The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-05-22
RELIGIOUS DIsFRANCHIsEMENT.

1ncSe times, WHICH Lue blue Is TuuHlHk
so heavily against the Mormons that there
are few journalists with sufficient courage
TO attempt to face them rush and turn the
flow, it does one good to find prominent
and influential newspaper with editorial
manhood enough to defy the sinless pop
ular clamor and speak of the onslaught up
on the saints as it should be spoken of.
Such a journal is the San Francisco Sta,
whose talented editor can not only distin
guish between right and wrong, between
justice and injustice, but is brave enough
to support the true and reject the false.
The leading editorial in last Saturdays
issue of the Aua discusses the disfran-
chisement bill, and does so with so much
intelligence and conciseness that we re-
produce the article in full other
journalists feel in regard to qhe
Infamous bill rs does Editor IRISH,
but mighty few of them have the
courage to express themselves as frankly
and plainly as he has done.
A bill now before Congress, called the Gull
LoMBAsKIN bill, proposes the Acknowledgement
of all Mormons in Utah, regardless of whether
they violate the antipolygamy laws or not.
This is in line with the Idaho law, and proposes
principle in our affairs which requires very
candid treatment. The sensibilities of the
world are irreconcilable to polygamy. That
practice served a purpose, in sending the orig
inal Mormons into the wilderness to people it.
but that civilization touches it on all sides,
its usefulness. regarded from purely unitarian
standpoint is at an end, and it must go under. The
dsfranchisement of men for crime is principle
so generally recognized that it is no longer any
where contested. Polygamy, bigamy plural
marriage, are crimes, under our law but dis
franchisement as part OF their penalty, cannot
attach until after conviction. The machinery
for executing the law against poly
gamy in Utah is entirely in Gentle hands.
From Judge to janitor the courts are Gentiles.
The jurors and iailers are Gentle. Under such
circumstances the proper execution of the law
should be exceptionally easy, and after its
hand mas fallen let Acknowledgement follow
with the other penalties Toinfict civil death
In advance of conviction of crime is insuffer-
able. A man has just as much right to be q
Mormon. in this country, as to be a spiritualist
q TheoSophist, Methodist, Baptist, Christa
delphian. If he violate the law let him be pun
lShed, just as they are-not a iot less nor
title more. OF course, it is in vain that Nor
mons protest against punishment in advance Of
conviction. The more they protest the more
they aid in this style OF legislation, which
reaches ana threatens far beyond Mormonism.
The excuse for it is that the Mormon religion
sanctions polygamy, and polygamy is crime
therefore, the Mormon religion sanctions
crime. Judged by such a standard, what is TO
become of the evangelical teaching that the
Old Testament is the inspired word of Goo
belief in which lis enforced by nearly all of the
great creeds of Christianity: That the Ole
Testament sanctions polygamy far more di
rectly than the original Book of Mormon is in
contestable. and this fact demonstrates, the
great danger of legislating penalties to relig
ious belief under pretense Of preventing crime
OF course, this CULLoM-BAsRIN bill has pro
foundly stirred up Ctah but not Mormon Utah
The Mormons, with that serene fanaticisn
which has sustained themsfrom Nauvoo to the
Jordan are the more exalted the more they are
prosecuted. The Gentiles are reused at last
and, most Unexpectedly, the protest against the
bill is led with great ability, by Colonel o. BRIEN
an Irish Catholic 1t rouses a long train of re
Election to see an Irish Catholic fighting To-
secular government and religious liberty il
behalf of forlorn and beset people in the hear
of this continent. O'BRIEN, in a recent speech
In Salt Lake city, declared himself TO thi
effect:
Ihold in my hand article of the amendment
to the constitution, which reads as follows
Congress shall make no law respecting an eS
taDllSnmenI OF renglOn or prOnlDlllng the 1ret
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom o
speech or Of the press or the right of the people
TO peaceably assemble and to petition the gov
eminent for redress of grievances, That in
junction, fellow citizens, was embodied in on
constitution by the heroes and patriots wht
suffered untold agony on the icy Delaware ana
waded in the blood of patriot martyrs at Vale,
Forge 1 came from land ruled by the iror
hand of deSpotism for over seven centuries.
fed from my native isle TO find here q refug
and asylum of liberty religious and political
L M rygv n
establish as calling and black a despotism a
the country which l left. To Illustrate
have only to call your attention 10 the BASklN
CULLOA blll-a bill which eInhodieS the diSfran
chisement Of native-bron Americans, make
them political paf1ahS II their own country, an
brings them down to the level of the pigtail iron
China or the Modoc Indian. Or. in Other words
1t seeks to nullify the action of the patriots i
Boston harbor IN protesting against tdxatio
without representation. / have no synpath
with the Mormon polygaEist nor the Gers.l
bigslnist, nor any riolator of law. But DO a:
sert that the educated nonpolyganaist Mormo
Is superlatively in advance of the Hottcntot.
care not if all the guns in Fort Sumter wer
pointed ct my breast, j stand here tonight l
hurl forth defiant protestatiorS 5gainSt this u,
paralleled crime OF leaving Utah-born men witt
out home or n country they can call their owl
Continuing, he pointed out the danger of c:
tablishing a precedent which may precpitat
the most violent of religious contests. We il
vite public attention to this issue, made undo
such stirring conditions, because of the appa
ent hopelessness and the certain present III
popularity OF that side which o'BRIEN Ii
championed.
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