opinions of the leading statesmen of the united states on the edmunds law.
gentile opinions of the "mormon" people.
statistics of crime and education.
refutation of the spaulding story.
judge sumner howard on the mountain meadows massacre.
by elder john morgan.
the attention of the candid, thinking, reader is called to the following extracts culled from the speeches made by the distinguished gentlemen, who, in defense of the constitution of the united states, opposed the passage of the edmunds law:
united states senate, february, 1882.
showing the unconstitutionality of the law, and that it is not morals but money that is the moving cause of the present crusade against the "mormons."
senator vest, missouri.
what i object to in this bill is that it is a bill of attainder, unconstitutional in the territories, unconstitutional in the states, unconstitutional wherever the flag of the republic wavers to-day in supremacy. it is a bill of attainder because it {328} inflicts a punishment, in the language of the supreme court of the united states, without trial by a judicial tribunal.
mr. president, as i said before, i am prepared for the abuse and calumny that will follow any man who dares to oppose any bill here against polygamy; and yet, so help me god, if my official life should terminate to-morrow, i would not give my vote for the principles contained in this measure.
senator morgan, alabama.
this, mr. president, is to all intents and purposes an ex post facto law. if i have rightly constructed the language in which the seventh section is couched, it undertakes to create a crime and punish a man for the commission of it at a time before the statute itself was enacted, certainly before this method of punishment is prescribed; and if i understand anything in reference to constitutional law, it is that you cannot impose a new punishment upon one who has been guilty even of a crime against the law, so as to make it retroactive in its effect and in its operation.
now we have the entire case under the constitution. i submit to the honorable committee and to the senate that this bill is amenable to two constitutional objections in the particulars i have named. first, it is an ex post facto law, punishing men for crimes heretofore committed, and to which the punishment now sought to be annexed was not annexed at the time of their commission. the next is that it is a bill of attainder, a bill of pains and penalties, whereby the legislative department of the government usurps the functions of the judicial, and puts a man under condemnation without trial and without even the due observance of the forms of law. as the act stands on its face, and as the purposes of it are entirely apparent from its whole tenor, i think there could not be a more flagrant violation of the constitution.
senator lamar, mississippi.
in my opinion, sir, it is a cruel measure, and will inflict unspeakable sufferings upon large masses, many of whom are innocent victims.
senator call, florida.
there is nothing theocratic in the government of the mormon church that is exhibited to the world. it does not claim to govern the territory of utah. it acknowledges the authority {329} of the government of the united states. you cannot assail it by declaring it as a matter of opinion on the part of the american congress that for a man to worship god according to his belief, as mormons do (however contrary to our opinions and our wishes), is a theocracy to be suppressed with fire and sword. but if you will make war upon it, let it not be by striking down the liberties of your people and doing violence to your own holy faith; but assail it with the red right hand of war, with the sword to stab it out, and say to them: "proclaim your heresies and conduct your rites beyond the limits of this territory of the united states." sir, this is worse than open, flagrant war. this is asserting to the people that what our fathers, acting under the teachings of the christian religion, fought for more than a hundred years to accomplish, shall be thrown away. this is an assertion by the congress of the united states that there may be a trial by a packed and prejudiced court, by partial jurors, by a man's enemies, and not his friends; that a government shall be constructed in which the vast majority—nine-tenths of the people—in defiance of the principles which control our whole political system, a government of a minority shall be constructed through penal provisions and through verdicts of courts selected and organized to try and convict!
senator brown, georgia.
the bill proposes to apply a religious test to the mormons, in so far as it punishes the mormon for his opinions, it is a religious test applied. he believes that joseph smith was a prophet as much as i believe that jeremiah was a prophet; and while i think he is in an egregious error, i have no right to proscribe him because of his belief as long as he does not practice immorality. and i have no right to do more as a legislator than to prescribe rules to punish him for his immoralities, and leave him to the full enjoyment of his religious opinions, just as i claim the right to enjoy my own opinions. if we commence striking down any sect, however despised or however unpopular, on account of opinion's sake, we do not know how soon the fires of smithfield may be rekindled or the gallows of new england for witches again be erected, or when another catholic convent will be burned down.
we do not know how long it will be before the clamor would be raised by the religious institutions of this country, that no member of a church who holds the infallibility of the pope or the doctrine of transubstantiation should hold office or {330} vote in this country. we do not know how long it would be before it would be said that no member of a church who believed in close communion and baptism by immersion as the only mode, should vote or hold office in this country. you are treading on dangerous ground when you open this floodgate anew. we have passed the period where there is for the present any clamor on this subject, except as against the mormons; but it seems there must be some periodical outcry against some denomination. popular vengeance is now turned against the mormons. when we are done with them, i know not who will next be considered the proper subject of it.
