USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > History of Salt Lake City > Part 75
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those who refuse to surrender the practice of an ordinance and that not a saving, although a sacred ordinance. I do not claim to know, I do not know what the Mormon doctrine may be with respect to the practice of polygamy. I observe, however, that not one-tenth of your adult males actually practice it, and I naturally conclude that you do not consider its practice essential to salvation ; that it is some- thing to be practiced or omitted as opportunity or ability may warrant. If this be so, then may not that lack of ability or opportunity arise from the antagonism of others, from the circumstances of the country, from overpowering laws, as well as from the circumstances of the individual ? If one Mormon is permitted by his creed to say, I believe in polygamy as a doctrine, but I do not practice it because my con- dition makes it inconvenient or impossible, why may not another say-why may not all say-we believe in it as a doctrine, but we agree not to practice it because the general conditions make it inconvenient or impossible? Why may not the earnest, conscientious Mormon say, I believe in polygamy as a doctrine. but in order to relieve my friends and associates from persecution, in order to prevent the establishment of intolerable oppression; in order to preserve the thrift, the industry, the wealth, the progress, the temperate life, the virtues of Utah fron spoliation and devastation and ruin ; in order to save a hundred noble pioneer citizens from outlawry or the gibbet or incarceration ; in order to achieve self- government, and peace, and liberty, I consent to surrender its practice for the future. And so consenting I am content to embody my consent in the form of an organic law. So consenting I mean in good faith to do as I agree to, and so agree- ing make my agreement public and of record.
" To say, on the other, that you will make no compromise, that you will die rather than surrender the practice of this one feature of your faith, is the resolve of neither philosophers nor philanthropists. Such a resolve means another Nauvoo ; it means that you consent to count more of your religious leaders among your list of martyrs ; it means death to some, exile to other, ruin to many. If such be the well considered, deliberate determination of the Mormon people, there is no weapon in the armory of logic that will prevail against it, for you cannot reason with him who is bent on suicide. I hope no such conclusion has been or will be reached. I hope that the assembling of this convention indicates a different and wiser resolve. I speak to this people as a friend. I speak to them without thought of personal gain or advantage to myself to result from pursuing the course I sug- gest. Before God and before this convention I do most solemnly assert that did I in - tend to leave Utah forever on the morrow, I would give the same advice. Before God and before this convention I do most solemnly declare that did I know my little life would go out from earth with to-day's sun I would give the same advice.
" To this convention I say, be wise in time. If you do not by this conces- sion successfully organize a State government for yourselves now, the day is not far distant when your foes will organize one over your heads, and organize it upon such terms as will ostracise your most honored citizens from public peace, if it do not disfranchise the body of your voters. The political history of some of the reconstructed States lies to your perusal and for your warning. In politics as in finance the tendency of the age is to centralization. The triumphant career of a great political party demonstrates to you that there is no government so strong as
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a government of opinion, that there is no law so powerful as the will of a people. It is a turbulent and resistless torrent ; constitutional barriers are swept down be- fore it, laws are changed to accommodate it ; courts are overwhelmed or carried away upon its crest, and institutions that lift up their voices against it are hushed by its mighty thunders.
" Do not trifle with your opportunity. Do not wait the tardy action of Con- gress. Do not entail upon yourself years of oppression. Do not play into the hands of your foes. Do not close the mouths and tie the hands of your friends. Believe rather that this is the hour of triumph, that this is the ' tide in your affairs which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.' Believe rather that out of the wise compromise, the wise concession, which may have a beginning here, a happy future shall grow. That from this house the lovely State of Deseret shall go forth, with her errors forgotten, with her virtues shining like rubies upon her breast, to clasp hands with her sister States and march with them along the high- way of empire which stretches from sun to sun."
CHAPTER LXVII.
