The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-11-07
TRIBUNE FOLLY AND ROT.


IN the Tribune Of Saturday there is an
exhibition of Tribune sense and argu
ment that might be amusing if it were
not ridiculous. In speaking Of some re-
marks made by THE HERALD on the
situation in Idaho, it says that since
1880 the Gentiles of Utah have been
trying ID exclude people who uphold
the Mormon Church from the polls,
precisely as they are excluded in
Idaho. The article in question refers
to the hardships endured by the people
of Utah. To those who are flying from
the country; to the punishment by fine
and imprisonment of those who are
C. nTicted-to the detriment, and often
the ruin, of the business of the parties
in either case; and after looking the
whole case over, doubtless with a great
deal of satisfaction, the Tribune sageIy
gives us TO understand that it is not the
Gentiles of these Territories, their laws,
or their courts that cause the difficult
ties in Utah; but that il is the obsti-
nate refusal of the people to promise
obedience to the laws inhibiting the
practice of polygamy thst is the cause
Of all the troubles. We are told it is
the Church which teaches the rightful-
ness of plural marriage, that brings all
the distress upon the Mornons, and
which Expresses them. To say the
least, this is cool; and to be seen in its
full force needs to be paraIlelled by cir
cumstances easily imagined to have
existed more than s hundred years ago.
When the English Parliament en-
acted the navigation acts" which 70
all intents and purposes ruined
the commerce :of the Americans, and
gave It as monopoly into
the hands of English merchants,
all competitors for the trade of the Col
onies being kept out Of their seaport
towns by the impositions of enormous
duties upon all articles shipped from
oeher countries than England, and abb
soluteiy forbidding the expectation Of
American products in any but English
vessels. And these infamous laws were
Supplemented by "writs of assistance"
which were general search warrants
giving authority to the brutal officers
of the King to search for suspected arti-
eles which had been introduced into the
Colonies without the payment OF the
required duties. Now, suppose that at-
ter the people Of the Colonies had their
houses time and again searched,
as was often the case, by thu
minions CT the law, they should
complain Of the injustice OF these laws
which strsngled all their enterprises,
discouraged their development, and
brought distress upon them generally;
and even vent as far as to enter q de-
termined protest and resistance against
the searches authorized by the "Eri;s
oil assistance Then imagine some
editor of a Te-y paper rising serenely
10 explain 10 the colonists that it was
not the navigation laws passed by the
honorable British Parliament which
sent many Of their citizens of into hid
ing from the officers of the law, and
which ruined their business and Blocked
all the wheels of progress in the com
n unity, but that it was their own OTIS +
nate resistance TO the enforcement OF Il e
navigation Laws, I which sll good
citizens submit to-" that WAS the
cause OF all their hsIdships.
1t was their allegiance TO the Wing
PIrty that incul:ated resistance 10 the
laws of Parliament that oppressed the
people. In what light would snch a
wR1er be held?
Again The English Parlia -uent