to accomplish this great object the territorial practices of half a century are to be blotted out, local self-government is to be destroyed, the church is to be plundered, and the prosperous region of utah is to be subjected to the rule of satraps whose unlimited power will enable them to rob and pillage the people at pleasure. if this system is once inaugurated, bitter as was our experience in the south during the late reconstruction period when our affairs were being regulated, it was mildness itself compared with what is in store for utah as long as the wealth accumulated by the mormons is not exhausted.
mr. president, i shall be a party to no such proceedings. other sections of the union have frequently run wild in keeping up with new england ideas and new england practices on issues of this character. i presume they will do so again, but i, for one, shall not be a party to the enactment or enforcement of unconstitutional, tyrannical, and oppressive legislation for the purpose of crushing the mormons or any other sect for the gratification of new england or any other section. the precedents which we are making, when the persons and parties in the states who feel it their duty to regulate the affairs of others find themselves unemployed and the regulation of mormonism no longer profitable, will be used against other sects. whether the baptists, or the catholics, or the quakers will be selected for the next victim does not yet appear. but he who supposes that this spirit of restless and illegal intermeddling with the affairs of other sections will be satiated or appeased by the sacrifice of the mormons has read modern history to little advantage.
the mormon sect is marked for the first victim. the constitution and the practices of the government are to be disregarded and if need be trampled down to gratify the ire of dominant intermeddling.
and such is the fanaticism now prevalent in reference to the {331} mormon sect, that when it is clearly shown the regulation which they desire can not take place within the constitution and laws, the restless regulators will doubtless be ready to follow the example of mr. stevens and regulate mormonism outside of the constitution. but why should southern men become camp-followers in this crusade?
the mormons may, however, be consoled by the reflection that their privileges need not be curtailed if they are obedient, nor the present practice diminished, but they must change the name and no longer conduct the wicked practice in what they call the "marriage relation."
the government considers this no great hardship, as it freely permits in the mormons, if called by the right name, what it does not punish in other people. for, without violating the policy of the government in so far as it has been proclaimed by its utah commission, if the mormons will conform to its requirements as to the mode, the practice of prostitution in utah need not in the slightest degree be diminished. the clamor is not against the mormon for having more than one woman, but for calling more than one his wife. and the mormons will do well to remember that the policy of putting the whole population, men, women, and children to the sword, and filling the whole land with wailing, blood, and carnage will not be wanting in advocates if a portion of them still continue, each to cohabit with more than one woman in what they call "the marriage relation."
the government and people of the united states have deliberately determined that they must call it by the proper name. let the mormon who has a plurality of women remember that he must conform to the practice elsewhere and call but one of them his wife.
this, mr. president, is the point we have reached. this is the distinction we have drawn. this is our present policy and practice as applied to the territory of utah. what consummate statesmanship!
others who feel it their duty upon such hollow pretexts to destroy a prosperous territory by such unconstitutional and illegal means as are proposed will doubtless proceed with this unnatural warfare until they have seen the result of their folly.
let those whose ambition prompts them to such deeds of daring take part in this tyrannical and illegal conquest over a helpless people, who, to gratify an insatiate fanaticism, are to be crushed without the morals of this country being in the slightest degree improved or illegal sexual intercourse in the {332} least degree diminished, and let them enjoy the fruits of their triumph.
but as i have sworn to support the constitution of the united states, and can not therefore belong to the army of the conquerors, i shall have no right to claim any of the trophies of the victory. nor when the slaughter comes shall i have upon my hands the stain of the blood of any of the victims. nor shall i share in the responsibility when in future our present unconstitutional and unjustifiable legislation against the mormons shall be used as a precedent for like legislation to crush some other sect or denomination, who may have chance, as the mormons now do, to fall under the ban of popular fanaticism and indignation which will afford another pretext for new england interference and regulation.
there are over fifty millions of people in the united states; and there are probably twenty times as many persons practicing prostitution, or illegal sexual intercourse, in the other parts of the union as the whole number who practice it in utah. many of the features of its practice in the other states and territories, including foeticide, illegal divorce, etc., are quite as revolting, or more so, than in utah. it is assumed in the other parts of the union, where a greatly larger number of persons practice sexual impurity than the whole number of mormon polygamists, that polygamy must be put down at any cost. it is certainly a matter of great importance that polygamy, prostitution, foeticide and illegal divorce, whether practiced in utah or in any other part of the united states, should be put down. and if we have it in our power by constitutional means to accomplish that end no one would be more rejoiced than i. but having taken a solemn oath to support the constitution of the united states, i cannot as a senator vote for a measure which i am satisfied is a plain violation of the constitution to crush out polygamy, or to accomplish any other object. and we would do well to bear in mind that if the congress of the united states disregards and violates the constitution of the united states in its eager haste to crush a sect but little over one hundred thousand strong, the result of the precedent may be the crushing out of one sect after another, until it ends in the complete overthrow of the liberties of fifty millions of people, who are expected to applaud our efforts to crush the mormons without regard to constitutional difficulties or constitutional obligations.
