46 comparison was the power of the civil ary, 1851, the waters of the "main chanauthority. They incorporated the Mormon nel" of Mill Creek were donated to BrigChurch into a body politic and corporate, ham Young. On the 9th of December, and by the third section of the act gave it 1850, there was granted to Ezra T. Benson supreme authority over its members in the exclusive control of the waters of Twin everything temporal and spiritual, and as-Springs and Rock Springs, in Tooclle Valsigned as a reason for so doing that it wasley; and on the 14th of January, 1851, to because the powers confirmed were in the samo person was granted the control of support of morality and virtue, and were all the cañons of the "West Mountain" founded on the revelations of the Lord." and the timber therein. By the ordinance Under this power to make laws and punish of September 14, 1850, a general conand forgive offenses, to hear and determine ference of the Church of Latter Day between brethren, the civil law was super-Saints" was authorized to elect thirteen seded. The decrees of the courts of this men to become a corporation, to be called church, certified under seal, have been ex- the Emigration Company; and to this comamined by the writer, and he found them pany, elected exclusively by the church, exercising a jurisdiction without limit ex- was secured and appropriated the two cept that of appeal to the President of the islands in Salt Lake known as Antelope church. That the assassinations of apos- and Stansberry Islands, to be under the tates, the massacres of the Morrisites at exclusive control of President Brigham Morris Fort and of the Arkansas emigrants Young. These examples are given to show at Mountain Meadows, were all in pursu- that the right of the United States to the ance of church decrees, more or less formal, lands of Utah met no recognition by these no one acquainted with the system doubts. people. They appropriated them, not only This act of incorporation was passed Febru- in a way to make the people slaves, but ary 8, 1851, and is found in the latest com- indicated their claim of sovereignty as pilation of Utah statutes. It is proper also superior to any. Young, Smith, Benson to observe that, for many years after the and Kimball were apostles. Richards was erection of the Territorial Government by Brigham Young's counselor. By an act of Congress, the "State of Deseret" organiza- December 28, 1855, there was granted to tion was maintained by the Mormons, and the "University of the State of Deseret collision was only prevented because Brig- a tract of land amounting to about five ham was Governor of both, and found it hundred acres, inside the city limits of unnecessary for his purpose to antagonize Salt Lake City, without any reservation tɔ either. His church organization made the occupants whatever; and everywhere both a shadow, while that was the sub- was the authority of the United States stance of all authority. One of the earli-over the country and its soil and people est of their legislative acts was to organ- utterly ignored. "" ize a Surveyor General's Department,' and Not satisfied with making the grants retitle to land was declared to be in the per-ferred to, the Legislative Assembly entered sons who held a certificate from that office.' upon a system of municipal incorporations, Having instituted their own system of by which the fertile lands of the Territory government and taken possession of the were withdrawn from the operation of the land, and assumed to distribute that in a preemptive laws of Congress; and thus system of their own, the next step was to while they occupied these without title, nonvest certain leading men with the control Mormons were unable to make settlement of the timbers and waters of the country. on them, and they were thus engrossed By a series of acts granting lands, waters to Mormon use. From a report made by and timber to individuals, the twelve the Commissioner of the General Land Ofapostles became the practical proprietors of fice to the United States Senate,' it appears the better and more desirable portions of that the municipal corporations covered the country. By an ordinance dated Octo- over 490,000 acres of the public lands, and ber 4, 1851, there was granted to Brigham over 600 square miles of territory. Thesa Young the "sole control of City Creek and lands are not subject to either the HomeCañon for the sum of five hundred dollars." stead or Preëmption laws, and thus the nonBy an ordinance dated January 9, 1850, Mormon settler was prevented from attemptthe "waters of North Mill Creek and the ing, except in rare instances, to secure any waters of the Cañon next north" were lands in Utah. The spirit which prompted granted to Heber C. Kimball. On the this course is well illustrated by an instance same day was granted to George A. Smith which was the subject of an investigation the "sole control of the cañons and timber in the Land Department, and the proofs of the east side of the 'West Mountains." are found in the document just referred to. On the 18th of January, 1851, the North George Q. Cannon, the late Mormon deleCottonwood Cañon was granted exclusively gate in Congress, was called to exercise his to Williard Richards. On the 15th of Janu 2 1 Act of March 2, 1850. *Act of January 19, 1866. 