The speaker commenced by reading from the 1st chapter of Genesis—from
the 25th verse to the end of the chapter.
Proceeding, he said: In the writings of Moses we have an account of
the creation of this earth and the inhabitants thereof, both man and
beast and every living thing, as also vegetation. In the first verse
we read, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
In attempting to communicate intelligence upon any theme, if we
attempt to do it by using words and phrases, we are obliged to use
such language as the hearers or readers are able to comprehend, and if
the language be imperfect the ideas conveyed may be somewhat imperfect
or defective, and if the understanding of the persons to whom this
language is addressed is limited, and their use and understanding of
lan guage is limited, the information sought to be communicated to them
will be correspondingly limited and defective. It is only by the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost that we are able to see clearly the
things of God; but the language employed by the writer of the Book of
Genesis and by the translators of that work is perhaps sufficiently
clear for our purpose at this time, though the inspired translation
rendered by the Prophet Joseph Smith is somewhat clearer and more
impressive than the present King James' translation. In the inspired
translation by the Prophet Joseph Smith, it is written that in the
beginning the Gods created the heavens and the earth; that the earth
was empty and desolate, and God said unto His Only Begotten, let us do
so and so; let us divide the light from the darkness; let us separate
the waters and cause the dry land to appear; let there be
lights in the firmament in the midst of the heavens to give light to
the earth; let us create animals to walk upon the earth, and creeping
things, and fowls to fly in the air and fish to swim in the waters,
&c.; and let us make man in our own image and after our
likeness—that is
the Father addressing the Son, taking counsel together. This rendering
of this first chapter of Genesis is sustained by the writings of the
Apostle Paul, when he says: "For of Him" —speaking of the Only
Begotten—"and through Him, and for Him, are all things." Again, it is
written in the New Testament concerning the Savior, that He is "the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person." So that
when the Father said unto His Son in the beginning, let us make man in
our image and after our likeness, it conveys to us the idea that man
was organized in the same form and general appearance of both the
Father and the Son. This especially in relation to the man himself;
for you will remark the wording of the text which we have read—"in the
image of God created He him" —referring to Adam—"male and
female
created He them." You will perceive a difference in the language in
regard to the creation of females.
Now, it is not said in so many words in the Scriptures, that we have a
Mother in heaven as well as a Father. It is left for us to infer this
from what we see and know of all living things in the earth including
man. The male and female principle is united and both necessary to the
accomplishment of the object of their being, and if this be not the
case with our Father in heaven after whose image we are created, then
it is an anomaly in nature. But to our minds the idea of a Father
suggests that of a Mother: As one of our poets says:
"In the heavens are parents single?
No; the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me, I've a Mother there."
Hence when it is said that God created our first parents in His
likeness—"in the image of God created He him; male and female created
He them" —it is intimated in language sufficiently plain to my
understanding that the male and female principle was present with the
Gods as it is with man. It needs only a common understanding of the
organism of man and of all living creatures, and the functions of this
organism to show the primary object of the Creator, and that is the
multiplication of the species, the fulfillment of the commandment
given, to multiply and replenish the earth, given to both man and
beast. We need only to study the anatomy and construction of the human
system, and to understand its powers and capabilities, to comprehend
the object and purpose of the Creator, even though the commandment had
not been written to multiply and replenish the earth. The ancients who
feared God, and kept His commandments, showed that they understood
this principle and were willing to obey it. It is written of the first
fourteen generations, that each succeeding generation of them lived so
many years and begat sons and daughters, and some of them lived well
nigh on to a thousand years. They multiplied and increased in the land
until wickedness overran the land and it pleased God to check the
growth of wickedness by the flood, which swept the wicked off the
earth. But before thus destroying the inhabitants of the earth, He
caused the righteous to be gathered out from among the wicked
by the preaching of the Gospel. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was a
powerful instrument in the hands of God, of rebuking the wickedness of
the times. He taught righteousness, gathered the people together, and
established a Zion. He labored we are told some 365 years, in the
which he communed with God, and taught the people and sanctified his
people, so that they were translated to heaven. Many others who
remained upon the earth, who had accepted the Gospel, but were not
sanctified and prepared to be caught up with Enoch and his people,
sought diligently to follow; they purified themselves so that angels
ministered unto them, and they were caught up unto Zion before the
flood; even all who remained and kept the faith, except Noah and his
sons and their families, who were especially called and chosen and
detailed to build the ark and enter therein with a selection of the
beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air, to preserve seed through
the flood. Thus did the Lord gather a harvest of souls unto Himself,
of those who believed and obeyed the Gospel and worked righteousness,
while the wicked perished in the flood. Then again, the commandment of
God to multiply and replenish the earth, was renewed to Noah and his
posterity, and soon the desolate places became inhabited. But in the
course of a few generations, blindness and darkness and ignorance
again began to prevail; wickedness began to raise its head among the
children of Noah, and it became necessary that the Lord should select
from among the children of Noah the better and nobler seed with whom
He would establish His covenant, and upon whom He would confer the
keys of the Priesthood, and from among them should be raised up
Prophets and Seers and Revelators to teach the people of the nations
of the earth, as the oracles of God. These chosen people were Abraham
and his seed. Of Abraham it is written that God called him from his
