St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-02-24
The Anti-POIygany Meeting.

congress on this important subject,
was largely attended. Rev. II. T. Full
Ter was made chairman of the meeting,
and he called upon Rev. Mr.. Wild to
open with prayer - after which Mr..
Fuller made some remarks on the topic
before the house. He said: On this
anniversary of the natal day of the
Father of our Country" it is fitting
that we turn our thoughts to what we
may do as Webster once said, to pre-
serve, defend and transmit to our pos
terity the blessings we have received
from our ancestors, and to be reminded
of our obligations to our fellows. Out
of Vermont have not only gone some
noble souls to bless our land, to honor
their native state in the councils of the
nation and defend the nation in other
parts of the land but there have also
gone out some whose future career has
not been an honor to their native state.
Two men, leaders in this very iniquity
against which I'VE protest tonight,
were born, one in Sharon and the other
in Nottingham locating first in West
ern New York, afterwards in Missouri,
afterwards in Ohio they gathered a
band of lawless men and built Il tenn
pie at Nauvoo, ILL.,, which was finally
burned and the conspiratOrs driven out
to a far distant part of the country. AT
where they thought they would he Sc
cure and able to defy the government I;
and for many years they did thus defy
the authority of the United States. Ar
mics sent there to administer the laws
found themselves utterly powerless,
were often disarmed, and made no at
tempt to enforce the laws entrusted to
them; other armies We're sent, and
found themselves utterly unable to
cope with the force arrayed against
them. We know that this doctrine of
poly gamy, from 1880 to 1913, was not
nor practiced by the elders for the first
ID years of their existence as Il separate
organization. Joseph Smith began I'M
moral practices and took unto himself
what he called spiritual wives, and
conducted himself so that his fellows
whom he had offended rose and de
nounced him because of his vicious
practices and their influences. What
is the result They have continued
ever since 1852 to increase wonder
fully, so that now the Mormons are in
IA majority i'll Utah, and extend into
Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and other
localities. Hundreds of them are trav-
cling to and fro through this country
and foreign countries, inducing people
under one preteXU or another to 90 and
dwell with them. This Mormon COM
munity has been IL standing reproach
to lis aS Il nation. We send miSSiOna-
rieS to other lands to convert men to
il purer faith and life and vet in some
of these very lands the things we have
tolerated would not for single day
be allowed. The speaker here refer
red to his own observations in Germany
as to what the people think of, and
how freely they condemn, the practice
of pOlygamy in this country. He re-
ferred also to the deceitful methods by
which the Mormon missionaries i'll
Sweden and other foreign countries
20. Il
States, under fair promises, only to
ruin them and subject them to a life OF
torture and degradation. Many centu-
ries ago the Romans invaded a city and
carried off its maidens to be cOmpulsO-
ry wives. 1t is a blot i'll Roman his
tory; yet that very same thing is al
lowed by us here to-day. 1t is certain
that thousands of women have been
beguiled to this country to a fate as
horrible as ever was known in the days
of the InquisitiOn. Has not this blot
been long enough upon us, and is it not
dark enough for us to utter our strong
est protest against the continuance OF
this within our borders ? If we could
go to Utah and see for ourselves, we
should not feel like resting until we
could do something for those who have
been suffering all these years, and who
know no way of release from their con
ditiOn.
REV. MIR. JONES
was the next speaker. He said he
must confess he had found it difficult
to repent of Adams sin, although he
had shared in the sufferings resulting
from it. In somewhat the same rela-
ton we have stood in the past years to
the question of slavery. 1t was ter
rible curse, terrible guilt, but we
could not lay our hands upon our hearts
and say we were penitent for it. We
came into the world when the century
was well advanced and found slavery
here. We shared in the shame of it
the disgrace of it, and were indignant
and yet we pitied our foretathers, and
perhaps blamed them. To-day we
stand face to face with a sin which
neither you nor | can shirk. There
rests upon the nation a sin which had
its beginning and has been accumula-
ting during our lifetime. We do share
the guilt of it, and | trust we share al
so the penitence for it. Under God we
are resolved no longer to bear the guilt
and shame. We are here to urge upon
those who make our laws the duty OF
wiping out this blot.
Mr.. Jones then offered the following
resolutions, which were adopted unani-
mOusly:
THE RESOLUTIONS.
ResOlred, That we cherish no i'll will
against the people of Utah. Their en-
ergy in subduing wild territory and
their thrift in utilizing its resources