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diff --git a/7066.txt b/7066.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6d6512 --- /dev/null +++ b/7066.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9195 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Prophet in Utah, by +Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higgins + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Under the Prophet in Utah + The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft + +Author: Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higgins + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7066] +Posting Date: May 30, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE PROPHET IN UTAH *** + + + + +Produced by David Schwan and Monique Cameron + + + + + + + + + +UNDER THE PROPHET IN UTAH + + +The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft + + +By Frank J. Cannon + +Formerly United States Senator from Utah + +and + +Harvey J. O'Higgins + +Author "The Smoke-Eaters," "Don-a-Dreams," etc. + + + +Contents + + + + Chapter + + Note + Introduction + Foreword + I In the Days of the Raid + II On a Mission to Washington + III Without a Country + IV The Manifesto + V On the Road to Freedom + VI The Goal--and After + VII The First Betrayals + VIII The Church and the Interests + IX At the Crossways + X On the Downward Path + XI The Will of the Lord + XII The Conspiracy Completed. + XIII The Smoot Exposure + XIV Treason Triumphant + XV The Struggle for Liberty + XVI The Price of Protest + XVII The New Polygamy + XVIII The Prophet of Mammon + XIX The Subjects of the Kingdom + XX Conclusion + + + + +Note + +When Harvey J. O'Higgins was in Denver, in the spring of 1910, working +with Judge Ben B. Lindsey on the manuscript of "The Beast and the +Jungle," for Everybody's Magazine, he met the Hon. Frank J. Cannon, +formerly United States Senator from Utah, and heard from him the story +of the betrayal of Utah by the present leaders of the Mormon Church. +This story the editor of Everybody's Magazine commissioned Messrs. +Cannon and O'Higgins to write. They worked on it for a year, verifying +every detail of it from government reports, controversial pamphlets, +Mormon books of propaganda, and the newspaper files of current record. +It ran through nine numbers of the magazine, and not so much as a +successful contradiction was ever made of one of the innumerable +incidents or accusations that it contains. It is here published in book +form at somewhat greater length than the magazine could print it. It +is a joint work, but the autobiographic "I" has been used throughout, +because it is Mr. Cannon's personal narrative of his personal +experience. + + + + +Introduction + + +This is the story of what has been called "the great American +despotism." + +It is the story of the establishment of an absolute throne and dynasty +by one American citizen over a half-million others. + +And it is the story of the amazing reign of this one man, Joseph F. +Smith, the Mormon Prophet, a religious fanatic of bitter mind, who +claims that he has been divinely ordained to exercise the awful +authority of God on earth over all the affairs of all mankind, and who +plays the anointed despot in Utah and the surrounding states as cruelly +as a Sultan and more securely than any Czar. + +To him the Mormon people pay a yearly tribute of more than two million +dollars in tithes; and he uses that income, to his own ends, without an +accounting. He is president of the Utah branch of the sugar trust, and +of the local incorporation's of the salt trust; and he supports the +exaction's of monopoly by his financial absolutism, while he defends +them from competition by his religious power of interdict and +excommunication. He is president of a system of "company stores," from +which the faithful buy their merchandise; of a wagon and machine company +from which the Mormon farmers purchase their vehicles and implements; of +life-insurance and fire-insurance companies, of banking institutions, +of a railroad, of a knitting company, of newspapers, which the Mormon +people are required by their Church to patronize, and through which they +are exploited, commercially and financially, for the sole profit of the +sovereign of Utah and his religious court. + +He is the political Boss of the state, delivering the votes of his +people by revelation of the Will of God, practically appointing the +United States Senators from Utah--as he practically appoints the +marshals, district attorneys, judges, legislators, officers and +administrators of law throughout his "Kingdom of God on Earth"--and +ruling the non-Mormons of Utah, as he rules his own people, by virtue +of his political and financial partnership with the great "business +interests" that govern and exploit this nation, and his Kingdom, for +their own gain, and his. + +He lives, like the Grand Turk, openly with five wives, against the +temporal law of the state, against the spiritual law of his Kingdom, and +in violation of his own solemn covenant to the country--which he gave in +1890, in order to obtain amnesty for himself from criminal prosecution +and to help Utah obtain the powers of statehood which he has since +usurped. He secretly preaches a proscribed doctrine of polygamy as +necessary to salvation; he publicly denies his own teaching, so that he +may escape responsibility for the sufferings of the "plural wives" and +their unfortunate children, who have been betrayed by the authority of +his dogma. And these women, by the hundreds, seduced into clandestine +marriage relations with polygamous elders of the Church, unable to claim +their husbands--even in some cases disowning their children and +teaching these children to deny their parents--are suffering a pitiful +self-immolation as martyrs to the religious barbarism of his rule. + +Demanding unquestioning obedience in all things, as the "mouthpiece +of the Lord," and "sole vice-regent of God on Earth," he enforces his +demands by his religious, political and financial control of the faith, +the votes and the property of his fellow-citizens. He is at once--as +the details of this story show--"the modern 'money king,' the absolute +political Czar, the social despot and the infallible Pope of his +Kingdom." + +Ex-Senator Cannon not only exposes but accounts for and explains the +conditions that have made the Church-controlled government of Utah less +free, less of a democracy, a greater tyranny and more of a disgrace to +the nation than ever the corporation rule of Colorado was in the darkest +period of the Cripple Creek labor war. He shows the enemies of the +republic encouraging and profiting by the shame of Utah as they +supported and made gain of Colorado's past disgrace. He shows the +piratical "Interests," at Washington, sustaining, and sustained by, the +misgovernment of Utah, in their campaign of national pillage. He shows +that the condition of Utah today is not merely a local problem; that it +affects and concerns the people of the whole country; that it can only +be cured with their aid. + +The outside world has waited many years to hear the truth about the +Mormons; here it is--told with sympathy, with affection, by a man who +steadfastly defended and fought for the Mormon people when their present +leaders were keeping themselves carefully inconspicuous. The Mormon +system of religious communism has long been known as one of the most +interesting social experiments of modern civilization; here is an +intimate study of it, not only in its success but in the failure that +has come upon it from the selfish ambitions of its leaders. The power of +the Mormon hierarchy has been the theme of much imaginative fiction; but +here is a story of church tyranny and misgovernment in the name of God, +that outrages the credibilities of art. That such a story could come +out of modern America--that such conditions could be possible in the +democracy today--is an amazement that staggers belief. + + + +II + + +Hon. Frank J. Cannon is the son of George Q. Cannon of Utah, who was +First Councillor of the Mormon Church from 1880 to 1901. After the +death of Brigham Young, George Q. Cannon's diplomacy saved the Mormon +communism from destruction by the United States government. It was his +influence that lifted the curse of polygamy from the Mormon faith. Under +his leadership Utah obtained the right of statehood; and his financial +policies were establishing the Mormon people in industrial prosperity +when he died. + +In all these achievements the son shared with his father, and in some of +them--notably in the obtaining of Utah's statehood--he had even a larger +part than George Q. Cannon himself. When the Mormon communities, in +1888, were being crushed by proscription and confiscation and the +righteous bigotries of Federal officials, Frank J. Cannon went to +Washington, alone--almost from the doors of a Federal prison--and, +by the eloquence of his plea for his people, obtained from President +Cleveland a mercy for the Mormons that all the diplomacies of the +Church's politicians had been unable to procure. Again, in 1890, when +the Mormons were threatened with a general disfranchisement by means of +a test oath, he returned to Washington and saved them, with the aid +of James G. Blame, on the promise that the doctrine and practice of +polygamy were to be abandoned by the Mormon Church; and he assisted in +the promulgation and acceptance of the famous "manifesto" of 1890, +by which the Mormon Prophet, as the result of a "divine revelation," +withdrew the doctrine of polygamy from the practice of the faith. + +He organized the Republican party in Utah, and led it in the first +campaigns that divided the people of the territory on the lines of +national issues and freed them from the factions of a religious dispute. +He delivered to Washington the pledges of the Mormon leaders, by which +the emancipation of their people from hierarchical domination was +promised and the right of statehood finally obtained. He was elected the +first United States Senator from Utah, against the unwilling candidacy +of his own father, when the intrigues of the Mormon priests pitted +the father against the son and violated the Church's promise of +non-interference in politics almost as soon as it had been given. + +It was his voice, in the Senate, that helped to reawaken the national +conscience to the crimes of Spanish rule in Cuba, when the "financial +interests" of this country were holding the government back from any +interference in Cuban affairs. He was one of the leaders in Washington +of the first ill-fated "Insurgent Republican" movement against the +control of the Republican party by these same piratical "interests;" and +he was the only Republican Senator who stood to oppose them by voting +against the iniquitous Dingley tariff bill of 1897. He delivered the +speech of defiance at the Republican national convention of 1896, when +four "Silver Republican" Senators led their delegations out of that +convention in revolt. And by all these acts of independence he put +himself in opposition to the politicians of the Mormon Church, who were +allying themselves with Hanna and Aldrich, the sugar trust, the railroad +lobby, and the whole financial and commercial Plunderbund in politics +that has since come to be called "The System." + +He returned to Utah to prevent the sale of a United States Senatorship +by the Mormon Church; and, though he was himself defeated for +re-election, he helped to hold the Utah legislature in a deadlock that +prevented the selection of a successor to his seat. He fought to +compel the leaders of the Church to fulfill the pledges which they had +authorized him to give in Washington when statehood was being obtained. +After his father's death, when these pledges began to be openly +violated, he directed his attack particularly against Joseph F. Smith, +the new President of the Church, who was principally responsible for the +Church's breach of public faith. Through the columns of the Salt Lake +Tribune he exposed the treasonable return to the practice of polygamy +which Joseph F. Smith had secretly authorized and encouraged. He opposed +the election of Apostle Reed Smoot to the United States Senate, as +a violation of the statehood pledges. He criticized the financial +absolutism of the Mormon Prophet, which Smith was establishing in +partnership with "the Plunderbund." He was finally excommunicated and +ostracized, by his father's successors in power, for championing the +political and social liberties of the Mormon people whom he had helped +to save from destruction and whose statehood sovereignty he had so +largely obtained. + +When the partnership of the Church and "the Interests" prevented the +expulsion of Apostle Smoot from the Senate, Senator Cannon withdrew from +Utah, convinced that nothing could be done for the Mormons so long as +the national administration sustained the sovereignty of the Mormon +kingdom as a co-ordinate power in this Republic. For the last few years +he has been a newspaper editor in Denver, Colorado--on the Denver Times +and the Rocky Mountain News--helping the reform movement in Colorado +against the corporation control of that state, and waiting for the +opportunity to renew his long fight for the Mormon people. + +In the following narrative he returns to that fight. In fulfillment of +a promise made before he left Utah--and seeing now, in the new +"insurgency," the hope of freeing Utah from slavery to "the System"--he +here addresses himself to the task of exposing the treasons and +tyrannies of the Mormon Prophet and the consequent miseries among his +people. + +In the course of his exposition, he gives a most remarkable picture +of the Mormon people, patient, meek, and virtuous, "as gentle as the +Quakers, as staunch as the Jews." He introduces the world for the first +time to the conclaves of the Mormon ecclesiasts, explains the simplicity +of some of them, the bitterness of others, the sincerity of almost +all--illuminating the dark places of Church control with the +understanding of a sympathetic experience, and bringing out the virtues +of the Mormon system as impartially as he exposes its faults. He traces +the degradation of its communism, step by step and incident by incident, +from its success as a sort of religious socialism administered for the +common good to its present failure as a hierarchical capitalism governed +for the benefit of its modern "Prophet of Mammon" at the expense of the +liberty, the happiness, and even the prosperity, of its victims. + +For the first time in the history of the Mormon Church, there has +arrived a man who has the knowledge and the inclination to explain it. + +He does this fearlessly, as a duty, and without any apologies, as a +public right. "He is not, and never has been an official member of the +Church, in any sense or form," Joseph F. Smith, as President of the +Church, testified concerning him, at Washington in 1904; and though this +statement is one of the inspired Prophet's characteristic perversions of +the truth, it covers the fact that Senator Cannon has always opposed the +official tyrannies of the hierarchs. The present Mormon leaders accepted +his aid in freeing Utah, well aware of his independence. They profited +by his success with a more or less doubtful gratitude. They betrayed him +promptly--as they betrayed the nation and their own followers--as soon +as they found themselves in a position safely to betray. In this book +he merely continues an independence which he has always maintained, and +replies to secret and personal treason with a public criticism, to which +he has never hesitated to resort. + +He begins his story with the year 1888, and devotes the first chapters +to a depiction of the miseries of the Mormon people in the unhappy +days of persecution. He continues with the private details of the +confidential negotiations in Washington and the secret conferences in +Salt Lake City by which the Mormons were saved. He gives the truth about +the political intrigues that accompanied the grant of Utah's statehood, +and he relates, pledge by pledge, the covenants then given by the Mormon +leaders to the nation and since treasonably violated and repudiated +by them. He explains the progress of this repudiation with an intimate +"inside" knowledge of facts which the Mormon leaders now deny. And +he exposes the horror of conditions in Utah today as no other man in +America could expose them--for his life has been spent in combating the +influences of which these conditions are the result; and he understands +the present situation as a doctor understands the last stages of a +disease which he has been for years vainly endeavoring to check. + +But aside from all this--aside from his exposure of the Mormon +despotism, his study of the degradation of a modern community, or his +secret history of the Church's dark policies in "sacred places"--he +relates a story that is full of the most astonishing curiosities of +human character and of dramatic situations that are almost mediaeval in +their religious aspects. He goes from interviews with Cleveland or Blame +to discuss American politics with men who believe themselves in direct +communication with God--who talk and act like the patriarchs of the Old +Testament--who accept their own thoughts as the inspiration of the Holy +Ghost, and deliver their personal decisions, reverently, as the Will +of the Lord. He shows men and women ready to suffer any martyrdom in +defense of a doctrine of polygamy that is a continual unhappiness and +cross upon them. He depicts the social life of the most peculiar sect +that has ever lived in a Western civilization. He writes--unconsciously, +and for the first time that it has ever been written--the naive, +colossal drama of modern Mormonism. + +H. J. O'H. + + + + +Forward + + +On the fourth day of January, 1896, the territory of Utah was admitted +to statehood, and the proscribed among its people were freed to the +liberties of American citizenship, upon the solemn covenant of the +leaders of the Mormon Church that they and their followers would live, +thereafter, according to the laws and institutions of the nation of +which they were allowed to become a part. And that gracious settlement +of upwards of forty years of conflict was negotiated through responsible +mediators, was endorsed by the good faith of the non-Mormons of Utah, +and was sealed by a treaty convention in which the high contracting +parties were the American Republic and the "Kingdom of God on Earth." + +I propose, in this narrative, to show that the leaders of the Mormon +Church have broken their covenant to the nation; that they have abused +the confidence of the Gentiles of Utah and betrayed the trust of the +people under their power, by using that power to prevent the state of +Utah from becoming what it had engaged to become. I propose to show +that the people of Utah, upraised to freedom by the magnanimity of the +nation, are being made to appear traitorous to the generosity that +saved them; that the Mormons of Utah are being falsely misled into the +peculiar dangers from which they thought they had forever escaped; that +the unity, the solidarity, the loyalty of these fervent people is being +turned as a weapon of offense against the whole country, for the +greater profit of the leaders and the aggrandizement of their power. I +undertake, in fact, in this narrative, to expose and to demonstrate what +I do believe to be one of the most direful conspiracies of treachery in +the history of the United States. + +Not that I have anything in my heart against the Mormon people! Heaven +forbid! I know them to be great in their virtues, wholesome in their +relations, capable of an heroic fortitude, living by the tenderest +sentiments of fraternity, as gentle as the Quakers, as staunch as the +Jews. I think of them as a man among strangers thinks of the dearness of +his home. I am bound to them in affection by all the ties of life. The +smiles of neighborliness, the greetings of friends, all the familiar +devotion of brothers and sisters, the love of the parents who held me +in their arms by these I know them as my own people, and by these I +love them as a good people, as a strong people, as a people worthy to be +strong and fit to be loved. + +But it is even through their virtue and by their very strength that they +are being betrayed. A human devotion--the like of which has rarely +lived among the citizens of any modern state--is being directed as +an instrument of subjugation against others and held as a means of +oppression upon the Mormons themselves. Noble when they were weak, +they are being led to ignoble purpose now that they have become strong. +Praying for justice when they had no power, now that they have gained +power it is being abused to ends of injustice. Their leaders, reaching +for the fleshpots for which these simple-hearted devotees have never +sighed, have allied themselves with all the predaceous "interests" of +the country and now use the superhuman power of a religious tyranny to +increase the dividends of a national plunder. + +In the long years of misery when the Mormons of Utah were proscribed and +hunted, because they refused to abandon what was to them, at that, time, +a divine revelation and a confirmed article of faith, I sat many times +in the gallery of the Senate in Washington, and heard discussed new +measures of destruction against these victims of their own fidelity, +and felt the dome above me impending like a brazen weight of national +resentment upon all our heads. When, a few years later, I stood before +the President's desk in the Senate chamber, to take my oath of office +as the representative of the freed people of Utah in the councils of the +nation, I raised my eyes to my old seat of terror in the gallery, +and pledged myself, in that remembrance, never to vote nor speak for +anything but the largest measure of justice that my soul was big enough +to comprehend. By such engagement I write now, bound in a double debt +of obligation to the nation whose magnanimity then saved us and to the +people whom I humbly helped to save. + +Frank J. Cannon. + + + +UNDER THE PROPHET IN UTAH + + + +Chapter I. In the Days of the Raid + + +About ten o'clock one night in the spring of 1888, I set out secretly, +from Salt Lake City, on a nine-mile drive to Bountiful, to meet my +father, who was concealed "on the underground," among friends; and that +night drive, with its haste and its apprehension, was so of a piece with +the times, that I can hardly separate it from them in my memory. We were +all being carried along in an uncontrollable sweep of tragic events. In +a sort of blindness, like the night, unable to see the nearest fork of +the road ahead of us, we were being driven to a future that held we knew +not what. + +I was with my brother Abraham (soon to become an apostle of the Mormon +Church), who had himself been in prison and was still in danger of +arrest. And there is something typical of those days in the recollection +I have of him in the carriage: silent, self-contained, and--when he +talked--discussing trivialities in the most calm way in the world. The +whole district was picketed with deputy marshals; we did not know that +we were not being followed; we had always the sense of evading patrols +in an enemy's country. But this feeling was so old with us that it had +become a thing of no regard. + +There was something even more typical in the personality of our +driver--a giant of a man named Charles Wilcken--a veteran of the German +army who had been decorated with the Iron Cross for bravery on the field +of battle. He had come to Utah with General Johnston's forces in 1858, +and had left the military service to attach himself to Brigham Young. +After Young's death, my father had succeeded to the first place in his +affections. He was an elder of the Church; he had been an aristocrat +in his own country; but he forgot his every personal interest in his +loyalty to his leaders, and he stood at all times ready to defend +them with his life--as a hundred thousand others did!--for, though the +Mormons did not resist the processes of law for themselves, except by +evasion, they were prepared to protect their leaders, if necessary, by +force of arms. + +With Wilcken holding the reins on a pair of fast horses at full speed, +we whirled past the old adobe wall (which the Mormons had built to +defend their city from the Indians) and came out into the purple night +of Utah, with its frosty starlight and its black hills--a desert night, +a mountain night, a night so vast in its height of space and breadth +of distance that it seemed natural it should inspire the people that +breathed it with freedom's ideals of freedom and all the sublimities of +an eternal faith. And those people--! + +A more despairing situation than theirs, at that hour, has never been +faced by an American community. Practically every Mormon man of any +distinction was in prison, or had just served his term, or had escaped +into exile. Hundreds of Mormon women had left their homes and their +children to flee from the officers of law; many had been behind prison +bars for refusing to answer the questions put to them in court; more +were concealed, like outlaws, in the houses of friends. Husbands +and wives, separated by the necessities of flight, had died apart, +miserably. Old men were coming out of prison, broken in health. A +young plural wife whom I knew--a mere girl, of good breeding, of gentle +life--seeking refuge in the mountains to save her husband from a charge +of "unlawful cohabitation," had had her infant die in her arms on the +road; and she had been compelled to bury the child, wrapped in her +shawl, under a rock, in a grave that she scratched in the soil with a +stick. In our day! In a civilized state! + +By Act of Congress, all the church property in excess of $50,000 had +been seized by the United States marshal, and the community faced the +total loss of its common fund. Because of some evasions that had been +attempted by the Church authorities--and the suspicion of more such--the +marshal had taken everything that he could in any way assume to belong +to the Church. Among the Mormons, there was an unconquerable spirit +of sanctified lawlessness, and, among the non-Mormons, an equally +indomitable determination to vindicate the law. Both were, for the most +part, sincere. Both were resolute. And both were standing in fear of a +fatal conflict, which any act of violence might begin. + +Moreover, the Mormons were being slowly but surely deprived of all civil +rights. All polygamists had been disfranchised by the bill of 1882, and +all the women of Utah by the bill of 1887. The Governor of the territory +was appointed by Federal authority, so was the marshal, so were the +judges, so were the United States Commissioners who had co-ordinate +jurisdiction with magistrates and justices of the peace, so were +the Election Commissioners. But the Mormons still controlled the +legislature, and though the Governor could veto all legislation he could +initiate none. For this reason it had been frequently proposed that the +President should appoint a Legislative Council to take the place of +the elected legislature; and bills were being talked of in Congress +to effect a complete disfranchisement of the whole body of the Mormon +people by means of a test oath. + +I did not then believe, and I do not now, that the practice of polygamy +was a thing which the American nation could condone. But I knew that our +people believed in it as a practice ordained, by a revelation from God, +for the salvation of the world. It was to them an article of faith as +sacred as any for which the martyrs of any religion ever died; and it +seemed that the nation, in its resolve to vindicate the supremacy of +civil government, was determined to put them to the point of martyrdom. + +It was with this prospect before us that we drove, that night, up the +Salt Lake valley, across a corner of the desert, to the little town of +Bountiful; and as soon as we arrived among the houses of the settlement, +a man stepped out into the road, from the shadows, and stopped us. +Wilcken spoke to him. He recognized us, and let us pass. As we turned +into the farm where my father was concealed, I saw men lurking here and +there, on guard, about the grounds. The house was an old-fashioned adobe +farm-house; the windows were all dark; we entered through the kitchen. +And I entered, let me say, with the sense that I was about to come +before one of the most able among men. + +To those who knew George Q. Cannon I do not need to justify that +feeling. He was the man in the hands of whose sagacity the fate of the +Mormons at that moment lay. He was the First Councillor of the Church, +and had been so for years. For ten years in Congress, he had fought and +defeated the proscriptive legislation that had been attempted against +his people; and Senator Hoar had said of him, "No man in Congress +ever served a territory more ably." He had been the intimate friend of +Randall and Blame. As a missionary in England he had impressed Dickens, +who wrote of him in "An Uncommercial Traveller." The Hon. James Bryce +had said of him: "He was one of the ablest Americans I ever met." + +An Englishman, well-educated, a linguist, an impressive orator, a +persuasive writer, he had lived a life that was one long incredible +adventure of romance and almost miraculous achievement. As a youth he +had been sent by the Mormon leaders to California to wash out gold for +the struggling community; and he had sent back to Utah all the proceeds +of his labor, living himself upon the crudest necessaries of life. As +a young man he had gone as a Mormon missionary to the Hawaiian Islands, +and finding himself unable to convert the whites he had gone among the +natives--starving, a ragged wanderer--and by simple force of personality +he had made himself a power among them; so that in later years Napella, +the famous native leader, journeyed to Utah to consult with him upon the +affairs of that distressed state, and Queen Liluokalani, deposed and in +exile, appealed to him for advice. He had edited and published a Mormon +newspaper in San Francisco; and he had long successfully directed the +affairs of the publishing house in Salt Lake City which he owned. He +was a railroad builder, a banker, a developer of mines, a financier of +a score of interests. He combined the activities of a statesman, a +missionary, and a man of business, and seemed equally successful in all. + +But none of these things--nor all of them--contained the total of the +man himself. He was greater than his work. He achieved by the force of +a personality that was more impressive than its achievements. If he had +been royalty, he could not have been surrounded with a greater deference +than he commanded among our people. A feeling of responsibility for +those dependent on him, such as a king might feel, added to a sense of +divine guidance that gave him the dignity of inspiration, had made him +majestical in his simple presence; and even among those who laughed at +divine inspiration and scorned Mormonism as the *Uitlander scorned the +faith of the Boer, his sagacity and his diplomacy and his power to read +and handle men made him as fearfully admired as any Oom Paul in the +Transvaal. + +When I entered the low-ceilinged, lamplit room in which he sat, he rose +to meet me, and all rose with him, like a court. He embraced me without +effusion, looking at me silently with his wise blue eyes that always +seemed to read in my face--and to check up in his valuation of +me--whatever I had become in my absence from his regard. + +He had a countenance that at no time bore any of the marks of the +passions of men; and it showed, now, no shadow of the tribulations of +that troubled day. His forehead was unworried. His eyes betrayed none of +the anxieties with which his mind must have been busied. His expression +was one of resolute stern contentment with all things--carrying the +composure of spirit which he wished his people to have. If I had been +agitated by the urgency of his summons to me, and he had wished to allay +my anxiety at once, the sight of his face, as he looked at me, would +have been reassurance enough. + +At a characteristic motion of the hand from him, the others left us. +We sat down in the "horsehair" chairs of a well-to-do farmer's +parlor--furnished in black walnut, with the usual organ against one +wall, and the usual marble-topped bureau against the other. I remember +the "store" carpet, the mortuary hair-wreaths on the walls, the +walnut-framed lithographs of the Church authorities and of the angel +Moroni with "the gold plates;" and none of these seem ludicrous to me to +remember. They express, to me, in the recollection, some of the homely +and devout simplicity of the people whose community life this man was to +save. + +He talked a few minutes, affectionately, about family matters, and +then--straightening his shoulders to the burden of more gravity--he +said: "I have sent for you, my son, to see if you cannot find some way +to help us in our difficulties. I have made it a matter of prayer, and +I have been led to urge you to activity. You have never performed a +Mission for the Church, and I have sometimes wondered if you cared +anything about your religion. You have never obeyed the celestial +covenant, and you have kept yourself aloof from the duties of the +priesthood, but it may have been a providential overruling. I have +talked with some of the brethren, and we feel that if relief does not +soon appear, our community will be scattered and the great work crushed. +The Lord can rescue us, but we must put forth our own efforts. Can you +see any light?" + +I replied that I had already been in Washington twice, on my own +initiative, conferring with some of his Congressional friends. "I am +still," I said, "of the opinion I expressed to you and President Taylor +four years ago. Plural marriage must be abandoned or our friends in +Washington will not defend us." + +Four years before, when I had offered that opinion, President Taylor +had cried out: "No! Plural marriage is the will of God! It's apostasy to +question it!" And I paused now with the expectation that my father would +say something of this sort. But, as I was afterwards to observe, it was +part of his diplomacy, in conference, to pass the obvious opportunity of +replying, and to remain silent when he was expected to speak, so that +he might not be in the position of following the lead of his opponent's +argument, but rather, by waiting his own time, be able to direct the +conversation to his own purposes. He listened to me, silently, his eyes +fixed on my face. + +"Senator Vest of Missouri," I went on, "has always been a strong +opponent of what he considered unconstitutional legislation against us, +but he tells me he'll no longer oppose proscription if we continue in +an attitude of defiance. He says you're putting yourselves beyond +assistance, by organized rebellion against the administration of the +statutes." And I continued with instances of others among his friends +who had spoken to the same purpose. + +When I had done, he took what I had said with a gesture that at once +accepted and for the moment dismissed it; and he proceeded to a larger +consideration of the situation, in words which I cannot pretend to +recall, but to an effect which I wish to outline--because it not only +accounts for the preservation of the Mormon people from all their +dangers, but contains a reason why the world might have wished to see +them preserved. + +The Mormons at this time had never written a line on social +reform--except as the so-called "revelations" established a new social +order--but they had practiced whole volumes. Their community was founded +on the three principles of co-operation, contribution, and arbitration. +By co-operation of effort they had realized that dream of the +Socialists, "equality of opportunity"--not equality of individual +capacity, which the accidents of nature prevent, but an equal +opportunity for each individual