The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-07-05
THEIR LAw-DEFYING FREEDOM.

Speakers for the cult which the Des.
erot News represents unblushiugly de-
clare Joseph Smith, Jr., to have been as
great a savior of mankind-if not great
er--than the Son of man Himself. But
now the organ of the unclean polyga
mlsts adds TO the ugly offensiveness Of
the smalgamated treason and the bias
phemy by drawing pretended com.
parison between the aims and striviugs
of the Constitution makers of this coun-
try and the objects of the establish
ment of the Mormon church. During
the course of its dissertion upon this
subject, the News says:
And the Latter day Saints. looking
SaGTard i va upon their own hist9ry may
way. have been subjected. chiefly
through the malice OF profligate men and
the misrepresentstions OF bigoted and fa-
natical zealots. who have been their
foes, TO a deprivation OF the same four
great classes Of rights.
These four rights are correctly
stated as being (D The right of trial
by jury; (2) That a man s home is his
out just cause, even under law; CO
That the civil is superior to the mill
tary power; (4) That there should be
no taxation without representation. AT.
ter having designated these four gen.
eral points, upon which the Constitu-
tion makers made complaint that the
people of this country had been mis-
treated, the church organ goes on 10
state, in general terms-and noticeably
without specihcation-that the saints
have been subjected TO these same in
justices under the Government of the
United States.
1t is quite true that the Later.day
Saints, especially of the Smith and
Roberts type, may return many thanks
for the existence Of freedom under the
flag; for by means of it they have
been enabled, and quite recently, to
stand in the most public place provided
by their church, to howl forth defiance
of the law and to exploit their polvga-
nous putrescence under the nostrils of
the multitude. Under the protection of
abled to parade in public the muck of
their distempered personal practices,
without fear of reprimand or dread of
punishment Because of the political
power which they have acquired under
the liberal grants of the Constitution
of the United States (ungraciously
abused and ungratefully suborned to
their ends), the hierarchs have released
from quarantine a fostering pestilence
which once was the especial object of
watchfulness on the part of patriots.
In long and in short, the priesthood
has taken advantage Of every privilege
which is vouchsafed by this Govern
ment, solely with the desire 10 set the
law at naught and to express contempt
for the institutions of the country.
AS to the first proposition-the right
of trial by jury-the Mormon leaders
have always opposed and avoided it.
They have insisted that their crimes
were part and parcel of their religion.
Never in their lives have they been will
ing to submit a trial by jury, as
or their innocence. They have contested
to the bitter end the right of law to take
cognizance of their offenses and to pun
ish the same as the statutes prescribe.
When the Government enacted laws,
which would have the effect of bring
ing their immoral practices within the
pale Of the judiciary, and therefore
subject to trial by jury, the high priests
spent the substance of the saints IN a
most bitterly determined fight against
the Government and the Constitution.
The polygamous cult today refuses to
be tried by jury, although they admit
and flauDt their guilt under the law.
and they utilize their political power
to impose this injustice upon the law
abiding and patriotic citizens of this
and surrounding commonwealths The
whole object of the Mormon church is
to do away with trial by jury and sub
stitute in lieu thereof Judgment by the
high priests.
In respect TO the second proposition
that a man S home is sacred--let it
first be noted that the sanctity is con.
tended to belong to a man IS home. not
his HOMES. But in all of the his.
tory Of the church, there has not been
any attempt to invade the Mormon
home, except where the Mormon has
an offense against the law,
or delivered a deliberate insult to So
ciety. In these cases, the officers Of
the law have sought only to enforce
the statutes which they were sworn to
maintain and to viudicate as against
malicious and INSCRIPTIONS vandals. |
The practice of the ecclcsiasts has been
TO preciptately fee from the righteous
which was their due, and |
to hide away from sight, leaving but
one course open to the officers of the !
them to make search |
of premises which, under other and prop. !
cr circumstances, would never have
been invaded.
Concernino the third nronosition