*#i 
 

Brigham Young 
 
The MORMON 
 MONSTER 
 
 OR, THE STORY OF MORMONISM 
 
 EMB RACING 
 
 THE HISTORY OF MORMONISM 
 MORMONISM AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM 
 MORMONISM AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM 
 MORMONISM AS A POLITICAL SYSTEM 
 
 WITH A 
 
 Full Discussion of the Subject of Polygamy 
 
 Ay 
 
 EDGAR E. FOLK, A.M., D.D. 
 
 Editor of the "Baptist and Reflector," Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 GEORGE A. LOFTON, D.D. 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 Chicago, New York & Toronto 
 
 MDCCCC 
 
Copyright, 1901, by Fleming H. Revell Company. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To all who love our Lord Jesus 
 Christ in sincerity, and who 
 believe in the purity of the Home, 
 this volume is affectionately dedi- 
 cated by 
 
 The Author. 
 
ENDORSEMENT 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept 24, 1900 
 
 We have looked over the proofs of this book, and 
 find that it is replete with important information for 
 those who are unacquainted with the history, teachings 
 and tendencies of Mormonism. 
 
 R. W. WAKE, 
 
 Pastor H. E. Church, Salt Lake City. 
 
 T. C. ILIFF, 
 Presiding Elder M. E. Church, Salt Lake City. 
 
 H. B. STEELMAN, 
 
 Pastor First Baptist Church, Salt Lake City. 
 
 fM. M. PADEN, 
 
 Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Salt Lake City. 
 
 H. H. McCREERY, 
 
 Pastor at Large, Utah Presbytery. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the preparation of the following volume I have 
 sought information from every source possible. Among 
 the books consulted were: The Bible, "The Book of 
 Mormon," "The Doctrine and Covenants," "The Pearl 
 of Great Price" (All of these are claimed by the Mor- 
 mons as their sacred books) : "The Articles of Faith/' 
 by J. E. Talmage ; "The Gospel," "Outlines of Ecclesias- 
 tical History," and "New Witness for God," by B. H. 
 Roberts; "Key to Theology," by Parley P. Pratt; "Mor- 
 mon Doctrine," by C. W. Penrose ; "Catechism for Chil- 
 dren," by John Jaques; "Rocky Mountain Saints," by 
 T. B. H. Stenhouse; "An Englishwoman in Utah," by 
 Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse ; "Mormon Portraits," by Dr. 
 W. Wyl; "The Golden Bible," by M. T. Lamb; "The 
 Book of Mormon," by S. J. S. Davis ; "Pen Pictures of 
 Mormonism," by M. L. Oswalt; "Mormon Doctrine of 
 God and Heaven," by A. C. Osborn; "Some Latter Day 
 Religions," by G. H. Combs; various tracts published 
 by the League for Social Service and others too numer- 
 ous to mention. Besides these I have made use also 
 of articles in "The Salt Lake Herald," "The Salt Lake 
 Tribune," "The Deseret Evening News," which is the 
 official organ of the Mormon Church, "The Kinsman," 
 and "Living Issues," all of Salt Lake City; Munsey's 
 Magazine for June, 1900; and other articles. 
 
 I have made frequent quotations from these books, 
 tracts and articles to give the reader a statement of the 
 Mormon position in their own words, or to show how 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 others regard these people. I gratefully acknowledge 
 my indebtedness to the writers indicated above. 
 
 I should say that the substance of these chapters was 
 originally published in the Baptist and Reflector, and there 
 were numerous calls for the publication of the articles 
 in book form. 
 
 I have, however, revised and considerably enlarged 
 them in preparing them for publication in this more per- 
 manent form. 
 
 May God's blessings rest upon the volume. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 Edgar E. Folk. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn., July 28, 1900. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 Preface 3 
 
 Introduction 5 
 
 I. Introductory 11 
 
 II. Its History — 
 
 The Origin — Sidney Rigdon — Joseph Smith, 
 Jr. — The Book of Mormon 17 
 
 III. Its History — 
 
 Kirtland — Zion's Camp — Temple Dedicated — 
 Fraudulent Bank 25 
 
 IV. Its History — 
 
 Missouri — Rigdon's Fourth of July Sermon — 
 Danite Band 30 
 
 V. Its History — 
 
 Nauvoo— City Charter — Candidate for Presi- 
 dent — Nauvoo a Hell 35 
 
 VI. Its History — 
 
 Nauvoo Continued — "Brother Rushton"— Nancy 
 Rigdon — Martha Brotherton — William Law — 
 Death of Smith 42 
 
 VII. Its History — 
 
 Split into Factions — Brigham Young — Moving 
 Westward — Great Salt Lake Basin — "Irrepressi- 
 ble Conflict" — Mountain Meadows Massacre.. 61 
 
 VIII. Its History — 
 
 Brigham Young — Rebellion — Albert Sidney 
 Johnston — Judge Cradlebaugh— Apostasy — John 
 Taylor — Wilford Woodruff— Lorenzo Snow... 69 
 
 IX. Its History — 
 
 Polygamy — "Revelation" on Subject 77 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 X. Its History— 
 
 Laws against Polygamy— Cullom Law— Ed- 
 munds Law— Edmunds-Tucker Law 83 
 
 XL Its History— 
 
 Statehood — Polygamy Prohibited — Polygamy 
 Practiced 90 
 
 XII. Its History— 
 
 The Roberts Case— Arguments For and Against 
 —Excluded from Congress 94 
 
 XIII. As a Religious System— 
 
 Its Doctrine as to God— God a Man— A Married 
 Man— A Polygamist 108 
 
 XIV. As a Religious System— 
 
 Its Doctrine as to God— God Was Adam— Many 
 Gods "5 
 
 XV. As a Religious System — 
 
 Its Doctrine as to God— Men May Become Gods. 119 
 
 XVI. As a Religious System— 
 
 Its Doctrines as to Christ and the Holy Spirit — 
 Christ a Polygamist— The Holy Spirit a Sub- 
 stance 128 
 
 XVII. As a Religious System— 
 
 The Fall— A Fall Upward— The Atonement- 
 Saved by Obedience 133 
 
 XVIII. As a Religious System— 
 
 Faith — Repentance — Baptism — Laying on of 
 Hands— The Priesthood 142 
 
 XIX. As a Religious System— 
 
 Apostles— Prophets, etc.— Smith's Prophecies.. 151 
 
 XX. As a Religious System — 
 
 Gifts of Tongues— Visions— Healing, etc 156 
 
 XXI. As a Religious System — 
 
 Its Belief as to the Bible— Book of Mormon — 
 Testimonials as to Origin 160 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XXII. As a Religious System— 
 
 The Book of Mormon— Outline of Book— "Re- 
 formed Egyptian" — Evidences of Fraudulent 
 Character 170 
 
 XXIII. As a Religious System — 
 
 The Book of Mormon — Improbable Stories — 
 Bad English — "Clumsiest Hoax Ever Invented" 182 
 
 XXIV. As a Religious System — 
 
 The Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great 
 Price— "Book of Abraham" 188 
 
 XXV. As a Religious System— 
 
 New Revelations — Danite Band — Blood Atone- 
 ment — Arguments for it 196 
 
 XXVI. As a Religious System — 
 
 Blood Atonement — Instances of it — "Obedient 
 to Law" 210 
 
 XXVII. As a Social System — 
 
 Polygamy — Arrests 217 
 
 XXVIII. As a Social System — 
 
 Polygamy — What the Mormons say about it — 
 New Cases 222 
 
 XXIX. As a Social System — 
 
 Reasons for Belief in Polygamy 231 
 
 XXX. As a Social System — 
 
 Interview with Editor Charles W. Penrose 236 
 
 XXXI. As a Social System— 
 
 Comments on Interview with Editor Charles W. 
 Penrose 245 
 
 XXXII. As a Social System — 
 
 Immoral Results of Polygamy — Forced Mar- 
 riages — Remarks of Apostle John W. Taylor — 
 B. Y. T. Co. — Z. C. M. I. — Dancing — Swearing 
 — Stealing— Lying 250 
 
 XXXIII. As a Social System — 
 
 Testimony of Others— Mr. Scott Anderson — 
 Mr. A. T. Schroeder ! 259 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XXXIV. As a Social System— 
 
 Testimony of Others— Dr. Wyl— Statistics- 
 Christiansen — Summing Up 265 
 
 XXXV. A Menace- 
 
 To the Home— To the Christian Religion— To 
 Our Political Institutions 275 
 
 Appendix — 
 
 A. Observations and Experiences in Salt Lake City. . 285 
 
 B. The Relation of Sidney Rigdon to the Book of 
 
 Mormon 307 
 
 C. The Temple Service 318 
 
 D. Some Experiences of a Mormon Woman 336 
 
 E. Mountain Meadows Massacre— Complete Confes- 
 
 sion of Major John D. Lee 342 
 
 F. Mormon Morals— A Recent Experience 362 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 Portrait of Brigham Young . . . Frontispiece 
 
 The Angel Maroni n 
 
 Portrait of Joseph Smith 27 
 
 Assembly Hall 43 
 
 Amelia Palace 55 
 
 The Grave of Brigham Young . . . 75 
 
 Portrait of Lorenzo Snow .... 89 
 
 Man's Endowment Cap 103 
 
 Revealed Fig Leaf Apron 103 
 
 Reformed Egyptian, in which Joseph Smith 
 
 Claimed the Golden Plates were Written 119 
 
 Portrait of Lucy Smith 133 
 
 Woman's Cap and Slipper 133 
 
 First Presidency and Twelve Apostles . . 147 
 
 Mormon Temples 157 
 
 Lion and Bee Hive, with Office of President 
 
 Between 167 
 
 Portrait of Wilford Woodruff . . . .181 
 
 Abraham and Pharaoh 195 
 
 The Resurrection of Osiris 215 
 
 Portrait of John Taylor 225 
 
 Adam's Endowment Garment 247 
 
 Brigham Young Statue 263 
 
 Tabernacle 279 
 
 Interior of Tabernacle 295 
 
 Temple Block 311 
 
 Statue of Brigham Young, with Mormon Temple 
 
 in Background 323 
 
 Eagle Gate 343 
 
 Portrait, Ann Eliza Webb 357 
 
 Tithing Office 363 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 By Geo. A. Lofton, D. D. 
 
 The freedom of the 19th century has been prolific of 
 religious fads, fancies and monstrosities. The preced- 
 ing centuries of superstition and despotism which domi- 
 nated the human conscience and enforced conformity to 
 human creeds were productive, on the one hand, of a 
 dead formalism, and on the other of the miseries of 
 persecution — all in the name of orthodoxy. Millions 
 went to the dungeon and the stake for the testimony of 
 Jesus Christ; but the horrors of religious sterility and 
 tyranny were largely compensated by martyr zeal and 
 spirituality constantly kindled by suppression. The reign 
 of light and liberty which dawned in the Reformation 
 of the 1 6th Century opened the world to the truth which 
 might have a fair field upon which to combat error; 
 and the great floodgate of evangelical Christianity has 
 been lifted and the tide of salvation turned upon the 
 nations of the earth. With this great boon and blessing, 
 however, came a flood of evils, only not so bad as the 
 former because bereft of the power to enforce their 
 authority. Other forms of false religion have multi- 
 plied and been propagated by the very liberty won for 
 conscience at the hands of evangelical Christianity. 
 Satan, who once forged physical chains for the bodies of 
 men, knows how to break the golden bands of enlight- 
 ened freedom and turn loose the demons of licentious 
 anarchy ; and there never was a period in which religious 
 and political freedom was so prostituted, or so greatly 
 in danger of usurpation, by false ideals of Christianity, 
 
 5 
 
6 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 as the present. The demons of Spiritism, Theosophy, 
 Christian Science, Adventism, Faith Cure, Holiness, So- 
 cialism and the like are everywhere posing in the name 
 of Christ and Christianity ; and there is nothing so false 
 or so bad under the pretension of religion that it does 
 not have a deluded following. 
 
 One form of these latter day developments, the worst 
 of all, is Mormonism which, like a great Python, trails 
 its slimy length over the vast regions of this and other 
 countries. The title of the present volume has been 
 rightly called : "The Mormon Monster." The religious 
 system of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young is not only 
 a stupendous humbug which ought to be patent to the 
 most stupid, but it is a moral and spiritual enormity — a 
 vicious departure from the true type of the Christian re- 
 ligion — an abnormal development and horrible deform- 
 ity — which, though disguised in the very terms and titles 
 of the gospel, ought to be abhorrent to the most wicked. 
 It is ostentatiously paraded as the "Church of Jesus 
 Christ of Latter Day Saints," established under a fraud-' 
 ulent revelation; and in the habiliments of pompous titles' 
 and pretentious sanctity it incarnates every unclean beast 
 of lust, guile, falsehood, murder, despotism and spiritual 
 wickedness in high places. It is polytheistic in theology, 
 polygamistic in life and polypragmatic in zeal and activity ; 
 and tolerated or encouraged it engulfs religion, society 
 and government in the deepest debauchery, superstition 
 and despotism known to Paganism, Mohammedanism or 
 Mediaeval Papacy. Its chief cornerstone is polygamy. 
 It reveals God as the very impersonation of anthropo- 
 morphic licentiousness. Its Christ is the redeemer of 
 those only who are sealed in polygamous matrimony — 
 himself being a polygamist; and its Paradise is only a 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 7 
 
 celestial harem for God and for men and women ran- 
 somed from the doom of anti-polygamous infidelity — 
 essentially nothing more. 
 
 To be sure Mormonism preaches in the terms of gospel 
 faith, repentance, baptism, obedience and righteousness 
 —under the claims of regeneration, justification and holi- 
 ness— in the names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, just 
 as we do; but these terms, claims and names mean noth- 
 ing in the light of Biblical interpretation. The Bible is 
 wholly neutralized and misapplied by supplementary rev- 
 elations and teachings. Before the deceived masses the 
 Mormon appears fairly evangelical. They know nothing 
 of his theological definitions, nor of his underlying dogma 
 of polygamy, and it is only from .the original sources of 
 this hideous system that the secrets of Mormonism can be 
 learned and its designs exposed— as fully exhibited in the 
 present volume. The ecclesiastical orthography and 
 orthoepy of Mormonism in certain respects and for 
 public effect are not so bad. It spells and pronounces some 
 words correctly and often uses the same words 
 that we do; but the theological and spiritual meaning of 
 its terms is the language of Ashdod and not of Canaan. 
 At its very best it is an external and superficial ritualism 
 based upon a discursive belief and a dead repentance 
 which depend for salvation upon baptismal remission; 
 and internally it is theologically rotten and spiritually 
 sterile under a false conception of God and of human 
 depravity, the chief phase of which depravity in others, 
 according to the Mormon creed, is anti-polygamous infi- 
 delity. Corresponding with its theological and spiritual 
 turpitude its organism is a politico-ecclesiasticism headed 
 by an anti-Christian priesthood, bound by a blood atone- 
 ment and a Danite covenant which are in league with 
 
8 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 hell against all personal liberty and civil government out- 
 side of itself and grounded in the polygamous degrada- 
 tion of the human race. If ever the government of the 
 United States had a perilous problem on hand it is that 
 of Mormonism; and its only remedy is to cut the Gor- 
 dian knot, by prohibition of polygamy. 
 
 It is needless to say that such a work as this volume 
 is in great demand at such a time as this. The hour 
 has come for the rescue of manhood and womanhood 
 from its deepest degradation under the sanctions of the 
 most immoral religion ever yet conceived by the devil. 
 Now or never is the time to strike the "Monster" a most 
 deadly blow. Mormonism was never more active and 
 aggressive. In all the States of this Union and in many 
 of the countries of Europe its missionaries are numbered 
 by hundreds and thousands ; and if the statistical reports 
 of Mormonism can be trusted, its growth in 1899 com- 
 paratively outstrips that of any other reilgious body. 
 More than 60,000 were added to its ranks in the last 
 year; and in spite of all kinds of opposition, in almost 
 every outraged community, its missionaries continue their 
 depredations upon our families. Though turned from 
 many a door, or prohibited from preaching in our public 
 buildings, they scatter their misleading literature and 
 gain audience to individuals, or seize upon street-corner 
 opportunities to spread their heresy. Like all new and 
 false religions Mormonism is full of zeal, debate and 
 proselytism; and its propagandists not infrequently gain 
 advantage by the cry of "persecution." The great moral 
 octopus which clutches Utah and surrounding territories 
 is reaching out its suckered arms to every State in the 
 Union ; and nothing can so effectively cut of! those arms 
 as full and elaborate information up to date and circulated 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 9 
 
 among the masses. The present volume in popular form 
 meets this demand of a perilous hour. It is a great con- 
 tribution to the cause of truth and righteousness and so 
 presented as to attract universal investigation. 
 
 The author of this volume is the distinguished editor 
 of The Baptist and Reflector, of Nashville, Tenn. He is 
 a man of scholarly attainments, of judicial ability and 
 of lofty purpose; a gospel preacher and writer of rare 
 capacity and experience; and he has for years devoted 
 himself to the study of the great religious and social 
 problems which affect the destiny of our country and 
 Christianity. Upon the subject of Mormonism he is an 
 especial authority, having devoted much study and labor 
 to the question, not only by reading and observation at 
 home, but by personal contact with the vital center of 
 Mormon life and activity. With a view to the present 
 volume Dr. Folk spent sometime in Utah and the West ; 
 and with his well-known conservatism as a judicial in- 
 vestigator, the public can safely trust his utterances upon 
 this subject. Having a long personal acquaintance with 
 the author and having read the published articles which 
 constitute the body of this work, the writer takes great 
 pleasure in thus contributing to the introduction and cir- 
 culation of a volume which ought to be in the hand of 
 every Christian and American who loves religious and 
 political liberty and who represents the manhood or the 
 womanhood of this generation. As a critical and histor- 
 ical production it is a high compliment to the author's 
 ability; and all who write on the subject for the future, 
 pro or con, will have to reckon with this book. It is a 
 valuable contribution to the literature of the day ; and may 
 God's richest blessing be upon the author and his work. 
 Nashville, Tenn., July 26, 1900, 
 
THE ANGEL MARONI, 
 
 THE FIGURE THAT CROWNS THE TOPMOST PINNACLE OF 
 THE MORMON TEMPLE. 
 
The Mormon Monster. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 There are several plague spots upon our national body 
 politic. One of these is the saloon, which is the upas 
 tree of our civilization, the greatest curse which could 
 befall a people. 
 
 But one of the most terrible of the plague spots is 
 what is known as Mormonism. This is a travesty upon 
 the name of religion, a stench in the nostrils of decency, 
 a constantly running sore, an immense octopus reaching 
 out its slimy tentacles and seeking to seize hold upon our 
 religious, social and political institutions, an ugly and 
 misshapen monster. This is not so bad as the saloon, 
 only because it is not so widely extended. But where 
 it exists its influence is even more baneful than that of 
 the saloon, because touching more lives with its deadly 
 hand. 
 
 For sometime Mormonism gave considerable trouble 
 to the people of this country. Then it seemed to be 
 brought under control, and it was hoped that the sore 
 might be healed, or the system left to perish of its 
 own rottenness. But recently there has been a revival 
 of Mormonism. 
 
 The election to Congress from Utah in 1898 of a Mor- 
 monelder, Brigham H. Roberts, who was known to 
 
12 
 
 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 be living with at least three wives, suddenly brought the 
 subject of Mormonism into national prominence again. 
 
 Contemporary with the agitation as to whether he 
 should be seated, and as if to manufacture public senti- 
 ment and influence legislation in his favor, Mormon 
 missionaries were sent everywhere. There are now 
 about 2,000 of them laboring in different parts of the 
 world. About 500 are laboring in the South, with head- 
 quarters in Chattanooga, Tenn., where they have what 
 they call their propaganda. They are very zealous. 
 
 They are going two and two into every county in the 
 South and into every home where they can gain admit- 
 tance, and seeking at least to leave their literature. Two 
 of them came to my home on June 30, 1899. They did 
 not get farther than the door. They are coming to your 
 home, if they have not already been there. They are 
 sleek and slick, insidious and insinuating. 
 
 Now who are these Mormons? Where do they come 
 from ? What do they represent ? What is their belief ? 
 Why are they here? How shall we treat them? These 
 are questions which occur to every one to whose home 
 they come or who anticipates their coming. A great 
 many people, knowing little about them, are really a good 
 deal troubled as to what they should do with these Mor- 
 mons. In my capacity as editor of the Baptist and Reflec- 
 tor I decided to write a few articles upon the subject 
 of Mormonism to give our people information. 
 
 By way of preparation I re-read several tracts on the 
 subject. These whetted my appetite for more informa- 
 tion and I got some books and read them. These in- 
 creased my interest still more. I sent to Salt Lake City 
 and got other books. The subject was growing on me. 
 I then decided to go to Salt Lake City and see for myself 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 13 
 
 this strange people and find out whether the things I had 
 read about them were true and what kind of people they 
 were, anyhow. I went last November. I spent nearly 
 two weeks in Salt Lake City. This may not seem a very 
 long time. But remember, I had been studying the subject 
 from books for five months before going. My purpose as 
 I said was especially to see from personal observation on 
 the ground whether the things told in the books were 
 really true and also to study the social conditions existing 
 there. For this purpose two weeks was long enough time. 
 
 With letters of introduction to a number of prominent 
 citizens of Salt Lake City, I had exceptional opportunities 
 for information as to Mormonism. I moved quietly 
 among all classes of people — Mormons, ex-Mormons and 
 non-Mormons. I sought information from every source 
 possible. I made it a special point to talk with every 
 Mormon I could, to learn from their own lips what they 
 really believed. I talked with all grades, from President 
 Snow down to a bootblack.* I went to their Tabernacle 
 services, to their Sunday School, their ward meetings, 
 their stores, their offices. 
 
 For these reasons I think I have some information 
 upon the subject of Mormonism and am somewhat pre- 
 pared to answer the questions with reference to Mor- 
 mons which were asked above. This I shall try to do 
 fully, and I trust to the satisfaction of every one — except, 
 perhaps, the Mormons. If any one should think that 
 some things in the book are hardly suitable for publi- 
 cation, I have only to say that I gave the facts as I 
 found them. I thought it best to do so in order that 
 the reader might be able to see Mormonism in all of its 
 hideousness. If when I went down into the pool of 
 
 *An account of my futile attempt to interview President Snow is ginev 
 on ppge 236. 
 
i 4 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Mormonism I brought up some mud, please remember 
 that it was not my mud. I shall discuss the subject 
 under the following general heads: 
 
 I. The history of Mormonism. 
 
 II. Mormonism as a religious system. 
 
 III. Mormonism as a social system. 
 
 IV. Mormonism as a political system. 
 Meanwhile it will be of interest to give the Mormon 
 
 articles of faith, as contained in the tracts which these 
 Mormon missionaries are leaving at every house where 
 they will be received: 
 
 ARTICLES OF FAITH 
 
 of the 
 
 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 
 
 i. We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His 
 Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. We believe that men will be punished for their own 
 sins, and not for Adam's transgression. 
 
 3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all 
 mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordi- 
 nances of the Gospel. 
 
 4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances 
 of the Gospel are : First, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for 
 the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for 
 the Gift of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by 
 "prophecy and by the laying on of hands," by those who 
 are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in 
 the ordinances thereof. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 15 
 
 6. We believe in the same organization that existed 
 in the primitive church — namely: Apostles, Prophets, 
 Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists, etc. 
 
 7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, reve- 
 lations, .visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc. 
 
 8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as 
 far as it is translated correctly ; we also believe the Book 
 of Mormon to be the word of God. 
 
 9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He 
 does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal 
 many great and important things pertaining to the King- 
 dom of God. 
 
 10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and 
 in the restoration of the Ten tribes; that Zion will be 
 built upon this [the American] continent; that Christ 
 will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth 
 will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory. 
 
 11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty 
 God according to the dictates of our conscience, and 
 allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, 
 where or what they may. 
 
 12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, 
 rulers and magistrates; in obeying, honoring and sus- 
 taining the law. 
 
 13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benev- 
 olent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, 
 we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul, 
 "We believe all things, we hope all things," we have 
 endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all 
 things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good 
 report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. 
 
 Joseph Smith. 
 
16 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 These articles of faith look innocent enough on the 
 surface. But as a matter of fact some of the principal 
 articles do not mean what they appear to say, but quite 
 the opposite. 
 
 But I shall discuss them more fully later on. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— THE ORIGIN— SIDNEY RIGDON 
 —JOSEPH SMITH, JR.— THE BOOK OF MOR- 
 MON. 
 
 I cannot undertake to write a detailed history of Mor- 
 monism. To do so would require a volume. I can only 
 give a general outline of it as a foundation for a more 
 intelligent discussion of the system. 
 
 The history of Mormonism forms one of the strangest 
 and most romantic chapters in our American history. 
 Says Mr. George Hamilton Combs, in that excellent book 
 recently published by the Fleming H. Revell Co., "Some 
 Latter Day Religions": 
 
 "For climacteric comicality Mormonism should be 
 awarded the palm. Its romancing is refreshing in its 
 very audaciousness. Jules Verne dreaming is here 
 eclipsed. Baron Munchausen marvels seem common- 
 place. Of absurdities Pelions are piled upon Ossas, but 
 the pile rises ever higher. Untruth was never more 
 picturesque. From first to last the history of this cult 
 is dramatic and spectacular. One feels that he has 
 stumbled upon a scene in the Arabian Nights, rather than 
 upon a sober chapter of a real religion. 
 
 "Yet Mormonism is to be reckoned with. It takes 
 itself seriously. Upon most transparent frauds it would 
 yet build an enduring temple. It has the evangelistic 
 spirit. Its emissaries are spread over all the world. 
 They win converts ; the religion grows. This ism is be- 
 ing felt in the councils of the nation, is adding gravity 
 to our political problems, concerns, and deeply, every 
 
 17 
 
18 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 defender of our political institutions, as well as the lovers 
 of our Lord." 
 
 In the early part of this century, before the days of 
 railroads, telegraphs and telephones, the new frontier 
 of our country lay between the' Allegheny Mountains and 
 the Mississippi River, and stretched from Canada to the 
 Gulf. 
 
 People rushed into this region then as they did into 
 California in 1849, or mto tne Klondike recently. They 
 were full of the spirit of adventure and ready to take up 
 with any new thing. 
 
 There were a few godly preachers among them, but 
 the increasing demand for preaching gave rise to the 
 camp meeting. Great excitement prevailed. Religious 
 emotions expressed themselves in the strange phenome- 
 non called the jerks. People would jerk back and forth, 
 shout, dance, sing, laugh and cry in the most violent 
 and uncontrollable manner. New and strange sects 
 sprang into existence. Some died early ; others have re- 
 mained until this day. 
 
 Among these is Mormonism, which is a direct prod- 
 uct of those times. Two young men were thrown to the 
 surface during that period. One was 
 
 SIDNEY RIGDON. 
 
 He had been a Baptist preacher, but disappointed in 
 leadership among the Baptists, he had' joined the Camp- 
 bellites. But offending them by his "restless disposition 
 and cunning methods," he became pastor of an independ- 
 ent church in Pittsburg, Pa. While there he made the 
 book-store of Patterson & Lamdin a place of frequent 
 resort. 
 
 Among the manuscripts in the store was a novel writ- 
 ten by Solomon Spaulding. Spaulding had been a Pres- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 19 
 
 byterian preacher. He was a sort of harmless ne'er-do- 
 well. He had failed at everything, and to recover his for- 
 tunes he concluded to try his hand at literature. His 
 curiosity was excited by the Indian mounds in that 
 country, which were attracting considerable attention. 
 So he based his story on these mounds. He called it 
 "The Manuscript Found." He claimed to have found 
 a manuscript in one of the mounds which explained their 
 existence and also the existence of the inhabitants of 
 North and South America. He said that a party under 
 the leadership of Jared came from the old world after 
 the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel and settled 
 in South America. Many years after a party came from 
 Jerusalem in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, the 
 last of the Kings of Judah, and settled in the Southern 
 part of North America. Eleven years after another 
 party wandered forth and settled in the Northern part 
 of South America. They wrote out on plates their his- 
 tory and buried it under one of these mounds, and he 
 had got possession of it and so wrote their history. It 
 was a very pretty story and would have made an inter- 
 esting novel. Mr. Spaulding read it over to a number 
 of persons, but he died without having the book pub- 
 lished. 
 
 Mr. Rigdon became deeply interested in this novel, 
 and according to abundant and indisputable testimony 
 which I shall give later* he copied it and changed it by 
 introducing many passages of Scripture so as to make 
 it appear to be a revelation from God. He left Pitts- 
 burg and went Westward, preaching that the latter days 
 were at hand, and that God was about to reveal new truth 
 to his chosen few. He organized a church near Mentor, 
 Ohio, to which he preached. So much for Mr. Rigdon at 
 
 present. 
 
 * See Appendix B, Page 307. 
 
20 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 The other young man thrown to the surface was 
 
 JOSEPH SMITH, JR. 
 
 He was born in Sharon, Vermont, Dec. 23, 1805. His 
 family was poor and shiftless. His father was a kind of 
 vagabond, selling blessings at $3.00 each. His mother 
 was a fortune teller. One who knew her well describes 
 her as follows: ''She looked very vulgar. She was full 
 of low cunning; no trick was too mean for her to make 
 a little money. You could not believe a word of what 
 she said. * * * Everybody's opinion of her was that 
 she was a thorough liar." Both parents were ignorant 
 and superstitious. It is said that "lying was as natural 
 to them as drinking water." 
 
 They became followers of a Mr. Wingate, who claimed 
 to be able, by the use of an instrument called "St. John's 
 Rod," to discover gold, silver, currents of water under 
 ground and medicinal roots and herbs, and to cure all 
 kinds of diseases. His disciples talked much about the 
 "Lost Ten Tribes of Israel," and promised a gathering 
 of the people of God and a "Latter Day Glory," far ex- 
 ceeding the glory of former days. 
 
 The whole movement proved to be a swindle. The 
 leader was arrested and the movement failed. The birth 
 of Joseph Smith occurred when this movement was at 
 its height, and while his mother was a member of it. 
 
 Ten years later his parents moved to Palmyra, N. Y., 
 and four years afterward to Manchester, in the same 
 county. He grew up in a home without refinement. His 
 parents were illiterate, and intemperate. In addition 
 to health and strength he had an active mind and a vivid 
 imagination. Being without school advantages, he fol- 
 lowed his own crude ideas. He was fascinated with the 
 adventures of Captain Kidd, and with some young friends 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 21 
 
 he would hunt at night for buried money in the fields 
 about his father's house. He is said to have had a reli- 
 gious turn of mind, and during a revival he was exercised 
 very deeply on the subject. His imagination, his super- 
 stitions and his religious excitement combined to create 
 wonderful visions in his untutored mind. 
 
 At the age of about fifteen he began, as he claimed, to 
 see visions and dream dreams. These experiences con- 
 tinued through seven years, four of which he spent away 
 from home, seeking employment in Pennsylvania and else- 
 where. His visions attracted attention. The newspapers 
 began to talk about him. 
 
 Sidney Rigdon read what they said. It seemed to him 
 that here was a fine opportunity to get Spaulding's Manu- 
 script, as emended by himself, published in such a way 
 as to secure a hearing and be successful. Spaulding 
 claimed that his manuscript was found in a mound. 
 Smith was a mound-digger and a seer of visions. He 
 would get him to have a vision about finding a manuscript 
 in a mound and would then publish it. 
 
 So Rigdon visited Smith, induced him to marry a 
 lady who was under Rigdon's influence— he had to run 
 away with her— and soon after proposed his scheme, to 
 which the romantic Smith readily agreed. The marriage 
 took place Jan. 18, 1827. On Sept. 22d, of that year, 
 Smith professed to have made his great discovery. He 
 said that he was told in dreams and visions that he was 
 chosen of the Lord to be a great prophet to restore the 
 gospel which had been taken from the world many cen- 
 turies ago ; that an angel came to his room at midnight, 
 awoke him and read to him five chapters of the Bible 
 and afterwards took him to a hill which he called Cumo- 
 rah. This is four miles from Palmyra, N. Y., and is 
 
22 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 now the property of Admiral Sampson. He said the 
 angel had told him about these plates four years before, 
 but had forbidden him to unearth them until now, which 
 he proceeded to do by the help of the angel, they being 
 covered by a stone of considerable size. 
 
 He described the plates as being deposited in a stone 
 box, formed by laying stones together in some kind of 
 cement. They were bound by rings in the form of a 
 book, four inches wide, eight inches long and six inches 
 thick. Accompanying these were the Urim and Thum- 
 mim, the two stones by which he was enabled to inter- 
 pret them. During the winter of 1827-28 Smith copied a 
 number of the engravings by the aid of an amanuensis, 
 Martin Harris. He concealed himself behind a curtain, 
 which was a bed-blanket, and there read by means of 
 the Urim and Thummdm, what he claimed was a trans- 
 lation of the engravings on the plates, and Harris wrote 
 down what he read. Afterwards Oliver Cowdery per- 
 formed this service. The work thus produced was pub- 
 lished as "The Book of Mormon," which is the sacred 
 book, the Bible (or at least one of them) of the Mor- 
 mons. A copy of it lies before me as I write. I shall 
 have a good deal more to say about it later. 
 
 The word Mormon is a Greek word and means a spec- 
 tre, a hobgobblin, "a hideous she monster." (Liddell & 
 Scott.) Certainly the name is very appropriate to Mor- 
 monism. One of the angels who is represented as ap- 
 pearing to Smith was named Mormon, and the book was 
 to have begun with his revelation. But Mrs. Harris, 
 wife of the scribe, seeing her husband devoting so much 
 of his time and money to Mr. Smith, determined to have 
 some compensation, and so she stole, says Mr. Smith, 
 the part of the manuscript containing the revelation of 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 23 
 
 Mormon and burned it up. And so he had to leave it 
 out, as it would have been too much trouble to trans- 
 late it again. The book, therefore, begins with the reve- 
 lation of another angel, Nephi, and does not contain 
 the revelation of Mormon at all. 
 
 Ah, these women! What trouble they do cause in 
 the world! Witness Eve and Pandora and Helen — and 
 Mrs. Harris. Just think what a loss she caused to the 
 world, one which can never be replaced! 
 
 As to the plates themselves, eleven witnesses testified 
 to having seen them — Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, 
 David Whitmer, whose testimony is prefixed to the Book 
 of Mormon, the father and two brothers of Joseph 
 Smith, four of the Whitmer family and one Page. They 
 affirmed that they had seen the original plates, "hefted" 
 them, and that they had "the appearance of gold and 
 were of ancient work and curious workmanship." Mr. 
 Stenhouse, author of "The Rocky Mountain Saints," who 
 was himself a Mormon for over a quarter of a century, 
 says that he "entered into correspondence with one of 
 the Whitmers to elicit from him information concerning 
 his mental condition during the time that he affirms he 
 saw the plates. Whitmer was asked if he was in his 
 usual condition of consciousness, and was sensible to sur- 
 rounding objects when he beheld the plates. But he re- 
 fused to answer the inquiry. Harris is reported to have 
 said that he witnessed them by 'the eye of faith/ " 
 What became of the plates no one knows. Smith said 
 an angel carried them back to heaven when he got through 
 with them. 
 
 During the translation of the plates, while Smith was 
 dictating to Cowdery, they came to a portion of the nar- 
 rative which asserted that baptism by immersion for the 
 
24 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 remission of sins had been taught and commanded to 
 the ancient inhabitants of America. Smith proposed that 
 they should "inquire of the Lord their duty in regard 
 to the matter." "The Lord/' instructed them through 
 a messenger, who claimed to be John the Baptist, and 
 they went into the water together and Smith immersed 
 Cowdery and Cowdery immersed Smith. Smith laid 
 his hands on Cowdery's head and ordained him to the 
 Aaronic priesthood, and Cowdery laid his hands on Smith's 
 head and ordained him to the same priesthood. This 
 was the beginning. It was some time in 1829. On April 
 6, 1830, the "Church of Christ" was organized in the 
 house of Peter Whitmer in Fayette, Seneca County, N. 
 Y., with six members, as follows: Joseph Smith, Jr., 
 Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, Peter Whitmer, Jr., 
 Samuel H. Smith and David Whitmer. The Smiths were 
 brothers and so were the Whitmers. 
 
 Now, put together the above facts — the religious ex- 
 citement, the romance of Solomon Spaulding, its emenda- 
 tion by Sidney Rigdon, a former Campbellite preacher, 
 its similarity to the gold plates discovered ( ?) by Jos- 
 eph Smith and translated behind a curtain, the organi- 
 zation of a church based on this Bible ( ?) — and you 
 have the beginnings of Mormonism in a nutshell. It is 
 certainly a most curious record for the beginning of a 
 church (?), 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— KIRTLAND— ZION'S CAMP- 
 TEMPLE DEDICATED - FRAUDULENT 
 
 BANK. 
 
 For a time conversions to the new faith were slow. 
 Among the first converts was Parley P. Pratt. Soon 
 afterward he visited Sidney Rigdon at Mentor, and of 
 course succeeded in converting him without much trouble. 
 He then attempted to convert his church and was largely 
 successful. In December, 1830, Rigdon paid a visit to 
 Joseph Smith and remained for some time. 
 
 Orson Pratt was another early convert. These three 
 —the two Pratts and Rigdon— were men of ability. They 
 endeavored to justify Mormonism on Biblical grounds, 
 basing it on literalistic interpretations of some passages 
 of Scripture. 
 
 During the visit of Rigdon to Smith "the Lord" com- 
 manded the Saints in New York to gather in Ohio, which 
 they proceeded to do, settling at Kirtland in the North- 
 ern part of the State. But Smith had before him vis- 
 ions of the "New Jerusalem" to be built in the last days. 
 In February, 1831, his followers were commanded to ask 
 the Lord, and he "would in due time reveal unto them 
 the place where the New Jerusalem should be built, and 
 where the saints should eventually be gathered in one." 
 
 About the middle of July, of that year, Smith and sev- 
 eral of the elders met at Independence, Mo., when the 
 following "revelation" was received : 
 
 "Hearken, O ye elders of my Church, saith the Lord 
 your God, who have assembled yourselves together ac- 
 
 *5 
 
26 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 cording to my commandments in this land, which is the 
 land of Missouri, which is the land which I have appointed 
 and consecrated for the gathering of the Saints; where- 
 fore this is the land of promise and the place for the city 
 of Zion, And thus saith the Lord your God, if you will 
 receive wisdom, here is wisdom. Behold the place which 
 is now called Independence is the centre place, and a spot 
 for the Temple is lying westward upon a lot which is not 
 far from the courthouse." 
 
 This revelation is dated Zion, 183 1. In another reve- 
 lation dated Sept. 22, 1832, it is stated that the place 
 was appointed by "the finger of the Lord." On August 
 2d the foundation of the first house was laid at Far West, 
 Mo., twelve miles west of Independence, twelve men 
 taking part, in honor of the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 Soon afterward Smith and Rigdon returned to Kirt- 
 land. On arrival there, Smith found that things had not 
 been going well. There was a disposition to free love- 
 ism, which was noticed during all of Smith's lifetime. 
 "The new spirit," says Mr. Stenhouse, "was very affec- 
 tionate, and needed to be strictly guarded." Evidently so. 
 
 Some of the new converts were charged with being 
 "adulterers and adulteresses." They were said to have 
 "turned away," and the others were warned to "Beware 
 and repent speedily" — a difficult thing to do with the 
 example set them. In a revelation (?) about this time, 
 Smith declared, "With whom God is angry he is not well 
 pleased" — a very plain proposition. 
 
 In March, 1832, Smith and Rigdon were tarred and 
 feathered by a mob, and Smith was nearly killed, but 
 escaped with his life. In April, 1833, Brigham Young, 
 a painter and glazier, who was destined to play so im- 
 portant a part in the history of Mormonism, was bap- 
 
JOSEPH SMITH 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 27 
 
 tized, and in November of that year he and Smith first 
 
 met. 
 
 On July 23d the first stone was laid for the Temple to 
 be built in Kirtland. Meanwhile the boastful spirit of 
 the Mormons, together with their political ambition, led 
 to friction between them and the people of Missouri. 
 
 On July 20th, a mob tore down the office of the Star, 
 the Mormon paper at Independence, tarred, feathered and 
 whipped a number of the Mormons and ordered them to 
 leave the county. 
 
 On Nov. 4th a battle between the Missourians and 
 Mormons took place, which resulted in victory to the 
 former, and led to many of the Mormons being driven 
 out of Jackson County. 
 
 Joseph Smith, still occupied with building the Temple 
 in Kirtland, had himself elected "Commander-in-Chief of 
 the Armies of Israel," and had a revelation from "the 
 Lord," commanding him to destroy the enemies of "the 
 
 Lord." 
 
 A company consisting of 130 men, including some 
 prominent Mormon elders, was organized at Kirtland, 
 called "Zion's Camp." This company marched to Mis- 
 souri, intending to restore the banished Mormons to 
 Jackson County. But the cholera broke out among them. 
 Smith got another revelation from "the Lord," telling 
 him that thes£ Mormons did not deserve to be restored 
 until they had been chastised and had learned obedience, 
 and that the disappointment to the warriors who had 
 come all the way from Ohio by direction of a revelation 
 from "the Lord" to fight their enemies,- was simply "a 
 trial of their faith," and they were instructed to dis- 
 perse and either to go among the settlements of the Mor- 
 mons or to return to their homes in Ohio. 
 
28 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Meanwhile, Smith was making considerable preten- 
 sions in Kirtland. He chose twelve apostles, appointed 
 seventy elders, and sent them out to convert the world. 
 The temple, which was erected at a cost of about $40,000, 
 was dedicated March 27, 1836. Preceding the ceremony 
 of dedication the "Saints" had quite a lively time. Smith 
 said that "visions of eternity" were opened to the elders ; 
 angels ministered ; "the power of the highest rested upon 
 them" ; and "the house was filled with the glory of God." 
 
 One writer accused them of being merry from another 
 "spirit" than that which they claimed from above. 
 
 At the dedication 1,000 "Saints" assembled. Smith 
 offered a dedicatory prayer. Brigham Young led off with 
 speaking in tongues, and the services of the day closed 
 with continued shouting of "Hosannas" and "Amens." 
 
 Everything seemed to be i-.oving along finely. But 
 elated by success Smith began to put on airs. He be- 
 came proud, despotic. It was a system of theocracy he 
 had established, in which he was the prophet and mouth- 
 piece of "the Lord." It was for him to speak; it was 
 for his followers to obey. Many of them grew weary 
 of such despotism, and the first great apostasy took place. 
 
 In order to provide sufficient revenues for his grow- 
 ing needs, Smith established in Kirtland a Safety Society 
 Bank, of which he was cashier and Rigdon president. A 
 Pittsburg banker said : 
 
 "The names of Joseph Smith as cashier and Sidney 
 Rigdon as president were signed to the beautifully en- 
 graved bank-notes. As these men professed to be the 
 prophets of the Lord, having daily communion with an- 
 gels, with Christ and even with God himself, no one sup- 
 posed that they would lend themselves to a fraudulent 
 issue of bank paper. Those who saw the notes to which 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 29 
 
 their names were attached supposed the bank to be 
 simply a savings institution in which the Saints could 
 deposit their earnings, while they would be invested so 
 as to pay interest, and that the notes represented actual 
 money in bank, or the paper of good men." 
 
 But this was not the case. One who had opportunity 
 of knowing testifies also that "In the bank they kept eight 
 or nine window glass boxes, which seemed to be full 
 of silver; but the initiated knew very well that they were 
 full of sand, only the top being covered with 50-cent 
 pieces" The cold, hard-hearted, unsympathetic bankers 
 of Pittsburg demanded that the paper of the bank should 
 be redeemed, either in cash or in convertible paper of 
 other banks. They sent an agent to Kirtland to arrange 
 matters. He was coolly informed that the paper had 
 been put out as a "circulating medium" for the accom- 
 modation of the people, that it would be an injury for 
 the paper to come home and be redeemed, that it could 
 only benefit them by remaining out and that the bank 
 redeemed nothing. The Pittsburg bankers then refused 
 to take the paper. It was forced back on the Safety So- 
 ciety Bank. And finally the bank failed utterly, and to 
 escape an angry mob the president and cashier of the 
 bank were compelled to leave hurriedly for Missouri 
 "between two days," being pursued by their "enemies" 
 for about 200 miles, and making some narrow escapes. 
 This experience Smith called "persecution." He never 
 returned to Kirtland, although he had previously an- 
 nounced that "the Lord" had accepted the Saints there 
 and had established his name in Kirtland for the salva- 
 tion of nations. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— MISSOURI— RIGDON'S FOURTH 
 OF JULY SERMON— DANITE BAND. 
 
 Smith and Rigdon reached Far West, Mo., March 12, 
 1838. Many of the "Saints" from Kirtland soon fol- 
 lowed. A new gathering place was established about 
 twenty miles from Far West at a place called Spring 
 Hill, to which Smith gave the name of Adam-Ondi-Ah- 
 man, "'the valley of God in which Adam blessed his 
 children." This was said to be the "centre of the earth," 
 the identical place where Adam and Eve betook them- 
 selves after their expulsion from the garden of Eden. 
 
 The Saints were now commanded to gather here in 
 these last days, But "the Lord" who revealed the com- 
 mand to Smith did not seem to communicate the intel- 
 ligence of his wishes in the matter to the people of Mis- 
 souri. They were sturdy, hard-working pioneers. They 
 had had enough experience already with these Mormons 
 who called themselves "Saints" and claimed to have the 
 direction of "the Lord" in everything they did, so that 
 they were arrogant and overbearing, and it was impos- 
 sible for any one else to get along with them. 
 
 In a Fourth of July oration Sidney Rigdon delivered 
 a Mormon declaration of independence, informing the 
 Missourians that they must cease their oppressions and 
 persecutions of the "Saints of the Most High God." 
 
 In the speech Rigdon said : "And the mob that comes 
 on usj to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a 
 war of extermination, for we will follow them till the 
 
 30 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 31 
 
 last drop of our blood is spilled, or else they will have 
 to exterminate us; for we will carry the seat of war to 
 their own houses and to their own families, and one part 
 or the other shall be utterly destroyed. Remember it 
 then, all men." 
 
 And again : "Neither will we indulge any man or set 
 of men in instituting vexatious law suits against us to 
 cheat us out of our just rights; ; if they attempt it, we 
 say woe be unto them. We this day, then, proclaim our- 
 selves free, with a purpose and a determination that can 
 never be broken ; no, never ! no, never ! ! no, never ! ! !" 
 
 Naturally such language set the Missourians on fire. 
 They resolved on action. An election furnished the oc- 
 casion for the beginning of hostilities. There were rows, 
 mobs, fights, etc. 
 
 During the second session of the 26th Congress, a 
 document of nearly fifty pages was published by order 
 of the Senate giving the testimony taken before the judge 
 of the fifth Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri, on 
 the trial of Joseph Smith, Jr., and others for high trea- 
 son and crimes against that State. This document as- 
 serts that the Mormon leaders were guilty of the grossest 
 outrages upon the Gentiles. Burning their houses and 
 stealing from them were common occurrences ; threaten- 
 ings of death to apostates, or those who would not take 
 part in the general fight against the Missourians, were 
 the teachings of the pulpit orators. 
 
 Mr. Stenhouse says: 
 
 "With such an array of circumstantial evidence, con- 
 firmed by a variety of persons — Mormons and anti-Mor- 
 mons — it is difficult not to believe that the few leading 
 men around Joseph Smith, particularly Lyman Wight 
 and Sidney Rigdon, were not thorough fanatics and 
 
32 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 guilty of gross crimes; and if Joseph was less culpable 
 it was due to his greater realization of responsibility and 
 better judgment." 
 
 In an affidavit made at this time, Thomas B. Marsh, 
 the first President of the twelve apostles, says : 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OF THOMAS B. MARSH. 
 
 "They have among them a company, considered true 
 Mormons, called the Danites, who have taken an oath 
 to support the heads of the Church in all things that they 
 say or do, whether right or wrong. Many, however, of 
 this band are much dissatisfied with this oath, as being 
 against moral and religious principles. On Saturday last, 
 I am informed by the Mormons, that they had a meeting 
 at Far West at which they appointed a company of twelve, 
 by the name of the Destruction Company, for the pur- 
 pose of burning and destroying, and that if the people of 
 Buncombe came to do mischief upon the people of Cald- 
 well, and committed depredations upon the Mormons, 
 they were to burn Buncombe ; and if the people of Clay 
 and Ray made any movement against them, this com- 
 pany were to burn Liberty and Richmond. 
 
 "The plan of said Smith, the Prophet, is to take this 
 State; and he professes to his people to intend taking 
 the United States, and ultimately the whole world. This 
 is the belief of the Church, and my own opinion of the 
 Prophet's plans and intentions. The Prophet inculcates 
 the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon that 
 Smith's prophecies are superior to the laws of the land. 
 I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet tread 
 down his enemies and walk over their dead bodies ; that 
 if he was not let alone he would be a second Mohammed 
 to this generation, and that he would make it one gorge 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 33 
 
 of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic 
 Ocean; that like Mohammed, whose motto in treating 
 for peace was 'the Alcoran or the Sword,' so should it 
 be eventually with us, 'Joseph Smith or the Sword.' 
 These last statements were made during the last sum- 
 mer. The number of armed men at Adam-Ondi-Ahman 
 was between three and four hundred. 
 
 Thomas B. Marsh. 
 
 To this was added the affidavit of Orson Hyde, as 
 follows : 
 
 "The most of the statements in the foregoing dis- 
 closures I know to be true; the remainder I believe to 
 be true." 
 
 To these affidavits is appended a "certificate" of seven 
 persons, a "committee on the part of the citizens of Ray 
 county," who assure the world that Marsh was Presi- 
 dent of the Twelve Apostles, that Hyde was one of the 
 Twelve, that they had left the Church, "and abandoned 
 the faith of the Mormons from a conviction of their 
 immorality and impiety." 
 
 Of this famous, or rather infamous, Danite band, 
 which was organized at this time, Mr. Stenhouse, him- 
 self for twenty-five years a prominent Mormon, says: 
 
 "The intelligent Mormon knows today that though 
 there may be no bona fide organization called the Dan- 
 ites, there have been in church fellowship, from the days 
 of Avard up to the present, men who have done the deeds 
 charged to the Danites, ready to execute the dirtiest and 
 most diabolical plans that ever human or demoniac vin- 
 dictiveness could conceive." 
 
 The significance of the word Danite is found in Gen. 
 xlix, 17: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder 
 in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider 
 shall fall backward." 
 
34 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 The friction between the Missourians and Mormons 
 continued and grew in intensity, and finally resulted, by 
 the aid of the State troops, in the triumph of the Mis- 
 sourians, and the capture and imprisonment of the Mor- 
 mon leaders. In a speech to the Mormons just before 
 they were sent to jail, Gen. Clark said : 
 
 "You have always been the aggressors, you have 
 brought upon yourselves these difficulties by being dis- 
 affected and not being subject to rule. And my advice 
 is that you become as other citizens, lest by a recurrence 
 of these events you bring upon yourselves irretrievable 
 ruin." 
 
 Gen. Clark also said in a dispatch to Boggs, dated 
 Nov. io, 1838. 
 
 "There is no crime, from treason down to petit larceny, 
 but these people, or a majority of them, have been guilty 
 of — all, too, under the counsel of Joseph Smith, Jr., the 
 Prophet. They have committed treason, murder, arson, 
 burglary, robbery, larceny, and perjury. They have so- 
 cieties formed under the most binding covenants in form 
 and the most horrid oaths to circumvent the laws and 
 put them at defiance ; and to plunder and burn and mur- 
 der, and divide the spoils for the use of the Church." 
 
 After confinement in jail for several months, Smith 
 and his fellow Mormons, in April, 1839, were indicted 
 on charges of treason, murder, larceny, theft and steal- 
 ing. They asked for a change of venue, which was 
 granted. While they were being conveyed from one coun- 
 ty to another, the sheriff who had them in charge, to get 
 rid of them, gave them permission to escape, of which 
 courtesy they very readily availed themselves, and they 
 unceremoniously fled from the "land of promise" and 
 never returned. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— NAUVOO— CITY CHARTER- 
 CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT— NAUVOO A 
 HELL. 
 
 The new gathering place of the "Saints" was on the 
 east bank of the Mississippi in Illinois, forty miles above 
 Quincy and twenty miles below Burlington, Iowa. Here 
 a town was located, called Nauvoo, "the beautiful." By 
 revelation the scattered "Saints" from Missouri and 
 from all parts of the earth were commanded to gather 
 to this new Zion. 
 
 Under the direction of Smith they now began to enter 
 actively into politics. By concentrating their votes they 
 wielded a potent influence upon elections. Both politi- 
 cal parties, Whigs and Democrats, sought their influ- 
 ence. They contributed largely to the success of the 
 Whig ticket in 1840. 
 
 The Legislature of Illinois during its session of 1840-41, 
 readily granted to the agents of Joseph Smith their re- 
 quest for a charter for the City of Nauvoo, and the incor- 
 poration of the militia into a body called the "Nauvoo 
 Legion." 
 
 One section of the city charter read : "All power is 
 granted to the City Council to make, ordain, establish, 
 and execute all ordinances not repugnant to the Consti- 
 tution of the State or of the United States, or, as they 
 may deem necessary for the peace and safety of said city." 
 
 This was all that Smith wanted. It was now for him 
 to decide what was "necessary" for the peace and safety 
 
 35 
 
36 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 of the city. The City Council passed an ordinance that 
 no citizen could be taken from Nauvoo by any process 
 of law whatever without the endorsement of the mayor 
 as to its legality. 
 
 Commenting on this law Governor Ford, in his his- 
 tory of Illinois, said: 
 
 "Thus it was proposed to re-establish for the Mor- 
 mons a government within a government, a legislature 
 with power to pass ordinances at war with the laws of 
 the State ; courts to execute them, with but little depend- 
 ence upon the constitutional judiciary, and a military force 
 at their own command, to be governed by its own laws 
 and ordinances, and subject to no State authority but 
 that of the Governor." Gov. Ford signed the charter, 
 but before long he saw his own warrant for the arrest 
 of Smith set aside. In a communication dated Sept. 
 7, 1842, he says : 
 
 "I must express my surprise at the extraordinary as- 
 sumption of power by the board of aldermen, as con- 
 tained in said ordinance; from my recollection of the 
 charter, it authorizes the municipal court to issue writs 
 of habeas corpus, in all cases of imprisonment or cus- 
 tody, arising from the authority of the ordinances of said 
 city, but that power was granted or intended to be grant- 
 ed to release persons held in custody under the authority 
 of writs issued by the courts or the executive of the State, 
 is most absurd and ridiculous, and an attempt to exercise 
 it is a gross usurpation of power that cannot be tolerated." 
 
 On April 6, 1841, the corner stone of the new temple 
 was laid in Nauvoo with elaborate ceremonies in which 
 the military authorities blended with the ecclesiastical, 
 ''Lieutenant-General Smith," of the Nauvoo Legion tak- 
 ing precedence of Joseph Smith the Prophet. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 37 
 
 Smith was. now in the height of his glory. He thought 
 himself secure from all outside interference. But there 
 was trouble ahead. Governor Boggs, of Missouri, made 
 a requisition upon Governor Carlin, of Illinois, to sur- 
 render Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and other leading 
 Mormons as "fugitives from justice." A writ was issued 
 for their arrest, but the sheriff "could not find them." 
 The matter was dropped for a time. 
 
 But the people of Illinois, becoming better acquainted 
 with their new fellow-citizens, became as dissatisfied with 
 their presence as the Missourians had been. Charges 
 were preferred against Smith and other Mormon lead- 
 ers. Other writs were issued against them. These were 
 set aside by the courts. 
 
 Governor Ford says : 
 
 "No further demand for the arrest of Joe Smith hav- 
 ing been made by Missouri, he became emboldened by 
 success. The Mormons became more arrogant and over- 
 bearing. In the winter of 1843-4 the common council 
 passed some further ordinances to protect their leaders 
 from arrest on demand from Missouri. They enacted 
 that no writ issued from any other place than Nauvoo 
 for the arrest of any person in it should be executed in 
 the city, without an approval endorsed thereon by the 
 mayor ; that if any public officer, by virtue of any foreign 
 writ, should attempt to make an arrest in the city, without 
 such approval of his process, he should be subject to 
 imprisonment for life, and that the Governor of the State 
 should not have the power of pardoning the offender with- 
 out the consent of the mayor. When these ordinances 
 were published they created general astonishment. Many 
 people began to believe in good earnest that the Mormons 
 
38 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 were about to set up a separate government for them- 
 selves in defiance of the laws of the State." 
 
 In 1844 the name of Joseph Smith was put forward as a 
 candidate for the presidency of the United States, against 
 Polk and Clay, and hundreds of elders were sent over the 
 States preaching Mormonism and electioneering for 
 Smith. He was not elected, however; Polk was, you 
 remember. Judge C. C. Goodwin says in Munsey's Maga- 
 zine for June, 1900, that Dan Rice, of circus fame, told 
 him "some years ago that he knew Joe Smith intimately at 
 Nauvoo ; that one day Smith said to him : 'Dan, the people 
 are growing restless. We must give them a miracle. The 
 river is muddy; you build, on the quiet, a platform, and 
 anchor it about a foot below the surface of the water. I 
 will walk on the water.' 'Well/ Rice went on, 'I fixed the 
 platform all right, only about twelve feet out from shore 
 I left out a couple of planks. Smith walked the water all 
 right until he came to where the planks were out ; then he 
 went down and the miracle was smashed all to smither- 
 eens/ " 
 
 About this time he promulgated his "spiritual wife" 
 doctrine, by which a Mormon may be "sealed" spiritually 
 to the wife of another man, which sealing gives him mat- 
 rimonial privileges in the next' world, and frequently in 
 this world, also. This doctrine was evidently invented to 
 cover up with some sort of excuse his various adulterous 
 intentions and practices. 
 
 A woman who, with two small children, made her 
 escape from Nauvoo about this time, is quoted as saying : 
 
 "Nauvoo is nearer like hell than any other place on 
 earth can be. None who have any regard for virtue 
 would stay there a day if they could get away with their 
 lives. Doubtful members are closely watched by a band 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 39 
 
 of organized police, called 'Danites.' I have known many 
 to start, but soon a party of Danites would start in pur- 
 suit. Generally the pursued were never again heard from. 
 This fear of death keeps numbers of their followers from 
 deserting." 
 
 She continued : "All the leaders are more or less guilty 
 of the most gross violations of the laws of decency, but 
 Joe Smith is the most perfect monster of licentiousness 
 that ever an all-wise God permitted to live. I have often 
 wondered why he was permitted to live. Not content with 
 the ordinary forms of indecency, he seems always invent- 
 ing some new and more odious forms. I know he has 
 ruined hundreds, yes, hundreds, of young girls, besides 
 debauching scores of other men's wives, and I doubt if 
 five hundred would cover the number of his illegitimate 
 children/' 
 
 In enumerating Smith's achievements, Mr. Stenhouse 
 says: 
 
 "The poor farm laborer merges in the preacher, the 
 preacher becomes a translator, a prophet, a seer, a reve- 
 lator, a banker, an editor, a mayor, a lieutenant-general, a 
 candidate for the presidency of the world's greatest repub- 
 lic, and, last of all, though not the least difficult of his 
 achievements, he becomes the husband of many wives." 
 
 He also says : : 
 
 "It is well known in Utah that two sisters, Mrs. B 
 
 and Mrs. J , were 'sealed' wives to Joseph while they 
 
 were still the wives of Mr. B and Mr. J — • — . To the 
 
 latter a son was born, long after Mrs. J. had been 'sealed' 
 to Joseph." 
 
 He speaks of the "personal testimony" as being (( so 
 abundant that Joseph Smith both taught and practiced 
 
4 o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 polygamy, or, as a Mormon lady who knew him well once 
 said, practiced something else." 
 
 Dr. W. Wyl says: "It is now a well established his- 
 torical fact that the origin of Mormon polygamy, or 'celes- 
 tial marriage/ was nothing but the unbounded and un- 
 governed passion of the prophet for the other sex." 
 
 Mr. Webb, an old Mormon, who knew Smith for eleven 
 years, told Dr. Wyl: "Joseph [Smith] and John D. Lee 
 were the most libidinous men I ever knew." 
 
 Mrs. Sarah M. Pratt, a Mormon woman who resisted 
 Smith's advances — about the only one who ever did — and 
 who was slandered and persecuted for doing so, said: 
 "Joseph was the most licentious and Brigham Young the 
 most bloodthirsty of men." Dr. Wyl once said to Mrs. 
 Pratt: "I have seen a statement in a book that Joseph 
 had eighty wives at the time of his death. Is that true ?" 
 
 Mrs. Pratt smiled and said : "He had many more, my 
 dear sir; at least he had seduced many more, and those 
 with whom he had lived without their being sealed to him, 
 were sealed to him after his death, to be among the num- 
 ber of his 'queens' in the other world. All those women 
 were divided among his friends after his tragic death, so 
 that they might be 'proxy-husbands' to them on earth ; 
 while in the celestial kingdom they would, with their off- 
 spring, belong to Brother Josepji, the Christ of this dis- 
 pensation." 
 
 Again Mrs. Pratt said : "Everybody knew in Nauvoo 
 that the Partridge girls lived with Joseph a long time be- 
 fore he got his celebrated revelation about celestial mar- 
 riage, dated July 12, 1843. The Partridge girls were very 
 good natured. After Joseph's death one was sealed to 
 Brigham and the other to Apostle Amasa Lyman. 
 Joseph's taste was of very large dimensions ; he loved 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 41 
 
 them old and young, pretty and homely. He sometimes 
 seduced mothers to keep them quiet about his connection 
 with their daughters. There was an old woman called 
 Durfee. She knew a good deal about the prophet's amor- 
 ous adventures and, to keep her quiet, he admitted her to 
 the secret blessings of celestial bliss. I don't think that 
 she was ever sealed to him, though it may have been the 
 case after Joseph's death, when the temple was finished. 
 At all events, she boasted here in Salt Lake of having been 
 one of Joseph's wives. Heber C. Kimball and Brigham 
 Young took the lion's share at the division of Joseph's 
 wives after his death. Joseph had a number of lady 
 friends, sealed or not sealed, who permitted him to use 
 their houses as a kind of assignation houses for ren- 
 dezvous with other women." 
 
 Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young's right-hand man, 
 said : "I sat once with Joseph in his office in the Mansion 
 House. He looked out of the window and saw weeding 
 in a garden a young married woman whom we both knew. 
 He told me to go to her and request her to come to him, 
 and he would have her sealed to himself this very moment. 
 I went and told the woman to come to Brother Joseph. 
 She ran to the house to comb her hair and 'fix up' gen- 
 erally, and then followed me to the prophet. I performed 
 the sealing ceremony and retired." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ITS HISTORY — NAUVOO CONTINUED— 
 -BROTHER RUSHTON"— NANCY RIGDON— 
 MARTHA BROTHERTON— WILLIAM LAW- 
 DEATH OF SMITH. 
 
 Here are some other testimonies gathered by Dr. Wyl, 
 showing the condition of affairs in Nauvoo at this time : 
 
 Mr. W. : 
 
 "There were many small rooms, with beds, in the tem- 
 ple in Nauvoo. They turned the house of the Lord into a 
 house of prostitution. The wife of Amasa Lyman, apostle 
 and apostate, used to say that they had many little bed- 
 rooms in the temple, and that the newly-sealed couples 
 used to retire to these rooms with provisions for two or 
 three days." 
 
 "Amasa Lyman, the apostle, who later became a Vile 
 apostate,' told me that Joseph, Brigham Young, and other 
 apostles used to dance in the Endowment House with the 
 Lord's 'handmaids,' their spiritual wives. Those dances 
 were performed in Adamic costume, and a fiddler was 
 'ordained and set apart' for the purpose. I knew this to 
 be an absolute fact ; it has been confirmed to me by other 
 well-informed persons." 
 
 Mrs. P. : 
 
 "You hear often that Joseph had no polygamous off- 
 spring. The reason of this is very simple. Abortion was 
 practiced on a large scale in Nauvoo. Dr. John C. Ben- 
 nett, the evil genius of Joseph, brought this abomination 
 into a scientific system. He showed to my husband and 
 
 4* 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 43 
 
 me the instruments with which he used to 'operate for 
 Joseph/ There was a house in Nauvoo, 'right across the 
 flat,' about a mile and a half from the town, a kind of 
 hospital. They sent the women there when they showed 
 signs of celestial consequences. Abortion was practiced 
 regularly in this house." 
 
 Mrs. H. : 
 
 ''Many little bodies of new-born children floated down 
 the Mississippi." 
 
 Mrs. Pratt : "You should bear in mind that Joseph did 
 not think of a marriage or sealing ceremony for many 
 years. He used to say to his intended victims, as he did 
 tome: 
 
 'God does not care if zve have a good time, if only 
 other people do not know it.' He only introduced a mar- 
 riage ceremony when he had found out that he could not 
 get certain women without it. I think Louisa Beeman 
 was the first case of this kind. If any woman, like me, 
 opposed his wishes, he used to say : 'Be silent, or I shall 
 ruin your character. My character must be sustained in 
 the interest of the church.' ' 
 
 The following stories are told by Dr. Wyl : 
 
 "Joseph Smith was shrewd enough to have a few honest 
 men around him whom he placed in responsible positions, 
 who filled them with fidelity and self-sacrifice, being at 
 the same time in a great measure ignorant of the duplicity 
 and wickedness of the imposter. None were more faith- 
 ful or truthful than Elder Richard Rushton, the trusty 
 steward employed by Joseph in the Mansion House in 
 Nauvoo. Rushton was a good, honest man of fine 
 instincts, and had served faithfully for some years, hold- 
 ing that position when the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum 
 were brought to Nauvoo, and he received them. It was 
 
44 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 his duty to lock up, every night, most of the rooms, espe- 
 cially the pantry, storeroom, larder, etc., and then to give 
 the keys to 'Sister Emma.' She would, on retiring, place 
 the bunch of keys in a large pocket that was nailed on the 
 wall at the head of her bed. About 4 o'clock every morn- 
 ing Brother Rushton would tap at the bedroom door in 
 order to receive the keys and open the hotel. Emma on 
 hearing the raps would say, 'Come in, Brother Rushton,' 
 and would hand him the keys from the pocket, and give 
 such orders as were needed. 
 
 "It so 'came to pass' once upon a time, that the gro- 
 ceries and other provisions necessary for the use of the 
 hotel were nearly exhausted, and a famine seemed pend- 
 ing in the larder. Fortunately, however, Joseph sold a 
 fine black horse, which had been presented to him, for 
 three hundred and fifty dollars or so, and also a city lot 
 or two, for about four hundred dollars. With the sales 
 of the horse and land, and a little cash on hand, he mus- 
 tered up about nine hundred dollars, which he cheerfully 
 placed in Emma's hands, saying: 'We are out of provis- 
 ions; take this and go down to St. Louis and buy what 
 is needed. Captain Dan Jones will fire up the "Maid of 
 Iowa" (a little steamboat always ready for church use) 
 and take you down.' Emma started for St. Louis. The 
 going, purchasing and return occupied about a week. At 
 night, after the departure of the 'elect lady,' the steward 
 gave his keys to the prophet, and in the morning he as 
 usual stepped lightly and rapped at the door of the bed- 
 room. A voice, strange to his ear, yet of feminine soft- 
 ness, rather startled him in response with the words 
 'Come in/ He entered timidly, when lo and behold ! there 
 lay in Emma's bed and stead the beautiful and attractive 
 young wife of Elder Edward Blossom, a high counsellor 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 45 
 
 of Zion (afterwards exalted to the apostleship by Brigham 
 Young). With a pair of laughing, glistening eyes and 
 with a smile of happy sweetness, she spoke in soft and 
 pleading accents: 7 suppose, Brother Rushton, I shall 
 have to be Sister Emma to you this morning,' as she 
 gracefully handed the keys to him. Astonished and blush- 
 ing, the faithful steward left the room to resume his 
 duties, leaving the adulterous prophet and his charmer to 
 themselves. The same thing was repeated each morning 
 during the week Emma was away purchasing supplies for 
 the prophet's hotel. 
 
 "In relating this occurrence to another of my most pre- 
 cise and valuable witnesses, Brother Rushton, though no 
 seeker after effect, added the following picturesque de- 
 tails : 'Emma used to keep the keys of the hotel in a richly 
 ornamented wallet given to her by some well-to-do En- 
 glish friends. When Joseph saw how dumbfounded I was 
 he sat up in his red flannel nightrobe and said in a hasty, 
 commanding tone : "That's all right, Brother Rushton," 
 making a movement with his outstretched right hand 
 towards me. The prophet's gesture and tone gave me to 
 understand that I was to go and keep my mouth shut/ 
 
 " 'One afternoon,' said Mr. Rushton, the steward, 'after 
 the hurry of the dinner work was over, I was sitting in my 
 little office, when, looking through my window, I saw the 
 prophet Joseph, followed by the two Partridge girls, com- 
 ing from the back part of the lot and enter, all three, the 
 little log cabin, which had been the first home in Nau- 
 voo of the prophet before the "Mansion" was built. A 
 minute or so afterwards Sister Emma came to my office 
 door and asked me : "Did you see Brother Joseph and the 
 two Partridge girls go into the cabin?" Mr. Rushton 
 didn't like to split on the prophet, and yet didn't like to tell 
 
46 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 a lie ; and at last he replied, hesitatingly : 'Well— I think- 
 perhaps— well— I may have seen them.' Til just put on 
 my sunbonnet and go and see what they are about/ 
 replied she, and stepped over. A very short time after 
 her entry she appeared at the door of the cabin, being 
 pushed out rudely, and came to the office door crying bit- 
 terly. "Oh, Brother Rushton," she said in broken sobs, 
 "I went into the cabin, I found those two girls with my 
 husband, and Joseph jumped up in a rage when he saw 
 that I had surprised them and struck me a horrid blow." 
 At the same time she showed me the mark of the blow on 
 her cheek. She then dropped fainting on a chair, weep- 
 ing and uttering words of despair. A few minutes after- 
 ward Joseph entered and, going up to Emma, said in a 
 meek, repentant manner, 'Oh, my dear Emma, I am so 
 sorry I struck you. I did it in a passion ; you must forgive 
 me. I did it without a thought, or I wouldn't have done it. 
 Forgive me. But you shouldn't be running after me, 
 watching me and prying at my actions/ He apologized 
 and kissed Emma and apologized again, and then finally 
 she arose and they went into the parlor together, appar- 
 ently reconciled/ " 
 
 "Another characteristic anecdote connected yet with the 
 Kirtland times of the 'church' was related to me by an ex- 
 elder of perfect reliability. I insert it here, because it 
 shows what kind of a woman-eater this prophet had been 
 in early days already. A large, influential 'branch of the 
 church' existed in Philadelphia, over which Ben Win- 
 chester successfully presided. Joe visited that church 
 occasionally and enjoyed the associations much. On one 
 occasion, it having been announced that the prophet was 
 to preach, he sat on the platform by the side of his faithful 
 presiding elder while awaiting the time to open services. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 47 
 
 Now and then as some handsome young woman came up 
 the aisle and took a seat, Joe would turn to Elder Win- 
 chester and ask, 'Who is that beautiful lady ?' or 'Who is 
 that fine, lovely creature?' On being told That is Miss 
 So-and-So,' or 'Mrs. So-and-So,' or 'Sister So-and-So,' 
 he did not at all disguise his wishes ; he made no 'bones' of 
 it ; but would say in reply, Td just like to talk to her alone 
 for awhile?' or T would like her for a companion for a 
 night/ and other expressions too plain and vulgar for me 
 to write. [I can give names, if needed.] 
 
