The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-04-12
THE CRUSADE.
Is it Religious Persecution
or Not?
THE CURSE OF FORMER DAYS.
Cases Cited to Show 1t is. the Out
growth of Bigotry-Authority
of Society.
THE CURSE OF FORMER DAYS
SALT LAKE Cry, April I, 1885.

IN
. the spirit of the age in the matter O
elderly of thought and discussion.
9 ask, at your hands space in your
journal to make a few comments or
y some of the theories advocated by
: American gentlemen" in this city.
A person who fails TO see wisdom and
justice stamped on certain Congression
al enactments, and who, in public or in
private. expresses his views in rela-
ton to what they honestly regard as
proscriptive and unjust laws, is brand
ed as ''disloyar' and charged with de.
fiance to the general government; and
: whosoever dare to dissent from the
local Federal Courts and would advise
! others to appeal and battle for their
rights through higher law courts is
guilty of notification and, indeed
treason" Among the principal; char
acteristics that distinguish this age
from the dark ages, are the invaluable
rights of freedom of speech" and the
right of appeal" How men can have
the hardihood in an age and country
like this, the fundamental law of which
assures US the freedom of speech and of
the press never shall be abridged, to
charge men with disloyalty who give
free utterance to their views on any
ipublic measure whether for or against)
is more than | am able to account for,
except it be total depravity," or abso-
lutte ignorance of the character of the
age and country in which they live.
Hear what the great statesman and
philosopher, John Stuart Mill. said on
this subject: 1.-The time, it is to be
hoped, Is gone by when any defense
would be necessary of the liberty of
the press as one OF the securities against
corrupt or tyrannical government. No
argument, We may suppose, can now be
needed, against permitting legislature
or an executive, not identified in inter
est with the people, to prescribe opinions
to them, and determine what doctrines
or what arguments they shall be allow
ed to hear
The charge of notification" and
treason" being laid to those who favor
an appeal against the decisions of the
lower Federal court is too preposterous
to be worthy serious refutation, there
fore, we will pass it by, as being of the
same ilk as that of "disloyalty"
1t is maintained, 1 understand, by
those favoring the crusade against the
Mormon church, that is conducted at
present, that disfranchisement, tried by
packed lures, fine and Imprisonment,
of certain believers in the Mormon re-
liglon, sis warranted by existing law.
and therefore the present crusade Is not
religious persecution" Ii this be cor
rect position, then, but comparatively
few OF the murders that men ascribe to
religious persecution belong to that
class, because, great number of them
have been perpetrated in the name of
the civil law. If it be true that what
ever is inflicted upon the devotees of an
unpopular religion is not persecution, |
SO long as civil law is simply administer |
ed, Protestants can no longer relate |
the cruel circumstances that sur
rounded that good man, Arnold of
Bresica, who was crucified and after
wards burned to ashes, and say he suf- |
fered religious persecution, because this
h0rrld crime was commanded and car
RED into effect by a Governor of the
city of Rome. If the theory be true,
the Catholic historian. VIM. Goblet, is
in error when he narrates the following
as sample of religious persecution
endured by the Cathoh s,becanse, it was
simply san administration of the laws
enacted by the British Parliament.
Speaking of Henry the VIII, Cobbett |
said: Laws were made by him and his |!
seryile and plundering Parliament, |
making 1t heresy in, and condemn1ng
to the fames, all who did not expressly |
conform. by acts as well as by decIara-
ton, to the faith and worship which. as
head of the church, he invented and
ordained. Among his tenets there
were such as neither Catholics nor
Protestants could consistently with
their creeds adopt. He, therefore, sent
both to the stake, and sometimes. in
order TO add mental pangs to those of
the body, he dragged them to the fire
on the same hurdle. tied together in
pairs. back to back. each pair contain
ing Catholic and a Protestant. *&z
He soaked the earth with Catholic and
Protestant blood. and filed the air with
the fumes of their roasting flesh"
Secularists in England. and elsewhere
ielt acuteiy the injustice done them by
the courts of that country. in the in
stance of George Jacob Hoiyoake, being
rejected as juryman and grossly in
suited by the judge and oy one of the
counsel, because he honestly declared
that he had no theological belief; and
with degree OF consistency they view
ed the matter. and always referred to il
as persecution; but why should thew
consider it persecution, if the theory we {
are now considering be correct. since
according to legal doctrine Tin that land {
at that time, August IL, 1857 that no
person could be allowed to take oath in
court of justice who did not profess
belief in a God (any God was sufficiently
and in a future state? Il
Moshiem. Haiiam, Goblet, d 'Aubigne
Hume and other historians have mis-.
informed mankind in relation to the l
extent the world has been cursed with l
religious prosecutions, that is, if moth
ing is persecution which is inflicted by S
the civil law I
Then, if the present crusade against /
the Mormon church is not of the class q
that comes under the heading of reIig;-
Gus persecution. I would like to have {
an explanation of the following cases.
Rudger Clawson and Thomas SIMPSON
were each tried and convicted. under
the same law. of polygamy. Simpson |
a non-Mormon. was sent to prison for :
two years, while Clawson. who is a :
Mormon. was sentenced to four wears, 9
and fined in the sum of !
800. -
Again a registration officer in one of '
he precincts of Utah County, who was c