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HAND-BOOK

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|MORMONIS

‘TABLE OF CONTENTS”

Origin of Mormonism—Mrs. Horace Eaton, Palmyra, N. Y i@| Letters on Mormonism—Prof. J. M. Coyner nf Ba) Endowment Expose—An Eye-Witness............ ser ce nsec sent e ewe e ned 23 | Exposition of Mormonism—Rey. R. G. McNiece Polygamy—Prof. T. W. Lincoln The Mormon Situation—Judge C. C. Goodwin Blood Atonement—Prof. T. B. Hilton | The Christian Conflict With Mormonism—Rev. R. G. McNiece The Present Law-Making Power of Utah—Gen. M. M. Bane Mormonism vs. Jurisprudence—Judge J, S. Boreman ae ee O03 Work and Influence of the National Anti-Polygamy Soc’ty—Mrs. J. A. Froiseth.65 3 | The Mountain Meadows Massacre—Major J. H. Carleton Extracts from John D. Lee’s Confession The Political Attitude of the Mormons—Judge C. C. Goodwin Utah Mormonism Anti-Republican ; The Remedy—Govy. Eli H. Murray Are the Gentiles of Utah a Marauding Set ?—Hon. O. J. Hollister Mission Work in Utah—Episcopal Church Mission Work in Utah—Congregational Church Mission Work in Utah—Presbyterian Church Mission Work in Utah—Methodist Church The Loyal Citizens of Utah Are Polygamous Women Happy ?—Mrs. A. G. Paddock....,. Organization of the Mormon Church—Hon\4Arthar L'Tehoinas. : The Gentiles of Utah—Judge C. C. Goodwin : Utah and the Mormons—Hon. John R. MéBridé. igs | Appeal to the Patriotic Citizens of America— “Baasicals of ioe e eng Solution of the Problem—Prof. J. M. Coyner:.. s-eig's aoa ggite cence se eee sie Ss Who Are the Writers in the Hand-Book ?

SALT LAKE CITY: CHICAGO.:, CINCINNATI: Hanp-Book PuBLISHING ‘CoMPANY, ~"

1882.

THE COMPILER’S PREFACE.

The times demand such information as is found in the “‘ Hand-Book on Mormonism.” It has, therefore, been compiled to meet a public necessity.

Some of the articles were written years ago, but the positions then taken have been verified.

The compiler has not been influenced by personal considerations, either in the original design, or in the selection of the articles. : :

- The argument is against the system, and not against the individual. The time will come, and it is not far distant, when the masses of the Mormon people will realize that their truest friends are those who are now g0 ear- nestly fighting for religious liberty, free schools, free speech, and a free press.

Let it be distinctly understood that the “Gentiles” in Utah wage no war against any religion as a personal bélief; but that they are uncompromising in their opposition to a priestly_despotism which, wider the garb of ecclesias- tical authority, is endeavoring to destroy our dearest institutions.

They are not a greedy, “ marauding set.” They are not seeking posi- tion or personal gain in their earnest defence of American principles. We have been a citizen of Salt Lake City for the last seven years, and we know of what we speak when we say that there is not a prominent Gentile in Utah who would deprive the Latter-day Saints of a single religious or politi- cal right. All we ask is that the so-called Mormon Church take its place in society as a law-abiding organization, and thatits functions be purely ecclesi- astical. To secure this end we intend to battle, honestly, manfully, and patri- otically. When this is done in good faith, not orly for the present, but for all the future, we guarantee that the Gentiles of Utah, in the spirit of the golden rule, burying all the past, will be the foremost to accord to every member of that church every right that belongs to a loyal American citizen.

We believe the public will find in the Hand-Book that which will con- vince any candid mind that Utah Mormonism is not only a fraud? but a dan- gerous enemy to American republicanism, and a hindrance to progressive humanity. 3 J. M. COYNER.

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE.

It was the first intention of the publishers to issue only a few thousand copies of the Hand-Book, on heavy book paper, to be used as a book of refer- ence, and retailed at 50 cents apiece; but as soon as the circulars were issued, announcing its publication, there came a general request that the Hand-Book be scattered broadcast all over the country, by the tens of thousands as soon as possible, and, at the lowest possible price. In response to this request we have issued an edition of 21,000 copies, and put the retail price at twenty-five cents, or fiye for one dollar. The necessity of immediately printing this large edition has compelled us to use type somewhat worn and paper of an infe- tior quality, but this objection will be removed in future editions. .

The Hand-Book will be published at Salt Lake City to accommodate the Western, and at Chicago and Cincinnati to accommodate te Eastern trade.

All orders sent to Hanp-Boox Pusuisaine Co., at any one of the above places, will receive prompt attention. Those who have sent in 50 cents will receive two copies, and those who have ordered by the dozen will have their orders filled at $2.20 per dozen.

A liberal discount will be given to newsdealers.

As the information found in the Hand-Book is what seems to be called for by the public, we request every patriotic citizen to aid us in giving ita wide circulation. HAND-BOOK PUBLISHING CO.

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> The Origin of Mormonism.

A Paper read by Mrs. Dr. Horace Eaton, of Palmyra, N. Y> at the Union AR Home Missionary Meeting held at Buftalo, N. Y., May 27th, 1881, over Fete which Mrs. J. L. Graham, of New York, presided.

Pe Dear Sisters :—A ride of Jess than three hours over the New York Central, due east, will bring you to the town of Palmyra, in the vicinity of which the system of Mormonism was initiated. In this town it has been my privilege to reside for the last thirty-two years.. I speak to you from credible testimony. Western New York has strong soi], and rank weeds are incident- _al to strong soil. We must own the deceivers. ‘They went out from us, but ' they were not of us.” The deceived were elsewhere. # As far as Mormonism was connected with its reputed founder, Joseph Smith, always called “Joe Smith,” it had its origin in the brain and heart of an ignorant, deceitful mother. Joe Smith’s mother moved in the lowest walks of life, but she had a kind of mental power, which her son shared. - With them both the imagination was the commanding faculty. It was vain, but vivid. Toit was subsidized reason, conscience, truth. Both mother and son were noted for a habit of extravagant asserticn. They would look a lis- tener full in the eye, and, without confusion or blanching, would fluently im- provise startling statements and exciting stories, the warp and woof of which were alike sheer falsehood. Was au inconsistency: alluded to, nothing . daunted, a subterfuge was always at hand. As one old man, who knew them well, said to me, “ You can’t face them down. They’d lie and stick to’it.” Many of the noblest specimens of humanity have arisen from a condition of. honest powerty ; but few of these from one of dishonest poverty. Agur appre.’ _hended the danger, when he said, “ Lest I be poor and steal.” Mrs. Smith used to go to the houses of the village and do family washings, But if the ar-, ticles were left to dry upon the iines, and not secured by their owners before midnight, the washer was often the winner—and in these nocturnal depreda- tions she was assisted by her boys,’ who savored in like manner poultry yards and grain bins. - Her son Joe neyer worked save at “chopping bees” and “raisings,” and then whiskey was the impetus and the reward. The. mother of the high:priest of Mormonism was superstitious to the last degree. The very air she breathed was inhabited by “familiar spirits that peened, and wizards that muttered.’”’ Steturned many” penny by tracing in the lines of the open palm the fortunes of the inquirer. All ominous signs were heeded. - No work was commenced on Friday. The moon over the left shoulder por- __tended calamity; the/breaking of a mirror, death. Even in the old Green Mountain State, before the family emigrated to the Genesee country (the then West), Mrs: Smith’s mind was made up that one of her sons should be a prophet. The weak father agreed with ber that Joseph was the “genius” of their nine children. So it was established that Joseph should be the prophet. _ To such an extent did the mother impress this idea upon the boy, that all the ~ instincts of childhood were restrained. He rarély smiled or laughed. “ His looks and thoughts were always downward bent,’”’ He never indulged in 2e- ' monstrations of fun, since they would not be in keeping with the pi ofound dignity of his allotted vocation. His mother inspired and aided him in every scheme of duplicity and cunning. All acquainted with the facte agree in - saying that the evil spirit of Mormonism dwelt first in Joe Smith’s mother, Bad books had much to do with the origin of Mormonism. Joe Smith could read. He could not write. His two standard volumes were “ The Life

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_ HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

j Teed me} ‘ i } A ' Te ea of Stephen Burroughs,” the clerical scoundrel, and the autobiography of Capt.

Kidd, the pirate. This latter work was eagerly and often perused. There

was a fascination to him in the charmed lines: —

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i “ My name was Robert Kidd, As I sailed, as I sailed, And most wickedly I did, And God’s laws I did forbid, ; As I sailed, ag I sailed.” At the early age of fifteen, while watching his father digging a well, Joe espied a stone of curious shape. Itmust have borne resemblance to the stone foot of Budha, which Mrs. House tells us of, at Bankok, Siam. All the dif. ference, this was smaller, like a child’s foot. At any rate, it bas left foot prints on the sands of time. “This little stone was the acorn of the Mormon oak.” This was the famous Palmyra “‘seer”’ or ‘peek stone,” with which Joseph Smith did most certainly divine. Being before instructed by his mother, he immediately set up a claim to miraculous power. In a kneeling posture, with a bandage over liis eyes, so luminous was the sight without it,

with the stone in a large,white stove-pipe hat, and this hat in front of his face, —

he saw things unutterably wonderful. He could reveal, full too well, the place where stolen property or wandering flocks could be found. Caskets of | gold stored away by the Spaniards, or by his hero, the redoubtable Captain Kidd, coffers of gems, oriental treasures, the “wealth of Ormus and of Ind,” gleamed beneath the ground in adjacent fields and woodlands. Digging be- came the order of the night, and sleep that of the day. Father and brothers, decayed neighbors—all who could be hired with cider or strong drink—we e

organized into a digging phalanx. They sallied forth in the darkness. Sol- _

emn.-ceremonies prefaced the work. Not a sod was disturbed by the spade till Joe’s mystic wand, the witch hazel, guided by the sacred stone, pointed out the golden somewhere. Entire silence was one condition of success. When hours had passed away, and the answering thud on the priceless chest was about to strike the ear, some one, in a rapture of expectancy, always broke the spell by speaking—the riches were spirited away to another quarter, and the digging must be resumed another night. Thus matters went on for seven or eight years. Little or no attention was paid to the performances of Smith near his home: Lovers of the marvelous from other towns now and then came in to see and hear something new. People from greater distances visited the several excavations and wondered. Newspapers heralded and ridiculed. But so far it amounted to nothing, unless it created a certain at- mosphere heavy with myth and mystery, favorable to future developments. The perseverance of Joe Smith was equal to his audacity. Both were

boundless. But he alone could never have wrought out the institution of

Mormonism. Here we have “black spirits, red spirits, and gray.” Early in the summer of 1827, a “mysterious stranger” seeks admittance to Joe Smith’s , cabin. The conferences of the two are most private. This person, whose coming immediately preceded a new departure in the faith, was Sidney Rig- don, a backsliding clergyman, at this time a Campbellite preacher in Mentor, Ohio. Now we have “a literary genius behind thescreéen.”” Rigdon was ver- satile in his gifts,had_ a taste for theological and scientific discussion, was

_ shrewd, wily, deep, and withal utterly unprincipled. Soon after his appear-

ence on the stage, Mormonism begins to assume “a local habitation and a name.” Now the angel talks more definitely to Smith, tells him all his sins are pardoned, that none of the sects are accepted of God as his church, but

that he shall establish one the Almighty will own; that the North Amer.

ican Inidans are a remnant of the Israclites; that hidden beneath the eround are their inspired writings; that these are to be entrusted to him, and to him only, as none other can see them and live. In the stillness of night, Smith

a vi HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. ane 4/8 seeks alone his hill-top of Curmorah, an eminence four miles south of Pal- _myra, eight north of Canandaigua. . Confronted by the very pyrotechnics of Pluto, he averred that he obtained from that place a series of golden plates, on which were written in hieroglyphics the records so important in the new _ dispensation. Accompanying the plates is a pair of huge spectacles, the ‘Urim and Thummim, by the aid of which the tablets are to become available. He soon finds it convenient to visit relatives in Pennsylvania, in which State Rigdon was then sojourning. After a while he returns with an accurate:

translation. He appeals to the cupidity of a rich farmer, asemi-monomaniac, and prevails upon him to mortgage his estate to pay for the printing. Hereis a copy taken off in sheets from the first'edition, kindly loaned me by Major

John Gilbert, of Palmyra, the venerable printer,who finished the work in 1830. But who wrote the book? Surely not Smith or Rigdon. We will go back to the time when Joe Smith lay in his cradle in Sharen, Vt. In 1809, a Congregational minister, Rev. Solomon Spaulding, a graduate ot Dartmouth _ College, left his native State of Vermont, sojourned awhile in ours, and then sought the more genial climate of Conneaut, SE ina county, Ohio. He _ was obliged, by the state of his health, to abandon preaching. The cast of his mind was peculiar. He often diverted himself by writing romances on different subjects. The mounds of that section of Ohio then attracted much attention. Mr. Spaulding was intensely interested in their study, and even | opened up one near his own dwelling. He adopted the theory that these mounds were evidences of the existence of an extinct race, higher in the scale then the American aborigines. He wrote a story in Biblical phraseology, de- lineating in a fanciful manner the wanderings, wars, exploits and fate of this

primeval people. He afterward removed to Pittsburg, Penn. Some said to —

him as John Bunyan’s friends to the dreamer, “ Print it.” He left it with a publisher in Pittsburg, by the name of Patterson. For some reason it never went to press. After three years it was returned to its author, who died in

1816. Without doubt, Mr. Spaulding’s romance, entitled, ““The Manuscript :

Found,” is the Golden Bible, or Book of Mormon.*

But how came Rigdon or Smith, or both, in the possession of Mr. Spauld- —

ing’s book? Here we have not absolute certainty. There were two or three

ways in which the men and the book could have been brought together. This

is common to each—by theft. Smith was at one time servant or teamster in the family of Wiiliam H.

Sabine, Esq., the brother of Mrs. Spaulding, and could easily have had access —

to this manuscript in an unlocked trunk in the garret of Mrs, Sabine’s house. It is generally believed, however, that Rigdon, while a journeyman printer in the ofiice of Patterson, copied Mr. Spaulding’s story; that by some means he heard of Smith, knew his man even at a distance, and was sure Smith’s

idiosyncracies would just fit in with his own purpose of carrying out.a foul —

and lucrative imposture. There was a ubiquitous tin peddler in those days,’ by the name of Parley P. Pratt. He knew everybody in Western New York and Northern Ohio. He was a member of Rev. Sidney Rigdon’s church in Mentor, Ohio. Perhaps Pratt was the carrier-vulture who told Rigdon of the money-digger, Smith.

The mildest criticism that can be passed upon Mr.Spaulding’s fancy sketch is, that the interest is not well sustained, and that it indicates the languor and hectic of the physical decline of its author, But it is hardly fair to speak of the intellectual merits of a book which was, without question, grossly altered by Rigdon and Smith, to adapt 1t to the code of the Latter-Day Saints. When new commands were given by the angel, whether to institute the order of the priesthood of Melchizedek, or to engraft on the system permission for the po- lygamous or the spiritual marriage, Rigdon’s pen was ever ready to issue the encyclical, similating Mr. Spaulding’s Hebraic idioms.

*See SoRIBNER’S MontTuiy, August, 1880.

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‘Mormonism fairly started, Smith prophesied, Rigdon and Pratt preached, Cowdery baptized, Harris paid. But no prophet is accepted in his own coun- trv. Converts came in tardily. The angel said, ‘‘ Move forward to Kirtland, Ohio.” This was near Rigdon’s old parish. From this place they were«soon expelled by the rightecus indignation of an outraged people. Is there any significance in the fact that the Ohio Mormon encampment was located

but a few miles from the home of our beloved President Garfield? Had their disgraceful career in this State anything to do with the manly words of the in-

‘augural? Our President “knoweth of these things. We are persuaded that

none of these things are hidden from him.” God grant,that he may have “gome'to the kingdom for such a time as this.” “n

Those who originated Mormonism now stand before the tribunal of that Being who has threatened to silence “lying lips.” In 1844, Joe Smith, when

. but thirty-six years old, was assassinated in Nauvoo, Il]. Parley P. Pratt died

in ihe same manner, in Arkansas, in 1856 or 1857. Atter Smith’s decease, Rigdon naturally aspired to the dictatorship. But he was defeated by Brig-

ham Young, was expelled from the church, and given over by Brigham to the buffetings of Satan. Rigdon has since died, as far as we know, without peni-

tence or confession.

_ An apology might be offered for the above puerile and revoltiug state-— ments, were they not connected with the beginning of the institution of Mor. |

monism, which, as another has remarked, “presents a problem which the

wisest politician has failed to solve, and whose outcome lies in the mystery of

the future.”

The women of the Synods of Western New York are doing much for Utah. Aware that the poisonous virus went out from us, we feel that there isa relevancy, a fitness, in our following it with the counteracting, neutralizing, healing antidote, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in this work we are assured we have the co-operation of the women of our entire church.

This is of a kind, dear sisters, that goeth not out, but by prayer and fast- ing.’ Prof. Coyner, our missionary at Salt Lake City, thus analyzes it:

_‘*Mormonism is made up of twenty parts. Take eight parts diabolism, three parts of animalism from the Mohammedan system, one part bigotry from old®Judaism, four parts

canning and treachery from Jeauitism, two parts Thugism from India, and two parts Arnold- ism, and then shake the mixture over the fires of animal passion and throw in the forms and

ceremonies of the Christian religion, and yeu will have this system in its trae component.

elements.”

It numbers over 200,000. Its Book of Mormon is translated into many tongues. It has eighty-two churches in Great Britain, and 7000 converts in the Sandwich Islands. There are proselytes in every clime. Itsrepresentative has been honored in the halls of Congress, and has a defence in the “ North Amer-

, ican Review.”

For the sake of our bewildered,-deluded sisters, snared in an evil time;

for the sake of the country we love, let us labor, and pray, and give for Utah. . Weare encouraged to work. for the speedy overthrow of this gigantic bulwark -

from the very nature of its origin. Its basis is not truth, but falsehood. Every stone cries out. of its wall, “ Deceit, deceit.” Every’ beam out of its timber an- swers back, “deceit.” May the words of a true prophet be fulfilled without blood, by the breath of Jehovah’s mouth and the brightness of His coming.— “Because they have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, “The Lord saith,’ and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word— therefore mine hand sbail be against the prophets that see vanity and divine lies, because, even because they have seduced my own people. And one built up a wall and others daubed it with untempered mortar. Therefore. saith the Lord God, I will even rend the wall with a stormy wind in my fury. So I will break down the wall and bfing it down to the ground, so that the foun- dation thereof shall be discovered. And 1t shall fall. And I will fay unto you, the wall is no more, neither they that daubed it.”

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Letters on Mormonism. —

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Any question that involves the morals of ‘a nation is certainly worthy of co

place in the minds of thinking men and in the columns of an enlightened press. I, therefore, in a series of short letters, propose to prove three propo- sitions: rst, That if something is not done by Congress to check the pro- gress ot the Mormon Church, it will, ere ten years have elapsed, control our _ Government. Second, That the animus of the Mormon Church is in direct Opposition to that of our Government. Third, That the tendency of the teach- ings and practices of the leaders is to check true progress, develop immorality and crush out the manhood of humanity.

THE WORKINGS OF THE CHURCH.

Having been a resident of the Territory for nearly four years,my position as priicipal of one of the leading schools has given me a good opportunity to observe the workings of the religion of the so-called “ Latter-day Saints” or Mormons. And while the truth will require me to say some things that may seem severe, yet I wish them to be regarded as applying to the system and not to individuals ; for in all my intercourse with the people nothing has occurred to cause me to have ill-will toward anyone. Yet I well know that the spirit of the Mormon Church is the same to-day that it was twenty years ago, when to have occupied the position I now hold would have caused ’the forfeiture of my life. I am also well assured that if the Mormon Church ever again obtains absolute control in this Territory, all non-Mormons, however noble their work, however pure their lives, or however self-sacrificing their labors, will be compelled either to bow the knee to the God of the Mormons or flee the country. : - In proving my first proposition, I shall first speak of the nature of the organization of the Mormon Church, leaving its doctrines to be considered

under my third proposition; second, the means it has under its control; third, —

what.it proposes to do; fourth, how it is carrying out its plans. The Mormon

Chureh is one of the best organized systems in the world. The cunning of |

the dev1] and the sophistry of error are so mingled with truth as to make it one of the most powerful agencies to delude the ignorant.

