The Mormon puzzle, and how to solve it

PART III.
THE SOCIAL PUZZLE.

CHAPTER VIII.

It is consequently a system contrary to natural law as well as to the Christian conscience. According to Rousseau, the great French philosopher, man is a being by nature loving justice and order. In his opinion, in an ideal state of society each member would be free and the equal of every other—equal because no person or family or class would seek for any rights or privileges of which any other was deprived; and free because each one would have his share in determining the rule common to all. It was these doctrines, taking root in the minds and convictions of men, that gave us our modern state of society, and that gave us our Nation, with its free thought, free speech, free press, and free Institutions. The first public official document in which these opinions were clearly set forth was our “Declaration of Independence,” which proclaimed that all men are “equal” and that “they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The same views also formed the element of strength in the French Revolution. The first article of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” adopted in 1789, at the beginning of the Revolution, asserts: “Men are born free and equal, and have the same rights.”

Indeed, these doctrines have been the source of all the social reforms of the past century. They are the guiding-star of modern civilization. They are the basis, not only of our Government, but also of our social system, which is one of liberty and equal rights. They are the spring of all noble thoughts given forth to the world and all the splendid achievements. To be majestic and ennobling, thought must be unrestrained; to be praiseworthy, deeds must be uncontrolled.

In England the dominant party at present (June, 1886) is the Liberal Party, whose able leader is that “Grand Old Man,” William E. Gladstone. Last fall, just before their great election, that party issued a manifesto of a very unusual character. It took the shape of a book entitled “Why am I a Liberal?” and contained definitions and confessions of political faith by the foremost leaders of the party. Among them Robert Browning answered the question in this characteristic sonnet:

“Why? Because all I haply can and do,
All that I am now, all I hope to be,
Whence comes it, save from fortune setting free
Body and soul, the purpose to pursue
God-traced for both? Of fetters not a few,
Of prejudice, convention, fall from me.
These shall I bid men, each in his degree
Also God-guided, bear, and gayly too?

“But little do or can the best of us;
That little is achieved through liberty.
Who then dares hold, emancipated thus,
His fellow shall continue bound? Not I,
Who live, love, labor freely, nor discuss
A brother’s right to freedom. That is why.”

Those are noble words, worthy a noble poet. If he had given no other poem to the world, that would place him on the list of poets to be remembered by future generations, who are destined to be, if possible, freer than we. It is true, as Browning says, that liberty is the source of all achievements worthy the name. Horace Mann once said: “Enslave a man and you destroy his ambition, his enterprise, his capacity. In the constitution of human nature, the desire of bettering one’s condition is the mainspring of effort. The first touch of slavery snaps this spring.”

Since, therefore, this century is the century of progress, of grand and noble achievements, Liberty is pre-eminently its watchword, the ruling spirit of the age. The abolition of the negro-slave traffic, the progressive obliteration of class distinctions and race distinctions in law, the liberty of combination among laborers, the extension of the franchise, the limitations of the powers of riches—in a word, all our modern popular movements are only recognitions of the principle that each individual man is born with the right to regulate his conduct and pursue his ends in his own way, provided that he does not abridge the equal rights of his fellow-men. The principle of individual liberty has been the underlying principle of the social policy of the past hundred years.

But to this principle Mormonism is in the most bitter antagonism. It is true that it does not antagonize it openly. If it did, it would thereby strike its own death-blow. It claims to be in harmony with the spirit of freedom, and the official Church organ, the Deseret News, has for its motto, printed in large letters on its title-page, “Truth and Liberty.” Nevertheless, it tramples all freedom under foot. Its spirit is Tyranny. A greater despotism the world, perhaps, has never seen. That of the Persian king in ancient times, and that of the Czar of all the Russias over his serfs in more modern times, pale in comparison with the absolute despotism of the Mormon chieftain and his two councillors. The condition of society in Mormondom is that of bondage, utter and entire. The constituent elements of man are body, soul, and spirit; and these are all in slavery under the social system of the Mormons.

Let us, therefore, consider this subject under these three heads—personal bondage, mental bondage, and moral bondage.