no matter what the popular applause may be on the one hand or the popular condemnation on the other, i will join in {333} no hue and cry against any sect that requires me to vote for measures in open violation of the fundamental law of the land. and we would do well to bear in mind that an illegal persecution of any sect always excites sympathy for the persecuted and greatly increases its number. the late alexander h. stephens, of georgia, when asked what would be the effect of the edmunds bill on mormonism, replied, "the effect will be to make more mormons."
but i may be asked, "what means can we adopt to destroy this great evil in utah?" i reply we can not do it by passing unconstitutional laws, or adopting illegal or unconstitutional means, or by striking down republican government in the territory.
the christian churches of this country spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year sending missionaries to foreign lands where polygamy is practiced. in india and in china alone more than 500,000,000 of people practice or acquiesce in the practice of polygamy. and yet the christian churches are not discouraged, but they send missionaries there, hoping finally to convert the whole mass of the people. why, then, should we not send missionaries to utah, where only about 12,000 people practice and a little over 100,000 people believe in polygamy? if the christian churches are willing to make the effort to convert 500,000,000 of polygamists in the east, why should they not with less effort convert 100,000 within the limits of our own land? if the first task is within the range of possibility, what is there to discourage us from the smaller undertaking? there are a great many people in utah who might be converted by the proper effort. they are our neighbors, our fellow-citizens. shall we give them up as reprobates, and make no effort to save them, and join in a crusade to crush them? they speak our language, they are within easy reach. why give them up and turn to the heathen of other lands, who neither understand our language nor have anything of race or sympathy in common with us? have the christian churches done their duty to the mormon people? if you can not convince their leaders you can convert thousands of the people. it may be easier to cry "crucify them" than it is to try to help convert them. but can the churches reconcile it to conscience that duty is as well performed in the one case as in the other?
mr. house of tennessee.
now it seems to me that if the supreme court of the {334} united states knows what a bill of attainder is, the eighth and ninth sections of this act are clearly in violation of the constitution. when i took a seat in this house i took an oath to support the constitution of the united states. i can not and will not swear to a lie even to emphasize my abhorrence of polygamy or to punish a mormon, and with my views of this act i would have had to do so if i had voted for the bill when it passed. it would seem that after organizing a packed jury to convict, the authors of the bill ought then to have been willing to await a conviction before depriving american citizens of the right to vote or hold office. for what is an american, deprived of those rights? he may live in a land of boasted freedom, but thus stripped of the rights and privileges that freemen most value, he is no better than a slave.
let the carpet bagger, expelled finally from every state in the american union with the brand of disgrace stamped upon his brow, lift up his head once more and turn his face toward the setting sun. utah beckons him to a new field of pillage and fresh pastures of pilfering. let him pack his grip sack and start. the mormons have no friends, and no one will come forward to defend or protect their rights. a returning board, from whose decision there is no appeal, sent out from the american congress baptized with the spirit of persecution and intolerance, will enter utah to trample beneath their feet the rights of the people of that far-off and ill-fated land. mr. speaker, i would not place a dog under the dominion of a set of carpet-baggers, re-enforced by a returning board, unless i meant to have him robbed of his bone. a more grinding tyranny, a more absolute despotism was never established over any people.
the mormons have been guilty of believing in, and some of them practicing, polygamy. but they have been guilty of another sin also. they have committed the offense of belonging to the democratic party. that territory now has a population about large enough to be admitted into the union. it would not do to let it enter the union as a democratic state. there is not now the least danger of it. after it has passed under the manipulations of the returning board, after her people have been driven from their homes under the oppressive laws that will be passed under the powers conferred by this law, after the carpet-bagger has gone in and taken possession, utah, clothed in the habiliments of the republican party, will be welcomed into the sisterhood of states. i did desire to notice some other features of this law, but time forbids. it {335} was passed under the operation of the previous question, and no one had the opportunity to discuss it or to point out its imperfections. the delegate sent here by the people of that territory, by a barefaced usurpation on the part of the governor, was denied a certificate of election, and was not allowed to take the seat to which he had been elected, or to speak in behalf of his people while they were being robbed of their rights.
hon. james w. stillman, freethinker, boston, massachusetts, 12th feb., 1884.
the bill which senator hoar has reported is an ex post facto law, because it changes the rules of evidence as already indicated. the edmunds bill is a bill of attainder; and it is an ex post facto law, because it punishes these people without a judicial trial; it increases the punishment for polygamy by disfranchisement and disqualification to hold office. every senator and every representative who voted for that bill had taken a solemn oath to support the constitution of the united states, and yet, unmindful of that oath, actuated by the spirit of religious bigotry and fanaticism which i have denounced here to-night, they lost sight entirely of their constitutional obligations, and nullified one of the most important provisions of that great instrument.
right of self-government.
judge jeremiah s. black's argument.
the end and object of this whole system of hostile measures against utah seems to be the destruction of the popular rule in that territory. i may be wrong—for i can only reason from the fact that is known to the fact that is not known—but i do not think that the promoters of this legislation care a straw how much or how little the mormons are married. it is not their wives, but their property; not beauty, but booty, that they are after. i have not much faith in political piety, but i do most devoutly believe in the hunger of political adventurers for spoils of every kind. how else can you account for the struggles they are now making to get possession of all the local offices in the territory, including the treasurer, auditor, and all depositories of public money? if they do not want to rob the people, why do they reach out their hands for such a grab as this?
