The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-04-07

VI tAC9N q AAOA ClllLEu ~ IIlEQl
and associate has been denounced anC
ostracised, and an impossible gulf ha,
been created between them.
Is IL any wonder, then, while some
OF the principal officers sent here q
govern and maintain law, are the peo-
pies greatest enemies and the mos
deadly foes to law and order, tina
prejudice upon all questions affectin.
is and our Territory should prevail
Or that Congress should be induced
regardless of the Constitution and IL!
guarantees, under the pressure brough
TO bear upon IL by the incessant clam.
ors and misrepresentation of this elias:
to enact measures that would reaci
such people as we are described tC
be! The Ednunds law was begotter
by prejudice, conceived in Ignorance
and brought forth In hate. But its
enforcement In these Territories is In
the spirit of merciless severity and
undiluted malice, and those who pros
ecnte under Is have not the excuse
which a deceived and blinded Congress
might plead for its enactment.
The officials here have gone far be
yond the letter aud spirit of the law
itself and strained it for tie purpose
OF innicting punishment; this was
conspic1ously so in the case of Elder
Lorenzo Snow, oae OF the Twelve
Apostles, whose trial upon the evidence
presented would undoubtedly have
resulted in mis- acquittal had he been
tried before a righteous judge and an
unbiased jury. III any one fact was
more clearly established than another
at his trial, IL was that ne was innocent
OF any violation of the law as charged
against him. But be Is 4 prominent
man-one of the Twelve Apostles-and
could not be permitted to escape. His
case Is now on appeal TO the L. ). Su-
preme Court at Washington. In order
TO have it put forward on the calendar,
he surrendered himself to the officers,
and is now in the penitentiary. The
court has fixed day when his case will
be heard; aui, as in every case that
has gone to Washington, we hope, not
wIthstanding previous disappoint-
ments, that this will receive favorable
consideration. 1t IS OF such trials as
his-and his is but 2 sample OF many
others-.hat we Justly complain. The
law, as 1t passed Congress, was harsh
and cruel and sufficiently destruc-
tive of or rights aud liberties to
satisfy the impla cable author. but by
packing grand and petit juries with
jurors who are selected expressly be-
cause they are the pronounced oppo-
nents OF the accused and their religion
by strained constructions of the law
by extraordinary rulings framed to
suit each case without regard to pre-
ceding rulings on the same poiutS-and
by charges to juries which amount to
direct instructions to convict, this law
Is made an Instrument of the most
frightful wrong, and in the torture
which it infiictS goes far beyond any
thing ever conceived of by the men
who voted for its passage. Ii is TO he
of many of the officers who
enforce the law that they seem TO take
delight In the misery which they think
IL brings. AS TO justice in these courts
as now constituted, aud with the AMI
mus the officials manifest, It is out of
the question. Every one knows before
a trial commences what the sentence
will be. Not one escapes, no matter
how fiimsy or insufficient the eyide nee
may be, who ia indicted II the prose-
cutting officer has made up his mind
there shall be conviction. He fluids 4
willing judge and plant jury ready to |
execute his decree. As 10 mercy the /
idamantine heart of the prosecuting /
officer i impenetrable to the senti- |
nent. IL he decides thst victim shall |
De sacrificed the agony of wives, the |
burning tears of innocent and helpless |
touch him with no pity and
nave no more effect upon him than If
ne were made of stone. Impudence
and ferocity sit upon his brow. In all
MS proceedings h4 has a ready coad- !
utor in the judge of the third judicial
district, who browbeats the accused |
Ind evinces an iDhuman exulta:ion in |
sentence, his only regret |
being, as he has expressed himself, |
hat the law does not permit MIN to |
nhict sentences of greater severity.
When these men decide upon the pun |
shment which an accused man shall |
lave, neither the eloquent arguments
If counsel, nor the insufficiency of |
evidence, nor the scantiness of the \
aw, is allowed to stand in the way of |
he pre-arranged sentence. II they i
iecide upon one indictment or three, |
lpon six or twelve, they have only to |
intimate to grand jury that such Is
heir wish and they can be gratified. /
more certain his fate. No grand or
'etit jury has failed to find an indict-
nent or verdict against any man
whom the prosecution and court have /
elected as victim. The marshal, the
prosecuting officers and the court, by /
he exclusion of all who have not been
vowed enemies of the religion pro-
essed by the accused, and by the aid
4 the open venire, have been able TO
Iack the juries to execute their will 1
nth unquestioning servility. Seeing,
therefore,, how useless II Is to make
efense, many of the accused have
nade none, but have plead guilty. In
eing so they did not acknowledge the
ightfulness of the law, nor the Justice
4 the punishment; for they viewed the
NV as unconstitutional and destruc-
i've OF religious liberty and the punish
lent as an act of persecution; but
y pleading guilty they saved
oSts, aud what was of still greater \
Importance, they saved their wives aud
hildren the humiliation of going into
ne witness stan 1 and beIug piled with
ldecent questions biz the brutal
The majority OF the ac-
used, however, have felt 1t to be q
uty TO contest every inch of the
round and to let the world see how
tterly destitute of justice these courts
re in their treatment of these cases.
or this reason they have suffered their
antilles TO be exposed to the Iudeness
deputy marshals aud the insolence
prosecuting attOrneys: though to