Show I 1 I 1 THE EPISTLE full F text t of one on 0 of the tile most nos t documents known to modern I 1 times presidents john taylor and george Q cannon caution speak I 1 and the condition cond 0 of affairs in utah is laid baro bare in the language of truth presidents OFFICE salt lake city april ath 1 J to the officers and members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints in conference assembled BELOVED AND SISTERS it ia is eminently proper under the circumstances not being able to bo be with you in in person at our annual conference that we should address youa yoma few lines and express to you our faith feelings and hopes con corning the great work of 0 f our god in which wo we are all mutually interested never at any time in our lives have we bad more joy and satisfaction in the gobbel and in the labors thereof than we have at the present time profoundly grateful to our god for fo ilia his kindness to us in permitting us to havo have a name and place among his people and to be the bearers of his everlasting priesthood we arc determined ter mined with his ills help to press forward with increased diligence and zeal in in doing our part towards the carrying on of his purposes and work wo see ills 1 hand marvelously manifested in behalf of his people we know that his ills power ia is with us that ilia ilis angels have charge concerning us and that ill at no affliction can fall upon any one however humble without it being fully known to him this knowledge that god is near to us and bears and answers our prayers I 1 ia an unceasing cause of thankfulness and praise for a wise purpose in his providence he ile permits ts the wicked in the exercise of their agency from time to time to afflict his ills follower followers ince the days of our father adam this has always been the ilia case and it will continue to bo be so long as satan has any power over the hearts of the children of men we are all children of the same great gr eat parent and each one has the and privilege granted to him or her bar to ex brewe ercile his or her tier agency we have chosen to serve tho the god of israel wo we have submitted to his laws have obeyed his ills gospel and hayo have chosen the path which ho ile assures us will brine bring us into his hi presence othera others of his ills children prefer a different course they yield to a different influence and under its power they seek geek to destroy the tile work of god and all whai are connected with it this they can do in the exercise of the tile agency which the father lias has given unto them not only in times past but in our own day the wicked have persecuted tormented and murdered the saints of god hut but while in ISO doing they bring upon themselves everlasting condemnation their acts are overruled fur the glory and exaltation of his ills faithful people and tile accomplishment of his purposes in in the redemption of the earth for a few months past wo we have seen in these valleys an exhibition orthis of this deadly hostility against the ilia latter day saints ve we need not enumerate to you all ill these acts of oppression and wrong you arc are familiar with them but the best men in the community men inen of pure lives men who have set an all example to tho ilia people ever binco since they came to these mountain woun taino and in all their days who have led in works of righteousness who have been citizens of the highest type of character have been selected as victims ora of a vile persecution se and been assailed and denounced to as criminals crim inala of the tile lowest grade juries have been selected for the express purpose of convicting men who are prominent in tho the church and their bias has become so thoroughly known in the community that the common expression is that an accusation in the ilia courts as now constituted is equivalent to a condic tion the rule of jurisprudence which lias has come down for ages past lias has been that the accused shall be deem cd ed innocent until proved guilty in our court swe are sorry to say this has been reversed the burden of proof has rested upon the accused in almost every instance the judge the jury equally with the prosecution aror elution ec ution appearing to view him as gubity and that it was his duty to furnish all th ff rf proof necessary to to ercul exculpate pate him ill in from th thle e accusation of guilt among all tho the english speaking people and aud for ages past the jury has been looked upon as the palladium of human liberty it has been the tile richest fruit of our civilization civili 1 n no greater guarantee of fairness could be imagined by our ancestors than that a man accused of crime should have bis his case submitted to the judgment of his peera peers his neighbors living in the tile vicinage and presumably acquainted quain ted with his life and with the motia motives es which may inay havo have prompted to commit the crime of which he lie was accused the wisdom of man has failed to devise fairer or more just means than this of deciding upon their fellow mens men s guilt or innocence when accused bat but in this judicial district for a long period past wo we do not know of a li jury that ha has been thus constituted jurors have been selected for their known enmity to the parties accused or to the principle involved in ilia