I. Personal bondage.—Every Mormon goes through the Endowment House, from which no man emerges with his manhood remaining. He has sunk to be the slave of the priesthood. In that house an awful oath is administered to every one, obligating the individual, under fearful penalty, to uphold the Church at every cost and obey it in all things. That terrible oath unmans the whole Mormon race and brings them into bondage. The Mormon leaders claim to be infallible—men inspired, who catch the very thought of God and pronounce His words. They are the direct vicegerents of the Almighty, and are at all times endowed by means of revelations with the wisdom to guide their people aright in all things, temporal as well as spiritual. This claim is admitted by all their followers. Accordingly, in the most tyrannical way the priesthood dictates about all the affairs of the people, telling them what store they must trade at, what newspaper they must read, what school they must patronize. In fine, Brigham Young claimed that his people could do nothing without his knowledge and approval, “even to the ribbons a woman should wear.” The control of the Church over all the temporal affairs of the people is as absolute as their control of purely spiritual matters. One of their prominent speakers said a few years ago: “I cannot separate between temporal and spiritual affairs. The priesthood has as much control over one as the other.” Therefore the Mormons are under personal bondage. Their persons, their services, their property—all are under the control not of themselves individually, but of their leaders.

At each semi-annual conference missionaries are appointed to go to the outside world and proclaim the doctrines of their religion. At the least calculation there are three hundred such missionaries constantly in the field, going up and down in the States of our own land, and also the countries of Europe and the isles of the sea. They must go at their own expense, and are required to stay until recalled by the priesthood. If it is necessary for a missionary to sell his last cow to get the means to pay his expenses, he must do so, even though his family should be left entirely destitute; and he is taught to believe that the greater the sacrifice, the greater the glory in the next world.

A Presbyterian minister in the southern part of the Territory got the privilege of boarding in a Mormon family. As soon as the priesthood found it out this family was required to close its doors against the minister, although they were greatly in need of the money which he was ready to pay for his board.

Another minister in the northern part of the Territory hired a building for a mission school from an old lady connected with the Mormon Church, and paid a month’s rent in advance. As soon as the priesthood found out what she had done, they brought such pressure to bear upon her that she went to the minister and urged him to give her back the building, although in her poverty she greatly needed the rent. Is not that slavery? And yet President Taylor has stood up in the great Tabernacle at Salt Lake City and declared that they were in favor of the largest liberty for their own people and for all mankind.

Thousands of converts to Mormonism are brought from Europe to Utah every season, and this large immigration is under the complete control of the Church. It can be sent to any place it is thought best. If a colony is started in Arizona or Nevada, and it is thought best to enlarge it, the immigration is sent thither. The persons must go where they are directed, however much they might prefer to settle somewhere in the beautiful Salt Lake Valley, the Switzerland of America. Every settlement is made under the direction of the Church.

Not only is the foreign immigration under the control of the priesthood, but all members who have already settled either in Utah or elsewhere are subject to the orders of the Church. If the priesthood think it expedient to send a thousand or two thousand into Colorado or Arizona or any other locality, the number is divided out among the different wards, and each ward must not only furnish its quota of men, but all the means for the emigration; and the persons selected must go, although it is a great sacrifice to them to leave their cultivated lands and comfortable homes and go into the unbroken country of another Territory to again undergo the trials and sufferings incident to pioneer life.

The power of the Church is also brought to bear on all the daily business of life. In the mining districts of Southern Utah, the contractors for furnishing salt, wood, charcoal, etc., are all Mormon bishops. They hire the persons under them at starvation prices, and pay them in orders on the co-operative supply stores, in which they are either principals or partners; and the men so employed never see a dollar of cash. Should one of the common people undertake to do any hauling, wood-supplying, or other business with the mines, they would get an intimation that they must desist. If this hint is disregarded, a meeting of the Council is called, composed of the bishops and apostles; and as it is shown that some one of them is being interfered with, the order goes forth from the Church that this private enterprise must stop; and this no Mormon dare disregard. If one of the mining companies undertakes to do its business with any except the bishops, every obstacle possible is thrown in its way. Teams cannot be hired. The bishop pays wages at about a dollar a day, payable from the co-operative store; but if a mining superintendent wants men, he must pay four dollars a day. Thus the Mormon bishops secure all the profits of contracts from the mines. They take possession of all the woodlands and cut off the wood, never taking the trouble to comply with the law. They rule everything with a heavy hand, and woe to the poor man who dares to try to make his living independently. The serfs of Russia in the olden time were not more abject slaves than these people under the terrible power of the Church. Independence of action is entirely taken away from them. They are in personal bondage. Well may we exclaim: “Genius of America! Spirit of our free institutions! where art thou?”

“Shall our own brethren drag the chain
Which not even Russia’s menials wear?”

But this is not all.

