Labors in the Vineyard: Twelfth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.Various
Religion
Labors in the Vineyard: Twelfth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.
Various
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Missions
"Coinciding as I do in the estimate formed of the pernicious doctrines
held and disseminated by you, according to your own admission in your
letter to me of the 20th of December, and considering that a Swiss
citizen acting in a similar manner would meet with precisely similar
treatment, I can see that I should not be authorized in interfering in
any way as the queen's representative here, to prevent the execution
of the order of the Zurich authorities--that you should leave the
canton immediately. If you will follow my recommendation you will
comply quietly with the order you have received, and in selecting
your destination, if you should still remain in Switzerland, you will
do well to recollect that other cantons have the same laws in this
respect as Zurich and that wherever you go it will be advisable for
you to refrain from preaching doctrines, which, whatever may be your
own belief, are abominated as in the highest degree blasphemous and
immoral, by the whole civilized world. I retain your passport in case
you should wish to have it signed by me, to render it valid for any
particular route you may decide on taking, and I will transmit it to
you on learning your intentions. I am, sir your obedient servant,
"G. V. R. GORDON,
"H. B. Majesty's Minister.
"To Mr. William Budge, Zurich."
The strong prejudice of the ambassador is very apparent in the opening
lines of his letter. The idea is conveyed, that he would not have
made any application at all on my behalf if he had known that I was
a "Mormon," that fact apart from the merits of the question at issue
would have been sufficient to cause him to neglect his duty as a
protector of his countrymen and their interests; but, having requested
such an explanation at the hands of the authorities, he "thought it
right to allow the matter to take its course." I thought as much when I
wrote my first letter, therefore made my protest urgent, and refrained
from introducing any religious consideration until he would commit
himself in an effort to do me justice.
The reply of the Federal Council as quoted, contained several
misrepresentations, but without them there would have been no showing
of necessity or consistency in expelling a stranger from a "free
republic." The disorders referred to were the acts of native mobocrats
without provocation, and there was no more immorality about the baptism
of believers into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints than
the baptism of people into a Baptist community. It was not necessary to
refuse the two "Mormon teachers permission to reside in the canton," as
we had duly deposited our passports and met all requirements made upon
us by the authorities, and therefore did not ask for permission, which
we had long enjoyed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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