I am pleased to have the opportunity of meeting with you in Conference
here, and to talk with you a little on some of the principles
associated with our duties in our connection with the Church and
Kingdom of God.
The Latter-day Saints occupy a very peculiar position in the world,
but I do not know that we have any thing very particular to say on
that question. It is true, we have used our own agency in coming here,
but there are certain purposes of the Almighty, associated with our
gathering together, over which we had very little control. There is a
remarkable saying in the revelation of St. John, in reference to a
certain Babylon, which reads as follows:
"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not
of her plagues.
"For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her
iniquities."
There is something very significant in the text here quoted. It would
seem that John, in a previous part of his vision, had seen an angel
who would precede this other. He says:
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
"Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the
hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and
earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."
As Latter-day Saints we have listened to these things from time to
time. We have talked about the opening of the heavens, the
manifestations of God our heavenly Father, and Jesus the Mediator of
the New Covenant, about the restoration of the Gospel, and the
organization of the Church and Kingdom of God. We have talked a good
deal about the Holy Priesthood, and the authority of God having been
conferred upon man from the heavens, which places us in communication
with our heavenly Father; and also of the organization of His Church
in a manner that is in accordance with His will and under His
inspiration. We have heard quoted from time to time, passages like
this:
"Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice."
Again:
"And I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will
bring you to Zion:
"And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding."
Many other passages of a similar nature are contained in the Bible,
which we all of us at least, profess to believe in; and by the
manifestations of the power of God, and the light of revelation, we
have been instructed in the things of eternity, and the organization
of the Church of God has been effected. It commenced upwards of 54
years ago, and the work has been progressing from that time unto the
present; and all the organizations that have been effected pertaining
to the Priesthood have been made under the immediate direction of the
Spirit of the living God, and have been given unto us by direct
revelation in order that we might be instructed in the laws of life and
be enabled to accomplish the things that God had designed from before
the foundation of the world pertaining to these last days; and with
these things we are generally familiar.
When Jesus was upon the earth, and His disciples asked Him to teach
them how to pray, He said:
"When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in
heaven."
In this He had direct reference to the events which are now taking
place among us as a people. "Thy Kingdom come." Why? That Thy will may
"be done on earth, as it is in heaven." We are here for the purpose of
becoming acquainted with the will of God, with the law of God, with
the order of God, with the dominion of God; and we are here to
establish the kingdom of God. We are here to be taught in things
pertaining to the Church of God, and its purification. We are here to
build up a Zion of God, which implies the pure in heart. Then we are
here to send forth the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and
people. We are here to build Temples to the name of the Lord, and to
administer therein. We are here to represent God upon the earth as His
Priesthood, and we are gathered in the different Stakes as you are
gathered here today, to attend to various duties associated with that
Priesthood, and to become acquainted with all the principal features
associated with the Church and Kingdom of God upon the earth. It is
for us as Stakes, as peoples, and as Saints of God, to learn to
comprehend the relationship that we sustain to God our heavenly
Father, and to His Church and Kingdom here upon the earth, to Jesus
the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the Priesthood that is behind
the veil; and also to become acquainted with things upon the earth
connected with the welfare of humanity, whether in the land of Zion or
in any other land. And we are gathered together for the express
purpose of being taught and instructed in all these principles. We
are not here, as Jesus was not here, to condemn the world; as He says:
"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be saved."
This was the prominent object of His mission to the earth,
"That the world through him might be saved;" and we are here to carry
out His purposes. We have certain relationships with the world while
we are in it, that cannot be ignored, and we have certain duties to
perform associated therewith that should be respected. As it is, we
are here as an integral part of the United States, and we have duties
to perform as citizens thereof, and it is expected that we shall
fulfill every proper requirement, observe every correct law, and
govern ourselves with propriety and uprightness, honor, truth, and
integrity, and be good citizens thereof; these are things that are
expected of all honorable people. And it is proper for us to meet the
obligations and duties devolving upon us pertaining to the nation with
which we are associated. We have another duty to perform to the
nations of the earth. It is to send forth the Gospel thereunto; and
for this the Twelve are organized and Seventies, and the Elders are
sent forth as the messengers of God, that mankind may embrace the
eternal truths of the Gospel, by which life and immortality are
brought to light; that they, with us, may have the privilege of
partaking of the rich blessings of eternal life; that they, with us,
may have the opportunity of being instructed in the laws of life, and
that they, with us, may be made partakers of all things associated
with the Church and Kingdom of God. These are their privileges,
inasmuch as they will be obedient to the laws and ordinances
pertaining thereunto, and live according to the requirements of
heaven. Until these things are done, other things will not be
accomplished which God has designed in relation to the nations of the
earth; for the people of the earth are all His offspring, and He feels
interested in the welfare of humanity, generally. He expects that we
shall do the same. We are building Temples, and we are administering
in those Temples. What are we doing that for? There is something very
peculiar about this matter. Well, we may be doing it in part for
ourselves, in part for our wives and our children, in part for our
fathers and our mothers, and uncles and aunts, and many of our friends
and progenitors that we have been acquainted with, and in part for
many others with whom we are not acquainted; that we may be united
together, and stand as saviors upon Mount Zion. You heard Brother
Cannon tell you today, that there was a company of about 40 going to
Logan this morning, with one Bishop to fulfill some of these duties,
and these things are beginning to be generally understood among the
Latter-day Saints.
All of these duties and responsibilities devolve upon us. All these
things are within our reach. As a people, if we live our religion and
prove ourselves worthy, we are privileged to enjoy all the blessings
and mercies which God our heavenly Father has conferred upon us
through the medium of the Gospel and our obedience thereunto; and we
wish to perform our duty to everybody—to perform, as they say in the
Church of England, our "duty in that state of life unto which it has
pleased God to call us." It has pleased God to call us to these lands
and to make use of us for certain purposes in the interest of humanity
and for the welfare of a fallen world. This is the object of our being
gathered together, and that we might build up a Zion unto the Lord,
and be instructed in all the principles of righteousness, truth,
integrity, and everything associated with our present and
future happiness, and thus become the blessed of the Lord, and our
offspring with us.