father's house when he dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, and commanded him
to go out from his father's house because his father was given to the
ways of the heathen and to the idolatry of the surrounding peoples. He
called him to go to another land where he should be separate from the
traditions and teachings of his father, and where he would make of him
a great nation, and raise up from his seed a holy people. God appeared
unto him in Canaan, whither He led him, and swore by Himself—because
He could swear by no greater—that in blessing He would bless him, and
in multiplying He would multiply him; that his seed should be as the
stars of the heavens and as the sand which is upon the seashore for
multitude. He renewed this promise to his son Isaac, and his grandson
Jacob, who was also named Israel, and from them sprang the house of
Israel, and also the children of Arabia, the sons of Ishmael, and the
chief tribes of central Asia. It was the seed of Abraham that dwelt in
Egypt who were brought into bondage to the Egyptians, and subsequently
delivered by the hand of Moses, after wandering forty years in the
wilderness, in the land of Canaan. It was from among this people that
God raised up prophets from generation to generation to whom He
revealed His mind and will. It was this people that was commanded to
build first the tabernacle journeying in the wilderness—a sort of
moveable temple and subsequently a temple in the land of promise when they should become settled and located there. It was among
this people the Savior was born, and labored and taught the Gospel,
and was crucified, and rose again from the dead. It was from among
this people that He (the Savior) selected and ordained His Apostles to
preach the Gospel to all the world. The whole tenor of the Scriptures
shows us that those who believed God and were counted His people
multiplied and replenished the earth and became numerous as the stars
in the heavens and as the sands upon the seashore for multitude,
while many of the other unbelieving nations and peoples comparatively
dwindled away; and when the history of the generations of Adam shall
be revealed and comprehended by the human race, it will be found that
in the providence of God He has greatly restricted the more corrupt,
while He has enlarged and multiplied the seed of Abraham, who did
abide in the covenant; and although many of them have come short in
many things and have wandered in darkness and unbelief, yet as a
people they have maintained a degree of sexual purity unknown in the
Gentile world, and for this reason has God multiplied them in the
land. They have great and special promises that in the latter days God
would remember them.
Now, while God commanded His people to multiply and replenish the
earth, He gave strict laws against promiscuous sexual intercourse. He
forbade adultery, fornication, whoredom in every form, and the same
doctrine was taught by Paul, the Apostle, namely, "Marriage is
honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and
adulterers God will judge." This law prevailed in all ages among the
people of God, encouraging honorable wedlock, and restraining illicit
sexual intercourse, and there are many physical as well as theological
reasons for this law. It is especially binding upon mankind, because
they are organized after the image of God, and are His offspring. I
refer now to the spirit; for we understand that man in the nobler
sense and the true sense, is that immortal eternal being which has
come forth from God, and that the earthly tabernacle is but an outer
clothing of that immortal being; that the earthly tabernacle is in the
image and likeness of the heavenly or eternal being; in other words
the body is in the likeness and form of the soul or the spirit, and
that it is made conformable to any for the spirit to dwell in, and to
fill every portion and particle thereof, and to direct its energies
and powers to develop its capabilities and to guide its actions. Hence
that immortal man is held responsible for the deeds of the body, and
it is written he shall be judged according to the deeds done in the
body; because the body does not control the spirit, but the spirit
controls the body. Still the Apostle Paul says that there is a law of
the flesh—that wars against the spirit; and, says Paul, "to be
carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace." He further says that this law of the flesh—that is, in our
members and the lusts thereof—that wars against the law of the spirit
brings our bodies into bondage, even the bondage of sin; but it is
made the duty of the spirit to subdue the flesh and the lusts and the
desires thereof, and to bring it into subjection to the law of the
spirit. This is the warfare and the struggle of our lives. This begins
with the development of our physical power and the lusts and
desires of the flesh. The spirit of man is capable of receiving from
the Spirit of our Father the Holy Spirit, which is in connection with
the Father and the Son, and is a minister of God unto men; which
lighteth up our minds and giveth us understanding; for "the spirit of
man is the candle of the Lord," says one of old. This teaches us just
as far as we will give heed to it, how to walk in obedience to the law
of God, and how to resist and overcome evil with good, and as far as
the written word of God is given to us, its object and influence upon
us is to restrain the flesh and bring it into subjection to the
spirit. The lusts and desires of the flesh are not of themselves
unmitigated evils. On the contrary they are implanted in us as a
stimulus to noble deeds, rather than low and beastly deeds. These
affections and loves that are planted in us are the nobler qualities
that emanate from God. They stimulate us to the performance of our
duties; to multiplying and replenishing the earth to assume the
responsibilities of families, and rear them up for God. They encourage
and stimulate the woman to bear her burden and perform the duties of
life because of the hope of a glorious future, while it stimulates the
husband and father in like manner. Every instinct in us is for a wise
purpose in God when properly regulated and restrained, and guided by
the Holy Spirit and kept within its proper legitimate bounds. But all
these instincts and desires of the flesh are susceptible of
perversion, and when perverted result in sin. Whenever the Gospel has
been preached on earth, and Prophets and holy men have been sent among
the people, the burden of their lives has been to encourage them to
the proper exercise of their powers and functions and to regulate them
and restrain them within proper limits, such as are prescribed in the
written law, and in the law of our being. Excesses of all kinds tend
to death and to sickness and misery, physically and spiritually; while
temperance and moderation and the proper use of all our functions
tends to the glory of God and the welfare of His children. The chief
study of man is to comprehend these principles, and to apply them in
their lives.
