In attempting to address you this afternoon, my brethren and sisters,
I trust I shall have the assistance of your faith and prayers, that I
may be led to speak upon those principles that are adapted to your circumstances and wants. We as a people are living at a time
when we need the assistance and direction of the Spirit of God. To be
taught by men and by men's wisdom in our position would be of little
or no avail to us, from the fact that the conditions which surround us
are different in many respects from those which surround every other
people. We are a peculiar people. We are not bound together by
associations such as exist among other peoples. We have not come
together because this land suited us, and was desirable for us to make
a living in, but we have gathered to this land through force of
circumstances over which, to a certain extent, we had no control. We
have come together impelled by motives such as do not operate upon
ordinary people, and having objects to accomplish such as are not
thought of nor labored for by others. Other people, when they form
settlements such as we have in these mountains, are generally drawn
together, if they are new settlements, by the advantages of locality,
by the opportunities for making a living or in creating wealth, or for
some consideration or reason of this character—that is in the first
place. Afterwards, in succeeding generations, they stay there because
it is their birth place, because it is the home in which they have
been reared. But these considerations have not influenced us in our
settlement in these valleys. It is due to none of these causes that we
are organized in communities as we are today, but it is due to causes
that are higher and diverse from those that operate upon other people
where they form settlements such as we have done. Hence, this being
our condition, it requires wisdom, it requires strength, it requires
enlightenment from God, to enable us to maintain ourselves upon the
principle that we came here in the beginning for, and to escape the
evils by which we are threatened. We believe that it was God who led
us to this land; that it was God who prepared this land as an abode
for us; that it has been His Almighty power that has preserved us thus
far, and has ameliorated the condition of affairs—that is the soil and
the climate and the water—that has produced changes that have made
this land desirable and a delightful home for us—and that there has
been a purpose and a design in all this, and that we have been the
instruments in the hands of God of working out and accomplishing that
design up to the present time. Hence there is, as I have said, a
necessity that we should receive from the same source that has
hitherto guided us, continued guidance and continued instruction, so
that we shall not stop half-way in the work that we have undertaken,
but by divine help be able to accomplish it.
There were some reflections that passed through my mind as I sat in
your meeting this morning concerning the circumstances which surround
us, that if I can get the Spirit I would like to speak upon.
In the first place it will not do to judge or measure us by the
standards that obtain among other people, and by which people are
measured in other places. To form a correct judgment of the Latter-day
Saints, men must understand the motives which prompt them to action,
the considerations which affect them, and the objects they have in
view to accomplish; to form a correct estimate of our character these
all must be taken into consideration. But it is often the case that we
are measured by standards that do not apply to us, which may very well
answer for measuring other people and other communities, but not
for us, and in consequence of this we are frequently misjudged, and
men and women come to incorrect conclusions respecting us. Fault is
constantly found with us by our enemies because of these peculiarities
which they do understand, or which if they do not understand, they pay
no attention to. For instance, it is frequently said to us that we are
a disloyal people, that we are not friends to the government, that we
respect a power and an authority in our midst which we consider
paramount to the authority of the government; and because of the
circulation of this accusation and its widespread belief, we are
refused rights to which we are fully entitled, which belong to us,
which should not be withheld from or denied to us. It is very
remarkable when we think about our numbers, how few we are,
comparatively speaking—it is very remarkable that there should be
such jealousy entertained about us as there is. Pharaoh and the
Egyptians were never more afraid apparently of the great power of the
children of Israel in their midst than our fellowcitizens, and many
of them too that are in high places, appear to be afraid of us. They
seem to look upon us as aliens, as an alien power, and treat us
accordingly, when there is not the least justification for doing so.
Now, you remember, doubtless, Pharaoh's treatment of the Israelites.
He saw that they were increasing, and he became alarmed. "Why," said
he, "If we were going to have a war, these Israelites are becoming so
numerous they may join our enemies and take away our kingdom from us.
We must stop their increase." And he counseled with his people as to
the best method to stop this increase. He issued a decree that all
male children that were born of the Israelites should be destroyed and
cast into the river Nile, but that the female children should be
spared. In this way he hoped to check the increase of the children of
Israel in Egypt. There is nothing in history that has come down to us
to furnish grounds or justification for this cruel action on the part
of this king. But this action was well adapted to force the children
of Israel into the feeling that the government under which they lived
was a harsh, a cruel and an unfriendly government, and to create
antipathy in their breasts against it. In this way this tyrant—as all
tyrants have ever done—in trying to accomplish the object he had in
view, took the very means to bring upon himself and his nation the
evils that he dreaded; because if he had desired to make the
Israelites join the enemies of the nation and be traitors in the midst
of the kingdom he could not have taken a more effective method than
that which he did take.