These are some of the things devolving upon us. Hence Zion is
beginning to lengthen her cords and increase her Stakes, and we are
spreading out in the north, in the south, and in various different
directions. We are seeking to look after the welfare of the Saints of
God, in their various settlements wherever they may be, and to protect
them in every way that it is possible for us to extend protection, on
the principle of union, harmony and brotherhood, inspired by the
Spirit of the living God. Hence it becomes the duty of the First
Presidency to look after all these things, and sometimes, under
peculiar circumstances, we are obliged to send a few Saints from one
Stake to strengthen other Stakes of Zion, that the people may be
preserved in their rights and their liberties from the aggressions of
unscrupulous people, who are seeking to take advantage of the
circumstances with which our people may be surrounded.
We complain sometimes about our trials: we need not do that. These are
things that are necessary for our perfection. We think sometimes that
we are not rightly treated, and I think we think correctly about some
of these things. We think there are plots set on foot to entrap us;
and I think we think so very correctly. At the same time we need not
be astonished at these things. We need not be amazed at a feeling of
hatred and animosity. Why? Because we are living in a peculiar day and
age of the world, which is distinctively called the latter days,
wherein it is said that God will have a controversy with the nations
of the earth. There are some things about these matters that men do
not understand. They think that men manipulate the affairs of men.
They do in part, and they are used ofttimes as instruments by the
Almighty, and sometimes by another power that is called Lucifer, just
as circumstances may be. But in regard to the nations of the earth,
God sets up one nation and pulls down another, according to the
counsels of His own will. And we read of nations that years ago
flourished and were great, prosperous and powerful, of which we now
know nothing only as we learn it from a few pages of history; they are
obliterated and blotted out as nations, and do not exist today.
Nations and empires have risen and fallen; they have grown, increased,
and prospered, and then decayed, crumbled, and died. The Lord
manipulates all these things according to the counsels of His own
will. But men generally understand very little of these matters; for
there has been very little communication with God for ages, until He
was prepared to reveal His will in these last days. Yet men profess to
fear God, and a great many of them seek to worship Him. There is
something very remarkable said by the Prophet Isaiah, when he had his
vision opened in regard to the events that should transpire in the
latter days. He says:
"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and
turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
"And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the
servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as
with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the
borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of
usury to him.
"The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord
hath spoken this word.
"The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth
away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
"The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they
have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the
everlasting covenant.
"Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell
therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are
burned, and few men left."
There are many statements made by the Prophets in relation to these
things—that the Lord would pour out His judgments upon the earth.
Jesus speaks of the destruction that should come upon the people, that
should befall Jerusalem, that should encompass nations, and of scenes
that should transpire in the latter days—that the sun should be turned
into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible
day of the Lord should come. Associated with this is a part of the
work in which we are engaged. A voice was to be heard, as I said
before, saying:
"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues.
"For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her
iniquities."
In accordance with this declaration, which is a part of the great
program that we Latter-day Saints believe in, we have been gathered
unto this land, which we denominate the land of Zion. We have come out
from the world, and some of us hardly know why; yet we have come,
having obeyed the Gospel and having received the gift of the Holy
Ghost. There has been a feeling and spirit operating upon us that has
enlightened our minds and propelled us forward. Our great aim was,
when we were in other lands distant from this, to make every effort we
could to come to the land of Zion. Did we understand what it was for?
In part we did, in part we did not. We came to it because we thought
it was the land of Zion. We came to it, if we comprehend ourselves,
that we might not partake of the sins nor receive of the plagues of
Babylon; and that we and our wives, and our children and our
associations, might be free from the corruptions, abominations and
evils that exist and prevail throughout the world; and that we might
come to a place where we could learn the laws of life, where our
children could be brought up in the fear of God, and where we had
hoped to be able to worship God according to the dictates of our own
consciences. Sometimes we think we have made a little mistake in this.
I guess not; for we shall yet understand one thing, and so will the
nations of the earth—that "The Lord reigneth: let the earth rejoice;
let the multitude of isles be glad thereof." Yes, we shall all learn
that "the Lord reigneth."
Associated with these principles are all the common affairs of
life—that is, we have bodies like other people; we need food, we need
raiment, we need habitations to live in, we need land to cultivate,
fields, gardens and orchards; our children are born as others are, and
we live and exist pretty much as other human beings. They are the
children of our heavenly Father, and so are we. But the Lord has seen
fit to gather us together, and has opened our way, and our lines have
fallen unto us in pleasant places. Yet every time the Saints
have been gathered together there has been manifested on the part of
the wicked a spirit of oppression, a spirit of persecution, a
bloodthirsty spirit, a spirit which would seek to rob us of our
rights, to despoil us of our homes and inheritances. This we have
expected among other things. We have never dreamed of anything else
than that such a state of things would exist. I remember when I had
the Gospel first preached to me before I was baptized, I heard a
lecture something like this: "Now, we have nothing particular to
promise you, only the favor of God, if you will live righteously and
keep His commandments. You may be persecuted, afflicted, imprisoned,
or put to death for the testimony you may have to bear for the
religion you are called upon to obey; but we can promise to you that
inasmuch as this is the case you will have eternal life." Well, we
have had a little of the other mixed up with it. And I have seen mobs
gather from time to time, in different parts of these United States,
and I have had to meet them time and again. For instance, I was driven
from Missouri years ago, together with the whole people. We were
robbed and pillaged, and we had to take and throw in what little we
had to help each other. Everybody that had a team turned it in to help
his brethren away from whom? From their Christian persecutors, that
is, so-called Christians. I wish we had another name for them.
