The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-05-31

its inhabitants.n He did, and the only
! fortunate circumstance there was about
the dastardly affair, was that he could not
enlist the federal troops in the same SER
vice, and the people were safe for the time
the limits of his jurisdiction. So long as
the regularly elected and constituted state
officials of Missouri took the view that the
| Mormons were in open rebellion and
ordered the militia to suppress them, the
! federal authorities would, in all human
| probability, have taken the same view; and
if they had had the authority to interfere
in such a case, it is clear what side they
would have taken. That the Mormons
were not actually in rebellion would have
made no more difference than i. did when
| BUCHANAN sent an army to this territory
on that same pretense. Had Utah been a
state, he could not have done this; and Mr..
| CUMMINGS seems to lament taat the consti
tuion forbids such interference in the case
Of states except on application of the legis-
lature or governor. Mr.. CUMMINGS is to
be congratulated upon living in territory.
But did the MormOns have no recourse,
! then! By no means. Ii the governor OF Mis-
souri, suspended the writ of hdbeas corpus
and organized militia without authority,
/ then the participants would be triable
! in the courts for everything they did, and
the fact that they acted under the author
ity of the governor would be no protection
! to them. If the state courts had held, in
order to shield them, that the governor was
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cases could be appealed from the state
! courts TO the federal courts or the supreme
court on question of the validity of the
state enactment under whlch the governor
assumed to act in manner expressly or by
Implication forbidden by the constitution.
/ But to hold that without being asked by
the state authorities to do so, the federal
power could interfere while the state gov
eminent had all its departments intact, and
that if it could interfere while the state
/ government militia was contending with
a body Of people adiudged by the state
! government to be in rebellion, it would
nave done so in behalf of the people con
tending against the state authorities and
forces, these propositions are not to US
merely false, but absurd to degree.
! Mr.. CUMMINGS fergets that the people are
part Of the government, when he says,
The constitution does not say that the
/ people shall guarantee to each state re
publican form of government, but it says
that the general government shall DO this.
Therefore, it is the general government
which perpetUates the Ii. e S OF the Cit
liens" II this were true, the people could
rest secure The governments established,
therefore liberty is assured, etc. As a
matter of fact, thespeopie must constantly
defend their liberties, the only power that
could efectually deprive them Of their lib
critics being the government itself. The
whole system of American government
was contrived in such a manner that, it
was hoped, the government could never
enslave the people. The President can
legally be elected by one ioucth Of the PEG
pie. Once give him the power to interfere
in the AFFAIRS OF the states, and he could
easily enthrone himself and his party.
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