The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-12-12
NARROW CRAFTSMANSHIP.

The reference which President HARR1-
son makes to Utah in his message is inter
esting in several ways. Chiefly in this,
however. that it reveals the personal cali
bre of the President, and enables the
people of the country to take almost an
exact measurement of his craftsmanship.
In the first place the remarks of the Presi-
dent amount to q positive statement that
he has no confidence in the people of Utah
and what they have done in the way of
disseminating the practice of polygamy,
and seeking to take their church and its
affairs out of the. politics of the country
Second, in saying that the power of Con-
gress over this subject (polygamy) should
not be surrendered until satisfactory evil
dence be given that in the event of state
hood coming to Utah the state created
would legislate against that subject as Con-
gress had done; and then saying that no
compact in the enabling act which
pledged the state to deal with this subject
as the general government had done would
be binding or effective, the President
simply announces the fact that there is no
statehood for Utah so far as he is concerned
so long as the majority of the people in Utah
are members of the Mormon church. We
care nothing about this question of state
hood at present. nor how President HARRI-
SON is affected toward it. Confident that
it will come in its time and that the des-
tiny of Utah is not in the hands of the
President OF the United States, and that il
is question that will perhaps be settled
,i,,t la ta,,
need Of getting excited about it, or disap-
pointed in relation to it. Confident, of
final victory the people Of Utah can afford
TO wait. The delay of five or ten years is
of small moment, for the blessing of state
hood, when it comes will come to be en-
ioyed by those Of US who live to see it in
augurated, and for our children after US
forever. 1t takes thousand years some
times to build state. Let our care
be to place the state we build on such a
footing that an hour cannot lay it in the
dust. That is of moro Importance than to
build it quickly.
But to return to President HARRISON
and the Utah clause Of his message. The
remsrks Of the President disclose the fact
that he has little confidence in thu triumph
Of the law over polygamy. He evidently
thinks it a precarious victory, since
he expresses the thought, and that
scarcely between the lines, that
all that has been done may be undonc by
granting statehood to Utah. This reveals
the lack Of faith that President HARRISON
has in those tremendous forces of civilizs-
ton that are supposed to stand
back of all the laws enacted
by Congress on this subject, and
which, more than the laws enacted, have
suppressed Mormon polygamy, but which
have given US more in abundance that kind
of polygamy with which the aforesaid civil
I izstion is familiar. The weakness of the
Presidents craftsmanship in this matter
appears in this: That he is guided in his
covert recommendations to Congress- on
the Utah question by his distrust, first. of
the people Of this territory, and second. of
the forces of our modern civilization. He
can never hope for success when PROMPTED
TO action by such incentives, and it shows
him to be little acquainted with those SEN
timents which sway the hearts of men.
The times are ripe now in Utah to place
the Mormon people under such moral obli-
cations that they could not If they would
return to the practice of polygamy. That
would be done, not by questioning their
sincerity and refusing to trust them. That
is one step in the direction of making them