II. The Mormons are not only in personal bondage, but worse than that—they are in Mental Bondage.

Such tyranny as has been already alluded to is possible only because Ignorance and her handmaid, Superstition, are throwing their dark pall over the mass of the Mormon people. Mormonism grows mainly by imposition upon the ignorant and the credulous. Joseph Smith, its founder, was illiterate, and so was Brigham Young; and the mass of Mormons from the beginning were from a class of people whose education was very limited. Such also is the character of their converts now. They are gathered from the very lowest classes of the peasantry of England, Germany, and Scandinavia; and in our land the poor rural element of the Southern States, commonly called the “cracker” element, is a favorite and successful field for Mormon missionary labor, because the elders find as much ignorance and credulity among the poor whites of Tennessee, Georgia, and neighboring States, as they do among the low classes of Europe.

If you go into the Tabernacle at Salt Lake City, it is said, one is reminded, in looking at the faces of the people, of what we can see in Castle Garden. The marks of ignorance are stamped upon their very countenances. It has been aptly said: “The illiteracy of the average Mormon is denser than a London fog.” In an article published in the Presbyterian Review, April, 1881, Rev. Dr. McNiece, of Salt Lake City, said that, so far as he knew, “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 notoriously 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.” According to the teachers engaged in the Christian schools there, the ignorance met with is simply appalling. In many cases neither men nor women know how to read. Children are plenty who never heard of God, and know no more of Christ than a beggar in the city of Nineveh in the days of Jonah. History and geography are to a great extent unknown and untaught; even our own country outside of Utah is unknown. The Mormon leaders take great pains to keep their people in ignorance. Learning, intelligence, are everywhere at a discount.

The civilized world recognizes the fact that the diffusion of knowledge elevates humanity. Shakespeare says:

“Ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”

One of the chief features of this age is the desire for universal education, and every true reformer seeks to place it within the reach of all. But the Mormon Church is the recognized opponent of free education. Notwithstanding the fact that the Mormon priesthood has had control of Utah for well-nigh forty years, that Territory is the only one in the United States that has not a system of free schools, open to the poor as well as the rich. The teachers with few exceptions are young, untaught, and without experience; and the schools are scarcely worthy the name. The main object of the Mormon school system seems to be to prevent the people from learning to think and acquiring information.

Now, why is this? The only reason is that it 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, and is the position taken by the hierarchy to-day. The plea of poverty cannot be justified, for the Church collects over a million dollars annually; but this tax of ten dollars a year for every man, woman, and child in the Mormon Church is spent, not for free schools, which would develop manhood and fit the taxpayer to be an honorable citizen of the commonwealth, but for that which rivets tighter the chains that bind the people.

The minds of the people are in a condition of slavery. Independent thought there is none, and consequently free speech cannot exist. This is clearly proved, when we call to mind one of the brightest spectacles in the history of Utah. It was in 1869, when Henry Lawrence and his associates boldly stood up in the “School of the Prophets” and raised their voices in favor of free speech and free thought. A noble act of heroism that was—a stand for a righteous principle—a deed which should gain for them immortal fame, when we consider the real manhood it required for them to face such a powerful and tyrannical hierarchy. A noble fight it was on their part, but a losing fight; for they were at once expelled from the Church, branded with the stigma of apostates, their business was ruined, and they and their families were completely ostracized. That act of expulsion by the Mormon leaders is a clear proof of the fact that they are the bitter opponents of mental freedom. Who ever knew of any proposition being debated in their conferences, or any nomination voted down by the people? Who ever knew of any matter of interest being left to the people to act upon freely and unrestrainedly? The leaders do the thinking. They arrange all things. The people must acquiesce and think as they do. Is that liberty?

Milton says:

“This is true liberty, when free-born men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free.”

But free thought and free speech are not the prerogatives of the Mormons. They are MENTAL SLAVES.

CHAPTER IX.

The tyranny of the priesthood was well illustrated when one of the apostles on one occasion, while speaking in one of the ward meeting-houses about the solemn duty of obeying the priesthood, happened to look through the window and see a load of wood passing by. “Now I want you,” said he, “to obey the priesthood so implicitly and have so much confidence in everything they tell you that if Brigham Young or any of the Twelve Apostles should tell you that load of wood is a load of hay, you would all say, ‘Amen, that’s a load of hay.’” Even though their very eyes should belie the statement of their leaders, yet they must accept it as true, because, forsooth, it came from inspired lips; and although they might be commanded to do that which their own consciences disapproved, yet they must do it, because it is a command given under inspiration, and their consciences are lulled to sleep by the Jesuit doctrine, “The end justifies the means.” Surely, that is not religious liberty.