THE HEAD OF THE MORMON HIERARCHY.

Is the first president. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young occupied this posi- -tion. John Taylor, who was formerly president of the council of the twelve apostles, is now the head of the church. The first president with the council of the twelve form the Mormon hierarchy. Their power is absolute; their word islaw. The people are divided into stakes, or large districts. There are ‘twenty stakes, correspouding very nearly to the twenty counties. A president with two counselors presides over each stake. The stakes are divided into wards; there are some two hundred and thirty wards in Utah. Twenty-one of these are ia Salt Lake City. A bishop witb his two counselors presides over each ward. The wards are divided into small districts, and teachers and dea- cons are appointed over these, whose duty it is to visit each individual each - month and find out all about his affairs, both temporal and spiritual. These report to the bishops, who report to the presidents of stakes, who in turn re. port to the council of the twelve. Besides these officers there are elders, sev- enties, high priests, lesser priests, etc.; each in his own order and rank carries - out the behests of the hierarchy, There are over TWENTY THOUSAND OFFICERS

reported as belonging to the church; that is, two out of every five men hold * « \ ‘

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an office, either of honor or emolument. Each of these has a hope that if he

is faithful to his masters he will be in time promoted. It is true these officers -

are elected each. year, but all nominations are by the higher powers, and all

that is left for the people to do is to ratify what the leaders have done. I~

doubt if it ever occurred in the Territory that such nomination: was not ratified.

It can thus be seen that the organization, from the first president down to the servant girl, is complete; and bv means of the Deseret telegraph, which runs to the house of each bishop in all the prominent districts of the Territory, the hierarchy can at any time make a “corner” on anything, either temporal or spiritual. J. M. Corner.

Salt Lake City, Nov. 10th, 1879.

i , Having ‘shown the nature ot the church organization of the Mormons, I

shall now speak of the means that this Church has to carry out its purposes.

These may be regarded under two heads, temporal and spiritual. TEMPORAL POWER OF THE CHURCH. ~ The church has an income of about $1,000,000 from all sources. Much more than this is paid by the people, but the rest 1s consumed by the taza gatherers before it reaches the church’s treasury. There are three things that are required of every true Mormon: Obey the priesthood in all things, be

baptized and pay tithing. These three things constitute the Mormon moral law. He may violate daily every command in the decalogue, but if he can —

say “shibboleth” in regard to these three things, Peter must open the gate of the New Jerusalem and give him a high seat among the blessed. This tithing is used for the glory of the church. Are Congressmen to be bought, the church bank igs opened; are Presidents, Vice-Presideuts, Senators, Mem-

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bers of the House, Cabinet Officers, Generals in the Army to be entertained, ©

wined and dined, as they pass our city, either east or west—the Church gladly foots all such bills. Is a Mormon arrested on the charge of committing high crimes against the laws of the land, the Church pays high fees for securing

the best legal talent that money can get to defend him. Are newspapers to-

be subsidized, either to defend the system or at least to pags it over in silence, the Church is ready to pay liberally. In other words, if the Church can find ‘any opening where money can be used for the advancement of its interests, the money is forthcoming, on the ground that the end sanctifies the means. —

, Besides the tithing fund are the Temple fund, the poor fund, ete.—devices to raise money, either to advance the interests of the Church or for the aggran-

-dizement of the head leaders. This money is not only collected in Utah, but~

in all parts of the world where the Mormons are found.

Twenty years ago large sums were raised in the Old World to pay for the glass and shingles of the Salt Lake Temple, which is now only half done, although it has been in process of erection for twenty-five years. But not only

must the true Mormon pay his tithing, but if called upon by the Church (the |

hierarchy), must give his all for the advancement of the cause. If A. B. is called to go on a mission to the Old World, he must, if needs be, sell his last cow to get the means to pay his expenses, though his family should be left entirely destitute; and he is taught to believe that the greater the sacrtfice the greater the glory in the next world.

Thus we see that the Mormon Church has all the means needed to. carry on its plans, both at home and abroad. But while its temporal resources are great, its so-called spiritual resonrces are not less efficient.

‘SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE CHURCH.

_ At each Annual Conference a long list of persons is seleted to go on a mission to the nations; and at any time the priesthood in council can appoint

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the thousands. It is stated that ten thousand have come this year. This, we.

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_ other persons to go on these missions, It is said that there are about threc hundred of these missionaries constantly in the field. They go to all parts of

our country, gathering up the restless and disaffected ciements of society ; to all parts of the Old World, and also to the isles of the sea. As each mission- ary collects his converts, they are sent to Utah, arriving here each season by

- think, is over-estimated, but the emigration is on the increase. It 1s true that

the emigrants, as a general thing, are the scum of society, but thei: very igno-,

rance fits them for being the better Mormons. But alas, for the future ol our country! when such, by their votes, have the balance of power in our nation. ' This large emigration is under the complete control of the Church, and when it reaches here it can be sent to any place it isthought best. If a colony is started in Arizona, and it is thought best to enlarge it, the enigration is

sent thither. Ifthe readers of the Jowrnal think that all the Mormons are in |

Utah, they are much mistaken. They are found in Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming and New Mexico. But every settlement, is made, wherever it may

_be, under the direction of the Church, and has all the equipments of the priesthood. But not only is the foreign emigration under the control of the

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Church, but all home members are subject to the orders of the Church. Dies the hierarchy think it needful to send a thousand voters into Idaho, Arizona, or any other locality—the number is distributed among the stakes, and divided out among the wards. Hach ward must not only furnish its quota of men,

but all the means for the emigration, and soon they are on their way, obeying ~ _(as they call it) the counsel of the Lord. Thus it will be seen from the organ-

ization of the Church, and the character of the members that compose it, the leaders have every means needed to carry out their plans. Salt Lake City, Nov. 20, 1878. JOHN M. Coyner. -

In my former lettersgI treated of the organization of the Mormon Church and the means it had of carrying cut its plans. In this letter I propose to consider

I am aware of the difficnlty that surrounds this part of the subject. The Mormon hierarchy is pre-eminently a secret association. Its. plans and pur- poses are never disclosed until their development makes them known. But after years o: caréful investigation of the subject, coilecting and arranging all the statements that I have listened to as made by their prominent speakers,

and the current events that have transpired since I have been in the Territory,

Iam convinced that the pian of the hierarchy is to have Utah admitted as a State at the earliest opportunity, and every available means, both of money and influence, is to be brought to bear to secure this result this winter. This

-done—Utah a State, with all the peculiarities of the Mormon Church engrafted

on its State constitution, its polygamy, its union of Church and State, its priesthood control—two Senators ‘and several Congressmen will thus be secured.

THE NEXT MOVE

Will be to divide Utah into two States, with Salt Lake City for the northern

capital, and St. George for the capital of the southern State. This accom-

plished, will give four Senators. This done, Idaho and Wyoming on the vorth and Arizona on the south will be so thoroughly colonized as to give the Mormons the balance of power in forming the State governments of these Yerritories, so that they will undoubtedly ask for admission as Mormon States. New Mexico will follow suit, making six Mormon States, which, when settled

by this Mormon foreign emigration, can te carved into half a dozen more. ,

Thia all depends upon the admission of the first State, and everything is to he

_ HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM, | tA haa

THE DESIGNS OF THE CHURCH. un

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Sy aah en: _-HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

‘but much more. : EB a aN _ Every Mormon is taught that the Mormon Church will ultimately over- come not only our own Government, but all nations will become subject to the Mormon hierarchy. Unless something is ‘done to check the progress of this sentiment by the strong hand of the Government, there’ is serious trouble ahead of us. ‘ J. M. Coyner. Salt Lake City, Nov. 30th, 1878.

done this winter to accomplish this. They hope’to accomplish not only this, er 5 i j { if s

CONCERNING YOUR CORRESPONDENT.

Believing, as I do, that in morals as well as in science the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, I have no disposition to go around my responsibility. But several of my friends who have been in the Territory longer than I have, and who have had much practical experience with the power of the Mormon Church, have advised me to be cautious and to frame my.correspondetce under an assumed name, so that it would not be known

’ who your correspondent is, But if in my correspondence I write that which is false, 1 only should bear the responsibility; if I write the truth—truth that I feel in my very nature my countrymen should know—Ii am cowardly if I dare not face the consequences. So I wish my correspondence to be over my own signature.

5 Your paper is read by some of the Mormon teachers, and I desire to say

‘to them, through your columns, that if I write aught that they know is untrue, I wish them so correct me, as I know you will cheerfully vive them the op- portunity to do so.¢As I said before, I have been treated in all respects asa | gentleman should be, by the Mormons, since I have been in the Territory, and — have the most kindly personal feelings toward all. My argument is against the system, and nof against the individual. I claim for myself the right of tree thought, free speech and free pen, subject to the law of the land, and accord to all others the same right. Up to the present time I have quietly pursued my avocation as a teacher, endeavoring to do my part in training the the rising generation in the way of right living, and if the Mormon hierarch had been satisfied to confine themselves to Utah, I should not have chinge my policy Bunt when I am satisfied that it is their intention to carry out their oft-made boast, that they wili rule this nation, 1 feel it my duty, as a loyal, Christian citizen, to most earnestly enter my protest, whatever may be the consequences.

THE DIFFICULTY 1N GETTING AT THE TRUTH.

‘Thee are several reasons why it is difficult for outsiders to get a correct knowledge of Mormonism. Most correspondents are mere tourists, who make a flying visit to Utah, see a little, hear a little, and then go away and write much. The Gentiles in Utah are here, for the most part, to make money. It doves not suit their purpose to run a tilt against the Mormon priesthood, who literally contro] everything. Therefore, they, as a rule, either keep quiet, or, if they do write on the subject, have so many ifs and buts that they break down the barrier between right and wrong in their attempt to excuse that which should shock the refined nature.

But it may be asked, are the bold, honest defenders of the truth in any danger in Utah, in the present era of freedom, and under the stars and stripes? Let the facts give answer; A few weeks ago, a quiet, peaceable man, a prom- inent reporter of the Z’rzbune, the anti-Mormon paper in this city, was mur-: derously struck down by a midnight assassin, whose intention was to kill.

, On the 1%th of November, Brigham Young, Jr., one of the twelve apostles, and therefore one of the Mormon hierarchy, who are supposed to speak by in-

_ spiration, in his address before an audience of several thousand, assembled in the great tabernacle, said;

Bi ¢ alin Tea fh ih Mpeg veo ae ae Fea A tele iN es as ma " HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 9

“What do we care for the Government of the United States? As farasI . am concerned, I have had enough of this thing (meaning Gentile opposition), and if [ had my way (and if Utah becomes a State, the Mormon hierarchy will have their way), I would say to every Gentile in this city and Territory, You get out of here, or take the consequences !—and it is coming to this.”

But what does he mean by the ‘consequences?’ The answer may be found in the massacre of over one hundred men, women and children, whose bones lay bleaching for many years on Mountain Meadows, and who were murdered by those who were led by the Mormon priesthood. In the death of the Aiken brethers and party, whose murderer was defended last summer with the money furnished by the Mormon church, and acquitted by a Mormon jury, although the evidence was sufficient to convict; by the blood of the hun- dreds of persons that have been slain by the “avening angels,” not only in this city, but throughout the Territory; by the mysterious disappearances of many who in the years gone by have ieft the Territory 10 escape the dangers that beset them; and by the various forms of persecution that are now prac- ticed by the priesthood wherever it can be done with impunity!

But I do not fear any personal violence, for, while I realize that the spirit of this Mormon tiger is the same now that it was twenty years ago, when to have written what I have now would have caused my death, its claws and teeth are so clipped by the fear of the nation’s indignation, that it can only growl and wait for the time, when, under the nurture of Statehood, its claws and teeth will be fully grown.

This letter is an interruption of my regular correspondence, and in my next I may write about one of the most remarkable meetings that has ever been held since the one held in the Garden of Eden, where a woman was one of the chief sneakers—a mass-meeting held by some two thousand women, for the purpose of appealing to the world that they might continue to enjoy the “ereatest of all blessings,” that of polygamy. Is this America, and the nine- teenth century, or is it Turkey, and in the dark ages?

J. M. Coyner.

Salt Lake City, December 24th, 1878.

— ee MORMONISM VS. REPUBLICANISM.

I now propose to show that the spirit and practices of the Mormon church are in direct opposition to the genius of true republicanism. It is a recognized fact that, while our nation is a Christian, it is not religious in the sectarian view; that, while our laws are based on the self-evident principles of individual rights and correct social relations,and have for their model that grand moral code, whose'author 1s He who said, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it,” yet they differ from those of almost every other nation, in that they do not recognize any binding form of religious doctrine or wor- ship. The Church and State are, and must necessarily be, for the good of the . commonwealth, separate and distinct. But Mormonism unites Church and State. ‘Lhe Mormon church claims direct revelation from Jehovah, in all things, both temporal and spiritual. One of their prominent speakers said, not long since, in a public address: “e

“For my part, I cannot see where the temporal ends and the spiritual be- gins. The administration of my temporal affairs and the temporal affairs of ae neighbours 1s as much the subject of church contro) as the so-called church affairs.”

The Mormon polity claims to be theocratic, i. e., as was the old Jewish government, and is, therefore, in its very nature, opposed to democracy. Every clear-minded Mormon recognizes this fact. He must admit that there is an irrepressible conflict between their theory and practice, and that of the government under whose banner they live. If Utah was a State, her govern.

(2)

10 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. _ ‘ine

ment would be as complete a theocracy as it would be possible for the Mor- mon priesthood to make it and not come in direct conflict with the general government. It 1s true they claim that they preach obedience to the laws of the land, the same as did Mohammed in the first years of his pretended mis- sion; but history furnishes us no instance where religious fanaticism, when it obtained power, remained law-abiding. Give any body of religious fanatics political power, it matters not whether they be Pagan, Mohammed or Chris- tian, and it will ride over constitutional law, individual rights and social rela- tions with impunity.

THE DOCTRINE OF REVELATION Is a dangerous one, in the hands of shrewd, designing men. The first reve- lations of the Mormon elders were clear and positive against polygamy. But when these elders, to cover certain irregularities, found it necessary to change their tactics, a new revelation came, permitting plurality of wives, and in course of time other revelations, showing that there could be no true celestial glory outside of polygamy. So in regard to obedience to human government, —this doctrine of Divine revelation once admitted to be true, and constitu- tional law becomes void by the the pretended “thus saith the Lord.” The spirit of Mormonism is as aggressive and as dogmatic as thespirit of Moham- medanism. “I know I am right; I know you are wroug,’ is the conclusion of all argument in a Mormon’s mind. “If you question, you doubt; if you doubt, you are damned,”’ is Mormon theology in a nut-shell. There may be submission to governmental law as long as the weaker church needs the pro- tection of the stronger State; but as soon as the Mormon hierarchy feels it is strong enough to throw off allegiance to the government, or an opportunity presents itself to unite with a foreign foe, it, in my judgment, will not hesitate to draw the sword and teach men by force that they must submit to the sup- posed will of Jehovah.

RELIGIOUS FANATICISM x

Is the most fearful enslaver, for the slave is led captive at will, and is, there- fore, of all persons the most hopelessly a bondman. The galley-slave realizes his bondage, feels his fetters, and hears the twang of his master’s whip, and longs and plans for a release from his servitude. But he who is enslaved by a mental or moral dogma, while he thinks he is of all men the most free, is in the most fearful condition of slavery. This is the condition of all those who, like the Mormons, are compelled to yield a blind obedience to the teachings of an infallible priesthood; and it must necessarily be the case that all such are unfitted to discharge the duties pertaining to independent citizenship.

Again, Mormonism is a persistent opponent of republicanism, from the fact that, while the latter opposes the centralization of power, and makes the in- dividual the king, the former has for its chief corner-stone the dogma of a central power, and a blind submission to that power. He, and he only, is fit- ted to become a worthy citizen of our commonwealth, who strives to be an in- dependent thinker, and who follows no guide but his own conscientious sense of right and wrong; while he,and he only, is regarded as a good Mormon, who obeys counsel without question or gainsaying. Republicanism develops the manhood of the people; Mormonism crushes that manhood. Republi- - canism develops the individual home, aud draws around the home-circle the sanctifying influences of individual love, united parentage, and confiding faith and trust, the foundation-stones of virtuous society; Mormonism devel- ops the plural home, and destroys the home.circle by banishing individual love, dividing the paternal control, and introducing mistrust and discord. Republicanism develops patriotism and destroys fanaticism; Mormonism de- velops fanaticism and destroys patriotism.

THE PRACTICH OF THE MORMON CHURCH is no better than its theory. Every faithful Mormon, when he takes his en-

Re ee tee

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HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. ' 11

dowments, is required to take oaths of obedience to his church; even though - the church should direct him to take up arms against his country, loyalty to the church is the first great cardinal doctrine, not only in theory, but in prac- tice; and the practice is only limited by the necessity of the circumstances. Remove these circumstances (United States troops, courts, federal control, etc.), and the Mormons would be a foreign people in every sense of the term.

Nor does the plea of religious belief extenuate the crime of violated law, desecrated homes and destroyed social relations. None but he who is blinded either by selfishness or fanaticism could suppose, that when that grand old Constitution says all shall have the rights of religious freedom, that its wise framers iniended that these rights should be exercised in such a way as to destroy the very freedom for which the Constitution was framed. There is no crime in the whole catalegue of national law that might not hide its head safely under such an interpretation of the Constitution.

Salt Lake City, January, 1879. . J. M. Coynur.

PROSECUTION, NOT PERSECUTION.

There is a great difference between prosecution for lawlessness and perse- cution for righteousness’ sake. The Mormons are now crying, ‘‘ We are per- secuted,” and they would wish the world to believe that it is for righteous- ness’ sake, while, in fact, there is no disposition, either in Utah or out of it, to persecute them, and, if they were law-abiding citizens, they would be in no danger of prosecution. Asa sect, I regard them as having the same right to believe what they please as have the Methodist, Baptist, Congregational or Presbyterian, and I am strongly opposed tu any persecution for religious be- lief. But when any sect, Mormon or otherwise, goes so far in its so-called religious practices as to violate not only the laws of the land, but the estab- lished laws of a common civilization, I regard it as my privilege as well as my duty to wage an honest warfare against such practices; nor can I under- stand why, as a law-abiding citizen, I have not equal right in Utah, the same I formerly had in other States, ror why it should be said to me, because I do not belong to a certain religious sect, or pin my faith to the raiment of a cer- tain leader: ‘‘ You have no right in this Territory; it belongstous. We came here when it was 3 desert, and we intend to have it for our own, and when we get the power we will exercise it.”

WOMEN PLEADING FOR POLYGAMY.

I know it is very difficult to avoid prejudice in treating of a subject that is in opposition to our own views. But truth is of more importance than self-interest, and the candid mind will recognize the good, even though it be found in an opponent. When, therefore, I attended, as a reporter, the mass- meeting ot the Mormon women, held in the theatre in this city, and called to defend polygamy against the so-called crusade of the Gentile women, who had sent out an appeal to the Christian women of America against polygamy, I went with the determination to reach, if possible, bottom facts. When I was a young man, I read a book entitled, ‘Fifteen Years Among the Mormons.” I was led to believe, from what I there read, that the women of Utah were held by the men in a kind of captivity, not being able to escape from their degradation, on account of the mountain fastnesses and the extended desert that intervened between them and civilization; and I supposed that, as soon as the railroad, with all its non-Mormon influences, had reached Utah, the most of the women would gladly embrace the opportunity of fleeing the coun- try to escape thralldom. But in this I was much mistaken.

WOMAN’S DEVOTION.