to develop himself to the last reach of +his power. By contribution by requiring each man to give one-tenth of +his income to a common fund--they had attained the desired end of modern +civilization, the abolition of poverty, and had adjusted the straps of +the community burden to the strength of the individual to bear it. By +arbitration, they had effected the settlement of every dispute of every +kind without litigation; for their High Councils decided all sorts +of personal or neighborhood disputes without expense of money to the +disputants. The "storehouse of the Lord" had been kept open to fill +every need of the poor among "God's people," and opportunities for self +help had been created out of the common fund, so that neither unwilling +idleness nor privation might mar the growth of the community or the +progress of the individual. + +But Joseph Smith had gone further. Daring to believe himself the earthly +representative of Omnipotence, whose duty it was to see that all had the +rights to which he thought them entitled, and assuming that a woman's +chief right was that of wifehood and maternity, he had instituted the +practice of plural marriage, as a "Prophet of God," on the authority of +a direct revelation from the Almighty. It was upon this rock that the +whole enterprise, the whole experiment in religious communism, now +threatened to split. Not that polygamy was so large an incident in the +life of the community--for only a small proportion of the Mormons were +living in plural marriage. And not that this practice was the cardinal +sin of Mormonism--for among intelligent men, then as now, the great +objection to the Church was its assumption of a divine authority to hold +the "temporal power," to dictate in politics, to command action and +to acquit of responsibility. But polygamy was the offense against +civilization which the opponents of Mormonism could always cite in +order to direct against the Church the concentrated antagonism of the +governments of the Western world. And my father, in authorizing me to +proceed to Washington as a sort of ambassador of the Church, evidently +wished to impress upon me the larger importance of the value of the +social experiment which the Mormons had, to this time, so successfully +advanced. + +"It would be a cruel waste of human effort," he said, "if, after having +attained comfort in these valleys--established our schools of art and +science--developed our country and founded our industries--we should now +be destroyed as a community, and the value of our experience lost to the +world. We have a right to survive. We have a duty to survive. It would +be to the profit of the nation that we should survive." + +But in order to survive, it was necessary to obtain some immediate +mitigation of the enforcement of the laws against us. The manner in +which they were being enforced was making compromise impossible, and +the men who administered them stood in the way of getting a favorable +hearing from the powers of government that alone could authorize a +compromise. It was necessary to break this circle; and my father went +over the names of the men in Washington who might help us. I could +marvel at his understanding of these men and their motives, but we came +to no plan of action until I spoke of what had been with me a sort of +forlorn hope that I might appeal to President Cleveland himself. + +My father said thoughtfully: "What influence could you, a Republican, +have with him? It's true that your youth may make an appeal--and the +fact that you're pleading for your relatives, while not yourself a +polygamist. But he would immediately ask us to abandon plural marriage, +and that is established by a revelation from God which we cannot +disregard. Even if the Prophet directed us, as a revelation from God, to +abandon polygamy, still the nation would have further cause for quarrel +because of the Church's temporal rule. No. I can make no promise. I can +authorize no pledge. It must be for the Prophet of God to say what is +the will of the Lord. You must see President Woodruff, and after he has +asked for the will of the Lord I shall be content with his instruction." + +Now, I do not wish to say--though I did then believe it--that the First +Councillor of the Mormon Church was prepared to have the doctrine of +plural marriage abandoned in order to have the people saved. It is +impossible to predicate the thoughts of a man so diplomatic, so astute, +and at the same time so deeply religious and so credulous of all the +miracles of faith. He did believe in Divine guidance. He was sincere +in his submission to the "revelations" of the Prophet. But, in the +complexity of the mind of man, even such a faith may be complicated with +the strategies of foresight, and the priest who bows devoutly to the +oracle may yet, even unconsciously, direct the oracle to the utterance +of his desire. And if my father was--as I suspected--considering a +recession from plural marriage, he had as justification the basic +"revelation," given through "Joseph the Prophet," commanding that the +people should hold themselves in subjection to the government under +which they lived, "until He shall come Whose right it is to rule." + +We talked till midnight, in the quiet glow of the farmer's lamp-light, +discussing possibilities, considering policies, weighing men; and then +we parted--he to betake himself to whatever secure place of hiding +he had found, and I to return to Ogden where I was then editing a +newspaper. I was only twenty-nine years old, and the responsibility +of the undertaking that had been entrusted to me weighed on my mind. I +waited for a summons to confer with President Woodruff, but none came. +Instead, my brother brought me word from the President that I must be +"guided by the spirit of the Lord;" and, finally, my father sent me +orders to consult the Second Councillor, Joseph F. Smith. + +Joseph F. Smith! Since the death of the founder of the Mormon Church, +there have been three men pre-eminent in its history: Brigham Young, +who led the people across the desert into the Salt Lake Valley and +established them in prosperity there; George Q. Cannon, who directed +their policies and secured their national rights; and Joseph F. Smith, +who today rules over that prosperity and markets that political right, +like a Sultan. Of all these, Smith is, to the nation now, of most +importance--and sinisterly so. + +No Mormon in those years, I think, had more hate than Smith for the +United States government; and surely none had better reasons to give +himself for hate. He had the bitter recollection of the assassination +of his father and his uncle in the jail of Carthage, Illinois; he could +remember the journey that he had made with his widowed mother across the +Mississippi, across Iowa, across the Missouri, and across the unknown +and desert West, in ox teams, half starved, unarmed, persecuted by +civilization and at the mercy of savages; he could remember all the +toils and hardships of pioneer days "in the Valley;" he had seen the +army of '58 arrive to complete, as he believed, the final destruction +of our people; he had suffered from all the proscriptive legislation of +"the raid," been outlawed, been in exile, been in hiding, hunted like a +thief. He had been taught, and he firmly believed, that the Smiths had +been divinely appointed to rule, in the name of God, over all mankind. +He believed that he--ordained a ruler over this world before ever the +world was--had been persecuted by the hate and wickedness of men. He +believed it literally; he preached it literally; he still believes and +still preaches it. I did not then sympathize with this point of view, +any more than I do now; but I did sympathize with him in the hardships +that he had already endured and in the trials that he was still +enduring--in common with the rest of us. The bond of community +persecution intensified my loyalty. I felt for him almost as I felt for +my own father. I went to him with the young man's trust in age made wise +by suffering. + +I had been directed to call on him in the President's offices, in Salt +Lake City, where he was concealed, for the moment, under the name of +"Mack"--the name that he used "on the underground"--and I went with my +brother, late at night, to see him there. The President's offices were +at that time in a little one-story plastered house that had been built +by Brigham Young between two of his famous residences, the "Beehive +House" and the "Lion House" (in which some twelve or fourteen of his +wives had lived). The three houses were within the enclosure of a high +cobblestone wall built by Brigham Young; and at night the great gate of +the wall was shut and locked. We hammered discreetly on its panels +of mountain pine, until a guard answered our knocking, recognized our +voices and admitted us. + +"He's in there," he said, pointing to the darkened windows of the +offices--toward which he led us. + +He unlocked the front door--having evidently locked it when he went to +the gate--and he explained to a waiting attendant: "These brethren have +an appointment. They wish to see Brother Mack." + +The attendant led us down a dimly-lighted hall, through the public +offices of the President into a rear room, a sort of retiring room, +carpeted, furnished with bookcases, chairs, a table. The window blinds +had all been carefully drawn. + +Joseph F. Smith was waiting for us--a tall, lean, long-bearded man of +a commanding figure standing as if our arrival had stopped him in some +anxious pacing of the carpet. His overcoat and his hat had been thrown +on a chair. He greeted us with the air of one who is hurried, and sat +down tentatively; and as soon as we came to the question of my trip to +Washington, he broke out: + +"These scoundrels here must be removed--if there's any way to do it. +They're trying to repeat the persecutions of Missouri and Illinois. They +want to despoil us of our heritage--of our families. I'm sick of being +hunted like a wild beast. I've done no harm to them or theirs. Why can't +they leave us alone to live our religion and obey the commandments of +God and build up Zion?" He had begun to stride up and down the floor +again, in a sort of driven and angry helplessness. "I thought Cleveland +would stop this damnable raid and make them leave us in peace--but he's +as bad as the rest. Can't they see that these carpet baggers are only +trying to rob us? Make them see that. The hounds! Sometimes it seems to +me that the Lord is letting these iniquities go on so that the nation +may perish in its sins all the sooner!" + +He sneered at John W. Young who had gone to Washington for the Church. +(I had met Smith himself there, earlier in the year.) "I thought +he'd accomplish something," he said, "with his fashionable home and +his--[**missing text?**] He's using money enough! He's down there, +taking things easy, while the rest of us are driven from pillar to +post." He attacked the Federal authorities, Governor West, the "whole +gang." He cried: "I love my wives and my children--whom the Lord +gave me. I love them more than my life--more than anything in the +world--except my religion! And here I am, fleeing from place to place, +from the wrath of the wicked--and they're left in sorrow and suffering." + +His face was pallid with emotion, and his voice came now hard with +exasperation against his enemies and now husky with a passionate +affection for his family--a man of fifty, graybearded, quivering in a +nervous transport of excitement that jerked him up and down the room, +gesticulating. + +When he had worn out his first anger of revolt, I brought the +conversation round to the question of polygamy, by asking him about a +provisional constitution for statehood which the non-polygamous +Mormons had recently adopted. It contained a clause making polygamy a +misdemeanor. "I would have seen them all damned," he said, "before I +would have yielded it, but I'm willing to try the experiment, if any +good can come." + +He had, I gathered, no aversion to "deceiving the wicked," but he was +opposed to leading his people away from their loyalty to the doctrine of +plural marriage, by conceding anything that might weaken their faith in +it. And yet this impression may misrepresent him. He was too agitated, +too exasperated, for any serious reflection on the situation. + +My brother had gone--to keep some other engagement--and I stayed late, +talking as long as Smith seemed to wish to talk. He rose at last and +"blessed" me, his hands on my head, in a return to some larger trust in +his religious authority; and I left him--with very doubtful and mixed +emotions. His natural violence and his lack of discipline had been +matters of common gossip among our people, and I had heard of them from +childhood; but I had supposed that tribulations would, by this time, +have matured him. There was something compelling in his unsoftened +turbulence, but nothing encouraging for me as a messenger of +conciliation. I felt that there would be no help come from him in my +task, and I dropped him from my reckoning. + +I had made up my mind to a plan that was almost as desperate as the +conditions it sought to cure--a plan that was in some ways so absurd +that I felt like keeping it concealed for fear of ridicule--and I went +about my preparations for departure in a sort of hopeless hope. As the +train drew out from Ogden, I looked back at the mountains from my car +window, and saw again, in the spectacle of their power, the pathos of +our people--as if it were the nation of my worship that bulked there +so huge above the people of my love--and I, puny in my little efforts, +going out to plot an intercession, to appeal for a truce! It was almost +as if I were the son of a Confederate leader journeying to Washington, +on the eve of the Civil War, to attempt to stand between North and South +and hold back their opposing armies, single-handed. + +These are the things a man does when he is young. + + + +Chapter II. On A Mission to Washington + + + +I went discredited, as an envoy, by an incident of personal conflict +with the Federal authorities; and I wish to relate that incident before +I proceed any farther. I must relate it soon, because it came up for +explanation in one of my first interviews with President Cleveland; and +I wish to relate it now, because it was so typical of the day and the +condition from which we had to save ourselves. + +In the winter of 1885-6, the United States Marshals had been pursuing my +father from place to place with such determined persistence that it was +evident his capture was only a matter of time. We believed that if +he were arrested and tried before Chief Justice Zane--with District +Attorney Dickson and Assistant District Attorney Varian prosecuting--he +would be convicted on so many counts that he would be held in prison +indefinitely--that he might, in fact, end his days there. There was +the rumor of a boast, to this effect, made by Federal officers; and we +misunderstood them and their motives, in those days, sufficiently to +accept the unjust report as well-founded. + +My father, as First Councillor of the Church, had proposed to President +Taylor that every man who was living in plural marriage should surrender +himself voluntarily to the court and plead: "I entered into this +covenant of celestial marriage with a personal conviction that it was an +order revealed by our Father in Heaven for the salvation of mankind. I +have kept my covenant in purity. I believed that no constitutional law +of the country could forbid this practice of a religious faith. As the +laws of Congress conflict with my sense of submission to the will of the +Lord, I now offer myself, here, for whatever judgment the courts of my +country may impose." He believed that such a course would vindicate the +sincerity of the men who had engaged in polygamy and defied the law +in an assumption of religious immunity; and he believed that the world +would pause to reconsider its judgment upon us, if it saw thousands +of men--the bankers, the farmers, the merchants, and all the religious +leaders of a civilized community--marching in a mass to perform such an +act of faith. + +But President Taylor was not prepared for a movement that would have +recommended itself better to the daring genius of Brigham Young. Taylor +had given himself into the custody of the officers of the law once--in +Carthage, Illinois--with Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum Smith; and +Taylor had been wounded by the mob that broke into the jail and shot +the Smiths to death. This, perhaps, had cured him of any faith in the +protecting power of innocency. He decided against voluntary surrender; +and now that my father's liberty was so seriously threatened, he ordered +him to go either to Mexico or to the Sandwich Islands--his old +mission field--where he would be beyond the reach of the United States +authorities. + +My father believed that if he left Utah, his recession might tend to +placate the government and soften the severity of the prosecutions of +the Mormons; and accordingly, on the night of February 12, 1886, he +boarded a west-bound Central Pacific train at Willard. The Federal +officers in some way learned of it; he was arrested, on the train, at +Humboldt Wells, Nevada, and brought back to Utah. Near Promontory he +fell from the steps of the moving car, at night, in the midst of an +alkali desert, and hurt himself seriously. He was recaptured and brought +to Salt Lake City on a stretcher, in a special car, guarded by a squad +of soldiers from Fort Douglas, with loaded muskets, and a captain with +a conspicuous sword. He was taken to Judge Zane's chambers and placed +under bonds of $25,000. Immediately two bench warrants were issued by a +United States Commissioner, and these were served upon him while he lay +on a mattress on the floor of Zane's office. Two more bonds of $10,000 +each were given. He was then taken to his home. + +Later--(President Taylor still insisting that he must not stand +trial)--he disappeared again, "on the underground," and his bonds +were declared forfeited. But in the meantime, while the grand jury was +hearing testimony against him, one of the beloved women of his family +was called for examination, and District Attorney Dickson asked her +some questions that deeply wounded her. She returned home weeping. My +brothers and I felt that the questions had been needlessly offensive, +and after an indignant discussion of the matter, I undertook to +remonstrate personally with Mr. Dickson. + +If I had been as wise, then, as I sometimes think I am now, I should +have realized that a meeting between us was dangerous; that the feeling, +on our side at least, was too warm for calm remonstrances. And I should +not have taken with me a younger brother, about sixteen years old, with +all the hot-headedness of youth. Fortunately we did not go armed. + +We sought Dickson in the evening, at the Continental Hotel--the old, +adobe Continental with its wide porches and its lawn trees--and we found +him in the lobby. I asked him to step out on the porch, where I might +speak with him in private. He came without a moment's hesitation. He was +a big, handsome, black-bearded man in the prime of his strength. + +We had scarcely exchanged more than a few sentences formally, when my +brother drew back and struck him a smashing blow in the face. Dickson +grappled with me, a little blinded, and I called to the boy to +run--which he very wisely did. Dickson and I were at once surrounded, +and I was arrested. + +Ordinarily the incident would have been trivial enough, but in the +alarmed state of the public mind it was magnified into an attempt on the +part of George Q. Cannon's sons to take the life of the United States +District Attorney. Indictments were found against my brother and myself, +and against a cousin who happened to be in another part of the hotel at +the time of the attack. Some weeks later, when the excitement had rather +died down, I went to the District Attorney's office and arranged with +his assistant, Mr. Varian, that the indictments against my brother (who +had escaped from Utah) and my cousin (who was wholly innocent) should +be quashed, and that I should plead guilty to a charge of assault and +battery. On this understanding, I appeared in court before Chief Justice +Zane. + +But Mr. Varian, having consulted with Mr. Dickson, had learned that I +had not struck the blow--though, as the elder brother, I was morally +responsible for it--and he suggested to the court that sentence be +suspended. This, Justice Zane seemed prepared to do, but I objected. I +was a newspaper writer (as I explained), and I felt that if I criticized +the court thereafter for what I believed to be a harshness that amounted +to persecution, I could be silenced by the imposition of the suspended +sentence; and if I failed to criticize, I should be false to what I +considered my duty. I did not wish to be put in any such position; and I +said so. + +Justice Zane had a respect for the constitution and the statutes that +amounted to a creed of infallibility. He was the most superbly rigid +pontiff of legal justice that I ever knew. A man of unspotted character, +a Puritan, of a sincerity that was afterwards accepted and admired +from end to end of Utah, he was determined to vindicate the essential +supremacy of the civil law over the ecclesiastical domination in +the territory; and every act of insubordination against that law was +resented and punished by him, unforgivingly. He promptly sentenced me to +three months in the County jail and a fine of $150. + +My imprisonment was, of course, a farce. I was merely confined, most of +the time, in a room in the County Court House, where I lived and worked +as if I were in my home. But the sentence remained on my record as a +sufficient mark of my recalcitrance; and I knew that it would not aid me +in my appeal to Washington, where I intended to argue--as the first wise +concession needed of the Federal authorities--that Chief Justice +Zane should no longer be retained on the bench in Utah, but should +be succeeded by a man more gentle. He was the great figure among our +prosecutors; the others were District Attorney Dickson and the two +assistants, Mr. Varian and Mr. Riles. The square had only seemed to +be broken by the recent retirement of Mr. Dickson; the strength of his +purpose remained still in power, in the person of Judge Zane. + +And let me say that whatever my opinion was of these men, at that time, +I recognize now that they were justified as officers of the law in +enforcing the law. If it had not been for them, the Mormon Church +would never have been brought to the point of abating one jot of its +pretensions. All four men, as their records have since proved, were much +superior to their positions as territorial officers. Utah's admiration +for Judge Zane was shown, upon the composition of our differences with +the nation, by the Mormon vote that placed him on the Supreme +Court bench. Indeed, it is one of the strange psychologies of this +reconciliation, that, as soon as peace was made, the strongest men of +both parties came into the warmest friendship; our fear and hatred +of our prosecutors changed to respect; and their opposition to our +indissoluble solidarity changed to regard when they saw us devoting our +strength to purposes of which they could approve. But now, in the midst +of our contentions, the aspect of splendor in their legal authority had +something baleful in it, for us; and we saw our own defiance set with a +halo of martyrdom and illumined by the radiance of a Church oppressed! + +There was more than a glimmer of that radiance in my thoughts as I made +the railroad journey from Utah to the East. The Union Pacific Railway, +on which I rode, followed the route that the Mormons had taken in their +long trek from the Missouri; and I could look from my car window and +imagine them toiling across those endless plains--in their creaking +wagons, drawn by their oxen and lean farm cows--choked with dust, burned +by the sun of the prairies, their faces to the unknown dangers of an +unknown wilderness, and behind them the cool-roomed houses, the moist +fields, the tree-shaded streets, all the quiet and comfort of the +settled life of homekeeping happiness that they had left. My own mother +had come that road, a little girl of eight; and my mind was full of +pictures of her, at school in a wagon-box, singing hymns with her elders +around the camp fires at night, or kneeling with the mourners beside the +grave of an infant relative buried by the roadside. Our train crossed +the Loup Fork of the Platte almost within sight of the place where my +father, a lad of twenty, had led across the river at nightfall, had been +lost to his party, and had nearly perished, naked to the cold, before +he struggled back to the camp. I could see their little circle of wagons +drawn up at sunset against the menace of the Indians who snaked through +the long grass to kill. I could feel some of their despair, and my heart +lifted to their heroism. Never had such a migration been made by any +people with fewer of the concomitants of their civilization. Their arms +had been taken from them at Nauvoo; they had bartered their goods for +wagons and cattle to carry them; even the grain that they brought, +for food, had to be saved for seed. They felt themselves devoted to +destruction by the people with whose laws and institutions they had come +in conflict, and they went forth bravely, trusting in the power of the +God whom they were determined to worship according to their despised +belief. + +Now they had built themselves new homes and meeting-houses in the +fertile "Valley;" and the civilization that they had left, having +covered the distance of their exile, was punishing them again for their +law-breaking fidelity to their faith. Surely they had suffered enough! +Surely it was evident that suffering only made them strong to resist! +Surely there must be somebody in power in Washington who could be +persuaded to see that, where force had always failed, there might be +some profit in employing gentleness! + +This, at least, was the appeal which I had planned to make. And I had +decided to make it through Mr. Abraham S. Hewitt, then mayor of New +York City, who had been a friend of my father in Congress. He was not +in favor with the administration at Washington. He was personally +unfriendly to President Cleveland. I was a stranger to him. But I had +seen enough of him to know that he had the heart to hear a plea +on behalf of the Mormons, and the brain to help me carry that plea +diplomatically to President Cleveland. + +When I arrived in New York I set about finding him without the aid of +any common friend. I did not try to reach him at his home, being aware +that he might resent an intrusion of public matters upon his private +leisure, and fearing to impair my own confidence by beginning with a +rebuff. I decided to see him in his office hours. + +I cannot recall why I did not find him in the municipal buildings, but I +well remember going to and fro in the streets in search of him, feeling +at every step the huge city's absorption in its own press and hurry of +affairs, and seeing the troubles of Utah as distant as a foreign war. +It was with a very keen sense of discouragement that I took my place, at +last, in the long line of applicants waiting for a word with the man +who directed the municipal activities of this tremendous hive of eager +energy. + +He was in the old Stewart building, on Broadway, near Park Place; and +he had his desk in what was, I think, a temporary office--an empty shop +used as an office--on the ground floor. There must have been fifty men +ahead of me, and they were the unemployed, as I remember it, besieging +him for work. They came to his desk, spoke, and passed with a rapidity +that was ominous. As I drew nearer, I watched him anxiously, and saw +the incessant, nervous, querulous activity of eyes, lips, hands, as +he dismissed each with a word or a scratch of the pen, and looked up +sharply at the next one. + +"Well, young man," he greeted me, "what do you want?" + +I replied: "I want a half hour of your time." + +"Good God," he said, in a sort of reproachful indignation, "I couldn't +give it to the President of the United States." + +I felt the crowd of applicants pressing behind me. I knew the man's +prodigious humanity. I knew that if I could only hold them back long +enough--"Mr. Hewitt," I said, "it's more important even than that. It's +to save a whole people from suffering--from destruction." + +He may have thought me a maniac; or it may be that the desperation of +the moment sounded in my voice. He frowned intently up at me. "Who are +you?" + +"I'm the son of your old friend in Congress, George Q. Cannon of Utah," +I said. "My father's in exile. He and his people are threatened with +endless proscriptions. I want time to tell you." + +His impatience had vanished. His eyes were steadily kind and interested. +"Can you come to the Board of Health, in an hour? As soon as I open the +meeting, I'll retire and listen to you." + +I asked him for a card, to admit me to the meeting, having been +stopped that morning at many doors. He gave it, nodded, and flashed his +attention on the man behind me. I went out with the heady assurance that +my first move had succeeded; but I went, too, with the restrained pulse +of realizing that I had yet to join issue with the decisive event and do +it warily. + +I do not remember where I found the Board of Health in session. I recall +only the dark, official board-room, the members at the table, +and--as the one small spot of light and interest to me--Mr. Hewitt's +white-bearded face, as an attendant opened the door to me, and the +Mayor, looking up alertly, nodded across the room, and waved his hand to +a chair. + +As soon as he had opened the meeting, we withdrew together to a settee +in some remote corner, and I began to tell him, as quickly as I could, +the desperateness of the Mormon situation. "Yes," he said, "but why +can't your people obey the law?" + +I explained what I have been trying to explain in this narrative--that +these people, following a Church which they believed to be guided by +God, and regarding themselves as objects of a religious persecution, +could not be brought by means of force to obey a law against conscience. +I explained that I was not pleading to save their pride but to spare +them useless suffering; their history showed that no proscription, short +of extermination outright, could overcome their resistance; but what +force could not accomplish, a little sensible diplomacy might hope to +effect. No first step could be made, by them, towards a composition of +their differences with the law so long as the law was administered +with a hostility that provoked hostility. But if we could obtain some +mitigation of the law's severity, the leaders of the Church were willing +to surrender themselves to the court--such of them as had not already +died of their privations or served their terms of imprisonment--and a +sense of gratitude for leniency would prepare the way for a recession +from their present attitude of unconquerable antagonism. + +He listened gravely, knowing the situation from his own experience +in Congress, and checking off the items of my argument with a nod of +acceptance that came, often, before I had completed what I had to say. +He asked: "Do you know President Cleveland?" + +I told him that I had seen the President several times but was not known +to him. + +"Well," he said, "I may be able to help you indirectly. I don't care +for Cleveland, and I wouldn't ask him for a favor if I were sinking. +But tell me what plan you have in your mind, and I'll see if I can't aid +you--through friends." + +I replied that I hoped to have some man appointed as Chief Justice in +Utah who should adopt a less rigorous way of adjudicating upon the cases +of polygamists; but that before he was selected--or at least before he +knew of his appointment--I wished to talk with him and convert him to +the idea that he could begin the solution of "the Mormon question" +by having the leaders of the community come into his court and accept +sentences that should not be inconsistent with the sovereignty of the +law but not unmerciful to the subjects of that sovereignty. + +"The man you want," Mr. Hewitt said, "is here in New York--Elliot F. +Sandford. He's a referee of the Supreme Court of this state--a fine man, +great legal ability, courageous, of undoubted integrity. Come to me, +tomorrow. I'll introduce you to him." + +It was the first time that I had even heard the name of Elliot F. +Sandford; and I had not the faintest notion of how best to approach him. + +I did not find him in Mr. Hewitt's office, on the morrow; but the Mayor +had communicated with him, and now gave me a letter of introduction to +him; and I went alone to present it. + +He received me in his outer office, with a manner full of kindliness but +non-committal. He glanced through my letter of introduction, and I tried +to read him while he did it. He was not on the surface. He was a tall, +dignified man, his hair turning gray--thoughtful, judicial--evidently +a man who was not quick to decide. He led me into his private room, and +sat down with the air of a lawyer who has been asked to take a case and +who wishes first to hear all the details of the action. + +I began by describing the Mormon situation as I saw it in those days: +that the Mormons were growing more desperately determined in their +opposition, because they believed their prosecutors were persecuting +them; that the District Attorney and his assistants were harsh to the +point of heartlessness, and that Judge Zane (to us, then) acted like +a religious fanatic in his judicial office; that nearly every Federal +official in Utah had taken a tone of bigoted opposition to the people; +and that the law was detested and the government despised because of the +actions of Federal "carpet-baggers." + +I was prejudiced, no doubt, and partisan in my account of the state of +affairs, but I did not exaggerate the facts as I saw them; I believed +what I said. + +I did not really reach his sympathy until I spoke of the court system +in Utah--the open venire, the employment of "professional jurors"--the +legal doctrine of "segregation," under which a man might be separately +indicted for every day of his living in plural marriage--and the result +of all this: that the pursuit of defendants and the confiscation of +property had become less an enforcement of law than a profitable legal +industry. + +After two hours of argument and examination, I ended with an appeal to +him to accept the opportunity to undertake a merciful assuagement of +our misery. After so many years of failure on the part of the Federal +authorities, he might have the distinction of calling into his court the +Mormon leaders who had been most long and vainly sought by the law; +and by sentencing them to a supportable punishment, he could begin the +composition of a conflict that had gone on for half a century. + +He replied with reasons that expressed a kindly unwillingness to +undertake the work. It would mean the sacrifice of his professional +career in New York. He would be putting himself entirely outside the +progression of advancement. His friends, here, would never understand +why he had done it. The affairs of Utah had little interest for them. + +I saw that he was not convinced. His wife had been waiting some minutes +in the outer office; he proposed that he should bring her in; and I +gathered from his manner, that he expected her to pronounce against his +accepting my solicitation, and so terminate our interview pleasantly, +with the aid of the feminine social grace. + +Mrs. Sandford, when she entered, certainly looked the very lady to +do the thing with gentle skill. She was handsome, with an animated +expression, dark-eyed, dark-haired, charming in her costume, a woman +of the smiling world, but maturely sincere and unaffected. I took a +somewhat distracted impression of her greeting, and