The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-03-18
A Mormon Panic.

Under the pressure OF laws rlgldly
enforced by fearless and uncompromis-
ing officials, Mormondom is in panic,
and its leaders, terror-stricken, are
seeking cover. The people have be-
come so much accustomed to the def
ance and non-enforcement of federal
laws in Utah that the news of de-
termined and effective attack upon
polygamous Mormons, in the territorial
courts, is equally surprise to the Ma
ton and the " Latter-day Saints " them
selves. Governor Murray of Utah has
long been the resolute foe of the pecu-
liar institution of Mormonism, but he
has not been sustained by the courts in
his endeavors to enforce the laws
against polygamy. Last fall Judge
Zane, the new chief justice, and soon
after Mr. Dickson, the newly-appointed
district attorney of the territory, en-
tered upon the discharge of their duties,
and, for the first time since their re-
moval from Nauvoo to Salt Lake, in
1916, the Saints have felt the heavy
hand of the United States judicial au-
thority. Polygamy had been practiced
at Nauvoo, and this had produced the
uprising of the people which ended in
the shooting of Joseph Smith, the
founder of the sect, and in the exodus
to Utah. In 1852, at Salt Lake City,
Brigham Young, who had become the
head of the 'Saints," read at public
meeting revelation " which, it was
alleged, had been made to Smith at
Nauvoo, commanding him to take as
many wives as God should give him.
Plurality of wives, always believed in
and practiced, was then first for
mally and openly received as the
cardinal doctrine of the Mormon faith,
and it was afterwards rigidly en-
forced upon the recalcitrant. Estab-
lished in that remote and then al
most unknown and inaccessible region,
in their distant isolation they defied
the Nation as well as the laws of God
and the usages of civilized society.
The country was erected into terri
tory in 1851, and Brigham Young was
appointed governor. The Saints drove
out the federal judges. The govern
ment undertook to assert its authority.
Governor Young was suspended. Col
J lisions between the Mormons and the
United States officers became more and
more frequent, and, in the spring of
1856 the latter were obliged to flee from
the territory. In 1858 a federal army,
, under General A. S. johnson, was sent
into the territory, and the rebellious
believers in spiritual marriages finally
submitted to United States authority.
After the close of the civil war the Ma
ton again took up the Mormon ques-
ton. In 1871 polygamy was declared
to be a criminal practice, contrary to
l the laws of the United States. But it
= was in vain that judges charged grand
] juries of Mormons that polygamy was
= a crime, and that they must search out
3 and indict those who were practicing
5 it. The laws and modes of procedure
| of civilized communities were power
= less to discover culprits concealed by
; Mormon craft and perjury. In 1874
: the Poland law placed the choice of
; jurors in non-Mormon hands, and in
various ways took from the church the
ability to nullify the efforts of the fed
: eral courts. But so fierce has been
the determination to guard {" the twin
!, relic" against federal attacks, and SC
: shameless has been Mormon lying, the
b "Saints" have successfully defied the
d government till the present time. The
l.. Edmunds law of 1882 struck polygamy
e a terrible blow and raised a wrathful
n wall throughout Mormondom. 1t dis.
r franchised the great mass of Mormon
+ voters, so that in 1882 no election was
e held in Utah. Polygamists had los
: the ballot, but they kept their wives
v Until toward the close of 1884 the
n leaders kept up show of defiance OF
e the laws of the land, and the enemies
u of this blot upon our civilization were
n considering what means should mex
s. be employed to wipe it out, when thu
# work of cleansing is found to be on the
IS eve of successful accomplishment.
# special correspondent of the Boston
= Advertiser, writing from Salt Lake
e City, thus graphically narrates the
). course of recent events in Utah ant
It adjoining territories: "Last fall Judg,
r Zane entered the territory to tax,
e up the duties of chief justice, ant
d was followed soon after by Mr.. Dick
e son, just appointed district attorney
o Nor was it long before grand jury
# was at work, purged of all who either
e practiced or believed in sealing more
s wives than one, which also presently
|. brought in divers indictments for viola
d tons of the marital law. And what {
o flutter through all these valleys But
IS then, the old and sure refuge of lying
II without measure would not fail, ant
, there was no danuar of ponviction