The history of Mormonism, from its beginning, shows that the women have been more devoted than the men; and to-day there is more true devo-

12 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

tion- to Mormonism from principle’s sake among the women then among the men. I was, therefore, not surprised to find the theatre packed from pit to dome with some two thousand women, the most of whom, as shown by the uplifted hands when a vote was taken, were devoted Mormons. It was the most remarkable meeting I ever attended. There were the aged mothers of seventy, who, amid storm and privation, had emigrated ameng the first to this desert wilderness. There was the grown-up matron, whose life marks the growth of the Mormon power in the Territory. There were also many buxom lagsies, some brought up in the Territory, others the last importations from the Old World, many of whom had lately become the third, fourth or. tenth wife of an aged elder. There was no excitement, no enthusiasm, but seem- ingly that fixed determination that causes one to do, suffer, and, if need be, die for what he considers right. The meeting was regularly organized. The president, who was dressed in silk material entirely made in this Territory, spoke readily and fluently for more than half an hour. Among other things, she said: “Polygamy is as essential to woman’s happiness as her sal- vation.” MORMON THEOLOGY Teaches that al] those who are faithful Mormons, living up to the privileges of their religion in this world, and having many wives and numerous chil- dren, will be kings in the celestial world, and their wives queens; while those who are not married at all are compelled to be the slaves of those kings. Just think of the Apostle Paul being the servant of Brigham Young through- out the ages of eternity. Those who have but one wife, if they are faithful to the priesthood and pay tithing, will have a home in the celestial world, but will not occupy any place of honor. Hence, if any ambitious woman wishes a place of honor in the celestial world, she must be a polygamous wife. An- other, who said she was seventy years of age, said: “I thank God that I am a polygamous wife, that my husband is a polygamist,” and she had a “feeling of great pity for those who did not enjoy this good blessing.” One old lady said: “I would not abandon it (meaning polygamy) to exchange with Queen Victoria and all her dependencies.”’ The secretary of the meeting said: ‘“ The women of this country want to crush us, but it will be diamond cut diamond.” And thus for nearly three hours one speaker after another defended poly- gamy, all believing it to be an inspired doctrine, given by God to aid in re- deeming a sinful world from a condition of sin and pollution to one of holi- ness and purity. The following RESOLUTION,

Among others, was unanimously adopted by the meeting:

Resowed, That we solemnly avow our belief in the doctrine ot the patri- archal order of marriage, a doctrine which was revealed to, and practiced by, God’s people in past ages, and 1s now re-established on earth by divine com- mand of Him who is the same yesterday, today and forever—a doctrine which, if lived up to and carried out under the direction of the precepts per- taining to it, and of the higher principles of our nature, would conduce to the long life, strength and glory of the people practicing it; and we therefore en- dorse it as one of the most important principles of our holy religion, and claim the right of its practice.

Tt can be seen from these extracts that the leading Mormon women of Utah are in earnest in their plea for polygamy. They recognize the fact that their leaders have so interwoven this doctrine into their system of religious belief that if it be removed their system must fall. Hence, their cry of religi- ous persecution, if anything be said or done against polygamy.

PROVO MEETING.

A similar meeting of the Mormon women of Provo City was held on the 7th of December. The chairman of the meeting said:

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONIAM. 13

“The day will come when templtés will be more numerous than our ene-

mies can imagine, and when the peopie of God, by the practice of such heav-

enly institutions as the patriarchal order of marriage will cover the whole

face of the land, from sea to sea. That day will assuredly dawn on the land of America.’’

One of the leading speakers said: :

“Shall we, the wives and daughters of the best men on ‘earth, submit to the dictation of unholy, licentious and wicked men? No, never! I feel that it 1s high time for the women of Utah to stand up and defend this Heaven- revealed principle. Iam a polygamous wife, and am proud to say it. I re- gard those women who are my husband’s wives to be so as much as J am. ae husbands are virtuous and noble men, and are the friends of all man-

ind.

Such extracts might be multiplied to any extent, showing the animus of the female leaders in Utah. These leaders are in perfect accord, and reflect the sentiments of the Mormon priesthood. But we will only add one more:

Mrs. Zina Y. Williams was introduced to the meeting as a polygamous daughter of Brigham Young. This descendant of a prophet declared herself a child of polygamy sand the widow of a polygamist—one of God’s noblemen. She considered herself blessed among women in being permitted to come upon earth through the lineage of a polygamous servant of God. “I regard this privilege,” said the ecstatic Zina, ‘as the richest diadem a mortal ever possessed.” She inquired of her hearers if she could stand there—a daughter of President Brigham Young, the wife of a good man, and a daughter of Zion, and tet the daughters of the United States trample upon her right? Perish the thought. “They may well be afraid of us,” said this daughter of the covepant, “for we are gaining strength while they are getting weaker; we are increasing, while they are diminishing; and the sons and daughters of Zion are spreading over the whole land.”

POLYGAMY OR DEATH.

Now, what does all this mean? Simply this, and nothing less, that it is the settled policy of the Mormon hierarchy to spread their peculiar system of society all over America. Being religious fanatics, they have now come to such a point in their growth and power that they feel justified in throwing down the gauntlet before the American nation, and their battle-cry is, “ Poly- gamy, or Death.’ it must not be understood that the women thus assembled in the mass-meetings which have been lately called in various parts of the Territory, represent all the so-called Mormon women of Utah. There are thousands of women in Utah who, if they dared do it, and if they felt it would do any good, would crowd as many assembly rooms, and give utterances to as many strong sentiments in denunciation of this home-destroying system, as have the advocates in its favor. But the latter are with the priesthood, the controllers of society, while the former are so crushed by the dominant power as to have no positive influence.

THE CONFLICT IRKEPRESSIBLE.

There is an irrepressible conflict between the Mormon power and the principles upon which our free institutions are established, and one or the other must succumb. The arguments, the dogmas, and the whole line of de- fence of this system are so similar to those used years gone by, by the defenders of the system of slavery, that it is, indeed, well named the ‘‘ Twin Sister.” And now I say to the American people that, if so ueeene is not done soon to stop the development of this law-breaking, law-defying fanaticism, either our free institutions must zo down beneath its power, or, as with slavery, it must be wiped out in blood. For facts go to show that the Mormons will not obey the laws of the land. Polygamous marriages are going on just the same since

14 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

the Reynolds decision as before. The Mormons are very bitter against the Government, and, when the proper opportunity comes, will not hesitate to draw the sword and fight for their religion. As American citizens we must meet this thing. Either all our views of the sacredness of the marriage rela- tion, the unity of the family circle, and the present laws of morality, must be overthrown, or the law-breakers of Utah must be taught that law is law, right is right, and crime is crime, in Utah just the same as in any other part of the United States. J. M. Covnzr. Salt Lake City, January 28, 1879.

Mormon Morality.

SLAVERY.

Having attended various meetings of the Mormon brethren, and having listened closely to what they said in regard to the immorality of the outside world, and the sanctifying influence of the Mormon religion, and especially having listened to George Q. Cannon’s defence of polygamy at the last Con- ference, I have been led to ask myself two questions: Whatis morality? Has the Mormon Church any right to claim that it is moral, either in theory or in practice ? ‘ a

I find upon examining the best authorities that morality is right doing, and immorality wrong doing. A thing is therefore moral when it helps us to perform the threefold duties that we owe to self, to others and to God. Anda thing is immoral when it prevents us from performing these duties. Accept- ing this as the true definition of morality, 1 arraign the Mormon Church before the bar of public opinion for immorality, for teaching and practicing that which is detrimental to the best interests of mankind and for doing that which should cause it to forfeit the respect of all right thinking people. My first specification under this arraignment is that the

MORMON CHURCH IS AN ENSLAVER

Of man’s mental and moral nature. Truth tends to freedom—error to bond- age; and I regard it as one of the strongest proofs that Mormonism is a sys- tem of error that it thus enslaves humanity.

One of the prominent features of the age is the desire for universal educa- tion. The civilized world recognizes the fact that the diffusion of knowledge elevates humanity. And therefore the true reformer seeks to place it within the reach of all But the Mormon Church is the recognized opponent of free education. Notwithstanding that the Mormon hierarchy has had supreme control of this Territory for thirty years, and has thus had the moulding of the institutions of the people, Utah stands to-day as the only State or Territory that has not a system of free schools, open to the poor as well as the rich, and all right thinking people must hold the Mormon Church responsible for this. And the enormity of the crime thus committed against humanity is the more apparent when we consider the mental condition of the conyerts that the Church yearly brings by the thousands from the Old World. As a class these wards of the Church are the most ignorant. She brings them into our country to become citizens—the peer at the ballot-box of the most educated—and yet she persistently refuses to give them that education that is necessary to entitle them to become worthy citizens of a free country.

NO FREE SCHOOLS.

Why is this? Why is it that 140,000 people in this Territory are deprived of the benefits of free schools? The only reason that can be assigned is that it

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 15

is necessary for the Mormon Church to keep her subjects in ignorance to enable her to control them. This was the position taken by Brigham Young; this is the position taken by the Mormon hierarchy to-day. The plea of pov- erty cannot be justified, for while the Church is not willing to spend a cent on free schools, it does collect over $1,000,000 a year for the building of tem- ples, tithing, etc. This tax of nearly ten dollars-a year for each man, woman and child in the Mormon Church, is spent not for that which develops the manhood, elevates humanity and fits the tax-payer to be an honorable citizen of the commonwealth, but for that which rivets tighter the mental and moral chains that already bind the people. If Utah ever does become a State (God forbid that it should under the Mormon regime) and the priesthood be forced to adopt a school system, it will be such a one as will be entirely under the control of the Church, which will select not only the teachers to be employed

but the subjects taught, and will still hold the minds of the people in a con- -

dition of mental slavery. There is NO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

In the true sense of the term, in the Church polity. Who ever knew of any proposition or nomination being voted down by the people?’ Who ever knew of any matter of interest being left to the Le A to act upon freely and unre- strained? The priesthood arrange all things, and the people well know the result if they will not ratify the things thus ordered. The Mormon polity is a complete union of Church and State. One of their prominent speakers said, not long since: “I cannot separate between temporal and spiritual affairs. The priesthood has as much control over one as the other.’ Therefore the Church is as much 2 moral as a mental enslaver. The central thought run- ning through all the discourses of the leaders is obedience to the priesthood and the consequences of refusing to obey counsel. It necessarily follows from the organization of the Mormon Church that its members must be subject to a moral bondage. The leaders profess to be inspired, and to speak as they are directed by God, and they are thus enabled to lead captive at will all those who believe their doctrine. f

It matters not how absurd the doctrine may be, or how much it outrages common sense, if it is the declaration of the inspired priesthood it must be obeyed. The Mormon Church dare not, to-day, as in former times, enforce its commands by the pistol and the knife, but it has means of control none the less effective, which it does not hesitate to use.

I have often wondered why the Mormon people submitted 'to such dicta- tion on the part of the priesthood. There is no other church whose leaders would thus dare to rule its membership, and if the population of Utah was made up of the average American, the yoke of the Mormon hierarchy would s00n be thrown off; but coming from the Old World the Mormons have been so long used to obey the dictation of those over them without gainsaying, that they now submit without a murmur, and even kiss the hand that rivets the chains that bind them.

ORGANIZATION.

The nature of the organization of the Mormon Church tends to hold the people together. It is one of the best organized systems in the world. The

central principle of this organization is selfishness. There are 109,000 mem. °

bers of the Church in Utah, according to the statistical report of this spring’s /

Conference. Of these, 23,000 hold office. As these are all] men, the officers must embrace every man in the Church that has any ability. These, from the president to the teacher, hold positions of honor, and many, positions of emol- ument. The lower officer hopes that if he is faithful to the priesthood he will be promoted. And he also knows that if he is not faithful he will be made to feel the power that is over him, as all those do who dare assert their manhood and refuse to submit to the dictation of the Church.

16 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

In conclusion, on this specific theme, I have thoughtiif the Mormons would move to some sea-girt isle, or even if they could be surrounded by some triple wall that would confine their influence to Utah, we might, as an American people, be willing to let them solve their problem of master and slave; but when they claim to he God’s chosen people, whose special mission is to epread their doctrine and control not only over all our own country, but over all the civilized world, I wish to enter my solemn protest against the whole thing. J. M. Coyner.

Salt Lake City, April 22d, 1880.

BLASPHEMY.

In a previous letter I arraigned the Mormon Church betore the bar of public opinion for teaching and practicing that which is immoral, and my first specification was that it is an enslaver of mén’s mental and moral nature. My second specification is that of blasphemy, including profanity and vul- garity. A tree is kn»wn by its fruits. A sage brush can no more bear oranges in Utah in the nineteeth century, than could a thistle bear figs in Judea in the time of our Saviour. The best commentary on any system of religious faith is its effects upon the daily lives-of its advocates. While it is not just to judge of the merits or demerits of any system by the good deeds or the failings of a few of the adherents as performed in a limited space of time, it is proper to judge of its effects upon the lives of all the membership after a sufficient time has elapsed to enable it to exert a moulding influence.

Mormonism in common with all other proposed reforms must stand this test. If it can stand the test,the professed claim of inspiration, Ged’s peculiar people, etc., may be accepted; if not, such a claim wil! be rejected with con.’ tempt. There is an acknowledged standard of morality in society, and when men put themselves up as better than their fellows, they must expect to be ~ measured by this standard. :

I think every observing person who has been in this Territory long enough to know the facts, and whose mind is not biased by religious fanati- cism, will agree with me when I say that some of the fruits of this Mormon tree are blasphemy, profanity and vulgarity. Blasphemy is treating lightly the Supreme Being or anything by which He is made known. According to Mormon theology, God the Father, the Supreme Jehovah, became man in the form of Adam and thus became the father of the human race. He is thus represented as.a being of parts such as we are. And all true and faithful Mormons who live up to their privileges, who take many wives and who beget many children, will in the process of time become gods to all those who spring from them. Brigham Young was regarded as God by some of his fol- lowers even before his death. And I have no doubt that when the lapse of time causes the Mormons to forget the peculations and many misdeeds of their second President brought to light since his death, they will not hesitate to deify him as they are now disposed to do Joseph Smith, their first Presi- dent. Mormonism is the lowest form of polytheism, for it is that form which lowers the divinity to humanity, instead of lifting up humanity to the _ Divinity.

OUR SAVIOUR A POLYGAMIAT.

Not only is God the Father thus degraded, but his blessed Son is made a polygamist. Mary and Martha are his accredited wives, with whom and many others he, according to their theology, is now living and begetting an eternal race of gods and goddesses. And their views of the Holy Spirit are equally blasphemous. We seldom hear a Mormon speaker address a meeting without the announcement that he will speak as the spirit moves him. And it matters not how vulgar or profane the address may be, or how vindictive

the spirit manifested, or how disloyal the sentiments uttered, all is proclaimed as the utterance of the Holy Spirit through His divinely appointed priest-

hood. Of the many murders that have been committed in Utah in the days

that are past by those that are under the direction of the Mormon priesthood, - not one, even including the Mountain Meadows Massacre, was committed without first invoking the. blessing of God’s Holy Spirit upon the deed. The ‘same sacrilegious hand is laid upon all by which God is made known to man,

THE SECRET ORDINANCE

Of baptism is performed in secret in the Endowment House, but enough has been revealed of the nature of the ceremonies performed on such occasions to shock the moral feelings of a Christian people. The personified devil, the awful oaths and the fearful pena'ties of apostasy are some of the spectres that have flitred out upon the world from these/secret chambers. But the sacred ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is profaned every Sabbath in all the Mormon ‘places of meeting. First, a formal, routine prayer is offered, then breaking the bread, which is dist:ibuted to all in the house, children and even infants eating of the same. Water is used for wine, and after a similar prayer it is distributed in the same manner, the amount taken by each communicant de- pending upon his hunger or thirst. I have seen a person partake of these el- ements when he was too drunk to sit in his seat. And i have heard the com- municant use the most profane language as he passed out of the house. ‘The whole ordinance from first to last, as administered in a Mormon assembly, is the most complete burlesque of things sacred that Ijhave ever witnessed. Their treatment of God’s Word is of the same general character. While they pro. fess to believe in its teachings, they put it side by side, and interpret it by the silly statements of the Book of Mormon, and the foolish pratings of a design- ing priesthood are regarded as more binding than the expressed “thus saith the Lord ” of the Scriptures. PROFANITY AND VULGARITY.

The Mormons as a people are profane and vulgar in their language. It has been my privilege to see a good deal of the humanity of life. Business has thrown me among all classes of society in various parts of the world, but the most profane and vulgar address that I ever listened to I heard delivered in the Tabernacle, during the Spring Conference of 1875, by Brigham Young. The address not only abounded in profanity, but in obscene language and gestures, such as would have caused the speaker to be hissed out of decent society. This address was delivered to an audience of some 8,000, composed largely of women and children, and, strange to say, was cheered and ap- plauded by the aud‘ence, who recognized the speaker as their seer and divine revelator, and his voice as the voice of God. [ have often heard the statement made by those who have traveled over the Territory that they have never known a Mormon who would not use profane language. ‘The practice seems to be universal, from the President down to the child that can scarcely lisp “pa” and “ma,’ I wish it were otherwise. for it makes me sad to hear old and young, boys and girls,men and women, thus debasing their humanity, and I shudder when I think of the future morality of this rising generation, if left to the moulding influence of the Mormon Church, for the immorality of those who are the recognized leaders of the people exerts such a general influence on the people that the very atmosphere seems impregnated with an influence that benumbs th: moral sensibilities.

A FHW EXCEPTIONS.

_ There are undoubtedly individual exceptions to the general immorality, exceptions that arise from the constitutional nature of the individual or from

(3)

Fa

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. ae Pian chat hy

18 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

previous education before Mormonism was adopted. But these isolated cases

only serve to make the general influence of the Mormon religion the more marked. A QUESTION.

In my conclusion on this part of my subject, | ask the Mormon brethren -

a question: Has there ever been 2 case in Utah where a Mormon, who paid his tithes, was baptized and was obedient to the counsel of the priesthood,

Was arraigned before the officers of the Church, convicted and cut off from ~

the Church for anything that the outside world calls immoral, such as mur- der, theft, lying, drunkenness, fornication, profanity, Sabbath breaking, etc. ? If any one knows of such a case, he wil! confer a favor on the cause of truth if he will send all the facts to me, care of Tum Tareune, for I have no desirs to do injustice to Satan himself, much less my, brethren in the flesh, whom I pity, because they are under the infinence of Satan.

Salt Lake City, April 25th, 1879. J. M. Coyngr.

DECEPTION. My third specification in the indictment of the Mormon Church for immorality is deception. The doctrine that the end justifies the means, seems to be a fundamental one in the practicai theology of Mormonism. And that end being the advancement of the interests of the Church, anything that secures the object seems justifiable. Ever since I have been in the Territory I have been trying to answer, in my own mind, this question: Are the Mormons sincere in their religious belief? And I have come to this con- clusion, that while a few of the leaders may be sincere because of their fanatical constitution of mind, the mest of them are not; that at heart they are either skeptics or Universalists, and are only Mormons from policy, because from the dollar stand point it pays. I think any shrewd observer could go up and down among the business men, and even among the leading Church officials, and without any superhuman power of heart-reading, truth- fally say to the most of them, You are a Mormon from policy.

THE MASSES SINCERE.

But with the mass of the people, especially those who live outside the principal towns, I believe it is different. I think the most of them are sincere in their religious belief, simply because they have not seen enough of the outside world to break the bonds that bind them io their religion.

It is a fact that all the prominent leaders are so directly connected with the Church in their business relations, that if they should withdraw they would lose their means of support or aggrandizement. Therefore, they cling to the craft with death-like tenacity.

The deception practiced by the Mormon Church is seen in the manner in which it secures its converts.

At each semi-annual conference, missionaries are appointed to go to the outside world to spread the gospel of the Latter-day Saints. They go at their own expense, and are required to stay until recalled by the Priesthood. If they refuse to obey orders, they must suffer the consequences of their disobedi- ence, and of the two evils they choose the least, and most generally go. At the least calculation, there are 800 such missionaries constantly in the field, going up and down in the States, in the countries of Europe and in the isles of the sea, seeking those whom they may catch in their Mormon net. These missionaries are generally men without education, but well posted in the chicanery of the Mormon doctrine. They go to the lower classes of society, to those who are suffering the evils of poverty and, it may be, oppression. They represent to them that Utah is the poor man’s paradise—God’s chosen

place where’ He has commanded all His people to gather, Where the land ig -

y)

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM, 19

free to every Mormon, the gift of the Church! Where all the Saints live in blessed accord! Where there is no poverty, but where all, rich and poor, old and young, live in blissful enjoyment, and each one calls his neighbor brother.

EMIGRATION FUND.

If the emigrant is too poor to pay his own passage, aid to reach Utah is furnished from the emigration fund. And soon he starts for the Western Eldorado. He lands at Castle Garden, N. Y., with hundreds of others, under the leadership of some Mormon elder. He is hurried across the continent to Utah. He is taught that all Americans who are not Latter-day Saints are ungodly Gentiles, whom he should avoid as dangerous persons. He is made to believe that every blessing he now or eyer will receive is the gift of God through the Mormon Church. And a refusal to render prompt obedience to the priesthood will bring upon him the most dire calamities. But when he reaches Utah, he finds he has been deceived, that things are altogether different from what was represented. I am told by those who are well- informed in this matter that at least two-thirds of the emigrants are so disappointed that if they could return to their native lands and place them- selves as they were before embracing Mormonism, they would gladly do it. But, alas! the Church has no emigration fund from Utah. Like the fable of the hon’s den and the animals, the tracks go inward but not outward.

