Page:The City of the Saints.djvu/329

Rh rightful and constitutional limits. "No law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of the United States, nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents. All the laws passed by the Legislative Assembly and government shall be submitted to the Congress of the United States, and, if disapproved, shall be null and of no effect."

Every free male (white) inhabitant above the age of twenty-one, who has resided in the county for sixty days before the election, is entitled to vote, and is eligible for office; the right is limited to citizens of the United States, including those recognized by treaty with the Mexican Republic (2d of Feb., 1848), and excluding, as usual, the military servants of the federal government. Great fault was found by anti-Mormons with the following permissions in the act regulating elections (Jan., 1853), because they artistically enough abolish the ballot while they retain the vote.

"In a Territory so governed," remarks Mr. Secretary Ferris, "it will not excite surprise that cases of extortion, robbery, murder, and other crimes should occur, and defy all legal redress, or that the law should be made the instrument of crime."

The deduction is unfair. The real cause why crime goes unpunished must, as will presently appear, be sought in an unfriendly and conflicting judiciary. The act itself can produce nothing