Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-01-02
THE RECORD MATCH AT OAK GROVE RANGE,
SATURDAY DC. p.


Kate Fields lecture, given under y.
NJ G. A. auspices al the town hall last Satur-
day evening was a plain recital of facts con
corning Mormonsm seen and heard by
her in an eight months residence in Utah,
not in Salt Lake City alone, but in the vari-
Gus Mormon centres and outlying districts IN
| that territory. Without attempting to give
| detailed history OF Mormonism rs religion
Miss Field passed almost at once to speak Of
this system OF organized treason ~ it eX-
lists 70. day with polygamy as its corner stone.
Polygamy, a. a principle OF religious faith,
she said is not mentioned in the Book OF
Mormon, nor is 1t laid down in the thir-
teen articles OF faith of the church. 1t was
first proclaimed by Brigham Young As a
revelation in a sermon in the Mormon TEN.
pie at Salt Lake and produced shock OF
surprise and even CONSERVATION among ms
followers when promulgated. Other reVe-
lations" followed from time TO time AS tney
were needed Young aud his saints cunning
lv LAYING hold on the religious sentiment, al
yvavs strong in women, TO bind them IN slaV-
srv Inv making poygsmy cardinal principle
~ Religious faith and necessary 10 sAlVAuon.
Quotations were freely given from loungs
ssrmons 10 show the brutal way In which he
nrocIaimed tho doctrine, and on every ocea-
sion in the roundest terms appoTtioned dam
,,a,ion and hell fire as the lot of those who
refnsed patiently to wear the yoke and bear
The cross in this world for the sake of the
crown in the next. Are you willing your
husband should take another wife z" the old
reprobate said TO the wife of a Mormon who
was about to have "a second 'seAled" to him
mo" the poor woman answered. But you
like it Just as well as any of them do, my
dear" Brigham answered in his unctuous,
patronizing way The preaching in the Nor
mon temples is steadily to the effect that po-
= IN aalu aNi hat
women who do not cheerfully submit to it
shall be destroyed damned. II
the question is asked, the lecturer said, why
intelligent women submit themselves 10 po-
lygamy or tolerate it for themselves or their
daughters, the reply is that they submit to it
only because il is made the foundation stone
of their religion that they should do so. The
worst that the system includes cannot be
written, much less spoken.
Always aud everywhere the Mormons are
taught that they owe their first allegiance to
the church, and if the teaching of the church
and the law of the government do not coin
eide, 80 much the worse for the government.
The church is to be obeyed at all hazards. A
! young Mormon Just home from his graduation
at West Point when asked which he should
| obey if the government ordered him to do
| one thing and the church another, promptly
replied II should obey my church" Even
the hymns of the church, specimens of
| which were given, teach resistance to out
side authority if this goes counter TO the de-
mands OF the Mormon religion. The dress,
rites, VOWS and penalties of the endowment
house were described-the teaching here, al
so, being that a Mormon's first allegiance is
TO his church.
In short the speaker said, while Mormon
ism is a blot, and an ugly eating cancer, it is
only a secondary evil. The real evil is Tres-
son, The legislation intended to break il up
has so far proved powerless to do so. The
Edmunds law is practically futile with all the
rest, because, while it secures a legislature
and juries composed of monoRamists these
men are only the puppets behind whom sit
the saints" and pull the strings which oper-
ate them. The only effective remedy Miss
Field believes to lie in the passage of Unit
ed States marriage law which should be Of
equal and binding force over the whole r0un-
try To say that such law could not be er hct-
ed and enforced, but that the reRulatol a.. the
marriage and family state must be lei. % the
several states, is 10 confess the powerlessness
of the government to defend its own exist
enoe. Loyal men resident in Utah are unan-
imous in wishing to see everybody in the
territory disfranehised as a starting point, and
territorial government established, of which
the central government should have absolute
control as in the District of Columbia, en-
forcing the laws aud seeing to il that every
citizen complies with it's requirements.
Miss Fields lecture is one eminenty quail
fed, first, to instruct the people of the
east as TO the magnitude of the Mormon evil
and, second, To arouse the public conscience
and intelligence to sense of the work thai
needs to be done.