The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-03-31
POWER TO COMMIT oUTRAGEs.

Much has been said concerning that
extraordinary charter given to the city
Of Nauvoo, and of the uuhcard-of pow
crs granted to the officers of that muni-
cipal corporation. Hon. Adlai Z. Steven
son paid some attention to the matter
in his recently published book and char.
acterized the charter as being one of
the most surprising papers ever uttered
by any State legislature in the country
before or since. The document is re-
pletc with conferred tyrannical and
otherwise unjust powers. AS an il
ustration Of these, we here reproduce
section II, as officially recorded as fol-
lows;
The mayor shall have exclusive iuris-
diction In al cases arising under the
ordinances OF the corporation: appeals
may be had from any decision or judg
mcnt OF said mayor or aldermen. arls-
ing under the ordinances OF the corpora
ton: appeals may be had from any de-
cision Judgment OF said mayor or
aldermen. arising under the city ordi-
nances, to the municipal court, which
shall be composed OF the mayor as chief
instce and the aldermen as assosins Sart
shah have power 10 grant writs Of ha-
beas corpus under the ordinances OF the
city council.
Which simply meant that appeal from
an arbitrary decision or Judgment by
an arbitrary court could he had right
back to that arbitrary tribunal, 1t is
historically notorious that shameful in
justices were perpetrated upon the
saints in Nauvoo, the Gcntiles within
reach of its charter and the State Of
Illinois, through exercise Of the uncon-
stitutional powers granted in that docu-
ment 1t is history that Joseph Smith,
in his multiple capacities as mayor of
Nauvoo, prophet, president of the Nor
mon church, commander of the Nauvoo
Legion, chief Justice of the municipal
court, proprietor of the Book of Nor
mon, founder of Mormonism and general
PoohBah to humanity, despoiled the
homes of his brethren and freed him
self from prosecution by means of q
writ of habeas corpus issued by him
self, appealed to himself, confirmed by
himself and enforced by himself under
the compelling military power COM
manded by himself. His adulterous prac.
tices ruined more homes and despoiled
the virtue of more virgins than his
tory records of any other man since
the days when Legendary lore tells us
that it was righteous in the sight of
God to 90 out and kill off the men
among the enemy and carry Of their
women for satiation of the lustful pas
sions of the conquerors. Joseph Smith,
as tho recorded facts demonstrate, in
vaded the homes of his closest friends
and associates and committed the sins
for which, later in Utah, Brigham
Young declared men s blood should he
shed. Doubtless Brigham was one Of
his victims. for after the death of Jo-
seph he accomplished his revenge on the
founder of Mormonism by not only tax
ing control of the organization away
from the Smiths, but by taking into
his varied bed the women whom Jo-
seph had seduced into the damnable
polygamous relation.
However, what we desire to point
out more particularly in this couDec-
tion is the significant similarity be-
IWeeu Jhe poWcIS uenidhbeu ny dhu
granted to Smith and his satraps at
Nauvoo and the rules governing the
Mormon church today. BY church law,
it is provided that any appeal from any
decision or Judgment Of tho church
can be had only TO the church itself.
And it ought to strike in upon the
people that an institution that can not
survive except by means of such un~
Just and tyrannical powers in its favor
is Of nature weak as water, So far as
the Mormon priesthood is concerned,
there can be no doubt in the mind of
any sensible person that it was con-
ceived in fraud, nurtured upon deceit,
and fostercd upon crime and the crimi-
nal protection of crime.