I said there was a time after the flood that the seed of Noah began to
corrupt their ways, and God chose out from among them the seed of
Abraham, with whom He established His covenant that He might preserve
unto himself the Priesthood and its ordinances, and a people who would
receive His law, and among whom He would raise up Prophets, and
through whom He would send His Son in the meridian of time to become
the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Thus Abraham was blessed of the
Lord to multiply and increase in the earth greatly. When the Lord
determined to bless and multiply Abraham and His seed, He commanded
that they should take of the daughters of Eve for wives and multiply
and increase in the land. I do not say that plural marriage was not
practiced prior to this time, but I say from and after Abraham it was
enjoined upon Israel, the seed of Abraham, for a wise and glorious
purpose in Him, namely, that of increasing them and giving them the
ascendancy among the nations of the earth, as I once heard the Prophet
Joseph remark. In speaking of these things, and inquiring wherefore
God had enjoined plural marriage upon Abraham and his seed,
his answer was, because He had purposed to multiply and increase them
in the land and make of them a great people and give them the
ascendancy over other peoples of the earth, and that because, as he
said of Abraham, He knew that He would serve Him and command his seed
after Him.
We are aware that in modern Christendom there are some people who
forbid to marry. In one of the Epistles of Paul [1 Timothy iv. 3] he
states that in the latter times there would be those who would forbid
to marry. We know there are some professing Christians who regard the
union of the sexes as an evil, as a sin, as the result of our fallen
natures, and as a form of the gratification of fleshly lusts which is
offensive before God. Hence we have the Shakers who, acting upon this
doctrine, abstain from marriage. If all were to embrace their faith,
and carried it out in their lives, the human race would soon be
extinct, and the great purpose of Jehovah in their creation would seem
to have failed. But fortunately those who embrace this faith, and
exemplify it in their lives, are few. Yet there are many who are
willing to gratify the lusts of the flesh but strive to avoid its
consequences and responsibilities. But those who have received in good
faith the commandment of God to multiply and replenish the earth and
assume the proper responsibilities of the household, and regulate
their lives and household by the law of the Lord, have always been
blessed and favored of God, and the great difference between the
Latter-day Saints at the present time and modern Christendom, is this
more extensive comprehension of this first law of God to man. We
understand there is a purpose in all these things; that the Supreme
Being is working with an object in view and for the accomplishment of
an end, and that object and end is worthy of the God who has created
us; that in infinite space He may cause to be organized innumerable
worlds and glorious orbs to be filled with intelligent beings capable
of enlargement, of an expansion of glory and of happiness; for in
their enlargement and increase He is glorified, while they in turn are
glorified in and through Him in the performance of their labors and
duties and the multiplying and increasing of their species, inasmuch
as they do it unto the Lord and keep His law, so that they can be
sanctified before Him and be endowed with the power of endless lives.