And so it is with us. If we had not had a profound attachment to the
Constitution of the United States and to the institutions of this
government, the course that is taken against us by those who have
represented the government has been and is of a character to have
driven us into open and avowed enmity to the government years and
years ago. Without that deep-rooted attachment we should have lost all
our respect for a government under which we have suffered such cruel
wrongs. There could be no better evidence of the kind feeling and the
loyalty of the Latter-day Saints to the government of the United
States, than the fact that in our breasts and throughout these
mountains, there prevails an unquenchable love and respect for
the Constitution and the institutions that spring therefrom,
notwithstanding we have been denied our rights and been treated with
the utmost cruelty. There is scarcely an act of oppression that could
be practiced that we have not had to endure, from the time the church
of which we are members, was organized up to the present time. We have
been falsely accused of all kinds of crimes, have been mobbed and
repeatedly driven from our homes with the entire loss of our property,
have been outraged, warred upon, subjected to violence of almost every
description, and murdered. One by one our rights have been assailed.
We have been stripped of them under forms of law; we have been denied
justice, and treated with extreme vindictiveness. Our families—if
those who had the execution of the laws in their hands could have
accomplished it—would have been rent asunder; wives would have been
torn from their husbands, children from their parents; households
would have been destroyed; distrust and enmity and hatred would have
been engendered in the breasts of the people one towards another—that
is, if the measures that have been framed against us could have been
successfully carried out as they were designed by those who framed
them. Just think of it! Think of the manner the women of this
community have been tempted to turn traitors to their husbands and
their friends! Every inducement possible has been offered to them to
turn against and betray their husbands, and the seeds of enmity have
been sown, or have endeavored to be sown, in the breasts of families,
and of children against parents, and against each other, throughout
the entire land. When you contemplate all these acts, they equal in
cruelty and perfidy, and inhumanity, any of the acts of which we read
in the Scriptures. Men are shocked when they read the story of the
treatment of the Israelites by Pharaoh. All the preachers throughout
the land, when they read that, comment more or less upon it to their
congregations, and talk about the cruelty of which that king was
guilty, and praise the Israelites, and praise Moses for that which
they did. At the same time they are guilty themselves of as great
crimes. They are guilty of inciting a government against its
citizens—its peaceful citizens—and stirring up the government to acts
of harshness, of cruelty, and even some of them go so far as to defend
the use of the army by the government to destroy a peaceful people
from the face of the earth.
Now, as I have said, no people in the world have given greater proofs
of attachment to their own government, and of devotion to those sacred
principles of liberty that we have inherited than the Latter-day
Saints have done in these mountains. But, as I have said, the cry is
still that we are disloyal; that we unite church and state; that we
have an authority in our midst that we respect and obey, while we
disregard the civil authority of the land. These things are a frequent
cause of complaint against us, and we are denied our rights. We
today, should be a State. This Territory of Utah should be one of the
United States. We should have the right to elect our own Governor, to
elect our own Judges, to elect every officer in fact that executes the
laws or has anything to do with the administration of the government
in our own land. We have been here 37 years, and during 34 years of
that time we have been an organized Territorial government,
longer than any other community on the continent except New Mexico,
which was organized at the same time. Other Territories have sprung up
and had speedy recognition as States, and are now numbered as members
of the Union years after we settled this country. There is no good
reason why we should not have had this same right granted unto us; no
good reason whatever. We have shown our capability for good
government, for maintaining good government. Our Territory today is
an example for maintaining to all the Territories and to many States,
so far as good government is concerned, and freedom from debt, and
everything in fact that makes life enjoyable and easy for the citizen.
We are lightly taxed, and we have maintained ourselves without aid
from the general government or from any other community; while other
communities that have had nothing like the difficulties to contend
with that we have had, have been beggars either at the door of the
National Congress, or of their neighboring States and their
fellowcitizens. When other places were visited by grasshoppers, the whole
land resounded with appeals for aid; but though we for five years in
succession, in some of our settlements, had crops destroyed by the
same cause, yet no wail went up from Utah, asking the nation for help.