heard him begin to +explain my proposal to her, as one hears a "silent partner" formally +consulted by a man who has already made up his mind. But when I glanced +at her, seated, her manner had changed. She was listening as if she were +used to being consulted and knew the responsibilities of decision. She +had the abstracted eye of impersonal consideration--silent--with now and +then a slow, meditative glance at me. + +Her first question seemed merely femininely curious as to the domestic +aspects of polygamy. How did the women endure it? + +I repeated a conversation I had once had with Frances Willard, who had +said: "The woman's heart must ache in polygamy." To which I had made the +obvious reply: "Don't women's hearts ache all over the world? Is there +any condition of society in which women do not bear more than an equal +share of the suffering?" + +Mrs. Sandford asked me pointedly whether I was living in polygamy? + +No, I was not. + +Did I believe in it? + +I believed that those did who practiced it. + +Why didn't I practice it? + +Those who practiced it believed that it had been authorized by a divine +revelation. I had not received such a revelation. I did not expect to. + +Our talk warmed into a very intimate discussion of the lives of the +Mormon people, but I supposed that she was moved only by a curiosity +to which I was accustomed--a curiosity that was not necessarily +sympathetic--the curiosity one might have about the domestic life of +a Mohammedan. I took advantage of her curiosity to lead up to an +explanation of how the proscription of polygamy was driving young +Mormons into the practice, instead of frightening them from it. And so +I arrived at another recountal of the miserable condition of persecution +and suffering which I had come to ask her husband help us relieve; and +I made my appeal again, to them both, with something of despair, because +of my failure with him, and perhaps with greater effect because of my +despair. She listened thoughtfully, her hands clasped. + +It did not seem that I had reached her--until she turned to him, and +said unexpectedly "It seems to me that this is an opportunity--a larger +opportunity than any I see here--to do a great deal of good." + +He did not appear as surprised as I was. He made some joking reference +to his income and asked her if she would be willing to live on a salary +of--How much was the salary of the Chief Justice of Utah? + +I thought it was about $3,000 a year. + +"Two hundred and fifty dollars a month," he said. "How many bonnets will +that buy?" + +"No," she retorted, "you can't put the blame on my millinery bill. If +that's been the cause of your hesitation, I'll agree to dress as becomes +the wife of a poor but upright judge." + +In such a happy spirit of good-natured raillery, my petition was +provisionally entertained, till I could see the President; and it is +one of the curiosities of experience, as I look back upon it now, that +a decision so momentous in the history of Utah owed its induction to the +wisdom of a woman and was confirmed with a domestic pleasantry. + +I left them after we had arrived at the tacit understanding that if +President Cleveland should make the appointment, Mr. Sandford would +accept it with the end in view that I had proposed. I went to report +my progress, in a cipher telegram, to Salt Lake City, and I recall the +peculiarly mixed satisfaction with which I regarded my work, as I +walked the streets of New York after this interview. In all that city +of millions, I knew, there were few if any men who were the equal of my +father in the essentials of manhood; and yet, before he could enjoy the +liberties of which they were so lightly unconscious, he must endure the +shame of a prison. I was rejoicing because I was succeeding in getting +for him a sentence that should not be ruinous! I was pleased because a +prospective judge had been persuaded to be not too harsh to him! + +It did not make me bitter. I realized that the peculiar faith which we +had accepted was responsible for our peculiar suffering. I saw that we +were working out our human destiny; and if that destiny was not of God, +but merely the issue of human impulsion, still our only prospect of +success would come of our bearing with experience patiently to make us +strong. + +When I went back to Mr. Hewitt, to tell him of my success, I consulted +with him upon the best way of approaching Mr. Cleveland. And he was not +encouraging. In his opinion of the President, he had, as I could see, +the impatient resentment which a quick-minded, nervous, small-bodied +man has for the big, slow one whose mental operations are stubbornly +deliberate and leisurely. And he was obviously irritated by the +President's continual assumption that he was better than his party. +"He's honest," he said, "by right of original discovery of what honesty +is. No one can question his honesty. But as soon as he discovers a +better thing than he knew previously, he announces it as if it were +the discovery of a new planet. It may have been a commonplace for a +generation. That doesn't signify. He announces it with such ponderosity +that the world believes it's as prodigious as his sentences!" + +As for my own mission: I would have to be persistent, patient, +and--lucky. "You'll have to be lucky, if you intend to persuade him to +acquire any information. He's been so successful in instructing mankind +that it's hard to get him to see he doesn't know all he ought to know +about a public question. But he's honest and he's courageous. If you can +convince him that your view is right, he'll carry but the conviction +in spite of everything. In fact he'll be all the better pleased if it +requires fearlessness and defiance of general sentimentality to carry it +out." + +He gave me a letter to Mr. William C. Whitney, then Secretary of the +Navy, explaining my purpose in coming to Washington, and asking him to +obtain for me an interview with President Cleveland without using Mr. +Hewitt's name. Then he shook hands with me, and wished me success. "I +have the faith," he said, "that is without hope." + +That expressed my own feeling. The faith that was without hope! + + + +Chapter III. Without A Country + + + +So I came to Washington. So I entered the capital of the government that +commanded my allegiance and inspired my fear. I wonder whether another +American ever saw that city with such eyes of envy, of aspiration, of +wistful pride, of daunted admiration. Here were all the consecrations +of a nation's memories, and they thrilled me, even while they pierced me +with the sense that I was not, and might well despair of ever being, +a citizen of their glory. Here were the monuments of patriotism +in Statuary Hall, erected to the men whose histories had been the +inspiration of my boyhood; and I remember how I stood before them, +conscious that I was now almost an outlaw from their communion of +splendor. I remember how I saw, with an indescribable conflict +of feelings, the ranked graves of the soldiers in the cemetery at +Arlington, and recollected that this very ground had been taken from +General Lee, that heroic opponent of Federal authority--and read the +tablet, "How sleep the brave who sink to rest by all their country's +wishes bless'd,"--and bowed in spirit to the nation's benediction upon +the men who had upheld its power. I was awed by a prodigious sense +of the majesty of that power. I saw with fear its immovability to the +struggles of our handful of people. And at night, walking under the +trees of Lafayette Park, with all the odors of the southern Spring +among the leaves, I looked at the lighted front of the White House and +realized that behind the curtains of those quiet windows sat the +ruler who held the almost absolute right of life and death over our +community--as if it were the palace of a Czar that I must soon enter, +with a petition for clemency, which he might refuse to entertain! + +When I had been in Washington, four years before, as secretary to +Delegate John T. Caine of Utah, I had felt a younger assurance that +our resistance would slowly wear out the Federal authority and carry us +through to statehood. Four years of disaster had starved out that hope. +The proposition had been established that Congress had supreme control +over the territories; and there was no virtue either in our religious +assumption of warrant to speak for God, or in our plea of inherent +constitutional right to manage our own affairs. Thirty years earlier, my +father had been elected Senator from the proposed state of Utah, and he +had been rejected. In thirty years so little progress had been made! The +way that was yet to travel seemed very long and very dark. + +Out of this mood of despondence I had to lift myself by an act of will. +There, Washington itself helped me against itself. I made a pilgrimage +of courage to its commemorations of courage, and drew an inspiration +of hope from its monuments to the achievements of its past. And +particularly I went to the house in which my father had lived when he +had had his part in the statesman life of the capital, and animated my +resolution with the thought that I must succeed in order that he might +be restored in public honor. + +I narrate all this personal incident of emotion in the hope that it may +help to explain a success that might otherwise seem inexplicable. +The Mormon Church had, for years, employed every art of intrigue and +diplomacy to protect itself in Washington. I wish to make plain that +it was not by any superior cunning of negotiation that my mission +succeeded. I undertook the task almost without instruction; I performed +it without falsehood; I had nothing in my mind but an honest loyalty +for my own people, a desire to be a citizen of my native country, and a +filial devotion to the one man in the world, whom I most admired. + +When I delivered my letter of introduction from Mr. Hewitt to Mr. +William C. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy, I found him very busy with +his work in his department--carrying out the plans that established the +modern American navy and entitled him to be called the "father" of it. +He withdrew from the men who were discussing designs and figures at a +table in his room, and sat with me before a window that looked out upon +the White House and its grounds; and he listened to me, interestedly, +genially, but with a thought still (as I could see) for the affairs that +my arrival had interrupted. He struck me as a man who was used to having +many weighty matters together on his mind, without finding his attention +crowded by them all, and without being impatient in his consideration of +any. + +I developed with him an idea which I had been considering: that the +President might not only help the Mormons by taking up their case, but +might gain political prestige for the coming campaign for re-election, +by adjusting the dissentions in Utah. He heard me with a twinkle. He +thought an interview might be arranged. He made an appointment to see +me in the afternoon and to have with him Colonel Daniel S. Lamont, the +President's secretary, who was then Mr. Cleveland's political "trainer." + +My meeting with Colonel Lamont, in the afternoon, began jocularly. +"This," Mr. Whitney introduced me, "is the young man who has a plan to +use that mooted--and booted--Mormon question to re-elect the President." + +"Hardly that, Mr. Secretary," I said. "I have a plan to help my father +and his colleagues to regain their citizenship. If President Cleveland's +re-election is essential to it, I suppose I must submit. You know I'm a +Republican." + +They laughed. We sat down. And I found at once that Colonel Lamont +understood the situation in Utah, thoroughly. He had often discussed +it, he said, with the Church's agents in Washington. I went over the +situation with him, as I had gone over it with Mr. Sandford, in careful +detail. He seemed surprised at my assurance that my father and the other +proscribed leaders of the Church would submit themselves to the courts +if they could do so on the conditions that I proposed; I convinced +him of the possibility by referring him to Mr. Richards, the Church's +attorney in Washington, for a confirmation of it. I pointed out that if +these leaders surrendered, President Cleveland could be made the direct +beneficiary, politically, of their composition with the law. + +Colonel Lamont was a small, alert man with a conciseness of speech +and manner that is associated in my memory with the bristle of his red +mustache cut short and hard across a decisive mouth. He radiated nervous +vitality; and I understood, as I studied him, how President Cleveland, +with his infinite patience for [** missing text?**] survived so well in +the multitudinous duties of his office--having as his secretary a man +born with the ability to cut away the non-essentials, and to pass on to +Mr. Cleveland only the affairs worthy of his careful deliberation. + +I was doubtful whether I should tell Colonel Lamont and Mr. Whitney of +my conversation with Mr. Sandford. I decided that their considerateness +entitled them to my full confidence, and I told them all--begging them, +if I was indiscreet or undiplomatic, to charge the offense to my lack of +experience rather than to debit it against my cause. + +They passed it off with banter. It was understood that the President +should not be told--and that I should not tell him--of my talk with +Mr. Sandford. Colonel Lamont undertook to arrange an audience with Mr. +Cleveland for me. "You had better wait," he said, "until I can approach +him with the suggestion that there's a young man here, from Utah, whom +he ought to see." + +I knew, then, that I was at least well started on the open road to +success. I knew that if Colonel Lamont said he would help me, there +would be no difficulties in my way except those that were large in the +person of the President himself. + +Two days later I received the expected word from Colonel Lamont, and I +went to the White House as a man might go to face his own trial. I +met the secretary in one of the eastern upstairs rooms of the official +apartments; and after the usual crowd had passed out, he led me into the +President's office--which then overlooked the Washington monument, the +Potomac and the Virginia shore. Mr. Cleveland was working at his desk. +Colonel Lamont introduced me by name, and added, "the young man from +Utah, of whom I spoke." + +The President did not look up. He was signing some papers, bending +heavily over his work. It took him a moment or two to finish; then he +dropped his pen, pushed aside the papers, turned awkwardly in his swivel +chair and held out his hand to me. It was a cool, firm hand, and its +grasp surprised me, as much as the expression of his eyes--the steady +eyes of complete self-control, composure, intentness. + +I had come with a prejudice against him; I was a partisan of Mr. Blame, +whom he had defeated for the Presidency; I believed Mr. Blame to be the +abler man. But there was something in Mr. Cleveland's hand and eyes +to warn me that however slow-moving and even dull he might appear, the +energy of a firm will compelled and controlled him. It stiffened me into +instant attention. + +He made some remark to Colonel Lamont to indicate that our conversation +was to occupy about half an hour. He asked me to be seated in a chair at +the right-hand side of his desk. He said almost challengingly: "You're +the young man they want I should talk to about the Utah question." + +The tone was not exactly unkind, but it was not inviting. I said, "Yes, +sir." + +He looked at me, as a judge might eye the suspect of circumstantial +evidence. "You're the son of one of the Mormon leaders." + +I admitted it. + +And then he began. + +He began with an account of what he had done to compose the differences +in Utah. He explained and justified the appointments he had made +there--appointments that had been recommended by Southern senators and +representatives who, because they were Southerners, were opposed to the +undue extension and arbitrary use of Federal power. He had made Caleb +W. West of Kentucky governor of Utah on the recommendation of Senator +Blackburn of Kentucky, my father's friend. He had made Frank H. Dyer, +originally of Mississippi, United States Marshal. He had appointed a +District Attorney in whom he had every confidence. He had a right to +believe that these men, recommended by the statesmen of the South, would +execute and adjudicate the laws in Utah according to the most lenient +Southern construction of Federal rights. He dwelt upon Governor West's +charitable intentions towards the Mormon leaders, went over West's +efforts at pacification in accurate detail, and told of West's chagrin +at his failure--with an irritation that showed how disappointed he +himself was with the continued recurrence of the Mormon troubles. + +I had to tell him that the situation had not improved, and his face +flushed with an anger that he made no attempt to conceal. He declared +that the fault must lie in our obstinate determination to hold ourselves +superior to the law. He could not sympathize with our sufferings, he +said, since they were self-inflicted. He admitted that he had once been +opposed to the Edmunds-Tucker bill, but felt now that it was justified +by the immovability of the Mormons. All palliatives had failed. The +patience of Congress had been exhausted. There was no recourse, except +to make statutes cutting enough to destroy the illegal practices and +unlawful leadership in the Mormon community. + +"Mr. President," I pleaded, "I've lived in Utah all my life. I know +these people from both points of view. You know of the situation only +from Federal office holders who consider it solely with regard to their +official responsibility to you and to the country. Why not learn what +the Mormons think?" + +He replied that it was not within the province of the President--his +power or his duty--to consider the mental attitude of men who were +opposing the enforcement of the law. + +It was an inexcusable offense against the general welfare that one +community should be rising continually against the Federal authority +and occupying the time and attention of Congress with a determined +recalcitrance. + +For an hour, he continued, with vigor and dignity, to describe the +situation as he saw it; and he chilled me to the heart with his +determination to concede nothing more to a community that had refused to +be placated by what he had already conceded. I listened without trying, +without even wishing, to interrupt him; for I had been warned by Mr. +Whitney and Colonel Lamont that it would be wise to let him deliver +himself of his opinion before attempting to influence him to a milder +one; and I could not contradict anything that he said, for he made no +misstatements of fact. + +Colonel Lamont had entered once, and had withdrawn again when he saw +that Mr. Cleveland was still talking. At the end of about an hour, the +President rose. "Mr. Cannon," he said, "I don't see what more I can do +than has already been done. Tell your people to obey the law, as all +other citizens are required to obey it, and they'll find that their +fellow-citizens of this country will do full justice to their heroism +and their other good qualities. If the law seems harsh, tell them that +there's an easy way to avoid its cruelty by simply getting out from +under its condemnation." + +His manner indicated that the conference was at an end. He reached out +his hand as if to drop the subject then and forever, as far as I was +concerned. "Mr. President," I asked, with the composure of desperation, +"do you really want to settle the Mormon question?" + +He looked at me with the first gleam of humor that had shown in his +eyes--and it was a humor of peculiar richness and unction. "Young man," +he asked, "what have I been saying to you all this time? What have I +been working for, ever since I first took up the consideration of this +subject at the beginning of my term?" + +"Mr. President," I replied, "if you were traveling in the West, and came +to an unbridged stream with your wagon train, and saw tracks leading +down into the water where you thought there was a ford, you would +naturally expect to cross there, assuming that others had done so before +you. But suppose that some man on the bank should say to you: 'I've +watched wagon trains go in here for more than twenty years, and I've +never yet seen one come out on the other side. Look over at that +opposite bank. You see there are no wagon tracks there. Now, down the +river a piece, is a place where I think there's a ford. I've never got +anybody to try it yet, but certainly it's as good a chance as this one!' +Mr. President, what would you do? Would you attempt a crossing where +there had been twenty years of failure, or would you try the other +place--on the chance that it might take you over?" + +He had been regarding me with slowly fading amusement that gave way to +an expression of grave attention. + +"I've been watching this situation for several years," I went on, "and +it seems to me that there's the possibility of a just, a humane, and +a final settlement of it, by getting the Mormon leaders to come +voluntarily into court--and it can be done!--with the assurance that the +object of the administration is to correct the community evil--not to +exterminate the Mormon Church or to persecute its 'prophets,' but to +secure obedience to the law and respect for the law, and to lead Utah +into a worthy statehood." + +I paused. He thought a moment. Then he said: "I can't talk any longer, +now. Make another appointment with Lamont. I want to hear what you have +to say." And he dismissed me. + +Colonel Lamont told me to come back on the following afternoon; and I +went away with the dubious relief of feeling that if I had not yet won +my case I had, at least, succeeded in having judgment reserved. I went +to work to arrange my arguments for the morrow, to make them as concise +as possible and to divide them into brief chapters in case I should have +as little opportunity for extended explanations as the President had +been giving me. I saw that the whole matter was gloomy and oppressive +to him--that his responsibility was as dark on his mind as our +sufferings--and I took the hint of his amused interest, in order to work +out ways of brightening the subject with anecdote and illustration. + +I saw Colonel Lamont on the morrow, and he beamed a congratulation on +me. "You've aroused his curiosity," he said. "You've interested him." + +He had made an appointment some days ahead; and when I entered the +President's office to keep that appointment, I found Mr. Cleveland at +his desk, as if he had not moved in the interval, laboriously reading +and signing papers as before. It gave me an impression of immovability, +of patient and methodical relentlessness that was disheartening. + +But as soon as he turned to me, I found him another man. He was +interested, receptive, almost genial. He gave me an opportunity to cover +the whole ground of my case, and I went over it step by step. He showed +no emotion when I recited some of the incidents of pathetic suffering +among our people; and at first he seemed doubtful whether he should +be amused by the humorous episodes that I narrated. But I did not wish +merely to amuse him; I was trying to convey to his mind (without saying +so) that so long as a people could suffer and laugh too, they could +never be overcome by the mere reduplication of their sufferings. He +looked squarely at me, with a most determined front, when I told him +that the Mormons would be ground to powder before they would yield. +"They can't yield," I warned him. "They're like the passengers on a +train going with a mad speed down a dangerous grade. For any of them to +attempt to jump is simple destruction. They can only pray to Providence +to help them. But if that train were to be brought to a stop at some +station where they could alight with anything like self-respect, there +would be many of them glad to get off--even though the train had not +arrived at its 'revealed' destination." + +I do not remember--and if I did, it would be tedious to relate--the +exact sequence and progression of argument in this interview and the +dozen others that succeeded it. Mr. Cleveland became more and more +interested in the Mormon people, their family life, their religion, and +their politics. He was as painstaking in acquiring information about +them as he was in performing all the other duties of his office. I might +have been discouraged by the number and apparent ineffectiveness of +my interviews with him, had not Colonel Lamont kept me informed of the +growth of the President's good feeling and of his genuinely paternal +interest in the people of Utah. It became more than a personal desire +with Mr. Cleveland to benefit politically by a settlement of the Mormon +troubles, if indeed he had ever had such a desire. His humanity was +enlisted, his conscience appealed to. + +He asked me, once, if I knew anything of Mr. Sandford, and I replied +that I knew him and believed in him. He told me, at last, that he +was going to appoint Mr. Sandford Chief Justice of Utah, and added +significantly, "I suppose he will get in touch with the situation." I +accepted this remark as a permission to confer with Mr. Sandford, and +I journeyed to New York to see him and to renew the understanding I had +with him. + +He was appointed Chief justice on the 9th day of July, 1888, and--as the +Mormon people expressed it--"the backbone of the raid was broken." +On August 26, 1888, he arrived in Salt Lake City. On September 17, my +father came before him in court and pleaded guilty to two indictments +charging him with "unlawful cohabitation." He was fined $450 and +sentenced to the penitentiary for one hundred and seventy-five days. His +example was followed by a number of prominent Mormons, including Francis +Marion Lyman, who is today the President of the Quorum of the twelve +Apostles and next in rank for the Presidency. It is true that not many +cases, relatively speaking, came to Justice Sandford; but the leader +whom the authorities were most eager to subjugate under Federal power +was judged and sentenced; and the effect, both on the country and on the +Mormon people, was all that we had expected. + +There are memories in a man's life that have a peculiar value. One +such, to me, is the picture I have in mind of my father undergoing +his penitentiary sentence, wearing his prison clothes with an +unconsciousness that makes me still feel a pride in the power of the +human soul to rise superior to the deformities of circumstance. Charles +Wilcken (whom I have described driving us to Bountiful) was visiting +him one day in the prison office, when a guard entered with his hat on. +Wilcken snatched it from his head. "Never enter his presence," he said, +"without taking it off." And the guard never did again.... I salute the +memory. I come to it with my head bare and my back stiffened. I see in +that calm face the possibilities of the human spirit. He was a man! + +He spent his time, there, as he would have spent it elsewhere, writing, +conferring with the agents of his authority, planning for his people. I +saw he was aware that he would emerge from his imprisonment a free man, +personally, but still enslaved by the conditions of the community; and +I knew that he would use his freedom to free the others. I knew that he +had accepted his sentence with this end in view. In plain words, I knew +now--though he never said so--that he was looking toward the necessary +recession from the doctrine of polygamy, and that he may have counted +on the spectacle of his imprisonment to help prepare his people for a +general submission to the law. + +With the entry of these leaders into prison, the Mormons felt for them +a warmer admiration, a deeper reverence; but it was mingled with a +gratitude to the nation for the leniency of the court and an awed sense, +too, of the power of the civil law. President Woodruff secretly and +tentatively withdrew his necessary permission, as head of the Church, +to the solemnization of any more plural marriages; and he ordered the +demolition of the Endowment House in which such marriages had been +chiefly celebrated. Many of the non-Mormons, who had despaired of any +solution of the troubles in Utah, now began to hope. The country had +been impoverished; the Mormons had been deprived of much of their +substance and financial vigor; and reasons of business prudence among +the Gentiles weighed against a continuance of proscription. Some of +them distrusted the motives of their own leaders more than they did the +Mormon people. Some were weary of the quarrel. For humane reasons, for +business reasons, for the sake of young Utah, it was argued that the +persecution should end. + +But in the years 1888 and 1889, thousands of newcomers arrived in Utah +with a strong antagonism to the religion and the political authority +of the Mormon Church; and, with the growth of Gentile population, there +came a natural determination on their part to obtain control of the +local governments of cities and counties. In opposing this movement, +the power of the Church was again solidified. By 1889, the Gentiles +had taken the city governments of Ogden and Salt Lake City, had elected +members of the legislature in Salt Lake County, and had carried the +passage of a Public School Bill, against the timid and secret opposition +of the Church. President Cleveland had been defeated and succeeded by +President Harrison; and Chief Justice Sandford had been removed and +Chief Justice Zane reinstated. (He did not adjudicate with his previous +rigor, however, because of the success of Justice Sandford's policy of +leniency.) The Church made no move publicly to repudiate polygamy, and +its silent attitude of defiance, in this regard, gave a battle cry to +all its enemies. + +The crisis was precipitated by a movement that had begun in the +territory of Idaho, where the Mormons had been disfranchised by means +of a test oath--(a provision still remaining in the Idaho state +constitution, but now nullified by the political power of the Mormon +leaders in Salt Lake City.) A bill, known as the Cullom-Struble bill, +was introduced at Washington, to do in Utah what had been done in Idaho. + +The Church was then directed by President Woodruff and his two +Councillor's, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith. But President +Woodruff was as helpless in the political world as a nun. He was a +gentle, earnest old man, patiently ingenuous and simple-minded, with a +faith in the guidance of Heaven that was only greater than my father's +because it was unmixed with any earthly sagacity. He had the mind, and +the appearance, of a country preacher, and even when he was "on the +underground" he used to do his daily "stint" of farm labor, secretly, +either at night or in the very early morning. He was a successful +farmer (born in Connecticut), of a Yankee shrewdness and industry. He +recognized that in order to get a crop of wheat, it was necessary to do +something more than trust in the Lord. But in administering the affairs +of the Church, he seemed to have no such sophistication. + +I can see him yet, at the meetings of the Presidency, opening his mild +blue eyes in surprised horror at a report of some new danger threatening +us. "My conscience! My conscience!" he would cry. "Is that so, brother!" +When he was assured that it was so, he would say, resignedly: "The Lord +will look after us!" And then, after a silence, turning to his First +Councillor, he would ask: "What do you think we ought to do, Brother +George Q.?" + +The Second Councillor, Joseph F. Smith, sat at these meetings, in a +saturnine reserve and silence, either nursing his concealed thought or +having none. When a decision had been suggested, he was appealed to and +added his assent. It always seemed to me that he was sulkily sleepy; +but this impression may have come from the contrast of the First +Councillor's mental alertness and the bright cheerfulness of the +President--who never, to my knowledge, showed the slightest bitterness +against anybody. President Woodruff believed that all the persecutions +of the Mormons were due to the Devil's envy of the Lord's power as it +showed itself in the establishment of the Mormon Church: and he assumed +that the Gentiles did the work they were tempted to do against us, +because the Holy Spirit had not yet ousted the evil from their souls. +He had no fear of the ultimate triumph of the Church, because he had no +fear of the ultimate triumph of God. Whenever he could escape for a day +from the worldly duties of his office, he went fishing! + +When the progress of the Cullom-Struble bill began to make its +threatening advance, my father went secretly to Washington; and a short +time afterwards, word came to me in Ogden, through the Presidency, that +he wished me to arrange my business affairs for a long absence from +Utah, and follow him to the capital. + +I found him there, in the office of Delegate John T. Caine of Utah--the +cluttered office of a busy man--and he explained, composedly, why he had +sent for me. The Cullom-Struble bill had been favorably considered by +the Senate Committee on Territories, and the disfranchisement of all the +Mormons of Utah seemed imminent. Every argument, political or legal, +had been used against the measure, in vain. Since I, a non-polygamous +Mormon, would be disfranchised if the bill became law, he thought I +might be a good advocate against it. He said: "I have not appeared in +the matter. None of our friends know that I am here. If it were known, +it might only increase our difficulties. Say nothing of it. We have been +at a disadvantage with a Republican administration because most of our +prominent men are Democrats. You were so effective with the Democrats, +let us see what you can do now with your own party friends." + +After taking his advice, I went to see Senator Henry M. Teller, of +Colorado, who was a friend of my father and of the Mormon people. He +admitted that the situation was desperate. He proposed that I should +speak before the committees of both houses; they might listen to me as +a Republican who had no official rank in the Church and no political +authority. He offered to introduce me to any of the Senators and members +of Congress, but advised that I should rather go unintroduced, without +influence, and make my appeal as a private citizen. + +This sounded to me depressingly like the call to lead a "forlorn hope." +I reported to my father again, and was not altogether reassured by a +tranquility which he seemed to be able to maintain in the face of any +desperation. Other agencies of the Church had reached the end of their +resources. There was no help in sight. And I went, at last, to throw our +case upon the mercy of the Secretary of State, Mr. James G. Blaine, +my father's friend, the friend of our people, the statesman whom I--in +common with millions of other Americans--regarded with a reverence that +approached idolatry. + +He received me in the long room of the Secretary's apartments, standing, +a striking figure in black, against the rich and heavy background of the +official furnishing. He was very pale--unhealthily so--perhaps with the +progress of the disease of which he was to die in so short a time. In +contrast with his usual brilliancy of mind, he seemed to me, at first, +depressed and quiet--with a kindly serenity of manner, at once gracious, +and intimate, but masterful. + +He was instantly and deeply interested in what I had to say; he seated +himself--on a sofa, near the embrasure of a window--motioned me to bring +a chair to his side, and heard me in an erect attitude of thoughtful +attention, re-assuring me now and then by reaching out to lay a hand +on my knee when he saw from my hesitancy that I feared I might be too +candid in my confidences; and the look of his eye and the touch of +his hand were as if he said: "I'm your friend. Anything you may say is +perfectly safe with me." + +I told him of my father's imprisonment. + +"It is dreadful," he said. "You shock me to the soul." He spoke of their +friendship, of his admiration for my father's work in Congress, of his +personal regard for the man himself. "Of course," he said, "I have no +sympathy with your peculiar marriage system, and I'll never be able to +understand how a man like your father could enter it." I reminded him +that my father believed it a system revealed and ordained by God. "I +know," he replied. "That is what they say. And I suppose they have +scriptural warrant for polygamy. But it is a thing that would be 'more +honored in the breach than the observance.' Tell me, is the rule of the +Church absolute over you younger men?" + +I told him that it was, in respect of political control; that the +situation in Utah had placed us where there was no possibility of +compromise; that we must be of, with, and for our own people, or against +them. + +He asked me whether I intended to address myself to the President. I +replied, "Not yet"--since the bills were still pending in Congress +and were not being urged from the White House. He seemed pleased. As I +afterwards learned, there was a strong rivalry between the President and +the Secretary of State; and though I knew that Mr. Blaine's interest +in Utah was almost wholly one of responsible statesmanship, warmed by +a personal kindliness for our people, still it remains a fact that he +expected the support of the Utah Republican delegation in the convention +of 1892, and that it had been promised him by national Republicans who +were now laboring at Washington in our behalf. + +He encouraged me with an almost intimate emotion of pity and +friendliness; and I felt the largeness of the man as much in the warmth +of his humanity as in the breadth of his view. He approved, of my +appearing before the committees. "Go and tell them your own story, +yourself," he said. "Make your plea independently of all the formal and +official arguments that have been used. These have been exhausted. +They have been ineffective. We must use the personal and"--he added it +significantly--"the political appeal. If you find difficulty, let me +know. I shall not be idle in your behalf. If you meet any insuperable +obstacle, I'll see if I can't help you run over it." + +He rose to terminate the interview. He looked at me with a smile. "'The +Lord giveth,'" he said, "'and the Lord taketh away.' Wouldn't it be +possible for your people to find some way--without disobedience to +the commands of God--to bring yourselves into harmony with the law and +institutions of this country? Believe me, it's not possible for any +people as weak in numbers as yours, to set themselves up as superior +to the majesty of a nation like this. We may succeed, this time, in +preventing your disfranchisement; but nothing permanent can be done +until you 'get into line.'" + +He accompanied me toward the door, giving me friendly messages of regard +to deliver to my father. He put his arm around my shoulders, at last, +and said: "You may tell your father for me--as I tell you, young +man--you shall not be harmed, this time." + +I parted from him with an almost speechless relief and gratitude, and +hurried to my father with the news of hope. I had not told Mr. Blaine +that he was in Washington; for, without feeling that he saw himself +marked by his imprisonment, I was aware that his friends might pity him +for it, if they did not condemn him; and neither sentiment (I knew) was +he of the personal temper to encounter. + +I told him every detail of my talk with the Secretary of State; he heard +me, silently, meditatively. When I concluded with Mr. Blaine's assurance +that we should not be harmed "this time," but must "get into line," +he looked up at me with a significant steadiness of eye. "President +Woodruff," he said, "has been praying.... He thinks he sees some +light.... You are authorized to say that something will be done." + +I asked no question. His gaze conveyed assurance, but forbade inquiry. I +had to understand, without being told, that the Church was preparing to +concede a recession from the doctrine of polygamy. + +With this assurance to aid me, I began the work of reaching the +committees--warm work in a Washington summer, but hopeful in the new +prospect of a lasting success. The bill for disfranchisement had been +reported out by the committees and was on the calendar for passage. It +was necessary to have the question reopened before the committees +for argument. In soliciting the opportunity of a re-hearing, from +the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Orville H. Platt, of +Connecticut, I made my argument in a private conversation with him in +his rooms in the Arlington Hotel. When I had done, he chewed his cigar +a moment, looked at me quizzically, and asked: "Do you know Abbot R. +Heywood, of Ogden?"