History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

THE MORMONS DISFRANCHISED. 685
been amiss in the days of the star-chamber, but is
directly at variance with the spirit and letter of the
American constitution; and the more so when we
consider that the Mormons, driven by persecution out
of the United States, settled in what was then no
portion of the territory of the United States, though
aiding in the conquest and settlement of that terri-
tory, as did the colonists of Rhode Island, in 1636,
when they fled from the sectional intolerance of
Massachusetts.
But not only were the Mormons to be judged as
criminals by an ex post facto law—one that barred
the statute of limitations, and if strictly enforced
would bring within its pale no inconsiderable portion
of the adult male population of the United States
they were also to be stripped of the franchise, and
made ineligible for office. It was argued in the senate
that this was no penalty, and it may be admitted
that, as a rule, to deprive men of the suffrage, and
disqualify them for office, is not a severe punishment;
but in Utah, where at least five hundred lucrative
positions would have been laid open to a hungry horde
of gentile office-seekers, the suffrage was worth more
than houses and lands, for by the ballot alone could
be held in check the greed of demagogues, who sought
the control of the territory as a field for plunder and
oppression. The bill virtually proposed to disfranchise
a people, and to govern them by a committee of
five men, or at least to create a government by a
minority over a large majority; for it was not to b»
expected that these five men, of whom a quorum belonged
to the same political faction, would decide im-
partially on the electoral qualifications of the people.
It was so expressed, and its measures were indorsed
by the congress and president of the United States,
the question being not whether congress had power
to repeal any or all of the laws in each of the terri-
tories, and intrust the legislative, executive, and judicial
functions to whomsoever it pleased—this was
—