I know it is supposed by some that the power of increase is inherent
in us and in all living things, and in all plants, but I do not view
it in that light. I view the temporal organism as the instrument and
not the creator itself; it is only the instrument by which it is
worked out and accomplished; that the principle of life and eternal
increase pertains not to the flesh nor to the grosser elements of this
earth, but it is the spiritual power that has emanated from a nobler
sphere that has come out from God, or that had its existence
previously in a first estate. Our Savior Himself is an example of
this. We are told He was born of the Virgin Mary, in the meridian of
time. Yet we learn He was with the Father from the beginning and was
with Him in the morning of creation. While he was here upon the earth
1,800 years ago, He said to the Jews, "You speak of Abraham as your
father. Verily I say unto you before Abraham was, I am." And again in
John's revelations it is written that He was as a lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He is called a lamb of God typically
speaking, because the offering of a lamb in sacrifice upon the altar
was a type of the crucifixion of the Savior, and the commandment of
God given to the children of men in the beginning to build an altar
and offer sacrifice with a lamb upon it, was typical of the Savior of
the world. Hence came the term that He was the Lamb of God which the
Father sent unto the world to be an offering for sin. So also it is
written in the Scriptures—speaking of God—that He is the Father of our
spirits, and, says Paul, it is necessary to be in subjection to the
Father of spirits and live.
In modern Christendom—in these United States especially, and in staid
New England more than perhaps any other portion of this American
continent—is this commandment of God to multiply and replenish the
earth nullified. The Latter-day Saints are looked upon with envy, with
jealousy and reproach because they do not take the same view as they
do, and their numerous families stand out in bold contrast with the
New England families, where you will find as you go through the land
one, two, or at most three children in a family, and many families
with none. In some instances this apparent sterility may have resulted
from various abuses, but in most causes the result of devices of
wicked men and women to counteract and prevent the fulfilling of the
great commandment of God to multiply and replenish the earth, and in
many instances, feticide, infanticide and child murder are the result
of this very general desire to avoid the responsibility of families.
It has become a crying evil in the land. Some writers deeply deplore
this crying evil, and represent it in its true light; while many other
writers and speakers are either silent upon the subject or give their
voice and influence in its favor. A few years ago I remembered to have
read a discourse of Brooklyn's great orator, Henry Ward Beecher, in
which he took the ground that any considerable increase of the human
species would be a positive evil, something to be deplored; and he
elaborately attempted to portray the evils that would result from it,
and the whole tendency of the discourse was to discourage the
multiplication of the human species. Others have followed in the same
train of reasoning. They seem to have forgotten the commandment given
to our first parents, and never to have comprehended the purposes of
Jehovah. Those who adopt these views have seemed to imagine that
there would be greater happiness in the gratification of fleshly
lusts, and in pandering to pride and worldly pleasures, and the
increase of wealth, than to obey the commandment of God. They have
resolved to avoid raising large families. The last tour I took through
New England (which is my native country), about twelve years ago, I
was more deeply impressed with this state of things than I had ever
been before. When I was a boy, in Vermont, I knew not the ways of the
world, and comprehended not what was going on, in our large cities and
more populous parts of the country. I was born of honest parentage,
who reverenced the principles of life and salvation, and I understood
not what was going on around me, nor do I think those evils existed
there to the same extent that they now do. But as I remarked, when I
made my last tour through New England, I was more forcibly impressed
with this state of society than ever before. I spoke of it to my aged aunt in Rhode Island. I said to her: "Aunt, when you were
young, and when my mother was young, rearing large families, it was a
source of joy and pleasure to rear offspring. Now as I go through the
land, I see the efforts of the people are in an opposite direction.
"Oh, yes," said she, "it is unpopular now, for people to have large
families; it is considered vulgar, men and women now seek to avoid
these responsibilities." This is a well known fact. The tendency of
the age is to animalism, to the gratification of fleshly lusts and
worldly pleasures.
Well, the Latter-day Saints have experienced in their own lives
something nobler, and have learned to recognize the wisdom of Jehovah
in that order of things which He enjoined upon our first parents. This
is the marked difference between the unbelieving world and the
Latter-day Saints. I say the unbelieving world, because I regard this
doctrine which I have referred to as a doctrine of devils and not the
doctrine of Christ; that the tendency of it leads, as I before
remarked, to feticide, infanticide, child murder, and to the
gratification of fleshly lusts and worldly pleasure without fulfilling
the great object and purposes of our Father, and the effect in the end
would be the wasting away of the human species if it were generally
adopted. It is high time that a voice from heaven should rebuke it. It
is high time that the Lord, who wishes to raise up seed unto Himself,
should command His people and renew upon them the obligations placed
upon our first parents. It is to the Latter-day Saints that this
mission has been committed, and the result is the multitude of school
children that we find all over this Territory. Over fifty thousand
Sabbath school children in the Territory of Utah—nearly one-third of
the entire population, as shown in our statistics at our various
Conferences—are children under eight years of age. This is a startling
fact to that class of the Christian world who are pursuing the
opposite course. One of the Sabbath school superintendents of the City
of New York, recently expressed himself very pointedly and plainly
upon this subject in relation to the wealthy portion of the
church-going people of New York. In several thousand families
attending the popular churches of New York, there could be mustered
only about eighty Sabbath school children, and he attributed it to
this prevailing desire for pleasure, wealth, and the shirking of the
cares and responsibilities of the household, until the rearing of
families was left almost entirely to the poor, to what is termed the
vulgar people.