THE DISCUSSION FOR THE STATE CONTINUED. HAYDON AND BARNUM EU- LOGIZE THE CHIEF JUSTICE. FITCH CHALLENGES THE RECORD, AND IS UNANSWERED. MOTION TO ADJOURN LOST, AND BUSINESS RESUMED. DESERET OR UTAH ? THE NAME OF DESERET PREVAILS. THE ALL IM- PORTANT STRUGGLE OVER THE FIFTH SECTION OF THE ORDINANCE, INVITING CONGRESS TO PUT IN ITS PLANK. ORSON PRATT LEADS THE OPPOSITION, GEORGE Q, CANNON THE MEMBERS FOR THE SECTION. THE FIFTH SECTION PREVAILS. GRAND POINTS OF THE MODEL CON- STITUTION. WORK OF THE CONVENTION FINISHED. ELECTION FOR CONGRESSMAN. BALLOTING FOR U. S. SENATORS. EFFORTS TO ORG 1.V- IZE THE CITIZENS INTO THE NATIONAL PARTIES.
On the third day of the convention Judge Haydon replied to Mr. Fitch. He said the reason why he made the motion to adjourn sine die was to define his pos- ition on the State government of Utah. He had no thought the discussion would take so wide a range, nor that so much bitterness of expression would have been indulged in; neither did he think that the gentlemen would have taken occasion to speak in such harsh terms of the Government and its officers. This, he thought. of itself would militate against the admission of Utah, for the Government would say that those who abuse the Government and its officers are not fit to join the sisterhood of loyal States. He had noticed that great wisdom usually marked the gentlemen present in worldly matters, but in this instance he thought it was a truant. He had come to Utah to practice his profession quietly, and to keep aloof as far as possible from conflicting parties ; and he desired to act justly towards all.
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He a was Gentile and by his actions in that convention represented in part the Gentile sentiment of Salt Lake County; and if his Mormon friends who elected him thought he could be used to give a Gentile color to the convention they had mistaken their man. He ventured the opinion that outside the Gentiles on the floor of the convention there were not more than fifty in Salt Lake County, nor a hundred in the Territory, in favor of a State government. He raised the point of increased taxation, against State sovereignty, urging that it would keep for- eign capital away and retard the development of the resources of the State. He next gave a eulogistical sketch of Judge McKean's career and character, criticising Fitch's argument ; and, closing on the polygamic question, said he did not be- lieve that the Mormons present would be willing to trade off what they believe a divine ordinance for the bauble of State sovereignty. If they were once to lose the respect of the world for their honesty in their faith they would go down like Lucifer-never to rise. What would history write-what would the world say, if a convention composed mainly of Latter-day Saints, among whom were six apostles and twenty bishops, should be found ready and willing to sacrifice one of their divine ordinances for a State government ? As a Gentile who was no enemy but who had many reasons to be their friend, he in conclusion said, "Stay where you are, and bide your time."
He then moved the previous question, but at the request of numerous gentle- men he afterwards withdrew.
Mr Fitch replied to Judge Haydon's strictures on his speech and " challenged the gentleman and the world to point out a false statement therein." He was not unwilling to believe that Judge McKean had always lived an upright life. It was not the acts of his past life which were here in review ; it was his course as a judge in Utah which he had criticised. And he submitted that, in considering a resolution to adjourn without action, all the evils of the existing system were legitimate sub- jects for discussion. In conclusion he desired to say that the position of his col- league differed from his in this, that while Judge Haydon desired the people of Utan to retain McKean and polygamy, he (Fitch) desired them to get rid alike of polygamy and Mckean.
