DEMOCRATS AND MORMONS.
The Bourbons Find Their Affinity in "the Twin Relic."
Several Territories to Be Colo-nized by the Polyga-mists,
And Then Brought in as States under Democratic Control.
To the Editor of The Chicago Tribune.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 25.—The Dem-ocratic party can always be depended on to take the wrong side of every question. Whether this is the result of innate stupidity or cultivated wickedness, is a debatable ques-tion. This thing we do know: that for the past half-century they have been mustering together in the North all the ignorance that lands on these shores from the Old World; and in the South, not having the Old World to draw on, they have raised and cultivated their own ignorance,—and a very healthy crop they have of it.
Assuming a kind of a laughable chivalry, and talking loudly of their honor and other incumbrances of that kind, the Democracy marched out to the plains of Kansas, and, in the broad daylight of the Nineteenth Cent-ury, attempted to plant there the black flag of Human Slavery. To their unutterable surprise, they got into a serious difficulty, and never found out their mistake till they reached Appomattox. Then the Democracy had to be reconstructed for awhile. The blisters under their coat-tails have hardly ceased smarting when they put up another devilish job. This time they have come out to Utah, probably expecting to get so far away that their deviltry won't be discovered until it is too late to be prevented. The scheme in all its details has probably not as yet been perfected, but, in a general way, it is proposed to admit Utah as a State, and, by planting Mormon colonies in the sur-rounding Territories, to create a sufficiently numerous population to entitle them to ad-mission, and so on as long as the Mormons hold out.
To those who are unacquainted with the condition of things out here, this scheme may seem a little chimerical. But the fact is, this is the easiest thing im-aginable. When the everlasting priest-hood determine on planting a new colony, they first appoint a Bishop, and then notify a sufficient number of the brethren that they must go; and that settles it. There may be some grumbling; but they bundle their wives, and children, and carrots into a wagon, and off they go.
Utah contains a population of about 140,000, of whom only about 10,000 are non-Mor-mons. A sufficient number of these (Mor-mons) can be spared at any time to control the elections in the surrounding States and Territories, and not jeopardize their control in Utah.
That this outrageous scheme is being care-fully and silently planned by the leaders of the Democratic party, there cannot be the slightest doubt; and the object of this article is to call the attention of Republicans and the great moral and thinking masses of the older States to it, and to ask them to arise in their might and prevent the consummation of this gigantic wrong.
First of all, it should be remarked that all Mormons are Democrats; and, as they are a Church-people, and are in no way interested in general politics, the fact becomes alarm-ingly significant, and shows that a thorough understanding exists between them and the party which for the last thirty years has been a deadly foe to advancement, morality, and the onward march of Civilization. The con-sideration offered to the church in this bar-gain is, that, in exchange for Democratic Senators, they shall be relieved from the in-terference of Federal officials, and left to practice their beastly polygamy without let or hindrance.
WHAT LEADING DEMOCRATS SAY.
When Senator Hendricks was here (about ten years ago), he entered very freely into the discussion of the Utah question in all its bearings. He expressed himself as decidedly in favor of making this a State. As to the practice of polygamy, he claimed that it was a part of the Mormon religion, with which Congress had no right to interfere; and that, if the majority of the people wished to practice it, they had a perfect right to do so, either in Utah or Ohio.
Congressman Sparks was here for several weeks during the summer of '77 or '78. A large portion of his time he was closeted with leading Mormons. On the verandas of the hotel and at the table he made himself conspicuously obnoxious by his partisan de-fense of Mormonism, claiming for its ad-herents the right to practice polygamy if they saw fit to do so.
When Hendrick B. Wright came junket-ing through the country with his Labor Com-mittee, a large portion of the time of the time of its members—with the notable exception of a Republican member who flatly refused to join them—was occupied in exchanging civilities with leading Mormons, several of whom were at that time in the Penitentiary.
Thurman, of Ohio, was Delegate Hooper's right-bower, and in his behalf tacked on sev-eral Mormon amendments to a bill that was then pending in Congress for the suppression of polygamy.
Proctor Knott, in the winter of '77-'78, was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and, when the Luttrell bill was referred to his committee, he quietly pocketed it; so the Mormons had no more trouble that year. There was considerable discussion of Utah affairs that winter, and Knott always sided with the Mormons, upholding them in the practice of polygamy, and going out of his way to protect them against hostile legisla-tion. The obscenity of his language in dis-cussing this question prevents the publica-tion of his exact words.
Ben Franklin, Chairman of the Committee on Territories, was another Democratic Con-gressman who furnished comfort and aid to the Mormons. In October, 1878, a charge was made, and published in nearly all the leading journals of the country, accusing Franklin, Knott, and other prominent Democrats of a scheme to colonize several Territories with Mormons, and then admit them into the Union as Democratic States. This charge was never denied by either of these men, and never will be.
Carlisle, of Kentucky, is still another who favored this scheme, as a stand-off against the admission of Colorado.
The above names are given for the pur-pose of showing to the people of the United States what may be expected from the aver-age Democratic legislator. Of the news-papers of the country, with the exception of those exclusively Mormon, we have heard of only two that have had the brazen effrontery to espouse the cause of the Church, and these are both Democratic, namely: Donn Piatt's paper, the Capital, and the Omaha Herald.
POLYGAMY IN THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION.
We do not charge upon all the individuals of the Democratic faith that they are in favor of the practice of polygamy, or that they are not in favor of vigorous, laws for its suppres-sion. There are some stomachs, even among Democrats, too sensitive to swallow this nauseous mess. We do, however, make the broad charge, without qualification, that the Democratic party are in active sympathy with the Mormon Church, and have by agreement a perfect understanding with them.
