Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
I made some remarks this afternoon upon the subject of the toleration
for those conditions respecting polygamous living that have come to us
out of the past. I do not desire to be understood as standing in any
defiant attitude against the public sentiment of our state or of our
nation. The fact of the matter is, these ministerial friends of ours
are disposed to make mountains out of mole-hills, and are representing
to the world as conditions existing here things that do not exist.
The Latter-day Saints are not a law-defying body of people, but on
the contrary they have manifested an obedience and respect for law,
and you shall find no better order or a more universal acquiescence
in and obedience to law than you find here in the settlements of the
Latter-day Saints. We believe in law and in order and in being subject
to kings and presidents, in honoring and magnifying the law; but the
conditions here in Utah are unusual in respect of this one matter of
polygamous living. The conditions, however, are well understood by our
non-"Mormon" friends; and but for the agitation of these ministerial
meddlers and a few disreputable and disgruntled politicians, the
peculiar conditions which confront the community, and in which some
of the best men of the community are involved, would go to their
settlement along the lines in which they are being settled, namely:
by the termination of these relations in death as, one by one, the
parties pass out of existence to the grave. Now, in order to convince
you that I am right in this view of the case I shall read an extract
from the testimony of a prominent citizen of our state, a non-"Mormon,"
who I believe, better than anyone else, in the testimony he gave
before the committee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate, in the
Smoot case, described conditions in Utah as they are. He analyzed the
situation here and told the truth in respect of it. I shall read his
testimony--never mind who he is just for the present, but let me read
to you what he said before the committee. Keep in mind that he is a
non-"Mormon" and one not at all prejudiced in favor of the Latter-day
Saints:
_"The Chairman_ said: Will you state why it is that those who live
in polygamous cohabitation today are not prosecuted?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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