I need not harrow up the feelings of the people with lengthy details
such as are found in police reports and statistics from various
sources, showing the alarming increase of these crying evils. Suffice
it to say that the chief warfare against the Latter-day Saints at the
present time is an endeavor to compel us to conform to their new state
of things, or to their ideas of social sins and social duties. In
other words it is laconically expressed by President Cleveland in the
late interview he had with our delegates that were sent to him with
the memorial and protest adopted by the Latter-day Saints in mass
meeting a few weeks ago. President Cleveland listened with courtesy to
what our delegation had to say with regard to the feeling and desires
of the people, and expressed himself in this wise: that he would
endeavor as far as lay in his power to give us honest men to
administer the law, and he concluded with a smile upon his
countenance, with this expression: "I wish you people out there could
be like the rest of us." This is a homely phrase, it might not attract
any special attention under ordinary circumstances; but when we
consider the facts as they exist, and the tendency of the age, and of
the Christian world at the present time, and the state of things in
the east when compared with us, the remark is very significant. It
comes home to us, and we ask ourselves, can we, after the light that
we have received, after the experience that we have had, and with the
hopes that are placed before us in the Gospel of a glorious future—can
we relapse back into that state of things and be like unto them? I
would not say aught personal in relation to Mr. Cleveland, believing
him to be an honorable man of the world, yet his enemies in the
campaign accused him of some irregularities of life that are common in
the world, and it is reported that he knows something of sexual
relationship, though he has not assumed the responsibility of a family
and household; and in this respect, though perhaps among the most
honorable, he represents a large and respectable portion of unmarried
men. We do not understand that in thus expressing himself to our
delegates that he desired us to exactly imitate himself, but that he
wished we could confine ourselves at least to one wife. If however,
the parallel were carried out more fully, we would not only confine
ourselves to one wife as far as owning them in that capacity is
concerned, but we would try like others have, to limit our children
also and imitate the other vices of the age.
Well, now, the expounders of the federal laws in our midst—the
Prosecuting Attorneys, Judges, Marshals, and other federal
representatives that have been sent among us to enforce the special
laws that have been passed by Congress against the Latter-day Saints,
seem to make the line of distinction more marked than has ever before
been done. During the great furor which swept over the land four
years ago, which resulted in the passage of the Edmunds law, the
Christian ministers urged their congregations to send memorials to
Congress for the passage of that law on the ground of repressing
immorality, licentiousness and crime among the Mormons, and it was
this hypocritical mask which they took on at that time that
hoodwinked and deceived the great body of the people and lashed the
country into a furor and crowded Congressmen to vote for the
unconstitutional measure, that wicked and malicious law known as the
Edmunds law. I may be accused of treason for speaking in this way, in
calling this a wicked and malicious law. I may be counted guilty of
treason because I dare to think; but yet, treason has never been
defined by the Constitution of our country nor the Courts, to consist
in a freedom of speech, much less in the freedom of thought, but has
been defined as levying of war against the Government, or aiding and
abetting its enemies in time of war.
The great furor in the Christian world, or at least throughout the
Christian denominations of America four years ago, urging upon
Congress the passage of the Edmunds law, was on the ground of the
immorality and licentiousness of the Mormons, and a desire to repress
it. But now the federal representatives in their efforts to enforce it
in our country, have found themselves under the necessity of
throwing the mask off themselves and off the country—off the priests
and religious people. I believe some of you in Provo had something to
do in bringing this about and rendering it necessary for them to lay
off the mask. I believe Commissioner Smoot was called upon to
investigate a case of an outsider seducing his wife's sister, and a
child was the result; and he felt called upon under the law to hold
him to answer before the grand jury for unlawful cohabitation. The
assistant prosecuting attorney unwillingly allowed the thing to go on
until the man was committed for this offense; intimating at the same
time that he thought this was pushing the Edmunds law a little too far
and beyond what was the spirit and intent of the law. If this case
should be carried to its legitimate end, and the man should be sent to
prison and fined for unlawful cohabitation, then the door would be
thrown wide open for many others to follow for the same offense. Hence
such a construction was considered an element of danger to themselves,
to the representatives of the federal government and their aiders and
abettors in this country; that such a construction of the Edmunds law
as had been the popular construction and the understanding of the
masses, and as was the professed understanding of the Christian
world—for they urged its passage to repress immorality and sexual
crime—that if this construction was allowed to prevail in Utah and the
surrounding Territories, and the District of Columbia, and other
places where the United States exercise jurisdiction, it would operate
very hard on a great many who would not be so well prepared to bear it
as the Latter-day Saints. Hence it seemed very de sirable that their
feet should be slipped out of the trap and ours left in. Accordingly
