The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-07-06
THE GOVERNMENT. NOT THE GOVERNED
THE TRUE SOURCE OF POWER

Viewed in the light of the antecedents OF
our government and measured by its con,
stitutional standards, how anomalous is
The position Of an American territory
The Declaration of independence asserted
that governments derived their just powers
from the consent of the governed. Yet
this fundamental truth; this principle con
tended for by our revolutionary sires
and thought to have been firmly Embedded
In the constitution, has been uniformly dis
honored IL the government of the terri
tories. The argument seems always to
have been the same. There are few OF you
and therefore you do not know what you
want: your region OF country is sparsely
settled and therefore you do not know
whom you wish for governor, or for judges,
nor can you be trusted to make your own
laws without the power retained in Con
gress TO correct and add to your crude
efforts. And the result has been, notwith-
standing that basic principle of the Declar-
alton OF Independence that governments
derive their just powers, etc, that the
Precedent of the United States, in the Sc
lection of whom the people of the territories
have no voice, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, wherein the terri
tories are entirely without representation,
has been permitted to say who shall be the
governors of the territories, who shall be
the secretaries and acting governors and
who shall be the judges of all the courts of
general jurisdiction. And Congress,
wherein the territories are without repre-
sentation save by delegates to whom is &C
corded the highly free and democratic
privilege of sitting on the same floor with
the real Congressman and even of speaking
10 the same empty seats, but who, in har-
mony with the treatment of the fellow citi-
zens OF the territories, are denied the right
TO vote, has seen fit, in several instances,
TO say that the governors veto shall be alb
solute, and to further deny to the colonists
The right even TO select their pro-
bate judges, has made unjust laws con
ceraing the manner OF choosing iurymen,
has regulated the domestic relations; and,
in free and easy manner far more charac-
teristic Of despotisms than demoaccries,
proceeded TO make laws for subject peo-
pie on a great many subjects generally con-
coded TO be matters of local control.
We wonder, too, if our patriotic Con-
gressmen ever stopped 10 think that the
territories have always been taxed without
representation; an inquitous practice, by
the way, that constituted the very head
and front Of British Tyranny To COM
prehend that the government sins in this
vital respect needs but moments refec-
ton The United States derives its entire
revenue from two sources, the tariff and
internal revenue. From these two sources
OF taxation are derived between three and
four hundred million dollars each year
The people of the territories pay their pro
rata of both kinds Of taxes; they are now.
as were the Bostonese in 1775, subject to a
tax on tea, besides a great many other
things, imposed by body in whom they
have no representation. Taxation with
put representation is an evil that did not
perish with the success of the revolution:
II is a prominent and existing evil of orr
own Wanted day of freedom. If
The entire country pays three hundred
and forty million dollars per year taxes to
the national government, the people of
Utah, constituting, say. one two hundred
and fortieth part of the population, pay of
that sum nearly one million and half dol
lars besides the indirect taxes, CONSEQUENT
upon the tariff, aggregating far more than
than this, and this without voice to ap-
prove or oppose 1t.
Under such circumstances, it is in order
TO amend the Declaration of Independence
TO read that the governed derive their lust
powers from the consent Of the govern
meuts.