"Eleazer Miller, Foreman."
The right of trial by jury is one guaranteed by the Constitution, and with which it would be highly dangerous to interfere, except in cases of extreme necessity, involving the safety of a whole people or community. The Mormons, with their usual shrewdness, take advantage of this, and manage to control the United States Courts through the grand and petit juries. The following extracts will show how it is done.
March 2d, 1856, in his remarks, made in the Tabernacle, Jedediah M. Grant, then one of the "President's" counsellors, said:—
"Last Sunday, the President chastised some of the Apostles and Bishops, who were on the grand jury. Did he fully succeed in clearing away the fog which surrounded them, and in removing blindness from their eyes? No, for they could go to their room and again disagree; though to their credit it must be admitted that a brief explanation made them unanimous in their action."
Again, in the same connection, Grant, speaking of a trial-jury, continues,—
"Several have got into the fog, to suck and eat the filth of a gentile court; ostensibly a court in Utah."
Here is the highest evidence of the direct interference of
Brigham Young with the right of trial by jury, and the prostitution of the jury-box to the accomplishment of his schemes. How could he strike a more fatal blow at our free institutions, or at the rights and liberties of American citizens who may happen to live within the sphere of his influence? For this alone he should be hurled from the defiant position he occupies, and brought to the bar of impartial justice.
Though the evidence was perfectly plain and conclusive in the case of Ferguson, he was acquitted. Comment is unnecessary.
The Judge, finding all efforts to bring criminals to justice unavailing, adjourned his court sine die.