"We have broken no constitutional law; violated no obligation, either national or sectional; we revere the sacred constitution of our country, and have ever been an order-loving, law-abiding people. "We believe the institution of marriage to have been ordained of God, and therefore subject to his all-wise direction. It is a divine rite, and not a civil contract, and hence no man, unauthorized of God, can legally administer in this holy ordinance. "We also believe in the Holy Bible, and that God did anciently institute the order of plurality of wives, and sanctioned and honored it in the advent of the Saviour of the world, whose birth, on the mother's side, was in that polygamous lineage, as he testified to his servant John, on the Isle of Patmos, saying: 'I am the root and the offspring of David;' and we not only believe, but most assuredly know, that the Almighty has restored the fullness of the everlasting gospel, through the prophet Joseph Smith, and with it the plurality of wives. This we accept as a purely divine institution. With us it is a matter of conscience, knowing that God commanded its practice. "Our territorial laws make adultery and licentiousness penal offences, the breach of which subjects offenders to fine and imprisonment. These laws are being basely subverted by our federal officers, who after unscrupulously wresting the territorial offices from their legitimate incumbents, in order to carry out suicidal schemes, are substituting licentiousness for the sacred order of marriage, and seeking by these measures to incarcerate the most moral and upright men of this territory, and thus destroy the peace and prosperity of this entire community. They evidently design to sever the conjugal, parental and paternal ties, which are dearer to us than our lives. "We appreciate our husbands as highly as it is possible for you, honored madam, to appreciate yours. They have no interests but such as we share in common with them. If they are persecuted, we are persecuted also. If they are imprisoned, we and our children are left unprotected. "As a community we love peace and promote it. Our leaders are peacemakers, and invariably stimulate the people to pacific measures, even when subjected to the grossest injustice. President Brigham Young and several of his associates, all noble and philanthropic gentlemen, are already under indictment to be arraigned, before a packed jury, mostly non-residents, for the crime of licentiousness, than which a more outrageous absurdity could not exist.