trial the result has been that a latter day lay saint would almost be as safe in seeking for justice in ilia infernal re ye gions or at the hands of algarine garino Al pirates ira t ed as in in courts of this character indictments havo have been found against different dit terent parties upon tho the flimsiest flims iest evidence and in some instances upon evidence which would havo have no weight with any an fair minded jury the result has te be enthat a reign of judicial terror has prevailed and still prevails in these valleys seeing no prospect of fair trial men have deel deemed neI it better ietter to avoid arrest for a it eason or until then thera was a prospect fl of receiving impartial treatment by the tile courts and juries prosecution pros elution liaa b degenerated into persecution A i law which ia is in and of itself as we believe unconstitutional and aimed practice of religion reli ando and so at a t the religion pion viewed by a number of 0 our leading statesmen in con congress gress is taken advantage of and carried to lengths length I 1 never TIM r dreamed of by many probably voted for it we of the tile men NV who 0 have bave sometimes thou thought glit 1 hat that it was impossible for men nen r to io indulge in such vindictive fedin gaas Is have aye been manifested here but in searching for a I 1 I 1 I 1 4 cause wo we have been forced to tho ilia conclusion that these violent probe cautions were only intended to provoke the people to commit some overt act whereby the incoming adminis might be embarrassed permit us to refer to our own cases president john tJohn haytor at the tile beginning af pf of this year hearing of the persecution se to which our brethren bretl iren were subjected in arizona determined to visit that re region kion in company with a number of the elders Ill aih object in going there was to visit with and as lar aar as possible comfort tho tile saints five rive oi of our co religionists had undergone a form of trial a travesty of justice and three of them had been sent under a sentence of imprisonment of three and a half years and fine cadi each to what may be rightly termed the american siberia up wards of 2000 miles distant from their own homes the house of cors cots at detroit the other two had been sentenced to six months so imprisonment and fine in ilia the territorial penitentiary at yuma every member of our church was shocked nt at these outrageous proceedings for while ill all were prepared to endure tho the legal consequences of the violation of the edmunds law they were not prepared for such grum and tyrannical perversions of or the tile law as were involved in these sentences no man who could by any possibility be accused any longer dared to submit his case to such treatment many of them therefore left their homes to seek in a foreign land land that freedom from persecution which was denied them in their own it ws wits under these circumstances that president taylor and the ilia company of elders referred to visited arizona upon his return and while at san francisco he lie received telegrams in ins forming him that it wua unsafe for him to come back to salt lake city disregarding these however he be did dd 1 return and publicly y attended to 11 his 6 business for some time in in the tile meanwhile delivering a discourse to the ilia saints in the tabernacle seeing however how determined certain federal officials offic bals hero here were to embarrass arrest and place under bonds every prominent man an and nd being informed of threats tsuma made d D against his ills own liberty he deemed it wise under tho the circumstances to withdraw forab for awhile h i 10 to attend to his hie business in a more private manner than lie had been in the habit of doing doin 9 in his public office this he lie has continued to do up to the tile present writing receiving and answering letters gibing counsel and instructions and devoting devoti I 1 himself assiduously to all the duties of hia his calling except iu III delivering I 1 ng public addresses from the stand neither he lie president george Q cannon nor president joseph F smith have had any official notification or reliable information from any officer odthe of the court that process ofay of any kind bad had been issued against them at the tile same time their residences especially that of brother joseph F Smith have been invaded and searched and the marshal his deputies and their the ir spotters apoi and spies have displayed a zeal c lo 10 ascertain the tile whereabouts of the firak first presidency that has led to the conius conclusion lon that they wished to get them into their power and place them under tinder arrest and this anxiety was not only manifested in their cases but president woodruff and several of the twelve apostles Apo sties besides numbers of other le leading adint men have been threatened and sought for with assida assiduity t in Englan I 1 dupon one occa occasion Eion the eloquent lord chatham said raid in speaking of tho rights of tho that a mans house was hia castle that though it might be so poor that it the je raina rains of heaven could penetrate it and the winds beat through its crevices crey ices yet the king of 0 ED england ifland j himself could not crom its threshold 1 without its owners permission I 1 A recent illustration of or