their wits were brought to bear in this direction, and on the occasion
of the trial of President Angus M. Cannon on the charge of unlawful
cohabitation a plan was concocted and carried out, with all the
leading attorneys of the land and the Chief Justice upon the bench, to
discuss this question and decide upon it. In this connection the
representative of the government boldly came to the front and threw
off the mask and proclaimed at the outset of this trial that he knew
he could not prove sexual intercourse between the parties at bar, and
that he should not attempt it. Furthermore he stated that he did not
consider sexual intercourse any element of crime; that the Edmunds
law, so called, was a blow aimed at the status of the Mormon system of
marriage alone, and that the third section of that law relating to
unlawful cohabitation had no reference to sexual sins; that it was not
designed to repress adultery, fornication, lust, or any term of sexual
sin; that that was left to local legislation; that the legislation of
Congress in the third section of the Edmunds law, as well as all other
legislation upon that subject was aimed directly at the status of the
marriage alone. In this regard, therefore, he took precisely the
ground that Governor Murray did when he first issued his oath for
notaries public, and which was afterwards adopted by the board of Utah
Commissioners and incorporated in their test oath for registration,
referring to cohabitation with more than one woman in the marriage
relation. Mr. Dickson took this view, that Murray was right; that the
Utah Commissioners were right; that this was the sense of the country;
that this was the design of Congress; that the Edmunds law was
a blow aimed at the Mormon system of marriage, or to use Judge Zane's
term, the habit and repute of marriage, or the "holding out," to use
another favorite phrase, of two or more women as wives of one
husband—that the whole and only object of the third section of the
Edmunds law relating to unlawful cohabitation, as well as all other
anti-polygamy acts of Congress was against the institution of
marriage. Finding, however, it difficult to prove marriages because of
the disinclination of people to testify, and because of the difficulty
of reaching any record evidence of these marriages, it was thought
necessary to take high grounds and assume this: that the Mormons are
known to be a virtuous people, are known to condemn in strong terms
and by every influence in their power every form of sexual sin, and
that they do not indulge in intercourse with the sexes to any extent
only in the marriage relation. This was the well known and established
character of the Mormon people, and was the result of their teachings
and practice for a generation past. Hence wherever children were found
in Mormon families, they are the result of marriage. If a woman is
found pregnant, she must be looked upon as a wife, and the officers
are justified in seizing her and bringing her before a commissioner, or
a jury or judge, and compelling her to give the name of the father of
her child, and that is deemed sufficient proof that he is guilty of
polygamy, or if two or more women live in close proximity to a man,
and he is seen visiting them, and especially if the children call him
father, it is sufficient proof on which the jury may indict for
polygamy or unlawful cohabitation, as the case may be. Consequently
they have taken this high ground that it is no longer necessary to
prove even the first or second marriage, nor is it any longer
necessary to prove sexual intercourse in order to establish unlawful
cohabitation, but the common habit and repute of marriage and the
appearance of marriage is all sufficient. Thus the ordinary rules of
evidence are set aside, and the mask of hypocrisy which governed the
Christian world when they were urging the passage of this Edmunds law
through Congress is thrown aside. A bold and important testimony is
given to the world through our persecutors to the morality of the
Mormon people being so far in excess of the rest of the world of
mankind, and to our integrity to the marriage relation. We wish indeed
that all that is said in this respect were strictly true, that there
were no irregularities among us. We cannot quite say that, but we do
rejoice and thank God for the general good testimony which has been
given of us in truth in this behalf. Not long since President Smoot
and myself and some others were congratulating ourselves, and
President Taylor was congratulating himself, and many others of our
aged fathers, in having placed themselves in a condition to escape the
operation of the third section of the Edmunds law by confining
themselves to one woman. I said to some of my brethren in a Priesthood
meeting in St. George, one time when they were very badly agitated and
not knowing whom the lightning—or the Edmunds act would strike next—I
said to them, you old grey-headed men whose wives have grown old with
you and are past bearing children, if you choose now to agree among
yourselves that you will live within the third section of the Edmunds law and allow the husband and father to confine himself to one
wife, while he cares for the balance and cares for and protects his
children, I see not but what you may do this with honor to yourselves
and without sacrificing any principles of the law of God, or going
back upon your covenants, providing this be agreeable among
yourselves. I was somewhat with others, congratulating myself in being
able to do this without sacrificing any special principle or going
back on our families, but it would seem that these noble, aged sires
in Israel were not to be let out quite so easily as this, for I am a
little inclined to feel it was a little dishonorable, and yet perhaps
not altogether before God. The idea was that they might possibly
escape, while their sons and others who might have taken wives and
raised families, and entered into those sacred relations which are to
them dearer than life itself, would have to abide the consequences.
