The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-25
THAT ARIZONA UPsTART.

will hardly be contendedby even the most
obtuse that this paper hes ever shown any
symptoms Of admiration flor the man, or
that from any other sourle it has ever been
displayed that there Wds anything in him
to admire He is noted as being politi
clan Of very inferior cal bre, man whose
nomination to the place he now holds
created such current of indignation
among his neighbors and those who know
him best that it was question for some
time whether or not the nomination would
be recalled. Well, be that as it may, WOLF
LEY got there, and in his first report to the
secretary of the interior he naturally in
Weighs against the better class of people
who are unfortunately subject to his do
minion.
Among other things, this fungus of
minority administration says of the Nor
mons that morally and physically they are
an unwelcome and dangerous element.
Morally, their teaching and encouraging,
if not actually prGcticing polygamy, is
against all established Christian law,
moral or religious" If this lowgrade
Republican executive would only advise US
of some Christian law that was neither
moral nor religious, we might be able to
better comprehend what he is driving a
in that last sentence; and if he would go a
step further and let the world know
whether he is dealing in distractions or
concrete facts when he talks Of the prac-
tice of polygamy, it would give still
greater satisfaction. If he has reference
to what is being done in another territory,
It is none of his business, for the
reason that the government pays him for
looking after the affairs of his own baili
wick, and if there is not enough there to
keep him engaged, the presume tion is that
ne can use the excess of time In attending
to his own private affairs. II there are
any such cases as he points out in a general
way in his territory, it would be much bet
ter for him to be more specific and convey
something like proof along with his allega-
tons. This paper ventures the assertion
that he has neither heard teaching, preach
ing nor encouraging of polygamy through
himself or by means of reliable advisers,
on the part of the Mormons or any other
class of people in Arizona; and when he
branches off into the goody-goody style of
morals which he evidently would fain
make the burden of his report, he does so
without sufficient cause and without sufi-
Gent information.
The governor, since we have to call him
so, refers to the fact that Arizona once had
a law disfranchising all who practiced,
taught or encouraged polygamy. This is
partly lugubrious, partly pharisaical and
partly demagogic on his part, since hemust
know, if he knows anything about the ter
ritory and the people at all, that the said
islawn was not the capitalization of the
popular will, as all laws are supposed tobe,
but was. like its twin infamy in Idaho, a
partisan scheme to suppress an undesirable
vote and had no other foundation than the
knavery and lawlessness of Republicans
when actuated by desire to keep in power.
He ought to know if he did and does not
that the great mass of the people there
were not in sympathy with the infamous
scheme because it was unconstitutional and
unjust. But being a regulation Republi-
can, he is not presumed to care for the
wishes of the people, and his subse-
quent acts have shown conclrsively
that he does not And when he goes
further and says, by implication, that his
predecessor "a Democracy secured the re-
peal of that villainous act, he does not, as
he fondly thinks, no doubt, cast any re
proach upon Ex-Governor ZULIcK; he un
consciously does him great credit; and
when WoLFLEY goes still a step further
and requests that Congress repeal the re-
pealing act, he does just enough to place
himself alongside the petty politicians of
his class who have no regard for the funda
mental law and never had any.
WoLPLEY goes onto say that politically
the Mormons seem to have adopted the plan
of sending colonies or stakes to the sur
rounding territories in sufficient num-
bers to form the balance Of power
between the two political parties.
They are willing to trade with
either, but remain true only so long as the
interests of the church are best served. The
church is their law, and all other law is
subservient to the orders of the church.
They are therefore most dangerous and
INSCRIPTIONS factor in politics, without re-
gard to party. Four years ago they voted
for the Republican Delegate to Congress:
two years ago and last year they voted for
the Democrat C Delegate, in payment for the
repeal of the above referred to disfranchis-
ing act, passed by my late predecessor.
Who they will next vote for will depend
upon who will or can make them the best
offer or do them the most service"
The idea that arranging the people
in the form of ''stakes" or ecclesiastical
divisions is for political purposes IS doubt
less one of WoLFLEY's discoveries, and
brilliant discovery it is. The Mormons
were divided and organized after the man
ner he suggests when Arizona, from endto
end, was a bowling, unrelieved wildner-
ness, before he himself was born. Since he
affects such hitherto unattained wisdom,
IL is inexcusable in him not to know so
much as that, and also to know that
stakes have nothing to do with politics
in their aggregate capacity, being merely
religious division of the people; and the
mere fact that the majority of the people,
In their individual capacity, are Demo
cratic, will undoubtedly, we take it, be
found as the real reason why this unpopu
lar and undesired governor is so DESTROYS
fo, the recall of the repeal of the unconsti
tutional test act in the territory of Arizona.
WoLFLEY's report as to the Mormons
concludes with the following extraordinary
language: sit is a very poor answer (even
if il is admitted, and it certainly is not by
many TO say that they are industrious an