"But to the law and to the testimony. Those obnoxious, fratricidal bills--I feel indignant at the thought that such documents should disgrace our national legislature. The same spirit prompted Herod to seek the life of Jesus--the same that drove our Pilgrim fathers to this continent, and the same that urged the English government to the system of unrepresented taxation, which resulted in the independence of the American colonies, is conspicuous in those bills. If such measures are persisted in they will produce similar results. They not only threaten extirpation to us, but they augur destruction to the government. The authors of those bills would tear the constitution to shreds; they are sapping the foundation of American freedom--they would obliterate every vestige of the dearest right of man--liberty of conscience--and reduce our once happy country to a state of anarchy. "Our trust is in God. He who led Israel from the land of Egypt--who preserved Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace--who rescued Daniel from the jaws of hungry lions, and who directed Brigham Young to these mountain vales, lives, and overrules the destinies of men and nations. He will make the wrath of man praise him; and his kingdom will move steadily forward, until wickedness shall be swept from the earth, and truth, love and righteousness reign triumphantly." Next came a concise, powerful speech from Harriet Cook Young. She said: "In rising to address this meeting, delicacy prompts me to explain the chief motives which have dictated our present action. We, the ladies of Salt Lake City, have assembled here to-day, not for the purpose of assuming any particular political power, nor to claim any special prerogative which may or may not belong to our sex; but to express our indignation at the unhallowed efforts of men, who, regardless of every principle of manhood, justice, and constitutional liberty, would force upon a religious community, by a direct issue, either the course of apostacy, or the bitter alternative of fire and sword. Surely the instinct of self-preservation, the love of liberty and happiness, and the right to worship God, are dear to our sex as well as to the other; and when these most sacred of all rights are thus wickedly assailed, it becomes absolutely our duty to defend them.