the tile zeal of these officials and their creatures lias has come conle to light in the caso case of Pes president ident I 1 george Q cannon who has bas just returned from the east tho the railroads I 1 and highways have been swarming I 1 with deputy marshals and their myr amidons to intercept and arrest him wo we have yet to learn that it lias has bej como come necessary for honorable gentlemen in ill america to report them solves to courts marshals or any civil officer when the they y leave home on business or to ask for passports or to have them tho question liaa has boon been asked us I 1 how long wo we intend to this course in answer we say that at qt no time during our existence have we ever shrunk from the investigation of our conduct our utterances or our I 1 lives ives by any fair tribunal wo have bavo lived under tho the gazo gaze of the ilia public and where every act and expression could be scrutinized wo we arc are as ready today to day as ever to submit our cases to a properly organized court and jury of our peers to decide upon so confident are wo we of our innocence of alleged ed wron wrongdoing wrong doing that wo we entertain ter no fears of the result of such a trial we are willing to meet the issue at any moment we are fully conscious olour of our innocence innocenc oo of f all violation odthe of the laws of god or of constitutional laws enacted by man but if there are laws made to entrap us bec tuie of our belief in and practice of the revelations which god has bas given to ilia his church which a court and jury shall decide we have violated wo desire at least that it shall be upon what all trie world call good evidence and substantial proof and not upon religious prejudice and through a determination to convict and punish evidence or no evidence evid enco we ought at least to have the ilia same saint rights that burglars thieves and murderers are accorded under the law in that case should conviction convict lon follow wu we should submit to it as martyrs have submitted in every age when god ha has had a people upon the earth as persecution inflicted upon us for our adherence to hia ilia laws our faith f aith and practice for which we WP are sought to be condemned und and punished ie is the faith and practice of the best and holiest hollest of gods children if we are sinners in III ebis respect then abraham who is distinguished by the lord himself himsel fas as the friend of god was wa a sinner if it we are sinners then jacob and moses and Elka elkanah solomon and david dald and a host of others too numerous to mention were also binner sinners E even yen jesus himself the being whom wo e adore as our redeemer and the author of our eal salvation called call edthe the eternal father whom he ile worshipped wor shipped and whom we are commanded rua tided to worship as the tile god of Ab abraham isaac and jacob showing 1 9 that the god of heaven himself a attached t no condemnation to these benfor men for their practice of bf patriarchal marriage but in many instances commanded it provided laws for its arrangement ran gement and called those who practiced practised it his ills friends and men after hiis his own heart and what ie is AM more worthy of remark that in choosing a lineage from which hie ills beloved bon jesus should descend deacon P he clio celiose a lineage distinguished in in the earth among all lations aa as the most renowned ances I 1 I 1 tors of oatlie the savior of the world and to whom ho lie most frea frequently bently alluded alluded can therefore our belief belle in in and practice of this system of marriage be as wrong as our appo bents would have it appear when this boblo array of gods favorite children are remembered and when in addition we call to mind the fact that the bible itself which has given to the christian world all the knowls knowl edge it has of god and godliness has principally principal y under god as its authors it is averred by somo some of our enemies that tins till is not religion this is not thu the view view however of the members of the at utah commission for they have said this article of faith is as much an essential and substantial part of their creed aa as their belief in baptism repentance pen tance for tho the forgiveness of sins sins and the like and again alt all orthodox mormons cormons believe polygamy to be right and that it is an essential part of their cr creed eed 1 it haa has also been alleged in congress by those who take pleasure plea suro in denouncing noun cing our system of marriage that tho the english government in india has put down tho suttee and that therefore tho tile united states 0 ought 1 il 1 to 0 put down plural in marriage a ariage arg if i h colons solons had ift d made themselves a little more acquainted with the action of tho the imperial governs govern ment merit of great britain thoy they would have found that while that government put down widow burning it protects by law in all their rights privileges and franchises of polygamists ista and places them on an equal footing with others tho the lord has revealed to us by his special revelations aa as clearly and positively as ile ever did to any airy of the ancient prophets certain P principles kincl associated with tho the eternity of the marriage covenant has giyen given definite commands |