Col. Akers said his collegue, Judge Haydon, had left all the reasons advanced in support of his original motion untouched, except taxation. The Judge had said if he could not lift up men, he gloried in the fact that he was too feeble to pull down angels ; yet his motion and arguments were directed towards pulling down the fabric which the convention was endeavoring to rear. It was infinitely easier to pull down than to build up. The architect's skill and wisdom of the builder might be employed in erecting a structure which the hand of destruction, however unskillful or unwisely directed, might lay in ruins. The convention had met to aid in building a fabric of State government, and one greatly needed for Utah. The history of this Territory had been one of harshness towards the peo- ple. He did not allude to the past experiences of the Mormons, in the drivings and persecutions which they had endured before they turned their backs on civili- zation and sought a refuge in this then comparatively desert region ; but he re- ferred to a period still more recent, and to the present; and appealed to the gentle men present if the law which should ever be administered with justice, tempered by
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kindness, and not been administered with severity and harshness. This should be changed and for it should be substituted a policy of kindness and Christianity, a policy of conciliation. Kindness always softens and melts. The maniac's fury is soothed by it; under its influence the ferocity of the tiger is subdued, and men can enter a den of savage beasts that have been made to feel the power of kind- ness and conciliation. Brute force appeals to the lowest instincts of mankind ; conciliation appeals to the highest and noblest. It is like the gentle summer cloud that sheds its grateful moisture upon the parched earth, making nature rejoice. He desired to see men governed always and in all places in a spirit of conciliatory kindness, that their better nature might be called out in response to it. He be- lieved that with a State government for Utah all the wrangling and contention which unsettled business and kept bitter feelings alive would cease.
Mr. H. D. Johnson did not wish to made a speech, but endorsed the senti- ments and views of the previous speaker, reviewing the remarks of Judge Haydon and showing their inconsistency.
Col. Buel said Judge Haydon had stated he was a Gentile. He, the speaker, was not a Mormon, and he would leave the people to determine where he stood. There was quite a liberal sentiment among many gentiles with regard to this mat. ter of a State government. If Mormons were elected to office, he would sustain them in it. They had administered the government of the Territory in the past, so far as it was in their hands, with prudence and economy. He had to pay less taxes here than he had ever done before ; and as they had done so well in the past he was willing to trust them in the future in a State.
General Barnum endorsed the views of his Gentile colleagues as against Judge Haydon's opposition to the State, but spoke highly of Judge Mckean and Gov- ernor Woods, while differing from them in the policy and methods of their administration.
In the afternoon of the third day's session Hon. George Q. Cannon, in a very able speech, brought the issue on Judge Haydon's motion to adjourn. The vote stood-aye, I ; noes, 95.
But the all-important work of the convention was in the discussion and pas- sage of the fifth section of the ordinance to the constitution, thus opening :
" We, the people of the Territory of Utah, do ordain as follows, and this ordinance shall be irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of the State of Deseret : * X
" Fifth-That such terms, if any, as may be prescribed by Congress as a condition of the admission of said State into the Union, shall, if ratified by the majority vote of the people thereof, at such time and under such regulations as may be prescribed by the first Legislature of said State-thereupon be embraced wichin, and constitute a part of this ordinance."
This compromise plank was the one aimed for in Mr. Fitch's earnest and most feeling appeal to his Mormon co-laborers in the State work, and which was anticipated in the prefatory speeches of all the Gentile members of the conven- tion excepting Haydon. Indeed, not only did the State superstructure rest upon the fifth section, but the very convention itself, as it is not probable that any one
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of the Gentile members would have accepted their election and work only in anticipation of such a concession as the fifth section implied. As for Judge Hay- don's opposition to the Mormons giving up polygamy it was appreciated accord ing to its motive by both his Mormon and Gentile colleagues alike.
In opening the discussion on the constitution the convention resolved itself into a committee of the whole, Col. Akers in the chair, and resumed consideration of the report of the committee on ordinance.
Mr. Pratt understood a motion had been made to strike out the fifth section, and moved to amend by inserting the word "constitutional" after the word "such." He deemed this change very necessary, because with all the wisdom of Congress it sometimes passed enactments conflicting with the Federal constitution, and as decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. He cited the Cullom bill as an instance of an unconstitutional measure which had passed one branch of Congress ; and to the enabling act introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr. Sargent of California, which also contained what he held to be an uncon- stitutional provision.
Judge Haydon moved that the amendment be adopted.
Mr. Fitch did not see that the amendment would accomplish the gentleman's object. Should Congress propose terms which he might deem unconstitutional, would he not be willing that they should be submitted to the people ? Whether the terms of Congress, if any should be constitutional or not, they ought never- theless to be submitted.