{336} coming back to the original and fundamental proposition that you have no authority to legislate about marriage in a territory, you will ask what then are we to do with polygamy? it is a bad thing and a false religion that allows it. but the people of utah have as good a right to their false religion as you have to your true one. then you add that it is not a religious error merely, but a crime which ought to be extirpated by the sword of the civil magistrate. that is also conceded. but those people have a civil government of their own, which is as wrong-headed as their church. both are free to do evil on this and kindred subjects if they please, and they are neither of them answerable to you. that brings you to the end of your string. you are compelled to treat this offense as you treat others in the states and in the territories—that is, leave it to be dealt with by the powers that are ordained of god or by god himself, who will in due time become the minister of his own justice.
* * * * *
in regard to the unholy crusade periodically waged against the "mormons" by godless men, and specially revived at every recurring congressional session for the purpose of provoking proscriptive anti-mormon legislation, the following forcible and faithful word-picture (which is as true as photography, and to which over 150,000 utonians can make oath), drawn by the honorable thomas fitch, ex-united states senator, unmistakably illustrates the motives which inspire every such wicked ringocratic movement.
at the constitutional convention held in salt lake city, february, 1872, mr. fitch, united states senator from nevada, said;
there is no safety for the people of utah without a state government; for under the present condition of affairs, their property, their liberties, and their very lives are in constant and increasing jeopardy. james b. mckean (united states chief justice in utah) is morally and hopelessly deaf to the most common demands of the opponents of his policy, and in a case where a mormon or a mormon sympathizer, or a conservative gentile, be concerned, there may be found rulings unparalleled in all the jurisprudence of england or america. the mineral deposits have attracted here a large number of restless, unscrupulous and reckless men, the hereditary foes of {337} industry, order and law. finding the courts and federal officers arrayed against the mormons, with pleased lacrity this class have placed themselves on the side of courts and officers. elements ordinarily discordant blend together in the same seething cauldron. the bagnios and hells shout hosannas to the courts; the altars of religion are infested with the paraphernalia and the presence of vice; the drunkard espouses the cause of temperance; the companion of harlots preaches the beauties of virtue and continence. all believe that license will be granted by the leaders in order to advance their sacred cause, and the result is an immense support from those friends of immorality and architects of disorder who care nothing for the cause, but everything for the license. these constitute a nucleus of reformers and a mass of ruffians, a centre of zealots and a circumference of plunderers. the dramshop interest hopes to escape the mormon tax of $300 per month by sustaining a judge who will enjoin a collection of the tax, and the prostitutes persuade their patrons to support judges who will interfere by habeas corpus with any practical enforcement of municipal ordinances. every interest of industry is disastrously affected by this unholy alliance, every right of the citizen is threatened, if not assailed, by this ungodly combination.
your local magistrates are successfully defied, your local laws are disregarded, your municipal ordinances are trampled into the mire, theft and murder walk through your streets without detection, drunkards howl their orgies in the shadow of your altar; the glare and tumult of drinking saloons, the glitter of gambling hells, and the painting flaunt of the bawd plying her trade, now vex the repose of streets, which beforetime heard no sound to disturb their quiet save the busy hum of industry, the clatter of trade, and the musical tingle of mountains streams. in prosecuting mormons the prosecution have tried their cases beforehand on the streets, in the newspapers, by public meetings, by petitions, and over the telegraph wires, by means of their leading adviser, the salt lake agent of the associated press. there is no evidence so base or worthless but is sufficient to indict a mormon; there is no evidence sufficiently damning to indict a man who would swear against a mormon. in support of these statements a volume of details of acts of injustice and tyranny might be compiled from the official records. one instance will suffice. brigham young, an american citizen of character, of wealth, of enterprise; an old man who justly possesses the love and confidence of his people, and the respect of those who know and comprehend {338} him, has been sent to prison upon the uncorroborated oath of one of the most remarkable scoundrels that any age has produced, a man known to infamy as william a. hickman, a human butcher, by the side of whom all malefactors of history are angels; a creature who, according to his own published statement, is a camp follower without enthusiasm, a bravo without passion, a murderer without motive, an assassin without hatred.
the religious and secular leaders of utah, men who are respected by many honest, earnest people who are not of their faith, men who are believed to be innocent by many influential and independent journals not of their way of thinking, men who are held fast in the embrace of a hundred thousand hearts, men who have filled the land with monuments of industry and progress and human happiness, are likely to be sacrificed because a manufactured and unjust public sentiment demands their conviction.
