying the SUI
perabundance of females and the argu-
ments in favor of polygamy, should take
note OF this new discovery in Utah. If
the Declaration is correct, why was the
revelation on polygamy given if the
Mormons have no idea that it should
become universal? As we remember, the
theory has always been that the revelation
on celestial marriage was given to hasten
forward the work of redeeming the world,
and that those spirits which had not
come on to this earth might receive
bodies in which to perform the work of
this probation, and then pass on to
another probation beyond this world. Is
this wrong idea of the doctrines of the
church heretofore? If it is a mistaken
idea that the Mormon Church favors the
propagation of the doctrine of celestial
marriage, why is it made so
prominent a topic in all the eer-
mons which the leaders launch
on the heads of tlrcfr followers, and claim |
as the most precious of their doctrines, as
it is the one which is to most speedily
hasten the coming of the Savior? Surely
the teTorizing in Utah is on account of
the practice of polygamy, and nothing
else, and upon the cessation of its prac-
tice in Utah there will be a cessation of
the prosecutions.
The Declaration says that plural mar
riage was publicly proclaimed doctrine
OF the church in 1852, and that
Congress declared it a crime in 1862. !
DO those who framed the Declaration de-
sire to convey the idea that plural mar
rage was unknown up to that time?
Such surely is the inference to be drawn
from their statement. If such is their
intention, they are but badly versed in
the history of their church, for long before
Utah was dreamed of by the Mormons.
polygamy was doctrine and practice
Of their church, and there are plenty of
men and women who were born in
polygamy who saw the light of
lay long years before 1862. There
ire prominent ladies in the Nor
non Church in Utah to-day who were
he wives OF Joseph Smith, and joseph l
smith was murdered at Carthage Jail in
S44. :
Was ever stranger statement made i
han this? G
The law of 1862 was not declared Constitr V
onal until the 9th of January 1879 Plural Il
ldrrlage, therefore, was openly taupbt and n
gsinst gSiGtsea a. ten years before any law existed
SaIust IL ana twenty y-Seven years had elapsed :.
rom rom the time of its first public promulgation II
hul m ihe supreme Court decided the law to he 4
The gentlemen who propounded this v
eem to think that the laws are to be s
eemed unconstitutional until otherwise "
eld, when the presumption is that all h
'ws are valid until declared invalid. W
Following this, there comes the c
declaration, the story of the Mormon :,
ilgrimaye to the territory of Mexico, u
18th which all are familiar, and tells that o
ory substantially as it was. o
The Declaration then goes on to tell a
ow ito a delegation which narrated in ia
lrnlng words the story of our wrongs in tr
lssouri, the Chief Magistrate of the 81 3,
luon made the humiliating confession in
lat though our cause was just he could pc
nothing Tor u.s. which refers to the su
tervlew which Joseph Smith had with ir' r
'esident Van Buren and John C. Cal ~ ~
'un. DO not the gentlemen who drew
the Declaration, and who IN the sec
III paragraph after this coy. H., ..r,, NJ