 "After the polygamy doctrine was secretly whispered 
 about among the chosen few in Nauvoo, there were great 
 surmisings on the part of those who desired to know the 
 'mysteries of the kingdom.' Many impertinent theories 
 were ventilated and false conclusions arrived at. Joe had 
 formulated no plan, and did not, as yet, have any rules 
 whereby to direct his intimate friends, much less the com- 
 mon saints who were not in the ring. Hence, having no 
 'law,' every man and woman was a law to himself, or her- 
 self, and they went on their own course. In a small 
 house in Nauvoo, consisting only of two rooms, dwelt two 
 men and their wives. Each man and wife occupied one 
 room. These couples having got some inkling of the new 
 order of things, came to the conclusion that they might as 
 well live up to their privileges. They accordingly ex- 
 changed partners, and lived in this condition for several 
 weeks, when former relations were resumed. Such inci- 
 dents, with variations, were by no means uncommon. 
 (My friend Webb says there was a great deal of swapping 
 and exchanging done in Nauvoo as to wives. Old Cooks 
 sold his wife for a load of catfish, and from that time on 
 he was always called 'Catfish Cooks.)" 
 
 "There were in Nauvoo, when Joseph was in his glory 
 
48 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 as 'the greatest prophet that ever lived,' a young mer- 
 chant and wife whom he dearly loved. She bore to 
 him several children, but became fascinated with Joe and 
 with his claims to 'exalt' any woman who would yield 
 to his wishes and become his 'wife.' The husband was 
 sent on a mission, and during his absence Joseph 'gath- 
 ered' the wife to his embraces and she was 'sealed' one of 
 his harem. After Joe's 'martyrdom' she became the wife 
 of Brigham, as a proxy wife for Joe, that any posterity 
 which might ensue should be Joe's in heaven. One child, 
 a daughter, was the result of this relation, but the young 
 lady was always known by the name of Young, never by 
 name of Smith, robbing Brother Joseph of his earthly 
 glory at least. This same wife of three men is often sent 
 as a representative of the women of Utah to the women's 
 conventions abroad in America, and to the lobbies of Con- 
 gress." 
 
 Here is Dr. John C. Bennett's story of Smith's attempt 
 upon Miss Nancy Rigdon : 
 
 "It was in the summer of 1841. Joe and Bennett were 
 out riding over the lawn. Says the prophet to his bosom 
 friend : Tf you will assist me in procuring Nancy as one 
 of my spiritual wives, I will give you five hundred dollars, 
 or the best lot on Main street'. Bennett, who was on 
 very intimate terms with Rigdon and his family, refused. 
 'But,' said Joe, 'the Lord has given her to me to wife. 
 I have the blessings of Jacob, and there is no wickedness 
 in it. It would be wickedness to approach her unless I 
 had permission of the Lord ; but as it is, it is as correct 
 as to have a legal wife in a moral point of view.' Joseph 
 persisted in his plans, aided in their execution by two 
 reliable friends, a Mrs. Hyde and Apostle Willard Rich- 
 ards. Dr. Bennett tried in vain to make Joseph consider 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 49 
 
 his obligations as a Master Mason: Joseph, you are a 
 Master Mason and Nancy is a Master Mason's daughter 
 (like Mrs. Pratt) ; so stay your hand, or you will get into 
 
 trouble/ 
 
 "Still Joe persisted, but Bennett warned the daughter 
 of his friend. So Nancy was prepared when Joseph took 
 her to the little celestial business office. The prophet 
 locked the door, swore her to secrecy, and told her that 
 she had long been the idol of his affections and that he 
 had asked the Lord for her, but that if she had any scru- 
 ples on the subject he would marry her immediately; that 
 this would not prevent her from marrying any other per- 
 son and that all was lawful and right before God. ("After 
 the' death of Joseph, Brigham Young told me that Jo- 
 seph's time on earth was short, and that the Lord allowed 
 him privileges that we could not have."-Lee, Confession, 
 page 147.) He then attempted to kiss her and desired her 
 to kiss him. Nancy flew in a rage. She told the prophet 
 she would alarm the neighborhood if he did not open the 
 door and let her out immediately. In a day or two after- 
 wards Apostle Richards handed Nancy a letter from the 
 prophet, written by Richards from Joe's dictation, and 
 requested her to burn it after reading. This letter is a 
 perfect gem in the line of oily rascal sophistry: 
 
 - 'Happiness is the object and design of our existence 
 and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that 
 leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithful- 
 ness holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God; 
 but we cannot keep all the commandments without first 
 knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all unless we 
 comply with or keep those we have already received That 
 which is wrong under one circumstance may be and often 
 is right under another. God said, "Thou shalt not kill ; 
 
50 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 at another time He said, "Thou shalt utterly destroy." 
 This is the principle on which the Government of Heaven 
 is conducted, by revelation adapted to the circumstances 
 in which the children of the Kingdom are placed. What- 
 ever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although 
 we may not see the reason thereof till long after the 
 events transpire. If we seek first the Kingdom of God, 
 all good things will be added. So with Solomon : first he 
 asked wisdom, and God gave it him, and with it every 
 desire of his heart, even things which might be considered 
 abominable to all who understand the order of Heaven 
 only in part, but which in reality were right, because 
 God gave and sanctioned them by special revelation. 
 A parent may whip a child, and justly, too, because he 
 stole an apple, whereas, if the child had asked for the 
 apple and the parent had given it, the child would have 
 eaten it with a better appetite ; there would have been no 
 stripes; all the pleasures of the apple would have been 
 secured, all the misery of stealing lost. This principle 
 will justly apply to all of God's dealings with His children. 
 Everything that God gives us is lawful and right, 
 and it is proper that we shall enjoy His gifts and bless- 
 ings, whenever and wherever He is disposed to bestow, 
 but if we should seize upon those same blessings and 
 enjoyments without lav/, without revelation, without com- 
 mandment, those blessings and enjoyments would prove 
 cursings and vexations in the end and we should have to 
 lie down in sorrow and waitings of everlasting regret. 
 But in obedience there is joy and peace unspotted, unal- 
 loyed ; and as God has designed our happiness, He never 
 has, He never will institute an ordinance or give a com- 
 mandment to His people that is not calculated in its nature 
 to promote the happiness which He has designed and 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 51 
 
 which will not end in the greatest amount of good and 
 glory to those who become the recipients of His laws and 
 ordinances. Blessings offered, but rejected, are no longer 
 blessings, but become like the talent hid in the earth by 
 the wicked and slothful servant. Our Heavenly Father is 
 more liberal in His views and boundless in His mercies 
 and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive ; He 
 will be inquired of by His children ; He says, "Ask ye and 
 ye shall receive, seek ye and ye shall find ; but if you will 
 take that which is not your own, or which I have not 
 given you, you shall be regarded according to your deeds ; 
 but no good thing will I withhold from them who walk 
 uprightly before Me and do My will in all things, who 
 will listen to My voice and to the voice of My servant, 
 whom I have sent; for I delight in those who seek dili- 
 gently to know My precepts and abide in the law of my 
 kingdom ; for all things shall be made known unto them 
 in Mine own due time and in the end they shall have joy." ' 
 
 "The sequel of the story is well told in a letter from 
 Ceorge W. Robinson, who was a very decent man accord- 
 ing to Mrs. Pratt. Says he : 
 
 " 'Nancy repulsed him and left him with disgust. She 
 came home and told her father [Sidney Rigdon] of the 
 transaction, upon which Smith was sent for. He came. 
 She told her tale in the presence of all her family and to 
 Smith's face. / was present. Smith attempted to deny 
 it at first and face her down with the lie ; but she told the 
 facts with so much earnestness, and the fact of a letter 
 being present, which he had caused to be written to her 
 and which he had fondly hoped was destroyed — all came 
 with such force that he could not withstand the testimony ; 
 and he then and there acknowledged that every word of 
 Miss Rigdon's testimony was true. Now for his excuse 
 
52 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 which he made for such a base attempt, and for using the 
 name of the Lord in vain on that occasion : He wished to 
 ascertain whether she was virtuous or not, and took that 
 course to learn the facts !' " 
 
 Here, also, is the testimony of Martha Brotherton, an 
 English girl: 
 
 " 'St. Louis, Mo., July 13, 1842. 
 
 " 'I had been in Nauvoo near three weeks, during 
 which time my father's family received frequent visits 
 from Apostles Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, 
 when, early one morning, they both came to my brother- 
 in-law's, where I was on a visit, and particularly requested 
 me to go and spend a few days with them. I told them I 
 could not at that time ; however, they urged me to go the 
 next day and spend one day with them. The day being 
 fine, I accordingly went. When I arrived at the foot of 
 the hill, Young and Kimball were standing conversing 
 together. They both came to me and, after several flatter- 
 ing compliments, Kimball wished me to go to his house 
 first. I went. * Brigham went away on some errand and 
 Kimball now turned to me and said: 'Martha, I want 
 you to say to my wife, when you go to my house, that you 
 want to buy some things at Joseph's store, and I will say 
 I am going with you, to show you the way. You know 
 you want to see the prophet and you will then have an 
 opportunity/ I made no reply. I remained at Kimball's 
 near an hour, when Kimball, seeing that I would not tell 
 the lies he wished me to, told them to his wife himself. 
 So Kimball and I went to the store together. As we were 
 going along he said : 'Sister Martha, are you willing to 
 do all that the prophet requires you to do?' I said I 
 believed I was, thinking, of course, he would require noth- 
 ing wrong. "Then," said he, "are you ready to take 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 53 
 
 counsel?" I answered yes, thinking of the great and 
 glorious blessings that had been pronounced upon my 
 head, if I adhered to the counsel of those placed over me 
 in the Lord. "Well/' said he, "there are many things 
 revealed in these last days that the world would laugh and 
 scoff at, but unto us is given to know the mysteries of 
 the kingdom." He further observed: "Martha, you 
 must learn to hold your tongue and it will be well with 
 you." When we reached the building he led me up some 
 stairs to a small room, the door of which was locked and 
 on it the inscription, "Positively no admittance." He 
 observed : "Ah, Brother Joseph must be sick, for, strange 
 to say, he is not here. Come down into the tithing office, 
 Martha." He then left me in the tithing office. Brig- 
 ham Young came in and seated himself before me and 
 asked where Kimball was. Soon after Joseph came in and 
 then went upstairs, followed by Young. Now Kimball 
 came in. "Martha," said he, "the prophet has come; 
 come upstairs." I went and we found Brigham and the 
 prophet alone. I was introduced to the prophet by Brig- 
 ham. Joseph offered me his seat and, to my astonish- 
 ment, the moment I was seated Joseph and Kimball 
 walked out of the room and left me with Brigham, who 
 arose, locked the door, closed the window, and drew the 
 curtains. He then sat before me and said : "This is our 
 private room, Martha." "Indeed, sir," said I, "I must 
 be highly honored to be permitted to enter it." He smiled 
 and then proceeded : : "Sister Martha, I want to ask you 
 a few questions-— will you answer them?" "Yes, sir," 
 said I. "And will you promise not to mention them to^ 
 anyone?" "If it is your desire, sir," said I, "I will not." 
 "And you will not think any the worse of me for it, will 
 you, Martha?" said he. "No," I replied. "Well," said 
 
54 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 he, "what are your feelings towards me?" "I replied: 
 "My feelings are just the same towards you that they ever 
 were, sir." "But to come to the point more closely," said 
 he, "have you not an affection for me that, were it lawful 
 and right, you could accept of me for your husband and 
 companion?" My feelings at that moment were inde- 
 scribable. What, thought I, are these men that I thought 
 almost perfection itself — deceivers? I considered it best 
 to ask for time to think and pray about it. I therefore 
 said : "If it was lawful and right, perhaps I might ; but 
 you know, sir, it is not." "Well, but," said he, "Brother 
 Joseph has had a revelation from God that it is lawful 
 and right for a man to have two wives; for as it was in 
 the days of Abraham, so it shall be in these last days, 
 and whoever is the first that is willing to take up the 
 cross will receive the greatest blessings ; and if you will 
 accept of me, / will take you straight to the celestial king- 
 dom, and if you will have me in this world, I will have 
 you in that which is to come, and Brother Joseph will 
 marry us here today, or you can go home this evening and 
 your parents will not know anything about it." "Sir," 
 said I, "I should not like to do anything of the kind with- 
 out the permission of my parents." "Well, but," said he, 
 "you are of age, are you not?" "No, sir," said I, "I shall 
 not be until the 24th of May." "Well," said he, "that does 
 not make any difference. You will be of age before they 
 know and you need not fear. If you will take my counsel 
 it will be well with you, and if there is any sin in it, / will 
 answer for it. But Brother Joseph will explain things — 
 will you hear him?" "I do not mind," said I. "Well, but 
 I want you to say something," said he. "I want time to 
 think about it," said I. "Well," said he, "I will have a 
 kiss, anyhow." He arose and said he would bring Joseph. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 55 
 
 He then unlocked the door and took the key and locked 
 me up alone. He was absent about ten minutes and then 
 returned with Joseph. "Well," said Brigham, "Sister 
 Martha would be willing if she knew that it was lawful 
 and right before God." "Well, Martha," said Joseph, "it 
 is lawful and right before God — I know it is. Look here, 
 Sis; don't you believe me?" I did not answer. "Well, 
 Martha," said Joseph, "just go ahead and do as Brigham 
 wants you to — he is the best man in the world, except me." 
 "Well," said Brigham, "we believe Joseph to be a prophet. 
 I have known him for eight years, and always found him 
 the same." "Yes," said Joseph, "I know that this is law- 
 ful and right before God, and if there is any sin in it, I 
 will answer for it before god ; and I have the keys of 
 the kingdom and whatever I bind on earth is bound in 
 Heaven, and whatever I loose on earth is loosed in 
 Heaven; and if you will accept of Brigham, you shall be 
 blessed; God shall bless you and my blessing shall rest 
 upon you ; and if you will be led by him, you will do well ; 
 for I know Brigham will take care of you, and if he don't 
 do his duty to you, come to me and I will make him ; and 
 if you do not like it in a month or two> come to me and 
 / will make you free again, and if he turns you off, I will 
 take you on." "Sir," said I, rather warmly, "it will be 
 too late to think in a month or two after. I want time to 
 think first." "Well, but," said he, "'the old proverb is : 
 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained' — and it would be the 
 greatest blessing ever bestowed on you. What are you 
 afraid of, Sis ? Come, let me do the business for you." 
 "Well," said I, "the best way I know of, is to go home and 
 think and pray about it." Brigham said : "I shall leave it 
 with Brother Joseph, whether it would be best for you to 
 have time or not." Joseph : "I see no harm in her hav- 
 
56 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ing time to think, if she will not fall into temptation." 
 "Oh, sir," said I, "there is no fear of my falling into temp- 
 tation." "Well, but," said Brigham, "you must promise 
 me you will never mention it to anyone." I promised. 
 Joseph said: "You must promise me the same." I did. 
 "Upon your honor," said he, "you will not tell ?" "No, 
 sir," said I, "I will lose my life first." "Well, that will 
 do," said he ; "that is the principle we go upon. I think I 
 can trust you, Martha." I then rose to go, when Joseph 
 commenced to beg of me again. He said it was the best 
 opportunity they might have for months, for the room 
 was often engaged. I, however," had determined what 
 to do. The next day I sat down and wrote the conversa- 
 tion. We went to meeting. Brigham administered the 
 sacrament. After it was over, Young followed me out 
 and whispered : "Have you made up your mind, Mar- 
 tha?" "Not exactly, sir," said I, and we parted.' " 
 
 William Law, one of the most talented of Smith's dis- 
 ciples and his chief counselor, admits that he "went astray 
 in affairs of love," and says : 
 
 "I think Joseph's sons knew that their father taught and 
 practiced the 'spiritual wife' doctrine. Their mother knew 
 all about it, and, I believe, opposed it at first. But her 
 antagonism or the opposition of others availed nothing. 
 I begged of Joseph and pleaded with him as a man might 
 plead for the life of his best friend, to stop all these evils, 
 and save the church from ruin ; but he seemed determined 
 to rush on to utter destruction, and carry all with him that 
 he could ; and thus he met his doom." 
 
 Carrying out his spiritual wife doctrine, he attempted 
 to take the wife of William Law himself. He had' taken 
 the wives of a good many other men, but they had not 
 objected. But, strange to say, William Law did object. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 57 
 
 He was also guilty of the most despotic practices. 
 
 "By means of his common council, without the author- 
 ity of law, he established a recorder's office in Nauvoo, in 
 which alone the titles of property could be recorded. In 
 the same manner, and with the same want of legal author- 
 ity, he established an office for issuing marriage licenses 
 to the Mormons, so as to give him absolute control of the 
 marrying propensities of his people. He proclaimed that 
 none in the city should purchase real estate to sell again, 
 but himself. He also permitted no one but himself to have 
 a license in the city for the sale of spirituous liquors ; and 
 in many other ways he undertook to regulate and control 
 the business of the Mormons. This despotism, adminis- 
 tered by a corrupt and unprincipled man, soon became 
 intolerable." 
 
 William Law and several other Mormon leaders re- 
 belled. They started a paper called the Nauvoo Expositor 
 for the purpose of exposing Smith and his methods. But 
 only one issue of the paper was published. Before another 
 could appear the press was demolished by order of the 
 Common Council, and Mr. Law and his fellow rebels were 
 expelled from the Mormon Church. They hastened to 
 Carthage, near by, and had writs issued for the arrest of 
 the Mayor of Nauvoo, Joseph Smith, and others engaged 
 in the destruction of the Expositor. The Municipal Court 
 of Nauvoo set aside the writs and discharged the pris- 
 oners. 
 
 The Governor was appealed to. He responded in per- 
 son, examined the situation, was convinced, he says, that 
 the "Mormon leaders had committed a crime in the 
 destruction of the press and had resisted the execution of 
 process." He "determined to exert the whole force of 
 the State, if necessary, to bring them to justice." 
 
58 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Smith had declared martial law in Nauvoo, and had 
 called on all Mormons for help. Governor Ford appealed 
 to him to quietly surrender, promising protection. Instead 
 he resolved to flee, and crossed the river to Montrose. 
 But in response to the protests of his wife against such a 
 course, he, together with his brother Hyrum and all the 
 members of the council, went to Carthage and surren- 
 dered. All were released except Joseph and Hyrum 
 Smith, who were charged with treason, and were put in 
 jail. During the night an armed mob broke into the jail 
 and fired a volley through the door, which resulted in the 
 death of Hyrum Smith. Joseph had a revolver and de- 
 fended himself, but, overpowered by numbers, attempted 
 to escape through the window. The mob on the outside 
 fired upon him and he fell to the ground. Another volley 
 was fired at him and he was left in the jail yard dead. 
 
 Thus ended the career of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder 
 of Mormonism and its chief prophet. Review that career 
 briefly. As a boy he was ignorant, superstitious, a 
 dreamer of dreams. Pretending to have discovered s 
 new Bible by direction of an angel — which Bible we now 
 know was written as a romance by Solomon Spaulding 
 and emended by Sidney Rigdon — he founded a new re- 
 ligion. He was compelled to flee from Kirtland, Ohio, 
 "between two days" for his connection as cashier with a 
 fraudulent bank. He was driven from Missouri because 
 of his arrogant and tyrannical ways. He was finally killed 
 in Illinois for taking another man's wife and suppressing 
 freedom of speech. He was simply an illiterate, preten- 
 tious, ambitious, licentious fellow, clever and jolly, with 
 a certain animal magnetism, but coarse, self-willed, ruling 
 his followers, most of them quite ignorant, through his 
 pretended revelations from the Lord, overbearing, des- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 59 
 
 potic in the extreme, with whom no one could get along 
 except by absolute submission to him. He had trouble 
 everywhere he went and with almost everyone with whom 
 he came in contact. And this is the man the Mormons 
 now worship as their prophet — putting him on an equality 
 with Mohammed among the Mohammedans or Christ 
 among Christians ! God save the mark ! 
 
 I may remark in passing that a singular fatality at- 
 tended nearly all of the principal actors in the earliest 
 scenes of the drama of Mormonism. The six who were in 
 the organization of the church and who claimed to have 
 been witnesses of the golden plates were Joseph Smith, 
 Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, Peter Whitmer, Jr., 
 Samuel H. Smith and David Whitmer. Of these Oliver 
 Cowdery, the scribe who wrote most of the Book of Mor- 
 mon at the dictation of Smith, was charged with being 
 "connected with a gang of counterfeiters, thieves, liars 
 and blacklegs of the deepest dye," and with "cheating and 
 defrauding the saints," and he was ex-communicated and 
 "turned over to the bufferings of the devil." He after- 
 ward died a miserable drunkard. David Whitmer was 
 also ex-communicated as a rebel. Joseph and Hyrum 
 Smith were killed by a mob on account of their immoral- 
 ity, their despotism and their "treason" against the State. 
 Martin Harris, the first scribe of the Book of Mormons, 
 and a witness to the plates, but not one of the constituent 
 members of the church, was afterward catalogued by the 
 Mormons with "negroes who wear white skins, and he 
 and his associates are so far beneath contempt that a 
 notice of them would be far too great a sacrifice for a 
 gentleman to make." He also was consigned to the infer- 
 nal regions. A document drafted by Sidney Rigdon, 
 and subscribed by eighty-four Mormons, addressed to 
 
60 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, W. W. 
 Phelps and Lyman E. Johnson, exhibits these witnesses 
 and apostles and their associates to have been unmitigated 
 scamps. 
 
 Mr. Stenhouse says : 
 
 "The Lord could not well have chosen a more despica- 
 ble set of thieves and liars than they were — taking the 
 testimony of their brethren as evidence. Mormonism did 
 little for them in the way of reformation and grace. They 
 must have been 'a hard lot' before they accepted the new 
 revelation." 
 
 Sidney Rigdon was, after the death of Joseph Smith, 
 charged with the determination to "rule or ruin the 
 church." And in the language of the reporter, "Elder 
 Young arose and delivered Sidney Rigdon over to the 
 bufferings of Satan in the name of the Lord ; and all the 
 people said, Amen." Parley P. Pratt, another very prom- 
 inent Mormon and the author of some of their principal 
 works, was killed by an enraged husband for running off 
 with his wife. 
 
 And these are the men who were the founders of Mor- 
 monism ! 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— SPLIT INTO FACTIONS— BRIG- 
 HAM YOUNG— MOVING WESTWARD- 
 GREAT SALT LAKE BASIN— "IRREPRES- 
 SIBLE CONFLICT' —MOUNTAIN MEADOWS 
 MASSACRE. 
 
 In the last chapter I gave an account of the killing of 
 Joseph Smith. I do not approve of that killing. There 
 was very great provocation leading up to it. And yet it 
 was a crime. But it was more than a crime. It was a 
 blunder. At that time Mormonism was practically dead. 
 The Mormons themselves were fast becoming disgusted 
 with the tyrannical rule and licentious practices of Joseph 
 Smith. They were beginning to see the hollowness in 
 the Mormon system, and were falling away from it. But 
 the saying that "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of 
 the church" was again exemplified. The killing of Smith 
 put him in the list of martyrs, according to Mormon 
 notions, and had the effect of galvanizing Mormonism 
 again into life. 
 
 I have dwelt somewhat at length upon the early history 
 of Mormonism, partly because the beginnings of any 
 movement are of the greatest interest, and largely to show 
 the character of Joseph Smith, its founder and prophet. 
 The rest of the history can be more briefly told. 
 
 After the death of Smith, on June 27, 1844, the church 
 split up into many factions. It is said that twenty-one 
 sects sprang into existence. Among these were the 
 "Adamsites," "Brewsterites," "Brighamites," "Cutler- 
 
 61 
 
62 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ites," "Doveites," "Emmettites," "Forsgreenites," "Glad- 
 denites," "Godbeites," "Hedrickites," "Hendrickites," 
 "Josephites," "Morrisites," "Rigdonites," "Bill Smith- 
 ites," "Strangites," "Whitmerites," "Wightites," "Wil- 
 liamites," etc. 
 
 Some of these are now extinct, but others are still in 
 existence. The Josephites have as their head Joseph 
 Smith, the eldest son of the "prophet." This faction was 
 organized in i860 under the name of the "Reorganized 
 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." It now 
 numbers about 45,000, with headquarters at Lamoni, 
 Iowa. The Josephites violently dissent from the Brig- 
 hamites on some important points, especially as regards 
 temple building, the character of God and polygamy. But 
 it is with the latter sect that we have especially to do. 
 These are by far the most numerous and most influential 
 of any of the Mormon sects, and are known to all the 
 world pre-eminently as Mormons. 
 
 Upon the death of Smith, Sidney Rigdon naturally 
 felt that the right of succession belonged to him. He had 
 taken offense at Smith for seeking the hand of his daugh- 
 ter Nancy as a polygamous wife and was living in Pitts- 
 burg, Ohio. He hastened to Nauvoo, assumed the leader- 
 ship, pretended to have visions and revelations, as Smith 
 had done. 
 
 But Brigham Young was by the accident of seniority 
 at the head of the quorum of twelve apostles, and he had 
 ambitions of his own. So he had Rigdon arrested on the 
 charge of determining to "rule or ruin the church." He 
 was tried, condemned, "cut off from the church and deliv- 
 ered over to the buffetings of Satan." 
 
 Having thus disposed of his rival, Brigham Young then 
 proceeded to "rule" the church— and he ruled it with a 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 63 
 
 rod of iron. Implicit, unquestioning obedience was 
 thenceforth the distinctive feature of Mormonism. Joseph 
 Smith once said that if Brother Brigham ever got control 
 of the church he would lead it to hell. This was about 
 the only prediction of Smith that ever came true. 
 
 The friction between the Mormons and the people of 
 Illinois still continuing and constantly increasing in bitter- 
 ness, it was determined by the High Council at Nauvoo 
 on January 20, 1846, that the Mormons should leave a 
 country where they had suffered so much "persecution" 
 and go away out West, beyond the confines of the United 
 States, where they would not be bothered by the trouble- 
 some laws, and the still more troublesome military power, 
 of this government, but where they might be free to wor- 
 ship Joseph Smith according to the dictates of Brigham 
 Young, and to make everybody else do the same. 
 
 Before they left indictments were found in the United 
 States Circuit Court against a number of leading Mor- 
 mons for counterfeiting the coin of the republic. The 
 marshal was eager for their arrest, but the Governor 
 thought it best to let them go, as that would be the easiest 
 way to get rid of them. So on February 5, 1846, they 
 began to move westward. By the middle of May about 
 16,000 had gone. There were no railroads out West in 
 those days. The journey was long and tedious. The 
 weather was bad, and some of the "saints" suffered con- 
 siderably. 
 
 On July 24, 1847, they reached Great Salt Lake Basin, 
 and as they beheld it they exclaimed, 'The Land of 
 Promise." It has really a considerable resemblance to 
 the Promised Land. Utah Lake corresponds to the Sea 
 of Galilee. Salt Lake corresponds to the Dead Sea. The 
 River Jordan connects the two. And Salt Lake City is 
 
64 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the modern Sodom. They at once settled where Salt 
 Lake City is now located, and proceeded to build a temple 
 to the Lord and houses for themselves. 
 
 When they arrived at Salt Lake Valley the Territory 
 of Utah belonged to Mexico. It is thought that it was 
 Brigham Young's intention either to set up an independ- 
 ent government in Utah or yield only a nominal obedience 
 to Mexico. But as a result of the Mexican war, Utah, 
 with New Mexico and Upper California, was made a part 
 of the United States. 
 
 And thus the Mormons found themselves again sub- 
 jects of this government, much to their chagrin. Not- 
 withstanding this fact, at a convention of citizens held in 
 Great Salt Lake City, March 5, 1849, it was decided to 
 establish "a free and independent government by the name 
 of the State of Deseret." Congress, however, completely 
 ignored the "State of Deseret," and on September 9, 1850, 
 organized Utah into a territory and, strange to say, ap- 
 pointed Brigham Young Governor ! 
 
 But almost immediately there was a clash between the 
 Governor and the Gentile Federal officers and judges sent 
 out to help govern the territory. This was due to what 
 has been aptly termed "the irrepressible conflict between 
 theocracy and republicanism." 
 
 The conflict grew in intensity. Brigham Young gener- 
 ally got the best of it one way or another, outwitting 
 some, intimidating others. In addition to their theocratic 
 government, which made them unwilling to submit to the 
 laws of the United States, the open avowal of polygamy 
 at this time added greatly to the hatred and disgust with 
 which the Mormons were regarded. 
 
 The doctrine of polygamy had first been promulgated 
 by Joseph Smith, but at first it was taught secretly. Its 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 65 
 
 open avowal now by Brigham Young, at a time when he 
 felt strong enough to resist opposition, sent a thrill of 
 horror throughout the country. 
 
 Polyandry— the marriage, at least temporary, of a 
 woman to more than one man— was taught. The doctrine 
 of the blood atonement— the murder of the body to save 
 the soul — was proclaimed. 
 
 Congress spoke of the "moral and political pestilence 
 which makes Utah the scandal of the American people." 
 The plague spot did not heal. It got bigger and bigger. 
 Brigham Young was removed as Governor of the Terri- 
 tory of Utah. But others— governors, judges of the 
 United States court— found successively that they had a 
 new and dangerous foe with whom to contend, crafty, 
 determined, hesitating at nothing, lying, cheating, steal- 
 ing, murdering to carry their point. Murder after murder 
 was committed. If any one made himself obnoxious to 
 the Mormons in any way he was apt to be found dead, 
 and no amount of investigation (?) would reveal the 
 perpetrators of the deed. 
 
 Meanwhile the colony was growing. Missionaries were 
 sent to Europe. They were successful in making a num- 
 ber of converts. These, for the most part, were persuaded 
 to emigrate to the promised land. 
 
 As this was before the days of railroads, Brigham 
 Young organized what were called hand-cart expeditions 
 for these emigrants. Placing their household effects, 
 together with the children and feeble persons, in hand- 
 carts, they would pull the carts over the plains and across 
 the mountains. But the journey proved too long and the 
 labor too great. Food gave out, the weather was bad 
 and large numbers of them perished on the way. Brigham 
 Young at first took a good deal of pride in his hand-cart 
 
66 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 plan. But finding how it turned out, he put the blame on 
 the Apostle Richards, and publicly in the tabernacle held 
 him up to ridicule and scorn. 
 
 The discovery of gold in California in 1849 caused a 
 rush from the East to the West, which continued for some 
 years. Parties of emigrants would be formed. One of 
 these parties was from Arkansas, around Fort Smith. 
 It was composed of a fine class of people, cultivated and 
 refined, with some wealth among them. They numbered 
 137. They were friends and neighbors who had decided 
 to move to California to better their fortunes. 
 
 This was in 1857. A short while before, the "Apostle" 
 Parley P. Pratt had been killed near Fort Smith by Mr. 
 McLean, because Pratt had run off with McLean's wife — 
 a strange thing certainly for McLean to do, to kill a man 
 for running off with his wife. Why should he want to 
 kill a man for a little thing like that? The Mormons 
 seemed to think that, as this party of Arkansas people was 
 about to pass through their territory, now was their oppor- 
 tunity for vengeance. When the Arkansas people reached 
 Utah they were not allowed to buy food at any Mormon 
 settlement. But they kept on. Arriving at Parowan, 
 the Mormon military post, they were not permitted to 
 pass through, but were compelled to go around it. 
 
 When they arrived at Mountain Meadows they were 
 suddenly attacked by Indians, as they supposed. Some 
 Indians were in the attacking party, but the Indians them- 
 selves afterward stated that the Mormon soldiers were 
 also dressed as Indians. The emigrants had not expected 
 an attack, but they prepared for defense. Corraling their 
 wagons, they formed a temporary fort, and with their 
 long-range guns they kept the Indians (?) at bay. And 
 thus they fought for three days. But their water supply 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 67 
 
 gave out. There was a spring near by, but covered by 
 the rifles of the enemy. Dying with thirst, they dressed 
 two little girls in white and started them with a bucket to 
 the spring. They were shot down. 
 
 The next day Major John D. Lee, in command of the 
 Mormon troops, sent a flag of truce to the emigrants, 
 with the statement that the Indians were very mad, but 
 that if they would lay down their arms he would protect 
 them. They gladly accepted the offer, rejoiced to have 
 found white friends ( ?), laid down their arms and surren- 
 dered. The women and children were separated from the 
 men and inarched off, the men just behind them, all 
 guarded by the entire command, with Major Lee at their 
 head. When they had gone about half a mile the com- 
 mand was given to fire. There was a volley, another and 
 another, until all the men lay dead or dying on the ground, 
 except three, who fled, but were pursued and killed. The 
 women also were all dead. One young woman sprang to 
 Major Lee for protection. He put a pistol to her forehead 
 and shot her dead. Another ran to him and suffered a 
 worse fate at his hands. The whole company, men and 
 women, were stripped of their clothing and left Tying 
 naked on the ground. This was done with many a ribald 
 jest. The little children were spared, seventeen in all. 
 These were taken to Salt Lake City and distributed among 
 the Mormon families. 
 
 Two of the children were heard to make some remark 
 about their families and they were taken out — and buried. 
 The others were afterward taken by the government and 
 placed in an orphan asylum in St. Louis. 
 
 Much of the property of the murdered emigrants was 
 sold at public auction, under the designation of "Property 
 taken at the siege of Sebastopol," and there is said to be 
 
68 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 legal proof that the clothing stripped from the corpses- 
 spotted with blood and flesh and shredded by bullets — 
 was placed in the cellar of the tithing office and privately 
 sold. "Wives and daughters of some of those murderers 
 wore the apparel of some of the massacred women and 
 maidens, while their polygamous husbands and fathers 
 wore the masculine garments of their victims, plowed the 
 fields with their cattle, and drove to their religious assem- 
 blies with the horses that they had stolen from the Arkan- 
 sas train, and no one called them to account" 
 
 And this was the famous, or rather infamous, Mountain 
 Meadows massacre, the most horrible, the most diabolical 
 in the history of so-called Christian nations' — only equaled, 
 but not surpassed in cruelty and bloodthirstiness, by the 
 massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 And this was Mormonism in all its hideous nakedness ! 
 What Mormons did then, Mormons would do again if 
 they only had the power and the opportunity. Their prin- 
 ciples are the same. And these are the people who com- 
 plain of persecution, if they are not allowd to enter our 
 pulpits and our homes ! No wonder the massacre sent a 
 thrill of horror throughout America. It was a revelation, 
 an unmasking of the Mormon character for which the 
 people of this country were hardly prepared. Efforts 
 were made to bring the offenders to justice. But, with the 
 usual craftiness and deception of the Mormons, they suc- 
 ceeded in thwarting these efforts for quite a while, and 
 it was not until twenty years afterward that Major Lee 
 was executed for his part in the terrible affair. But the 
 real criminal — the one who was morally if not directly 
 responsible for the massacre, whose influence encouraged 
 it, if his brain did not plan and his tongue order it — was 
 not touched. His name was Brigham Young. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 ITS HISTORY— BRIGHAM YOUNG— REBELLION 
 ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON— JUDGE CRA- 
 DLEBAUGH— APOSTASY— JOHN TAYLOR— 
 WILFORD WOODRUFF— LORENZO SNOW. 
 
 I closed the last chapter by saying that the name of the 
 instigator of the Mountain Meadows massacre was Brig- 
 ham Young. This, I know, is a very severe charge to 
 bring against the former head of the Mormon Church ( ?) 
 and the one who, more than anyone else — more even than 
 Joseph Smith himself— gave shape to its policy and char- 
 acter. But the charge is, I think, fully sustained by the 
 following facts, among many others : 
 
 i. Anyone who has studied Mormonism and who knows, 
 its complete organization, its absolute despotism, knows 
 that it would have been impossible for such a massacre 
 to take place in Mormon territory and committed by Mor- 
 mons, as proven beyond question, without the consent — 
 nay, without the command, written or verbal — of Brigham 
 Young. His word was law in church and state. 
 
 2. Had such a massacre been committed without his 
 consent, presuming it to have been possible, he could and 
 would easily have discovered the perpetrators of it. On 
 the contrary, he made no effort to do so, but rather threw 
 all obstacles in the way of those who were trying to dis- 
 cover them, and finally only surrendered Major Lee to 
 save himself. 
 
 3. Two years after the massacre a United States officer 
 passed through the Mountain Meadows, gathered the 
 bones of the murdered emigrants together and erected 
 
 6 9 
 
70 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 over them a large pile of stones, upon one of which he 
 had engraved : "Here lie the bones of 120 men, women 
 and children from Arkansas, murdered on the 10th day 
 of September, 1857." Upon a cross tree he caused to be 
 painted : "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will 
 repay it." This monument is said to have been destroyed 
 the first time that Brigham Young visited the place. It 
 is reported by one who stood by his side as he read the 
 inscription that he remarked with a firm voice to those 
 around him that the inscription should read : "Vengeance 
 is mine, saith the Lord, and I have repaid." 
 
 Daniel Page reports Brigham Young as saying : "Ven- 
 geance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord — and here I 
 am and I ham repaid a little." At this time Brigham 
 Young was claiming that he was God. 
 
 4. As I stated, Major John D. Lee, the officer in charge 
 of the Mormon forces at the time of the massacre, was 
 executed in 1877, twenty years afterward. He was a son 
 by adoption of Brigham Young. Lee pleaded innocence 
 in court, but while in prison awaiting his execution made 
 a full confession of the whole affair.* He gave the names 
 of forty odd Mormons who took part in the massacre, and 
 said that Brigham Young was instigator of the whole 
 proceeding. Lee was shot by five United States soldiers, 
 and while seated on his coffin, just a moment before his 
 execution, he still said that in killing the emigrants he was 
 only acting under the orders of Brigham Young. Five 
 true bills were secured against Young, but as his death 
 occurred soon after, he was never brought to trial, a most 
 fortunate thing for the Mormons. 
 
 5. This massacre was thoroughly in accord with the 
 whole course of Mormonism under Brigham Young. 
 Crime was common. Murder after murder was commit- 
 tee Appendix B. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 71 
 
 ted, the perpetrators of which were never discovered, or 
 at least never brought to justice. There were continual 
 conflicts with the United States authorities. These con- 
 flicts finally, in the fall of 1857, broke out into open rebel- 
 lion. 
 
 Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who afterward won im- 
 perishable renown upon the battlefield of Shiloh in the 
 war between the States, was sent at the head of a small 
 army to suppress the rebellion. This he succeeded in 
 doing without bloodshed, but only by the exercise of the 
 greatest courage and determination and after much suf- 
 fering on the part of his men. General Johnston's impres,- 
 sions of the Mormons, as recorded in his life by Colonel 
 William Preston Johnston, were not very complimentary. 
 In a letter to the Adjutant General on November 5, 1857, 
 he said of them : 
 
 "Their conduct, as I have before stated as my opinion, 
 results from a settled determination on their part not to 
 submit to the authority of the United States, or any other 
 outside of their church." 
 
 Again, in a letter dated February 5, 1858, he said : 
 
 'The Mormons have declared, as fully as words and 
 actions can manifest intentions, that they will no longer 
 submit to the government, or to any government but their 
 own." 
 
 In another letter he speaks of their "disloyalty to the 
 Union" and of "the treasonable temper and feeling now 
 pervading the leaders and a great portion of the Mor- 
 mons." He insists that "they should be made to submit 
 to the constitutional and legal demands of the government 
 unconditionally. An adjustment of existing differences 
 on any other basis would be nugatory." 
 
 Writing to General Winfield Scott, March 31, 1859, he 
 remarked : 
 
7 2 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "I have refrained from speaking of the horrible crimes 
 that have been perpetrated in this territory— crimes of a 
 magnitude and of an apparently studied refinement in 
 atrocity hardly to be conceived of, and which have gone 
 unwhipped of justice. These, if the judges are sustained, 
 they will endeavor to bring to light." 
 
 Finding that he could not control General Johnston 
 either by force or by bribery, Brigham Young determined 
 to abandon Utah entirely to the hated United States 
 soldiers and to seek a more congenial government, but 
 suddenly changed his mind after about 30,000 of the 
 people had begun moving southward, and promised sub- 
 mission to the government. This promise was accepted 
 in good faith and the army was for the most part with- 
 drawn from the territory. "But as soon as the pressure 
 of the troops was removed the voice of the prophet 
 resumed its earlier tone of truculent defiance, blackguard- 
 ism and blasphemy." 
 
 The following from an officer at Camp Floyd, August 
 11, i860, gives the changed aspect of affairs : "The sa'me 
 game has commenced on the part of the Mormons that 
 was played before the army came here as regards the 
 Gentiles. Brigham preached a very inflammatory sermon 
 last Sunday. He cursed the government, the President 
 and the Gentiles. He said 'he would wipe them all — 
 every one — out, d — n them! that he would let the gov- 
 ernment know that he was still here ; that he would send 
 every Gentile to hell with wooden legs, and that they had 
 better be supplying themselves now while lumber was 
 cheap/ " 
 
 Finding it impossible to convict anyone for the frequent 
 murders being committed about this time, Judge Cradle- 
 baugh concluded an address from the bench as follows : 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 7$ 
 
 "Men are murdered here — coolly, deliberately, premedi- 
 tatedly murdered. Their murder is deliberated and deter- 
 minded upon by church council meetings, and that, too, 
 for no other reason than that they had apostatized from 
 your church and were striving to leave the territory. You 
 are the tools, the dupes, the instruments of a tyrannic 
 cal church despotism. The heads of your church order 
 and direct you. You are taught to obey their orders and 
 commit these horrid murders. Deprived of your liberty, 
 you have lost your manhood, and become the willing 
 instrument of bad men. I say to you it will be my earnest 
 effort, while with you, to knock off your ecclesiastical 
 shackles and set you free. ,, 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that the earnest efforts of 
 the judge were unavailing. The ecclesiastical shackles 
 were not knocked off. They are still there. At another 
 time Judge Cradlebaugh, chagrined and annoyed at his 
 inability to reach the guilty, entered upon the docket of 
 his court : "The whole community presents a united and 
 organized opposition to the administration of justice." 
 
 During the war between the States the sympathies of 
 the Mormons were strongly against the North and in 
 favor of the South, as was shown by the preaching in 
 the tabernacle. It was not that the Mormons cared for 
 the South any more than for the North. Like the Irish- 
 man, they were simply against the government and wel- 
 comed anything which would tend to overthrow it. On 
 the Sunday afternoon preceding the surrender of General 
 Lee, Brigham Young predicted in the tabernacle that 
 there would be four more years of war. 
 
 Brigham Young is very differently regarded in Salt 
 Lake City. By the Mormons he is regarded as a Moses 
 who led them out of Egypt, through the wilderness to 
 the Promised Land. They consider him a kind of demi- 
 
74 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 god. But by the Gentiles he is considered more of a 
 demagogue than a demigod, ambitious, scheming, cun- 
 ning, selfish, grasping, coarse and lustful, loving power, 
 money and women in the order named. His statue is 
 placed in a conspicuous part of the city. But it was done 
 by the Mormons over the indignant protests of the Gen- 
 tiles, who now take their revenge by calling attention to 
 the fact that he stands with his back to the temple and 
 his hand stretched out toward the bank— which attitude, 
 they say, is quite characteristic. At the time of his death 
 he was estimated to be worth $7,000,000. 
 
 Brigham Young's love of money led to a widespread 
 apostasy from the Mormon church. The belief was gen- 
 eral that the mountains of Utah were rich in minerals. 
 But Brigham Young forbade the Mormons to search for 
 or work mines, saying : "When the Lord wants the mines 
 opened he will make the fact known through his priest- 
 hood." In 1869, however, two Mormons, W. S. Godbe 
 and E. L. T. Harrison, started a little magazine in which 
 they advocated the opening of the mines. They were 
 ordered to appear before the High Council for trial. 
 George Q. Cannon, the present First Counselor to the 
 Presidency, was the prosecutor. 
 
 In his speech he said: "These two men sitting here 
 have blacker hearts than any two men since the foundation 
 of the world. They want to open up the mines and bring 
 all hell and the devil in here." 
 
 Judge C. C. Goodwin, editor of the Sale Lake Tribune, 
 says in Munsey's Magazine for June, 1900, that "such a 
 feeling was aroused in the council that only a word would 
 have been reeded to cause these men to be torn to pieces." 
 They were ex-communicated, together with Henry W. 
 Lawrence, T. B. H. Stenhouse, the Walker brothers and 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 75 
 
 others. That meant not only to be cut off from eternal 
 life, according to Mormon teachings, but social ostracism 
 and a business boycott. These men were nearly ruined in 
 business. Mr. Godbe spent a fortune in maintaining a 
 paper which should advocate free speech. This grew 
 finally, as Gentiles moved into the territory, into 
 the daily Salt Lake Tribune, of which Judge 
 C. C. Goodwin is now the able editor. I had the pleasure 
 of a visit to the home of Mr. Godbe. He is still working 
 mines and seems to have been somewhat successful. He 
 is a very pleasant and kindly gentleman, mild of manner 
 and soft in speech. The Walker brothers were leading 
 merchants. Brigham Young determined to break them 
 down. He instituted a strict boycott against them, giving 
 orders that no Mormon should trade with them. He sta- 
 tioned Mormon policemen at the store to see that his 
 orders were obeyed. He organized the Zion's Co-opera- 
 tive Mercantile Institution, to compete with them. They 
 sent him word that they had $150,000 to spend in the fight. 
 They now have a large and flourishing store in Salt Lake 
 City and are worth $1,000,000. 
 
 Brigham Young died in 1877 and is buried in a private 
 cemetery near the Temple, surrounded by eight of his 
 twenty-six wives, and with space left for the others. 
 
 The apostles conducted the affairs of the "church" 
 until 1880, when John Taylor was elected president. He 
 was an Englishman by birth, went to Canada, became a 
 Methodist preacher, joined the Mormons, was with Joseph 
 Smith in Nauvoo, and was wounded when Smith was 
 killed. While on a mission to France he was asked if the 
 Mormons did not believe in and practice polygamy. He 
 denied it very emphatically. At that time he himself had 
 at least six living wives. He was a thorough fanatic, who 
 
7 6 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 did not hesitate to declare that the Lord intends to rule 
 this earth through the Mormon priesthood and that all 
 other governments are usurpations. He made polygamy 
 obligatory upon all Mormon officials. 
 
 John Taylor died in 1887 and was succeeded by Wil- 
 ford Woodruff, at the age of 80. He was well preserved, 
 erect and clear-eyed. In 1897, though past 90, he made 
 many speeches in the jubilee celebration. He is said to 
 have been "gentle, and winsome in his ways and was loved 
 exceedingly by the Mormon people." He it was who 
 issued the famous manifesto advising the Mormons to 
 discontinue the practice of polygamy. 
 
 The present head of the church is Lorenzo Snow, who 
 succeeded Wilford Woodruff in 1898. I had the pleas- 
 ure of meeting him. He is a kindly looking old gentle- 
 man, 85 years of age. He is said to be the best educated 
 and most broad-minded man who ever occupied the re- 
 sponsible position of President of the Church of Jesus 
 Christ of Latter Day Saints, which, perhaps, is not say- 
 ing very much. 
 
 There are at present about 250,000 Mormons in the 
 world. About 170,000 of these live in Utah and 30,000 
 of them in Salt Lake City. The city has about 60,000 
 inhabitants, divided nearly equally between the Mormons 
 and Gentiles. The city election in November, 1899, was 
 carried by the Gentiles. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— POLYGAMY— "REVELATION" 
 ON SUBJECT. 
 
 The doctrine of polygamy was revealed to Joseph Smith 
 in 1843, so he claimed. But Mr. B. H. Roberts says that 
 "it was in 183 1 that plural marriage was first made known 
 to Joseph Smith." The "Book of Mormon," which, as we 
 have seen, was written by Solomon Spaulding and Sidney 
 Rigdon, had expressly forbidden polygamy. But this 
 stood in the way of Smith's lecherous designs and prac- 
 tices, so he had a "revelation" on the subject. It is con- 
 tained in section 132 of the "Doctrine and Covenants," 
 a book which is accepted by the Mormons as of 
 equal authority with the "Book of Mormon," and which 
 even supersedes the "Book of Mormon" where the two 
 come in conflict, as in the case of the doctrine of poly- 
 gamy. 
 
 The heading of the section reads : 
 "Revelation on the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, 
 
 including Plurality of Wives. Given through Joseph, 
 
 the Seer, in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, July 
 
 12th, 1843." 
 
 The section is quite long, embracing sixty-six para- 
 graphs. I should be glad to give it entire if I had space. 
 I can, however, quote only a few salient paragraphs 
 from it: 
 
 "1. Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant 
 Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand, 
 
 77 
 
78 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my 
 servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; as also Moses, David 
 and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and 
 doctrine of their having many wives and concubines : 
 
 "2.. Behold ! and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will 
 answer thee as touching this matter : 
 
 "3. Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey 
 the instructions which I am about to give unto you ; for 
 all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey 
 the same; 
 
 "4. For behold ! I reveal unto you a new and an ever- 
 lasting covenant ; and if ye abide not that covenant, then 
 are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and 
 be permitted to enter into my glory : 
 
 "5. For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall 
 abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and 
 the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the 
 foundation of the world : 
 
 "6. And as pertaining to the new and everlasting cove- 
 nant, it was instituted for the fullness of my glory ; and he 
 that receiveth a fullness thereof, must and shall abide the 
 
 law, or he shall be damned, saith the Lord God. 
 
 ******** 
 
 "19. And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry 
 a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and 
 everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the 
 Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto 
 whom I have appointed this power, and the keys of this 
 Priesthood ; and it shall be said unto them, ye shall come 
 forth in the first resurrection, and if it be after the first 
 resurrection, in the next resurrection; and shall inherit 
 thrones, kingdoms, principalities and powers, dominions, 
 all heights and depths — then shall it be written in the 
 Lamb's Book cf Life that he shall commit no murder 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 79 
 
 whereby to shed innocent blood, and if ye abide in my 
 covenant, and commit no murder whereby to shed inno- 
 cent blood, it shall be done unto them in all things what- 
 soever my servant hath put upon them, in time and 
 through all eternity, and shall be of full force when they 
 are out of the world ; and they shall pass by the angels 
 and the Gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and 
 glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, 
 which glory shall be a fullness and a continuation of the 
 seeds forever and ever. 
 
 "20. Then shall they be Gods, because they have no 
 end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlast- 
 ing, because they continue ; then shall they be above all, 
 because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they 
 be Gods, because they have all power, and the angels are 
 subject to them. 
 
 "21. Verily, verily I say unto you, that except ye abide 
 
 my law, ye cannot attain to this glory. 
 
 ******** 
 
 "31. This promise is yours also, because ye are of 
 Abraham, and the promise was made unto Abraham ; and 
 by this law are the continuation of the works of my 
 Father, wherein he glorifieth himself. 
 
 "32. Go ye, therefore, and: do the works of Abraham ; 
 enter ye into my law and ye shall be saved. 
 
 "33. But if ye enter not into my law, ye cannot receive 
 the promise of my Father, which he made unto Abraham. 
 
 "34. God commanded Abraham, and Sarah gave Hagar 
 to Abraham to wife. And why did she do it? Because 
 this was the law, and from Hagar sprang many people. 
 This, therefore, was fulfilling, among other things, the 
 promises. 
 
 "35. Was Abraham, therefore, under condemnation? 
 
80 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Verily, I say unto you, Nay, for I, the Lord, com- 
 manded it. 
 
 "35. Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac; 
 nevertheless, it was written, thou shalt not kill. Abra- 
 ham, however, did not refuse, and it was accounted unto 
 him for righteousness. 
 
 "37. Abraham received concubines, and they bear him 
 children, and it was accounted unto him for righteous- 
 ness, because they were given unto him, and he abode in 
 my law, as Isaac, also, and Jacob did none other things 
 than that which they were commanded ; and because they 
 did none other things than that which they were com- 
 manded, they have entered into their exaltation, accord- 
 ing to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not 
 angels, but are Gods. 
 
 "38. David also received many wives and concubines, 
 as also Solomon and Moses, my servants; as also many 
 other servants, from the beginning of creation until this 
 time; and in nothing did they sin, save in those things 
 which they received not of me. 
 
 "39. David's wives and concubines were given unto 
 him, of me, by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and 
 others of the prophets who had the keys of this power ; 
 and in none of these things did he sin against me, save in 
 the case of Uriah and his wife; and therefore he hath 
 fallen from his exaltation, and received his portion; and 
 he shall not inherit them out of the world ; for I gave them 
 unto another, saith the Lord." 
 
 As Smith had begun the practice of polygamy before 
 he had this "revelation/' and as his wife, Emma, threat- 
 ened to make trouble in the family, "the Lord" gave 
 Smith a special "revelation" for her benefit, to quiet her 
 compunctions of conscience, in which he said : 
 
 "54. And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 81 
 
 abide and cleave unto my servant, Joseph, and to none 
 else. But if she will not abide this commandment, she 
 shall be destroyed, saith the Lord ; for I am the Lord, thy 
 God, and will destroy her, if she abide not in my law ; 
 
 "55. But if she will not abide this commandment, then 
 shall my servant, Joseph, do all things for her, even as he 
 hath said ; and I will bless him and multiply him and give 
 unto him an hundred-fold in this world, of fathers and 
 mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives 
 and children, and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal 
 worlds. 
 
 "56. And again, verily I say, let mine handmaid forgive 
 my servant Joseph, his trespasses ; and then shall she be 
 forgiven her trespasses, wherein she hath trespassed 
 against me ; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her and 
 multiply her, and make her heart to rejoice." 
 
 The "revelation" continues: 
 
 "61. And again, as pertaining to the law of the Priest- 
 hood : If any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse 
 another, and the first give her consent ; and if he espouse 
 the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no 
 other man, then he is justified ; he cannot commit adultery, 
 for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit 
 adultery with that that belongeth unto him, and to no one 
 else. 
 
 "62. And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this 
 law he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, 
 and they are given unto him, therefore he is justified. 
 
 "63. But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she 
 is espoused, be with another man, she hath committed 
 adultery, and she shall be destroyed ; for they are given 
 unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according 
 to my commandment, and to fulfill the promise which 
 was given by my Father before the foundation of the 
 
82 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 world ; and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that 
 
 they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work 
 
 of my Father continued, that he may be glorified." 
 The concluding paragraph of the section reads : 
 "66. And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily, 
 
 I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; 
 
 therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am 
 
 Alpha and Omega. Amen." 
 
 I cannot discuss the doctrine of polygamy at any 
 
 length now. I only want to call attention to a few points 
 
 in the above "revelation." 
 
 1. According to it every Mormon is required to believe 
 in polygamy under penalty of damnation if he does not. 
 
 2. Those who believe in and practice polygamy "shall 
 be Gods." They shall "sit upon thrones, and are not 
 angels, but are Gods." 
 
 3. It contains an appeal to Smith's wife, Emma, to 
 forgive him his "trespasses," showing that he acknowl- 
 edged his trespasses against her. And thus the shame 
 of the founder of Mormonism is recorded in one of its 
 sacred books to stand forever against him as a brand of 
 infamy. 
 
 But, as we have seen, the attempt of Smith to put his 
 doctrine into practice led to his death at the hands of an 
 infuriated mob. The doctrine itself was not published 
 until nine years later. It was openly proclaimed in 1852 
 by Brigham Young, after he was securely settled in 
 Utah, where he thought himself beyond the power of 
 the United States laws. It was intended as a justification 
 of his own course. In order to give effect to it, he com- 
 manded other Mormon leaders to take to themselves 
 polygamous wives. This they did very reluctantly at 
 first. But the practice grew both in extent and in bold- 
 ness. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— LAWS AGAINST POLYGAMY— 
 CULLOM LAW — EDMUNDS LAW — ED- 
 MUNDS-TUCKER LAW, 
 
 When the people of the United States realized that 
 there was in their land a body of people guilty of the 
 grossest immorality under the name of religion, they felt 
 a thrill of horror and they determined to check it. The 
 first anti-polygamy law was passed by Congress, July I, 
 1862. It is known as the Cullom law. It reads as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "Every person having a husband or wife living who 
 marries another, whether married or single, in a territory, 
 or other place over which the United States have exclu- 
 sive jurisdiction, is guilty of bigamy, and shall be pun- 
 ished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, and 
 by imprisonment for a term not more than five years ; but 
 this section shall not extend to any person by reason of 
 any former marriage whose husband or wife by such 
 marriage is absent for five successive years, and is not 
 known to such person to be living; nor to any person "by 
 reason of any former marriage which has been dissolved 
 by decree of a competent court; nor to any person by 
 reason of any former marriage which has been pronounced 
 void by decree of a competent court on the ground of nul- 
 lity of the marriage contract." (Revised Statutes of the 
 U. S., Second Edition, 1878.) 
 
 In 1880 Governor Eli H. Murray, of Kentucky, then 
 Governor of Utah, refused a certificate of election to Con- 
 
 83 
 
84 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 gress to George Q. Cannon, on the ground that he had 
 violated this law. The women of the country interested 
 themselves in the matter. Congress declined to seat Mr. 
 Cannon, and he was compelled to return home and look 
 after his growing family. But as the Mormons used 
 every artifice to evade this law, Congress, on March 
 22, 1882, passed a much more stringent one, known as 
 the Edmunds law, which reads as follows : 
 
 "Be it enacted, etc., That section fifty-three hundred 
 and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States 
 be and the same is hereby amended as follows, namely : 
 
 "Section 1. Every person who has a husband or wife 
 living, who, in a territory or other place over which the 
 United States have exclusive jurisdiction, hereafter mar- 
 ries another, whether married or single, and any man who 
 hereafter, simultaneously, or on the same day, marries 
 more than one woman, in a territory or other place over 
 which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, is 
 guilty of polygamy, and shall be punished by a fine of not 
 more than five hundred dollars and by imprisonment for 
 a term of not more than five years. 
 
 "Sec. 2. That the foregoing provisions shall not affect 
 the prosecution or punishment of any offense committed 
 against the section amended by the first section of this act. 
 
 "Sec. 3. That if any male person, in a territory or other 
 place over which the United States have exclusive juris- 
 diction, hereafter cohabits with more than one woman, he 
 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction 
 thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than three 
 hundred dollars, or by imprisonment of not more than 
 six months, or by both said punishments in the discretion 
 of the court." 
 
 Then follow a number of other sections, nine in all 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER, 85 
 
 which are too long and hardly of sufficient importance to 
 quote in full. I give the substance of them: 
 
 Section 4 provides that the counts in sections 1 and 3 
 may be joined. 
 
 Section 5 provides that a person guilty of bigamy 
 or unlawful cohabitation, as denned in sections 1 and 3, 
 or who "believes it right for a man to have more than one 
 living and undivorced wife at the same time, or to live 
 in the practice of cohabiting with more than one woman," 
 may be challenged and questioned and disqualified for 
 service on jury. 
 
 Section 6 provides that the President may grant am- 
 nesty to persons guilty of bigamy, etc., before the passage 
 of this act. 
 
 Section 7 provides that the children of Mormon mar- 
 riages before January, 1883, shall be made legitimate. 
 
 Section 8 provides that bigamists, etc., shall be disquali- 
 fied as voters and ineligible to appointments. 
 
 Section 9 provides for a board to take the place of the 
 registration and election officers who are declared out of 
 office, and fixes the salary of members of the board. 
 
 The essential difference between this law and the one 
 passed in 1862 is the clause condemning unlawful cohabi- 
 tation. (Supplement to Revised Statutes of U. S., Vol. I., 
 Second Edition, 74-91.) 
 
 But even the Edmunds law, stringent as it was, did not 
 seem to accomplish its purpose. There were loop holes 
 in it through which the Mormons could escape. So on 
 March 3, 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed as 
 an amendment to the Edmunds Act of 1882. 
 
 This is quite long, embracing twenty-seven sections. 
 I can give only the substance of some of them bearing 
 especially on the subject of polygamy, etc. 
 
86 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Paragraph I provides that in prosecutions for bigamy, 
 etc., the husband or wife may testify, but not to confiden- 
 tial communications between them. 
 
 Paragraph 2 provides for the issuance of an attachment 
 when it is believed that a witness will fail to appear. 
 
 Paragraph 9 requires that certificates of marriage shall 
 be filed by anyone performing the marriage ceremony 
 in the territories of the United States, such certificates 
 to be prima facie evidence of marriage. This section also 
 provides that those who violate its provisions shall be 
 "punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by im- 
 prisonment not longer than two years, or by both said 
 punishments, in the discretion of the court." 
 
 Paragraph 10 provides that any legal evidence of mar- 
 riage may be admissible. 
 
 Paragraph 1 1 provides that the laws of Utah allowing 
 illegitimate children to inherit the property of their 
 father shall be annulled, which provision, however, was 
 not to be retroactive. 
 
 Then follow several sections with reference to the prop- 
 erty rights of persons in Utah. 
 
 Paragraph 17 provides for the abolition of the "acts 
 of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Utah, in- 
 corporating, continuing or providing for the corporation 
 known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
 Saints and the ordinance of the so-called general assem- 
 bly of the State of Deseret incorporating the Church of 
 Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," and provides for 
 winding up its affairs. 
 
 Paragraph 22 provides that the election districts shall 
 be abolished, the Territory redistricted, and that only 
 citizens of the United States shall be entitled to vote. 
 
 Paragraph 23 requires that an oath shall be taken before 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 87 
 
 voting, in which every person shall swear to support the 
 Constitution of the United States, and to faithfully obey 
 the laws thereof, and especially the Edmunds Act of 1882, 
 and provides that jurors shall be required to do the same. 
 It goes on to say : 
 
 "No person shall be entitled to vote in any election in 
 said territory, or be capable of jury service, or hold any 
 office of trust or emolument in said territory, who shall 
 not have taken the oath or affirmation aforesaid. No 
 person who shall have been convicted of any crime under 
 this act, or under the act of Congress aforesaid, approved 
 March 22, 1882, or who shall be a polygamist, or who 
 shall associate with or cohabit polygamously with persons 
 of the other sex, shall be entitled to vote in any election 
 in said territory, or be capable of jury service, or hold 
 any office of trust or emolument in said territory." 
 
 This law was so minute in its provisions as to cover 
 every conceivable case of polygamy or unlawful cohabita- 
 tion, and also so stringent that it could not be evaded. It 
 produced the greatest consternation in the Mormon ranks. 
 Many arrests were made for polygamy, unlawful cohabi- 
 tation, etc. The courts and juries being taken out of 
 Mormon hands, conviction followed arrest. 
 
 To Judge John W. Judd, now of Nashville, but who 
 was at that time Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of Utah, is due especial credit for enforcing the law 
 and thus shattering the almost impregnable organization 
 of the Mormons. 
 
 John Taylor had succeeded Brigham Young in 1877 
 as head of the church. After the passage of the Edmunds 
 Act he fled to Mexico to escape its provisions and died 
 there in 1886, a fugitive from justice. He was succeeded 
 by Wilford Woodruff. He followed the example set by 
 
88 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 his predecessor, and after the passage of the Edmunds- 
 Tucker Act he went in hiding to evade the punishment 
 it provided for all who violated it, as he was constantly 
 doing. 
 
 George Q. Cannon, who stood second to Wilford 
 Woodruff in authority, and the delegate from the Terri- 
 tory of Utah to Congress, fled from Utah, but he was 
 arrested at Denver and sent back. On the way to Salt 
 Lake City he complained of being sick, went to the rear 
 platform of the train and fell (?) off. But the officer 
 fell ( ?) too. Mr. Cannon was brought back, put under 
 a $40,000 bond, which he jumped, but afterward he re- 
 turned, was sentenced and sent to the United States 
 penitentiary. 
 
 Mr. Brigham H. Roberts, the polygamous Congress- 
 man-elect to the Fifty-sixth Congress, took every one of 
 his plural wives in violation of the Edmunds and Ed- 
 munds-Tucker laws. He served a term in the peniten- 
 tiary for polygamy, and when he came out he showed his 
 defiance of the law by taking another wife. This is the 
 man who went to Washington asking a seat in Congress 
 to make laws for the people of this country ! 
 
 Dr. T. C. Iliff, Superintendent of Methodist Missions 
 in Utah and Presiding Elder of the Salt Lake City dis- 
 trict, and who has spent twenty-eight years in Utah, 
 recently delivered a very interesting lecture in the Tulip 
 Street Methodist Church, Nashville, in the course of 
 which he said that about this time he was chaplain of the 
 United States penitentiary, and that he had a very distin- 
 guished audience, which included one apostle, about forty 
 or fifty bishops and innumerable elders — all in prison 
 garb. These men, who were convicted of breaking the 
 law, all had the opportunity to escape by promising to 
 
LORENZO SNOW. 
 PRESENT PRESIDENT. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 89 
 
 obey the law in the future, but they steadfastly refused 
 to do so, preferring to go to the penitentiary rather than 
 give up their habits of polygamy, so strongly did they 
 hold to the doctrine. 
 
 Finding, however, that they could not evade the law, 
 and that it did not pay to defy it, the Mormons decided 
 to try another tack. So in 1890 President Wilford Wood- 
 ruff issued a manifesto to his followers, in which he 
 declared that he proposed to obey the laws and advised 
 every one else to do so. He was asked on the witness 
 stand if his proclamation was intended to cover future 
 plural marriages. He said it did. Again, he was asked 
 if it was intended to cover unlawful cohabitation as 
 denned by the Edmunds-Tucker law. He said it did. 
 
 Lorenzo Snow, the present head of the church, who 
 succeeded Wilford Woodruff in 1898, also testified to the 
 same effect. 
 
 In 1891 an amnesty was granted by President Harrison 
 to those Mormons who were in exile and in the peniten- 
 tiary. This was done on the most solemn promise of the 
 Mormon leaders, pledging their "faith and honor" that 
 old polygamous relations should cease and that no new 
 polygamous marriages would be consummated— in other 
 words, that they would obey the laws. 
 
 Two great conferences of the Mormon people held in 
 the tabernacle in October, 1890, and October, 1891, sol- 
 emnly and unanimously ratified this action of their lead- 
 ers. In order to get back the church property which had 
 been confiscated by the United States Government in the 
 Edmunds-Tucker Act, the Mormon Church pledged itself 
 that "the rightfulness of the doctrine of polygamy shall 
 not be inculcated"— that is, that it should not even be 
 taught. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 ITS HISTORY— STATEHOOD— POLYGAMY PRO- 
 HIBITED—POLYGAMY PRACTICED. 
 
 Having quieted the public conscience by such profuse 
 promises, the Mormons then began to apply for statehood 
 for Utah. The evident purpose of this action was to get 
 out from under the jurisdiction of the United States 
 Courts and have the privilege of making their own laws 
 and choosing their own judges and jurors. 
 
 On December 12, 1893, Mr. J. L. Rawlins, now United 
 States Senator from Utah, then delegate to Congress from 
 the Territory of Utah, pledged on the floor of the House 
 of Representatives, on behalf of the leaders of the Mor- 
 mon Church, that if Utah should be admitted to the Union 
 as a State, polygamy would be forever abolished by the 
 people of that State. 
 
 In view of all these solemn pledges, and as both political 
 parties wished to conciliate the Mormons and secure their 
 votes — because they are accustomed to vote solidly, one 
 way or the other — Congress, on July 16, 1894, passed the 
 Enabling Act, granting statehood to Utah. But to be on 
 the safe side, it accompanied the grant with the following 
 provision, as a condition precedent to admission: 
 
 "And said [constitutional] convention shall provide, by 
 ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United 
 States and the people of said State — First, That perfect 
 toleration of religious sentiment be secured, and that no 
 inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person 
 or property on account of his or her mode of religious 
 
 90 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 91 
 
 worship ; provided, that polygamous or plural marriages 
 are forever prohibited." 
 
 The constitutional convention of Utah, in accordance 
 with this condition, incorporated into the Constitution a 
 clause forever prohibiting the practice of polygamy with- 
 in the bounds of that State. The following is the clause : 
 
 "The following ordinance shall be irrevocable without 
 the consent of the United States and the people of this 
 State : First— Perfect toleration of religious sentiment is 
 guaranteed. No inhabitant of this State shall ever be 
 molested in person or property on account of his or her 
 mode of religious worship, but polygamous or plural mar- 
 riages are forever prohibited." 
 
 This, as is seen, is almost an exact copy of the clause 
 on the subject of polygamy in the Enabling Act, showing 
 how thoroughly the people of Utah, of whom about five- 
 sixths are Mormons, agreed to accept its provisions. 
 
 Mr. B. H. Roberts, afterwards the Congressman-elect 
 from Utah, was a prominent member of the constitutional 
 convention which adopted this clause. 
 
 The same constitutional convention provided that all 
 laws of the territory in force at the time the Constitution 
 was adopted should remain in force until they expired by 
 their own limitations or were altered or repealed by the 
 Legislature. Among these laws is the one against "un- 
 lawful co-habitation," found in section 3 of the Edmunds 
 law already quoted. The Legislature of Utah incorpo- 
 rated this law into the penal code of the State. 
 
