| Show A GOOD RECORD the salt lake tribune 7 ane has been for months using its anti mormon columns to heap upon me unlimited adut abuse in every instance it has been without cause I 1 have never been the agg aggressor remor and have only answered after quietly waiting for months to find opportunity to enter the field that paper has intimated that I 1 had been engaged in some desperate thing back east 1 in Mie michigan bigam y 1 I 1 have over and over challenged a publication of whatever it to is they think they possess hollister has baa publicly admitted that he had been trying to discover something against me still nothing comes but insinuation they seem to proceed upon the assumption that a lie well stuck to becomes as potent as truth personally I 1 do not bother myself as to what these fellows may anay print but as they are trying to destroy the good effect of my work in utah I 1 desire in the interest of that work to make known what it was I 1 did in michigan that this paper ii i hinting at as derogatory to me readers of the NEWS may recall my letters concerning the indians of the isabella reservation in michigan I 1 said but little I 1 in a those letters as to the persecutions I 1 have suffered because of my work for those poor indians I 1 stated staled that after long effort I 1 secured the attention of the president and through him obtained an investigation that done I 1 turned the work over to the agents of the government I 1 had spent lour four years on that work absolutely without money and without price J I 1 had held to it with a strange and stub stubborn barn tenacity that I 1 cannot myself explain I 1 was a p gocr tr man and getting on inyeard in yeara years I the rhe indians could not appreciate what I 1 was doing for them there was not even thank yeul I in it for me and yet I 1 stayed with t the ie job ob until I 1 had induced the uni united ted states t t es government to come my relief then I 1 set met out to reinforce my depleted purse by lecturing I 1 went to kalamazoo michigan where I 1 had bad been years before and obtained bained of the trustees of that institution the unitarian church which had been shut abut up for several years to la which to give four lectures kalamazoo is only about miles from the isbella reservation and the ringleader ring leader of the thieves ea W whom hom I 1 had bad exposed got his wife in K before I 1 had given my four lectures that man had bad heard of my work in K and hastened there to inaugurate a fight against m me i e the same fight which was begun on the reservation where as I 1 have said in previous arti articles clesi the thieves started a paper and hired a most disreputable character to blackguard me the leader of the thieves as I 1 have said came to kalamazoo and employed a broken down lawyer and the meanest man in town to fight me came into one of my meetings and attempted to create a riot by makina making charges against mein me in the name 0 of the men who had bad fought me on the reservation he flooded the town with scurrilous publications cat ions he sneaked about the cat city among my friends as persons whom I 1 I 1 could name have done in salt lake trying try ing to create prejudice against me sufficient lelent to deter dater the people from corn com ing to hear me but instead of turning against me the people said we see no evidence of wrong in this man and we will stand by him until you prove your charges I 1 in n open meeting wherein this man who had bad been engaged to fight nie me was present the a large audience demanded an investigation A committee of mie hie best krown known and reliable citizens of kalamazoo KaTa mazoo was nominated and selected by unanimous vote of the audience to hear bear and investigate any charges that might be preferred against me in addition the people invited me to remain and continue my lectures and I 1 remained there nine months that committee at once met and organized and notified my defan cers that it was ready to bear and investigate their charges against me the committee was given but three weeks by the people in which to make their investigations but it ic extended the time and spent four weeks on the work in order to give my opponents all the time they needed to obtain their evidence and make their case at the end of one month the committee made its report to an audience that as you can readily imagine crowded the build building ing in which I 1 was waa lecturing to its utmost capacity that I 1 may not be accused of making a statement in my own favor I 1 will quote the closing paragraphs of the committee commit report when the committee compared the evidence received from mount pleasant in mr air ellia BMW favor with that against him and took into conr the character of the man who published the charges against inin him there was waa but one straightforward honest thing to do and that was to acquit him the comm committee attee begs to say further farther that the documentary testimony put in on both sides aides is so voluminous as to make it impracticable to embody it in this re report 0 rt but gives the society for w which rf mr r ellis elli was lecturing at that time full assurance that convincing and unquestionable proof was offered to convict