IN THE NET.

The emigrant is now in the net. Having come to Utah as a matter of policy, he next considers what is the best thing todo. He has been terribly deceived. He has lost the little faith he may have had in the truth of Mormonism; but what to do becomes the practical question with him. He eannot return to the land whence he came. He knows nothing of the manners and customs of the American people. He is, therefore, compelled to remain in Utah. But he soon finds that the power of the Mormon priest-. hood is an absolute despotism, that the boasted freedom of Utah is all a farce. Yet he is compelled to accept the situation, and 1f he is shrewd and a man of some ability, he will soon hold a position in the Church, and in course of time become one of the priesthood and be a leader, controlling others, But on the other hand, if he is inclined to free thought and free speech, in former times he was taught a lesson by the Avenging Angels that silence is the better part of discretion, or that “dead men tell no tales.” In the latter days he is handed over to the buffetings of Satan, to be cursed in his business, in his family, in his body, in his mind, in all things that belong to him, and the Mormon priesthood have the will and the power to see that these prophetic curses are fulfilled to the letter.

HALF NOT TOLD.

It may be said that I draw on my imagination in this picture. But there are thousands of persons now residing in the Territory who know that the half is not told. Again and again have I had this tale of deception poured into my ear by the deluded ones who have thus been influenced, by those who enjoyed their hospitality, and in whose word they had implicit confidence, to leave the home of their childhood and loved friends, with the hope of better- ing their condition. And the bitterest thing of all to the deluded emigrants in this deception seems t» be the manner in which they are treated when they arrive in the Territory; and when in their disappointment and distress they go, 1t may be, to the very elder that influenced them to come to Utah, not only is the cold shoulder turned upon them, but often he refuses even to recognize them, much less to give them a loaf of bread to satisfy their hunger.

When we remember that all this deception is practiced under the garb of religion by those who claim to be God’s holy priesthood, it is not strange that

20 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

_ when a Mormon doeg gather courage to apostatize from the Church he is so disgusted with the very name of religion that he becomes a moral wreck.

Tn conclusion on this specification, if any candid mind will commence at the beginning of Mormonism under Joseph Smith, and closely observe the chicanery of the said Smith’s pretended revelations, the theft of the Spaulding manuscript by Sidney Rigdon and his palming it off as the Mormon Bible, the double-dealing of the early founders of the Mormon Church by which they introduced polygamy to cover their own immorality, the founding of the pretended “Zion of the Lord” in these Rocky Mountain regions, by means of which the leaders could be enriched and make to themselves a nation over which they could rule with the iron rod of despotism, and comprehend all the cunning and chicanery now carried on to enable the Mormon hierarchy to carry out their purposes; he will realize that there is a,satanic deception about the whole thing from beginning to end that is startling, and which should cause every honest man to oppose it, not in the spirit of persecution, but with that righteous indignation that truth manifests when opposing error.

Salt Lake City, April 27, 1879. J. M. Coyner.

LAWLESSNKSS.

My fourth specification, in my indictment of the Mormon Church for immorality, is lawlessness. I do not use this term in the sense of hoodlum- ism, for as a general thing the grip of the Mormon hierarchy is so firm that it forms » complete police system which restrains the individual from acts of lawlessness. Yet it is true that in such parts of the community as are not under this police supervision there is growing up a lawless bhoodlumism among the rising generation that is fearful. But 1 mean by lawlessness in this connection, that spirit which places the Church above the State; that bids defiance to constitutional law whenever it runs in opposition to the will of the Mormon priesthood. I have been reading up the early history of Mor- monism, and have been conversing with those who were personally acquainted with their early history, and I find that this spirit of lawlessness has been one of the chief characteristics of the Church from its organization.

MORMONISM A THEOCRACY.

Indeed this must necessarily be the case from the nature of the Church organization. The constitution of the Mormon Church is founded on the principle of theocracy. Its leaders pretend to receive their instructions direct from Jehovah. If these supposed instructions are in accord With constitu- tional law, all is harmony, but if there is a conflict, and either the pretended theocracy must be overthrown or a warfare waged against the law of the land. The Mormons have persecution written on al) their banners. Their early hardships and trials and the death of the “martyrs” in Carthage, Illinois, are constant themes for their speeches. Yet the facts are that in every case where they have been opposed they have brought the opposition upon themselves by their own lawless actions. It is true, as in the case where the Smiths were murdered, an excited populace may become a mob and inflict upon the wrong-doer that which all law-abiding people will condemn. If the Mormons were a law-abiding people, as a religious sect they would no more be spoken against than the Unitarians, Baptisis, Catholics, Presbyterians, or any other law-abiding Church. :

If all the secret history of the Mormon Church, since its organization, was written up, there would be sufficient evidence to convict it of every leading crime in the calendar. 3

MURDER.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre, saying nothing of the hundreds of other murders committed by the “avenging angels,” the secret executioners

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 21

of the Church, fastens upon it the grime of murder. The utterances of its prominent leaders, again and again from every Mormon stand, show that it is disloyal to the Government and is guilty of treason. The plundering of all those opposed to the Mormon priesthood, whenever an opportunity occurs, on; the ground that whatever is taken from the ungodly Babylonians is this much put in the treasury of the Lord, shows that it is guilty of theft. And any one who will spend a day in court, when a case is on trial involving the Mormon doctrine or the conduct of one of the priesthood, will be painfully. impressed that the Mormons, from the highest official to the lowest member, do‘ not hesitate to commit PERJURY.

Again and again have I blushed for the honor of humanity and the cause of religion, while listening to the false witness given under oath in court by those in high official positions in the Church. Indeed, the fearful oaths taken by a Mormon when he passes through the Endowment House require him to perjure himself if necessary to defend a member of the priesthood.

POLYGAMY.

Her violation of statute laws in regard to polygamy is well known. Nor can it be said she has sinned ignorantly, not knowing what the law is, for she goes on violating law the same since the late decision of the Supreme Court as before. And the whole subject of George Q. Cannon’s discourse at the late Conference was a defence of polygamy—notwithstanding, as a Delegate to. Congress from Utah, he has taken a solemn oath to obey the Uonstitution of the United States. And the more I investigate this subject the more I am convinced that unless the Mormon Church is taught a severe lesson of obedi- ence it will continue to be a violator of Constitutional law until it becomes strong enough (and for this it is planfiing) to sweep from the statutes of the nation all those laws that oppose its teachings.

LEWDNESS.

My last specification in this indictment is that it teaches men to violate the seventh commandment. It now takes a bold position in regard to polygamy. It openly accepts the doctrine as a part of its religious faith, and declares that by it it will stand or fall.

One of its strong arguments in its defense is that it is the only preventive of the social evil. It is a fruitful theme of glorification used by every Mormon speaker and Latier-day Saint apologist, that this polygamous com- munity is more virtuous than the monogamic world. The shortcomings of . the outside world are paraded before their well-pleased audience in all their fearful deformity, and the virtuous blessings of plural marriage are held up asthe positive antidote of this moral plague. But is this true?

If it is the fact that plural marriage does tend to develop a virtuous state of society, does cherish and protect the sacred rights of confiding woman, does throw a boly and sanctifying influence around the home circle, does con- tribute to the bringing up of a well-trained, noble offspring, then the Mormon Ohurch is justifiable in asking the Christian world to sanction and adopt that which produces such glorious results.

THE SOCIAL EVIL.

But the facts prove a state of things just the reverse. Those who haye the best means of ascertaining the true condition of things in this respect in this Territory say that for the same population there is more private prostitu- tion and more illegitimacy in Utah than in any other place in the civilized world.

Some two years since an investigation of the subject of plural marriages was made by a committee at the request of a society in the Hast, and from the

g

92 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

facts obtained, the conclusion was reached that about 80 per cent. of the plural marriages were necessitated by previous immorality. And yet notwith- standing this convenient cloak of wrong-doing, I have been informed by jurists who have resided in the Territory a long time, and who are well posted in the legal facts connected with this thing, that there is a fearful amount of illegitimacy. And I could name a small village where no ungodly Outsider , is found to corrupt the morals of the young Saints, and yet there were over a dozen illegitimate births in one year among a population of 400 people. I have also been informed by persons whose truthfulness of statement cannot be impeached, and whose honesty of purpose cannot be doubted, that there is a fearfal state of morals throughout the Territory, especially among the youth

' connected with polygamous families. That the young Saints are practically

carrying out the theory of the Church on this subject without troubling them- selves about the ecclesiastical ceremonies of the Endowment House.

THIS A NATURAL RESULT. ’

And how could it be otherwise? The relation of cause and effect is unalterable. \

Tf a man has half a dozen wives scattered in various parts of town or in several towns, as is often the case, and by continuous negiect drives some of them to the utmost extremity to obtain support, is it unreasonable to suppose that some will be inclined to the practical view that polyandry is as much the subject of divine revelation as polygamy ?

And again, if the son sees his father taking his nightly or weekly circuit

: among his so-called wives, and sees in the daily life of that father that which

convinces him that his father’s religion is one of policy, is it at all strange that the passions of the son will lead him to follow the example of the father without the pretense of religious belief? «

The Mormons claim that no brothel existed in Utah betore the advent of the ungodly Gentiles. I admit that such was likely the case, for the very construction of Mormon society obviates the demand for such establishments by making wide spread that which is more convenient and which will more certainly secure the same end.

In view of all this, let me now ask the moral, thinking element of the community what right has any man or set of men to ask me to accept a form of doctrine as the rule of my faith and practice, which is thus immoral in its character, sensual in all its tendencies, and which, if adopted by the world in general, would cause society to turn her back upon all the progress she hag made for the last two thousand years?

In conclusion, if any one wishes to read the Bible description of Mor- monism, I refer him to Romans I, 21-32; 11 Peter, 2; Jude 4-19.

Salt Lake City, May ist, 1879. J. M. Coynmr. *

——_—___—_<> 9 0-<——__

A BraptiruL PicturE.—Geo. C. Bates, well known in Salt Lake City, writes to the Denver 7’ribwne that he was a resident of Utah for six years three years of that time as United States Attorney, and three years as attorney for the Mormon church. While acting in the latter capacity he was called south on church business, and gives the following account of his trip:

Tn January, 1873, I happened to visit the southern parts of the Territory on business for the church, and, stopping to change horses and dine, I saw around one table five polygamic wives of one old bishop, and in and around the ranch some thirty-six large boys and girls of all ages from ten to sixteen and twenty years, and then and there learned that these young Mormons all slept, in one large (single room overhead in the winter, like so many pigs, and in the hot weather in summer they all hurdled together in the straw in the stable, living in promiscuous concubinage, and that several of the girls were bearing children to their brothers and cousins and uncles, as SO many eows or ewes would do, ent that this was a matter of daily happen- ing, and wag.not discouraged, but was winked at, by the church,’as a natural consequence of their religious teachings that every woman's future happiness was enhanced by the number of children she bore, no matter who might be their fathers.

t

Mysteries of the Endowment House.

The Mormon Endowment House is a plain adobe building, two stories high, built like a small dwelling. house, so as not to attract attention. It is situated in the northwest corner of the Temple block, (which includes the Tabernacle, New Temple, etc., and the whole block is surrounded by a very high wall.

On a certain day—not necessasy to mention—I went to the Endowment House at 8 o’clock in the morning, taking with me my endowment clothes (consisting of garments, robe, cap, apron and moccasins). I believe people used to take their own oil, but that is now discontinued, as fees are charged. I went into a small room attached to the main building (desig- nated in the plan by the name of Re- ception Room), which was crowded with men and women having® their bundles of clothing, The entrance door is on the east side; and in the

next to which the desk stood, where the clerk recorded the names, etc. Around the north and west sides were benches for the people to sit.

On going up to the desk I present- ed my recommend from the bishop in whose ward I was staying, and George Reynolds, who was then acting as clerk, asked me my name, those of my parents, when and where I was horn, and when I was baptized into the Mormon church.

That over, he told me to Jeave my hat, cloak and shoes in that room, and, taking up my bundle, [ went into the room marked 8 on the plan, where I sat waiting till it came my turn to be washed.

One of the women, an officiating high priestess, told me to come behind the curtain (which I have indicated by a waving line), where I could hear a great deal of splashing and subdued conversation. I went, and after I was undressed I had to step into a long bath, about half full of water, when an- other woman proceeded to wash me. [ objected strongly to this part of the business, but she told me to show a more, humble spirit. However, when she got down to my feet, she let me go, and J was turned over to the woman whe had spoken to me first, and whose nome was Bathesheba Smith (one of the widows of Apostle George A. Smith). She wore a large, shiny apron, and her sleeves tucked up above the elbows. She looked thoroughly like busi- ness.

GARMENT.

some green Olive oil in 2 cow’s horn. This woman poured the oil out of the

southwest corner there is another,

Another woman was standing beside her with a large wooden spoon and

24 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

story, but Ido want people to know the truth, and how disgusting and in- delicate this thing is. Mormon peo- ple deny many of these things,and civ- ilized and decent people can scarcely realize that this institution is as in- famous as it really is, but I solemnly assert that these things do exist. Te continue: My bosom, that 1 might nourish the children whom I might raise by my husband (I was not then APRON—WORN BY MEN AND WOMEN. married, but expected to be), and an- oiher partof my body, that I might raise up a goodly seed, that they might be pillars of strength to the upbuilding and strengthening of God’s kingdom upon the earth. And so she got down to my feet, when she hoped they might be swift in the paths of righteousness and truth. She then turned me over to the women who had washed me, and who wispered my new and celestial name in my ear. I believe I am to be called up on the morning of the resurrection by it. It was “Sarah.” I felt disap- pointed. I thought I should have received a more distinguished name. She told me that the new name must neyer be spoken, but often thought of, to keep away evil spirits. I should be required to speak it once that day, but she would tell me in what part of the ceremony, and that I should never again have to speak it. She then told me to put on my garments. These are made in one piece. On the right breast is a square, on the left a compass, in the centre a small hole, and on the knee a large hole, which is called the “Stone.” We were told that, as long as we kept them on, no harm could befall us, and that, when we changed them, we were not to take them all off at once, but slip out a limb at a time, and immediately dive into the clean ones. The neck was eae be cut low, or the sleeves short, as that would be patterning after the Gentiles. After that I put on my A ~ :

clothes, and in my stocking feet wait- (Ge ed with those who were washed and

i anointed until she had finished the re- maining two or three. This done, the little calico curtains (marked A and B) : were drawn aside, and the men and women stood revealed to each other.

The men looked very uncomfortable,

and not at all picturesque. They only | had their garments and shirts on, and ! they really did seem as though they were ashamed of themselves, as well they might be. Joseph F. Smith then came to where we were all waiting, and told us that, if we wanted to back SNR NK ches

out, now was our time, because we | DEVIL'S APRON.

should not be able afterward, and that we were bound to go right through,

i

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. — 25

li those who. wanted to go through were to hold up their hands, which, of ourse, everyone did, believing that all the good and holy things, that were 9 be seen and heard in the “ House of the Lord” were yet to come. He then old us that, if ever any of us attempted to reveal what we saw and heard in he “ House, our memories would be blighted, and we should be everlastingly amned, for they were things too holy to be spoken of between each other, after ye had once left the Endowment House. We were then told to be very quiet nd listen. Joseph F. Smith then went away.

In a few moments we heard voices talking loudly, s0 that the people could ear them, in the adjoining room. I afterwards found out, in passing through, hat it was the prayer-circle room. It was supposed to be a conversation be- ween Hlohim (Head God) and Jehovah. The conversation was as follows:

Elohim to Jehovah—“ Well, Jehovah, [ think we will create an earth; let Lichael go down and collect all the elements together and found one.”

Answer—‘“ Very well, O Lord God, it shall be done.”

Then, calling to another man, we could hear him say:

“Michael,-go down and collect all the elements together, and form an ‘arth, and then report to us what you have done.”

Answer—“ Very well, O Lord God.”

' The man they called Michael then left the prayer-circle room and came hrough the room they called the World, into the Garden of Eden, the door of vhich was shut that faced the places Cand D, where we were standing, list- ning and waiting. He remained there a second or two, and everything was juiet. At the end of that time we heard him going back the same way, to vhere Elohim and Jehovah were waiting. When he got back, he said: “I ave collected all the elements together and founded an earth; what would’st hou have me donext?” Using the same formula every time they sent him lown to the worid,.they then told him to separate the land from the water, ight from darkness, fetc., and so they went regularly through the creation, ut they always told him to come up and report what he had done.

When the creation was supposed to be finished, Michael went back and old them it was very fair and beautiful to look upon. Elohim then said to Jehovah that he thought they better go down and have a look at it, which hey did, and agreed with Michael that it was a beautiful place; that it seemed a pity it should be of no particalar use, but thought it would be a good dea to create man to livein and cultivate these things.

They then came out of the garden of Eden, which was supposed to have yeen newly finished, and, shutting the door after them, came to where we were standing. We were then told to shut our eyes, and Jehovah said to Michael, “ Give me a handful of dust, and I will create man.” We were then old to open our eyes, and we saw a man, that he had taken from the crowd, standing beside Jehovah, and to whom Jehovah said: “I will call thee Adam, for thou shalt be the father of all mankind.” Jehovah then said it was not rood for man to be alone, so he would create a woman and a helpmeet tor him. We were again told to close our eyes, and Adam was requested to go to sleep, which he obligingly did.“ Jehovah was then supposed to take a rib from Adam’s side and form Eve. We were then told to open our eyes and ook upon the handiwork of the Lord. When we did, we saw 2 woman taken from among the crowd, who was standing by Adam’s side. Jehovah said he would call the woman Eve, because she would be the mother of all mankind,

The door of the Garden of Hden was then opened, and we all marched in with our bundles, the men going first, as they always take the precedence, and we ranged ourselves round the room on benches. The four sides of this room are painted in imitation of trees, flowers, birds, wild beasts, etc. The ceiling was painted blue, dotted over with golden stars. In each corner is a masonic amblem. .On the east side of the room, near the door, is a painted apple tree, and in the northeast part of the room is a smal] wooden altar.

26 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONIBM.

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GROUND FLOOR OF ENDOWMENT HOUSE.

After we had seated ourselves, Jehovah told Adam and Eve that they could eat of every tree in the garden except of this particular apple tree, for on the day that they ate of that they should surely die. «

He then took his departure, and, immediately after, in camejafverySlively gentieman, dressed ina plain, black morning suit, with a little apronon, a raost fiendish expression on hi’ face, and joyfully rubbing his hands. This gentleman was supposed to be “the Devil.” Certainly, his appearance made the supposition quite easy. He went up to Eve and remarked that it was a very heautiful place, and that the fruit was so nicc; would she like to taste

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 27

+ w Ww Ww Ww Ww

Heaven,

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Gentlemen’s Dressing Room

& Gas : Marriage Register Table.

The Vail.

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Stairway to World Room.

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Stalrway to Prayer Circle Room.

Instruction Room,

Marriage Aitar,

a

wh aA BA AL AX

UPPER FLOOR OF ENDOWMENT HOUSE.—W, WINDOWS-—S, STEPS.

one of those apples? She demurred a little, and said she was told not to, and, therefore, mustn’t. But he pretended tagpluck one of the painted apples and give it to her, and she pretended to eat 11. He then told her to ask Adam to have some, and she did. Adam objected strongly to testing, knowing the pen- alty, but Eve eventually overcame his scruples, saying: ‘Oh, my dear, they are so nice, you haven’t any idea, and that nice old gentleman here says that he can recommend them, and you need not be afraid of what Jehovah says.” Adam consented, and immediately after he said, “Oh, what have I done, and how foolish I was to listen to you.’ He then said that he could see himself, and that they had no clothes on, and they must sew some fig leaves together. Every one then made a dive for his apron out of the little bundles. This apron is a square half yard of green silk, with nine fig leaves worked on it in brown sewing silk. A voice was then heard calling tor Adam, who pretend- ed to hide, when in came Jehovah. He gave Adam a good scolding, but finally told him that he would give him certain instructions, whereby he would nave a chance to regain the presence of his Father and God, after he was driven out into the world, These instructions consisted of grips, etc., and the garments he wore would protect him from all evil

They then put on their caps and moccasins, the women’s caps being made of Swiss muslin; it is one yard square, rounded at one corner so ag to fit the head, and trere are strings on it, which tie under the chin. The moc. sasing are made of linen or calico. he men’s caps are made exactly like thoge of pastry cooks, with a bow on the right side. I should here mention that Bathsheba Smith and one of the priests enacted the parts of Adam and Eve, and so stood sponsors for the rest of us, who were individually supposed fo be Adams and Eves.