1 Senate doc. 181, 46th Congress. .. them to all eternity." duties as an apostle to the Tooelle "Stake" | them. The suffrage has been bestowed at the city of Grantville. In a discourse upon all classes by a statute so general that on Sunday, the 20th day of July, 1875, Mr. the ballot box is filled with a mass of votes Cannon said: 1 God has given us (mean- which repels the free citizen from the exing the Mormon people) this land, and, if ercise of that right. If a Gentile is choany outsider shall come in to take land sen to the Legislature (two or three such which we claim, a piece sir feet by two is instances have occurred), he is not admitall they are entitled to, and that will last ted to the seat, although the act of Congress (June 23, 1874) requires the Territory to pay all the expenses of the enforcement of the laws of the Territory, and of the care of persons convicted of offenses against the laws of the Territory. Provision is made for jurors' fecs in criminal cases only, and none is made for the care of criminals.1 While Congress pays the legislative expenses, amounting to $20,000 per session, the Legislature defiantly refuses to comply with the laws which its members are sworn to support. And the same body, though failing to protect the marriage bond by any law whatever requiring any solemnities for entering it, provided a divorce act which practically allowed marriages to be annulled at will. Neither seduction, adultery nor incest find penalty or recognition in its legal 2 By measures and threats like these have the Mormons unlawfully controlled the agricultural lands of the Territory and excluded therefrom the dissenting settler. The attempt of the United States to establish a Surveyor-General's office in Utah in 1855, and to survey the lands in view of disposing of them according to law, was met by such opposition that Mr. Burr, the Surveyor-General, was compelled to fly for lite. The monuments of surveys made by his order were destroyed, and the records were supposed to have met a like fate, but were afterwards restored by Brigham Young to the Government. The report of his experience by Mr. Burr was instrumental in causing troops to be sent in 1857 to assert the authority of the Government. code. The purity of home is destroyed by | When this army, consisting of regular the beastly practice of plural marriage, and troops, was on the way to Utah, Brigham the brows of innocent children are branded Young, as Governor, issued a proclamation, with the stain of bastardy to gratify the dated September 15, 1857, declaring mar- lust which cares naught for its victims. tial law and ordering the people of the Twenty-eight of the thirty-six members of Territory to hold themselves in readiness the present Legislature of Utah are reto march to repel the invaders, and on the ported as having from two to seven wives 29th of September following addressed the each. While the Government of the Unicommander of United States forces an or- ted States is paying these men their mileder forbidding him to enter the Territory, age and per diem as law-makers in Utah, and directing him to retire from it by the those guilty of the same offense outside of same route he had come. Further evidence Utah are leading the lives of felons in conof the Mormon claim that they were inde-vict cells. For eight years a Mormon delependent is perhaps unnecessary. The trea- gate has sat in the capitol at Washington sonable character of the local organization having four living wives in his harem in is manifest. It is this organization that Utah, and at the same time, under the controls, not only the people who belong to shadow of that capitol, lingers in a felon's it, but the 30,000 non-Mormons who now re- prison a man who had been guilty of marside in Utah. rying a woman while another wife was still living. Every member of the territorial Legislature is a Mormon. Every county officer is a Morinon. Every territorial officer is a Mormon, except such as are appointive. The schools provided by law and supported by taxation are Mormon. The teachers are Mormon, and the sectarian catechism affirming the revelations of Joseph Smith is regularly taught therein. The municipal corporations are under the control of Mormons. In the hands of this bigoted class all the material interests of the Territory are left, subject only to such checks as a Federal Governor and a Federal judiciary can impose. From beyond the sea they import some thousands of ignorant converts annually, and, while the non-Mormons are increasing, they are overwhelmed by the muddy tide of fanaticism shipped in upon 1 According to the affidavits of Samuel Howard and others, page 14. For thirty years have the Mormons been trusted to correct these evils and put themselves in harmony with the balance of civilized mankind. This they have refused to do. Planting themselves in the heart of the continent, they have persistently defied the laws of the land, the laws of modern society, and the teachings of a common humanity. They degrade woman to the office of a breeding animal, and, after depriving her of all property rights in her husband's estate, all control of her children, they, with ostentation, bestow upon her the ballot in a way that makes it a nullity if contested, and compels her to use it to perpetuate her own degradation if she avails herself of it. $ 4 1 See Report of Attorney-General United States, 1880-81. 