i say deliberately, that with the history of the past behind me, with the signs of the present before me; i say with sorrow and humiliation that the mormon charged with crime who now walks into the courts of his country goes not to his deliverance, but to his doom; that the mormon who in a civil action seeks his rights in the courts of his country goes not to his redress, but his spoliation. the mormons have been joined each year by a few desperate outcasts, men who were outlawed for crime as the mormons were outlawed for religion. such men followed the tide of mormon immigration; they attached themselves to mormon trains; they professed belief in the mormon faith and devotion to the mormon leaders. it was impossible to know their histories, it was impossible to fathom their motives. they were given food, given shelter, given employment, although seldom trusted. let such men be tempted by assured promises and they will swear their crimes upon others whose lives and hearts contrast with theirs as the white snow contrasts with the mire it covers. how many such men are there in utah? convicted liars, professional thieves, confessed assassins, trembling perjurers, who have hung for years upon the outskirts of the little societies which gathered together and built themselves up amid these mountain fastnesses. one such man has served to accuse and caused to be imprisoned several of your most honored citizens. half a dozen such, instigated by cowardice and avarice, with savage hearts filled with a lust of rapine, would crowd every jail in the territory.
{339} the mormons are judged abroad, not by their thousands of deeds of charity and kindness, but by a few deeds of blood unjustly accredited to their leaders. you will never hear how tens of thousands of people have been brought from famine and hopeless toil to lives of peace and plenty, of the thousands of passing emigrants who have been fed and sheltered and succored.
your antagonist is hydra-headed and hundred-armed. whether by bigoted judges, by packed juries, by partisan officers, by puritan missionaries, by iron-limbed laws, by armies from abroad, or by foes and defections at home, the assault is continuous and unrelenting, though unprovoked.
now, in order to preserve the thrift, the industry, the wealth, the progress, the temperate life, the virtues of utah from spoliation and devastation and ruin; in order to save a hundred noble pioneer citizens and this honest, earnest, calumniated people from outlawry, or the gibbet, or incarceration, you must have a state government. every other refuge of good men, every other protection of innocent men is closed in your faces. a state government means juries impartially selected from all citizens, and judges chosen by a majority of the people, and officers of your own selection; it means honest, economical government; it means peace and security, and exemption from persecution.
fruits of "mormonism."
"by their fruits ye shall know them. do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? can an impure fountain send forth pure water?"—jesus.
bishop d. s. tuttle—now and for years past an episcopal clergyman in salt lake city—in a lecture on "mormonism," published in the new york sun, november, 1877, held these views:
"in salt lake city alone there are over 17,000 latter-day saints, now, who are they? i will tell you, and i think, that after i have concluded, you will look on them more favorably than you have been accustomed to do. springing from the centre of your own state (new york) in 1830, they drifted slowly westward until they finally rested in the basin of the great salt lake. i know that the people of the east have obtained the most unfavorable opinion of them, and have {340} judged them unjustly. they have many traits that are worthy of admiration, and they believe with a fervent faith that their religion is a direct revelation from god. we of the east are accustomed to look upon the mormons as either a licentious, arrogant or rebellious mob, bent only on defying the united states government and deriding the faith of the christians. this is not so. i know them to be honest, faithful, prayerful workers, and earnest in their faith that heaven will bless the church of latter-day saints. another strong and admirable feature in the mormon religion is the tenacious and efficient organization. they follow with the greatest care all the forms of the old church."
from the caustic pen of henry edger, in the new york evolution, july, 1877:
the federal government is doing at this moment a great injustice to the 200,000 mormons in utah. we have no right to demand any conditions of mormons more than presbyterians or methodists. the federal government engaged in a crusade of extermination against a people with such a record as the mormons have to show, is a spectacle of which no one can be proud. unfortunately we need not go out into the rocky mountains to find debasing, superstitious and immoral practices, sheltering themselves under the cloak of religion; nor do we need go to utah to find polygamy openly and shamelessly practised. a polygamy which sacrifices utterly and dooms to a fate most horrible all the wives but one, deceiving and betraying her also, is surely not very much morally superior to a polygamy that, for the first time in modern society, completely shuts out that horrible social institution, prostitution. that the government of the united states can virtually introduce the brothel, the gambling house and various other charming new york institutions into salt lake under color of abolishing mormon polygamy is unhappily only too plainly evident. driven by mob violence from one state to another, despoiled of their legitimate possessions—fruits of honest toil—this despised and grossly wronged people found their way at last across the trackless desert and by an almost unexampled perseverance and industry created an oasis in the desert itself.
elder miles grant, the adventist, and editor of the world's crisis, says:
"after a careful observation for some days, we came to the settled conclusion that there is less licentiousness in salt lake {341} city than in any other one of the same size in the united states; and were we to bring up a family of children in these last days of wickedness, we should have less fears of their moral corruption, were they in that city than in any other. swearing, drinking, gambling, idleness, and licentiousness have made but small headway there, when compared with other places of equal size."