--and, as he asked it, he drew a letter from his +pocket. + +I replied that I knew Mr. Heywood well. + +"I have a letter here from him, on this same subject," he said. "Tell +me. What kind of man is he? And to what extent do you think I ought to +depend on his views?" + +I was never more tempted in my life to tell a lie. I knew Mr. Heywood +to be a man of truth and high ideals; but he had been Chairman of the +Anti-Church party in Weber County, and he had been one of the Gentile +leaders for several years. I knew the intensity of his feelings against +the rule of the Church in politics and the Mormon attitude of defiance +to the law. I was sure that he would be strong in his demand for the +passage of the disfranchisement act. + +I hesitated a moment. Senator Platt was watching me. Then, with a +resolve that our cause must stand or fall by the truth, I said: "Mr. +Heywood is a man of integrity. I think he would write exactly what he +believed to be true. But you know, Senator, intense feeling in politics +sometimes sways a man's judgment. In view of Mr. Heywood's long +controversy, I hope that if he has taken a view adverse to mine, his +antagonism may be mitigated in your mind by your own knowledge of human +feelings." + +Senator Platt held out the letter to me. "You've won your motion for a +re-hearing," he said. "I think we may be able to get the truth out of +you. We have not always had it in this Utah question. Read that." + +I read it. It was Mr. Heywood's solemn protest, as an American +citizen--on behalf of himself and the other members of the +perfunctory Republican Committee of his County--against the wholesale +disfranchisement of the Mormons, on the ground that it would only delay +a progressive American settlement of the territory! + +Then I went to the other members of the Senate committee privately, +and told them that the Mormon Church was about to make a concession +concerning its doctrine of polygamy. I told them so in confidence, +pointing out the necessity of secrecy, since to make public the news +of such a recession, in advance, would be to prevent the Church from +authorizing it. Not one of the Senators betrayed the trust. I was less +confidential with the members of the House Committee, because I realized +that nothing could be done against us unless the bill passed the Senate. +But I gave the news of the Church's reconsideration of its attitude +to Colonel G. W. R. Dorsey, the member from Nebraska, and he used his +influence to get me a rehearing from the House Committee. Finally I +appeared once before each committee, and argued our case at length. The +bills did not become law. Aided by Mr. Blaine's powerful friendship, we +were saved "for the time." + +It remained to make our safety permanent, and I took train for Utah, on +my father's counsel, to see President Woodruff. I had given my word that +"something was to be done." I went to plead that it should be done--and +done speedily. + + + +Chapter IV. The Manifesto + + + +I found him in the office of the Presidency--in the little one-story +house that I have described in my early interview with Joseph F +Smith--and he received me with the gracious affectionateness of a +fatherly old man. He asked me, almost at once: "What are they going to +do to us in Washington?" + +"President Woodruff," I replied, "we've been spared--temporarily. The +axe will not fall for a few moments. It depends on ourselves, now, +whether it shall fall or not." + +"Come into the other room," he said, under his voice, in an eager +confidentiality, like a child with a secret. And pattering along ahead +of me, quick on his feet, he signed to me to follow him--with little +nods and beckonings--into the retiring room where I had talked with +Smith. + +There he sat down, on the edge of his chair, his elbows supported on the +broad arms, leaning forward, partly bowed with his age, and partly with +an intentness of curiosity that glittered innocently in his guileless +eyes. A dear old character! Sweet in his sentiments, sweet in his +language, sweet in the expression of his face. + +I told him, in detail, of the events in Washington, and of the men who +had helped us in them--particularly of Mr. Blaine, who was apparently +a new character in his experience, and of Senator Orville H. Platt, in +whom he discovered an almost neighborly interest when I told him that +the Senator came from Connecticut, his native state. I warned him that +the passage of the measure of disfranchisement had been no more than +retarded. I pointed out the fatal consequences for the community if the +bill should ever become law--the fatal consequences for the leaders of +the Church if the non-polygamous Mormons, deprived of their votes, were +ever left unable to control the administration of local government. I +repeated the promise that my father had authorized me to carry to the +Senators and Congressmen who still had the Cullom-Struble bill in hand; +and I emphasized the fact that because of this promise the bill had been +held back--with the certainty that it would never become law if we met +the nation half way. + +I was watching him to see if he sensed the point I wished him to get. +When I touched the matter of my father's promise, his face became softly +reverent; and when I had done--looking at me without a trace of cunning +in his benignity, with an expression, rather, of exalted innocence +and faith,--he said: "Brother Frank, I have been making it a matter of +prayer. I have wrestled mightily with the Lord. And I think I see some +light." + +In order that there might be no misunderstanding, I put into plainer +words what I meant and what the prominent men in Washington had been led +to look for: since, by a "revelation" of the Church we were ordered +to give obedience to the government of the nation, and since we had +exhausted all our legal defenses, it was hoped that the Prophet, Seer, +and Revelator of the Church would find a way, under the guidance of God, +to bring our people into conformity with the law. + +As he accepted this calmly, I added: "To be very plain with you, +President Woodruff, our friends expect, and the country will insist, +that the Church shall yield the practice of plural marriage." + +His eyelids quivered a little, but he showed no other sign of flinching. +I saw that the counsels of his advisers and the comfort that he had +derived from his prayers had prepared him for an immolation that was +more serious to him than any personal sacrifice that he could make. He +said sadly: "I had hoped we wouldn't have to meet this trouble this way. +You know what it means to our people. I had hoped that the Lord might +open the minds of the people of this nation to the truth, so that +they might be converted to the everlasting covenant. Our prophets have +suffered like those of old, and I thought that the persecutions of Zion +were enough--that they would bring some other reward than this." If I +had been the bearer of a new edict of proscription, I think he could not +have been more profoundly oppressed by the sense of his responsibility. +"Did your father tell you," he asked, "that I had been seeking the mind +of the Lord?" + +I replied that he had. + +He reflected silently. "I shall talk with you again about it," he said, +at last. "I hope the Lord will make the way plain for his people." + +I do not wish to idealize the polygamous relation--but in monogamy a man +is not persecuted for his marriage, and sometimes he does not appreciate +the tie. In polygamy, the men and women alike had been compelled to +suffer on its account by the grim trials of the life itself and by the +hatred of all civilization arrayed against it. They had grown to value +their marriage system by what it had cost them. They had been driven by +the contempt of the world to argue for its sanctity, to live up to their +declarations, and to raise it in their esteem to what it professed to +be, the celestial order that prevailed in the Heavens! I knew, as well +as President Woodruff did, the wrench it would give their hearts to have +to abandon, at last, what they had so long suffered for. + +In the days of anxious waiting that followed, I saw Joseph F. Smith and +sounded him for any hint of progress. He said: "I'm sure I don't know +what can be done. Your father talked with President Woodruff and me +before he went to Washington, but I'm sure I can't see how we can +do anything." When my father returned home, I went to him many +times--without however learning anything definite. I knew that the men +in Washington would demand some tangible evidence of our good faith +before Congress should reconvene; and I repeatedly urged the necessity +of action. + +At length he sent me word, in Ogden, that President Woodruff wished to +confer with me, and he suggested that it would be permissible for me to +speak my opinions freely. I hastened to Salt Lake City, to the offices +of the Presidency. President Woodruff took me into a private room and +read me his "manifesto." + +It was the same that was issued on September 24, 1890, and ratified by a +General Conference of the Mormon Church on October 6, following. It +was the proclamation that freed the oppressed of Utah; for, by the +subsequent "covenant"--and its acceptance by the Federal government--the +nation did but confirm their freedom and accord them their +constitutional rights. Here, shaking in the hand of age, was a sheet of +paper by which the future of a half million people was to be directed; +and that simple old man was to speak through it, to them, with the awful +authority of the voice of God. + +He told me he had written it himself, and it certainly appeared to me +to be in his handwriting. Its authorship has since been variously +attributed. Some of the present-day polygamists say that it was I who +wrote it. Chas. W. Penrose and George Reynolds have claimed that they +edited it. I presume that as Mormons, "in good standing," believing in +the inspiration of the Prophet, they appreciate the blasphemy of their +claim! + +I found it disappointingly mild. It denied that the Church had been +solemnizing any plural marriages of late, and advised the faithful +"to refrain from contracting any marriages forbidden by the law of the +land." In spite of this mildness, President Woodruff asked me whether +I thought the Mormons would support the revelation--whether they would +accept it. + +I replied that there could be no proper anxiety on that point. The +majority of the Mormon people were ready for such a message. It might +be very much stronger without arousing resistance. With the exception +of the comparatively few men and women who were living in polygamy, the +community would accept it gratefully. Rather, I made bold to say, +my anxiety was as to whether the nation would believe that such an +equivocally-worded document meant an absolute recession from the +practice of plural marriage. + +It was plain that his advisers had not pointed out this danger to him. +He asked me how I thought the nation would take it. + +I asked him, point blank, whether it meant an absolute recession from +polygamy. + +He answered that it did. + +Then (I said) with such an interpretation of it, and a formal and public +acceptance of it by the Church authorities, I did not doubt that we +could convince the nation of its sufficiency. I reminded him--as I am +now glad to remember--that the word of the Mormon people had passed +current in the political and commercial circles of the country; that +I had several times been the bearer of messages from them to prominent +men; that we had been taken on faith and the faith had been +always vindicated. Finally, in order that I might carry away no +misapprehension, nor convey any, I asked him if it was the intention of +the manifesto to inhibit any further plural marriage living. + +He answered, quaintly: "Why, of course, Frank--because that's what +they've been persecuting us for." There was not even a shrewdness in his +voice when he added: "You know they didn't get our brethren in prison +for polygamy, but for living with their plural wives." + +Perhaps no other man in Utah could have said such a thing without +sarcasm. The fact was that the United States authorities had been +practically unable to prove a case of polygamy (which was a felony) +because the marriage records were concealed by the Church; but they +could prove plural marriage living (a mere misdemeanor) by repute and +circumstance. It was part of President Woodruff's unworldliness that he +did not see the satire of his words; and I was the more convinced of his +good faith. + +I was convinced also, by several of his remarks, that he had consulted +with the Church's attorney, Mr. Franklin S. Richards; and while I +trusted the President's unworldly faith, I trusted more the sagacity +of his more worldly advisers. I began to see, with a sure hope, the +beginning of the end of all our miseries. + +Some days later I was summoned to attend a meeting of the Church +authorities in the President's offices; and I knew that the test had +come. The Church was governed by the Presidency, composed of President +Woodruff and his two Councillor's, with the Quorum of the Twelve +Apostles, the Presidents of Seventies, and the presiding Bishopric, +composed of three members. These quorums aggregate twenty-five men; and +to their number may be added the Chief Patriarch of the Church, making a +body of twenty-six general authorities--the Hierarchy. It was from these +latter men, polygamists and (I feared) parochial in their ignorance of +the nation and their trust in the protection of their followers--it was +from them (and the other practicers of polygamy) that any opposition +would come to the acceptance and publication of the manifesto. + +They met--something less than a score of them, with two or three of +their most trusted advisers--in one of the general offices of the +Presidency, sitting in leather chairs along its walls, with a sort of +central skylight illuminating subduedly the anxiety of their silent +faces. President Woodruff and his two Councillor's entered to them; +and this insignificant-looking apartment--of such tremendous community +significance, because of the memories of its past--seemed to take on the +gravity of another momentous crisis in the destiny of its people. The +portraits in oils of the dead presidents, martyrs, and prophets of +the Church, looked down on us from the facade of a little gallery, and +caught my eyes almost hypnotically with the imperturbability of their +gaze. No word from them! In the midst of the broken utterance of +emotion--when the tears were wet on faces to whose manliness tears +were the very sweat of martyrdom--I saw those immovable countenances as +placid as the features of the dead. + +President Woodruff stood under them, so old and other-worldly, that he +seemed already of their circle rather than ours; and he spoke in a +voice of feeling for us, but with a simple and courageous finality that +sounded the very note of fate. He had called the brethren together (he +said) to submit a decision to their consideration, and he desired from +them an expression of their willingness to accept and abide by it. He +knew what a trial it would be to the "whole household of Israel." "We +have sought," he said, "to live our religion--to harm no one--to perform +our mission in this world for the salvation of the living and the dead. +We have obeyed the principle of celestial marriage because it came to us +from God. We have suffered under the rage of the wicked; we were driven +from our homes into the desert; our prophets have been slain, our holy +ones persecuted--and it did seem to me that we were entitled to +the constitutional protection of the courts in the practice of our +religion." + +But the courts had decided "against us." The great men of the nation +were determined to show us no mercy. Legislation was impending that +would put us "in the power of the wicked." Brother George Q. Cannon, +Brother John T. Caine, and the other brethren who had been in +Washington, had found that the situation of the Church was critical. +Brother Franklin S. Richards had advised him that our last legal defense +had fallen. "In broken and contrite spirit" he had sought the will of +the Lord, and the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that it was necessary +for the Church to relinquish the practice of that principle for which +the brethren had been willing to lay down their lives. + +A sort of ghastly stillness accepted what he said as a confirmation +of the worst fears of the men who had evidently come there with some +knowledge of what they were to hear. I glanced at the faces of those +opposite me. A set and staring pallor held them motionless. I was +conscious of a chill of heart that seemed communicated to me from them. +My brother Abraham was sitting beside me; I knew his deep affection for +his family; I knew with what a clutch of misery this edict of separation +was crushing his hope; I felt myself growing as pale and tense as he. + +The silence was broken by President Woodruff asking one of the brethren +to read the manifesto. When it was concluded, he said: "The matter is +now before you. I want you to speak as the Spirit moves you." + +There was no reply, except a sort of general gasp of low-voiced +interjections and a little buzz of whisperings that sounded like emotion +taking its breath. He called on my father to speak. The First Councillor +rose to make a statesmanlike review of the crisis; and I understood that +with his usual diplomacy he was putting aside from him the authority of +leadership until he could see whether an opposition was to develop that +should make it necessary for him to front it. + +That opposition made a rustle of stirring in the pause that followed. I +saw it in the changed expressions of some of the faces. Several of the +men--including my brother Abraham, and Joseph F. Smith--asked whether +the manifesto meant a cessation of plural marriages: whether no more +such marriages were to be allowed. + +President Woodruff answered that it did; that the Lord had taken back +the principle from the children of men and that we would have no power +to restore it. + +Then they asked whether it meant a cessation of plural marriage +living--whether they would be required to separate from the wives whom +they had taken in the holy covenant. + +He answered, firmly, that it did; that the brethren in Washington found +it imperative; that it was the will of the Lord; that we must submit. + +I saw their faces flush and then slowly pale again--and the storm broke. +One after another they rose and protested, hoarsely, in the voice of +tears, that they were willing to suffer "persecution unto death" rather +than to violate the covenants which they had made "in holy places" +with the women who had trusted them. One after another they offered +themselves for any sacrifice but this betrayal of the women and children +to whom they owed an everlasting faith. And a manlier lot of men never +spoke in a manlier way. Not a petty word was uttered. Their thought was +not for themselves. Their grief was not selfish. Their protests had a +dignity in pathos that shook me in spite of myself. + +When they had done, my father rose again with a face that seemed to bear +the marks of their grief while it repressed his own. He dwelt anew on +the long efforts of our attorney and our friends in Congress to resist +what we believed to be unconstitutional measures to repress our practice +of a religious faith. But we were citizens of a nation. We were +required to obey its laws. And when we found, by the highest judicial +interpretation of statute and constitution, that we were without grounds +for our plea of religious immunity, we had but the alternative either of +defying the power of the whole nation or of submitting ourselves to its +authority. For his part he was willing to do the will of the Lord. And +since the Prophet of God, after a long season of prayer, had submitted +this revelation as the will of the Lord, he was ready for the sacrifice. +The leaders of the Church had no right to think of themselves. They +must remember how loyally the people had sacrificed their substance and +risked their safety to guard their brethren who were living in plural +marriage. Those brethren must not be ungrateful now. They must not now +refuse to make their sacrifice, in answer to the sacrifices that had +been made for them so often. The people had long protected them. Now +they must protect the people. + +Under the commanding persuasion of his voice I saw the determination of +their resistance begin to falter and relax. President Woodruff called on +me to speak, and I felt that it was my duty to represent the needs, +the hopes, and the opportunities of the hundreds of thousands of the +undistinguished mass who would make no decision for themselves, but +whose fate was trembling on the event. I rose to speak for them, with +my hand on my brother's shoulder, knowing that my every word would be a +stab at his heart, and hoping that my grasp might be a touch of sympathy +to him--knowing that I must urge these elders to sacrifice themselves +and their families for a redemption of which I was to share the +benefits--but sustained by the remembrance of the solemn pledge which +I had been authorized to give in Washington to honorable men who had +trusted in our honor--and strengthened by the thought of all those dear, +to me, whose sufferings would be multiplied, with no hope of relief, if +the few would not now yield to save the many. + +I described the situation as I had seen it in Washington and as I knew +it in Utah from a more intimate personal experience than these leaders +could have of the sufferings of the people. I told them how cheerfully +and bravely the non-polygamists had borne the brunt of protecting them +in the practice of their faith, and yet how patient a hope had been +always with us that the final demand might not be made upon us for the +sacrifice of a citizenship which we valued more because it shielded them +than because it armed us. + +Encouraged by the face of President Woodruff, I reminded them that the +sorrow and the parting, at which they rebelled, could only be for a +little breath of time, according to their faith; that by the celestial +covenant, into which they had entered, they were assured that they +should have their wives and children with them throughout the endless +ages of eternity. The people had given much to them. Surely they could +yield the domestic happinesses of the little remaining day of life in +this world, in order to save and prosper those who were not to enjoy +their supreme exaltation of beatitude in the world to come. + +I had felt my brother strong under my hand. He rose, when I concluded. +And with a manful brevity he replied that he submitted because it was +the will of the Lord, and because he had no right to interpose his +selfish love and yearnings between the people of God and their worldly +opportunity. The others followed. Not one referred to the equivocal +language of the manifesto or questioned it. They accepted it--as it was +then and afterwards interpreted--as a revelation from God made through +the Prophet of the Church; and they subscribed to it as a solemn +covenant, before God, with the people of the nation. + +Joseph F. Smith was one of the last to speak. With a face like wax, his +hands outstretched, in an intensity of passion that seemed as if it must +sweep the assembly, he declared that he had covenanted, at the altar +of God's house, in the presence of his Father, to cherish the wives and +children whom the Lord had given him. They were more to him than life. +They were dearer to him than happiness. He would rather choose to stand, +with them, alone--persecuted--proscribed--outlawed--to wait until God in +His anger should break the nation with His avenging stroke. But-- + +He dropped his arms. He seemed to shrink in his commanding stature like +a man stricken with a paralysis of despair. The tears came to the pained +constriction of his eyelids. + +"I have never disobeyed a revelation from God," he said. "I cannot--I +dare not--now." + +He announced--with his head up, though his body swayed--that he would +accept and abide by the revelation. When he sank in his chair and +covered his face with his hands, there was a gasp of sympathy and +relief, as if we had been hearing the pain of a man in agony. And my +heart gave a great leap; for, in these supreme moments of feeling, +things come to us that are larger than our knowledge, more splendid than +our hopes; and I saw, as if in the blinding glisten of the tears in my +eyes, a radiant vision of our future, an unselfish people freed from +a burden of persecution, a nation's forgiveness born, a grateful state +created. I saw it--and I looked at Smith and loved him for it. I knew +then, as I know now, that he and those others were at this moment +sincere. I knew that they had relinquished what was more dear to them +than the breath of life. I knew the appalling significance, to them, +of the promise which they were making to the nation. And in all the +degraded after-years, when so many of them were guilty of breach of +covenant and base violation of trust, I tried never to forget that in +the hour of their greatest trial, they had sacrificed themselves for +their people; they had suffered for the happiness of others; they had +said, sincerely: "Not my will, O Lord, but Thine, be done!" + + + +Chapter V. On the Road to Freedom + + + +In any discussion of the public affairs that make the subject matter of +this narrative, a line of discrimination must be drawn at the year 1890. +In that year the Church began a progressive course of submission to +the civil law, and the nation received each act of surrender with +forgiveness. The previous defiance's of the Mormon people ceased to give +grounds for a complaint against them. The old harshnesses of the Federal +government were canceled by the new generosity of a placated nation. And +neither party to the present strife in Utah should go back, beyond the +period of this composition, to dig up, from the past, its buried wrongs. + +In relating, here, some of the events of 1888 and 1889, I have tried +neither to justify the Mormons nor to defend their prosecutors. I have +wished merely to make clear the situation in Utah, and to introduce to +you, in advance, some of the leaders of the distracted community, so +that you might understand the conditions from which the Mormons escaped +by giving their covenant to the nation and be able to judge of the +obligations and responsibilities of the men who gave it. + +I, have described the promulgation and acceptance of "the manifesto" +with such circumstance and detail, because of what has since occurred in +Utah. Let me add that some two weeks later the General Conference of +the Church endorsed the President's pronouncement as "authoritative and +binding." And let me point out that it was the first and only law of the +Mormon Church ever so sustained by triple sanctities--"revealed" as +a command from God, accepted by the prophets in solemn fraternity +assembled, and ratified by the vote of the entire "congregation of +Israel" before it was declared to be binding upon men. + +At first, because of the somewhat indefinite promise of the message +itself, many of the non-Mormons of Utah remained suspicious and in +doubt of it. But it was recognized by Judge Zane, in court--on the +day following the close of the Conference--as an official declaration, +"honest and sincere." The newspapers throughout the whole country so +received it. The Church authorities sent assurances to Washington that +convinced the statesmen, there, of the completeness and finality of the +submission. And the good faith of the covenant was at last admitted by +the non-Mormons of Utah and endorsed by their trust. I do not know +of any change in human affairs dependent on human will--more speedy, +effective and comprehensive than this recession. Within the space of a +few days a revolution was completed that had been sought by the power +of our nation and of the civilized world, for a generation, with stripes +and imprisonment, death, confiscation and the ostracism of the country's +public contempt. It had been obtained, I knew, chiefly by the sagacity +of the First Councillor using the pressure of circumstances to enforce +the persuasions of diplomacy. I felt that a miracle of change had been +brought to pass. He had placed us on the road to freedom; and I trusted +his guidance to lead us to our goal. + +That goal, to me personally, was the honor of American citizenship--an +ambition that had been an obsession with me from my earliest youth. I +had never heard a man on a railroad train talk of how he was going to +vote in a national election, without feeling a pang of shamed envy; +for my lack of citizenship seemed a mark of inferiority. The patriotic +reading of my boyhood had made the American republic, to me, the noblest +administration of freemen in the history of government and the exercise +of its franchise literally the highest dignity of human privilege. I +would have been as proud--I was as proud when the day came--to vote for +the President of the United States as he could have been to take his +oath of office. I do not believe that any poor serf, escaped from the +tyranny of Russia, ever saw the American shore with a more grateful eye +than I looked to the prospect of being admitted, with the citizens of +Utah, into the enfranchisement of the Republic. + +But it was evident that the Church's recession from polygamy would not +be enough to free us, so long as its control of politics remained. Its +other practices had flourished and been sheltered under its political +power; and now that the Church had ceased to be a lawbreaker, our +friends in Washington were properly expecting that it would cease to +interfere with its members in the exercise of their citizenship. For +this reason, when I was notified that I had been selected as a member of +the advisory committee of the People's Party (the Church party), I went +at once to my father and told him that I would not take the place; +that I intended to work, personally, and through my newspaper, for the +political division of Utah on the lines of the national parties. He held +that until Gentile solidarity was dissolved, it would be dangerous to +divide the allegiance of the Mormons; but he did not stand against +my protest; he contented himself--diplomatically--with sending me to +consult with President Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith. + +To them, I argued that the political emancipation of the Mormon people +from ecclesiastical direction was as necessary as the recession from +polygamy had been. We must be set free to perform our duty to the +country solely as citizens of the country, before we could expect to be +given the right to perform it at all. And, for my part, the only action +I would consent to take as a member of the advisory committee of the +People's Party would be to vote for the dissolution of the party. + +President Woodruff referred me to my father, and advised me to be guided +by him. Joseph F. Smith urged that a division of the Mormon people on +national party lines would enable the Liberal (the Gentile) party to +march in between. I