Show THE MARTYR PERIOD The course of true love did never yet run smooth and the same may be said of true reform For long years the Government S f Gov-ernment has been endeavoring to cpi cp-i force its laws in this Territory but with I very indifferent success until recently When the present effort to enforce the Jaw was begun some year and ahalf ago there was but small success in the undertaking S un-dertaking and to secure any evidence when those was a Herculean task and I were found who should have known something of the cases inwhich they were cited their memories failed them most wonderfully and such refinement of definitions was never sien before while the distinctions which witness drew were so subtle that German metaphysicians would have been unable to follow the chain of argument In fact so clear and I straightforward was much of the testimony I testi-mony that very many thought it quite il transparent and thought they could see PI not in it but beyond it the truth That period of shuttling and prevarication has partly passed away ana the cases which have come since have not been so revolting re-volting in their character This was the period of true defense in which advantage advan-tage was taken of everything even the truth But after long and tedious trials some few convictions were obtained ob-tained 1 as it became plain to thof ore liable to indictment und t mo who were already under indict anent Jut the necessary evidence could be obtained und witnesses began to learn that if the joinained recalcitrant upon them wuuld he isitcd the punishment from whir h they sought to shield their friend Those 1 were charged with S violating Ihl > m ojr once came forward S for-ward to pave tuot who clung to them as wives from hnmuu tout in prison cells The cases of Belle Hmis Nellie White and Lydia spenCer will I stand forth as examples of heroism hi women and cowardice in men They will stand as public posts to point tJu way by which men have gone tu the lowest depths of manhoods degradation Following this came a short period in which some three men who were charged I with unlawful cohabitation plead guilty to the charge and took the benefit of that leniency which the law loves to 4 l1 1 grant to those who promise obedience tot to-t I it in future For this simple yet proper and commendable action these men have been berated as being beyond all others criminals and traitors not criminals crimi-nals and traitors for their conduct in violating the laws of their country but for giving a promise to the Court not to do so in the future and to induce others to do the same so far as in their power lay So intense was the feeling against these men for this act that others have preferred to suffer the punishment which the law inflicts for its violation than face the condemnation and censure of their Leuow religionists The consequence has been that today we are entering upon what may be termed the martyr period in which men prefer punishment by the law in preference to rendering obedience to it The first of the new martyrs was Mr P Pratt Parley So unstable was I his mind that he could give the Court no I assurances as to what his future conduct would be so far as a continuance or discontinuance dis-continuance of the practice of unlawful 1 cohabitation was concerned In the absence S ab-sence of any promise to render obedience to the law in future he was punished to the full extent of the law and was thereby there-by in his belief made a martyr There now follow in his footsteps two other L prominent Mormons Mr Angus M Cannon Can-non and Mr A Milton Musser and another an-other not so prominent Mr James Watson These gentlemen would make no promise as to their future conduct Mr Cannon was totally unable to sa say p what his future conduct might be as it was a rule of his never to make promises not knowing whether he would be able to keep them This was rather a strange t statement coming from one who had I made covenants and promises to three wives not merely for time but for eternity Mr Cannon protested that he had endeavored to obey the law when it was promulgated but that he had erred in his interpretation of it And yet he S could not make a promise > to observe it as interpreted by the proper au thority From Mr Cannons attitude at-titude in the past it was to have been expected that from the position winch Air Cannon took in reciting re-citing the story of his life and his assum ing the role of one who was anxious to suffer punishment for righteousness sake that his whole conduct would be that of the martyr He had assumed the line of martyrdom and it was generally thought by all that his actions would be in unison therewith It is not to be charged against any man that I e takes the advantage of every right which the law guarantees him but the technical fight over law points especially when overruled greatly de tracts from the eclat which usually attends the act of martyrdom It shows that even those who deem themselves persecuted perse-cuted for righteousness sake have the same love for freedom and life as those who ih no way pretend to such exhalta tion of spirit Mr Cannon merely too k the benefitof those legal rights which are I given as much for the protection of society soci-ety as for the protection of him who is II arraigned at the bar justice Mr Cannon Can-non took his rights and the law took its j course It was in touching terms that Mr Cannon Can-non told the story of how Congress had made legitimate the children of those marriages for which he was now to be punished That simple I fact that it was the United States which gave to the 1 children of these illegal religious marriages mar-riages a legal status before the courts of their country should stand forth in the full heavens as a flame to point the shame of those who never once sought to give their children that which the United States gave without Felicitation gave to those who were innocent that which should have been their birth right Was this the system sys-tem which God revealed in the last days to regenerate mankind and make of earth a paradise If God loves the innocent inno-cent He could not establish a system which injured the innocent And it is to uphold this system that men make martyrs S mar-tyrs of themselves as they think No matter what men may make of themselves S them-selves polygamy is being crushed out in Utah and should be To this period of martyrdom will succeed a period of obedience and when men are given a choice between punishment I in the extreme and a nominal one on condition of obedience to the laws in future they will gladly accept the I leniency which the law allows To see that theory put in practice it will 1 only be necessary to wait until next September S I Sep-tember when criminal trials again begin I I and the gentleman who have gone to m Washington return and relate the history of their failure to accomplish anything so far as a suspension of the prosecutions for violations of the law is concerned Never again will three men in one day choose imprisonment and fine in preference I prefer-ence to a fine and obedience to the law I |