P 4 fe} a i 7

28 ‘ HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

They then proceeded to give us the first grip of the Aaronic or Lesser Priesthood, which consists in putting the thumb on the knuckle of the index finger, and clasping the hands round. We were then made to swear “To obey the laws of the Mormon church and all they enjoin, in preference to those of the United States.’’ The penalty for revealing this grip and oath is that you will have your throat cut from ear to ear, and your tongue torn from your mouth, and the sign of the penalty is drawing the band, with the thumb pointing towards the throat, sharply across and bringing the arm to the level of the square, and with the hand upraised to Heaven, swearing to abide the same.

We were then driven out of this into the room called the World, where there were three men standing at a small altar on the east side of the room, who were supposed to represent Peter, James and John, Peter standing in the cen- tre. He was supposed to have the keys of heaven. Men representing (or try- iug to) the different religious sects then came in and presented their views and said they wanted to try and save these fallen children. In doing this they could not refrain from exaggerating and coarsely satirizing the differnt sects they represented. Previous to their coming in, however, Peter had pre- sented us the gospel of Christ—at last he toid us that Christ had come to die for the original sin, but we had to work out our own salvation, and that in the last days a prophet should be raised up to save all those that wouid believe in his divine mission; consequently, these different representatives were told that their doctrines did not suit the people, and that there was something wanting in their faith, so they could go. Then the Devil came in and tried to allure the people, and, bustling up to-the altar, Peter said to him: “ Hallo, Mr. Devil, how do you do to-day! It’s a very fine day, isn’t it? What have you come after?’ The Devil replied that he didn’t seem to take to any of these so-called Christian religions; why didn’t they quit bothering after any- thing of that kind, and live a life of pleasure. However, he was told to go, and that quickly. :

Peter then gave the second grip of the Aaronic or Lesser Priesthood, which consists of putting the thumb between the knuckles of the index and second fingers, and clasping the hand around. The penalty for revealing this is to be sawn asunder, and our members cast into the sea. The sign of the penalty was drawing the hand sharply across the middle of the body. To re- ceive this grip we had to put on our robes, which consisted of a long, straight piece of cioth, reaching to our feet, doubled over and gathered very full in the shoulder and round the waist. There was also a long, narrow piece of cloth tied around the waist, called “the sash.” It was placed on the right shoulder to receive the grip. The people wear their aprons over it. The men then took the oath of chastity, and the women the same. They don’t consider polygamy at all unchaste, but said that it was an Heaven-ordained law, and that a man, to be exalted in the world to come, must have more than one wife. The women then took the oath of obedience to their husbands, having to !ook up to them as their gods. It is not possible for a woman to go to Christ, ex- cept through her husband.

Then a man came in and said thatthe Gospel had been again restored to the earth, and that an angel had revealed it to a young boy named Joseph Smith, and that all the gifts, blessings and prophesies of old had becn re- stored with it, and this last revelation was to be called the Latter-Day Dispen- sation. The priests pretended joyfully to accept this, and said it was the very thing they were in search of, nothing else having had the power to satisfy them,

_ They then proceeded to give us the first grip of the Melchizedek or Higher Priesthood, which is said to be the same that Christ held. The thumb is placed on the knuckle of the index finger, which is placed straight along the hand, while the lower part of the hand is clasped with the remaining fingers.

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 29

The robe for this grip was changed fom the right to the left shoulder. We were then made to swear to avenge the death of Joseph Smith, the martyr, together with that of bis brother, Hyrum, on this American nation, and that we would teach our children and children’s children to do so. The penalty for this grip and oath was disembowelment.

_ We were then marched into the northeast room, designated the prayer- circle room. We were here made to take an oath of obedience to the Mor- mon priesthood. And now the highest or grand grip of the Melchizedek Priesthood was given. We clasped each other round the hand with the point of the index finger resting on the wrist, and the little fingers firmly linked to- gether. The place on the wrist Where the index finger points is supposed to be the place where Christ was nailed to the cross, but they tore out and he had to be nailed again, and so you place your second finger beside the index on the wrist; it is called the “sure sign of the nail” and, if the grip is prop- erly given, it is very hard to pull apart. The robe was changed from the left to the right shoulder to receive this grip.

The men then formed a circle round the altar, linking their arms straight across, and placed their hands on one another’s shoulders. The priest knelt at the altar, and took hold of one of the men’s hands and prayed. He told us that the electric current of prayer passed through the circle, and that was the most efficacious kind of prayer. The women stood outside of the circle, with their veils covering their faces, the only time throughout the ceremony that they did so.

The prayer over, they all trooped up the staircase on the north side of the house, into the room ca'led the Instruction Room, where the people sat down on benches on the west side of the room. Facing them about midway between floor and ceiling was a wooden beam, that went across the room from north to south, and from which was suspended a dirty-looking piece of what was once white calico. This was called the “ Veil,” and is supposed to be an imitation of the one in Solomon’s Temple. Oa this veil are marks like those on the garments, together with extra holes for putting the arms through, and a hole at the top to speak through. But before going through the vail we received a genera) outline of the instructions we had received down stairs. This over, the priest took « man to the vai] to one of the openings (marked 1), where he knocked with a small wooden. mallet that hung on the wooden support. A voice on the other side of the vail, supposed to be Peter’s, asked who wss there, when the priest, answering for the man, said: “Adam, having been faithful, desires to enter.” The priest then led the man up to the west side of the vail, where he had to put his hands through and clasp Peter, to whom he wispered his new name—and the only one he ever tells, for they must never tell their celestial names to their wives, although the wives must tell theirs to their husbands—through the holes in the vail. He was then allowed to go through to the other side, which was supposed to be Heaven, and this is where a, strong imagination might be of some use, for anything more unlike Heaven I can’t conceive. The man, having got through, went to opening No. 2 and told the gate-keeper to call for the woman he was about to marry, telling him her name. She then stepped up to the vail where the marks B are. They could not see each other, but put their hands through the openings, one of their hands on each other’s shoulder, and the other around the waist. With the arms so fixed, the knees were placed within each other, the feet, of course, being the same. The woman’s given name was then whispered through the vail, then her new and celestial name; then the priestess, who stood by to in- struct the woman, told them to repeat after her a most disgusting formula or path. They then released their hold of each other, and the priestess, taking ‘he woman to opening No. 2, knocked at the same as they did at the men’s en- trance, and the gate-keeper having asked, “ Who is there?’ and the priestess

30 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

paving replied, “Eve, having been faithful in all things, desires to enter,” Eve was accordingly ushered into Heaven. 5 Before I go further I must.tell how they believe the entrance into Heaven ‘is to be gained on the morning of the resurrection. Peter will call up the men and women, for it is not possible for a woman to be resurrected or ex- alted, or to be made a queen in Heaven, unless some man takes pity on her and raises her. Ifthe marks on the garments are found to correspond with those on the vail, if you can give the grips and tokens and your new name, and are dressed properly in your robes, why, then, one has a sure permit to Heaven, and will pass by the angels to a more exalted giory. The more wives they have, they think, the higher their glory,will be.

After we got through, we saw Joseph ul Smith sitting at a table, record- ing the names of those who were candidates for marriage. He wrote the names in a book, the existence of which marriage register this truthful apos- tle has since denied, and then he wrote the two names on a slip of paper, to be taken into the sealing. room to the officiating priest, so that he might know whom he was marrying. After having given this slip of paper to the priest, we knelt at a little wooden altar. He then asks the man it he is willing to take the woman to wife, and the woman if she is willing to take him for a husband. They both baying answered yes, he tellsthe man that he must look to ‘God, but the woman must look to her husband as her God, for, if he lives in his religion, the spirit of God will be in him, and she must therefore yield him unquestioning obedience, for he is as a God unto her, and then concludes by saying that he, having authority from on high to bind and loose here upon esrth, and whatsoever he binds hére shall be bound in heaven, seals the man and woman for time and all eternity. He then tells the man and woman to kiss each other across the altar, the man kneeling on the north side and the woman on the south, and so it is finished. Sometimes they have witnesses, sometimes not; if they think any trouble may arise from a marriage, or that the woman is inclined to be a little perverse, they have no witnesses; neither do they give marriage certificates, and, if occasion requires it, and itis to shield any of their polygamous brethren from being found out, they will posi- tively swear that they did not perform any marriage at all, so that the women in this church have but a very poor outlook for being considered honorable wives.

When the marriage ceremony was over, we came out of the “sealing- room,” and I crossed ‘‘ Heaven” into the ladies dressing-room, where, after

=

having dressed and my husband paid the fees, we took our departure, together _

with that of the ‘Holy Spirit.”

I should perhaps bave remarked before that the priests, when going through the House, wear their ordinary clothing, and come straight into the “ House of the Lord” with their dirty top-boots on, as though they had just come off a farm, while we, poor sinners, were obliged to walk in our stock- ing-feet, lest the floor should be defiled.

The little addition attached to the main building on the west side, and in which is the font, is used for re-baptizing people before they can be allowed to go through the house, and is quite a separate affair fron the washing and anointing; people are generally baptized a day or two before they go through the house. I was baptized the night before. Onthissame evening I was told that, as | was going through the “ House of the Lord” on the following day, I must pay the very strictest attention to everything I should see and hear, as it would be for my benefit hereafter. J was obedient in that respect, for I re- member everything that happened as vividly as though it were yesterday, and if it has not been for my benefit, I hope that this article may prove of some uge in warning and enlightening people as to that most horrid blasphemy, jargon and mummery that goes on in that most sacred ‘ Mouse of the Lord,”

Mrs. G. S. R—-,

oa

te -

— Ss, he T!”hCUMF

Exposition of Mormonism.

(From the Presbyterian Review, April, 1881.) On the 6th of last April there was an immense gathering of many thou.

sands in Salt Lake City, from all parts of Utah, to celebrate the 50th anniver-

sary of the organization of that strange politico-religious system known as Mormonism. Beginning with only six members, it has gone on increasing in numbers, power and resources, until it has secured positive control of this most attractive and important Territory, which is larger than all New Erg land, with the addition of New Jersey:and Maryland, and possesses wealth’ of mineral resources superior to that of any equal area in America. For its supplies of gypsum, sulphur, salt, zinc, marble, coal, iron, copper, lead, silver -nd gold, are practically inexhaustible. Nor is the power of Mormonism any longer confined to Utah, since it now virtually holds the balance of pewer in three other Territories, namely: Wyoming, Idaho and Arizona. In the two latter the colonization of Mormons is being rapidly pushed forward. Fur- thermore, the people of Colorado are beginning to be alarmed over the rapid colonization of Mormons in some parts of that State. And yet, notwith- standing the fact that this utterly anti-American system already controls four of the future great States of the Union; notwitstending the fact that it has already cost the Government millions of dollars to send troops here to enforce order and obedience to the laws of the land; notwithstanding the fact that hundreds of American citizens have fallen victims to its vindictive spirit, and been murdered in cold blood, simply because they were Americans; notwithstanding these appalling facts, it is next to impossible to Set any man in public life—any Senator or Representative—to give any attention to the subject. Indeed, outside of Utah, it is difficult to find any one who has any definite idea whatever of the strength avd resources of Mormonism and its tremendous power for mischief. And it is still more difficult to find any one who has any definite knowledge of the atrocious doctrines and horrible blasphemies which constitute the system known as Mormonism.

It is the object of this article to give, as far as can be done within prescribed limits, that information concerning Mormonism which has been acquired by a three years’ sojourn at the Mormon capita], and by careful atudy and observation of Mormon literature and practices. This will lead to a discussion of the origin, doctrine, fruits and resources of Mormonism, with some concluding remarks on its relations to the Government and sacred institutions of the Republic.

WHERE DID MORMONISM COME FROM?

To say that it was first organized in Fayette, Seneca county, N. Y., April 6th, 1830, with six members, is only a partial answer to the question. For this organization grew out of the “ Book of Mormon,” which Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon “church,” declared to be a revelation direct from Heaven through the inspired prophet, Mormon. According to this pretended revelation, about the year 600 5. c., some of the deacendants of the trihe of Joseph came as colonists from Palestine across Behring Straits into America. In process of time they became two rich and powerful nations, known as Nephites and Lamanites, from their respective leaders, Nephi and Laman. The followers of the former were noted for their progress in civilization,

_ while the latter relapsed into barbarism and became the progenitors of the

American Indians. The Nephites are represented as being highly favored of the Lord, since they enjoyed the visitation of angels and the teachings of

*

32 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

imspired prophets. They also enjoyed a personal visitation from Christ him- | self, after His resurrection, and were taught the doctrines of the Gospel from His lips. During the fourth century of the Christian era, the Nephites are represented as degenerating into gross wickedness, in consequence of which they were destroyed by their hostile rivals, the Lamanites. During the time ot their prosperity, the most noted prophet among the Nephites was Mormon, who is alleged to have written upon metallic plates the history of God’s dealings with his forefathers, together with an account of the prophecies given to them, and of the facts connected with the introduction of the Gospel among them. These plates, it ig claimed, were entrusted to his son Moroni, who, before he died, somewhere about 420 A. D., buried them in the “ Hill of Cumorah,” in Ontario County, New York. There they remained unknown until “eptember, 1827, when, as Joseph Smith pretends, an angel came to him one night and revealed to him the location of the buried plates. Repairing to the + lace, he claims that he found the box containing the plates, together with the Urim and Thummin, which, to use his words, was ‘‘a curious instrument which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a box, fastened to a breast-plate.” By the use of these celestial eye-goggles, Smith claimed that he was able to read the record on the plates, which was written in the “Reformed Egyptian language.” Such is Smith’s account of the origin of ‘he “Book of Mormon,” which is to the orthodox Mormons what the Koran is to the Mohammedans. By those not familiar with Mormon literature, this book is frequently confounded with the “Mormon Bible.” But the latter is simply our English version of the Scriptures, with such modifications and distortions as Joseph Smith, the znuspired translator, saw fit to make. He has twisted passages in Genesis so as to turn statements con- nected with the life of Joseph into prophecies relating to a great prophet ‘called Josgph, who should come forth in “the latter-days,” reterring to uim- self. He éven had the audacity to make interpolations in Christ’s “Sermon on the Mecunt.” fi

A good illustration of the impudent way in which Smith and his co-conspirators were accustomed to manufacture statements about these strange plates, is found in the fact that, among the ignorant, they gave Prof. Charles Anthon, of Columbia College, as authority for their statement that the inscriptions on the plates were in the “ Reformed Egyptian language.’’ This brought out a letter from Prof. Anthon, in which he said: “The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be ‘Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics’ is perfectly false.’ He further says that the fuc- simile of these inscriptions “was, in fact, a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters, disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were arranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle, divided into various compartments, and evidently copied after the Mexican. Calendar given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived.”

Now, the practical question is: Where did the “ Book of Mormon” come from? Notwithstanding the air of mystery which the Mormon priesthood strive to throw around the subject, the question can be easily answered, and in a very few sentences. It can be established beyond all question, that the substance of the “Book of Mormoun”’ was written by the Rev. Solomon Spalding, a graduate of Dartmouth College, in the class of 1785. Between 1809 and 1813 he lived in Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio,:and being fond of historical study and archeology, he soon became greatly interested in the ancient mounds and fortifications which abound in that region. ‘Adopting

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HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. : 33

the theory that this continent was peopled by a colony of ancient Israelites, he proceeded to write a historica! romance embodying that theory. The style of the book was a clumsy imitation of our English Bible, and the book originally bore the title of ‘The Manuscript Found.” It was taken to a printing office in Pittsburgh with a view to publication, and remained there several months. Around the office at this time was one Sidney Rigdon, “a backsliding clergyman of the Baptist persuasion,” and a man of very versatile

_ talent. He was an erratic disciple of Alexander Campbell, and had great

fondness for theological discussion and fantastic religious theories. The circumstantial evidence that Rigdon is the man who remodeled Spalding’s romance and put it in the present form of the ‘Book of Mormon”? is irresistible. And this evidence is made irresistible by the fact that a few heel after Spalding’s manuscript was left in Pittsburgh, Rigdon came to

entor, Ohio, near Kirtland, and blossomed out as a preacher of very peculiar: doctrines, which were afterward found embodied in the published ‘“ Book »of Mormon.”

The evidence, also, that the “Book of Mormon” is simply a modified form ot Spalding’s romance, is likewise irresistible. After the publication of this pretended revelation, Mr. John Spalding (a brother of Solomon Spalding) ; his wife, Martha Spalding; Mr. Henry Lake, the business partner of Solomon Spalding from 1810 to 1812; Mr. John N. Miller, who was in Spalding’s employ; Mr. Aaron Wright, one of Spalding’s neighbors; and Mr. Oliver Smith, with whom Spalding boarded a part of the time while living at Con- neaut, Ohio, all testify that, prior te 1812, they heard the substance of the “Book of Mormon” read by Mr. Spalding. He wag engaged at that time, they say, in writing a historical romance concerning the first settlers of America, who, as he endeavored to show, were the descendants of the Jews from Palestine. Being a trifle vain of his writing, Mr. Spalding was accustomed to read large portions of this romance to his neighbors and friends. And those whose names are given above declare that the same odd names and peculiar passages which they heard Mr. Spalding read, together with the peculiar plan and theory of his romance, are embodied in the “Book of Mormon.” Their testimony in detail can be found in Howe’s ‘‘ History of Mormonism,” published at Painesville, Ohio, in 1840. It is testimony which cannot be impeached, and demonstrates that, so far from being a revelation from the Lord, the ‘“ Book of Mormon” is a diabolical literary and religious swindle, ingenious enough to deceive thousands upon thousands of ignorant people, but too transparent to deceive any well-educated person. This accounts for the fact that Mormonism secures its converts altogether from the ranks of those whose educational advantages have been of the most meagre character. So far as is known to the writer, after three years’ observation in Utah, there are only three persons among the entire body of Mormons who can make the least claim to scholarship. One of these is a woman of notori- ously immoral character; one of the others is always spoken of as a religious

-monomaniac, and the character of the third is such as to compel one to

believe that he supports Mormonism simply because of the lucrative office which it gives him. THE PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF MORMONISM.

It would require far more space than can now be oceupied to set forth in detail all the strange and disgusting doctrines of this pecular peaple. Hence only a few of the more prominent ones will be given as a specimen, from which it will be seen that one must go back to the Pagan vulgarity of the Greek and Roman mythology, and the murderous creed of the Thugs of India, to find an adequate parallel.

-In the first place, Mormon theolgey 1s based on rank polytheism The Mormon people are not only {aught 0 believe in a plurality ot gods, but to

(4)

34 HAND-BOOK ON MORM@NISM.

entertain ideas ot the Divitie Being which are connected with the grossest corporealism. They ridicule the idea that God is Spirit, as Christ taught in John iv., 24. One of their standard works is called a “ Key to the Science of Theology.” It was written by Parley P. Pratt, who, while he lived, was one of their leading men, being one of the Twelve Apostles. This work is usec as a text-book among the people; and this is what it says in confirmation of the statement that the Mormons are polytheisis and have grossly corporeal ideas concerning the Deity:

“Jt will be recollected that the last chapter recognizes a family of Gods, or, in other words, a species of beings who have physiee tabernacles of flesh and bones in the form of man, but so constructed as to be capable of eternal life. * * :

“A general Assembly, Quorum, or Grand Council of the Gods, with their President at their head, constitute the designing and creating power. * * * Wisdom inspires the Gods to multiply their species, and to lay the foundation for all the forms of life to increase in numbers, and for each to enjoy himself in the sphere to which he is adapted._[Chap. vi., pp. 46, 4th Liverpool edition.

On page 34, the author declares God “has an organized individual taber- nacle, embodied in material form, and composed of material substance, in the likeness of man, and possessing every organ, limb, and physical part that man possesses.”

Brigham Young, who, for more than thirty years, was the “ prophet, seer and revelator” of the Mormon Church, taught that Adam‘was the maker of the world, and the God of the human race. ‘To quote the words of Brigham in one of his Tabernacle sermons, Adam “is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.’”’ The Mormon leaders pretend to believe that they are all*going to become gods in the celestial world, and the extent of the kingdoms over which they will rule will depend upon the ~ number of wives and children they have here.

Akin to this bold blasphemy, is the horrible doctrine, promulgated b Mormon preachers, that our Savior was a polygamist, and that Mary an Martha were. His plural wives, with whom He is now living in marriage relation in the celestial world. For the Mormon idea of heaven not only includes the perpetuation of the marriage relation there, but also the idea of unrestricted polygamy.

