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CHAPTER II.
The Organization of the Liberal Party.
In 1867 there were comparatively few Gentiles either in Salt Lake City, or the Territory.
After business hours certain Gentile business men of Salt Lake City were in the habit of meeting at the office of Abel Gilbert, a merchant, and a gentleman of infinite wit and social qualities. At these meetings the state of affairs in Utah was often discussed and condemned. At one of the meetings in 1867, at which William McGroarty, several other business men and myself were present, the approaching election of delegate to Congress having been mentioned by someone, I stated that if we intended to stay in the Territory we should organize and oppose the political control of the priesthood. As my suggestions were approved by all of the other persons present. I moved that we begin by nominating Mr. McGroarty as a candidate of the Gentiles for the office of delegate to Congress in opposition to Captain Hooper, the candidate of the church party for that office. McGroarty stroked his long beard and said: "Barkis is willing." Whereupon my motion was seconded, and passed unanimously. In a few days afterwards handbills announcing the candidacy of McGroarty were posted in the city, and sent to the various parts of the Territory where there were any Gentiles. At the election McGroarty received 105 votes. McGroarty contested Hooper's seat ,the main purpose of the contest being to direct the attention of Congress and the nation to existing conditions in Utah. That purpose was accomplished to some extent by a telling speech which McGroarty made in the House of Representatives in support of his contest.
Before the next election for delegate to Congress a convention of Gentiles convened at Corinne, organized more formally a political party and christened it the "Liberal party." That party continued to gain strength from its organization until the admission of the Territory as a State, when it was dissolved, its sole motive was, as before stated, to correct the abuses prevalent in Utah, and to establish republican American rule in place of the usurped rule of the priesthood of the Mormon church. In 1876 I was nominated by that party as a candidate for the office of delegate to Congress.
John C. Young, a nephew of Brigham, who at the time of his death was postmaster of Portland, Oregon, and Zera Snow, the son of a prominent Mormon, who at present is one of the leading lawyers of Portland, accompanied me on a stumping tour from Salt Lake City to Logan, and we made the first political speeches delivered outside of Salt Lake City. To use a common expression, these young men "talked out in church." At Logan our meeting was almost broken up by Mormons evidently sent there for that purpose. It was very gratifying to me, and strengthened my faith that our party would ultimately succeed in accomplishing the praiseworthy purpose for which it was organized, to see such gifted young men of Mormon parentage as Young and Snow fearlessly face that threatening mob, and hear them defiantly assert their independence and right as free American citizens, to oppose the arbitrary dictation and political control of the priesthood of the Mormon church. I wrote a letter addressed to the chairman of the committee of the party accepting the nomination referred to, in which is stated what the Liberal party was striving to accomplish. Its context follows:
"Laws necessary to protect the ballot from corruption and fraud, and relieve electors from all fear and restraint in the exercise of the elective franchise, are vital to republican institutions. As the territorial legislature has not only failed to enact the customary laws to prevent corruption, fraud and intimidation in elections, but on the contrary, has passed laws which facilitate the commission of these wrongs, the Congress of the great Republic will certainly not much longer withhold relief from a minority which is struggling with an unscrupulous and anti-republican majority for that birthright of freemen - a fair chance at the polls. The political status of the Territory is anomalous. While the two great parties of the country are actively engaged in every State and other territories discussing the issue of the pending presidential campaign, in Utah the line which divides the great national parties is not drawn. Here an issue exists which has never arisen, and I pray may never arise, in national politics - an issue, the existence and settlement of which in other nations has caused more misery, opened wider the floodgates of evil passion, and caused the shedding of more human blood than all of the other causes of civil strife added together. This issue, in the form in which it presents itself in this Territory, is democratic-American principles against a union in the most obnoxious form of Church and State. Between these antagonistic principles there is an irrepressible conflict which will end only by the triumph of the former. The existence of such anomalous issues in the nineteenth century, within the jurisdiction of the greatest and freest republic on the face of the earth, is due to the failure of Congress in the exercise of its revisory legislative power over the territories, to disapprove the numerous laws which have remained in force on the statute books of the Territory for many years, and which were enacted by the ecclesiastical legislature of Utah for the purpose of fostering theocratic rule and defeating the execution of all laws which in any way interfere with such rule. Also to the failure of Congress to pass laws necessary to put into successful operation, in fact as well as in form, a republican form of government in the Territory, to establish the supremacy of law therein, and provide means for its faithful and efficient execution. Owing to the imperfections and want of legislation for the Territory, the federal government is powerless to efficiently execute the laws, and as a consequence the law of 1862, which prohibits the unlawful practices of the Mormon church, remains a dead-letter, and will so continue until Congress remedies the evil by proper legislation. It is vain to look to local legislation for any remedy, because local legislation