Show THE illustrated AMERICAN the illustrated american of january 24 1891 says flays of its attack upon the mormon people that it went into this matter with full determination to bring the mormon situation before the country and to persuade congress in kursu anoe of president harrisone Har Harri ripon sont message that prompt action was necessary emary 11 I 1 propose to examine this and other statements of the aforesaid paper the president dent i message is made the pretext for the of th abla paper iq in relation to the latter day saints the presidents message was given to the country in ic december 1890 the at tack of the above named paper began in its issue of december that a paper aper should obtain a complete and re reliable flable history of mormonism procure photographs make I 1 illustrations and get the matter upon n the market in ur so short a time is h highly ehly improbable if not impossible let us look at the editors full determination to bring the mormon situation before the country if such a determination were honest and iu in the interest of truth and justice it would be a work of months instead of days to bring it out the one sided misleading and faise statements of the pa per shows shown clearly enough that the editor was not seeking to publish the truth hesayo he the leaders of the mormon church are foemen flemen worthy of our steel why then in preparing to lay the mormon situation before the coun country iry did he not call upon them to state their ease case to try their steel with him such buch a course would certainly have been of great service to him in getting a correct statement of the mormon situation before the country instead the editor has simply pilfered from the an ti mormon huckster shop the chesnus that have been on the market for over thirty years the editor should have written steal instead of steel in his reference to the mormon leaders the animus of this illustrated paper is not difficult of discovery it is itself an illustration of the odium cum from the appearance of tho the mormon faith it has been hated and fought and persecuted by the evangelical sects never a mob murdered and drove mormons cormons that was not in sti gated to act by so called christian Chrls tian ministers if it was not even led by them if this picture paper were to p put u t the th mormon situa situation tion before the coun country t in its true light its publications on the subject would be the most terrible condemnation of the evangelical sects that has ever appeared the editor of the american appears to entertain a deep sympathy for our wronged robbed driven and murdered indians indiana if he were ony only to acquaint himself with the truth ot dathe the history of the mormon people he would find that they have been treated in the same way the indians indiana have been and in part for the same reason that is because they have always been obliged to be on the outskirts of white advance across the country and by their magnificent ent industry have everywhere made themselves the possessors sors of valuable properties that have excited the cupidity of adventurers the so called christian church has pushed the border ruffian element against the mormon people by its denunciation of them as infidels and beasts just as it has encouraged the same element against the indians indiana by its cry of aaa ages some of the worst slaughters of indians have been conducted by alleged Christ christians christaan lan as witness the sand creek massacre under colonel chivington yet since the days of penn no people have been so successful in thelt treatment of our indians as have been these there same maligned and persecuted mormons cormons Mor mons but to return to the main question fuestion ue stion the motive of this editor may 1 1 repeat be foai in n hta his hla his pik p per ber la Is an output of the bible house now new york every preacher politician and adventurer who has defamed the mormons cormons for half a centary has been a bible man yet the mormons cormons stand upon the bible as a rock of their faila it is in not on record that they e ever y er interfered with any sect on ath a th in the early years of their pro they often debated with evangelists but as they always vanquished their opponents on strictly scriptural grounds debate was abandoned and the mob was substituted for it it cannot be proven that any missionary sent against the mormons cormons was ver ever molested and yet mormon mis been murdered in alleged christian communities byhro by pro eased followers of christ for years the mormons invited passing evangelists to preach in their tabernacle at gilt alt lake city and there parson new aan found a waterloo in debate with orson oison pratton pratt on bible polygamy since wen then parsons ansons arsons have not been eager to preach for the mormons cormons Mor mons if the bible is the infallible worl word and will of god the mormons cormons areg arleight right and the evan know it hence their opposition this action of this bible Ho house paper is therefore probably only an outbreak of evangelical fury thrown affat the meeting ot of a congress in which it had been perhaps planned to make a struggle to procure such legislation as would crush the mormons cormons and put utah into the hands of their what arti are the merits of the anti mor poa fight it has none it Is such persecution as led to the massacre of the oe moors boors and jews in spain the hu hi fe ts in france what is t the he crime wy w y of the mormons cormons Mor mons their interpretation terp of the bible they rhey are muy of believing that god is not a theological vacuum but a real living loat material erial person their opponents asbert that go I 1 has neither body parts or r passions pam ions that is that he be is at the aaroe time an almighty god and a nonentity non bon entity rhe mormons cormons ez exposed poked the absurdity of such a conception and malsed tiie the standard of a real god and for this they are damned by the worshipers of the infinite vacuum why h ive not the evangelical sects callea for a thorough investigation of the mormon faith in a joint conference that would include the ablest men of both side bidet are they afraid to met meet 16 foeman man worthy of their steel the then men who arb are fighting mormonism know nothing of it and are actuated only by a desire to destroy what to them is heresy unable to meet it with argument they resort to abuse and fulse falsehood hood J ut as the church fell upon thom thomas paine when he published his age of reau 11 in this thi latest attack upon the mor mons through this bible house paper the attacking parties give their cause and their case away in their attempt to palm their work upon the world as coming from a mormon old mormon 1 is 19 of course an imaginary person many persons have added their portion ti to the pot of falsehood out of which the americans articles have been need and formed the editor exposes himself in an unguarded con fe that we did not assert that this venerable member of the mormon church was still living jiving in salt lake city what we asserted was that as a bontempo contempo con contemporary tempo of joseph smith he knew the history of the mormon church from its in