The Idaho scimitar. [volume], December 14, 1907, Page 7, Image 7

About The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908

Image provided by: Idaho State Historical Society

                
One of the Pardoned.
On the 4th day of January, 1893, the name of Ben
jamin Harrison, president of the United States, was
attached to a proclamation granting amnesty and
pardon to all persons liable to the penalties prescribed
by the Edmunds-Tucker act for polygamous prac
tices and unlawful cohabitation.
In the preamble of the proclamation President
Plarrison recited that the head of the Mormon church
had issued a manifesto declaring that the church no
longer sanctioned polygamous marriages—that the
officials of the church had applied to him for pardons
for themselves and their people, promising future
observance of the law—that the Utah commission had
recommended that the prayer of the petitioners be
granted. He concluded his official pronouncement
with the following expression :
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, president of
the United States, by virtue of the power in me
vested, do hereby declare and grant a full amnesty
and pardon to all persons liable to the penalties of
said act by reason of unlawful cohabitation under the
color of polygamous or plural marriage who have,
November 1, 1890, abstained from such unlaw
ful cohabitation ; but upon the express condition that
they shall in the future faithfully obey the laws of
the United States hereintofore named, and not other
Those who shall fail to avail themselves of
since
wise.
the clemency hereby offered will be vigorously
prosecuted.
Such was the response of the chief magistrate to
the plea of pretended repentance imposed on the
government by men who were paving the way for
escape from the jurisdiction of the federal govern
ment, that they might erect a state under which they
would be amenable only to such laws as they chose
to inflict upon themselves.
In the petition for amnesty it was recited that—
To be at peace with the government and in har
mony with their fellow citizens who are not of their
faith, and to share in the confidence of the govern
ment and people, our people have voluntarily put
aside something which all their lives they have be
lieved to be a sacred principle.
Have they not the right to ask for such clemency
as comes when the claims of both law and justice
have been fully liquidated ?
As shepherds of a patient and suffering people we
ask amnesty for them and pledge our faith and honor
for the future.
The petition of which the foregoing are the clos
ing paragraphs was signed by Wilford Woodruff,
George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith and all the
apostles and presidents.
It will be observed that the third signature to the
petition for amnesty is that of Joseph F. Smith, now
head of the Mormon church. On page six of this
issue of The Scimitar is printed an extract from the
testimony of Joseph F. Smith in the Smoot case in
which he swears that he has not fulfilled the terms
of his solemn promise for himself and his people by
which he secured the pardon of the President of the
United States for his violations of the law and for
the violations of others.
In that testimony he swears that he has openly
and continuously violated his promise and the law
and that he proposes to remain in such violation.
He defies the government and the law. The chief
shepherd of a "patient and suffering people" is living
in open domestic relations with five alleged wives at
the capital of his kingdom.
President Harrison has gone to his long rest and
the pardon he issued might as well have been buried
with him, for it is of no effect—the Mormon church
is a government unto itself and the old federal rela
tion has ceased.
Morally and ethically viewed, Joseph F. Smith
might be open to censure along with all the others
that have failed to keep the faith. But legally he will
not be compelled to live within the moral and statu
tory relation until the state government is purified by
the ballots of the representatives of clean handed
justice.
President Harrison was a Republican and he
frowned upon the practices that have made the name
of Mormonism odious. President Roosevelt is a Repub
lican and he sustains the perjured head of the church
and all of his followers and extends to them the
support and the votes of his party. Assuming to be
the greatest American advocate of the home in all its
purity and the defender of virtuous motherhood, the
leader of the Republican party stands for the undo
ing of the good work of one of the same political
faith who held the high office he now fills.
Without the assistance o.f the Republican party, the
polygamous practices of Joseph F. Smith and others
would meet their punishment in all the afflicted
states.
Grant, Garfield, Hayes, Arthur, Harrison, all
Republican Presidents, declared against the iniquity
that Roosevelt, Republican President, is upholding. It
is five against one and there are yet Grant, Garfield,
Hayes, Arthur and Harrison Republicans entitled to
votes in the polygamous states.
Very Little Applause.
Although ample time has elapsed for the studious