(Laughter.) We helped one another out until we reached Illinois. I was
there, and I know what I am talking about. Did I feel very unhappy?
Not at all. I enjoyed myself just as well as I do today. I felt quite
easy. I have been accustomed to these things, and there is nothing
very particular about them. By and by, we built up the beautiful city
of Nauvoo. We also built a temple there and officiated in it, and
received many precious blessings from the hands of God, that the world
know nothing about, and never will know until they embrace the Gospel
of the Son of God. But we were driven again, and we are here today.
Did we leave our property? Yes, I did, quite an amount, and so did
many others. We had a city there, and we left it. What was done to us
before this! We were mobbed, plundered; we were brought before courts;
we were persecuted and proscribed; that was done to us when we were
there, and in many instances we had to defend ourselves by our own
right arms, or suffer from crawling assassins who were seeking our
lives. I had to do it time and time again, right in that land. I have
had to have guards in my house, so had President Young, for nearly two
years, to keep from being assassinated. I was in prison with Joseph
and Hyrum, when they were shot down in cold blood. We were there
placed under the protection, or professed protection, of the Governor,
who told Dr. Bernhisel and myself that we had better not bring any
arms with us to defend ourselves, and who pledged his faith and the
faith of the State for our protection. I saw that faith violated and
trampled in the dust. I saw these men, to whom protection was
promised, shot down in cold blood by assassins gathered for the
purpose. These are things that I have witnessed in the few years that
I have lived upon the earth. When I left Nauvoo, I left a very good
house, very well furnished. I left carpets on the floors, stoves in
the rooms, crockery ware in the cupboards, and I got into my carriage, with my family, and left it to seek that protection among the
Red Indians, that we could not find among the people who lived in this
boasted land of the free and home of the brave, this vaunted asylum of
the oppressed. We were protected here among the Indians, and I felt
perfectly safe among them. I would as soon go among the Red men today
who traverse these mountains, as I would anywhere else, and feel
myself just as safe.
I speak of these things to show some of the feelings that have been
exhibited. Well, says one, didn't you feel angry? Oh, no, not
particularly so. I felt it was all right. It was a part of the
program. I needed education and other people needed it, and it was
necessary we should be placed in a position that we could have it. We
did not feel very unhappy. We felt quite comfortable. What! When you
left your homes? Yes. I felt as easy as I ever felt in my life. I felt
at least that I should be safe from the hands of bloodthirsty men and
mobocrats, and that I should be put in a position that I could protect
myself better than I could there, and others felt a good deal the same
way. I remember we used to sing a song something like this:
"On the way to California,
In the spring we'll take our journey,
Far above Arkansas fountains,
Pass between the Rocky Mountains."
(Laughter.)
That is the way we used to sing. I remember a little boy of mine—he
was then, though he is not a little boy now, for it is about 39 years
ago, used to sing this, and all the boys around. He met his
grandfather one day, who calling him by name, said: "Joseph, you won't
sing that when you leave your home and go out yonder." "Oh, yes,
grandfather," said he, "I will sing that then." Finally, we got
outside. By and by his grandfather came along, and he ran out to meet
him. We were then camped out in about a foot of snow. He ran towards
his grandfather and began to sing:
"On the way to California," etc.
"There," said he, "grandfather, I can sing that now." Well, I
speak of
these things to show some of the incidents I have passed through. We
came out here and we found this country a desert, covered generally
with sagebrush, and a few scattered Indians straggling around. We had
to commence to build our houses, for there were none here when we
came; and since then the wilderness and the solitary places have
blossomed as the rose, and the desert has been made glad, as foretold
in the Scriptures. We feel that we are kind of half comfortable in
these valleys of the mountains, but the devil is not dead yet.
(Laughter.) We did not think he would be; we have a work to perform;
and we purpose, by the help of the Almighty, to accomplish that work.
We don't expect to be disappointed in it either, and we don't
anticipate that it will be overturned. We believe that God lives in
the heavens and manipulates the nations of the earth, and woe to them
that fight against Zion! I tell them in the name of God that He will
fight against them. (Amen.)
This is my testimony in relation to these matters. People may think
they are very smart in persecuting the Saints, but by and by they will
find they are on the wrong side of the question, and many of them will
find it out when it is too late. They will find it out when the
harvest is past and the summer is ended, and they will say,
"My soul is not saved." You Latter-day Saints that begin sometimes to
be trembly at the knees, and afraid of certain circumstances, had
better trust to the living God than give way to fearful forebodings in
these matters; for Zion is onward and upward, and God is on her side,
and He will protect His Israel if we will only be true to Him. We are
here for that purpose. God will sustain Israel and stand by His
people. (Amen.) There is one thing very certain, very certain indeed,
and that is, whatever men may think, and however they may plot and
contrive, that this Kingdom will never be given into the hands of
another people. It will grow and spread and increase, and no man
living can stop its progress. Hence I feel quite easy, as I said
before, for the Lord reigns, and let the people rejoice.
From time to time we have certain raids made upon us. Something of
that sort seems to be afloat today, and I wish—I was going to say I
wish I could talk about something better—but these matters are as
proper as anything else, as far as I know, for they are things we have
to meet face to face. We Latter-day Saints—what are we? Professors of
religion. Are we? Yes. There are laws being enacted in order to
deprive us of our religious rights, whereas the Constitution of the
United States says that Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Is that true? Read it for yourselves in the Constitution. This is what
we profess as Americans. We have men in our midst who have introduced
test oaths, whereas the Constitution says, that "no religious test
shall ever be required;" yet they have introduced test-oaths, and
people are obliged to swear certain things that the Constitution says
shall not be permitted. Are we American citizens here? I think so.
Have we any rights? I think we ought to have. Are they being trampled
upon? Yes, they are; and these things are being done with impunity.