2 Act of March 6, 1862. Act of February 16, 1872 * Secs. 1 and 2, act of February 3, 1852. 2 Ex-Secretary Blaine on the 3d of Janu Arthur: No power has been given to the Mor-lived he intended to make his administramon Hierarchy that has not been abused. tion brilliant at home and abroad-a view The right of representation in the legisla- confirmed by the policy conceived by tive councils has been violated in the ap-Secretary Blaine and sanctioned, it must portionment of members so as to disfran- be presumed, by President Garfield. This chise the non-Mormon class. The system policy looked to closer commercial and of revenue and taxation was for twenty-political relations with all of the Republics five years a system of confiscation and ex- on this Hemisphere, as developed in the tortion. The courts were so organized and following quotations from a correspondcontrolled that they were but the organs of ence, the publication of which lacks comthe church oppressions and ministers of pleteness because of delays in transmitting its vengeance. The legal profession was all of it to Congress. abolished by a statute that prohibited a lawyer from recovering on any contractary sent the following letter to President for service, and allowed every person to appear as an attorney in any court. The attorney was compelled to present "all the facts in the case," whether for or against his client, and a refusal to disclose the confidential communications of the latter subjected the attorney to fine and imprisonment. No law book except the statutes of Utah and of the United States, "when applicable," was permitted to be read in any court by an attorney, and the citation of a decision of the Supreme Court of the sidency I acquainted you with the project United States, or even a quotation from and submitted to you a draft for such an the Bible, in the trial of any cause, sub-invitation. You received the suggestion jected a lawyer to fine and imprisonment. with the most appreciative consideration, The practitioners of medicine were and after carefully examining the form of equally assailed by legislation. The use the invitation directed that it be sent. It of the most important remedies known to was accordingly dispatched in November modern medical science, including all an- to the independent governments of Ameriaesthetics, was prohibited except under ca North and South, including all, from conditions which made their use impossi- the Empire of Brazil to the smallest reble, "and if death followed" the adminis-public. In a communication addressed by tration of these remedies, the person ad- the present Secretary of State on January ministering them was declared guilty of 9, to Mr. Trescot and recently sent to the manslaughter or murder.' The Legislative Senate I was greatly surprised to find a Assembly is but an organized conspiracy proposition looking to the annulment of against the national law, and an obstacle these invitations, and I was still more surin the way of the advancement of its own prised when I read the reasons assigned. people. For sixteen years it refused to lay If I correctly apprehend the meaning of its enactments before Congress, and they his words it is that we might offend some were only obtained by a joint resolution European powers if we should hold in the demanding them. Once in armed rebel- United States a congress of the "selected lion against the authority of the nation, nationalities" of America. the Mormons have always secretly struggled for, as they have openly prophesied, its entire overthrow. Standing thus in the "The suggestion of a congress of all the American nations to assemble in the city of Washington for the purpose of agreeing on such a basis of arbitration for international troubles as would remove all possibility of war in the Western hemisphere was warmly approved by your predecessor. The assassination of July 2 prevented his issuing the invitations to the American States. After your accession to the Pre 6 pathway of the material growth and devel-government to occupy. The European The South American Question. If it was not shrewdly surmised before it is now known that had President Garfield Act of February 18, 1852. powers assemble in congress whenever an object seems to them of sufficient importance to justify it. I have never heard of their consulting the government of the United States in regard to the propriety of their so assembling, nor have I ever known of their inviting an American representative to be present. Nor would there, in my judgment, be any good reason for their so doing. Two Presidents of the United States in the year 1881 adjudged it to be expedient that the American powers should 1 See act of January 17. 1862. 