Mr. Miner held that from the construction of the section in question. the State had to be admitted de facto before such terms would be submitted to the people, as the legislature of the proposed State was required by it to prescribe regulations for their being so submitted. There could be no State legislature un- less there was first a State, and this left it open for the State to be admitted and then thrown out in the cold if the prospective terms should not be accepted.
Mr. Cannon thought the convention would make the necessary arrangements before adjourning, and that this objection would be met by the future action of the convention.
Judge Haydon was in favor of Mr. Pratt's amendment.
General Barnum thought the insertion of the word proposed by Mr. Pratt would accomplish no good purpose, and that it conveyed an insinuation that Con- gress would impose terms which were or might be unconstitutional. Now, Con- gress acts under the constitution, and was it reasonable to suppose that it would seek to impose unconstitutional terms? But suppose it did, who was to decide as to their constitutionahty or unconstitutionality? The acts of Congress are the law of the land and held to be constitutional until decided otherwise by the Supreme Court.
Mr. Thurber was surprised to hear gentlemen object to the word constitution, and as a supporter of the government he would vote for its insertion. As it then stood it was a bid for Congress to make unconstitutional terms, and see if the people of Utah would accept them.
Mr. Joseph W. Young could not see that the convention or the Territory were offering any terms or making any bids. There was a clamor in the country that
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the people of the Territory should make some concession and he thought the people who only desired their rights, should, in asking a State government, give Congress an opportunity to say if they had any terms to impose, and then the people could decide on the acceptance of those terms. He was as little inclined to sacrifice principle as any member of the convention, but he deemed it neces- sary that it should be left to Congress to say what concessions were required of the people, who would then have the opportunity of accepting or rejecting them. He was opposed to Mr. Pratt's amendment.
Mr. Pratt was not sure that he would accept the section even if the word was inserted. He considered Mr. Miner's objection to the section a very serious one ; but if the section be not amended, he was in favor of striking it out altogether.
Mr. Cannon said the section was introduced for a purpose. He thought the exigencies of the times demanded a State government. He need not dwell upon the reasons for it. Allusion had been made to the prejudice existing against Utah ; and in this section they asked Congress what terms it had to prescribe on which they might be admitted. He did not care, in one way, whether the terms im- posed were constitutional or not ; it was for the people to decide. He closed with a stirring appeal to sustain the section.
Mr. Fuller said Congress would not knowingly impose unconstitutional terms. He thought Mr. Fitch's proposition was being lost sight of ; that if they inserted the word ' constitutional,' they took from the people the right to say whether they accepted the required terms or not. Besides, if Congress should impose unconsti- tutional terms an appeal to the court of last resort would set them aside.
Judge Snow thought the insertion of the word would convey an imputation that Congress would impose unconstitutional terms, and he would vote against the motion.
Mr. Pratt's motion was put and lost.
Mr. Cannon said the committee which had presented the ordinance wished to amend the section by substituting " this convention " for " the first legislature of said State."
Mr. H. D. Johnson wished the convention to be conducted according to par- liamentary rules, and held that a member of the committee on ordinance could not make such an amendment.
Mr. Cannon made the motion as a member of the committee of the whole ; and it was then put and carried.
The motion to strike out the entire section was then raised, and Mr. Miner spoke in favor of the motion, as the section seemed like asking Congress to im- pose conditions other than have ever been required of any other Territory seeking admission as a State. Utah should ask admission the same as any other Territory in a dignified manner, neither supplicating nor in a spirit of braggadocio, but in a spirit of manhood. If Congress had any terms to propose, it would do it in its sovereign power, and they then could accept or reject them.
Mr. Moses Thatcher would sustain the motion to strike out the section. Utah presented as honorable claims for admission as any Territory had ever done, and he believed it should be admitted as other States had been.
Mr. J. W. Young contended that in view of existing prejudices, unless there
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should be some section of this nature, something by which Congress would see that the people of the Territory were willing to meet in a spirit of concession these prejudices, their constitution would be laid on the table and allowed there to remain. He was opposed to the motion.
