| Show ADDRESS TO from the news in consequence of recent endeavor to revive old animosities to an inu a blaze the few remaining sparks li the aphea ot dead issuer and to worl vp religious prejudices against th cormons mormons Mor mons into an overflowing fer ment it has been necessary or th deseret news to engage in a controversy for which it has nc and to come in contact with forces which it would not desire to notice there arc in utah as there have for many years three different classes namely the latter day saints or cormons mormons Mor mons the anti cormons mormons Mor mons and the non cormons mormons Mor mons the hattei while not believing in mormon doc artnes or endorsing mormon marriage are not enemies of the people bior do they join in the measures designed to bring trouble upon them it la to that class everywhere that we address these lines it Is charged by the antl cormons mormons Mor mons that the mormon church which embraces the majority of the people ot utah has violated pledges made to the atton 0 which we form a part that utah obtained statehood by fraud that there was no intention to abide hy the conditions on which utah entered the union that after obtaining the liberties of state sovereignty the mask was thrown ott and old conditions were renewed so that utah Is filling up with plural wives who were abot wives when statehood was achieved or when the manifesto ot president woodruff was issued which was in october 1890 and further that many thousands of polygamous children have been born within the past two or three years we ask your patient consideration of the facts in the case it Is an old subject revived but has been forced before the country as a present issue the manifesto of 1890 has been published many times the gist of it Is contained in these words inasmuch as laws have been enact led by congress forbidding plural marriages which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort I 1 hereby declare my intentions tent ions to submit to these laws and to use my influence with the members of the church over which I 1 preside to have them do likewise and I 1 now publicly declare that my advice to the latter day saints is to retrain from contracting any marriages forbidden by the law ot tb land it will be seen that this advice the only officer recognized in the mormon faith as holding authority to permit a plural marriage reached dimply to the cessation of marriages contrary to the law of the land it was so understood by the thousands who endorsed the counsel in general conference no other meaning can be fairly attached to the language used the Is that if it had been worded so as to command or advise men and women who had contracted plural marriages under the regulations of the church and by solemn covenants for itlie and all eternity to separate in violation of those sacred agreements the manifesto would not have been accepted by the people to whoa it was addressed at a later date a petition was addressed to the president of the united states asking tor general amnesty tor those who had violated the anti poly gamy laws of congress R matters little in this connection who drafted the petition and formulated its language the signers accepted it in the form in which it was presented to president benjamin harrlson it contains no reference to any covenant or agreement except that made by the mormon people in conference as already explained it Is stated in the petition how the law commanding polygamy was henceforth suspended that law relates to celestial marriage including a plurality of alvea the signers said aa shepherds of a patient and suffering people we ask amnesty for them and pledge our faith and honor for their future that future was the observance of the advice contained in the manifesto which was to retrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land but it la urged that some of the church leaders when appearing before judge loofbourow as master in chancery to give testimony as to the church property which had been es cheated were questioned in regard to their understanding der standing of the scope and meaning ot the manifesto and that they expressed the view that it covered association with plural alvea or that they declared that would be its effect supposing that be granted we have not disputed the statement nor analyzed the testimony for the reason that it does not touch the question of a pledge on the part of the mormon people or their leaders that they would cease to regard as wives those with whom they had made eternal covenants of marriage whatever was explained was the view and opinion of the witnesses as to the mean ins they attached to the language ot the document that was incidentally in produced trod in a hearing as to the proper disposition of church property that had leen es cheated by the government ern ment the qu eatton at issue Is what pledge or pledges have the mormon people or the people ot utah made with the nation the answer la found in tee enabling act and the state constitution and puts the matter beyond fair dispute the enabling act waa approved july ac 1894 this was after all the investigation and explanation and discussion over this vexed question it was congress that had defined the meaning of the term polygamy it was congress that had separated the offenses of marrying plural wives and of living with them making a wide difference as to their nature and their penalties it was congress that purposely made tha condition of acquiring statehood turn on the abandonment of the custom 0 contracting plural mar biages it was congress that intentionally tio nally belt out uny references to association in marriages already contracted tr the proviso required was simply that polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited the term polygamy was not used in the instrument for the very reason that it might be construed to mean more than was required as the popular understanding of the word was different to its dehnad legal signification when the constitution was framed the language of the enabling act on this point was strictly followed otter considerable debate in which the exclusive character of the provision was fully ventilated and understood and test any dubiety should arise concerning it an additional clause was added as follows an act to punish polygamy and othe kendred of fenes approved february 4 A D 1892 in so far as the same de lines and imposes penalties for polygamy la hereby declared to be in force in the state of utah reference to that act will show that the same distinctions made by congress in 1882 were made by the legislature of utah in 1892 and thus polygamy was again defined to mean the contracting of plural marriages while association with plural wives was constituted another and different ottense and waa intentionally left out of the state constitution the proceedings of the state convention are published in book form and the debate on this clause proves beyond a doubt unlawful cohabitation was purposely and understandingly excluded the record is our authority tor this statement it cannot be successfully cess fully impeached now therefore whatever may be argued as to the meaning of any preceding document the enabling act and the state constitution constituted the only pledge between utah and the naon by which statehood was obtained president cleveland accepted the constitution ution as complying with the condl lons imposed understanding fully the of the compact his proclamation cla mation to that effect was issued january 4 1896 we claim that the pledge has been kept the people ol 01 utah have observed it faithfully the mormon church has not violated it polygamous or plural marriages have not een solemnized by the authority of that church in any part of the state or of the united states nor has the doctrine been promulgated by the church or under its authority on the contrary it has been forbidden by the church official who alone holds the keys of authority