On account of this moral bondage, the worst crimes have been committed against both God and man, which have been laid at the door of the Mormon people, when in reality they were only the tools of the Mormon priesthood and the victims of an enslaving fanaticism. They themselves would not have committed them if they were allowed to do what their own consciences dictated; but at the command of the mouthpiece of the Almighty Himself they dared not disobey.

I. Thus, they have been guilty of Murders and Assassinations for no other reason than that the hierarchy uttered their mandates that they should be accomplished.

Take, as an example, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which is, perhaps, the darkest page in the history of Mormonism in Utah. It was a horrible butchery of one hundred and twenty innocent men and women who were emigrants on their way from Arkansas to California; and the dastardly deed cannot by any means be justified. For a long time the massacre was a deep mystery, and the Mormons asserted that it was done by Indians; but the mystery has been unravelled, and it is now known that that cruel deed lies at the door of the Mormon Church, the murderers being Mormons with some hired Indians, all led by John D. Lee, who was convicted of his crime and executed on the ground where the murder occurred March 25th, 1877, almost twenty years after the commission of the crime.

There were, no doubt, aggravations at the time leading the Mormons to the commission of the crime which we should remember. Ordinarily the Mormons were glad to see the arrival of Gentile emigrants en route for the far West, as it gave occasion for trade and barter; but at this time Federal troops were advancing toward Utah, and consequently a spirit of intense hatred toward the Americans and toward our Government was kindled in the hearts of the Mormons, and especially of their leaders. Their persecutions in Missouri and Illinois came up before their minds to increase their hostility against the Gentiles. Just then it was that there came within their borders this train of American emigrants. They regarded them naturally as enemies, and their very presence at that time was a powerful incentive to their extermination.

Moreover, these emigrants were from Arkansas, where only a short time before Orley P. Pratt, one of the first Mormon apostles, had gained his crown of martyrdom; and his murderer was not even arrested. Now the opportunity of avenging the death of one of their leading Saints was put within their reach, and this fact was another powerful inducement to commit the crime. But after all is said that can be said in extenuation of that terrible deed, it stands forth as a most foul, shocking, and unjustifiable butchery.

Brigham Young, as Governor of Utah, was in honor bound to protect those emigrants on their way across his Territory, and yet he was the author of their destruction. On the fourth day after the emigrants left Cedar City, in Southern Utah, about sixty Mormons, painted and disguised as Indians, it is said, left that place in pursuit of them. They were under the command of Bishop John D. Lee, and had all the equipments of a military force except artillery. Lee invited the Piute Indians to accompany him, and he directed the combined forces of the Mormons and Indians throughout the entire siege. At Mountain Meadows the victims were overtaken. They were taken completely by surprise, but they at once corralled their wagons and prepared for defence. For four days they fought heroically. During the third day’s battle it became a necessity with the emigrants to get water. It was in clear view, but it was covered by the rifles of the Mormons. Hoping that the latter might have pity on children, they dressed two little girls in white and sent them with a bucket in the direction of the spring. The Mormons shot them down. The morning of the fourth day Lee told the men under his command that his orders were to “kill the entire company except the children.” In order to do this, he used finesse and stratagem. He sent a flag of truce to them, offering to protect them from the Indians if they would lay down their arms. Putting confidence in his promise, they marched up to the spring where Lee stood, and placed themselves under his care. The line of march was then taken up, and after the distance of half a mile had been traversed Lee gave the command to halt; then immediately the command to shoot them down. All the men and women were slain, stripped of their clothing, and left without burial.

In 1859 General Carlton raised a cairn of stones over the bleached skeletons of the victims. Upon one of the stones he caused to be written: “Here lie the bones of one hundred and twenty men, women, and children from Arkansas, murdered on the tenth day of September, 1857.” Upon a cross-beam he caused to be painted: “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay it.” Brigham Young ordered this monument to be destroyed, and said the inscription should have read: “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I have repaid it.”

Lee was at length tried and executed for his part in that terrible butchery, but he was only the instrument of the Mormon leaders. He was in moral bondage, bound to carry out the wishes of his leader, however willing or unwilling he may have been to do so. He would never have ordered that massacre if he had not received an express command, nor would his troops have done the dastardly deed. But they were in bondage.

