The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-20
CHURCH AND STATE.

premises and the conclusion, each separated
by asterisks, in the following specimen OF
reasoning! 1t Will be noticed that IN the
first premise a speakers words on the
necessity Of each person exercising his own
free agency are twisted into meaning that
the ''priesthood" assume the right to rule in
place of government rulers or magistrates
AS the words of the second speaker re-
moved such a ossible Interpretation of the
first speakers words, it became necessary,
of course, that the ''reasoner'' should as
sumo this speaker lied. And on the strained
construction of the words of the first
speaker, and a fat denial Of the truth of
those of the second, the conclusion from
both conjoined is that the Mormons are
'poor, oath bound wrelches," who must
vote as hey are directed. Here is the
reasoning:
The premier OF the church declared that the
Mormon people were bound to obey taeir priest
hood, that the priesthood Were authorized by
GOD to rule, and that there were no other means
even OF getilng TO heaven except through them.
Then the decrepit old president OF the
church got up and endors ed what the premier
had said, bug added tia. the rule applied only
individually had never advised any one how TO
vote, except 1t might have been his own sons.
has not the obligation to vote already
been taken by the slaves!
No; the obligation to vote has not been
taken. The president of the church had
just delivered himself upon that very point,
and the conclusion of the Tribune im5ecile
can be arrived at only by denying the truth
of these words. The Tribune is of course
bound (''oath-bound," perhaps) TO draw
the conclusion that the M0rmons are
''slaves" from any and all premises, or
from no premises. That is its chief occu-
patton. A few weeks ago it admitted that
the Peoples delegates made up their ticket
with the same freedom that the Liberals did
Now it says, "The priesthood nominate
ticket Either the organ lied then or it
lies now on It's own showing
But the organs GROWING proof that the
Mormons today are oath-Dound slaves, is
that thirty three years ago, HEBER c. KIM
BALL said: Brother BRIGHAM is my
leader; he is my prophet. seer, and reve-
lator; and whatever ne says, that is for me
to do; and il is not for me TO question him
one word.''
This bit Of ancient history, if it be his
tory, will be read with interest and curios-
ity by the present generation of church
members, as throwing light On the peculiar
and intense veneration MIR. KIMBALL had
for his leader; leader whose genius and
force of character had enabled him so to
direct the united strength of his followers
that they did not perish on the great Am
erican desert when cut of from civilization /;
whose practical wisdom was so great that
even men like KIMBALL placed implicit
confidence in him. Beyond that, however,
these words OF REBER c. KMBALL, or of
any other man, thirty three years ago,
under circumstances we do not understand
and cannot appreciate to-day, are of
no avail in the attempt to prove
that the young men of Utah,
wis never heard these words,
are obliged to vote for or against any man
or measure. Nor DO they prove that any
older men who may have heard them are
"slaves'; for these men are not response
bic for the words of another.
Further, these words are not church doc
trine. But finally, if they were, no man
CdI Oc4l uOh lLS lOglCdl u QOc-
trine or belief will appear In action.
On the whole, the attempt to hold the
men of Utah to-day responsible for the
words of some one else uttered thirty or
forty years ago; TO say that since the man
who is said to have uttered these words
was a Mormon, therefore they are Mormon
doctrine; and that being Mormon doctrine
the Mormons will necessarily put the doc
trine into practice "a high compliment to
the Mormons, by the way)-such a piece
of reasoning, we say, is utterly imbecile
and cowardly. 1t is the talk of sheer
fanatic; Of a coward who dares not ayow
his own belief; of a man enraged by over
whelming defeat at the polls by the repudi-
alton of his friends and the indignation of
his foes.
To complete this castigation of morbid.
soured, defeated candidate for Congress.
we here append the exact words of both
the speakers referred to by the unprin-
cipled Tribune scribe.
Here is what President CANNON said on
this subject as reported in the News, and
heard by thousands on Sunday:
''The Latter-day Saints would be the most I'M.
grateful and unworthy people in the world II
they did not honor the priesthood But there
was a difference in honoring the priesthood
the authority Of God, and giving away Their
manhood, and doing such things as they were
accused of. No People on earth valued free
agency as did the Latter day Saints; they
preached il and taught their children that they
were free agents-free TO choose and act fol
themselves. They would not bind man by q
single hair to do something which his own free
will would not prompt him 10 do
No writer with any respect for truth
could distort these words into meaning
1.-The Mormon people are bound to obey
their priesthood" and hence are 'tpoor
oathbcund wretches;n and none but {
downright idiot would honestly conclude
that these words prove that the Mormops
'are unfit to lay their shackled hands or
the free American ballotn
Abiding to the falsehood that ''the frs
presidency told every Latter-day Sain
how to VOTE President Woodruff said
HE had resided in this valley so ne forty -fou,
years, and he could safely say that during tn,
whole Of that time, SO far as he could reeollect
he had never told any man or woman how t.
vote. If he had told anyone, it had only beef
some Of his own boys, who might have asked hi
advice: but he did not remember even that
And it is from these words that tn,