We have been so independent, and so disposed to sustain ourselves, and
to fight our own battles with the difficulties that environed us, that
we have managed to get along without having recourse to this method of
obtaining assistance, and in this respect our course has been
unexampled.
Now, as I say, there is no good reason why we should not have been
admitted as a State in the Union, except for the reason, and that has
no foundation in truth, that we are not to be trusted, that we are in
such a condition that if we were to get a State government there would
be danger resulting from that grant of power unto us. Of course all of
you, my brethren and sisters, know how untrue this is, how utterly
without foundation such accusations are, but, nevertheless, they are
listened to and believed.
Efforts have been made among us to change this condition of affairs.
There have been, and still are, perhaps, some who call themselves
Latter-day Saints, who are almost ready to lend themselves to any
scheme that has for its object the obtaining of a State organization
for Utah. Such persons look upon this as so great a blessing and so
great a boon, that they are almost willing to forego their religious
belief and to pander to those who have got power, and to make some
sort of a concession to them, in order to achieve this, what they
consider, very desirable end. There has been some agitation in years
past respecting plural marriage, and some people, calling themselves
Latter-day Saints, have been almost ready to go into the open market,
and bid for a State government, at the price of conceding this
principle of our religion, for the privilege of becoming a State of
the Union. Those who are ready to do this are ready also to cast off
obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God, and to say, "We do not
believe that men who hold an office in the Church should have any
voice in the affairs of the State." They are ready to sell out their
belief as Latter-day Saints, and their veneration and reverence for
that power which God has restored, for the sake of obtaining a little
recog nition of their rights as citizens, on the part of those in
power. It does not require much familiarity with the Spirit of God, or
with the principles of our holy religion to understand exactly the
position that such persons as these to whom I allude, occupy among us.
When a man is ready to barter any principle of salvation for worldly
advantage, that man certainly has reached the position that he esteems
worldly advantage above eternal salvation. Can such persons retain the
Spirit of God, and take such a course as this? No, they cannot. That
other spirit will lead such persons astray, and they will be left to
themselves. Will there be such persons continue among us and be
associated with us? I do not question it. I expect we shall have such
characters with us, during our future career as we have had in the
past. We have had all sorts of people connected with this Church. As
the work rolls forth, as it increases in numbers, so will these
characters increase—that is, for a certain time, until the day comes
when the kingdom of God and the reign of righteousness shall be fully
ushered in.
Now, regarding this accusation that is made concerning the Priesthood.
It is the most common charge that is made against us that we listen to
the Priesthood, that we are more obedient to the Priesthood than we
are to those who hold civil authority. The question may be very
properly asked: Have we not had good reason for this? Should we not be
most consummate fools it we did not listen to our friends instead of
our enemies? From the time that President Young was superseded as
Governor of this Territory, until the present time, what kind of
officers have we had sent into our midst to administer the affairs of
the government? Has there been a man who has come here as Governor,
who has had the ability, even if he had the disposition, to guide and
to counsel the people of this Territory, and to manage its affairs as
well as the men among us who have had leading positions in the
Priesthood? Why, there is not an instance of the kind. You take the
best disposed Governor we have had—and they are easily mentioned, the
few that we have had who have been well disposed—you take them and
compare them with the men who laid the foundation of this
commonwealth, who laid the foundation of this Territorial government,
and built up this government, and there is no comparison between them.
So that, aside from every other consideration, men are justified in
seeking wisdom and guidance at the best fountain, at the best source.
If I want counsel I will go to the men who are fitted to give me
counsel. If I were not a Latter-day Saint it would make no difference
to me who the person was if he could give me good counsel. If he was
a man of ripe experience I would feel justified in going to that man
and getting his advice.
This has been our position as a people. We have had men among us who
have proved themselves in the best possible manner, beyond dispute, to
to be entirely capable of directing and managing and counseling in all
matters that pertain to our earthly existence. Have they not shown
this through years and years of experience? The people have proved
them. Now, would not the people be great fools, would it not be the
height of folly for people who have this knowledge to say: "No, I
won't ask these men for counsel; I won't go to them for advice; I
won't listen to anything they say, because if I do so, I am
listening to the Priesthood; but I will go to somebody who does not
know anything; I will go to some" —I was going to say
ass—(laughter)—for if ever men have proved themselves to be fools, it
has been some of our governmental officials—"I will go to some man of
this kind and ask his counsel, and have him to tell me what to do,
because I am anxious to show that I am loyal to the government of the
United States."