has in the main contributed to create the evil. It is beyond the power of any man, ring, party, or church, to end this conflict between democracy and theocracy, except by establishing the supremacy of the former. My alien antagonist (George Q. Cannon) has stated to the Mormon community that I am their worst enemy. I assure the Mormon people that I am not their enemy, but their friend. I claim no rights or privileges for myself as an American citizen which I do not accord to my fellow-citizens. In common with the Liberal party I desire the establishment of the supremacy of law, freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of action in Utah as it exists in other states and territories of the Union; the enactment of an election law which will insure honest elections and enable every man, however poor or dependent he may be, to go to the polls and freely deposit his ballot for whomsoever he may choose, without the fear of the infliction of ecclesiastical penalties; to establish a system under which every one may freely and fully exercise his own individuality, choose his own business, political and social relations, without the consent of any bigoted apostle, bishop, or teacher. A system under which every man will have an equal chance with every other man - an equal chance by personal worth or dint of honest effort to attain the highest social, political and business advancement without having to lay his manhood down at the foot of the priesthood, or kiss the great toe of some pretended prophet. A system under which the people, and not the church, may freely choose their own rulers, and religious bigotry cease to be an essential requisite to the attainment of office or business patronage. A system which will put an end to church business monopolies and church aristocracy, restore the natural laws of trade and social intercourse, and allow without question every man to manage his own affairs, hold the title to his own property,1 and run the course of life without weight upon his shoulders. Such, and such only, are the ends which the Liberal party is striving to gain, and which it will finally accomplish. The present campaign is just as important as will he the one in which victory is eventually won by the Liberal party, because only by this and other similar campaigns can the temple of liberty be finally reached."
1 At that time, the "Order of Enoch" had been established by the priesthood, and members of the Mormon church were required to convey all of their property to that "Order," and in many instances such conveyances had been made.
At the ensuing election I received about 5,000 votes, which was very encouraging, as it showed that since the candidacy of McGroarty the party had greatly increased and was beginning to present a formidable front to its antagonist. At the Salt Lake City election of 1889 the Liberal party elected George M. Scott as mayor, as well as the council and other city officers. Two years afterwards the party again carried the city, at which time I was elected mayor and held office for four years. When I was installed it became my duty to specially investigate existing affairs with a view of ascertaining what the necessities of the city required. By reason of the fact that but slight public improvements had been made before the Liberal party came into power, and the church party had failed to make such improvements during the many years of absolute control, gradually as the necessity imposed by growth arose, I found that it required several millions more money to make of Salt Lake City a modern city, than would have been requisite had the previously necessary improvements been made: that the waterworks and the sewer system were so inadequate that it was absolutely essential to build, almost entirely, new ones; that except Commercial street, and Main and State streets for two blocks each, which had been paved during Scott's term, the streets in the business center of the city were merely graveled, as were most of the sidewalks in that center; that outside of the center the streets were on the native soil, as also the sidewalks, except for the limited distance where asphalt had been laid during Scott's term; that a woeful lack of sanitary conditions existed; that in most of the resident portions of the city the inhabitants were using water from wells, and that in their vicinity human excrement had for years been deposited in cesspools and privies, which had become a menace to public health by neglect; that in consequence, the city, instead of being among the healthiest as natural conditions warranted, was third in mortality in the United States, and that a general cleansing of the city as imperatively necessary.
Thus by the neglect of the former administration of the church party there was saddled upon the subsequent taxpayers an enormous burden. The public improvements necessary for the comfort and welfare of the inhabitants of the city were too great to be made during one or even a half dozen subsequent administrations, and to raise the money for immediate needs by taxation would have been too burdensome for the taxpayers. The Liberal administrations, therefore, to lighten this burden, issued long-time bonds of the city, so that future generations which would enjoy the benefits of the improvements would also have to defray part of the expense. During the administrations of the Liberal party, adequate waterworks and a sewer system were constructed, the streets in the business portion of the city were paved; many miles of sidewalks were laid the city was thoroughly cleansed and made as healthful as any in the Rocky mountains; the water supply was increased; the Joint City and County Building - the pride of all beholders - was completed, and in all respects Salt Lake City was brought up to the standard of a city of the first class.
We are mainly indebted to the Liberal party for the new era in Utah. The organization of that party, contrary to what the masses of the Mormon people were taught to believe by their leaders, has not resulted in evil, but in great good to both Mormons and Gentiles. I will later refer to the beneficial results of that organization in another connection.
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