inception oddon but the first article published on the subject signed old mormon asserted that the writer was in prison with joseph smith when he fie was killed hilled now the american seeing its blunder b attempts aftem ts to hedge by excusing its ind old mormon myth by saying if ir in the course of a long lone narration his memory has proved defective here and there his excuse ll is to be found in his hia age if old mormon was so defective in memory that thai he imagined he had been in priam with joseph smith when the latter bitter was assassin assassinated bated what reliance can be placed upon his statement on other pot points ailts if tie he is to be excused from the charge of lying on that point because of his age it is proper to set aside his whole statement as the gibberish of an old child if he is not that he is an old knave supposing him to be a real person but hut does any sane person suffuse suppose that it if there were any such individual ind vid ual to in existence exis tenee the dornon people could not name him at once they know who was in prison with joseph and hyrum smith when they were killed arid and they know whether those men are now alive those men are all dead every one and they all died in the mormon faith hence the attempt to cou condemn derrin the mormons cormons out of the lips of one of their own men breaks down on the very threshold of its career as a bungling lie and therefore th 9 whole work is condemned by the animus ot of its promoters there are several mormons cormons in utah over ninety but there lot is no mormon in the world eighty five ap or any other age who would write the amer idan icon ar articles signed old mormon an apostate might so write for as aa a class clam they are bitter against the church from which they fell and can misrepresent as deftly as if they had nev r left the evangelical churches from which they went to join the mormon church but the mormon church knows its apostates apostate and sand if old mormon were even an apostate it coul I 1 name him that it cannot is proof that no such person exists for these reasons I 1 aar that the attack of the illustrated american upon the mormon people is condemned ky by its own language instead of being actuated by a full determination to bring the mormon situation before the country its purpose evidently is to take ad advantage adva tage of the anti mormon prejudice to sell itself and make money the paper is further condemned by its misrepresentations as to the recent report of the utah commission the editor shows his bis lack of information upon the subject by saying that when the report of the commission makes its appearance it will show a different stace of things that is it will show ghow that polygamy has not been abandoned by the mormons cormons Mor mons it is only necessary to say that that report has been out for months that is its statement in reference to polygamy was sent from salt lake by the agent of the associated press and published fill all over the country months ago and the report itself does not differ from that dispatch now what were the facts facto the report states that it is believed that there have been forty one cases of polygamy in utah in the past year they did not say there were forty one cases or that they had discovered 41 cases but it was wip supposed posed there were when it is 19 considered that such a statement would be used to the injury of the mormon people the action 0 the utah commission Commis aion in giving it to the press becomes malevolent As long ago as july 1889 colonel godfrey chairman of this utah commission stated in a private conversation that polygamy was dead in utah he added we do not care a damn for polygamy we must down the mormon Peo people if mr godfrey wants the proof he can havn have it the illustrated american fun tier condemns itself aud and its cause by attempting to force chief justice zane of utah into the case on its own side it intimates that judge zane has no faith fah or not much that polygamy has been abandoned the facts are that judge zane expressed his opinion very soon after the action of the mormon church on president wood ruffs buffs manifesto in october last A foreigner applied to judge zane zanes Is court for naturalization among other questions the judge ludge asked the applicant if he be was a member of the mormon church and proceeded to explain that he took the action of the mormon church upon the question of to ic mar matlage martlage ilage as having been made in good faith and he be should not consider membership in that church a bar to naturalization naturalization the cau course ree of the illustrated amari oan to is based upon the assumption that the mormons cormons must be believed guilty until il they prove themselves innocent and then it proceeds to lecture the jury the public in order to prejudice it against the mormons cormons and thus prevent them m from having an opportunity Vort unity to prove their innocence wig this is the old process of trying witches bind them and throw them into the sea pea if they drown they are innocent but if they are likely to save their lives kill them such duch passed current in the dark despotisms despotis ms and the theological tyrannies tyrannizes tyr annies of the past but what must honest men and women say of them thein under a government that professes to bold freedom of conscience sacred and inalienable the illustrated american refers to 10 an article published in the chicago evne years ago as having never been refuted it is 18 enough to say in answer that that article was written by a man who has been for years a maniac on mormonism and whose word will not be taken today ou the utah situation as reliable by either mormon or anti mormon where he be is known in conclusion I 1 say arid and my statement is based upon careful observations running through nearly a two years residence in utah and considerable traveling through the territory that there is not a more law abiding people on the continent than the mor mons there is no more reason for this strife in utah than there is for a similar strife in new york state between the evangelical and catholic sects an ana J I 1 maintain that as long as the government protects all sects in new york it should for the same reason protect the Mor Morn naone rius in utah the other hand the government must crush the mormons cormons Mor mons it should for the same reasons crush and annihilate all other sects if the mormons cormons are guilty so BO f qually are all other sects if the bible is the word and will of god the government should protect all sects in their right to worship accor according Jing to their own conscientious understanding oft of that hatwill will if the bible is wrong then let the government crush not the victims of the bide bible but the bible if the bible is wrong let the government take action dimmed immediate jute and determined against God and still protect the people if government will not do this then let it forever cease to pander to the hatred of the evangelical sects in their insane and inhuman desire to down the mormon people this and nothing less than this will be american and the execution of the spirit of american fair play CHARLES ELLIS |