How is it? Why, the Constitution is treated by the politicians of
today as the Bible is treated by professors of religion. You talk
with "Christians" upon the Bible, and you will find that they believe
it when it is shut. They will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars
to send it to the heathen, but when you come to open it, they
themselves don't believe in it. Ask them about Prophets, Apostles,
Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, and Deacons. Have they them? No, they
do not even profess to have them. Ask them about being baptized in the
name of Jesus, for the remission of sins by men having authority, and
the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and you will
find that they don't want to hear anything about these principles.
They do not believe them. Why they object even to people being married
for eternity! They believe in men and women being married only until
death doth them part. That is a very cold affair. We do not believe in
being married for time only. We believe in making covenants for
eternity, and being associated with our wives and children behind the
veil. We have received instructions from the Lord in regard to these
things, and we are desirous to carry them out. As I have said, the
Constitution provides that Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Yet men are asked what their religious faith is; right here in our
courts today. These are things that we as American citizens have a right to look into; to look well after our liberties, and to
watch well our enemies. For these are not only our enemies but they
are the enemies of human liberty, the enemies of the rights of man and
the enemies of God. It is for us to look well after these things, and
in our elections and in all like matters, to see that we are very
particular about the management of these affairs, and that we are not
overrun and cheated out of our liberties by unscrupulous men. I speak
of these things at this your Conference, for your information and for
your warning; and would say, be united, diligent and energetic, and
stand for your rights as men.
I remember some little time ago a gentleman named Mr. Pierpont (who
was Attorney-General under President Grant) called upon me. I was
pleased to see him, and am pleased to see all honorable gentlemen. I
invited him to dinner, and we had quite a chat. But here let me
introduce another affair. At the time when the Edmunds law was passed
I was living in what is known as the Gardo House. I had most of my
wives living with me there, and after looking carefully over the
Edmunds law I thought to myself, why Congress is growing very wild;
this Government is getting very, very foolish; they are trampling upon
Constitutional rights. No matter, I said, I will obey this law. I had
comfortable places for my family elsewhere, and I requested my wives
to go to their own homes, and live there, and they did so in order
that I at least might fulfill that part of the law; for foolish or not
foolish, my idea was to fulfill as far as practicable the requirements
of the law and not place myself and my family or my friends in
jeopardy, through any foolishness of mine. It was expected by many of
those corrupt men—I do not say in speaking of these that all are
corrupt—that when these laws were passed we should turn our wives out
and deal with them as they do with their women under such
circumstances—make strumpets of them. There is no such feeling as that
in my bosom, nor in the bosoms of this people. We have made eternal
covenants with our wives, and we will abide by our wives, and God will
sustain us in protecting the rights of innocence, and in fulfilling
those eternal obligations which we have entered into. But we can once
in a while yield a little to the follies and weaknesses of men, when
no principle of truth is involved. Under these circumstances I had a
sister of mine who was keeping house for me when Mr. Pierpont came
there to dine with me. I said: "Mr. Pierpont, permit me to introduce
you to my sister. It is not lawful for us to have wives here."
(Laughter.) After talking further with him upon the subject I said,
"Now, Mr. Pierpont, you are well acquainted with all these legal
affairs. Although I have yielded in this matter in order that I might
not be an obstructionist, and do not wish to act as a Fenian, or a
Nihilist, or a Communist, or a Kuklux, or a Regulator, or a Plug Ugly,
or a Molly Maguire, yet, sir, we shall stand up for our rights and
protect ourselves in every proper way, legally and constitutionally,
and dispute inch by inch every step that is taken to deprive us of our
rights and liberties." And we will do this in the way that I speak of.
We are doing it today; and as you have heard it expressed on other
occasions, it looks very much like as though the time was drawing near
when this country will tumble to pieces; for if the people of this
nation are so blind and in fatuated as to trample under foot
the Constitution and other safeguards provided for the liberties of
man, we do not propose to assist them in their suicidal and traitorous
enterprises; for we have been told by Joseph Smith that when the people
of this nation would trample upon the Constitution, the Elders of this
Church would rally round the flag and defend it. And it may come to
that; we may be nearer to it than some of us think, for the people are
not very zealous in the protection of human rights. And when
legislators, governors and judges unite in seeking to tear down the
temple of liberty and destroy the bulwarks of human freedom, it will
be seen by all lovers of liberty, that they are playing a hazardous
game and endangering the perpetuity of human rights. For it will not
take long for the unthinking to follow their lead, and they may let
loose an element that they never can bind again. We seem to be
standing on a precipice and the tumultuous passions of men are
agitated by political and party strife; the elements of discord are
seething and raging as if portending a coming storm; and no man seems
competent to take the helm and guide the ship of State through the
fearful breakers that threaten on every hand. These are dangerous
things, but it becomes our duty as good citizens to obey the law as
far as practicable, and be governed by correct principles.
I had some papers read over at the General Conference, giving my views
in relation to some of these matters. They have been published, but I
will have one or two extracts read for your information.
President Cannon then read as follows:
The distinction being made be tween Polygamy and Prostitution:
1st. Congress made a law which would affect both; and cohabitation
with more than one woman was made a crime whether in polygamy or out
of polygamy.
2nd. The Governor turned legislator, added to this law, and inserted
in a test oath to officials, the following words regarding
cohabitation, "in the marriage relation;" thus plainly and definitely
sanctioning prostitution, without any law of the United States, or any
authority.
3rd. The United States Commissioners, also without legislation,
adopted the action of the Governor, and still insisted on this
interpolation, in the test oath in election matters, and placed all
polygamists under this unconstitutional oath, and released prostitutes
and their paramours from the obligations placed upon others.
4th. The Prosecuting Attorney has sanctioned these things, and pursued
a similar course: and while he has asked all the "Mormon" grand jurors
certain questions pertaining to their religious faith in the doctrines
of the "Mormon" Church, and challenged them if they answered
affirmatively as to their belief in polygamy, he has declined to ask
other jurors whether they believed in prostitution, or whether they
believed in cohabiting with more than one woman or not.