This may be clearly proved from the dying confessions of Lee, which were published after his execution. On the night previous to the massacre the Mormons held a council meeting. In describing that conference, Lee says: “I know that our total force was fifty-four whites and over three hundred Indians. As soon as those persons gathered around the camp, I demanded of Major Higbee what orders he had brought.... Major Higbee reported as follows: ‘It is the orders of the President that all the emigrants must be put out of the way.’ He then went on and said that none but friends were permitted to leave the Territory, and that as these were our sworn enemies, they must be killed. The men then in council knelt down in a prayer circle and prayed, invoking the Spirit of God to direct them how to act in the matter. After prayer Major Higbee said, ‘Here are the orders,’ and handed me a paper from Haight. The substance of the orders were that the emigrants should be decoyed from their stronghold and all exterminated, so that no one should be left to tell the tale, and then the authorities could say it was done by the Indians.... I then left the council and went away by myself, and bowed myself in prayer before God, and asked Him to overrule the decision of that council. At the earnest solicitation of Brother Hopkins, I returned with him to the council. When I got back, the council again prayed for aid. After prayer Major Higbee said, ‘I have the evidence of God’s approval of our mission. It is God’s will that we carry out our instructions to the letter.’ The meeting was then addressed by some one in authority. He spoke in about this language: ‘Brethren, we have been sent here to perform a duty. It is a duty that we owe to God, and to our Church and people. The orders of those in authority are that all the emigrants must die. Our leaders speak with inspired tongues, and their orders come from the God of heaven. We have no right to question what they have commanded us to do; it is our duty to obey.’ I, therefore, taking all things into consideration, and believing as I then did that my superiors were inspired men, who could not go wrong in any matter relating to the Church or the duty of its members, concluded to be obedient to the wishes of those in authority; I took up my cross, and prepared to do my duty.”

From that confession it is clear that Lee revolted at the idea of the massacre, his conscience did not approve of it, and in committing it he acted as a slave, as a martyr, regarding it as a cross.

So doubtless it was with others under his command. It is related that a missionary teacher asked a carpenter to make some repairs to her school-house. The Work was done at noon-time, when the children were away from the school; and one day the man said, “I believe you are a Christian, and I want to ask if you think I can be forgiven for helping in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I want to tell you; it is on my mind all the time; but if you betray me my life will be of no account.” The teacher said she would not betray his confidence, and she believed, whatever his sins might be, they would be forgiven if he repented of them. The carpenter then told her how a lovely, golden-haired little girl was sent to a spring for water that dreadful day, and that he was one of those commanded to shoot her down; that her look of entreaty was forever before his eyes; and then the strong man wept at the remembrance, while making his confession, of a barbarity that he dared not refuse to accomplish. Was not that man in moral slavery?

Now, as that massacre was executed on account of the moral bondage of the Mormons to the priesthood, so also was the dastardly murder of Dr. J. K. Robinson in Salt Lake City in October, 1866, the murder of the Aiken party of six persons, the Potter and Parish murders, and the five hundred or more other assassinations which stain the history of the Mormon Church.

II. But not only has murder resulted from this bondage. Theft is indulged in, not because their consciences approve it, but because they are taught by the priesthood that the plundering of all those opposed to them, whenever an opportunity occurs, is a duty, because whatever is taken from the ungodly Gentiles is that much put into the treasury of the Lord.

III. Falsehood, too, is indulged in, whenever it will conduce to the benefit of the Church and shield her members from harm. A Mormon apostle, in an address at Nephi, Utah, cautioned the children, when asked how many wives their fathers had, to reply that they didn’t know. “I’d rather have you tell a lie,” he said, “to defend your friends and parents, than tell the truth, that will bring trouble upon them.” The Mormons evidently do not pattern after the Apostle Paul.

IV. Perjury is indulged in to a large degree at the command of the priesthood. Dora Young, one of the daughters of Brigham, apostatized and declared that the first thing that opened her eyes to the atrocities of Mormonism was her father’s wholesale perjuries. John Taylor, the present President of the Church, has also set the people the same example. When placed upon the witness-stand, he has always been a very forgetful man, and could never recollect anything that would be of value in any case against any member of the Church. Such an utter absence of memory was, perhaps, never before exhibited in a court of justice. George Q. Cannon, also of the Mormon Presidency, the ruling spirit of the Mormons, said that he did not know whether any record of plural marriage is kept or not, although it is said that that book is one of the most important books they have.

Now, when the leaders commit perjury in that way, what can be expected from those who regard them as gods and as capable of no wrong act? And so we find that Judge Zane had to dismiss one case altogether, owing to the lack of evidence through false swearing. Women in polygamy have sworn that they did not know the father of their children. A daughter of Brigham Young professed on the witness-stand recently not to know that her sister was married, although her sister had had a child by her polygamous husband, and she had been in and out of the house frequently. Some time ago a Mormon mother was called upon to testify before the Grand Jury as to the marriage of her daughter to a well-known polygamist. The mother testified that she knew nothing about the marriage of her daughter, and denied knowledge of any facts connected with it; and afterward, on being questioned by one of her lady friends how she could swear to such a lie, she answered: “I only lied to their God; I did not lie to my God; and the authority justified me in doing so.” Oh, what a picture of moral slavery does that present before our minds! The fearful oaths taken by a Mormon when he passes through the Endowment House require him to defend a member of the priesthood even by perjury, if necessary.

