It is undeniably
demonstrated that it is unsafe to trust it to administer a government in
accordance with republican ideas; for it acknowledges a higher law than
even the human conscience, in the will of a person whom it professes
to believe a vicegerent of Divinity, and in obedience to whom perjury,
robbery, incest, and even murder, may be justifiable,--for his commands
are those of Heaven. It is obvious that it is fruitless to anticipate
fair dealing from a people professing such doctrines; and the result has
shown, that, in transactions with Mormons, even under oath, no one who
does not acknowledge a standard of religious belief similar to their own
can count upon justice any farther than they may think it politic
to accord it. The army is, indeed, placed in a position to suppress
instantaneously another forcible outbreak; but everybody is aware that
there are means of annulling the operation of law quite as effectually
as by an uprising in arms. Recent proceedings in the courts of the
extreme Southern States have caused this fact to be keenly appreciated.
The pirates who sailed the slavers "Echo" and "Wanderer" yet remain to
be punished.
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