Show MANIFESTO SALT LAKE Cur Dec 12th 1SS9 To WHOM IT MAT CONCERN In consequence of gross misrcpreseiita lions of the doctrines alms and practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints commonly called the Mormon Church which have been promulgated for years and have recently been revived for political purposes and to prevent all aliens otherwise qualified who are members of the Mormon Church from acquiring citizenship citi-zenship we deem it proper on behalf cf said Church to publicly deny these calumnies calum-nies and enter our protest against them We solemnly make the following declarations declar-ations viz That this church views the shedding of human blood with the utmost abhorrence That we regard the killing of a human being except in conformity with the civil law as a capital crime which should be punished by shedding the blood of the criminal crim-inal after a public trial before a legally constituted court of the land Notwithstanding all the stories told about the killing of apostates no case of this kind has ever occurred and of course has never been established against the church we represent Hundreds of seceders from the church have continuously resided and now live in this territory many of whom have amassed considerable wealth though bitterly bit-terly opposed to the Mormon faith and people Even those who made it their business to fabricate the vilest falsehoods and to render them plausible bj culling isolated passages from old sermons without with-out explanatory context and have suffered suf-fered no opportunity to escape them of vil ifying and blackening the characters of the people have remained among those whcm they have thus persistently calumniated until the present day without receiving the slightest personal injury We denounce as entirely untrue the allegation alle-gation which has been made that our church favors or believes in the killing of persons who leave the church or apostatize from its doctrines We would view a punishment pun-ishment of this character for such an act with the utmost horror it is abhorrent to us and is in direct opposition to the fundamental mental pnn iples of our creed The revelations of God to this church make death the penalty for capital crime and require that offenders against life and property shall be delivered up and tried by the laws of the land We declare that no bishops or other > court in this church claims or exercises civil or judicial j functions or the right to supersede annul or modify a judgment of any civil court Such courts while established estab-lished to regulate Christian conduct are purely ecclesiastical and their punitive powers go no further than the suspension or excommunication of members from church fellowship That this church while offering advice for the welfare of its members in all conditions condi-tions of life dses not claim or exercise the right to interfere with citizens m the free v exercise of social or political rights and privileges The ballot m this territory is absolutely ab-solutely untrammeled and secret No r mans business or secular affairs are inv in-v by the church or any of its officers Free agency and direct individual accountability account-ability to God are among the essentials of our church doctrine All things in the church must be done by common consent and no officer is appointed without the vote of the body We declare that there is nothing in the ceremony of the endowment or m any doc trine tenet obligation injunction of this church either private or public which is hostile or intended to be hostile to the government gov-ernment of the United States On the con tinny its members are under divine commandment com-mandment to revere the constitution as a heaven inspired instrument and obey as supreme su-preme all laws made m pursuance of its provisions Utterances of prominent men in the church at a time of great excitement have been selected and grouped to convey the Impression that present members are seditious sedi-tious Those expressions were maths more than thirty years ago when through the falsehoods of recreant officials afterwards demonstrated to be baseless troops were sent to this territory and wero viewed by the people in their isolated condition con-dition fifteen hundred miles from railroads rail-roads as an armed mob coming to renew the bloody persecutions of years before At that time excitement prevailed anofe strong language was used but no words of 1j disloyalty against the government or its institutions in-stitutions were uttered public speakers confined their remarks to denouncing traitorous trait-orous officials who were prostituting the powers of their positions to accomplish nefarious ne-farious ends Criticism of the acts of United States officials was not considered then neither is it now as treason against the nation nor as hostility to the government In tnis connection we may say that the members of our church have never offered or intended to offer any insult to the flag of our country but have always honored it as the ensign of laws and liberty v We also declare that this church does not claim to be an independent temporal king dom of God or to be an imperium in imperio aiming to overthrow the United States or any other civil government It has been organized by divine revelation revela-tion preparatory to the second advent of the Redeemer It proclaims that the kingdom of heaven is at hand Its members mem-bers are commanded of God to be subject unto the powers that be until Christ comes whoso right it is to reign Churcu government and civil gov erment are distinct and sepirate in our theory and practice and we regard it as part of our destiny to aid in the in maintenance and perpetuity per-petuity of the institutions of our country We claim no religious liberty that wear unwilling to accord others f Wo ask for no civil or political rights which are not granted and guaranteed to citizens in general Wo desire to be in in harmony with the government gov-ernment and people of the United States as an integral part of the nation We regard all attempts to exclude aliens from naturalization and citizens from the exercise of ho elective franchise solely because they are members of the Mormon church as impolitic unrepublican and dan Serous encroachments upon civil and religious reli-gious liberty Notwithstanding the wrongs we consider we have suffered through the improper execution ex-ecution of national laws we regard those wrongs as the acts of men and not of the government and we intend by the help of Omnipotence to remain firm in our fealty and steadfast in the maintenance of constitutional consti-tutional principles and the integrity of this republic We earnestly appeal to the American press and people not to condemn the Lat ter day Saints unheard Must we always be judged by the misrepresentations of our enemies and never be accorded a fair op portunity of representing ourselves In the name of justice reason and humanity hu-manity we ask for a suspension of VJa tional and popular judgment until avTull investigation can be had and all the facts connected with what is called the Mor mon question can be known And we ap peal to the Eternal Judge of all men and 4 nations to aid us in the vindication of our xiRhteous cause WILFORD WOODRUFF GEORGE Q CANNON JOSEPH F SMITH Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints tl LORENZO SNOW FRANKLIN D KICHABDS BIUQIIAM YOUNG FRANCIS M LTMAN A Jons HENRY SMITH GEORGE TEASDALE HEBERJ GRANT M W MERRILL A H LUND ABRAHAM H CANNon Members of the Council of the Apostles JOHN W YOUNGCounselor |