in a late visit of governor safford, of arizona, to a "mormon" colony on the little colorado, he writes:
we were kindly received by the colonists, numbering some 400 souls, who made us welcomed and gave us freely of such comforts as they had, as this people do to all strangers who come among them. every one works with a will. they have no drones, and the work they have accomplished in so short a time is truly wonderful. all concede that we need an energetic, industrious, economical and self-relying people to subdue and bring into use the vast unproductive lands of arizona. these mormons fill every one of the above requirements. tea, coffee, tobacco and spirituous liquors they do not use. they are spoken of by those living nearest to them as the kindest of neighbors, and all strangers receive a hearty welcome among them. they have a splendid robust looking lot of children, and are very desirous of having schools.
general thomas l. kane, of pennsylvania, says:
i have given you in terms the opinion my four years' experience has enabled me to form of the mormons, preferring to force you to deduce it for yourselves from the facts. but i will add that i have not heard a single charge made against them as a community—against their habitual purity of life, their willing integrity, their toleration of religious differences of opinion, their regard for the laws, their devotion to the constitutional government under which we live—that i do not, from my own observation, or upon the testimony of others, know to be unfounded.
chief justice white, formerly of huntsville, alabama, in charging the grand jury, salt lake city, february, 1876, said:
i do not utter the language of prejudice, nor treat lightly or derisively the mormon people or their faith. no matter how much i differ from them in belief, nor how widely they differ from the american people in matters of religion, yet {342} testing them and it by a standard which the world recognizes as just, that is, what they have practised and what they have accomplished, and they deserve higher consideration than ever has been accorded to them. industry, frugality, temperance, honesty, and in every respect but one, obedience to the law, are with them the common practices of life.
this land thy have redeemed from sterility, and occupied its once barren solitudes with cities, villages, cultivated fields and farm houses, and made it the habitation of a numerous people, where a beggar is never seen and alms houses are neither needed or known. these are facts and accomplishments which any candid observer recognizes and every fair mind admits.
united states prosecuting attorney dickson:
it was a matter of history that the mormons did not cohabit together, in the sense as used by the other side, without a form of marriage, and it was alone this form of marriage and the practice under it, and not sexual sins, that congress was legislating against. they knew that those sins are not upheld in utah, but are condemned by the mormons and deplored by the gentiles; they recognized the mormon system of marriage as a constant menace against monogamous marriage, and thus legislated against it, and it was the prevention of its continuance that was the primal object of the law. the cause and necessity of the act showed its intention and the only objects against which it should be directed; and for this it could be extended to its full purpose. the design and only purpose of the law was to root out and extirpate polygamy. the two systems of marriage could not dwell side by side. if polygamy was allowed to grow, without being placed under the ban of the law and of public opinion, it would in the end supplant the monogamic system, and was a constant threat and menace to and jeopardized the latter, and congress so viewed it.
the following statistics covering the year 1882, obtained mainly from gentile sources, furnish their own comment.
let the reader bear in mind that the non-"mormons" of utah are clamorous for the enforcement of unconstitutional laws against the "mormons," for the purpose of purifying their morals and christianizing their practices.
these men and their associates, are the ones, who engage in the wholesale denunciation of the "mormon" people. {343}
criminal statistics.
assault and battery 40 260
assault with intent to kill 40 260
assault with deadly weapons 2
assault with intent to commit rape 7
assault with threats 1 5
murder 18
manslaughter 1 15
attempt to murder 1
accused of murder 4
threatening to murder 6
mayhem 1
dueling 2
prostitution 1
keeping brothels 95
lewd conduct 27
insulting women 6
exposing person 3
nuisance 9
obscene and profane language 5
forgery and counterfeiting 4 24
drunkenness 8
drunk and disorderly 68 307
drunk and profane 29 151
selling liquor without license 12 136
gambling and keeping gambling houses 18
mail and highway robbery 1 52
grand larceny 1 6
burglary 3 48
disturbing peace 1 8
bigamy 34 111
destroying property 1
arson 15 26
obtaining money under false pretenses 26
opium smoking, etc 25
stealing railroad rides 16
vagrancy 19
violating prison rules 147
total 6
so that the mormons, comprising seventy-eight per cent. of the population of the territory, contributed one-eighth of the arrests made during 1882, and the non-mormons, having only twenty-two per cent., contributed seven-eighths.
in those pursuits having a demoralizing tendency, the distribution was as follows:
mormons. non-mormons.
no. saloons and breweries 16 146
no. billiard tables and bowling alleys 1 46
no. gambling houses 10
total 17 202
{344} the number of brothels throughout the territory was twelve, all kept by non-mormons; number of inmates not given.
the criminal record of salt lake city, for 1882, shows that in a population of about 25,000, divided between mormons and non-mormons as nineteen to six, the total number of arrests was 1,561, of which 188 were mormons, and 1,373 non-mormons.
