Mrs. Wilmarth East then said: "It is with feelings of pleasure, mingled with indignation and disgust, that I appear before my sisters, to express my feelings in regard to the Cullom bill, now before the Congress of this once happy republican government. The constitution for which our forefathers fought and bled and died, bequeaths to us the right of religious liberty--the right to worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences! Does the Cullom bill give us this right? Compare it with the constitution, if you please, and see what a disgrace has come upon this once happy and republican government! Where, O, where, is that liberty, bequeathed to us by our forefathers--the richest boon ever given to man or woman, except eternal life, or the gospel of the Son of God? I am an American citizen by birth. Having lived under the laws of the land, I claim the right to worship God according to the dictates of my conscience, and the commandments that God shall give unto me. Our constitution guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to all who live beneath it. What is life to me, if I see the galling yoke of oppression placed on the necks of my husband, sons and brothers, as Mr. Cullom would have it? I am proud to say to you that I am not only a citizen of the United States of America, but a citizen of the kingdom of God, and the laws of this kingdom I am willing to sustain and defend both by example and precept. I am thankful to-day that I have the honored privilege of being the happy recipient of one of the greatest principles ever revealed to man for his redemption and exaltation in the kingdom of God--namely, plurality of wives; and I am thankful to-day that I know that God is at the helm, and will defend his people." A veteran sister, Mrs. McMinn, could not refrain from expressing herself in unison with her sisters, in indignation at the bill. She was an American citizen; her father had fought through the revolution with General Washington; and she claimed the exercise of the liberty for which he had fought. She was proud of being a latter-day saint. In answer to an inquiry, she stated that she was nearly eighty-five years of age. Sister Eliza R. Snow then addressed the meeting, as follows: "_My Sisters_: In addressing you at this time, I realize that the occasion is a peculiar and interesting one. We are living in a land of freedom, under a constitution that guarantees civil and religious liberty to all--black and white, Christians, Jews, Mohammedans and Pagans; and how strange it is that such considerations should exist as those which have called us together this afternoon. "Under the proud banner which now waves from ocean to ocean, strange as it may seem, we, who have ever been loyal citizens, have been persecuted from time to time and driven from place to place, until at last, beyond the bounds of civilization, under the guidance of President Young, we found an asylum of peace in the midst of these mountains.