Now, would you not call any man who would do this an idiot, when he
could have got good counsel from his friends; when he would turn his
back on his friends, and go to somebody for counsel who did not know
anything, not as much as he, the person, did himself about the
question he submitted to him? I would say, and you would say, that
people who would do such a thing were little less than idiots.
Well, now, what crime are we guilty of? If we have men among us who
have more experience than they, and who have proved themselves capable
of guiding the people, what crime are we guilty of in giving heed to
their counsel and seeking it? Because they hold the Priesthood are
their mouths to be stopped up so that they cannot speak; are they to
be deprived of the rights of citizenship, and all the rights that men
have that are born free, because they hold the Priesthood? Is that a
good reason? A more senseless reason never was given. If these
government officials and these men that represent the government are
so much better and so much more capable of guiding the people, and
have so much greater right to be listened to and obeyed, let them show
it by their works. When they have proved it, I suppose there will be
no lack of disposition on the part of the people to go to them, and to
listen to them, and to expect from them all the necessary teachings
and counsels. There will be no lack of disposition on the part of
sensible men and women such as we profess to be; but until they do
this, until they show this capability and this power, they had better
hold their tongues and say nothing about others leading the people.
The fact is this, and it is apparent to all of us, that there are
certain men who can destroy much easier than they can build up. It
required a great deal of skill to build the Temple at Ephesus: it
required the highest skill in architecture: but a fool destroyed it
with a little blaze. It takes men to build up, but children can burn
down and destroy. It takes men to build a commonwealth, and lay the
foundation of that which we see around us; it takes labor and years of
experience and wisdom to accomplish such results; but any poor
creature that is half-witted can destroy all these labors in a very
short time, and those that have come among us in too many instances
representing the government have been men of this caliber; they would
like to destroy, tear down, and reduce to chaos. That would suit them
far better than it would to build up.
My brethren and sisters, I would like to have us as a people look at
these matters, if we can, from a sensible point, from the standpoint
of common sense and reason, and not allow ourselves to be diverted
from the course that we have adopted by the outcry that is made
against us and by the howls that are raised about us. It would be
exceedingly foolish for us to do so.
God has given unto us, as we believe and as we testify, His
Gospel; He has given unto us His Church; He has given unto us
the authority by which men and women are led into His Church and
governed in His Church—the authority which He Himself recognizes and
the only authority that He has given to man on the earth to act in His
stead. We believe this, we testify of it. At the same time while we
have this belief, and form ourselves into a Church organization, we
never have at any time in our history attempted to make our Church
organization the only organization and the dominant organization in
matters that pertain to everyday affairs and to civil government.
There has always been among the Latter-day Saints, great respect shown
for civil authority, and for the laws of the land. In fact, as soon as
possible after our first settlement here, a Legislature was organized
and the provisional government of Deseret was formed, when there was
no one but Latter-day Saints in the country at the time. We could have
been governed by our Church organization; it was sufficient for our
purpose during the winter of 1847-8, and during the summer of 1848. It
was quite sufficient. There was no other organization. But as soon as
the Pioneers returned, President Young and the rest of the
brethren—there was no time lost in organizing a civil government—the
Provisional Government of the State of Deseret—and laws were enacted
in due form by the civil authority, and from that day until the
present it has been respected and honored among us, and will be from
this time forward, as long as this people exist. There is no people on
the face of the earth that draw a nicer distinction than we between
that which belongs to the Church and that which belongs to the State.
But it is frequently said—and I have had to meet it often in my life
time, particularly in Washington; they have said and do say, "Why,
your Probate Judges are Elders and Bishops, and your other officials
hold offices in the Church."