argued in reply that we must divide at some time, +and the sooner the better, since every year was increasing the Gentile +population. They would never split as long as we remained solid. And if +we were ever to be permitted to nationalize ourselves, it would not be +until we had dissolved the party organizations whose very names were a +proof of the continued rule of the Church in politics. + +When he had no more arguments to advance, he gave a reluctant assent to +mine. I reported back to my father and he approved of my plans. He asked +me humorously with whom I expected to affiliate, since he knew of no one +who was likely to go with me; but I could see that he was pleased with +my independence and hoped I might succeed in doing something to break +the deadlock-grapple of Mormon and Gentile that held Utah apart from the +rest of the country in politics. + +His humorous idea of my undertaking gave its color to my beginnings. +It was rather a spirited adventure, as I look back upon it now. When we +organized a Republican Club at Ogden, my intimate friend, Ben E. Rich, +and another friend named Joseph Belnap, were the only Mormons, so far +as I know, who joined me in becoming members. Outside of us three, I did +not know of another Mormon Republican in the whole territory. + +Indeed, the status of the Mormon people, in their fancied relation to +the two great parties of the country, was almost identical with that of +the people of the South after the Civil War. Practically every Mormon +believed himself to be a Democrat. Among the young men of the Church +there had been occasional attempts to form Democratic Clubs. Mr. John +T. Caine, delegate in Congress from the territory, was a Democrat. My +father had sat on the Democratic side of the House. Almost all the men +who had braved the sentiments of their own states, to speak for us in +Congress, had been Democrats. And, of course, the administration of the +laws that had been so cruel to the feelings of the Mormons had been in +Republican hands. + +Two years earlier, in Ogden, I had spoken in a meeting of Republicans +that had been called to rejoice over the election of Benjamin Harrison +to the Presidency; and I was still being taunted by my Mormon friends +with having clasped hands with "the persecutors of the Prophets." When +I came out, now, as an advocate of Republicanism, I was met everywhere +with this charge--that I had joined the enemies of the Church, that +I was assisting the persecutors of my father. The fact that my father +approved of what I was doing, relieved the seriousness of the situation +for me; and the humorous assistance of Ben Rich in our political +evangelism gave a secret chuckle to many of the incidents of our +campaign. + +We went from town to town, from district to district, up the +mountain valleys, across the plains, into mining camps and farming +communities--using the meeting-houses, the school-rooms, the town +halls--taking the afternoon to coax the tired workers of the fields or +of the mines to come and hear us in the evening, and watching them fall +asleep in the light of our borrowed kerosene lamps while we talked. They +came eagerly. Indeed, my own ambition for citizenship--for a right to +participate in the affairs of the nation--was probably no keener than +theirs; and they had an innocent curiosity about the questions of +national politics, of which they had never before been invited to know +anything. They listened almost devoutly. + +"Brethren and sisters," a bishop exhorted them at a meeting in which one +of our party was to speak, "we have come to listen to this man, and I +hope we will be guided in all our reflections by the Spirit of God +and that we will do nothing to offend that Spirit. Let there be no +commotion, no whispering, and, above all, no hand clapping." + +In a life that had as few diversions as theirs, a political meeting was +an exciting event. The whole family came, and the mothers brought their +babies. Surely in no other American community did politics ever have +such a homely and serious consideration. Certainly no other community +would have so quickly understood the theories of the two parties or +accepted them so implicitly. + +But it was all theory! I recognize, now, that I preached a Republicanism +that was an ideal of what it should be, rather than any modern faith +of the "practical politician." I had gathered it from my reading, from +hearing the speeches in Congress, from sympathetic conferences with the +great men who were responsible for the dogmas of the party; and every +assurance of grace that their ability could give and my credulity +accept, I proclaimed religiously as a political salvation to our people. +I built up an ideal, and then judged the party thereafter according to +the measure of that ideal. When I found that some of the charges +against the Republican party were true--charges which I had indignantly +repelled--I was as shocked as any pious worshipper who ever found that +his idol had feet of clay. Our people, having accepted the faith with as +simple a hope as it was offered, were as easily turned from it when they +found that it was false. The political moods of Utah, for its first +few years of statehood, were a puzzle to the "practical" leaders of the +parties; but to us who understood the impulses of honesty that moved the +changes, things were as clear as they were encouraging. + +During the previous summer in Washington, I had met General James S. +Clarkson, then president of the National League of Republican Clubs; +and now, on his invitation, in the Spring of 1891, Rich and I went +to Louisville to speak before the national convention of the league. +Through the kindness of General Clarkson, I was given the official +recognition of a perfunctory place on the executive committee of the +league's national committee, and came into touch with many of the party +leaders. It was about this time, I imagine, that they conceived the idea +of using the gratitude of the Mormons in order to carry Utah and the +surrounding states in which the Mormon vote might constitute a balance +of political power. I know that the idea was old and established when +I came upon it, in 1894, during the campaign for statehood. As I also +found, still later, the Republican leaders and the business interests +with which they were in relation, had their eyes on a distant prospect +of fabulous financial schemes in which the secret funds of the Church +were to help in the building of railroads and the promoting of other +enterprises of associated capital. But at the time of which I am +writing, I had not had sufficient experience to suspect the motives of +the men who encouraged our work in Utah; and I accepted in good faith +their public declarations that the sole aim of the party was to serve +the needs of the people of the United States--and therefore of the +people of Utah! + +It seemed to me that such a noble principle should win the support of +Mormon and Gentile alike, and it was on this principle that I appealed +for the support of both. I was so sure of winning with it that I +resented and fought against the aid of the Church that came to us as our +campaign succeeded. + +The People's Party (the Church Party) had been dissolved (June, 1891) +by the formal action of the executive committee, under the direct +instruction of the leaders of the Church. The tendency was for its +members to organize themselves immediately as a Democratic party. +They were led by such brilliant and trusted defenders of the Church as +Franklin S. Richards, Chas. C. Richards, Wm. H. King, James H. Moyle, +Brigham H. Roberts and Apostle Moses Thatcher; and a group of abler +advocates could not have been found in any state in the Union. It was +against the sentiment of the Mormon people, vivified by such inspiring +Democracy as these men taught, that our little organization of +Republicans had to make headway; and an anxiety began to show +itself among the Church authorities for a less unequal division, and +consequently a greater appearance of political independence, among the +faithful. + +Apostle John Henry Smith came out as a Republican stump speaker in +rivalry with Moses Thatcher, the Democratic Prophet. Joseph F. Smith +announced himself a Republican descendant of Whigs. Apostle Francis +Marion Lyman, in his religious ministrations, counselled leading +brethren to withhold themselves from the Democratic party unless they +had gone too far to retreat. Men of ecclesiastical office in various +parts of the territory--who were regarded as being safe in their wisdom +and fidelity--were urged to hold themselves and their influence in +reserve for such use on either side of politics as the future might +demand. + +Against this ecclesiastical direction of the people's choice, I objected +again and again to the Presidency, and my objections seemed to meet with +acquiescence. It required no prescience on my part to foresee that the +growing dislike and distrust of Moses Thatcher at Church headquarters +would lead to a strife in the Church that might be carried into our +politics; and I knew how small would be the hope of preserving any +political independence, if once it were involved in the intrigues of +priests and their rivalries for a supremacy of influence among the +people. I was resolved that not even a Church, ruling by "divine +right," should interpose between my country and my franchise; and an +encroachment that I would not permit upon my own freedom, I would not +help to inflict upon others. + +The men with whom I had been working proposed me as the candidate for +Congress of the new Utah Republicans; and I was supported by a strong +delegation from my own country and from other parts of the territory; +but I found that I was not "satisfactory" to some of the Mormon leaders, +and in the convention (1892) Apostle John Henry Smith and my cousin +George M. Cannon led in an attempt to nominate Judge Chas. Bennett, a +Gentile lawyer. After a bitter fight of two days and nights, we carried +the convention against them, and I was nominated. + +The Democrats selected, as their candidate, one of the strongest +characters in the territory, Joseph L. Rawlins. He was the son of a +Mormon bishop, but he had left the Church immediately upon reaching +manhood. He was a great lawyer, a staunch Democrat, and wonderfully +popular. There followed one of the swiftest and most exciting campaigns +ever seen in Utah. The whole people rose to it with enthusiasm. Our +party chairman, Chas. Crane, had a genius for organization; our speakers +drew crowded meetings; and though charges of Church influence were +made by both sides, the question of religion was no longer the one that +divided Utah. + +We were getting on famously, when an incident occurred that was at once +disastrous and salutary. While I was away from headquarters, stumping +the districts, Chairman Crane (who was a Gentile), Ben Rich and Joseph +F. Smith, issued a pamphlet in Republican behalf called "Nuggets of +Truth." It gave a picture of Joseph Smith, the original Prophet, on +the first page and a picture of me on the last one. (They issued also +a certificate, obtained by Joseph F. Smith and given out by him, that +I was a Mormon "in good standing.") As soon as I heard of the matter, +I wired Chairman Crane that unless the pamphlet were immediately +withdrawn, I should return to Salt Lake City and publicly denounce such +methods. It was withdrawn, but the damage was done, I was defeated, as +I deserved to be--though I was the innocent victim of the atrocity--and +Mr. Rawlins was elected. + +The campaign proved, however, that if the Church leaders would only +keep their hands off, there was ample strength in either party to make +a presentation of national issues of sufficient appeal to divide the +people on party lines; and it was evident that the people would choose +the party that made the best showing of principles and candidates. +"Nuggets of Truth" left us with a nasty sense that at no hour were we +assured of safety from ecclesiastical interference--or the nefarious +attempt to make an appearance of such interference--in our political +affairs. But the disaster that followed, in this instance, was so prompt +that we could hope it would prove a lesson. + +Most important of all, the campaign had made it evident that there +was now no political mission in Utah for the Liberal (the Gentile) +party--assuming that the retirement of the Mormon priests from politics +was sincere and permanent. Accordingly, the organization formally met +some months later, and formally dissolved; and, by that act, the +last great obstacle to united progress was removed from our road to +statehood, and the men who removed it acted with a generosity that +makes one of the noblest records of self-sacrifice in the history of the +state. + +They could foresee that their dissolution as a separate force meant +statehood for Utah--a sovereignty in itself that would leave the +Gentiles in the minority and without any appeal to the nation. Under +territorial conditions, although the non-Mormons were less than +one-third of the population, they had two-thirds of the political power. +They held all the Federal offices, including executive and judicial +positions. They had the Governor, with an absolute veto over the acts +of the Mormon legislature. They had the President and Congress who could +annul any statute of the territory; and they had with them almost the +entire sentiment of the nation. It was in their power to have protracted +the Mormon controversy, and to have withstood the appeal for statehood, +to this day. + +They yielded everything; they accepted, in return, only the good faith +of the Mormons. Was it within the capacity of any human mind to foresee +that in return for such generosity the Church would ever give over its +tabernacles to teaching its people to hold in detestation the very, +names of these men who saved us? Was it to be suspected that the +political power surrendered by them would ever be used as a persecution +upon them?--that the liberty, given by them to us, would ever afterward +be denied them by us? It was inconceivable. Neither in the magnanimity +of their minds nor in the gratitude of ours was there a suspicion of +such a catastrophe. + +During 1891, President Woodruff's manifesto had been ratified in local +Church conferences in every "stake of Zion;" and a second General +Conference had endorsed it in October of that year. President Woodruff, +Councillor Joseph F. Smith and Apostle Lorenzo Snow went before the +Federal Master in Chancery--in a proceeding to regain possession of +escheated Church property--and swore that the manifesto had prohibited +plural marriages, that it required a cessation of all plural marriage +living, and that it was being obeyed by the Mormon people. These facts +were recited in a petition for amnesty forwarded to President Harrison +in December, 1891, accompanied by signed statements from Chief Justice +Zane, Governor Thomas and other non-Mormons who pledged themselves that +the petitioners were sincere and that if amnesty were granted good faith +would be kept. "Our people are scattered," President Woodruff and his +apostles declared in their petition. "Homes are made desolate. Many are +still imprisoned; others are banished and in hiding. Our hearts bleed +for these. In the past they followed our counsels, and while they are +still afflicted our souls are in sackcloth and ashes.... As shepherds +of a patient and suffering people we ask amnesty for them and pledge our +faith and honor for their future." + +At Washington, the Church's attorney, Mr. Franklin S. Richards, and +delegate John T. Caine supported the petition with their avowals of +the sincerity of the Church leaders, the genuineness of our political +division, and the sanctity with which we regarded the promise to obey +the laws. The Utah Commission, a non-Mormon body, favored amnesty in an +official report of September, 1892. And when I went to Washington, in +the winter of 1892-3, the changed attitude of the Federal authorities +toward us was strikingly evident. + +President Harrison issued his amnesty proclamation, early in January, +1893, to all persons liable to the penalties of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, +but "on the express condition that they shall in the future faithfully +obey the laws of the United States... and not otherwise." The +proclamation concluded: "Those who fail to avail themselves of the +clemency hereby offered will be vigorously prosecuted." Not a polygamist +in Utah, to my knowledge, declined to take advantage of the mercy, by +refusing the expressly implied pledge. + +Meanwhile the campaign had been continued for the return of the +escheated Church property and for the passage of an Enabling Act that +should permit the territory to organize for statehood. + +[FOOTNOTE: Statehood seemed still very faraway. There was a +Trans-Mississippi Congress held at Ogden in 1892, and though the +delegates--coming from all the states and territories "west of the +river," were the guests of the people of Utah, so hopeless was our +status in the consideration of mankind that the delegates from the +territories of New Mexico and Arizona would not let our names be joined +to theirs in a resolution for statehood which we wished the committee +on resolutions to propose to the Congress. Governor Prince of New Mexico +replied, to our plea for a share in the resolution, that he did not +intend to damn New Mexico by having her mixed up with Utah. We appealed +to the Congress, and we were saved by a speech made by Thos. M. +Patterson of Colorado, subsequently senator from Colorado, who carried +the day for us. At a recent Trans-Mississippi Congress held in Denver, +I sat with ex-Senator Patterson to hear Mr. Prince still proposing +resolutions in support of statehood for New Mexico. Twenty years later!] +Joseph L. Rawlins, Democratic delegate from Utah, worked valiantly among +the Democrats, and he was assisted by the influence of Mr. Franklin S. +Richards and John T. Caine and others among their old associates in that +party. But, in the very midst of the fight, we were advised that, +unless the Republican leaders would let the Enabling Act go through, the +Democratic leaders would falter in our advocacy. + +I had been urged to go to Washington by the Presidency to do what I +might to allay Republican antagonism, and I found that a number of +self-appointed lobbyists (who expected political preferment's and other +rewards from the Church in the event of statehood) had been using the +most amazing arguments in our behalf. For example, they told some of +the "financial Senators" that the Church had fourteen million dollars in +secret funds with which to help build a railroad to the coast as soon +as statehood should be granted. They cited the number of the Church's +adherents in all the states and territories of the Pacific Coast and as +far east as Iowa and Missouri, and predicted that the gratitude of these +people to the Republicans who were helping to free Utah would enable the +Republican party to control a balance of political power in the several +states. They declared positively that plural marriages and plural +marriage living had utterly ceased among the Mormons for all time. And +they made such statements with great particularity to Senator Orville H. +Platt, of Connecticut, who was too wise a man to credit them. + +As soon as I returned to Washington, he summoned me to a private +meeting, in his parlor in the Arlington Hotel, and confronted me with +one of the Republican lobbyists who had been soliciting his personal +favor and his almost controlling influence. "Now, Mr. Cannon," he said, +in his dry way, "have the Mormons stopped living with their plural +wives? And will there never be another case of plural marriage among +them?" + +I remembered the lesson of my interview with him at the time of the +campaign against the disfranchisement bill, and I answered: "No. Not +all the men of the Church have complied fully with the law. So far as +I know, all the general authorities of the Church--with two or three +exceptions--are fulfilling the covenant they gave; and so far as I can +judge there will never be another plural marriage ceremony with the +consent or connivance of the leaders of the Church. But human nature is +very much the same in Utah as it is in Connecticut. Here and there, no +doubt, a man feels that he's under an obligation to keep his covenant +with his plural wives in preference to the covenant of his accepted +amnesty; and there and here, possibly, in the future, some man will +break the law and defy the orders of the Church and take a plural wife. +But the leaders of the Church do not countenance either proceeding, and +any man who violates the law, in either respect, offends against the +revelations of the Church and, I believe, will be dealt with as an +apostate. I come direct from the Presidency of the Church, and I am +authorized to pledge their word of honor that they will themselves obey +the law and do all in their power as men and leaders to bring their +people into harmony with the institutions of this country as rapidly as +possible." + +Senator Platt had slowly unwrapped himself, rising from his chair to his +full height of more than six feet, in a lank and alarming indignation. +"There," he said, striding up and down the room. "That's it! That's just +it. These people have been telling us that you were obeying the law--all +of you--in every instance--and would always obey it. And now you come +here and admit, openly, that some of you, to whom we have granted +amnesty, are breaking your word--and that 'possibly' others, in the +future, will do the same thing!" + +"Senator," I pleaded, "what confidence could you have in me if I were to +tell you the Mormons were so superhuman that in a single day they could +eliminate all their human characteristics? I'm asking you to recognize +that the tendency imparted to a whole community is more important +than any one man's breach of the law. Believe me, if you grant us our +statehood, there will never be any lawbreaking sanctioned or protected +by the Church leaders, and just as speedily as possible the entire +system will be brought into harmony with the institutions of the nation. +I'm telling you the truth." + +He turned on me to ask, abruptly, how the polygamists had adjusted their +family affairs. + +I answered that in nearly all cases within my personal knowledge, the +polygamist had relinquished conjugal relations with his plural wives +with the full acquiescence of them and their children. He supported +them, cared for the children, and in all other ways acted as the +guardian and protector of the household. In a few cases men had gone, +to an extreme. For instance, my uncle, Angus M. Cannon--president of the +Salt Lake "stake of Zion," a man of most decided character--had declared +that he had entered into his marriage relations with his wives under a +covenant that gave them equality in his regards; and in order that he +might not wound the sensibilities of any, he had separated himself from +all. + +I reminded Senator Platt that with such examples on the part of the +leaders, there could be no general law-breaking among the Mormons, and +that gradually the polygamous element would accommodate itself to the +demands of law and the commands of God. + +He waved us away with a curt announcement that he would have to think +the matter over. If I had not known the essential justice and common +sense under his dry and irascible exterior, I might have been alarmed. +The lobbyist's concern was almost comic. As soon as we were out of +hearing of the Senator's apartment, shaking both fists frantically at +me, he cried: "You've ruined everything! We had him. We had him--all +right--until you came down here and let the cat out of the bag! You knew +what we'd been telling him. Why didn't you stick to it?" + +I replied with equal warmth: "You may lie all you please; but if we have +to win Utah's statehood with lies I don't want it. Senator Platt has +been generous to us in our time of need, and I don't intend to deceive +him--or any other man." + +As a matter of fact, this was not only common honesty; it was also the +best policy. Senator Platt was, from that time to the day of his death, +a good friend and wise counselor of the people of Utah. And I wish to +lay particular stress upon this conversation with him, because it was +a type of many had with such men as he. Fred T. Dubois, delegate in +Congress from the territory of Idaho and subsequently Senator from that +state, had been perhaps the strongest single opponent, in Washington, of +the Mormon Church; he took our promises of honor, as Senator Platt did, +and he pacified Senator Cullom, Senator Pettigrew and many others among +our antagonists, who afterwards told me that they had accepted the +pledges given by Senator Dubois in our behalf. + +They recognized that the Church and the community ought not to be +held responsible for a few possible cases of individual resistance or +offense, so long as there should be a strict adherence by the Church and +its leaders to their personal and community covenant. I emphasize the +nature of this generous appreciation of our difficulties, because +the present-day polygamists in Utah claim that there was a "tacit +understanding," between the statesmen in Washington and the agents +of the Church, to the effect that the polygamists of that time might +continue to live with their plural wives. This is not true. There never +was any such understanding, to my knowledge. And there could not have +been one, in the circumstances, without my knowledge. For though I +did not know what delegate Rawlins, and former delegate Caine, and our +attorney, Mr. Richards, were saying in their private interviews with +senators and congressmen, I know that in all the frequent conversations +I had with them I never heard an intimation of any "tacit understanding" +beyond the one which I have defined. + +For my part I was more than eager to have all our political disabilities +removed, the Church property restored, and the right of statehood +accorded--believing implicitly in the sincerity of the Mormon leaders. I +knew President Woodruff too well to doubt the pellacid character of his +mind and purpose. I knew from my father's personal assurance--and from +his constant practice from that time to the day of his death--that he +was acting in good faith. I knew that the community was gladly following +where these men led. I saw no slightest indication that any reactionary +policy was likely to be entered upon in Utah, or that our people would +accept it if it were. + +The Church's personal property was restored by an Act of Congress +approved October 25, 1893, but it was stipulated in the Act that the +money was not to be used for the support of any church buildings in +which "the rightfulness of the practice of polygamy" should be taught. +Similarly, when the Enabling Act was approved, in July 16, 1894, +it, too, provided that "polygamous or plural marriage" was forever +prohibited. A constitutional convention was held at Salt Lake City under +the provisions of that act, and a constitution was adopted in which +it was provided that "polygamous or plural marriages" were forever +prohibited, that the territorial laws against polygamy were to be +continued in force, that there should be "no union of church and state," +and that no church should "dominate the state or interfere with its +functions." Upon no other basis would the nation have granted us our +statehood; and we accepted the grant, knowing the expressed condition +involved in that acceptance. + +But there was one other gift that came to us from the nation--by +Congressional enactment and later by Utah statute as a consequence of +statehood; and that gift was the legitimizing of every child born +of plural marriage before January, 1896. The solemn benignity of the +concession touched me, as it must have touched many, to the very heart +of gratitude. By it, ten thousand children were taken from the outer +darkness of this world's conventional exclusion and placed within +the honored relations of mankind. It was a tribute to the purity +and sincerity of the Mormon women who had borne the cross of plural +marriage, believing that God had commanded their suffering. It +recognized the holy nature and honorable intent of the marriages +of these women, by according their children every right of legal +inheritance from their fathers. If all other covenants could be +forgotten and their proof obliterated, this should remain as Utah's +pledge of honor--sacred for the sake of the Mormon mothers, holy in the +name of the uplifted child. + + + + + + +Chapter VI. The Goal--And After + + + +Here we were then (as I saw the situation) assured of our statehood, +rid of polygamy, relieved of religious control in politics, and free to +devote our energies to the development of the land and the industries +and the business of the community. The persecutions that our people had +borne had schooled them to co-operation. They were ready, helping one +another, to advance together to a common prosperity. They were under +the leadership chiefly of the man who had guided them out of a most +desperate condition of oppression toward the freedom of sovereign +self-government. In that progress he had saved everything that was +worthy in the Mormon communism; he had discarded much that was a curse. +I knew that he had no thought but for the welfare of the people; and +with such a man, leading such a following, we seemed certain of a future +that should be an example to the world. + +But both the Church and the people had been involved in debt by +confiscation and proscription; and it was necessary now to free +ourselves financially. This work my father undertook in behalf of the +Presidency--for the President of the Mormon Church is not only the +Prophet, Seer and Revelator of God to the faithful; he is also "the +trustee in trust" of all the Church's material property. He is the +controller, almost the owner, of everything it owns. He is as sacred in +his financial as in his religious absolutism. He is accountable to no +one, The Church auditors, whom he appoints, concern themselves merely +with the details of bookkeeping. The millions of dollars that are paid +to him, by the people in tithes, are used by him as he sees fit to use +them; and the annual contributors to this "common fund" would no more +question his administration of it than they would question the ways of +divinity. + +In the early days there had been a strongly animating idea that among +the divinely-authorized duties of leadership was the obligation to +develop the natural resources of the country in order to meet the +people's needs. As the immigrants poured into Utah, these needs +increased; and the Church leaders used the Church funds to develop coal +and iron mines, support salt gardens, build a railway, establish a sugar +factory (for which the people, through the legislature, voted a bounty), +conduct a beach resort, and aid a hundred other enterprises that +promised to be for the public good. These undertakings were not financed +for profit. They were semi-socialistic in their establishment and +half-benevolent in their administration. + +But during "the days of the raid" they were neglected, because the +Church was involved in debt. And now it became pressingly necessary to +obtain money to restore the moribund industries and to meet the payments +that were continually falling due upon loans made to the Presidency. +President Woodruff called on me to aid in the work. So I came into touch +with a development of events that did not seem to me, then, of any great +importance; yet it drew as its consequence a connection between the +Mormon Church and the great financial "interests" of the East--a +connection that is one of the strong determining causes of the +perversion of government and denial of political liberty in Utah today. + +I wish, here, simply to foreshadow, this connection. It will reappear in +the story again and again; and it is necessary to have the significance +of the recurrence understood in advance. But, at the time of which +I write, there was no more than an innocent approach on our part to +Eastern financiers to obtain money for the Church and to concentrate our +debts in the hands of two or three New York banks. + +For example, the Church had loaned to, or endorsed for, the Utah Sugar +Company to the amount of $325,000; and my father had personally endorsed +the general obligations for this and other sums, although he owned +only $5,000 of the company's stock. He supported the factory with his +personal credit and assumed the risk of loss (without any corresponding +possibility of gain) in order to benefit the whole people by encouraging +the beet sugar industry. A vain attempt had been made to sell the bonds +in New York. Finally, the Church bought all the bonds of the company +for $325,000 (of a face value of $400,000), and we sold them, for the +Church, to Mr. Joseph Bannigan, the "rubber king," of Providence, Rhode +Island, for $360,000, with the guarantee of the First Presidency, the +trustee of the Church, and myself. + +Similarly, the First Presidency led in building an electric power plant +in Ogden, after Chas. K. Bannister, a great engineer, and myself had +persuaded the members of the Presidency that the work would benefit the +community. The bonds of this company, too, were bought by Mr. Bannigan, +with the guarantee of the trustee of the Church, the Presidency and +myself. Both the power plant and the sugar factory were financially +successful. They performed a large public service beneficently. The fact +that Mr. Bannigan held their bonds was no detriment to their work and +wrought no injury to the people. + +I single out these two enterprises because Joseph F. Smith has since +sold the power plant to the "Harriman interests," and the control of the +sugar factory to the sugar trust; and he has explained that in making +the sales he merely followed my father's example and mine in selling +the bonds to Mr. Bannigan. The power plant is now a part of the merger +called the Utah Light and Railway Company, which has a monopoly right +in all the streets of Salt Lake City and its suburbs, besides owning +the electric power and light plants of Salt Lake City and Ogden, the gas +plants of both these cities, and the natural gas wells and pipe +lines supplying them. The Mormon people whose tithes aided these +properties--whose good-will maintained them--whose leaders designed them +as a community work for a community benefit--these people are now being +mercilessly exploited by the Eastern "interests" to whom the Prophet +of the Church has sold them bodily. The difference between selling +the bonds of the sugar company to Bannigan, in order to raise money to +support the factory, and selling half the stock to the sugar trust, in +order to make a monopoly profit out of the Mormon consumers of sugar, +has either not occurred to Smith or has been divinely waived by him. + +However, this is by the way and in advance of my story. In 1894 we had +no more fear of the Eastern money power than we had of the return of +the Church to politics or to polygamy. Throughout 1893 and 1894 I was +engaged in the work of re-establishing the Church's business affairs +with my father and a sort of finance committee of which the other two +members were Colonel N. W. Clayton, of Salt Lake City, and Mr. James +Jack, the cashier of the Church. In the summer of 1894 I heard various +rumors that when Utah should gain its statehood, my father would +probably be a candidate for the United States Senate. Since this would +be a palpable breach of the Church's agreement to keep out of politics, +I took occasion--one day, on a railroad journey--to ask him if he +intended to be a candidate. + +He told me that he was being urged to stand for the Senatorship, but +that for his part he had no desire to do so; and he asked me what I +thought about it. I replied that if I had felt it was right for him +to take the office and he desired it, I would