 It reads as follows : 
 
 "If any male person cohabits with more than one 
 woman he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on con- 
 viction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more 
 than $300, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not 
 
92 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 more than six months, or by both said punishments, in the 
 discretion of the Court." (Revised Statutes of Utah, 1898, 
 p. 900, section 4209.) 
 
 The Mormons accepted these conditions. Of course 
 they did. They would have accepted any conditions to 
 get statehood. What did they care for conditions when 
 such a big prize was at stake ? Conditions, pledges, prom- 
 ises, are made only to be broken anyhow — by Mormons. 
 
 Brigham Young had said in a sermon delivered in the 
 Salt Lake Tabernacle, July 12, 1875 : 
 
 "Do not be discouraged by your repeated failures to 
 get into the Union as a State. We shall succeed, we shall 
 pull the wool over the eyes of the American people and 
 make them swallow Mormonism, polygamy and all. 
 
 "We shall drop the old issue between the Mormons and 
 the Liberals in Utah, ally ourselves with the two great 
 national parties, dividing ourselves about equally — so as 
 to fall in with the one in power. We don't know and we 
 don't care about the issues. We must be at peace with 
 them in order to get into the Union. After that we can 
 snap our fingers in their faces, restore the good old 
 times when we dwelt undisturbed in these valleys of the 
 mountains, and cast out devils as we used to do." 
 
 But statehood was granted. The Mormons at last 
 received their coveted prize. They were removed from 
 under the jurisdiction of the United States Government 
 and were given the privilege to make their own laws, with 
 all the powers of a sovereign State. What followed? 
 They at once proceeded to teach polygamy all over the 
 State and to resume their polygamous practices, "snapped 
 their fingers" defiantly in the face of Congress and said : 
 "Now, what are you going to do about it?" Brigham 
 Young's prophesy became history — for one time. The 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 93 
 
 "good old times" were restored. Missionaries from all 
 over Utah testified that old conditions were being revived 
 and that the Mormon leaders were violating their solemn 
 pledges. 
 
 When attention was called to this condition of things 
 the Deseret News, of Salt Lake City, the official organ of 
 the Mormon Church, gave lengthy editorial space to a de- 
 fense of such lawless course, claiming that there was at 
 the time of admission "a tacit understanding, not to say 
 contract, that the dead strife [prosecution for polygamy] 
 should be buried ; that family obligations [meaning poly- 
 gamous marriages] already entered into and maintained 
 for years should not be disrupted." Upon the same sub- 
 ject Mr. B. H. Roberts said : "Technically a law [against 
 cohabitation with plural wives] crept into our statute 
 books. * * * That law has not been executed, and, like 
 some of the blue laws of Connecticut, which exist on the 
 statute books under similar circumstances, it has not been 
 enforced." (See Salt Lake Herald, Nov. 6, 1898.) All 
 this is, of course, in effect admitting that both the pre- 
 tended constitutional and the legal prohibition of 
 polygamy were a mere farce to deceive the nation and 
 secure statehood for Utah — or, to use Brigham Young's 
 elegant phrases, the purpose of their adoption was simply 
 to "pull the wool over the eyes of the American people 
 and make them swallow Mormonism, polygamy and all." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ITS HISTORY— THE ROBERTS CASE— ARGU- 
 MENTS FOR AND AGAINST—EXCLUDED 
 FROM CONGRESS. 
 
 In addition to all the violations of their solemn pledges 
 upon the subject of polygamy mentioned in the last chap- 
 ter, and as if to throw down the gauntlet to the American 
 people, the Mormons in November, 1898, elected Mr. 
 Brigham H. Roberts as their representative in the Fifty- 
 sixth Congress. As this case attracted the attention of the 
 whole country, I shall discuss it somewhat in detail. Mr. 
 Roberts is a prominent Mormon elder and the author of 
 one of their standard books, called "New Witness for 
 God," which lies before me. In this he uses all the arts 
 of sophistry and of ingenuity to prove that Joseph Smith 
 is that "New Witness." I shall have occasion to quote 
 from the book later on other points. We are concerned 
 now only with his belief and practice as to polygamy. 
 He was an avowed polygamist, having at least three 
 wives. All of his polygamous wives, if they may be 
 called such, he married since the Edmunds anti-polygamy 
 law of 1882, or since the congressional anti-polygamy law 
 of 1862, and hence his marriages were all consummated 
 in the open and willful defiance of law, as well as in the 
 willful defiance of the sense of morality of the American 
 people. He was convicted of living with a plural wife 
 prior to the amnesty proclamation of President Benjamin 
 Harrison, January 4, 1893, and of President Grover 
 Cleveland, September 25, 1894, for which offense he 
 
 94 
 
. THE MORMON MONSTER. 95 
 
 served a term of imprisonment, to which he was sentenced 
 on May 1, 1889. He confessedly lived with plural wives 
 and begat polygamous children since November 1, 1890, 
 and had not therefore complied with the conditions of 
 either of the said amnesty proclamations. 
 
 His election aroused the intensest indignation all over 
 the country. It seemed a deliberate attempt to carry out 
 Brigham Young's threat to "pull the wool over the eyes 
 of the American people and make them swallow Mormon- 
 ism, polygamy and all." 
 
 The Ministers' Association of Salt Lake City sent out 
 tract after tract giving information upon the subject. 
 Dr. T. C. Iliff and Rev. Wm. R. Campbell, of the Associa- 
 tion, came east and by their speeches and their persuasion 
 fanned the interest into a flame. The League for Social 
 Service of. New York City, Dr. Josiah Strong, Secretary, 
 took up the fight and flooded the country with pamphlets 
 bearing on it. The women of the country became 
 aroused and exerted all of their mighty influence against 
 Mr. Roberts. Miss Helen Gould supplied the funds nec- 
 essary to employ attorneys and for other expenses in 
 carrying on the fight. Conventions, associations, con- 
 ferences, synods, presbyteries and churches of all denomi- 
 nations passed resolutions against the seating of Mr. 
 Roberts. Petition after petition was sent to the members 
 of Congress requesting them to vote against his being 
 seated. Public sentiment was never so aroused and cer- 
 tainly never so thoroughly unanimous upon any subject in 
 this country. 
 
 To try to stem the tide Mr. Roberts gave out an inter- 
 view about the first of the year 1899, in which he said : 
 
 "Joseph Smith received a commandment from the Lord 
 to introduce our order of marriage into the church, and 
 
96 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 on this strength of revelation, and not by reason of any- 
 thing that is written in the Jewish Scriptures, the Latter 
 Day Saints practice plural marriages. Polygamy is not 
 adultery, for if it were so considered, then Abraham, 
 Jacob and the prophets who practiced it would not be 
 allowed a heritance in the kingdom of heaven, and if 
 polygamy is not adultery, then it cannot be classed as a 
 sin at all. It appears to me that modern Christians must 
 either learn to tolerate polygamy or give up forever the 
 glorious hope of resting in Abraham's bosom. 
 
 'That which God approves, and so strikingly approves, 
 must be not only not bad, but positively good, pure and 
 holy. Notwithstanding this, however, the hand of the 
 Gentiles was laid so heavy upon the people of the Lord 
 that in his mercy God permitted them to cease therefrom 
 from expediency, and true to the pledges given by the 
 church no polygamous marriages have since been cele- 
 brated by the church. But not even the church can take 
 away from a man the wives it has already given him. 
 They are his for time and eternity, and I think that the 
 great, broad-minded and just people will not require a 
 man to cast off the wives he has, with whom he has lived, 
 nor to abandon his children." 
 
 At the most, Mr. Roberts said, his offense was unlawful 
 co-habitation, and he remarked: "I am here and the 
 courts are open. If anyone wants to test the point, the 
 way is clear." 
 
 This interview only added fuel to the flames. It will be 
 seen that Mr. Roberts not only admitted that he was a 
 polygamist, but he defended polygamy as "positively good, 
 pure and holy," on the grounds that Joseph Smith re- 
 ceived it "as a commandment from the Lord." He even 
 went so far as to condemn Christians who do not believe 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 97 
 
 in polygamy, saying that they "must either learn to toler- 
 ate polygamy or give up the glorious hope of resting in 
 Abraham's bosom." Mr. Roberts thus defied not only 
 the Christian and moral sentiment of this country, but 
 also the legal sentiment as expressed in the Edmunds- 
 Tucker act, forbidding polygamous marriages, and also as 
 embodied in the Constitution of his own State, which 
 declared against such marriages as a condition of the 
 admission of the State into the Union. 
 
 I was in Salt Lake City during the height of the excite- 
 ment in regard to the Roberts case, just a few weeks be- 
 fore the meeting of Congress. 
 
 While there I made a special study of the case. In fact, 
 that was largely my purpose in going to Salt Lake City 
 at that time. It may be of interest to give the result of 
 my observations as to how the case was viewed out there. 
 It was the one universal theme of conversation. It was 
 discussed on the streets, in the hotels and in the stores. 
 Wherever two or three were gathered together in Salt 
 Lake City there was the Roberts case discussed. The 
 papers every day contained column after column upon the 
 subject in their news department and usually had an edi- 
 torial or two about it also. The almost universal opinion 
 and wish among non-Mormons, irrespective of party, 
 was that Roberts would be unseated, and there were a good 
 many Mormons who felt the same way. But the genuine 
 Mormon stood by him very earnestly and hoped to see 
 him seated. 
 
 I shall condense the arguments on both sides and shall 
 try to consider them as fairly and fully as practicable. 
 
 First, then, the case for Roberts. 
 
 1. Mr. Roberts was legally elected, receiving a majority 
 of about 6,000 in the State of Utah. (The population of 
 
98 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the State entitles it to only one representative in Con- 
 gress.) His credentials were perfectly regular — as regu- 
 lar as those of any other member-elect of the Fifty-sixth 
 Congress. His opponent did not even contest the seat. 
 He, however, was himself a Mormon. 
 
 2. Mr. Roberts contended that all the agreement which 
 was entered into between Utah and the Government of 
 the United States when the former was admitted to state- 
 hood was that there should be no more polygamous mar- 
 riages in the future, and that this agreement had been 
 faithfully carried out by the people of Utah. 
 
 3. He claimed that he was elected as a Democrat by 
 Democratic votes and that nether the Mormon church 
 nor polygamy had anything to do with his election. 
 
 4. He claimed also that he was not guilty of polygamy, 
 by which term Mr. Roberts and other Mormons under- 
 stand, not living with more than one wife, as other people 
 understand it to mean, but marrying more than one 
 wife. He admitted, or at least he had previously admitted, 
 that he was living with three wives. But he claimed that 
 he married them all before the manifesto in 1890, and 
 also, of course, before statehood. 
 
 5. He said that he promised to be a husband to them 
 and he did not think that it would be just to them for him 
 to cast them off. 
 
 6. At the most his offense, he claimed, was only a mis- 
 demeanor, under the laws of Utah, and he could be pun- 
 ished for it before the courts, if desired. 
 
 7. Besides, he was no worse than other men. If Miss 
 Helen Gould and others who were fighting him wanted to 
 punish immorality, they could find plenty of it at their 
 own doors. It was also intimated, and by some it was 
 openly said, that Mr. Roberts was no worse than other 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 99 
 
 congressmen. The only difference was that he took his 
 wives openly and they took theirs secretly. 
 
 As far as I can recall, these are all the arguments made 
 by Mr. Roberts and his friends in his behalf. Really, his 
 case seemed a strong one. Now, what were the answers 
 to these arguments? Let us consider the case against 
 Roberts. 
 
 i. It was admitted that he was legally elected and that 
 on their face his credentials were all right. 
 
 2. It was not admitted, however, that all the agreement 
 entered into between Utah and the United States when 
 Utah was admitted to statehood was simply that there 
 should be no more polygamous marriages in the State. 
 On the contrary, it was pointed out that the Mormon 
 leaders on the witness stand distinctly interpreted the 
 manifesto of President Woodruff as referring not only to 
 future polygamous marriages, but also to continued po- 
 lygamous cohabitation. The language of both President 
 Woodruff himself and also President Snow was taken 
 down and lies before me as I write. It was shown also 
 that President Harrison in his proclamation of January 4, 
 1893, expressly conditioned the grant of amnesty to the 
 citizens of Utah upon "the faithful observance of the laws 
 of the United States against unlawful cohabitation," not 
 against new polygamous marriages, and that President 
 Cleveland repeated the same condition in his proclama- 
 tion of September 24, 1894, thus indicating the under- 
 standing which the United States Government had of the 
 matter. It was also shown that the Legislature of Utah, 
 as an expression of its good faith, passed a law against 
 unlawful cohabitation as well as against future polyga- 
 mous marriages. The Mormons claimed that this law was 
 intended to be a dead letter. In other words, it was in- 
 
ioo THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 tended only for foreign consumption. Its purpose was to 
 deceive the people of the United States by making them 
 believe that there was no polygamous cohabitation being 
 practiced in the State, while they would go on practicing 
 it all the time, and no one at home would say anything 
 about it. They were exceedingly indignant at Mr. Charles 
 Mostyn Owen, representative of the New York Journal, 
 for exposing their deception. The very fact, however, 
 that the Legislature of Utah passed the law against un- 
 lawful cohabitation shows the understanding which the 
 people of Utah had of the compact made by them with 
 the United States Government. 
 
 3. It was admitted that Mr. Roberts was nominated as 
 a Democrat, but it was not admitted that the Mormon 
 Church did not have anything to do with his election. 
 On the contrary, the following facts were given: (a) 
 Some of the most prominent Democrats in the State were 
 among his strongest opponents. In fact, about every 
 Gentile in Utah, Democrat as well as Republican, was 
 against him.. Some of these voted for him, but they 
 said they did so for the purpose of testing the question 
 of whether a polygamist could hold a federal office, 
 (b) The one paper in the United States which did more 
 against Mr. Roberts than any other was a Democratic 
 paper, the New York Journal, (c) The curious spec- 
 tacle was presented of the Democratic organ, the Salt 
 Lake Herald, having very little to say about the matter, 
 and almost nothing in the defense of Mr. Roberts, while 
 the organ of the Mormon Church, the Deseret Evening 
 News took the deepest interest in the case and was the 
 recognized champion of Mr. Roberts, (d) When sev- 
 eral years ago Mr. Roberts fell out with the church lead- 
 ers and ran for office without first having obtained their 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 101 
 
 consent, he was overwhelmingly defeated, while this time 
 he was overwhelmingly elected. From this fact many be- 
 lieved and charged that the church was back of Mr. Rob- 
 erts, and that its purpose was to test public sentiment 
 upon the subject of polygamy, and if it was found that 
 the time was ripe for it, to have the Legislature of the 
 State repeal the law against unlawful cohabitation, and 
 .perhaps also to resume their new polygamous marriages. 
 I am not sure about this, but there could be no question 
 that the Mormons still believe in polygamy; that it is a 
 part of their religion, as they say; that many are still 
 practicing polygamous cohabitation; that the manifesto 
 of President Woodruff did not abolish the principle of 
 polygamy, but only suspended its practice for the sake of 
 expediency ; that there had been at least two polygamous 
 marriages among the Mormons in the last three years, 
 and that the church had honored, rather than punished, 
 those who engaged in them. Putting all these things 
 together, it certainly looks as if there were some ground, 
 to say the least, for the charge that the Mormon Church 
 was back of the election of Mr. Roberts. 
 
 4. Mr. Roberts may not be a polygamist, as he under- 
 stands the word. But the following facts would seem to 
 indicate it to an ordinary mind : (a) He has three living 
 wives. Their names are Louisa Roberts, whom he claims 
 as his legal wife, according to an oath taken by him in 
 1895, and a fac simile of which is in my possession ; Celia 
 Dibble Roberts r and Dr. Margaret C. Shipp Roberts. 
 All of these he married after the Edmunds act of 1882, 
 or certainly since the Congressional law of 1862. (b) On 
 May 1, 1889, he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment 
 for living in unlawful cohabitation with more than one 
 wife, and served out his term, (c) When he came out 
 
102 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 of prison he showed his contempt for the law by taking 
 a new wife, Dr. Maggie C. Shipp. Just when he married 
 her is not known. He claimed that he did so before the 
 manifesto of President Woodruff in 1890. But while he 
 was in prison Mr. Shipp was tried, as the records show, 
 for living in unlawful cohabitation with Dr. Maggie C. 
 Shipp and others. And it was not until 1897 that Mrs. 
 Shipp took the name of Mrs. Roberts, (d) That he was 
 living in unlawful- cohabitation with them is proven by 
 the fact that in 1895 Celia Dibble gave birth to a child, 
 and on August 11, 1897, she gave birth to what were 
 known as the "famous twins." 
 
 5. No one demanded that Air. Roberts cast off his plu- 
 ral wives. Every one said that he should support them. 
 But it was demanded by public sentiment, as well as by 
 decency, that he should not continue living in unlawful 
 cohabitation with them. 
 
 6. Mr. Roberts said that his offense was only a mis- 
 demeanor. That is true, according to the laws of Utah. 
 But in saying that he admitted that he was a law breaker, 
 and the people of this country do not want a constant 
 and flagrant and defiant law breaker to be a law maker for 
 them. He was very free to suggest that he cpuld be tried 
 in the courts of Utah for the offense. But at the same 
 time he was very careful to keep out of the way of those 
 courts. He knew that there was an indictment pending 
 against him for unlawful cohabitation, and it was to 
 avoid that indictment that he left Utah several months 
 before the meeting of Congress and remained away until 
 his case was disposed of in Washington, 
 
 7. His claim that he was no worse than other men did 
 not palliate his offense. And the claim of his friends 
 that he was no worse than other Congressmen was a reflec- 
 
MAN'S ENDOWMENT CAP. 
 
 REVEALED FIG LEAF APRON. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 103 
 
 tion upon our Congressmen which I do not believe. That 
 may be true of some Congressmen, but it is certainly not 
 true of all. Besides, their offense, if such it be, is not 
 open and flagrant. If it should become so it would create 
 as great a wave of public indignation as existed against 
 Mr. Roberts, if not greater. Witness the case of Col. 
 W. C. P. Breckinridge. 
 
 8. Deny it, disguise it as he might, the issue which the 
 election of Mr. Roberts forced upon the American people 
 was, Shall polygamy continue to be tolerated in this 
 country ? 
 
 In an address is'sued by the Salt Lake Ministerial 
 Association to the people of this country these ministers 
 said: 
 
 "If Mr. Roberts is permitted to remain in Congress, 
 and we fail to get a constitutional amendment prohibit- 
 ing the practice of polygamy, this anti-American institu- 
 tion will fasten itself upon this inter-mountain region, 
 whence it will ultimately spread throughout the country, 
 until some day the American people will have to rise in 
 their might and crush it in order to prevent this nation 
 from crumbling into dust. In the meantime thousands 
 of hearts will be broken and multitudes of souls will be 
 sacrificed to the demon of deified lust, while the very name 
 of this fair land will come very near becoming a reproach 
 in the eyes of the civilized world." 
 
 From 20,000,000 homes and 70,000,000 throats all over 
 the land the cry came in thunder tones that such a man, 
 representing such an issue, must not be allowed to sit in 
 our Congressional halls and help to make our national 
 laws. 
 
 When Congress met on December 4, 1899, the most 
 prominent question before it was as to whether Mr. 
 
104 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Roberts should be seated or not. When he presented 
 himself to take the oath of office his right to do so was 
 challenged by Hon. Robert W. Taylor, of Ohio. By a 
 vote of 302 to 30 he was refused the privilege of taking 
 the oath, and the case was referred to a special committee 
 of nine members, with Mr. Taylor as chairman. This 
 committee was unanimous against allowing him to retain 
 his seat. The only question was as to whether he should 
 be excluded or sworn in and then expelled. Seven mem- 
 bers of the committee favored exclusion and two expul- 
 sion. There were strong arguments on both sides, but 
 by a vote of 268 to 50 the house voted to exclude him. 
 And the fifty who voted for the minority report were 
 not in favor of allowing him to keep his seat. They only 
 thought that it would be better to permit him to be sworn 
 in on the face of his credentials, and then to expel him. 
 So that really he was excluded by a unanimous vote. This 
 shows the strength of public sentiment when it is aroused. 
 
 The following extracts from an eloquent speech de- 
 livered on the floor of the House by Mr. Landis, of In- 
 diana, during the discussion of the Roberts case, will be 
 of interest here : "Pages might be written of the vio- 
 lation of the compact by which Utah was given a star. 
 Mr. Speaker, that star is a fallen star: it does not shine 
 with the brilliancy and luster of her sister stars. It 
 shines by cunning and by deceit, by treachery, by fraud. 
 It speaks of crime and violation of the most solemn 
 covenant ever made between territory and the union. 
 [Applause.] And I charge here that Utah came in as 
 the result of a deliberate conspiracy to free that peo- 
 ple from the heavy hand of the federal authority and thus 
 enable them to live their religion unhindered. 
 
 "The gentleman from Utah, Mr. Roberts, has been 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 105 
 
 particularly severe on the missionaries. I do not won- 
 der at it. The missionary has given attention to the 
 polygamist, has stood in his path, has scattered thorns 
 along his way, and for this he is branded as a spotter, 
 an informer and a spy. History will bear out this state- 
 ment, that although these fanatical priests and their de- 
 luded followers put a thousand miles of trackless wild- 
 erness, a thousand miles of desert waste, infested with 
 savages, between civilization, between their camp of 
 bigotry and crime, yet the distance was not too great 
 nor were the hardships too severe to daunt the spirit of 
 the missionary of the Christian Church. He tracked 
 polygamy and faced it in its lair. The Danites, as cruel 
 and pitiless a band of cut-throats as ever handled the 
 glittering steel, carried on the murderous work of the 
 church. Still the missionary toiled on. The blood aton- 
 ers silenced forever in death the voice of apostacy. The 
 government practically abandoned the field, considering 
 that it was powerless to hinder that monster, fortified 
 in those mountain fastnesses ; but the American Christian 
 missionary with a courage that now seems sublime, with 
 a fidelity to purpose that is now an inspiration, battled 
 on in the fear of God and for the love of humanity. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 "I will say that the people of this country expect us 
 to turn him back," said Mr. Landis, in conclusion. "I 
 protest against his coming in. I protest on behalf of 
 a constituency that has read the Ten Commandments 
 and the Sermon on the Mount. I protest on behalf 
 of the American homes, made beautiful by love and de- 
 votion and holy by the virtue of our womanhood. I 
 protest on behalf of the American mother and her child 
 and the American father who will never consent to 
 
106 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the enthronement and deification of human passion, and 
 of those doomed to illegitimacy. The country is wait- 
 ing for us to act; from New England, whose homes 
 have been made a pattern for this continent, to way 
 down South in Dixie, where honor is religion, where 
 gallantry is law, and virtue is the high ideal of beautiful 
 womanhood, States are waiting to-day, waiting for the 
 American chivalry to speak." [Loud applause.] 
 
 After his exclusion Mr. Roberts issued a statement 
 in which he admitted that there were at that time "i,543 
 polygamous families in the church throughout the 
 world" — nearly all, of course, in Utah. He declared 
 that he was "overwhelmed by the force of numbers, but 
 not dismayed," and returned to Utah — and to his com- 
 plicated domestic relations. Mr. King, a Mormon, but 
 not a polygamist, was elected to succeed him. Soon after 
 his return to Salt Lake City, Mr. Roberts was indicted for 
 living in polygamous cohabitation, pleaded not guilty and 
 was convicted and fined, but appealed his case to a 
 higher court on two grounds: (i.) That he was 
 indicted for living in unlawful cohabitation with 
 more than one woman. But he claimed that one 
 of them was his legal wife, and so living with her 
 was not unlawful cohabitation. (2.) That he was indicted 
 in Salt Lake County for living in unlawful cohabitation 
 with more than one woman. But one of these women 
 lived in another County, and so he could not be found 
 guilty in Salt Lake County of living in unlawful cohabita- 
 tion with more than one woman. Such are the subter- 
 fuges of Mormonism. 
 
 This closes the history of Mormonism to the present. 
 And what a history it has been — a story from beginning 
 to end of imposture, of fraud, of quarrelings, of rebel- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 107 
 
 lion, of bloodshed, of deception, of theft, of murder — 
 in fact of what the Apostle called the "works of the 
 flesh" : "And the works of the flesh are manifest, which 
 are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, Iascivious- 
 ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
 wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
 drunkenness, revellings and such like; of the which I 
 tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, 
 'that they which do such things shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of God." (Gal. v. 19-21.) 
 
 It is the most shameful, the most dreadful, the most 
 infamous history of any people on the face of the globe 
 who profess to march under the sacred banner of Prince 
 Immanuel, and is perhaps not even excelled in infamy 
 by the history of any heathen nation. 
 
 And these are the people who are sending out mis- 
 sionaries all over our land to convert us to their religion ! 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— ITS DOCTRINE AS 
 TO GOD— GOD A MAN— A MARRIED MAN— 
 A POLYGAMIST. 
 
 We have been studying for some time the history of 
 Mormonism, and we have seen what an awful history 
 it is. But, after all, the history of any people is only the 
 expression of their principles, and it is apt to be no better 
 and no worse than those principles. Bad as is the history 
 of Mormonism, it is simply the logical working out of 
 the principles of Mormonism. Let us see what those 
 principles are. I shall take their articles of faith, which 
 the Mormon missionaries carry with them and give to all 
 who will take a copy, and let their own leaders and writers 
 expound them. 
 
 The first article says : 'We believe in God the Eternal 
 Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy 
 Ghost." That certainly sounds all right. But let us see 
 what they mean by it. 
 
 "We believe in God the Eternal Father." What kind 
 of a God? What kind of a Father? This question is 
 fundamental. A person's conception of God underlies all 
 of his theology and gives shape to his own character and 
 conduct. I shall dwell awhile on this point. 
 
 The Bible conception of God is a most exalted one. He 
 is spoken of as infinite, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, 
 pure, holy, the great I Am, the Most High, etc., etc. 
 Christ said, "God is Spirit." The definition given of him 
 by Dr. A. H. Strong in his Systematic Theology is, "God 
 
 108 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 109 
 
 is the infinite and perfect Spirit, in whom all things have 
 their source, support and end." The Westminster Cate- 
 chism defines him as "A Spirit, eternal and unchangeable 
 in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness 
 and truth." Dr. J. P. Boyce says that "God's nature is 
 exclusively spiritual." This is the conception of God uni- 
 versally held among Christians. What is the Mormon 
 conception of God? 
 
 1. They say that God is a man like we are, a man "about 
 six feet high," a man with flesh and bones, though without 
 blood ; a man "with body, parts and passions," to use their 
 favorite expression. 
 
 The Mormon missionaries, as they go around, carry 
 with them a little tract which they offer to leave at every 
 house. It is written, or compiled, by Mr. Ben E. Rich, 
 President of the Mormon Propaganda at Chattanooga. It 
 is called "A Friendly Discussion Upon Religious Sub- 
 jects." It is written in the form of a story. The scene 
 is laid in a "town in the southwestern part of Tennessee, 
 which we will call Westminster." The reference evidently 
 is to Winchester. Several persons take part in the discus- 
 sion. The hero is a "Mr. Durant of Salt Lake City." Mr. 
 Durant is simply a Mormon elder. He represents Mor- 
 monism, and of course tries to uphold its principles. The 
 first point which he attempts to prove is that God has a 
 body, and that he has "parts and passions." His argu- 
 ment is based upon some passages of Scripture which 
 speak of God as speaking face to face with Moses, and 
 as having mouth, eyes, lips and tongue, etc. Many other 
 such passages might have been quoted besides those given 
 by Mr. Durant. They are all evidently used in what the 
 theologians call an anthropomorphic sense — that is, they 
 speak of God as being in the form of a man, as "an accom- 
 
no THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 modation to human thoughts, and to the incapacity of 
 human language to express exclusively divine things." 
 (Boyce). All Christians so understand them. But the 
 Mormons take them in a literal, material sense, and base 
 their whole conceptions of God and their whole system of 
 theology, and indeed their whole conduct, upon them. 
 
 Mr. Durant closes his argument on this point by saying : 
 
 ''And as for passions we are told in the Bible that he 
 (God) exercises love and is a jealous God. Are these 
 not parts and passions? It would appear that all who 
 believe in the Scriptures must conclude that they are parts 
 and passions, and that the Creator is a God after whose 
 likeness we are made." 
 
 These views of "Mr. Durant of Salt Lake City," revolt- 
 ing as they are to all our ideas about God, are the viewa 
 of every Mormon, as indicated over and over again. "Mr, 
 Durant" is only a nom de plume for Mr. Ben E. Rich, 
 President of the Mormon Propaganda in the South, with 
 headquarters in Chattanooga, and so his utterances are 
 official. 
 
 But there is plenty of other evidence on this point, 
 The Mormon Catechism says : 
 
 "What kind of a being is God ?" 
 
 "He is in the form of a man." 
 
 "How do you learn this ?" 
 
 "The Scriptures declare that man was made in the im- 
 age of God." 
 
 "Have you any further proof of God's being in the 
 form of a man ?" 
 
 "Yes. Jesus Christ was in the form of a man, and he 
 was at the same time in the image of God's person." 
 
 "Is it not said that God is a Spirit?" 
 
 "Yes. The Scriptures say so." 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. m 
 
 "How then can God be like man?" 
 "Man has a spirit, though clothed with a body, and 
 God is similarly constituted." 
 "Has God a body then?" 
 "Yes ; like unto man's body in figure." 
 "Is God everywhere present?" 
 "Yes. He is in all parts of the universe." 
 "If God is a person how can He be everywhere pres- 
 ent?" 
 
 "His person cannot be in more than one place at^ a 
 time ; but he is everywhere present by His Holy Spirit." 
 
 This is the doctrine of God the Father taught to Mor- 
 mon children, and believed by every true Mormon. 
 
 Orson Spencer, a prominent Mormon elder, and per- 
 haps the most learned man they have ever had, whose 
 writings are especially commended by Geo. Q. Cannon, 
 said in a series of letters to Rev. William Crowell, then 
 editor of the Watchman, of Boston, which letters have 
 since been published in book form : 
 
 "We believe that God is a being that has both body and 
 parts and also passions. ... A very general con- 
 viction concerning the character of God now is that he is 
 a being without body or parts or passions. A greater ab- 
 surdity cannot be furnished in all the annals of heathen- 
 ism. Even images of wood and brass and stone are 
 scarcely more remote from the picture of the true God 
 than the theory of a passionless, matterless God. . . . 
 The New Testament tells us what his body is like. It is so 
 nearly and exactly like the body of Christ that there is no 
 difference. Paul says that Christ was the express image 
 of his person. It is then beyond all dispute that the body 
 and person of Jesus Christ and the Father are alike. 
 One is the express image of the other. If one 
 
1 12 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 has a fleshy, material body, the other has. If one resem- 
 bles in stature the seed of the woman, the other wears the 
 same resemblance. ... If one, wearing a body of 
 flesh and bones, in all points like unto his brethren, is 
 capable of holding all power in heaven and earth, and also 
 of displaying the brightness of celestial glory, the other 
 can do the same in a similar body of flesh and bones. He 
 declares that he has given us an image and likeness of 
 himself in the person of man." 
 
 One of the standard Mormon works is called '"Key 
 to the Science of Theology," written by Parley P. Pratt, 
 who was one of the Twelve Apostles, but who, as we have 
 seen, was killed by Mr. McLean because of his having run 
 off with McLean's wife. In it Mr. Pratt speaks of God 
 as "not only possessing body and parts, but flesh and 
 bones and sinews and all the attributes, organs, senses and 
 affections of a perfect man." (Key to Theology, p. 40.) 
 
 He says again : 
 
 "Each of these Gods, including Jesus Christ and his 
 Father, being in possession of not merely an organized 
 spirit, but a glorious immortal body of flesh and bones, is 
 subject to the laws which govern, of necessity, even the 
 most refined order of physical existence." (Key to The- 
 ology, p. 44.) 
 
 Again : 
 
 "It is, therefore, an absolute impossibility for God the 
 Father of Jesus Christ to be everywhere personally pres- 
 ent." (Key to Theology, p. 45.) 
 
 The book of Mormon says : 
 
 "And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother 
 of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord ; and it was 
 as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood. I saw the 
 finger of the Lord, and I feared that He would smite me ; 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 113 
 
 for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood." (Book 
 of Mormon, Ether, 1 :8.) 
 
 The Doctrine and Covenants, another "inspired" book 
 of the Mormons, says : 
 
 "The Father has a body of flesh and blood as tangible 
 as man's; the Son also." (Sec. 130; 22.) 
 Joseph Smith said in a sermon : 
 
 "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted 
 man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the 
 great secret.'' (Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI., p. 3.) 
 And again, in the same sermon : 
 
 "It is the first principle of the gospel to know that he 
 was once a man like us ; yea that God himself, the Father 
 of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ him- 
 self did." 
 And again : 
 
 "In the beginning the head God called a council of the 
 Gods ; and they came together and concocted a plan to 
 create the world and people it. When we begin to learn in 
 this way we begin to learn the only true God, and what 
 kind of a being we have got to worship." 
 Again he said : 
 
 "There is no other God in heaven but that God who has 
 flesh and bones." (Compendium, p. 287.) 
 
 One of the principal arguments used by the Mormons 
 to prove that God is a man, "with body, parts and pas- 
 sions," is as follows : After his resurrection Christ had a 
 body, with flesh and bones. He could eat, could be 
 handled. He ascended to the Father and the angels said 
 to the disciples that "this same Jesus which is taken up 
 from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye 
 have seen him go into heaven." (Acts I :u.) "In like 
 manner" they understand to mean with the same body. 
 
1 14 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 But (1) God the Bather was never incarnated. (2) He is 
 called a Spirit. (John, iv. 24.) Christ said that a "Spirit 
 has not flesh and bones." (Luke, xxiv. 39.) (3) "No man 
 hath seen God at any time. ,, (John 1 :i8.) (4) "The 
 Word"— Christ, the expression of God— became flesh." 
 (John 1 :i4.) He was not flesh until he became incarnate. 
 
 (5) "Being in the form of God ... he was made 
 in the likeness of men." (Phil. ii. 6,7.) Evidently "the 
 form of God" is not the same as "the likeness of men." 
 
 (6) The image of God, to which Christ restores us, is a 
 spiritual not a physical image. The new man is "created 
 after God in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Eph. 
 iv. 24), not in body. (7) To say that God has a spiritual 
 body is to say that he is partly spiritual and partly physical, 
 and so is to make him more or less material, when he is 
 declared by Christ to be simply "a Spirit." (8) The 
 expression "in like manner" in Acts 1 :n does not refer 
 to his coming with a body, but to the manner of his com- 
 ing — suddenly, mysteriously, in the clouds. 
 
 2. Believing that God is a man with "body, parts and 
 passions" they think that he is a married man. They 
 understand the "parts and passions" as referring to the 
 organs of generation, as well as to different emotions. 
 
 3. They believe that he is a polygamist, with a harem 
 full of wives. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— ITS DOCTRINE AS 
 TO GOD— GOD WAS ADAM— MANY GODS. 
 
 4. But not only do the Mormons believe that God is 
 a man. They believe that he was Adam, and in this sense 
 is the Father of the human race. Or, to put it another 
 way, they believe that Adam was God, and that God is 
 thus the father of all men in the sense of physical pro- 
 creation, and that in this sense also he is the Father of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Joseph Smith spoke of "Michael, or Adam, the father 
 of all, the prince of all, the ancient of days." (Doctrine 
 and Covenants, Sec. 27:11.) 
 
 In a sermon delivered in the tabernacle at Salt Lake 
 City, April 9, 1852, Brigham Young emphasized this doc- 
 trine. He said : 
 
 "Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gen- 
 tile, saint and sinner ! When our father Adam came into 
 the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, 
 and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped 
 to make and organize this world. He is Michael the Arch- 
 angel, the ancient of Days! about whom holy men have 
 written and spoken. He is our Father and our God, and 
 the only God with whom we have to do. Every man upon 
 the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must 
 hear it and will know sooner or later." (Journal of Dis- 
 courses, Vol. 1, p. 50.) 
 
 And again : 
 
 "When the virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the 
 Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not 
 
 "5 
 
n6 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father ? He 
 is the first of the human family." (Journal of Discourses, 
 Vol. I., p. 50, Sermon by Brigham Young.) Many Mor- 
 mons still believe this doctrine of Brigham Young that 
 Adam was God, and that he came down to earth and 
 "brought Eve, one of his wives, with him," and so peopled 
 the world. 
 
 With such a view of God, physical and limited, it is 
 but natural that the Mormons should repudiate the Bible 
 narrative of creation. In another sermon delivered in 
 the Tabernacle, Oct. 3, 1853, Brigham Young said : 
 
 "You believe Adam was made of the dust of the earth. 
 This I do not believe. You can write that information 
 to the States, if you please— that I have publicly declared 
 that I do not believe that portion of the Bible as the Chris- 
 tian world do. I never did, and I never want to. Because 
 I have come to understanding and banished from my mind 
 all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was a 
 child." 
 
 Brigham Young was at this time the prophet of the 
 church, the mouthpiece of God, and so was believed to 
 speak by inspiration. Later on the Apostle Heber C. Kim- 
 ball announced that Brigham Young himself was God ! 
 
 The Mormon Catechism has this question and answer: 
 
 "Was the earth originally formed out of nothing? 
 
 "Answer. No. The elements of which it was organ- 
 ized always existed." (Catechism, p. 22.) 
 
 One of the revelations of Joseph Smith says: "The 
 elements are eternal." By creation they mean transforma- 
 tion or modification only. 
 
 5. But the Mormons not only believe that God is a 
 man with "parts and passions," thus degrading him into 
 a low, material, sensual being; they not only believe that 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 117 
 
 he is a married man and a polygamist ; they not only be- 
 lieve that he was Adam, and Adam was God, thus making 
 him man in a very tangible sense, and at the same time 
 limiting and degrading his powers, but they believe that 
 there are many Gods. They are not monotheists, but 
 polytheists, believing in a plurality of Gods, and that Gods 
 were once men who afterwards became Gods. If this be 
 doubted the proof is at hand. The Mormon Cathechism 
 asks: "Are there more Gods than one?" Answer, "Yes, 
 many." The next question is, "Must we worship more 
 than one God ?" Answer, "No. To us there is but one 
 God, the Father of mankind, and the creator of the earth." 
 But the emphasis in the question is on the word worship. 
 Their idea is there is only one God whom we must wor- 
 ship, but there are many Gods. Other questions in the 
 Catechism which are asked with reference to the creation 
 are, "What did the Gods do on the second day?" "What 
 did the Gods do on the third day?" etc. The creation of 
 the world, they say, was not the work of one God, but of 
 many Gods unitedly. 
 
 "The Pearl of Great Price," a Mormon text book, says : 
 
 "And they went down at the beginning, and they or- 
 ganized and formed (that is, the Gods) the heavens and 
 earth. . . . And they (the Gods) said, Let there 
 be light, and there was light." 
 
 Key to Theology, by Parley P. Pratt, another text book, 
 says: 
 
 "A General Assembly, Quorum or Grand Council of 
 the Gods, with their President at their head, constitute 
 the designing and creating power." 
 
 Again : 
 
 "Gods, angels and men are all of one species, one race, 
 one great family, widely diffused among the planetary 
 system, as colonies, kingdoms, nations, etc." 
 
1 18 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 And again : 
 
 "All these are Gods, or sons of God ; they are the Kings, 
 Princes, Priests and Nobles of Eternity. But over them 
 all there is a Presidency or Grand Head, who is the Father 
 of all. And next unto him is Jesus Christ, the eldest born, 
 and first heir of all the realms of light. ... By con- 
 sent and authority of the Head any one of these Gods may 
 create, organize, people, govern, control, exalt, glorify, 
 and enjoy worlds on worlds, and the inhabitants thereof." 
 
 Joseph Smith said in a sermon : 
 
 'The Head God called together the Gods and sat in 
 Grand Council to bring forth the world." (Vol. VI., 
 
 P. 50 
 Again he said : 
 
 "To us there is but one God — that is, pertaining to us ; 
 and he is in all and through all. ... I say there 
 are Gods many, and Lords many, but to us only one, and 
 we are to be in subjection to that one." 
 
 Mr. Roberts, in his "New Witness for God," expressed 
 the opinion that — 
 
 "If the phrase 'Grand Presidency' be substituted for 
 Godhead, and 'President' for God, we shall have a nomen- 
 clature that will better convey correct ideas to the mind 
 respecting the Gods than that now in common use." 
 
REFORMED EGYPTIAN, IN WHICH JOSEPH SMITH CLAIMED 
 THE GOLDEN PLATES WERE WRITTEN 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— ITS DOCTRINE AS 
 TO GOD— MEN MAY BECOME GODS. 
 
 6. Not only do the Mormons teach that there are 
 many Gods who were once men and afterwards became 
 Gods, but they teach also that men now may become 
 Gods. Joseph Smith, in the sermon quoted from in the 
 last chapter, said : 
 
 "And you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, 
 the same as all Gods have done before you." 
 
 To secure this multiplication of Gods by procreation 
 every Mormon becomes a God. Said Parley P. Pratt: 
 
 "But every man who is eventually made perfect, raised 
 from the dead, and filled or quickened with a fullness 
 of celestial glory, will become like them in every respect, 
 physically and in intellect, attributes or powers. 
 
 "The very germs of these godlike attributes, being 
 engendered in man, the offspring of Deity, only need 
 cultivating, improving, developing and advancing by 
 means of a series of progressive changes, in order to 
 arrive at the fountain head, the standard, the climax of 
 Divine humanity." (Key to Theology, pp. 40, 41.) 
 
 The difference between Gods and angels and men is 
 thus described by Mr. Pratt: 
 
 "An immortal man, possessing a perfect organization 
 of spirit, flesh and bones, and perfected in his attributes, 
 in all the fullness of celestial glory, is called a God. 
 
 "An immortal man, in progress of perfection, or quick- 
 ened with a lesser degree of glory, is called an Angel. 
 
 119 
 
120 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "An immortal spirit of man, not united with a fleshy 
 tabernacle, is called a Spirit. 
 
 An immortal man, clothed witn a mortal tabernacle, 
 is called a Man." 
 
 Again he said: 
 
 "The great family of man, comprising the inhabitants 
 of unnumbered millions of worlds in every variety and 
 degree of progress, consists of five principal spheres 
 or grand divisions in the scale of progressive beings, viz. : 
 
 "First. The Gods, composed of embodied spirits, who 
 inhabit tabernacles of immortal flesh and bones in their 
 most refined stage, and who are perfected in all the at- 
 tributes of intelligence and power. 
 
 "Second. The Angels, who are also composed of spir- 
 its and immortal flesh and bones, less refined, and en- 
 dowed with vast intelligence and power, but not a full- 
 ness. 
 
 "Third. Embodied Spirits without a tabernacle of flesh 
 and bones. These are they who have passed the veil of 
 death, and are awaiting a resurrection. 
 
 "Fourth. Embodied Spirits, with mortal tabernacles, 
 as in the present world. 
 
 "Fifth. Embodied Spirits, who have not yet descended 
 to be clothed upon with mortality, but who are candi- 
 dates for the same." 
 
 By faithful attention to duty in each state, these per- 
 sons may rise from one scale of being to another, so 
 that ultimately a man may become a God. It is simply 
 the old Buddhist theory of the transmigration of souls 
 engrafted on to the Mormon system. 
 
 It is the highest aspiration of every Mormon to become 
 a god. They say that Abraham, and Moses, and Joseph 
 Smith, and Brigham Young, and all who like them have 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 121 
 
 been faithful and obedient, are now actually gods; and 
 after the resurrection, when they shall have resumed 
 their bodies, and their families shall also have arisen, 
 they shall be entirely and in all respects like the god 
 they worship, in power, dominion, honor, and glory, 
 save only that their kingdoms shall be less extensive — each 
 one's kingdom in eternity being limited by the number 
 of his wives and descendants in this life. 
 
 Joseph Smith, in his revelation on the "Eternity of 
 the Marriage Covenant," says of those that live up to 
 the Mormon law of polygamy: 
 
 "Then shall they become gods, because they have no 
 end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to ever- 
 lasting, because they continue; then shall they be above 
 all, because all things are subject unto them, then shall 
 they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels 
 are subject unto them. 
 
 "They shall pass by the angels, and the gods which 
 are set there. 
 
 "Abraham received concubines, and they bear him chil- 
 dren, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, 
 because they were given unto him, and he abode in my 
 law ; as Isaac also, and Jacob did none other things than 
 that which they were commanded ; and because they did 
 none other things than that which they were commanded, 
 they have entered into their exaltation according to the 
 promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels, but 
 are gods." (Doctrine and Covenants. 132:19, 20, 37; 
 76:58.) 
 
 But this exaltation depends upon the creation of a 
 kingdom of souls by procreation. The book of Doctrine 
 and Covenants says : 
 
 "In the celestial glory there are three heavens or de- 
 
122 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 grees, and in order to obtain the highest a man must en- 
 ter into this order of the priesthood (meaning the new 
 and everlasting covenant of marriage) ; and if he does 
 not he can not obtain it." (Sec. 131; 1-3.) 
 
 And the Key to Theology says: 
 
 "Again it follows, . . . that by consent and au- 
 thority of the Head any one of these gods may create, 
 organize, people, control, exalt, glorify and enjoy worlds 
 on worlds and the inhabitants thereof ; or in other words, 
 each of them can find room in the infinitude of space, 
 and unoccupied chaotic elements in the boundless store- 
 house of eternal riches with which to erect for himself 
 thrones, principalities and powers, in which to reign in 
 still increasing might, majesty and dominion forever 
 and ever." 
 
 Mr. B. H. Roberts, the polygamous Congressman-elect 
 from Utah, has discussed this whole question some- 
 what at length in his "New Witness for God"; and as 
 he expresses the latest Mormon views on the subject, 
 and on account of the interest which attaches at pres- 
 ent to anything he says, I will quote rather freely from 
 him: 
 
 "The prophet [Joseph Smith] also taught that the re- 
 lationships formed in this life were intended to be eter- 
 nal, not excluding that of husband and wife with all 
 its enduring affections. He taught that the marriage 
 covenant which binds man and woman as husband and 
 wife should be made for eternity, and not until 'death 
 doth them part.' To be made for eternity, however, the 
 marriage covenant must be entered into with that ob- 
 ject in view, and sealed and ratified by God's authority 
 on earth — even by the holy priesthood, that authority 
 which binds on earth and in heaven, in time and in eter- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. .123 
 
 nity, which also looses on earth and in heaven — in time 
 and in eternity. Otherwise such covenants are of no 
 efficacy, virtue or force in and after the resurrection 
 from the dead. The house of God is a house of order, 
 and it is useless to hope that covenants made until death 
 shall overtake the contracting parties will endure in 
 eternity; or that covenants entered into for eternity, 
 unless sealed by the authority of God, will be of bind- 
 ing force in and after the resurrection from the dead. 
 
 "I wish to be perfectly understood here. Let it be 
 remembered that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught that 
 man, that is, his spirit, is the offspring of Deity; not 
 in any mystical sense, but actually; that man has not 
 only a Father in Heaven, but a Mother also. And when 
 I say that the prophet taught that the resurrection is a 
 reality, that the relationship of husband and wife is 
 intended to be eternal, together with all its endearing 
 affections, I mean all that in its most literal sense. I 
 mean that in the life to come man will build and in- 
 habit, eat, drink, associate and be happy with his friends ; 
 and that the power of endless increase will contribute 
 to the power and dominion of those who attain by their 
 righteousness unto these privileges. 
 
 "What a revelation is here ! As I have remarked else- 
 where, instead of the God given power of procreation 
 being one of the chief things that is to pass away, it 
 is one of the chief means of man's exaltation and glory 
 in that great eternity, which like an endless vista stretches 
 out before him! Through it man attains to the glory 
 of endless increase of eternal lives, and the right of pre- 
 siding as priest and patriarch, king and lord over his 
 ever increasing posterity. Instead of the commandment, 
 'Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth/ be- 
 
124 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ing an unrighteous law, it is one by means of which the 
 race of the Gods is perpetuated, and is as holy and 
 pure as the commandment, 'Repent and be baptized/ 
 Through that law, in connection with an observance of 
 all the other laws of the gospel, man will yet attain unto 
 the power of the Godhead, and like his father — God — 
 his chief glory will be to bring to pass the eternal life 
 and happiness of his posterity. 
 
 "If any one shall say that such views of the life to 
 come are too materialistic; that they smack too much 
 of earth and its enjoyments, my answer is, that if it 
 be inquired what thing has contributed most to man's 
 civilization and refinement, to his happiness and dignity, 
 his true importance, elevation and honor in life, it will 
 be found that the domestic relations in marriage, the 
 ties of family, of parentage, with its joys, responsibilities 
 and affections will be selected as the one thing before 
 all others. And those relations and associations which 
 have contributed so much to man's true progress and 
 refinement in this world may be trusted not to degrade 
 him in the life that is to come. On the contrary, with 
 all the affections chastened, with all the qualities of 
 the mind improved and the attributes of the soul strength- 
 ened, we may reasonably hope that what has done so 
 much for man in this life will contribute still more abun- 
 dantly to his happiness, his exaltation and glory in the 
 life which is to come. 
 
 "One other point I must not omit to mention. I know 
 how like sacrilege it sounds in modern ears to speak of 
 man becoming a God. Yet why should it be so consid- 
 ered? Man is the offspring of Deity, he is of the same 
 race, and has within him — undeveloped, it is true — -the 
 faculties and attributes of his Father. He has also be- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 125 
 
 fore him an eternity of time in which to develop both 
 the faculties of mind and the attributes of the soul — 
 why should it be accounted a strange thing that at last 
 the child shall arrive at the same exaltation and partake 
 of the same intelligence and glory with his Father? 
 
 "If Jesus Christ, 'Being in the form of God, thought 
 it not robbery to be equal with God/ why should it be 
 considered blasphemous to teach that man by faith and 
 righteousness in following the counsels of God, shall at 
 last become like him and share his power and glory, be- 
 ing a God, even a son of God?" (New Witness for 
 God, pp. 460-463.) 
 
 Again Mr. Roberts wrote : 
 
 "All these sayings give us reason to believe that man 
 may become as Christ and God are; that he may walk 
 in their footsteps, become like them and inherit the same 
 glory with them. The Prophet Joseph Smith corrected 
 the idea that God that now is was always God." (p. 465.) 
 
 "But if God the Father was not always God, but 
 came to his present exalted position by degrees of prog- 
 ress as indicated by the teachings of the prophet, how 
 has there been a God from all eternity? The answer 
 is that there has been and there now exists an endless 
 line of Gods, stretching back into the eternities, that had 
 no beginning and will have no end. 
 
 "Their existence runs parallel with endless duration, 
 and their dominions are as limitless as boundless space" 
 (p. 466). 
 
 "These conceptions of man's origin and future devel- 
 opment and glory involve the idea of a plurality of Gods 
 — a doctrine somewhat startling, perhaps, to modern ears, 
 since men in our times have been taught to look upon 
 it as a sacrilege to speak or think of more than one 
 
126 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 God. But since Christianity finds itself so far separated 
 from other truths of the gospel may it not find itself 
 wrong in this? What means that expression in Genesis 
 where, speaking of the creation of man, God is repre- 
 sented as saying: 'Let us make man in our image after 
 our likeness?' Is it not a fair inference that he ad- 
 dressed himself to other Gods who were present? In 
 the account of the creation given in the book of Abra- 
 ham the plural is used throughout — 'And the Gods pre- 
 pared the earth to bring forth the living creatures/ 
 
 "And the Gods took council among themselves and 
 said, 'Let us go down and form man in our image, after 
 our likeness,' etc." (p. 467.) 
 
 Again I quote from Mr. Roberts: 
 
 "Joseph Smith has revealed the great truth that in 
 the beginningless duration there has existed always an 
 endless succession of exalted men, called Gods." (New 
 Witness for God, p. 474.) 
 
 And again: 
 
 "As the glory of earthly parents is increased by hav- 
 ing beautiful, intelligent children, capable of attaining 
 to the same intelligence, development and standing as 
 the parents, so the glory of the heavenly parent — God 
 — is added unto by having sons who shall attain unto 
 the same honor and exaltation as himself, who shall be 
 worthy of sharing his power and glory and everlasting 
 dominion." (New Witness for God, p. 475.) 
 
 In these quotations from Mr. Roberts it is distinctly 
 taught: (1) That the marriage relation will exist in 
 heaven; (2) Provided the marriage is performed by a 
 Mormon priest; (3) That man may become God; (4) 
 That God himself was once a man, and became a God 
 by degrees of progress, as indicated in the teachings 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 127 
 
 of the prophet [Joseph Smith] — that is, by marriage 
 and by begetting numerous children; (5) That there 
 is a plurality of Gods. Could blasphemy go further? 
 And this is the kind of God the Mormons believe in! 
 How low, how degrading their conception of God ! 
 
 Dr. Osborn well says : 
 
 "Such is the doctrine of God, as held among the Mor- 
 mons. The moral character of a people cannot rise above 
 that of the deity they worship. Is it strange that a 
 people believing in such a God — a being with a body 
 and passions like man, living in marital relations and 
 carnal connections with innumerably more wives than 
 could enter the vastest seraglio ever pictured in the wild- 
 est dreams of the most voluptuous Mohammedan; the 
 father of the human race, not by creation, but by natural 
 physical generation; identical with the first of the hu- 
 man family, who gave to all men, by natural descent 
 from him, a sinful nature; in no respect — in attributes, 
 dignity, or glory — above a vast multitude of gods, or 
 above what any man may become, except that he has 
 the largest family; giving commands and a moral law 
 which he himself is the first to violate, doing evil that 
 good may come — -is it strange that a people that has 
 such as their highest conception of the deity, should 
 have sunk into the most beastly sensualism the world 
 has ever known, and been guilty of the most diabolical 
 crimes, without the least compunctions of conscience, 
 verily believing they were doing God's will, provided 
 they were thereby furthering the interests of their Zion? • 
 To a people serving such a God, lust is godlike; and J 
 all law, civil and moral, must yield to considerations of 
 temporary advantage." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— ITS DOCTRINE AS 
 TO CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT- 
 CHRIST A POLYGAMIST— THE HOLY 
 SPIRIT A SUBSTANCE. 
 
 The first article of the Mormon Creed goes on to say : 
 
 "We believe in God the eternal Father, and in His son 
 Son Jesus Christ." 
 
 The "eternal Father." But he is our Father, not in 
 a spiritual sense but in the sense of natural generation. 
 They speak also of our "Mother God," and sing about 
 her in one of their hymns. But they believe in "His 
 Son Jesus Christ." 
 
 What kind of Son ? What kind of Christ ? 
 
 The Key to Theology says : 
 
 "Each of these Gods, including Jesus Christ and His 
 Father, being in possession of not merely an organized 
 spirit, but a glorious immortal body of flesh and bones, 
 is subject to the laws which govern, of necessity, even 
 the most refined order of physical existence." (p. 44.) 
 
 "All these are Gods, or sons of God; they are the 
 Kings, Princes, Priests, Nobles of Eternity. But over 
 them all there is a Presidency or Grand Head, who is 
 the Father of all. And next unto Him is Jesus Christ, 
 the eldest born, and first heir of all the realms of light." 
 
 (P- 430 
 
 "It is therefore an impossibility for God the Father, 
 or Jesus Christ, to be everywhere personally present." 
 
 (P- 45) 
 
 128 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 129 
 
 "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tang- 
 ible as man's; the Son also." (Doctrine and Covenants, 
 Sec. 130; 22.) 
 
 And so they regard him as a son only by physical 
 procreation. 
 
 The Mormons also believe that Christ was a polyga- 
 mist while on earth. 
 
 Apostle Orson Hyde taught: 
 
 "If at the marriage at Cana of Galilee, Jesus was the 
 bridegroom, and took unto him Mary, Martha, and the 
 other Mary whom Jesus loved, it shocks not our nerves. 
 If there were not an attachment and familiarity between 
 our Savior and these women highly improper, only in 
 the relation of husband and wife, then we have no sense 
 of propriety, or of the characteristics of good and refined 
 society. Wisely then was it concealed; but, when the 
 Savior poured out his soul unto death, when nailed to 
 the cross, he saw his seed of children, but who shall de- 
 clare his generation." (The Rocky Mountain Saints; 
 p. 485.) 
 
 The Mormons use two other passages of Scripture to 
 substantiate their theory that Christ was a polygamist: 
 (1) The passage in Revelation, "And I will also show 
 you the bride, the Lamb's wife." Of course the angel 
 is speaking of the church. But the Mormons take it 
 as referring to a woman. (2) When Mary in the gar- 
 den recognized her Lord, she addressed him as "Rab- 
 boni." This means "my Teacher," "my Lord," but they 
 say it means "my husband." A Mormon elder said in 
 a Methodist Sunday-school at Goodlettsville, near Nash- 
 ville, several months ago, that Christ was a polygamist, 
 and when called on for his proof gave this latter pas- 
 sage. From this they also argue that he lived in poly- 
 
t 3 o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 gamous relations with Mary and Martha, the sisters of 
 Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and the other women who 
 were in his company, and that he is now living in poly- 
 gamous cohabitation with them in Heaven. 
 
 And this is the kind of "Christ" they believe in, a 
 man with flesh and bones, a son of God by natural gen- 
 eration, that God is "as directly the Father of Jesus Christ 
 as Brigham Young, Sr., claims to be the father of Brig- 
 ham Young, Jr.," and worse than all, that Christ was Him- 
 self a polygamist ! 
 
 But they add, "We believe in God the Eternal Father, 
 and in His son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost/' 
 What kind of a Holy' Ghost ? The Apostle Parley P. Pratt 
 in his Key to Theology tells us: 
 
 "There are several of these subtle, invisible substances 
 but little understood as yet by man, and their existence 
 is only demonstrated by their effects. Some of them 
 are recognized under several terms, electricity, galvan- 
 ism, magnetism, animal magnetism, spiritual magnetism, 
 essence, spirit, etc. 
 
 "The purest, most refined and subtle of all these sub- 
 stances, and the one the least understood, or even rec- 
 ognized, by the less informed among mankind, is that 
 substance called the Holy Spirit. 
 
 "This substance, like all others, is one of the elements 
 of material or physical existences, and therefore sub- 
 ject to the necessary laws which govern all matter as 
 before enumerated. 
 
 "Like the other elements, its whole is composed of in- 
 dividual particles. Like them, each particle occupies 
 space, possesses the power of motion, requires time to 
 move from one part of space to another, and can in no 
 wise occupy two spaces at once. In all these respects 
 it differs nothing from all other matter. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 131 
 
 "This substance is widely diffused among the elements 
 of space. This Holy Spirit, under the control of the 
 great Eloheim, is the grand moving cause of all intelli- 
 gence and by which they act. 
 
 "This is the great, positive, controlling element of all 
 other elements. It is omnipresent by reason of the infin- 
 itude of its particles, and it comprehends all things/' 
 (pp. 46, 47.) 
 
 Again : 
 
 "All the elements of the material universe are eternal. 
 
 "There is a divine substance, fluid, or essence called 
 spirit, widely diffused among these eternal elements. 
 
 (p. 60.) 
 
 "As the electric fluid obeys its own laws upon the wire 
 so also does the spiritual or holy fluid convey itself, 
 through certain channels, from one body to another, in 
 accordance with certain legitimate laws." (p. 102.) 
 
 And Joseph Smith in the Book of Doctrine and Cove- 
 nants says : 
 
 "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All 
 spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can 
 only be discerned by purer eyes. 
 
 "We can not see it ; but when our bodies are purified, 
 we shall see that it is all matter." (Doctrine and Cove- 
 nants, Sec. 131, 7:8.) 
 
 Consistent with this view the Mormons constantly 
 speak of the Holy Ghost as "it" — as a thing, not a per- 
 son. In Mormon Doctrine, Plain and Simple, or Leaves 
 from the Tree of Life, by Charles W. Penrose, the 
 pronoun "it" is used with reference to the Holy Spirit 
 fourteen times in one paragraph. 
 
 If the unpardonable sin consists in blasphemy against 
 the Holy Ghost, as many scholars think, surely the Mor- 
 mons have committed it. 
 
132 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 I have dwelt at some length upon the Mormon doc- 
 trine as to God because that is the keynote to their the- 
 ology. If a person is wrong in his belief as to God, 
 he is very apt to be wrong everywhere. That is the 
 test, the Shibboleth, the turning point of all his faith 
 and all his actions. The Mormon doctrine as to God 
 begins in literalism, runs into rationalism, then degen- 
 erates into materialism and then descends to the depths 
 of sensualism. To Christian minds it is most horrible, 
 abominable. Heaven they consider a kind of great big, 
 magnificent seraglio, where God the Father, and Christ 
 the Son, and Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Brigham 
 Young and other good Mormons are living, and will 
 live when they die, in polygamous cohabitation with 
 their wives. ''There will be no marrying there." True. 
 And so you must be sealed to the wives spiritually for 
 eternity, so that you can live with them when you get 
 there. The more wives you have the higher will be 
 your exaltation in glory. Consequently you need to 
 marry as many as possible here. Such is their teaching. 
 How disgusting! 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— THE FALL— A FALL 
 UPWARD— THE ATONEMENT— SAVED BY 
 OBEDIENCE. 
 
 I need not dwell so much at length upon other articles 
 of the Mormon faith as I have upon their belief in God 
 because, as I said, that is more fundamental. The second 
 article in their creed says : 
 
 "We believe that men will be punished for their own 
 sins and not for Adam's transgression." 
 
 There are two meanings given to this clause : 
 
 (i) That it is meant to teach that Adam did not fall, 
 or rather that he "fell upward." 
 
 Repudiating the ' fact of creation, the Mormons also of 
 course repudiate the story of the fall of Adam. It is 
 regarded as "beneficent; planned, accomplished and ef- 
 fected by God Himself for the greater knowledge of His 
 earthly descendants."— "Adam fell, that men might be." 
 He "fell upward." The Book of Mormon says : 
 
 "And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed, he 
 would not have fallen ; but he would have remained in 
 the garden of Eden. And all things which were created 
 must have remained in the same state which they were 
 after they were created ; and they must have remained 
 forever, and had no end. And they would have had no 
 children; wherefore, they would have remained in a 
 state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no mis- 
 ery ; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all 
 things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth 
 
 133 
 
i 3 4 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are 
 that they might have joy." (2 Nephi. ii. 22-25.) 
 
 "The Pearl of Great Price/' a book considered as of 
 divine authority, along with the Bible, the Book of Mor- 
 mon and the Doctrine and Covenants, represents Adam 
 and Eve as rejoicing and praising God because of their 
 having fallen. It says : 
 
 "And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and 
 began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, 
 saying, Blessed be the name of God, for because of my 
 transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall 
 have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. And Eve, 
 his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying, Were 
 it not for our transgression we never should have had 
 seed, and never should have known good and evil, and 
 the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God 
 giveth unto all the obedient. And Adam and Eve blessed 
 the name of God ; and they made all things known unto 
 their sons and their daughters." (Pearl of Great Price, 
 p. 19.) 
 
 With reference to this passage Dr. Osborn says : 
 
 "Adam and God are here two persons. Above in equally 
 inspired writings they are one and the same person. Mor- 
 monism is consistent only in its inconsistencies." (The 
 Mormon Doctrine of God and Heaven.) 
 
 The Catechism has these questions and answers : 
 
 "Was it necessary that Adam should partake of the 
 forbidden fruit ? 
 
 "Yes; unless he had done so he would never have 
 known good and evil here, neither could he have had mor- 
 tal posterity, and he could not have cleaved to Eve, as he 
 had promised, after her fall. 
 
 "Did Adam and Eve lament or rejoice because they 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 135 
 
 had transgressed the commandment and become ac- 
 quainted with the nature of evil and good ? 
 
 "They rejoiced and praised God. 
 
 "Is it proper for us to consider the transgression of 
 Adam and Eve as a grievous calamity, and that all man- 
 kind would have been infinitely more happy if the fall 
 had not occurred ? 
 
 "No.. But we ought to consider the fall of our first 
 parents as one of the great steps to eternal exaltation and 
 happiness, and one ordered by God in his infinite wisdom ; 
 for we cannot know the excellence and beauty of that 
 which is good unless we experience the wretchedness and 
 deformity of that which is evil." 
 
 Dr. J. E. Talmage, one of the highest Mormon authori- 
 ties and probably at present their most scholarly man, says : 
 
 "It was the purpose of God to place within the reach of 
 the spirits begotten by Him in the heavens the means of 
 individual effort, and the opportunity of winning, not 
 merely salvation, or exemption from spiritual death, but 
 exaltation, with the powers of eternal progression and 
 increase. Hence, it was necessary that the spiritual off- 
 spring of God should leave the mansions of their primeval 
 childhood and enter the school of mortal experience, meet- 
 ing, contending with and overcoming evil, according to 
 their several degrees of faith and strength. Adam and 
 Eve could never have been the parents of mortal posterity 
 had they not themselves become mortal; mortality, as 
 before stated, was an essential element in the Divine plan 
 respecting the earth and its appointed inhabitants; and 
 as a means of introducing mortality, the Lord placed be- 
 fore the progenitors of the race a law, knowing full well 
 that transgression would follow." (Articles of Faith, pp. 
 7h 72.) 
 
i 3 6 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Again Dr. Talmage says : 
 
 "It has become a common practice with mankind to 
 heap reproaches upon the progenitors of the family, and 
 to picture the supposedly blessed state in which we would 
 be living but for the fall ; whereas our first parents are 
 entitled to our deepest gratitude for their legacy to pos- 
 terity — the means of winning glory, exaltation and eternal 
 lives on the battlefield of mortality. But for the oppor- 
 tunity thus given, the spirits of God's offspring would 
 have remained forever in a state of innocent childhood; 
 sinless through no effort of their own ; negatively saved, 
 not from sin, but from the power of sinning ; incapable of 
 winning the honors of victory because prevented from 
 taking part in the battle. As it is, they are heirs to the 
 birthright of Adam's descendants— mortality, with its im- 
 measurable opportunities, and its God-given freedom of 
 action. From Father Adam we have inherited all the ills 
 to which flesh is heir; but such are necessarily incident 
 to the knowledge of good and evil, by the proper use of 
 which knowledge man may become even as the Gods." (p. 
 
 74.) 
 
 The Millennial Star says : 
 
 "Adam fell, but his fall became a matter of necessity 
 after the woman had transgressed. ... In the lan- 
 guage of the Prophet Lehi, 'Adam fell that men might 
 be/ ... No wonder Father Adam fell, and accom- 
 panied the woman, sharing in all the miseries of the curse, 
 that he might be the father of an innumerable race of 
 beings who would be capable of becoming Gods." (Vol. 
 XV.,p.8oi.) 
 
 From these quotations it is seen that the Mormons 
 regard the fall of Adam as a blessing, and consequently 
 that men are not to be punished for his transgression, be- 
 cause there was no real sin in it. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 137 
 
 Dr. Osborn well remarks on this doctrine : "Thus the 
 fall of Adam was no fall, but a lifting up. Sin was no sin, 
 but an act of God and a blessing. And the first and great- 
 est violator of God's law was God Himself." 
 
 (2) The clause was evidently inspired by Sidney Rig- 
 don. It is rank Socinianism. It teaches that there is no 
 such thing as the headship of Adam in the sense that "in 
 Adam all sinned" and "all died" ; no such thing as total 
 depravity, as a result of Adam's sin ; man at birth is inno- 
 cent and able to obey God ; sin consists only in a person's 
 own acts and for these alone he is punished. This theory 
 is very different from the Bible doctrine, which teaches 
 that Adam was a man (not God, as Brigham Young 
 taught, and many Mormons now believe) ; that he was 
 the natural head of the human race ; that when he sinned 
 the fountain of human nature became corrupt and the 
 stream has ever since been affected by the corruption, so 
 that "in Adam all sinned"; that we are all "by nature 
 children of wrath" ; that man is "dead in trespasses and in 
 sins," "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
 be" in his natural state ; that our personal sins are simply 
 the outcome or expression of this sinful nature ; that "as 
 a man thinketh in his heart so is he" ; that "out of the 
 heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries," etc. 
 
 The third article of the Mormon creed is closely con- 
 nected with the second. It reads : 
 
 "We believe that, through the atonement of Christ, all 
 mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordi- 
 nances of the gospel." 
 
 "Through the atonement of Christ."' What kind of 
 atonement? Here is the kind of atonement which the 
 Mormons teach : They believe that God was under obli- 
 gation to give Christ to die for mankind; that it was 
 
I3 8 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 part of a prearranged plan agreed upon before Adam 
 transgressed, and so, as Dr. J. E. Talmage expresses it, 
 "the atonement wrought by Jesus Christ is a necessary 
 sequence of the transgression of Adam"; that Christ's 
 obedience to the law offset the disobedience of Adam, and 
 thus redeemed all men "from the effects of Adam's trans- 
 gression," and rendered it possible for each man to save 
 himself, throwing each upon his own personal conduct 
 as to whether he will be saved or not. Dr. Talmage speaks 
 of the "two-fold effect of the atonement." He says : 
 
 "The first effect is to secure to all mankind alike ex- 
 emption from the otherwise terrible effects of the Fall, thus 
 providing a plan of General Salvation. The second effect 
 is to open a way for Individual Salvation whereby man- 
 kind may secure forgiveness of personal sins. As these 
 sins are the result of individual acts, it is just that for- 
 giveness for them should be conditioned on individual 
 compliance with prescribed requirements — 'obedience to 
 the laws and ordinances of the gospel.' " (p. 90.) 
 
 I have not time now to discuss the doctrine of the atone- 
 ment at length. I may only say now that the above doc- 
 trine of the atonement does not come within one thousand 
 miles of the Bible doctrine. In fact, it tears the very heart 
 out of that precious doctrine. According to it Christ's 
 death saves no one. It merely made it possible for every 
 one to save himself. How shall he save himself? The 
 article goes on to say: "By obedience to the laws and 
 ordinances of the gospel !" I hardly need to stop and argue 
 this point at length. Just a few words will, perhaps, 
 suffice. Paul summed up the whole argument when he 
 said : "For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that 
 not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : Not of works, lest 
 any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 139 
 
 created in Jesus Christ unto good works, which God hath 
 before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph. 
 ii. 8-10.) 
 