Well, is this a crime? Is there anything in the law or the
Constitution of our country, or is there anything else that is
recognized as binding among men that would prevent Elders and Bishops
from holding office? I do not know of anything. I do not know that a
man is any worse for being a Bishop or an Elder, or any more unfitted
for civil employment, or the discharge of civil functions, than if he
were not a Bishop or an Elder, especially among a people organized as
we are. As I say this charge has been frequently brought against us in
my hearing, and I have had to meet it before committees of Congress
and elsewhere. The reply I have made to such charges is this: that
among the Latter-day Saints in Utah every reputable man in the
community bears some office in the Church. As soon as he arrives at a
sufficient age if he is a reputable man he receives an ordination in
the Priesthood. The best and the most active men in our community are
the men who become prominent in Church affairs. Our Bishops live
without salaries, or support from the people, they, before being
chosen, having shown their ability to sustain themselves. They are not
like members of other denominations who are a burden to the people, or
who receive an education especially for those duties, and thus live by
the salaries that are furnished them by the members of their
congregation. In a community where there is a class of that kind there
may be some propriety in saying that ministers of religion
shall not take part in the affairs of state, although there is nothing
of that kind said anywhere in the constitution or the laws; but there
may be some propriety in saying this where men are educated especially
for the ministry—where they devote themselves to that labor and
withdraw themselves from the practical affairs of life and depend upon
their parishioners furnishing them support. There might be some
propriety in saying to a class of that kind, "you are not fit to take
part in civil affairs, and the practical, everyday affairs of life,
because of your calling and because of the nature of your duties." But
we say there is great impropriety in saying that those who labor in
the ministry among us shall not take part; for this reason: that all
the men among us who are the most practical, the most energetic, and
the most business like—from these men the ministers are chosen, that
is, men who labor in the ministry as Bishops, as Elders, as
missionaries, and in other capacities. They have proved that they are
capable of sustaining themselves by their own efforts, and at the same
time devote a certain portion of their time to public affairs. Hence,
you will find among us as a rule that our Bishops are all practical
men; our Presidents of Stakes and their Counselors, and the Bishops
and their Counselors, the Teachers and others, are all active business
men among us. They have gained experience, and because of that they
are sometimes chosen to fill local offices. Take the Legislature of
Utah Territory, composed as it has been of some holding positions in
the Church, and you will find a body of practical men, the superiors
of whom are not to be found—I say it without fear of truthful
contradiction— anywhere in any Legislature in this country, men who
understand the wants of their constituents and of the people, and the
kind of laws that are best adapted to them. I have had some experience
in mingling with men in public life, and I must say that for practical
wisdom, and for a knowledge of the affairs of the country and of the
people represented in Utah Territory, there was found, previous to the
passage of the Edmunds law, a class of men that had not their
superiors anywhere in this land, for practical wisdom and the ability
necessary to lay the foundation, and to perpetuate the institutions of
a great country.
Is it wrong for men who have the Priesthood, and who act in this
capacity, to act in civil offices and to let the people have the
benefit of their experience in these matters—is there any wrong in
this? I can see none, and I am sure that no man who is a true friend
to his country can. There is no good reason why these men should be
excluded; in fact there is every reason why they should be invited to
take part in establishing the affairs of the country. I have often
said, in speaking to our brethren and sisters in various parts of the
Territory, that that which we behold today in our Territory—the good
order, the peace, the freedom from debt, the lightness of taxation,
and all the circumstances that are so favorable to us as a people, are
due to the men who have borne the Priesthood, commencing with
President Brigham Young, his Counselors, and the Twelve Apostles, and
the leading men in Israel—the circumstances which surround us, I say,
are due to the wisdom that God has given unto them in managing these
affairs. At the same time, because this is the case, there is
no necessity that there should be a blending of church and state.
There is no necessity for this; it is not wise to blend church and
state. I do not believe that as members of the Church we should pass
decrees or laws that would bind other people. I have no such belief,
never did have. I do not think I ever shall have. But because a man is
a member of a church, and because a man is a servant of God, and
because a man bears the Priesthood of the Son of God, he should not be
prevented because of that from acting in any civil capacity, from
taking part in civil matters and executing the laws that are enacted
by civil authority.
The province of the Kingdom of God that Daniel saw, the kingdom that
would be established in the last days, is to be as a shield to the
Latter-day Saints, to be as a bulwark around about that Church, and
around about that Church alone? No. The apostate will have his civil
rights under that kingdom. The non-Mormon, or Gentile as he is called,
will have his rights under that kingdom. The Chinaman, the Negro, and
the Indian—each of them will have his rights under that kingdom, and
yet not be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A good many of our people confound the Kingdom of God with the Church
of God. Now there is a very wide distinction between the two. A man
may, in one sense, be a member of the Church of Christ, and not a
member of the Kingdom of God. The two organizations are entirely
distinct. The Kingdom of God when it shall prevail in the earth—as it
will do—will be the civil power which will shield and protect the
Church of Christ against every attack, against every unlawful
aggression, against every attempt to deprive it of its legitimate
rights. At the same time it will protect the Methodist just as much as
it will the Latter-day Saint; it will protect the Roman Catholic just
as much as it will the Methodist; it will protect men of every creed;
it will protect the worshipper of idols in his civil rights, in his
rights as a man and as a citizen. A man may be an infidel; a man may
have been a Latter-day Saint, and denied the faith and lost his
standing in the Church of God, and yet so far as the civil authority
is concerned, so far as the power that is wielded by that which we
call the Kingdom of God is concerned, that man will receive the
amplest protection; he will have the fullest enjoyment of his rights.
