Arizona republican., 1890-06-29

important were despised and derided as religious sect. But even those who hate each other can now like Pilate and | Herod of old join hands with the impure of all classes as in Utah, where the priests and politician of every church and party, with the blatant demagogue, all join with the drunkard, gambler, | liar, thief and adulterer--all unite in the cry, "away with the horrid Mormons, for they have no rights under the law that we need respect" Again, what has that kind of Christian civilization accomplished among the heather by it's missionary labors? Where are the many powerful tribes and millions of aboriginal inhabitants of America? Wasted under the blighting influence of the fatal fire-water and the more deadly diseases attending their conversion, until their names and places are by the people forgotten. So also the fair islands of the Western Archipelago densely peopled when discovered but now without one aboriginal inhabitant. As also Polynesia with it's 9,000,00O of people fast dwindling from the same cause. While the Sandwich Islands within my recollection contained pop ulation of nearly l,0O0,000 are now dwindled to some 10000 and they fast decreasing through loathsome dis ease, which has ever attended the march of civilization among the heather. In truth did the Christ say "Ye com pass sea and land to make proselytes which are three fold more than the children of he'll"
 But having dwelt so long in review of the fast ripening fruits of your modern civilization 1 feel admonished to but | slightly note few of the more excellent fruits resulting from the union, self sacrifice and mission labor of the Mor- mon church as l have learned them | from personal experience and careful observation of sixty years.
 was born in the the State of New
 York in 1918 of the old puritanic stock. My grandfather fell at Bunker's Hill, and my forefathers were among the first of liberty's sons to offer blood and treasure for the purchase of freedom, with right to think and speak. l was raised a Presbyterian and early learned to believe in God and venerate the scriptures as his divine word. l was taught to yenerate the constitution as heaven inspired palladium of liberty baptized in the blood of noble men and women. And of my country's starry | flag l was more than proud. Yet all the same for sixty years l have been member of the Mormon church, and for | fifty years so near its front centre that iniquity and crimes within the pales of Mormon fellowsh' D could not escape my knowledge. From my early youth to the day of his ma rtyrdom l was inti
 mately acquainted with the Prophet Joseph smith, and for years was his l business partner md trusted friend. II knew him 70 be one of the purest, truest, ano nohlest of all manly men. His mott), like the humble Nazerene's, ''Tle poor shall have the gospel prea ,hed to them," he practically verified, and tley came to him by fiocks. From 1882 to 1887, with | the poor of a thousand or two, he had built the floU rishing and prosperous city of kirtlahl, Ohio, had completed large and costly temple, and started in- dustries by which all were becoming wealthy. Through religious and polit- ical jealousy and hate, prosecutions were increased, and the war-cry raised: We are the old citizens and won't be out voted by MormOns. We were broken up, receiving little or nothing for our possessions, and fled, as best we could, over 1000 miles to the Far West, Cald- we'll county, Mo. From Jackson county, of the same State, and through the same influence and popular cry, many hun dreds were, in midwinter, by mob vio- lence, driven to the shelterless praries, their stores, printing presses, and prop erty destroyed, some beaten and maimed, nth har t. in fnIl well, Davis and other counties until the winter of lS3S-9. when, through the same prejudice and hate strengthened could not emulate our union and thrift, with the intolerant cry, "The anti slavery Yankee Mormons shall not vote," reverberating throughout the State until some l5,00O men, women, and children of all ages and conditions, many murdered, wives and daughters ravished, prisons crowded with our lead eas, all plundered and in great destitu- tion, under the exterminating order of Governor Boggs, and by military mob in midwinter, were driven from the State. So tiendish and barbarous a cru city was never perpetrated by a Pagan nation. Making our way back under terrible conditions, we were received with -to-be-remembered kindness by the people of Illinois. While our leaders were still in prison, we poor MormOns rallied again on the future site of Nau- VOC, Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi. Here soon arose a more prosperous, rich and beautiful city, with a temple far more costly and grand. By frugal industry, the poor had be- come rich in broad fields and pleasant homes. Up to this period through all of our past history there never was Mormon whisky saloon, gambling hell, a house of ill-iame, public courte- gan, or pauper. The criminal docket of our city and county were familiar with the names only of our enemies. And now, Mir. Editor, mark you, al- though we had so often been robbed of all, driven homeless, naked, hungry, and sick, amid deep snOws and mud to encounter the piercing winds and sleet through stormy and pitiless winters; many murdered in cold blood, hundreds died of exposure and fatigue; women ravished leaders in prison offered hu- man flesh for food. All this, Mr. Edi- tor, transpired in our history before there were any plural marriages; before endowment Oaths, and other Mormon horrors were begotten in the imagina- ton of our enemies. Plural marriage, although understood and accepted by the few, was not a published and ac- cepted doctrine of the church until 1852, nor were endowments until after the murder of our prophet. And yet in the past we were more relentessly and cru ely persecuted than at the present. Rnt to return. NanYOO WAS now A rich