Show EMPHATIC FACTS for the ho consideration of GOT 1 caleb W west i 4 2 L CONTRARY COURT 3 A momentous question discussed frankly and candidly and Exhaust exhaustively ivey governor west in visiting tho I 1 ilor mormons mons now in the penitentiary and offering them their freedom fie edoin if they would obey the laws as interpreted pret edby by tho the courts no doubt acted from the best beat of intentions intent ione but it ie is very evident that gov not fully understand the situation I 1 now let us ask tile question what mut ibe mormons do to obey the laws according to the interpretation of our courts our courts have ruled thata that a man tin might live with any one of his wives if ho lie lived with only one and that he might support them and their children and in case of sickness that he be might visit them and that this would be living according to the requirements of tho the edmunds law according to the tile foregoing rulings apostle snow and many others who have tried to conform to the law could not have been convicted I 1 for tb they ey bad kept the law in good faith and accor din ding to the tile beet best of their judgment and when the foregoing rulings were published they felt themselves safe knowing that they had lived strictly according to this interpretation that our courts had given iven to the edmunds law A very scort short time proved that the mormons had lived thy the law according to the interpretation of the courts were veto still liable to fines and imprisonment tarso ament to the full extent of the wv justpn came same as if they had bad ignored the laivand law and never ted from their wies former interpretations given give by the courts did not hold good but were frequently changed to suit tha akeo and secure convictions mormons who have kept aho be edmunds law strictly according to the foregoing in are now in the penitentiary ent tent iary and by means of segregating the against them for th tho offie of lenee fise they are made tp to suffer buffer three or four times the tile full fall p penalty of the law juries have been packed by open venire that would convict con vice with or without evidence if so desired by the prosecuting attorney in ili the language of marshal af idaho they have had bad juried tila aula 1164 1 aj at if f he were liere here on trial and i no 10 doubt jesus christ was convicted and crucified by just such men as those who are now packed into juries to convict the mormons cormons Mor mons interpretations of the tile edmunds law by our courts have been so varied and conflicting that if a mormon should promise to keep tho law it would bo be like a man signing an agreement before it was written placing his name at the bottom of a large sheet of blank paper leaving the other party to nil fill in the tho conditions at pleasure afterwards according co ding to recent trials of mormons under the tile edmunds act it would seem that our courts will not bo be satisfied with anything short of plural wi wives ves and their children being turned away from their homes that shelter them they would require a man to dishonor and bastardize his children to break the most sacred contracts and covenants that can exist between human beings eings Jb and to sever it union abathe that lie has believed to be approved of god and rod as enduring as eternity when to him film to break theae oon contracts tracts and covenants would be to blast his prospects and ruin his bap happiness in time and eternity no true man will with these religious convictions can afford to cast them aside violate his ills conscience and these most sacred covenants let the consequences be what they may no not to avoid fines imprisonment and even death in the reign of bloody mary queen of england so called because she had bad so many of her subject killed for being stants john hooper lush bishop of gloucester when chained to the stake and the tile fag maggots gots were being lighted to burn him alive if ho he would not turn catholic and renounce the principles i sciples of the reformation bad the queens beens pardon placed in a box upon a stool before him lie ile could have life and liberty and great honors if he would woul donly only recant and renounce his religious convictions but this ho could not do to him they were chest the stepping ep I 1 ng stones to heaven he lie like th the PA mormons feared god more than roan man and with earnestness he lie eaid said if you love my soul away with it the principal charge laid against him was that he lie had married a wife and had bad maintained that it was lawful for a minister to marry the popular religion and civilization of that ago age frowned down marriage while it encouraged harlo harlotry fry and permitted the tile grossest sexual bins if not committed in the in marriage arriage relation 11 at the council of toleda about the year in canon 17 a christian having a wife and mistress was to be cut oil from the church but bid be he might keep a mistress mi ini and retain his fellowship it was this leaven that had been at work corrupting the minds of the masses that made it possible eleven centuries afterwards for for john hooper to bo be burned at the stake for marrying a wife and OTC eating it to bo be lawful for ministers to marry the same bitter feeling seem seems to prevail against the latter day saints because they believe it to be right and according to gode gods law for all christian men and women to marry and in tho the language lanau ape of tho the apostle paul that the man ie is not without the woman nor the woman without tho tile man in tho lord and nd there being many more marriageable women than there are men and andriany andro many any men prefer harlotry to marriage and will not marry this forces the conclusion that polygamy is right and necessary if every christian woman according to paula paul word in tho new testament is to bo be united to somo some roan man forsay for bays she he ehe she is not without the man in I 1 the I 1 lord then she cannot reach the ghi highest h i st condition of life in the lord that a god od and true christianity has designed for her outside of the marriage raa g 6 r relation elation if polygamy were allowed biow a it lt would establish the right of marriage for every woman and so como m 0 women who now throw themselves es away by uniting themselves with bad men who may lead them down to destruction of both body and soul might then have the provi lige of be lag ing yoked with a rood good upright man