Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-27
THE MASS MEETINGS.


Logan conference committee appointed
to draft a series of resolutions,
and protest to be presented to
the President OF the United States, and
at last it seems that the committee has
prepared statement. The appearance
of this document will be awaited with in
terest, not from any special merit or de-
merit in the instrument itself, but from
the fact that it will be the authoritative
utterance of the Mormon church on the
Mormon problem, as the gentlemen COM
posing the committee were appointed by
the church authorizes at a church confer
ence, and the belief is general throughout
this city at least, that the church authori-
ties have superintended and controlled
the drawing up of the statement which is
to be made public on Saturday, May I'd,
1885, at mass meetings which are to be
held in the several stakes of Zion" If
the statement which is then to be sub
mitted to the people is not to be made
known until then, it is safe to say that
there will be no discussion of it whatever,
and that there is intended to be none.
1t will probably be presentation of facts
and non-facts drawn up after the manner
of the Declaration of Independence, and
be accepted by the mass meetings unani-
mously, without any discussion as to
whether it is calculated to accomplish the
object sought, which is a cessation of the
prosecution of various members of the
church who are practising polygamy in
defiance of the laws of Congress declar-
ing such practices to be crimes.
Is the situation of Utah Territory
greatly different from this? The Mormon
people hold the doctrine of polygamy to
be cardinal one, and that this doctrine,
to have any efficacy in accomplishing the
work of redeeming the world from sin
and sorrow, which they believe they are
destined to perform, must be put in prac-
tice, as God requires it, and the Constitu-
ton, as the Mormons believe, guarantees
them the right to practice it as religious
right. A portion of the Mormons do
practice polygamy, what proportion it is
difficult to say, but undoubtedly it is
greater than two per cent. of them, not
withstanding the impression sought to be
conveyed by the Epistle of the Presi-
dency issued at the Logan conference,
that only two per cent. did prac-
tice it. The monogamic portion of the
church believe that the polygamic portion
are only carrying out what they them
selves hold to be an essential doctrine of |
their church and which they also believe
to be constitutional right, and their
sympathies are all with those who are
liable to be prosecuted. The greater part
OF the monogamic Mormons see and re-
gret the course of their polygamic
brothers, and that such a course is not
consistent with manhood nor the funda-
mental precepts OF their religion, which
are the Decalogue. But so strong is their
church in its organization, and so domi-
nant and domineering is the influence of
Its priesthood, that the authority of the
priesthood supplants the reason and in
dependent action of the men composing
the body ecclesiastic, and these men are
afraid to express, publicly, what they
will freely discuss in private, which is,
that something ought to be done
other than drafting resolutions of protest.
Few will deny that the vast majority of
the Mormon people are sincere in their
religious beliefs, and that they deem their
practices sanctioned of God We believe {
hat this fairly presents the attitude of
ihe Mormons, so let us see what the posi-
lion of the general government is. {
In 1856 the Republican party incorpor- {
tied in its platform the anti-polygamy
plank, which was that polygamy in the t
Territories of the United States
must be prohibited; and when S
hat party came into power in 1861, i
he declarations of some five years before S
we're called into action, and in 1862 was n
passed what is known as the anti-polyg- @
my law of '62. The war of the rebel Il
ion coming on, and Utah being so far b
away from the seat of government, gov &c
had things of more importance n
attend to than the suppression of h
olygamy among religious people who
'ere almost isolated from the world. ol
oon after the close of the war, attention it
as again called to the Utah situation.
nd In 1870 there were in si
oduced into Congress a number h;
measures in regard to Utah, OF
ne most famous among them being the cl
ullom bill. This bill was defeated.
n 1874 came the Poland law, and in 1882
he Edmunds law and the Utah Com 90
lission. So old and familiar has the III
ory become, that it almost demands an fir
biology for its re-telling; yet in this story nj
contained the history of the growth of ne
olygamy in Utah, and the attempts to
ppress it. But all these efforts have sn
lied of their object, until recently, when, oh
rough continued and strong effort on lvi
e part of the present Chief Justice and re,
ltrict Attorney TO enforce the law, the m,
'Jcct OF twenty-three years of abortive at no
mrs. fast being accomplished and the Sa
N aTelt is determined that it shall be cir
Vomplished and that, come what may, Ce
{ pf8ctice of polygamy in Utah shall wa
ase. V,
II is de knowledge of the positions ssn
tl,c ,.n.A-.l-- of - IL