In contemplating the condition of the work of the Lord as it is on the
earth today, and as we have had to contemplate it from the light of
history in its existence in former periods of time, we find a very
striking analogy exists.
I scarcely need tell my congregation this afternoon that we as a
people bear a significant relation to the people of the United States
in a political point of view, and without undertaking to review the
various periods of the earth's history, and the relationship which the
work of God at different times has sustained to its inhabitants, it
may perhaps be enough to refer to one circumstance in the days of our
Savior. When John the Baptist had gone forth among the people
of Palestine, telling them that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and
calling upon all who entertained faith in his mission to come and be
baptized—it appears that he created quite a sensation among the
people, insomuch that all they of Jerusalem and Judea and the regions
round about went forth and were baptized by him in great multitudes,
as recorded in Mark, i, 8. This had a political effect upon the rulers
of that day, and when John was followed by Jesus and his wonderful
works, they began to say—"If we let him thus alone, all men will
believe on him: and the Romans will come and take away our place and
nation." It was very directly a matter of political significance and
importance.
I recollect that some fifty years ago, in the days of my youth, and in
the land of the Puritans, I used to hear and to see aged matrons as
well as reverend ministers wringing their hands and lifting up their
eyes with holy horror, because there was a great evil in the land
called slavery. They could scarcely eat or drink in peace, or worship
God with the spirit and understanding, by reason of a terrible sense
of condemnation resting on their consciences—because their brethren in
the Southern States believed in slavery. This came to be worked up by
the preachers in the pulpits, by the politicians in their stump
speeches, by the parents of households, and fulminated by the press,
until in nearly every class of society there was a continual stir and
sensation about slavery in the Southern States. This terrible evil had
become one of such vast importance that it must some day bring a
national scourge, and in their great anxiety and horror over this, and
their determination to put it away, they stirred up the fire until the
North were at enmity and hostility against the South, and the South
were at enmity and hostility against the North. We well recollect what
were the consequences of the recent terrible conflict that devastated
and demoralized so much of our beloved country. While this fanaticism
was raging in the North, and silent preparations for defense were
going on in the South, none seemed to consider the cost of hundreds of
thousands of lives, or the taxation necessary to pay a few hundred
millions of war debt, and still less the demoralizing influences
thereby fastened upon the country.
About the same time, or very soon after, when the Elders began to
preach the Gospel in that region, I recollect that there arose quite a
sensation about this people that professed to have new revelation. It
to seemed strike these same conscientious, religious people with
consternation that anybody should dare to say that God would now
reveal himself to the human family; that it was the most impious
blasphemy to preach that the priesthood had been restored, or to
assert that the Holy Ghost was given in the latter days, or that the
gifts of the Spirit were made to abound among the children of men. No
indeed; it was not to be tolerated any more than the doctrine of
slavery. There were here and there a few, though but very few in
proportion to the general population, that did receive this very
alarming doctrine among those professing religious belief in the
mission of our blessed Redeemer. It will be borne in mind that at the
time I now speak of, the doctrine of plurality of wives had not been
heard of as a doctrine of the Church in the last dispensation; but it
was the gifts of the Spirit, it was the doctrine of present
revelation, it was the terrible repulsive idea that there could be a
man raised up in our day who should be a prophet that should bring
again the word of the Lord and speak his mind and will to the people,
that created a fresh outburst of pious indignation in the minds of
those who were so devout, and who claimed to occupy the "cradle of
liberty."
It was but a short time after this—stepping along rather rapidly in
the history of events—till the doctrine of plurality of wives was
revealed to the Saints, away in the West, on the banks of the
Mississippi, though not publicly proclaimed until 1852, in Utah. But
the sound of this sacred scriptural doctrine, when it came to be made
known, seemed the very acme of all that was corrupt, abominable and
ungodly, and they who professed to believe in the doctrine of polygamy
were not deemed fit to live on the earth. Consequently, if I were to
take a text to preach from. I would take "Where are we now?"
About the year 1854, or 1856, the terrible odium of these two
principal doctrines, and polygamy especially, had attached such a
political hold on the minds of the religious community, that they were
prepared to place these as two planks in the party platform, which was
to be adopted as a ground upon which a President was to be elected.