5th. Chief Justice Zane when appealed to on this question, refused to
interfere, or give any other ruling.
Thus a law was first passed by Congress, which has been perverted by
the administration, by all its officers, who have officiated in this
Territory, and made to subserve the interests of a party who have
placed in their political platform an Anti Mormon plank; and
have clearly proven that there is a combination entered into by all
the officers of state officiating in this Territory, to back up this
political intrigue in the interest of party, and at the sacrifice of
law, equity, jurisprudence, and all the safeguards that are provided
by the Constitution for the protection of human rights.
Congress cannot be condemned for these proceedings. The law as it
stands on the nation's Statute Books makes no such distinction, so far
as the qualification of jurors are concerned, between those who
cohabit with more than one woman in the marriage relation, and those
who do so outside of that relation. All the rest has been aided by
officials here. The law reads: "Section 5: That in any prosecution for
bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, under any Statute of the
United States, it shall be sufficient cause of challenge to any person
drawn or summoned as a juryman or a talesman, first, that he is or has
been living in the practice of bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful
cohabitation with more than one woman, * * or second, that he believes
it right for a man to have more than one living and undivorced wife at
the same time, or to live in the practice of cohabiting with more than
one woman." It will thus be seen that the same questions can be
properly put to both classes; and such was the evident, unmistakable
intention of Congress. But the Prosecuting Attorney with red-hot zeal
changes all this, in his religio-political crusade against the faith
of the Latter-day Saints he insists upon his right to propound the
question with the Governor's interpolation super-added, whilst he
entirely ignores the other side of the case; hence those who cohabit
outside of the marriage rela tion can go scot free, without
interrogation or questioning, and when attention is drawn to this
perversion of the law, he asserts that he has the right to propound
what questions he chooses, and decline to ask those he has no mind to;
in fact that the whole proceeding was a purely optional matter with
him. Thus the whole weight of the law is unjustly and unrighteously
thrown on the shoulders of those who believe and act in the marriage
relation, and entirely removed from the others, who develop into the
jurors, who are to indict, try and condemn the other and far more
honorable class.
I will have something further read. It is alleged that we are a very
corrupt people, that we are a very lawless people; that we are a very
wicked people; that we are a very lascivious people; and therefore it
becomes necessary for them to pass and execute certain laws in order
that we may be placed under the guardianship of people who are more
pure and more virtuous. That is why I want some statistics read in
relation to that matter, and I would not have had them read, nor have
dwelt upon these matters, only on the principle of self-defense.
President Cannon then read as follows:
"The population of Utah may be estimated at 160,000 in 1883.
"Of these say 130,000 were Mormons and 30,000 Gentiles, a very liberal
estimate of the latter.
"In this year there were 46 persons sent to the Penitentiary,
convicted of crime. Of these, 33 were non-Mormons and 13 reputed
Mormons.
"At the above estimate of population the ratio or percentage would be
one prisoner to every 10,000 Mormons, or one-hundredth of one percent, and of the Gentiles one convict in every 909, or about
one-ninth of one percent. So that the actual proportion of criminals
is more than ten times greater among the Gentiles of Utah, with the
above very liberal estimate, than among the Mormons.
"It is urged that those non-Mormon prisoners are not a fair
representation of the average of crime throughout the country, but are
the result of the flow of the desperate classes westward to the
borders of civilization; with greater truth we reply that the Mormon
prisoners are not representatives of Mormonism, nor the results of
Mormonism, but of the consequences of a departure from Mormon
principles: and of the 13 prisoners classed as "Mormons," the greater
portion were only so by family connection or association.
Arrests in Salt Lake City, 1883—
Mormons 150
Non-Mormons 1,550
or more than ten times the number of Mormon arrests.
"Again, it is estimated that there are 6,000 non-Mormons and 19,000
Mormons in Salt Lake City, which shows of Mormons one arrest in 126 and
2/3.
"Non-Mormons one arrest in a fraction less than every four, or rather
more than twenty-five percent.
President Taylor continued:
Make the best of this we may, it is a bad showing, and ought not to
exist among the dwelling places of the Saints. What of our drunken
Saints? Our violators of the Sabbath day? Our Sunday bathing trains?
Whereon many of our youth mix up with the ungodly, and what of many
other evils which exist among us? It is a shame that these things
should exist in Zion in the cities of the Saints; but our would-be
reformers are ten times lower and more depraved than we are. Yes, but
then we have ten times too many crimes; and it is sorrowful to see it,
and we can only account for it on this principle, that the wheat and
tares must grow together until the harvest. The Gospel net gathers of
every kind, good and bad, sheep and goats. Again, it is but just to
those who oppose us, to say that they have their ministers, their
Sunday schools, their churches, their hospitals, etc., and many, very
many good and honorable men and women. But with all these agencies the
record shows them to be, as a whole, ten times as corrupt as we are.
Before they came, we were comparatively free from their gross
immoralities. But what of today? The record shows that theirs are the
gambling dens, the houses of assignation, theirs the brothels and
drinking saloons, etc., and if, which God forbid, we have feticide
and infanticide, it belongs to them—these are their institutions, they
do not belong to us. Is it then, any wonder that they have ten times
the amount of crime? This is a terrible showing, and yet these are our
reformers, our accusers; from these proceed our courts, our juries,
etc., they assume to be our regenerators, and are trying to make us as
good as they.
President Cannon again read:
"Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, has declared in a paper read before a
late meeting of the American Social Science Association, that "nowhere
in the history of the world was the practice of abortion so common as
in this country; and he gave expression to the opinion that, in New
England alone, many thousands of abortions are procured annually."
"Dr. Reamy, of the Ohio State Medical Society, says: "From a very
large verbal and written corres pondence in this and other
States, together with personal investigation and facts accumulated * *
that we have become a nation of murders."
