"MR. NICHOLSON—If your honour please: I will take advantage of the privilege that the court affords me of stating my position before the court from my own standpoint. I have been connected with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for about a quarter of a century. I accepted its doctrines, including the law that is called in the church 'celestial marriage,' which includes plurality of wives. At the time that I entered upon that relationship I had not the slightest idea that I was infringing upon or acting in contravention to any law made in pursuance of the constitution of the country, the supreme law of the land. I entered into that relation in 1871, and, to give the court an idea of my position in reference to the law, I will illustrate it by stating that when the Reynolds case was offered in order to test the constitutionality of the statute of 1862, enacted against polygamy, at the request of the defendant in that suit I went upon the stand and testified for the prosecution that a conviction might be obtained. There is no need for me to state to your honour that the essence of a crime is the intent to commit it. There could be no intention on my part to commit a crime in entering into the relationship which I have mentioned. "Years afterwards the Edmunds' law was enacted, which made my status criminal—that is to say, from my standpoint—my conduct was made by it _malum prohibitum_, because in my opinion it cannot be made _malum in se_. That law requires that I should give up a vital principle of my religion, and discard at least a portion of my family, and consequently disrupt my family organization. "This places me, as your honour will perceive, in a very painful position: because I have a large family, and the ties which bind them to myself are sacred, and the affection which I entertain for them is deep, and I do not think that these ties can possibly be severed by any law of whatever character it may be, or from whatever source it may spring; because there are sentiments and feelings that are engendered in the human heart that the law cannot touch. I will say here, also, that the lady who would have been the principal witness in this case, had I not testified against myself, stated to me that she would decline to testify against me, or do anything that would have the effect of sending me to prison. And now, after such an exhibition of devotion to me on her part, the bare contemplation of cutting her adrift is revolting to my soul, and I could not do it.