But it seems that under Judge Zane's ruling it is not these who are
raising families that are always liable; for you may raise a family by
your sister-in-law, if you don't call her your wife, as you understand
from the case I have referred to. No sooner had Judge Zane sustained
Prosecuting Attorney Dickson's view of the case, than this Mr. Aimes
was brought before him on habeas corpus and discharged, and he (the
Judge) fully announced the doctrine that a man could have as many
children by sister-in-laws as he pleased; that no matter how much a
man might seduce his neighbor's wife, or neighbor's daughter, if he is
not in the marriage relation with them, it is no offense against the
Edmunds law. But with a Mormon, whether he is raising a family or not,
if he is even so unfortunate as to have no chil dren, or if his wives
are past bearing children, and he has entirely separated himself so
far as bed is concerned, and there is evidence of entire restraint on
his part, still, unless he goes back on himself and on his wives and
children, he comes under the law. In other words, if he continues to
"hold them out" as wives he is guilty of cohabitation. Hence, Brother
Smoot and myself, and others, have been congratulating ourselves a
little too soon. You will find that the old men and the young men are
all coupled together, their feet still in the trap, while the
adulterer, fornicator, whoremonger, harlot and libertine, the trap is
open just enough to let their feet out. Now they can vote, they can
hold office, they can raise children providing they do not do it in
the marriage relation, and they hold out this inducement to you and
me: "Become like one of us." "I wish you out there could be like the
rest of us." "I wish you would only disown your wives, then do what
you will you are secure—that is, you must only own one wife, for this
is the popular idea, the sentiment of the age. This is the voice of
fifty millions of people. You must listen to it. Congress has said it.
If you hesitate (some go so far as to say), you will be held to answer
for treason. Treason against what? Treason against the law. Well,
then, of course every thief is guilty of treason. Every man that
steals an axe handle shall be tried for treason because he disobeys
the law, by the same parity of reasoning. Again, if you try to avoid
the law and we can catch you, why you are doing a terribly wicked
thing. Yes; if spotters are hunting down some luckless fellow or his
wife, and they slip out at the back door, or hide in a haystack, why, you must be held for treason, or some other crime. Now, I have
always understood that catching goes before hanging; that it is the
duty of the officers to make arrests when indictments are found; and
it is equally understood that there is a guarantee in the Constitution
of the United States that no man shall be held to answer for any crime
except on presentment of an indictment by a grand jury. Furthermore,
when indictments are found, the parties against whom they are found
are known only to the jury and public prosecutor; the general public
are not supposed to know anything about them, and the general maxim of
law is that everybody is innocent until they are proven guilty.
Consequently, we are not supposed to know that when anybody is going
out to the haystack that they are fleeing from an officer, or that
every tramp that comes along is a deputy marshal, or if he is that he
has a warrant in his pocket for that man, and if he has it is his
business to catch him and not ours. Does not the law forbid you to aid
in the escape of a criminal? Yes, if he has been found a criminal by a
competent jury and under sentence of the law. Then it is public notice
to you that he is a criminal, but not otherwise. I merely make mention
of this because of the foolish threats that are sometimes made to
terrify ignorant people. Because it is well known the world over, so
far as anything is known of us, and of the legislation of Congress
against us as a religious people, that there is an issue between
Congress and the Latter-day Saints, and that issue is of a religious
character and relating to the social relations of the Latter-day
Saints. The views which we hold are founded upon the revelations of
God, both ancient and modern. We have given evidence to the world of
our sincerity in this, and yet the world do not seem to accept it. I
believe that Mr. Dickson was honest enough to express his conviction
of our sincerity in this, and that the Mormon people, as a people,
were moral people, and that their teachings and actions showed that
they did not indulge in these sexual sins outside of the marriage
relation to any great extent; while the great mass of mankind who know
us not are not willing to give us this credit. They have raised the
hue and cry all over the land for so many years, that we were guilty
of gross immorality, that it seems as if the Lord intended in the way
now being done to give the world ocular demonstration and a strong
testimony of the integrity of this people, of the sincerity of their
actions, of the depth and strength of their faith, and their devotion
to their religious convictions, and their integrity in carrying them
out. It is a source of gratification and thanksgiving that but few,
comparatively speaking, among us have felt to go back on themselves
and to throw off allegiance to God and to their families and friends,
and to violate their consciences; but few have been found to do this
in order to escape fine and imprisonment. How far it will become
necessary that this testimony should go forth to the world, and how
many should suffer so that their testimony should go abroad to mankind
to convince the world and to vindicate God and His people, I am not
yet able to say, for I am persuaded it will be as the Lord will; that
whatsoever is necessary we must submit to with the best grace
possible. I do not mean to say that every one who may be thought to
come under the third section of the Edmunds law shall go and
complain on himself, or if complained of by some spotter that he shall
go straightway and confess guilt, or if arraigned for trial on an
indictment, that he shall plead guilty without a trial; I do not say
this. Every man must be left to choose for himself what course he will
pursue in relation to those matters; for pleading guilty or not guilty
when arraigned before the Court is a mere technical form and a liberty
which every prisoner enjoys, that of pleading guilty or not guilty.