 To the jailer who asked, "What must I do to be saved ?" 
 he replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
 shalt be saved" — and not "Obey the laws and ordinances 
 of the gospel and thou shalt be saved." (Acts xvi. 31, 
 
 32.) 
 
 Dr. Talmage says that "salvation comes to the indi- 
 vidual only through obedience." That is true. But it is 
 not through his own obedience, but the obedience of 
 Christ. 
 
 Paul said : "For as by one man's disobedience (Adam) 
 many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one" — 
 not of many but "of one;' of one, of ONE, and that one 
 Christ Jesus— "shall many be made righteous." (Rom. v. 
 
 19.) 
 
 And so I might quote passage after passage to substan- 
 tiate this position, if there were need for it. Of course, I 
 believe in obedience, but in an obedience which is the 
 result, not the cause of salvation. We obey because we are 
 saved, not in order to be saved. Our obedience is that of 
 the child, not that of the slave. 
 
 The question raised in this article is the old one of 
 salvation by grace or salvation by works. I say with Paul 
 that salvation is by grace through faith. The Mormons 
 say, and they contend strenuously for it, that salvation 
 is by works. They attack vigorously the grand old doc- 
 trine of justification by faith. 
 
 But they add : "By obedience to the laws and ordinances 
 of the gospel." Here is baptismal salvation ! 
 
 This the Mormons teach straight out, and make no 
 bones of it. The Catechism says : 
 
140 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "No person who has arrived at the years of accounta- 
 bility, and has heard the gospel, can be saved without bap- 
 tism." (Catechism, p. 46.) 
 
 Here is what the Book of Mormon says : 
 
 "And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, 
 shall be damned. . . . And again I say unto you, 
 Ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become 
 as a little child, or ye can in no wise inherit the kingdom 
 of God. Verily, verily I say unto you, that this is my 
 doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my 
 rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them." 
 (3 Nephi xi. 34, 38, 39.) 
 
 The Doctrine and Covenants says : 
 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, they who believe not on 
 your works, and are not baptized in water, in my name, for 
 the remission of their sins, that they may receive the Holy 
 Ghost, shall be damned, and shall not come into my Fath- 
 er's kingdom, where my Father and I am." (Doctrine 
 and Covenants, 84:74.) 
 
 Joseph Smith taught that "Children shall be baptized 
 for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and 
 receive the laying on of the hands." (Doctrine and Cov- 
 enants, 68:27.) 
 
 Mr. Stenhouse thus sums up the Mormon plan of sal- 
 vation : 
 
 "All men and women must have faith in redemption 
 wrought out by Jesus Christ, and must be baptized by 
 immersion 'in the name of the Father, Son and Holy 
 Ghost,' in order that their own individual sins may be 
 washed away. This being the happy condition of mind, 
 and the ordinances complied with, the hands of the elders 
 are laid upon the heads of the disciples that 'they may 
 receive the Holy Ghost.' In due time every man is also 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 141 
 
 to receive the priesthood of Aaron and Melchisedec, and 
 thereby become entitled to commune with the heavens, 
 and when they have accepted the 'Celestial Law' of Mar- 
 riage— i. e., polygamy— and have passed through the ordi- 
 nances of the 'Endowments/ they are presumed to be 
 fairly started for 'honor, glory and eternal lives with the 
 gods.' " 
 
 Of course the "ordinances of the gospel" referred to in 
 the article of faith are the ordinances of the Mormon 
 Church ( ?). In other words, in order to be saved a per- 
 son must be baptized by a Mormon priest. Here is sacra- 
 mentalism of the deepest dye. This comes out more 
 clearly in Article 5, which we shall consider later on. It 
 reads : "We believe that a man must be called of God, 
 by prophecy and by laying on of hands by those who are 
 in authority, to preach the gospel and administer in the 
 ordinances thereof.'' They teach openly and boldly that 
 there is no salvation outside of the Mormon Church. 
 Brigham Young in a sermon asked the question, "Will all 
 the people be damned who are not Latter Day Saints?" 
 To this he answered, "Yes, and a great many of them, 
 except they repent speedily." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— FAITH— REPENT- 
 ANCE— BAPTISM— LAYING ON OF HANDS 
 —THE PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 The fourth article of faith in the Mormon creed says : 
 "We believe that these first principles and ordinances 
 are: First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, re- 
 pentance ; third, baptism by immersion for the remission 
 of sins; fourth, laying on of hands for the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 Remember that the third article had said : 
 "We believe that, through the atonement of Christ, all 
 mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordi- 
 nances of the Gospel." 
 
 There are several serious objections to this fourth 
 article. 
 
 1. The word faith is used here in a different sense from 
 that in which it is usually understood by evangelical peo- 
 ple. It is not a warm, spiritual, personal trust in a per- 
 sonal Savior for salvation from sin. It is rather a cold, 
 mechanical "full confidence and trust in the being, pur- 
 poses and words of God." It is "a principle of power," 
 not simply the means of receiving the power of God 
 through Christ. It is a matter of obedience, not the me- 
 dium of appropriating Christ's obedience. 
 
 2. But faith is not a saving power. "Faith without 
 further obedience is useless." (Cathechism p. 37.) "The 
 Scriptures abound in assurances of salvation to those who 
 exercise faith in God and obey the requirements which 
 
 142 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 143 
 
 that faith makes plain." (J. E. Talmage, Articles of 
 Faith, p. no.) The precious doctrine of justification by 
 faith is scouted. Dr. Talmage says that "The sectarian 
 dogma of justification by faith alone has exercised an 
 influence for evil since the early days of Christianity." 
 He calls it a "pernicious doctrine/' and Luther is held up 
 to scorn for proclaiming it. Mr. C. W. Penrose also 
 strongly denounces the doctrine in his "Leaves from the 
 Tree of Life." 
 
 3. Faith is put before repentance, which is an utter f 
 absurdity and an absolute impossibility. Wherever the 
 two are mentioned together in the Bible repentance in- 
 variably comes first, as naturally it would. No one is 
 ready to accept a Savior until he has repented of his sins, 
 just as no one is ready to send for a physician until he 
 realizes his sickness. 
 
 4. Repentance here does not mean a godly sorrow for 
 sin. The Catechism says : 
 
 "Q. Does repentance consist in mourning and groan- 
 ing and hanging down our heads sorrowfully ? 
 
 "A. No. A man may do all those things and yet never 
 
 repent. 
 
 "Q. Then what is repentance ? 
 
 "A. Forsaking sin with full purpose of heart to work 
 righteousness." 
 
 5. Baptism is "by immersion for the remission of sins." 
 I need not discuss this doctrine here. I only wanted to call 
 attention to the fact that it is held by the Mormons. 
 
 6. But they go one step farther and lay down a 
 fourth principle and ordinance in the plan of sal- 
 vation— "Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost." This laying on of hands is of course by the Mor- 
 mon priest. But the gift of the Holy Ghost which accom- 
 
144 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 panies salvation does not come by the laying on of priestly 
 hands. It is given by invisible hands. It is spiritual, not 
 material. It comes directly from God. Like the mountain 
 stream, it is not conveyed through any external, mechan- 
 ical human conduit. God stands ready to give the Spirit 
 to anyone for the asking. (Matt. vii. n.) 
 
 But the Mormons say that the Holy Spirit is given only 
 through the hands of Mormon priests. 
 
 "The Latter-Day Saints claim to possess authority to 
 administer in the name of God; and that this right has 
 been conferred in this day under the hands of those who 
 held the same power in former dispensations." 
 
 "Every holder of the priesthood to-day can trace his 
 authority to the hands of Joseph the Prophet, who, as 
 already stated, received his ordination under the hands of 
 heavenly messengers clothed with power divine." 
 
 They even claim that "Men, who are called of God to 
 the authority of the ministry on earth, may have been 
 selected for such appointment even before they took mor- 
 tal bodies." 
 
 And they say that ''Unauthorised ministrations in 
 priestly functions are not alone invalid, they are indeed 
 grievously sinful. In His dealings with mankind, God has 
 ever recognized and honored the priesthood established 
 by His direction; and has never countenanced any un- 
 authorized assumption of authority." They instance the 
 cases of Korah, Miriam, Uzzah and others. They believe 
 that the Lord now has a priesthood on the earth like the 
 old Jewish priesthood, and then they assume that they are 
 that priesthood. They are like the Hardshell Baptists, 
 who passed the resolutions, "Resolved, i, That the Lord 
 has a people on earth. Resolved, 2, That we are the peo- 
 ple." The Mormons do not seem ever to have read the 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 145 
 
 book of Hebrews, in which the fact is shown very clearly 
 that the old Jewish priesthood and all similar priesthoods 
 have been done away under the new dispensation of the 
 gospel of Christ, and every man is now his own priest; 
 that the veil of the temple has been rent in twain, and every 
 one may now approach the mercy seat in the Holy of 
 Holies for himself without any priestly intervention. 
 
 But this doctrine of the priesthood comes out more 
 clearly in the fifth article of faith, which reads : 
 
 "We believe that a man must be called of God, by 
 'prophecy, and by the laying on of hands,' by those who 
 are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in 
 the ordinances thereof." 
 
 The emphasis in this article is on the expression, "by 
 those who are in authority" — which means again the Mor- 
 mon priesthood. No one else, they believe, is "in author- 
 ity." The ministers of all other denominations are "sec- 
 tarians," "heretics," "hirelings," etc. Only those who 
 have been ordained by "the laying on of hands, by those 
 who are in authority," have the right "to preach the Gos- 
 pel and administer in the ordinances thereof." Here the 
 power of the priesthood is distinctly asserted. This is 
 one of the cardinal doctrines of Mormonism. There are 
 four of these cardinal doctrines — their belief as to God, / 
 polygamy, the priesthood and new revelations. All of 
 the other three rest very largely upon the priesthood. 
 This doctrine gives force and effectiveness to the others. 
 Given the absolute authority of the priesthood which the 
 Mormons claim, and the blind and unquestioning obedi- 
 ence to it which they demand, and everything else is pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The Mormon priesthood is divided into two general 
 classes, the Melchisedec priesthood and the Aaronic priest- 
 
146 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 hood. All male Mormons belong to one or the other of 
 these priesthoods. The Melchisedec priesthood has to do 
 especially with spiritual affairs and the Aaronic priesthood 
 with temporal affairs, though the Melchisedec priesthood, 
 being superior to the Aaronic priesthood and exercising 
 jurisdiction over it, also controls in temporal affairs. The 
 Melchisedec priesthood is divided into Apostles, Seven- 
 ties, Patriarchs, High Priests and Elders; the Aaronic 
 priesthood into Bishops, Priests, Teachers and Deacons. 
 Over each of these different orders there are presiding 
 officers, as follows : 
 
 Presidencies in the Melchisedec Priesthood — First 
 Presidency. — A High Priest is chosen to preside over the 
 Melchisedec or higher priesthood. He also presides over 
 the church in all the world, and is a Prophet, Seer or Rev- 
 elator. Two other High Priests are associated with the 
 President as counselors. (Roberts Eccl. Hist., p. 367.) 
 
 The Traveling Presiding High Council. — The Twelve 
 Apostles, or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all 
 the world; they labor under the direction of the First 
 Presidency. (Roberts Eccl. Hist., p. 368.) 
 
 Quorum of Seventy. — There are a number of quorums 
 of seventy in each, and each quorum is presided over by 
 seven Presidents, the senior by ordination presiding over 
 the other six. The first seven Presidents preside over all 
 the Seventy. (Roberts, 368.) 
 
 Patriarchs.— There is one general and a number of 
 local patriarchs in the church. These officers hold the 
 keys of blessing in the church. The office is designed to 
 descend from father to son. (Roberts, p. 370.) 
 
 High Priests.— From among the High Priests are se- 
 lected presidents of the different stakes in Zion. Bishops 
 are also chosen from among them. (Roberts, p. 371.) 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 147 
 
 Elders. — Elders have power to preach the gospel, bap- 
 tize, lay on hands for the Holy Ghost. Ninety-six Elders 
 constitute a quorum. (Roberts, p. 372.) 
 
 The Aaronic Priesthood. — The general Bishop of the 
 Church is the general President and local Bishops are 
 local Presidents. (Sec. 3, part 4, Roberts Eccl. Hist.) 
 
 Priests — Forty-eight Priests of the Aaronic order are a 
 quorum. The Presidency of this quorum is to be a Bishop. 
 
 Teachers. — Twenty-four Teachers constitute a quorum ; 
 they are presided over by a President and two counselors. 
 (Roberts, Sec. 2, part 4.) 
 
 Deacons. — Twelve Deacons constitute a quorum ; they 
 are presided over by a President and two counselors. 
 (Roberts, Sec. 2, part 4.) 
 
 Thus it is seen how thorough is the organization of the 
 Mormon priesthood. But every lower order is subject to 
 the higher, until all authority centers in the head of the 
 church, the Prophet, Seer and Revelator, the President of 
 the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." He 
 is the apex of the pyramid of the Mormon system. 
 
 The Mormon priesthood is as complete a despotism as 
 was ever established on earth. Jesuitism itself was never 
 more despotic. The first and chief duty of every Mormon 
 is to be subject to the priesthood, to "obey counsel." No 
 one dares to think for himself. He cannot even call his 
 soul his own. The priests claim control over everything, 
 not ony spiritual, but temporal and political. Their 
 "Teachers" in the various wards are expected to find out 
 everything about all the people in their district during 
 each week, as to how they have been getting along both 
 spiritually and temporally. They then report their in- 
 formation to the Bishop of the ward and he to the higher 
 authorities, the Twelve Apostles and the members of the 
 
148 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 First Presidency. And thus a complete system of espion- 
 age is kept upon the actions of every one. Brigham 
 Young claimed that he had the right to dictate and con- 
 trol everything ''even to the ribbons that a woman should 
 wear or to the setting up of a stocking." The old Jewish 
 theocracy is revived by the Mormons, with the President 
 of the church as the "mouthpiece of God." 
 
 To them church and state are identical. They contin- 
 ually talk about a "Church-kingdom," meaning a temporal 
 kingdom ruled over by the head of the church. It is this 
 doctrine and the consequent arrogance growing out of it 
 which has been the cause of nearly all the friction between 
 the Mormons and their Gentile neighbors in Missouri, 
 Illinois and Utah. They claim supreme authority for their 
 President and demand absolute subjection to him. They 
 cannot, of course, enforce this demand upon Gentiles. 
 But woe to the Mormon who dares to refuse obedience to 
 the every wish and whim of the priesthood. He is called 
 "weak in the faith," is denounced as a traitor, and if he 
 persists in his disobedience he is "disfellowshipped," be- 
 comes an "apostate" and is turned over to the "bufferings 
 of Satan." The very severest denunciations in this life 
 and the very direst penalties in the life to come are re- 
 served for the "apostate." The object seems to be to 
 make it so unpleasant for him that no one will dare to 
 apostatize. There is no sin which a man can commit 
 which is greater than disobedience to the priesthood. It 
 is to the Mormons the one unpardonable sin. Lying, theft, 
 adultery, murder are as nothing compared to it. The 
 priesthood, as I said, is an absolute despotism. The peo- 
 ple are taught that it is infallible. Blind, unreasoning, un- 
 questioning obedience is required to this infallible priest- 
 hood. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 149 
 
 While I was in Salt Lake City an ex-Mormon, a gen- 
 tleman of intelligence, who had come to see the sham and 
 fraud in the Mormon system, told me that when he began 
 to show independence of the priesthood his own daughter, 
 who is a dyed-in-the-wool Mormon, said to him that if 
 he had gone out and killed a whole street full of people 
 she could not have felt any greater abhorrence for him 
 than she did. This feeling, of course, was the result of 
 Mormon teaching as to the authority and sacredness and 
 infallibility of the priesthood. 
 
 The cases of Sidney Rigdon, one of the founders of 
 Mormonism, who was turned over to the "bufferings of 
 Satan" by Brigham Young for aspiring to the presidency 
 of the church at the death of Joseph Smith; of Orson 
 Pratt, the strongest writer the Mormons ever had, who 
 was publicly held up to ridicule and scorn for daring to 
 differ from Brigham Young; of the Walker Brothers, 
 merchants in Salt Lake City, who were cut off and almost 
 ruined financially, because they did not contribute as lib- 
 erally as Brigham Young thought they ought to ; of W. S. 
 Godbe, E. L. T. Harrison, T. B. H. Stenhouse and others, 
 who were disfellowshipped because they claimed the priv- 
 ilege of doing their own thinking, and contended for the 
 right of private judgment ; of B. H. Roberts and Moses 
 Thatcher, who were threatened with excommunication and 
 finally whipped back into line because they asserted their 
 political independence of the priesthood — these and many 
 other such cases too numerous to mention, all show the 
 despotism of the Mormon priesthood. In the trial of 
 Messrs. Godbe, Harrison and Stenhouse, Apostle George 
 Q. Cannon maintained that "it is apostacy to differ hon- 
 estly from the measures of the President (Young) — a 
 man may be honest even in hell" ; and Counselor Daniel 
 
150 THE "MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 H. Wells volunteered the remarkable statement that the 
 accused "might as well ask the question whether a man 
 had the right to differ honestly from the Almighty!" 
 
 The Italian Mormon missionary was right about it. 
 lie had served in Brigham Young's household. In an 
 address to the Saints at Liverpool he exhorted his hearers 
 to "obey the authorities," as there was great happiness in 
 obedience. He said that he had no trouble in getting 
 along: "I puts my head in de bag, and I goes along, and 
 I sees nothin'." This blind, unreasoning obedience to the 
 priesthood is the mark of the highest virtue among the 
 Mormons. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— APOSTLES— PRO- 
 PHETS, ETC.— SMITH'S PROPHECIES. 
 
 The sixth article of faith in the Mormon creed reads : 
 
 "We believe in the same organization that existed in 
 the primitive church, namely: apostles, prophets, pas- 
 tors, teafchers, evangelists, etc." 
 
 As to this I have to say: 
 
 i. The apostle in the literal meaning of the word, one 
 sent, is still continued in the missionary, which is the 
 Latin word corresponding to the Greek word apostle. 
 But in the technical and official sense of the term the 
 office of apostle was special and temporary, and was 
 discontinued at the close of what we call the apostolic 
 age— that is, the first century. Smith's Bible Diction- 
 ary says on this point: 
 
 "As regards the apostolic office, it seems to have been 
 pre-eminently that of founding the churches, and up- 
 holding them by supernatural power specially bestowed 
 for that purpose. It ceased, as a matter of course, with 
 its first holders— all continuation of it, from the very 
 conditions of its existence (cf. I Cor. ix. i), being im- 
 possible. The episcopos of the ancient churches coex- 
 isted with, and did not in any sense succeed, the Apostles ; 
 and when it is claimed for bishops or any church officers 
 that they are their successors, it can be understood only 
 chronologically, and not officially." 
 
 In discussing who should be chosen as a successor to 
 Judas, Peter said: "Wherefore of these men which 
 have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus 
 
 I5i 
 
152 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism 
 of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from 
 us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his 
 resurrection." (Acts i. 21, 22.) The Savior describes 
 his apostles as "they that have continued with me in 
 my temptations." (Luke xxii. 28.) Paul said that one 
 special qualification of an apostle was that he had "seen 
 Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. ix. 1), and claimed that 
 he himself had seen him and so had a right to be an 
 apostle. In the nature of the office, therefore, the apos- 
 tles could have no successors. 
 
 2. The word prophet means one who speaks for God 
 and also one who is inspired of God to speak before of 
 coming events. In the first sense there are still proph- 
 ets. Every preacher is a prophet. But in the second 
 sense, the prophet, like the apostle, left no successor. 
 Joseph Smith, it is true, claimed to be a prophet in 
 this sense. He made some shrewd guesses which his 
 credulous followers try to twist into predictions. For 
 instance, take the most noted of his "prophecies." He 
 claimed to have had the following revelation given to 
 him Dec. 25, 1832 : 
 
 "Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars 
 that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebel- 
 lion of South Carolina, which will eventually termi- 
 nate in the death and misery of many souls. The days 
 will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, 
 beginning at that place; for behold the Southern States 
 shall be divided against the Northern States, and the 
 Southern States will call on other nations, even the na- 
 tion of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also 
 call upon other nations in order to defend themselves 
 against other nations; and thus war shall be poured 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 153 
 
 out upon all nations. And it shall come to pass, after 
 many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, 
 who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war. And 
 it shall come to pass, also, that the remnants who are 
 left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall be- 
 come exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with 
 a sore vexation ; and thus with the sword, and by blood- 
 shed, the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn ; and with 
 famine and plague and earthquakes, and the thunder of 
 heaven and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall 
 the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath 
 and indignation and chastening hand of an Almighty 
 God, until the consummation decreed hath made a full 
 end of all nations; that the cry of the Saints, and of 
 the blood of the Saints, shall cease to come up into the 
 ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth to be avenged 
 of their enemies. Wherefore stand ye in holy places, 
 and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come ; for 
 behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen." 
 
 At a conference held in Nauvoo, April, 1843, the vear ~ 
 preceding his death, Smith repeated the prediction : 
 
 "I prophecy in the name of the Lord God, that the 
 commencement of the difficulties which will cause much 
 bloodshed, previous to the coming of the Son of Man, 
 will be in South Carolina (it probably may arise through 
 the slave question) ; this a voice declared to me, while 
 I was praying earnestly on the subject, Dec. 25, 1832." 
 
 At the outbreak of the war between the States, the 
 Mormons claimed, and have since continued to claim, 
 that that event was in fulfillment of this prophecy. But 
 several facts should be borne in mind. (1) The reve- 
 lation, claimed to have been given Dec. 25, 1832, was 
 not published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants 
 
i 5 4 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 compiled in 1835. It was first published sometime in 
 the fifties, in England. It was not until after the war 
 of 1861-65 that it was published in this country. (2) 
 But admit that the revelation was given Dec. 25, 1832. 
 During that year, as history shows, South Carolina had 
 rebelled. Says a recent writer: 
 
 "In November, the Anti-Tariff Convention issued the 
 Nullification Ordinance. It was as a spark of powder 
 all over the United States, influencing for and against. 
 Five days later the Unionists even in South Carolina 
 met and entered a red-hot protest against the ordinance. 
 
 "Andrew Jackson was at the nation's helm. Old 
 Hickory promptly issued his proclamation against the 
 rebels. He backed up his words by garrisoning forts, 
 and sent vessels of war into Charleston Harbor. On 
 December 20, Governor Hayne, of South Carolina, de- 
 fied the President, and his army and navy, in a counter 
 proclamation." 
 
 An Indian war, known as the Black Hawk war, had 
 raged. Cholera had scourged, breaking up General 
 Scott's army on its way to meet Black Hawk. It was 
 easy on Dec. 25, 1832, to predict these things. (3) 
 But the prophecy said wars will shortly come, begin- 
 ning with the rebellion of South Carolina. Only one 
 war resulted and that was sometime off. 
 
 Again "the prophecy" says : 
 
 "The Southern States shall be divided against the 
 Northern States, and the Southern States will call on 
 other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, and 
 they shall call upon other nations, etc., and thus war 
 'shall be poured out upon all nations.' " 
 
 The South did not call on other nations. War was 
 not "poured out on all nations." Nor did the predic- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 155 
 
 tion come true that the "remnant" [Indians] "who are 
 left of the land will marshal themselves and become 
 exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore 
 vexation." Nor did the slaves "rise up against their 
 masters, . . . marshaled and disciplined for war." 
 
 And thus is it seen how in his most famous proph- 
 ecy Joseph Smith, if he was a prophet at all, was a 
 "false prophet" — such as was predicted by Christ. 
 (Matt. xxiv. II, 24.) 
 
 One prediction attributed to him, however, seems to 
 have come true. He is reported to have said some time 
 before his death: "If Brigham Young ever becomes 
 President of the Church he will lead it to hell." 
 
 As to Brigham himself, he never ventured to put 
 dates to his predictions but twice, and both times he 
 came to grief. The second time was when on the Sun- 
 day preceding the surrender of Gen. Lee he predicted 
 that there would be four more years of war! 
 
 3. But the Mormons do not stop with apostles, proph- 
 ets, pastors, teachers, evangelists. They add "etc," and 
 that "etc." includes a good deal. It includes the Mel- 
 chisedec and Aaronic priesthoods; the First Presidency, 
 with the President of the church and his two Counsel- 
 lors; the Quorums of Seventies; the Patriarchs; the 
 Presidents of Stakes ; Priests, Bishops, etc., etc., making 
 a curious and awkward conglomeration of the officials of 
 the old and the new dispensations, with prophet and 
 apostle, priest and bishop, patriarch and pastor side by 
 side. They propose to take the Bible literally and claim 
 to get these offices out of the Bible. But I should like 
 to ask, Where does the Bible speak of a First Presidency ? 
 Where does it speak of two Counsellors to the First 
 President? Where of the President of a Stake? 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— GIFTS OF 
 TONGUES— VISIONS— HEALING, ETC. 
 
 The seventh article of faith reads as follows : 
 
 "We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecies, revela- 
 tions, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc." 
 
 I can not undertake to discuss each one of these 
 points at length. A few words as to each, perhaps, 
 will suffice. 
 
 i. The gift of tongues. By this the Mormons mean 
 that the power of speaking in various languages is given 
 to them as it was given to the disciples upon the day 
 of Pentecost. But if that be true it is strange that 
 they never exercise the gift. It is true that some of them 
 have occasionally claimed to have it, and have tried to 
 exercise it. Brigham Young was the first to make this 
 claim. It was he who introduced the gift of speaking 
 with tongues. At first missionaries in foreign lands at- 
 tempted to make use of this gift without taking the 
 trouble to learn the language of the people among whom 
 they were laboring. Both Orson Pratt and Parley P. 
 Pratt taught that they would be able to do so. But 
 finding that for practical purposes the gift was not of 
 much value, as they had some difficulty in making them- 
 selves understood, they concluded that it would prob- 
 ably be better to do like ordinary mortals and learn the 
 language of the people to whom they wished to speak. 
 The doctrine of speaking with tongues is, however, still 
 believed by the Mormons, and occasionally they go 
 through the farce of pretending to exercise the gift. 
 
 156 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 157 
 
 While I was in Salt Lake City there was a Mormon 
 woman who in a public meeting at Ogden purported to 
 speak with tongues. 
 
 But if all reports be true it is certainly a very "un- 
 known tongue" in which they all speak. It sounds more 
 like the jabbering of a year old child or the chattering 
 of a monkey than it does like human speech. Mrs. Sten- 
 house describes the performance of a Sister Ellis in 
 speaking with tongues as follows: 
 
 "I say 'speak/ as that term is generally applied to 
 the utterances of the human voice ; but she did not speak 
 in the sense in which we always employ that word; 
 she simply emitted a series of sounds. They seemed 
 to me chiefly the repetition of the same syllables — some- 
 thing like a child repeating, la, la, la, le, lo; ma, ma, ma, 
 mi, ma; dele, dele, dele, hela — followed, perhaps, by a 
 number of sounds strung together, which could not be 
 rendered in any shape by the pen. Sometimes in the 
 Far West, in later years, I have heard old Indian women, 
 crooning wierdly monotonous and outlandish ditties in 
 their native tongue. These wild dirges, more nearly than 
 anything else I ever heard, resemble the prophetic utter- 
 ances of Sister Ellis; save only, that the appearance of 
 the latter was far too solemn to admit of even a smile 
 at what she said." 
 
 2. The interpretation of tongues referred to in the 
 article of faith is the power, as claimed by the Mormons, 
 to interpret the speech of those who talk in an unknown 
 tongue. Whenever any one speaks thus some one else 
 is apt to interpret his speech. The result is often very 
 ludicrous, making the first speaker say some wild and 
 ridiculous things, which, as he claims to be inspired by 
 the Holy Spirit, will be attributed to the Spirit, and 
 which are little short of blasphemy. 
 
i 5 8 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 3. In discussing the 6th article I spoke about proph- 
 ets, and so I need not dwell here upon the subject of 
 prophecy. I shall discuss the subject of revelation later 
 on in speaking of the ninth article. 
 
 4. As to visions. Joseph Smith claimed to have them, 
 and so have some other Mormons, but none of these 
 claims has been well authenticated, and I do not think 
 that the claim is put forth to any considerable extent 
 now. It is true that the Lord did sometimes speak to 
 his people in the former times in visions and dreams, 
 but that was before he had given the written revelation 
 of his will to them. Since that has been given he speaks 
 both through that revelation and through His Spirit, 
 and I am inclined to think that, as a rule, the visions 
 and dreams which the Mormons and others claim to have 
 now are the result either of an excited imagination or 
 of a disordered stomach. 
 
 5. The gift of healing. The Mormon elders claim to 
 possess this gift now. They propose to carry out liter- 
 ally the injunction of James to lay their hands upon 
 the sick, and anoint him with oil and he shall be healed. 
 This passage in James is of very difficult and doubtful 
 interpretation. There are various views with reference 
 to it. Some, like the Mormons, take it in its strict literal 
 sense, and if the person is not healed, they claim that 
 the person did not have faith enough. 
 
 Dr. J. E. Talmage says: 
 
 "Another gift, allied to this, is the power of exercis- 
 ing faith to be healed; which is manifested in varying 
 degrees. Not always are the administrations of the el- 
 ders followed by immediate healing; the afflicted may 
 be permitted to suffer in body, perhaps, for the accom- 
 plishment of Divine purposes, and in the time appointed 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 159 
 
 of the Lord, His children pass through bodily death. 
 But let the counsels of God be observed in administering 
 to the afflicted; then if they recover, they live unto the 
 Lord ; and the assuring promise is added that those who 
 die under such conditions die unto the Lord." 
 
 Others think that the gift of healing passed away with 
 the days of miracles at the close of the apostolic period. 
 Miracles, they say, are given only to attest revelations. 
 There have been three general periods of miracles. (1) 
 In the time of Moses. (2) In the time of Elijah. (3) 
 In the time of Christ. Their purpose was to attest the 
 law and the prophets and the gospel. Still others think 
 that the anointing of oil to which James refers was 
 the use of medicine, and that when we call in a physician 
 now and take the medicine which he gives, we are carry- 
 ing out in spirit the injunction of James. At any rate, 
 whatever be the interpretation of the passage, it is very 
 certain that the Mormons do not possess the gift of heal- 
 ing to any great extent. There have been instances of 
 persons who were apparently healed by them, but these 
 cures might be attributed largely to psychological, or as 
 they are commonly called, mesmeric, influences — for the 
 Mormon elders, nearly all of them, are possessed with 
 this kind of gift. They have a great deal of animal mag- 
 netism, or hypnotism, or by whatever name it may be 
 called. But certain it is that the Mormons do not rely 
 upon this gift of healing now to cure their sick. There 
 is the usual number of practicing physicians in Salt 
 Lake City. The third wife of Mr. B. H. Roberts is a 
 practicing physician, Dr. Maggie C. Shipp Roberts. And 
 thus they show that they do not have faith in their own 
 principle. It is one thing to preach it and another to 
 practice it. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— ITS BELIEF AS TO 
 THE BIBLE— BOOK OF MORMON— TESTI^ 
 MONIES AS TO ORIGIN. 
 
 The eighth article in the Mormon creed savs : 
 "We believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far 
 as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book 
 of Mormon to be the Word of God. ,, 
 
 "We believe the Bible to be the Word of God." So 
 they claim. But do they? 
 Let us take a passage from the Book of Mormon : 
 "And my words shall hiss forth unto the ends of the 
 earth, for a standard unto my people, which are of the 
 house of Israel. And because my words shall hiss forth, 
 many of the Gentiles shall say, a Bible, a Bible, we have 
 got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. But 
 thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a 
 Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine 
 ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews 
 for the Bible which they receive from them? . 
 Thou fool, that shall say a Bible, we have got a Bible, 
 and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible, 
 save it were by the Jews? Know ye not that there are 
 more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord, 
 your God, have created all men, and that I remember 
 those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule 
 in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath ; and that 
 I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, 
 even upon all the nations of the earth ? Wherefore mur- 
 
 160 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 161 
 
 mur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? 
 Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a 
 witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one 
 nation like unto another? Wherefore I speak the same 
 words unto one nation like unto another. And when 
 the two nations shall run together the testimony of 
 the two nations shall run together also. And I do this 
 that I may prove unto many that I am the same yester- 
 day, to-day, and forever ; and that I speak forth my words 
 according to mine own pleasure. And because that I 
 have spoken one word, ye need not suppose that I can- 
 not speak another; for my work is not yet finished; 
 neither shall it be until the end of man! neither from 
 that time henceforth and forever. 
 
 "Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible, ye need 
 not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need 
 ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written: 
 for I command all men, both in the east and in the 
 west, and in the north and in the south, and in the islands 
 of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak 
 unto them; for out of the books which shall be written, 
 I will judge the world, every man according to their 
 works, according to that which is written. For behold, 
 I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; 
 and I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall 
 write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes 
 of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they 
 shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations 
 of the earth, and they shall write it."— 2 Nephi 29: 2-12. 
 
 As pointed out by Mr. Lamb, a Baptist minister, for- 
 merly of Salt Lake City, in his "Golden Bible"— from 
 which I shall have occasion to quote frequently — this 
 passage means that the Bible is not all the Word of 
 
162 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 God, and also that it is only the Bible of the Jews, and 
 not the Bible of the other nations of the world. While 
 in a certain sense it belongs to the whole world, just 
 as each of these other ''Bibles," when written, will be- 
 long to the whole world, yet primarily and of first import- 
 ance to each separate nation will be the "Bible" especially 
 prepared for that nation. So that to us, and to all the 
 world aside from the Jews, the Bible is of secondary im- 
 portance. 
 
 And so other passages might be quoted to show the 
 same thing. Says Rev. M. L. Oswalt, an ex-Mormon : 
 
 "The truth of the whole matter is simply this : Mor- 
 monism discards the Bible as containing the plan of 
 salvation for us. They accept it as true history, and 
 the will of God to those to whom it was directly re- 
 vealed, but that it is of no binding force to the people 
 of this age of the world." 
 
 But the Mormons add: "We believe the Bible to be 
 the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly/' 
 
 This may mean that the Bible w r as originally written 
 in Hebrew and Greek, and was translated into English 
 by fallible men, who made mistakes in the translation, 
 but that in the original manuscripts it was the inspired 
 Word of God. If this were what it was intended to 
 mean and all it was intended to mean, there would be 
 no objection to it. Every one would agree with the 
 position thus taken. But this is not all that is meant 
 by a good deal. Joseph Smith claimed that there were 
 gross errors in the Bible translation, and he started out 
 to make a Bible for himself. 
 
 His work was in MS. awaitng publication at his death, 
 but when the division of the church came at Nauvoo, 
 the Josephites seized the MS. and left the unfortunate 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 163 
 
 Brighamites to fall back upon the "faulty" King James 
 translation. A few extracts from Smith's translation 
 as they appear in some of their standard works, may be 
 
 of interest. _ , 
 
 Gen 1 26, in the common version reads, And God 
 said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 
 Smith translates, "And I, God, said unto mine Only Be- 
 gotten which was with me from the beginning, let us 
 make man in our image, after our likeness, and it was 
 
 so " 
 
 In the next place he "translates" something that is 
 altogether foreign to anything found in the Bible. Here 
 it is • "After Adam had been driven out of the garden 
 he began to till the earth, and to have dominion over all 
 the beasts of the field, and to eat his bread by the sweat 
 of his brow, as I, the Lord, had commanded him: And 
 he called upon the name of the Lord, and so did Eve, 
 his wife also. And they heard the voice of the Lord, 
 from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking 
 unto them, and they saw him not, for they were shut 
 out from his presence ; and he gave unto them command- 
 ments that they should worship the Lord their God, and 
 should offer the firstlings of their flocks for an offering 
 unto the Lord. And Adam was obedient unto the com- 
 mandments of the Lord. And after many days an an- 
 crel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying, Why dost 
 fhou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said 
 unto him, I know not, save the Lord commanded me. 
 And then the angel spake, saying, This thing is a simili- 
 tude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the ^ Father, 
 who is full of grace and truth. And thou shalt do a 
 that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt 
 repent and call upon God in the name of the Son for 
 
164 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 evermore. And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon 
 Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the 
 Son." This is a remarkable piece of Scripture building, 
 which Smith attempted to foist upon the book of Gene- 
 sis. 
 
 Again, Exod. 32 :20, which reads, "And he said, Thou 
 canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, 
 and live," Smith "translates": "The Lord said unto 
 Moses, Thou canst not see my face at this time, lest 
 my anger be kindled against thee also, and I destroy 
 thee and thy people. There shall no man among them 
 see me at this time and live, for they are exceeding sin- 
 ful, and no sinful man hath at any time [seen], neither 
 shall there be any sinful man at any time that shall see 
 my face and live." 
 
 And this was what Joseph Smith meant when he said 
 that the Bible was the Word of God "as far as it is 
 translated correctly." 
 
 "We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the 
 Word of God." The Book of Mormon! What is the 
 Book of Mormon ? In Chapter 1 I gave some account of 
 its origin. In brief, it was written by Solomon Spauld- 
 ing, a Presbyterian minister, as a romance purporting to 
 account for the origin of the Indian Mounds. It was 
 called the "Manuscript Found," and claimed to have been 
 discovered in one of the mounds. This was all very 
 pretty as a romance. But Sidney Rigdon, a Campbellite 
 preacher, got hold of the manuscript at the printing office 
 of Patterson & Lamdin, took it home and emended it 
 by giving it a doctrinal turn, putting in a good many 
 Scriptural quotations. He then persuaded Joseph Smith, 
 the well-digger and professed seer, to father it, which 
 he did, but changed the manuscript to golden plates. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 165 
 
 Smith pretended to dictate from the plates to Martin 
 Harris and Oliver Cowdery, his scribes, while he was 
 hidden behind a bed blanket. So we should expect to 
 find in the book the romance of Solomon Spaulding, 
 the doctrinal views of Sidney Rigdon and the style of 
 Joseph Smith. But before I proceed to examine the 
 book, I give the following letter from Dr. Z. C. Graves 
 as strong confirmatory testimony to the origin of the 
 book, as stated above. Dr. Graves was for nearly forty 
 years the able president of Mary Sharp College, at Win- 
 chester, Tenn. He says: 
 
 "Winchester, Jan. 19, 1900. 
 Rev. Edgar E. Folk, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Dear Brother: In compliance with your request 
 of January 13th, I make the following statements in ref- 
 erence to the 'Mormon Bible' : 
 
 "Mrs. A. C. Graves, my wife, was the daughter of 
 Daniel M. Spencer, a celebrated physician of Kingsville, 
 Ashtabula County, Ohio. The doctor was devoted to 
 literature. He had a patient by the name of Solomon 
 Spaulding living in Coneaut, a village about eight miles 
 from Kingsville, who died with a lingering consumption 
 while under Dr. Spencer's treatment. Spaulding was 
 a scholar of no meager attainments, having a family of 
 several children and not blessed with much of this world's 
 goods; hence he was greatly worried about his family. 
 Spaulding and the doctor conceived the plan to have 
 Spaulding write a romance, or a novel, about the lost 
 tribes of Israel wandering to this country, of whose works 
 our antiquities are the results. This was the fundamental 
 idea of the romance. Mrs. Graves often accompanied 
 her father on his visits to his patient, Spaulding, who 
 read to the doctor what he had written between the 
 
166 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 intervals of his visits, for his criticism and suggestions, 
 Mrs. Graves listening and becoming very much inter- 
 ested in the narrative. When the narrative, or romance, 
 was finished, the manuscript was sent to Pittsburg, Pa., 
 for publication, if terms could be determined upon; but 
 very soon after the manuscript was sent, Spaulding died. 
 The manuscript was found in the printer's office by a 
 man named Rigdon, who conceived the plan of making 
 it a 'Mormon Bible/ changing the language from its 
 common style to the sacred. 
 
 "When the 'Mormon Bible' was published Mrs. Graves 
 and her father recognized the fraud. I believe that 
 the plot or plan of the 'Mormon Bible' was concocted 
 or conceived by Spaulding and Dr. Spencer, designing 
 it to be a romance, or novel, to be published for the 
 benefit of Spaulding's family. The idea that it would 
 ever be used as it has been, and is now, was never even 
 dreamed of by them. Dr. Spencer has been dead fifty 
 years and his daughter four years. None of the witnesses 
 are now living, so far as I know. Z. C. Graves/' 
 
 But here is the statement of John Spaulding, the 
 brother of Solomon Spaulding: 
 
 "Solomon Spaulding (my brother) was born in Ash- 
 ford, Conn., in 1 761, and in early life contracted a 
 taste for literary pursuits. He entered Dartmouth Col- 
 lege, where he obtained the degree of A. M., and was 
 afterwards regularly ordained. After preaching three 
 or four years he commenced the mercantile business. 
 In a few years he failed in business, and in 1809 removed 
 to Conneaut, O. The year following I found him en- 
 gaged in building a forge. I made him a visit in about 
 three years after and found that he had failed and was 
 considerably involved in debt. He then told me he 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 167 
 
 had been writing a book, which he intended to have 
 printed, the avails of which he thought would enable 
 him to pay all his debts. The book was entitled the 
 ''Manuscript Found," of which he read to me many pages. 
 It was an historical romance of the first settlers of Amer- 
 ica, endeavoring to show that the American Indians are 
 the descendants of the Jews or the lost tribes. It gave 
 a detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem, by 
 land and sea, till they arrived in America, under the 
 command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterwards had 
 quarrels and contentions and separated into two distinct 
 nations, one of which he denominated Nephites and the 
 other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody wars ensued, in 
 which great multitudes were slain. They buried their 
 dead in large heaps, which caused the mounds so com- 
 mon in this country. Their arts, sciences and civiliza- 
 tion were brought into view in order to account for all 
 the antiquities found in various parts of North and South 
 America. I have recently read the Book of Mormon, 
 and, to my great surprise, I find nearly the same histori- 
 cal matter, names, etc., as they were in my brother's 
 writings. I well remember that he wrote in the old 
 style, and commenced about every sentence with "And 
 it came to pass/ or 'Now it came to pass,' the same as 
 in the Book of Mormon, and according to the best of 
 my recollection and belief it is the same as my brother 
 wrote, with the exception of the religious matter.' , 
 
 Here also is the testimony of Henry Lake. It is dated 
 Conneaut, O., September, 1833: 
 
 "I left the State of New York late in the year 1810, 
 and arrived at this place about the first of January fol- 
 lowing. Soon after my arrival I formed a copartner- 
 ship with Solomon Spaulding for the purpose of rebuild- 
 
168 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ing a forge. He- very frequently read to me from a 
 manuscript which he was writing, which he entitled the 
 'Manuscript Found,' and which he represented as being 
 found in his town. I spent many hours in hearing him 
 read said writings and became well acquainted with its 
 contents. He wished me to assist him in getting his 
 production printed, alleging that a book of that kind 
 would meet with a rapid sale. This book represented 
 the American Indians as the descendants of the lost 
 tribes, gave an account of their leaving Jerusalem, their 
 contentions and wars. One time, when he was reading 
 to me the tragic account of Laban, I pointed out to 
 him what I considered an inconsistency, which he prom- 
 ised to correct; but by referring to the Book of Mor- 
 mon, I find, to my surprise, that it stands there just as 
 he read it to me then. Some months ago I borrowed 
 the Golden Bible, put it into my pocket, carried it home 
 and thought no more of it. About a week after, my 
 wife found the book in my coat pocket and commenced 
 reading it aloud as I lay upon the bed. She had not 
 read twenty minutes till I was astonished to find the 
 same passages in it that Spaulding had read to me more 
 than twenty years before, from his 'Manuscript Found.' 
 Since that I have more fully examined the said Golden 
 Bible and have no hesitation in saying that the histor- 
 ical part of it is principally, if not wholly, taken from 
 the 'Manuscript Found.' I recollect telling Mr. Spauld- 
 ing that the so frequent use of the words, 'And it came to 
 pass,' 'Now it came to pass/ rendered it ridiculous." 
 
 I could give other similar statements, if necessary. But" 
 these are sufficient to establish beyond a doubt the fraud- 
 ulent character of the Book of Mormon, 
 
 I know the Mormons claim that there is now in Ober- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 169 
 
 lin College, Ohio, a manuscript discovered by Apostle 
 Joseph F. Smith, in Honolulu, which is the original 
 copy of the "Manuscript Found," and which bears just 
 enough resemblance to the Book of Mormon to lead 
 persons who heard it read to say that it was the same, 
 but which at the same time is quite different from it. 
 But their claim is false. There is a manuscript in Ober- 
 lin College which was written by Solomon Spaulding, 
 but it is quite a different one from the "Manuscript 
 Found," and could hardly have suggested to these many 
 witnesses the Book of Mormon. Sidney Rigdon and 
 Joseph Smith were the only persons who could have 
 told what became of the "Manuscript Found." 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— THE BOOK OF MOR- 
 MON—OUTLINE OF BOOK— "REFORMED 
 EGYPTIAN"— EVIDENCES OF FRAUDU- 
 LENT CHARACTER. 
 
 And now to the Book of Mormon. It lies at the founda- 
 tion of the Mormon Church. The Apostle Orson Pratt 
 said: 
 
 "The nature of the message in the Book of Mormon is 
 such that, if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject 
 it; if false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it. 
 Therefore, every soul in all the world is equally interested 
 in ascertaining its truth or falsity." 
 
 It claims to be superior to the Bible in that — 
 
 1. It was infallibly translated. 
 
 2. It has many important predictions not found in the 
 Bible. 
 
 3. Many points of doctrine more clearly revealed. 
 
 4. It restores the "many parts, plain and most pre- 
 cious," which were eliminated from the Bible at the close 
 of the first century after Christ. 
 
 What, then, is the Book of Mormon ? The following 
 is a general outline of it as given by Mr. Lamb, which I 
 follow as perhaps the best outline that could be made of 
 the book in a brief compass. Mr. Lamb has made the 
 most thorough study of the book of any one, and at the 
 same time has made the most thorough exposure of it. 
 
 It is divided into fifteen books, after the method of the 
 Bible. The next to the last book, called the Book of 
 Ether, contains the earliest record. 
 
 170 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 171 
 
 This book tells us of a party numbering between twenty 
 and thirty, under the direction of the brother of Jared, 
 leaving Asia at the command of God, about one hundred 
 years after the flood, just after the confusion of tongues, 
 as related in the Book of Genesis. They embark in eight 
 strangely constructed arks or barges ; and after drifting 
 344 days across the Atlantic Ocean they land upon this 
 North American Continent, where they and their descend- 
 ants remained for fifteen hundred years; became very 
 numerous, spread over the greater portion of the continent 
 and developed a somewhat advanced civilization. But 
 dividing into two powerful parties or nations, able to 
 muster and thoroughly equip an army of two million sol- 
 diers each — they became involved in a fierce war of exter- 
 mination, which resulted in the entire annihilation of both 
 nations, leaving the country a desolate waste — one man 
 alone surviving the terrible destruction — whose name was 
 Coriantumr. 
 
 About the time this terrible war was desolating North 
 America, a second party, made up of two families, Lehi 
 and Ishmael, leave the city of Jerusalem, at the beginning 
 of the reign of Zedekiah, King of Judah, six hundred 
 years before Christ, and after wandering eight years in 
 the desert of Arabia, embark in a ship of peculiar construc- 
 tion, drift across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and land 
 upon the western shore of South America. These two 
 families having intermarried, begin rapidly to multiply. 
 Within twenty years, however, they also divide into two 
 rival nations, known for a thousand years afterwards as 
 the Nephites and the Lamanites, named from the two 
 brothers Nephi and Laman, who led in the quarrel and 
 divided the two families. 
 
 About nine years after Lehi and his company leave 
 
i 7 2 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Jerusalem, a third party, headed by one of King Zede- 
 kiah's sons, also leave Jerusalem, cross the ocean and set- 
 tle in the land of Zarahemla, somewhere in the region of 
 Central America, or the northern coasts of South 
 America. 
 
 After four hundred years they are accidentally discov- 
 ered by a party of Nephites, who are traveling northward ; 
 and after a time the two nations become one under the 
 old title of Nephites. All these peoples rapidly increase ; 
 the Lamanites eventually covering the entire South Amer- 
 ican continent, while the Nephites gradually extend north- 
 ward until the greater portion of North America is occu- 
 pied by them. 
 
 The Book of Mormon, with the exception of the single 
 Book of Ether already mentioned, is the professed his- 
 tory of these two peoples. The Lamanites, at the very 
 beginning of their separate history, were cursed by the 
 Almighty with a "skin of blackness" — became a wild, 
 ignorant, ferocious people, and the ancestors of the present 
 Indian races. While the Nephites are represented as 
 God's greatest favorites, enjoying advantages and favors 
 such as no other people under heaven ever enjoyed — fur- 
 nishing a list of kings, judges, prophets, apostles and 
 martyrs such as have never been found upon earth in any 
 age or country. Christian churches were organized, bap- 
 tism by immersion administered, and all the blessings and 
 privileges of the New Testament dispensation enjoyed, 
 with the peculiar gifts of speaking with tongues, prophe- 
 sying, performing miracles, and such like, hundreds of 
 years before the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh. 
 
 A few years after Jesus' crucifixion, resurrection and 
 ascension in Judea, he appeared to His people upon this 
 continent in his human body, and remained here forty 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 173 
 
 days, preaching, performing miracles, ordaining twelve 
 apostles, and otherwise establishing the faith of His peo- 
 ple. And a few years after the whole country is reported 
 converted — the entire population of both continents, the 
 Lamanites of South America and the Nephites of North 
 America are enrolled in Christian churches. And for 
 nearly two hundred years a regular full-blown millennium 
 is enjoyed. The arts of war being forgotten, peace, purity 
 and religious culture are universal. But increased wealth 
 and prosperity brought religious declension, and by and 
 by apostacy from the faith. The apostates assumed the old 
 name of Lamanites, and their old hatred of religion and 
 religious people. This opposition increased in numbers 
 and in power, until war, relentless and cruel, again filled 
 the land with bloodshed and desolation. This resulted, in 
 the year 384 A. D., in the complete destruction of the 
 Nephites and all there was left of the religious element — 
 leaving the infidel Lamanites, who had already become 
 wild, barbarous and bloodthirsty, in full possession of 
 both continents, where they were found upon the dis- 
 covery of America by Columbus. 
 
 Now the commander-in-chief of the Nephite forces was 
 a prophet by the name of Mormon. Before this exter- 
 minating war had ended, Mormon gathered up all the 
 records of his predecessors, the kings and prophets and 
 judges who had been inspired of God to write either his- 
 tory or prophecy, or vision or exhortation — and made a 
 careful abridgment of their writings down to his own 
 time; and engraved this abridged record upon golden 
 plates. These plates he turned over to his son Moroni, 
 who commanded one division of the Nephite army under 
 his father. This son finished his father's record, and, when 
 completed, hid the whole in the sacred hill Cumorah, near 
 
174 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Palmyra, New York. There they remained fourteen hun- 
 dred years, until discovered by the prophet Joseph Smith, 
 and by him translated into our language. 
 
 This accounts for the name of the book, the Book of 
 Mormon — while the book gives the name to the people, 
 the Mormons. Moroni was raised from the dead in the 
 form of an angel for the special purpose of showing Mr. 
 Smith where said plates had been hidden, and assist him 
 in translating them into our language. 
 
 This all sounds very nonsensical, but remember that it 
 was simply a romance evolved out of the fertile imagina- 
 tion of Solomon Spaulding. As such it is quite interest- 
 ing. 
 
 Now let us study the Book of Mormon more closely. 
 
 It is a little remarkable that the Book of Mormon is not 
 in the Book of Mormon at all. The reason of this, as I 
 have previously explained, is that after Smith had dictated 
 116 pages of the Book of Mormon to Martin Harris, Mrs. 
 Harris got hold of the manuscript and either destroyed it 
 or would not return it. So Smith decided to leave the 
 Book of Mormon out entirely; saying that if he should 
 translate it again his enemies would publish this manu- 
 script with alterations, to make people believe that he 
 could not translate it the same way twice. And so the 
 Book of Mormon begins with the first book of Nephi. 
 The second verse of the book shows it to be a fraud. It 
 reads: "Yea, I make a record in the language of my 
 father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the 
 language of the Egyptians/' The Book of Mormon pur- 
 ports to be written by Jews and to contain the record of 
 the descendants of Jews. But still it is written in the 
 Egyptian language, though it is a well known fact that 
 the Jews have the utmost veneration for their own Ian- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 175 
 
 guage and the utmost hatred for everything Egyptian, and 
 certainly would hardly have used the Egyptian language 
 in which to record their learning, together with their re- 
 ligious history and principles. But it is claimed that it 
 was "Reformed Egyptian," and that Martin Harris sub- 
 mitted a paper containing some of the hieroglyphics to the 
 distinguished scholar, Prof. Anthon, and he pronounced 
 them Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics. But Prof. An- 
 thon says : "The whole story about my having pronounced 
 the Mormonite inscription to be 'Reformed Egyptian 
 Hieroglyphics' is perfectly false/' A paper was submitted 
 to him, but he says that it "contained anything else but 
 'Egyptian hieroglyphics.' " 
 
 These hieroglyphics bear on their face evidence of the 
 clumsiest fraud. Some of them no mortal man could de- 
 cipher. Others it would hardly require the aid of a Urim 
 and Thummim to read. Take the last several "21x4—" 
 —he ought to have added "25" to make the equation com- 
 plete. But notice that this Reformed Egyptian language 
 was the universal language of the people of this continent 
 when Mormon and Moroni compiled the Book of Mormon 
 1,500 years ago. Nephi and Laman, being brothers, must 
 have spoken the same language. The place where this 
 Reformed Egyptian language was supposed to have been 
 spoken and written was Central America and the northern 
 part of South America. We have some of the hiero- 
 glyphics of these countries at that period, taken from 
 idols, tablets, books, etc. They bear no resemblance what- 
 ever to those which Joseph Smith says were in actual 
 use there at that time. Which was mistaken, Joseph Smith 
 or the records in brass and stone? It is strange also that 
 there is no record in those countries of any people by the 
 names given in the Book of Mormon. If people by those 
 
176 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 names had been so numerous and so powerful there, cer- 
 tainly there ought to be some trace of their names in the 
 literature and in the present names of the country. There 
 are plenty of names, but they are very different from 
 those mentioned in the Book of Mormon. And so as to the 
 names of cities and countries. The names preserved in 
 the traditions of the natives and in all their writings are 
 utterly unlike those given in the Book of Mormon. 
 
 In Palestine and other Bible lands the names of the 
 cities are preserved very much as given in the Bible, so 
 that they can readily be identified, thus constituting a 
 powerful testimony to the truthfulness of the Bible. But 
 not so with the names of cities given in the Book of Mor- 
 mon. Not a single one of them can be recognized in the 
 present names of cities in the countries where they are 
 said to have existed. The conclusion is irresistible that 
 there were never any cities there by those names, that 
 they are myths, and consequently that the Book of Mor- 
 mon is simply a romance, and as a religious book is a pure 
 fraud. 
 
 There are so many evidences of its fraudulent character 
 that I cannot undertake to mention them all. I can give 
 only some of the most glaring. 
 
 It is evidently very human. Its style is the same all 
 the way through. It is heavy, verbose. One of its sen- 
 tences contains over 340 words. In it the words "that" 
 and "which" are repeated twenty times; the words "I," 
 "my" and "me," eleven times ; the word "Father," eight 
 times; "Gentiles," five times; the expression, "shall come 
 forth," four times. All this in one sentence. And so on 
 every page there is a lack of the simplicity and compre- 
 hensiveness and perspicuity of the Bible. It abounds in 
 such expressions as "and it came to pass," "behold," 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 177 
 
 "thereof/' "insomuch," etc. The author seems to try to 
 imitate the Bible, but as might be expected, he overdoes 
 the thing. It makes a number of bad blunders, showing 
 both its human and its modern origin. For instance, it 
 says that the Nephites found in the forests "both the cow 
 and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the 
 wild goat, and all manner of wild animals that were for 
 the use of man." In another place it is stated of the 
 Jaredites that they had "all manner of cattle, oxen and 
 cows, and of sheep and of swine, and of goats, and also 
 many other kinds of animals wriich were useful for the 
 food of man; and they had also horses and asses, and 
 there were elephants and cureloms and cumons." What 
 the latter beasts were it is impossible to determine, but 
 scientific men are unanimously agreed that elephants never 
 existed on this continent, and that horses, asses, oxen and 
 swine were introduced by the European settlers within 
 the last three hundred years. Had they existed at the 
 time alluded to by the Mormon writer, some vestiges of 
 them would certainly ere this have been discovered. The 
 idea of swine being spoken of by the descendants of He- 
 brews as "useful for the food of man" will strike readers 
 of the Bible with astonishment. 
 
 In one place it is said that "all those who were true 
 believers in Christ took upon them the name of Christ or 
 Christians, as they were called, because of their belief in 
 Christ who should come." This was a century before 
 the coming of Christ. The question is asked eighty years 
 before Christ: "Have ye been spiritually born of God?" 
 Nearly all the proper names in the Book of Mormon are 
 merely combinations of Old Testament proper names. A 
 few are from Roman history. Some of these ancient 
 Americans bear Roman names several centuries too early, 
 
i 7 8 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 as for instance the name Antipas occurs 500 years before 
 the days of the Romans by that name. The prophets of 
 the book also display remarkable accuracy in using the 
 language of the New Testament, although they purport 
 to have lived hundreds of years before the Christian era. 
 
 Some of the miracles recorded in the book are most 
 remarkable. Nephi had a compass given him by the Lord 
 which would become balky and refuse to work whenever 
 anything was done to Nephi, "the Lord's pet." Colored 
 people are made white by conversion. Here is the story : 
 
 "And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had 
 united with the Nephites were numbered among the Ne- 
 phites, and their curse was taken from them, and their 
 skin became white like unto the Nephites ; and their young 
 men and their daughters became exceedingly fair, and 
 they were numbered among the Nephites, and were called 
 Nephites." 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's burning fiery furnace, the Philippian 
 jail experiences, the darkness and awful dread of Sinai, 
 the shining face of Moses, the still, small voice heard by 
 Elijah, and the outpouring of the spirit on the day of 
 Pentecost are all combined together, and all of them 
 beaten, in the marvelous experiences of two preachers, the 
 brothers Nephi and Lehi, sons of Helaman. 
 
 Jared built not one ark like Noah but eight barges, "ac- 
 cording to the instruction of the Lord." But when they 
 were finished he found that the Lord had forgotten two 
 important matters with reference to them — ventilation and 
 light. The brother of Jared promptly informs the Lord 
 of these omissions. He says : 
 
 "And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe 
 save it is the air which is in them ; therefore we shall per- 
 ish. And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared, behold, 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 179 
 
 thou shalt make a hole in the top thereof, and also in the 
 bottom thereof; and when thou shalt suffer for air, thou 
 shalt unstop the hole thereof, and receive air. And if so 
 be that the water come in upon thee, behold ye shall stop 
 the hole thereof, that ye may not perish in the flood. And 
 it came to pass that the brother of Jared did so, according 
 as the Lord had commanded. 
 
 "And it came to pass that they were many times buried 
 in the depths of the sea because of the mountain waves 
 which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible 
 tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind." 
 What was the object of the hole in the bottom of the 
 barges and how they got air to breathe while the waves 
 were breaking over them and burying them in the sea, 
 so that they would have to stop up the hole in the top, are 
 not made clear. 
 
 Again the brother of Jared "cried unto the Lord saying, 
 O Lord, behold I have done even as thou hast commanded 
 me ; and I have prepared the vessels for my people, and 
 behold there is 110 light in them. Behold, O Lord, wilt 
 thou suffer that we shall cross the great water in dark- 
 ness?" And the Lord, apparently, is puzzled to know 
 how to manage this matter, and so he asks advice of the 
 brother of Jared : 
 
 "And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared, what will 
 ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? 
 For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be 
 dashed in pieces ; neither shall ye take fire with you, for 
 ye shall not go by the light of fire ; for behold, ye shall 
 be as a whale in the midst of the sea ; for the mountain 
 waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring 
 you up again out of the depths of the sea ; for the winds 
 have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and 
 
180 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the floods have I sent forth. And behold, I prepare you 
 against these things; for howbeit, ye cannot cross this 
 great deep, save I prepare you against the waves of the 
 sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods 
 which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should 
 prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swal- 
 lowed up in the depths of the sea ?" 
 
 And the brother of Jared was quite equal to the emer- 
 gency. He was evidently a man of remarkable resources. 
 He went up into a very high mountain "and did moulten 
 out of a rock sixteen small stones, and they were white 
 and clear even as transparent glass/' 
 
 And those sixteen stones he presented before the Lord ; 
 and after an earnest prayer, in which he informs the Lord 
 of his ability to do anything he pleases, he says : 
 
 "Therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, 
 and prepare them that they may shine forth in the dark- 
 ness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels 
 which we have prepared, that we may have light while we 
 shall cross the sea." 
 
 And the Lord did so, and touched the stones one by one 
 with his finger, and they became luminous with light, and 
 were placed two in each barge, one at each end. Glass 
 ioo years after the flood ! 
 
 In describing what took place at the time of the death of 
 Christ the Book of Mormon completely outdoes the Bible : 
 
 "Thick darkness upon all the face of the land, inso- 
 much that the inhabitants thereof could feel the vapor 
 of darkness; and there could be no light, neither can- 
 dles, neither torches, neither could there be a fire kin- 
 dled with their fine and exceedingly dry wood." And 
 this "did last for the space of three days." Meantime, 
 "There was great mourning and howling and weeping 
 
WILFORD WOODRUFF. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 181 
 
 among all the people continually. . . . And thus 
 were the howlings of the people great and terrible." 
 
 In the midst of it all Jesus appeared upon the scene 
 — herejn America — and spoke in "a voice heard among 
 all the inhabitants of the earth, upon all the face of the 
 land," he recounts all the terrible things that have oc- 
 curred, mentions the names of the various cities, that 
 have been so suddenly blotted out of existence, and tells 
 the reason why this terrible visitation has been permitted, 
 because of their sins. The narrative goes on to say: 
 
 "And it came to pass that thus did the three days pass 
 away. And it was in the morning, and the darkness disap- 
 pears from off the face of the land, and the earth did cease 
 to tremble, and the rocks did cease to rend, and the dread- 
 ful groanings did cease, and all the tumultuous noises 
 'did pass away, and the earth did cleave together again 
 that it stood, (?) and the mourning, and the weeping, 
 and the wailing of the people who were spared alive did 
 cease; and their mourning was turned into joy, and their 
 lamentations into the praise and thanksgiving unto the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, their Redeemer." 
 
 Christ then told the whole multitude to "Arise and 
 come forth unto me that ye may thrust your hands 
 into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the 
 nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know 
 that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole 
 earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world." 
 Then "the multitude went forth and did thrust their 
 hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails 
 in his hands and in his feet ; and this they did do, going 
 forth one by one, until they had all gone forth." The 
 multitude in another place is said to have numbered 2,300 
 souls! Allowing a quarter of a minute to each person, 
 this operation would have taken over ten hours! 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— THE BOOK OF MOR- 
 MON—IMPROBABLE STORIES— BAD ENG- 
 LISH— "CLUMSIEST HOAX EVER IN- 
 VENTED." 
 
 Here are some other very improbable stories told by 
 the Book of Mormon : 
 
 A Lamanite general is scalped after the most approved 
 Indian fashion, though the plucky fellow refused to re- 
 tire, and did his most effective fighting afterwards, 
 minus a scalp ! 
 
 The Lamanites are described as a wild, hardened, 
 'ferocious people, delighting in robbery, plunder and 
 murder, a "very indolent people," "many of whom wor- 
 ship idols 1" And yet, though wild and naked, they 
 possessed dwelling houses, built great cities in which 
 are found synagogues and sanctuaries and temples. 
 
 After the Nephites had been badly beaten by the Lam- 
 anites, driven out of their strongholds in Central Ameri- 
 ca, their principal cities taken and destroyed, General 
 Mormon "wrote an epistle unto the King of the Laman- 
 ites, and desired of him that he would grant unto us 
 that we might gather together our people unto the land 
 of Cumorah, and there we could give them battle. And 
 it came to pass that the King of the Lamanites did grant 
 unto me the thing which I desired. And it came to 
 pass that we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, 
 and we did pitch our tents round about the hill Cumorah ; 
 and it was in a land of many waters, rivers and foun- 
 tains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the 
 Lamanites." 
 
 182 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 183 
 
 Think of it ! A defeated general writes to his enemy 
 and makes the polite request that he will transport his 
 army of several hundred thousand, at least two thousand 
 miles away from his base of supplies, into a sparsely 
 settled country, where provisions were necessarily scarce, 
 for no other reason than to allow his enemy to secure 
 a good position where they "had hope to gain advantage 
 over the Lamanites" ! The hill Cumorah is a small hill 
 in Western New York. In reaching it General Mor- 
 mon had climbed over hundreds of mountain fastnesses, 
 had marched by scores of magnificent canons or river 
 gorges and other of nature's hiding places or of Ther- 
 mopylae passes — a thousand places had been presented 
 that were a hundred times better adapted to the object 
 he had in view : "to gain some advantage over the Lam- 
 anites." But the reason of the request was very simple. 
 In that battle all of the Nephites were to be killed. 
 Mormon was to bury their records, which were after- 
 wards to be revealed to Joseph Smith. These he claimed 
 to have found in the hill Cumorah. And so, despite all 
 geographical difficulties or military disadvantages, the 
 author had to transport his armies there in some way, 
 and the best way, of course, was for them to meet there 
 by mutual agreement 
 
 And so, throughout the Book of Mormon, there is 
 "a multitude of unnatural, foolish and impossible stories," 
 and "a love of the marvelous combined with a some- 
 what stoical indifference to the ridiculous." A large part 
 of the Book, and all that is good about it, is stolen directly 
 from the Bible, but there is an evident purpose to beat 
 the Bible in relating marvelous stories. 
 
 It is a little curious, by the way, that in this copy- 
 ing from the Bible the errors in translation are repro- 
 
184 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 duced. Remember that these expressions are put into 
 the mouths of American prophets, apostles, etc., who 
 lived centuries before the Bible was translated into Eng- 
 lish at all and 1,200 years before King James' version, 
 which is followed pretty closely throughout. This is 
 certainly a most remarkable coincidence. True, Sidney 
 Rigdon had King James' version. But of course he had 
 nothing to do with the Book of Mormon ! Joseph Smith 
 also had access to it, though I doubt if he owned a copy 
 at this time, if ever. But all he had to do with the 
 Book of Mormon was to read the "Reformed Egyptian" 
 characters by means of his Urim and Thummim, and it 
 just so happened that in dictating the translation he used 
 the same language as King James' men! This fact in- 
 deed is a tribute to the accuracy of King James' ver- 
 sion, errors and all! The illustrations on this point are 
 too numerous to quote. Take only one. The Book of 
 Mormon says: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind, 
 and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her 
 own, is not easily provoked." This is almost a verbatim 
 reproduction of 1 Cor. xiii. 4. But the word "easily" 
 is not in any Greek manuscript, and is left out of the 
 Revised Version. How did the Mormon prophets 1,200 
 years before King James' version, come to make the 
 same mistake? 
 
 A striking instance of this anachronism is the plagiar- 
 ism of Hamlet's well-known speech, "To be, or not to 
 be." Five hundred and seventy years before Christ, Lehi, 
 in his last hours, addressing his sons, spoke of "the cold 
 and silent graw from whence no traveler can return" 
 Two thousand two hundred years later, Shakespeare, who 
 had never read Lehi's writings, spoke of "the undiscov- 
 ered country from whose bourn no traveler returns/' 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 185 
 
 There are many other expressions in the book to in- 
 dicate its modern origin. For instance, it contains a 
 number of words that have a Greek or Latin deriva- 
 tion later than 600 years before Christ, and others en- 
 tirely modern, such as : "Faculties," "Popular," "Priest- 
 craft," "State of dilemma," "Synagogue," "Bible," 
 "Jews," "Gentiles," "Church," "Baptize," "Barges," "Im- 
 mortal," and many others. These words convey ideas 
 wholly modern. The book also abounds in expressions 
 borrowed from the modern camp meetings, which, as I 
 stated in the first chapter, were being held in Western 
 New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio about the time the 
 book was published. Here are some of them: 
 "Encircled about eternally in the arms of his love." 
 "They are encircled about with the matchless bounty 
 of his love." 
 
 "They were encircled about with everlasting dark- 
 ness and destruction." 
 
 "The chains of hell which encircled them about were 
 loosed and their souls did expand, and they did sing 
 redeeming love." 
 
 "My brethren, if ye have experienced change of heart, 
 and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love." 
 "For the arms of mercy are extended towards them." 
 "Lay down the weapons of their rebellion." 
 "Behold, your days of probation are past; ye have 
 procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is ever- 
 lastingly too late." 
 
 "By the power of their words many were brought be- 
 fore the altar of God, to call on His name, and confess 
 their sins." 
 
 These expressions sound much more like the Methodists 
 of the 19th century than the Jews of 2,500, or even 1,500, 
 
186 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 years ago. There are many other modern phrases too 
 numerous to quote. 
 
 The bad English in the book is very noticeable. Here 
 are some examples of it : Some of the brethren "did rebel 
 against us ; yea, against I, Nephi, and Sam." This name 
 Sam, by the way, sounds very modern. Nephi in course 
 of time began to build a ship, and "did make tools of the 
 ore which I did molten out of the rock." "And now there 
 cannot be written in this book even a hundredth part of 
 the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people. 
 . . . Behold I were about to write them all . . . 
 but the Lord forbid it." "And when Moroni had said 
 these words, he went forth among the people, waving the 
 rent of his garment in the air, that all might see the writ- 
 ing which he had wrote upon the rent!!!" Besides being 
 very bad English, this sounds indecent. Certainly it is 
 quite ridiculous. And then to think of writing upon a 
 rent! Again, "There were no robbers nor murderers, 
 neither were there Lamanites, or any manner of ites!!!" 
 "Yea, this bringeth about the restoration of those things 
 of which have been spoken by the mouths of the prophets." 
 "I say unto thee, my son, that the plan of restoration is 
 requisite (?) with the justice of God." "And now behold 
 I say unto you, that ye had ought to search these things 
 diligently." This last is a complete betrayal of the author. 
 No one but a down East Yankee like Joseph Smith ever 
 said "had ought." 
 