examination of the President's message, no resound- •
ing wave of applause has swept over the country.
Perfunctorily it has been mentioned as "a great state
by some of the easily persuaded Republican
paper
editors of the land, but generally a sense of disap
pointment is expressed or implied.
The President's party friends have borne with it in
a kindly way and his party enemies have criticised
more in sadness than in exultation. Both party
friends and party enemies found in the President's
previous official utterances strength of expression
that interested them and commanded attention. In
his last document the Röoseveltian quality .is lacking
—the strenuosity gone—the big stick laid aside.
Taking counsel, perhaps, with fear, in the presence
of the startling events that surrounded its promulga
tion, the message opened with a wail through which
the public was given to understand that the misfor
tune under which the country had suddenly fallen
had been immediately caused by the miserly propensi
ties of the American people, who, he said, would have
averted trouble had they placed their money "in
sound banks."
Passing from his severe arraignment of the masses,
the message explained that the dishonesty of a few
was a potent cause for the disaster and then it as
sured congress that—
As a Nation we not only enjoy a wonderful meas
ure of present prosperity, but if this prosperity
used aright, it is an earnest of future success such
as no nation will ever have.
In the way of advancing a remedy for the condition
first presented, the presidential message said:
We need a great elasticity in our currency; pro
vided, of course, that we recognize the even greater
need of safe and secure currency. There must al
ways be the most rigid examination of the national
authorities. Provision should be made for an emer
gency currency.
IS
The president assailed both the honest and the
dishonest and opened no avenue of escape from a
He relieved himself of none of
gloomy situation,
the vigorous rhetoric the public has been accustomed
to receive from that source and none of the advices
which, whether good or bad, has heretofore poured
from the fount of his understanding.
The public was not looking for a colorless dis
in the presence of a crisis and it reluctantly
course
concludes that its author shines only as a fair weather
adviser.
So the message was received in disappointment
and with a show of anger on the part of men who
•suspect themselves of being dishonest toilers on the
vineyard of finance. Something has happened to
subdue the tempestous nature of the man in the
White House. He was not himself on the 3d of
September.
School indemnity lands to the extent of 28,887 acres
have been assigned to the State of Idaho by the Sec
retary of the Interior in the Boise land district. This
is lieu land for school sections used for other pur
poses.
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Idaho
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The Great
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NORTH SIDE
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! Land Opening !
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Occurred October 1st
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75,000 Acres were Filed On
in Three Days
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* Following is what a recent buyer, *
¥ wh= att e„ded tile Opening October 1st %
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and Secuied land aftei the Dl awing, 4*
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linso ld acres *
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'£ would not sell my location today for $5,000.00..
* Your land is splendid, your climate all that
J could be asked for, and your water supply ❖
*♦«. unlimited,
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I 50,000 Acres
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Still Open to Entry
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I have located on 160 acres of the land ❖
under your canal system, and, though my num- <g>
*£ ber came out among the last, and I thought *
*> my chances were poor to secure a good loca
*:♦ tion, I went with one of your drivers and
made my filing two days after the drawing *
was over. ^
"There is plenty of fine land left and I ♦>
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"I am more than satisfied, and as soon as I
. am notified that the water is ready I am com- 4*
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(Signed) G. S. Frëëburc.er,
South Bend, Wash." ♦>
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* The Gompany Sends People Out **«
Over the Land Free of Gharge
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Write for Circulars to the
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i Twin Falls North Side Investment !
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* Sole Agents for the disposal of all Water Rights
and Town Lots.
R. M. McGOLLUM, Secretary
JEROME, ID71HO, via Shoshone $
f FRED R. REED, Land Commissioner
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AGENT IN SELECTING LAND
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