Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-28

Jefferson in his second inaugural ad-
dress, delivered March 4, 1905, in speak
ing of the Indians, made the following
comments:
'But the endeavors TO enlighten them ON
the fate which awaits their present
course of life, to induce them to
exercise their reason, follow its die
tates, and change their pursuits with
the change of circumstances, have
powerful obstacles to encounter; they are
oombatted by the habits of their bodies,
prejudice of their minds, ignorance, pride,
and the influence of interested and crafty
individuals among them, who feel themselves
something in the present order of things,
and fear to become nothing IN any other.
These persons inculcate a sanctimonious
reverence for the customs of their ancestors,
that whatsoever they did, must be done
through all time, that reason is a false
guide and to advance under its counsel
in their physical, moral or political con-
dition, is perilous innovation; that their
duty is to remain as their Creator made
them, ignorance being safety, and knowledge
full of danger; in short, my friends,
among them is seen the action and counter
action of good sense and bigotry; they, too,
have their philosophers, who find an
interest in keeping things in their present
state, who dread reformation, and exert all
their faculties to maintain the ascendency
of habit over the duty of improving our
reason, and obeying its mandates"
These wise observations eighty years
after they were made are as true as then,
and they are as applicable to the people
OF Utah to-day as they were to the
aboriginees in 1905. There is in those OBJ
servations q world of wisdom, and would
that the people of Utah could but know
them, and would but heed them. The
world moves but slowly, and at times
seems not to move at all. The attitude
of the people of Utah is reactionary rather
than progressive. They have reverted to
that political condition that in other ages
and in other countries has proven incom-
patiable with the moral and political pro-
gress of mankind, and with the best in
terests of the State and the citizens. The
people OF Utah act upon the theory that
man must be moulded to a creed, and
that if the creed ill-fits him, that he, and
not the creed, must be made to bend.
Their creed is but the bed of Pro-
crustes. In nothing is this so well
illustrated as in the doctrine uni
versally taught throughout Utah,
that to cease giving allegiance to
tne creeds of the fathers, both political
and religious, is for the sons to turn
traitors to the paternal threshold and to
become ingrates. The people OF Utah
have failed to distinguish between filial
love and respect and political and intel
lectual allegiance. For man to submit
the dictates of his own reason and con-
science to the approval or disapproval
of another, is for him to be to
that degree unworthy of mans
consideration and respect. If the creeds
of the fathers shall be the convictions of
the sons, then it is there that the son.
allegiance should be rendered. Those
who say that young men should accept
without question and without conviction
what old men have believed and taught,
teach a false and pernicious doctrine.
They come within the description of per-
sons spoken of by Jefferson, ''these per-
sons inculcate sauctimcnious reverence
for the actions of their ancestors, that
whatsoeverthey did must be done through
all time; that reason is a false guide,
and to advance under its counsel,
in their physical, moral, or political con-
dition, is perilous innovation" And thus
it is in Utah; and authority assumes the
place of reason, and individuality is sought
TO be crushed out that an artificial body
may thrive, thrive without let or hinder
ance, though the rights of man be trampl-
ed under foot. Reason is the only true
guide in all things, and he who surrend-
ers his right to exercise it, suTenders his
rights and endangers his liberty. He
who teaches reverence for that which has
been merely because it has been, without
reference 10 the better reason upon which
it was founded, inculcates false doctrines
and would enslave freemen.