Show FALSEHOOD LACKS VITALITY it ifo is related with some variation of detail that at a juncture in president grants administration when he was being assailed by a portion of the press of the country with unusual bitterness he and several members of congress were in a cloak room A congressman present began to read aloud from a book the matter he read was a most vicious and virulent attack upon the president of the united states charging him with heinous offenses and deep moral turpitude when the readey reader ceased the gentlemen present com dented upon the unusual venom towards the president that was displayed in what he had read he then explained that in reading he had substituted the name of at president grant tor for that of george washington but that otherwise he had haa read verbatim pars para graphs that had been written while washington was president but the writer and his work had sunk into such obscurity that neither were remembered by the members of the party in the cloak room and the resurrection of the old volume from which the reading had been dono done brought its author into a light to which the deepest oblivion was infinitely preferable the slanderer 0 of washington might wen well desire that his work remain forever burled buried and forgotten for it would be torment unendurable to his soul in the spirit world to know that his abuse and falsehoods falsehood were being commented upon by the american people in the light of their love and reverence tor for the father of his country sixty years yeats ago in the regions round about payette fayette and palmyra in the state of new york there were many slanderers slander ers of a young man named joseph smith who had become greatly noted in that part of the united states among both friends and foes there were many of each class many persons eagerly uttered all sorts of accusations cusat ions against him he was charged with almost every offense known to the calendar of crime so abundant was waa this testimony that many persons believed that to kill him would be more than justifiable later in missouri and still later in illinois he was made the victim of the same sort of hostility which finally culminated in the murder of himself and his brother hyrum recently two mormon eldery elderd have been laboring in fayette and palmyra and that vic tAlty and while so engaged they took special pains to inquire among old residents for some tangible evidence based on the personal knowledge of the witnesses offering it going to impeach the morals or character of joseph smith but they utterly failed to hear a word of the kind on the contrary all persons whom they met and who were personally acquainted with the early mormons cormons Mor mons described them as a moral and law abiding people of peculiar religious views not a soul was found to reiterate the old time charges against them their leaders or their prophet the slanders slander and falsehoods of former years had an all died out not a spark of vitality remained in one of them so must it ever be falsehood lack vitality it cannot be made to endure it cannot be perpetuated for a timo time it may seem so full of force and virility as an to threaten to destroy and supplant the truth but no such success can be permanent in the nature and constitution of things that which is contrary to truth must decay |