2 Act of January 7, 1854, sec. 14, 8 Acts of Jan 21, 1853, and of January, 1855, sec. 29. meet in congress for the sole purpose of 4 Act of February 18, 1852. agreeing upon some basis for arbitration of differences that may arise between them and for the prevention, as far as possible, "This is certainly a new position for the United States to assume, and one which I earnestly beg you will not permit this of war in the future. If that movement is | now to be arrested for fear that it may give offense in Europe, the voluntary humiliation of this government could not be more complete, unless we should press the European governments for the privilege of holding the congress. I cannot conceive how the United States could be placed in a less enviable position than would be secured by sending in November a cordial invitation to all the American governments to meet in Washington for the sole purpose of concerting measures of peace and in January recalling the invitation for fear that it might create "jealousy and ill will" on the part of monarchical governments in Europe. It would be difficult to devise a more effective mode for making enemies of the American Government and it would certainly not add to our prestige in the European world. Nor can I see, Mr. President, how European governments should feel "jealousy and ill will" towards the United States because of an effort on our own part to assure lasting peace between the nations of America, unless, indeed, it be to the interest of European power that American nations should at intervals fall into war and bring reproach on republican government. But from that very circumstance I see an additional and powerful motive for the American Governments to be at peace among themselves. invitation for any cause would be embarrassing; to revoke it for the avowed fear of "jealousy and ill will on the part of European powers would appeal as little to American pride as to American hospitality. Those you have invited may decline, and having now cause to doubt their welcome will, perhaps, do so. This would break up the congress, but it would not touch our dignity. (( Beyond the philanthropic and Christian ends to be obtained by an American conference devoted to peace and good-will among men, we might well hope for material advantages, as the result of a better understanding and closer friendship with the nation of America. At present the condition of trade between the United States and its American neighbors is unsatisfactory to us, and even deplorable. According to the official statistics of our own Treasury Department, the balance against us in that trade last year was $120,000,000-a sum greater than the yearly product of all the gold and silver mines in the United States. This vast balance was paid by us in foreign exchange, and a very large proportion of it went to England, where shipments of cotton, provisions and breadstuffs supplied the money. If anything should change or check the balance in our favor in European trade our commercial exchanges with Spanish America would drain us of our reserve of gold at a rate exceeding $100,000,000 per annum, and would probably precipitate a suspension of specie payment in this country. Such a result at home might be worse than a little jealousy and ill-will abroad. I do not say, Mr. Presi dent, that the holding of a peace congress will necessarily change the currents of trade, but it will bring us into kindly relations with all the American nations; it will promote the reign of peace and law and order; it will increase production and consumption and will stimulate the demand for articles which American manufacturers can furnish with profit. It will at all events be a friendly and auspicious beginning in the direction of American influence and American trade in a large field which we have hitherto greatly neglected and which has been practically monopolized by our commercial rivals in Europe. As Mr. Frelinghuysen's dispatch, foreshadowing the abandonment of the peace congress, has been made public, I deem it a matter of propriety and justice to give this letter to the press. JAS. G. BLAine. The United States is indeed at peace with all the world, as Mr. Frelinghuysen well says, but there are and have been serious troubles between other American nations. Peru, Chili and Bolivia have been for more than two years engaged in a desperate conflict. It was the fortunate intervention of the United States last spring that averted war between Chili and the Argentine Republic. Guatemala is at this moment asking the United States to interpose its good offices with Mexico to keep off war. These important facts were all communicated in your late message to Congress. It is the existence or the menace of these wars that influenced President Garfield, and as I supposed influenced yourself, to desire a friendly conference of all the nations of America to devise methods of permanent peace and consequent prosperity for all. Shall the United States now turn back, hold aloof and refuse to exert its great moral power for the advantage of its weaker neighbors? If you have no formally and finally recalled the invitations to the Peace Congress, Mr. President, I beg you to consider well the effect of so doing. The invitation was not mine. It was yours. I performed only the part of the Secretary-to advise of the proposition to have a Conand to draft. You spoke in the name of gress of the Republics of America at the United States to each of the indepen- Washington, and under the patronage of dent nations of America. To revoke that this government, with