walk barefoot across the +continent to aid him. But I reminded him of the pledges which he and I +had made repeatedly--on our own behalf, in the name of his associates in +leadership, and on the honor of the Mormon people--to subdue thereafter +the causes of the controversy that had divided Mormon and Gentile in +Utah. He replied with an emphatic assurance of his purpose to keep those +pledges, and dismissed the subject with a finality that left no doubt in +my mind. + +I know that he might have desired the Senatorship as a public +vindication, since, in the old days of quarrel, he had been legislated +out of his place in the House of Representatives; and, for the first +and only time in my life, I undertook to philosophize some comfort for +him--out of the fact that to the position of authority which he held in +Utah a Senatorship was a descent. He replied dryly: "I understand, my +son--perfectly." The fact was that he needed no comfort from me or any +other human being. He seemed all--sufficient to himself, because of the +abiding sense he had of the constant presence of God and his habit of +communing with that Spirit, instead of seeking human intercourse or +earthly counsel. He did not need my affection. He did not need, much +less seek, the approbation of any man. In the events to which this +conversation was a prelude, he acted without explaining himself to me or +to anyone else, and apparently without caring in the slightest what my +opinion or any other man's might be of his course or of the motives that +prompted it. + +Some months later, in the office of the Presidency (at a business +meeting with him, Colonel Clayton and Joseph F. Smith), I excused myself +from attending any further sittings of the committee for that day, +because I had to go to Provo to receive the Republican nomination for +Congress. + +My father said: "I am sorry to hear it. I thought Judge Zane--or someone +else would be nominated. I wished you to be free to help with these +business matters. Why have you not consulted us?" + +I reminded him that I had told him, some weeks before, that I expected +to be nominated for Congress this year--and that I was practically +certain, if elected, of going to the Senate when we were granted +statehood. "I talked with you, then, as my father," I said. "But I'm +sure you'll remember that I have not consulted you as a leader of the +Church, or any of your colleagues as leaders of the Church, on the +subject of partisan politics since the People's Party was dissolved." + +He accepted this mild declaration of political independence without +protest, and I went to Provo, happily, a free man. The Republicans +nominated me by acclamation, and the chairman of the committee that came +to offer me the nomination was Colonel Wm. Nelson, then managing editor +of the Salt Lake Tribune, a Gentile, a former leader of the Liberal +Party, an opponent of Mormonism as practiced, who had fought the Church +hierarchy for years. Here was a new evidence that we were now beyond +the old quarrels--a further guarantee that we were prepared to take +our place among the states of the Union, free of parochialism and its +sectarian enmities. + +The campaign gave every proof of such political emancipation. The +people divided, on national party lines, as completely as any American +community in my experience. The Democrats, having nominated Joseph L. +Rawlins, had the prestige that he had gained in helping to pass the +Enabling Act; a Democratic administration was in power in Washington; +Apostle Moses Thatcher, Brigham H. Roberts, and other members of the +Church inspired the old loyalty of the Mormons for the Democracy. But +the Republicans had been re-enforced by the dissolution of the Liberal +Party, whose last preceding candidate (Mr. Clarence E. Allen) went +on the stump for us. The Smith jealousy of Moses Thatcher divided the +Church influence; and though charges of ecclesiastical interference were +made on both sides, such interference was personal rather than official. +Mr. Rawlins was defeated, and I was elected delegate in Congress from +the territory--with the United States Senatorship practically assured to +me. + +In the spring of 1895 the constitutional convention at Salt Lake City +formulated a provisional constitution for the new Utah; and, in the Fall +of the year, a general election was held to adopt this constitution and +to elect officers who should enter upon their duties as soon as Utah +became a state. The election was marked by a most significant and +important incident. + +The Democrats, in their convention, nominated for Congress, Brigham H. +Roberts, one of the first seven "presidents of the seventy," and for +the United States Senate, Joseph L. Rawlins and Apostle Moses Thatcher. +Immediately, at a priesthood meeting of the hierarchy, Joseph F. Smith +denounced the candidacies of Roberts and Thatcher; and the grounds for +the denunciation were subsequently stated in the "political manifesto" +of April, 1896, in which the First Presidency announced, as a rule of +the Church, that no official of the Church should accept a political +nomination until he had obtained the permission of the Church +authorities and had learned from them whether he could "consistently +with the obligations already entered into with the Church, take upon +himself the added duties and labors and responsibilities of the new +position." + +This action, I knew, was the result of the old jealousy of Thatcher +which the Smiths had so long nursed. But it was also in line with +the Church's pledge, to keep its leaders out of politics. By it, +the hierarchy bound themselves and set the people free. The leaders, +thereafter, according to their own "manifesto," could not enter politics +without the consent of their quorums; and, therefore, by any American +doctrine, they could not enter politics at all. Thatcher and Roberts +revolted against the inhibition as an infringement of their rights as +citizens, and it was so construed by the whole Democratic party; but +everyone knew that a Mormon apostle had no rights as a citizen that were +not second to his Church allegiance, and the political manifesto +simply made public the fact of such subservience, authoritatively. We +Republicans welcomed it, with our eyes on the future freedom of politics +in Utah; Thatcher and Roberts refused to accept the dictation of their +quorums, and what was practically an "edict of apostasy" went out +against them. They were defeated. The Republican candidates (Heber M. +Wells, as governor, and Clarence B. Allen, as member of Congress) +were elected. Thatcher, subsequently refusing to accept the "political +manifesto," was deposed from his apostolic authority, and deprived of +all priesthood in the Church. Roberts recanted and was reconciled with +the hierarchy. + +[FOOTNOTE: He was afterwards elected to the House of Representatives and +was refused his seat as a polygamist.] + +The Republicans elected forty-three out of sixty-three members of the +legislature, and everyone of these had been pledged to support me, for +the United States Senate, either by his convention, or by letter to me, +or by a promise conveyed to me by friends; and none of these pledges had +I solicited. + +The rumors of my father's candidacy now became more general--although +he was a Democrat, although the new "political manifesto" bound him, +although it was doubtful whether the Senate would allow him to be +seated. Two influences were urging his election. One was the desire +of the Smith faction to have the First Councillor break the ice at +Washington for Apostle John Henry Smith, who was ambitious to be a +Senator and was disqualified by the fact that he was a Church leader and +a polygamist. The other was the desire of some Eastern capitalists to +have my father's vote in the Senate to aid them in the promotion of a +railroad from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. A preliminary agreement +for the construction of the road had already been signed by men who +represented that they had close affiliations with large steel interests +in the East, as one party, and my father as business representative of +a group of associates, including the Presidency of the Church. The +Church's interest in the project was communistic, and so was my +father's. But his vote and influence in the Senate would be valuable to +the promotion of the undertaking, and he had received written assurances +from Republican leaders, senators and politicians, that if he were +elected he would be allowed his seat. + +As a result of our Republican success in the two political campaigns +that had just ended, I felt that I represented the independent votes +of both Mormons and Gentiles; and I decided to confront the First +Presidency (as such a representative) and try to make them declare +themselves in the matter of my father's candidacy. Not that I thought +his candidacy would be so vitally important for I did not then believe +the Church authorities had power to sway the legislature away from its +pledges. But every day, at home or abroad, I was being asked: "Are you +sure that the Church's retirement from politics is sincere?" My friends +were accepting my word, and I wished to add certainty to assurance that +the Church leaders intended to fulfill the covenant of their personal +honor and respect the constitution of the state by keeping out of +politics. + +Without letting them know why I wished to see them, I procured an +appointment for the interview. When we were all seated at the table I +explained: "I'm going to Washington to attend to my duties as delegate +in Congress. Before I return, Utah will be admitted to statehood, and +the legislature will have to elect two United States Senators. As you +all know, I've been a candidate for one of these places. It has been +assured to me by the probably unanimous vote of the Republican caucus +when it shall convene." I laid my clenched hand on the table, knuckles +down, with a calculated abruptness. "The first senatorship from Utah is +there," I said. + +"If it's to be disturbed by any ecclesiastical direction, I want to know +it now, so that the men who are supporting me may be aware of what +they must encounter if they persist in their support. I ask you, as +the Presidency of the Church: what are you going to do about the +Senatorship?" And I opened my hand and left it lying open before them, +for their decision. + +It was evident enough, from their expressions, that this was a degree of +boldness to which they were unaccustomed. It was, evident also that +they were unprepared to reply to me. My father remained silent, with his +usual placidity, waiting for the others to fail to take the initiative. +President Woodruff blinked, somewhat bewildered, looking at my hand +as if the sight of its emptiness and the assumption of what it held, +confused him. Joseph F. Smith, frowning, eyed it askance with a darting +glance, apparently annoyed by the mute insolence of its demand for a +decision which he was not prepared to make. + +My father, at length, looking at me imperturbably, asked: "Are you +inquiring of our personal view in this matter, Frank?" + +The question contained, of course, a tacit allusion to my refusal to +consult the Church leaders about politics. I answered: "No, sir. I +already have your personal view. That is the only personal view I have +ever asked concerning the Senatorship. And I have purposely refrained +from any allusions to it of late, with you, because I wished to lay it +before the Presidency, as a body, formally, in order that there might be +no possible misunderstanding." + +"In that case," he said, "the matter rests with President Woodruff." + +The President, thus forced to an explanation, made a very characteristic +one. Several of the Church's friends in the East, he said, had urged +father's name for the Senatorship, but it was impossible to see how he +could be spared from the affairs of the priesthood. Zion needed him--and +so forth. + +Apparently, to President Woodruff, the question of the Senatorship was +resolvable wholly upon Church considerations. His mind was so filled +with zealous hope for the advancement of "the Kingdom of God on Earth," +that he seemed quite unaware of the political aspects of the case, the +violation of the Church's pledge, and the difficulties in the Senate +that would surely attend upon my father's election. + +In the general discussion that ensued, both Joseph F. Smith and my +father spoke of the appeal that had been made to them on behalf of the +business interests of the community, with which the financial interests +of the East were now eager to co-operate. But both followed the +President's example in dismissing the possibility of the First +Councillor's candidacy as infringing upon his duties in the Church. I +pointed out to them that such a candidacy would be considered a breach +of faith, that it would raise a storm of protest. They accepted the +warning without comment, as if, having decided against the candidacy, +they did not need to consider such aspects of it. I kept my hand open +before them until my father said, with some trace of amusement: "You'd +better take up that senatorship, Frank. I think you're entitled to it." + +I took it up, satisfied that there would be no more Church interference +in the matter. The decision seemed to me final and momentous. I +felt that the new Utah had faced the old and had been assured of +independence. + +About this same time (although I cannot place it accurately in my +recollection), President Woodruff, speaking from the pulpit, declared +that it was the right of the priesthood of God to rule in all things on +earth, and that they had in no wise relinquished any of their authority. +The sermon raised a dangerous alarm in Salt Lake City, and I +was immediately summoned from Ogden (by a messenger from Church +headquarters) to see the proprietor and the editor of the Salt Lake +Tribune--which paper, it was feared, might oppose Utah's admission to +statehood, construing President Woodruff's remarks to mean that the +Church's political covenants were to be broken. + +I found Mr. P. H. Lannan, the proprietor of the paper, anxious, +indignant and ready to denounce the Church and fight against the +admission to statehood. "When I heard of that sermon," he said, "my +heart went into my boots. We Gentiles have trusted everything to the +promises that have been made by the leaders of the Church. If the +Tribune had not supported the movement for statehood, the Gentiles would +never have taken the risk. I feel like a man who has sold his brethren +into slavery." + +I assured him (as I was authorized to do) that President Woodruff +was not speaking for our generation of the Mormon people nor for his +associates in the leadership of the Church. I pleaded that it was the +privilege of an old man (and President Woodruff was nearly ninety) to +dream again the visions of his youth; his early life had been spent in +the belief that a Kingdom of God was to be set up in the valleys of +the mountains, governed by the priesthood and destined to rule all the +nations of the earth; he had planted the first flag of the country over +the Salt Lake Valley; he was still living in days that had passed for +all but him, and cherishing hopes that he alone had not abandoned. But +if the Tribune and the Gentiles would be magnanimous in this matter, +they would add to the gratitude that already bound the younger +generations of the Church to the fulfillment of its political promises. + +Mr. Lannan responded instantly to the appeal to his generosity, and +after consultation with the editor-in-chief (Judge C. C. Goodwin) and +the managing editor (Colonel Wm. Nelson) the Tribune continued to trust +in Mormon good faith. + +I reported the result of my conference to Church headquarters. The news +was received with relief and gratitude. And, in a long conversation +with the authorities, I was told that it would be incumbent on us of the +younger generation to see that all the Church's covenants to the nation +should be scrupulously observed. + +I accepted my part of the charge with a light heart, and late in +November, 1895, I took train for Washington for convening of Congress. +Of the incidents of my brief services as delegate I shall write nothing +here, since those incidents were merely introductory to matters which +I shall have to consider later. But I was greeted with a great deal +of cordiality by the Republicans who credited me with having brought +a state and its national representation into the Republican party, and +they assured me that my own political future would be as bright as that +of my native state! + +President Cleveland, on January 4, 1896, proclaimed Utah a sovereign +state of the Union, and its admission to statehood ended, of course, my +service as a territorial delegate. I stood beside his desk in the White +House to see him sign the proclamation--the same desk at which he had +received me, some eight years before, when I came beseeching him to be +merciful to the proscribed people whose freedom he was now announcing. +Perhaps the manumission that he was granting, gave a benignity to his +face. Perhaps the emotion in my own mind transfigured him to me. But +I saw smiles and pathos in the ruggedness of his expression of +congratulation as he said a few words of hope that Utah would fulfill +every promise made, on her behalf, by her own people, and every happy +expectation that had been entertained for her by her friends. His +enormous rigid bulk, a little bowed now by years of service, seemed +softened, as his face was, to the graciousness of clement power. He gave +me the pen with which he had signed the paper, and dismissed me to some +of the happiest hours of my life. + +I walked out of the White House dispossessed of office, but now, at +last, a citizen of the Republic. I stood on the steps of the White +House, to look at the city through whose streets I had so many times +wandered in a worried despair, and I saw them with an emotion I would +not dare transcribe. I do not know that the sun was really shining, but +in my memory the scene has taken on all the accumulated brightnesses of +all the radiant days I ever knew in Washington. And I remember that +I saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol with a sense of almost +affectionate personal possession! + +In an excited exultation I went to thank the men who had helped us +in the House and the Senate--to wire jubilant messages home--to +send Governor Wells the pen with which the President had signed his +proclamation, and to procure from friends in the War Department the +first two flags that had been made with forty-five stars--the star of +Utah the forty-fifth. Wherever I went, some sinister aspect seemed to +have gone out of things; and I remember that I enjoyed so much the sense +of their new inhostility, that I planned to delay my return to Utah +until I had made a pilgrimage to every spot in Washington where I had +despaired of our future. + +All this may seem almost sentimental to you, who perhaps accept your +citizenship as an unregarded commonplace of natural right. But, for me, +the freeing of our people was an emancipation to be compared only to the +enfranchisement of the Southern slaves and greater even than that, +for we had come from citizenship in the older states, and we could +appreciate our deprivation, smart under our ostracism, and resent the +rejection that set us apart from the rest of the nation as an inferior +people unfit for equal rights. + +I sat down to my dinner, that evening, with the appetite that comes +from a day of fasting and emotional excitement; and I recall that I was +planning a visit of self-congratulation to Arlington, for the morrow, +when one of the hotel bell-boys brought me a telegram. I opened it +eagerly--to enjoy the expected message of felicitation from home. + +It was in cipher, and that fact gave me a pause of doubt, since the +days of political mysteries and their cipher telegrams were over for us, +thank God! It was signed with President Woodruff's cipher name. + +I went to my room to translate it, and I did not return to my dinner. +The message read: "It is the will of the Lord that your father shall be +elected Senator from Utah." + +I do not need to explain all the treacherous implications of that +announcement. As soon as I had recovered my breath, I wired back, for +such interpretation as they should choose to give: "God bless Utah. I am +coming home,"--and packed my trunk, for trouble. + + + + + + +Chapter VII. The First Betrayals + + + +Before I reached Utah, my friends, Ben Rich and James Devine, met me, on +the train. The news of President Woodruff's "revelation" had percolated +through the whole community. The Gentiles were alarmed for themselves. +My friends were anxious for me. All the old enmities that had so long +divided Utah were arranging themselves for a new conflict. And Rich and +Devine had come to urge me to remember my promise that I would hold to +my candidacy no matter who should appear in the field against me. + +Of my father's stand in the crisis Rich could give me only one +indication: after a conference in the offices of the Presidency, Rich +had said to President Woodruff: "Then I suppose I may as well close +up Frank's rooms at the Templeton"--the hotel in which my friends had +opened political headquarters for me--and my father, accompanying him +to an anteroom, had hinted significantly: "I think you should not close +Frank's rooms just yet. He may need them." + +Rich brought me word, too, that the Church authorities were expecting +to see me; and soon as I arrived in Salt Lake City, I hastened to the +little plastered house in which the Presidency had its offices. + +President Woodruff, my father, and Joseph F. Smith were there, in +the large room of their official apartments. We withdrew, for private +conference, into the small retiring room in which I had consulted with +"Brother Joseph Mack" when he was on the underground--in 1888--and had +consulted with President Woodruff about his "manifesto," in 1890. The +change in their circumstances, since those unhappy days, was in my mind +as I sat down. + +President Woodruff sat at the head of a bare walnut table in a chair so +large that it rather dwarfed him; and he sank down in it, to an attitude +of nervous reluctance to speak, occupied with his hands. Smith took his +place at the opposite end of the board, with dropped eyes, his chair +tilted back, silent, but (as I soon saw) unusually alert and attentive. +My father assumed his inevitable composure--firmly and almost unmovingly +seated--and looked at me squarely with a not unkind premonition of a +smile. + +President Woodruff continued silent. Ordinarily, anything that came +from the Lord was quite convincing to him and needed no argument (in his +mind) to make it convincing to others. I could not suppose that the +look of determination on my face troubled him. It was more likely that +something unusual in the mental attitudes of his councillors was the +cause of his hesitation; and with this suspicion to arouse me I +became increasingly aware (as the conference proceeded) of two rival +watchfulnesses upon me. + +"Well?" I said. "What was it you wanted of me?" + +Smith looked up at the President. And Smith had always, hitherto, seemed +so unseeing of consequences, and, therefore, unappreciative of means, +that his betrayal of interest was indicative of purpose. I thought I +could detect, in the communication which his manner made, the plan of +my father's ecclesiastical rivals to remove him from the scene of his +supreme influence over the President, and the plan of ambitious church +politicians to remove me from their path by the invocation of God's word +appointing father to the Senate. + +"Frank," the President announced, "it is the will of the Lord that your +father should go to the Senate from Utah." + +As he hesitated, I said: "Well, President Woodruff?" + +He added, with less decision: "And we want you to tell us how to bring +it about?" + +It was evident that getting the revelation was easy to his spiritualized +mind, but that fulfilling it was difficult to his unworldliness. + +"President Woodruff," I replied, "you have received the revelation on +the wrong point. You do not need a voice from heaven to convince anyone +that my father is worthy to go to the Senate, but you will need a +revelation to tell how he is to get there." + +He seemed to raise himself to the inspiration of divine authority. "The +only difficulty that we have encountered," he said, "is the fact that +the legislators are pledged to you. Will you not release them from their +promises and tell them to vote for your father?" + +"No," I said. "And my father would not permit me to do it, even if I +could. He knows that I gave my word of honor to my supporters to stand +as a candidate, no matter who might enter against me. He knows that he +and I have given our pledges at Washington that political dictation in +Utah by the heads of the Mormon Church shall cease. Of all men in Utah +we cannot be amenable to such dictation. If you can get my supporters +away from me--very well. I shall have no personal regrets. But you +cannot get me away from my supporters." + +This inclusion of my father in my refusal evidently disconcerted +President Woodruff; and, as evidently, it had its significance to Joseph +F. Smith. + +I went on: "Before I was elected to the House of Representatives, I +asked my father if he intended to be a candidate for the Senate. I +knew that some prominent Gentiles, desiring to curry favor at Church +headquarters had solicited his candidacy. I had been told that General +Clarkson and others had assured him by letter that his election would be +accepted at Washington, and elsewhere. I discussed the matter with him +fully. He agreed with me that his election would be a violation of the +understanding had with the country; and he declared that he did not care +to become again the storm center of strife to his people, nor did he +feel that he could honorably break our covenant to the country. With +this clear understanding between us, I made my pledges to men who, in +supporting me, cast aside equally advantageous relations which they +might have established with another. I can't withdraw now without +dishonor." + +My father said: "Don't let us have any misunderstandings. As President +Woodruff stated the matter to me, I understood that it would be pleasing +to the Lord, if the people desired my election to the Senate and it +wouldn't antagonize the country." + +"Yes, yes," the President put in. "That's what I mean." + +Smith said, rather sourly: "The people are always willing to do what the +Lord desires--if no one gives them bad counsel." + +Both he and my father emphasized the fact that the business interests of +the East were making strong representations to the Presidency in support +of my father's election; and I suspected (what I afterwards found to be +the case) that both Joseph F. Smith and Apostle John Henry Smith, were +by this time, in close communication with Republican politicians. There +was a calm assumption, everywhere, that the Church had power to decide +the election, if it could be induced to act; and this assumption was +a deplorable evidence, to me, of the willingness of some of our former +allies to drag us swiftly to the shame of a broken covenant, if only +they could profit in purse or politics by our dishonor. I would not be +an agent in any such betrayal, but I had to refuse without offending +my father's trust in the divine inspiration of President Woodruff's +decision and without aiding the Smiths in their conspiracy. + +Either at this conference or one of the later ones, two or three +apostles came into the room; and among them was Apostle Brigham Young, +son of the Prophet Brigham who had led the Mormons to the Salt Lake +Valley. When he understood my refusal to abandon my candidacy, he said +angrily: "This is a serious filial disrespect. I know my father never +would have brooked such treatment from me." And I retorted: "I don't +know who invited you into this conference, but I deny your right to +instruct me in my filial duty. If my father doesn't understand that the +senatorship has lost its value for me--that it's a cross now--then my +whole lifetime of devotion to him has been in vain." + +My father rose and put his arm around my shoulders. "This boy," he +said, "is acting honorably. I want him to know--and you to know--that +I respect the position he has taken. If he is elected, he shall have my +blessing." + +That was the only understanding I had with him--but it was enough. I +could know that I was not to lose his trust and affection by holding to +our obligations of honor; and--an assurance almost as precious--I could +know that he would not consciously permit legislators to be crushed by +the vengeance of the Church if they refused to yield to its pressure. + +A few days after my arrival in Utah, and while this controversy was at +its height, my father's birthday was celebrated (January 11, 1896), +with all the patriarchal pomp of a Mormon family gathering, in his big +country house outside Salt Lake City. All his descendants and collateral +relatives were there, as well as the members of the Presidency and many +friends. After dinner, the usual exercises of the occasion were held in +the large reception hall of the house, with President Woodruff and my +father and two or three other Church leaders seated in semi-state at one +end of the hall, and the others of the company deferentially withdrawn +to face them. Towards the end of the program President Woodruff +rose from his easy chair, and made a sort of informal address of +congratulation; and in the course of it, with his hand on my father's +shoulder, he said benignly: "Abraham was the friend of God. He had +only one son on whom all his hopes were set. But the voice of the Lord +commanded him to sacrifice Isaac upon an altar; and Abraham trusted the +Lord and laid his son upon the altar, in obedience to God's commands. +Now here is another servant of the Most High and a friend of God. I +refer to President Cannon, whose birthday we are celebrating. He has +twenty-one sons; and if it shall be the will of the Lord that he must +sacrifice one of them he ought to be as willing as Abraham was, for he +will have twenty left. And the son should be as willing as Isaac. We can +all safely trust in the Lord. He will require no sacrifice at our hands +without purpose." + +I remarked to a relative beside me that the altar was evidently ready +for me, but that I feared I should have to "get out and rustle my own +ram in the thicket." I received no reply. I heard no word of comment +from anyone upon the President's speech. It was accepted devoutly, +with no feeling that he had abused the privileges of a guest. Everyone +understood (as I did) that President Woodruff was the gentlest of men; +that he had often professed and always shown a kindly affection for me; +but that the will of the Lord being now known, he thought I should be +proud to be sacrificed to it! + +Among the legislators pledged to me were Mormon Bishops and other +ecclesiasts who had promised their constituents to vote for me and who +now stood between a betrayal of their people and a rebellion against the +power of the hierarchy. I released one of them from his pledge, because +of his pathetic fear that he would be eternally damned if he did not +obey "the will of the Lord." The others went to the Presidency to admit +that if they betrayed their people they would have to confess what +pressure had been put upon them to force them to the betrayal. I went to +notify my father (as I had notified the representatives of every +other candidate) that we were going to call a caucus of the Republican +majority of the legislature, and later I was advised that President +Woodruff and his Councillor's had appointed a committee to investigate +and report to them how many members could be counted upon to support +my father's candidacy. The committee (composed of my uncle Angus, my +brother Abraham, and Apostle John Henry Smith) brought back word that +even among the men who had professed a willingness to vote for my father +there was great reluctance and apprehension, and that in all probability +his election could not be carried. With President Woodruff's consent, +my father then announced that he was not a candidate. I was nominated by +acclamation. + +When I called upon my father at the President's offices after the +election, he said to me before his colleagues: "I wish to congratulate +you on having acted honorably and fearlessly. You have my blessing." He +turned to the President. "You see, President Woodruff," he added, "it +was not the will of the Lord, after all, since the people did not desire +my election!" + +I have dwelt so largely upon the religious aspects of this affair +because they are as true of the Prophet in politics today as they were +then. At the time, the personal complication of the situation most +distressed me--the fact that I was opposing my father in order to +fulfill the word of honor that we had given on behalf of the Mormon +leaders. But there was another view of the matter; and it is the one +that is most important to the purposes of this narrative. In the course +of the various discussions and conferences upon the Senatorship, I +learned that the inspiration of the whole attempted betrayal had come +from certain Republican politicians and lobbyists (like Colonel Isaac +Trumbo), who claimed to represent a political combination of business +interests in Washington. Joseph F. Smith admitted as much to me in more +than one conversation. (I had offended these interests by opposing a +monetary and a tariff bill during my service as delegate in Congress--a +matter which I have still to recount). They had chosen my father and +Colonel Trumbo as Utah's two Senators. I made it my particular business +to see that Trumbo's name was not even mentioned in the caucus. The +man selected as the other senator was Arthur Brown, a prominent Gentile +lawyer who was known as a "jack-Mormon" (meaning a Gentile adherent to +Church power), although I then believed, and do now, that Judge Chas. +C. Goodwin was the Gentile most entitled to the place, because of his +ability and the love of his people. + +I was, however, content with the victory we had won by resisting the +influence of the business interests that had been willing to sell +our honor for their profit, and I set out for Washington with a +determination to continue the resistance. I was in a good position to +continue it. The election of two Republican Senators from Utah had given +the Republicans a scant majority of the members of the Upper House, +and the bills that I had fought in the Lower House were now before the +Senate. + +These bills had been introduced in the House of Representatives, +immediately upon its convening in December, 1895, by the committee on +rules, before Speaker Reed had even appointed the general committees. +One was a bill to authorize the issuance of interest-bearing securities +of the United States at such times and in such sums as the Executive +might determine. The other was a general tariff bill that proposed +increases upon the then existing Wilson-Gorman bill. The first would +put into the hands of the President a power that was not enjoyed by +any ruler in Christendom; the second would add to the unfair and +discriminatory tariff rates then in force, by making ad valorem +increases in them. Many new members of Congress had been elected on +the two issues thus created: the arbitrary increase of the bonded +indebtedness by President Cleveland to maintain a gold reserve; and the +unjust benefits afforded those industries that were least in need of +aid, by duties increased in exact proportion to the strength of the +industrial combination that was to be protected. + +The presentation of the two bills by the Committee on Rules--with +a coacher to each proposing to prevent amendment and limit +discussion--raised a revolt in the House. A caucus of the insurgent +Republican members was held at the Ebbitt