Arizona republican., 1890-09-29

 ful that rather than be subjected to this punish menI, they would recant.
 But to the great disappointment of those who have been conducting this crusade all, with very few exceptions, who have been convicted have cheerfully gone to the penitentiary They have esteemed their imprisonment as an honor and have appeared to be thankful to have such an opportunity of showing to God and men thoir devotion to their religion
 Could anything be more veXatious to the ruflianS who have engaged in this persecution than such a spirit this?
 What is the use of punishment if it does not punish? Any attempt to degrade man is a miserable failure if he accepts the intended degradation as an honor.
 This is the case with all those convicted and sent to the penitentiary in this Territory, in Idaho, in Arizona or in Detroit, for plural marriage or what is called unlawful cohabita- tion."
 The design has been to attach the stigma of criminality to them. Thus far the design has utterly failed.
 The men sent to prison know they are not criminals. Neither while in prison nor after they emerge therefrom do they view themselves in any other light than as martyrs. This also Is the estimate placed upon their conduct by all their co,religionists-they esteem them as sui ierers for righteousness-the defenders of the great and sublime principle of religious liberty.
 But it is not only themselves and their friends who take this view of their conduct; their chief enemies and prosecutors feel their superiority. They are forced to acknowledge that, with all the machinery of punishment at their control, they cannot make the Latter Day saints bow to their wishes. This utter inability to bring the people to their terms causes them to boil with rage.
 Instead of being impressed and softeued by the spectacle of people willing to endure these punishments for their religion, they be- come more and more exasperated. They are filled with diabolical hatred and would, if they had the power, spill the blood of their victims
 In this way they show that they are conscious of the great superiority of the people whom they would destroy.
 It is always an evidence oft base and craven nature in d man to resort to such methods as are at present employed against the Latter Day Saints.
 Whenever q man refuses to meet another upon equal terms, he procaims that he con siders his opponent as his superior.
 Whenever men or women exhibit jealousy toward interiors in station they lift them up to their own level. Their jealousy of them is a proof that they view them as their equals, on the point at least concerning which they are jealous.
 So it is with the representatives of the Nation in our midst They are conscious that there is power here, and their actions prove that in their secret hearts they fear it. they are jealous of the qualities which the Latter-Day- Saints possess.
 How is it with the Nation? Do not the men in power manifest an extraordinary solicitude concerning the Latter-D Day Saints?
 If we were power equal in strength and numbers they could show no more jealousy con corning us than they do.
 The Congress of the United States, by its legislation, lifts us out of comparative ob- scurity into public prominence. It places us upon its own plane, and it says;
 "We look upon you as a power to be dreaded You contain the elements of great strength, and we think 1t is necessary to crush you while we can do SO. If we let you alone you will grow beyond our reach, and we cannot overpower you"
 This is the secret of all those unjust laws against us and their cruel enforcement This accounts for the readiness with which the men in power trample upon the Constitution, the laws and the rules which prevail in Courts of justice, that we may be reached and stricken down.
 The conduct of the nation towards us is tribute to our strength and power. It is a most excellent indication of the fear entertained concerning our future.
 Yet how rediculous it is for a nation of nearly sixty millions to feel and act in this way towards q community numbering quarter of a million What spectacle for God and man. To see great nation like ours trampling upon its charter and its laws to enable its officials to reach people as numerically weak as the Latter Day Saints.
 fit were not afraid of us would it's legislators do this?
 Let us consider the above, paragraph by paragraph:
 l. Can Mr. Cannon point to a single conviction that was not fully established by direct proof, or to one victim that was not guilty as charged? On what ground does he thus assail the courts, or seek to impress upon the children of Utah for history, something which lacks every element of truth?
 2. How does the apostle know it was expected that sending fanatics to prison would make them recant? Has any such result ever followed in similar cases?
 8. How does the apostle know that the perversity of the Saints has dis appointed anyone? But has any Saint thus far evinced any desire to embrace second opportunity of that kind?
 4, 5, 6, z. Is the apostle certain that any Gentle is vexed? Is he sure that the men and women who have endorsed that form of punishment for law breakers are "rufiians?" If the dicipline has had no effect, why has the apostle ceased preaching in public the grace and necessity of polygamy? Has it all been a failure? Then why does Mir. Caine in Washington and all the other attorneys of the Mormon Church, declare that polygamy in Utah is dead?
 8. If this is true, does it alter in the least the fact that it is the duty of the United States to enforce it's just laws?
 9. Does this apostle really believe that the persistence of a fanatic in clinging to a lunacy causes level-headed people anywhere to believe that such fanatics are superior beings? or is the apostle certain that anyone is boiling with rage because convicted criminal goes to prison?
 10. People are softened at the spec tacle of poor wretches being pnnished at