 And so I mi£-ht use many other illustrations to show 
 the modern origin of the Book of Mormon. But these 
 will suffice. Through it all it is easy to recognize the hand 
 of Sidney Rigdon, in its scriptural quotations and its 
 doctrinal turn ; and the hand of Joseph Smith, in its 
 modern phraseology and its ungrammatical expressions. 
 
 On the title page of the first edition of the Book of 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 187 
 
 Mormon was the inscription, "Joseph Smith, Author and 
 Proprietor." This told the truth, but only part of the 
 truth. Solomon Spaulding and Sidney Rigdon deserved 
 to share with him the honor. 
 
 After the facts which I have given above, I feel sure 
 that the reader is ready to join with me in declaring that 
 the Book of Mormon, with all of its involved sentences, 
 its crude notions, its grotesque representations, its im- 
 probable and often impossible stories, its absurd and 
 ridiculous statements, its childish fancies, its geographical 
 errors, its modern phraseology and its ungrammatical ex- 
 pressions is a fraud of the deepest dye. Mr. Lamb, who 
 has made the most thorough study of it that has yet been 
 made, and of whose excellent work upon the subject I 
 have made free use, says in the conclusion of his book: 
 "My whole soul is moved, profoundly moved, in this mat- 
 ter. I believe with all my heart, I am forced by irresistible 
 logic to believe, that the Book of Mormon is a fraud." 
 In another place he speaks of it as "a miserable fraud, a 
 book to be execrated and hated by all good men who love 
 the truth." And again he says that it is "full of blunders 
 and mistakes and contradictions, and human imperfec- 
 tions from beginning to end." And again, "The angel 
 that dictated this book has been over and over again 
 proven to be ignorant, self-conceited, visionary ; given to 
 exaggeration ; forgetting important matters of record, and 
 making numberless mistakes." 
 
 Dr. W. Wyl, a German, who spent four months in 
 Utah studying Mormonism and who has written one of 
 the most interesting books I have read upon the subject, 
 calls Mormonism "a most ridiculous and patent humbug," 
 and the pretensions of Joseph Smith with reference to the 
 Book of Mormon, "the clumsiest hoax ever invented." 
 
 And he is right. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— THE DOCTRINE 
 AND COVENANTS AND PEARL OF GREAT 
 PRICE— "BOOK OF ABRAHAM." 
 
 The Mormon articles of faith say nothing about the 
 Book of Doctrine and Covenants or about the Pearl of 
 Great Price, for the reason that the articles were written 
 by Joseph Smith and these books were officially adopted 
 as standard authorities by the Mormon Church since the 
 death of Smith. But they are regarded as much sacred 
 books as the Bible and the Book of Mormon. They are 
 not, however, as important as the Book of Mormon and 
 I shall not attempt any lengthy examination of them as 
 with the Book of Mormon. 
 
 The Book of Doctrine and Covenants consists of two 
 parts : 
 
 1. A series of lectures on Faith, in which faith is 
 described as "the principal (sic) of action and of power 
 in all intelligent beings, both in heaven and on earth"; 
 as "the principal upon which all eternity has acted and 
 will act" ; and as "the principal upon which his creatures 
 here below must act in order to obtain the felicities en' 
 joyed by the saints in the eternal world." 
 
 2. A number of revelations given "to" and "through" 
 Joseph the Seer, at various times and places, and closing 
 with the "revelation on the eternity of the marriage 
 covenant, including plurality of wives." 
 
 In discussing the doctrines of the Mormons, I have had 
 occasion to quote frequently from the Doctrine and 
 
 188 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 189 
 
 Covenants. I also gave this last "revelation" pretty fully. 
 And so I need not dwell at any length now upon this book. 
 
 The Pearl of Great Price is a curiosity. It is a con- 
 glomerate medley of scraps. The following is the Table 
 of Contents given in the book. 
 
 Visions of Moses, as revealed to Joseph the Seer, in 
 June, 1830. 
 
 Writings of Moses, as revealed to Joseph the Seer, in 
 December, 1830. 
 
 The Book of Abraham, A Translation of some Ancient 
 Records, that have fallen into our hands from the Cata- 
 combs of Egypt, the writings of Abraham while he was 
 in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own 
 hand, upon Papyrus. Translated from the Papyrus by 
 Joseph Smith. 
 
 An Extract from a Translation of the Bible, being the 
 twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, commencing with the 
 last verse of the twenty-third chapter, revealed to Joseph 
 the Seer, in 1830. 
 
 A Key to the Revelations of St. John. By Joseph 
 Smith. 
 
 A Revelation and Prophecy on War, by the Prophet, 
 Seer and Revelator, Joseph Smith, Given December 25th, 
 1832. 
 
 Extracts from the History of Joseph Smith, contain- 
 taining an account of the first Visions and Revelations 
 which he received ; also of his discovering and obtaining 
 the plates of gold which contain the Record of Mormon, 
 Its translation. His Baptism, and Ordination by the 
 Angel. 
 
 From the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church. — 
 Commandment to the Church concerning Baptism. — The 
 Duties of the Members after they are received by Bap- 
 
190 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 tism. — Method of administering the Sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper. — The Duties of the Elders, Priests, Teach- 
 ers, Deacons, and Members of the Church of Christ. — 
 Extract from a Revelation given July, 1830. — Rise of the 
 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. — Articles 
 of our Faith. 
 
 A Revelation' on the Eternity of the Marriage Cove- 
 nant, Including Plurality of Wives, Given through Joseph 
 the Seer, in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, July 12th, 
 1843. 
 
 "The Writings of Moses" are simply a paraphrase of the 
 first chapters of Genesis, from the creation of the world 
 to the flood. It might be called a parody upon this part 
 of the Bible if it were not so much of a travesty upon it. 
 
 But the greatest curiosity of any is the "Book of Abra- 
 ham." Its origin is quite interesting. A traveling show- 
 man had some mummies. In 1835 ne came to Kirtland, 
 Ohio, with them. But let Mr. Smith tell the story for 
 himself: 
 
 "On the 3d of July, Michael H. Chandler came to Kirt- 
 land to exhibit some Egyptian mummies. There were 
 four human figures, together with some two or more rolls 
 of papyrus covered with hieroglyphic figures and devices. 
 As Mr. Chandler had been told I could translate them, 
 he brought me some of the characters, and I gave him the 
 interpretation, and like a gentleman 2 he gave me the 
 following certificate: 
 
 'Kirtland, July 6, 1835. 
 
 This is to make known to all who may be desirous con- 
 cerning the knowledge of Mr. Joseph Smith, Jun., in de- 
 ciphering the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic characters in 
 my possession, which I have, in many eminent cities, 
 showed to the most learned ; and, from the information 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 191 
 
 that I could ever learn, or meet with, I find that of Mr. 
 Joseph Smith, Jun., to correspond in the most minute! 
 matters. Michael H. Chandler, 
 
 Traveling with, and proprietor of, Egyptian mummies/ " 
 
 How Mr. Chandler knew anything about the Egyptian 
 hieroglyphics so that he could tell when they were cor- 
 rectly translated is not stated. At any rate the Saints 
 bought the mummies for Smith, and soon afterward he 
 declared that "much to our joy we found that one of these 
 rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the 
 writings of Joseph." "The writings of Joseph" are not 
 published. The Book of Abraham occupies 13 pages in 
 the Pearl of Great Price. I give one or two quotations 
 from it to show its character: 
 
 "Thus I, Abraham, talked with the Lord, face to face 
 as one man talketh with another; and He told me of the 
 works which his hand had made; and he said unto me, 
 My son, my son (and his hand was stretched out), be- 
 hold, I will show you all these. And He put his hand 
 upon mine eyes and I saw those things which His hand 
 had made, which were many ; and He said unto me, This 
 is Shinehah, which is the Sun. And He said unto me, 
 Kokob, which is Star. And he said unto me, Olea, which 
 is the Moon. And he said unto me, Kokaubeam, which 
 signifies stars, or all the great lights which were in the 
 firmament of heaven." 
 
 Here is the way the Book of Abraham corrects the first 
 chapter of Genesis : 
 
 "And they (the gods) said let there be light and there 
 was light, and they (the Gods) comprehended the light, 
 for it was bright; and they divided the light, or caused 
 it to be divided from the darkness ; and the Gods called 
 the light day, and the darkness they called night. And 
 
i 9 2 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the Gods also said, Let there be an expanse in the midst 
 of the waters, and it shall divide the waters from the 
 waters. And the Gods ordered the expanse, so that it 
 divided the waters which were under the expanse from 
 the waters which were above the expanse ; and it was so, 
 even as they ordered. And the Gods called the expanse 
 Heaven. And the Gods ordered, saying, Let the waters 
 under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, 
 and let the earth come up dry; and it was so, as they 
 ordered ; and the Gods pronounced the earth dry, and the 
 gathering together of the waters, pronounced they, great 
 waters ; and the Gods saw that they were obeyed. And 
 the Gods said, Let us prepare the earth to bring forth 
 grass ; the herb yielding seed ; the fruit tree yielding fruit, 
 after his kind, whose seed in itself yieldeth its own likeness 
 upon the earth ; and it was so, even as they ordered. And 
 the Gods organized the earth to bring forth grass from 
 its own seed, yielding seed after its kind. And the Gods 
 organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven, and 
 caused them to divide the day from the night ; and organ- 
 ized them to be for signs and for seasons and for days and 
 for years ; and organized them to be for lights in the ex- 
 panse of the heaven to give light upon the earth ; and it 
 was so. And the Gods organized the two great lights, 
 the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to 
 rule the night ; with the lesser light they set the stars also. 
 And the Gods watched those things which they had or- 
 dered until they obeyed." 
 
 Let us compare the interpretation of the pictures on 
 the papyrus of the Book of Abraham made by Joseph 
 Smith with the interpretation made by a French scholar, 
 Mr. Deveria, to whom the pictures were shown. Take 
 The Resurrection of Osiris. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 193 
 
 JOSEPH SMITH. 
 
 Fig. I. The Angel of 
 the Lord. 
 
 2. Abraham fastened up 
 on an altar. 
 
 3. The idolatrous priest 
 of Elkenah attempting to 
 offer up Abraham as a sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 4. The altar for sacrifice 
 by the idolatrous priest 
 standing before the gods of 
 Elkenah, Libnah, Mah- 
 mackrah, Korash and Pha- 
 raoh. 
 
 5. The idolatrous god of 
 Elkenah. 
 
 6. The idolatrous god of 
 Libnah. 
 
 7. The idolatrous god of 
 Korash. 
 
 9. The idolatrous god of 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 10. Abraham in Egypt. 
 
 11. Design to represent 
 the pillars of heaven as un- 
 derstood by the Egyptians. 
 
 12. Raukeegang, signi- 
 fying expanse, or the firm- 
 ament over our heads ; but 
 in this case, in relation to 
 this subject, the Egyptians 
 meant it to signify Shau- 
 
 MR. DEVERIA. 
 
 Fig. I. The soul of Osir- 
 is under the form of a 
 hawk. 
 
 2. Osiris coming to life 
 on his funeral couch, which 
 is in the shape of a lion. 
 
 3. The god Anubis ef- 
 fecting the resurrection of 
 Osiris. 
 
 4. The funeral-bed of 
 Osiris, under which are 
 placed the four sepulchral 
 vessels called canopes, each 
 of them surmounted by the 
 head of the four genii. 
 
 5. Kebh son-iw, with a 
 hawk's head. 
 
 6. Tiomautew, with a 
 jackal's head. 
 
 7. Hapi, with a dog's 
 head. 
 
 8. Amset, with a human 
 head. 
 
 9. The sacred crocodile, 
 symbolic of the God Sebet. 
 
 10. Altar laden with of- 
 ferings. 
 
 11. An ornament pecul- 
 iar to Egyptian art. 
 
 12. Customary repre- 
 sentation of ground in 
 Egyptian paintings. (The 
 
194 
 
 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 word Shauman 
 Egyptian). 
 
 is not 
 
 man, to be high, or the 
 heavens, answering to the 
 Hebrew Shaumahyeem. 
 
 Here is another picture described by Mr. Deveria as 
 the "Initial painting of a funerary Manuscript of the 
 Lower Epoch which cannot be anterior to the beginning 
 of the Roman dominion :" 
 
 FUNERARY MANUSCRIPT. 
 
 JOSEPH SMITH. 
 
 Fig. i. Abraham sitting 
 upon Pharaoh's throne, BY 
 THE POLITENESS OF 
 THE KING, with a crown 
 upon his head, representing 
 the Priesthood, as emblem- 
 atical of THE GRAND 
 PRESIDENCY IN 
 HEAVEN; with the scep- 
 tre of justice and judg- 
 ment in his hand. 
 
 2. King Pharaoh, whose 
 name is given in the char- 
 acters above his head. 
 
 3. Signifies Abraham in 
 Egypt; referring to Abra- 
 ham as given in the first 
 facsimile. 
 
 4- PRINCE OF PHA- 
 RAOH, King of Egypt, as 
 written above the hand. 
 
 5. Shulem, one of the 
 king's principal waiters, as 
 represented by the charac- 
 ters above his hand. 
 
 MR. DEVERIA. 
 
 Fig. 1. Osiris on his seat. 
 
 2. The goddess Isis. The 
 star she carries in her 
 right hand is the sign of 
 life. 
 
 3. Altar with the offer- 
 ing of the deceased, sur- 
 rounded with lotus flow- 
 ers, signifying the offering 
 of the defunct. 
 
 4. The goddess Ma. 
 
 5. The deceased led by 
 Ma into the presence of 
 Osiris. His name is Horus, 
 as may be seen in the pray- 
 er which is at the bottom of 
 the picture, and which is 
 addressed to the divinities 
 of the four cardinal points. 
 
 6. An unknown divinity, 
 probably Anubis; but his 
 head, which ought to be 
 that of a jackal, has been 
 changed. 
 
ABRAHAM AND PHARAOH. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 195 
 
 6. Olimlah, a slave be- 
 longing to the prince. 
 
 Abraham is reasoning 
 upon the principles of As- 
 tronomy, in the King's 
 Court. 
 
 And so with other interpretations. Those given by 
 Mr. Smith are utterly different from those given by Mr. 
 Deveria, and they serve to show that, as Dr. Wyl says, 
 "The book of Abraham is not only a fraud, but an un- 
 speakably silly and clumsy one, too." 
 
 Other parts of the Pearl of Great Price are all on a 
 par with the Book of Abraham, and all go to prove that 
 Mormonism is a system of "the most impudent lies ever 
 concocted by low, ignorant impostors and cheats." 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— NEW REVELA- 
 TIONS — BLOOD ATONEMENT — ARGU- 
 MENTS FOR IT. 
 
 The 9th article of faith in the Mormon creed reads : 
 
 "We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does 
 now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many 
 great and important things pertaining to the kingdom 
 of God." 
 
 This is one of the most dangerous articles in the Mor- 
 mon creed. It teaches that revelation did not close with 
 the canon of Scripture, but that in these latter days God 
 again reveals "many great and important things." To 
 whom does He reveal them? Why, only to the Mor- 
 mons, of course, and pre-eminently to the president of 
 the Mormon Church, who alone is authorized to promul- 
 gate revelations. 
 
 As I stood in front of the office of the president of 
 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt 
 Lake City, a gentleman who was with me remarked: 
 "Now you see the only place in the world where there 
 is direct telephonic communication with heaven." The 
 remark, strange, almost blasphemous, as it sounded, did 
 not exaggerate the Mormon belief. And the president 
 can get a message at any time on any subject he chooses. 
 And, strange to say, it is always just the kind of message 
 he wanted. Take, for instance, the 'revelation on the 
 subject of polygamy given to Joseph Smith, and then 
 the revelation to Wilford Woodruff, telling him its prac- 
 
 196 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 197 
 
 tice might be suspended. But this revelation was not 
 given until many of the apostles and bishops and elders 
 had been put in the penitentiary for practicing polygamy, 
 and not until under the Edmunds-Tucker act the church 
 property had been confiscated by the government. These 
 things seemed to bring "the Lord" to his senses. The 
 truth is that the president and the Lord frequently get 
 a good deal mixed up, and it is often a little difficult to 
 tell which is which. In the case of Brigham Young they 
 finally got to be identical. The Book of Mormon, the 
 Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great 
 Price are all put on an equality with the Bible. But these 
 "revelations," being the latest and freshest, may super- 
 sede all of these books. And as these "revelations" are 
 liable to be given at any time and may, as in the case of 
 polygamy, be radically different from their previous 
 teachings, the Mormons never really know what is their 
 belief until they have heard from headquarters and got 
 the latest "revelations." 
 
 This claim makes them utterly subservient to the 
 priesthood, and ultimately to the high priest, the presi- 
 dent. It gives him the keys to Heaven. It puts him on 
 an equality with the pope, and, if anything, above the 
 pope, as he claims rather more direct communication with 
 Heaven than even the pope does. It opens the way for 
 any sort of revelation the president may claim to have 
 received, and requires implicit obedience to it, whatever 
 it may be. Take the revelation on polygamy, for instance. 
 There was the greatest objection to it at first, especially 
 on the part of the women. But it was a "revelation," and 
 so there was nothing to do but obey it, or apostatize from 
 the Mormon faith, as many did. This claim makes of 
 Mormonism an absolute monarchy, a complete despot- 
 
198 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ism. It renders the priesthood infallible, and requires a 
 blind, unreasoning, unquestioning obedience to it. Grant- 
 ed this claim and ah else is possible. Accept it and you 
 put your head in a halter and will be led whithersoever the 
 whim of the president may dictate. It is the most dan- 
 gerous menace to numan liberty ever invented by the 
 devil. 
 
 It is, too, the refuge of fools and fanatics of every 
 description as an apology for their misdeeds. It was the 
 plea of Freeman, who killed his daughter; of Guiteau, 
 who killed Garfield, and of Joseph Smith and Brigham 
 Young in their numerous debaucheries and crimes. It 
 takes the blame off their shoulders for all their misdeeds 
 and saddles it on "the Lord." 
 
 And besides, this claim of a new revelation flies direct- 
 ly in the face of the concluding words in the last chapter 
 of the Bible, where it is said : "For I testify unto every 
 man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this 
 book, If any man shall add unto these things. God shall 
 add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; 
 and if any man shall take away from the words of the 
 book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out 
 of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the 
 things which are written in this book." 
 
 The tenth article of faith says : 
 
 "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the 
 restoration of the Ten Tribes, that Zion will be built on 
 this continent, that Christ will reign personally on the 
 earth, and that the earth will be renewed and receive its 
 paradisiacal glory." 
 
 There is nothing specially objectionable about this arti- 
 cle. Many Christians believe the same thing, though 
 there is a difference of opinion among them on the sub- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 199 
 
 ject. I do not think, however, that if Zion is built on 
 this continent it will be at Salt Lake City. Certainly that 
 city corresponds now much more to Sodom than it does 
 to Zion. 
 
 DANITE BAND BLOOD ATONEMENT. 
 
 The nth article of faith in the Mormon creed says: 
 
 "We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God 
 according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all 
 men the same privilege, let them worship how, where or 
 what they may/' 
 
 This certainly sounds very pretty. But let us see what 
 is the interpretation the Mormons put on it in actual 
 practice. At one time they had a band known as "whit- 
 tiers." Whenever anyone would do anything they did not 
 like, these whittlers would call upon him and, without 
 saying a word, stand in front of him and begin to whittle 
 pieces of pine. Everywhere he would go, they would 
 follow him, still whittling, piling up their shavings around 
 him and sometimes letting their knives slip and almost 
 cutting him in the face. This would become intolerable 
 after a while, and the poor fellow would either yield to 
 their wishes or leave. 
 
 While they were in Far West, Mo., the famous, or 
 rather infamous, Danite Band was organized by Sidney 
 Rigdon and Dr. Sampson Avard for the purpose of driv- 
 ing out from Missouri all apostates or dissenters from the 
 Mormon faith. It was variously called the "Daughters of 
 Zion," "Big Fan," "Brothers of Gideon," and finally 
 "Danites." The following is given as the origin of the 
 name by Elder John Hyde : 
 
 When the citizens of Carroll and Davies counties, Mis- 
 souri, began to threaten the Mormons with expulsion in 
 
 1838, a "death society" was organized under the direc- 
 
20o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 tion of Sidney Rigdon, and with the sanction of Smith. 
 Its first captain was Captain "Fearnaught," alias David 
 Patten, an apostle. Its object was the punishment of the 
 obnoxious. Some time elapsed before finding a suitable 
 name. They desired one that should seem to combine 
 spiritual authority with a suitable sound. Micah iv. 13 
 furnished the first name : "Arise and thresh, O daughter 
 of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron and thy hoofs 
 brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I 
 will consecrate their gain unto the Lord of the whole 
 earth. " This furnished them with a pretext; it accu- 
 rately described their intentions, and they called them- 
 selves the "Daughters of Zion." Some ridicule was made 
 at these bearded and bloody "Daughters/' and the name 
 did not sit easily. "Destroying Angels" came next; the 
 "Big fan of the thresher that should thoroughly purge 
 the floor" was tried and dropped. Genesis xlix. iy fur- 
 nished the name that they finally assumed. The verse is 
 quite significant: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, 
 an adder in the path that biteth the horse's heels so that 
 his rider shall fall 'backward.' " The "Sons of Dan" was 
 the style they adopted, and many have been the times 
 that they have been adders in the path, and many a man 
 has fallen backward and has been seen no more. 
 Addressing the Danite companies, Dr. Avard said : 
 "My brethren, as you have been chosen to be our lead- 
 ing men, our captains to rule over this last kingdom of 
 Jesus Christ, who have been organized after the ancient 
 order, I have called upon you here today to teach you 
 and instruct you in the things that pertain to your duty, 
 and to show you what your privileges are, and what they 
 soon will be. Know ye not, brethren, that it soon will be 
 your privilege to take your respective companies and go 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 201 
 
 out on a scout on the borders of the settlements and take 
 to yourself spoils of the ungodly Gentiles ? For it is writ- 
 ten, The riches of the Gentiles shall be consecrated to my 
 people, the house of Israel'; and thus waste away the 
 Gentiles by robbing and plundering them of their prop- 
 erty; and in this way we build up the Kingdom of God, 
 and roll forth the little stone that Daniel saw cut out of 
 the mountain without hands until it shall fill the whole 
 earth. For this is the very way that God destines to build 
 up His kingdom in the last days. If any of us shall be 
 recognized, who can harm us? For we will stand by 
 each other and defend one another in all things. If our 
 enemies swear against us, we can swear also. [The cap- 
 tains were confounded at this, but Avard continued.] 
 Why do you startle at this, brethren? As 'the Lord' 
 liveth, I would swear to a lie to clear any of you ; and if 
 this would not do, I would put them or him under the 
 sand as Moses did the Egyptian, and in this way we will 
 consecrate much unto 'the Lord,' and build up His king- 
 dom; and who can stand against us? And if any of us 
 transgress we will deal with him amongst ourselves. And 
 if any of this Danite Society reveals any of these things, 
 I will put him where the dogs cannot bite him." 
 
 The oath taken by the Danites in Missouri was simply : 
 "In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I do 
 solemnly obligate myself ever to conceal and never to 
 reveal the secret purposes of this society, called the 
 Daughter of Zion. Should I ever do the same, I hoid my 
 life as the forfeiture." 
 
 This oath was afterward altered, in Nauvoo, to read: 
 
 'In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I do 
 
 solemnly obligate myself ever to regard the prophet and 
 
 first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
 
202 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Day Saints as the supreme head of the church on earth, 
 and to obey them in all things the same as the supreme 
 God; that I will stand by my brethren in danger or diffi- 
 culty, and will uphold the presidency, right or wrong, 
 and that I will ever conceal and never reveal the secret 
 purposes of this society, called the Daughter of Zion. 
 Should I ever do the same, I hold my life as a forfeiture, 
 in a caldron of boiling oil." 
 
 From the "elite" among the Danites, as George Q. 
 Cannon called them, twelve were selected, called Destruc- 
 tives, or Destroying Angels, and sometimes Flying An- 
 gels. Their duty was to act as spies, and to report to the 
 first presidency. Their oath was as follows : 
 
 "In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I do 
 covenant and agree to support the first presidency of the 
 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in all things, 
 right or wrong; I will faithfully guard them and report 
 to them the acts of all men, as far as in my power lies ; I 
 will assist in executing all the decrees of the first presi- 
 dent, patriarch or president of the twelve ; and that I will 
 cause all who speak evil of the presidency, or heads of the 
 church, to die the death of dissenters or apostates, unless 
 they speedily confess and repent, for pestilence, persecu- 
 tion and death shall follow the enemies of Zion. I will be 
 a swift herald of salvation and messenger of peace to the 
 saints, and I will never make known the secret purposes 
 of this society, called the Destroying Angel, my life 
 being the forfeiture in a fire of burning tar and brim- 
 stone. So help me God, and keep me steadfast." 
 
 Referring to this Danite band, Dr. Wyl says that 
 "Mormonism is nothing but the Religious Mafia of the 
 United States." To tell all the dastardly deeds of this 
 Danite band would fill a volume. The most notorious of 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 203 
 
 all was the Mountain Meadows Massacre, of which I have 
 already told. 
 
 But even more horrible than the Danite band was the 
 theory of Blood Atonement preached and practiced by 
 the Mormons at one time. Its author was no less a person 
 than Brigham Young, together with his right hand man, 
 Jedediah M. Grant. An ex-Mormon elder by the name of 
 Smith and some friends attempted to address the Mor- 
 mons in the public street one Sunday just as Brigham 
 was going home from the Tabernacle. On the following 
 Sunday, March 27, 1853, Brigham was running over with 
 "the Spirit," and revealed himself on the subject of apos- 
 tacy : 
 
 "When I went from meeting last Sabbath, my ears 
 were saluted with an apostate crying in the streets here. 
 I want to know if anyone of you who has got the spirit of 
 Mormonism in you, the spirit that Joseph and Hyrum 
 had, or that we have here, would say, 'Let us hear both 
 sides of the question. Let us listen and prove all things/ 
 What do you want to prove ? Do you want to prove that 
 an old apostate, who has been cut off from the Church 
 thirteen times for lying, is anything worthy of notice? I 
 heard that a certain picture-maker in this city, when the 
 boys would have moved away the wagon in which this 
 apostate was standing, became violent with them, saying, 
 'Let this man alone ; these are Saints that you are perse- 
 cuting/ [Sneeringly.] 
 
 "We want such men to go to California, or anywhere 
 they choose. I say to those persons, 'You must not court 
 persecution here, lest you get so much of it you will not 
 know what to do with it. Do not court persecution/ We 
 have known Gladden Bishop for more than twenty years, 
 and know him to be a poor dirty curse. Here is sister 
 
204- THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Vilate Kimball, brother Heber's wife, has borne more 
 from that man than any other woman on earth could bear ; 
 but she won't bear it again. I say again, you Gladdenites, 
 do not court persecution, or you will get more than you 
 want, and it will come quicker than you want it. 
 
 "I say to you, bishops, do not allow them to preach in 
 your wards. Who broke the road to these valleys ? Did 
 this little nasty Smith and his wife? No. They stayed 
 in St. Louis, while we did it, peddling ribbons, and kiss- 
 ing the Gentiles. I know what they have done here — > 
 they have asked exorbitant prices for their nasty stinking 
 ribbons. [Voices, "That's true."] We broke the roads 
 to this country. 
 
 "Now, you Gladdenites, keep your tongues still, lest 
 sudden destruction come upon you. I say rather than 
 that the apostates should flourish here, / will unsheath my 
 bowie knife, and conquer or die. [Great commotion in 
 the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, 
 assenting to the declaration.] Now, you nasty apostates, 
 clear out, or 'judgment will be laid to the line, and right- 
 eousness to the plummet/ [Voices generally, 'Go it, go 
 it!'] If you say it is all right, raise your hands. [All 
 hands up.] Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this 
 and every other good zvork." 
 
 In a sermon in the Tabernacle, March 12, 1854, Grant 
 said : 
 
 "Then what ought this meek people who keep the com- 
 mandments of God do unto them ? 'Why,' says one, 'they 
 ought to pray to the Lord to kill them.' I want to know 
 if you wish the Lord to come down and do all your dirty 
 work? Many of the Latter Day Saints will pray, and 
 petition, and supplicate the Lord to do a thousand things 
 they themselves would be ashamed to do." 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 205 
 
 And again : 
 
 "When a man prays for a thing, he ought to be willing 
 to perform it himself. But if the Latter Day Saints should 
 put to death the covenant-breakers, it would try the faith 
 of the 'very meek, just and pious' ones among them, and 
 it would cause a great deal of whining in Israel. 
 
 "And then there was another odd commandment. The 
 Lord God commanded them not to pity the person whom 
 they killed, but to execute the law of God upon persons 
 worthy of death. This should be done by the entire con- 
 gregation, showing no pity. I have thought there would 
 have to be quite a revolution among the Mormons before 
 such a commandment could be obeyed completely by them. 
 The Mormons have a great deal of sympathy. For in- 
 stance, if they can get a man before the tribunal adminis- 
 tering the law of the land, and succeed in getting a rope 
 around his neck, and have him hung up like a dead dog, 
 it is all right. But if the Church and kingdom of God 
 should step forth and executei the law of God, oh, what a 
 burst of Mormon sympathy it would cause! / wish we 
 were in a situation favorable to our doing that which is 
 justifiable before God, without any contaminating in- 
 fluence of Gentile amalgamation, laws and tradition, that 
 the people of God might lay the axe to the root of the tree, 
 and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit might be 
 hewn down. 
 
 "What ! do you believe that people would do right, and 
 keep the law of God, by actually putting to death the trans- 
 gressors? Putting to death the transgressors would ex- 
 hibit the law of God, no matter by whom it was done. 
 That is my opinion." 
 
 But Brigham Young went still farther. In a sermon 
 delivered in the Bowery, Salt Lake City, Sept. 21, 1856, 
 he said : 
 
206 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "The time is coming when justice will be laid to the line 
 and righteousness to the plummet ; when we shall take the 
 old broadsword and ask, 'Are you for God?' and if you 
 are not heartily on the Lord's side, you will be hewn 
 down ! 
 
 1 * * * * * * * * 
 
 "There are sins that men commit for which they cannot 
 receive forgiveness in this world or in that which is to 
 come ; and if they had their eyes opened to see their true 
 condition they would be perfectly willing to have their 
 blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might 
 ascend to Heaven as an offering for their sins, and the 
 smoking incense would atone for their sins; whereas, if 
 such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain 
 with them in the spirit world. 
 
 "I know, when you hear my brethren telling about cut- 
 ting people off from the earth, that you consider it is 
 strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy 
 them. * * * 
 
 I do know that there are sins committed of such a 
 nature that, if the people did understand the doctrine of 
 salvation, they would tremble because of their situation. 
 And, furthermore, I know that there are transgressors 
 who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon 
 which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their 
 brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might 
 ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is 
 kindled against them, and that the law might have its 
 course. I will say, further, I have had men come to me 
 and offer their lives to atone for their sins. 
 
 "It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed 
 for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet 
 men can commit sins which it can never remit. As it was 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 207 
 
 in ancient days, so it is in our day ; and though the princi- 
 ples are taught publicly from this stand, still the people 
 do not understand them ; yet the law is precisely the same. 
 There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon 
 an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the 
 blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle doves cannot remit, 
 but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man." 
 
 And in a discourse delivered in the Tabernacle, Feb. 8, 
 1857, from the text, "Love thy neighbor as thyself/' he 
 said : 
 
 "When will we love our neighbors as ourselves? In 
 the first place, Jesus said that no man hateth his own flesh. 
 It is admitted by all that every person loves himself. 
 Now, if we do rightly love ourselves we want to be saved 
 and continue to' exist, we want to go into the kingdom 
 where we can enjoy eternity and see no more sorrow nor 
 death. This is the desire of every person who believes in 
 God. Now take a person in this congregation who has 
 knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of 
 our God and our Father, and being exalted, one who 
 knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and 
 sees the beauties and excellency of the eternities before him 
 compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, 
 and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he 
 has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of 
 that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain 
 to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows 
 that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin 
 and be saved and exalted with the gods, is there a man or 
 woman in this house but would say, 'Shed my blood that 
 I might be saved and exalted with the gods ?- 
 
 "All mankind love themselves ; and let those principles 
 be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have 
 
208 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 his blood shed. This would be loving ourselves even unto 
 an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or 
 sisters likewise when they have a sin that cannot be atoned 
 for without the shedding of their blood? That is what 
 Jesus Christ meant. He never told a man or woman to 
 love their enemies in their wickedness, never. He never 
 meant any such thing; his language is left as it is for 
 those to read who have the spirit to discern between truth 
 and error; it was so left for those who can discern the 
 things of God. Jesus Christ never meant that we should 
 love a wicked man in his wickedness. 
 
 "I could refer you to plenty of instances where men 
 have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins. 
 I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there 
 would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there 
 will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood 
 spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Al- 
 mighty, but who are now angels to the devil, until our 
 elder brother, Jesus Christ, raises them up, conquers 
 death, hell and the grave. 
 
 "I have known a great many men who have left this 
 Church for whom there is no chance whatever for exalta- 
 tion, but if their blood had been spilled it would have been 
 better for them. 
 
 "The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid 
 this principle being in full force, but the time will come 
 
 WHEN THE LAW OF GOD WILL BE IN FULL FORCE. This is 
 
 loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help 
 him; if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his 
 blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. 
 "Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, 
 if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, 
 except the sin unto death, should not be satisfied or rest 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 209 
 
 until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain 
 that salvation you desire. That is the wav to love 
 mankind. * * * Light and darkness cannot dwell 
 together, and so it is with the kingdom of God. 
 
 "Now brethren, sisters, will you live your religion? 
 How many hundreds of times have I asked tha^ question? 
 Will the Latter Day Saints live their rehgion? 
 Following this advice, Jedediah Grant urged : 
 "I say there are men and women here that I would 
 advise to go to the president immediately, and ask him to 
 appoint a committee to attend to their case; and then let 
 a place* be selected, and let that committee shed their 
 blood." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM— BLOOD ATONE- 
 MENT—INSTANCES OF IT— "OBEDIENT 
 TO LAW." 
 
 How literally the counsels of Brigham Young and 
 others, as given in the last chapter, were fulfilled, may be 
 seen from the following instances: 
 
 The wife of one elder, when he was absent on a mis- 
 sion, acted unfaithfully towards him. Her husband took 
 counsel of the authorities and was reminded that the 
 shedding of her blood alone could save her. He returned 
 and told her, but she asked for time, which was readily 
 granted. One day, in a moment of affection, when she 
 was seated on his knee, he reminded her of her doom, 
 and suggested that now when their hearts were full of 
 love was a suitable time for carrying it into execution. 
 She acquiesced and out of love he cut her throat from ear 
 to ear. 
 
 Franklin McNeal, who had sued Brigham Young for 
 false imprisonment, was killed at his hotel door. At 
 Springville, near Salt Lake, there was a family by the 
 name of Parrish. They had at one time been very devoted 
 to the Mormon church, but afterwards old man Parrish 
 apostatized, as so many others had done, and he decided 
 to leave Utah and go to California. The evening they 
 were to start, two Mormons, who had been appointed to 
 play the part of spies upon them, went to see them and 
 proposed to assist them in leaving. When they had gone 
 a little way, the old man was stabbed to death, his eldest 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 211 
 
 son was killed, the younger son was severely wounded, 
 but managed to escape — and all because they were "apos- 
 tates." 
 
 Here is a story as related by a Mormon woman to Mrs. 
 Stenhouse : 
 
 "When first I came to this country I lived in the south- 
 ern portion of Utah. One day I saw a woman running 
 across the fields towards our house, pale and trembling. 
 When she came in she looked round her as if she were 
 frightened, and she asked if anyone besides our own 
 family were present. On being assured that there was 
 no one present whom she might fear, she said : 'Two men 
 came to our house late last night and asked to see my 
 husband, who had already retired. He was in bed, but 
 they insisted that he must get up, as they had a message 
 from the "authorities" for him. When they saw him 
 they requested him to go with them to attend, they said, 
 to some church business. I became very much alarmed, 
 for my poor husband had been known to speak rather 
 freely of late of some of the measures of the church, but 
 he tried to reassure me, and finally left the house with 
 the two men. In about an hour after they came back, 
 bearing between them his lifeless body. They laid him 
 upon the bed, and then one of them pulled aside a curtain 
 which constituted our only cupboard, and took therefrom 
 a bake-kettle and stood it beside the bed, in order to 
 catch the blood that was flowing from a fearful wound in 
 his throat. They then left the house, telling me to make 
 as little noise about it as possible, or they might serve me 
 in the same way. The men were masked, and I cannot 
 tell who they are, but I spent a fearful night with my 
 poor dead husband.' " 
 
 Dr. J. King Robinson was a young physician of excel- 
 
212 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 lent character. He had married an ex-Mormon. H« 
 took a good deal of interest in the Gentile Sunday school. 
 He was the intimate friend of the Rev. Norman McLeod, 
 who at that time was chaplain at the military post, and 
 was preaching in Independence Hall in opposition to the 
 Mormon faith. The doctor, doubtless, shared the senti- 
 ments of the minister, and both of them were thoroughly 
 disliked by the prominent Mormons. Dr. Robinson had 
 a law suit with the city authorities over the possession of 
 some property. The suit was decided against him and 
 three days afterward he was assassinated. 
 
 These are only a few of the murders committed. In 
 summing up the evidence in the Springville murders, 
 Judge Cradlebaugh concluded an address from the bench 
 as follows: 
 
 "Men are murdered here — coolly, deliberately, pre- 
 meditatedly murdered. Their murder is deliberated and 
 determined upon by church council-meetings, and that, 
 too, for no other reason than that they had apostatized 
 from your church and were striving to leave the terri- 
 tory. 
 
 You are the tools, the dupes, the instruments of a 
 tyrannical church despotism. The heads of your church 
 order and direct you. You are taught to obey their orders 
 and commit these horrid murders. Deprived of your 
 liberty, you have lost your manhood, and become the 
 willing instruments of bad men." 
 
 But it may be said that these things occurred some time 
 ago, that Mormonism has changed considerably since 
 then. So it has. But the reason is, that in the light of 
 publicity produced by the railroad and telegraph and 
 printing press, it does not dare to do now what it used to 
 do with impunity. Its principles, however, have not 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 213 
 
 changed. They remain the same. Give it the same 
 power and opportunity as before and the same results 
 would follow. 
 
 Sometimes, instead of killing people, they would sub- 
 ject them to a most disgusting punishment, which was a 
 peculiar invention of the Mormon mind. Mr. and Mrs. 
 T. B. H. Stenhouse, who apostatized, were treated that 
 way. Only a few months ago Mr. Charles Mostyn Owen, 
 who has been quite active* in having polygamists arrested 
 and fined, was threatened with that punishment. 
 
 Give Mormonism the power it seeks and everyone in 
 this country would either have to be Mormons or suffer 
 persecution and perhaps death. And this is what the 
 Mormons mean when they say in their article of faith : 
 
 "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God 
 according to the dictates of our conscience and allow all 
 men the same privilege, let them worship how, where or 
 what they may." 
 
 These articles of faith, remember, were written by 
 Joseph Smith, before the sermons of Jedediah M. Grant 
 and Brigham Young and the murders of Mr. Parrish and 
 Dr. Robinson and the Mountain Meadows massacre. 
 These were the commentaries upon this article. 
 
 The twelfth article of faith in the Mormon creed says : 
 
 "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, 
 rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustain- 
 ing the law." 
 
 In view of the history of Mormonism, from its origin 
 to the present, that article certainly sounds very queer. 
 In giving its history I have already shown the theocratic 
 nature of Mormonism, which makes it unwilling to sub- 
 mit to any other authority, and how it has led to constant 
 friction with the constituted authorities and sometimes 
 
214 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 to open rebellion. A few points in that history may be 
 recalled — their expulsion from Missouri and from Illi- 
 nois because of their unwillingness to submit to the law 
 of the land, their persistent and open defiance of the laws 
 against polygamy, even to the present day. In fact 
 the whole course of the Mormons on the subject of 
 polygamy has been one long and shameful story of decep- 
 tion, of insubordination and of defiance of law. They 
 have persistently broken every law on the subject — the 
 Cullom law of 1862, the Edmunds law of 1882, the Ed- 
 munds-Tucker law of 1887, and even the laws of their 
 own constitution and of their penal code of Utah. They 
 adopted these laws because they were made the condi- 
 tion of the admission of Utah into the Union as a State. 
 But they adopted them, as afterwards appeared, with 
 the full determination to violate them whenever they 
 pleased. They would have acceptd any conditions to get 
 statehood. 
 
 The presbytery which met at Manti in 1898 stated that 
 there were over two thousand cases of polygamy in the 
 State, or perhaps I should say of polygamous cohabita- 
 tion. The Mormons understand by polygamy new polyga- 
 mous marriages. The statement of the presbytery was 
 vigorously denied and denounced as a slander. But 
 afterwards one of the apostles in conversation with a 
 Presbyterian minister, said that the Presbyterians made a 
 great mistake. They should have said three thousand. 
 
 According to an official statement issued by Mr. B. H. 
 Roberts the day after his exclusion from the Congress of 
 the United States for polygamy — but not issued until 
 then — there are now in the United States 1,543 cases of 
 polygamous cohabitation ; that is, there are that many men 
 living with more than one wife. Most of these cases are 
 
M| ppTirfi7liiin. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF OSIRIS 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 215 
 
 in Utah, in express violation of the laws of the State. 
 Among these lawbreakers are presidents of stakes, coun- 
 selors, apostles, bishops, elders too numerous to mention 
 by name— in fact, nearly all the leading Mormons. These 
 polygamists are upheld in their course by a strong public 
 sentiment among the Mormons in favor of polygamy. It 
 is not considered any disgrace, but rather a virtue, to be 
 a lawbreaker. A short while before I was in Salt Lake 
 City, Angus M. Cannon, president of the Salt Lake Stake 
 of Zion, was arrested for living in polygamy. He pleaded 
 guilty, was fined $100— and the people made up the 
 money on the street to pay the fine. While I was there 
 Joseph E. Taylor, one of the twelve apostles, was arrested, 
 and because he would not promise to discontinue his 
 polygamous practices in the future he was fined $150. 
 The next Sunday afternoon, at a service in the Taber- 
 nacle, which I attended, and at which there were 3,000 or 
 4,000 Mormons present, Angus M. Cannon presided and 
 Joseph E. Taylor occupied a prominent place in the 
 apostles' seat. 
 
 One Sunday night I attended a Sunday school mass- 
 meeting in the Thirteenth Ward. At the meeting a letter 
 was read from a Mormon missionary now in England, in 
 which he said (I took down the language at the time) : 
 "I see that our enemies are at work. I am sorry to learn 
 that our people are being dragged into the courts for 
 obeying the commandment of the Lord, and that Presi- 
 dent Snow has fallen into the hands of these vultures." 
 I mention these facts to show : 
 
 1. That polygamy, or, as the Mormons would term it, 
 polygamous cohabitation, is being practiced in Utah to a 
 large extent. 
 
 2. That while the offenders are fined by the courts, 
 
2i6 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the public sentiment on the subject among the Mormons 
 is such that they do not lose their ecclesiastical standing, 
 but are rather honored and sometimes rewarded for what 
 they call "obeying the commandment of the Lord" in the 
 face of persecution. 
 
 And this is what the Mormons mean in their article of 
 faith : 
 
 "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers 
 and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the 
 law." 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM— POLYGAMY— ARRESTS. 
 
 The last article in the Mormon creed says : "We be- 
 lieve in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, 
 and in doing good to All Men; indeed we may say that 
 we follow the admonition of Paul, 'We believe all things, 
 we hope all things, we have endured many things, and 
 hope to be able to endure all things/ If there is anything 
 virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy we 
 seek after these things." 
 
 This certainly sounds very pretty. But it comes under 
 the head of "interesting, if true." Is it true? We have 
 been considering the historical and religious side of Mor- 
 monism. Let us now look at its social side. 
 
 As the cornerstone of its social system is polygamy, let 
 us consider that at some length. 
 
 In giving the history of Mormonism I discussed some- 
 what the subject of polygamy, showing that Jo- 
 seph Smith claimed that the revelation in regard 
 to polygamy had been given to him July 12, 1843. 
 Mr. B. H. Roberts now asserts that "It was in 
 183 1 that plural marriage was first made known to Joseph 
 Smith." And he is probably correct ; only the person who 
 made it known to him at that time was the devil, not the 
 Lord. As a matter of fact, it was practiced by Smith long 
 before 1843, an d it finally, as we have seen, led to his 
 death in 1844. It was also practiced secretly by Brigham 
 Young and others. But it was not promulgated as a doc- 
 trine until 1852, after the Mormons had reached Utah and 
 
 217 
 
218 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 when they thought themselves secure from molestation 
 by the hated United States laws. Up to that time, while, 
 as I said, it was secretly practiced, it was strenuously 
 denied by the Mormon leaders. For instance, while John 
 Taylor, who afterwards succeeded Brigham Young as 
 president of the Mormon Church, was missionary in Bou- 
 logne, France, in 1850, he was asked if the Mormons did 
 not believe in polygamy. He denied it vigorously. At 
 that very time he had at least six wives living in America. 
 
 But after 1853 tne mask was thrown off and it was 
 openly practiced. For a time the "Saints" were a little 
 slow to take hold of the doctrine. But after awhile polyg- 
 amy became a regular epidemic. Every Mormon was 
 counseled to take as many wives as possible so as to 
 "build up the kingdom," and, of course, he was required 
 to "obey counsel," however much it might be against his 
 inclinations. Sometimes this resulted in a good deal of 
 inconvenience. An instance is given of two men, about 
 60 years of age, each of whom was counseled by the 
 priesthood to take another wife, but who were unable to 
 comply because they could not find any suitable partners. 
 They had all been taken. After awhile they heard of a 
 man who had two daughters, one 14 and the other 12. 
 They went to him, explained the situation, and asked him 
 to relieve them of their embarrassment. He objected at 
 first, but finally consented. It became a proverb about 
 this time that if you should hang a petticoat on a fence 
 pole and shake it, half a dozen men would flock at once to 
 marry it. 
 
 In 1862 Congress passed the Cullom law against polyg- 
 amy, in 1882 the Edmunds law and in 1887 the Edmunds- 
 Tucker law. I have already given the substance of these 
 laws. The last was so stringent that it could not be 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 219 
 
 evaded. Many went to prison for disobeying it. The 
 church property was confiscated. In 1890 President 
 Woodruff had a "revelation" and issued a manifesto, in 
 which he stated that he proposed to obey the laws and ad- 
 vised every one else to do so. 
 
 On Jan. 4, 1893, a proclamation was issued by President 
 Harrison granting amnesty to those Mormons who were 
 in exile and in the penitentiary. This was expressly 
 "conditioned upon the faithful observance of the laws of 
 the United States against unlawful cohabitation.'' 
 
 On Sept. 25, 1894, President Cleveland issued a similar 
 amnesty proclamation, from whose provisions he excepted 
 such "persons as have not complied with the conditions 
 contained in said executive proclamation of Jan. 4, 1893. 
 
 These amnesty proclamations were made on the most 
 solemn promise of the Mormon leaders, pledging their 
 "faith and honor" that old polygamous relations should 
 cease and that no new polygamous marriages would be 
 consummated, in other words, that they would obey the 
 laws. 
 
 They then applied for statehood, which was granted 
 in 1896. Having secured this, and thinking themselves 
 secure, they had the legislature of Utah to pass the follow- 
 ing law : 
 
 "If any male person cohabits with more than one 
 woman he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on con- 
 viction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more 
 than $300, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not 
 more than six months or by both said punishments in the 
 discretion of the courts." (Revised Statutes of Utah. 
 1898, p. 900, section 4209.) 
 
 This law, as is now admitted, was intended for "foreign 
 consumption," not for home consumption. The Mormons 
 
220 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 themselves say it was never intended to be enforced. The 
 old polygamous practices were then resumed all over the 
 state. 
 
 Nearly all of the Mormon leaders, presidents, counsel- 
 ors, apostles and bishops have two or more wives, as have 
 some of the people, though not many, as they are generally 
 too poor. I met one layman who has three wives. He 
 has five children by the first, four by the second and four 
 by the third. I was told that his first wife "abominates 
 polygamy" — as well she might. President Snow has had 
 nine wives, five of whom are living. He lives, however, 
 with only one — the youngest. Brigham Young is com- 
 monly credited with having had nineteen wives, but the 
 guide in the Tabernacle told me that he had twenty-six, 
 and sold me a book purporting to contain their pictures, 
 which I shall be glad to show my friends. But Heber C. 
 Kimball broke the record, it is said, with forty-five wives. 
 When charges were made that the Mormons were con- 
 tinuing to practice polygamous cohabitation they replied : 
 "If that is so, prove it ; the courts are open." No one had 
 cared especially to carry the matter into court, as it would 
 involve considerable trouble and would probably lead to 
 unpleasant relations with his neighbors. But Charles 
 Mostyn Owen, a Welchman, representative of the New 
 York Journal, decided that he would accept the challenge. 
 So he went quietly to work. The result was the arrest of 
 President Angus M. Cannon, president of the Salt Lake 
 Stake, and of Apostle Heber J. Grant. What did they do ? 
 They pleaded guilty, were fined $100 each, which they 
 paid, and returned to their holy duties — and their polyga- 
 mous cohabitation. Apostle Joseph E. Taylor was also 
 arrested, and after my arrival in Salt Lake City he was 
 brought before the court, and because he would not prom- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 221 
 
 ise to discontinue his polygamous cohabitation in the fu- 
 ture he was fined $150. 
 
 Charles Kelly was indicted at Bingham City for unlaw- 
 ful cohabitation. He pleaded guilty, and offensively ar- 
 raigned the court for its definition of his offense. Shortly 
 afterward he was promoted to be president of the Box 
 Elder Stake. The Salt Lake Tribune said : "His reward 
 came soon, and it is most unseemly." 
 
 While I was in Salt Lake City Mr. Owen filed thirty- 
 one affidavits against citizens of Cache county, charging 
 thirty of them with unlawful cohabitation and one, the son 
 of an apostle, with adultery. Cache county is probably 
 the strongest Mormon community in the state, 98 per cent 
 of the population being Mormons. The paper quotes Mr. 
 Owen as saying that the list of alleged offenders was by 
 no means exhausted. The paper adds that "ecclesias- 
 tically the list ranges from low officials to an apostle, and 
 civilly from a justice of the peace to the secretary of the 
 agricultural college. In filing charges against so many at 
 one time, Mr. Owen intends to refute the assertions of 
 the defenders of the system that there may be a 'few 
 sporadic cases' of such unlawful cohabitation." 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM— POLYGAMY— WHAT 
 THE MORMONS SAY ABOUT IT— NEW 
 CASES. 
 
 In the last chapter I showed that polygamy — or as the 
 Mormons call it, polygamous cohabitation — is still being 
 practiced extensively in Utah. 
 
 What do the Mormons say about these things ? Instead 
 of undertaking to speak for them, I shall let them speak 
 for themselves, but for the benefit of those who may not 
 have studied the subject I shall answer their arguments. 
 
 The Salt Lake Herald of Nov. 26, 1899, contained a 
 long article from Apostle Joseph E. Taylor defending him- 
 self and others who like him are practicing polygamous 
 cohabitation. I presume he will be considered good Mor- 
 mon authority. I quote only a few sentences from the 
 article, but these will serve to show its gist. He says : 
 
 "I would ask: Is the act of which I was accused es- 
 sentially a crime? Or in other words: Is it a crime in 
 and of itself? From my standpoint it is not. That it is 
 made so by statutory enactment I freely admit, but that 
 does not constitute it a crime independent of such statute." 
 
 By this Apostle Taylor means to say that while polyga- 
 mous cohabitation is a crime in the eyes of the law, it is 
 not a crime in the eyes of the Mormons, and he puts his 
 religious belief above the laws of the State and of the 
 land. 
 
 Again the apostle said : "The anti-polygamy law known 
 as the Cullom bill, passed in 1862, was considered to be a 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 223 
 
 dead letter, and that it would never possess any life. Such 
 was the honest conviction of the Mormon people. Twenty 
 years afterward, when this old law was fanned into life 
 and sustained by other laws passed for a specific purpose 
 —which must be classed in future history as special legis- 
 lation, as well as ex post facto in character, which is 
 strictly forbidden in the constitution of the United States 
 (Art. I, Sec. 9)— we then firmly believed that the court of 
 last resort would declare the same unconstitutional." 
 
 But what right had the Mormon people to consider the 
 Cullom law a "dead letter ?" And what right had they to 
 believe that the Supreme Court of the United States would 
 declare the Edmunds law unconstitutional? They put it 
 on the ground that Congress has no right to interfere with 
 the religion of people, and polygamy is a part of their re- 
 ligion. In the same way Freeman, who murdered his child 
 in Maine some years ago, declaring that he was com- 
 manded by the Lord to do so, might have claimed that 
 murder was a part of his religion and that, consequently, 
 the law had no right to interfere with him in the exercise 
 of his religion. So also might any murderer or any high- 
 way robber declare that he was simply exercising his 
 religion in what he did. But he would be apt to find, as 
 the Mormons found, that the law considers that a person's 
 rights end where another's rights begin. And this is true 
 in religion as well as in other things. But suppose the 
 Mormons did believe that the Edmunds law would be de- 
 clared unconstitutional, what right had they to continue to 
 violate it until it was declared unconstitutional? As long 
 as it remained on the statute books it was the law, and as 
 such demanded obedience. 
 
 Apostle Taylor goes on to say : 
 
 "There is nothing in the manifesto, in the enabling act 
 
224 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 or in the Constitution of Utah that touches upon or relates 
 in any sense whatever to plural marriages entered into 
 previous to the dates I have mentioned ; the assertions of 
 ministers, politicians and the avowed enemies of the Mor- 
 mon people to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 But what about the interpretation put upon the mani- 
 festo by Presidents Woodruff and Snow on the witness 
 stand that it related not only to future polygamous mar- 
 riages, but also to polygamous cohabitation? And what 
 about the law of the State of Utah upon the subject of un- 
 lawful cohabitation? 
 
 Apostle Taylor says again : 
 
 "This brings us to the question at issue: What shall 
 be done with plural wives who entered into that relation 
 prior to the decision of the court of last resort? Shall 
 they be abandoned, one and all, or, as in my case, shall I 
 select one of the two plural wives named in the complaint 
 — -there being no legal wife? If so, which one; and live 
 with her exclusively, discarding the other, and that, too, 
 without consulting her at all in the matter, and say to her : 
 'Hereafter you must not come near me. I will give you 
 food and clothing for yourself and children, but you must 
 seek other society than mine.' " 
 
 To this the reply is simply that no one proposes to de- 
 mand that these plural wives shall be "abandoned." They 
 ought to be supported. But what the law does demand, 
 and what public sentiment demands, and what Christian 
 civilization demands, and what common decency demands, 
 is that a man shall not live with more than one woman as 
 a husband, that he shall not cohabit with her and beget 
 children by her. 
 
 Apostle Taylor closes by saying : 
 
 "Polygamous marriages are things of the past. Some 
 
- 
 
 • 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 225 
 
 few polygamous relations entered into in the past still con- 
 tinue. To allow them to remain undisturbed is the wisest, 
 the most humane and the only magnanimous course to 
 pursue ; which the people of this great nation can afford to 
 do. Let the law in relation thereto remain a dead letter 
 upon our statute books. The Mormon people can be 
 trusted implicitly; their word of promise is a sacred 
 pledge. It will be kept inviolate, as every other promise 
 made by them in the past has been. Call off the blood- 
 hounds and let us have peace. ,, 
 
 A few questions are in order. Are "polygamous mar- 
 riages things of the past?" We shall see about that di- 
 rectly. Is it true that only "some few polygamous rela- 
 tions entered into in the past still continue ?" As we have 
 seen there are 1,543 men now living with polygamous 
 wives in the state of Utah. What is the use of passing a 
 law if it is to remain a "dead letter?" Can the Mormon 
 people be "trusted implicitly?" Is "their word of promise 
 a sacred pledge?" Has "every other promise made by 
 them in the past" been "kept inviolate?" Of course, by 
 "the Mormon people," Apostle Taylor meant the Mormon 
 leaders. What about the promise made by Presidents 
 Woodruff and Snow on the witness stand in order to re- 
 cover their confiscated church property, that not only 
 future polygamous marriages, but polygamous cohabita- 
 tion should cease? Has that been kept "inviolate?" Has 
 it been kept inviolate by Apostle Taylor himself? The 
 fine of $150 imposed upon him for unlawful cohabitation 
 is sufficient answer to the question. 
 
 "Call off the bloodhounds and let us have peace. bo 
 any criminal might say. That would be an easy way to 
 have peace. But it would be peace at the sacrifice of the 
 law, and peace at the sacrifice of the dignity of the state, 
 
226 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 and at the sacrifice of righteousness and of all the finer 
 sentiments of humanity. I imagine that the American 
 people will not be satisfied to "call off the bloodhounds" 
 until there is no further need for them. Then they will 
 call them off, and then we will "have peace" — then, but 
 not till then. 
 
 The Salt Lake Tribune of November 27, 1899, contained 
 interviews with a number of citizens of Cache County 
 with reference to the affidavits which had been filed 
 against thirty of the leading citizens of that County for 
 unlawful cohabitation. Here is the way they view the 
 matter up there. I quote most of the interviews. They 
 are all of the same tenor, with the exception of one by a 
 Presbyterian minister, Rev. N. E. Clemenson, who says : 
 
 "I think the law should be fairly and impartially en- 
 forced against all citizens without distinction. One crime 
 should be shown no favoritism over another in this re- 
 gard." 
 
 In this expression Mr. Clemenson voices the sentiments 
 of the Christian people of the United States. But others 
 in Cache County do not agree with him. 
 
 John A. Hendrickson says : "We who look upon this 
 matter from a church standpoint construe Owen's actions 
 as an attack aimed at the Mormon church. I think if 
 Owen felt the necessity of improving 'the moral tone of 
 mankind he could find plenty of immoralities against 
 which to exercise his activity rather than create this trou- 
 ble for a few citizens who care for their families." Mr. 
 Hendrickson here admits the Mormon belief in polygamy, 
 and claims that the filing of affidavits against people for 
 unlawful cohabitation is "an attack upon the Mormon 
 church," thus putting the whole Mormon church in the 
 attitude of a willful and flagrant lawbreaker. In this he 
 was probably not far wrong. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 227 
 
 Mr. Hendrickson also suggests that Mr. Owen could 
 find "plenty of immoralities against which to exercise his 
 activity" elsewhere. Any criminal might make the same 
 argument to any prosecutor. 
 
 Dr. W. B. Parkinson says : "I look upon Owen in the 
 same way as I would look upon a procurer. He has no 
 right whatever to come here and file suits. If the 15,000 
 people of this county cannot take care of their own legal 
 affairs, no one from the outside should feel it his duty to 
 meddle with them." 
 
 And so Jesse James and his gang might have said to the 
 officers of the law : "You let us alone. You have no right 
 to come here and interfere with our business." 
 
 Attorney George T. Rich is quoted as saying : "I do not 
 believe that the threatened prosecution will be or should be 
 tolerated in Cache County. I think that the Prosecuting 
 Attorney should take cognizance of the fact that all of the 
 respected citizens of this region, both Mormon and Gen- 
 tile, are opposed to such prosecutions. Owen has quali- 
 fied himself to file such suits, it is true, but he is not a 
 bona fide resident, and can have no personal interest in the 
 alleged violation of the law." 
 
 This, mark you, is from an attorney, a man who is sworn 
 to uphold the law. "All of the respected citizens of this 
 region are opposed to such prosecutions." Who are the 
 respected citizens of that region? Why, those who are 
 "opposed to such prosecutions," of course. Mr. Owen 
 has "no personal interest in the alleged violation of the 
 law." Neither have the people of the United States out- 
 side of Cache County. Neither have I any personal inter- 
 est in the prosecution of a murderer. But I have a good 
 deal of moral interest in it, and I want to see the law 
 enforced. Besides, I have a personal interest in it from 
 
228 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the fact that in the enforcement of the law lies my own 
 safety. 
 
 Robert Murdock said he knew every one of the men 
 against whom suit was to be filed and he knew they were 
 all honorable American citizens, who had not married 
 their wives since the manifesto was issued. He knew they 
 had no intention of willfully violating the law, and thought 
 Owen was making a mistake in prosecuting them. 
 
 The manifesto ? The Mormons are continually throw- 
 ing up the manifesto to us, and saying that there have 
 been no new marriages since the manifesto. But what 
 have the people of the United States to do with the mani- 
 festo? Their will upon the subject of polygamy was 
 expressed in the Cullom law of 1862, the Edmunds law of 
 1882, the Edmunds-Tucker law of 1887, and by the en- 
 abling act of 1894. It was incorporated also in the laws 
 of Utah, both in its Constitution and in its penal code. 
 These laws are all that the people of this country care 
 about. Have they been obeyed ? Are they being obeyed ? 
 But the fact that the Mormons in talking about polyga- 
 mous marriages, always ignore the law against them and 
 talk only about there having been none since the mani- 
 festo, indicates that they put the manifesto of President 
 Woodruff above all the laws of the land, that they cared 
 nothing for the laws, and only had regard for the will of 
 their president. As a matter of fact, however, it is quite 
 a question as to whether there have not been some polyga- 
 mous marriages since the manifesto of 1890. 
 
 Take the case of Mr. Roberts, for instance. If he mar- 
 ried Dr. Maggie C. Shipp before the manifesto he and she 
 certainly acted very queerly. Usually when a man mar- 
 ries a woman she takes his name. But it was not until 
 1897, seven years after the manifesto, that she changed 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 229 
 
 her name from Dr. Maggie Shipp to Dr. Margaret C. 
 
 Roberts. 
 
 But the question is frequently asked : Have there been 
 any instances of polygamous marriages since statehood? 
 
 The following instances are given : Lilian Hamblin was 
 engaged to David Cannon. He died while on a mission 
 in Germany. Abram H. Cannon already had three 
 wives. But in a spirit of self-sacrifice he decided to take 
 Lilian and raise up seed to his brother, David, according 
 to the old Jewish custom, and according to Mormon teach- 
 ings. So they went to San Francisco in June, 1896. Where 
 they were married or by whom is not known. But soon 
 after their return he was taken sick and died on July 26, 
 1896. All four wives were at the funeral. In 1897 a child 
 was born to Lilian. She then went to school under the 
 name of Mrs. Cannon, to prepare herself for teaching, and 
 she is now teaching in Brigham Academy, a Mormon in- 
 stitution at Provo, near Salt Lake City, under the name 
 of Mrs. Cannon. 
 
 Another : Marion Scoles went to reside in the family 
 of Apostle George Teasdale, at Nephi, in Utah, as nurse 
 for his children. He already had at least one wife, if not 
 more. This was in 1897. In August, 1898, she subscribed 
 to a book and signed her name Marion Scoles Teasdale. 
 On December 17, 1898, she died in childbirth. Her lov- 
 ing husband had a tombstone erected over her grave with 
 the inscription upon it : "Sacred to the memory of Mar- 
 ion Scoles Teasdale, wife of Apostle George Teasdale. 
 Born in London, England, April 6, 1865. Died December 
 7, 1898." A photograph of the tombstone was taken, a 
 copy of which I have seen. The wife of a prominent apos- 
 tle, when shown the article with the above facts, said it 
 
 was absolutely true. 
 
230 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 When Apostle George Teasdale and Marion Scoles 
 were married and by whom are uncertain quantities. That 
 they were married seems beyond question. That they were 
 not married by State authorities is quite certain. Who 
 married them ? 
 
 It is stated also that a number of Mormons have gene 
 to Canada or to Mexico to be married to their polygamous 
 wives since the manifesto and since statehood — how many 
 can only be conjectured. I should say, however, that I 
 do not believe that instances of polygamous marriages 
 since statehood, or since the manifesto, have been very 
 numerous. But the reason for it is not because the Mor- 
 mons do not believe in polygamy, but simply because the 
 younger generation are afraid to undertake to practice it, 
 and because they feel themselves released from obliga- 
 tions to do so since the manifesto of President Woodruff. 
 But this manifesto did not propose to abolish polygamy as 
 a principle, but only to suspend its practice for the sake of 
 expediency. 
 
 In the next chapter I will give their reasons for their 
 belief in polygamy. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM— REASONS FOR BELIEF 
 IN POLYGAMY. 
 
 I have shown that many Mormons in Utah are now 
 living in polygamous cohabitation with two or more 
 wives, and have let them state their reasons for it. The 
 truth of the matter is that polygamy is as much a part of 
 the Mormon creed as it ever was. They will all tell you 
 that they believe in it, all except the missionaries, who 
 prefer not to discuss the subject and always evade it. I 
 was told over and over again in Salt Lake City by Mor- 
 mons, men and women, married and unmarried, that they 
 believed in polygamy. Only one person who claimed to 
 be a Mormon to whom I put the question denied believing 
 in it, and she was an intelligent young lady who said that 
 "intellect is everything/' and who did not believe a single 
 distinctive Mormon doctrine. As I told her, she is not a 
 good Mormon. She represents, I think, a growing class 
 of young people there who are losing faith in Mormonism. 
 But wherever you find a genuine Mormon you will find 
 one who believes in polygamy, whether he practices it or 
 not. As a number said to me, it is a "part of our relig- 
 ion." They have several reasons for believing in it. 
 
 I. They say that God sanctioned it in the Old Testa- 
 ment, as in the case of Abraham and Jacob and David. 
 This was the argument used by Joseph Smith in the 
 "revelation" decreeing the establishment of polygamy. 
 In the Improvement Era for May, 1898, of which B. H. 
 Roberts was at that time the editor, he had an extended 
 
232 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 article on the subject of polygamy, in which he made the 
 same argument. This reason is now urged by some, but 
 not very strongly. They leave out of account the follow- 
 ing facts : 
 
 (a) That God originally created only one man and one 
 woman. If they make any reply to this it would be in the 
 language of Brigham Young: that God came down to 
 earth in the form of Adam, and "brought Eve, one of His 
 wives, with Him." 
 
 (b) That God permitted polygamy, as Jesus said He 
 did divorce, "because of the hardness of their hearts." 
 In the childhood of the human race God permitted some 
 things which He afterwards refused. 
 
 (c) There is no instance of polygamy in the New 
 Testament, though nearly all Mormons believe and some 
 will openly say that Jesus lived in polygamy while on 
 earth with Mary and Martha and Mary Magdalene — an 
 imputation too absurd and too blasphemous to need seri- 
 ous refutation. But certainly the tenor of the teachings 
 of the New Testament is against polygamy, to say the 
 least. When Paul said that the bishop must be 'the hus- 
 band of one wife," he evidently meant of only one, though 
 the Mormons take it to mean of at least one. 
 
 (d) In maintaining the practical numerical equality of 
 the sexes, God evidently intended that there should be one 
 woman to one man. 
 
 (e) As a matter of fact, it is said that there are about 
 2,000,000 more men in the United States than women. 
 So that if polygamy were permissible anywhere else, it 
 certainly would not be in this country. 
 
 But I need not argue the question of polygamy. It is 
 most too late in the day to do so. I make the above sug- 
 gestions, however, in case any of my readers may have 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 233 
 
 occasion to discuss the subject with some Mormon elders 
 sometime. As a rule, however, the missionaries are very 
 shy about discussing polygamy, though most Mormons 
 will discuss it freely in Utah, and contend for it stoutly. 
 
 2. To the Mormon a stronger argument for polygamy 
 than that it is sanctioned by God in the Old Testament 
 is found in the fact that, as they claim, it was commanded 
 by the Lord through His prophet, Joseph Smith. Even 
 B. H. Roberts says in the article in the Improvement Era, 
 to which reference has been made : "Subsequently, Joseph 
 Smith received a commandment from the Lord to intro- 
 duce that order of marriage into the church, and on the 
 strength of that revelation, and not by reason of anything ( 
 that is written in the old Jewish Scriptures, the Latter 
 Day Saints practiced plural marriage." In saying this he 
 practically gives up the scriptural argument and rests his 
 case in the transcendent authority of Joseph Smith. 
 
 3. They argue that a man needs more than one woman. 
 This is the physiological argument. It is certainly a very 
 low one. It puts man on a level with the brutes— with the 
 stud-horse, the jackass, the billy-goat and the rooster. In 
 earlier days it used to be used frequently under the name 
 of the barnyard illustration. They forget that a wife is 
 far more than a woman. 
 
 4. Kindred to the above is the argument that polygamy 
 makes a man a better man. This argument is used quite 
 frequently. I have heard it several times, both from men 
 and women. The idea is, if I may be pardoned for ex- 
 pressing it, that as a man needs more than one woman, if 
 he can't get them in one way, he will in another, and the 
 Mormons imply very broadly, and seem to believe, that 
 this is true generally of the men in other States, and they 
 boast that they take their wives openly instead of secretly. 
 
234 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 While this imputation applies to some, sad to say, yet it is 
 of course the grossest slander upon most men, and could 
 only be born in minds whose whole thoughts are steeped 
 in sensualism. 
 
 5. They say that the first, if not the chief, duty of men 
 and women is to "be faithful and multiply and replenish 
 the earth," and this can best be done through polygamy. 
 This idea seems to underlie all of their thinking. In a 
 Sunday-school mass-meeting one Sunday night, to which 
 I have previously referred, I heard a young man urge 
 upon the people the importance of sending their children 
 to the Sunday-school, saying that while it was their first 
 duty to multiply and replenish the earth, they should also 
 train their offspring. 
 
 6. It has been surmised that Joseph Smith made a cal- 
 culation of this kind: One man, one woman, 100 years, 
 equals so many Mormons. One man, three women, 100 
 years, equals so many more Mormons. One would mean 
 an arithmetical ratio of increase and the other a geomet- 
 rical, and by the latter ratio the Mormons would soon take 
 the world. 
 
 7. They not only believe that God is a married man, but 
 that He is a polygamist ; and, as I have stated, they be- 
 lieve that Christ was a polygamist on earth, and conse- 
 quently is in heaven, because they say that a man marries 
 a wife not only for time, but for eternity. 
 