As all the world knows, polygamy is one of the favorite and peculiar doctrines of the Mormon Church. It is based upon an alleged revelation from the Lord to Joseph Smith in July, 1843, although it explicitly contradicts the former revelation which Smith claims he received from the Lord, and which was published in 1880 as the “Book of Mormon.”’ But that the Lord should be represented as flatly contradicting Himself was a small thing in the eyes of Smith, provided a “new revelation” would get him out of the serious difficulty into. which he had been brought by his intimate relations with numerous “ spiritual’? wives.

No marriage is recognized as valid which is not performed in their’ Endowment House—(the building where all the polygamous marriages and the horrid and blasphemous rites of initiation into the Mormon Church are ° performed, which, by the way, 1s the object for which the great Temple is being erected in Salt Lake City.) Consequently, al! the married converts to the Mormon Church have to be re-married.

On the subject of Baptism, the Mormons hold peculiar views. The teach that it is able to wash away sins, and, when performed in behalf of the | dead who have died outside the Mormon Church, has efficiency to secure their salvation. Consequently, when any of the Saints fall into heinous sins, they are taught that those sins can be washed away by their being rebaptized. There is also a great deal of baptism for the dead, based on Paul’s statement in the 15th of First Corinthians. To show what crude notions are entertained on the subject, the following incident may be mentioned, which was given to the writer by a friend living in the neighborhood where the incident occurred,

\

\

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 35 *

and who knew the party referred to. A member of the Mormon Church, in one of the central counties of Utah, made up bis mind, last winter, that he ought to be baptized for five of his dead friends. And since the Mormons believe that immersion is the only valid baptism, and since the weather was very cold, the aforementioned saint naturally shrank from the chilling pros- pect of being immersed five times in ice-water. He, therefore, hunted up a man_and offered him two dollars apiece if he would take the job of being baptized for these five dead persons. The offer was accepted, and the baptism was performed in that way.

Another peculiar doctrine of the Mormon church is in reference to the Melchizedec and Aaronic Priesthood. The Mormons claim to have what might be called an ecclesiastical patent on this priesthood, which takes away from every on¢ outside the Mormon church the right to preach the Gospel of Christ, or to administer any of the ordinances of God. The Melchizedec priesthood is the superior branch, having special reference to spiritual affairs, while the Aaronic branch refers rather to secular matters—although, in the former the functions of both departments are combined in some of the higher officers. But the world-wide fame of the Philadelphia lawyer would be sadly diminished if he should undertake to explain the various affiliations and ramifications between the Melchizedec and Aaronic priesthoods. The writer has heard Brigham Young say, in reference to these twe departments, that it is very hard for any one to tell where the secular leaves off and the spiritual begins in this world. Although Brigham was at the head of the Melchizedec

riesthood, and was officially “prophet, seer and revelator’” for the church, it would certainly puzzle any one to tell where the spiritual began in him. But where did the Mormons get these two branches of the priesthood? They say, from Joe Smith. And where did he get them? According to Mormon authority, John the Baptisf had the kindness to visit him in the woods of New York, in 1829, and there ordained him to the Aaronic priesthood. Peter, James and Jobn also had a private interview with him about the same time, and ordained him to the Melchizedec priesthood. Under the latter are in- cluded apostles, seventies, patriarchs, high-priests, and elders. Under the Aaronic. priesthood are bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons. A worse despotism than is exercised over the people by this priesthood cannot be found on earth. Pretending to have the keys of heaven and. hell, pretending to have its authority direct from the Lord, it wields absolute power; not only in spiritual, but in all temporal affairs. Indeed, strict obedience to the “ holy priesthood’’ is one of the conditions of gaining heaven, and the other is, “pay your tithing.’ The writer has been informed by those who have been mem- bers of the Mormon church for years that if one complies with these two con- ditions, he may be guilty of every sin and crime pointed at in the Decalogue, and still retain his standing in the church. Nor is it an uncommon thing to send men to foreign lands as missionaries simply in order that the church may get rid, as it foolishly supposes, of the odium of some crime that they bave committed at home. The Mormons profess to believe in the Bible as a divine book, and in Christ as a divine Saviour. Still, they hold that a man cannot be saved unless he telieves in the “ Book of Mormon” asa divine reve- lation, and in Joseph Smith as a divine prophet.

And now, to cap the climax of all these blasphemous and horrid doctrines is one which is the most horrid of all, namely, the doctrine of Blood Atone- ment. According to this terrible doctrine there are some sins which cannot be torgiven or atoned for except by cutiing the throat of the man who com- mitted them, and pouring out his blood as an atonement. Three of these sins are apostasy, disclosing the secrets of the Endowment House, and marital un- faithfulness on the part of a wife. It has been taught by the head men ot the church that it is a meritorious act for any Saint to spill the blood of a person

36 -HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

guilty of any of these sins. That there may be no doubt about the correctness: of these statements concerning this horrible doctrine, the following extracts are taken from Brigham Young’s published sermons:

“There ave sing that men commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this wodd. or in the world to come, andif they had their eyes open to see their true condition they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt on the ground, that the smoke thereof might

ascend to Heaven as an offering for their sins, and the sraoking incense would atone for their sins, whereas, if such is not the case, thes will stick to them and remain with them in the

spirit world.’

On another occasion he said:

“T could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground _as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil until our elder brother, Jesus Christ, raises them up and conquers death, heli, and the grave.”’

Now, it is not intended to leave the impression that all the Mormon peo- ple believe in and practice such a barbarous doctrine; for vast numbers of the Mormons are far better than theircreed. But truth requires the impression to be left that such a doctrine has been publicly preached again and again by the authorities of the church, and been repeatedly put into practice by the sanction of these authorities. The writer has been informed, on authority which he sees no reason to doubt, of specific cases in which this doctrine has been literally put into practice, with details too horrible to describe. And if ail the Mormons do not belicve and practice such a doctrine, it is not because _ the leading men in the church have not repeatedly inculcated it as a solemn duty.

The above are a few of the prominent and peculiar doctrines which are preached to the Mormon people; polytheism; the eternity of matter; the be- lref that God possesses a body, parts and passions like a man; polygamy on earth and in heaven, including the belief that Christ was a polygamist; bap- tism which washes away sins and brings salvation to the dead; the absolute control of the Melchizedec and Aaronic priesthood over all things, both tem- poral and spiritual; no salvation for any one who does not believe in the “ Book of Mormon” and Joseph Smith, and then, to crown all, the doctrine of blood atonement.

From these doctrines it will be clearly seen that Mormonism is a grand jumble and conglomeration of five or six different “isms,” its chief power be- ing derived from the skillful way in which a little truth is blended with mountains of error. Let Paganism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Jesuitism, Pro- testantism and Diabolism be shaken up together, and the result is Mormonism. For from Paganism comes its ide of God; from Judaism its theory of the mulpetiiong, and special revelation; from Mohammedanism its plural-wife no-

ions and its sensual ideas of heaven; from Jesuitism its cunning and ar- bitrary form of government, in which the end is continually made to justify the means; from Protestantism its talk about faith in Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and its general policy from the Devil—as any intelligent man will have to confess after a careful study of its cunning, dey- ilish ways and means. It is impossible for purely human language to set torth adequately the diabolical character of Mormonism in both its theories and practices. And for this season, if any one desires to read, in small com- pass, a more accurate description of Mormonism than could be given by so skillful a writer as Macaulay, after he had lived in Utah for ten years, let him turn to the second chapter of Second Peter and read the first nineteen verses, where the pen of inspiration has given the only adequate description of Mor- monism ever written.

And yet, it is only just to say that, scattered all through the Morman ranks are hundreds of devout, worthy, kindhearted, hospit@#ele people, who

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 37

came to Utah from England, Scétland, and the Scandinavian countries, bring- ing their Bibles and Christian sentiments with them, and who, although nom- inally Mormons, have never been persuaded to embrace these odious Pagan doctrines, which are the distinctive features of Mormonism.

THE FRUITS OF MORMONISM,

One might as well expect to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles as to suppose that the corrupt tree of Mormonism would bring forth good fruit. Holding, as they do, that they have an exclusive right to the priesthood, to revelations and prophecies, to the healing of the sick by the laying on of hands, to religious truth in general, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it would be hard to find more self-conceit and self-righteousness than among the Mormon people. A young Mormon “elder” who cannot put together three selftences in a grammatical way will assume to have a knowledge of the Bi- ble and of religious truth generally, which Dr. Hodge, after sixty years of careful study, would not have thought of laying claim to.

But to avoid speaking at random, take the following proof of this self- conceit and self-righteousness, furnished during the recent Moody and Sankey meetings in Salt Lake City. It is a well-known fact that the leading men and most famous scholars of America and Great Britain have listened to Mr. Moody’s preaching again and again with delight and profit. But the Deseret Evening News, which 1s the official organ of the Mormon church in Utah, in an editorial on Mr. Moody’s preaching in Salt Lake City, spoke as follows:

“There is nota man among the whole fraternity of ‘ Eyangelists’ who can present any- thing of my, value to the Latter-day Saints, which they have not already received. And there ig no yer er of them all, who, if he were desirous of learning the truth as it is in Jesus, but eonld learn very many valuable lessens in the things of God from members of our Young Peo-

le’s Improvement Associations, and even from our Sunday-School children. ‘ Believe in the ord Jesus Christ’ is a saying the full meaning of which is appreciated by the Latter-day Saints. To exhort them to ‘ faith in Christ’ is the work of supererogation.”’

Think of Mr. Moody going into a Mormon Sunday-school to learn the “truth as it is in Jesus,’? when the principal text-book there is the “Book of Mormon.” ‘ ;

And, still later thau the above, this official organ of the Mormon church, in an editorial on a sermon recently preached on Mormonism in Philadelphia, by Bishop Tuttle, uses the following language:

** But so far as the inscitutions of modern Christendom are concerned, we candidly confess , our lack of confidence in their power to do anything forus. * * * We have got so far be- ond them throngh the revelations of the A migety Nonchented in these latter days, that we ook back upon their teachings as a man reverts to the alphabet of his school days, and we re-

member their powerless forms and spiritless ceremonies as mere playthings compared with the higher things of the kingdom to which the system they call ‘ Mormonism’ has intro-

duced us.”

The writer is ready to confess that he never had a clear conception of the character of the Pharisees during the Saviour’s time until he came in contact with the utterances and spirit of the Mormon priesthood.

Another fruit of Mormonism is an exclusive, intolerant and vindictive spirit toward all outside the Mormon church. This is especially manifest on the part of the priesthood, who try to impress the people with the idea that all outsiders are “‘ Gentiles” and “ Babylonians,” the enemies of the Lord, whom it is nerfectly, legitimate to plunder, and rob, and murder, if necessary, to pro- mote the supposed welfare of the church. This accounts for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the murder of the Aiken party of six persons, the Potter and Parish murders, and the countless other assassinations which stain the history of the Mormon church. As an indication of this vindictive spirit, one of the twelve apostles, on a public occasion, after referring to the fact that Christ taught us to pray for our enemies, said: “I do pray for our enemies. I pray that God will damn them and sead them down to Hell.” And, within

38 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

the past two years, one of the twelve apostles stood up in a public meeting and said, in a savage way: “If I had my way, I would say to every Gentile in the Territory, ‘Get right out of here, or take the consequences.’ ”’ The Mormon priesthood have the spirit to drive every American from the Territory within a week. But, fortunately they have not the power, although this spirit is manifested in every town where the priesthood have almost exclusive control. In Brigham City they subjected the Presbyterian minister there to every form of persecution except personal violence. They declined for several months to sell him any supplies at any of the stores, groceries or butchers’ shops, so that he was compelled to go six miles to purchase his supplies. They injured his property in various ways, and finally tried to drive him away by stoning his house at night. His only offence was that of being an American citizen. All this took place within the past three years.

Within the past six months one of the ministers employed under the Presbyterian Board of Home Mission, in the southern part of the Territory, got the privilege of boarding ina Mormon family. As soon as the priesthood found it out, this family was required to close its doors against the minister, ee hone greatly in need of the money which he was ready to pay for his board.

Within a month another minister, in the northern part of the Territory, hired a building for a mission-school, from an old lady eonnected with the Mormon church, and paid a month’s rent inadvance. As soon as the priest- hood found out what she had done, they breught such a pregsure to bear upon her that she went to the minister and urged him to give her back the build- ing, although, in her poverty, she greatly needed the rent. And yet the writer has heard President Taylor stand up in the great Tabernacle and de. clare that they are in favor of the largest liberty for their own people and for all mankind, and are glad to welcome people of all denominations to Utah. The priesthood pretend io give the American lamb perfect liberty to live with the Mormon lion. But when the Mormon theory is put into practice, “with the lion generally means inside the lion.”

The Jesuit theory thac “the end justifies the means’’ was never more thor- oughly put in practice than by the Mormon priesthood. They hold that lying and perjury, for example, are not wrong when done for the good of the church. The writer has sat in the Federal court-room by the hour, and heard officials high in the Mormon church swear they “don’t know” in regard to things which it was their special business to be familiar with. d as an ex- ample of the way in which the priesthood are ready to lie their way out of a difficulty for the good of the church, take the following fact:

In 1850, John Taylor, the present head of the church, was in France, and became engaged in a public discussion with some Protestant ministers. They made it so hot for him on the subject of polygamy that, finally, to relieve him- self and the church he represented from the odium, he denied that polygamy was one of the doctrines of the Mormon church, and had his denial translated into French and publicly circulated, although Taylor himself now saysthat he knows that Joseph Smith received his alleged revelation on polygamy in 1848, seven years before Taylor’s denial was made. Furthermore, those who ought to know have told the writer that Taylor had no less than four wives himsgeli when he made that denial. se

So far as polygamy is concerned, the fruit is just what might be expected: There is no social abomination growing out of that unclean system which is not found in Utah, and which is not countenanced by the priesthood. It is considered perfectly, proper for a man to have two or three sisters for his wives at the same time, or a mother and her daughter. Such cases are numer- ous. And the writer has knowledge of one case where a man had for his three wives: mother, daughter, and grand-daughter. The whole tendency of

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM, : 39

; : $ polygamy is to brutalize all who have anyvhing to do with it. One of the saddest, but one of the most frequent, results is the pushing aside, into cold neglect, of legal wives who have grown old and gray, to make room for those that are younger. After three and a-half years of careful observation, the writer feels amply justified in saying that, so far as the Mormon men are con. cerned, with very rare exceptions, the same principle underlies polygamy which underlies the keeping of mistresses elsewhere. No pen can describe the demoralizing ‘effect upon the young, nor adequately set forth the lack of morality on the part of the vast majority of young men and women who are brought up in connection with it. In fact, they don’t seem to know what the term morality means. It must be remembered, however, that only a minority of the Mormon people are in polygamy. So far as the rest are concerned, the writer rejoices to believe that among them, in spite of the terrible errors and evil tendencies of Mormonism, there are great numbers of upright men and women, who are still influenced by the wholesome teachings of their Christian ancestors.

One of the worst fruits of Mormonism is the way in which the most ga- cred things are desecrated in the name of religion, so that “the way of truth is evil spoken of.” Take two or three examples:

A Mormon apostle or bishop will stand up on the Sabbath to preach to the people, declaring that he will speak as the Holy Ghost shall give him utterance. He will then begin an incoherent secular harangue about the best method of irrigation, the need of inaugurating manufacturing enterprises, (this is a pet topic with President Taylor), the necessity of -planting shade trees, or the best method of improving the breed of cattle and sheep.

The Mormons devote a great deal of attention to dances and balls, and it is acustomary thing to open these performances with prayer.

But the worst example is that in connection with the Mountain Meadows . massacre. John D. Lee, the Mormon bishop, who was executed in the spring of 1877, for participation in that awful horror, tells us, in his published con- fession, that the Mormon leaders who engaged in that massacre spent most of the preceding night in a prayer-meeting, asking the Lord to guide them in their murderous enterprise. For a long time they were in doubt as to whether they had the sanction of the Lord or not. But toward morning they all felt that the Holy Spirit was with-them, and in the name of the Lord they went out an slaughtered, in cold blood, 119 men, women. and children, because they were Gentiles, and, therefore, the Lord’s enemies.

é THE RESOURCES OF MORMONISM.

Where does this system, which is so anti-American and so utterly hostile to the enlightened and progressive spirit of the age, get its enormous strength ? Its strength comes mainly from three sources, namely: its organization, its missionary policy and its financial system. There is probably no system on earth which has a more cunning, compact, and complete organization for its purpose than the Mormon Church. There is space to give only the merest * outline of its organization. Supreme over all is the President with his two Councilors. Then come the Twelve Apostles, who, in connection with the President and his councilors, form a High Council, from whose decision there is no appeal. Then come the Seventies (who are traveling missionaries), » High Priests, Elders, Bishops, Teachers, and Deacons.

__ The whole Territory is divided into twenty stakes (Is. liv. 4) or districts, -each of which is presided over by a High Priest. ‘Vhese districts are again subdivided into about two hundred and thirty wards, each of which has a presiding bishop. The Teachers and Deacons are his subordinates, whose duty it is to visit every family in the ward so as to be informed in regard to their religious belief. In this way, through al} these various gradations, the

49. HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

leaders are able to put their finger on every man, woman, and child in the whole Church.

One of the most cunning things about the organization is the number of office-holders. The following figures are taken from their own reports to the annual conference in April, 1879: Total number of Mormons in Utah, 109,218. All over eight years are considered members of the Church, and, according to this report, there were 75,557 officers and members. Of this number 23,038, or nearly two out of every six, were office-holders, distributed as follows: 2 councilors, 11 apostles, 50 patriarchs, 4,260 seventies, 3,241 high priests, 9,615 elders, 1,347 priests, 1,515 teachers, and 2,997 deacons. If any one of these 23,000 officers is disposed to criticise, or become dissatisfied with, the syatem, the office he holds (with the prospect of promotion) acts as a bribe to silence and acquiescence.

The extent of Mormon missionary operations is far greater than is gener- ally supposed. They keep about 300 missionaries scattered through the world constantly. And it is safe to say that, at the present time, there is not a country on the globe where a Mormon missionary cannot be found. Nor do they go in vain, since, for several years past, they bring to Utah between two and three thousand converts annually. Most of these converts come from England, Scotland, and the Scandinavian countries. And the secret of their success in these Christian communities is found in the fact that they preach mainly the Bible and the Gospel of Christ, claiming that tat is Mormonism. When their deluded victims arrive in Utah, with their little means exhausted, they discover that the Bible is pushed aside to make room for the “Book of Mormon,” and Christ is put in the background to make room for Joseph Smith in the foreground. These missionaries also take advantage of the American Homestead and Pre-emption laws, and fasten their toils more * securely about their victims by pretending that the Mormon Church will provide them with land for homes. The successful operations of these mis- sionaries are altogether with the ignorant and dissatisfied classes of England and Europe, since none but the very ignorant can be duped by these wolves in sheep’s clothing. And after arriving in Utah, these people and their children are kept in the most abject ignorance, sinee the main object of the Mormon school system is to prevent people from leaming to think and acquire information.

But the main strength of Mormonism is derived frem its financial system, which is based on the tithing plan. The people are required to give the tenth of everything to the priesthood, trom the tenth egg to the tenth hay-stack. According to their own report, the net proceeds of the tithings for the year ending April 6th, 1880, were in round numbers $458,000. And the income of the priesthood from all sources for the same period amounted to the enormous sum of $1,097,000. The priesthood make no report of the uses to which this vast sum is put, except in the most general way.

RELATIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT.

There is room left to say but a few words on this most important point, But it is very difficult for a patriotic citizen to live in Utah and maintain that respect for the Government of his country which every citizen ought to feel, when he sees how, for more than thirty years, the Government has allowed its laws to be trampled underfoot, and the blood of law-abiding citizens shed with impunity, by this anti-American oligarchy, which sets at defiance the most sacred laws of the land. Few people realize how utterly anti-American and hostile to the institutions of the land Mormonism is. It not only believes in & union of Church and State, but in such a union as completely merges the State in the Church. Consequently, when the Territorial laneieu ne met in Salt Lake City last winter, Americans living in Utah had the following

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 41

* edifying spectacle to look at: Out of 89 members of this Territorial Legisla- ture (26 in the Lower and 13 in the Upper House), 84 were polygamists and members of the Mormon priesthood. And these law-breakers drew their salaries out of the United States Treasury. '

For nineteen years there has been a specific law against polygamy on the National Statute-book. But only two men in all that time have been con- victed out of hundreds upon hundreds of criminals, for the simple reason that no Mormon witness could be found who would tell the truth. In one of the cases referred to, one of the witnesses happened to be an American; and in the other, testimony was obtained by a brilliant piece of strategy on the part of the United States Marshal.

