The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-09-01

1
party of seventy-fve citizens of Hanover
county. after adopting resolutions that they
would tolerate no Mormon doctrines IN
Hanover county, recently waited on two
persons who were preaching Mormon ooo-
trines in their neighborbood and escorted
them to the border of the county. Outside
the bare fact that these citizens drove the
two individuals out of the county, our IN
| formation touching the affair is very meagre'
We have a perfect horror of Mormonism.
| The hideous massacre at Mountain
| Meadows. aside from the results OF the
revelation" to Brigham Young, touching
a plurality Of wives. shows what excuses
may be committed in the name OF that
| religion The objection to the Mormon
preachers was presumably their polygamous
! doctrines. There are however, TWO schools
| of Mormonism, one of which does not
| countenance polygamy. The individuals ID
ouestion NAV have belonged to this school
| for aught we know. and may have, there
| fore, been preaching Mormon doctrine
void of offense. But whether they dld or
whether they did not and even though
they were engaged in preaching Mormonism
in its most polygamous and odicus form
THE TINES intends TO record its most
solemn protest against themethod by which
the preachers were slenced. If there is no
law of this State forbidding persons to
preach Mormonism. even in its most offen-
sive form. then every person has natural
right to preach it and those who Undertake
to prevent that right by physical
force are performing an act IN
no respect different in its nature
from any other unlawful combination in
tended to enforce an individual opinion or
execute the decree of mob. If there is no
law against the preaching of such doctrines
and the good people of Hanover want one
they should come to the Legislature and
ask that one be enacted.
If there is law against it. then the way
10 have that law enforced is to have the
parties indicted. tried and punished for vio-
lating the law. But no man or set OF men
has the right to take the law into his or
their own hands and administer 1t accord
ing to his or their will, and the body of
Hanover citizens who drove the Mormon
preachers away were themselves as much
yiolators of the law as those preachers could
have been.
The distinction between the rule Of the
mob and rule of the law lies exactly at
this point.
These gentlemen had perfect right to
tell the Mormon preachers that their doc
trines we're offensive to the good people of
Hanover and that those good people would
be glad never to see or hear them again.
and SO peacefully urge them to depart.
That is one thing, but threat of violence
and force is quite another. Our Hanover
friends, however, may claim that their de-
monstration was no more in effect than this.
But when seventy-fve men 60 in a body on
horseback to two persons, and in that array
deliver their views in matter of this kind,
the logic of the occasion is very much what
operated on the mind of. Gil Bias in GER
tain event
That veracious and immortal chronicler
tells us that as he was one day riding along
the road he came upon man who looked
like "a kind of a soldier He was sitting
or the side of the road with long gun
resting upon two crossed sticks, which,
says Gil, "he seemed to be. pointing at
me-" This kind of Il soldier" iRpAeous
tones, prayed Gil. For the love of God
give a poor soldier penny" and Gil imme-
diately produced and left with him his en-
tire purse.
A request from seventy-fve gentlemen
under such circumstances is as near to
command as the kind of a soldiers" wall,
and 1t is to be regretted that in country
governed by law they did not pursue diff
ferent course.