Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
In concluding his adopted speech the ex-senator suggests a remedy for
all our Utah ills; and of course there is none of us who would question
his ability to tell the senate just what ought to be done to a state
that will no longer have Mr. Kearns for its senator.
The recommendation in substance is this:
Notice must be served upon the Church leaders that they must live
within the law. That notice was received a long time ago; and the
Mormon Church leaders not only received the notice, but acquiesced
in it, too. Prest. Wilford Woodruff received an inspired word that
relieved the Church of the burden of maintaining in practice a
principle which before then had been regarded as a duty to maintain,
in practice as well as in faith. Thus the way was opened for the
Mormon leaders to make a concession to the sentiment of the people of
the United States, and to the laws of Congress. It is realized by the
Mormon leaders also that even if they could they cannot with profit
nor to the advantage of the community treat with defiance those laws
of the state which prohibit polygamous living. But while that is the
case, those involved in that system of marriage which was taught as
a divine institution for more than a generation in Utah, have the
common rights that belong to those who enjoy the privileges of our
free institutions, including home rule, and the administration of the
law according to the sentiments of the people where they reside, just
as they have the right to be tried by juries of the vicinage where
it is alleged the laws are broken. If that local, popular sentiment
shall decide that it would be against public policy and the welfare
of a large class of the community to rigidly enforce those laws, then
I say they are entitled to that clemency. It is for that very reason
that home rule in government is so precious a boon, and so necessary to
the preservation of the liberties of the people. It is not just that
those involved in the Mormon marriage system shall be put in jeopardy
of fines and imprisonment by a contemptible spotter and spy, merely an
employee of the lowest sensational paper in the United States, the very
worst of yellow journals. They have a right to be free from that kind
of oppression, and to be subject to the law as administered in harmony
with the American spirit of law administration.
COMMENT OF THE EX-SENATOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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