V. But that is not all, nor the worst. Under the head of moral bondage, I think, must be put that vice, which is called a relic of barbarism, and which has put Mormonism in antagonism to Christian civilization and the laws of our land. I refer to the practice of Polygamy, which is with many synonymous with Mormonism, but in reality is only one of the evils of that social system.

Mormonism had its birth in 1830. Polygamy was not promulgated until twenty-two years after, although Joseph Smith, it is alleged, received a revelation on the subject nine years before its formal declaration to the whole Mormon race. In dealing with Mormonism as a system, it must ever be borne in mind that polygamy does not form a part of the organic structure of Mormon society. It is an invention, recent in its establishment, and wholly an exotic in this country as well as in the countries from which Mormon recruits have been largely gathered; and it has been from the commencement to this hour an open and conscious defiance, not only of the public sentiment of the country, but also of its laws. It has known itself to be a transgressor, and every polygamous marriage has been deliberately contracted with this knowledge.

The question at once arises, Why was it promulgated under such circumstances? What was the object of the leaders in declaring it to be a divine revelation? While it may seem to many that polygamy is only an element of weakness in the Mormon institution, and destined to bring destruction upon the entire system, yet if we study the subject carefully it will be seen that it contributes strength to Mormonism in many ways.

1. In the first place, their numbers are increased much more rapidly than could be done by the monogamous system which is in vogue in our land.

2. In the next place, it gives a firmer union to the Mormon people, so that apostasy cannot occur so frequently as it did in Missouri and Nauvoo. By polygamy the Mormons are separated from all the rest of the civilized world; and as the world repels them, they are driven in upon themselves, to be welded closer together, to be mutual supports to each other under persecutions and trials. The unfortunate women who practise polygamy and the children begotten from it, even if they become malcontent, yet know themselves to be caught in a net from which they see no escape; and they remain in their place and practise, because, though their hearts are broken, their homes are saved by a religious sanction from foul disgrace. And even the thousands who are not polygamists (for not more than one tenth of the Mormons are polygamists) will uphold polygamy, because some near relatives, as sisters or daughters, are practisers of it. They, therefore, although not in polygamy, will yet stand up for it; and for them, too, with the actual practisers, it becomes a bond, binding all together into a unity amazingly compact and unbreaking.

Having thus endeavored to answer the question, Why was polygamy promulgated? let us now direct our attention to another and more important question, Why is polygamy practised?

Many suppose it is practised because it allows full sway to the passions of the sensualists, who are the only persons who practise it; but that is a great mistake. Some sensualists there doubtless are, who are polygamists, in Utah; but at the least nine tenths cannot be branded by any such infamous name. It is practised not because it is loved by the people and desired by them, but because they are urged—yea, commanded by the infallible priesthood to practise it. They regard it as the command of God; and that is the only reason why it is practised by ninety-nine out of every hundred of the polygamists of Utah. It is because they are MORAL BONDMEN.

Even Brigham Young openly avowed that when Joseph Smith gave him the order for the first time it was a great trial to his soul; and it is said that the locks of an apostle turned white in a single night when he was commanded to take another wife. The idea of taking a second wife to a man who is happily married is extremely distasteful. Polygamy, therefore, has enslaved the Mormon men, blunting all the finer feelings of their soul.

But if the men are enslaved by polygamy, the women are martyrized. A writer on Mormonism has said: “Whoever has read debasement in the women of Utah has done them injustice. Some there be who are devoid of refined sentiment and the nobler instincts of the sex, but no women in history ever deserved more respect and sympathy than the true women among the Mormons.” They are taught to believe that polygamy is a divine institution; they are taught that it is their duty to make a self-sacrifice—to bear the cross in order to receive the crown. They are forbidden to covet the entire love of their husband’s heart, because God designed to purify them from all selfishness and, besides, had commanded that if any oppose this revelation on “Celestial Marriage” they shall be destroyed; and while the Mormons do not use any visible coercion to draw persons into this complex marriage, yet that revelation, with its accompanying threat, stands like a frightful ogre, hanging over them like a doom, and sounds the death-knell to their happiness. The Mormon men have claimed that the women get accustomed to plural marriage and are happy in it; but that is a libel upon the nature of woman. Surely no woman ever desired to share her husband with another, and no husband could ever please two wives. No; the wives of polygamists in Utah are living martyrs. What days of silent grief and misery they must endure! The story of such women can never be told. Many a young wife has exclaimed: “I am fainting by the way; but for my children’s sake I must bear up. What will be the end of all this suffering?” Many more have found early graves, the strain of mental anguish, added to physical labor, proving too much for their powers of endurance. In thinking or reading of such heart-rending sorrows, one is impelled to cry: “How long, O Lord, how long!”