The celebrated Senator Douglas, after we had come out from the midst
of the people and come into the wilderness, a thousand miles from any
settlement of civilization, announced to the country that if he were
made a candidate for the presidency of the United States, his opinion
was that "the loathsome ulcer must be cut out from the side of the
body politic." That was his political faith in regard to this one of
the twins. President Buchanan was elected with a clear understanding
that the abolition of polygamy was one of the jobs he was undertaking.
He tried his hand at this first, but on finding that it took two years
for his army to reach the field of their operations, and then in their
decimated condition were dependent upon polygamists for subsistence,
the prestige of the campaign dwindled down to what was commonly known
as the "contractor's war on the Treasury."
When, in 1860, the Republican party came into power, it assumed the
obligation which President Buchanan had failed to discharge in regard
to the "twin relics;" and, to avoid repeating the mistake which he had
made, turned its attention to the other twin. This soon furnished
occasion for a recall of the remaining troops in Utah to the other
field of conflict.
I feel more interest in narrating these facts, because our rising
generation, as well as many Saints who have immigrated to our midst
from abroad, are not familiar with the circumstances, which have
brought us to our present position. A little patience and I will
notice some of the circumstances attendant upon what has been done,
and perhaps we may judge therefore what has to be done, if it ever
gets done at all.
Formerly, the Representatives and Senators from New England went to
Washington laden with petitions to Congress to abolish slavery, in the
District of Columbia, even more strongly than priest and people have
recently been asking Congress to abolish polygamy. Ex-President John
Q. Adams presented lengthy petitions containing thousands of names on
many yards of paper, and became known as the Member who
manufactured public opinion by the yard. These applications were
repeated year after year. Be it remembered that the District of
Columbia is not a State, but is governed by direct legislation of
Congress. And what was the result of the strenuous and powerful
efforts of the most brilliant and profound statesmen of the North,
contested, of course, by the best statesmen from the South? The result
was that slavery was not abolished in answer to the petitions of the
Northern people, but it continued a political question, and became a
powerful factor in the politics of the country. If an anti-slavery
State was admitted into the Union from the North, a pro-slavery State
was admitted from the South. Compromises were made between parties for
the admission of certain States, until some of the Southern States
declared for secession, and on the question of their right to do so
the war commenced, and not on the direct question of the abolition of
slavery.
From the firing of the first gun the demon of war seemed to inspire
the contending parties with the most bitter enmity and rancorous hate
towards each other, while multitudes met their near kinsmen in mortal
combat. Year after year the war raged, till the Southern armies were
recruited by their slaves; the Treasury of the nation was rapidly
depleting; fierce engagements and wasting disease had done their work
and recruits were enlisted for three years, or till the end of the
war, and President Lincoln, by proclamation, abolished the slavery of
several millions of negroes, not as a political measure, but as a
measure justified by the exigencies of war. I state these facts
without any argument as to whether slavery should be justi fied, or
condemned. Their great ancestor said they should be servants of
servants among their brethren, making their servitude the fulfillment
of prophecy, whether according to the will of God or not.
But where are we today? We find slavery disposed of, but what of
polygamy? This question is assuming proportions which seem to
overshadow us so completely that even John Chinaman gets no special
consideration in Utah.
About the time of the "Bull Run Stampede," in 1862, when officers, raw
recruits, and congressmen fled from the battlefield and took shelter
in the Capital, Congress passed a law making plurality of wives,
bigamy, or polygamy if you please, a penal offense. Now it should be
distinctly understood that this offense is not sinful because Congress
has made it penal. There is no ungodliness in it, because God has
revealed it, he has commanded it. Congress of the United States says
that it must not be permitted. Well, then, "Where are we today?" What
have we to expect? This law has been passed—although we had hoped that
Congress and the nation had sufficient virtue, enlightenment, liberty,
and the spirit of the constitution of the fathers left among them,
that they could see that this was not a sin or an evil—yet we find
they have closed their eyes against this, and have determined that it
is sin, while corruptions of every kind are permitted to be carried on
in the country, such as prostitution, feticide, infanticide, etc.,
that because we have embraced the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
we must be demolished or give up our religious faith. The highest
court of the nation has declared polygamy unconstitutional, yet in its
nature it is the only potent remedy by which to eradicate the
so-called social evil, with all its concomitants, from the land. Yet
they cannot see it, and they declare that all who engage in polygamy
shall suffer from two to five years imprisonment and not exceeding
a $500 fine.
