The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25


fact we made these mountain valleys from
the earliest time and up to recently, as Sc
cure for the traveller as the streets of many
cities. Unprotected women could travel
throughout our entire land, up to a recent
period, safe from insult in word or deed
They would neither hear disrespectful
remark nor see an improper gesture. No
people have been more basely slandered in
regard to their treatment of women. No
people have ever been truer friends of the
sex. In fact, they injured no one, and they
only asked to be left to enjoy the rights be-
longing to free people.
But the peace which they enjoyed
through their seclusion and while it was a
question whether they would die with
famine or be extirpated by the Indians.
was soon to be terminated. A false and cor
rupt official-one of the first and worst of
those the territory has since had to sup
port-saw an opportunity to make motor
iety for himself by spreading villainous
lies about them Rebellion was now the
crime with which the Mormons stood ac-
cused before the bar of the nation They
had burned the records of the court, de-
clared the Infamous Judge Drummoud and
his fellow conspiratols and resisted the
authority Of the government. Ostensiblv
to put down alleged rebellion in one
quarter, but, as the sequel prov ID, really to
assist rebellion in another, an army was
sent against them. The gigantic blurder
proved not only farce, but costly crime.
In Congress, about fourteen years ago.
the JVTitpric affapfion
bers of the committee on appropriations
OF the House of Representatives to an sp-
preparation of several millions to cover
some OF the expenses of that senseless and
uniustitiable expedition. 1t was then well
known by all well-informed people that
Drummond had proved himself to be a
scoundrel, and that he had helped by his
lies to dupe the country into believing the
absurd expedition of 1878 against the
people of Utah to be an absolute necessity.
and that prominent officials in the govern
ment, with the view of furthering their
own plans, in the event of the next
national election making a change in the
had seized the oppor-
tunity to send part of the army to the
distant west. Investigation proved Drum
mond's charges to be utterly baseiess-
The records were found intact. and the
presumed insurgents were discovered to
be peaceable, well disposed, and. as usual,
minding their own business When Col
Albert Sidney Johnston and the army under
his command entered Salt Lake valley the
folly of the whole undertaking had been
clearly made manifest.
We pass on swiftly to the days of Iegis-
lation depriving certain citizens of the
right to vote or hold Office. Polygamy had
become the battle cry. Many times have
L been told by leading men of both parties.
''If you will stop the further practice of
plural marriage in your territory, present
relations will be permitted to stand and
your families as at present established will
be recognized by law" ''Only promise that
future marriages shall cease" said others
more friendly, land the question will be
settled, the present status will be main
you have married in good
faith and the government has, to a certain
extent, cOuntenanced the practice in the
past" ''Recede from polygamy," speciously
aud DANGEROUSLY demanded many whom we.
hutN W UG Jul lIduuCtIS. ana QOLllnU
can be. urged against you. You have made
out of a wilderness a fair and productive
garden. Your habits of industry win
praises from every observer Your cities
and valleys are delight to the lovers of
good order. The more widely you are,
known the better you will be appreciated
as substantial and valuable citizens of the
republic" How hollow and hooking
these phrases, from the mouths of this.
latter class, sounded to a people who had
passed through every form of tribulation
before polygamy was knownl We saw the
old spirit of mobocracy which had driven
US out from civilization in a new garb. to
fit the changed circumstances of the case.
Every previous charge had fallen to the
ground after having subserved the pur-
pose which called it forth. This, we were
sure, would soon go, also, the way of the
others.
And now, all too quickly, the world may
see the accuracy of our forecast. Polygamy
has been legislated out of the question:
those who practice it have been denied the
they have been prohibited from
holding office; they have been hailed to
prison and made to pay fines. Surely, this
practically removed and killed the issue,
for as the laws were still in force and the
machinery in the hands of our opponents.
it could not be revived unless they grew
slothful in their fiery zeal. Five years of
the most active prosecution, to call it by
their own name, have brought US to the
present. And how is it to-day?
With plural marriage in the background
along with all the other causes that have
sufficed to justify attacks upon US in the
past, the conspirators of the present day
lay treason at our doors. All of us are
branded as traitors, bearing allegiance to
another power than that of the federal
government; adhering to an imperium in
imperiO; recognizing another system of
civil government as superior to that under
which we live; sworn enemies of the con-
stitution; private avengers of public
crimes; usurpers and recalcitrants who
are a law unto ourselves; blood thirsty and
double-faced villains; biding our time until
we can tear to shreds the constitution and
the flag and throw off forever the seeming
allegiance we have so long borne. Only
recently Mormons have been denied
the right of naturalization. The
privileges of citizenship are too
good for such as we; aliens we
must remain, and even though native-born,
we are condemned to be as strangers in our
own land. Decentralization is but form
when we are thus regarded, and are denied
every right attendant upon citizenship
Bills of attainder are but a short step
further. for when the nrnnertu of the