A delegation of two Democrats was sent from here to the Cincinnati Convention for the express and sole purpose of getting an anti-polygamy plank inserted in the Demo-cratic National platform. They were cor-dially seconded by the Democrats of the neighboring Territory of Wyoming, and had the active assistance (so we are informed) of Henri Watterson, of the Louisville Courier-Journal, and others, notwithstanding which the Convention flatly refused to insert any such plank, and Mr. Thomas, of Kentucky, actually introduced a resolution the tenor of which was, that laws on such subjects should be declared unconstitutional. How forcibly all this reminds one of the manner in which this ancient Bourbon party treated the Slavery question twenty-five years ago. And, if this party comes into power at the coming election, the people of the United States will have the spectacle presented be-fore them in 1884, of a Democratic Conven-tion riot simply ignoring this issue, but adopt-ing resolutions declaring that interference with it is unconstitutional.
In the winter of ‘77-'78 a committee of non-Mormom residents of Utah were sent to Washington to obtain from Congress, if possible, such legislation as would en-able the United States officials in this Territory to enforce the laws. Some of this Committee were Democrats; and, on their return, they made the statement that they found the Republican members of Con-gress ready and willing to help them, but, as to the Democrats, some of them were apa-thetic, and others actually hostile. And it is a matter of public notoriety here, that the failure of that campaign for the enforcement of the laws is directly due to the opposition and hostility of the leading men of the Dem-ocratic party.
WHAT WILD THE HARVEST BE?
It is not proposed in this connection to dis-cuss the Mormon question per se, but simply to show what kind of a political bastard will be the resulting offspring of this liaison of the Democratic party with this prostitute of a church.
Of course the admission of Utah as a State ends its condition of a ward over which the General Government has supreme control and supervision, and delegates to the inhab-itants the control of their own affairs. The results of such a possible calamity as the in-trusting the affairs of a State in the hands of this community can only be judged of cor-rectly by those who are well acquainted with their social character. The first important thing to be noted is, that here, for the first time in the history of the Republic, a theocracy, pure and simple, has raised its banner, under the protection of the Stars and Stripes, and, with a sinister sidelong glance, asks to be let alone. In this un-American community all traces of free citizenship cease. To be sure, the empty form of voting at regularly-called elections is gone through with; but only one ticket is in the field, and that has been prepared by the "High Council" of the Church, and the lay members vote it without a scratch. Here are gathered together about 130,000 people, the ignorance arid religious fanaticism of whom can hardly be com-prehended by, and is simply appalling to, the average American citizen. And every one of them, on going through the "Endowment House," swears eternal hostility to the Government of the United States. Here are people who as a class believe in dreams and visions, and regulate their every-day actions by them. Astrologers, fortune-tellers, and old women with peep-stones here grow rich and fatten on the superstition around them. The ab-surd prophecies of cunning priests are swal-lowed by the credulous with a solemnity truly laughable. Laying on of hands as a cure for all disease is practiced and pro-claimed as a doctrine of the Church. From the very lowest classes of the Old World these miserable wretches are re-cruited, and brought here with hatred to this Government implanted in their hearts, and the zeal of a Mohammedan in their souls; people among whom female virtue is unknown,—men being here found living in open promiscuity with nearly all their female relatives, hardly excepting their own mothers, and not excepting their own daughters; people who, by their own ad-mission, protect against punishment mur-derers, and felons, and outlaws representing every possible crime. Here in open daylight walk unmolested the red-handed perpetrators of the Mountain-Meadows massacre, some of them still holding high offices in the Church. Here are Dr. Robinson's assasins; and here, too, may be seen, reeling to a drunkard's grave, old Bill Hickman, the "Avenging Angel," and the hero of a hundred cold-blooded murders.
Over this heterogeneous and chaotic mass of ignorance, and superstition, and vice, "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" holds, with no gentle hand, supreme and despotic control. And, while the incom-ing of railroads and the persuasive power of United States bayonets have somewhat modi-fied the severity of the discipline, it is still a rank despotism, which owes its power to the peculiar characteristics of its members, and the deadly fear that the "Avenging Angel" may still follow, like a blood-hound, the track of the unfaithful.
The leaders are a curious lot. Among them there is not a single man of broad and comprehensive intellect, or of benevolent and philanthropic tendencies. Their minds are warped and twisted, not alone in religious matters, but in all things. Logic seems to be incomprehensible to them. But, notwithstanding these mental disabili-ties, they are enterprising, intolerant, and bloodthirty, possessing a large amount of low cunning, and know how to control these lower classes by appealing to their pejudices, and gratifying their passions.
It is not necessary in this connection to point out what would become of the 10,000 non-Mormon residents of Utah if the strong-arm of the United States should withdraw its protection, and, by making this a State, should turn us over to the tender mercies or these howling fanatics. Can the imagina-tion picture horrors too great to be com-mitted by a people who, in one awful hour, stabbed in the back men whom they had be-trayed by offers of protection, and cut the throats of young girls and innocent babes, and left to the wolves of Mountain Meadows the mangled bodies of 120 peaceable emi-grants?
Polygamy is bad enough, God knows, and this has generally been the stock in trade of writers who have attacked the Mormon Church. We of Utah, however, know that the practice of the Church in controlling elections is much more to be feared than the practice of polygamy or any other crime. Crime can be punished; but what can be done where priests actually carry the votes of the community in their pockets? Here Church and State—the nightmare of our forefathers —are tied together by cords that cannot be burst asunder, and with this unholy alliance the Democratic party are, and have been, trading. The most prominent Democrats of Utah gloomily admit that, if Hancock is elected, Statehood for Utah is a foregone conclusion.
