The Republican journal., 1892-03-31

Prof. Eliot. the free trade President OF
Harvard College, put his foot in it badly
recently. In a speech in the great Nor
mon tabernacle at Salt Lake City he made
a fulsome comparison between the Puritan
fathers and the disciples of polygamy. He
is thus reported in the Salt Lake Tribune
President Eliot said he had been the last
is hours in the wilderness of the Rocky
Mountains. which had caused his mind to
90 back to the first colOniSts who first
marched across the Continent under the
guidance of a Christian church, and this
in turn reminded him of another Journey
across the wilderness $50 years ago: a
wilderness of water, the Atlantic Ocean,
to observe, too, their religion. Their suf-
ferings were great in planting there col
ony, and here the speaker referred to the
fact that it was the women who were the
heroic part of any colony Their ankle
ties are greater. their risks heavier and
we read how the women died faster than
the men in the early history of Massachu-
sets. Let us bear in our hearts the mem
cries of any Christian women going out to
plant new colony.
No one at all acquainted with the his
tory OF the Puritans and of the Mornons
could make such statements and draw
such comparisons without knowingly VIC
latlng truth and outraging decency. for a
purpose 1t was not quest for religious
freedom that took the Mormon leaders
and their deluded followers into the Wild
erness to occupy the fertile Territory OF
L tab: but freedom to indulge in immoral
practices, to hold in bondage their vic
Tins and to gather into the church treas
ury the money they brought into the
of God and of man at defiance. have
been guilty of the foulest murders, ard
have made black spot upon the fair map
of the United States.
President Eliot assumed in his address
that religious liberty lsad been denied to
the Mormons. He said: 1.-The Episcopal
Church was hated by the Puritans, and
yet to-day that church may found relig-
ious and charitable institutions in perfect
freedom in Massachusetts, There is no
reason why religious liberty may not be
enjoyed in all the other States and Terri
tories as in Massachusetts. Applause.
On this point he is we'll answered by the
Salt Lake Tribune, which says, editorial
ly:
There has been NO attempt whatever to
curtail the religious liberty of this coun-
try save by the Mormons. Very many of
the men who here have made stand for
their country, its institutions, its flag,
have been New England born OF of New
England descent, and are as jealous Of all
the liberty which attaches to the citizen
as ever Prof Eliot could be.
There was an attempt here, under the
guise of religion, to extend universal
license to licentious community, to
make what is punished as crime in all
civilized countries a sacrament of AL
mighty God, and that made trouble. And
when, by innuendo Prof. Eliot seeks to
carry the idea that through that conflict
those who were waging war for right,
for civilization, for the sanctity of the
American home, were doing wrong, he
simply makes an egregious idiot of him
self.
That is the truth, as all who are famil-
lar with the Mormons can testify, and the
Salt Lake Tribune, published at their cap
ital, is certainly competent witness.
Prof. Eliot owes an apology to the Puri-
tans, and to their sturdy, God-fearing de-
scendants.