Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-25
WHAT Is WANTED?


become supreme throughout the Terri
tory, and there is no one to dispute the
authority of Congress and the courts, g
loud call and strong effort for Com
mission are being made, whose object
now is the protection of the people, who
but short while since, were declared to
be in rebellion and were always plotting
treason. Two years since the great OBJ
ject for which Commission was wanted
was to secure that which is to-day an
accomplished fact. Then it was the
establishment of the-authority of the
United States in United States territory
to-day it is for the benefit of those who
were then, to use the language of those
who before all things prefer power,
dupes, slaves, aliens and traitors. The
self-sacrifcing spirit OF these men is so
great that they will have to seek their re-
wards hereafter, as any Office or honor
within the gift of the American people is
too paltry to offer them, and their great
souls would refuse the kingly crown
which a grateful people is anxiously
awaiting to tender them. When they
shall have passed away, and pray God to
hasten the day, for already some of them
have outlived their usefulness, their
names will be enshrined in songs Of praise
by unborn nations. They fashion forth a
Commission complete in all its parts as
readily as Michael Angelo did a Moses or
st. Peters. So absorbed have they been
with their conception that their great
minds, "minds which, like the elements,
might furnish forth creation, f" have never
deigned to tell what the details should
be, and whether those who were to COM
pose the Commission are to act in accord
ance with the Organic Act modified, or
under a charter such as the Crown granted
the colonies, or are to be given absolute
and irresponsible powers. Is Commits
sion to act in accordance with the rules of
the common law, the rules of the civil law,
or to follow the caprices of the capacious
intellects of the gentlemen who are to
compose the Commission? Do those who
want the Commission think that the
sailing would be smoother than now, or
do thev think themselves far more COM
petent to deal with complex questions
than any one else? By many it is
thought that the cry is chiefly raised by
those who belong to the party of ideas,
the party OF purity and principle, the Re-
publican party; and we who are of the
Democratic party, the party which for
time has been allowed by the Republi-
cans to try its hand at government, are
not fit to do anything save follow the
precept and example of the good and
great Republicans. So good and great
have become the Republicans of Utah,
that now they claim to act from higher
motives than even their party has ever
claimed, and they say that the question
in Utah is one which is not a legitimate
party issue and so persuasive have they
become, that many Democrats, those
Democrats who think they are Democracy
itself and from whose pores there ooses
nothing but patriotism and precedent, are
content to serve those who call them
traitors, rebels, and all else that their su-
perior intelligence can invent or borrow.
Heretofore it has been thought that
the American system of government
was system of party gov
ernment, but the great men of
the Republican party in Utah say that
such system is false, and that the true
system is government by Commission.
How strange it is that Washington,
Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and
the rest of those who have been thought
to be Americans, should never have dis
covered the true idea of our system of
government But, then, future genera
tons will profit by these discoveries, and
the world will be made happier on ac-
count of them. Claiming such reverence
for the reign Of ideas and reason in gov
ernment, they are impatient that ideas
and reason do not move so quickly
rs they themselves, and hence they de-
sire to supplant these with force and
loyalty. Claiming that before all things
their love is for liberty, the moment
liberty is coming and desires to remain,
these men desire to shut her out, think
ing none worthy of it but themselves,
and they say that for freedom to be un-
is to endanger the Union. {
These same men who protest so much E
heir loyalty would prefer to see things
n Utah as they have been, with a re-
mote chance for a Commission, than to
see Utah Republican and the leaders of I
he Mormon people in jail. To-day they I
,ould not tell what Commission could do 8
lor what it ought to do if Cleveland were |
% say to them, Gentlemen, there is a {
,arte blanche; fill it out as you think J
pest, and | will be satisfied" Our advice !
o them is to join with the Logan confer I
nee committee of thirteen and draft a
et of resolutions of protest. 1t would add
5reat weight to that already weighty G
'ody. And then when they waited upon
resident Cleveland and the Cabinet, =
'leveland and the Cabinet could choose s
'etween two evils. If there is such a {
virtue in a Commission, why s
10 not its advocates draw up a complete {,
Ian, that all may know its merits and f,
ecide for themselves? Is it SO vast and s
lgenious that none but div a
ne few can accomplish it? or
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