The Rev. Dr. Eddy
writes to the Christian Advocate regarding one little village of 1,000
inhabitants: "Yet here, and elsewhere, where 15 percent of wives have
the criminal hardihood to practice this black art, there is a still
large and additional percent who endorse and defend it. * *
Among married persons, so extensive has this practice become, that
people of high repute not only commit this crime, but do not shun to
speak boastingly among their intimates of the deed, and the means of
accomplishing it."
Dr. Allen further states: "Examining the number of deaths, we find
that there are absolutely more deaths than births among the strictly
American children, so that aside from immigration and births of
children of foreign parentage, the population of Massachusetts is
rapidly decreasing. * * The birth rate in the State of New York,
shows the same fact, that American families do not increase at all,
and inspection of the registration in other States shows the same
remark applies to all."
Bishop Coxe, of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, of New York, in a pastoral letter to his people writes: "I
have heretofore warned my flock against the blood-guiltiness of
antenatal infanticide. If any doubts existed heretofore as to the
propriety of my warnings on this subject, they must now disappear
before the fact that the world itself is beginning to be horrified by
the practical results of the sacrifices to Moloch, which defile our
land. Again I warn you that they who do such things, cannot inherit
eternal life. If there be a special damnation for those who shed
innocent blood, what must be the portion of those who have no mercy
upon their own flesh."
Dr. Cowan, M. D., writing on what he styles "The Murder of the
Unborn," says: "That this crime is not only widespread on this great
continent, but is rapidly on the increase, we have the testimony of
physicians, whose investigations have been thorough, and whose social
standing and integrity cannot be questioned."
President Taylor continued:
In pondering over the above sickening details, and carefully examining
the irrefutable records of prison statistics, I note deliberately the
weight of testimony furnished by a host of their most honorable and
reliable men in the East, to whom I give all honor, who calmly and
deliberately pronounce them "a nation of murderers," "the slayers of
the innocent," the consumers of their own flesh, in connection with
this terrible record we have in our prominent cities, flaunted before
our eyes, their dens of infamy and crime, impudently and unblushingly
paraded before us, and stuck under our very noses. In looking at these
things I ask myself can human depravity descend any lower, and the
humiliating answer comes, yes! yes!! yes!!! The question arises
wherein? The most damning nature of this record is that these crimes
are sought to be palliated by unjust law, made ostensibly to punish
crime, but really to pervert justice and protect falsehood, chicanery
and intrigue. We have a local administration which provides test oaths
to try to cover up the crimes of their friends, and to protect
prostitutes, whoremongers and adulterers, and to make that a
crime which is nowhere proclaimed a crime by the Almighty. And then we
have these whited walls and painted sepulchres under the guise of the
protectors of virtue and the defenders and advocates of purity and
moral reform, bring all the weight of their influence and position to
bear upon innocence, virtue and integrity. Surely, as it is said,
justice is fallen in the street, righteousness standeth afar off, and
judgment cannot enter. But what of our people? With all of their
weaknesses, follies and imperfections, of which we as a people have
very many in the sight of God, they are yet in the balances of
unbiased equity before the law, as per record ten times the superiors
of our accusers, but with the points of prostitution, harlotry, gambling
and other vices, not to mention the terrible crimes of feticide and
infanticide, we have nothing to do; these are their institutions only,
and do not belong to us.
But it may be argued, are not the executive and judiciary expected to
administer the law as they find it? Certainly; and if they would
confine themselves to this, all honorable men would sustain them. But
governors are nowhere authorized to introduce test oaths, in violation
of law, to protect the spoliators of virtue, the brothel and the
adulterer; nor is the judiciary required in the execution of its legal
function to ignore the precedents of courts, nor to sanction the
empanelment of packed juries.
I have had these things read for more reasons than one. First, to show
the hypocrisy of those who come here to teach us morality, and who
proscribe the acts of a pure and industrious people who dwell in these
mountains. And for another purpose, to guard our brethren and sisters
against the encroachments of such fiends in human form as those
persons here referred to. We cannot have, and won't have adulterers
and adulteresses among us, much less will we have those who, by
murder, stain their consciences and damn themselves forever. You
sisters, guard yourselves against these infamies, or you will sink
yourselves down, down, down to pits of infamy and ruin, that you never
dreamed of. I do not wonder that the Prophets have expressed
themselves as strongly as they have in relation to the events that
shall overtake the world. I remember that some 30 years ago, there was
one of our brethren in an eastern city, I heard a report about his
wife being engaged in something of that sort. I asked him if it were
true. He said it was. I don't know when I felt such a loathing for a
human being in my life as I felt toward her. I would sooner have
touched a rattlesnake than touched her hand. And I feel so today. We
cannot degrade ourselves with these fiendish practices. All are not
guilty; for as I have frequently said there are thousands and millions
of honorable men and women throughout the land. But these evils which
exist in this and other nations are too terrible almost to be spoken
of; yet it is requisite they should be presented before you Latter-day
Saints, that you may remember the pit from whence you were dug, and
the rock from whence you were hewn; that you may appreciate in some
measure the blessings you enjoy, and your freedom from these infamies
in this land of Zion. And I would say to you Bishops—if you find
adulterers and adulteresses in the Church, cut them off, they cannot
be associated with the Latter-day Saints.
Another thing: I was lately called upon as a witness—perhaps
you may have seen some account of it in the papers—and I want to make
some explanation in relation to the matters that I then presented,
because they are not generally understood: I was required to divulge
certain things. I did not know them to divulge. Perhaps some of you
have had people come to you with their confidences. I have. But I
don't want to be confidant. Why? Because if they made a confidant of
me and I was called before a tribunal, I could not, as an honorable
man, reveal their confidences, yet it would be said I was a
transgressor of law; but no honorable man can reveal confidences that
are committed to him. Therefore I tell them to keep their own secrets,
and remember what is called the Mormon creed, "Mind your own business,"
I don't want to know the secrets of people, those that I cannot tell.