About all the Congressional legislation that is needed in order to Ameri-

- canize Utah is included in the following three points: 1. An amended jury law which will prevent polygamists from sitting on a jury before which a polygamist is to be tried. 2. Making polygamy a continuous offence, instead of requiring prosecution to take place within three years, asnow. 3. Making cohabitation the proof of marriage, instead of being required, as now, to prove the ceremony, which takes place behind the solid walls of the Endowment, House—where the only witnesses are those who will not tell the truth.

For years and years the Americans in Utah have been trying to secure from Congress some such simple legislation as this, but tono purpose. Mean- while Mormonism has gone on inereasing in strength until it virtually controls four of the future great States of the Union. If facts have not been set forth in this article which deserve the serious attention of every patriotic American, and especially ot every man who deserves the name of statesman then where are such facts to be obtained ? Rosert G. MoNrecsz.

Since writing the above, I have come to the conclusion that nothing short of a Congressional enactment disfranchising the polygamists, and transferring the political power now wielded by the Mormon church toa Legislative Com- mission of law-abiding citizens, appointed by the President, will ever succeed in Americanizing Utah. R. G@. M.

Polygamy.

This feature of Mormonism is not, as some assert, a mere addition by Brigham Young to the original doctrines of the church; nor is it of such a character that it can be sloughed off at any convenient time, under the direc- tion of a new Revelation, but it is so thoroughly interwoven into their whole theological fabric as to be an essential part of it. It is the necessary and logical outgrowth of their faith. Destroy this doctrine, or prohibit its prac. tical working by Congressional enactments, and Mormonism is stripped of all that cau perpetuate it. ‘

Orson Pratt, in a sermon preached August 29, 1852, said:

“The Latter-day Saints have embraced the doetrine of a plurality of wives as a part of etheir religious faith. It is Sucorpararce ag a part of our et ei and unecessary for our ex- altation to the fullness of the Lord’s glory in the Eternal World.”

This docrine is the necessary sequence of their belief in a Celestial “world, or in the pre-existent life of the human soul.. On this point, Mr. Pratt SAYS:

“The spirit that dwells in each man and woman is, I venture to say, more than five thou- sand years old. The Lord has ordained that these spirite should come here and take taber-

ate by_@ certain Jaw, and through a certain channel; and THAT law is the law of marriage, Lord ordained marriage on this globe between Adam and Hive as eternal in its nature,

42 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

hence we believe in marrying for eternity. Among these spirits in the heavens are man: more noble, more intelligent, that were called the great and mighty ones who were res till the fullness of time, to come forth upon the face of the earth through a noble parentage, who shall train their tender minds in the truths of eternity, that they may be Prophets, Priests and Kings to the Most High God. Among the Saints is the most likely place for these spirits to take their tabernacles, to be trained up by that people that are the most righteous of any other people upon the earth. This is the reason that the Lord is sending them here, brethren and sisters. The Lord has not kept them in reserve for five or six thousand years, waiting for their bodies, to send them to the Hottentots, the Hindoos or the Negroes, but to the Saints of the living God, who were chosen out of every nation of the earth, and are being gathered to Zion, Then, is it not reasonable that the Lord should say unto his faithful and chosen ser- vants: ‘Take unto yourselves more wives, that more of these noble spirits should come forth through these my faithful and chosen servants.’ ” : TheEe wives are to be sealed to the Saints for time and eternity only by the priesthood... The Revelation of celestial marriage was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, on the twelfth day of July, 1843, and to him and his successors in office are given the keys of these matters. ‘Tf men neglect this sealing, they will be damned to all eternity. If they are redeemed it will not be to become gods, and to reign upon thrones. If they are not sealed to their wives they will not have any claim on one another in the eternal world, but shall be separated and be servants to others.’’—Pratt’s Sermons.

The great object set forth by the Mormons in maintaining this peculiar doctrine is to raise up a numerous posterity, here and in the world to come, that they may be exalied to the rank of the ‘Sons of God; or, to gods to reign upon thrones.” In this they are to fulfill the command of the Lord to “mul- sae ros replenish the earth.” Brigham Young said in a sermon preached in c

“If my wife had borne me all the children that she ever could bear, the celestial law would teach me to take young women that would have children.”

Heber Kimbali said:

‘How long do you suppose it wlll be before my posterity increases to over a million? A hundred years will not pass before I will become millions myself. Brother Brigham and I are becoming like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We have taken a course of exaltation and put our lives and strength to usury, and we shall inherit the blessings of the faithful to whom the promise is given.” \

Orson Pratt has also said:

“Phere is another reason why this plurality should exist among the Latter-day Saints: We believe that the nations of the earth are doomed to destruction; we believe that, according to Mormen revelations, geen in the Book of Doctrines and Covenants, that the sword of the vengeance of the Almighty is already unsheathed, and stretched out, and will no more be put back into the scabbard until it falls upon the head of nations, until they are destroyed. We believe that the Saints are bee gathered to Zion from among the nations,'to become the in- struments in the Lord’s hand of accomplishing His will.’’

Orson Hyde, in a sermon preaehed in the Tabernacle, October 6, 1854, said: *‘Polygamy is the chord that shall revolutionize the whole world, and it will make t United States tremble from head to foot. Thereissuch a tide of irresistible argument in it

‘that, like the grand Mississippi, it bears onits bold current everything that dares oppose its

course.

_The Mormons have always maintained direct hostility to legislation against this feature of their system, and boldly assert their expectation of a universal supremacy in this nation. Orson Pratt, in his sermon on celestial marriage, in 1852, said:

“Tf it can be proven that the Latter-day Saints have actually embraced, as a part an - tion of their religion, the doctrine of a plurality of wives, it is porsiintional, satan ater

there be laws enacted by the Government to restrict them from the free exercise of this part of their religion, such laws are unconstitutional.”

Brigham Young said, in a discourse in 1856:

‘It is not the prerogative of the President of the United States to meddle with this matter. and Congress is not allowed, according to the Constitution, to legislate uponit. If we intro- duce the practice of polygamy, it is not their prerogative to meddle. * * TI say, as the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign State in the Union, oran independent nation by our- relves. And let them drive us from this place if they can. If they(get rid of polygamy they will have to expend three hundred million dotlars for a prison, and roof it over from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Neyadas. ‘The sound of polygamy is a terror to the pretended republican governments. Why? Because this work is destined to revolution-

size the world and bring all under subjection.”

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 48

The same treasonable spirit is rife totday, and from ward meeting-houses, assembly halls and tabernacles the cry is raised of unconstitutional interfer- ' ence with their liberties. The people are constantly exhorted to accept poly- gamy asa divine docirine, and counseled to practice it in defiance of all law. President Wilford Woodruff, in the priesthood meeting of the last conference, boasted of the fact that he had three wives and twenty or thirty children. Ina ‘sermon preached in the Tabernacle, in referring to this part of their doctrine, he said: tS “ There is one principle I would impress with power on the mind of every Saint of God, upon the rulers of our nation, andupon theinhabitants of the land, namely: that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with all the ordinances thereof, with the priesthood, which holds power both In the heavens and on the earth, and the principles instituted for the salvation and exaltation of men—these principles cannot be annihilated. No combinations of men can destroy them; prisons cannot confine them, nor graves entomb them, because they are eternal. Men might be put to prison who confessed them, as was Brother Reynolds, but the principles are as firm and independent ae the pillars of heaven. Rulers and the inhabitants of the earth have tried to destroy them, but it mattered not; these eternal principles could never he destroyed.” °

Geo. Q. Cannon, a man with four wives, said recently in a speech in Salt Lake City:

‘The Government of the United States would be powerless in the future, as it had beenin the past, to enforce the anti-polygamy or any other law detrimental to the interests or progress of the kingdom of God on earth. Nineteen years ago on the 2d of last July, the Congress of

the United States passed a law to prohibit and punish the practice of polygamy in the Terri- tories. How much prohibition has the Jaw effected! How many of us have been punished ig se thpemtae But two men, and they furnished the evidence themselves for their own con- viction.’” Polygamy is taught as extending into the future life. Those sealed here are sealed for all eternity, and there will be an eternal increase of progeny. ‘““The Revelation of the Almighty from God to a man who holds the Priestood and is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, whom God designs to make a ruler and a governor in his eternal kingdom, is that he may have more wives, that when he goes to another sphere he may still continue to perpetuate his species, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. * ~* Jn yonder world, those who have the Priesthood and dy their taith and obedience ebtain the sanction of the Almighty, they are sealed on earth and in heaven, and will be - exalted to rule and govern forever, while those who would not listen to the holy command- ments, and died without having a wife sealed to them, are angels—lower spirits and servants to them that rule. * * When the servants of God go to heaven, there is an eternal union, and they will multiply and replenish the world to which they are going.”—Orson Hyde’s Sermon, Oct. 6th, 1854.

“The principle of increase is the grand moving principle and cause of the actions of men. The Latter-day Saints are bound to put in practice those principles that are calculated to endure and tend to a continual increase in the would to come.”’—Brigham Young. Their theology teaches the legitimacy of marriage between brother and sister, and between parties of near relationship, in order that a “ pure family - may be raised up.’ Instances of a Saint marrying or “being sealed” to a mother and to her daughters at the same time, are of frequent occurrence. - Contracts are made with missionaries to find a wife or wives for parties here, on condition of paying the expenses of the passage to this Territory. Young ‘and innocent girls are thus purchased by old gray-headed polygamists and dragged into a life as slavish in its character as was that system which always will be a foul blot upon our nation’s history. It may well be repeated, and the declaration made emphatic, that polygamy means the enslavement and the prostiution of woman; a venomous defiance of the authority of the - United States Government, and the propagation of a horde of banditti in this Territory whose deeds will strike terror to every heart. The massacre at “Mountain Meadows, the robber bands of Nauvoo, the outlawry of young -Mormondom of to-day, away from the centers of civilization, are but the natural fruits of this terrible system, and only a forecast of the years to come, “when these masses of ignorant, vicious, polygamous-bred “hoodlums” of mixed parentage shall be thrown out like driftwood upon the sea of active mite. )- T. W. Lincoun.

f

ng Le ee cat os

The Mormon Situation.

Extracts from an article in “‘ Harper's Weekly” for October, 1881, by Judge C. C. Goodwin, Editor of the “Salt Lake Tribune.”’)

For an American to study the situation of affairs in Utah is a task which brings only a reward of grief and indignation, and these feelings increase as the subject is more and more investigated and understood, One is grieved over the welding of such a superstition over thousands of people, incensed at the degradation of poor women, and indignant that in the United States a sys- tem is being encouraged and strengthened annually which kills the clear sense of right in young minds, and taints childhood with errors which can never be eradicated. * * % * * * x

To give a clear understanding of the present position of the Mormon people and the influences which control them, together with the outlook for the future under that control, 1s a most difficult task. I can tell what I know, what ten thousand people around me know, and while knowing that it is all true, often find it almost impossible to support the statement with the proofs which a legal or prejudiced mind would demand. Hence in what I shall say below only facts perfectly well known will be stated. A writer on this theme is in the same position that the courts in Utah are when they attempt to ‘punish a man for the offense of having at the same time two or twenty wives. Every resident may know the fact, the children of the different “ wives” may be seen daily at play about the streets, the Mormons themselves will tell what the maiden names of the women were; and still, erraign that man and charge him with the crime, and those very women will come into court and on oath declare that they were never married to the man, and if necessary (as they have before now) swear that they do not know who 1s the father of their own children. Of course, the court is baffled, and justice is defeated. The Mor- mons will prove by their “sacred’’ books that they may not lie or commit violence, that a good Mormon cannot help but be a truthful, God-fearing man. But such things always have with them a double meaning. With them it means simply that to a brother Mormon they must be true, while to an outsider the rule does not apply. In private the more candid of them will admit this, and will cite examples by the score from the Bible to prove how from the first it has been the rule for God’s people to deceive and spoil the “heathen. There is a double meaning or a chance for a reservation every- where in their professions and statements. Their Church itself is a double entendre. They went to Utah poor; they have sought no way to acquire wealth except from the products of the soil; the coming of strangers was a signal for the most cruel persecutions by them, those persecutions taking the form of ostracism, of open murder, and secret assassination. For years Gentiles carried their lives in their hands; the prayers in the churches on the Sabbath were that the Gentiles might be destroyed; Governors and judges snd other United States officials were driven away; to prospect for minerals in the hills of Utah was death; and though the Gentiles, against this oppasi- tion, and while wronging no one, opened the mines and made a market for Mormon produce, gave employment to Mormon laborers, paying in gold, and making the present wealth of Utah except the value of the naked land, Within the last three.months the Premier of the Mormon Church (Geo. Q. Cannon), a man who claims to be an apostle of the Lord, furnished to a dis- tinguished magazine of the East an article in which he directly claims that not only against the barbarism of the wilderness, but against the most ‘merciless and continued persecutions, the patient and long.suffering Mormons

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM, AS

have builded for themselves homes in the desert. As this man is really the controlling spirit of the Mormon Church, a brief reference to some of his statements will give the reader a fair estimate of the worth of any Mormon’s statement concerning Mormon affairs.

He says of Joseph Smith:

“He had the courage of his convictions, and did all that mortal man could do to prove to the world that he knew that his teachings were true—he died for them.”

The truth is, Smith was arrested, as any other culprit might be, and died as any other criminal might, and certainly as much against his own will or intention as ever did felon of greater or less degree at the rash hands of an outraged community.

Of Brigham Young this man says:

“The man who had the courage to lead an expatriated people through the wildérness, the statesmanship to found a great commonwealth, and the truthfulness and probity to make his word among business men have the value of a bond, can not be injured by malicious envy.”

The courage of going to Utah was nothing more than thousands have dared; the statesmanship displayed was simply in claiming divine power, © and making some hundreds—and later some thousands—of people work for him; and, while his word was good where he could not afford to break it, Salt Lake City is full of people of both sexes whom he deliberately robbed. The writer of the foregoing extract was the man who delivered the funeral eulogy over Brigham Young’s remains. In that eulogy he declared his full belief in the integrity and divinity of the dead “prophet.” Within a few days afterward, however, he was one of the parties to a suit which compelled the heirs of the “prophet” to make restitution of more than one million dollars stolen from a deluded people. Again, this writer denies that the Mormons in Idaho were ordered how to vote last year. At the time, a Mormon bishop stated that, against their wlll, they were ordered to vote, and the result of that election showed that every Mormon voted.

The same writer asserts that the Mormonsare attached to the Constitution of the United States, and claims, therefore, that they are good Americans. They do claim that, under the Constitution, Polygamy, or any other cant or fraud under the name of religion, is allowable, ard thus far and no farther are Mormons Americans. When the civil war was raging, Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle one day, at Salt Lake City, said:

“The men of the South pray to God for the destruction of the men of the North; the men of the North beseech God to bring destruction upon the men of the South; I say amen to both prayers.”

_ These words reveal fully the love which the Mormon people bear to the people and Government of the United States.

Further on in his article the Mormon Premier says:

“« Every person was at liberty to do as he pleased about prospecting and and opening mines.”

The truth is that Lawrence and Godbe were cut off from the church for Advocating mining. Men who tried to prospect were murdered or driven away, and the first mines opened in Utah were only opened under guard of United States soldiers. He claims that in the early days of Utah there were no liquor or gambling saloons, or prostitutes, in the Territory. Brigham Young early engaged in the manufacture of liquors, and it was openly sold (a most vile compound) in Mormon stores that bore the sign of “ Holiness to the

rd” and “the all-seeing eye” over the doors. There were no houses ef pub- ic prostitution, for such houses can not exist where there is no money; but hat there were ample materials to supply such houses is manifest from Brig.

{

iY 46 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

ham Young’s old sermons, one of which is before this writer as he writes, but which, by its obscenity, is preserved from reproduction. :

He praised the Mormon schools of Utah, when the testimony of Gentile teachers is unanimous that they are of the very lowest type.

He further says: ;

“From the time when travel across the continent to California com- menced; it has been a constant custom in Utah to invite ministers of repute of every denomination, who were passing through, to speak in the various places — of worship.”

It has been the cusiom occasionally to ask ministers to preach One ser- mon in Salt Lake City. These sermons have been themes for ridicule on — the succeeding Sabbaths. But to show the real Mormon spirit I will cite — one case. A young Presbyterian minister came to Utah a few years ago, to try to regainhis health. He went to San Pete valley, where there were no American schools, where there were boys and girls nearly grown to manhood and womanhood who were totally ignorant of the rudiments of an education, and opened a school. Hearing of it, Brigham Young and his nearest counsellors repaired 1o San Pete, and, before a full congregation on the Sabbath day, Young instructed his hearers to kill the offending min- ister. George Q. Cannon, who made the above statement of Mormon liber- ality, sat by and heard Young’s order,‘as did also the Rev. Mr. McMillan, against whom the order was directed, and who, despite three attempts upon his life, still lives and continues to teach and preach in San Pete. Mr. Cannon also tries to charge the Mountain Meadows massacre upon Jobin D. Lee and the Indians. There is nothing better known in Utah than that Lee was but a mere instrument in the hands of his superiors; that he would not have dared to act without orders; that the murders were planned in Salt Lake City, and that-many of the effects of the victims were carried to that city and sold. Mame, in a meeting of the seventies in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young justified fa massacre.

I have cited the above extracts to show just how much a Mormon’s word is worth to the outside world. The man I have quoted from is second in place in Mormon authority, claims to be an apostle of the Lord, and to speak with an inspiration received direct daily from God. His brother, who is also high in authority in the church, but a few days since, under oath, declared that he did not know that his brother was living in polygamy, and that he knew the names of no women who claimed to be his brother’s wives, except his first wife. There is hardly a child in Salt Lake City who does not know four wo- men who are Cannon’s wives, and their children.

Mr. Cannon denies that in Utah there is any union of Church and State, while, under date of January 6, 1881, John Taylor, President of the Mormon Church, in a communicatiou to Henry Randall Waite, Special United States Census Agent, admits that the Mormon church has full control over the tem- poral as well as the spiritual affairs of the Mormon people. This same thing is preached weekly in the Mormon churches. * *% * =

The sentiment throughout the country is that, however misguided the Mormon leaders may be, they are entirelysincere that their religious convic- tions are part of their lives, and that, in treating with them, this fact must never be lost sight of. There are many among the ignorant followers who are sincere, and there are many who, at the command of John Taylor, would go out with only staves and pitchforks, against a fully armed and disciplined army corps, and expect io conquer, for they are thorough fanatics, and are steeped in superstition. The fact that for years they have worked uncom- plainingly, while their leaders have absorbed all the profits of their toil, is a convincing proof of their sincerity. But with the leaders, that is, with four- fifths of them, the case is altogether different. . With them their church ig

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONESM. AY

simply a colossal political and commérciel machine, through which a few

leaders may hold control over the minds and earnings of the fullowers, through steady appeals to their fanaticism and superstition, by holding over them the terrors of excommunication, and the promises of sensual indulgences in this world, and a Mohammedan paradise after death if they are but faith- ful. It is an absolute theocracy; it holds itself above the government of the United States, or any other government; teaches its adherents that “all govern-

_ ‘ments founded merely by men are ilegal ; claims that its founder was a prophet

inspired by Omnipotence; that, as he died, his mantle descended upon his successors, with all its divine powers; that, as he could do no wrong, they, in his place, and the direct custodians of his powers, can do no wrong, and that when men, poor and weak, and groping in the darkness of this world, made laws which are contrary to their desires, or which conflict with their plans, they are not only not under the slightest obligations either to obey or respect them, but havea perfect right to commit perjury or any other crime to avoid obeying them. So, while wtthin the Republic, claiming all its protection and advantages, these leaders are teaching their followers steadily to look forward to the time, in the near future, when the dominion of the whole land sball be theirs—not only the spiritual dominion, but the political and commercial do- minion. Their contempt for the government of the United States has been and is being shown in a hundred ways. Their election law, giving the balldt to women, is a sample. Under that law girls under age, and alien women with the odor of the emigrant-ship still upon their.clothes, without ever hav- ing taken an oath of allegiance to the United States, without the slightestidea of the meaning of the act they are performing, or what is intended by it, cast their votes as they are instructed to in some tongue unknown to the ordinary American, and go away dazed. During the past eighteen months more poly- gamous marriages have been consummated in Utah than ever before in the same length of time. Every day, in Salt Lake City, can be seen women, still girls in years, carrying in their arms infants the fathers of which they would not, under torture, reveal. The Mormon leaders and Mormon journals take the ground that a person can not be punished forthe crime of polygamy until his guilt is established by direct proof in a courtof competent jurisdiction, and jeeringly defy the authorities to obtain the pruof. Danie] H. Wells, one of the

- oldest leaders and highest officers of the bogus church, and the chief custo-

dian of the Endowment House records at Salt Lake City, swore in court there that he knew of no record of Mormon marriages. Brigham Young, when ar-

raigned, swore that he had but one wife, that he never was but once married.

