The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-01

tTdLiOn, DOUn IN tle men ne caueU 10 MS
side, in the measu .es he advanced and in the
opportunity, started the government
well forward upon its destined course.
! The smoothness with which the
machinery of the government works
now did not characterize its earlier
history Problems are now solved
and questions determined which were then
| to be met. Washington and his companion
patriots were the pilots who steered the
ship through the narrow and dangerous
channels into the open and unobStructed sea.
Andyet the sea has not been altogether I'M
INSTRUCTED, nor the course of the ship
entirely free from danger. New questions
of great Importance, involving, ina degree,
the utmost safety of the government and
| the survival Of freedom, have arisen and
have been disposed of. Foreign war has
twice visited US; the HORRORS of civil strife,
! a bloody war of kinsmen, has shaken the
very foundation of the structure. 1t was
| one of the weak features of the COnStitu-
ton that the question of slavery remained
undisposed of. That question arose in the
constitutional convention and even at that
early day, finding it impossible to settle it
forever by constitutional provision, it was
compromised. The wound was but tempo
rarily healed. 1t broke out afreSh, and for
many years it was the malady which
threatened the life of the nation
Great men arise in answer TO great
emergencies, and it was the peculiar good
fortune of the nation that statesman and
a patriot was at hand to cope with the diff
cuIties of the civil strife The name of
Abraham Lincoln deserves place in the
| temple of fame alongside that Of George
| Washington. Fortunate viii be the nation
whose hour of birth and whose hour of
greatest peril viii be attended by men of
such massive mould! The constitution has
! been glorious success. America is dis
tinctIy the land of the free; it IS the home
of the oppressed: it is the asylum for the
| dOWn-trodden of all nations. 1t has not
only made entirely free those who have
sought the protection of its laws, but
BY FORCE OF EXAMPLE
has exercised a wide influence in the ameli-
| Grafton of the condition of all civilized
people 1t has given birth to and dissemin-
! ated principles that must eventually result
in the freedom of all mankind.
Washington, in his admirable farewell
address, pointed out some of the dangers
beSetting the path. Changes, ne said
should not be undertaken without ade-
quate experience, upon the varying sug
gestiOns of hypothesis and opinion; the
! spirit of party was denounced as likely to
! agitate the country with ill-fOunded jeal-
Ousies and false alarms; to lindle the ami
! fOment occasional riot and Instruction;
and to open the door to foreign influence
and corruption; encrOachmentS OF one de-
partment of government upon another, he
pronounced to be likely; amendment, not
usurpatiOn, was pointed out to be the
proper method of change; virtue and
mOdesty were described as the neces-
sary spring of popular government.
Let us he said, with eau
ton indulge the supposition that morality
can be maintained without religion In
these and all the sentiments of his address
are reflected the wisdom and patriotism of
the Father of our Country. How far his
fears have been realized may be matter OF
dispute: that the strict letter and spirit of
the constitution have been encroached upon
in some important respects, is beyond ques-
ton. We of the territories, have most
cause to complain of partial inrOads upon
the great charter of the government. We
have not. in proper sense, the right of To-
cal gOvernment-and that was the bone of
contention i'll the revolutionary war The
colonies revOlted because they were taxed
without representation, and because parlla-
ment assumed to have the right to regulate
their affairs in all respects whatever. That
is practically what Congress assumes to do
with the territories. Without a vote in
Congress, we are compelled tOpay customs
duties and internal revenue taXes-au the
taxes, in fact, that citizens of the states i'm
pose upon themselves through their own
representatives in Congress. We have no
voice in the selection of the President or
Senate, who appoint officers to administer
our affairs. In Utah and Arizona, the gov
ernor so appointed has an absolute veto
over the acts of the Legislature. Not only
are we taxed and largely governed without
representation, but
OUR LAWS ARE SUBJECT TO REPEAL
by Congress. And worse and worse, not
only this, but Congress assumes and eXer-
cises the anomalous power to legiSlate upon
matters that have always been regarded of
strictly local concern. Serious inrOads have
thus been made upon constitutional priuCi-
pies. The citizens of the territories may
say as said the Continental Congress of
III: Can the intervention of the
sea that divides us cause disparity
of right, or can any reason be
given why English subjects, who live three
thousand miles from the royal palace, should
enjoy less liberty than those who are three
hundred miles from it, Reason looks with
Indignation on such distinctions, and free
men can never perceive their propriety, and
yet however chimerical and unjust such dis
examinations are, parliament asserts that
they have a right to bind US in all cases
without exception. Know then that we
and ought to be as free as our fellow sub
iects in Britain Could more apt words be
chosen by the territories in pleading their
cause!
In resolutions adopted in the same Con
greSs, the cOlOnistS said in effect that they
were entitled to life, liberty and property,
and had never coded the right to any
sovereign to dispose of either without con
sent; that by immigration from England
they neither forfeited nor surrendered any
of these rights; that the foundation of Eng
lish liberty and of all free government is a
right in the people to participate in their
legislative councils, and as they were not
represented in parliament they are entitled
to free and exclusive power of legislation
in their several provincial legislatures.
Had our Creator been pleased, they wrote,
to give US existence in a land of slavery,
the sense of our condition might have been
mitigated by ignorance and habit. But
thanks to this adorable goodness we were
born the heirs of freedom The relevancy
of these, the sentiments of our patriot
fathers to the condition of the territories,
is obvious; their force is irresistible.
The injunction of Washington has, in this
instance, certainly been neglected. and con-
stitutional principles have been insiduously
trenched upon. 1t has been the unhappy
lot of the Latter-day Saints to witness and
to have been made victims of some of
the most egregious violations of the
constitution. Driven, despoiled, imprisoned
and murdered, without show of legal
right, in a country where law is supreme.
or should be, they have not lost one iota of
their high regard for the constitution of
our country. Assaulted under the guise of
law, denied many of the substantial rights
of freemen under the pretenSe of authority,