"The mission of the Latter-day Saints is to reform abuses which have for ages corrupted the world, and to establish an era of peace and righteousness. The Most High is the founder of this mission, and in order to its establishment, his providences have so shaped the world's history, that, on this continent, blest above all other lands, a free and enlightened government has been instituted, guaranteeing to all social, political, and religious liberty. The constitution of our country is therefore hallowed to us, and we view with a jealous eye every infringement upon its great principles, and demand, in the sacred name of liberty, that the miscreant who would trample it under his feet by depriving a hundred thousand American citizens of every vestige of liberty, should be anathematized throughout the length and breadth of the land, as a traitor to God and his country. "It is not strange that, among the bigoted and corrupt, such a man and such a measure should have originated; but it will be strange indeed if such a measure find favor with the honorable and high-minded men who wield the destinies of the nation. Let this seal of ruin be attached to the archives of our country, and terrible must be the results. Woe will wait upon her steps, and war and desolation will stalk through the land; peace and liberty will seek another clime, while anarchy, lawlessness and bloody strife hold high carnival amid the general wreck. God forbid that wicked men be permitted to force such an issue upon the nation! "It is true that a corrupt press, and an equally corrupt priestcraft, are leagued against us--that they have pandered to the ignorance of the masses, and vilified our institutions, to that degree that it has become popular to believe that the latter-day saints are unworthy to live; but it is also true that there are many, very many, right-thinking men who are not without influence in the nation; and to such do we now most solemnly and earnestly appeal. Let the united force of this assembly give the lie to the popular clamor that the women of Utah are oppressed and held in bondage. Let the world know that the women of Utah prefer virtue to vice, and the home of an honorable wife to the gilded pageantry of fashionable temples of sin. Transitory allurements, glaring the senses, as is the flame to the moth, short-lived and cruel in their results, possess no charms for us. Every woman in Utah may have her husband--the husband of her choice. Here we are taught not to destroy our children, but to preserve them, for they, reared in the path of virtue and trained to righteousness, constitute our true glory.