OCR Text |
Show U STATEMENT AND lAUIi I'KOil JIR. 11USSER. Salt Lake City, Sunday, 3J. To the Headers of tkt Htrald: Boon after the funer.il eervicea ol our martyred brother, Joaepb diaud-iog, diaud-iog, and while I was quietly resting in tho dining room ol my house, two aaaaeains, by the name of Henry Bane, eonofMactH M. Bine, o( this city, and G. W. Elliot atepped to tne threshold ol my front room and inquired in-quired lor me. On being summoned, I went to the doar anJ aaia "Good morning, "cntk-inti,; will you walk id?" t-uppoiin they bad c!!ed ou oueiuwa. Jut-t t-ien B ine banded me an envelope, which ho held in hid left hind, p.nd in an instant thii a-j-aussia drew from behind iiiua a rawhide raw-hide same two and a hall feet long and nearly one inch tbick at the butt. :iod struck me several blows in quick auccesdiou. The lirat blow atunned nie. ilre. Muer, hearing the noise, iu a moment caught the whip and wrenched it from bia hand to which bo had attached it with a buckskin strap around bin wriat. The as-iadiina then attempted to flee the city, but were overtaken, after a severe chase, by tbe city police. This unprovoked, Indian-like attack at-tack waa, of course, not anticipated by me, arjd not knowing tbe cowardly aeaaasins, I was altogether ia their power. Twenty-eight yturs ago I rearhed tbia city frrrni Pennsylvania, my native state. Since tbeu, I have aided bo far aa 1 could in the permanent ea tabliabment and development of tbia territory, and I flatter myaell that I have the substantia! reapect and esteem es-teem ol all good citizens, and especially es-pecially those who know me beat. 1 1 have betrayed no truat, I violated no oovenant, brokeu no law; I have endeavored to treat and serve my fellow citizens, in pri vate and public, aa I would wish to be eerved. In a humble manner I have aided in beautifying thia fine city; here are my homes, my beloved be-loved wives and children and aged mother. My dead, too, iie sleeping in yonder cemetery, where our brother, Standing, was taken but three hours ago, and now I want to let all trampa and bummera, and dead beats and place hunters and assassins and lechers and cuckolds distinctly understand that I intend remaining in tbia city and on top of this earth, just so long as the Lord, my Father, ie willing for me to stay, for the express purpose of delending bie cause, which ia my cauae, and to promote truth, justice, mercy, and well-doing to tbe extent of my abilities. In 1846, while my widowed mother, with her little brood of chil-dreen, chil-dreen, were enjaraped, with hundreds hund-reds of others, in like circumstances, at Montrose, on the opposite bank ot the Mississippi lliver from Nauvoo, they were fired into by the mob of Christian!,?) ministers and laymen, who were at tbo same time occupying and desecrating our temple. Not content in driving tbem from their dearly bought homes, in pillaging their beautiful city, in raping their beloved but defenceless daughters, in confiscating their property and in butchering their leading men, they pointed their five pieces of ordnance ord-nance at the encampment of the sick md the aged, tbe hall and the blind the widow and the ornhan. I vine under all kinds ot canopies improvised impro-vised as temporary sheltera, till their outgoing brethren could send back their teams to rescue them from further fur-ther mob violence, and with fiendish relish ploughed their encampment with Bhot from their belchiDg cannon. All this and muoh more I wi'netiaed, and the same feeling, preciaely, burns towards us to-day by a few rampant, murderous and corrupt men in our midst, who, if they had the opportunity would assail and murder our sons aud daughters, wivea, mothers and sisters, and after robbing us of every priceless jewel would pillage pil-lage our citiea, desecrate our temples and drive us into the ocean. Good people we love and cherish, bad onea wo bate and shun. That there are a great number of high toned outside gentlemen aud ladies in Utah no one will deny. They are known and appreciated and they mind their own aflairs. They tako no stock in tbe dastardly and cowardly ceurBe pursued by tbe enemies of God and man. Like the "MormonB," they desire to be let alone to follow, peacably, tho bent of their legitimate enterprises. By the local banditti these are termed "Jaotc Mormons.'" On the other hand we should not bo surprised at the course followed by the unscrupulous aud dissolute. Tbe polluted atmosphere where they were brought up must have had a pernicious pernici-ous eflect in moulding their future conduct. A. Milton Mubsek. |