mr ellis principal defamer that is one A N bro brown an of having been for many years a vindictive malicious and untruthful man whose word will not be believed under oath on the other hand mr ellis character not only in mount pleasant but el elsewhere e for the past thirty yeara year was shown w by y unquestionable testimony to have been good for all these reasons your committee after a full careful and imp im anial investigation tion of the charges preferred against T mr ellis would report that the said charges have not been beau sustained the committee would say further that much of the testimony placed before it pointed to the fol lowin g as the cause of this attack upon mr ellis several years ago that is in the year boar 1883 mr ellis began an investigation of frauds and wrongs perpetrated upon the indians of the isabella county reservation As a result of his bis work a number of mt pleasant men among whom are several of the owners of the mt pleasant pimsant tribune are now indicted in united states courts with a prospect of conviction this fact in the estimation of many reliable men in mt pleasant is the chief cause of the tribunes attack but in addition to this it is clear to the committee that mr ellis theological bolie belie fd while not in themselves alves necessarily false or wrong were as a matter of fact very objectionable to many trinitarian believers belie verr and the cha charges r es against mr ellis are in the main due not to any immorality in his charac ter but to his theological heresies here Her lies esies your committee therefore for those reasons also after an impartial investigation beg leave to report that none of the charges against mr ellis have been sustained and that ho he is artill worthy of your ann on fidenso and esteem signed L cr BRAGG Chair chairman maii MEYER manyu it A J HOMMES HOLMES 1 I N A J shakespeare SHAKESPEA REt HE SILAS KALAMAZOO mich mic 11 W committee jan 30 1888 if now the any others of the antl anti mormon ring that has been trying for months to force me out of salt bait lake because I 1 would not join in the clamor the Mor mormon people lias has auy any doubt as to the justice of this report I 1 make unto them the following proposition appoint for yourselves one two or any number of your men allowing me to appoint an equal number both parties being instructed to unite in the appointment of a chairman not of either party and I 1 will procure and place before those men the evidence upon which the kalamazoo Kal amazio m n babad their conclusion and the only condition I 1 will impose is that the salt halt lake tribune daily and weekly shall publish the n finding anding of these nien men ift 16 salt aalt lake 0 1 having no faith that they wim will do anything so honorable I 1 wish to incorporate as a part of this article a letter from the B F underwood who introduced trod me here to the chairman of that committee mr air underwood I 1 wish to say is a man of national reputation aa a lecturer and writer he was for years editor of the index in boston later he founded the lae open court in chicago and has haa been editorial writer for other enil eminent nent cb chicago 1 cago pa papera pera he is a I 1 I 1 freeth freethinker I 1 aker of that class that places the emphasis emp basto on the thinker 9 assuming that all men are or ought to be I 1 in u this country free 1 away back in the seventies he was in salt lake and his index la in the only 14 liberal paper that I 1 know of that has spoken editorially in favor able terms of the mormon people but now for mr Underwo Under letter 86 SOUTH STREET CHICAGO CHICA 00 dec 17 1887 L G bragg kalamazoo midi mich dear sir in reply to your leter letter of inquiry dated doe doc I 1 have have to pay fay that I 1 hope liopo you will carry out your laudable purpose of kee keeping ing mr air ellis ellia at work for your society T lie is an earnest liberal thinker who has the courage conrage of his bi convictions vict ions and is able to present them with vigor and in a literary form forin that com coar mands the altow antonion onion att ion of men and women of intelligence and culture I 1 hope you will pay no attention to vague and indefinite rumors rumor no man who opposes humbug and sham ai a mr ellis has done can hope to escape misrepresentation and calumny I 1 have known hini him many years and I 1 know nothing derogatory to his character I 1 believe his life will coin compare pare favorably with wilh that of any of the men who are arb attempting to prejudice you and the kalamazoo society against him bim I 1 should call upon them to make their charges definite and to accompany them with proofs proof s before allowing them to have any weight truly yours signed B F UNDERWOOD I 1 want cosay to say further chatin that in May 1889 a meddlesome person in salt bait lake learning tift tl frough ough rumor of this fight that I 1 had made with thieves in michigan an and thinking to injure me because I 1 would not dam the mormons cormons Mor mons went among my friends here and reported it from the standpoint of the thieves I 1 asked a well known salt lake man to write to kalamazoo for the facts A statement was sent to salt lake then signed by over fifty of Kalama zoos best known citizens