 8. They believe that God is generating spirits; that 
 these spirits are imperfect ; that they are longing and 
 anxious for bodies so that they may have a higher state 
 in glory, because it is the privilege of every man to become 
 a God, but not of these spirits, except as they pass 
 through human bodies. And consequently it is the sacred 
 duty of every man to generate as many bodies as possible 
 for these spirits to occupy. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 235 
 
 9. They believe that a man who has several wives will 
 have greater exaltation in heaven than one who has not. 
 Some have even gone so far as to say that a man's deifi- 
 cation depends upon his having at least three wives. 
 
 I have mentioned these reasons which the Mormons 
 have for believing in polygamy to show how thoroughly 
 polygamy is a part of the Mormon system, and how com- 
 pletely it is interwoven into all the warp and woof of 
 their thoughts and their doctrines. That they still be- 
 lieve in polygamy is indicated by the following circum- 
 stance: The editor of the Vernal Express, a Mormon 
 paper, as ward teacher, ha'd been denying that the Mor- 
 mons believed in polygamy, in order to gain some Gentiles, 
 but Apostle Cowley said to the editor : 
 
 "The law of plural marriage is God given and as eter- 
 nal as any law ever given by the Father, and that any 
 persons who disbelieved it, or sought to hide behind the 
 government restriction or the manifesto, or were afraid 
 to advocate its principles were not Latter Day Saints." — 
 Apostle M. F. Cowley, reported in Vernal Express, Aug. 
 13. I900- 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM— INTERVIEW WITH ED- 
 ITOR CHARLES W. PENROSE. 
 
 The following interview is copied from the Nashville 
 American, being one of several letters written by myself 
 to the American from Salt Lake City. 
 
 The information which I have given in previous letter's 
 with reference to Mormonism I obtained from all sources 
 available, from books and papers and people, Mormon and 
 non-Mormon. Desiring an authoritative expression in re- 
 gard to these matters, I sought interviews with Charles 
 W. Penrose, editor of the Deseret Evening News, the of- 
 ficial organ of the Mormon "Church," and with Lorenzo 
 Snow, president of the "church." 
 
 Mr. Penrose received me rather suspiciously at first. He 
 said that there seemed to be quite a prejudice in the South 
 against Mormons. I told him I supposed this was natural, 
 but that I had come to Salt Lake City with a commission 
 from the editor of the American to find out the facts about 
 them. He spoke kindly of the American and agreed to the 
 interview, for which an hour in the afternoon was named. 
 
 I then called upon President Snow. His private secre- 
 tary, Mr. Gibbs, stated that he was very busy just then, but 
 that if I would call again about 3 o'clock he thought the 
 president would consent to see me, though Mr. Gibbs him- 
 self eyed me quite critically and said that President Snow 
 did not like to be worried with interviews. It seems that 
 "Polly Pry," of the Denver News, and Dr. Hepworth, of 
 the New York Herald, had recently interviewed him, and 
 
 a 3 6 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 237 
 
 in their reports of the interview had misrepresented his 
 views, so he claimed, though they would claim, I presume, 
 that they reported it as it occurred. To avoid any mis- 
 representation, however, I proposed to bring a stenogra- 
 pher with me. But Mr. Gibbs said that this would be 
 unnecessary. 
 
 At 3 o'clock I knocked again at the office of the first 
 presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
 Saints. This office is a low, long, frame building situated 
 between the famous "Lion" and "Bee Hive" houses, which 
 were the homes where Brigham Young kept most of his 
 twenty-six wives, while just across the street is the 
 "Amelia Palace," where his favorite wife, Mrs. Amelia 
 Folsom Young, lived. Mr. Gibbs again met me. He told 
 me that President Snow was still busy, but asked me to 
 wait awhile and he would perhaps see me. I waited— 5, 
 10, 15 minutes. Mr. Gibbs came out of the inner sanctum 
 and stated that he had telephoned for Mr. Penrose to 
 come over and introduce me to President Snow, as he was 
 better acquainted with me and with the paper I repre- 
 sented. 
 
 In a short time Mr. Penrose came. He entered the 
 closed door into the majestic presence without knocking. 
 So did several others, among them Messrs. George Q. 
 Cannon, Angus M. Cannon and Brigham Young, Jr. But 
 they we're saints, apostles, presidents, counselors, etc., and 
 so privileged characters. 
 
 After awhile, though, at 3 145, the door opened again 
 and Mr. Penrose smilingly ushered me into the sacred pre- 
 cincts and introduced me to President Snow, who received 
 me kindly. He is a man about 85 years of age, but well 
 preserved, remarkably so considering the fact that he has 
 had nine wives, five of whom are still living. This remark 
 
238 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 is especially applicable to his hair and beard, which are full 
 and long. I suppose all married men will wonder how he 
 managed to keep them that way with so many wives. He 
 is tall and slim and courteous in his bearing. 
 
 I began the conversation by stating that I was from 
 Nashville; that the Southern propaganda of his church 
 was located in Tennessee; that there was a good deal of 
 prejudice in the South against the Mormon missionaries, 
 in which I confessed that I shared, but that the Nashville 
 American had asked me to find out the facts about Mor- 
 monism, especially in its relation to the Roberts case, 
 which was attracting the attention of the country ; that I 
 was in Salt Lake City for that purpose, and that I had 
 come to him for an authoritative expression about these 
 matters. 
 
 I then began unrolling some paper on which I had 
 written a number of questions. 
 
 Just then he called Brigham Young, Jr., who was about 
 to leave the room, and asked me to excuse him a moment. 
 While he was gone Mr. Penrose asked me to read over 
 some of my questions and let him see what they were. I 
 read one or two. President Snow, who had been standing 
 just behind me talking to Apostle Young, then came up 
 and said that I would have to excuse him, and he would 
 turn me over to Mr. Penrose. 
 
 I said to him : "I know Mr. Penrose. He is the editor 
 of the News, but he is not the president of the Mormon 
 Church. I have come to you because I wanted to come to 
 headquarters and get an authoritative expression with 
 reference to various questions of interest to our people." 
 
 He replied that Mr. Penrose would answer the ques- 
 tions. I asked him if he would indorse anything Mr. Pen- 
 rose said. He answered a little evasively, but left the im- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 239 
 
 pression that he would, saying Mr. Penrose was a very 
 clever man. So I had to content myself with interviewing 
 Mr. Penrose. We adjourned to his office near by, when 
 the following interview took place. I took down his an- 
 swers at the time and read each answer over to Mr. Pen- 
 rose before asking the next question. I publish the ques- 
 tions and answers just as they occurred. Remember that 
 during the interview Mr. Penrose was acting as the rep- 
 resentative of President Snow. 
 
 Question. "The Roberts case is attracting a good deal 
 of attention over the country just now. Do you, as presi- 
 dent of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 
 of which he is a member, propose to stand by him and help 
 him in any way to retain his seat in Congress ?" 
 
 Answer. "The church had nothing to do with the elec- 
 tion of Mr. Roberts, and is not doing anything in relation 
 to his defense. He was the candidate of a political party 
 and was elected by the votes of citizens, receiving a ma- 
 jority in a fully contested political election. The church is 
 not in politics. Its members are divided as citizens among 
 the various political parties and vote independently, ac- 
 cording to their own choice." 
 
 "Does not Mr. Roberts admit that he is now cohabiting 
 with three wives ?" 
 
 Ans. "He admits tacitly that he has three wives, but 
 not that he is living with them." 
 
 "What about the famous twins born to Celia Dibble 
 Roberts, Aug. 1 1, 1897?" 
 
 Ans. "All I know is what I see in the papers. It is the 
 common understanding that he has three wives. But he 
 says that he married his wives before the manifesto of 
 President Woodruff in 1890. This is understood to be the 
 fact." 
 
 "Do you believe in polygamy as a principle?" 
 
 Ans. "In the general acceptation of the term, I do not. 
 
2 4 o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints accepted 
 the doctrine of celestial marriage, including a plurality of 
 wives, as revealed to Joseph Smith. This required the 
 authorization by the head of the church, who alone holds 
 the keys of that authority for the solemnization of a plural 
 marriage. The head of the church having ceased to exer- 
 cise that authority, I do not believe it is right for men to 
 practice polygamy or plural marriage now. The constitu- 
 tion and laws of the State of Utah forbid polygamous mar- 
 riages. It is a dead issue and there is no occasion to offer 
 any reasons why it was once practiced." 
 
 "Do you believe in the continued polygamous cohabita- 
 tion of those who took their polygamous wives before the 
 manifesto of President Woodruff in 1890?" 
 
 Ans. "Every such individual must answer this question 
 for himself. ,, 
 
 "To secure statehood and recover your escheated prop- 
 erty did you not promise that polygamy should cease, and 
 that 'the rightfulness of the doctrine of polygamy should 
 not be inculcated ?' " 
 
 Ans. "No." 
 
 "Did you not on the witness stand interpret the mani- 
 festo as having reference to unlawful cohabitation?" 
 
 Mr. Penrose declined to answer the question for Presi- 
 dent Snow. This, he said, has no bearing on the Roberts 
 question. 
 
 "Did not the manifesto advise that polygamy should 
 cease? And did it not refer to polygamous cohabitation as 
 well as to new polygamous marriages ?" 
 
 Ans. "The manifesto said : 'And I now publicly de- 
 clare that my advice to the Latter Day Saints is to refrain 
 from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of 
 the land/ " 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 241 
 
 "Do you think it right for a man to continue living in 
 unlawful cohabitation with the wives he has already mar- 
 ried?" 
 
 Ans. "Every man must answer this for himself." 
 
 "Was not this against the laws of the United States be- 
 fore statehood, e. g., the Edmunds law of 1882 and the 
 Edmunds-Tucker law of 1887?" 
 
 Ans. "Yes." 
 
 "As a matter of fact, have not nearly all the present po- 
 lygamous wives been taken since 1882, and so in direct 
 contravention of the laws of the government ?" 
 
 Ans. "Certainly not." 
 
 "Is not this true of Mr. Roberts?" 
 
 Ans. "Personally, I do not know anything about his 
 family affairs." 
 
 "Has not this law against polygamy and polygamous 
 cohabitation been incorporated into the laws of the State 
 of Utah?" 
 
 Ans. "Yes." 
 
 "Is not Mr. Roberts living in unlawful cohabitation?" 
 
 Ans. "I do not know." 
 
 "Has anything been done with him about it by the 
 church?" 
 
 Ans. "Before any action can be taken by the church 
 as to one of its members a complaint must be entered by a 
 church member. No charge has been preferred against 
 Mr. Roberts that I am aware of." 
 
 "Is he still a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of 
 Latter Day Saints, in good standing ?" 
 
 Ans. "Yes, he is." 
 
 "Was not Angus M. Cannon, President of the Salt 
 Lake Stake, recently indicted for living in unlawful co- 
 habitation with Senator Mattie Hughes Cannon, and did 
 he not plead guilty?" 
 
242 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Ans. "Yes." ' 
 
 "Has he been censured for it ?" 
 
 Ans. "Ask President Snow. This is a purely church 
 matter." 
 
 "The papers stated a day or two ago that Joseph E. 
 Taylor, First Counselor of the Salt Lake Stake, on No- 
 vember 13 pleaded guilty of living in unlawful cohabi- 
 tation, and was on November 22 fined $150 therefor, and 
 that he refused to state whether he would continue his un- 
 lawful cohabitation in the future. Will he be punished 
 in any way by the church authorities ?" 
 
 Ans. "The church authorities could not do anything 
 without a complaint being made. If a man breaks the 
 law of the State he is amenable to the State law. If he 
 breaks a law of the church, a proper complaint must be 
 made before a proper church tribunal, before any action 
 can be taken, and that is a church matter entirely. It 
 does not concern anybody else." 
 
 "Have there been any instances of new polygamous 
 marriages since the manifesto ?" 
 
 Ans. "I do not know of any." 
 
 "Have there been any since statehood ?" 
 
 Ans. "Same as above." 
 
 "What about Abram H. Cannon and Lilian Hamblin?" 
 
 Ans. "I don't know anything about them, only the 
 rumors that I have heard." 
 
 "Was that unlawful cohabitation ?" 
 
 Ans. "I do not know." 
 
 "What about Apostle George Teasdale, of Nephi, and 
 Marion Scoles?" 
 
 Ans. "Let him answer for himself." 
 
 At this point Mr. Penrose grew somewhat excited, not 
 to say angry. He turned red in the face, arose from his 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 243 
 
 chair, paced up and down the floor and said some pretty 
 severe things, to the effect that it was outrageous to be 
 digging up old scandals ; that no decent paper would care 
 to do such a thing; that he didn't believe the American 
 was doing it, either, but that those questions had been 
 prepared in the office of the Salt Lake Tribune, and that 
 he could show me typewritten copies of them. I laid 
 down my pen and said to him that I had met the editor of 
 the Tribune, but only casually ; that the questions had been 
 prepared by myself, and that they related to matters about 
 which our people would like to know. 
 
 There were some other questions which I had intended 
 asking President Snow, or Mr. Penrose, as his repre- 
 sentative, relating chiefly to matters of doctrine, but as 
 my time and the patience of Mr. Penrose both were about 
 exhausted, I passed over them and asked only one or two 
 others, as follows : 
 
 "Do you believe in the union of church and state?" 
 
 Ans. "The church has always been separate from the 
 state, and is today." 
 
 "Is the state above the church or the church above the 
 state?" 
 
 Ans. "The state is above the church in state affairs. 
 The church is above the state in church affairs, but 
 neither has the right to interfere with the other." 
 
 "Do you believe in continued revelation ?" 
 
 Ans. "Yes." 
 
 "Do you have such revelations ?" 
 
 Ans. "The man who stands at the head receives reve- 
 lations for the whole church. Each individual is entitled 
 to receive revelations for himself or herself, also to a wit- 
 ness from God of the truth of the revelation that may 
 come through the head for the guidance of the church." 
 
244 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "Have you published any revelations ?" 
 
 Ans. "Do not know of any." 
 
 Before I left, Mr. Penrose said he hoped that I would 
 not consider anything he had said as personal to myself. 
 We chatted pleasantly for a few minutes, shock handst- 
 and parted in good humor. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM— COMMENTS ON INTER- 
 VIEW WITH EDITOR CHARLES W. PEN- 
 ROSE. 
 
 I have just a few comments to make upon some of the 
 answers given by Mr. Penrose in the interview published 
 in the last chapter. 
 
 I. It certainly sounded strange to hear Mr. Penrose say 
 that the Mormon church had nothing to do with the elec- 
 tion of Mr. Roberts in view of the following facts, some 
 of which I have previously mentioned, (a) Some of the 
 most prominent Democrats in the State were among his 
 strongest opponents. It may have been true that in the 
 election some Gentiles voted for Mr. Roberts and some 
 Mormons against him, but as his opponent was also a 
 Mormon, it was simply a choice between Mormons. So 
 far as I could tell, it seemed to be true that almost every 
 Gentile in the State was against him, and almost every 
 Mormon was for him. (b) The Democratic organ of 
 Utah, the Herald, seemed quite indifferent about the seat- 
 ing of Mr. Roberts, while the organ of the Mormon 
 church, the Deseret Evening News, of which Mr. Penrose 
 is editor, was the recognized champion of Mr. Roberts and 
 defended him in every issue, (c) Several years ago Mr. 
 Roberts and Mr. Moses Thatcher fell out with the church 
 and proclaimed their political independence. The church 
 authorities issued a manifesto against them. In the elec- 
 tion which followed both were badly defeated. Mr. Rob- 
 erts had a revelation in which his dead ancestors besought 
 
 *45 
 
246 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 him earnestly to submit to the authority of the church, and 
 he agreed to do so. Mr. Thatcher held out longer. He 
 was waited on by the church leaders, and as he still re- 
 mained stubborn they were about to excommunicate him, 
 when he submitted. The church authorities announced 
 that no one should run for office without their consent, 
 and it is understood that no Mormon since then has done 
 so. And certainly Mr. Roberts himself, after his pre- 
 vious experience, did not do so. 
 
 2. Mr. Roberts may not admit that he is living with 
 three wives, but the fact that one of his plural wives, Celia 
 Dibble Roberts, had a child born to her in 1895, and twins 
 in 1897, would seem to indicate it, as also the fact that 
 Dr. Maggie C. Shipp in 1897 assumed the name of Dr. 
 Margaret C. Roberts and proclaimed herself the wife of 
 Mr. Roberts. It was known also that there was an in- 
 dictment pending against Mr. Roberts in Utah for un- 
 lawful cohabitation, to avoid which he was compelled to 
 leave the State several months before the opening of 
 Congress. 
 
 3. If Mr. Roberts did marry his last wife, Dr. Margaret 
 C. Shipp Roberts, before the manifesto of President 
 Woodruff in 1890, it is certainly a little curious that she 
 did not assume his name until seven years afterwards. 
 Besides, it is beyond question that he married both of his 
 plural wives since the Edmunds-Tucker law of 1887 or the 
 Edmunds law of 1882, and this is what the people of the 
 United States are concerned about. They have nothing to 
 do with the manifesto of President Woodruff. 
 
 4. Mr. Penrose may regard polygamy as a "dead issue," 
 but when there are 1,543 men in Utah living in polyga- 
 mous cohabitation, including Mr. Penrose himself; when 
 there have been several undoubted instances of new polyg- 
 
ADAM'S ENDOWMENT GARMENT 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 247 
 
 amous marriages recently; when those who have en- 
 gaged in them have gone unrebuked by the church, and 
 when an acknowledged polygamist is elected to Congress, 
 it doesn't seem to the people of this country such a dead 
 issue. 
 
 5. When Mr. Penrose gave a negative answer to the 
 question, "To secure statehood and recover your escheated 
 (property, did you not promise that polygamy should cease, 
 and that the rightfulness of the doctrine of polygamy 
 should not be inculcated?" he was evidently speaking only 
 for himself at that time and not for President Snow, 
 whose representative he was supposed to be in the inter- 
 view. As a matter of fact, President Snow did make such 
 a promise on the witness stand, as also did President 
 Woodruff. Their language was taken down at the time 
 and I can quote it in full if necessary, as also their lan- 
 guage in which they interpreted the manifesto as having 
 reference to unlawful cohabitation. The answer of Mr. 
 Penrose with reference to the manifesto in which he 
 simply quoted its language was evidently an evasion. 
 
 6. Mr. Penrose is quite an agnostic with reference to 
 the affairs of Mr. Roberts and others understood to be 
 living in polygamy. In fact, he is most too ignorant about 
 affairs which are matters of common knowledge to every 
 one else in Utah. It is probable, however, that he is kept 
 too busy with his onerous duties as editor of the News 
 to take any interest in such matters. 
 
 7. It may be true that it is necessary for someone in 
 the church to make a complaint against anyone before 
 he can be arraigned for church discipline, but it certainly 
 seems strange that Mr. Roberts and Moses Thatcher 
 could be disciplined for declaring their political independ- 
 ence, while such men as Angus M. Cannon, Heber J. 
 
,248 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Grant, Joseph E. Taylor and others could be fined for liv- 
 ing in unlawful cohabitation, and Apostle George Teas- 
 dale could be proven beyond doubt guilty of a new polyga- 
 mous marriage, and yet no one in all the church could be 
 found to make complaint against these men. These facts 
 only prove that the public sentiment of the Mormon 
 church is so strongly against anyone declaring his political 
 independence of the church, and so strongly in favor of 
 polygamy and polygamous cohabitation, that complaint 
 would be made against a person for the former but not 
 for the latter offense. 
 
 8. I should state that Mr. Penrose admitted to me in 
 our conversation just before I left that there had been 
 numerous instances of polygamous marriages since the 
 Edmunds law of 1882 and the Edmunds-Tucker law of 
 1887, but he said that his people believed that these laws 
 were unconstitutional, on the ground that Congress had 
 no right to interfere with the religion of a people, and 
 polygamy was a part of their religion, but that as soon 
 as the Supreme Court of the United States declared the 
 law constitutional, then President Woodruff issued his 
 manifesto advising his people to refrain from polygamy. 
 On this point I have to say: (a) President Woodruff 
 did not issue his manifesto until many of the Apostles 
 and Bishops and other church authorities had been put 
 in jail for violating the law, and not until the church prop- 
 erty had been escheated to the government under the law. 
 (b) What right had the Mormons to assume that the 
 law would be declared unconstitutional and go on violat- 
 ing it? Until it was declared unconstitutional it was the 
 law, and should have been obeyed by every law-abiding 
 citizen, (c) As a matter of fact, the Supreme Court 
 had already declared the law constitutional in the case 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 249 
 
 of Reynolds vs. the United States. This decision was 
 rendered January 4, 1879, by Chief Justice Waite, and 
 thoroughly upheld the constitutionality of the anti- 
 polygamy law of 1862. This was four years before the 
 Edmunds law was passed and nine years before the Ed- 
 munds-Tucker law was passed, both of which laws were 
 simply amendments to the law of 1862, and twelve years 
 before the manifesto of President Woodruff. I presume 
 that Mr. Penrose had forgotten about this case, 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM— IMMORAL RESULTS OF 
 POLYGAMY — FORCED MARRIAGES — RE- 
 MARKS OF APOSTLE JOHN W. TAYLOR— B. 
 Y. T. CO.— Z. C. M. I.— DANCING— SWEARING 
 —STEALING— LYING. 
 
 Mormonism begins in literalism, runs into materialism, 
 and degenerates into sensualism. With such views of God 
 and heaven and marriage as held by Mormons, what would 
 you expect their social life to be? I know the claim is 
 made that Mormonism results in better social conditions 
 than other religions. Let us see about that. The Mor- 
 mons contend that a man needs more than one woman, and 
 that if he cannot get them in one way he will in another. 
 It is a favorite argument of theirs to point to the houses 
 of ill fame in our eastern cities, and claim that these are 
 the outcome of the principles of other denominations, 
 while they have nothing like them in Utah. But they for- 
 get that these things are not by the authority and under 
 the sanction of the Christian churches. On the contrary, 
 they are against the principles of these churches, while 
 with the Mormons their polygamy is carried on under the 
 sanction of the church, and it becomes an ecclesiastical 
 prostitution, religious adultery. 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, does polygamy make men bet- 
 ter? Does Mormonism result in better social conditions? 
 I made a special study of this point while in Salt Lake 
 City, and here are some facts I gathered while there. 
 They will be of interest, perhaps, along this line, though I 
 
 * 5 o 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 251 
 
 feel like apologizing to my readers for referring to them. 
 The Mormons continually emphasize the injunction of 
 the Lord to our first parents to be fruitful and multiply 
 and replenish the earth. This is drummed into the ears of 
 the young until they are likely to get the impression that 
 this is the first, and indeed the chief duty of men and 
 women. It used to be preached constantly in the Taber- 
 nacle, but it is not heard there so often now. But it is 
 preached in their ward meetings, and is generally believed. 
 I heard it preached at a ward meeting. All children have 
 lovers. Their ideal of life is to get married and have as 
 many children as possible. The result is, as might be ex- 
 pected, that with their minds continually turned to such 
 things, the finer, more delicate sensibilities of the people, 
 old and young, are broken down. "There is something 
 about this Mormon system that breaks down all respect 
 for morality and purity and truthfulness," said a gentle- 
 man to me in Salt Lake City, who lias lived among the 
 Mormons for a good many years. 
 
 There is a freedom and an abandonment of speech be- 
 tween the sexes unknown among people of refinement in 
 the east. But a worse result than that is that there is often 
 a freedom of action between them. 
 
 In one town in Utah of about 3,000 inhabitants, seven- 
 teen young ladies in the winter of '96-'97 were compelled 
 to enter the marriage relation to cover up their dishonor. 
 And they did not lose their standing, either in society or in 
 the church. In some instances they had the marriage cere- 
 mony at home, went to a public hall and had a dance, drank 
 liquor and went home about 2 o'clock in the morning 
 drunk. In another town of about the same size, a physi- 
 cian stated that over 75 per cent of the marriages of the 
 Mormon young women were forced. In one county, dur- 
 
252 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ing the last five years 75 per cent of the marriages were 
 forced. Two Mormon girls in a certain town told a lady 
 missionary while she was in that town that they did not 
 know of any marriage which had occurred there for two 
 years that was not forced. 
 
 I can give the names of my informants, and places 
 where the facts are said to have taken place, if necessary, 
 but I withhold them to save any possible unpleasantness. 
 Here is a name, however, I can give, and which, I suppose, 
 will be considered good authority: Apostle John W. 
 Taylor, the "Mouthpiece of God," whose "voice is the 
 voice of God," said in a Mormon conference in the Taber- 
 nacle, October 7, 1898, as reported in the Salt Lake Tri- 
 bune the next day, that he had heard much of late of im- 
 morality in various parts of the state; that it existed in 
 places little dreamed of. He named five localities and said 
 there were other places he could not then remember. He 
 had heard, he said, from a man with whom he had recently 
 talked that young people of different sexes belonging to 
 the Tabernacle choir (about 500 in number) had gone from 
 choir practice together to a lodging house whose rooms 
 were kept for immoral purposes. Members of the choir 
 of both sexes, he said, had been seen in places at times 
 that would suggest acts of immorality. 
 
 The remark passed unnoticed at the time, but after its 
 publication in a Gentile paper he was made to apologize to 
 the choir. This he did by saying that he had recently had 
 the nerve of one of his wisdom teeth exposed, and he 
 would be obliged to go to the dentist and have it extracted, 
 "for you see," he added, "the little wisdom I have had 
 given me is starting to decay." Which meant to say that 
 while what he said was true, he had no business saying 
 it so publicly. This was considered sufficient apology. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 253 
 
 And now the apostle continues to preach in the Tabernacle? 
 and the choir continues to sing accompaniments to his ser- 
 mons as if nothing had happened. Apostle Taylor also 
 said that he had stood on a street corner of Salt Lake City 
 recently with a man who declared that nine out of ten 
 young girls who passed were impure. For this remark he 
 made an apology. So numerous were the cases of young 
 women becoming mothers a few months after marriage 
 that the matter was publicly discussed by George Q. Can- 
 non, first counselor to the president, at a recent general 
 conference. But nothing, so far as I learned, was ever 
 done about it, except that the young people would, per- 
 haps, come before their ward meetings and say they were 
 sorry. 
 
 On Commercial street in Salt Lake City is a large build- 
 ing with the initials over it, "B. Y. T. Co.," which mean 
 the Brigham Young Trust Co., property of the Brigham 
 Young estate, of which George Q. Cannon is president. In 
 this building there is a gambling saloon on one side and a 
 house of ill fame on the other. When attention was called 
 to these facts the property was leased to an agent and sub- 
 let by him. But the gambling saloon and the house of ill 
 fame are still there. In the Whittingham block, and in 
 the Nauvoo block, both on First South street, and both 
 belonging to the Brigham Young Trust Company, there is 
 a saloon in each block. It is said that there are altogether, 
 on the whole estate of Brigham Young, fourteen saloons 
 and five houses of prostitution. The Valley hotel, the 
 property of President Woodruff, had a saloon in it for 
 many years, and since his death is still continued in the 
 interest of the family. 
 
 Belonging to the estate was a house which would rent 
 for $25 per month and the trustees were offered $75 a 
 
254 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 month for its use as a house of prostitution. They asked 
 the heirs about it. They told the trustees that if they could 
 rent it for any other purpose and get as much money to 
 do so; but if not, to rent it for that purpose. It is so 
 rented, and is still being used for that purpose. 
 
 Thd Kinsman for June, 1900, a magazine published in 
 Salt Lake City, says: "To tell the truth, this tendency 
 toward the social evil is a thousand times greater among 
 the people who have been testing this method [polygamy] 
 of preventing it than among any other class of people that 
 I have ever known. The houses of prostitution in Utah 
 are filling up with Mormon girls ; and we are supplying 
 inmates for such houses for all the surrounding region of 
 country, including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, 
 New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. If the Congress of 
 the United States would only exercise sufficient religious 
 toleration to permit us to try this mode of prevention for 
 about a quarter of a century, Mormonism would exter- 
 minate itself." 
 
 Over a good many business houses in Salt Lake City is 
 the mysterious sign, Z. C. M. I., accompanied by an all 
 seeing eye, and the inscription "Holiness to the Lord/' 
 This sign means "Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institu- 
 tion." Formerly the stores belonged to the "church" and 
 were operated by it. But at the time the United States 
 government was confiscating the church property in order 
 to enforce the law against polygamy, these stores passed 
 into the hands of prominent Mormons, and most of them 
 have never been restored to the "church." But the Z. C. 
 M. I. drugstore is owned by the "church," and here liquor 
 is sold, a liquor license having been taken out for the pur- 
 pose. Occasionally at a country dance, which is opened 
 and closed by prayer, a jug of whisky plays an important 
 part in the jollification. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 255 
 
 The Mormon apostles used to preach against Garfield 
 Beach on Salt Lake and warn their people against it. 
 They then opened Salt Air Beach. The Salt Air Beach 
 Company, under their control, rents saloon privileges at 
 Salt Air Pavilion and permits whisky selling on Sunday 
 and gambling devices to flourish there for the reason, it is 
 suggested, that these whisky earnings increase the rental 
 value to the pious owners. The selling of intoxicants as 
 a beverage recently received a pulpit indorsement in the 
 Tabernacle. There are other things I heard about Salt Air 
 Beach which I could not so much as mention here, but 
 which if true stamp it as one of the vilest places in this 
 country. 
 
 The scenes which occurred at its opening on May 30, 
 1900, were described in the daily papers as most disgrace- 
 ful. Drunkenness and revelry ran riot: Old and young, 
 male and female, were drunk. Fights were frequent. A 
 committee from the Ministers' Association was appointed 
 to see President Snow and "ask that the privilege of sell- 
 ing liquor at the resort be done away with." He declined 
 to accede to their request, giving among other reasons 
 that "there are honorable people who go there expecting 
 to find refreshments of all kinds, and to close up the bar 
 would mean the loss of this custom, to say nothing of the 
 profits." (Salt Lake Herald, June 5, 1900.) This, mind 
 you, is from the "President of the Church of Jesus Christ 
 of Latter Day Saints." Certainly they are very latter day 
 saints. 
 
 In the early days of Mormonism, Joseph Smith claimed 
 to have received the following revelation : 
 
 "Behold, it is said in my laws, or forbidden, to get in 
 debt to thine enemies (the Gentiles) ; but behold, it is not 
 said, at any time, that the Lord should not take when he 
 
256 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 please and pay as seemeth to him good. Wherefore, as 
 ye are agents, and ye are on the Lord's errand, and what- 
 soever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the 
 Lord's business, and he has sent you to provide for his 
 saints." (xxx. n.) 
 
 In accordance with this revelation (?) the "Saints" did 
 not hesitate to take anything they could from their "ene- 
 mies," the Gentiles. This was one special cause of the 
 friction between them and their neighbors in Missouri; 
 Vilate Kimball, the first wife of Heber C. Kimball, is 
 reported to have said : "I know it to be a fact that our 
 people used to go out nights for the purpose of stealing 
 the wash from the lines of the Gentiles in a circuit of 
 twenty miles around Nauvoo." 
 
 W. W. Phelps, a prominent Mormon, once remarked : 
 "If the Mormons had behaved like other people, they 
 would never have been driven from Illinois and Mis- 
 souri; but they stole, robbed and plundered from all their 
 neighbors, and all the time." 
 
 Nor have they entirely departed from the commandment 
 of Joseph Smith in the above revelation. About the time 
 I was in Salt Lake City a granddaughter of Brigham 
 Young was arrested for shoplifting. I do not mean to 
 say that all the Mormon people will steal. By no means. 
 As a rule, they are honest and straightforward in busi- 
 ness. But their founder and prophet taught the privilege, 
 if I may not say the duty, of stealing, and some of them 
 follow his teachings. 
 
 Dancing is a common amusement with the Mormons. 
 The rear end of their meeting houses over the State is 
 fitted up with a stage and sliding scenes used for theatrical 
 representation. Every few weeks they turn the house 
 into a dance hall. I myself heard a young lady Sunday- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 257 
 
 school teacher at a ward meeting on Sunday night an- 
 nounce that she would give a dance to her Sunday-school 
 on the following Wednesday night— they have no prayer 
 meetings on that or any other night. Brigham Young - 
 was an accomplished dancer— not very graceful, perhaps, 
 but very experienced in the art. He was a constant par- 
 ticipant in the dances, especially when he was looking out 
 for a new partner. It is said also that he could swear like 
 a sailor upon occasion. In this accomplishment, as in the 
 other, he has many imitators among the Mormon bishops 
 and elders, as well as laymen. Nor are all the missionaries 
 entirely free from this vice, despite their sanctimonious 
 looks. In fact, it is said to be quite common among all 
 classes of Mormons. The disgusting habit of telling foul 
 jokes is a common one. In this some of the apostles and 
 high dignitaries are said to be very proficient. 
 
 Lying has been reduced to a fine art by many Mormons, 
 especially when the interests of their religion are involved. 
 Their very articles of faith, misleading as they are in al- 
 most every instance, and calculated and intended to be 
 misleading, are an illustration of this, as is also their use 
 of the word polygamy. In fact, word- juggling, or as a 
 recent writer has called it, prestidigitation with the truth 
 for the purpose of deception, has become quite a science 
 with them. And this is not regarded as a crime, but 
 rather as a virtue. Joseph Smith and John Taylor could 
 deny the existence of polygamy at a time when they were 
 practicing it. I have never heard of any Mormon con- 
 demning them for it. Instead of that they are honored 
 for their smartness. George Q. Cannon could tell a cool, 
 deliberate lie, and be rebuked for it to his face. But he 
 only met the rebuke with a smile, and no Mormon has 
 ever seemed to think any the less of him for it. At any 
 
258 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 rate he is still the first counselor to the President of the 
 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 
 
 President Rich could state in a daily paper of Chatta- 
 nooga that Mormonism results in better social conditions 
 than other religions, when the exact reverse is true, as I 
 have abundantly shown, only he did not suppose that any 
 one living here would know it. But as that was done in 
 behalf of the church, it was all right, according to Mor- 
 mon ethics. 
 
 A Mormon woman, on the witness stand, said that she 
 was the mother of a certain young woman, that her daugh- 
 ter was married, but that to save her life she could not 
 tell who was the father of her daughter's child. This 
 was either a severe reflection upon her daughter's honor 
 or a deliberate lie. It was the latter. When reproached 
 afterwards for thus perjuring herself, she replied : "I did 
 not lie to my God ; I lied to their God." And thus they 
 justify themselves. And they are right. They do not lie 
 to their God, but they do lie to ours. And these are the 
 people who are sending missionaries to us to teach us the 
 principles of morality and religion ! And this is the com- 
 mentary in practical life upon the last article in the Mor- 
 mon creed : 
 
 "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, 
 virtuous, and in doing good to all men ; indeed, we may 
 say that we follow the admonition of Paul, we believe 
 all things, we hope all things, we have endured many 
 things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there 
 is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praise- 
 worthy, we seek after these things." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM— TESTIMONY OF OTH- 
 ERS—MR. SCOTT ANDERSON— MR. A. T. 
 SCHROEDER. 
 
 The information 'as to the social life in Utah, which I 
 gave in the last chapter, I obtained from various sources, 
 all good. It is possible that in some instances my inform- 
 ants were mistaken. But where there was such a general 
 consensus of opinion it is hardly possible that they were 
 mistaken in every instance. Where there was so much 
 smoke there must have been some fire. 
 
 Lest it be thought that I was perhaps misinformed, or 
 that I have exaggerated what I heard, I give a few ex- 
 tracts from some Open Letters, published as editorials in 
 Living Issues of Salt Lake City. The editor of Living 
 Issues, Mr. Scott Anderson, is a highly intelligent gentle- 
 man. He was converted to the Mormon faith in England, 
 but on coming to Salt Lake City he found, as many others 
 have done, that things were not what they were repre- 
 sented to be abroad. He has lived in Salt Lake City for 
 sixteen years, and for a good part of that time he was 
 affiliated with the Mormon Church. But he is intelligent 
 enough to see the fraud and folly and vices of the Mormon 
 system, and he determined to show them up, as he did in 
 the series of open letters. 
 
 In Living Issues for Dec. i, 1899, he said in an open 
 letter addressed to the First Presidency of the Church of 
 Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (I wish I had space to 
 quote it in full) : 
 
 *59 
 
2<5o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "One of the greatest failings and evils prevailing in our 
 midst is Phariseeism. Great faults and grave sins are 
 hidden, cloaked, covered or denied. In long speeches and 
 prayers the declaration is made that we are not as other 
 men. This is carried to such an extent that when any one 
 dares to doubt it, or produce facts to prove the contrary, 
 he or she is liable to be insulted. 
 
 "Distilleries and breweries were established (in 1847) 
 and while, for a time, the licensed saloon was not present, 
 drink circulated freely; was openly sold and was even 
 paid as wages to the laborer and mechanic. 
 
 "One detestable vice was very prevalent — the indulgence 
 in filthy and obscene talk. If there is one thing more 
 than another that degrades a man below the beast it is 
 this practice. Profanity and bad language were also 
 common. . 
 
 "After fifty years of Mormonism in this valley and in 
 these mountains, under the leadership of Prophets, Seers 
 and Revelators, what has been done, and where do you 
 stand to-day? Are the Mormons, in their walk and con- 
 versation, living lives superior to the members of other 
 churches ? Are they equal to them, or do they fall below 
 them? So far as our observation goes they have fallen 
 far behind. We may be told that there are men and 
 women (Mormons) who live according to the light of the 
 gospel, keep the word of wisdom and lead pure and vir- 
 tuous lives. We believe it, but are not dealing with them. 
 If they were in the majority or even a very large minority 
 of the church we would keep silent, but we doubt if two 
 per cent is not a large estimate of their number. What 
 about the 98 per cent? What are you doing with them 
 and for them ? How many Presidents of Stakes and their 
 Counselors drink, smoke and use bad language? How 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 261 
 
 many High Counselors, High Priests, Seventies and Eld- 
 ers do this ? Do Bishops, Superintendents of schools and 
 Teachers do this? You know they do, and it is not sur- 
 prising either, considering the example set before 
 .hem. 
 
 "A returned missionary, after spending two years in 
 England, returned to Bountiful; speaking in the taber- 
 nacle of that city he testified that he had heard more bad 
 language in Bountiful in one day that he had heard in 
 England in two years. We do not know about Bountiful, 
 but so far as Salt Lake City is concerned, from infants 
 barely able to talk up to men of 90 the vice is all but uni- 
 versal, and is rarely or never rebuked. Of course, the 
 swearers are not all Mormons, by any means, but no 
 other church in the city allows their members to swear. 
 
 "There are many who draw the line at blasphemy, but 
 use every other objectionable word in the lexicon, and as 
 for filthy talk, it is almost impossible to go into company 
 without finding some one without moral sense or decency, 
 seeking eagerly to indulge in their favorite vice. We 
 know several in high places who do this. 
 
 "The instances in which brothers (so-called) have 
 robbed their fellows are so numerous that we need not go 
 into them. Mormons in this respect do not differ from 
 the rest of the world, only that they profess more. To 
 sum the whole matter up, we hold that Mormons differ 
 little or none from other men, only they more closely fol- 
 low their leaders — that is our excuse for this letter. ,, 
 
 Again, in an open letter addressed to Angus M. Cannon, 
 President of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, he said : 
 
 "You could lay your finger on High Priests, Seventies 
 and Elders who are to be found in gaming hells ; who let 
 their premises for houses of ill-fame and for saloons. 
 
262 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Some of them even run saloons. Drinking, swearing and 
 bad language are so common that when a good brother 
 turns up who abstains from all these he is a curiosity and 
 a marvel You could tell, if you would, of many a group 
 of big officials who spend hours in relating obscene and 
 blue stories. Brigham Young was living when you were 
 appointed President of the Stake. You knew him and 
 were familiar with his property. When it was proposed 
 to let his property for saloons you were silent. When 
 the twenty-one members of your Stake arranged to fur- 
 nish a grand brothel on Commercial street, we never 
 heard your protest. When Ada Wilson sent out her 
 beautiful circulars of invitation to the young men of Zion 
 to come to her gilded palace of vice, where were you? 
 What did you do? In the twenty-three years of your 
 Presidency, how many of the residents of this fair city 
 have joined your church? You could almost count them 
 on your fingers. How many have left it? Why, tens of 
 thousands. Among those who left you were some of the 
 best men and women who ever joined you. Did you ever 
 stop to think of that, and of the awful gaps made in the 
 church? Of the three special witnesses to the Book of 
 Mormon all apostatized. Of the first quorum of the 
 first Presidency, two apostatized. Of the first Twelve 
 Apostles, seven apostatized. Of the first seven Presidents 
 of seventies, four apostatized. Of the High Priests, 
 Bishops, Seventies, Elders and members who have been 
 excommunicated or withdrawn there must have been 
 hundreds of thousands. 
 
 "When the members came to Utah they found all the 
 great leaders engaged in two things to such an extent that 
 there was no room for spirituality. What were these two 
 things? Love of money and women — getting gain and 
 having a lot of wives. 
 
BRIGHAM YOUNGS STATUE. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 263 
 
 "President Snow relates, in the Christmas News, that 
 Joseph Smith told him in 1843 tnat he (Smith) had mar- 
 ried Eliza R. Snow for time and eternity, his first wife 
 being still living. What was the world and the church 
 generally told at that time by Joseph Smith ? Why, this : 
 'Inasmuch as this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
 Saints has been charged with the crime of fornication and 
 polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should 
 have one wife and one woman but one husband except 
 in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again/ 
 This declaration was printed in the Book of Covenants 
 and taught everywhere as the doctrine of the church. 
 
 "You have the reputation of being a coarse, vulgar 
 tyrant. We have heard Apostles declare that you were 
 a tyrant unfit for so high an office. Have you no sense of 
 shame at the awful condition of things in your stake? 
 How far from wrong was Apostle Taylor when discussing 
 the immorality of the city ? We lay these things at your 
 door ; having power to do good, you have done evil." 
 
 And in another letter addressed to President Cannon 
 in the issue of Jan. 5, 1900, Mr. Anderson said : 
 
 "The saloons, gaming hells and other houses of sin in 
 Salt Lake are five times as numerous as your meeting 
 houses. 
 
 "Sixteen years ago, when the present editor of Living 
 Issues came to Salt Lake, he found the saloon, the gaming 
 hell and the brothel in full swing. At that time no non- 
 Mormon had ever been in the city council; no non- 
 Mormon had ever been elected to the legislature. Where 
 were your laws against these vices ? Oh, you had some ! 
 Yes, but they were dead letters. You had been President 
 of the Stake for seven years and practically ruled in the 
 city and county. What did you do? and what are you 
 doing now ?" 
 
264 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Mr. A. T. Shroeder, a prominent lawyer of Salt Lake 
 City, has a strong article in the Kinsman for December, 
 1899. The article was written originally for the Arena 
 in reply to an article published in that magazine in defense 
 of the Mormons. After a severe arraignment of them 
 for their doctrine of blood atonement, he says : 
 
 "I have taken more than a little pains to reproduce 
 some few evidences of the iniquity of Mormonism, be- 
 cause I know from my own experience how loath some 
 people are to believe that such barbarism should in this 
 century be taught in the name of religion. 
 
 "I am now, as when I came to Utah, outside the pale of 
 orthodox Christianity. I knew something of the history 
 of its past bigotry and was therefore ready to believe that 
 every improbable anti-Mormon tale was the product of a 
 diseased intellect produced by religious fanaticism. I 
 refused to affiliate with the Liberal party or vote its ticket. 
 I made myself obnoxious to my non-Mormon friends by 
 my Jack-Mormon aggressiveness. I was active in the 
 attempt to break up the Liberal party and to secure Amer- 
 ican politics in Utah. I started my investigation with 
 every prejudice in its favor and a vague hope that my 
 study of Mormonism would furnish me with some new 
 evidence that Christian bigotry had maligned a God- 
 fearing and man-loving people. I was ready, whenever 
 some good Mormon or deceived Gentile denied that the 
 doctrine of blood atonement had ever been taught in the 
 church to certify to the correctness of his 'unprejudiced 
 statement of facts/ just as the editor of the Arena en- 
 dorsed Mr. Curtis. // / am not now in the same frame 
 of mind it is because during some years past I have been 
 spending a few leisure hours in studying the Mormon 
 side of Mormonism, and have found that they justify lying 
 by revelation." , :w . , , . v ... .,,^ , 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM—TESTIMONY OF OTH- 
 ERS— DR. WYL— STATISTICS— CHRISTIAN- 
 SEN— SUMMING UP. 
 
 I gave in the last chapter the testimony of Mr. Scott 
 Anderson, an ex-Mormon, and of Mr. A. T. Shroeder, a 
 prominent non-Mormon lawyer, both of Salt Lake City, 
 with regard to Mormonism. Lest it be thought that they 
 are prejudiced, I give some extracts from a book, written 
 by a German, Dr. W. Wyl, after a four months' study of 
 Mormonism on the ground. Dr. Wyl was simply a lit- 
 erary person, who had no prejudice either for or against 
 the Mormons. In his introduction he says : 
 
 "I do not wish to insult anybody in this book, or to hurt 
 anybody's feelings. I desire to do my simple duty as a 
 writer. That is all ; to do it as a critic and observer, hav- 
 ing the courage of my opinions, and being happily free 
 from 'all entangling alliances.' " 
 
 Again : 
 
 "Such teachings find many believers, who, having de- 
 voted themselves to the service of some fancied 'Lord,' 
 can lie and perjure themselves, rob and butcher, believing 
 that they do the bidding of that God whom Jesus of 
 Nazareth taught to be a loving father to all. 
 
 "The witnesses whose depositions are contained in my 
 book have been, for the most part, victims of a great de- 
 lusion. The Mormon missionaries told them in Europe 
 that the Gospel of Christ had been restored ; that miracles 
 of all kinds, including the gift of the Holy Ghost, daily 
 
 265 
 
266 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 revelations of the Almighty, and scores of other blessings 
 would be given to the faithful followers of Joseph Smith, 
 the great Seer and Prophet; that here in Utah was the 
 'home of the pure* ; a paradise of innocence and goodness ; 
 nothing but brotherly love, peace and fidelity; that this 
 was the new 'Zion.' But when they came here, they saw 
 a different picture. They saw that Brigham Young was 
 just as Joseph Smith had been, the great shark and that 
 the faithful were the carp. They did not hear any more 
 of the Bible, as they had heard in the old country; in 
 'Zion' the Gospel was : Pay your tithing, obey the priest- 
 hood in all things; ask never any questions, but do as 
 you are told; take more wives, and if you have only a 
 little one-roomed log cabin, never mind, take wives and 
 build up the Kingdom, so that Brigham Young might soon 
 be king of an independent State of the Union ; pay your 
 tithing and pay besides to swell all kinds of donations; 
 give away your money ; ask never for an account, but be 
 happy in your poverty, while the High Priesthood are 
 living upon the fat of the land. Be spied upon every 
 day in your actions by the 'teachers/ and even in your 
 thoughts, and be a spy yourself on your neighbor; see 
 whether he is strong in the faith, and if he is not, kill 
 him — 'cut his throat to save his soul ; that is the way to 
 love your neighbor/ Hate your enemies — Tray for 
 them,' as Kimball said publicly ; 'yes, that God may damn 
 and destroy them' — and hate all that are not of your clan. 
 Hate all that is American, and swear terrible oaths, in 
 the Endowment House, that you will avenge the blood 
 of the Prophet on this nation. To make it short: 'You 
 may do anything, you may be the most brutal wretch, you 
 may marry twenty wives and neglect one after the other, 
 you may rob and even kill your fellow-citizens (non^ 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 267 
 
 Mormons) — if you pay and obey you are all right; so 
 long as you do this you are a faithful and worthy brother, 
 and sure of your kingdom and eternal glory in the other 
 world.' Such were the public teachings in the earlier 
 times of the Utah theocracy. Since 1870 the talk and 
 practice have become milder, but the principles are still 
 the same. 
 
 "How could this tale, told to me a hundred times over, 
 fail to convince me that this whole 'religion' was a specu- 
 lation to enrich a few, give them gold, power and all 
 the brute pleasure hidden in the Greek word 'polygamy.' ' : 
 
 In the body of the book Dr. Wyl says : 
 
 "Mormonism has too long fooled the world, the new 
 and the old. It has too long claimed immunity as a 're- 
 ligion/ as an honest religious faith, with the known and 
 long established facts attending its original fabrication 
 and its appalling development. Is it not indeed puerile 
 for the great Government of the United States to still 
 continue tampering and temporizing with the outrageous 
 fraud as it has hitherto done ? You prattle of 'polygamy* 
 and refuse to see the constant rebellion and treason ; you 
 see a tree and are blind to the forest. You like to joke 
 about the 'old monarchical countries' and about ironclad 
 Prince Bismarck. But I tell you that he would solve the 
 'Mormon Problem' in a week, while you are puzzled by it 
 since fifty years. He would not, like you, stand a helpless 
 babe before the high schools of treason and licentiousness, 
 called 'Mormon Temples' He would bid them go, those 
 builders of the Kingdom, and build elsewhere. 
 
 "But the Mormon leaders are enemies of the Mormon 
 people, enemies of the United States, enemies of the law, 
 simply because they do not want to be disturbed in the 
 piling up of great fortunes, exercising absolute power and 
 
268 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 lordship, and enjoying the embraces of as many 'child- 
 bearing' (id est young and tender) concubines as they 
 have a mind to." 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 "Let it be remembered forever that the men who know 
 all the facts published by me, and more, deny them daily 
 as 'infamous slanders,' and that these same men are the 
 leaders of this abomination called a 'church' by its illiter- 
 ate dupes only and by the overcultivated ladies and gen- 
 tlemen of the East. . . . Mormonism has produced 
 the most abject slavery ever witnessed in the history of 
 the world." 
 
 He speaks of Mormonism as "a system invented by im- 
 posters and carried out by outlaws all the way through." 
 
 With reference to Joseph Smith, he says : 
 
 "J could not find a bright point, an extenuating circum- 
 stance, in the whole life of the great imposter. It is lie 
 and crime all through." 
 
 Again : ''Joseph was a wretched imposter." In another 
 place he calls Joseph an "imposter, law breaker and con- 
 spirator" 
 
 Again he says that Joseph was a "hell of a fellow with 
 the women." Brigham Young he characterized as a 
 "born bandit." 
 
 Again he said : 
 
 "Mormonism gave up the strictly Scriptural dodge and 
 turned from the parody of Bible to a travesty of Masonry, 
 which is the little understood key of Mormonism in its 
 present state. 'Mormonism is nothing but criminal Ma- 
 sonry' said to me one of my most thoroughly informed 
 witnesses. 
 
 "Lying in this 'church' is 'hiding pearls from the 
 swine'; stealing is taking as the Lord's agents; seducing 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 269 
 
 other people's wives is exalting, and killing people is sav- 
 ing them" 
 
 He calls the leaders of the church "the most cunning 
 rascals on earth," and says that "those smooth, smiling, 
 clean-shaven gentlemen were liars." He declares that 
 "Morrnonism is nothing but the Religious Mafia of the 
 United States," and asks: 
 
 -Who is there among my readers who does not feel that 
 all this infernal humbug is nothing but a conspiracy of 
 scoundrels to dupe a horde of fanatics under religious pre- 
 tense? To make them give up every cent they have, and 
 make tools of them for all sorts of criminal purposes?" 
 
 He adds: . 
 
 "Yes, Morrnonism is a very peculiar religion, it 
 preaches murder as a religious duty, and treats the mur- 
 derer as a distinguished member of the 'church.' I am 
 not joking. Said a poor Mormon widow to me, whose 
 husband was killed in the foulest manner imaginable by 
 the police of this holy city: They bless the bread and 
 wine in the tabernacle-there is half a dozen of murder- 
 ers among them ; I could point them out any time.' 
 
 And again he speaks of "this 'church/ which in its real 
 essence is nothing but a secret criminal conspiracy for the 
 purpose of defying the laws and ^ keeping up a system 
 radically inimical to republican institutions." 
 
 I could give other quotations from Dr. Wyl. But these 
 are sufficient. 
 
 The following statistics were gathered under the direc- 
 tion of the Ministers' Association of Salt Lake City. The 
 report is incomplete, but the figures give a fair repre- 
 sentation of the work in Utah. Number of Evangelical 
 churches, 40; present membership, 3,220 ; received from 
 Mormon Church and families, 514—16 per cent; from 
 
27 o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Mormon sources since organization, 1,417—44 P er cent 
 In Sunday-school there are 1,319 from Mormon fami- 
 lies — 28 2-3 per cent ; in schools, 1,048—61 per cent. 
 
 The forty churches report an aggregate loss of only 
 nine members to Mormonism, "showing," the report says, 
 "most conclusively that Mormonism is wholly without 
 power to secure converts in the State where it is best 
 known." 
 
 In the forms sent out the following questions were 
 asked : "What is the prevailing practice of the Mormon 
 Church in your community with reference to: I. The 
 observance of the Sabbath? 2. The use of intoxicating 
 liquor? 3. Profanity? 4. General moral condition?" 
 These questions were answered in only about one-half of 
 the returns made, these being chiefly from the smaller 
 cities and rural districts. 1. As to Sabbath observance. 
 Five-sixths of the reports declare that the Sabbath is 
 habitually violated by the common people, especially in 
 such portions of the day as are not set apart for worship. 
 Many do secular work and the young people make the 
 day a day of sport and pleasure. 2. As to the use of 
 liquor. The testimony is uniform that the members of the 
 dominant faith are given to its use, many drinking to ex- 
 cess. 3. As to profanity, the reports concur in the state- 
 ment that the use of profane language is general among 
 the men, and many of the women and children also are 
 addicted to the practice. 4. As to general morals, it is 
 reported that in addition to the continuance of polyga- 
 mous relations by many of the leading and older "saints," 
 there is also much looseness of morals among the young 
 people, that many marriages are forced marriages, and 
 that quite generally there is a freedom of thought and 
 speech and practice concerning sexual relations unknown 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 271 
 
 m respectable Gentile communities and undreamed of in 
 other religious circles than that of the Mormon faith. 
 The report concludes : "The conditions existing, as well 
 as the result of Christian effort already begun, argue 
 most powerfully for increased devotion to the work of 
 Christianizing and civilizing this peculiar form of heath- 
 enism existing in the midst of a supposedly Christian 
 country." 
 
 From all these facts you will see that there is very little 
 morality and absolutely no spirituality in the Mormon 
 religion. The truth is that no one who has had the op- 
 portunity of observing the workings of Mormonism has 
 much respect for it as a religion. It is making almost no 
 converts at home, where it is best known. Nearly all of its 
 converts come from abroad. And that is why so many 
 missionaries are laboring in our Southland and elsewhere. 
 But instead of gaining converts at home, it is continually 
 losing its followers there. A large proportion of those 
 who become Mormons apostatize. Brigham Young said 
 five-sixths did so. I met a number of ex-Mormons in 
 Salt Lake City. They were all persons of much intelli- 
 gence. I was told that many of the Mormon young 
 people are losing their sympathy for the church. When I 
 asked what was the reason for this, the answer was : "It 
 can be expressed in three words : Broadening of intelli- 
 gence." Judge John W. Judd, formerly Associate Justice 
 of the Supreme Court in Utah, told me that he once said 
 to a young Mormon : "Christiansen, I want to ask you a 
 question. It is a privileged question, and you can answer 
 it or not, as you choose." "Well," said Christiansen, 
 ,"with that understanding, Judge, fire away." "What do 
 you think of Mormonism ?" "Judge, you know my father 
 and mother are Mormons. I have great respect for them. 
 
2J2 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 But I tell you, I think the whole thing is a d— d fraud." 
 "Well, you have a number of companions about your age. 
 What do they think of it?" "They think the same thing 
 I do." And, leaving off the oath, many others think the 
 same thing. 
 
 Understand that I do not speak now of the Mormon 
 people, but of the Mormon system. The people, as a rule, 
 are kind and clever, but poor, ignorant, misguided, and 
 utterly subservient to the priesthood. Judge C. C. Good- 
 win said in Munsey's Magazine for June, 1900: "Mor- 
 mon business men are fair and honest in their dealings, but 
 the moment that anything pertaining to their faith is 
 touched upon a great many of them have no scruples in 
 resenting it. They will deliver testimony in court which 
 is enough to make the flesh creep. I once asked a Mormon 
 lady how such perjury could be reconciled with their 
 consciences. Her answer was: 'When a saint has been 
 sealed in the Temple, his or her soul has been saved, no 
 matter what may be thereafter/ Still the Mormons, when 
 their religion is not involved, are a friendly, polite, hos- 
 pitable and peaceable people." 
 
 True, but the Mormon system as a system, is utterly 
 bad, as I have shown. The truth is that Mormonism is a 
 combination, or rather a conglomeration, of the literalism 
 of Campbellism, the materialism of Fetishism, the sensual- 
 ism of the Phallic worship, or Venus worship, the polyg- 
 amy of Mohammedanism, the polytheism of Grecian 
 Mythology, the theocracy of Judaism, the priestcraft of 
 Catholicism, the despotism of Jesuitism, the self-right- 
 eousness of Pharisaism, the transmigration of souls of 
 Buddhism, the cruelty of the worship of Juggernaut, the 
 superstition of Confucianism, the degradation of women 
 of heathenism, the mystic rites of Masonry, the hypno- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 273 
 
 tism of mesmerism, the fanaticism of Dervishism, the 
 salvation by works of Socinianism, the sacerdotalism of 
 High Church Episcopalianism, and the political organ- 
 ization of Tammany Hall. 
 
 In short, it has borrowed the worst features of all re- 
 ligions, and all creeds, and woven them into a conglomer- 
 ate but compact mass of incongruous absurdities. It was 
 born in the womb of imposture, nursed in the lap of fraud, 
 rocked in the cradle of deception, clothed in the garments 
 of superstition, fed on the milk of ignorance, and fattened 
 on the strong meat of sensualism, despotism, fanaticism, 
 crime, bloodshed and rebellion. The whole system is a 
 deification of lust, a glorification of sensualism, religious 
 adultery, ecclesiastical prostitution, earthy, sensual, dev- 
 ilish. It is the Upas tree of our civilization, the octopus 
 of our political life, a travesty on the name of religion, a 
 foul blot on the escutcheon of Christianity, a "hideous 
 she monster," as its name implies. It is un-Christian, un- 
 American, a colossal fraud, a mammoth sham, a gigantic 
 humbug, a huge farce, which would be comical if it were 
 not so tragical in its results. It is nothing short of a 
 shame and disgrace and an insult to any Christian com- 
 munity that it should rear its slimy head in that commu- 
 nity. 
 
 There are four things which hold it together, ignorance, 
 superstition, sensualism and despotism. But before the 
 light of advancing civilization and growing intelligence 
 these are receding, and one of two things is certain : 
 Either Mormonism must change materially, or it is 
 doomed to destruction. It is changing. It has changed 
 considerably since the railroad and the telegraph came 
 to Utah and brought the Mormon people into contact with 
 the outside world, thus showing them the falsity of many 
 
274 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 things they had been taught. This contact has served 
 largely to drive away the clouds of ignorance and super- 
 stition in. which they were involved, and to loosen the 
 chains of sensualism and despotism with which they had 
 been bound. But not all the clouds and not all the chains 
 are gone. Many are still there. Its principles still re- 
 main. The question comes, Will Mormonism change 
 sufficiently to save it from destruction? Can it, in con- 
 sistency with its essential principles? Is there enough 
 of the salt of Christian truth in it to act as an antiseptic 
 for all of its corruption, and preserve it from decay ? May 
 be so, but I think not. I think Mormonism is doomed, 
 sooner or later — the sooner the better. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 A MENACE— TO THE HOME— TO THE CHRIS- 
 TIAN RELIGION— TO OUR POLITICAL IN- 
 STITUTIONS. 
 
 If Mormonism be such a monstrous system as we have 
 seen it to be, historically, doctrinally and morally, will it 
 not sink by the weight of its own iniquity, and if so how 
 does it constitute any menace to our American institu- 
 tions ? In what respect does it threaten them ? 
 
 i. In the first place it is a menace to our homes. A 
 home! the dwelling place of the husband and wife, of 
 father and mother and children, of brothers and sisters ; 
 the one place in all the world which they can call their 
 own and where they may feel free from all restraints ; the 
 place hallowed by love and made dear by tenderest ties, 
 and around which our fondest memories cluster ; a sweet, 
 a pure, a modest Christian home — "be it ever so humble, 
 there's no place like home." On such a home God's 
 brightest smiles are thrown and his richest benedictions 
 rest. In such a home "Heaven comes down our souls to 
 greet," and around it guardian angels hover. Such a 
 home is the foundation of all good government, the bul- 
 wark of society, the Gibraltar of our civilization, the 
 haven of rest for souls weary with worldly cares, the 
 plant-bed of religion, the nursery of all that is noblest and 
 truest in our natures, the very Gettysburg of our history, 
 the battle ground on which our life's destiny is fought 
 and decided, and on whose momentous issues eternal in- 
 terests are hung. 
 
 *75 
 
276 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the Mormons have no homes. 
 But under their system of polygamy — which, as I have 
 shown they believe in, and which is a part, an important, 
 almost an essential part of their religion — the home is 
 robbed of much of its significance and happiness. The 
 wife is simply a woman, and the home is transformed into 
 a barnyard, or into an assignation house. All of the ten- 
 derer, more delicate feelings which should exist between 
 husband and wife — the mutual sympathy and dependence, 
 the intimate relations which make each an essential part 
 of the other — are necessarily broken down to a greater 
 or less extent when there are several to share the hus- 
 band's affections. 
 
 Nor is the home the same to the children. The father 
 is almost a stranger to them. They do not have the same 
 love for the home, and the home does not exert the same 
 influence over them as is the case when there is just one 
 family, composed of father and mother and children. 
 And so Mormonism constitutes a menace to the home. 
 And as long as it continues its belief in and practice of 
 polygamy — which is likely to be as long as it exists — it 
 will be as much a blot upon our social system as ever 
 slavery was. As it was with slavery, so shall it be with 
 Mormonism, sooner or later — it must be either mended 
 or ended, and like slavery the best way to mend it is to 
 end it. 
 
 2. It constitutes a menace to the Christian religion. It 
 is not only un-Christian, but anti-Christian. It does not 
 regard any one as saved outside of its own pale. It aims 
 at breaking down all Christian denominations and creeds, 
 but is itself subversive of the principles of Christianity. 
 It is another and very different gospel which it preaches 
 from that of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 277 
 
 Christ Paul had never heard of Mormonism, of course, 
 but he described it pretty accurately when he wrote to 
 the Galatians: "I marvel that ye are so soon removed 
 from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto 
 another gospel: which is not another ; but there be some 
 that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 
 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any 
 other gospel unto you than that which we have preached 
 unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say 
 I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto 
 you than that ye have received, let him be accursed 
 "( Gal i 6-9 ) It sounds also as if Paul was talking about 
 Mormons when he said to Timothy: "This know also, 
 that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men 
 shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, 
 proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, 
 unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false 
 accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are 
 good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures 
 more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but 
 denying the power thereof; from such turn away For 
 of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead 
 captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers 
 lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowl- 
 edge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood 
 Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt 
 minds, reprobate concerning the faith." (2 Tim. .11. 1-8.) 
 Jude must certainly have been thinking about Mormon 
 elders when he wrote: "For there are certain men crept 
 in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this 
 condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our 
 God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, 
 and our Lord Jesus Christ." (Jude 4.) And to whom are 
 
278 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the words of John so appropriate as to Mormon elders : 
 "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine 
 of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine 
 of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there 
 come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive 
 him not into your house, neither bid him God speed : for 
 he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil 
 deeds." (2 John 9-1 1.) I did not say that. The kind, 
 the gentle, the loving, the beloved John said it. And he 
 was talking about Mormon elders when he said it. 
 
 The Mormon elders have three objects in view as they 
 go through the country. (1) To undermine the Chris- 
 tian religion and substitute their semi-heathenism in its 
 place. (2) To convert all the men they can so as to get 
 their money and their votes. (3) To convert all the 
 women they can for their wives. 
 
 As I have shown, they are making no converts at home, 
 either among the men or the women, and so they must 
 gain converts abroad or they will soon perish. I do not 
 believe in hanging or shooting or rotten-egging these 
 elders. In the first place it is not right, and in the second 
 place it gives them the opportunity to cry persecution, 
 which they love to do. 
 
 But I do not believe that we are called upon to receive 
 them into our homes and support them while they are 
 trying to subvert our religion and pervert our family. If 
 they must engage in such work, let their friends at least 
 support them while they are doing so. When we enter- 
 tain them, we may find too late that like the farmer in 
 Aesop's fable, we had been nursing a viper which re- 
 warded our hospitality by striking its fangs into our 
 bosom. I have heard of several instances of the kind 
 recently. In an article on Mormonism in his book, "Some 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 279 
 
 Latter Day Religions," Mr. George Hamilton Combs 
 says : "What should be our attitude toward this ism, and 
 what should be done to meet its insidious political en- 
 croachments ? 
 
 "After even an outline consideration of its doctrines — 
 untrue, coarse, immoral— the first part of the question is 
 easily answered : that of uncompromising hostility. Other 
 isms may be treated with tolerance ; this blasphemy only 
 as an enemy. Let it be war to the hilt and no quarter. 
 This abortion is an enemy to our civilization. It is not 
 to be temporized with. Let us do battle. Smite, smite, 
 smite ! The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." 
 
 3. Mormonism constitutes a menace to our political 
 institutions. As I have had occasion to say so much upon 
 this point in previous chapters, I need not dwell upon 
 it at length here. But something needs to be said upon it. 
 
 I said that no one who knows it has much respect for 
 Mormonism as a religious system. But every one has a 
 great deal of respect for it as a political system. As a 
 matter of fact it is much more of a political system than 
 a religious system. In a recent issue of the Atlantic 
 Monthly Mr. R. L. Hart declares the Mormon Church 
 to be a "perfectly conscienceless political machine, abso- 
 lutely accurate in its every movement, strong as Tam- 
 many and twice as treasonable, and that it is at once a 
 religion, an empire, a fraternity, a trust and a partnership 
 in crime." And so it is. 
 
 The members of the Mormon Church vote as completely 
 at the dictation of their leaders as do the members of Tam- 
 many Hall at the dictation of their leaders. They do not 
 all vote the same ticket now, it is true. They used to do 
 so. But the leaders concluded that this was bad politics, 
 as it made the issue of Mormon and anti-Mormon too 
 
28o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 plain. And so the Mormon people divided between the 
 two political parties. But the leaders hold the balance of 
 power, and they always see to it that there are enough 
 votes to elect the man they want elected. Woe to the 
 Mormon who dares to act independently of the dictation 
 of the junta in the Mormon headquarters. He is imme- 
 diately made to feel the weight of the Mormon heel upon 
 his neck. The machine moves rapidly and it cuts sharply. 
 Few can resist it. Moses Thatcher tried it, and so did 
 Brigham H. Roberts several years ago. But it was not 
 long before both were compelled to yield. It is either 
 absolute obedience or excommunication. 
 
 The Mormon priesthood claim the right of control 
 politically as well as religiously. Mr. Roberts says that 
 they "who hold the priesthood possess divine authority 
 thus to act for God; and by possessing part of God's, 
 power they are in reality part of God . . . and 
 men who honor the priesthood in them honor 
 God, and those who reject it reject God." George Q. 
 Cannon said in a sermon in the Tabernacle, April 5, 1897 : 
 "I would just as soon think of heaven entering into chaos 
 and of the throne of God being shaken to its foundation 
 as to think that the priesthood of the Son of God had gone 
 wrong in its authority or that the Lord would permit such 
 a thing. . . . It is a dreadful thing to fight against 
 or in any manner oppose the priesthood." Moses Thatcher 
 and Brigham Roberts evidently found it so. President 
 Gowans said : "Their priesthood gives them the right to 
 advise and instruct the Saints, and their jurisdiction ex- 
 tends over all things, spiritual or temporal." Brigham 
 Young claimed the right to control everything, "from the 
 setting up of a stocking to the ribbons on a woman's 
 bonnet." 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 281 
 
 Theocracy, the claim that God governs the church 
 through its president, is a fundamental principle of the 
 Mormon creed. Necessarily this brings it into conflict 
 with republican institutions. In studying the history of 
 Mormonism we have seen how often this conflict resulted 
 in quarrels, rows, bloodshed and sometimes open rebellion. 
 Mormonism aims at nothing less than the entire control 
 of this government. 
 
 In 1880 Bishop Lunt said : "Like a grain of mustard- 
 seed was the truth planted in Zion ; and it is destined to 
 spread through all the world. Our church has been or- 
 ganized only fifty years, and yet behold its wealth and 
 power. This is our year of jubilee. We look forward 
 with perfect confidence to the day when we will hold the 
 reins of the United States Government. That is our pres- 
 ent temporal aim; after that we expect to control the 
 continent." When told that such a scheme seemed rather 
 visionary, in view of the fact that Utah could not gain 
 recognition as a State, Bishop Lunt replied : "Do not be 
 deceived; we are looking after that. . . . We in- 
 tend to have Utah recognized as a State. Today we 
 Jiold the balance of political power in Idaho, we rule Utah 
 absolutely, and'in a very short time we will hold the bal- 
 ance of political power in Arizona and Wyoming. A few 
 months ago, President Snow of St. George set out with 
 a band of priests for an extensive tour through Colorado, 
 New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Arizona 
 to proselyte. We also expect to send missionaries to 
 some parts of Nevada, and we design to plant colonies in 
 Washington Territory. 
 
 "In the past six months we have sent more than 3,000 
 of our people down through the Sevier Valley to settle in 
 Arizona, and the movement still progresses. All this 
 
282 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 will build up for us a political power, which will in time 
 compel the homage of the demagogues of the country. 
 Our vote is solid, and will remain so. It will be thrown 
 where the most good will be accomplished for the church. 
 Then, in some political crisis, the two present political 
 parties will bid for our support. Utah will then be ad- 
 mitted as a polygamous State, and the other territories we 
 have peacefully subjugated will be admitted also. We 
 will then hold the balance of power, and will dictate to 
 the country. In time our principles, which are of sacred 
 origin, will spread throughout the United States. We 
 possess the ability to turn the political scale in any par- 
 ticular community we desire. Our people are obedient. 
 When they are called by the church they promptly obey. 
 They sell their houses, lands and stock, and remove to 
 any part of the country the church may direct them to. 
 You can imagine the results which wisdom may bring 
 about with the assistance of a church organization like 
 ours." 
 
