Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-09-26
AGITATED.

tated and exercised over the continuing
oGense construction of the cohabitatior
clause of the Edmunds Act Well they
/. may be agitated if they still think that
those who break the laws have right tc
do SO, and that to punish them for so do
ing is hardship and shows great venom
on the part OF those officers whose duty il
is to enforce the law. 1t is rather a
noticeable and remarkable fact that not a
solitary Mormon paper has ever once sug.
gested the idea that perhaps it would be
as well if not better for the Mormon peo-
pie to consider the other side of this Utah
question, that is, the side of the law. They
have never suggested this idea much less
the idea that perhaps after all the law
may be right and they wrong, Form the
very start the Mormon people and press
have assumed that the law was not
only harsh but unconstitutional, and that
they were right and could not be wrong.
In all countries when there is any i'm
portant question to be discussed and set
tied, all parties who are at all interested
in it discuss the pros and cons and then
make up their minds as regards the mat
ter. The people of Utah make up their
minds without any consideration OF the
pros and cons or anything else. On the
assumption that the Mormons are right
and the law wrong, still the fact remains
that the Mormons are settled in a coun-
try with a government and laws, and
9 that some of those laws forbid certain
practices in which the Mormons indulge
rs religious rite. We believe it is very
properly a question of morals and ethics
whether any people have right to claim
the protection and hospitality of coun-
try and at the same time disobey some of
the laws of that country, laws which were
enacted for the express purpose of pre-
serving the unity of the family as the
basis of the State If the claim of the
Mormon people that the Constitution is
an inspired instrument is true, then
every part and parcel of that instru-
ment is inspired, and the methods which
it employs for the determination
OF all questions in regard thereto are like
wise inspired. The method adopted by
this instrument for the determination of
the constitutionality of any law passed by
Congress was the institution of the Su-
preme Court, and such other courts as
Congress in its discretion might see fit to
establish. Congress, in accordance with
the power given it by this inspired instru-
ment, passed a law for the suppression of
polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, and
this law has been tested as to its consti-
tutionality by the very method which the
Constitution provided, and found to be
constitutional. The law of which SO
much complaint is made in Utah on ac-
count OF its harshness and unconstitution-
ality is inspired, as it was made in ac-
cordance with power given in an in
spired instrument and was shown to be
so made by the only method known to
this inspired instrument for determining
the constitutionality of law. But on the
other hand it is claimed by the people of
Utah that God likewise inspired the prac-
tice of polygamy, the very thing for
which this inspired law was enacted
to suppress. Surely here is an
apt illustration of the saying that
God moves in a mysterious way"
There is but one way in which these con-
fllctlng inspirations can be reconciled, |
which is for the Government to submit |
the constitutionality of the laws to the |
decision of the Mormon church or for the |
Mormon church to submit the decision of |
these questions to the Supreme Court,
and then abide by that decision. Such a
course of action on the part of the people
here would soon lead to complete and
satisfactory solution of the much-vexet:
Utah question. 1t would simply be a
recognition of the doctrine that all good
citizens must obey the law until by lcgiti-
mate agitation the law, if obnoxious, can
be repealed. The people of Utah are
agitated simply because they desire to
persist in violating the law, and for no
other reason. Supposing the Government
were to allow the people here to do as they
choose on the ground that they claim a
right to do SO, and suppose that
the same number of Catholics that there
are Mormons in Utah were to come here
and claim the same religious right to do
as they choose that the Mormon peo-
pie do. Either party could Justly
invoke the Constitution as authoriz-
ing them to act according to the dictates
OF their own conscience. Now, would
not the Territory of Utah very soon be
made fit place for the reception of the
Savior and the ushering in of the reign {
Of peace which is to last a thousand ,
years? And as the war of determination /;
between the Mormons and Catholics for
the rights OF conscience and the estab- ,
lsnment of religious freedom went on. If
IS more than likely that the more Jealous t
Methodists would shout hallelujah and I
say that the wicked were being swept I
rom off the face of the earth. The con- q
OF such condition of things q
S pleasant and really makes man be- s
ieve that all who would engage in such ]
scene are after all but carrying out the i
,recepts and following the example of d
Him who, when dying upon the cross that q
he world might be redeemed from sin q
md sorrow, said, Father, forgive them, +
or they know not what they do.' {.
For the interests of humanity. and civ. T