in relation to the matter it as has been charged there have boon cases of violation of this church inhibition neither the church nor its president can be truthfully accused of boang responsible for them we do not know of any such cases in every instance where such charges have been investigated they have turned out to be either entirely imaginary or a complete misunderstanding of circumstances that could easily be explained in the event of legal proceedings ce the fact that no prosecutions for polygamy have been attempted since utah became a state of the union is good evidence that there Is not sufficient ground on which to base them the disposition to accuse Is so strong among antl cormons mormons Mor mons that if anything which would stand a legal test could be adduced it would be urged with all ane force and persistence si which characterized the enforcement of the anti polygamy laws of congress but supposing that there have been instances of the violation of the law against plural marriage only two have been positively charged while we do not admit the truth of the assertions or the hints thrown out we ask candid and just people whether it proven those cases would justify the broad accusation which has been made that utah is filling up with polygamous wives who were not wives when utah became a state or would it be evidence that either utah or tho mormon people or the mormon church had broken its pledge to the nation would not such exceptional instances bo viewed by fair minded people M what senator edmunds designated as sporadic cases would they prove that statehood was obtained by fraud or that there was no intention on the part of the mormon people to abide by the condition required in the enabling act would it not simply show it true that the individuals accused were guilty of not only breaking the law of the state but the rule and order of tho mormon church the present head of the church lias officially declared in the most solemn manner that no such marriages have been solemnized by authority of the church under his presidency or to his knowledge rince utah entered the union and that they will not be by his sanction without such sanction a plural marriage would be void in the church as much as it would be in law we state without hesitation that plural marriages have entirely ceased in the church of josua christ of latter day saints and that utah the mormon people and the mormon church have sacredly kept the compact made by the nation in the constitution of the state when the president of the church issued h s manifesto against the further contracting of plural marriages arul when utah entered the union aa a state on an equal footing with the other states there were a number of men who had contracted marriages marri agea under the ordinance of the church to which they belonged and which the I 1 parties regarded as entered into by divine authority and sanction the covenant between the man and his wives was an eternal religious contract it was tor time and all eternity according to their faith it was sealed on earth and scaled in heaven unless for transgression of the conditions of abo covenant no man had J 1 1 the power to dissolve it tha marriage was binding and could not be dissolved even by death it was to remain in this world and the world to come in and after the from the dead this may not be accepted by you whom we are addressing but it was and Is a part of the faith of the parties who entered into taco contracts thus they fully bellave that the obligations they entered into are sacred and eternal tho plural wife in that sense Is as much a wife as tho legal wife while the secular law does not recognize this status the church covenant and ceremony arc exactly the same as in the first or legal marriage you cannot change a religious sentiment conviction or belief by law it cannot be stamped out by violence chains the dungeon the firo of persecution ignominy the denunciations of the majority the ridicule of the unbeliever the anathema a of the pulpit the ful of press will not remove it from the souls of men and women there Is another influence to be considered in this direction which must bo viewed as a potent factor in the sum of the question that Is the law of nature the association of men and women who have the belief we have mentioned will be affected not only by what they deem to be the law of god but also by the undoubted and inevitable laws of nature these also are impregnable against the assaults of objectors they continue and abide and are in force in spite of public opinion and other agencies that oppose them the desire and love ot women tor offspring should be kept i view Is it to be reasonably expected in view of these facts that there will be no cases of polygamous association that will come within the purview of the provision against what is legally known as unlawful cohabitation the older portion of the class called polygamists are rapidly passing away they constitute the great majority of the email minority ot population who are in the marital condition described there Is no good reason why their relations should be disturbed it la only the younger per bons of that class alo cai rationally excite public opposition to their associations their number is but small some of them may have broken the statute which as many lawyers maintain wa improperly incorporated in the code adopted wholesale by the legislature of the state seeing that it was purposely excluded from the constitution Is it to bo wondered at that such la fractions have occurred their in frequency tre quency Is a marvel to ordinary men and women Is there any reason why their occasional occurrence should be heralded abroad to excite the animosity of the nation there have been two prosecutions for this offense since statehood was re quiren A plea of guilty was entered in both instances a fine ot ona hundred dollars being imposed Is not this the only legal way to meet the infraction of the law Is it not also the only proper way to oppose the practice aten any good purpose be served by proclaiming to the world that the majority of the people of utah are law de flors and law breakers Is the accusation cusa tion true we maintain that it la not we have never denied that there are some instances of this kind but we do deny the assertion which has been published from press and pulpit that there are thousands of polygamous children being bom in athla state these gross exaggerations are uttered and magnified with no good intent they only injure the material interests of our commonwealth and unjustly blacken the character of its people and they do not support in the least the graver charge that polygamous marriages are still being sol and that pledges made with the nation have been shamefully broken in any event the great body of the people ot utah the masses ot the mormon people and tho presidency of the church are by these cal shamefully maligned we will not tako up the question of the motives which prompt the authors of the slanders that are now being diligently circulated wo refer only to the facts and effects it is in your power to prevent or modify these attacks which to bome extent effect you in common with the rest of the community you can discourage them protest against them or by withholding support from those who invent and promulgate falsehoods compel a cessation of the assaults which tend to cloud the fair tamo of this young and vigorous state we do not attempt to apologize tor condone or advise the infraction of any law of the land we simply present the situation as it exactly exists for the consideration of humane rational and peace loving people who are not imbued with religious fanaticism or swayed by political we ask you to look at athla matter fairly and to use your influence to stem the tide of malice and slander by which the of the past are brought up from the shores of the long ago and revived with all their former vigor and evil results in addition |