a view to settle all The above well presents the Blaine view difficulties by arbitration, to promote trade, | chiefs of Government on the Continent can and it is presumed to form alliances ready be less sensitive than he is to the sacred to suit a new and advanced application of duty of making every endeavor to do away the Monroe doctrine. with the chances of fratricidal strife, and he looks with hopeful confidence to such active assistance from them as will serve to show the broadness of our common humanity, the strength of the ties which bind us all together as a great and harmonious system of American Commonwealths. The following is the letter proposing a conference of North and South American Republics sent to the U. S. Ministers in Central and South America: SIR: The attitude of the United States with respect to the question of general peace on the American Continent is well known through its persistent efforts for years past to avert the evils of warfare, or, these efforts failing, to bring positive conflicts to an end through pacific counsels or the alvocacy of impartial arbitration. A GENERAL CONGRESS PROPOSED. Impressed by these views, the President extends to all the independent countries of North and South America an earnest inThis attitude has been consistently main-vitation to participate in a general Congress, to be held in the city of Washington, on the 22d of November, 1882, for the purpose of considering and discussing the methods of preventing war between the nations of America. He desires that the attention of the Congress shall be strictly confined to this one great object; and its sole aim shall be to seek a way of permanently averting the horrors of a cruel and bloody contest between countries oftenest of one blood and speech, or the even worse calamity of internal commotion and civil strife; that it shall regard the burdensome and far-reaching consequences of such a struggle, the legacies of exhausted finances, of oppressive debt, of onerous taxation, of ruined cities, of paralyzed industries, of devastated fields, of ruthless conscriptions, of the slaughter of men, of the grief of the widow and orphan, of embittered resentments that long survive those who provoked them and heavily afflict the innocent generations that come after. tained, and always with such fairness as to leave no room for imputing to our Government any motive except the humane and disinterested one of saving the kindred States of the American Continent from the burdens of war. The position of the United States, as the leading power of the new world, might well give to its Government a claim to authoritative utterance for the purpose of quieting discord among its neighbors, with all of whom the most friendly relations exist. Nevertheless the good offices of this Government are not, and have not at any time, been tendered with a show of dictation or compulsion, but only as exhibiting the solicitous good will of a common friend. THE CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. THE MISSION OF THE CONGRESS. The President is especially desirous to have it understood that in putting forth this invitation the United States does not assume the position of counseling or attempt ing, through the voice of the Congress, to counsel any determinate solution of exist For some years past a growing disposition has been manifested by certain States of Central and South America to refer disputes affecting grave questions of international relationship and boundaries to arbitration rather than to the sword. It has been on several occasions a source of profound satisfaction to the Government of the United States to see that this country is in a large measure looked to by all the American powers as their friend and mediator. The just and impartial counsel of the President in such cases, hasing questions which may now divide any never been withheld, and his efforts have of the countries. Such questions cannot been rewarded by the prevention of properly come before the Congress. Its sanguinary strife or angry contentions be- mission is higher. It is to provide for the tween peoples whom we regard as brethren. interests of all in the future, not to settle The existence of this growing tendency the individual differences of the present. convinces the President that the time is For this reason especially the President ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the has indicated a day for the assembling of good will and active co-operation of all the the Congress so far in the future as to States of the Western Hemisphere both leave good ground for the hope that by the North and South, in the interest of hu- time named the present situation on the manity and for the common weal of na- South Pacific coast will be happily terminated, and that those engaged in the contest may take peaceable part in the discussion and solution of the general question affecting in an equal degree the well-being of all. tions. It seems also desirable to disclaim in ad He conceives that none of the Governments of America can be less alive than our own to the dangers and horrors of a state of war, and especially of war between kinsmen. He is sure that none of the |
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