The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25
onest man is poor and inadequate

But legal dlfncultleS are rot the ONLY
cues. The local situation presents Difficult
ties Of a social nature in the administrator
Of the law. A fedora Judge upon his al
rival becomes encased in nti-Mormol
preiudices; he reads an INSCRIPTIONS an,
pa' tsan sheet; his associates are Gentiles
, MormoEs he meets seldom and only casu
, ally; he is told and believes that to en-
: courage the social attention of Mormons i
to incur Gentle criticism officially and per
} haps ostracism socially; he lives in al
atmosphere Of nti-Mormonism; he is sool
} poisoned by it's noxious influences; h
drinks great draughts of prejudice at tn
very fountain head of anti-Mormonism
Under these circumstances it would be
indeed, great and just Judge, who coult
unite the knotty problems of the law with
out calling to his aid the keen edge of tn,
sword of prejudice.
We frankly confess that we believt
Judge ANDERSON to possess few of thos.
higher qualities demanded by the situation
He came to US without reputation as law
yer, and without experience as Judge; hi
had. it is true, reached considerable prom
inence as politician in his native state
but mere politicians are scarcely the stuff
of which iurists should be made. In ex
pressi 1g the opinion that Judge ANDERSON
Is weak man, we express, we believe, the
almost unanimous opinion of the territorial
bar. To be convinced of that fact, how
ever, one need go no further than his re
cent opinion in one of the most important
cases that has come before the courts OF
this territory.
His decision in the naturalization case is
characterized by fippancy of statement
an absence of logic or even attempted logic
by dearth of reason so marked that he who
runs may read between the lines the super.
fetal character of the Judge who delivered
it,
As an illustration of the looseness per,
vading the decision, we would call atten.
tion to several of his statements. He says
BRIGHAM You've was the first govern or OF
the territory and for years resisted all at
tempts of the authorities to install the pro
per officers for the carrying on of the ter
ritorial government, unless men of his own
selection should be appointed He claimed
the right to say who the officers of the ter
ritory should be, and the President of the
United States finally found it necessary to
send an army to Utah" 1t is no doubt true
that BRIGHAM YOUNG and the Mormons
claimed the right to have their officers Sc
lected from among residents of the terri
tory; but is there anything reasonable or
un-American in wishing to be governed by
PEG pie of your own choice2
1t is equally true that BRIGHAM YOUNG
and the Mormons criticised the corrupt
actions of many of the early carpet baggers
who infested this territory; that was
their privilege. But we deny that it was
because they represented the dignity of the
United States government, and assert that
Judge ANDERsoN's statement that BRIG
HAM You've for years resisted all attempts
to install proper officers is false state
ment, neither justified by the history
nor the evidence in the case. And
we further assert that the sending
of an army to Utah was an indefensi-
BILE act, prompted by malicious men,
whose statements leading thereto have
been disproven, and are generally recog-
nized to be false. 1t is matter of undis
puted history that when the Mormons.
filled with establishment and apprehension,
heard of the approach of the troops, thew
did not go out to fight them; they simply
exercised the right inherent in all men of
holding an adversary at arms length until
an understanding could be reached. Not a
sho5 was fired by the Mormons; on the con-
trary, their commanders were under the
cOlarnD i'm t,.r1o . L.
or fire shot, to do nothing except to pre-
vent the entrance of the army and its ac
companying rabble of apostate Mormons
and irresponsible camp followers, who ap-
preached Utah singing songs and swearing
oaths of persecution, until the situation
might be explained and harmonized bv
other means than an army.
1t was at this time, by the Wav. when
provoked by the uniustifable assault made
upon the lives and liberties of the Nor
mon people that denunciations of the gov
eminent were made which are quoted bv
the judge, and which composed almost the
entire case for the DIRECTORS so far as al
legged reasonable utterances are concerned.
The criticisms, too, were uniformly di-
rected not against this form of govern
ment, but against the hasty and unpro
voked acts of its officials.
A prayer by President WOODRUFF. in
which the Almighty is duplicated to
break this nation in pieces unless it shall
repent of its sins, it's wickedness and it's
denominations, is heralded as an example of
treason.
The Judge seize with avidity upon the |
that an American flag was drag
ged in the dust from the tail end of
wagon at the end of procession, and en-
tirely fails to mention the claim of the |
defense that it was purely an accident, if
true, and the evidence offered that an
American flag was carried upright at the |
head of that same procession.
He seize that it will perhaps never be |
known whether such language as the
above" quoted by him, ''instigated the |
Mountain Meadow massacre or whether |
that horrible butchery was done by direct
of BRIGHAM YOUNG" We give |
the Judge credit for not being acquainted |
with the facts in the case, which are that |
BRIGHAM YOUNG deplored and denounced |
that dastardly deed as soon as he heard it:
that he offered United States officials |
in every way to punish its per-
Detrators; that finally, when the chief
criminal was brought to justice Mr.. SUM
SER HOWARD, the United States attorney,
said in his final argument that not one word |
Of evidence had been adduced connecting
.he Mormon authorities in any way with
5he crime, and he might have added, not
the fact that every effort
was made to incriminate them therein.
The fact that on the Fourth of July, 1885,