Every Mormon knows how desperate was the perjury which these men com- mitted, and every one of them justifies their acts.

A few years ago, in Salt Lake City, late at_night, a physician was called from his home, as he was informed, to attend upon a wounded man. He was met a few steps from his own gate by a body of men, and murdered. Next morning Brigham Young headed a subscription with $500, as a reward for the arrest and conviction of the murderers. Other prominent Mormons signed large sums. On that same morning Brigham Young could have had those raurderers brought before him in five minutes, had he so desired. A few days later, in a public assemblage, Young bewailed the murder, and declared that he would give a large sum to have the perpetrators brought to justice; all the time the murderers were smiling at him from the congregation, and he knew them, and knew what they had done. The physician’s offence had been the location of a few acres of land and some springs that the Mormons wanted.

_ Crimes as open as this have been somewhat relinquished during the past few

a wee eT

years in the main centres of Utah, but the old spirit remains just the same. The present policy of the organization is to put on the outward forms of peace, to assume before the world the mien of martyrs and non-combatants and to

48 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM., . Cnet

tell of the cruel persecutions they have suffered, and of the slanders that are hurled at them. In secret they are as aggressive as of old, and are only wait- ing for strength to make their purpose too pronounced to be mistaken. * * Another feature of the system is that the people are taught that the whole Gospel was not revealed to Joseph Smith, but that those who follow in his footsteps, like him, are inspired, and liable, even as Joseph was, to receive covenants and laws from heaven at any time. No mortal mancan tell when ‘the Mormon religion will be fully completed, or what new jugglery may be added to it before the final patent shall be applied for. It is now nearer what the Mohammedan church was at the time of Mohammed’s death than any- thing else ever was. Its aim is universal dominion. Its leaders contemplate the time when they will absolutely direct, over whole States, the political, commercial, religious and social affairs of the people, in utter defiance of the laws of the country. More: they believe that, in the near future, the control of the Republic itself will pass into their hands, and this they are careful to keep impressed upon their people. This is preached from every Mormon pul- pit; this is the settled belief of the Mormon thousands. Some little time be- tore Brigham Young died, he announced from his pulpit that before twelve years he would dictate the person who would be President of the United States. With that accomplished, the country would soon understand what Mormonism means. Polygamy would be legalized, the offices would be dis- tributed exclusively among polygamists, free thought would be strangled, a free press would not be permitted to exist for a day, and within six months from the time that full power was placed in Mormon hands all the region within the line of that State would be absolutely foreign, as are the Barbary States to-day; that is, it would be so, if no violent resistance were to be inter- posed by resident Gentiles. * s * % * *

They understand exactly the art of managing corporations to keep them friends. It is their expectation that members of Congress who are also rail- road attorneys will prevent in the future, as in the past, any legislation hostile to them. The railroad press of the country is preaching conciliation, kind- ness, and the extending of schools as the only means through which to subdue or change the spirit of the Mormon people. While pretending to be horrified at polygamy and church rule, the moment that anything is proposed which threatens to be a real blow at either, the cry is raised that force, violence or harsh means never were effective in influencing men’s religious convictions, and never can be. They ignore the fact that the Mormon church is merely a gross political machine; that it is changed, expanded or contracted, at any time, to suit ite leaders; that kindness and conoiliation are lost upon its mem- bers; that their purpose is perpetually aggressive; that they mean to destroy free government in the United States, and reproduce in this country such u state of affairs as rules in Mohammedan countries; and that there is but one thing they respect, which is irresistible power. The masses of the Mormon people are kept eo poor, and their minds are so enslaved with the teachings of their leaders, that they cannot be reached by the usual means of enlighten- ment, except in a most limited degree. The great mass can not read English books or newspapers; they would not if they could. Out of the slums of Eu- rope they have been brought to a land which supplies them with fresh vege- tables, meats, and comfortable clothing, and the change to them seems so nearly a miracle that they do not wish to question its genuineness. So steeped are they in superstition and ignorance that they obey without question all or- ders from the heads of the organization. But for the steady infiux of foreign- ers—low, base-born foreigners, hereditary bondsmen—the two dreadful feat- ures of the Mormon church, polygamy and the exalting of the church over the State would die out in America in two generations. As it is, not half of the daughters of Mormons, who have grown up amid a large population of

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. . 49

Gentiles, will ever enter into polyganfiy, but among the masses in the country -

districts fanaticism is as strong as ever.

_. It may safely be affirmed that there never was an institution so demoral- izing to the religious sentiments of humanity as this Mormon church. The spectacle of one hundred thousand people in the midst of this Republic who believe implicitly that some cunning rogues are real priests and apostles of the Lord, who believe they can cure the sick by touching them; that repeated miracles have been performed by them since the days of Joe Smith; who heed none of the teachings of the past eighteen hundred years; on whom modern progress makes no impression, may well make men ask, if all this is possible under the electric light, with the magnetic telegraph clicking, with the pow- er-press sounding, with the locomotive whistling, with the world full of books and daily journals, what might not cunning priests eighteen hundred or three thousand years ago have concocted ?

And while this system is spreading and being daily strengtheued; while something is going on in Utab which, if left exclusively to itself, would, in a generation, bring women to the auction block, and utterly brutalize men, the people of the Hast do not seem to be greatly worried. Though the Gentiles of Utah never wronged the Mormons, though they have given to Utah its prosperity and accumulated wealth, though they own quite two-fifths of the ny: of the Territory, and though they have hever asked anything of the

ormons excepi that they obey the laws, stil], the sentiment of the Hast is that they are a predatory set, and that the Mormons are entitled to peculiar and tender consideration, because they, when their presence and customs had become intolerable to the people among whom they dwelt, started out into the wilderness and established a thriving Territory. Rivest * ae

The men of the East should consider these things, and should remem- ber that once before there was an institution in this country, around which there was a shield of sympathy; its divine rights were declared from a thou- sand pulpits; Congress was too sordid and too cowardly to deal with it; wholesale merchants and great corporations lent their influence to perpetuate it, and a yenal press rang with anathemas against any who dared to denounce it. But there came a day, at last, when men had to chose which should live and rule, that institution or this nation.

The history of what followed is fresh in all minds; and, little as the masses believe it now, there will come a time, if this monster in Utah 1s left to grow, when there will be another call for volunteers and for money; and, as before, tens of thousands of brave young men will go away, never to re- turn; as before, there will be an enormous debt incurred; as before, the coun- try will be hillocked with graves, and the whole land will be moistened by the rain of women’s tears.

te ee

The few selections that we made, in our article on Blood Atonement, taken from the so-called sermons of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball—many more can be produced—seem harsh, severe, crue] and ‘horrible to Christian or even moral minds; they cause a shudder of horror to ail who read them. But we know, from positive and direct information which admits of no denial, that the discourses, as delivered on the stand in the Bowery and Tabernacle by Young, Kimball and others, were much more cruel, wicked and blood-thirsty than they appear in the printed works. Many testify that it was blood-curdling to hearthem. * * The “sermons” were reported by G. D. Watt and J. V. Long, in phonographic short-hand, and they, when transcribing for the printer, left out many blasphemous and bloody expressions, unfit for the public eye. * *, This cutting down and pruning by the reporters and the editor of the Deseret News, “tor wise purposes,” offended Kimball very much, and he pub- licly and privately complained that “they have taken the music out of my speeches.” —7, B. Hilton, in Utah Review, for October.

6)

Blood Atonement.

Did the Mormon leaders ever teach the doctrine of Blood Atonement?

George Q. Cannon said to the Washington correspondent of the Inter- Ocean:

“There has been a great deal of talk about the doctrine of blood atone- ment. This talk originates in the fact that we do not believe in hanging. We think that, if a man sheds blood, his blood should be shed by execution. In Utah Territory a criminal who has been sentenced to death can elect whether he shall be shot or hung. This fact has furnished 4 basis for #1 the talk about blood atonement. It does not follow that, because we believe a man who kilJs another should have his blood shed, each Mormon is going to be the executioner. Itis a process of law,and has no reference to any church ordinance.”

Brigham Young said in a sermon, delivered in the Bowery, Salt Lake City, September 21, 1856: :

“T want all the people to say what they will do, and I know that God wishes all His servants, all His faithful sons and daughters, the men and the women that inhabit this city, to repent of their wickedness, or we will cut them off. =O

“JT could give you a logical reason for all the transgressions in this world, for all that are committed in this probatiomary state, and especially tor those committed by men.

“There are sins that men commit for which they cannot reecive forgive- ness in this world, or in that which is to come, andif they had their eyes open to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, thatthe smoke thereofmight ascend to Heaven as an offer- ing for their sins; and the smoking incense would atone for the'r sins, whereas, such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the spirit world.

“JT know, when you hear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth, that you consider it is strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them.

“ Of all the children of Israel that started to pass through the wilderness, .

none inherited the land which had been promised, except Caleb and Joshua, and what was the reason? It was because of their rebellion and great wick- aes and because the Lord had promised Abraham that he would save his seed.

“They had to travel to and fro to every point of the compass, and were wasted away, because God was determined to save their spirits. But they could not enter His rest in the flesh, because of their transgressions, conse- quently he destroyed them in the wilderness.

‘“‘T do know that there are sins committed of such a nature that if the peo- ple did understand the doctrine of salvation, they would tremble because of

‘their situation. And, furthermore, I know that there are transgressors who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kin- dled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say, further: I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins.

“Tt is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the

fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sing which it can |

never remit. As it was in ancient days, so it is in our day; and though

a ar er ey y

4

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. 51

* the principles are taught j ubiicly from this stand, still the people do not un- derstand them; yet the law is precisely the same. There are sins that can be atoned for by an oifering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle doves, cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man. That is the reason why men talk to you as they do from this stand; they understand the doctrine and throw out a few words about it. You have been taught that doctrine, but you do not understand it. It is our desire to be prepared for a celestial seat with our Father in Heaven.”

The following is taken from a discourse delivered by Brigham Young in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Feb. 8, 1857:

“Brother Cummins told you the truth this morning with regard to the sins of the people. And I will say that the time will come, and is now nigh at hand, when those who profess our faith, if they are guilty of what some of this people are guilty of, will find the axe laid at the root of the tree, and they will be hewn down. What has been must be again, for the Lord is coming to

‘restore all things. The time has been in Israel under the law of God, the

celestial law, for it is one of the laws of that kingdom where our Father

dwells, that is near at hand. But now I say, in the name of the Lord, that if. this people will sin no more, but faithfully live their religion, their sins will

be forgiven them without taking life.

“You are aware that when brother Cummins came to the point of loving our neighbors as ourselves, he could say yes or no, as the case might be, that is true. But I want you fo connect it with the doctrine you read in the Bible. When will we love our neighbor as ourselves? In the first place, Jesus said that no man hateth his own flesh. It is admitted by all that every person loves himself, Now, if we do rightly love ourselves, we want to be saved and continue to exist; we want to go into the kingdom where we can enjoy eter- nity, and see no more sorrow nor death. This is the desire of every person who believes in God. Now, take a person in this congregation, who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and eur Father, and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauties and excellency of the eternities before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that, by having his blood shed, he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the gods, is there a man or woman in this house but what would say: “ Shed my blood, that I may be saved and exalted with the gods?”

“All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loring themselves even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your broth- ers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? That is what Jesus Christ meant. * * % JT have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Al- mighty, but who are now angels to the devil, until our elder brother Jesus Clirist raises them up—conquers death, hell, and the grave. I have known a gceat many men who have left this church, for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them.

his 1s loving our neighbor as ourseives; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation, and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill 1t. Any of you who understand the prin-

i 52 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM.

ciples of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood’ except the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain that salvation you desire. This is the

-way to love mankind.”

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the Bowery, Salt Lake City, August 16, 1857. y ;

“) do not feel vain, but I feel to say, brethren and sisters, lay aside your vanity and your feeling to exult; there will be a time when you can exult and do it in righteousness and mercy. There will also be a day when you will be brought to the test—when your very hearts and your inmost souls will melt within you because of the scenes that many of you will witness. Yes, you will be brought to that test, when you will feel as if everything with- in you would dissolve. Then will be the time youn will be tried whether you will stand the test or fall away.

“T have no doubt but there will be hundreds who wili- leave us and go away to ourenemies. I wish they would go this fall; 1t mightrelieve us from much trouble; for if men turn traitors to God and His servants, their blood will surely be shed, or else they will be damned, and that, too, according to the covenants.”

The Mormon leaders assert that “the word of Brigham Young or the priesthood is the word of the Lord.”

The Christian Conflict With Mormonism.

A Sermon preached in the Presbyterian church in Salt Lake City, March 28, 1889, by the pastor, R..G. McNiece.

Text: Micah iii, 10-11.: They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say: “Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.” [In connection with Ezekiel ii, 3-7.]

I stand here to-night as one of the representatives of Protestant Christian- ity in its struggle against the tyranny and iniquity of the Mormon priesthood. I stand here, therefore, as the sympathizing friend of all the people in Utah, who are trodden under the heel of that priesthood. So far as this city and Territory are concerned, I know full well that I stand with a small minority. — I know full well how our opponents overmaich us in numbers, in vastness ot pecuniary resources, in tremendous power of organization. We bear about the same relation to our opponents, in point of numbers, that Leonidas and his immortal three hundred bore to the swarming hosts of the Persian King in the pass of Therraopyle.

On the other hand, I know “that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,” and that Leonidas and his brave minority would have triumph- antly held the pass which they guarded, if it had not been for treachery in their own ranks. {

I know, furthermore, that the relative strength of moral forces can never be estimated by any covnting of noses Through all the ages, God’s.method of achieving great moral results, in communities and nations, has-been by choosing “the weak things of the world toconfound the things wh are mighty, * * thatno flesh should glory inhis presence.” One man, armed with the simple truths of the Gospel, is far mightier, in the long run, than a

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: f & disciplined army fighting under the banners of error. And go, although a small] minority, yet having the life-giving truths of the Bible for our weapons, the teachings and example of Christ for our guide, and the historic conquests of the Gospel in every community where its blue banner has been unfurled, for our encouragement, | am more firmly confident, if possible, of the final triumph of the Christian cause in Utah, and within a very few years, than the immortal German reformer was confident of the success of the small mi- nority that he represented when he stood alone but undaunted before the des- potic Diet of Worms.

My theme to-night is the “ Christian Conflict in Utah,’ and I wish to re- iterate what was said a week ago concerning the parties to this conflict. On the one hand, are al: the faithful friends of the Christian religion, and the friends of those sacred domestic, educational, philanthropic an4 civil institu- tions which spring up alone along that glorious pathway of light and liberty with which the gospel of Christ is fast belting the solid globe. On the other hand are the well-organized ranks of the Mormon priesthood. I.know that they are all the time trying to shift the lines of thesconflict, so as to make out that we are the enemies of the Mormon people. This is an old and cunning trick, but it wil] not work. We have no conflict to urge with the oppressed

people of Utah. On the other hand, we come in the name of our Divine Mas- —

ter, as their friends and deliverers, “to bind up the broken-hearted, togpro- claim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”? The Christian conflict here is against the priesthood and in behalf of the people.

THE METHOD OF THE CONFLICT.

And I wish to re-eemphbasize what was said about the method of the conflict So far as this city is concerned, at least, it must be an aggressive conflict if anything definite is to be accomplished. This city is the headquarters—the central stronghold—of this most despotic priesthod@, which is trying to rivet upon the people of this Territory the chains of a tyranny whose equal can be found only by going back to the Dark Ages. Hence, this is the place to use those moral weapons—the facts, the arguments, the Bible truths—at our command in such a manly but aggressive way that our opponents shall feei and respect our moral power.

But there is a mercenary influence abroad in this community, on the

' American side, I regret to say, which objects to this aggressive use of

moral means, and which, if allowed its own way, would hamper the moral freedom of every Christian pulpit in this city, and put a padlock on the lips of every Gospel minister, so far as any open discussion of the organized system of evil which overshadows us here is concerned. It is the same influence which has so hampered the moral power of the pulpit in other places, that society is fast lapsing into moral chaos. Iseethe demoralizing results of this mercenary influence in this community, in the case of scores of Americans who are fast becoming, in substance, apologists for Mormonism. For the most part, those who represent this influence are outside the Christian ranks. And it is to prevent the blight of this influence from falling upon the repre- sentatives of the Gospel of Christ here, that I am impelled to combat it with whatever of moral power God has armed me. .For there will be no longer much moral power either in the pulpil or in the pew, whenever our moral freedom to oppose any organized evil whatever is in any way curtailed. Now, why is it that those who are striving to strengthen this influence want all discussion and exposure of this system of organized tyranny and ini- quity which is polluting the social and moral atmosphere of the whole coun- try, reaching so far that it checks needed legislation in Washington—why is it that they want all discussion hushed up? Why do they continually find fault with every lofty-minded man or woman that has the moral courage to

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54 HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM. .

use either voice or pen in behalf of the people here, who are ground beneath

the heel of the worst specimen of priestly tyranny which this earth affords? Do they not urge the policv of silence simply that they may be permitted to put a few more shekels in their pockets, being perfectly willing to let the peo- ple rot in their bondage, provided they can make more money out of the situ- ation? And that is just why the opinion of this class ought to have very little weight with any man who belives that moral considerations are infinitely su-

perior to those which are purely material, and that civil and religious liberty |

is worth contending for. é Now, I like to see my neighbors prosper. I like to see them making ‘money by the thousands, provided they do not allow money-making to be the supreme object of life, and subordinate thereto every intellectual and moral consideration. But no system of wrong would ever be overthrown if we wait-

ed until every class is ready. One class is very sensitive on the subject of |

gambling. he liquor sellers don’t want anything said about intemperance. And here comes a Class that don’t want anything said about Mormonism, for for fear it will injure “trade.” Well, if I were a business man here, 1 would enter upon no crusade against the Mormons. I would treat all classes with the utmost courtesy and kindness. But I think I would follow the example of a business firm in New York, which once, during a moral contest in the community, put this grand motto on their bill-heads: “ We sell our goods, but not Bur principles.” The needed capital and enterprise will be far more likely to come here if outside capitalists see that we are wide awake in organ- izing those moral forces which will put the iniquitous system which rules here in process of rapid extinction, than if they see us, without any organized opposition, allowing the priesthood to extend its power in every direction.

The other class who, on conscientious grounds, urge the let-alone policy in connection with the publication of truth in a general way, as the best method of overthrowing organized iniquity, have my hearty respect for their honesty. At the same tim@ they seem to me to be unconsciously imitating the example of those who read history through wooden spectacles and with corks in their ears. Was it the let-alone policy by which the awful oppression of the priesthood was first broken in England, by that immortal hero and cham- pion of liberty, John Wycliffe? Was that the way in which Luther brought deliverance to the oppressed thousands of Germany, and Knox established civil and religious freedom upon the shattered ruins of priestly corruption and tyranny among old Scotia’s hills and vales? The let-alone policy was tried with American slavery for more than a hundred years prior to 1882. Did it die out? Let the answer come from the half-million graves where sleep the unreturning heroes of the Blue and the Gray.

_ I fear that those who urge the hush-up policy upon all who have any- thing to do with molding public opinion are not well informed in regard to the evils of this system which they want passed over in silence. But it is a part of my duty and business to know the facts. I cannot avoid it if I would. For almost every week some fresh story of iniquity and wrong in- stigated by the Mormon priesthood is sounded into my ears. One class of facts was forced upon me when I stopped, a few months since, two-thirds of a week in a house where lived two sisters—the wives of the same man—who could not speak of the social woes the priesthood had brought upon them, ex- cept with tears.;

Another class of facts is forced upon me by being obliged to minister to the distress of those who have been enticed from their pleasant homes in other lands, by the influence of the priesthood, and then, because they will not swallow down at one mouthtul this system of falsehood and iniquity, are kicked out upon the streets and left to perish. The time and iabor and means I have expended during the past year in looking after the wants of this be- pisthies class would have enabled me to master a new language and