if it should be suspected that these territorial and city exhibits show an unfair discrimination in favor of the mormon population, through the sympathy of the mormon police officers and magistrates, such suspicion will be removed by the summary of the records of the territorial penitentiary for the same year. it will be recollected that for the conviction of this class of criminals, the whole machinery of the law, judicial and ministerial, is in the hands of the federal government. the number of penitentiary convicts for the year was twenty-eight. of these but one was an orthodox mormon, and she a woman, confined for one day for contempt of court; five others were mormons only by reason of their parentage, and the remaining twenty-two were; eight catholics, four methodists, one jew, one adventist, one presbyterian, and seven of no religious faith.
educational statistics.
in 1870, according to the united states census report (taken in utah by non-mormons), utah's enviable record stood as follows:
school attendance, 5 to 18 years. illiteracy, cannot read or write, 10 years and upwards. paupers. insane and idiotic. convicts. printing and publishing establishments. church edifices.
utah 35 11 6 5 3 14 19
united states 31 26 31 16 9 6 17
pennsylvania 30 10 45 17 9 9 14
new york 21 9 59 23 12 7 12
massachusetts 25 12 55 20 11 11 12
dist. of columbi 27 40 23 35 9 11 8
california 24 10 41 22 19 14 9
{345}
the book of mormon.
among the many theories advanced by the opponents of truth, to account for the existence of the book of mormon, is the untenable, but widely believed, story that one solomon spaulding wrote it, and that it was surreptitiously appropriated by the prophet joseph smith. thousands, doubtless, believe this silly attempt to an explanation to-day; but the following correspondence will probably serve to enlighten the minds of those who wish information on this subject.
letter from president fairchild, of oberlin college, ohio, new york observer of february 5th, 1885:
solomon spaulding and the book of mormon.
the theory of the origin of the book of mormon in the traditional manuscript of solomon spaulding will probably have to be relinquished. that manuscript is doubtless now in the possession of mr. l. l. rice, of honolulu, hawaiian islands,[a] formerly an anti-slavery editor in ohio, and for many years state printer of columbus. during a recent visit to honolulu, i suggested to mr. rice that he might have valuable anti-slavery documents in his possession which he would be willing to contribute to the rich collection already in the oberlin college library. in pursuance of this suggestion mr. rice began looking over his old pamphlets and papers, and at length came upon an old, worn and faded manuscript of about 175 pages, small, quarto, purporting to be a history of the migration and conflicts of the ancient indian tribes which occupied the territory now belonging to the states of new york, ohio and kentucky. on the last page of this manuscript is a certificate and signature giving the names of several persons known to the signer, who have assured him that to their personal knowledge, the manuscript was the writing of solomon spaulding. mr. rice has no recollection how or when this manuscript came into his possession. it was enveloped in a coarse piece of wrapping paper, and endorsed in mr. rice's handwriting, "a manuscript story."
[footnote a:—since the publication of this letter, the m.s.s. has been placed in oberlin college library by mr. rice.]
there seems no reason to doubt that this is the long lost story. mr. rice, myself and others compared it with the book of mormon and could detect no resemblance between the two, in general or detail. there seems to be no name nor incident {346} common to the two. the solemn style of the book of mormon, in imitation of the english scriptures, does not appear in the manuscript. the only resemblance is in the fact that both profess to set forth the history of the lost tribes. some other explanation of the origin of the book of mormon must be found, if any explanation is required.
james h. fairchild.
from bibliotheca sacra.
rev. c. m. hyde, d.d., of the north pacific missionary institute, contributes an article to the boston congregationalist, in which he gives a history of the manuscript from the beginning and of the attempts made by hurlburt, howe and others to connect it with the book of mormon, and thus concludes his lengthy and interesting contribution:
the story has not the slightest resemblance in names, incidents or style to anything in the book of mormon. its first nine chapters are headed: introduction; an epitomy of the author's life, and of his arrival in america; an account of the settlement of the ship's company; many particulars respecting the natives; a journey to the n. w.; a description of the ohohs; description of the learning; religion; an account of the baska, government and money.
there is no attempt whatever to imitate bible language, and to introduce quotations from the bible, as in the book of mormon. on the contrary, rev. solomon spaulding seems to have been a man who had no very high regard for the bible. there are two manuscript leaves in the parcel of the same size and handwriting as the other 171 pages of manuscript. a few sentences will show the views of the writer. "it is enough for me to know that propositions which are in contradiction to each other can not both be true, and that doctrines and facts which represent the supreme being as a barbarous and cruel tyrant can never be dictated by infinite wisdom. * * * but, notwithstanding i disavow my belief in the divinity of the bible, and consider it as a mere human production, designed to enrich and aggrandize its authors, yet casting aside a considerable mass of rubbish and fanatical rant, i find that it contains a system of ethics or morals which cannot be excelled on account of their tendency to ameliorate the condition of man." it would seem improbable from such avowed belief that rev. solomon spaulding was an orthodox minister, who wrote the book of mormon in biblical style, while in poor health, for his own amusement. the statement is more probable that he wrote this manuscript found, with {347} the idea of making a little money, if he could find some one to print it for him.
