The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-02-17

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who found time week later to reply:
WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb. 1, 1886.
Hon. Richmond S. Dement,, Surveyor
General of Utah, Harris House, Wash
layton. d. C.
Sir:-Statements purporting to have
! been made by you affecting many OF my
constituents have been teiegraphed to
various newspapers in different parts OF
the country
! You are credited with saying that you
/ have proofs to show that nearly all the
public lanCs in Utah have been stolen
either by the railroad companies
or the settlers; that about fifty
per cent. of the entries by Mormons
have been fraudulent and about % per
cent. of those that have been made by
Gent;les are of the same character"
During the less than TWO months you
/ have devoted TO the business of your
Office 1t is scarcely possible that you
could make an examination covering
/ the entries of land made in Utah during
| the past thirty-fve years, and if state
ments attributed to you were made in
your official capacity, you must have
d -aWn your conclusions in regard to
entries of land made by the Mormons
from very unreliable sources. Inquiry
at the general land Office would have
satisfied you that in no Territory are
all the provisions OF the law in regard
to the settlement of lands so carefully
and exactly complied with as by Il Q
Mormon settlers. The Mormons settle
upon lands not for speculative pur-
poses, but to secure homes. The sane
may be said of the Gentiles who have
settled in Utah.
The statement credited to you that
the MormOns have spent IAN enormous
amount of money in Washington
during the last four or five years trying
TO defeat legislation and prevent
adverse decisions by the courts" and
that YOU have secured documents to
show to whom the funds have been
paid" is so ridiculously absurd that
man making it. On the other hand, l
am reluctant to believe that reputable
correspondents OF newspapers would
invent such wholesale lies. That some
of these gentlemen exaggerate is doubt
less true, but usually they have some
foundation upon which to erect their
superstructure of misrepresentation
and SANDER.
You are represented as saying, when
asked, What Congressman are in
volved ?" that most of them were Dem
ocrats, but there are several Republi-
C rs on the list, one of whom. western
Republican Senator, received $25, 600 for
opposing the Edmunds BILL" OF course
the general reader does not stop to an
alyze statements of this kind. They
affect people who have been persist
emily misrepresented and villianously
slandered for many years. The public
has been made to believe that they
have untold millions to expend here
and elsewhere. If this were true, and
the character OF public officials and of
Repre- were as represented in
these statements attributed to you, it
would seem strange that the Mormons
had not received something in return
for their vast expenditure.
The public men who are accused in
this wholesale manner will undoubtedly
be able to take care of their own reputa-
tons. | am only interested in the vim
dication OF the people have the honor
TO represent.
Understand me: 1 do not proceed
upon the hypothesis that you have
made the statements attributed to you.
You may have been, like many other
people. deliberately misrepresented.
Doubtless you have been and therefore
will be all the more willing to assist in
remedying the wrong which has been
done. VIII you therefore have the
kindness to give me brief statement in
writing which can publish and there
by correct as far as possible the injury
which has been done the people of
Utah. JOHN T. CAME.