And yet this moral bondage is suffered in this land, which is famed for its light and liberty. It is a shame and disgrace to our nation.

“How good to lead the nations of the earth
In every field of valor and of worth!
How good to hold the lightning in our hands,
And flash our energies to other lands!
How sweet erewhile to see the slave go free!
How dear to-day the breath of liberty!
How good to draw the larger, purer breath,
After the years of battle and of death;
To feel how well our country bore the strain,
And settled back to rectitude again!

“And yet—and yet, just now a wailing came
Out of the West—our women steeped in shame,
The name of wife and mother made disgrace,
Home in our midst become the vilest place!
What if no black wrist feels the iron chain,
When snow-white breasts must bear the scarlet stain?
What if the old plantation homes in ruin lie,
If Mormon temples proudly kiss the sky?
*****
The day-break of true chivalry is now;
And every knight is ready for the vow.
*****
How shall our flag, by Freedom’s breath unfurled,
Greet Liberty enlightening the world!
Cowards! The brazen image at a glance
Shall see the craven in each countenance!
The torch it bears in its uplifted hand
Shall not make light the shame-spot on our land.
Day-break indeed! The midnight is not past.
Freedom, forsooth! Not while yon temples last!
Enlightenment! Our bitter inland sea
Gives back the word in shameless mockery!”

CHAPTER X.

There is probably no system on earth which has a more cunning and complete organization than the Mormon Church. Supreme over all is the President, with his two Councillors. Then come the Twelve Apostles, who, in connection with the President and his Councillors, form a High Council, from whose decision there is no appeal. They may be regarded, therefore, as the masters in this system of slavery. Then come the Seventies (who are travelling missionaries), high-priests, elders, bishops, teachers, and deacons. One of the most cunning things about the organization is the large number of office-holders. There are over 23,000 officers reported as belonging to the Church—that is, one out of every three men holds 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. If any one of these 23,000 officers is disposed to criticise or become dissatisfied with the system, the office which he holds, and especially the prospect of future promotions, acts as a bribe to submission and acquiescence. Thus the hope of earthly rewards is one of the great sources of strength to the Mormon system, holding it intact.

II. Then, there is THE FEAR OF EARTHLY LOSS.

Hope and fear both operate upon the minds of the people, and cause them to submit to be bound by the chains of a tyranny whose equal can be found only by going back to the Dark Ages.

The Mormon hierarchy has a system of espionage, by which they are kept informed in regard to the feelings of all the people. The whole Territory is divided into twenty stakes or districts, each of which is presided over by a high-priest. These 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 each individual in their respective wards and find out all about his affairs, both temporal and spiritual. In this way, through all these various gradations, the leaders are able to put their finger on every man, woman, and child in the whole Church.

Before the Gentiles forced their way into Utah, and Government troops were stationed there, if any of the Mormons were, through this system of inquisition, found to be discontented and unsubmissive to the priesthood, inclined to free thought, free speech, and free action, he was soon taught a lesson by the “Avenging Angels” that silence is the better part of discretion, or that “dead men tell no tales.” The Church held every man’s life in its hand. Terrible was the punishment meted out for any offence or act of insubordination.

It is only a few years ago that it was the practice to inflict what they call blood atonement for any flagrant offence to the Church or any disregard of its orders. Brigham Young, after the people were well established in Utah, alluded on one occasion in a public address to the persecutions in Missouri and Nauvoo, saying that they always began with apostates and disaffected spirits; and then he said: “Do we see disaffected spirits here? We do. Do we see apostates? We do. I say to those persons, you must not court persecution here, lest you get so much of it you will not know what to do with it. Do not court persecution. Now, keep your tongues still, lest sudden destruction come upon you. I say, rather than that apostates shall flourish here I will unsheath my bowie-knife and conquer or die. Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put to the line and righteousness to the plummet. Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this and every good work.”