Hotel, and I was elected +temporary chairman. We appointed a committee to demand from Speaker Reed +a division of the questions and time for opposition to be heard. We had +seventy-five insurgents when our committee waited on. Reed; and most +of us were new men, elected to oppose such measures as these bills +advocated. He received us with sarcasm, put us off with a promise to +consider our demands, and then set his lieutenants at work among +us. Under the threat of the Speaker's displeasure if we continued to +"insurge" and the promise of his favor if we "got into line," forty-one +(I think) of our seventy-five deserted us. We were gloriously beaten in +the House on both measures. + +Some of the older Republican members of the House came to ask me how +I had been "misled"; and they received with the raised eyebrow and +the silent shrug my explanation that I had been merely following my +convictions and living up to the promises I had made my constituents. +I had supposed that I was upholding an orthodox Republican doctrine +in helping to defend the country from exploitation by the financial +interests, in the matter of the bond issue, and from the greed of the +business interests in the attempt to increase horizontally the tariff +rates. + +I do not need, in this day of tariff reform agitation, to argue the +injustice of the latter measure. But the bond issue--looking back upon +it now--seems the more cruelly absurd of the two. Here we were, in times +of peace, with ample funds in the national treasury, proposing to permit +the unlimited issuance of interest-bearing government bonds in order +to procure gold, for that national treasury, out of the hoards of the +banks, so that these same banks might be able to obtain the gold again +from the treasury in return for paper money. The extent to which this +sort of absurdity might be carried would depend solely upon the desire +of the confederation of finance to have interest-bearing government +bonds on which they might issue national bank notes, since the Executive +was apparently willing to yield interminably to their greed, in the +belief that he was protecting the public credit by encouraging the +financiers to attack that credit with their raids on the government +gold reserve. The whole difficulty had arisen, of course, out of the +agitation upon the money question. The banks were drawing upon the +government gold reserve; and the government was issuing bonds to recover +the gold again from the banks. + +I had been, for some years, interested in the problem of our monetary +system and had studied and discussed it among our Eastern bankers and +abroad. The very fact that I was from a "silver state" had put me on my +guard, lest a local influence should lead me, into economic error. I had +grown into the belief that our system was wrong. It seemed to me that +some remedy was imperative. I saw in bimetallism a part of the remedy, +and I supported bimetallism not as a partisan of free coinage but as an +advocate of monetary reform. + +The arrival of Utah's two representatives in the Senate (January 27, +1896) gave the bimetallists a majority, and when the bond-issue bill +came before us we made it into a bill to permit the free coinage of +silver. (February 1). A few days later, the Finance Committee turned +the tariff bill into a free-coinage bill also. On both measures, five +Republican Senators voted against their party--Henry M. Teller, of +Colorado; Fred T. Dubois, of Idaho; Thos. H. Carter, of Montana; Lee +Mantle, of Montana; and myself. We were subsequently joined by Richard +F. Pettigrew of South Dakota. Within two weeks of my taking the oath +in the Senate we were read out of the party by Republican leaders and +Republican organs. + +All this happened so swiftly that there was no time for any +remonstrances to come to me from Salt Lake City, even if the Church +authorities had wished to remonstrate. The fact was that the people of +Utah were with us in our insurgency, and when the financial interests +subsequently appealed to the hierarchy, they found the Church powerless +to aid them in support of a gold platform. But they obtained that aid, +at last, in support of a tariff that was as unjust to the people as it +was favorable to the trusts, and my continued "insurgency" led me again +into a revolt against Church interference. + +The thread of connection that ran through these incidents is clear +enough to me now: they were all incidents in the progress of a +partnership between the Church and the predatory business interests that +have since so successfully exploited the country. But, at the time, +I saw no such connection clearly. I supposed that the partnership was +merely a political friendship between the Smith faction in the Church +and the Republican politicians who wished to use the Church; and I had +sufficient contempt for the political abilities of the Smiths to regard +their conspiracy rather lightly. + +Believing still in the good faith of the Mormon people and their real +leaders in authority, I introduced a joint resolution in the Senate +restoring to the Church its escheated real estate, which was still in +the hands of a receiver, although its personal property had been +already restored. In conference with Senators Hoar and Allison,--of the +committee to which the resolution was referred--I urged an unconditional +restoration of the property, arguing that to place conditions upon the +restoration would be to insult the people who had given so many proofs +of their willingness to obey the law and keep their pledges. The +property was restored without conditions by a joint resolution that +passed the Senate on March 18, 1896, passed the House a week later, and +was approved by the President on March 26. The Church was now free of +the last measure of proscription. Its people were in the enjoyment of +every political liberty of American citizenship; and I joined in the +Presidential campaign of 1896 with no thought of any danger threatening +us that was not common to the other communities of the country. + +But before I continue further with these political events, I must relate +a private incident in the secret betrayal of Utah--an incident that must +be related, if this narrative is to remain true to the ideals of public +duty that have thus far assumed to inspire it--an incident of which a +false account was given before a Senate Committee in Washington +during the Smoot investigation of 1904, accompanied by a denial of +responsibility by Joseph F. Smith, the man whose authority alone +encouraged and accomplished the tragedy--for it was a tragedy, as +dark in its import to the Mormon community as it was terrible in its +immediate consequences to all our family. + +By his denial of responsibility and by secret whisper within the Church, +Smith has placed the disgrace of the betrayal upon my father, who +was guiltless of it, and blackened the memory of my dead brother by a +misrepresentation of his motives. I feel that it is incumbent upon me, +therefore, at whatever pain to myself, to relate the whole unhappy truth +of the affair, as much to defend the memory of the dead as to denounce +the betrayal of the living, to expose a public treason against the +community not less than to correct a private wrong done to the good name +of those whom it is my right to defend. + +Late in July, 1896, when I was in New York on business for the +Presidency, I received a telegram announcing the death of my brother, +Apostle Abraham H. Cannon. We had been companions all our lives; he had +been the nearest to me of our family, the dearest of my friends but even +in the first shock of my grief I realized that my father would have a +greater stroke of sorrow to bear than I; and in hurrying back to Salt +Lake City I nerved myself with the hope that I might console him. + +I found him and Joseph F. Smith in the office of the Presidency, +sitting at their desks. My father turned as I entered, and his face was +unusually pale in spite of its composure; but the moment he recognized +me, his expression changed to a look of pain that alarmed me. He rose +and put his hand on my shoulder with a tenderness that it was his habit +to conceal. "I know how you feel his loss," he said hoarsely, "but when +I think what he would have had to pass through if he had lived I cannot +regret his death." + +The almost agonized expression of his face, as much as the terrible +implication of his words, startled me with I cannot say what horrible +fear about my brother. I asked, "Why! Why--what has happened?" + +With a sweep of his hand toward Smith at his desk--a gesture and a +look the most unkind I ever saw him use--he answered: "A few weeks ago, +Abraham took a plural wife, Lillian Hamlin. It became known. He would +have had to face a prosecution in Court. His death has saved us from +a calamity that would have been dreadful for the Church--and for the +state." + +"Father!" I cried. "Has this thing come back again! And the ink hardly +dry on the bill that restored your church property on the pledge of +honor that there would never be another case--" I had caught the look on +Smith's face, and it was a look of sullen defiance. "How did it happen?" + +My father replied: "I know--it's awful. I would have prevented it if +I could. I was asked for my consent, and I refused it. President Smith +obtained the acquiescence of President Woodruff, on the plea that it +wasn't an ordinary case of polygamy but merely a fulfillment of the +biblical instruction that a man should take his dead brother's wife. +Lillian was betrothed to David, and had been sealed to him in eternity +after his death. I understand that President Woodruff told Abraham +he would leave the matter with them if he wished to take the +responsibility--and President Smith performed the ceremony." + +Smith could hear every word that was said. My father had included him +in the conversation, and he was listening. He not only did not deny +his guilt; he accepted it in silence, with an expression of sulky +disrespect. + +He did not deny it later, when the whole community had learned of it. He +went with Apostle John Henry Smith to see Mr. P. H. Lannan, proprietor +of the Salt Lake Tribune, to ask him not to attack the Church for +this new and shocking violation of its covenant. Mr. Lannan had been +intimately friendly with my brother, and he was distressed between his +regard for his dead friend and his obligation to do his public duty. +I do not know all that the Smiths said to him; but I know that the +conversation assumed that Joseph F. Smith had performed the marriage +ceremony; I know that neither of the Smiths made any attempt to deny the +assumption; and I know that Joseph F. Smith sought to placate Mr. Lannan +by promising "it shall not occur again." And this interview was sought +by the Smiths, palpably because wherever the marriage of Abraham H. +Cannon and Lillian Hamlin was talked of, Joseph F. Smith was named as +the priest who had solemnized the offending relation. If it had not been +for Smith's consciousness of his own guilt and his knowledge that the +whole community was aware of that guilt, he would never have gone to the +Tribune office to make such a promise to Mr. Lannan. + +All of which did not prevent Joseph F. Smith from testifying--in the +Smoot investigation at Washington in 1904--that he did not marry Abraham +Cannon and Lillian Hamlin, that he did not have any conversation with my +father about the marriage, that he did not know Lillian Hamlin had been +betrothed to Abraham's dead brother, that the first time he heard of +the charge that he had married them was when he saw it printed in the +newspapers! + +[FOOTNOTE: See Proceedings before Senate Committee on Privileges and +Elections, 1904, Vol. 1, pages 110, 126, 177, etc.] + +If this first polygamous marriage had been the last--if it were an +isolated and peculiar incident as the Smiths then claimed it was and +promised it should be--it might be forgiven as generously now as Mr. +Lannan then forgave it. But, about the same time there became public +another case--that of Apostle Teasdale--and as this narrative shall +prove, here was the beginning of a policy of treachery which the +present Church leaders, under Joseph F. Smith, have since consistently +practiced, in defiance of the laws of the state and the "revelation +of God," with lies and evasions, with perjury and its subornation, in +violation of the most solemn pledges to the country, and through the +agency of a political tyranny that makes serious prosecution impossible +and immunity a public boast. + +The world understands that polygamy is an enslavement of women. The +ecclesiastical authorities in Utah today have discovered that it is +more powerful as an enslaver of men. Once a man is bound in a polygamous +relation, there is no place for him in the civilized world outside of +a Mormon community. He must remain there, shielded by the Church, +or suffer elsewhere social ostracism and the prosecution of bigamous +relations. Since 1890, the date of the manifesto (and it is to the +period since 1890 that my criticism solely applies) the polygamist must +be abjectly subservient to the prophets who protect him; he must obey +their orders and do their work, or endure the punishment which they can +inflict upon him and his wives and his children. Inveigled into a plural +marriage by the authority of a clandestine religious dogma--encouraged +by his elders, seduced by the prospect of their favor, and impelled +perhaps by a daring impulse to take the covenant and bond that shall +swear him into the dangerous fellowship of the lawlessly faithful--he +finds himself, at once, a law breaker who must pay the Church hierarchy +for his protection by yielding to them every political right, every +personal independence, every freedom of opinion, every liberty of act. + +I do not believe that Smith fully foresaw the policy which he has since +undoubtedly pursued. I believe now, as I did then, that in betraying my +brother into polygamy Smith was actuated by his anger against my father +for having inspired the recession from the doctrine; that he desired +to impair the success of the recession by having my brother dignify +the recrudescence of polygamy by the apostolic sanction of his +participation; and that this participation was jealously designed by +Smith to avenge himself upon the First Councillor by having the son be +one of the first to break the law, and violate the covenant. I saw that +my brother's death had thwarted the conspiracy. Smith was so obviously +frightened--despite his pretense of defiance--that I believed he had +learned his needed lesson. And I accepted the incident as a private +tragedy on which the final curtain had now fallen. + + + + + + +Chapter VIII. The Church and the Interests + + + +Meanwhile, I had been taking part in the Presidential campaign of 1896, +and I had been one of the four "insurgent" Republican Senators (Teller +of Colorado, Dubois of Idaho, Pettigrew of South Dakota and myself) +who withdrew from the national Republican convention at St. Louis, in +fulfillment of our obligations to our constituents, when we found +that the convention was dominated by that confederation of finance in +politics which has since come to be called "the System." I was a member +of the committee on resolutions, and our actions in the committee had +indicated that we would probably withdraw from the convention if +it adopted the single gold platform as dictated by Senator Lodge of +Massachusetts acting for a group of Republican leaders headed by Platt +of New York, and Aldrich of Rhode Island. At the most critical point of +our controversy I received a message from Church headquarters warning me +that "we" had made powerful friends among the leading men of the nation +and that we ought not to jeopardize their friendship by an inconsiderate +insurgency. Accordingly, in bolting the convention, I was guilty of +a new defiance of ecclesiastical authority and a new provocation of +ecclesiastical vengeance. + +President Woodruff spoke to me of the matter after I returned to Utah, +and I explained to him that I thought the Republican party, under the +leadership of Mark Hanna and the flag of the "interests," had forgotten +its duty to the people of the nation. I argued, to the President, that +of all people in the world we, who had suffered so much ourselves, +were most bound to bow to no unfairness ourselves and to oppose the +imposition of unfairness upon others. And I talked in this strain to him +not because I wished his approval of my action but because I wished +to fortify him against the approach of the emissaries of the new +Republicanism, who were sure to come to him to seek the support of the +Church in the campaign. + +Some days later, while I was talking with my father in the offices of +the Presidency, the secretary ushered in Senator Redfield Proctor of +Vermont. I withdrew, understanding that he wished to speak in private +with President Woodruff and his councillors. But I learned subsequently +that he had come to Salt Lake to persuade the leaders of the Church +to use their power in favor of the Republican party throughout the +intermountain states. + +Senator Proctor asked me personally what chance I thought the party +had in the West. I pointed out that the Republican platform of 1892 +had reproached Grover Cleveland for his antagonism to bimetallism--"a +doctrine favored by the American people from tradition and interest," +to quote the language of that platform--and the Republicans of the +intermountain states still held true to the doctrine. It had +been repudiated by the St. Louis platform of June, 1896, and the +intermountain states would probably refuse their electoral votes to the +Republican party because of the repudiation. + +Senator Proctor thought that the leaders of the Church were powerful +enough to control the votes of their followers; and he argued that +gratitude to the Republican party for freeing Utah ought to be stronger +than the opinions of the people in a merely economic question. + +I reminded him that one of our covenants had been that the Church was +to refrain from dictating to its followers in politics; that we had been +steadily growing away from the absolutism of earlier times; and that +for the sake of the peace and progress of Utah I hoped that the leaders +would keep their hands off. I did not, of course, convince him. Nor was +it necessary. I was sure that no power that the Church would dare to use +would be sufficient at this time to influence the people against their +convictions. + +Joseph F. Smith, soon afterward, notified me that there was to be a +meeting of the Church authorities in the Temple, and he asked me +to attend it. Since I had never before been invited to one of these +conferences in the "holy of holies," I inquired the purposes of the +conclave. He replied that they desired to consider the situation +in which our people had been placed by my action in the St. Louis +convention, and to discuss the perceptible trend of public opinion +in the state. I saw, then, that Senator Proctor's visit had not been +without avail. + +On the appointed afternoon, I went to the sacred inner room of the +temple, where the members of the Presidency and several of the apostles +were waiting. I shall not describe the room or any of the religious +ceremonies with which the conference was opened. I shall confine myself +to the discussion--which was begun mildly by President Woodruff and +Lorenzo Snow, then president of the quorum of apostles. + +To my great surprise, Joseph F. Smith made a violent Republican speech, +declaring that I had humiliated the Church and alienated its political +friends by withdrawing from the St. Louis convention. He was followed by +Heber J. Grant, an apostle, who had always posed as a Democrat; and +he was as Republican and denunciatory as Smith had been. He declaimed +against our alienation of the great business interests of the country, +whose friendship he and other prominent Mormons had done so much +to cultivate, and from whom we might now procure such advantageous +co-operation if we stood by them in politics. + +President Woodruff tried to defend me by saying that he was sure I had +acted conscientiously; but by this time I desired no intervention of +prophetic mercy and no mitigation of judgment that might come of such +intervention. As soon as the President announced that they were prepared +to hear from me, I rose and walked to the farther side of the solemn +chamber, withdrawn from the assembled prophets and confronting +them. Having first disavowed any recognition of their right as an +ecclesiastical body to direct me in my political actions, I rehearsed +the events of the two campaigns in which I had been elected on pledges +that I had fulfilled by my course in Congress, in the Senate, and +finally in the St. Louis convention. That course had been approved by +the people. They had trusted me to carry out the policies on which they +had elected me to Congress. They had reiterated the trust by electing +me to the Senate after I had revolted against the Republican bond and +tariff measures in the lower House. I could not and would not violate +their trust now. And there was no authority on earth which I would +recognize as empowered to come between the people's will and the +people's elected servants. + +The prophets received this defiance in silence. Their expressions +implied condemnation, but none was spoken--at least not while I was +there. President Woodruff indicated that the conference was at an +end, so far as I was concerned; and I withdrew. Some attempts were +subsequently made to influence the people during the campaign, but in a +half-hearted way and vainly. The Democrats carried Utah overwhelmingly; +only three Republican members of the legislature were elected out of +sixty-three. + +It was this conference in the Temple which gave me my first realization +that most of the Prophets had not, and never would have, any feeling of +citizenship in state or nation; that they considered, and would continue +to consider, every public issue solely in its possible effect upon the +fortunes of their Church. My father alone seemed to have a larger view; +but he was a statesman of full worldly knowledge; and his experience in +Congress, during a part of the "reconstruction period," and throughout +the Tilden-Hayes controversy, had taught him how effectively the +national power could assert itself. The others, blind to such dangers, +seemed to feel that under Utah's sovereignty the literal "kingdom +of God" (as they regard their Church) was to exercise an undisputed +authority. Unable, myself, to take their viewpoint, I was conscious of +a sense of transgression against the orthodoxy of their religion. I was +aware, for the first time, that in gaining the fraternity of American +citizenship I had in some way lost the fraternity of the faith in which +I had been reared. I accepted this as a necessary consequence of our +new freedom--a freedom that left us less close and unyielding in our +religious loyalty by withdrawing the pressure that had produced our +compactness. And I hoped that, in time, the Prophets themselves--or, +at least, their successors--would grow into a more liberal sense of +citizenship as their people grew. I knew that our progress must be a +process of evolution. I was content to wait upon the slow amendments of +time. + +My hope carried me through the disheartening incidents of the Senatorial +campaign that followed upon the election of the legislature--a campaign +in which the power of the hierarchy was used publicly to defeat the +deposed apostle, Moses Thatcher, in his second candidacy for the +United States Senate. But the Church only succeeded in defeating him by +throwing its influence to Joseph L. Rawlins, whom the Prophets loved as +little as they loved Thatcher; and I felt that in Rawlins' election the +state at least gained a representative who was worthy of it. + +What was quite as sinister a use of Church influence occurred among the +Mormons of Idaho, where I went to help Senator Fred. T. Dubois in his +campaign for re-election. He had aided us in obtaining Utah's statehood +as much as any man in Washington. He had accepted all the promises of +the Mormon leaders in good faith--particularly their promise that no +Church influence should intrude upon the politics of Idaho. Yet in his +campaign I was followed through the Mormon settlements by Charles W. +Penrose, a polygamist, since an apostle of the Church, and at that time +editor of the Church's official organ, the Deseret News. + +I supposed that he was lying in his claim to represent the Presidency; +and as soon as I returned to Salt Lake, I went to Church headquarters +and asked whether Penrose had been authorized to say (as he had been +saying) that he was sent out to prevent my making any misrepresentations +of the political attitude of the Presidency. + +Joseph F. Smith replied, "Yes,"--speaking for himself and apparently for +President Woodruff. + +"And when"--I demanded--"when did I ever claim to represent or +misrepresent you in politics? Haven't I always said that I don't +recognize you as politicians--and always denied that you have any right +to dictate the politics of our people?" + +President Woodruff interposed gently: + +"Well, you know, Frank, we have no criticism to pass on you, but we +were advised that you might tell the voters of Idaho we were friendly +to Senator Dubois, and so we sent Brother Penrose, at the request of +President Budge" (a Mormon stake president in Idaho) "to counsel +our people. And Brother Penrose says you attacked him in one of your +meetings, and said he was not a trustworthy political guide." + +President Woodruff's mildness was always irresistible. "If that's all +he told you I said about him," I replied, "he didn't do justice to my +remarks." And I explained that I had described Penrose as "a lying, oily +hypocrite," come to advise the Idaho Mormons that the Presidency wished +them to vote a certain political ticket although the Presidency had no +interest in the question and although I myself had taken to Washington +the Presidency's covenant of honor that the Church would never attempt +to interfere in Idaho's political affairs. + +Smith sprang to his feet angrily. "I don't care what has been promised +to Dubois or anyone else," he said. "He was the bitterest enemy our +people had in the old days, and I'll never give my countenance to him in +politics while the world stands. He sent many a one of our brethren +to prison when he was marshal of the territory, and I can't forget his +devilish persecutions--even if you can." + +I closed the conversation by remarking that not one among us would have +had a vote as a citizen either of Utah or of Idaho if Dubois and men +of his kind had not accepted our pledges of honor; and if we were +determined to remember the persecutions and not the mercy, we ought to +go back to the conditions from which mercy had rescued us. + +I left for Washington, soon after, with an unhappy apprehension that +there were evil influences at work in Utah which might prove powerful +enough to involve the whole community in the worst miseries of reaction. +I saw those influences embodied in Joseph F. Smith; and because he was +explosive where others were reflective, he had now more influence +than previously--there being no longer any set resistance to him. The +reverence of the Mormon people for the name of Smith was (as it had +always been) his chief asset of popularity. He had a superlative +physical impressiveness and a passion that seemed to take the place of +magnetism in public address. But he never said anything memorable; he +never showed any compelling ability of mind; he had a personal cunning +without any large intelligence, and he was so many removes from the +First Presidency that it seemed unlikely he would soon attain to +that position of which the power is so great that it only makes the +blundering more dangerous than the astute. + +I was going to Washington, before Congress reconvened, to confer with +Senator Redfield Proctor. He wished to see me about the new protective +tariff bill that was proposed by the Republican leaders. I wished to ask +him not to use his political influence in Idaho against Senator Fred. +T. Dubois, who had been Senator Proctor's political protege. I knew that +Senator Proctor had once been given a semi-official promise that the +Mormon Church leaders would not interfere in Idaho against Dubois. I +wished to tell Proctor that this promise was not being kept, and to +plead with him to give Dubois fair play--although I knew that Senator +Dubois' "insurgency" had offended Senator Proctor. + +He received me, in his home in Washington, with an almost paternal +kindliness that became sometimes more dictatorial than persuasive--as +the manner of an older Senator is so apt to be when he wishes to correct +the independence of a younger colleague. He explained that the House +was Republican by a considerable majority; a good protective tariff +bill would come from that body; and a careful canvass of the Senate had +proved that the bill would pass there, if I would vote for it. "We +have within one vote of a majority," he said. "As you're a devoted +protectionist in your views--as your state is for protection--as your +father and your people feel grateful to the Republican party for leading +you out of the wilderness--I have felt that it was proper to appeal to +you and learn your views definitely. If you'll pledge your support to +the bill, we shall not look elsewhere for a vote--but it's essential +that we should be secure of a majority." + +I replied that I could not promise to vote for the measure until +I should see it. It was true that I had been a devoted advocate of +protection and still believed in the principle; but I had learned +something of the way in which tariff bills were framed, and something of +the influences that controlled the party councils in support of them. I +could not be sure that the new measure would be any more just than the +original Dingley bill, which I had helped to defeat in the Senate; +and the way in which this bill had been driven through the House was a +sufficient warning to me not to harness myself in a pledge that might be +misused in legislation. + +Senator Proctor did me the honor to say that he did not suppose any +improper suggestion of personal advantage could influence me, and he +hoped I knew him too well to suppose that he would use such an argument; +"but," he added, "anything that it's within the 'political' power of the +party to bestow, you may expect; I'm authorized to say that we will take +care of you." + +As I still refused to bind myself blindly, he said, with regret: "We had +great hopes of you. It seems that we must look elsewhere. I will leave +the question open. If you conclude to assure us of your vote for +the bill, I shall see that you are restored to a place in Republican +councils. If I do not hear anything from you, it will be necessary +to address ourselves to one or two other Senators who are probably +available." + +It is, of course, a doctrine of present-day Republicanism that the will +of the majority must rule within the party. An insurgent is therefore +an apostate. The decision of the caucus is the infallible declaration of +the creed. In setting myself up as a judge of what it was right for me +to do, as the sworn representative of the people who had elected me, I +was offending against party orthodoxy, as that orthodoxy was then, and +is now, enforced in Washington. + +I was given an opportunity to return to conformity. I was sent a +written invitation to attend the caucus of Republican Senators after the +assembling of Congress; and, with the other "insurgents," I ignored +the invitation. It was finally decided by the party leaders to let the +tariff bill rest until after the inauguration of the President-elect, +William McKinley, with the understanding that he would call a special +session to consider it; and, in the interval, the Republican machine, +under Mark Hanna, was set to work to produce a Republican majority in +the Senate. + +Hanna was elected Senator, at this time, to succeed John Sherman, who +had been removed to the office of Secretary of State, in order to make +a seat for Hanna. The Republican majority was produced. (Senator Dubois +had been defeated). And when the special session was called, in the +spring of 1897, my vote was no longer so urgently needed. I was invited +to a Republican caucus, but I was unwilling to return to political +affiliations which I might have to renounce again; for I saw the power +of the business interests in dictating the policy of the party and I did +not propose to bow to that dictation. + +When the tariff bill came before the Senate, I could not in conscience +support it. The beneficiaries of the bill seemed to be dictating their +own schedules, and this was notably the case with the sugar trust, which +had obtained a differential between raw and refined sugar several times +greater than the entire cost of refining. I denounced the injustice of +the sugar schedule particularly. A Mr. Oxnard came to remonstrate with +me on behalf of the beet sugar industry of the West. "You know," he +said, "what a hard time we're having with our sugar companies. Unless +this schedule's adopted I greatly fear for our future." + +I replied that I was not opposing any protection of the struggling +industries of the country, or of the sugar growers, but I was set +against the extortionate differential that the sugar trust was +demanding. Everybody knew that the trust had built its tremendous +industrial power upon such criminally high protection as this +differential afforded, and that its power now affected public councils, +obtained improper favors, and terrorized the small competing beet +sugar companies of the West. I argued that it was time to rally for the +protection of the people as well as of the beet sugar industry. + +He predicted that if the differential was reduced the protection on beet +sugar would fail. I laughed at him. "You don't know the temper of +the Senate," I said. "Why, even some of the Democrats are in favor +of protecting the beet sugar industry. That part of the bill is safe, +whatever happens to the rest." + +"Senator Cannon," he replied, with all the scorn of superior knowledge, +"you're somewhat new to this matter. Permit me to inform you that if +we don't do our part in supporting the sugar schedule, including the +differential, the friends of the schedule in the Senate will prevent us +from obtaining our protection." + +"That," I retorted angrily, "is equivalent to saying that the sugar +trust is writing the sugar schedule. I can't listen with patience to any +such insult. The Senate of the United States cannot be dictated to, in +a matter of such importance, by the trust. I will not vote for the +differential. I will continue to oppose it to the end. If you're +right--if the trust has such power--better that our struggling sugar +industry should perish, so that we may arouse the people to the +iniquitous manipulation that destroyed it." + +I continued to oppose the schedule. Soon after, I received a message +from the Church authorities asking me to go to New York to attend to +some of their financial affairs. I entered the lobby of the Plaza Hotel +on Fifth Avenue about nine o'clock at night; I was met, unexpectedly, by +Thomas R. Cutler, manager of the Utah Sugar Company, who was a Bishop of +the Mormon Church; and he asked, almost at once, how the tariff bill was +progressing at Washington. + +I had known Bishop Cutler for years. I knew that he had labored with +extraordinary zeal and intelligence to establish the sugar industry in +Utah. I understood that he had risked his own property, unselfishly, +to save the enterprise when it was in peril. And I had every reason to +expect that he would be as indignant as I was, at the proposal to use +the support of the beet sugar states in behalf of their old tyrant. + +I told him of my conversation with Oxnard. "I'm glad," I said, "that +we're independent enough to refuse such