The plea of guilty, of course, saves the expense of a trial, while a
plea of not guilty, means that the prosecutor must prove the charge
made in the indictment. I do not say, therefore, that in submitting as
best we can to the operation of the law that we shall not avail
ourselves of constitutional privileges and the rights accorded to us.
We have the right to be tried by a jury of our peers if we can get
one, but we cannot get one under this act. The act was purposely
framed to cut off that right. The right of a man to be tried by a jury
of his peers—this term originated in Great Britain and was guaranteed
in the Magna Charta—means simply a jury of his equals. If a man
belonged to the nobility of the land, he was entitled to be tried by a
jury of his equals. If he was a plebeian, a common laborer in the
humble walks of life, he was entitled to a jury of his equals, his
associates, neighbors, those that knew him best and were able to
sympathize with him and comprehend his position and circumstances and
the motives governing his acts, so that a righteous judgment might be
rendered concerning him. This guarantee was incorporated in the
American Constitution. The right of a man to be tried by a jury of his
peers implied all that was necessary to pro tect the citizens against
malicious prosecutions; but in our special case, under the operation
of special laws enacted against the Latter-day Saints, we are
compelled to go to trial before a jury of our avowed enemies; indeed,
none are qualified to sit upon juries in our case unless they are
pronounced against us; because, as I said before, it is not a sexual
crime that is on trial; it is a religious sentiment of the Mormon
people; it is this status of their social relations founded upon their
religious convictions that is on trial. Hence it is the pronounced
opposition to our convictions that is a qualification for a juryman in
our case.
Well, we were told by the Prophet Joseph Smith, that the United States
Government and people would come to this: that they would undermine
one principle of the Constitution after another, until its whole
fabric would be torn away, and that it would become the duty of the
Latter-day Saints and those in sympathy with them to rescue it from
destruction, and to maintain and sustain the principles of human
freedom for which our fathers fought and bled. We look for these
things to come in quick succession. When I first heard of the—what
shall I call it? The somersault of Judge Zane and Prosecuting Attorney
Dickson, the question was asked, Now that the mask is thrown off, how
will this take throughout the country? Will the hireling priests
throughout the land sustain this action? Will they consent to have
this hypocritical mask thrown off then, and will the Supreme Court of
the United States and the people of the United States sustain the
ruling? I unhesitatingly answer, yes, they will, and if ever it
reaches the Supreme Court of the United States, they will sustain it; the hypocritical hireling priests will sustain it; the people
will sustain it and say, "Crucify them, crucify them, they have no
friends."
It becomes us, then, to be better Saints, does it not? Yes. It becomes
us to be more united than we have ever been before. It becomes us to
put away our foolishness; to cease all sin; to observe the words of
wisdom; to walk in all humility before God; to be faithful and earnest
in our prayers, and to imitate good old Daniel. Never mind the lion's
den nor the murderer's Pen, but so live that we can be counted worthy
before God, and whatsoever He has designed should come upon us that we
may have grace given unto us according to our day, and that the world
may record of us in future generations that we were an honest and a
noble race, true to our God and to our convictions, and worthy of the
high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We should not
blame one another for not going to the Penitentiary. We should not
find fault with President Taylor, or President Cannon, or President
Woodruff, because they do not rush into the Penitentiary, or go into
court and plead guilty, and at once go to prison. Nor need we until
the Lord requires it, rise up and say, "build a new Penitentiary and
let us all go in together." We are not required to do this, but may
claim our rights under the law. We may leave the Government officials
to do their duty, and if they will honestly and rightly act according
to the rules of evidence within their prescribed jurisdiction, it will
take them some time to get us all into the Penitentiary, because under
the law we can insist upon a trial and upon a jury. Judge Howard was
reported to have said that it took very little law and less evidence
to convict a Mormon in Arizona. Nevertheless there are certain forms
that they have to go through, all of which takes a certain length of
time, and a certain amount of labor on the part of the Prosecuting
Attorney, and if he gets but $40 for each indictment, give him the
privilege of drawing up the indictment and proving the charge therein.
Amen.