 As a result of such absolute political despotism, the 
 Mormon Church now controls Utah completely, virtually 
 controls Idaho, Wyoming and Arizona and is aiming for 
 the balance of power in other States in the West. Presi- 
 dent Woodruff declared that men of to-day would live 
 to see every State west of the Mississippi River under 
 Mormon control. And then this octopus will reach out its 
 long, slimy tentacles to grasp hold of the Eastern and 
 Southern States, using its favorite method of holding and 
 wielding the balance of power. And finally it will seek 
 to lay its foul hand even upon the White House. I have 
 mentioned before the fact, which is not generally known, 
 that in 1844 Joseph Smith was a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency against Polk and Clay, and Mormon elders were 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 283 
 
 sent over the country to electioneer for him. He was not 
 elected, one reason being that he was killed before the 
 election came off. But if the Mormon program could be 
 carried out, what is to prevent a Mormon from occupying 
 the White House some day ? That such will ever be the 
 case I do not believe, but the fault will be not with the 
 Mormons, but with the American people. And yet the 
 best time to crush despotism is in its incipiency. "Resist 
 the beginnings," is an old and ever true maxim. Com- 
 menting on Bishoo Lunt's claims, Mr. George Hamilton 
 Combs says : 
 
 "This may seem but an empty boast, but far-reaching 
 and systematic schemes of colonization in the West when 
 carried out will make the Mormon vote — a vote, never let 
 it be forgotten, that can be cast as one man's — a prize for 
 which great political parties will eagerly bid, and thus 
 make possible the fulfillment of this prophecy. Let the 
 people awake to the magnitude of this power. Eternal 
 vigilance is the price of our liberty's preservation. Mor- 
 mon schemes must be exposed, Mormon diplomacy coun- 
 teracted by an outraged public sentiment, Mormon cun- 
 ning met and mastered by the wisdom of a Christian 
 statesmanship. If this power shall pit itself further 
 against our institutions, let it be crushed into powder. 
 Let Christian sentinels be ever alert, and, at slightest hint 
 of Mormon encroachment, sound the tocsin of war." 
 
 The exclusion of Brigham H. Roberts from the House 
 of Representatives has done much to check the pretensions 
 of Mormonism. It has inspired Mormons with a more 
 wholesome respect for public sentiment. But the mon- 
 ster is only scotched, not killed. You may be sure that 
 he will raise his head again. More needs to be done. Let 
 the anti-polygamy amendment to the Constitution of the 
 
284 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 United States, now pending, be passed by Congress. 
 This will do more than any other one thing to give a 
 death blow to Mormonism. And then let Utah and the 
 surrounding States be peopled by good, intelligent, law- 
 abiding Christian citizens. This will keep down Mor- 
 mon supremacy, with its attendant despotism ; and will 
 also leaven the lump of Mormonism with American and 
 Christian principles. And after a while the whole lump 
 shall be leavened, and this foul blot upon our civilization 
 shall be known only as a horrid nightmare of the past — 
 this "hideous she monster" shall retire to the black caverns 
 of hell from which she came. 
 G«d grant it may be so! 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES IN SALT 
 LAKE CITY. 
 
 Some of my observations and experiences in Salt Lake 
 City may be of interest to the reader and will also serve 
 to throw considerable side lights upon the subject of 
 Mormonism. 
 
 "Salt Lake City. All out for Salt Lake City." Here 
 I am at last in the city of which I have read so much, 
 especially in recent months, and which is the objective 
 point of my trip West. I must confess that I was consid- 
 erably disappointed in it at first sight. I had expected 
 to see a city of from 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, and 
 one of the prettiest cities in the country. Instead, it has 
 only about 60,000 inhabitants. These are nearly evenly 
 divided between the Mormons and the Gentiles. In the 
 city election which occurred just before I reached there 
 the city was carried by the Gentiles by a few hundred 
 majority. They had the assistance, however, it should 
 be said, of the "Jack Mormons," as they are called, which 
 means either those who have apostatized from the Mor- 
 mon faith, or who do not cling to it very closely. 
 
 The first thing that attracted my attention as I got off 
 the train and started up town in the bus was the muddy 
 streets. There seemed to be mud, mud everywhere — 
 very appropriate, I thought, for the city of the Mormons. 
 Some of the streets, however, are nicely paved with 
 asphaltum, but I was told that when the Liberals, as they 
 were called, or the Gentiles, got control of the city in 1890 
 there were no pavements at all. And yet the Mormons 
 
 285 
 
286 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 boast of what they have done in Salt Lake City, and how 
 they have made the desert to blossom as a rose. The streets 
 are broad. They were laid off by Brigham Young, and as 
 a rule are 132 feet wide from wall to wall. They are 
 lined on either side with rows of Lombardy poplar trees. 
 I presume that in the summer they must be quite pretty, 
 but on the 18th of November the leaves were dead, and 
 the streets had rather a desolate appearance. The tele- 
 graph and telephone and street railway poles are all placed 
 in the middle of the streets, which mar their beauty con- 
 siderably. 
 
 The heart of the city, and the place to which visitors 
 naturally first make their way, is the 
 
 TEMPLE ENCLOSURE. 
 
 This embraces ten acres of ground in the heart of the 
 city, beautifully laid off with lawns, walks, trees, shrubs 
 and flowers. There is a high stone wall around the en- 
 closure through which there are several gates. On the 
 inside are the Temple, the Tabernacle and the Assembly 
 Hall. The Temple is the main building. This is the 
 center of the city, and in fact many of the Mormons re- 
 gard it as the center of the earth. All the streets in the 
 city take their names from their location with reference 
 to the Temple. They are known, for instance, as East 
 Temple Street, West Temple, South Temple, North Tem- 
 ple, First South Street, Second South Street, Third East, 
 Fourth North, Fifth West, etc., which means that they 
 are the First or Second or Third streets North or East or 
 West or South of the Temple. At first it is a little con- 
 fusing to a stranger, but after he gets used to it, it becomes 
 easier for him to find his way about in the city than where 
 the streets are given names, such as Walnut and Chestnut 
 and Broad and Market and College and Cherry, etc. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 287 
 
 The foundation of the Temple was laid on April 6, 
 1853, by Brigham Young, and its dedication occurred 
 April 6, 1893. So that it was over forty years in building. 
 It is 180 feet long and 99 feet wide. The foundation wall 
 is 10 feet thick. But the walls get thinner from story to 
 story until they are only five feet wide at the top. There 
 are three towers on each end, the center one of which is 
 higher than the others. The east central one, which is 220 
 feet high, is surmounted by the figure of the angel Mo- 
 roni, twelve and one-half feet in height, made of ham- 
 mered copper, gilded. Moroni is the angel who, as the 
 Mormons believe, announced to Joseph Smith the exist- 
 ence and location of the golden plates. He is represented 
 on the Temple with a trumpet in his mouth, as if in the 
 act of delivering his message of "glad tidings" to all the 
 nations of the earth. It is estimated that the Temple cost 
 from three to four million dollars. A good deal of this, 
 however, was given not in money but in labor or in prod- 
 uce. No one but a Mormon is allowed within the 
 Temple, and he must be a pretty good Mormon. In Ap- 
 pendix C, however, I shall tell the reader about the secrets 
 of the Temple as related by an ex-Mormon. Mormonism 
 is a curious mixture of various things, among which is 
 a kind of bastard Masonry, with its mystic rites. 
 
 But while none except Mormons are admitted to the 
 Temple, in the same enclosure is the Tabernacle, where 
 religious services are held each Sabbath afternoon, to 
 which the public is invited. This is a very much less 
 costly structure than the Temple. The first stone in the 
 building was laid April 5, 1865, and it was dedicated Oct. 
 6 1867. The cost was about $300,000. The dimensions 
 of the auditorium are 150 feet wide by 250 feet long and 
 80 feet in height. Its seating capacity is about 7,000. 
 
288 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 It is claimed that it is the largest house for religious wor- 
 ship in the world. I am not sure about that. I doubt, 
 however, if there is a finer auditorium anywhere. It is 
 built on the plan of the ellipse. The speakers stand in 
 one focus of the ellipse, and as there are no pillars and 
 no arches to break the air waves set in motion by the 
 speaker, his voice is easily carried to every part of the 
 building. I attended two services in the Tabernacle, both 
 times sitting a little way back, and had no trouble in 
 hearing the speakers, except one young missionary who 
 spoke too low. Visiting the Tabernacle during the week, 
 I requested permission to stand at the desk and try the 
 acoustic properties of the building, and found that it 
 required very little effort to speak. I also stood at the 
 back end of the building in the gallery and distinctly 
 heard a pin drop at the other end. This is a famous and 
 favorite method which the guide has of impressing upon 
 you the wonderful acoustic qualities of the Tabernacle. 
 I could also distinguish the words which he spoke in a 
 whisper. The construction of the building is very pe- 
 culiar. The roof has no pillar to support it, but has im- 
 mense arches which rest upon forty-four stone piers. It 
 is constructed very much like the bottom of a boat. On 
 the outside the building looks strikingly like a huge turtle. 
 The organ is said to be the second largest in America, 
 the largest being in Trinity Church, New York. Its 
 dimensions are 30 by 33 feet, and 48 feet in height. It has 
 67 stops and 2,648 pipes. The choir numbers from 500 
 to 600 persons. The singing, as might be supposed, is 
 very fine. It sounds, however, more like a grand opera 
 than it does like church music. There is more of melody 
 than of spirituality about it. The members of the choir 
 are seated on a large raised platform which runs back 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 289 
 
 on both sides of the organ. Just in front of the organ 
 are four rows of seats occupied at the Sunday services 
 by the dignitaries and officials of the Mormon Church. 
 The highest and principal seat is reserved for the first 
 presidency of the church, the next for the twelve apostles, 
 the third for the president of the stake, his counselors 
 and others, while the fourth and lowest is reserved for the 
 lesser or Aaronic priesthood. 
 
 The audiences in attendance upon the Sunday after- 
 noon service usually number about three or four thousand 
 people. This includes not only the Mormons themselves, 
 but a good many visitors who go out of curiosity. The 
 speaking — it could hardly be called preaching — is not, 
 as a rule, of a very high order. The speeches which I 
 heard — and they were by some of the best speakers in 
 the Mormon Church, such as Brigham Young, Jr., Dr. 
 J. E. Talmage and others — were taken up with discussing 
 the alleged growth of Mormonism, and predicting the 
 time when all nations should adopt it and should "gather 
 to Zion." There was very little in the speeches to edify 
 or inspire a man to a higher life, and nothing to fill the 
 soul. There was an utter absence of spirituality and 
 emotion. I doubt if a tear was ever shed in the Taber- 
 nacle. And this is characteristic of all Mormon meetings. 
 
 Standing near the Temple enclosure, at the intersection 
 of Main and First South Streets, is Brigham Young's 
 statue. This was erected several years ago at the expense 
 of the city, but over the protests of the Gentiles, who did 
 not believe that Brigham Young was a character of suffi- 
 cient public spirit and general importance to be thus 
 honored. They take their revenge now, however, by call- 
 ing attention to the fact that he stands with his back to the 
 Temple and his hand stretched out to the bank, which 
 
290 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 attitude they say was characteristic of him during life. 
 I took three pictures of the statue; but when they were 
 developed, lo ! and behold ! I found that I had cut off his 
 head every time. I do not know whether to interpret this 
 as having any special significance or not. On one corner 
 near the statue is the office of the Deseret News. This 
 is the official organ of the Mormon Church, and true to 
 the character of the church, is both a religious and a po- 
 litical paper. It is published every afternoon. I had a 
 very interesting interview with its editor, Mr. C. W. 
 Penrose, which I gave on page 236. At the other end 
 of the same block stands a group of houses famous in 
 Mormon history. They are known as the Bee Hive, the 
 Office and the Lion House. The Bee Hive stands on the 
 corner. It takes its name from the fact that there is a 
 large bee hive on the cupola. Just why the bee hive 
 should have been placed there is not quite certain. But 
 as this was the home of Brigham Young, in which he kept 
 several of his wives, perhaps the Bee Hive was intended 
 as symbolical of that fact. The Lion House was, how- 
 ever, the home where most of his wives were kept, and 
 where he had his dining room. This is sometimes called 
 the "House of Seven Gables" from its numerous gable 
 windows. It was supposed that there was a wife to every 
 window. But as a matter of fact there are more than seven 
 gables, and there were probably more than seven wives 
 there at one time, as he had twenty-six in all. At meal time 
 he would assemble his numerous familyin the diningroom, 
 wives, children and all. This was the only time he saw 
 them all together. Over the door of the Lion House is 
 the figure of a crouching lion, from which the house takes 
 its name. This was perhaps intended to give warning that 
 no one would be allowed within its portals, or that Brig- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 291 
 
 ham Young was himself the lion of the house. Between 
 the Bee Hive and the Lion House and adjoining the two 
 so that he could pass from one to the other without com- 
 ing out upon the street, is the office of the president, 
 which is still used for that purpose. Here I had the 
 pleasure of meeting President Snow. All of these houses 
 are frame buildings. The Bee Hive and the Lion House 
 are two-story buildings, while the office has only one 
 story Formerly there was a high stone wall around all 
 the buildings, but it had just been taken down when I 
 was there, and I had better opportunity of observing them 
 than is usually given to strangers. 
 
 Just across the street from the Bee Hive is what is 
 known as the Amelia Palace, which was built by Brigham 
 Young for his favorite wife, Mrs. Amelia Folsom Young. 
 She was his twenty-fourth wife, and was one of the hand- 
 somest, and perhaps the most cultured, of them all. Read- 
 ers of Mormon history will remember how ridiculous he 
 made himself over her when he was courting her, and how 
 he had to exercise his priestly authority to "cut out some 
 of the other boys. The Palace is quite a nice modern 
 brick structure. It now belongs to one of the United 
 States Senators from Utah. There are some seven or 
 eight of Brigham Young's wives still living, several of 
 them, it is said, in the Lion House, and others in different 
 parts of the city. I wanted to meet some of them, but 
 did not wish to obtrude myself upon them. 
 
 Just east of the Bee Hive is the Eagle Gate, so called 
 from the large eagle surmounting an arch which spans 
 the road. Originally it was the gateway leading into 
 Brigham Young's private grounds, but new residences 
 have been built up all along there, and the road is a regu- 
 lar street leading to that part of the city, through which 
 
292 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the street cars run. On the east side of this street, sur- 
 rounded by a high stone wall, is Brigham Young's private 
 school house, which, it is said, he built for the education 
 of his numerous children. Around the corner and about 
 a block further up is his private cemetery, in which he 
 is buried, together with eight of his wives. There is 
 plenty of space left for the other eighteen as well as for 
 his children. As he had twenty-six wives, and there are 
 only eight living and eight buried there, the question 
 came as to where were the other ten. This I could not 
 find out, though I searched the Mormon cemetery for an 
 answer to the question. It is quite significant that he 
 needed both a private school house and a private ceme- 
 tery. 
 
 I reached Salt Lake City on Saturday morning, Nov. 
 18. 
 
 On Sunday morning, in company with a friend and his 
 daughter, I attended a Mormon Sunday-school. I had 
 a kind of feeling that I ought to be in a Baptist Sunday- 
 school, especially as I had been notified that I would be 
 expected to preach that morning at the First Baptist 
 Church. I replied, however, that I was a Baptist at 
 home, but I wanted to be a Mormon in Salt Lake City. 
 I was there on a special mission, and I thought I ought 
 to take every opportunity of learning all I could about 
 Mormons. Most visitors go only to the great Tabernacle 
 in the afternoon, but here the Mormons are on dress 
 parade. I wanted to see them in their every-day clothes. 
 One of the best places to do so, as I knew, was in their 
 Sunday-school. When we walked in the room the Sun- 
 day-school had begun. The teachers were sitting around 
 their classes teaching — what? The superintendent, or 
 some one else, asked if we would not like to go up to the 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 293 
 
 theological class, to which we assented. We were con- 
 ducted through a back door and up a flight of stairs to a 
 small room in which the theological class was being 
 taught. The teacher was a very nice looking and clever 
 young man. A woman was reciting the book of Nephi 
 in broken language. She was a Swede, I presume. To 
 me she spoke in an unknown tongue in a double sense. 
 When she finished, three young men were called on suc- 
 cessively to recite, but each excused himself, saying that 
 he did not know the lesson. Another lady then took it 
 up The book of Nephi says that three Nephites are still 
 living. In proof of that claim the following stories were 
 told: There were some shepherds lost once, and they 
 said they saw these three Nephites in a cave. Another 
 man was in the Mississippi bottom, and he was led out 
 three different times, and it was supposed that each time it 
 was by a separate person, who were these three Nephites. 
 At the conclusion of the lesson the teacher asked if we 
 would like to ask any questions. My friend asked a ques- 
 tion with reference to the Indians, whom the Mormons 
 claim are the descendants of the Lamanites, the great ene- 
 mies of the Nephites. 
 
 The teacher had stated that they believed not only the 
 Bible, but also the Book of Mormon to be the word of 
 God I asked him on what he based this belief. What 
 were the evidences of its divinity? He replied that it 
 would take some time to answer that question, but that 
 he would try to do so. About this time the bell rang vio- 
 lently. He sent some one down stairs and asked him to 
 explain to the superintendent the situation. The mes- 
 senger came back in a minute and reported that the super- 
 intendent said that the teacher might remain up stairs 
 with his visitors, but that he wanted the class to come 
 down, and down they went, and we with them. 
 
294 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 After the Sunday-school was over I had a long talk 
 with the teacher and with another gentleman, counselor 
 to the Bishop, I think he is, whom the teacher called in 
 to assist in the discussion. I cannot give the conversation 
 in detail. It lasted, perhaps, for an hour and a half. I can 
 only give the substance of it. It began by the teacher* 
 asking me very politely if I would like to ask any ques- 
 tions. He handed me a copy of their articles of faith, and 
 said perhaps I would like to ask some questions with 
 reference to them. That was exactly what I wanted. So 
 I said : "I see your first article of faith says, 'We believe 
 in God, the Eternal Father.' What kind of a God ? What 
 kind of a Father?" 
 
 The following admissions were made in the course of 
 the conversation by the gentlemen : 
 
 1. That God is a literal Father. He is the Father of 
 our spirits. Our earthly father is the father of our bodies. 
 
 2. There are many Gods. 
 
 3. God has a wife, and maybe many wives. 
 
 4. "As man is, God was. As God is, man may be." 
 
 5. Christ was probably a polygamist. Many Mormons 
 think so. 
 
 6. The Holy Spirit is a substance. They spoke of 
 Him as "it." 
 
 7. "Adam fell that men might be." 
 
 8. No one but a Mormon can be saved, but there will 
 be a second probation. And yet it will be harder for 
 those who reject the gospel here to be saved. 
 
 9. They believe in polygamy. It is needed, for all of 
 a man's powers should be used for procreation. 
 
 10. They said there had been no plural marriages since 
 the manifesto in 1890. They admitted that Mr. Roberts 
 and others have been living in cohabitation with more 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 295 
 
 than one wife, but thought that as he had promised to be 
 a husband to them, he should be in the fullest sense. They 
 said that the clause in the State code against unlawful 
 cohabitation slipped in by mistake. 
 
 In the course of the conversation I was simply an in- 
 vestigator. I did not attempt to argue with them. I was 
 only trying to find out what they believed. I knew pretty 
 well before hand what they believed on all these points, 
 because I had read it in the books, but it was interesting 
 to hear the expression of their faith from their own lips. 
 There were other points I wanted to bring out, but as it 
 was now about 1 o'clock, and as I wanted to attend the 
 services in the Tabernacle that afternoon, we had to bring 
 the conversation to a close. Before I left the teacher 
 asked me, "Are you not a preacher?" I told him I was. 
 "Where from?" I told him Tennessee. He said he had 
 labored as a missionary in Tennessee some time ago. We 
 then parted in good humor. 
 
 After a delightful meal at the home of my friend we 
 hurried off to the Tabernacle. Here we found some four 
 or five thousand people assembled. The great choir of 
 five hundred voices was singing as we went in. They 
 certainly make beautiful music, but, as I said before, 
 there is more of melody than of spirituality about it. Nor 
 is there any spirituality about the Mormon prayers, which 
 are few, cold and formal. I did not hear a passage of 
 Scripture read at any of their services. It is customary 
 for two persons to speak at each service. The two speak- 
 ers that afternoon were Brigham Young, Jr., and Dr. 
 James E. Talmage, who is their brag theologian. Brig- 
 ham Young, Jr., looks a good deal like his distinguished 
 father, though he lacks his father's strength of charac- 
 ter. I give an outline of his remarks as I took them down 
 
296 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 at the time to indicate the character of the preaching in 
 the Tabernacle. Mr. Young said: "We want room. 
 There are other lands for us to occupy. The people in 
 the East are surprised that we believe in God, the Father, 
 the Son and the Holy Ghost. A gentleman said to me that 
 he thought the foundations of the Christian faith were 
 destroyed when the law against polygamy was passed. 
 I told him that polygamy is a small part of our system. 
 God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost have appeared in 
 these latter days. The foundation of the church of the 
 Latter-Day Saints is God. It shall never be overthrown. 
 The Spirit of God dwells in it. If you are laboring for 
 money the church teaches that you must use that money 
 for God's glory. There must be faith, repentance, bap- 
 tism, laying on of hands in order to salvation. There is 
 nothing done without that Spirit. It dwells in us day and 
 night. This makes us fit companions for the great I Am. 
 We shall be with him, because we shall be like him. Noth- 
 ing daunts us while we keep that Spirit. We can laugh 
 at persecution. See the difference between those who 
 have the witness of the Spirit, and those who have it not. 
 It is the difference between black and white. Zion is the 
 stone cut out of the mountain side. I was unfortunate 
 enough to have to spend two weeks in Chicago. I took 
 it as a great calamity, but I survived it. Everything was 
 money, money. I was accustomed to ask, Is it the will of 
 God ? not, Is there money in it ? 
 
 "A frost at Liverpool in 1891 and 1892 slew two hun- 
 dred innocents. In Chicago it is worse than that. It is 
 the mission of the Latter-Day Saints to redeem and save 
 the world. When I sought the witness of the Spirit did 
 I get it? I did. 'Seek first the kingdom of God and 
 His righteousness/ Shall we continue laboring to save 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 297 
 
 the world ? What inducements are there ? I want to meet 
 those gone before, to make those around me happy, to 
 save the dead by baptism. It is a stupenduous work. May 
 God bless every sect that is trying to do right, and those 
 who are hypocrites may the curse of God rest upon them." 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Young's address a gentleman 
 turned to me and said : "Well, what do you think of that 
 harangue?" The word was very fitting. It was not a 
 sermon, but a stump speech, full of braggadocio, and de- 
 livered in a rather awkward manner. One of the daily 
 papers next day expressed surprise that Mr. Young 
 should have made the reference he did to Chicago seeking 
 money, when it was understood that he was there himself 
 on a business trip. 
 
 The other speaker was Dr. James E. Talmage, for- 
 merly president of the Mormon College in Salt Lake City. 
 I took down his remarks, but as they were quite lengthy 
 I shall not give them. Mr. Young was uncouth and un- 
 polished. Dr. Talmage is a man of some culture and 
 spoke with ease and grace. After the services were over 
 I got a good look at him as he passed near me, and was 
 really very much disappointed to find that he has the 
 same short bull neck, and the same coarse, sensual appear- 
 ance characteristic of nearly all Mormon elders. 
 
 At night I attended a ward meeting. The whole of 
 the territory of Utah, and especially of Salt Lake City, is 
 divided into wards corresponding largely in size to the 
 wards in our various cities. In each ward there is one 
 meeting house for that ward, which all Mormons in the 
 ward are expected to attend, and as these meeting houses 
 are not very large they are generally about full. As we 
 entered the house a young Mormon missionary was speak- 
 ing. I could not but be struck with his ignorance of 
 
298 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Scripture. For instance, at one time he quoted a passage 
 from Isaiah and attributed it to Malachi. At another 
 time he represented Elijah as being in a cave at Mt. 
 C arm el. When he closed, according to the Mormon cus- 
 tom of having two speakers at every meeting, an old 
 man by the name of Spencer (David Spencer, I think) 
 arose. He argued that it was not the witness of the 
 Spirit but belief in Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, etc., 
 that makes a true Mormon — and he was certainly right 
 about it. He told about the Mormon persecutions, as 
 the Mormons always term their sufferings, regardless 
 of the fact that they themselves had provoked the people 
 of Missouri and of Illinois into driving them out. He 
 claimed that the Mormons were the servants of the Lord, 
 the embassadors to carry the gospel to all the world, 
 and that it is a glorious privilege given them to do so. 
 
 During the week I had several interesting conversa- 
 tions with some of the Mormon people. For instance, in 
 a certain store there are two Mormon lady clerks. I 
 got into a conversation with one of them. She is a 
 young married woman. She said that she believed that 
 God is a man with flesh and bones, but without blood; 
 that he is our literal father; that Christ was a polyga- 
 mist; that the Holy Spirit is a substance; that she be- 
 lieved in polygamy, but she did not know why. Her 
 husband, she told me, is off on a mission in Germany 
 and had been gone fifteen months. 
 
 Another lady in the store came by, and the first lady 
 said to her that I had put a question to her she could 
 not answer — that I had asked her why she believed in 
 polygamy. The second, who was a very pretty young 
 lady, said that she knew why she believed in polygamy. 
 "Why?" I asked. "Because," she said. "Well, that is 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 299 
 
 a woman's reason," I said; "give me a man's reason." 
 "Because," she said, "it makes a man a better man, and 
 a woman a better woman." Another reason she had for 
 believing in it was that Joseph Smith commanded it. "It 
 is a part of our religion," she said. She also thought 
 that God was a man, and that he was Adam, and that 
 man may become God. 
 
 While having my shoes polished one day I got to talk- 
 ing with the bootblack. He told me that he was a Mor- 
 mon. He said that he believed that God is a man, that 
 there are many Gods, and that he believed in polygamy, 
 for the reason that "it makes a man a better man." He 
 referred to corruption in Eastern cities. I asked him 
 what about Salt Lake City. Another man standing by, 
 not a Mormon, said that it was full of corruption. This 
 testimony I received over and over again from various 
 witnesses. I have already given some of the facts which 
 were related to me in this connection. 
 
 I had a conversation one day with a young lady stenog- 
 rapher in a certain office. She said that she was a Mor- 
 mon because she believed that Mormonism is the only 
 religion. She believed that God is a man, but that there 
 is only one God. She does not, however, believe in polyg- 
 amy. Polygamous wives, she said, are unhappy, what- 
 ever they may tell you. She proposed to accept whatever 
 the priesthood tells her if it was according to her reason. 
 "Intellect," she said, "is everything." She thought that 
 a person would be saved by his own deeds, that the good 
 would overbalance the bad. She goes to Sunday-school 
 and Tabernacle services and ward meetings only when 
 she feels like it. I told her that she is not a good Mor- 
 mon. And there are a good many Mormons, who, like 
 her, are throwing off the shackles of Mormonism as they 
 
300 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 come in contact with the outside world and see the falsity 
 of many things they had been taught to believe. God 
 speed the day when the shackles shall all be gone. 
 
 Just back of the Lion House in Salt Lake City is the 
 tithing office. The Mormons demand that all members 
 of their church shall pay tithes of their income. Not all 
 of them do it, however. If they did, the income of the 
 church would amount to about $3,000,000. As it is, it 
 amounts to only about $700,000 or $800,000. But special 
 efforts have been made recently to induce every one to 
 pay his tithes. All of the privileges of the church are 
 withheld from them until they do. Tithing may be paid 
 either in money or in produce or goods. There are three 
 houses for the reception of the tithes, all joined together. 
 In one money is received, in another dry goods, in another 
 groceries. Strict account is kept of everything received, 
 and of the names of those who give it, but no account is 
 ever rendered to the people as to how the money is spent. 
 
 I went down to the tithing office one day. The man 
 who receives the money was busy, so I stepped into the 
 dry goods department. As I began talking to the clerk a 
 little girl came in to buy something. I told him that I 
 had no special business and to wait on his customer. He 
 said that that was all right, she could wait. I asked him 
 about the system of tithing. He told me, what I have 
 stated, that tithings are contributed either in money or 
 in goods, that in his department the merchants will con- 
 tribute their tithings in goods out of their stores at whole- 
 sale rates, and that he sells them at the same price at 
 which the merchants would sell them. I asked him what 
 became of the money thus received, whether it was given 
 to the officials of the church. He said that none of the 
 officials received any salary — a fact which I already knew 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 301 
 
 — but that sometimes the bishop would come down and 
 get a pair of shoes or something of that kind from him. 
 I then asked very innocently if there was any account 
 rendered of the money. He looked a little surprised and 
 said, "Sir?" I said, "Is there any account rendered to 
 the people of the money ?" He said, "Well, I am very 
 busy ; if you will go into the next store, perhaps the man 
 in there will have time to talk with you." The fact is, as 
 I said, that there is no account rendered. No one knows 
 what becomes of the money — that is, no one except those 
 who get it. 
 
 I have been asked several times since my return home 
 if I saw any polygamous families while in Salt Lake City. 
 I was really anxious to get into a polygamous home while 
 there, and see the polygamous wives for myself. I stated 
 my desire to an ex-Mormon, and he introduced me to a 
 polygamist, whom I found to be a very clever man. I got 
 pretty well acquainted with him, and one day he invited 
 me to go to his home. I thanked him and asked him when 
 I could go. He said, "Any time ; go this evening ; go now, 
 if you wish." I told him I did not care to go to his home 
 when he was not there. So it was arranged that I should 
 call that night while he was at home. He said, "Now, I 
 don't want you to tell on me." You see, people were being 
 arrested in Salt Lake City at that time for living in 
 polygamous cohabitation. I replied to him, "I will tell you 
 candidly, I am representing a paper, and I expect to 
 write up what I see, but I will not call your name and will 
 not tell anybody about you." Soon after supper I started 
 to his home, but while I was on my way I received word 
 that he had sickness in his family, and that it would not 
 be convenient for me to call that night. I saw him the 
 next morning, and inquired about his family, and told 
 
3 02 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 him that I hoped the sick ones were better. He said that 
 he was afraid that they were threatened with scarlet 
 fever or something of that kind, and he did not know 
 just how it was going to turn out, so that it would not be 
 convenient for me to go to his home at that time, but that 
 he wanted me to be sure to do so the next time I came to 
 Salt Lake City. I told him that I would be glad to do so. 
 
 'The next time!" And so I found it ever with the 
 Mormons. You can go just so far with them and no 
 farther. Up to a certain point they are pleasant and 
 polite as possible. They do not mind giving you any in- 
 formation about their religion which does not mean any- 
 thing. But if by your questions you show that you know 
 too much, or if you try to get into the inner circles and 
 find out the hidden things which they mean to keep hidden 
 from the outside world — and there are a great many of 
 them — you instantly find yourself blocked very thor- 
 oughly. 
 
 I have given a good deal of space to Mormon affairs 
 in Salt Lake City because I went there for the purpose of 
 studying them, and also because the city has become iden- 
 tified in the public mind with Mormons, and I knew that 
 my readers would feel a special interest in having me tell 
 about them. But the Mormons are not the only people in 
 Salt Lake City by a good many. As I stated, they form 
 at present only half of the population of the city, there 
 being about 30,000 Mormons and 30,000 Gentiles. In 
 the election which occurred just before I was there, the 
 city was carried by the Gentiles by a few hundred votes. 
 This, however, was by the aid of some ex-Mormons, or 
 Jack-Mormons. 
 
 There are a number of other churches at work in the 
 city, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Campbellite, etc. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 303 
 
 I attended the general Ministers' Conference the first 
 Monday morning I was there. There were some eighteen 
 or twenty ministers present, and they were a bright, fine 
 looking set of men. They will compare well with the 
 ministers in any city. The Presbyterians seem to be in 
 the lead ; at least I met more Presbyterian ministers than 
 of any other denomination. Certainly they are in the 
 lead in opposition to Mormonism. The names of Drs. 
 Paden and McNiece, and Rev. W. R. Campbell, 
 of Salt Lake City ; Revs. N. E. Clemenson, of Logan, 
 and H. H. McCreery, of Mt. ^Pleasant, are worthy of 
 special mention in this connection. It is to them, more 
 than to any others, perhaps, that credit is due for work- 
 ing up public sentiment against the seating of Mr. Roberts 
 in Congress. The Kinsman, a magazine issued monthly 
 by the Kinsman Publishing Co., has also done, and 
 is doing, noble service along this line. I mention these 
 names because I felt that I wanted to give honor to whom 
 honor is due. 
 
 The Baptists are not very far behind. They are repre- 
 sented by three churches, the First Baptist Church, of 
 which Rev. H. B. Steelman is pastor, and East Church, 
 Rev. E. H. Shanks, pastor. Also Rev. J. D. Johnson is 
 pastor of the Baptist Church at Murray, which is a suburb 
 of Salt Lake City. I had the privilege of preaching in the 
 First and East Churches. A revival was in progress at 
 the East Church, conducted by Rev. E. H. Shanks, who 
 had just come to the city, and who has since been called 
 to the pastorate of the church. He is a cultured, conse- 
 crated Christian man, and I expect him to accomplish 
 much good. The membership of his church is not very 
 large, but it is composed of an excellent class of people. 
 Miss Parsons, who is laboring under the auspices of the 
 
304 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Home Mission Society in Salt Lake City, is a member of 
 that church. She is doing much good, especially through 
 her industrial school. She has a large class of boys, to 
 whom she imparts much practical and useful knowledge, 
 and whom she tries at the same time to instruct in the way 
 of the Lord. 
 
 The second Sunday of my stay in the city I preached at 
 the First Baptist Church in the morning. Rev. H. B. 
 Steelman is the popular and scholarly pastor. He was 
 confined at home on account of sickness in his family. The 
 church is centrally located, has a good house of worship, 
 and is composed of some of the best people in the city. 
 The congregation was large, and was very attentive and 
 sympathetic. I enjoyed very much preaching to them. 
 
 Churches of other denominations besides the Mormons 
 do not, however, have a very easy time in Salt Lake City. 
 In the first place, the Mormon church — I call it so for the 
 sake of convenience — is the big church of the city. About 
 half the people in the city are members of it. The Tem- 
 ple is the center of the city, and the Tabernacle on Sunday 
 afternoons is the great gathering place for the people. In 
 the second place, the Mormons and Gentiles, like the Jews 
 and Samaritans, have no dealings with one another. They 
 trade very little with each other. The Mormons have 
 their stores and the Gentiles have theirs. The Mormons 
 go almost entirely to their own services, and attend the 
 churches of other denominations very little. Nor do 
 Gentiles go much to Mormon services. They are not 
 allowed to go into the Temple at all. Some of them go to 
 the Tabernacle services on Sunday afternoons, but very 
 few, if any, go to their Sunday schools or their ward 
 meetings. The two peoples are almost as distinct as the 
 Jews and Gentiles, or as the Americans and French in 
 New Orleans. The Mormons make almost no converts 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 305 
 
 from the Gentiles. It is estimated that one per cent would 
 cover the number. On the contrary, about 16 per cent of 
 the membership in the Gentile churches came from the 
 Mormons. But it requires hard work to get them, even 
 after they leave the Mormon church. In that case, as is 
 the case with Catholics in Italy and Mexico, they are apt 
 to go oft into infidelity. The Mormon church claims to 
 be the only true church, and these ex-Mormons seem to 
 feel that if the claims of the Mormon church are not true, 
 they do not know where to turn, and so they drift into 
 indifference and infidelity. 
 
 Another reason why it is difficult to make converts from 
 the Mormons is that their religion is so utterly different 
 from any other religion. It claims to be the only true 
 religion, and yet it has no spirituality about it at all. 1 he 
 Mormons make fun of emotion in religion. It is all a 
 cold dead, formal worship, which dries up the fountains 
 of spirituality, and of the deepest religious experiences. 
 This not only makes it difficult to get converts among 
 them to other churches which teach the importance of 
 having this spiritual power, but it has a reflex influence 
 upon these churches, and tends to deaden their own 
 spiritual life. An old-fashioned, genuine revival of re- 
 ligion, with tears of sorrow and shouts of joy, wou d 
 seem so much out of place in Salt Lake City that it would 
 be an anomaly, even if it were a possibility. 
 
 Before taking my leave of Salt Lake City, allow me to 
 say that I enjoyed my two weeks' stay there upon the 
 whole very much. I met a number of excellent people 
 and made some good friends among them. They were all 
 very kind to me. Even the Mormons were kind and polite 
 until I got to asking too many questions and coming too 
 close home, and then their manner would change, and 
 they would usually shut me off. If only the curse of 
 
3 o6 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Mormonism could be removed from the fair city, it would 
 become exceedingly prosperous. Situated just on the 
 west of the Rocky Mountains, in a rich valley between 
 the Wasatch and Oquirrh mountains, and near the Great 
 Salt Lake, it has many natural advantages. This the 
 Gentiles are recognizing, and many of them are taking up 
 their residences there, so that the Gentile population of 
 the city is growing much faster than the Mormon. In a 
 short while the Gentiles will have entire control of the 
 city, and perhaps also of the State after a while. And 
 then the desert will be made to "blossom as the rose." 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 THE RELATION OF SIDNEY RIGDON TO THE 
 BOOK OF MORMON. 
 
 BY W. A. STANTON, D.D., IN THE CHICAGO STANDARD OF 
 JULY 22, 1899. 
 
 Three movements in the second quarter of the nine- 
 teenth century, each of which was claimed by its leader to 
 be a reformation of religion, have an important place in 
 American religious history. The earliest of these move- 
 ments was the one led by Alexander Campbell and Wal- 
 ter Scott, resulting in the establishment of the Disciples of 
 Christ, or Christians, as a separate body. 
 
 The second was the beginning and rise of Mormonism 
 under the manipulations of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rig- 
 don. The third was the development of modern spiritual- 
 ism, or "spiritism," beginning with the "rappings" of the 
 Fox sisters in Western New York. The first two "re- 
 formations" had close connection with Baptist history in 
 and about Pittsburgh, Pa. Having been pastor of a Bap- 
 tist church in Pittsburgh for about ten years, with excel- 
 lent opportunities for investigations, I propose to tell what 
 I have learned as to the relation of Sidney Rigdon to the 
 Book of Mormon. Of course, this story will be denied by 
 Mormons and their friends; within twelve hours of this 
 writing I have been visited by two Mormon officials and 
 treated to a strenuous and indignant denial ; but denial is 
 not proof. I submit the plain, unvarnished facts to the 
 public, and abide by its verdict. 
 
 3°7 
 
308 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 rigdon's beginnings. 
 
 He was born February 19, 1793, on a farm near the 
 hamlet of Library, a few miles south of Pittsburgh. Elder 
 David Phillips baptized him into the membership of the 
 Peter's Creek Baptist Church, at Library, May 31, 18 17. 
 On January 28, 1822, he became the third pastor that the 
 First Baptist Church of Pittsburg had had, said church 
 having been organized in 1812. Alexander Campbell had 
 supplied the pulpit at times, and it was largely through his 
 influence that Rigdon was called. He had almost sup- 
 planted his faithful pastor at Peter's Creek by his for- 
 wardness and ambition. Elder Phillips said, "As long as 
 Rigdon lives he will be a curse to the church of Christ." 
 Rev. Samuel Williams was a successor to Rigdon in the 
 Pittsburgh pastorate. From a sermon of Williams' on 
 Mormonism, I quote : "There was so much of the miracu- 
 lous about Rigdon's conversion at Library, and so much 
 parade about his profession, that the pious and discerning 
 pastor entertained serious doubts at the time, in regard to 
 the genuineness of the work." Rigdon afterward con- 
 fessed to a deacon of the Pittsburgh church that he "made 
 up his experience in order to get into the church." 
 
 He came to Pittsburgh direct from Warren, Ohio. The 
 church here had ninety-six members. In September, 
 1822, six months after his pastorate began, the First 
 Church entertained the old Redstone Association. Alex- 
 ander Campbell and his father, Thomas, were both pres- 
 ent, talking and preaching their new doctrines. Rigdon 
 was converted to their views and began preaching them. 
 A strong minority protested. A deacon, the clerk, and 
 thirteen other members were excluded for protesting 
 against the preaching of the pastor. They went to the 
 school room of Rev. John Winter, M.D., a regular Bap- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 309 
 
 list minister, and under his leadership maintained the 
 claim that they were the First Regular Baptist Church of 
 Pittsburgh. A carefully prepared paper was drawn up 
 by them, protesting against their exclusion and asserting 
 that the majority party were no longer Baptists. They 
 also asserted their moral, legal, and ecclesiastical right to 
 the church property. A mutual council was finally called. 
 It met October 11, 1823. The moderator was Elder Frey, 
 the clerk being Ephraim Estey. The verdict was in favor 
 of the excluded minority. Rigdon was found guilty of 
 "holding and teaching the doctrine of baptismal regenera- 
 tion and many other abominable heresies." He was there- 
 upon deposed from the ministry and excluded from the 
 church. 
 
 He and his sympathizers surrendered the property and 
 the Regular Baptists were once more "at home." The fol- 
 lowing were the things charged against him : 
 
 1. That he taught that Christians are not under obliga- 
 tion to keep the moral law, it having been abolished by our 
 Saviour. 
 
 2. That the Jewish dispensation was not the best one 
 that God might have given to them, for it had made them 
 three-fold more the children of hell than they were before. 
 
 3. That a change of heart consists merely in a change of 
 views and baptism. 
 
 4. That there is no such thing as religious experience. 
 
 5. That saving faith is a mere crediting of the testimony 
 given by the evangelists, such as all men have in the truth 
 of any history. 
 
 6. That it is wrong to use the Lord's prayer, inasmuch 
 as the reign of Christ has already commenced. 
 
 He was also said to emphasize the restoration of the 
 ancient order, especially as to the bringing of one's pos- 
 
3 io THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 sessions and laying them at the apostle's feet. He con- 
 demned the regular ministry for accepting salaries and 
 said "they milched the goats." Elder Williams said, 
 "While Rigdon denounced others for milching the goats, 
 he himself could without difficulty take them down, hide, 
 horns and all." 
 
 In 1824 he and his followers effected a union with an 
 independent congregation meeting in the Pittsburgh 
 Court House under the leadership of Walter Scott, and 
 practicing immersion. Within a few months after this 
 Rigdon went to the Western Reserve, Ohio. From this 
 time until his public connection with Joseph Smith, he 
 propagated the doctrines of Alexander Campbell and Wal- 
 ter Scott by preaching and circulating their books and 
 periodicals. In a number of instances he succeeded in 
 forming a party in churches where he was allowed to 
 preach, and by stratagem or force succeeded in securing 
 to said parties the church property. 
 
 In August, 1827, Campbell, Scott and Rigdon met again 
 at the Mahoning Baptist Association, in New Lisbon, 
 Ohio. Campbell was a member of the association, the 
 two others were visitors. By courtesy of the association 
 Rigdon preached a sermon on the evening of August 23. 
 The story of the appointment at said association of Walter 
 Scott as associational evangelist, his hesitation to accept 
 because he was not a Baptist, his final acceptance through 
 the influence of Campbell and Rigdon, his two years' 
 work in that capacity, and the disbanding of the associa- 
 tion at Austintown, in 1829, is interesting, but it is "an- 
 other story." Scott's biographer, Baxter, says : "The ac- 
 tion taken at Austintown may be regarded as the formal 
 separation from the Baptists. Those Baptists who had 
 embraced the new views, together with the new converts 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 3" 
 
 made, were called Campbellites, and by many Scottites ; 
 but after the dissolution of the association, which was 
 really brought about by the efforts of Scott, they were 
 called Disciples." 
 
 So much for the origin of the "Disciples." We turn 
 
 again to 
 
 SIDNEY R1GDON AND MORMONISM. 
 
 When Rigdon preached at the association in New Lis- 
 bon his home was in Kirtland, Ohio. Just thirty days 
 after that sermon Joseph Smith proclaimed his finding of 
 "The Golden Bible," better known as the Book of Mor- 
 mon, at the little village of Manchester, six miles from 
 Palmyra, N. Y. Rigdon soon went thither, professed im- 
 mediate ' conversion to the "find," and straightway 
 preached the first Mormon sermon. It was preached in 
 Palmyra and showed a remarkable amount of information 
 for a new convert. It was said that he seemed to know 
 more about it than Smith himself. Abundant reason for 
 this will soon be shown. Smith claimed to have been 
 directed by an angel to the burial place of a stone box in 
 which was a volume six inches thick and composed of thin 
 gold leaves, eight by seven inches, fastened together by 
 three gold rings. The writing on them was called "Re- 
 formed Egyptian." There was also a pair of "super- 
 natural spectacles," two crystals, that Smith called "Urim 
 and Thummim," set in a silver bow. When Smith 
 put these on he claimed to be able to translate the reformed 
 Egyptian language. I have heard my father-in-law, then 
 nineteen years old and still living, who knew Smith, say 
 that he was scarcely able to read or write plain English. 
 He characterizes him as a quick-witted, lazy, superstitious 
 fellow, who spent his time in digging for treasures and 
 locating springs for wells with a divining rod. He was 
 
3 i2 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 just the man for Rigdon to attempt to use as a tool, 
 although in the long run he proved too shrewd for his 
 former master. It probably will never be known why 
 Rigdon did not take first place in Mormonism. It is cer- 
 tain that Smith developed better qualities of leadership, 
 and it is probable that Rigdon never dared offend Smith 
 for fear of exposure as to their secret. 
 
 Neither Smith nor Rigdon had money to publish this 
 "Golden Bible." They succeeded in interesting a well-to- 
 do farmer named Martin Harris, who furnished the 
 means. Oliver Cowdery was employed as an amanuensis. 
 He wrote what Smith dictated to him from the farther 
 side of a concealing curtain. In 1830 the book was print- 
 ed, and with it a sworn statement by Cowdery, Harris and 
 a David Whitmer, that an angel of God had shown them 
 the plates of which the book purported to be a transla- 
 tion. Some years later these three men renounced Mor- 
 monism and declared said sworn statement false. I re- 
 cently opened the Book of Mormon that lay upon the 
 pulpit in the Mormon Tabernacle at Salt Lake City. Upon 
 its page was this sworn statement by these three men, but 
 their recantation was not there. The Mormons explain 
 the disappearance of the "golden leaves" by assuming that 
 an angel took them away. As a matter of fact, we have 
 only Joseph Smith's word for it, aside from the above 
 statement, that they ever existed. In spite of this a lead- 
 ing Mormon told me, as he and I stood by Brigham 
 Young's grave a few weeks ago, that they had two Bibles 
 of equal authority. One contained the Old and New 
 Testament, the other is the Book of Mormon. 
 
 SIDNEY RIGDON WAS JOSEPH SMITH'S ANGEL. 
 
 Now we return to Pittsburgh. In 1761, Solomon 
 Spaulding was born in Ashford, Conn., and was gradu- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 3*3 
 
 ated from Dartmouth College in 1785. Later in life he 
 lived in New'Salem and Conneaut, Ohio. There he wrote 
 a manuscript which he called "The Manuscript Found." 
 He read it to numerous of his relatives and friends. Its 
 leading characters bore such names as Mormon, Moroni, 
 Lamanite and Nephi. It divided the population of this 
 continent into two classes, the righteous and the idola- 
 trous, and told an imaginary story of the discovery of 
 their history as recorded on a manuscript that was cen- 
 turies ago concealed in the earth. It was full of wars 
 and rumors of wars and presented a record of the preach- 
 ing of Christianity in America during the first century 
 after Christ. Mr. Spaulding being a minister and familiar 
 with Bible history, made his romance correspond closely 
 to the biblical records as their sequel. In 1812 he moved 
 to Pittsburgh. Robert Patterson had a printing establish- 
 ment here ; his foreman was Silas Engles. Spaulding de- 
 sired Patterson to publish his work, but was unable to 
 guarantee the expenses if the book should prove a failure. 
 Patterson testified that he saw said manuscript and told 
 Engles to print it if Spaulding furnished security for ex-^ 
 penses He farther testified that Spaulding was unable to- 
 do so and that he supposed that Engles returned the 
 manuscript to its author. As a matter of fact, Spaulding 
 moved to Amity, Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 
 1814 and died there in 1816. Joseph Miller, of Amity, 
 was an intimate friend of Spaulding; he heard him read 
 much of his manuscript and testified (see Pittsburgh Tele- 
 graph in 1879) to Spaulding's telling him that while he 
 was writing a preface for the book the manuscript was 
 spirited away, that a Sidney Rigdon was suspected of tak- 
 ing it. Miller also said that when he read the Book of 
 Mormon he at once recognized Spaulding's story. Redick 
 
3 i4 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 McKee, of Washington County, bears the same testimony 
 and says that Rigdon was employed in Patterson's office. 
 Some of Rigdon's friends deny that he was employed 
 there, but Mrs. R. J. Eichbaum, who died in Pittsburg in 
 1882, was clerk in the Pittsburgh postoffice from 181 1 to 
 1816, her father being postmaster. She gave testimony to 
 the intimacy between Rigdon and Lamdin, their coming 
 to the office together, and Engles' telling her that "Rig- 
 don was always hanging about the printing office." It is 
 also a matter of fact that Lamdin became Patterson's 
 business partner in 1818. Spaulding's widow testified 
 that Rigdon was connected with the office in some way. 
 It seems evident that Rigdon was about the office, to say 
 the least. Six years later he returned to Pittsburgh as 
 the pastor of the Baptist church. Patterson had died in 
 1814; Lamdin died in 1825; Engles in 1827. Rigdon's 
 pastorate was while both were yet alive and he was inti- 
 mate with both. 
 
 Rev. John Winter, M. D., known to many in western 
 Pennsylvania, testified that he was in Rigdon's study in 
 Pittsburg in the winter of 1822-3, that Rigdon took from 
 his desk a large manuscript and said in substance : "A 
 Presbyterian minister, Mr. Spaulding, whose health 
 failed, brought this to the printer to see if it would pay 
 to publish it. It is a romance of the Bible." Rev. A. J. 
 Bonsall, now pastor of the Baptist church in Rochester, 
 Pa., tells me that Dr. Winter, who was his stepfather, 
 often referred to this incident, saying that the manuscript 
 purported to be a history of the American Indian, and 
 that Rigdon said he got it from the printers. Mrs. Mary 
 W. Irvine, of Sharon, Pa., Dr. Winter's daughter, says : 
 "I have frequently heard my father speak of Rigdon's 
 having Spaulding's manuscript, that he said he got it 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 315 
 
 from the printer to read as a curiosity. As such he showed 
 it to my father and then seemed to have no intention of 
 using it as he evidently afterward did. Father always 
 said that Rigdon helped Smith in his scheme by revising 
 and transforming this manuscript into the Mormon Bible." 
 
 As late as 1879 a Mrs. Amos Dunlap, of Warren, Ohio, 
 wrote of having visited the Rigdons when she was young 
 and of his taking a manuscript from his trunk and becom- 
 ing greatly absorbed in it. His wife threatened to burn it, 
 but he said, "No, indeed, you will not ; this will be a great 
 thing some day." 
 
 In 1820 the Widow Spaulding married Mr. Davidson, 
 of Hartwick, Otsego County, New York; in May, 1839, 
 the Boston Recorder published a statement from her made 
 to and recorded by Rev. D. R. Austin, of Monson, Mass., 
 to the effect that a Mormon preacher took a copy of the 
 Mormon Bible to New Salem, Ohio, where her husband 
 had lived and written much of his manuscript, and read 
 from it at a public meeting. She said that many of the 
 older people immediately recognized it as her husband's 
 romance and that his brother, John Spaulding, arose then 
 and there and protested against such a use of his late 
 brother's writings. Rigdon wrote to the Boston Recorder 
 an emphatic and coarse denial of this fact and said that he 
 had never heard of such a man as Spaulding. 
 
 The reader may judge, after what has been said, 
 whether he ever had. In August, 1880, Scribner's Month- 
 ly published some testimony from Solomon Spaulding's 
 daughter, Mrs. M. S. McKinstry, of Washington, D. C. 
 She certifies to the same facts and bears testimony to the 
 parallelism between the Book of Mormon and her father's 
 romance. Mrs. President Garfield's father, Mr. Z. Ru- 
 dolph, knew Rigdon well and says that "during the win- 
 
316 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ter previous to the appearance of the Mormon Bible Rig- 
 don spent weeks away from home, gone no one knew 
 where; when he returned he seemed very much pre- 
 occupied, talked in a dreamy, imaginative way, and puz- 
 zled his listeners. His joining the Mormons so quickly 
 made his neighbors sure that he was in the secret of the 
 authorship of the Book of Mormon." The book was 
 printed in the office of the Wayne Sentinel, Palmyra, N. 
 Y. The editor was Pomeroy Tucker. In 1867 he printed 
 a book, "Origin and Progress of Mormonism." In it he 
 says that during the summer of 1827 (the "Leaves of 
 Gold" were found in September, 1827) a stranger made 
 several mysterious visits at Smith's home. He was after- 
 ward recognized as Rigdon, who afterward preached the 
 first Mormon sermon in Palmyra. This statement is 
 corroborated by Mrs. Dr. Horace Eaton, who lived in 
 Palmyra for more than thirty years. 
 
 Not to weary patience, let me say that testimony has 
 been secured from many others. As early as 1835 Mr. E. 
 D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, printed the full testimony 
 of eight reliable witnesses, such persons as John Spauld- 
 ing and wife, Martha; Henry Lake, a former business 
 associate of Solomon Spaulding; Oliver Smith, Aaron 
 Wright, and Nahum Howard, all of Conneaut, Ohio, all 
 of whom certified that the Book of Mormon and Spauld- 
 ing's romance were in substance identical. Finally, Rig- 
 don's brother-in-law, Rev. Adam Bently, and Alexander 
 Campbell both testify ("The Millennial Harbinger/' 
 1844) that as much as two years before the Mormon 
 Bible made its appearance Rigdon told them that "such a 
 book was coming out, the manuscript of which had been 
 found engraved on gold plates." In spite of this Rigdon 
 claimed that he first heard of the Book of Mormon from 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 3*7 
 
 Parley P. Pratt in August, 1830. In the light of this evi- 
 dence, whence think ye came the Book of Mormon, and 
 what is its claim to divine authority? Was not Rigdon 
 Joseph Smith's angel? 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 THE TEMPLE SERVICE. 
 
 As I have said, no one is admitted to the Mormon Tem- 
 ple except a good Mormon. It is used only on special 
 occasions, such as initiations, marriages and baptisms. 
 The preaching services are all held in the Tabernacle, or 
 in the ward meeting houses. The following account of the 
 ceremonies which took place in the Endowment House, 
 before the Temple was built, is taken from "An English- 
 woman in Utah," by Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse. Mrs. 
 Stenhouse was a lady of much culture and refinement, 
 who was converted to Mormonism in England, married 
 a Mormon elder, and emigrated to Utah. Her husband 
 was quite prominent in Mormon circles for a time. But 
 after a while both he and she became disgusted with it, 
 and, showing too much independence of spirit, they were 
 excommunicated, along with W. S. Godbe, E. L. T. Har- 
 rison, and others. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stenhouse have 
 written very interesting books on the subject of Mor- 
 monism. I leave Mrs. Stenhouse to tell her own story : 
 
 "MYSTERIES OF THE ENDOWMENT HOUSE — FEARFUL OATHS 
 AND SECRET CEREMONIES. 
 
 "Not many weeks after our arrival in Salt Lake City 
 my husband told me that we might now enjoy the privilege 
 of going through the Endowment House. 
 
 "This was intended as a great favor to us, on the part 
 of the authorities, for most people have to wait a long 
 while before receiving their endowments; but my hus- 
 band's influence and position in the church was, I pre- 
 sume, the reason why we were admitted so soon. 
 
 318 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 3*9 
 
 "Now, I had heard so much of the endowments and the 
 Endowment House that I quite dreaded to pass through 
 this ordeal. The idea of the whole ceremony was, that 
 thereby we should receive the special grace of God; be 
 united, man and woman, making one perfect creature; 
 receive our inheritance as children of God ; and, in fact, 
 be made partakers of the plenitude of every blessing. 
 
 "I knew well that no marriage was considered binding 
 unless it had been celebrated in that place. I knew that 
 the Saints, however long they might have been wedded, 
 were under the necessity of being reunited there before 
 they could be considered lawfully married and their chil- 
 dren legitimate. According to the highest Mormon author- 
 ity, no marriage is valid unless the ceremony is performed 
 in the Temple. The Temple is not yet built, and as Joseph 
 the Prophet said : 'No fellow can be damned for doing 
 the best he knows how,' the Saints do 'the next best thing' 
 and are married in the Endowment House. I knew that 
 there and then the faithful were said to be 'endowed' with 
 their heavenly inheritance. I saw how absolutely needful 
 it was that my husband and myself should become par- 
 takers of those mysteries ; but I was influenced by the 
 strange stories which I had heard of unhallowed and 
 shameful doings in that same Endowment House, and 
 consequently I feared to enter in. 
 
 "My fears were not, however, altogether groundless or 
 visionary. It has been whispered— falsely, perhaps— that 
 in that Endowment House scenes have been enacted so 
 fearful that words would falter on the lips of those who 
 told the tale concerning them. I have heard of such 
 things from men of integrity and honor ; but they were 
 not eye-witnesses of what they related, and they could 
 not, or would not, give me their authorities. One thing 
 
3 2o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 I am certain of : if such horrible deeds were ever perpe- 
 trated within those walls, there remains no living witness 
 to testify of them. The lips of those who alone could tell 
 the whole truth are sealed in a silence which the trump of 
 doom alone shall break. 
 
 "It was, of course, no fear of any personal violence or 
 any painful disclosures in that respect, that made me re- 
 luctant to receive my endowments, for at this time I was 
 by profession apparently a good Mormon; if I had my 
 doubts and misgivings, I had them in common with nine- 
 tenths of the Mormon women, and had therefore nothing 
 to fear. The true cause of my reluctance was of a more 
 delicate and personal nature. I had been informed that, if 
 I refused to go, my husband could not go alone ; he would 
 be compelled to take another wife, and go with her. This 
 was not all. I found that it was quite common for the 
 elders to take a second wife when they took their first 
 endowments, and thus, as they coarsely expressed it, 'kill 
 two birds with one stone.' Moreover, I had heard of men 
 who feared to introduce polygamy into their households, 
 presenting to their wives, while going through the House, 
 a young girl as their intended bride, feeling sure that the 
 wife would not dare to make a scene before the 'Assembly. 
 How could I know that my husband also had not such an 
 idea in his mind ? True, I trusted him implicitly, and did 
 not believe it possible that he could deceive me. But had 
 not men who were universally known for their integrity 
 and honor acted in the same way to their wives ; and with 
 s\d many evidences of the best and most honest natures 
 being corrupted by the unrighteous teachings of their re- 
 ligion, could I be blamed for doubting him whom I loved 
 best? 
 
 "There was also another reason why I particularly ob- 
 jected to passing through the Endowment House. I had 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 321 
 
 been told many strange and revolting stories about the 
 ceremonies which were there performed, for it was said 
 that in the Nauvoo Temple the most disgraceful things 
 were done. About what was done at Nauvoo I can say 
 nothing, as it was before my time, but still it is only fair 
 to say that people who, in every other relation in life, 1 
 should have deemed most reliable and trustworthy, were 
 my informants respecting those strange stories. Of the 
 endowments in Utah I can, of course, speak more posi- 
 tively, as I myself passed through them; and I wish to 
 say most distinctly that, although the initiation of the 
 Saints into 'The Kingdom' appears now to my mind as 
 a piece of the most ridiculous absurdity, there was never- 
 theless, nothing in it indecent or immoral-of which the 
 reader himself shall presently be the judge. 
 
 "It is an invariable rule among the Mormons, as I have 
 before intimated, for every man or woman to mind his or 
 her own business, and nothing else. Thus it was that until 
 I myself went through the endowments, I was totally 
 ignorant of what they were; although, of course many 
 people with whom I had daily intercourse could easily 
 have enlightened me if they had been thus minded. Be- 
 sides this, every Mormon's mouth was closed by the oath 
 of that same Endowment Hduse— the penalty of winch 
 was death, a penalty which, no one doubted, would be 
 sternly enforced. Thus, totally in the dark, and remem- 
 bering only the strange stories told about 'washings and 
 'anointings' and an imitation of the Garden of Eden, 
 with Adam and Eve clothed in their own innocence alone, 
 it can be no wonder that any modest woman should wish 
 to evade all participation in such scenes. 
 
 "I spoke to my husband about it, and he tried to reas- 
 sure me, but what he said had rather a contrary effect. 
 
322 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "Before we left England, when speaking of these cere- 
 monies, my husband told me that they were simply a 
 privilege and a matter of choice. But what a choice ! I 
 might go or refuse to go ; but, if I refused, he must — if he 
 went through at all — take another wife in my place, and, 
 as I knew, there would be no difficulty in finding one. I 
 should in consequence be known as a rebellious woman ; 
 annoyance and indignity would be heaped upon me ; while 
 within my own home I should be compelled to occupy the 
 position of second wife — as the one who is married first in 
 the Endowment House is considered the first wife, and 
 has the control of everything. 
 
 "My husband told me that now he was most anxious to 
 go; he had already been notified three times that such was 
 his privilege, and there were, he said, good reasons why 
 we ought gladly to accept the opportunity. It was an 
 honor, he said, for which many people had waited for 
 years. 
 
 "My husband reminded me that we had been married by 
 a Gentile, and while living among Gentiles, and that, as I 
 said before, our marriage was not valid, and our children 
 were not legitimate. Only those children of ours who 
 were born after the ceremony in the Endowment House 
 would be legitimate; the others were outcasts from the 
 'Kingdom'' unless we adopted them after our initiation, 
 and thus made them heirs. In any case, poor children, 
 they could never be considered the real heirs ; they could 
 only be 'heirs by adoption/ 
 
 "So I agreed to go, trying to persuade myself that it 
 was a sacred duty ; for, although my faith in Mormonism 
 had been roughly shaken, I still believed that its origin 
 was divine. 
 
 "The Temple robe, which is a long, loose, flowing gar- 
 ment, made of white linen or bleached muslin, and reach- 
 
STATUE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG, WITH MORMON TEMPLE 
 IN BACKGROUND. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 323 
 
 ing to the ankle, had been placed upon us just before we 
 took the oaths. It was gathered to a band about twelve 
 inches long, which rested on the right shoulder, passed 
 across the breast, and came together under the left arm, 
 and was then fastened by a linen belt. This leaves the 
 left arm entirely free. The veil consists of a large square 
 of Swiss muslin, gathered in one corner so as to form a 
 sort of cap to fit the head ; the remainder falls down as a 
 veil. The men wear the same kind of undergarment as the 
 women, and their robes are the same, but their head-dress 
 is a round piece of linen drawn up with a string and a bow 
 in front, something after the fashion of a Scotch cap. All 
 good Mormons, after they have received their first endow- 
 ments, get whole suits of Temple robes made on purpose 
 for them, so they may be ready for use at any time when 
 they are needed. All marriages in the Endowment House 
 are performed in these robes, and in them all Saints who 
 have received their endowments are buried. Besides our 
 robes we were instructed to take with us a bottle of the 
 best olive oil. 
 
 "At seven o'clock in the morning of the day appointed, 
 we presented ourselves at the door of the Endowment 
 House, and were admitted by Brother Lyon, the Mormon 
 poet. Everything within was neat and clean and a 
 solemn silence pervaded the whole place. The only 
 sound that could be heard was the splashing of water, but 
 whence the sound proceeded we could not see. In spite 
 of myself, a feeling of dread and uncertainty respecting 
 what I had to go through would steal over my mind, and 
 I earnestly wished that the day was over. 
 
 "We waited patiently for a little while, and presently a 
 man entered and seated himself at a table placed there for 
 that purpose, upon which was a large book. He opened 
 
324 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the book, and then calling each person in turn, he took 
 their names and ages, and the names of their fathers and 
 mothers, and carefully entered each particular in the book. 
 Our bottles of oil were then taken from us, and we were 
 supposed to be ready for the ceremony. 
 
 "First we were told to take off our shoes, and leave 
 them in the anteroom, and then to take up our bundles 
 and pass into another room beyond. This was a large 
 bathroom, which was divided down the middle by a cur- 
 tain of heavy material placed there for the purpose of 
 separating the men from the women. Here my husband 
 left me — he going to the men's and I to the women's 
 division. In the bathroom were two or three large bath- 
 ing tubs supplied by streams of hot and cold water. We 
 were as much concealed from the men as if we had been in 
 an entirely separate room, and everything was very quiet 
 and orderly. 
 
 "Miss Eliza R. Snow, the poetess, and a Mrs. Whitney, 
 were the officiating attendants on that occasion. The 
 former conducted me to one of the bathing tubs, and 
 placing me in it, she proceeded to wash me from the 
 crown of my head to the soles of my feet. As she did this 
 she repeated various formulas to the effect that I was 
 now washed clean from the blood of this generation and 
 should never, if I remained faithful, be partaker in the 
 plagues and miseries which were about to come upon the 
 earth. When I had thus been washed clean, she wiped 
 me dry, and then taking a large horn filled with the olive 
 oil which we had brought, she anointed me. The oil was 
 poured from the horn by Mrs. Whitney, into the hand of 
 Eliza Snow, who then applied it to me. The horn was 
 said to be the horn of plenty, which, like the widow's 
 cruse of oil, would never fail as long as the ordinance 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 325 
 
 should continue to be administered. In addition to the 
 crown of my head, my eyes, ears, and mouth were also 
 anointed ; my eyes that they might be quick to see, my ears 
 that they might be apt at hearing, and my mouth that I 
 might with wisdom speak the words of eternal life. She 
 also anointed my feet, that they might be swift to run in 
 the ways of the Lord. I was then given a certain garment 
 to put on. 
 
 "Now, this garment is one peculiar to the Mormon 
 people. It is made so as to envelop the whole body, and 
 it is worn night and day. I was told that after having 
 once put it on, I must never wholly take it of! before put- 
 ting on another, but that I should change one-half at a 
 time, and that if I did so I should be protected from dis- 
 ease, and even from death itself; for the bullet of an 
 enemy would not penetrate that garment, and that from 
 it even the dagger's point should be turned aside. It has 
 been said that the Prophet Joseph carelessly left oft* this 
 peculiar garment on the day of his death, and that, had 
 he not done so, the rifles of his assassins would have been 
 harmless against him. 
 
 "When thus arrayed, I proceeded to put on a white 
 nightdress and skirt, stockings, and white linen shoes. A 
 new name was then whispered into my ear, which I was 
 told I must never mention to any living soul except my 
 husband in the Endowment House. This name was taken 
 from the Bible, and I was given to understand that it 
 would be the name whereby I should be admitted into the 
 celestial kingdom. This was, of course, very gratifying. 
 A circumstance, however, occurred which took from me 
 all the pride which might have been mine in the possession 
 of a new name. There was among our number a deaf 
 woman ; Mrs. Whitney had to tell her her name once or 
 
326 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 twice over, loud enough for me to hear, and thus I found 
 that her new name, as well as mine, was Sarah. To make 
 the matter worse, another sister whispered, "Why, that is 
 my name, too." This entirely dispelled any enthusiasm 
 which otherwise I might have felt. I could well under- 
 stand that I might yet become a Sarah in Israel, but if we 
 all were Sarahs, there would not be much distinction or 
 honor in being called by that name. As a matter of 
 course, I supposed that the men would all become Abra- 
 hams. 
 
 "Our washing and anointing being now over, we were 
 ready for the initiation — there were about fifteen couples 
 in all. 
 
 "A voice from behind the curtain asked Miss Snow if 
 we were ready, and was answered in the affirmative. We 
 were then arranged in a row, the curtain was drawn 
 aside, and we stood face to face with the men, who had, 
 of course, on their side of the curtain been put through 
 the same ordeal. I felt dreadfully nervous, for 1 did not 
 know what was coming next, and I could not quite dis- 
 miss from my mind the stories that I had heard about 
 these mysteries. But in spite of my nervousness, curiosity 
 was strong in me at that moment, as it was, I suppose, 
 in the others ; for as soon as the curtain was drawn aside 
 we all cast our eyes in the direction of the men. They, 
 as might be expected, were looking in our direction, and 
 when I beheld them I must say that my sympathies were 
 drawn out towards the poor creatures. However little 
 vanity or personal pride they possessed, they must have 
 felt it unpleasant to have to appear in the presence of 
 ladies in such a dress — or rather Mwdress; and notwith- 
 standing the solemn meaning of the ceremony, there was 
 just the ghost of a smile upon our faces as we looked at 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 327 
 
 each other and dropped our eyes again. To anyone who 
 did not feel as we did the religious nature of the initia- 
 tion, the scene must have appeared perfectly ludicrous. 
 In fact, some of us felt it so. One sister, just as the cur- 
 tain was drawn up and we came in full view of our lords, 
 cried out, "Oh dear, oh dear, where shall I go? What 
 shall I do?" This, as may be supposed, caused a laugh, 
 which was, of course, immediately suppressed. 
 
 "We could see how the men looked, but of our own 
 appearance we could not so easily judge. Certainly we 
 must have looked anything but handsome in our white 
 garments, and with the oil trickling down our faces and 
 into our eyes, making them smart and look red. There 
 was nothing, however, for us to do but to submit quietly 
 and make the best of it we could. Ashamed as I was, I 
 thought I might venture to look at my husband; there 
 could be no harm in that; but when I saw his demure- 
 looking countenance and his efforts to keep his clothing 
 in order, I thought I should be compelled to laugh out- 
 right, for I could see that his thoughts were more occu- 
 pied about his personal appearance than with the solemn- 
 ity of the occasion. The men were all dressed in the same 
 kind of garments as the women — drawers and shirt all in 
 one, very much like those which are used for children to 
 sleep in, and over that an ordinary white shirt, such as 
 men always wear ; that, with socks and white linen shoes, 
 completed their toilet. 
 
 "Clad after this interesting fashion, we sat opposite 
 to each other for several minutes, and then my husband 
 and myself were instructed to come forward and kneel at 
 the altar while all the rest remained standing. It is the 
 custom thus to select two persons, and we were either 
 picked out by chance, or it might be, as my husband was 
 
328 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 thought a good deal of by the authorities, that they con- 
 sidered he would feel honored by the preference. 
 