President Taylor told us this morning—told us as plainly as it could
be told—the manner in which all men should be treated. And that is the
design of God; and therein our friends in the east are trampling upon
the true principles of liberty in their attacks upon us, and in their
treatment of us. Such treatment will just as surely bring down
condemnation and destruction upon a government that practices these
things, as that the setting of the sun will bring darkness upon the
earth. It is not possible for men to continue in such a course of
oppression and wrong doing as has been pursued by our fellowcitizens
that have had the reins of government in their hands, without
involving themselves in trouble. It is impossible that they can
perpetuate their power, and conduct themselves as they have been doing
towards us and towards others. There are eternal principles of justice
that cannot be violated without injury to the person who violates
them. A government that lends itself to the oppression of its
citizens, will sooner or later receive punishment. That which it sows
it will reap. It will be a harvest that will be most bitter and
sorrowful for those who reap it.
We are now citizens of this Territory. We fled here. As Latter-day
Saints we came here as exiles, seeking for a home in the wilderness.
God led us to this land, in which, notwithstanding all that maybe said
to the contrary, we have laid the foundation of this Territory, we
have made this land a peaceful, a happy land. There is no man in the
country, no matter what his creed may be, that is oppressed or has
been oppressed by the Latter-day Saints. We have not been tyrannical
in the exercise of our power. We have not discriminated against those
not of us. We have given them the same rights that we have ourselves.
The same peace that we have desired to enjoy we have been willing that
they should enjoy, and we have extended these privileges to them in
common with ourselves. We have sought in no manner to interfere with
their belief, nor with the exercise of it. The Roman Catholic in Salt
Lake City, has been as unmolested as the Latter-day Saint has been. We
may not believe in their religion; we may think the Methodist religion
a poor religion to believe in and practice, and so with other forms of
religion; but while we believe this, we have no right, neither have we
ever exercised any power towards restraining them or restricting them,
or in any manner depriving them of the free exercise of their rights
of conscience and of faith, and no government can stand and prosper
that will do it upon this land, for God has made promises concerning
this land that no government can stand that will do this. None of us
has any right to interfere with the faith and the worship of our
fellowcitizens, unless their faith and their worship interfere with
our rights. That is a proposition that is easily comprehended. If I do
not interfere with any man's right by my worship, and by that which I
consider right to do to my Maker, no man has any right under any form
of government to interfere with me.
Hence it is that all this action concerning marriage is wrong—this
interference with marriage—it is all wrong from beginning to end,
especially in view of the fact that it is an important principle of
our religion. We are ready to testify that our belief in marriage and
our practice of it, is interwoven with our hopes of eternal salvation.
Select every man who has had more wives than one and retained the
faith of the Gospel; take him and his wives and interrogate them
respecting their faith, and every one would say: "this principle is
so-intimately interwoven with my hopes of eternal salvation, that I
would be afraid that I would be damned if I did not obey it." I
believe that in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand
where people are in the faith they would make this response.
Well, now, what right has any number of people—there may be unnumbered
millions who say this is not religion—but what right have they to do
this? If there was only one person on the face of the earth that
entertained that belief, and he were alone and all the rest of mankind
were opposed to him, it would be just as precious to him as if
millions entertained a belief in common with him. Therefore, because there are millions who say it is not religion, this does not
make it so. We testify in the most solemn manner that it is a part of
our religion, and that we cannot forego this principle without feeling
that we forego our salvation, our eternal exaltation, by so doing.
Then the question arises in the practice of this principle—do those
who practice it infringe upon the rights of their fellowcitizens? Is
society disturbed? Are there wrongs done to society at large by the
practice of this principle? Let those who have lived among us answer
this question. There never was a more peaceful society than our
society—that is, not for the past few hundred years at least. Go
through our settlements, and is there quarreling, is there strife, are
there bad examples set to the rising generation, is impurity taught,
or any examples of impurity shown? No, there is not. We all know this,
and we know that in practicing our religion we do not infringe upon
the rights of our fellowcitizens.