it is evident from an inspection of this manuscript, and from the above statements that who ever wrote the book of mormon, solomon spaulding did not.
the manuscript is now in the possession of professor james h. fairchild, or rather of oberlin college, ohio, of which he is president. it was sent there to be deposited in the college library, by mr. l. l. rice, of honolulu, sandwish islands, among whose papers it was found at that place. mr. rice lived formerly in ohio, and in 1839-40 he and his partner bought the painesville, ohio, telegraph, of e. d. howe, and in the transfer of type, presses, stock, etc., there was a large collection of books, manuscripts, etc., among them the manuscript in question. e.d. howe was the publisher of a book against mormonism, called "mormonism unveiled," and obtained the "manuscript found" from the notorious "dr." d. p. hurlburt, who obtained it from mrs. davidson, solomon spaulding's widow, who had remarried. hurlburt never returned it. the reason assigned to mrs. davidson for its non-publication as an expose of the book of mormon was, that when examined it was found not to be what had been expected. one has only to glance through it to see the propriety of that conclusion.
when mr. rice moved to honolulu this manuscript, with other literary rubbish that had not been destroyed, was taken with him. it was not until prof. fairchild, being on a visit to mr. rice, questioned him concerning any old papers he might have in his possession relating to anti-slavery matters, that in looking for them this manuscript was turned up. it bore the following endorsement:
"the writings of solomon spaulding proved by aron wright, oliver smith, john n. miller and others. the testimonies of the above gentlemen are now in my possession.
(signed), d.p. hurlburt.
the chain of evidence is complete. there can be no doubt that this is the long lost "manuscript found," about which there has been so much speculation. mr. rice and professor fairchild both examined it critically, compared it with the book of mormon, and came to the conclusion that there was not the slightest connection between the two books, and no similarity whatever in matter, purpose, narrative, names, language, style, or anything else. the manuscript looks old and {348} faded, has 170 odd pages, small quarto, and was tied up, with a string in a coarse paper wrapper.
mountain meadows massacre.
we give below an extract from the lee trial, showing briefly and conclusively that the authorities of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, and the "mormon" people, were innocent of any complicity whatever, in the terrible tragedy enacted at mountain meadows, that on the contrary president brigham young sought by every means in his power to save the unfortunate emigrants.
remarks made by mr. sumner howard, ex-chief justice of arizona, and united states prosecuting attorney at the second trial of john d. lee:
"he proposed to prove that john d. lee, without any authority from any council or officer, but in direct opposition to the feelings and wishes of the officers of the mormon church, had gone to the mountain meadows, where the indians were then encamped, accompanied only by a little indian boy, and had assumed command of the indians, whom he had induced, by promises of great booty, to attack these emigrants. all these charges against john d. lee, he (district attorney howard) proposed to prove to the jury by competent testimony, beyond reasonable doubt, or beyond any doubt, and thought no appeal to the jury would be required to induce them to give a verdict in accordance with the evidence."
"james haslam, of wellsville, cache valley, was sworn. he lived in cedar city in 1857; was ordered by haight to take a message to president young with all speed; knew the contents of the message; left cedar city on monday, september 7, 1857, between 5 and 6 p.m., and arrived at salt lake on thursday at 11 a. m.; started back at 3 p.m., and reached cedar about 11 a. m. sunday morning, september 13th; delivered the answer from president young to haight, who said it was too late. witness testified that when leaving salt lake to return, president young said to him: "go with all speed, spare no horseflesh. the emigrants must not be meddled with, if it takes all iron county to prevent it. they must go free and unmolested.' witness knew the contents of the answer. he got back with the message the sunday after the massacre and reported to haight, who said, 'it is too late.'"
at the second trial the evidence was plain and direct as to lee's complicity in the massacre; he was convicted by "mormon" {349} testimony, and a verdict of "guilty" was brought in against him by a "mormon" jury.
at the close of the second trial u. s. district attorney sumner howard, in his opening address, repeated again that he had come for the purpose of trying john d. lee, because the evidence led and pointed to him as the main instigator and leader, and he had given the jury unanswerable documentary evidence, proving that the authorities of the mormon church knew nothing of the butchery until after it was committed, and that lee, in his letter to president young a few weeks later, had knowingly misrepresented the actual facts relative to the massacre, seeking to keep him still in the dark and in ignorance. he had received all the assistance any united states official could ask on earth in any case. nothing had been kept back, and he was determined to clear the calendar of every indictment against any and every actual guilty participator in the massacre.
"when the gentiles reject the gospel it will be taken from them and given to the house of israel."
—wilford woodruff.
"we have never violated the laws of this country; we have every right to live under their protection, and are entitled to all the privileges guaranteed by our state and national constitution."
—joseph smith.