protesting against the injustice circulating of such rumors and giving assurance of my good standing aud and reputation in that hat city that paper ia in salt like lake now and can cabbe be seen if any one wishes to read it when the salt like lake tribune in october 1893 reopened the attack it began upon me in june of the samo same year a citizen of salt lake not knowing of the paper referred to above wrote to a gent gentleman lemau in III kalamazoo Kalama zuo who had lived in SAIL 8 lake several years asking him it he had known we me when I 1 resided in that tha t el city tv anti what he knew of me ine mentioning that a paper here had been making very ilam dama aging gitig insinuations against me by permission I 1 place the reply before it the le public not because I 1 want it to know kaow w what I 1 bat is said in my favor but because I 1 want it to understand how utterly mean the tribune to which the truth of the whole matter wa s known knowd ban bam been in aU empting to knife aua ana destroy th the Iti inn fluence bence of a man who was opposed to I 1 is a lo 10 long ng pu pursued rau ed scheme to drive the mormons cormons out f utah by persecution and robbery following is the letter KALAMAZOO midi mich oct 1893 DEAR sui sik your favor of the dinst is at hand band in reply will say that I 1 am pleased to be in a position to give you the desired information I 1 will therefore give you a condensed history of mr ellis career during my about four years year acquaintance with him mr ellis came I 1 think about four years ago from mt pleasant in this state where he had bad been given lectures to the unitarian society thence he came here in the same capacity and by force of his extraordinary eloquence and sound arguments argo monts at once brought now life into our society which had been seriously languid i for or some time lime it was not long however before rumors minors were afloat assailing mr E Vs s eh charac tractor and they came from the place w where here he be had bad been lecturing before coniing coining here those rumors finally grow so violent that injustice in justice to him and our society we could no longer ignore them and therefore appointed a commission of six impartial men of approved integrity to inquire into his former career to be brief I 1 would say that during a four weeks investigation extending over thirty years of his life wo we failed to discover anything damaging to his character the worst that an anyone one had to say was that he was too plain plain and out outspoken spoken for his own good and this verdict seemed to be confirmed by our discovery of we th e source of the persecutions of him as they may be properly styled the isabella reservation of indian lands in this state lying in that part of state slate where mr ellis was doing his work being and becoming more and more valuable a clique of rich and libart less lesi speculators combined and in most oases cases succeeded in beating the ignorant indians out of their lands mr ellis in his open and fearless and forsooth noth ing sparing wa way I 1 h heading ing right for the mark escous espoused the I 1 indians deans cause going even to highest authority at washington succeeded in having an investigation made which resulted in bringing some of the culprits to justice it is obvious that this clique has become his doab death enemy they have ample means at their command and they have consequently hounded him ever since rince and I 1 anve have no doubt will continue to do so ao till they have driven him to his death I 1 am sorry to say sav I 1 fear they will in time succeed in their hellish purpose such is my firm belief and at this conclusion our co has arrived mr ruis euis Is ia in my honest opinion an honest straightforward man and a powerful erful confederate to whom cause he may espouse but I 1 repeat his fearlessness will finally be the end of him he is moreover a scholar and a writer of high attainments itis it is possible you may think I 1 am too lavish I 1 have nevertheless not overdrawn the picture whether my judgment is worth anything anything you may ascertain from any of the banks anks here or of any citizen of good repute in this place 11 hoping 1 I may have rendered you as well as ar mr ellis a good service ivill I 1 will close by saying that it will always afford me pleasure to do a deserving fellow be ing a favor if you desire further information I 1 am ready to give iland it and to refer you to other othe prominent citizens here yours youra ret ref hect fully signed MEYER meyon DESEr camm mr desenberg Dea enberg let me say belongs to a family that is in known in mercantile circlet circles all over michigan and ana which wherever known Is honored I 1 deem it an honor to count this man an ani I 1 hie large family in michigan my friends many people in salt lake know him and his most estimable wife and to them his word needs no corroboration the fight forced upon me in kalamazoo was by no means the worst vengeance wrought upon me by the thieves whom I 1 brought to justice and I 1 could tell you a tale that cannot be paralleled parale led in history I 1 ask the attention of the anti mormons to my challenge for an investigation CHARLES clinkles ClI AKLES ELLIS elius |
