The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-29
WHAT THE STATE MAY DO.

The state gives security to the weak
against violence and oppression from the.
strong. 1t prevents might from becoming
right, by the punishment of acts that in
fringe upon the rights of other people and
do them injury. 1t is a keeper of the peace
and has nothing to do until the peace has
been disturbed or broken. II is q power
formed by combination among the people
to protect themselves from injustice and
oppression, its chief function being to re
strain and punish violence and crime. 1t is
government of, for, and by the people,
and has no, powers except those delegated
to it oy tie people themselves. 1t may act
as Judge or arbitrator between contending
parties and compel them to settle their diff
ferences by arbitration at law instead of by
fetd or duck It may also DO some
necessary things that would be but
poorly done if left to the people promis-
cnoasly. 1t may make public roads,
establish and maintain schools, armies,
fleets, and fortiiications, the benefits of
which are distributed somewhat equally
among all the people. But it cannot right
fully do much more than this. 1t cannot
become missionary to labor for the pro-
pagation of religious doctrine, since the
religious duties of man are not owed to the
state, but to the Creator. Civil govern
ment cannot define the duties Of a man to
his Maker, and was not instituted for that
purpose. 1t can only determine the duties
man owes to his fellow-men and enforce
obedience no further than simply to regu-
late the civil relations of those who are its
subjects. The state has no spiritual duties,
and its acts are strictly limited to the tenn
poral welfare of its citizens, guaranteeing
to each one freedom to do as it seems to
him best, provided that in so doing he in
fringes not upon the same freedom of
others or does them no injury The CON
stitution of our country declares this
absolute separation of church and state and
prohibits the government from having any
thing to do with establishing any religion,
or with any religion already established.
1t might seem strange to some that we
feel constrained to state from time to time
such elementary and well known facts
respecting human government as are con-
taiued in the foregoing paragraph. Yet it
is necessary; for in Utah a majority of
those charged with governmental functions
regard it as first duty to labor for the
conversion of an unorthodox body of reli-
gionists. Governors, judges, postmasters.
surveyors, and even government contrac-
tors in Utah have been known to work
mainly for the overthrow and oppression of
the Mormons, often by illegal acts and un-
usual proceedings, while regarding their
duties as public officers as simply incident
and subordinate to their chief duty of op-
pressing an unoffending class of people.
Some day historians will blush to record
that in one particular instance the govern
ment of our country turned aside from its
traditional and prescribed path in order to
labor, like MoHAMMED, as a missionary
zealot with a sword in one hand and the
awful conglomeration of warning Christian
doctrines in the other, saying to a handful
of helpless unbelievers, CHOOSE which
you wills