But this attempt has been made just as it was in ancient days. I look
upon it as a revival of the same spirit that prompted Pharaoh to seek
the destruction of the male children among the Israelites. If we were
guilty of those crimes so fashionable in the world whereby the
increase of families is prevented, I do not suppose there would be one
word said about our system of marriage; I have no idea there would be.
But the fact that we do raise children—the fact that our houses and
settlements are full of healthy offspring, is a standing protest
against the crimes of the age; it is a standing protest against those
abominable practices that are destroying the foundation of many
communities within the confines of the United States, and they are
determined—those who are guilty of these things—that we shall not
exist. The loudest outcry against us, and the most devoted efforts
against us, come from the region where these dreadful practices
prevail, where women murder their offspring before they are born, are
guilty of this prenatal murder, among the people of the United States
who think themselves the most enlightened. Twenty-five years ago when
I was laboring in the ministry in that region I visited one of the
towns, and the President of the branch of the Saints there, (an old
resident, whose ancestors were among the first settlers of the town)
told me his wife was continually jeered at—and this was 25 years
ago—by her associates, because she bore children, and bore them
regularly—that she did not take means to prevent the increase of her
family! If I had not known him I could scarcely have believed it, it
was too horrid. I have learned since, however, that that is a common
practice in that region. The feature of that society that impresses
most vividly a traveler from Utah is the fewness of children in what
are called the best families. And yet it is from there that the
principal outcry is raised against us, and the determination expressed
to break up our families and to destroy us.
God has gathered a few people out from the nations of the earth, out
of Babylon. But shall they partake of these influences? I say to you,
my sisters, you teach your daughters against this accursed practice,
or they will go to hell, they will be damned, they will be murderers,
and the blood of innocence will be found upon them. A man that would sanction such a thing in his family, or that would live with a
woman guilty of such acts, shares in the crime of murder. I would no
more perform the ordinance of laying on of hands on a woman who is
guilty of that crime, if I knew it, than I would put my hands on the
head of a rattlesnake. We must set our faces like flint against such
acts. These dreadful practices are coming up like a tidal wave and
washing against our walls; for there are women among us who
secretly—so I am told, I know nothing about this personally, but I am
told there are women among us who are instilling this murderous and
accursed idea into the breasts of women and girls in our midst. Now
just as sure as it is done, and people yield to it, so sure will they
be damned, they will be damned with the deepest damnation; because it
will be the damnation of shedding innocent blood, for which there is
no forgiveness; and I would no more, as I say, administer to such
women, baptize them, or perform any ordinance of the Gospel for them,
than I would for a reptile. They are outside the pale of salvation.
They are in a position that nothing can be done for them. They cut
themselves off by such acts from all hopes of salvation.
As a people we should encourage marriage. I am always delighted when I
hear President Taylor speak as he did this morning on the principle of
brothers taking their brothers' widows to wife. There are many young
women among us pining away, that should be mothers in Israel, that
should be raising posterity, because the brothers are so indifferent
to the rights that belong to the institution of marriage as to let
these young women stay in this condition. And there is one thing that
I am impressed with, and that is, there will be considerable
condemnation rest down upon the Elders of this Church for their
neglect in these matters. Women are led astray and fall into the hands
of wicked men because of relatives to the dead neglecting to do that
which is their duty; acting as though the Lord cannot reward a man for
keeping His law. "Oh," says a man, and as President Taylor has
remarked, "I want to raise up a family for myself." He forgets God can
bless him and his seed after him. Look at the case of Boaz and Ruth.
He took Ruth, who was the wife of his kinsman. She had no children,
but he took her when another kinsman who had a prior right to her,
rejected her. From that alliance sprang the noblest men that were in
Israel—Obed, Jesse, David, Solomon, and through Boaz and Ruth came the
Son of God. And that was a proxy case, as it is called. Ruth was the
wife of Boaz's kinsman who had died. Boaz took her to wife, and raised
up an honorable posterity. And it is a wicked thing among us to allow
such cases to go uncared for. A young woman is left a widow, sometimes
without a son to represent her deceased husband; she should be cared
for, and not left to fall into bad hands, as frequently is the case
among us for the want of care on the part of those whose duty it is to
attend to such matters.
