The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-24
THE HUNGER FOR sPOILS.

The Salt Lake Tribune says that "When
the first EDMUNDs bill was passed Senator
EDMUNDs was heard to remark: we will
try this; if it does not answer, next time
we will attack their lands" The Tribune
then claims that since then, up to the time
President WooDRUFF's manifesto was is
sued, 1T has besought the people of Utah to
give up polygamy lest their property be
seized and their troubles increased. That
threat of confiscation of property has been
frequently fourished over the heads of the
Mormon people by our unesteemed contem-
porary, ostensibly to brighten them from
the practice of polygamy. The Mormons,
not because they were at all afraid of the
threats of either the Tribune or Senator
EDMUNDs, but because they had contested
the issues involved in their belief and
practice Of plural marriage until the
highest tribunal in the land had
pronounced upon them, gave up the prac-
tice of polygamy. The Mormon people be-
lieved that in plural marriage the COP of
heaven had committed unto them divine
principle which they were under oDliga-
lions to establish for the benefit and bless
ing of our race; and when our nation rose
against that principle and would have none
OF 1t themselves, nor allow the Mormons to
practice 1t, there was one more thing the
Mormons believed themselves called upon
to do; that was to test the constitutionality
Of the prohibition. That they did thor
oughly. They insisted upon their right to
practice this principle of their religion, and
took question after question arising out of
that principle to the supreme court of the
United States, until that court had taken
the responsibility, in connection with
the executive and legislative branches
OF the government, of prohibiting that
which they believed COP had commanded
to be practiced. The question carried that
far, the Mormons had discharged their
duty. Responsibility, so far as they were
concerned, ended here, and they discon-
tinued its practice
But since the practice of polygamy has
been abandoned by the Mormons. let the
cause of abandonment be what it may. have
we heard less of these threats about the
contiscation of Mormon property! Nav.
but rather more. The Tribune has sat in
judgment upon the action of the Mormon
people and the president of their church
and claims they are insincere in their
dlscontinuance of the tabooed prac
tice. 1t is not satisfied when
like good citizens they obey the law, but
insists that they must believe what their
consciences told them was morally right.
was morally wrong; and complains because
the revelation on which their practice was
formally based is not expunged from their
sacred books. This the Mormon people. so
long as sincerity continues TO guide their
actions, cannot do; and no power in the
government has the right to demand it of
them. 1t is sufficient for all the purposes
of government that the citizen respects the
law by obeying it. Government has no
business to concern itself about the beliefs
Of the citizen regarding the law. Whether
he believes it in harmony with the divine
law or contrary to it, wholesome or infam-
Gus, is no affair of the government. IT is
enough for the latter to know that It's de-
crees are obeyed.
But since the abandonment of that prac
tice we say our unfriendly contemporary
has continued to threaten the people with
an attack on their individual property. Not
so much on the ground of their being prac-
tlcal poiygamists as of yore, it may be, but
on the ground of their being "aliens dis
obeying the law GAN we have said about
contiscation,'' writes the editor, ''has been
to try 10 get the Mormon people to under
stand that sovereign power has a right bv
law to attack the property of aliens who are
engaged in disobeying the laws, as it GER
tainly has the right TO keep from aliens
citizenship papers when those men refuse
to give their fealty to the government
Suppose that the claim in the above he
granted, that is, that the government has
the right to ''attack the property of aliens
who are engaged in disobeying the
law" what has that to do with
the Morlnonss They are not "aliens
who are engaged in disobeying
the laws" On the contrary, they are
lovers Of their country obeying the laws.
and that the Tribune very well knows. 1t
knows that these mountain valleys are
filled with the most peaceful, law-abiding
people within the borders of the United
States. 1t knows that life and propertv
diio -ipciSy are uOWuero else IN the broad
land more secure than in Utah. Tt knows
that the people of Utah have given more
evidence Of fealty and respect to the laws
OF the United States than any other COM
munity within its borders, and have even
gracefully and quietly submitted to laws
which at bottom they believed to be infa-
nous; and have patiently endured wrongs
and outrages during the last few years
which would have driven other communi-
ties into revolt or mob violence; and when
our unesteemed contemporary threatens
such community with contiscation or dis
reimbursement it is influenced not by Chris
tian charity, as it would have it appear. but
by blind, unreasoning hate; or, what is
more likely, is working in the interests of
an INSCRIPTIONS ring of demagogues seek
ing to grasp the local government of this
territory that they may fatten on the spoils
OF the people.