The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-02-15
THE CRIME OF BEING SUsPECTHa.


every leading member and high priest of the
Mormon church, that Mormonism is kingdom
temporal as well as spiritual, government
within the government of the United States, an
ihnperi,nn IN mper1o, and that every faithful
member of the church has given his full allie
glance to that kingdom, hence people so in
volved cannot in the true sense of the term be
citizens of the United Sales.--future.
All of which reads very much like the
edicts of the Roman emperors against the
early Christians. They were charged with
setting up government within govern
ment, and of giving their real allegiance to
their church.
The same charge can be made with more
success against the Catholics, for the pres
emit Pope expressly declares that laws en-
acted in opposition to the authority of the
Catholic church are to be resisted.
The same charge can be made with as
much success against any of the sects of
Christendom, for they all claim that their
members temporal conduct and affairs
shall be guided by the precepts of their re-
llgion.
The same charge can successfully be
made against nearly every one of the secret
societies, lodges and similar organizations
OF to- day. They have a veritable imperiuna
in imperio. In fact, it was the reputed
similarity of some of the Mormon cere-
monies to those of secret order here that
aroused the jealous suspicious of some
members of those organizations, and con-
tributed to the fanatical ruling of AMBER
SON against the naturalization of Mormons.
The same charge can be maintained
| against every true man, that his "first al
legiance' is to his family, and not to the
| government, hence he can not be a true
citizen and should be DISTINGUISHED, etc.
The same charge can be maintained
against every faithful Democrat or Repub-
lican, that his ''first allegiance is to his
party; and SO on without limit
AS long as persons are accused of ssgiving
their first allegiance" to somebody or some
thing else than ''the government and are
not permitted to refute the accusation by
their own testimony and by the conduct of
their daily life, just that long can all sorts
of monstrous "crimes of belief ~ be proved
upon them.
The fact is, that no one but savage or
|
would ever think Of proposing any punish
ment for ''crimes" that do not consist in
actions. And these actions, to be punisha-
BILE, must directly injure other people in NO
uncertain way, and the person accused
must be tried and found guilty before any
punishment can legally or rightfully fol
low. Imagine, then, the professedly pious
savage that runs the Salt Lake Tribune ir
the interests of ''the government (as he
explains), demanding the disfranchisemept
of three-fourths of the electors of Utah
because, he says, their Allegiance is moi
with this government. They deny it
and he proves it by quoting some
vague, detached sentences from man Ions
since dead, uttered perhaps forty wears
ago. The Mormons dispute the Tribun,
mans Interpretation of the words, declare
that they are not church doctrine, quote
the correct doctrine on that point, and
finally declare that they never heard be
fore Of this so-called reasonable teaching
which the profound patriot charges upon
them. This makes no difference to ou1
mild fanatic; he says the man who spoke
the words was Mormon; they are Nor
mons, and consequently these words are
their doctrine though they may never have
heard of them. Therefore these people
should be disfranchised for the alleged
words of some Mormon, spoken befor,
they were born perhaps.
Beautiful reasoning, isn't it? A man il
not to be judged by his acts, but by hi,