Now I want to place it clearly before you, my hearers, that this is no
longer the business of a party, it is today the voice of a nation.
Mr. Secretary Evarts in his circular letter sent to ministers in
foreign countries, says in the last clause that "this government has
determined to prosecute polygamy to the extent of the law and to
eradicate the institution from the country." These are his words. That
is authority so far as authority from the United States government
goes. We find the same thing reiterated in the charge to the grand
jury in this city, a short time ago, that the voice of forty to fifty
millions of people must have its rule and that one hundred thousand
must be sacrificed or as many of them as insist on the doctrine of
polygamy. That is about where we are today. Now I ask my brethren and
sisters—are you prepared for whatever comes on this question? Did you
when you entered into the waters of baptism make up a reckoning what
the Gospel of Jesus Christ was worth? Have we considered that it was
worth fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands,
wives and children, and our own lives also? If we did not we figured
up wrong, for he that is not willing to forsake all things and make
them secondary to a whole-souled belief in and faithful obedience to
the Gospel, is not worthy of it. I ask my brethren and sisters who
have come from the antipodes of the earth to this place for the
Gospel's sake, if you came prepared and having made such a reckoning?
Jesus says in one of his parables, "Which of you, intending to build a
tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have
sufficient to finish it, lest, haply after he hath laid the foundation
and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him
saying, this man began to build, and was not able to finish." Now that
is about the way with us. There is no use our laying the flattering
unction to our souls that government is not going to do this. We have
got an example of what they have done to the Southern States, and have
no doubt they are just as ready and willing to do that much to abolish
polygamy among us if God will let them. They have come to that point.
They have pronounced against polygamy and are ready to invite, hire
and bribe men's wives to aid in the conviction of their husbands, I
have no doubt of it; you need not have. They are here telling us
plainly that this is their business, and we need only to look around
us and see where we are today.
Now, as regards this matter, nobody need tremble at all. I do not
think that any who have received the Holy Spirit, and learned of the
revelations of Jesus Christ, and know of their influence, need fear,
or that anybody's heart who is faithful before God, need be any
heavier than it is in the habit of being, or that their faces need be
any longer than they are used to be. Not at all; we must look upon
this as only a part of the "all things" we agree to endure for the
Gospel's sake and our salvation. Now, they may go to law, and fix up,
as we see already, packed juries, just such as they want, so that no
Latter-day Saint who is a believer in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, whether he believe in polygamy or not, can have any place
among them, or any say as to who are innocent or who are guilty. We
have evidence that they will do all this and having done this much, it
would be very easy for them next winter to fix up such laws concerning
juries and testimony as will enable them to carry out what they have
undertaken. We give them credit for all this, and we have evidence
they will do it, from the fact that the Constitution has been no limit
to their former enactment. Indeed, it has virtually been cast
overboard, and liberty taken to enact any such laws as might be
desirable to carry favorite measures, and it will be just as
consistent for them to do anything they please in regard to polygamy;
and thus one thing after another, until they shall have attained the
object which they have determined to accomplish.
The true issue of this question is not exactly between us individually
and the courts, or the government. The issue is between the two
governments. If they who make us offenders are at a loss to know which
is the higher law, they will have plenty of time to find out. It is a
violation of both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, and
of good and true government of this nation, that there should be any
law made that should restrict our belief or practice of any religious
doctrine, which does not infringe upon the rights of others. The
Constitution expressly says that "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof." Neither is there anything in the Constitution that
tells Presidents, Congressmen, Judges or juries, what shall be
religion, or what shall not be religion.
In the days of Jesus, their Senate and House of Representatives, their
supreme and lesser courts were comprehended in the Sanhedrin, or Chief
Council, which was an institution of the Jewish government to
determine all matters, secular or religious. In our day, although
there is no law except the law of God that determines what we may
accept as religion, and what we shall not, there is a principle which
I call your attention to, that will enable us to understand our
position in relation to each other and to our fellow men. I may perhaps
illustrate this best by stating a circumstance which took place a few
years ago, while I was in Europe. A gentleman from one of the European
States had emigrated to this country and had become an American
citizen. He returned to his native country to attend to some business.
While there that government undertook to enforce from him some act of
subordination, as though he were still a subject of that government.