who would lead them and their chil dren to the enjoyment of the life of the righteous oua this would also lessen the opportunities 0 of f the seduce r and libertine and some of them thein in this way might be influenced to a bettor better life when they were made to realize tha they not enjoy wo man only by menns of nf hono honorable rabi 0 marriage let ads aitery ho he punished and be consi dereu as great a ein sin as it was in ancient ism 1 I then the moral atmosphere emild bo be more pure women would noc juit bo be seduced and driven from good society by base and heartless men lo 10 wander alone without a lius bande protection sinking down in ili a life of sin and shame without the hope of heaven while the tile of otheir their ruin is cruelly seeking for more unhallowed rd conquest the mormons are considered to be unreasonable because they cannot abandon polygamy and conform to the popular views of tho the nation the constitution does not require our religious views to be popular to entitle them to its protection it is the tile weak that need protection it is the unpopular creed that must be sheltered by its strong arm the creed that la is kopul popular tr does not need it it was made for the weak and not for the strong popular sentiments frequently undergo great changes it was once considered popular for prophets and patriarchs to have more than one wife and god approved this condition but after the tile fall of the christian church and pagan monous amy crept in tho tile ministers mini stera of the church were not allowed to marry a wife at all and this still continues in the catholic church while it is now popular for mini minutes tes te s of all other churches to mat y what a change since the pote an bishop john hooper was buried at the stake in gloucester england for haying baying married a wife and believing beli eying that it was lawful and right to do so the mor mons love their wives and children very dearly now let bet rno ask a question to those who ask anil and who not only ask but demand that the mor mons must put away their wives wives supposing that in this world of constant chance chanas that portion of american citizens that th a t favor harlotry bar I 1 otry and refuse to marry increase in numbers which they are doing until they are the and anti being in the mas bority abey chev send heir their kind to con gress and laws are passed condemn ing mar marriage riago and making it uzi unlawful lawful to live in the married relation and to put tir a aay ga y fiffe I 1 ir ad her to starve or become a prey to the vicious he ile must not visit her and must not even be seen talking to her anything of the sort being co construed to bo be cohabitation in the married relation for which ho he is I 1 liable lable to be fined to the full extent of his ills property and bo be sent to prison for life under tho the segregating process now I 1 mr dickson Bir mazane Zane and all other mor mon persecutors how would you like it how ilow gracefully would you submit to this requirement no matter how popular the demand might be coming from the party part partain yin in power the latter day saints feel 01 their situation now as keen keenly lyas as you would the one pictured above their families are just aa as dear bothem to them as yours are 1 to you their religious principle principles including polygamy they hold sacred and dearer to them than life itself I 1 and in the language of bishop hooper when urged by a friend to accept the situation recant and yield himself to those in ili pow power er and thereby save his life for said this friend life lire is sweet and death is bitter how flow beautifully the bishop answered when he paid said true it is master laster 5 kingston K n ston that death is bitter and life is sweet but alas I 1 consider that the death to come is more bitter and the life to come is more sweet 1 the latter day saints saint firmly believe that according to the size of the families farol liea and their purity of life so will their glory and exaltation be in the existence beyond this life abraham rejoiced in tho the promise of god that ills his children should be as an numerous as tho the stars or as the sands upon the sea shore the saints only believe in and practice tite those things that the christian bible bays says gods people believed in and practiced in former dae das and if the tile constitution in its guarantee of free exercise of religion without restriction doea doc not include tho the bibia bible religion then either the bible or this clause in the constitution should be abolished while the constitution en on durce dures congress is treading upon forbidden ground when it Inter interferes ferea with any religion can congress define what true religion is if itcan it cannot should it not let lot them all alone but says ono one polygamy is not religion and wae was not eo so considered by the trainers framers of the constitution jef ferson was one and would no doubt ili have included udea the despised mormons in ills his discus sion of its provisions bad bail tho the mor mons existed at that time for that instrument ment was intended as a shield for the persecuted and a defense for the tile weak lie spoke of religions considered by the nation at that time to incI includes tides both tile true and the false namina the christ christian a n the jew jow and the turk which c most certainly included polygamy I 1 agamy the objectionable feature in mormon ism no a one can deny that polygamy is founded upon the bible all and the congress of t the e united states with a bible believing christian minister to pray for them every time that they meet to make laws certainly cannot consistently say that anything that ia Is founded upon the bible is not religion if congress can rightfully 1 legislate git against adv belief or practice fou founded ridd upon the bible it can legislate against all and no christian denomination would get any more tolerance or protection than the popularity of their respective creeds would secure them the constitution with ite its guarantee of religious liberty would then only exist in name might would be construed to be richt right and tho weak must go the wall or in invert vert conscience I 1 live livo by policy instead of ciple caitie to i go 8 against fist the currea I 1 i turf turn round i ral bo be like t the hd i rest est 11 a wl in down ho tile stream of PC arit to r I 1 inthia h thill way they would probably per er te cution EX ON I 1 I 1 |