Mr. Farr said it was understood what objection Congress had to the admission of Utah-it was polygamy. Were they willing to yield polygamy for the sake of obtaining a State government. If they were, say so, and obtain State sovereignty.
Mr. Milner did not think Congress was asked to prescribe terms by the sec- tion ; the inquiry was only made, had it any terms to prescribe ? £ He did not think Congress would wish to impose conditions which could not be accepted in honor. He was opposed to the motion.
Mr. Tyler opposed the motion. He could see nothing in the section that would compromise the honor of any member of the convention, or the people of Utah. Application had been made before for the admission of Utah, which had been refused, and this section only asked, in fact, what were the reasons why ad- mission had not been granted.
Mr. W. Snow, the proposer of the motion, said the section was materially changed sinced his motion had been offered, and in view of that change he would withdraw it. Objection was made and the consideration of the motion was continued.
Mr. Rich thought the constitution should be republican in form, and he asked why a section should be introduced which would open a way for something that was not republican. He said he thought they had a right to ask what they wanted, and he was in favor of a strictly republican constitution. He favored the motion.
Mr. J. R. Murdock, of Beaver, was in favor of the section being retained. He did not think the members of the convention had assembled to tell what they had done in the past, nor to criticize the parent government, but to frame a con- stitution that would secure the admission of Utah as a State.
Mr. Pratt was opposed to the section because it was an anomaly, such as no other State had embraced in its constitution. He held that the Territory had a right to demand admission, for a Territorial government is not a republican one. They had once had a republican government in the State of Deseret, but that right had been taken from them, and he held they were only asking for that right being returned to them. He treated on the constitutional powers of Congress and the Government, and said he had been loyal to the Government, and so had his fathers before him ; and he did not think his rights as an American citizen had been destroyed because he was one of the early pioneers. His great reason for wishing to strike out the section was, because it was something unheard of in the history of States. As this ordinance was irrevocable, unless by the consent of Congress and the people of Utah, he did not desire to see such a section included in it. It was a section lugged in independent of all other ordinances that ever had been framed and should be stricken out.
Mr. Fuller did not consider that they were asking Congress to impose con- ditions, though it was well understood that conditions would be prescribed. He opposed the motion.
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Mr. Cannon said there was one point which ought not to be disguised. Mr. Pratt said the section was anomalous. He admitted it ; but they were an anom- alous people, and in an anomalous condition. The section gave Congress the opportunity to say what terms were required for the admission of Utah. There had been a carefully elaborated speech delivered in favor of the prohibition of polygamy, and if anything could convince the speaker that it should be done it would have been that speech. He did not want to insert in the constitution a clause abrogating polygamy ; nor to go into Congress with an ultimatum on the subject ; but to go as one of the contracting parties and learn what ternis were required for admission. Constitutions and delegates had been sent before ; he had had the honor of being one of the last delegates, and he was satisfied the retention of this section would have a beneficial effect.
The motion to strike out the fifth section was then put and lost.
The names of the gentlemen on the committee on ordinance who had con- structed this fifth section which thus prevailed were George Q. Cannon, Joseph W. Young, nephew of Brigham, John T. Caine, A. O. Smoot, second mayor of Salt Lake, Thomas Fitch, F. D. Richards, John Rowberry and John Sharp.
After the passage of the fifth section of the ordinance the work of the con- vention progressed smoothly from day to day. Mormon and non-Mormon dele- gates vying with each other to make the constitution of the State of Deseret as broad and perfect as possible. It was a noble piece of work when finished and it won the admiration of American statesmen, notwithstanding the State was not admitted. Section 25 was constructed specially to give justice to the minority in the representation, and it is evident that had the State been admitted, quite a large element of non-Mormon representative men must have been admitted to the management and supervision of our public affairs, by the very construction of the instrument which the convention had wrought, and the precedents which it had given. Female suffrage was also granted.
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