Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-14

majority OF the MofInoH PeoPie
and but small percentage
are even SUSPECTED N violating the law'
In the name Of this great majority, we |
pray that this unusual, cruel and parual |
administrator ef the law shall cease"
If this he the truth, why did not the
delegation say to President Cleveland:
We are of that great majority, ana our
efforts will be to cause this small per
centage who are suspected of violating
the law, to render to the law obedience
in the future, as this small percentage are
a source of continual agitation in our
midst? If such is not their sentiment
nor their desire, why did they not SO
saw. and tell the President that the small
percentage were in reality the great
majority, so far as directing obedience
or disobedience to the laws is concerned.
Upon this one question, the conduct OF
the small percentage of the Mormon
.people in disobeying the law
and setting up a unit OF the State
which is inconsistent with the fundamen-
tai theory of the American Government,
hang all our troubles in Utah. 1t is to
compel this percentage to come within
the laws of the great, the overwhelming
majority, that men are prosecuted to-day,
and the law rigidly enforced. If values
are unsettled and neighborhoods agitated
and alarmed, it is on account OF the def
ance of the law by this small percentage.
If Hmen fearful of obtaining justice in the
courts, are avoiding arrests, believing no
fair and impartial trial can be had under
existing circumstances" it is because
they belong to that small percentage of
which the Declaration speaks, and be-
cause there has never been a single man
of that small percentage who has been
convicted Of violating the law. but that
was guilty, and who would have been
convicted before any jury in the world.
1t is safe to say that whenever any one OF
that small percentage shall be indicted
| and tried, the evidence will fully establish
the fact that the member of the small
percentage is guilty OF having
violated the laws against polygamy and
unlawful cohabitation.
But did the gentlemen of the delegation
for one moment suppose that the result Of
their mission would be other than what it
is-a determination on the part of the
President to enforce the Edmunds law as
well as all other laws? For him to have
said that he would do anything else,
would have been for him to have violated
his oath of office. Mr. Caine told the
President that, "All we ask is that the
law shall be impartially administered" !"
and in reply the President said: "You
are entitled to that, and, so far as | am
concerned, shall see that it is done,'
which means that things will go
on here in Utah just as they have been
going for year past. The people of
Utah, through a delegation appointed at
general mass meetings, have asked that
the law be impartiafly administered, and
he of whom they asked, and whose duty
it is to see that the law is impartially ad
ministe-ed, has promised them that it
will be so administered. A compliance
with their request means the extirpation
of polygamy in Utah. And this is the
result OF the mass meetings, the Declara-
ton OF Grievances and Protest, and the
mission OF the delegation to Washington.
The people of Utah have sought and they
have found; they have asked and have
been given they have knocked and the
door was opened, and there went out
therefrom the decree that polygamy in
Utah, destructive of the home and fam
lily, must and shall be suppressed.