Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-09-22
amist, though the Advocate says h

-
was not. 81
Rev. John Leiltch, in his sworn state
nent to the Senate did allege that the
senior Senator. from Utah is a polyg-
amist. and that impression was thereby
created throughout the country. IT
was, in fact, so widespre ad, owing to
the falsehoods promulgated in petit
tions. and from pulpits and platforms.
that Senator Baveridge during the de-
bate in January, 1907, took occasion to
say:
1T is pertinent in a debate of this
Kind to refer to what exists in the
minds of the public--what the people
have been led to believe We. as a
court, VIII Of course try Senator Smoot
upon the record. But 1t has been given
out to the people in numberless meth
DDS that Mr.. Smoot, poygamist, is
United States.
That was one Of the deplorable fea-
lures of the crusade against Senator
Sinoot. Ministers of the gospel We'd
with low-gradc politicians In disscmin-
ating falsehoods and appealing to the
lower passions. to gain a point. The
Advocate seems to have forgotten the
perjury that was committed in the In
terest of nti-"Mormonism."
2. Senator Snoot is not a member of
a hierarchy The Church Of which he
is member and an official has no
hierarchy" 1t is just as absurd to
speak of an Apostle of the Church
of jesus Christ Of Latter-day
Saints as "hierarch'' as 1t
would be to refer to the Apostle
John, o, Paul, whose chief glory
was the position of humble serv-
ants of the Lord. as "hierarchs;" or,
to refer to John Wesley as a rope"
a hierarchy in the church was the
outgrowthg of post-apostolc conditions.
II was the natural sequence of pre-
lacy. 1t did not exist In the apostolic
age, and II does not exist In the Church
here, because this Church is the Apos-
tolic Church restored. Those who speak
either because of ignorance Of our
Church organization. or for the same
reason that anarchists refer to the
President of the United States as a
GEAR or a "tyrant," II is done mere
ly to excite pretudices and inflame the
minds of the ignorant But we submit
that religious journal ought to be fair
IN controversy and not attribute to an
opponent that which he himself repu-
dates
#3 3. 1t is cmphatcally not true that
the Church has broken any pledges re-
lgarding polygan1y. The number of fam
lilies living in the plural marriage rela-
ton has steadily decreased since the Is
suance and acceptance by the Church
of the Manifesto, and that fact alone
stamps as untrue the assertion that the
Church has broken the pledge con-
tanned iii that document.
And as for unlawful cohabltation, the
understanding was that that would
gradually disappear with the passing
away Of the practice of polygamy.
Said Senator Dubois in 1903: 1--WE Z
promised that the older ones, who had
contracted those relations before the
Manifesto was issued, would not DO
prosecuted by the Gentiles; that time
would be given for them to pass away,
but that the law would be strenuousy
enforced against any polygam'ous mar
.riage which might be contracted in
the future
The .Mormons" have kept faith; tho
anti Mormon" agitators who instigat-
ed the crusade have broken the pledges.
A je,i c t,ecI,,toI,, fo1er &h,% 49,,
member. or officer, of the Church has,
as such, taken any oath prejudicial to
loyalty as Il citizen.
/ If the Christian Advocate had con-
suited the Report of the proceed
ings before the Senate committee in
.vestigatng the case against Senator
smoot, it would have found that that
charge was eliminated. Senator Hoar
stated that he understood that the
committee had reached a conclusion
that there We're two issues in the case
one whether Senator Smoot had prac-
tised polygamy, and the other whether
he had taken an oath or obligation
superior to the oath which he must
take to qualify him as a Senator
Whereupon Dubois stated that both
: ID
these contentious were set aside en-
tirely by the attorneys representing
the Professionals. Mr.. Tayler added that
he had never had the idea Of proving
the allegations regarding an oath in
consistent with senatorial duties. SEN
ator Beveridg e remarked that he under
stood NJ Tayler TO say that the
charge was not one to be Withdrawn
but one that never had been made, and
Senator Dubois again affirmed that
no charge had been made against
Mr.. Smoot of taking an oath incon-
sistent with his oath as Senator except
the Leilich charge, which had been
abandoned and repudiated." So much
for the Advocates statement that Sem
ator Smoot was tried on the charge of
having taken q secret oath.
That charge is on a par with the
old charge against the first Christians,
that they killed an infant In their Sc
cret meetings and partook of the flesh
and drank the blood. The old pagan
scoffers We're just as correctly in
formed about the meetings of the Naz-
arenes as is the Advocate about the
.Latter-day Saints.
5. 1t is, finally, not true that the
charges against Senator Smoot were
Z .