The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1900, 1889-12-27
A::Lettpr From MornonQoDl,
Inc Story OF the Naturalization Case
in q Nutshell.
How the Well Drilled Class Rehavad
in Court.
interesting Account of Webber's
Janus Faced Testimony.
The Mormon Question,

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Correspondence
OF the LEADER.-Briefy stated the his
tory OF the recent naturalization case
tried before Judge Anderson here. which
has produced such profound sensation
throughout the country as never before
existed on the Mormon question and
which will doubtless lead to the passage
OF bill at the present session of congress
disfranchislng the entire membership of
the Mormon church, was as follows:
One James D. Moore and other alien
Mormons made application in the third
Judicial district court of Utah to be ad-
mitted to citizenship. His admission
was resisted on the ground that he was a
member Of the church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints and had been through
the "endowment house" where oaths that
are incompatible with the oath of citizen
ship and with the duties Of citizens of
the United States are administered to the
members of the Mormon church.
Never before in the history of this
sanity city have the Mormon sensibilities
been stirred up from their depths as dur
ing this remarkable investigation and its
damning disclosures. To all appearance
the tolls are gradually enmeshing these
people which must result in the expira-
tion of the heartless leaders and the alb
solute Acknowledgement and ostracism of
all CT their miserable victims who will
persist in following 'the shepherds who
have fed themselves and not the flock.''
The secret oaths and blood-curdling
penalties of the Mormon endowment
to administer which is the special and
chief work performed in the Mormon
temples--have formed the theme Of many
published letters, pamphlets and red-let-
ter chapters in several large volumes
purporting to disclose the history and
popularity of the Rocky Mountain saints;
but such exposures were popularity &C
credited as being gross exaggerations or
biased distortions Of perchance fanatical
and meaningless rituals devised by the
Mormon chiefs only for the purpose OF
pandering to the love for the marvellous,
usually so we'll developed among ignor-
ant and superstitious people and thereby
kept under more abject submission and
| control.
To wholly dissipate this very charit-
able Interpretation of the Mormon sen,
| dowments" seems to have been reserved
to this most searching judicial inquiry
About q dozen credible and impartial
witnesses, who were once Mormons but
who left the church on account of the
reasonable attitude in which they had
been placed towards the government
through the secret oaths and obligations
of the "endowments," have appeared in
open court and, after being duly sworn
testified divulging the fact that every
male member of the Mormon church is
required to swear that he will avenge
upon the nation the blood Of the proph-
cts Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who were
assassinated in Carthage jail, Illinois,
June 81, 1874; that he will keep all the
commandments of God, including that
enjoining polygamy, as fast as they are
made known to him by the authorities OF
the church; that he will teach this ven.
geance and hostility towards the nation
to his children and children's children
unto all generations; that, to enforce
these reasonable obligations and to cover
them forever in the secrecy of the grave
they are required to swear that, rather
than break any of these covenants or re-
veal any of these things to the ld,they
will voluntarily submit to having their
throats cut from ear to ear, their hearts
torn out and their bowels cut open!
Substantially this was the burden OF
the testimony of all of the witnesses OF
the plaintiffs, or those resisting Moore's
naturalization To rescue the church II
possible, from the impending doom, the
! authorities rallied their forces in behalf