And I could not tell very much to that court; for I have studiously
avoided knowing any more than I could possibly help about such
matters. I was asked questions about our temple, which of course I
could not divulge. I was asked questions about records which I could
not tell them, because I did not know. I have studiously avoided
entering into a knowledge of these matters. They did not build our
temples. We have never had any revelations from God, through them! We
may have had from the devil (laughter), but never have had revelations
from God through them. And I think there are some things we have a
right to guard sacredly in our own bosoms. We are told "The secret of
the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his
covenant." Now, if the Lord shall commit a secret to me I don't think
I should tell it to anyone; I don't think I would, not unless He told
me. Then, I do not want to know your secrets. I was asked if certain
ordinances could be performed in different places. I told them, yes,
under certain circumstances. "Where," I was asked—"Anywhere
besides in
temples?" Yes. Anywhere besides the Endowment House? Yes. "Where, in
some other house?" In another house or out of doors, as the
circumstances might be. Why did I say that? Is not a temple the proper
place? Yes; but it is said in our revelations pertaining to these
matters:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any
of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those sons of men
go with all their might and with all they have to perform that work,
and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and
hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to
require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to
accept of their offerings."
Thus under such circumstances we perceive that our operations
elsewhere will be all correct; it makes no difference. It is the
authority of the Priesthood, not the place, that validates and
sanctifies the ordinance. I was asked if people could be sealed
outside. Yes. I could have told them I was sealed outside, and lots of
others.
I want to show you a principle here, you Latter-day Saints. When Jesus
was asked if He thought it was proper for His disciples to pluck ears
of corn on the Sabbath day, He told them "The sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the sabbath." What else? I will say that man was
not made for temples, but temples were made for man, under the
direction of the Priesthood, and without the Priesthood temples would
amount to nothing.
I speak of these things for your information: but men are not
authorized to act foolishly about these matters. The temples are
places that are appropriated for a great many ordinances, and among
these ordinances that of marriage; but, then, if we are interrupted by
men who do not know about our principles, that is all right, it will
not impede the work of God, or stop the performance of ordinances. Let
them do their work, and we will try and do ours.
While I was in court a few days ago, and gazing upon the assembly of
judges, lawyers, marshals, witnesses, spectators, etc., many
reflections of a very peculiar character passed through my mind, some
of which I will here rehearse.
I could not help thinking as I looked upon the scene, that there was
no necessity for all this; these parties need not have placed
themselves in this peculiar dilemma. Here was a young man blessed with
more than ordinary intelligence, bearing amongst all who know him a
most enviable reputation for virtue, honesty, sobriety, and all other
desirable characteristics that we are in the habit of supposing go to
make a man respected and beloved, the civilized world over. He had
been trained from early childhood in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord, had been an attendant at Sabbath schools and Young Men's
Improvement Societies, where his course was of the most pleasing kind;
more than this, some years ago, when quite a youth, he had shown his
devotion to the faith in which he had been reared, by going forth
without purse and scrip, to preach in the midst of the unbelieving the
doctrines of a most unpopular faith. And, as I reach this point in my
reflections, my mind instinctively wanders to a monument I gazed at in
the Salt Lake City cemetery but a few days ago. That monument records
in fitting words of respect and admiration the devotion of two young
missionaries in a far-off Southern State, one of whom had fallen a
victim to mob violence, had sealed with his blood the testimony which
he bore, the other had stood by him in this hour of sore need, and
rescued his mangled body and brought it safely for thousands of miles
to the home of his bereaved parents and sorrowing co-religionists.
This heroic young man is the one now arraigned before the courts of
his country, for an alleged offense against the morality of the age.
Assuming that the reports pertaining to him should prove to be
correct, and he really has a plural wife, what then would be the
position? He, from his earliest recollection, had been taught to
reverence the Bible as the word of God, to revere the lives and
examples of the ancient worthies whom Jehovah honored by making them
His confidants, and revealing unto them the secrets of His divine
purposes; he had read of one who was called "the friend of God, and
the father of the faithful," of another who was said to be "a man after
God's own heart;" of a third who in all things is said to have done
the will of Heaven, and so on till they could be numbered by the
score; yet all these men, the friends, associates and confidants of
the great Creator of heaven and earth, were men with more than one
wife, some with many wives, yet they still possessed and rejoiced in
the love and honor of the great Judge of all the world, whose judgments
are all just, and whose words are all righteousness. This
young man is charged with following these worthy examples; it is
asserted that he has taken to wife a beautiful and virtuous young
lady, belonging, like him, to one of our most respected families, and
who also believes in the Bible, and the example set her by those holy
women of old, such as Rachel, Ruth, Hannah, and others, who honored
God's law, and became the mothers of Prophets, Priests and Kings. And
as my cogitations ran I thought what need had these two to follow such
examples of a bygone age; why not walk in the way of the world
today; unite with our modern Christian civilization, and if passion
guided their actions, why call each other husband and wife, why hallow
their associations by any sacred ceremony; was there any need of such?