My brethren and sisters, God is watching over us, and He holds us to a
strict accountability for the things He has revealed to us. He has
revealed to us eternal principles. Let us be faithful to that
Priesthood which He has gives unto us; let us honor it, and not be
intimidated by the outcry that is raised against us that we are doing
wrong because we listen to the Priesthood. There is no such
thing as wrong connected with this. God has inspired His servants, and
has given them wisdom to manage the affairs of this people, and to
guide them in spiritual matters. They have full authority to do this,
and they will do it if the people will listen to them, and then in
temporal matters they will guide them as far as they have the
opportunity. Because they are Priests of the Most High God, they are
no worse for that; they are not handicapped because they have the
Priesthood. In a civil capacity they can act as fairly, justly,
wisely, as those who do not have the Priesthood. They do not act with
any less wisdom or any less power because they have the Priesthood
than they would do if they did not have it. I have heard so much of
this sort of talk that to me it is perfectly ridiculous. They talk
about our management of elections, and management of other affairs. I
will tell you my experience, and I have had some experience in these
matters. I have attended caucuses elsewhere; I know the machinery that
is used; I know the wire pulling; I have seen it in operation, and I
say to you that there is not the interference on the part of leading
men here with the will of this people that there is in the States in
political circles. And I tell you this: that leading men in other
communities seek to exercise more influence and lay their plans to
have their wishes carried out to a far greater extent than the leading
men of this community do among us—I mean those who have the
Priesthood. There is a disposition on the part of the leading
Priesthood to let the people have their way, not to interfere with
their selections. There is that disposition, and it is encouraged, and
the desire is to have all the people be wise and exercise wisdom, and
have the Spirit of God to discern who are suitable for office. If the
people could do this I can tell you that President Taylor and his
Counselors, and the Twelve, and the other leading men of Israel would
be very glad indeed. But you know as well as we do that there are
unwise men among us who would, if they had the power, destroy the
people; not because they would design to do it, but because of their
ignorance; they are ignorant and would do it, without knowing what the
consequences would be; and on this account it is right that
experienced men should give the people the benefit of their knowledge,
not however, interfering with the rights of the people, not in the
least; and it never has been done, at least within my knowledge, in my
public experience among the people. And I repeat there has been less
of this among us, considering the influence the Priesthood have, than
in any other community or any other people that I am acquainted with
anywhere in the land. I wanted to say this much, because I know there
is a great deal of misapprehension upon these points. There are men,
agitators, who talk about interference on the part of the Priesthood,
and try to breed disturbance and confusion among the people, unsettle
their minds and have them think there is something very wrong going on
here. I speak of it to remove these wrong impressions, and to disabuse
the minds of those who entertain them, for they are not correct. There
are more caucuses, more plans, more pipe laying, more log rolling,
more wire pulling in the States in one day, than you will see in a
month or a year among us. They resort to all sorts of devices to get
their man elected under promise of preferment and office. Why,
there is scarcely a man that gets an office in the United States that
is not bound by pledges of this kind. A man cannot be Speaker of the
House of Representatives, without being hampered by promises he is
compelled to give in order to get the position, promises to put this
man on this committee, and the other man upon another committee, some
to be chairmen of committees, and so on. So with the President of the
United States. Probably Grover Cleveland will be an exception, because
he has not been much in public life: but it is a rule that the
nominees of the different parties give certain promises as to what
they will do, and who will get leading positions. They are just as
much fettered as though chains were on their wrists and ankles. They
cannot move only in a certain direction. All freedom is taken away. A
President is nearly killed after he gets his position in endeavoring
to satisfy the clamors and wishes of those who claim they elected him
to office. This is the case all through the government. There is no
office, even to that of a constable, but is obtained in the same way.
I hope we shall never be in such a position as this, for it would lead
to the destruction of liberty and free government among us, if we
should ever give way to these things. Let men go into office free and
untrammeled. Let them be elected because they are the men most
suitable, and not because they want the office. Let us, as a people,
endeavor to find men who do not seek for office, and who do not want
it, but who take it because it is the wish of their fellowcitizens.
And let us keep our salaries so low that men will not scramble for
office and live on the people as officeholders, than which there is
nothing more hateful in a free land.
I pray God to fill you with the Holy Ghost, to guide you in the path
of righteousness, to enable you to avoid the many evils abroad in the
world, and as Zion progresses to avoid evils that will crowd upon us;
because as Zion increases there will be new temptations and
circumstances thrown around us that will be a trial to us, unless we
have the aid of our God to help us contend with and overcome them; and
that we may have this aid is my prayer in the name of Jesus,
Amen.
- George Q. Cannon