| Show STATEMENT OF brown CROWN BEFORE JUDGE POWERS wily wicy THE latterly LATTER LATTEK MY DAY SAINTS 31 MARRIAGE ARRIAGE loss 6 lons IONS oy OF THE SAINTS A SOLE SOLEMN ain TESTIMONY I 1 0 when elder moroni brown was vas arraigned before judge rowers powers in the first lA district lastrico strict court on saturday last to receive his sentence after having ioen loen deen doen convicted of the dreadful crime 0 df 11 with his wives he was asked if he had bad anim anil anything fiall to sa say Y why sentence should not be passe passed dupon upon A him whereupon he addressed the court as follows I 1 am aware your honor that it becomes youri your duty however painful to bouto pas ass on me today to day tor lor the violation of bf a laev but to me it Is no crime only Es as it has been made such by the enactments of congress rass it is well known by all the latter day saints that we have not derived all our knowledge concerning god heaven angels this life and the life to come entirely from the books of the bible yet we believe that all our religions li ious lous principles and notions are arc in accordance with and sustained by the bible consequently though ive we believe in new revelations and believe that gad hrs revealed many things pertaining to our religion we aiso aleo also al 0 o believe he has revealed none that are inconsistent consi steRt with the worship of almighty god a sacred right P guaranteed to all religious denominations by the constitution of our country WI wish now to make one statement in relation to the great principle of plural or celestial marriage marr lace lase which has agitated the public mind so much of late that while there is abundant proof to be found in the scriptures and elsewhere in support of this doctrine still it was not because it was practiced four thousand years azo aso by the servants and people of god or because it has been practiced by any people or nation in any an y tre tte period briod of the worlds history that the latter day saints have adopted it and made it a part of their practice but it is because god our eternal father has revealed it antous unto us if there were no record of its practice to be found and if the bible book B ook of mormon ana and book of doctrine and covenants were silent in respect ct to this doctrine it would nevertheless be binding upon us as a people god himself having given giyen a revelation for us to practice it at the present time it is gratifying to know however that we w e are not the first of gods people unto whom this principle has been revealed ve aled it is gratifying to know that vve we are only fo following IW irwing in the footsteps of alio those e who have preceded us in the work of god and that we today to day are only carrying out the principle which gods people observed in obedience to i revelation from him thousands of years tao sao your honor it Is is also gratifying to abow know that we are suffering persecution that we are threatened with lines fines and imprisonment for the fulce ruice of precisely the same principle which abraham the father of the faithful the friend of god tic edIn lis kis his life and taught to his chil chii dren after him it if all the inhabitants of ane earth at the present time were righteous before god and both males and females were faithful in keeping his commandments and aud the numbers of the sexes of a marriageable age wei were exactly equal there would be no any every righteous man could have his wife and there would be no of females but what are the facts in reja reia re lation tion to this matter since old pagan rome and of idols passed la a law confining a man to one wife there has been agrest a great surplus of women who have had no possible chance of getting married you may think this a very strange statement but it is a fact that those nations were the founders sounders fou of what is termed monogamy and all ail other nations with few excel actions have followed the scriptural aplan ian lan of having a plurality of wives A these hese roman and grecian nations t however were very powerful and when christianity came to them especially ally aily the roman nation it had to bow ow to their mandates and customs hence the christians christ ans gradually adopted the system which has laid laid the foundation for prostitution dand tand and the evils and diseases which are most revolting in their character pan yan an honest monogamy monogamy is the next an impossibility wherever it is practiced it is a system of hypocrisy it is a veil of abstemiousness assumed to conceal a mass of hidden corruption its direct is to lintal stimulate the contemptible vices of intrigue ule tie and biting lying aswell as the t equally dete detestable detest ihle ible e ones of prostitution i and adultery if this nation would adopt the system of polygamy i as I 1 S practiced by the latter day sl saints n ts and g make death the penalty of sexual co habitation outside the marriage relation there would be no housos of III ill fame in the land no illegitimate children crying in the streets of our cities xiu JIM for bread loread having no fathers or mothers to claim and protect them infanticides would also be lesa frequent and soon become a thing of the past under this system of monogamy it is impossible for more than half the women to marry their number being so much greater tian than that of the men 1 and then there are tens of thousand of men who will never marry so ion lon long iong as they can gratify their sexual desires without incurring the thu responsibility bailit y of a wife and family we are not unmindful of the fact that american liberty to us is merel merely nominal in its application from t the e day this church was organized sed the red hand of the assassin has been upon our path ath the blood of saints and prophets aas has been shad five times we have been driven from our homes and all this mark you at a time when the practice of polygamy among us was unknown totne to the world but still the hue andery and cry has gone forth that we were disloyal to the government and aud should of right be exterminated but one of the most notable evidences to the contrary lies lles in the fact that while the saints in 1846 1848 were encamped in their wagons and tents on the banks of the missouri river near where the cities of omaha and council bluffs now stand five hundred of our best men in response to a call by the government volunteered and went to assist in the war with mexico leaving their families on the open prairie in an almost helpless and starving condition my father two brothers an uncle and one cousin were among amona the number that volunteered to thus serve their country in the spring of 1817 president brigham young at the head of men women and children pioneered the road from the missouri river to this valley in search of a place where his people could enjoy the privileges of worshiping god according to the dictates of their own conscience a right guaranteed to us by virtue of the constitution of our country but since we have redeemed the soil and nd made the desert to blossom as the rose congress urged by political demagogues and hireling priests frieb frieh ts has passed proscriptive prescriptive laws in contravention of the constitution the direct tendency of which is to separate us from our wives and bastardize our children which are more dear to us than life itself wherein I 1 would like to know consists the justice of such a law that will drag innocent men before the courts and compel their wives and children to give testimony that will consi consign 4 them behind the tile bolts and bars of a prison wall there is none it is only a repetition of the tyrannical yoke once placed upon the necks of our colonia fathers by a british sovereign in conclusion in obeying the law of celestial marriage as far as I 1 am concerned I 1 have entered into the most sacred covenants with my wives sau and d with my god which covenants are not only binding for time but for all eternity and I 1 have done this with a ka knowledge ledge of what I 1 was doing with me it has been no guess work god bod himself having revealed it to td me for eor my own benent benefit and your honor it ismy is my firm belief that no man ail all although god revealed this through the prophet joseph smith should enter inan this law until he receives a knowledge for himself of the truth of the same therefore I 1 have been sincere in the matter and in practicing it I 1 did not consider I 1 I 1 was breaking any constitutional law but have broken a law s MIS specially prepared for the people of this territory allow me to thank you for the liberty you have given me at this time and I 1 now submit to any sentence you may feel it your duty to pass upon me |
