The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-22

sIf we demonstrated with the officers In 10
lation to the abuse received from the soldiens
we were told not to make the soldiers mad,
or we would be killed and dragged out Yet
this was the party who professed to wish 10
gather facts and convict criminals They bad
full sway and power; why did they not accom-
plish the result and bring offenders to justice,
not rest the matter by their own consent TO
drag it up after years, to condemn an entire
people as honest and pure as can be found
upon the earth today
Our freedom of debts as q continuous set
Element of cities for over five hundred miles
up and down these valleys, our light taxes as
compared with other territories, our unexam-
pied laying out of cities and city sites, is due
to some one leading out, and, forsooth, the
Mormon people are told "just stand aside,
while we stigmatise and cover these men all
over with slime and filth and kill them, and
you will be all right"
My friend supposes land by the way we are
very weary of supposition) q community of q
hundred thousand Methodists entirely isolat.
ing themselves, organizing with single
archbishop at their head, etc., and asks do
think that religious freedom would exist
there. / only answer, 1 suppose not; but this
comparison is not admissible as applied to the
Mormon Church.
We did not get together q hundred thou
sand people, but were driven here as q church
and a mere moiety. If we have grown, who
is to blame? If the leaders have been men Of
brains and enterprise and got rich is it q sin
Must it forsooth be because they have robbed
this people 1t was poor picking for a smart
man to have taken all there was in the earlier
days Vanderbilt or Jay Gould would have
stuck their noses up at the pile; still, in the
midst of all that poverty stricken time the
lrol IL knk~ I'D hn;p
across the great water to the down trodden
of Europe, advancing means for their emigra-
ton and planting them in these valleys where
to-day they are independent and prosperous.
The entire press of the country has, in
speaking of Mormon emigration, called them
the poorest of the poor, illiterate, and the
scum of the nations. We do not admit any
of this to be true except the poor part but
how is it that out Of such elements, that out
siders claim this people were composed of,
Utah presents to the world the status she
does? Candidly, should such leaders as we
have had be praised or cursed?
One thing feel convinced of, whoever
swallows the leaders will also have to take the
entire better portion of the community, but
that portion Of our church who refuse to live
their religion, children who have broken their
fathers and mothers hearts, and have scan
dalized the church, talking much of what
they knew very little about, leave them in
the hands of God, concluding with the words
of our lamented President, Joseph Smith, in
his letter to the Chicago Democrat in 1912:
"We claim the privilege Of worshiping
Almighty God according to the dictates OF
conscience, and allow ali men the same priv
lege, let them worship how, where, or what
they may We believe in being subject to
kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates; in
obeying, honoring and sustaining the law.
We believe in being honest, true ohaste,
benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all
men; indeed, we may say that we follow the
admonition of Paul-we believe all things, we
hope all things, we have endured many
things, and hope to be able to endure all
things If there is anything virtuous, lovely,
or of good report, or praiseworthy. we seek
after these things"
The writer of this is no church official, but
a simple laborer in the vineyard, and would
claim that Mormon citizens are perfectly able
to think for themselves, yet honor and respect
those who have never failed them.
A MORMON OF PLYMOUTH EXTRACTION.