President H. C. Kimball, in an address delivered in Salt Lake City August 16th, 1857, said: “If men turn traitors to God and His servants, their blood will surely be shed, or else they will be damned;” and this doctrine was put into actual practice. The culprit was never allowed an opportunity for defence. He remained in blissful ignorance of his danger, until at midnight there came a knock on his door, and he was ordered to accompany the four or five masked men that confronted him when he opened the door. Then he knew his doom, and so did his family, who knew they looked their last upon him. Being led to a secluded spot, a shovel was placed in his hands, and he was made to dig his own grave. He was then seized, forced upon his knees, his head held over the grave, and his throat cut from ear to ear. His blood flowed into the grave, into which his body was thrown and covered up, and no more was ever heard of him. His family dared not mention their suspicions, and no Mormon ever dared to be inquisitive or mention his name. Such instances were by no means rare.

Now the influx of the Gentiles has caused them to be more careful how they punish apostates or insubordinates; but we know little or nothing of the secret punishments that are still inflicted. The practice of blood atonement is now stopped by the necessity of circumstances. In the presence of thousands of Gentiles and Federal troops and Federal control, the Mormon Church dare not any longer 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. The apostate is now, it is said, 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 power to see that these prophetic curses are fulfilled to the letter.

There does not exist upon the face of this broad earth a more complete social ostracism for religion than in Utah. Not many months ago a girl brought home some sewing which she had for a Christian woman. The girl looked round upon the happy home and burst into tears. Upon being asked the cause of her grief, she replied: “Oh, that I lived in a happy Christian home! You think me a Mormon, but I have never been a Mormon at heart. My mother was once the wife of a Presbyterian clergyman in England. About three years after her marriage my father died. I was the only child of my parents. My mother’s people became Mormons, and my mother emigrated with them to Utah, bringing me with her. Here she married a Mormon, and I have been carefully taught in their religion; but I have my father’s Bible, sermons, and diary. I know that his religion is true, and not this Mormon doctrine, which teaches of gods many, and heaven attained by sensual courses—women earning their salvation and exaltation in heaven by becoming the polygamous wives of some wicked man. I loath it; but I am poor. I can only do plain sewing for a living, and while I remain with my mother she will charge me nothing for board. I am not strong, and often sick. If I come out boldly and say, ‘I will go to the Church of my choice and worship God according to the dictates of my conscience,’ I shall be turned into the street, perhaps be denounced as a bad character—not an uncommon thing in Utah—and come to want. No, I must stop at home, be quiet, worship God in my heart, and pray for forgiveness.”

If a man apostatizes who is in business he is no longer supported by the Mormons, and they in many places are nine tenths of the people. He is despised. He can get no work, since the Mormons control nearly all business contracts. The Mormon people will no longer hold intercourse with him. His family is the butt of ridicule and contempt, and his children are insulted and stigmatized. The entire family is as completely ostracized as though they had been convicted of an infamous crime. Now, it certainly requires strong heroism, real, sterling manhood, for one to face such a prospect for his family. Most people would obey the dictates of the hierarchy, whatever they might be, rather than bring such loss and shame upon themselves and their children. Thus it is seen how fear of earthly loss enters as a prominent factor in holding the Mormon people in bondage.

III. But lastly and chiefly, there is Strong Religious Conviction, which is the main prop of this social system. In discussing the Mormon puzzle in Utah, we must not forget that for twenty years this community was isolated by a thousand miles of barren waste from civilization. During this time it was literally a kingdom within itself; and Brigham Young was king, his word law, his command a commandment from God. During that time the present generation of Mormons were reared; and it is their strong conviction that the word of the priesthood is the word of God.

If we only glance at history, we will find many evidences of the great power of “Thus saith the Lord” over the minds of men. For religious conviction persons have burned at the stake and endured all manner of physical torture, to say nothing of the travail of soul through which they have passed. It is to this power, also, that Mormonism owes its strength. So strong is its control that the Mormons dare not, for fear of the loss of their soul’s salvation, enter protest against any command coming, as it does, with these words prefixed: “Thus saith the Lord.” The priesthood claim to have control of the “seals” and “keys” by which the gates of both heaven and hell can be opened and shut; and they take the keys by which they pretend to open the gates of vengeance and rattle them above the heads of the uneducated and superstitious, until they are frightened into believing that, if they should disobey any edict of this priesthood, they would be consigned to the flames of eternal fire. It is this fear of the loss of their souls if they disobey, and the conviction that their leaders cannot command anything but what God has commanded, that is the strongest pillar that holds up their social fabric. Thus do the Mormon people with their own hands rivet the chains which bind in a fearful bondage their bodies, their minds, and their souls.

CHAPTER XI.