Show SHAME AND IS TERMS THE PRESET IV CRUSADE opinion cabnet be changed by persecution se or the in taft debate on tha appropriation of for the industrial some in salt lake city which took place in the united states senate october ad 1888 as reported in the congressional record senator call of florida said mr call L voted for this aparo privation pria tion not only as a member of the committee on education and labor when it was first considered but also as a member of tho committee on and of the senate I 1 krould now object to and vole i against the legislation of ghisi body persecuting these people because they had certain religions views or views on the subject of religion which were opposed to my own and to those of our people generally I 1 consider that in all that legislation wo not only violated the constitution but we violated all the principles of civil liberty upon which our institutions are founded I 1 have never changed that opinion I 1 think we wont back eighteen hundred years in the progress of the world to the days of barbarism to use the courts the civil power of the state to compel by force a change in the opinions of men upon the subject of faith or of elilion eli gion the constitution says we shall take no action whatever exercise no power of government respecting the establishment fre ligion and yet the language of this bill is plain and direct offering inducements to leave the mormon church we have forgotten even that we have no power to legislate upon the subject of a mans belief on the subject of religion whether it be true or untrue and so in all this legislation in which wo have prepared a prejudiced jury in which we have prepared a prejudiced him for the purpose of trying men of different ions on the subject of religion from himself we have violated not only th 0 principles of the constitution hut we have violated all the institutions upon which your present civili aaion is founded and we only need to go e few steps further to introduce the power of the state to punish in direct terms a man for being a methodist on a catholic or a presbyterian or faor folding some of faith from that which the dominant party inthe state may profess but mr president I 1 approve the principle of the legislation in this ap prop nation if the cormons mormons are to be converted or any other set of people it is to be in accordance with the divine religion of christ by persuasive methods and not by the exercise of power tho legislation of this body has done more to perpetuate polygamy and establish it by making martyrs of them than any aad all other causes and instrumentalities that could have been brought together we live in an age in which the principles of christian tolerance the teachings of christ that the sword is not the power to create opinion to produce conviction but it is argument it is the preaching of the divine word it is the missionary and not the power of the sword and the power of the civil law the law by which these courts are established and vested with unusual powers cannot from the exercise of the power of the state in creating the spanish inquisition as an arm of the civil power to compel observance of a particular faith the two are precisely the same and no argument can distinguish between the legislation of congress in respect to the cormons mormons and the exercise ol 01 the civil power of the in the shape of the inquisition to suppress another religion or faith either by delegating it to an ecclesiastical body or exercising it directly th constructions of law under which these people have been tried and punished if correctly reported are a lasting shame and disgrace to our country and to the administration of the law and to ourselves for permitting it to continue I 1 have seen it stated by persons said to be reputable in character and truthful that men and women have been convicted and sentenced for unlawful cohabitation upon proofs alone that they had contributed to the families the women and children toward whom they bad at some former period of time sustained the polygamous relation and that in other cases women had been sentenced and imprisoned because they thought it proper to refuse to disclose the name of the man towards whom they had sustained these relations but this legislation providing a homo for the people who may be convicted that they are pursuing a wrong method of life and a criminal one of providing a homo for the women and children who may ba left destitute in consequence of a change of life met the approval of my judgment it was in the line of persuasion in the line of the successful policy of the policy convincing the moral sentiment which the almighty has provided us the meana of reformation for all men everywhere it can not be that yon can change opinion thought by power by oppression by persecution by the sword by compelling men to believe this is the method of the elake the iron boot the fea erful implements of the cruelty and crimo ortho dark ages and these we adopted in place of the gentle par suasion of the divino christ mr president if tha statements of the senator torn maine aro true it is arraignment of this body that could possibly be made can it bo that the senate of the united states and the house of representatives have sat here and allowed such a condition of things to exist as the instances described by him represent Is it true that people convinced of the error of their lives and subjected to extreme cruelty have been compiled to remain in that condition for the want of even the ordinary necessaries of livet ja it true that children of twelve years of age are compelled to enter into polygamous and unlawful marriages find the senate and senators from maine and vermont have quietly remained here providing no legislation but these denunciations of the mormon people if statements be true the evidence should be obtained and prompt legislation provided by which that evil should not exist aday a day longer tho evil of a people to conform to the laws and yet unable to do it because the lawa have provided no efficient methods for their protection and bleir subsistence 3 am not ready to believe these statements I 1 do not believe that polygamy however wrongful it is oi necessity and in itself destroys the natural love and affection which tha Divine Being has implanted in the human heart that charity can not exist where it prevails we derive our religion from a polygamous people I 1 have been taught to reverence the scriptures of the old and now testament as a divine revelation and the characters they present as the highest types of humanity and while we believe with the confidence of knowledge that our christianity is the true and higher civilization and the only true religion it is not necessary that we should