The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-10-12
PRESIDENT SMITHS REASONS.

Some two years since there appeared
IN the Herald an article under the cap
tion of 'Plain Talk" to which PIesi
dent Smith replied under the caption
OF" another Plain Talk This has
been taken and revamped and is re-
published by The republican campaign
committee. 1t may be considered pre-.
sumptuous in plain man of the
secular order to disagree with so illus
trious a churcbman as President Smith
is, or tn dispute his predicate or call in
question his conclusions We shall
not call in question his right to enter
The domain of politics, yet somehow or
other we have all along read President
Woodruff's declarations as being
against the entrance Of the higher
authorities of the church into politics
as partisans. But that is neither here
nor there, bat to the presidents most
falacious arguments that the Mormous
should belong to the republican party
instead of the democratic.
We leave to others to settle the mat.
ter of the inspiration of the constitu
ton. One thing we do claim for that
instrument, however. 1t was Ger
tainly written by patriotic statesmen,
great men indeed, many of whom,
most of whom indeed, we're democrats.
The president consumes much space
and uses many words in discussing the
right of the democracy to the name.
Ii is quite true that in the formative
stages of this government names got
mixed little. The federal, or strong
government party of that day, are the
present republicans, and what was
called the republican party of that
day is now the democratic party. We
are afraid the president is either un-
frank or ignorant when he asserts that
Thomas jefferson ran for president as
a republican without stating explicitly
to his readers the exact situation of
the parties then, in the light of the
names, as we understand them today.
There is not a school boy of fifteen in
all Utah but will at once detect the
authors attempt to befog the reader
and get bit of advantage at the start.
One would not only imagine, but he
would be absolutely certain, that the
democrats had always maintained the
constitution, if he is honest and we'll
informed il politics. The progenitors
of the republican party of today, the
old federal or strong government party,
the wings, the know nothings, the free
soilers. ETC., were not known then nor |
are they today noted for their regard |
for the constitution. 1t has ever been
to them loosely fitting garment to be
worn when advantageous, or to be
thrown aside when inclination or inter
est dictates, while the democratic
party from the first favored a strict
construction of that document. In
fact this has always been one of the
cardinal articles of the democratic
faith.
Unlike our friend SaxeY, Mr.. Smith
Toes not go back to Illinois and Miss I
ouri to find reasons why the peo- {
bic Utah, or rather the Mormons,
ihould hate the democratic /
,arty. Under Fillmore's admiuistra- f
ion, says Mr.. s., Brigham Young was t
ppointed governor of Utah-and asks v
the democracy with all of its pre- Q
ended love of home rule has done as
luch for us as that? Now we defy E
ny petty pothouse politician or petty a
'gging lawyer to ask an unfranker or E
nore misleading question than that Il