The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-20


 spiritual character. they are for the living and the dead---a part of the Mormon belief being vicarous per- formance of ordinances and cere- monies.
 No Hostility fe Gevernmest.
 There does not exist In the en- dowment ceremonies of the Mormon church the remotest suggestion of hos tility or of antagonism to the United States or to any other nation. They are of purely religious nature. who'll ly between a person taking them and his God.
 Advertising to the religious and spiritual character of those ceremonies 1t is conceded that such character In ceremonies often has an influence on the conscience and conduct of the persons concerned There Is not a solitary instance where that influ- ence in the endowment ceremonies has been displayed in an act of hostility to the government
 The application In this respect as to the loyalty of the Mormon people can be brought home readily. We will pass by the incident of the Mormon ex- lies from Nauvoo furnishing a battai- Hon for the United States army for the war with Mexico; the action of the Utah pioneers in raising the American flag in Sat Lake valley when that was Mexican soil; the fidelity of Utah to the Union during the Civil war, and come to the period Of the Spanish American war and the instruction in the Philippines.
 The State of Utah came into the Union eleven years ago.
 Scarce two years had passed when there appeared on our national horizon the cloud of war with Spain and side by side with every other State in the Union. Utah furnished her full quota or American soldiers and offered more.
 There was no question of religious distinction or dispute then. The Utah Light Artillery was composed of men of differing religious beliefs, including orr thodox Mormons, who had partaken of their church rites known us the endow- iuent ceremonies. Major Richard w. Young, commanding officer of the Utah Light Infantry. was one of these; Ser geant Harry A. Young and others who gave up their life for the flag, were among this number. And insofar as the endowment ceremonies may have rela- tion to this government an unreserved and updisputable accurate interpreta- ton is given by the record of the Mor- mons mustered into the Utah Light Arr tiliery, which served in the war with Spain and during the subsequent Phii- ippine insurrection. No man has Q right to question that interpreta ion
 
 scribed in letters of fire by the history of many a battlefield.
 Career of Utah Artillery. And here in the Senate of their coun- trymen upon incontrovertible witness born by the brave survivors and the he- role dead of the Utah Light Artillery, hurl back the charge of the defamer that there ever was a word or breath of hostility or disloyalty in the sacred religious ceremonies, which they. or any other. persons participated in as mem- bers of the Mormon church.
 Tt ist not an infrequent occurrence, MT: President, for somebody, often a person of prominence, to come out with a declaration, that this or the other thing. is .menacing' the life of the re- public: that we are following the path which brought Rome to decay that our wealth or industrial combinations, our free speech, are crowding the nation to death. Notwithstanding all these dire predictions, none of which is more ab- surd than the myth of Mormon heir archaP domination; the American Union is going to stand. It is founded on the popular will of a liberty loving people It is builded on the undying principles l of human rights and human freedom As such it will advance. It will grow I No other nation will prevail against 1t 1t has the favor of God and the grati. tude of it's own people to perpetuate Il | along the centuries to come as they have maintained It iL the century tha | IS past.
 | In closing, let me say under my ob ] ligation as a Senator what have saft | under oath before the Committee. Tha | have never taken any oath or obliga | ton, religious or otherwise, which con | flicts in the; slightest degree with my duty as Senator or as a cltizen. owe no allegiance to any church, or oth. | CT organization which in any way in. terferes with my supreme allegiance, ir civll affairs. to my country--an alle' glance which freely, fully and gladly give.''