Scrap Book of Mormon Literature (Vol. 1 of 2): Religious Tracts
Religion
Scrap Book of Mormon Literature (Vol. 1 of 2): Religious Tracts
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saints
The political adventurers, alluded to in the above, are men who have
come into the Territory principally by being appointed to the Federal
offices within the gift of the President of the United States. It must
be understood that a Territory in the American Government occupies
much the same relationship to that government that a crown colony
does to the imperial government of Great Britain; and the President
appoints the Governor, Secretary, the District judges, the Marshal,
Commissioners, {176} and indirectly a number of other officers in the
Territory. It has been the policy of the chief executives of the nation
in the past to reward their supporters, or the supporters of their
political friends in the respective states with appointments to these
positions; and to satisfy popular clamor raised by religious opponents,
men with avowed hatred of "Mormonism" have usually been sought to fill
these Federal offices. Another fact bearing on the character of these
appointees must be taken into consideration; and that is, as a general
thing, men who will consent to accept an appointment to positions in
the Territories are fifth or sixth rate politicians, whose political
prospects where they are known have dwindled to a forlorn hope. No man
who has an opportunity of succeeding in political or business life
in his own state will consent to abandon his prospects and life long
associations for a temporary position in a Territory where, from the
very nature of things, he can never hope for a hearty support of the
people among whom he thrusts his unwelcome presence. Why? Because he
is not of them. He is not their choice for the position; he is not
responsible to the community for the manner in which he discharges his
official duties--a condition of affairs that is absolutely incompatible
with the existence of harmony between the administrator of the laws and
the community they effect, in a country where the people are educated
to the idea that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed."
I find these two points relative to political and ecclesiastical
adventurers sustained by the testimony of James W. Barclay, a member
of the British Parliament, who visited Utah in 1883, and published
the results of his observations in the January No., 1884, of the
_Nineteenth Century_. The _Century_ is a monthly magazine published in
London. He says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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