The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1900, 1889-12-27

S 1ne appncant with zeal born of the
aread torebodings throbbing in their
breasts, trotting out Apostle John Henry
smith, Thomas q. Webber and a whole
ra1t OF like expert, willy, wabbling evas-
lonlsts, who, with the effrontery Of their
previous successes in sul,terfuge, blindlv
essayed, with a flourish as Of triumph
assured, to demonstrate how true and
ioyal the Mormons have been and are to
Tie e. nation. With the precision Of we'll
urllleo class they each one averred that
tney mad never taken any oath to avenge
the blood of the prophets ON THE N1-
TON. Some of them even swore that
they knew nothing about any oath to
avenge the blood of the prophets; but
they were afterwards forced to admit
that they had taken such an oath and the
frightful death penalties incurred by
breaking or divulgiug it.
A more deplorable spectacle can scarce
" be conceived than that presented by
these doughty prevaricators and apollo
glsts for high treason, when they found
themselves driven to seek shelter from
the storm of searching interrogitories
with which they were assailed behind
that convenient loop-hole of the law
the last ditch of the criminal--'sno man
can be compelled to criminate himself" !"
But none of the disgruntled conspirators
seemed more abject in his humiliation
and discontinue than the profound and
argumentatative witness Webber. This
man testified that he came from England ::
was civil engineer; was in the federal
army from 1857 to 1868 and lieutenant
under Mcclellan; left the army ABOUT the
time hard fighting was imminent and
came to Utah to join the Mormons; had
been thro' the endowment house twice,
but had never heard anything said there
about avenging the blood of the phophets,
etc. On cross s-examination Atty Dick
son, for plf's, asked him:
"Wasn't your right arm annointed that
it might be made strong to avenge the
blood of the prophets when required?"
| His reply was, 81 decline to answer"
when Mr. Dickson inquired:
"lf nothing was said to you about
avenging the blood of the prophets, why
do you decline to answer?"
Mumbling something about 'point of
honor" he drawled out, in gratuitous
way, that he had never heard blood
atonement preached as doctrine of the
church. Dickson again inquired:
"Were there death penalties pro-
nounced in the endowment house for a
violation of divulgence of the covenants ?"
Again the refuge of lies was brought
into requisition and he declined to an
swer The court at this point becoming
indignant at the shuft1ing and perversity
of the witness, said to him:
"You are citizen Of the United States
and a member of the Mormon church. II
is said that membership in the Mormon
church is incompatible with citizenship
Now this hearing is to determine that
question. 1t is claimed that the cere-
monies in the endowment house are
reasonable. To which do you owe the
highest allegiance-the church, or your
country?"
With visible effort, as tho debating
with himself the answer he should make
at length, with apparent mental reserva,
tion, he tiippantly warbeled, "W-e-l-l, to
my country" The undisguised half
heartedness of the cowardly answer
reused the court perceptibly to new
conception of the janus-faced, double
tongued set of bipeds he had TO deal
with. Again addressing the witness he
inquired severely:
"Why, then, do you almost contempt
uously refuse an answer to these ques
tions which would aid the court to deter
mine this matter?"
Prone and serf-like he huskily fell
back again upon his "point of honor" pre-
text, manifestly wishing in his heart that
the government, the courts and the
judges were all in tophet together.
Being again pressed by Dickson as tc
the amounting of his right arm that il
might be made strong to avenge the
blood of the prophets, he said confused
ly, II don't remember" He was ther
questioned about the half-masting of the
stars and stripes on the 4th of July, dur
ing which he affected an air of profuse
loyalty not inferior to that of Benedict
Arnold prior to his final act of treason
When closely cornered again, he ex-
claimed, "My allegiance to the church in
this matter is not want of allegiance tc
the government"
This insolence brought the court to the
front again in direct rebuke. His honor
said to him sharply:
"If you will state the facts (Which he
was doing his best not to do) the court
will form the conclusions. That is not
for you to do. You, sir, have been in the
army and took an oath to protect the flag
When the flag was half-masted here
what did you do to protect It'll"
Remembering his admission that he
! was member of the city government al