halt and denounce those who differ from faith and practise I 1 do not believe that either amongst the cormons mormons or any other people surrounded by the influence of modern civilization such cruelties cruel ties would be permitted there are two sides to these statements the cormons mormons deny them their representative denies them in a speech delivered in the house atiles travelers and men of high standing both in our own and foreign countries profess to have examined carefully into this subject and describe these people as a mild and truthful industrious and virtuous people comparing very favorably in many with the people of other countries save omy in the permission for polygamous life and representing that to be limited in practice I 1 do not know anything as to the truth of these statements either on one side or the other but I 1 am not willing tc bear falbe witness against any one or to condemn with out fiill and fair evidence on both sides I 1 have never seen amorton except those who have been here before the two houses of congress anait is only just to say that these had the appearance pe arance and manner of intelligent educated and kindly men I 1 have never known but one of their faith and his family life in this community was in all respects like our own and his characteristics such as gave him consideration and regard of excellent persons of our own christian faith who are themselves of unblemished life and reputation I 1 am not willing therefore that my vote for this appropriation shall be placed upon the ground that these people are destitute of all the moral all kindly sympathies of humanity I 1 do not believe it I 1 vote for this appropriation because I 1 wish to provide every possible agency to give full and free influence to the persuasive power of the divine teachings of christ and furnish the opportunity to all who wish to leave the polygamous life to do so basing the law to be en forcad against the practice of polygamy amongst them as amongst other people in the spirit of fairness and justice in gentleness and mercy and not with the cruelty and violence of either the religious or the political bigot I 1 have more faith in the persuasive power of tha gospel of christ and the christian ministry than in all the terms of the law even when enforced with the thumbscrew thumb screw and the stake the dagger of st bartholo mews massacre and Col ignis assassin or all the thousand cruelties cruel ties which stain the pages of history and which we are beginning to repeat mr president we had better enact some legislation in this direction we bad better ascertain the facts I 1 am in favor of an appropriation however large it may be to provide a home and subsist eneo and employment for any of these people who may bo convinced that methods of life are improper and unlawful opposed as I 1 am to persecution and disgraceful persecution if I 1 had the power I 1 would remove the judges and the civil officers who have been guilty of crime themselves if the statements I 1 have read be true of a distortion of the law by the severity of the punishment of these people I 1 read an instance in the memorial presented in aid of this verv bill of a woman and a child a woman of eighteen years of age I 1 think with an infant of three months confined in the jail and that infant dying of measles because she would not reveal the name of the man with whom she had been led into this improper relation suffering and dying the memorial states and there was no charity no kindness from the judge or the marshal or any one towards this poor young mother confined there like a common felon a disgrace to civilization and disgrace to humanity and to those who have the power to correct tac ant mr president the question here is whether the public money shall be placed in private hands no responsibility except by a bond for carrying out these purposes in the english law it was found necessary to provide a system of visitation even of private foundations of chanty it was found that abo which followed these institutions in private hands were so great as to pervert and defeat at we founder until a power of visitation was exercised by the aurta wd pre by tho statutes why then should we depart from that course and vest the s oi disbursement of this money in the hands of these without any authority on the part of the treasury officials to supervise or direct it it seems to me eliat tha an awer is clear te those who w sincerely joesire the conversion people who desire lo 10 furnish protection to those who lecog 0 ahe constan religion which the legislation legisla fion apon this subject denies to convert and persuade those people who believe in christ and christs religion and not in tho persecutions which this body and the other house have established against these people those who believe aa I 1 do in christs commission go ye into all nations and preach the gospel and who desire the sue cess of this charity and to protect these people when the power of the christian faith may convert them as it will convert them would have the government retain its control over the expenditure of this money if you choose to give this building or the use of it to this charitable organization I 1 shall have no objection and should support a provision of that land provided they exercise that charity in the spirit of love and not of denunciation not of hatred and bitter reproach provided they remember that the evil of which they complain is not now for the first time known to the civilization of the world that the christian religion has been fighting it successfully for eighteen hundred years not with the sword and the stake but with the teachings of christ and that the religion of christ alone has reclaimed hundreds of millions of people from the practice of the greater part of the world who have lived in polygamy and with whom it has been an institution england and those who derive their civilization from her mr president there has been too much of political persecution in this matter and too little of christian faith and christian practice let the government appropriate its money let it build this house let it make ample provision for all who shall be convinced that the christian system is the true one and make it ample for the industrial education and subsistence of these people for a reasonable time that this experiment may be promptly tried but let it be done by the government and under the supervision of bonded officers of the government and then if wo choose give the management of this charity to these people whose purposes I 1 have no reason to doubt are correct and those of philanthropy and of good to mankind but let it be required to be done in the spirit and according to the precepts of tho religion of christ |