The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-08
LOYAL Politics.

Comrc=1iic lted.l
The people of . tab have been reproached
for being neither good Democrats NOE good
Republicans; for failing to.atfiliate with the
national parties; for marifesting but little
interest in national issues, which every
where else have divided the people on ma
tlonal party lines. This reproach is surely
inconsiderate;- nay, it is even unjust.
There are potent reasons why this state Of
affairs exists in Utah, a statement of which
will disclose the fact that the good people
of our territory are not to blame for the
condition of things against which complaint
is made. In the first place, our position as
a territory practically isolates US from all
the great national issues We have been
forced into the position of spectators in
stead Of participants in the several contro-
verses which ehave divided our fellow
citizens into active partisans, and while as
spectators of the great national struggle we
may have formed our preferences and
thrown our sympathies with this party or
that, it cannot be expected that
spectators will have the same
intense interest as the participants
Neither in our capacity of tertiary nor
as citizens of the United States can we
have any influence in Presidential cleo
ton or in any manner affect the political
complexion of Congress. Neither the tariff
nor any other national question can be af-
fected by any action of ours. Lei it be re-
membered, too, that this isolation from
national issues has not been for merely a
l,,t fnr l,,icr half
1t would be as consistent to expect men to
grow fat by watching others feed, as to
expect to see men keep up their interest in
political questions they are powerless to
affect either one way or the other.
In addition to this political isolation there
has been local controversy forced upon
the people of Utah which has wholly en-
crossed their attention. That controversy
has involved the question of their liberties,
and therefore in Importance has lowered
above all other considerations. When the
| patriotic citizens who first settled these
mountain valleys were refused admittauce
into the union of states on their first apph
cation in 1S49; when stone was given
them-in the form of a territorial govern
ment-instead of the bread-a state gov
ernment-for which they asked, the fou nd
alton for wrongs which future historians
will record as the shame OF
our country. was laid That
action was founded in distrust as ground
less as it was unjust. The preparation OF
that distrust, based as it has been and is or
the Misrepresentation of our enemies, is g
cruelty which will challenge the astonish-
ment of the next generation ana all gener
atoms succeeding. The establishment of s
territorial government for Utah, and the
subsequent sending of governors and
judges to rule the people that were not OF
them, and whose interests were at variance
with theirs, ana who have endeayored tt
prosper on the misfortunes of the people.
and are even now seeking to encompass
their ranchisement-these are the
things which have prevented the citizens
of Utah from dividing on national party
lines. They have been driven together
into local party to defend themselves
form the assaults of unscrupulous oppo
nents, mainly of the carpst- bag species. II
has kept the people of Utah busy to hold of
the Internal fingers of these brutes from
their throats; and they have had little or nj
time to consider the issues of national poll
tics from which they have been 50 far-re
moved. When our good people have
elected men in whom they had confidence
| to fill the places of honor and trust among
them, instead of their avowed enemies
they have been denounced as slaves, un
worthy of the elective franchise. Because
these men were members in the Mormon