Why not do as tens of thousands of others do, live in the condition of
illicit love? And then if any child should be feared from this
unsanctified union, why not still follow our Christian exemplars,
remove the fetal encumbrance, call in some of the copyists of Madame
Restell, the abortionists, male and female, that pollute our land,
that would have been sub-rosa, genteel, fashionable, respectable,
Christianlike, as Christianity goes in this generation. And if this
did not succeed, the young man might have turned his victim into the
street to perish, or die of pollution as is done in tens of thousands
of instances, in the most sanctified manner by the hypocrites of the
day. Then, in either of these cases, the young gentleman could have
been received into good society, be petted and applauded; could hold a
position under our government, be even a deputy-marshal, registrar or
what not, and still further, be able to answer all the necessary
questions; and be admitted as a grand juror without being brought in
as a guttersnipe on an open venire, but as a respectable citizen on
the regular panel. Or again, these two, in the event of a child being
born, might consign it to the care of some degraded hag, some baby
farmer, where gradually and quietly its innocent life would ebb out,
and by and by the grief-stricken parents would receive the
anticipated notice that their dear little offspring, notwithstanding
every care, was dead and buried. This is a respectable crime, a crime
committed principally by those who go to high-toned churches and
fashionable meetinghouses in velvets and feathers, in silks and
satins, and who with upturned eyes and hypocritical voices, insult the
majesty of Heaven by drawling out, "Lord have mercy upon us, miserable
sinners." Yet they are murderers—murderers of the worst kind, shedders
of innocent blood, consumers of their own flesh, whom the vengeance of
God awaits. Yet this young man and woman could have done all this and
no marshals with ready feet would have dogged their steps, no packed
grand juries with unanimous alacrity would do the bidding of
overzealous prosecuting attorneys; no Federal judge would overturn
precedent, ignore law, disregard justice on purpose to convict. No,
they might then have been the friends, associates, companions of judge
and prosecutor, governor and commissioner: but now, as they would
neither associate unrighteously, nor take means to destroy the results
of their union, but honestly and virtuously live, as is claimed, as
husband and wife, he stands in the felon's dock charged with an
offense against the dignity of the United States, and to convict him, oppressive laws, more oppressively administered, are
brought to bear with all the ingenuity that malice can devise and
hatred adopt. And there, in this ignominious position, he stands, with
every person who might possibly be his friend, excluded from the jury,
without the possibility of a fair trial by his peers, not one of the
panel being in the least sympathy with himself: and by such people
this unfortunate young gentleman has to be tried, judged, prosecuted,
proscribed, and condemned, because of his firm and unswerving faith in
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of David, Solomon, and numerous
other Godfearing and honorable men, who, like him, have despised the
cant and hypocrisy of an ungodly world, and dared to obey the behests
of Jehovah. Of these things he had learned from the Bible, in the
Sunday school; no wonder then that our would-be reformers are so
anxious to exclude the Bible from our district schools, as its
teachings and examples so emphatically condemn the theories on which
the acts and legislation of Congress are based, as well as the course
pursued by those who seek to aid in the regeneration of Utah by adding
to or taking from the law as is best suited to shield their own
corrupt practices, or, on the other hand, by extra judicial
proceedings, under cover of the law, they pervert, to prosecute and
persecute the Mormons.
And where was this scene enacted? In the gorgeous palaces of
Belshazzar, surrounded by his wives, concubines, and nobles, and where
was seen written on the walls, "Mene, mene, tekel upharsin?" No. Was
it at the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, when ten
righteous persons could not be found to avert the wrath of an offended
God, or in Pompeii or Herculaneum, who, in their turn, for their
libidinous and unrighteous practices, as Sodom and Gomorrah, suffered
the vengeance of eternal fire? No. Was it in the Saturnalia of the
Bacchanals of ancient Greece and Rome? No. Those nations have been
long overthrown, and are now only known to a few readers of ancient
history. Was it during the reign of the first French republic, when
they elevated a prostitute as the goddess of reason? No. Was it in the
days of the inquisition, when the rack, the gibbet, the faggot and the
flames were brought into requisition to force unwilling victims to
testify of things which their consciences forbade, and who perished by
thousands for daring to think and act, and believe in and worship God
according to the dictates of their consciences? No. Was it under the
influence of Bacchus, or in the midnight revellings as exhibited in
Rome under Nero? No. This scene was enacted in midday, in the 19th
century, in the year of our Lord, 1884, in the Federal Court House, in
Salt Lake City, at a court presided over by Judge Zane, Chief Justice
for the United States in the Territory of Utah, assisted by Prosecuting
Attorney Dickson, and the other adjuncts of the law, and in the
presence of several hundred American citizens. Towards these gentlemen
personally I have no feelings, no complaints to make. I understand
them to bear the reputation of being learned and honorable men in all
other matters. But they stand in an unfortunate position; they
represent a cause so low, that it is impossible to look upon it
without loathing and commiseration; they represent a political
exigency, a party necessity, capital has to be made by the perse cution and prosecution of American citizens who have embraced an
unpopular faith, and they are the tools with which the unclean,
despicable and barbarous work has to be done. I envy not their
calling. I have no desire to stand in their shoes. Let my work be to
do the will of God, to build up truth, virtue, righteousness, honor
and peace upon the earth, and they may, if they so prefer, continue in
the unfortunate work that their party has assigned to them.
Before I close I will say that I have not spoken on this subject with
any feeling of acrimony in my heart towards the parties engaged in
these proceedings. Some of the gentlemen engaged therein, in other
respects, bear an excellent reputation. I will further say that we as
Latter-day Saints have often heard it reported and reiterated in our
ears, that the world was growing worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived, and that it would grow worse and worse. So we need not be
surprised to see the fulfillment of these things. Furthermore, I wish
specifically to state that while these abominations exist and these
acts of injustice, we leave it with the perpetrators of these acts to
pursue their own vain course. But it is for us to guard well against
the innovations of the corrupt and the designing; it is for us to
guard well our liberties; and then it is for us to treat honorably,
rightly, and properly all honorable men and women. Although thousands
are engaged in committing these crimes which are too dreadful to
reflect upon: yet at the same time there are thousands and millions of
honorable men and women throughout the nations, and many of them among
us. We don't class them with the corrupt, the libidinous and the
murderers; although for our part we must be very careful of our
associations, and know the character of those whom we receive into our
houses, or allow our children to associate with.
God bless you and lead you in the paths of life; and while others are
trying to exalt crime and murder into a fine art, and extol these
libidinous practices; and while we have test oaths framed on purpose
to screen the adulterer and adulteress; and while honorable men are
prevented or voluntarily abstain from voting, and harlots and
whoremongers, and men who betray their wives and associate with other
women are considered honorable
- John Taylor