Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1869-12-14

oi' tlc Hutii'N ''d!IS' auA tulihls Oh IloiH
Fthe rear of the army and driving to Sail
Lake 500 us. oxen. The troops, nee
ossarily moving slowly, were oyertakcn by
the SHOWS in November, and wintcred near
Fort Bridger. In the spring of 1858 the
President, through Governor Powell, of
Kentucky, and Maj. Mccullough, of Tex
as, offered pardon to all Mormons who
would submit themselves to the Federal
authority, which was finally accepted
The troops epcanped forty miles from the
city, and rc~ained there till 1860, when
they were Withdrawn.
This sketch is not colored by any views
of my own. have simply drawn it from
history, nothing extenuating nor setting
down aught in malice. Bat the reader
will fail TO find in it that any of what they
call their persecution sprang from their
peculiar religious faith.
LII. THEIR PCLyGAMY.
In their Mormon Bibl;, publicly pro-
claimed by them to the world as inspired
revelation, on which rock they had built
their church, polygamy is denounced as
the wickedest Of crimes. David and Sol
omon are condemned in it for their many
wives and combines, (Which thing was
abominabe before me, saith the Lord"
"Whcretore, my brethren, hear me and
hcarken to the word Of the Lord; for
there shall not any man among you have
save it to be one wife, and concubines he
shall have none for |, the Lord, delight
eth in the chastity Of women" The man
ner in which this positive language is
cyaded BY them is by quoting what occurs
subsequently TO this in their Book Of Nor
mon, as follows: "For if | will, saith the
Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, |
will command my people. 0 b rwisc they
shall hearken unto these things" | need
not repeat the argument of the Josephitcs
Qho onti-polygamy MQrmons) that, if God
did declare polygamy abomibabIe, because
| It violated the chastity ofwomen, he could
not possibly make revelation aftervard
Commanding IL Suffice il 10 say, the
Mormons claim thai he did, July 18th,
1913, thirteen years after the printing Of
their original revelation; and on that as
sumed revelation q 1843 they justify its
practice, and their defiance Of the law Of
the United States prohibiting it in all the
territories. But in l845, tlco gears af-
Ter this pretended recezation, the leaders
ofthe church, 10 an official document,
formally declared as follows; r.
"inaslnuch as tlli8 church Of Christ has
been rcproached with the crime Of forni-
cation and polygamy, we declare that we
believe that one man should have but one
wife, and enc woman but one husband,
except in case Of death, when either is at
liberty to marry again."
The explanation they give Of this official
denial Of practice. two years after the
assumed revelation by which they now
justify it, is that it was made from pru-
dental considerations. And, without ar
guing whether this is any moral justilica-
ton oisstho act, propose to inquire wheth-
cr a revelation Of this kind, thus claimed
by them, yindicates them in defying the
law Of the United States upon the sub
| ject, ..,,
There were three different newspaper
reports made Of the speech | delivered
on the evening of October 9th, in front
of the Townsend House, in Salt Lake
City; one by a Mormon reporter for the
Salt Lahe Telegraph, which was but an
abstract, stating that | condemned poly
gamy, and quoted from the Book Of Nor.
anon, and from ''the Doctrines and Gov
enahts," twhiclii is the creed nd discipline
ofthe Church, f; and the other two by re-
porters for the Chicago Tribune and the
Springfield Republican. The Mormon
editor replied in his paper Of the next
morning that the latter citation (Which
still eaibodies in unchanged phrascology,
the emphatic language used by their lead,
crsin lS45, above quotedl was more for.
cible lhan the former Que from the Nor
mon Bible; thai was qualified by the
words, also quoted above, commencing
"For If WILL saith the Lord of Hosts, y
etc. | quote, however, from the two
other reports OF what said, desiring TO
confinc my argument now upon this point
to the illushationsI presented 10 them,
face to face, in their own public street.
The report IN the Chicago Tribune
quotes my remarks as follows:
you tell me you have the authority
fof revelation ios this defiance Of law, and
lOffa acv revelation, contraryto that re-
Ecorded in the Book ofAlormon, TO which
/, haye alluded.' | reply that you have
no right 70 overthrow aud def the laws
by assumed revelations. II somc one
should have revelation tonight, dcclar
in that the strong should sciz9 and pos
sess the wives Of the weak, you woult