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Show THE SAME THEN AS NOW. Among the resolutions adopted by the seccders from the Mormon church at Nauvoo, Hliuois, was tho following, as wo find it in tho Nauvoo Expositor: Resolved. 10th. That, notwithstanding our extensive acquaintance with the flnan-cial flnan-cial affairs of the church, wc do not know of any property which in reality bolonp3 to the chiirch (except the temple) and wc therefore consider the Injunction laid upon the saints compelling thorn to purchase property of the trustee-in-trust for the church, Is a deception practiced upon them; and that wc look upon the sending of special agents abroad to collect funds, for the temple and other purposes as a humbug practiced upon the saints by Joseph and others, to aggrandize themselves, them-selves, as we do not believe that the moneys nnd property so collected have been applied as the donors expected, but have been used for speculative purposes by Joseph, to gull the saints the better on thoir arrival at Nauvoo, by buying the Innds in the vicinity and selling again to them at tenfold advance, and further that we verily believe the appropriations said to have been subscribed by shares for the building of the Nauvoo Huise to have been used by J. Smith and Lyman Wight, for other purposes, as out of the mass of stock already taken, the building Is far from being finished even to the base. And it is on account ot such exposures as these that tho Descret News now declares that tho Nauvoo Expositor was "the most infamous sheet of paper over printed under the American flag." The Expositor sought to protect the Mormon people from the swindles that wero being forced upon them by their chiefs, tho paper's supporters sup-porters having found it to bo absolutely absolute-ly necessary that a medium of publicity be established for that purpose, because of tho suppressions exorcised by tho tyrants. ty-rants. But even in this enterprise they wero cruelly stricken, for an order was issued by Mayor-Prophet Joseph Smith's city council lo Mayor-Prophet Joseph Smith to authorize his thugs to demolish the printiug plant, which was done upon the first and only issue-of issue-of the paper that was ever permitted to go out of its office. Tt is interesting to iiote that the processes pro-cesses of Nauvoo in robbing tho saints arc perpetuated hero on an enlarged scale. Nowadays the hierarchs have branched out and reached over into foreign countries with thoir colonizing and laud-selling schemes. Tho result is tho same, except that it is enlarged. The profits aro greater because the schemes aro bigger. Thoso who have had the manipulation of theitithc moneys mon-eys havo invested them largely in great lauded schemes in Canada and Mexico, for instance. Buying in the great tracts that thoy did, the land came to them at an extremely low figure. In turn they have, sold tho ground to church adheronts . at acreage prices, reaping fortunes out of those transactions. The profits have been stuffed into the pockets pock-ets of tho "prophots," although the original invested monoy was from tho tithes Bupposedly collocted for religious purposes. With respect to the misappropriation of temple funds, no better example of the repetition of Mormon history could be brought forward than that, given in the caso of tho Salt Lako temple. There arc now Mormon grown men nnd women wo-men who will testify that when thoy were boy3 and girls, living with their parents in foreign lands, they gavo thoir littlo pennies to purchase nails and glass for that building. When thoy later arrived hero they found the building just showing above tho foundation, foun-dation, with no nails and glass in it. It was a long time many years afterwards after-wards that uails woro needed for interior in-terior finishing and glass for tho win dows; and thoy wero simply obliged to pay for them over again after they had rcachod Ziou. The Salt Luke tcmplo cost tho saints four times more than its actual worth, oven reckoning tho costs naturally attaching at-taching when the work was prosecuted pros-ecuted under early difficulties. Millions Mil-lions of dollars of the temple funds wero stolon or diverted to other purposes pur-poses for which they wero not intended. in-tended. But tho News in Salt Lako is like tho Neighbor (the church paper) was at Nauvoo. Both havo endeavored dn every way to dofond robbery of tho saints, and havo condemned nny and all men Or publications atftacking theso injustices. Timo is required for an awakoning of tho Mormon people; but timo is pnssing and the awakening is coming fast. |