 "Suddenly a voice was heard speaking to someone, who 
 also replied. This voice from the unseen was supposed to 
 be the voice of Elohim in conversation with Jehovah, and 
 the words that were used were much the same as those 
 contained in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, de- 
 scribing the creation of the world. Finally, Jehovah and 
 Elohim declare their intention to come down and visit 
 the earth. This they do, and pronounce all that they be- 
 hold very good; but they declare that it is necessary that 
 one of a higher order of intelligence than the brute crea- 
 tion should be placed in the world to govern and control 
 all else. 
 
 "Michael the Archangel is now called, and he is placed 
 upon the earth under the name of Adam, and power is 
 given him over all the beasts of the field, the fowls of the 
 air, and the fishes of the sea. Moreover, the fruits of the 
 earth are all given to him for his sustenance and pleasure ; 
 but he is strictly charged, as in Bible story, not to eat of 
 one particular tree which stands in the midst of the gar- 
 den. This tree is represented by a small real evergreen, 
 and a few bunches of dried raisins are hung upon it as 
 fruit. 
 
 "It is now discovered that it is not good for man to be 
 alone ; Elohim and Jehovah, therefore, hold another con- 
 versation upon that subject, and they finally determine to 
 give a companion to Adam. They therefore cause a deep 
 sleep to fall upon Michael— or Adam as he is now called— 
 and they prepare to operate upon him. Here we are all 
 instructed to assume the attitude of deep sleep by drop- 
 ping our heads upon our breasts. Elohim and Jehovah 
 then come down and go through the motions of removing 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 3*9 
 
 a rib from the side of the sleeper, which said rib appears 
 immediately upon the scene in the person of Eliza R. 
 Snow. Elohim and Jehovah are generally represented by 
 two of the Twelve Apostles. When Brigham is present 
 he plays a prominent part. 
 
 "And now the devil makes his appearance in the person 
 of W. W. Phelps. Phelps used always to personate the 
 devil in the endowments, and the role suited him ad- 
 mirably. He is dead now, but whether it has made any 
 difference in his status I cannot tell. Nor do I know who 
 has succeeded him in his office. The devil wears a 
 very tight-fitting suit of black muslin, with knee breeches 
 and black stockings and slippers. This dress had all the 
 appearance of a theatrical costume, and the man looked as 
 much like what one might imagine the devil would look as 
 he possibly could. He began by trying to scrape ac- 
 quaintance with Eve, whom he meets while taking a walk 
 in the garden. The innocent, unsuspecting woman is 
 fascinated by his attentions. Father Adam— who seems 
 to have had a touch of the Mormon about him— perhaps 
 was not the most attentive of husbands ; or he may have 
 made the same mistake as that which so many of his sons 
 have since made— neglecting to pay the same attentions 
 after marriage as he was wont to before — and left his 
 young wife to the mercy of the tempter. However that 
 may be, Satan and Eve are soon discovered in conversa- 
 tion together, and Eve appears to be particularly pleased 
 with Satan. At length he offers her some of the fruit of 
 the forbidden tree, and after some little demur she accepts 
 it and eats thereof. 
 
 "Then the devil leaves her, Adam makes his appearance, 
 and Eve persuades him also to eat of the fruit of the tree. 
 After this they make a dumb show of perceiving their con- 
 
330 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 dition, and an apron of white linen is produced, on which 
 are sewn pieces of green silk, in imitation of fig leaves, 
 and in these they both attire themselves. 
 
 'Then all the brethren and sisters produce similar 
 aprons which they had brought with them on purpose, and 
 these they put on, as Adam and Eve had already done. 
 Elohim now appeared again, and called Adam ; but Adam 
 was afraid, and hid himself in the garden with Eve. The 
 curse was now pronounced upon the serpent — the devil — 
 who reappears upon his hands and knees, making a hiss- 
 ing noise as one might suppose a serpent would do. We 
 were then all driven out of the Garden of Eden into an- 
 other room, which represented the world — and this ended 
 the 'First Degree.' 
 
 "We were now supposed to be out in the world, earning 
 our daily bread by the sweat of our brows, and we were 
 informed that although we had been driven out from the 
 presence of the Lord, yet a plan of salvation would be 
 devised for us, by which we should be enabled to return 
 to our first estate. We are to wait patiently until this 
 plan should be disclosed to us. 
 
 "There was here such a mixture of persons and events 
 that I could not exactly follow the idea that was intended 
 to be conveyed — if there was any idea at all. Men repre- 
 senting the ancient prophets entered, and gave instruc- 
 tions to the people to prepare themselves for the first com- 
 ing of our Savior upon earth. Then we were taught cer- 
 tain passwords and grips ; and then we were all arranged 
 in a circle. The women covered their faces with their 
 veils, and we all kneeled down, and, with our right hands 
 uplifted towards heaven, we took the solemn oath of obe- 
 dience and secrecy. (I myself made a movement with my 
 hand— for I believed that my life was at stake, and I dared 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 33* 
 
 not do otherwise. The words of the oath I did not utter. 
 See explanation at the end of this chapter.) We swore 
 that by every means in our power we would seek to 
 avenge the death of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, upon the 
 Gentiles who had caused his murder, and that we would 
 teach our children to do so ; we swore, that without mur- 
 mur or questioning, we would implicitly obey the com • 
 mands of the priesthood in everything; we swore that we 
 would not commit adultery— which, with reference to the 
 men, was explained to mean the taking of wives without 
 the permission of the holy priesthood ; and we swore that 
 we would never, under any circumstances, reveal that 
 which transpired in the Endowment House. 
 
 "The penalty for breaking this oath, which was worded 
 in the most startling and impressive way, was then ex- 
 plained to us. His bowels were— while he was yet liv- 
 ing—to be torn from him, his throat was to be cut from 
 ear to ear, and his heart and tongue were to be cut out. 
 In the world to come, everlasting damnation would be his 
 
 portion. 
 
 "Let not the reader think that this was merely an 
 imaginary penalty, or that it was expressed merely for 
 the purpose of frightening the weak-minded ; for, as will 
 be shown, punishments quite as horrible as that have been 
 deliberately meted out to the Apostate, the Gentile, and 
 the suspected Saint, by the Mormon Priesthood. The 
 innocent blood which cries for vengeance against Brig- 
 ham Young and some of the leaders of the church is suffi- 
 cient to weigh the purest spirit which stands before the 
 throne of God down to the nethermost abysses of hell. 
 
 "After these fearful oaths had been taken with due 
 solemnity, we were instructed in the various signs repre- 
 senting those dreadful penalties ; and we were also given a 
 'grip' peculiar to this degree. 
 
332 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 "We were next entertained by a long address from the 
 Apostle Heber C. Kimball. Never in my life— except from 
 Brigham Young — have I listened to such disgusting lan- 
 guage, and I trust I never shall be compelled to listen to 
 anything like it again. Brother Kimball always used to 
 pride himself upon using 'plain' language, but that day I 
 think he surpassed himself; he seemed to take quite a 
 pleasure in saying anything which could make us blush. 
 The subject of which he discoursed was the married life in 
 the 'Celestial Order'; he also laid great stress upon the 
 necessity of our keeping silence concerning all that we 
 had witnessed in the Endowment House — even husbands 
 to their wives, and wives to their husbands, were not to 
 utter a single word. With the sermon ended our 'Second 
 Degree.' 
 
 "We were now taken to another room for the purpose 
 of passing through the 'Third Degree' of the Order of the 
 Melchisedec Priesthood. When all were arranged on one 
 side against the wall, a number of individuals entered 
 who were supposed to represent the ministers of every 
 denomination and religion upon the face of the earth. The 
 devil also makes his appearance again. The ministers set 
 forth the various claims of their respective creeds — each 
 one striving to show that his is the purest and the best — 
 but the devil sows division and hatred among them, and a 
 good deal of confusion ensues. 
 
 "Then came in personages representing Peter, James, 
 and John, the Apostles ; and they commanded ministers, 
 devil and all to depart. They then appeared to organize 
 a new church, in which the true principles of the Gospel 
 were to be taught ; our Temple robes were also all changed 
 from the right shoulder to the left, indicating that we 
 were now in the true church, and that we were to be 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 333 
 
 absolutely and in every way dependent upon the priest- 
 hood. Another grip was then given to us, and thus we 
 received the third degree of the Order of Melchisedec 
 Priesthood. In that room was a division made of bleached 
 muslin ; in the division a door, and in the door a hole, with 
 a lap of muslin over it, through which to pass the hand. 
 Whoever was on the other side could see us, but we could 
 not see them. The men first approached this door. A 
 person representing the Apostle Peter appeared at the 
 opening and demanded who was there. He was told that 
 someone desired to enter. Hands came through the open- 
 ing in the muslin curtain, and mysterious fingers cut a 
 mark on the left breast of the men's shirts— one mark also 
 over the abdomen, and one over the right knee — which 
 marks the women religiously imitated upon their own gar- 
 ments when they got home. The applicant was then told 
 to put his hand through the opening, and give the last 
 grip belonging to the 'Third Degree/ and mention his 
 new name. He was then permitted to enter. This wa? 
 called 'going behind the veil.' When the men were all 
 admitted, the women were suffered to approach, and were 
 passed through by their own husbands. When a woman 
 has no husband she is passed through by one of the 
 brethren, and to those who are not going to be married 
 or sealed for eternity here the ceremonies end. 
 
 "Now, as I before stated, according to Mormon ideas 
 we had never before been legally married. It was there- 
 fore necessary that we should now pass through that 
 ceremony. We accordingly were conducted to a desk, 
 where our names were entered, and we were then passed 
 into another room. In that room was a long, low altar, 
 covered with red velvet, and an armchair placed at one 
 end of it, in which sat Brigham Young. My husband 
 
334 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 knelt at one side of the altar and I at the other, with our 
 hands clasped above it in the last grip which had been 
 given to us. Then the ordinary formula of marriage was 
 gone through with, and we were informed that we were 
 sealed for time and eternity. 
 
 "Thus we passed through the mysteries of the Endow- 
 ment House, and at three o'clock in the afternoon we 
 found ourselves at liberty to return home. The various 
 ceremonies had occupied eight hours. 
 
 "When we reached home, my husband said/Well, what 
 do you think of the endowments ?' But I did not dare to 
 answer him truthfully at that time. Had I done so, I 
 should have told him that I was ashamed and disgusted. 
 Never in all my life did I suffer such humiliation as I did 
 that day ; for the whole time I was under the impression 
 that those who officiated looked upon us as a set of silly 
 dupes, and I felt annoyed to think that I dared not tell 
 them so. So I told my husband that I would rather not 
 speak about it, and we never have spoken of it to this day. 
 What were his own feelings about the matter I do not 
 know, for Mormon wives are taught never to pry into 
 their husband's feelings or meddle with their actions. 
 But notwithstanding all my feelings in reference to the 
 endowments, so foolish was I that when I afterwards 
 heard the brethren and sisters talking about the hap- 
 piness which they had experienced while going through, 
 and saying how privileged we ought to feel at being in 
 Zion among the Saints of God, secure in His Kingdom 
 where we could bring up our children in the fear of the 
 Lord, I began again to think that the fault was all in 
 myself, and that it was I who was wrong and not the 
 endowments. I wondered how, with such a rebellious 
 heart, I should ever get salvation, and I mourned to think 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 335 
 
 that I had not accepted everything with the simplicity of a 
 
 child. 
 
 "Some time after our initiation I met the Apostle 
 Heber C. Kimball, and he asked me how I felt upon the 
 occasion. I frankly told him all, but added that I re- 
 gretted feeling so. He said, 'I shall see if you cannot go 
 through again; it is not just the thing, and I shall try and 
 make the opportunity.' Nothing more, however, was said 
 about it. But that which troubled me most was the fact 
 that while the oaths were being administered, I dropped 
 my hand and inwardly vowed that I would never sub- 
 scribe to such things, and at the same time my heart was 
 filled with bitter opposition. This, although I did it in- 
 voluntarily—my better nature rising within me, and over- 
 coming my superstition— I thought at the time was sinful. 
 I now, however, rejoice that such was the case; for not 
 having actually vowed to keep secret those abominable 
 oaths, I can say, without any cavil or equivocation, that I 
 have broken no promise and betrayed no trust by the rev- 
 elations which I have just made." 
 
 To the above account I may only add that these cere- 
 monies now take place in the Temple, and I was told by an 
 ex-Mormon in Salt Lake City that they are practically the 
 same as those related by Mrs. Stenhouse, except that they 
 are, perhaps, still more coarse and vulgar. 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 SOME EXPERIENCES OF A MORMON WOMAN. 
 
 Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse thus tells her experience when 
 her husband, under the counsel of the Mormon leaders, 
 decided to take another wife, so as to "build up the king- 
 dom": 
 
 "The dreaded day at length arrived, the day which for 
 so long, and with such painful forebodings, I had antici- 
 pated. I had spent a very wakeful and unhappy night, 
 and felt very sick and nervous, for I was about to become 
 a mother, and my health was anything but strong. I 
 hardly felt as if I should have courage to go through that 
 day. I was, however, compelled to nerve myself to the 
 task, and I began to make my preparations for going to 
 the Endowment House. 
 
 "Ever since I had first embraced Mormonism I had 
 been entirely cut off from Gentile society, although living 
 in the Gentile world. Abroad, and also when in New 
 York, the cares of a family kept me very much at home, 
 and the continual state of apprehension in which I was 
 rendered me averse to visiting among friends. Thus it 
 was that I never conversed freely with anyone who could 
 have informed me truthfully of the origin of Mormonism, 
 and consequently I brooded over my religion as a melan- 
 choly fact; but, though with moments of weakness and 
 wavering, I never thoroughly doubted its divine origin. 
 The terrible sacrifice which was about to be required of 
 me might, I thought, be painful to make, but it was no 
 less the will of God. I must submit, whatever the effort 
 might cost me. 
 
 33<> 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 337 
 
 "The morning was bright and lovely — a morning cal- 
 culated to inspire happy hopes and pleasant feelings ; but 
 to me it brought nothing but fear and trembling. Even 
 the innocent prattle of my children annoyed me, and 
 they, not knowing how deeply I was suffering, looked 
 at me with wonder in their eyes. Oh, I thought, surely 
 my husband will at length comprehend the greatness of 
 the love I bear him? Surely he will now appreciate 
 the sacrifice I make for his sake and for my religion? 
 Even now, if I did not know that he believes this doctrine 
 to be true, and he would feel condemned if, through any 
 opposition of mine, he were not allowed to practice it, I 
 would at the last moment dash this bitter cup from 
 my lips and take my chance of the consequences in a fu- 
 ture state ! 
 
 "Utterly cast down and broken-hearted, I felt almost as 
 if the Lord Himself had forsaken me, and there was no 
 one to whom I could look for aid. I could not go to my 
 husband in that hour for sympathy ; for I well knew that 
 his thoughts must be with his intended bride, and that my 
 sorrows would only trouble him at a time when he must 
 desire to be at peace. Besides which, I was too proud to 
 plead for love at a shrine that I felt should rightfully be 
 all my own. And then, too, I knew not but what he might 
 tell her of my feelings ; and it would be too great a humili- 
 ation for me should she think me jealous of the position 
 which she now occupied, and her influence over my hus- 
 band. 
 
 "With such feelings I went to the Endowment House. 
 There at the altar I was to give proof of my obedience 
 and of my faith in my religion, by placing the hand of 
 the new wife in that of my husband. The thought was 
 almost madness. To have followed my husband to the 
 
338 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 grave would bave been a terrible blow to me, but to live 
 to see him the husband of another woman was something 
 that seemed to me beyond endurance. Notwithstanding 
 every effort of faith, doubts would arise, and in bitterest 
 anguish I thought — this is more like the work of cruel 
 man than of God. Why should man have this power over 
 woman, and she so helpless? Surely a just and impartial 
 God can have nothing to do with this ! There was a dark- 
 ness before my eys, and, struggle as I might, I could see 
 no ray of light, no glimmering of hope. 
 
 "Brigham Young performed the ceremony. He sat 
 at the end of the altar and we three knelt down — my hus- 
 band on one side, and Miss Pratt and myself on the 
 other. Speaking to me, Brigham Young asked: 'Are 
 you willing to give this woman to your husband to be his 
 lawful wife for time and for all eternity? If you are, 
 you will signify it by placing her right hand within the 
 right hand of your husband.' 
 
 "I did so, but what words can describe my feelings? 
 The anguish of a whole lifetime was crowded into that 
 one single moment. The painful meaning of those words, 
 'for all eternity,' withered my soul, and the unending con- 
 tract which my husband had made with another woman 
 was practically a divorce from me. I had now laid every- 
 thing upon the altar of sacrifice, for I had given away my 
 husband. What more could the Lord require of me that 
 I was not prepared to do ? 
 
 "I was bewildered and almost beside myself, and yet I 
 had to hide my feelings. Hope was forever banished 
 from my life. To whom could I look for sympathy 
 among those who were around me ? They were most of 
 them men who had ruthlessly wrecked the lives and lacer- 
 ated the hearts of hundreds of women before my turn 
 came, and the sight of an unhappy wife was so common 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 339 
 
 in their experience that it was more likely to awaken their 
 anger than their pity. I felt this instinctively, and I re- 
 solved that they should never know how much my poor 
 heart was torn. My husband, it is true, was there. My 
 husband! Was he not now the husband of another 
 woman, and therefore no longer belonging to me? I 
 knew that I never could overcome my early teaching suffi- 
 ciently to feel that this was right, though such was my 
 wretched fanaticism that I mentally and verbally assented 
 to it. I felt that now I stood alone — our union was sev- 
 ered; there could never be any copartnership between 
 that other wife and myself — no, never ! Salvation or no 
 salvation, it was impossible that I could ever love her. 
 From that day I began to hide all my sorrows from my 
 husband, and it was but very seldom that I uttered a 
 word of discontent, and when I expressed what I felt, it 
 was in anger ; but never in sorrow seeking sympathy. 
 
 "I remembered when we returned home — that home 
 which had now lost its charm, for the young wife was to 
 live there — my husband said to me : 'You have been very 
 brave, but it is not so hard to bear, after all, is it ?' I had 
 hidden my feelings so well that he really thought that I 
 was indifferent. But during the remainder of the day, 
 how I watched their looks and noticed every word! To 
 me their tender tones were daggers, piercing my heart and 
 filling me with a desire, to revenge myself upon the father 
 of my children. Oh, what fanatics we Mormon women 
 have been ever to have believed for a single moment that 
 a just and loving Father and God would have given a 
 command that in almost every instance has produced such 
 fearful results upon those who should have been happy 
 wives and mothers, and consequently upon their children ! 
 Indeed, even then it made me feel that there was no 
 
340 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 justice in heaven, if this love which is the best part of 
 woman's nature — this love that we had always believed 
 was a part of divinity itself — this principle, without which 
 there would be nothing worth living for — if this was to 
 be our greatest curse, and the woman who showed herself 
 most actuated by this gentle influence was to be the great- 
 est victim. 
 
 "I felt that day that if I could not get away by 
 myself alone and give expression to my overcharged feel- 
 ings, I should certainly lose my reason. I was utterly 
 miserable. It was only in the dead of night, in my own 
 chamber, that I gave way to the terrible anguish that was 
 consuming me. God and my own soul can alone bear 
 witness to what I suffered in that time of woe. That 
 night was to me such as even the most God-forsaken 
 might pray never to know ; and morning dawned without 
 my having for a moment closed my eyes." 
 
 In illustration of how Mormon women regard polygamy 
 Mrs. Stenhouse presents this picture : 
 
 "Let me ask the good brethren who read this to act for 
 once impartially, and try to put themselves in a woman's 
 place ; and let me for their benefit draw a little picture for 
 them to contemplate. 
 
 "It is evening, and the family are all assembled in their 
 pleasant home — a home made happy by the kind and 
 thoughtful care of a loving father. Peace and tranquillity 
 dwell in every heart, and the father is happy in being 
 surrounded by his children, to whom he is fondly attached. 
 He listens to the prattle of the little ones, or the music 
 and songs of the elder children ; and for a time he is for- 
 getful of everything save the happiness of the hour. 
 
 "Suddenly his wife, the mother of his children, whom 
 he dearly loves, rises from her seat beside the fire and 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 341 
 
 retires to her own apartment. There she arranges her 
 toilet with irreproachable care, sees that every straying 
 curl is in its place, and gives every touch to her appear- 
 ance which she thinks is likely to render her attractive 
 in the eyes of a man. She now descend: the stairs, ready 
 to leave the home of this, her first husband, for she is 
 going to see her second husband, or some young man to 
 whom she has taken a fancy, and who she thinks would 
 be suitable for a third. She kisses her children good-bye, 
 and is about to take an affectionate farewell of their 
 father, when she suddenly discovers that he is not looking 
 happy. 'What is the matter now ?' she says ; 'is not your 
 home a pleasant one? Have I not taken pains to train 
 your children in a proper manner, and have I not remained 
 an hour longer than usual with you ? What folly it is for 
 you to be moping in this way ! This is not the way to live 
 our religion, if we expect to get the blessing of God. You 
 know very well it is very painful for me to leave you and 
 my children; but we must be obedient to the commands 
 of God, and I owe attentions to my other husband as well 
 as to you!' 
 
 "Can any man be supposed who would for a moment 
 endure such an outrage upon decency and common sense, 
 such a violation of all that is sacred in the human heart ? 
 And yet this is only reversing the case ; and just as any 
 Mormon man can suppose he would feel, if the wife he 
 loved were to act in the way I have described, so do 
 Mormon wives feel, only as much more acutely, as women 
 are more sensitive in their affections than men." 
 
APPENDIX E. 
 
 MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE— COM- 
 PLETE CONFESSION OF MAJOR 
 JOHN D. LEE. 
 
 In the month of September, 1857, the company of 
 emigrants, known as the "Arkansas Company," arrived 
 at Parowan, Iron county, Utah, on their way to California. 
 At Parowan young Aden, one of the company, saw and 
 recognized one William Laney, a Mormon resident of 
 Parowan. Aden and his father had rescued Laney from 
 an anti-Mormon mob in Tennessee several years before, 
 and saved his life. He (Laney) at the time he was 
 attacked by the mob was a Mormon missionary in Tennes- 
 see. Laney was glad to see his friend and benefactor, 
 and invited him to his house and gave him some "garden 
 sauce" to take back to the camp with him. The same 
 evening it was reported to Bishop (Colonel) Dame that 
 Laney had given potatoes and onions to the man Aden, 
 one of the emigrants. When the report was made to 
 Bishop Dame he raised his hand and crooked his little 
 finger in a significant manner to one Barney Carter, his 
 brother-in-law, and one of the "Angels of Death." Carter, 
 without another word, walked out, went to Laney's house 
 with a long picket in his hand, called Laney out and 
 struck him a heavy blow on the head, fracturing his skull, 
 and left him on the ground for dead. C. Y. Webb and 
 Isaac Naoman, President of the "High Council," both 
 told me they saw Dame's manoeuvres. James McGufTee, 
 then a resident of Parowan, but through oppression has 
 
 34* 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 343 
 
 been forced to leave there and is now a merchant in 
 Pahranagat Valley, near Pioche, Nev., knows these facts. 
 About the last of August, 1857, some ten days before the 
 Mountain Meadows Massacre, the company of emigrants 
 passed through Cedar City. George A. Smith, then first 
 counselor in the church and Brigham Young's right-hand 
 man, came down from Salt Lake City, preaching to the 
 different settlements. I at that time was in Washington 
 county, near where St. George now stands. He sent for 
 me. I went to him and he asked me to take him to Cedar 
 City by way of Fort Clara and Pinto settlements, as he 
 was on business and must visit all the settlements. We 
 started on our way up through the canyon. We saw 
 herds of Indians, and he (George A. Smith) remarked 
 to me that these Indians, with the advantages they had 
 of the rocks, could use up a large company of emigrants, 
 or make it very hot for them. After pausing for a short 
 time he said to me, "Brother Lee, what do you think the 
 brethren would do if a company of emigrants should 
 come down through here making threats? Don't you 
 think they would pitch into them?" I replied that "they 
 certainly would." This seemed to please him, and he 
 again said to me, "And you really think the brethren 
 would pitch into them?" "I certainly do," was my reply, 
 "and you had better instruct Colonel Dame and Haight 
 to tend to it that the emigrants are permitted to pass, if 
 you want them to pass unmolested." He continued, "I 
 asked Isaac (meaning Haight) the same question, and he 
 answered me just as you do, and I expect the boys would 
 pitch into them." I again said to him that he had better 
 say to Gov. Young that if he wants emigrant companies to 
 pass without molestation that he must instruct Col. Dame 
 or Major Haight to that effect: for if they are not 
 
344 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ordered otherwise they will use them up by the help of the 
 Indians. He told the people at the Clara not to sell their 
 grain to the emigrants, nor to feed it to their animals, as 
 they might expect a big fight the next spring with the 
 United States. President Young did not intend to let 
 the troops into the territory. He said : "We are going 
 to stand up for our rights, and will no longer be imposed 
 upon by our enemies, and want every man to be on hand 
 with his gun in good order and his powder dry," and 
 instructed the people to part with nothing that would sus- 
 tain life. From the ist to the ioth of September, 1857, a 
 messenger came to me — his name was Sam Wood — and 
 told me that President Isaac C. Haight wanted me to be 
 at Cedar City that evening without fail. This was Satur- 
 day. He told me that a large company of emigrants had 
 gone south. I think he lived at Harmony, twenty miles 
 south of Cedar City. 
 
 I obeyed the summons. President Haight met me. It 
 was near sundown. We spent the night in an open house 
 on some blankets, where we talked most all night. He 
 told me that a company of emigrants had passed through 
 some two days before, threatening the Mormons with 
 destruction, and that one of them had said he had helped 
 to kill old Joe Smith and his brother Hyrum, that other 
 members of the company of emigrants had helped drive 
 the Mormons out of Missouri ; that others had said they 
 had come to help Johnson's army clean the Mormons out 
 of Utah ; that they had the halters ready to hang old Brig- 
 ham and Heber, and would have them strung up before 
 the snow flew ; that one of the emigrants called one of his 
 oxen (a pair of stags) "Brig." and the other "Heber;" 
 and that several of the emigrants had used all kinds of 
 threats and profanity. John M. Higbee, the City Mar- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 345 
 
 shal, had informed them that it was a breach of the city 
 ordinances to use profane language, whereupon one of 
 
 them replied that he did not care a for the Mormon 
 
 laws or the Mormons either ; that they had fought their 
 way through the Indians, and would do it through the 
 
 Mormons ; and if their god, old Brigham, and his 
 
 priests would not sell their provisions, by they 
 
 would take what they wanted any way they could get it ; 
 that thus enraged, one of them let loose his long whip and 
 killed two chickens, and threw them into the wagon ; that 
 the widow Evans said, "Gentlemen, those are my chick- 
 ens ; please don't kill them ; I am a poor widow ;" that they 
 
 ordered her to "shut up," or they would blow her 
 
 brains out, etc. ; that they had been raising trouble with all 
 the settlements and Indians on their way; that we were 
 threatened on the North by Johnson's army ; that now our 
 safety depended on prompt and immediate action ; that a 
 company of Indians had already gone South from Parowan 
 and Cedar City to surprise the emigrants, who were then 
 at the Mountain Meadows, and he wanted me to return 
 home in the morning (Sunday), and send Carl Schurtz 
 (Indian interpreter) from my home (Harmony), to raise 
 the Indians South, at Harmony, Washington, and Santa 
 Clara, to join the Indians from the North and make the 
 attack upon the emigrants at the Meadows. I said to 
 him, "Would it not be well to hold a council of the breth- 
 ren before making a move ?" He replied that "every true 
 Latter-Day Saint that regarded their covenants knew well 
 their duty, and that the company of emigrants had for- 
 feited their lives by their acts," and that Bishop P. K. 
 Smith (Klingensmith) and Joel White had already gone 
 by way of Pinto, to raise the Indians in that direction, and 
 those that had gone from Parowan and here would make 
 
346 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 the attack, and might be repulsed. "We can't now delay 
 for a council of the brethren. Return immediately, and 
 start Carl Schurtz ; tell him that I ordered you to tell him 
 to go; and I want you to try and get there before the 
 attack is made, and make the plan for the Indians, and 
 will send Nephi Johnson, the interpreter, to the Meadows 
 as soon as he can be got to help Carl Schurtz manage the 
 Indians." I did just as I was ordered. The Indians from 
 the North and about Harmony had already started for the 
 Meadows before I reached home. Schurtz started imme- 
 diately to do his part. 
 
 I arrived at home in the night, and remained till morn- 
 ing. I thought over the matter, and the more I thought 
 the more my feelings revolted against such a horrid deed. 
 Sleep had fled from me. I talked to my wife Rachel 
 about it. She felt as I did about it, and advised me to let 
 them do their own dirty work, and said that if things did 
 not go just to suit them the blame would be laid on me. 
 She never did believe in blood atonement, and said it was 
 from the devil, and that she would rather break such a 
 covenant, if she had to die for so doing, than to live and 
 be guilty of doing such an act. I finally concluded that 
 I would go, that I would start by daybreak in the morn- 
 ing, and try to get there before an attack was made on the 
 company, and use my influence with the Indians to let 
 them alone. I crossed the mountains by a trail, and 
 reached the Meadows between nine and ten in the morn- 
 ing, the distance from my place being about twenty-five 
 miles. But I was too late. The attack had been made 
 just before daybreak in the morning, the Indians repulsed, 
 with one killed and two of their chiefs from Cedar City 
 shot through the legs, breaking a leg for each of them. 
 The Indians were in a terrible rage. I went to some of 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 347 
 
 them that were in a ravine. They told me to go to the 
 main body, or they would kill me for not coming before 
 the attack was made. While I was standing there I 
 received a shot just above the belt, cutting through my 
 clothes to the skin, some six inches across. The Indians 
 with whom I was talking lived with me at Harmony. I 
 was Indian Farmer. They told me I was in danger, and 
 to get down into the ravine. I said that it was impossible 
 for me to do anything there, and I dare not venture to the 
 camp of the emigrants without endangering my life. I 
 mounted my horse and started south to meet Carl Schurtz. 
 I traveled sixteen miles and stopped on the Megotsy to 
 bait my animal, as there was good grass and water. I 
 had rode over forty miles without eating or drinking. 
 This is the place where Mr. Tobin met his assassinators. 
 About sunset I saw Schurtz and some ten or fifteen white 
 men and about one hundred and fifty Indians. We 
 camped. 
 
 During the night the Indians left for the Meadows. I 
 reported to the men what had taken place. They attacked 
 the emigrants again, about sunrise the next morning, 
 which was Tuesday, and had one of their number killed 
 and several wounded. I, with the white men, reached the 
 Meadows about one o'clock p. m. On the way we met a 
 small band of Indians returning, with some eighteen or 
 twenty head of cattle. One of the Indians was wounded 
 in the shoulder. They told me that the Indians were 
 encamped east of the emigrants, at some springs. On 
 our arrival at the springs we found some two hundred 
 Indians, among whom were the two wounded chiefs, 
 Moqueetus and Bill. The Indians were in a high state of 
 excitement; had killed many cattle and horses belonging 
 to the company. I counted sixty head near their encamp- 
 
348 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 merit, that they had killed in revenge for the wounding 
 of their men. By the assistance of Oscar Hamblin 
 (brother of Jacob Hamblin) and Schurtz, we succeeded 
 in getting the Indians to desist from killing any more 
 stock that night. The company of emigrants had cor- 
 raled all their wagons but one for better defense. This 
 corral was about one hundred yards above the springs. 
 This they did to get away from the ravine and from the 
 rocks on the west. The attack was renewed that night 
 by the Indians, in spite of all we could do to prevent it. 
 
 When the attack commenced, Oscar Hamblin, William 
 Young, and myself started to go to the Indians. When 
 opposite the corral, on the north, the bullets came around 
 us like a shower of hail. We had two Indians with us to 
 pilot us ; they threw themselves flat on the ground to pro- 
 tect themselves from the bullets. I stood erect and asked 
 my Father in heaven to protect me from the missies of 
 death, and enable me to reach the Indians. One ball 
 passed through my hat and the hair of my head, and 
 another through my shirt, grazing my arm near the 
 shoulder. A most hideous yell of the Indians com- 
 menced. The cries and shrieks of the women and chil- 
 dren so overcame me that I forgot my danger and rushed 
 through the fire to the Indians, and pleaded with them, 
 in tears, to desist. I told them that the Great Spirit would 
 be angry with them for killing women and little children. 
 They told me to leave or they would serve me the same 
 way, and that I was not their friend, but a 
 friend of their enemies; that I was a squaw, 
 and did not have the heart of a brave, and that 
 I could not see blood shed without crying like a baby, 
 and called me cry-baby, and by that name I am known by 
 all the Indians to this day. I owe my life on that occa- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 349 
 
 sion to Oscar Hamblin who was a missionary with the 
 Indians, and had much influence with the Santa Clara 
 Indians. They were the ones that wanted to kill me. 
 Hamblin shamed them, and called them dogs and wolves 
 for wanting to shed the blood of their father (myself), 
 who had fed and clothed them. We finally prevailed on 
 them to return to camp, where we would hold a council; 
 that I would send for big Captains to come and talk. We 
 told them that they had punished the emigrants enough 
 and may be they had killed nearly all of them. We to d 
 them that Bishop Dame and President Haight would 
 come, and may be they would give them part of the cat- 
 tle and let the company go with the teams. In this way 
 we reconciled them to suspend hostilities for the present. 
 The two that had been with Hamblin and myself the 
 night before said they had seen two men on horseback 
 come out of the emigrant's camp under full speed, and 
 that they went toward Cedar City. 
 
 Wednesday morning I asked a man— I think his name 
 was Edwards-to go to Cedar City and say to President 
 Haight, for God's sake, for my sake, and for the sake of 
 suffering humanity, to send out men to rescue that com- 
 pany This day we all lay still, waiting orders. Occa- 
 sionally a few of the Indians withdrew, taking a few head 
 of animals with them. 'About noon I crossed the valley 
 north of the corral, thinking to examine their location 
 from the west range. The company recognized me as a 
 white man, and sent two little boys, about four years old, 
 to meet me. I hid from them, fearing the Indians, who 
 discovered the children. I called the Indians, who wanted 
 my gun or ammunition to kill them. I prevailed with 
 them to let the children go back to camp, which they very 
 soon did when they saw the Indians. I crept up behind 
 
350 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 some rock, on the west range, where I had a full view of 
 the corral. In it they had dug a rifle-pit. The wheels of 
 their wagons were chained together, and the only chance 
 for the Indians was to starve them out, or shoot them as 
 they went for water. I lay there some two hours, and 
 contemplated their situation, and wept like a child. When 
 I returned to camp, some six or eight men had come from 
 Cedar City. Joel White, William C. Stewart, and Elliot 
 C. Weldon were among the number, but they had no 
 orders. They had come merely to see how things were. 
 The Meadows are about fifty miles from Cedar City. 
 Thursday afternoon the messenger from Cedar City 
 returned. He said that President Haight had gone to 
 Parowan to confer with Col. Dame, and a company of 
 men and orders would be sent on tomorrow (Friday) ; 
 that up to the time he had left, the council had come to no 
 definite conclusion. During this time the Indians and 
 men were engaged in broiling beef and making up their 
 hides into lassos. I had flattered myself that bloodshed 
 was at an end. After the emigrants saw me cross the 
 valley, they hoisted a white flag in the midst of their 
 corral. 
 
 Friday afternoon four wagons drove up with armed 
 men. When they saw the white flag in the corral, they 
 raised one also, but drove to the springs where we were, 
 and took refreshment, after which a council meeting was 
 called of Presidents, Bishops, and other Church officers 
 and members of the High Council, societies, High Priests, 
 etc. Major John M. Higbee presided as chairman. Sev- 
 eral of the dignitaries bowed in prayer, invoked the aid 
 of the Holy Spirit to prepare their minds, and guide them 
 to do right, and carry out the counsels of their leaders. 
 Higbee said that "President J. C. Haight had been to Par- 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 351 
 
 owan to confer with Col. Dame and their counsel, and 
 orders were that this emigrant camp must be used up." 
 I replied, "Men, women, and children ?" "All," said he, 
 "except such as are too young to tell tales; and if the 
 Indians cannot do it without help, we must help them." 
 I commenced pleading for the company, and I said, 
 though some of them behaved badly, they have been 
 pretty well chastised. My policy would be to draw off 
 the Indians, let them have a portion of the loose cattle, 
 and withdraw with them, under promise that they would 
 not molest the company any more; that the company 
 would then have teams enough left to take them to Cal- 
 ifornia. I told them that this course could not bring 
 them into trouble. Higbee said, "White men have inter- 
 posed, and the emigrants know it, and there lies the dan- 
 ger in letting them go." I said, "What white man inter- 
 fered ?" He replied that in the attack on Tuesday night 
 two men broke out of the corral and started for Cedar 
 City on horseback ; that they were met at Richey's Spring 
 by Stewart, Joel White, and another man, whose name has 
 passed from me. Stewart asked the two men their names 
 when they met at the spring, and being told in reply by 
 one of the men that his name was Aden, and that the 
 other was a Dutchman from the emigrant's company, 
 Stewart shoved a pistol to Aden's breast, and killed him, 
 
 saying, "Take that, you." The other man (the 
 
 Dutchman) wheeled to leave as Joel White fired and 
 wounded him. I asked him how he knew the wounded 
 Dutchman got back to the emigrants' camp. He said 
 because he was tracked back, and they knew he was there. 
 I again said that it was better to deliver the man to them, 
 and let them do anything they wished with them, and tell 
 them that we did not approve such things. Ira Allen, 
 
352 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 high councillor, and Robert Wiley, and others, spoke, 
 reproving me sharply for trying to dictate to the priest- 
 hood; that it would set at naught all authority; that he 
 would not give the life of one of our brethren for a thou- 
 sand such persons. "If we let them go," he continued, 
 "they will raise hell in California, and the result will be 
 that our wives and children will have to be butchered, and 
 ourselves too, and they are no better to die than ours, and 
 I am surprised to hear Brother Lee talk as he does, as he, 
 who has always been considered one of the staunchest in 
 the Church, now is the first to shirk his duty." I said, 
 "Brethren, the Lord must harden my heart before I can 
 do such a thing." Allen said, "It is not wicked to obey 
 counsel/' At this juncture I withdrew, walked off some 
 fifty paces, and prostrated myself on the ground and wept 
 in the bitter anguish of my soul, and asked the Lord to 
 avert that evil. 
 
 While in that situation Councillor C. Hopkins, a near 
 friend of mine, came to me and said, "Brother Lee, come, 
 get up, and don't draw off from the priesthood. You 
 ought not to do so. You are only endangering your own 
 life by standing out. You can't help it, if this is wrong ; 
 the blame won't rest on you." I said, "Charley, this is 
 the worst move this people ever made; I feel it." He 
 said, "Come, go back, and let them have their way." I 
 went back, weeping like a child, and took my place, and 
 tried to be silent, and was until Higbee said they (the 
 emigrants) must be decoyed out through pretended 
 friendship. I could no longer hold my peace, and said 
 I, "Joseph Smith said that God hated a traitor, and so do 
 I : before I would be a traitor, I would rather take ten 
 men, and go to that camp and tell them they must die, 
 and now to defend themselves, and give them a show for 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 353 
 
 their lives; that would be more honorable than to betray 
 them like Judas." Here I got another reproof, and was 
 ordered to hold my peace. The plan agreed upon there 
 was to meet them with a flag of truce, tell them that the 
 Indians were determined on their destruction; that we 
 dare not oppose the Indians, for we were at their mercy ; 
 that the best we could do for them (the emigrants) was 
 to get them and what few traps we could take in the 
 wagons, to lay their arms in the bottom of the wagon 
 and cover them up with bed-clothes, and start for the 
 settlement as soon as possible, and to trust themselves in 
 our hands. The small children and wounded were to 
 go with the two wagons, the women to follow the wag- 
 ons, and the men next, the troops to stand in readiness 
 on the east side of the road ready to receive them. Schurtz 
 and Nephi Johnson were to conceal the Indians in the 
 brush and rocks till the company was strung out on the 
 road to a certain point, and at the watchword, "Halt ; do 
 your duty!" each man was to cover his victim and fire. 
 Johnson and Schurtz were to rally the Indians, and rush 
 upon and dispatch the women and larger children. It 
 was further told the men that President Haight said, if 
 we were united in carrying out the instructions, we would 
 all receive "celestial reward." I said I was willing to put 
 up with a less reward if I could be excused. "How can 
 you do this without shedding innocent blood?" Here I 
 got another lampooning for my stubbornness and disobe- 
 dience to the priesthood. I was told that there was not a 
 drop of innocent blood in the whole company of emi- 
 grants. Also referred to the Gentile nations who refused 
 the children of Israel passage through their country when 
 Moses led them out of Egypt — that the Lord held that 
 crime against them, and when Israel waxed strong the 
 
354 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Lord commanded Joshua to slay the whole nation, men, 
 women, and children.. "Have not these people done 
 worse than that to us ? Have they not threatened to mur- 
 der our leaders and prophets, Joseph and Hyrum ? Now 
 talk about shedding innocent blood." They said I was 
 a good, liberal, free-hearted man, but too much of this 
 sympathy would be always in the way; that every man 
 now had to show his colors ; that it was not safe to have 
 a Judas in camp. Then it was proposed that every man 
 express himself; that if there was a man who would not 
 keep a close mouth, they wanted to know it then. This 
 gave me to understand what I might expect if I con- 
 tinued to oppose. Major Higbee said, "Brother Lee is 
 right. Let him take an expression of the people." I 
 knew I dared not refuse ; so I had every man speak and 
 express himself. All said they were willing to carry out 
 the counsel of their leaders; that the leaders had the 
 spirit of God, and knew better what was right than they 
 did. They then wanted to know my feelings. I replied, 
 I have already expressed them. Every eye was upon me 
 as I paused ; "but," said I, "you can do as you please ; I 
 will not oppose you any longer." "Will you keep a close 
 mouth ?" was the question. "I will try," was my answer. 
 I will here say that the fear of offending Brigham Young 
 and George A. Smith had saved my life. I was near 
 being "blood-atoned" in Parowan, under J. C. L. Smith, 
 in 1854, but on this I have spoken in my autobiography. 
 
 Saturday morning all was ready, and every man 
 assigned to his post of duty. During the night, or rather 
 just before daylight, Johnson and Schurtz ambushed their 
 Indians, the better to deceive the emigrants. About 11 
 o'clock a. m. the troops under Major Higbee took their 
 position on the road. The white flag was still kept up in 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 355 
 
 the corral. Higbee called William Bateman out of the 
 ranks to take a flag of truce to the corral. He was met 
 about half way with another white flag from the emi- 
 grants' camp. They had a talk. The emigrants were told 
 we had come to rescue them if they would trust us. Both 
 men with flags returned to their respective places and 
 reported, and were to meet again and bring word. Hig- 
 bee called me out to go and inform them the conditions, 
 and if accepted, Dan McFarland, brother to John McFar- 
 land, lawyer, who acted as aide-de-camp, would bring 
 back word, and then the wagons would be sent for the 
 firearms, children, clothing, etc. I obeyed, and the v terms 
 proposed were accepted, but not without distrust. I had 
 as little to say as possible ; in fact, my tongue refused to 
 perform its office. I sat down on the ground in the cor- 
 ral, near where some young men were engaged in paying 
 their last respects to some person who had just died of a 
 wound. A large fleshy old lady came to me twice, and 
 talked while I sat there. She related their troubles ; said 
 that seven of their number were killed, and forty-seven 
 wounded on the first attack ; that several had died since. 
 She asked me if I were an Indian agent. I said, "In one 
 sense I am, as Government has appointed me farmer to 
 the Indians." I told her this to satisfy her. I heard 
 afterwards that the same question was asked and an- 
 swered in the same manner by McFarland, who had been 
 sent by Higbee to the corral to "hurry me up, for fear that 
 the Indians would come back and be upon them." 
 
 When all was ready, Samuel McMurdy, counsel to 
 Bishop P. K. Smith (Klingensmith), drove out on the 
 lead. His wagon had the seventeen children, clothing, 
 and arms. Samuel Knight drove the other team, with 
 five wounded men and one boy about fifteen years old. I 
 
356 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 walked behind the front wagon to direct the course, and 
 to shun being in the heat of the slaughter ; but this I kept 
 to myself. When we got turned fairly to the east, I 
 motioned to McMurdy to steer north, across the valley. 
 I, at the same time, told the women, who were next to the 
 wagon, to follow the road up to the troop, which they 
 did. Instead of saying to McMurdy not to drive so fast 
 (as he swore on my trial), I said to the contrary, to drive 
 on, as my aim was to get out of sight before the firing 
 commenced, which we did. We were about half a mile 
 ahead of the company when we heard the first firing. We 
 drove over a ridge of rolling ground, and down on a low 
 flat. The firing was simultaneous along the whole line. 
 The moment the firing commenced McMurdy halted and 
 tied his lines across the rod of the wagon-box, stepped 
 down coolly with double-barreled shot-gun, walked back 
 to Knight's wagon, who had the wounded men, and was 
 about twenty feet in the rear. As he raised his piece, he 
 said, "Lord, my God, receive their spirits, for it is for the 
 kingdom of heaven's sake that we do this," fired and killed 
 two men. Samuel Knight had a muzzle-loading rifle, and 
 he shot and killed the three men, then struck the wounded 
 boy on the head, who fell dead. In the meantime I drew 
 a five-shooter from my belt, which accidentally went off, 
 cutting across McMurdy's buskin pantaloons in front, 
 below the crotch. McMurdy said, "Brother Lee, you are 
 excited ; take things cool ; you was near killin' me. Look 
 where the bullet cut," pointing to the place in his panta- 
 loons. At this moment I heard the scream of a child. I 
 looked up and saw an Indian have a little boy by the hair 
 of his head, dragging him out of the hind end of the 
 wagon, with a knife in his hand, getting ready to cut his 
 throat. I sprang for the Indian with my revolver in 
 
ANN ELIZA WEBB 
 WIFE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG POPULARLY KNOWN AS NO. 19 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 357 
 
 hand, and shouted to the top of my voice, "Arick, oomo, 
 cot too sooet" (stop, you fool!). The child was terror- 
 stricken. His chin was bleeding. I supposed it was the 
 cut of a knife, but afterwards learned that it was done on 
 the wagon-box, as the Indian yanked the boy down by 
 the hair of the head. I had no sooner rescued this child 
 than another Indian seized a little girl by the hair. I 
 rescued her as soon as I could speak; I told the Indians 
 that they must not hurt the children — that I would die 
 before they should be hurt ; that we would buy the chil- 
 dren of them. Before this time the Indians had rushed 
 around the wagon in quest of blood, and dispatched the 
 two runaway wounded men. In justice to my statement 
 I would say that if my shooter had not prematurely 
 exploded, I would have had a hand in despatching the 
 five wounded. I had lost control of myself, and scarce 
 knew what I was about. I saw an Indian pursue a little 
 girl who was fleeing. He caught her about one hundred 
 feet from the wagon, and plunged his knife through her. 
 I said to McMurdy that he had better drive the children 
 to Hamblin's ranch, and give them some nourishment, 
 while I would go down and get my horse at the camp. 
 Passing along the road I saw the dead strung along the 
 distance of about half a mile. The women and children 
 were killed by the Indians. I saw Schurtz with the In- 
 dians, and no other white man with them. When I came 
 to the men, they lay about a rod apart. Here I came up 
 with Higbee, Bishop Smith, and the rest of the company. 
 As I came up, Higbee said to me, "Let us search these 
 persons for valuables," and asked me to assist him ; gave 
 me a hat to hold. Several men were already engaged in 
 searching the bodies. I replied that I was unwell, and 
 wanted to get upon my horse and go to the ranch and 
 
358 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 nurse myself. My request was granted. Reaching Ham- 
 blin's ranch — being heartsick and worn out — I lay down 
 on my saddle-blanket and slept, and knew but little of 
 what passed during the night. 
 
 About daybreak in the morning, I heard the voices of 
 Col. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. I heard some very angry 
 words pass between them, which drew my attention. 
 Dame said he would have to report the destruction of the 
 emigrant camp and company. Haight said, "How, as an 
 Indian massacre?" Dame said he did not know so well 
 about that. This reply seemed to irritate Haight, who 
 
 spoke quite loudly, saying, "How the can you 
 
 report it any other way without implicating yourself?" 
 At this Dame lowered his voice almost to a whisper; I 
 could not understand what he said, and the conversation 
 stopped. 
 
 I got up, saw the children, and among the others the 
 boy who was pulled by the hair of his head out of the 
 wagon by the Indian and saved by me; that boy I took 
 home and kept until Dr. Forney, Government agent, came 
 to gather up the children and take them East ; he took the 
 boy with the others ; that boy's name was William Fan- 
 cher; his father was captain of the train; he was taken 
 East and adopted by a man in Nebraska, named Richard 
 Sloan ; he remained East several years, and then returned 
 to Utah, and is now a convict in the Utah penitentiary, 
 having been convicted the past year for the crime of 
 highway robbery. He is know known by the name of 
 "Idaho Bill," but his true name is William Fancher. His 
 little sister was also taken East, and is now the wife of 
 a man working for the Union Pacific Railroad Company, 
 near Green River. The boy (now man) has yet got the 
 scar on his chin caused by the cut on the wagon-box, 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 359 
 
 and those who are curious enough to examine will find a 
 large scar on the ball of his left foot, caused by a deep cut 
 made by an ax while he was with me. 
 
 I got breakfast that morning. Then all hands returned 
 to the scene of the slaughter to bury the dead. The bodies 
 were all in a nude state. The Indians, through the night, 
 had stripped them of every vestige of clothing. Many of 
 the parties were laughing and talking as they carried the 
 bodies to the ravine for burial. They were just covered 
 over a little, but did not long remain so ; for the wolves 
 dug them up, and after eating the flesh from them, the 
 bones laid upon the ground until buried, some time after, 
 by a Government military officer. At the time of bury- 
 ing the bodies Dame and Haight got into another quarrel. 
 Dame seemed to be terror-stricken, and again said he 
 would have to publish it. They were about two paces 
 from me. Dame spoke low, as if careful to avoid being 
 heard. Haight spoke loud, and said, "You know that you 
 counseled it, and ordered me to have them used up." 
 Dame said, "I did not think that there were so many 
 women and children. I thought they were nearly all 
 killed by the Indians." Haight said, "It is too late in the 
 day for you to back water. You know you ordered and 
 counseled it, and now you want to back ont." Dame said, 
 "Have you the papers for that?" or "Show the papers for 
 that." This enraged Haight to the highest pitch, and 
 Dame walked off. Haight said, "You throw the blame 
 of this thing on me, and I will be revenged on you, if I 
 have to meet you in hell to get it." From this place we 
 rode to the wagons ; we found them stripped of their 
 covers and every particle of clothing, even the feather- 
 beds had been ripped open and the contents turned upon 
 the ground, looking for plunder. I crossed the mount- 
 
3 6o THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 ains by an Indian trail, taking my little Indian boy with 
 me on my horse. The gathering up of the property and 
 cattle was left in charge of Bishop P. K. Smith. The tes- 
 timony of Smith in regard to the property and the dispo- 
 sition of it was very nearly correct. 
 
 I must not forget to state, that after the attack a mes- 
 senger by the name of James Haslem was sent with a dis- 
 patch to President Brigham Young, asking his advice 
 about interfering with the company, but he did not return 
 in time. This I had no knowledge of until the massacre 
 was committed. Some two weeks after the deed was 
 done, Isaac C. Haight sent me to report to Governor 
 Young in person. I asked him why he did not send a 
 written report. He replied that I could tell him more 
 satisfactorily than he could write, and if I would stand 
 up and shoulder as much of the responsibility as I could 
 conveniently, that it would be a feather in my cap some 
 day, and that I would get a celestial salvation, but that 
 the man who shrank from it now would go to hell. I 
 went and did as I was commanded. Brigham asked me 
 if Isaac C. Haight had written a letter to him. I replied, 
 not by me, but I said he wished me to report in person. 
 "All right," said Brigham; "were you an eye-witness?" 
 "To the most of it," was my reply. Then I proceeded 
 and gave him a full history of all except that of my oppo- 
 sition. That I left out entirely. I told him of the killing 
 of the women and children, and the betraying of the com- 
 pany. That, I told him, I was opposed to, but I did not 
 say to him to what extent I was opposed to it, only that I 
 was opposed to shedding innocent blood. "Why," said he, 
 "you differ from Isaac (Haight), for he said there was 
 not a drop of innocent blood in the whole company." 
 When I was through, he said that it was awful ; that he 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 361 
 
 cared nothing about the men, but the women and children 
 was what troubled him. I said, "President Young, you 
 should either release men from their obligation or sustain 
 them when they do what they have entered into the most 
 sacred obligations to do." He replied, "I will think over 
 the matter, and make it a subject of prayer, and you may 
 come back in the morning and see me." I did so, and he 
 said, "John, I feel first-rate ; I asked the Lord if it was all 
 right for that deed to be done, to take away the vision of 
 the deed from my mind, and the Lord did so, and I feel 
 first-rate. It is all right. The only fear I have is of 
 traitors." He told me never to lisp it to any mortal being, 
 not even to Brother Heber. President Young has always 
 treated me with the friendship of a father since, and has 
 sealed several women to me since, and has made my house 
 his home when in that part of the territory, until danger 
 has threatened him. This is a true statement according 
 to the best of my recollection. 
 
 John D. Lee. 
 
APPENDIX F. 
 MORMON MORALS— A RECENT EXPERIENCE. 
 
 BY REV. S. E. WISHARD, D. D., IN JOURNAL AND MESSENGER. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that the worshiper is assimilated 
 to the character of his deity. The contrasts between 
 heathenism and Christianity have established that fact dur- 
 ing all the ages. Ancient paganism taught its devotees to 
 worship the gods of war, of lust, of every vile passion of 
 the human soul. That worship developed and intensified 
 those passions, until the nation and individuals became 
 monsters, and incarnate crime stalked forth to amaze the 
 world and call down the vengeance of God. On the ether 
 hand, where God's revelation of Himself has been ".iade 
 known, and has been accepted, passion and hate have been 
 swept out of human life. It has been well said that "Chris- 
 tendom, in contrast with heathenism, is the best argument 
 for Christianity." The deities of any people determine 
 the morals of those who worship them. 
 
 It ought to be pretty well known to Christian people 
 everywhere that the Mormon people worship Adam. When 
 they meet in the great tabernacle and their minister leads 
 the worship of the people, he usually begins his prayer 
 with the scriptural address, "Our Father which art in 
 heaven." That is an address to Adam. He is not address- 
 ing the God of the Bible, the God of the Christian, but the 
 Mormon God, Adam. The inspired (?) prophet, Joseph 
 Smith, taught the Mormon people that "God himself was 
 once as we are now, and is an exalted man," and they ac- 
 cept that doctrine. Their definition of God is this : "What 
 
 36* 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 3^3 
 
 I am now God once was; what He now is, I shall be." 
 That is, the Mormon God was a man, and we are to be 
 gods if we live in polygamy and secure a numerous pos- 
 terity. Brigham Young explained the pagan theology of 
 the Mormon church when he taught that "he (Adam) is 
 our father and our God, and the only God with whom we 
 have to do." This doctrine of the Mormon deity lies at 
 the base of the Mormon system and permeates it. 
 
 With such doctrines everywhere taught in Utah, what 
 may we expect of the morals of the people who accept the 
 system ? We are authorized to expect just what we find- 
 corruption, treachery and falsehood in religion, politics 
 and social life. 
 
 In religion the Mormon teachers preach this Adam-god 
 doctrine in Utah, and deny it when they go before the 
 people in the East. They secretly, and sometimes openly, 
 teach polygamy in Utah, and deny it when they go out. 
 They practice this crime against law, against our State 
 constitution, against the home, against God, and deny it 
 everywhere outside of Utah. 
 
 A recent convert to Mormonism, Mr. Frank S. Johnson, 
 makes the following statement, viz. : 
 
 "To the public : My home is in Vicksville, Southampton 
 County, Virginia. I am thirty-eight years old, and have a 
 family of six children. My sister-in-law died after the 
 death of her husband and left five children to my care. I 
 had been a Christian more than four years before the 
 Mormon missionaries came to my house, and had found 
 great comfort in the Christian life. I was a member of 
 the Christian church, sometimes called the Disciples. Nine 
 members of my family were also members of the church. 
 George Whittle and Henry Taggart, Mormon missiona- 
 ries, came to my home early in December, 1899. They 
 
364 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 have made their home with me since they came until this 
 time, May, 1900. (That is the way they preach the gos- 
 pel without purse or scrip.) There were six other mis- 
 sionaries coming often to my house and remaining sev- 
 eral days at a time. They told us that we must gather to 
 Israel, flee to the mountains ; that this was the command- 
 ment of the Lord. They talked like Christians, and I be- 
 lieved what they said and trusted them. They said when 
 Christ came he would come to the temple, and we ought to 
 be there. They said polygamy had been done away with 
 — that no one was living in polygamy, nor had been for a 
 great many years. They told us we could not live our 
 religion in -Virginia, but ought to come to the mountains. 
 They said the saints here (in Utah) were a pure people — 
 no such wickedness as in the States. They represented 
 Utah as a paradise. They wanted us to come to the tem- 
 ple and be sealed to each other as husband and wife and 
 children. 
 
 They wanted me to sell all and come with my family. 
 We all joined the Mormon Church, and believed what the 
 missionaries told us. But I did not want to sell my little 
 home until I had come to see. They said I could take up 
 as much land as I wanted when I came, so I decided to 
 come, and sold all my farming implements, my mechanical 
 tools, my horse and timber that I had ready to work. I 
 got money enough to come and go back again. They did 
 not want me to take money enough for me to return — said 
 I would like it here. I came on and went to the friends at 
 Preston, Idaho, to which place they directed me. I called 
 at Mrs. Whittle's, and learned that her daughter, sister of 
 our missionary, was living in polygamy. I learned also 
 from the Mormons that the sister of Elder Taggart was a 
 polygamous wife. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 365 
 
 These facts startled me, as both of the missionaries had 
 declared to us again and again that no one had been in 
 polygamy for a long time ; polygamy was a thing of the 
 long past. If they had told me the truth I would not 
 have come to Utah, nor would I have sacrificed my prop- 
 erty to come. 
 
 While visiting among the brethren at Preston I discov- 
 ered that the saints would swear, for I heard them. They 
 would ask a blessing at the table, and presently begin to 
 curse. They would pray and swear right along. I had 
 never been used to that, and it hurt me. 
 
 President Snow, the Mouthpiece of God, Prophet, Seer 
 and Revelator, came up to conference at Preston. I 
 thought, Now we will hear something good ; if he does 
 speak for God, he will surely say something good and help- 
 ful. But to my surprise he did not. He talked all the 
 time about tithing. They must pay up. It was money, 
 money, money all the time ; no Gospel at all ; nothing about 
 the love of God ; nothing about our Savior whom I loved. 
 I was sick and disheartened. I could neither sleep nor eat. 
 The saints wanted me to come to all their meetings, but 
 I could not. The missionaries had deceived me. Instead 
 of a paradise, I found the saints swearing, living in pblyg- 
 amy, and the young people were vile beyond description. 
 Instead of the prayer meeting they had the dance. Instead 
 of the gospel of love they preached money. I went out 
 and lay down in the fields, crying to God for help to get 
 away, back to my home again. 
 
 All these facts and conditions I found out from the 
 saints. I did not go to any of the denominations for 
 information. I heard with my own ears, saw with my 
 own eyes, and sorrowed in my own heart. The Mormon 
 missionaries who profess to preach without purse or scrip, 
 
366 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 cost me, a poor man, with a large family, about three hun- 
 dred dollars. But I am thankful that I did not bring my 
 family. I thank God that he has made it possible for me 
 to go back home. I will warn all my neighbors against 
 the falsehoods and deceptions of the Mormon missionaries. 
 I make these statements to warn all people against the 
 Mormon deceivers. It is the worst thing I ever heard of. 
 
 FRANK S. JOHNSON." 
 
 Mr. Johnson's experience is not infrequent. A lady 
 who had embraced Mormonism through the misrepresenta- 
 tions and false teachings of their missionaries recently 
 came to Salt Lake City. When she discovered that the 
 great pretender, "the Mouthpiece of God," as he calls him- 
 self, had seven or eight wives, and that the men calling 
 themselves apostles had followed his example, were living 
 in violation of the law of God and man, her heart sank 
 within her, and she sought to escape to her home again in 
 the South. The more painful experience is that some of 
 these perverts to Mormonism bring their families. They 
 exhaust their means in reaching Utah. And when they dis- 
 cover the deception practiced upon them they are unable 
 to return. To avoid being boycotted and persecuted, they 
 settle down, pretending to believe what they know to be 
 false. Our missionaries get hold of some of this class, and 
 help them back to the acknowledgment of the truth. Their 
 poverty is often pitiful, and our missionaries need to help 
 support them, instead of receiving support from them. 
 We trust the day is coming when our brethren in the East 
 can understand conditions in Utah. 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 24, 1900. 
 
APPENDIX G. 
 
 BILL TO PROHIBIT PROSECUTIONS FOR 
 POLYGAMY. 
 
 On March n, 1901, the House of Representatives of 
 Utah by a vote of 25 to ij, after a spirited debate, passed 
 the following bill : "Every person who has reason to 
 believe that a crime or public offense has been committed 
 may make complaint before some magistrate having 
 authority to pass on same; provided that no prosecution 
 for adultery shall be commenced, except on complaint of 
 the husband or wife or relative of the accused within 
 the first degree of consanguinity or of the person with 
 whom the unlawful act is alleged to have been committed, 
 or of the father or mother of said person, and no prosecu- 
 tion for unlawful cohabitation shall be commenced except 
 on complaint of the wife or alleged plural wife of the 
 accused, but this provision shall not apply to prosecutions 
 under section 4208 of the Revised Statutes of 1898, 
 defining and punishing polygamous marriages." This bill 
 had already passed the Senate by a vote of 11 to 7. It 
 is said that the Mormon authorities were back of the 
 bill. It will be remembered by my readers that in order 
 to secure Statehood the Mormons not only incorporated a 
 clause in their constitution prohibiting polygamy, but they 
 put a statute in their penal code against it. As I have 
 pointed out, this was intended for foreign consumption, 
 not for home consumption. When, however, it was 
 charged that there was a large number of cases of polyg- 
 amy in Utah, the Mormons denied it and said, "If that 
 is so, there is a law against it here. The courts are open. 
 
 3 6 7 
 
368 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Prove it." No one had cared to bring the matters before 
 the courts, as it would involve him in unpleasant relations 
 with his neighbors, but Mr. Charles Mostyn Owen de- 
 cided that he would not take a dare and had a number 
 of the polygamists arrested and fined. His action created 
 intense indignation. The passage of this law shows the 
 insincerity of Mormons in putting the anti-polygamy 
 statute in the penal code. Its evident purpose is to stop 
 prosecutions for polygamy by Mr. Owen and others. Of 
 course the husband or wife or children are not going to 
 bring complaint. There was likelihood, however, that 
 this law would result in the passage of an amendment 
 to the United States Constitution, giving Congress the 
 power to legislate against polygamy. This would again 
 give the United States Government control over the 
 question of polygamy in Utah, as was the case when Utah 
 was a territory. It must come to that sooner or later, and 
 the sooner the better. 
 
 Seeing this danger Gov. Wells, himself a Mormon, 
 vetoed the bill in the following message: 
 
 "To the Senate : I have the honor to return herewith, 
 without approval, Senate bill No. 113, 'An act amending 
 section 461 1 of the Revised Statutes of Utah, 1898, in 
 relation to the making of complaints and commencing 
 prosecutions in criminal cases.' 
 
 "No official act of my life has been approached by 
 me with a sense of responsibility so profound as is in- 
 volved in the consideration of this bill. It is a measure 
 of the supremest importance and in its consequences for 
 good or ill it easily surpasses any other proposition that 
 ever came before this Commonwealth for legislative and 
 executive determination. It has been argued in both 
 branches of the assembly with splendid force and ability, 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 369 
 
 while its provisions have doubtless been eagerly discussed 
 in the remotest hamlet of our State. 
 
 INJURING REPUTATION. 
 
 "The patience, loyalty and conservatism of our citizens 
 are so widely recognized that only by the passing of such 
 a bill as this can their reputation be injured. The 
 broadminded and intelligent everywhere accept the situa- 
 tion here as it exists, and are content to let time complete 
 the solution of the problem. Even the bigoted and the 
 meddlesome have to admit that with rare exceptions the 
 conduct and integrity of the people are above reproach. 
 
 "In my opinion nothing can be clearer than that this 
 bill, if passed, would be welcomed and employed as a most 
 effective weapon against the very classes whose condition 
 it is intended to ameliorate. Furthermore. I have reason 
 to believe its enactment would be the signal for a general 
 demand upon the national Congress for a constitutional 
 amendment directed against social conditions here, a de- 
 mand which, under the present circumstances, would sure- 
 ly be complied with. 
 
 "In the shortest memory still remain incidents of the 
 distressing period shortly before Statehood during which 
 so much sorrow and bitterness stalked through our com- 
 munity. Of still more recent date, no longer than two 
 years ago, another outburst was threatened, and to some 
 
 extent was manifested. 
 1 
 
 CI.OUDS ROIXED BY. 
 
 "But as a termination of the first, came concession and 
 amnesty and evidence of good faith, and at length State- 
 hood, in which everybody rejoiced ; and while, as a result 
 of the second, the sun of our prosperity was for a time 
 obscured, the clouds at length have rolled away, and 
 
370 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 Utah, united, hopeful and vigorous, is marching bravely 
 forward to the music of the Union. 
 
 "I yield to no one in affection for these, my people, 
 who, from the highest motives, and because they believed 
 it a divine command, entered into the relation of plural 
 marriage. Born and reared in Utah, myself a product 
 if that marriage system (taught from infancy to regard 
 my lineage as approved of the Almighty, and proud to-day 
 as I have ever been, of my heritage), it will be granted, 
 I trust, that every instinct of my nature reaches out to 
 shield my friends from harm and to protect them from 
 unjust attack. Their cause is my cause, and when they 
 are hurt I am hurt, for I am part of them. 
 
 "But in that same heart which is filled with sympathy 
 for them I find also the solemn feeling that this bill holds 
 out only a false hope of protection and that, in offering 
 a phantom of relief to a few, it in reality invites a deluge 
 of discord and disaster upon all. 
 
 "For these reasons and many others, I am unable to 
 approve the bill now before me. Very respectfully, 
 
 "Heber M. Wells, Governor/' 
 
 The following facts are made evident from this mes- 
 sage: 
 
 i. The interest felt by the Mormons of Utah in the 
 passage of the bill. Governor Wells says that "Its pro- 
 visions have doubtless been eagerly discussed in the re- 
 motest hamlet of our State." He regarded it as "a meas- 
 ure of supremest importance and in its consequences for 
 good or ill it easily surpasses any other proposition that 
 ever came before this Commonwealth for legislative and 
 executive determination." 
 
 2. Governor Wells admits the existence of polygamy 
 in the State. 
 
THE MORMON MONSTER. 371 
 
 3. Not only that, but that he himself is "a product 
 of that marriage system," and that he had been "taught 
 from infancy to regard my lineage as approved of the 
 Almighty, and proud today as I have ever been of my 
 heritage/' which means that he still regards polygamy 
 as "approved of the Almighty" and is "proud" of being 
 a product of that system. This, mind you, is from the 
 Governor of the State of Utah. But remember that he is 
 a Mormon and in these sentiments he has only expressed 
 Mormon feelings. 
 
 4. He makes it clear that his only reason for vetoing 
 the bill was his fear of the adoption by Congress of an 
 amendment to the Constitution of the United States di- 
 rected against polygamy and putting the control of polyg- 
 amy again in the hands of the United States Government 
 authorities. 
 
 The Mormons are as afraid of the United States Gov- 
 ernment as of death. They have had some experience 
 and have occasion to fear the Government. But that is 
 about the only thing in the world they are afraid of. 
 Remove the fear of that constitutional amendment and a 
 bill of the kind recently passed by the legislature of Utah 
 would again pass overwhelmingly in both branches, be 
 signed by the Governor and polygamy would be again 
 resumed. In order to prevent this much to be dreaded 
 event, the Congress of the United States should by all 
 means pass an anti-polygamy amendment to the Constitu- 
 tion at its next session. 
 
 If such an amendment is to be passed at all — and it 
 certainly must be if the practice of polygamy is ever 
 stopped — it must be done soon. It requires a two-thirds 
 majority of the States in the Union to pass a constitu- 
 tional amendment. There are now forty-five States. 
 
372 THE MORMON MONSTER. 
 
 One-third of this number would be fifteen. The Mor- 
 mons now dominate Utah completely, and hold the bal- 
 ance of power in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, 
 Arizona and New Mexico, making seven States over 
 which they exercise controlling influence to a greater or 
 less extent. They are reaching out after the eight others 
 needed, and when they get them they will snap their 
 fingers in the face of Congress and defy it to attempt the 
 passage of an anti-polygamy law. This has been their 
 history from the beginning, and there is no reason to be- 
 lieve that their character has undergone any radical change 
 in regard to their political ambition. 
 
 In short they believe in polygamy, they practice polyg- 
 amy as much as they dare, they refrain from it only under 
 the stress of law, and if that were removed, they would 
 again resume their polygamous practices. The decision 
 of the matter rests not with the legislature of Utah, but 
 with the congress of the United States. 
 
 By a vote of 9 to 9, the Senate of Utah refused to pass 
 the bill over the veto of Governor Wells. Speaking of 
 this incident the Nashville American of March 18th had 
 the following very significant paragraph : 
 
 "The Governor of Utah is wise in his day and genera- 
 tion. Though of Mormon parentage and in full sym- 
 pathy with all the tenets of that faith he vetoed the bill 
 rendering prosecution of polygamists well nigh impossi- 
 ble on the ground that it would prove disastrous to the 
 people. The fact that such a law was passed overwhelm- 
 ingly in both branches of the Legislature shows how tricky 
 and knavish the Mormons are, and the day of retribution 
 for them is only postponed, not averted. There will yet 
 come a time when a less discreet Governor than the pres- 
 ent one will let fanaticism run away with judgment, and 
 then— the deluge." 
 

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