What was the result? The government of the United States, when
appealed to, informed the authorities of that land that his rights as
an American citizen must be respected. We see, then, that when a
difficulty arose that abridged this man's liberties, the
responsibility was upon the parent government of asserting and
maintaining the rights of this man's citizenship. The authorities of
Europe as well as America lauded the wisdom of Daniel Webster in this
case, and the man was delivered.
Now, in our case, the government has determined that polygamy shall
be abolished, but the government of heaven had previously determined
that polygamy should be established, and that sin and wickedness shall be rooted up; that men and women shall have the right to obey
that higher law in their marital relations.
This is our position, this is where we are today. We have accepted
this doctrine, this principle of faith from the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we, or some of us, have lived it more than thirty years in this
Territory. And in the matter of our appeal, inasmuch as the government
is determined to eradicate this item of our faith, and us with it, of
course, and inasmuch as we can get no redress therefrom, our appeal
must be to the government of heaven, to which we have vowed
allegiance. Jehovah will hold a contention with this nation, and will
show them which is the higher and eternal law, and which is the lesser
and more recent law. While they are carrying on this high-handed
proceeding, regardless of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness,
the God of heaven and earth will notify the earthly government that
the rights and liberties of His citizens must be respected and
maintained.
The whole procedure is inconsistent, and utterly at variance with the
fundamental principles of law. The great legal apostle, Blackstone,
has plainly stated, and every lawyer knows, that human laws and
governments are professedly derived from, and founded upon the
revealed law of God, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, and every
man of them who rejects the revelations of Jesus Christ, must know
that he is condemning himself in the thing he professes to allow. The
eternal law of celestial marriage and plurality of wives stands out
with singular prominence in all the law and prophets, and is evidenced
in the personal humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Plurality, as
believed and practiced by the Latter-day Saints, is no crime in and of
itself; it presumes no deception or fraud; it infringes upon no other
rights, but vests additional rights in him who accepts the heavenly
doctrine, whose Author has said, "It shall be visited with blessings
and not cursings, and with my power, saith the Lord." It cannot
therefore be malum in se, but is only malum prohibitum, by the Act of
Congress.
With this view of the subject before us, what have we to do? What is
our privilege and our duty in the premises? It is that we draw near to
God, the Author of our faith, in humility and in obedience to all his
requirements, remembering our covenants sacredly before Him, that our
cause may reach His ears, and when He sees our trouble He will in His
own good time step forth and deliver us. We have erred and sinned more
or less, some of our children may have departed from the way of the
Lord. If we have violated the Sabbath, taken the name of the Lord in
vain, or violated any of our covenants, it is time for us to turn to
the Lord and do so no more. If we do this, He in his own due time will
say, "Hitherto shall thou come, but no further: and here let thy proud
waves be stayed." While, then, we see all the blandishments of
civilization among us, while we see all the troubles that human
governments can make, in our view we have only to trust in God as
Daniel did. Notwithstanding the edict of the King, he worshipped the
True and Living God. So must we. And peradventure all these things
must happen to us. There are a great many among us who say, "Lord,
Lord," and do not pretend to do the things which God requires of us.
We have to keep the commandments of God, we have to sense it, and to learn the lesson in all sobriety. Have we any time to waste
with these outside characters? Have we any time to dally around
grog shops and play in billiard saloons? No, my brethren and sisters,
we have not. It is our duty to be alive to our work, day by day,
knowing that the eyes of God are upon us. It is He that will do all
things marvelously well for us; it is He that will fight our battles
for us. Then the only way for us to gain deliverance is to remain
devoted to his service, that we may help to build up His kingdom, and
be found worthy of that assistance which He has promised to render us
in the time of need.
There are two sides to this question. Peradventure it may be necessary
that our enemies should carry out the works of their father, the
devil, that they may show sooner or more fully to the heavens when the
purpose and measure of their wickedness is full. As to the ultimate
establishment of truth on the earth, there is no question. The
prophets have all prophesied of it, the angels have looked forward to
it with glorious anticipation, and we have the testimony of the Holy
Ghost that this work shall be accomplished. The thing for us to do is
to live true and faithful to our religion, irrespective of what may be
going on around us.
That the Lord may inspire us by his Spirit to be faithful to our duty,
to draw near to him, leave the wickedness of the world alone, and
sanctify ourselves before him, is my earnest prayer, in the name of
Jesus. Amen.
- Franklin D. Richards