Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1906-01-12
PRESIDENT JOSEPH SMITH
AND MoRMoNIsM.

To the Editor Of The Vermont Phoenix.
Dear Sir:
1t was with interest and consider
able surprise that the writer OF this has
read the accounts OF the welcome lately
accorded to President Joseph Smith and
his Mormon following at South Royalton,
and the subsequent editorials on the sub
ject that have appeared in various Yer
mont newspapers The writer's OF these
articles all apparently comfortably con-
slider the incident as closed. But the incl
dent never Is closed where Mormons and
Mormonism are concerned, as United
States Senator Dubois OF Idaho could
tell them, who said this last fall that he
had been fighting Mormonism for 90
years.
The Mormons having secured the lot
OF land in Sharon and South Royalton,
were undoubtedly. l suppose, within their
legal rights in erecting a monument on
1t to any man, woman or child, good bad
or Indifferent, born on the spot, but that
the people of the two towns should have
welcomed the Latter Day Saints and
by their presence at the dedlcatory
ceremonies should have assisted in honor
ing the memory OF one whose notorious
career reflects anything but glory on the
place of his birth. as history plainly
shows, was surprising, and equally sur
prising was II that other people in the
state should regard the performance
seemingly with indifference.
Under the circumstances I would like
to call the attention of Vermonters to
the following bit OF current history. 1t
will be remembered that the territory OF
Utah, after a bitter and protracted strug-
gle between the authority Of the United
States and its people on the point OF
polygamy, was finally admitted ten years
ago as n state into the Union, by proc
lamation OF President Mckinley, January
4. 1896. on the express condition, and
after the most solemn pledges having
been given by the Mormons, that the
practice OF polygamy should cease. AS
worded in the constitution OF the new
state, accepted and ratified by the people
of Utah in convention, 1t was provided
that "perfect federation of religious senti-
ment shall be secured" etc. "but that
polygamous or plural marriages are for
ever prohibited"
For a while polygamy was ostensibly
given up, the fact of its still existing,
among the Mormons, and among Mormons
In high standing in the church, being a
well-kept secret far in the background,
but the doctrine of polygamy or plural
marriages, a belief in which the Nor
mons hold to be essential to salvation,
has never been even ostensibly aban-
doned.
If any one doubts these statements. let
him give heed to the following records of
three Of the most prominent Mormons
who were at Sharon, as given by them
selves before the United States Senate
committee OF privileges and elections in
vestigating the right of Reed Smoot to
seat In that body, and sitting in Wash
ington in 1904.
In 1900. Joseph Smith, the nephew of
the first Joseph, Seer and Revelator,"
L.. A.
Christ OF Latter Day Saints" and this
Joseph, the President Joseph of the
South Royalton dedication, in the spring
OF 1904, defiantly acknowledged to the
Senate committee that he had never
given up his plural wives, and had chill
dren then Of tender age by some of them.
December II, 1904, Charles w. Penrose,
editor Of The Deseret News, elected one
Of the twelve apostles of the Mormon
church In July, 1904, was sworn. He
said he was a polygamist with two plural
wives living" Being asked, Ibid you
receive special amnesty at the hands of
President Cleveland in which one Of the
conditions was that you should thereafter
obey the laws relating to living in polyg-
amy?"
Eyes, sir"
And have you lived up to that
amnesty?"
mo, SIR"
december H. lSO4t JOnn Henry Smith
Of Salt Lake City testified that he became
an apostle in 1888. that he had two wives
and Is living children, four OF whom were
born since the manifesto of amnesty Of
President Cleveland, and that he was one
OF the signers Of the petition for amnesty
And this is the way the president and
| apostolic heads of the Mormon church
keep their oaths to our government, and
the example that they set their followers
1t is the same Charles w. Penrose,
editor OF The Deseret News, the organ OF
the Mormon church, who is now reported
in one of the Vermont papers as deliver
ing "a stirring address" at Sharon on
December Esd, and in the evening, at
South Royalton, speaking boldly on the
Mormon creed"
The paper does not inform us on what
points OF doctrine Mr.. Penrose spoke, but
1t hardly seems probable that he selected
that Of the duty Of plural marriages to
] make "a stirring address" on. or that