an alliance with the men who are +robbing the country." + +A peculiar, pale smile curled Bishop Cutler's thin lips. "Well, Frank," +he replied, "that's just what I want to see you about. We"--with the +intonation that is used among prominent Mormons when the "we" are +voicing the conclusions of the hierarchy--"wouldn't like to do anything +to hurt the sugar interests of the country. I've looked into this +differential, and I don't see that it is particularly exorbitant. As a +matter of fact, the American Sugar Refining Company is doing all it can +to help us get our needed protection, and we have promised to do what we +can for it, in return. I hope you can see your way clear to vote for the +bill. I know that the brethren"--meaning the Church authorities--"will +not approve of your opposition to it." + +I understand what his quiet warning meant, and when we had parted I +went to my room to face the situation. Already I had been told, by a +representative of the Union Pacific Railway, that the company intended +to make Utah the legal home of the corporation, and to enter into a +close affiliation with the prominent men of the Church. I had been asked +to participate, and I had refused because I did not feel free, as a +Senator, to become interested in a company whose relations with the +government were of such a character. But I had not foreseen what this +affiliation meant. Bishop Cutler's warning opened my eyes. The Church +was protecting itself, in its commercial undertakings, by an alliance +with the strongest and most unscrupulous of the national enemies. + +I saw that this was natural. The Mormon leaders had been for years +struggling to save their community from poverty. Proscribed by the +Federal laws, their home industries suffering for want of finances, +fighting against the allied influences of business in politics, these +leaders had been taught to feel a fearful respect for the power that had +oppressed them. They were now being offered the aid and countenance of +their old opponents. Our community, so long the object of the world's +disdain, was to advance to favor and prosperity along the easy road of +association with the most influential interests of the country. + +I remembered the long hard struggle of our people. I remembered the days +and nights of anxiety that I myself had known when we were friendless +and proscribed. Here was an open door for us, now, to power and wealth +and all the comfort and consideration that would come of these. Other +men better than I in personal character, more experienced in legislation +than I, and wiser by natural gift, were willing to vote for the bill; +and Bishop Cutler, a man whom I had always esteemed, the representative +of the men whom I most revered, had urged me, for them, to support the +bill, under suggestion of their anger if I refused to be guided by their +leadership. + +I saw why the "interests" were eager to have our friendship; we could +give them more than any other community of our size in the whole +country. In the final analysis, the laws of our state and the +administration of its government would be in the hands of the church +authorities. Moses Thatcher might lead a rebellion for a time, but it +would be brief. Brigham H. Roberts might avow his independence in some +wonderful burst of campaign oratory, but he would be forced to fast and +pray and see visions until he yielded. I might rebel and be successful +for a moment, but the inexorable power of church control would crush me +at last. Yet, if I surrendered in this matter of the tariff, I should +be doing exactly what I had criticized so many of my colleagues for +doing--for more than one man in the House and the Senate had given me +the specious excuse that it was necessary to go against his conscience, +here, in order to hold his influence and his power to do good in other +instances. + +I did not sleep that night. On the day following, I transacted the +financial affairs that I had been asked to undertake, and then I +returned to Washington. My wife met me at the railway station, and--if +you will bear with the intimacy of such psychology--the moment I saw +her I knew how I would vote. I knew that neither the plea of community +ambition, nor the equally invalid argument of an industrial need at +home, nor the financial jeopardy of my friends who had invested in our +home industries, nor the fear of church antagonism, could justify me in +what would be, for me, an act of perfidy. When I had taken my oath of +office I had pledged myself, in the memory of old days of injustice, +never to vote as a Senator for an act of injustice. The test had come. +By all the sanctities of that old suffering and the promise that I had +made in its spirit, I would keep the faith. + +When the tariff bill came to its final vote in the Senate, I had the +unhappy distinction of being the only Republican Senator who voted +against it. A useless sacrifice! And yet if it had been my one act of +public life, I should still be glad of it. The "interests" that forced +the passage of that bill are those that have since exploited the country +so shamefully. It is their control of Republican party councils that has +since caused the loss of popular faith in Republicanism and the split in +the party which threatens to disrupt it. It is their control of politics +in Utah that has destroyed the whole value of the Mormon experiment +in communism and made the Mormon Church an instrument of political +oppression for commercial gain. They are the most dangerous domestic +enemy that the nation has known since the close of the Civil War. My +opposition was as doomed as such single independence must always be--but +at least it was an opposition. There is a consolation in having been +right, though you may have been futile! + +My father, visiting Washington soon afterwards, took occasion to +criticize my vote publicly, in a newspaper interview; but he was +content, by that criticism, to clear himself and his colleagues of +any responsibility for my act. "You made a great mistake," he told me +privately. "You are alienating the friends who have done so much for +us." He added as if casually--with an air of off-handedness that was +significant to me--"You lay yourself open to attack from your political +enemies. When a man's head is high, it is easily hit." I was afterwards +to understand how serious a danger he then foresaw and thus predicted. + +Many reports soon reached me of attacks that were being made upon me +by the ecclesiastical authorities, particularly by Joseph F. Smith and +Apostle Heber J. Grant. The formal criticism passed upon me by my father +was magnified to make my tariff vote appear an inexcusable party and +community defection. A vigorous and determined opposition was raised +against me. And in this, Smith and his followers were aided by +the perfect system of Church control in Utah--a system of complete +ecclesiastical tyranny under the guise of democracy. + +Practically every Mormon man is in the priesthood. Nearly every Mormon +man has some concrete authority to exercise in addition to holding his +ordination as an elder. Obedience to his superiors is essential to his +ambition to rise to higher dignity in the church; and obedience to his +superiors is necessary in order to attract obedience to himself from his +subordinates. There can be no lay jealousy of priestly interference in +politics, because there are no laymen in the proper sense of the word. +A man's worldly success in life is largely involved in his success as +a churchman, since the church commands the opportunities of enterprise, +and the leaders of the Church are the state's most powerful men of +affairs. It is not uncommon, in any of our American communities, for men +to use their church membership to support their business; but in Utah +the Mormons practically must do so, and even the Gentiles find it wise +to be subservient. + +Add to this temporal power of the Church the fact that it was +establishing a policy of seeking material success for its people, and +you have the explanation of its eagerness to accept an alliance with the +"interests" and of its hostility to anyone who opposed that alliance. +The Mormons, dispossessed of their means by the migration from Illinois, +had been taught the difficulty of obtaining wealth and the value of it +when once obtained. They fancied themselves set apart, in the mountains, +by the world's exclusion. They were ambitious to make themselves as +financially powerful in proportion to their numbers as the Jews were; +and it was a common argument among them that the world's respect had +turned to the Jews because of the dependence of Christian governments +upon the Jewish financiers. + +The exploitation of this solid mass of industry and thrift could not +long be obscured from the eyes of the East. The honest desire of the +Mormon leaders to benefit their people by an alliance with financial +power made them the easy victims of such an alliance. With the death +of the older men of the hierarchy, the Church administration lost its +tradition of religious leadership for the good of the community solely, +and the new leaders became eager for financial aggrandizement for +the sake, of power. Like every other church that has added a temporal +scepter to its spiritual authority, its pontiffs have become kings of a +civil government instead of primates of a religious faith. + + + +Chapter IX. At the Crossways + + + +In 1897, the Church, freed of proscription, with its people enjoying the +sovereignty of their state rights, had--as I have already said--only one +further enfranchisement to desire: and that was its freedom from debt. +The informal "finance committee" of which I was a member, had succeeded +in concentrating the bulk of the indebtedness in the East, on short term +loans, and had brought a certain order out of the confusion of the +older methods of administration. But, in 1897, my father proposed a +comprehensive plan of Church finance that included the issuance of +Church bonds and the formation of responsible committees to regulate and +manage the business affairs of the Church, so that the bonds might be +made a normal investment for Eastern capital by having a normal business +method of administration to back them. The idea was tentatively approved +by the Presidency, and I was asked to draw up the plan in detail. + +To this end there were placed in my hands sheets showing the assets, +liabilities, revenues and disbursements of the Church. They gave a total +cash indebtedness of $1,200,000, approximately. The revenues from +tithes for the year 1897 were estimated at a trifle more than a million +dollars--the total being low because of the financial depression +from which the country was just recovering. The available property +holdings--exclusive of premises used for religious worship, for +educational and benevolent work, and such kindred purposes--were valued +at several millions (from four to six), although there was no definite +appraisal or means of obtaining appraisal, since the values would +largely attach only when the properties were brought into business use. +I was advised that the incomes of the Church would probably increase +at the rate of ten per cent per annum, but I do not know by what +calculations this ratio was reached. + +The disbursements were chiefly for interest on debt, for the maintenance +of the temples and tabernacles, for educational and charitable work, +for missionary headquarters in other countries, and for the return +of released missionaries. The missionaries themselves received no +compensation; they were supposed to travel "without purse or scrip;" +their expenses were defrayed by their relatives, and they had to pay +out of their own pockets for the printed tracts which they distributed. +Neither the President nor any of the general authorities received +salaries. There was an order that each apostle should be paid $2,000 a +year, but this rule had been suspended, except, perhaps, in the cases +of men who had to give their whole time to religious work and who had +no independent incomes. Some occasional appropriations had been made for +meeting houses in communities that had been unable to erect their own +chapels of worship, but for the most part there were few calls made upon +the Church revenues to support its religious activities, its priests or +its propaganda. + +Our proposed committees, therefore, were a committee on missionary work, +one on publication, one on colonization, one on political protective +work for the Mormons in foreign countries, and most important--a finance +committee selected from the body of apostles, with the addition of some +able men connected with financial institutions. As a basis for the work +of the finance committee, we proposed the establishment of an interest +fund, a sinking fund, and a scale of percentage disbursements for the +various community purposes. These committees were to be appointed by the +Conferences of the people, and the committee reports were to be public. +President Woodruff eagerly accepted the plan as relieving the Presidency +of administrative cares that were becoming too great for the quorum to +carry. Joseph F. Smith did not at once awake to the real meaning of the +proposal; but when the scheme was submitted in its matured details, +he spoke of the danger of allowing power to pass from the hands of the +"trustee in trust" in business matters. His idea was sufficiently +clear in its resistance to any diffusion of authority, but it was +correspondingly void of any suggestion of substitute. For the time being +he was pacified by the assurance that the "Kingdom of God" and the +rule of its prophets would not be endangered by the organization +of committees and the submission of financial plans to the general +knowledge, and even to the consent, of the people. + +It was, of course, evident to the First Councillor that this scheme +of Church administration would give the Mormon people a measure of +responsible government, and the proposal was a part of his wisdom as a +community leader seeking the common welfare. While we had been a people +on whom the whole world seemed to be making war, a dictatorship had +been necessary; but now that we had arrived at peace and liberty, a +concentration of irresponsible power would surely become dangerous to +progress. Without, therefore, impairing the religious authority of the +Prophet, the First Councillor was willing to divide the temporal power +of the Church among its members. + +He was as silent, about these aims, with me as with all others; but I +had learned to understand him in his silences; and, in joining with him +in his work of reform, I was as sure of his purpose as I have since been +sure of the disaster to the Mormon people that has come of the failure +to effect the reform. + +When the Presidency had approved of the flotation of bonds, I went with +my father to New York to aid him in interesting Eastern capitalists +in the investment. We interviewed Judge John F. Dillon and Mr. Winslow +Pierce, of the law firm of Dillon and Pierce, attorneys for some of the +Union Pacific interests; and through them we met Mr. Edward H. Harriman, +Mr. George J. Gould and members of the firm of Kuhn Loeb and Company. It +was interesting to watch the encounters between the Mormon prophet and +some of these astutest of the nation's financiers; for it was as if one +of the ancient patriarchs had stepped down from the days of early Israel +to discuss the financial problems of his people with a modern "captain +of industry." He described a condition of society that was, to Wall +Street, archaic. He spoke with a serene assurance that the order of +affairs in Utah was constituted in the wisdom of the word of God. He +was listened to, with the interest of curiosity, as the chief living +exponent of the Mormon movement, its processes and its aims; and I +was impressed by the fact that these men of the world had a large and +splendid sympathy for any wholesome social effort designed to abolish +poverty and establish a quicker justice in the practical affairs of the +race. + +It was of the abolition of poverty and the justice of the social order +among the Mormons, that the First Councillor chiefly spoke. "Your +clients," he said to Judge Dillon, "make their investments frequently in +railroad stocks and bonds. What are the underlying bases of the values +of railroad securities? Largely the industry and stability of the +communities through which the railroad lines shall operate. Then, in +reality, the security is valuable in proportion to the value of the +community in its steadfastness, its prosperity and the safety of its +productive labor. In your railroad investments you are obliged to take +such considerations as a secondary security. In negotiating this Church +loan with your clients, you can offer the same great values as a primary +security. Probably no where else in the world is there a people at once +so industrious and so stable as ours." + +It was the boast of the Mormons that there had not been an almshouse or +an almstaker in any of their settlements, up to the time of the escheat +proceedings by the Federal officials; and this was literally true. Every +man had been helped to the employment for which he was best fitted. If +an immigrant, in his former estate, had been a silk-weaver, efforts were +made to establish his industry and give it public support. If he had +been a musician of talent, a little conservatory was founded, and +patronage obtained for him. When the growth of population made it +necessary to open new valleys for agriculture, the Church, out of its +community fund, rendered the initial aid; in many instances the original +irrigation enterprises of small settlements were thus financed; and the +investments were repaid not only directly, by the return of the loan, +but indirectly, many times over, by the increased productiveness +and larger contributions of the people. Co-operation, in mercantile, +industrial and stock-raising undertakings, assured the support and +patronage of each community for its own particular enterprise, prevented +destructive competition and checked the greed of the individual--for the +more he toiled for himself, the larger the share of the general burden +he had to carry. + +It was the First Councillor's theory that when people contributed to a +common fund they became interested in one another's material welfare. +The man who paid less in tithes this year than last was counselled with +as to why his business had been unsuccessful, and the wise men of his +little circle aided him with advice and material help. The man who +contributed largely was glad of a prosperity from which he yielded a +part--in recognition of what the community had done for him and in +a reverent gratitude to God for making him "a steward of mighty +possessions"--but he was anxious that his neighbor also should be a +larger contributor each year. + +The whole system of tithe-paying was built upon a series of purported +"revelations" received by Joseph Smith, the original Prophet. It was +declared to be the will of God that all men, as stewards of their +possessions, should give of their increase annually into "the storehouse +of the Lord," which should always be open for the relief of the poor. +Inasmuch as the man who received help--or whose widow and children did +so--had been a tithe-payer during all his productive years, there +was none of the feeling of personal humiliation on the part of the +recipient, nor any of the feeling of condescending charity on the part +of the giver, in the distribution of funds to the needy. And it was +astonishing how few the needy were--because of the abstemious lives, the +industry, and the thrift of the workers. + +The Church tribunals heard and settled all disputes over property or +personal rights not involving the criminal law. Expensive litigation was +thus avoided. Society was saved the cost of innumerable courts. There +were many counties in which no lawyer could be found; and everywhere, +among the Mormons, it was considered an act of evil fellowship, +amounting almost to apostasy, for a man to bring suit against his +brother in the civil tribunals. + +In short--as my father pointed out--Utah, at that time, expressed the +only full-bodied social proposition in the United States. There never +had been in America another community whose future, in the economic +aspects, offered so clear a solution of problems which still remain +generally unsettled. It was as if a segment of the great circle of +modern humanity had been transported to another world, otherwise +unpopulated, and there with the experience gained through centuries of +human travail--had attempted the establishment of a just, beneficent and +satisfying social order. + +I am here repeating this argument--this exposition--because the +financial absolutism of the Prophets of the Church has since ruined the +whole Mormon experiment in communism, put the Mormon paupers into the +public poor houses, used the tithes to support the large financial +ventures of the Prophet's favorites, and turned the Church's "community +enterprises" into monopolistic exploitations of the Mormon people. +And this change began even while our negotiations were pending in New +York--for they were prolonged, for various reasons, into the summer +of 1898, and they were interrupted finally by the death of President +Woodruff. + +As soon as I received word of his illness I took train for Utah. +The news of his death met me on the journey home. Since I derived my +authority solely from him, upon my arrival in Salt Lake I went to the +Cashier of the Church, gave him the keys and the password to the safety +deposit box in New York, and withdrew from any further participation +in the Church's financial affairs. When I came to the office of the +Presidency I found that my father had removed his desk; and this was an +indication to me of what was happening in the inner circles of Church +intrigue. + +The president of the quorum of apostles invariably succeeds to the +Presidency of the Church, although it is left to the apostles to decide, +and their choice is supposed to be directed by inspiration. His +election is subsequently ratified by the General Conference; but this +ratification is a mere form, because the conference must either accept +the choice of the apostles or rebel against "the revelation of God." + +Apostle Lorenzo Snow was president of the quorum of apostles, and +therefore in line for the Presidency. But usually, after the death of +a President, a considerable period was allowed to elapse before the +selection of his successor, with the government resting in the quorum +of apostles meanwhile, even for a term of years. As soon as I arrived +in Salt Lake, Apostle Snow asked me to a private interview (in the +same small back room of the President's offices), inquired about the +financial negotiations that I had been conducting, and asked me whether +it was not essential to the success of our business affairs that as soon +as possible the Church should elect a President, empowered as "trustee +in trust." I replied that it was. He invited me to attend a conference +of the apostles and give my views upon the situation to them. + +This seemed to me an act of rather shallow cunning, for I knew I was +too unimportant a person to be so consulted unless he thought my report +would aid his intrigue. Such intriguing was offensive to the religious +traditions of the Church; and it outraged my feeling for President +Woodruff, who was hardly cold in death before this personal and worldly +ambition caught at the reins of his office. Snow had been a man of +small weight in the government of the Church. He had known none of the +responsibilities of great leadership. He was eighty-four years old. + +However, it was impossible for us to maintain the Church's credit in +the East unless our community were represented by some choate authority, +since our credit rested on the belief that the Mormon people were ready +to consecrate all their possessions at any time to the service of the +Church at the command of the President. I advised the apostles of this +fact. Snow was elected President on September 13, 1898, eleven days +after Woodruff's death. He followed the usual precedent in choosing my +father and Joseph F. Smith as his Councillor's. + +But he took possession of his new authority with the manner of an heir +entering upon the ownership of a personal estate for which he had long +waited--and which he proposed to enjoy to the full for his remaining +years. In a most literal sense he held that all the property of the +people of the Church was subject to his direction, as chief earthly +steward of "the Divine Monarch," and he proceeded to exercise his +assumed prerogatives with an autocracy that made even Joseph F. Smith +complain because the Councillor's were never asked for counsel. As +resident apostle of Box Elder County and president of the Box Elder +"stake of Zion," Snow had already shown his ambition as a financier, +disastrously; and it was as the financial head of the Church that he was +chiefly to rule during his term of absolutism. + +Of all the Church leaders whom I had known he was the only man who +showed none of the robustness of the Western experience. Tall, stately, +white-bearded, elegant and courtly, he prided himself most obviously on +his manners and his culture. He rarely spoke in any but the most subdued +and silken tones of suavity. He walked with a step that was almost +affected in its gentility. If he had any passions, he held them in such +smooth concealment that the public credited him with neither force +nor unkindness. He had been a great traveler (as a missionary); he had +written his autobiography, somewhat egotistically; he was devoted to +the forms of his religion, like a mediaeval Prince of the Church and +an elegante. But under all the artificialities of personal vanity and +exterior grace, he proved to have a cold determination that seemed more +selfishly ambitious than religiously zealous. + +At once, upon his accession to power, he notified us that he did +not intend to carry out any such plan as we had suggested for the +administration of the Church's finances. It meant a diffusion of +authority; and he held that the best results had been obtained by +keeping all power in the hands of the Prophet, Seer and Revelator, and +of those whom he might appoint to work with him. Joseph F. Smith, at +a meeting of the Presidency, was even more positive. No good, he said, +could come of publishing the affairs of the community to the people +of it; those affairs were purely the concern of the Prophets; the Lord +revealed His will to the Prophets and they were responsible only to Him. + +My father necessarily bowed to the President's decision. "It is within +the authority of the Prophet of the Lord," he counselled me, "to +determine how he will conduct the business of the Church. President Snow +has his own ideas." + +By that decision, as I see it now, an autocracy of financial power was +confirmed to the President of the Mormon Church at a time when a renewal +of prosperity among its people was about to make such power fatal to +their liberties. It was confirmed to a man who proved himself eager for +it, ambitious to increase it and secretly unscrupulous in his use of +it. He proceeded at once to preach the doctrine of contribution with +unexampled zeal, but he administered the "common fund," so collected, +with none of the old feeling of responsibility to the people who +contributed it He became the first of the new financial pontiffs of +the Church who have used the "money power" as an aid to hierarchical +domination. + +Moreover, in his desire to fill the coffers of the Church, he engaged in +"practical politics" and made a profit out of Church influence, both +in business enterprises and in political campaigns. He proved himself +peculiarly qualified by nature to construct and direct a secret +political machine--a machine whose operations were never to be +observable except to the close student of Utah's ecclesiasticism--a +machine that was to be all the more effective because of its silent +certainty. As the succeeding chapters of this narrative will show, +although he affected a fine superiority to unclean political work and +always publicly professed that the Church of Christ was holding itself +aloof from the strife of partisanship, there was no political event on +which he did not fix the calculating eye of his ambitious clericalism +and no candidacy that he did not reach with those slender but powerful +fingers that controlled the destiny of a state and trifled with the +honor of a people. + +His accession marked the change from the old to the new regime in Utah. +Leadership was no longer a dangerous honor. Proscription no longer made +the authorities of the Church strong by persecution--hardy chiefs of a +poverty-stricken people--leaders as sensible of the obligations of power +as their followers were faithful in their allegiance of duty. Political +freedom and worldly prosperity made the office of President a luxurious +sovereignty, easily tyrannical, fortified in its religious absolutism by +its irresponsible power of finance, and protected in its social abuses, +from the interference of the nation, by an alliance with the commercial +rulers of the nation and by a duplicity that worldliness has learned to +dignify with the respectability of material success. + + + +Chapter X. On the Downward Path + + + +During the last years of President Woodruff's life there had been a slow +decline of the feeling that it was necessary for self-protection that +the hierarchy should preserve a political control over the people. I +cannot say that the feeling had wholly passed. It had continued to show +itself, here and there, whenever a candidate was so pertinacious in +his independence that words of disfavor were sent out from Church +headquarters in one of those whispers that carry to the confines of the +kingdom of the priests. But the progress was apparent. The tendency was +clear. And in 1898 there was neither internal revolt nor external threat +to provoke a renewal of the exercise of that force which is necessarily +despotic if it be used at all. + +Yet, in September, 1898, President Snow, if he did not instigate, at +least authorized the candidacy of Brigham H. Roberts for Congress--a +polygamist who had been threatened with excommunication for his +opposition to the "political manifesto" of 1896 and who had recanted and +made his peace with the hierarchy. His election, now, would be a proof +that the Church could punish a brilliant orator and courageous citizen +in the time of his independence and then reward him in the day of his +submission; and the authorities would thus demonstrate to all the people +that the one way to political preferment lay through the annihilation of +self-will and the submergence of national loyalty in priestly devotion. +Such a candidacy was a sufficient shame to the state; but there was +also a United States Senatorship to be bestowed; and it was deliberately +bargained for, between the Church authorities and a man who deserved +better than the alliance into which he entered. + +Alfred W. McCune was a citizen of Utah who had gone out from the +territory in the days of its poverty (and his own), had made a fortune +in British Columbia and Montana, and had returned to his home state to +enrich it with his generosities. He was not a Mormon, but he had wide +Mormon connections. He spent his millions in public enterprises and +benefactions; and the Church had benefited in the sum of many thousands +by his subscriptions to its funds and institutions. + +Apostle Heber J. Grant, a Republican by sentiment but a Democrat by +pretension, was selected by President Snow to barter the Senatorship to +McCune. There can be no doubt of it. Everyone immediately suspected +it. Letters from Grant, published in the newspapers of January, 1899, +subsequently confirmed it. And President Snow's actions, toward the end +of the campaign, proved it. + +The other candidates were Judge O. W. Powers, a prominent Democrat; +William H. King, also a Democrat, a former member of Congress and at one +time a Federal judge; and myself as an independent Silver Republican. +I had not allied myself with the Democrats after withdrawing from +the Republican convention of 1896, and the Republican machine in +Utah (thanks to the power of the "interests") had repudiated me, in +September, 1898, by adopting a platform that refused to support as +Senator any man who had opposed the Dingley Tariff Bill. But I had the +votes of my own county of Weber, and some other votes that had been +pledged to me before the election of members of the legislature; and +though my return to the Senate seemed plainly impossible, I went into +the fight in fulfillment of understandings which I had with progressive +elements in Utah and with the "insurgents," of that day, in Washington. + +During the campaign to elect members of the Legislature, I supported the +Democratic State and Congressional ticket. Brigham H. Roberts had been +nominated for Congress on this ticket despite the protests of my father +and many others who foresaw the evil results of electing a polygamist. I +accepted Roberts' nomination as proof that this question must be settled +anew at Washington; and I contented myself with predicting, throughout +the campaign, that the House of Representatives would determine whether +it would admit a polygamist and a member of the hierarchy as a lawmaker, +and would so forever dispose of these ecclesiastical candidacies of +which Utah refused to dispose for itself. (And it is a fact that since +the prompt exclusion of Roberts from the House of Representatives no +known polygamist has been elected to either House of Congress.) + +A Democratic legislature was elected, and A. W. McCune was put forward +prominently as a candidate for the United States senatorship. He was +assisted by his own newspaper, the Salt Lake Herald, by numberless +business interests, cleverly by the Deseret News (the organ of the +hierarchy) flagrantly and for financial reasons by Apostle Heber J. +Grant, and incidentally by the Smiths on behalf of the Church. Also +a Republican assistance was given him by my former colleague in the +Senate, Arthur Brown, who specialized as an opponent to my candidacy. + +My old campaign manager, Ben Rich, had been withdrawn from me by a +Church order appointing him in control of the Eastern missions. I +was without the support of either the Democratic or Republican +organizations: my following was a personal one: and consequently the +attack upon me chiefly took the form of stories of personal immorality, +privately circulated. These stories culminated in a motion before the +Woman's Republican Club, demanding my withdrawal from the Senatorial +contest on the ground of "gross misconduct"--a motion introduced by a +Mrs. Anna M. Bradley, a woman politician (who was a stranger to me), +with the assistance of Mrs. Arthur Brown, wife of the former Senator. + +If I ever had any resentment against these unfortunate women for +allowing themselves to be used as the agents of slander, it passed +in the miseries that overtook them later; for Mrs. Brown died of the +scandal of her husband's intimacy with Mrs. Bradley, and Mrs. Bradley +shot and killed ex-Senator Brown, in a Washington hotel, because he +refused to marry her and recognize her child after her divorce from her +husband. + +My anger then, and since, was not against the women, but against the +men who hid behind them--against Apostle Heber J. Grant and Apostle John +Henry Smith and their tool, ex-Senator Brown. In my anger I decided to +take an action that looked as desperate as it proved successful. I hired +the Salt Lake Theatre--for a night (February 9, 1899), and announced +that I would speak on "Senatorial Candidates and Pharisees"--intending +to use the opportunity of self-defense in order to attack the "financial +apostles" who were selling Church influence. + +In taking that step I understood, of course, that it meant the death for +me of any political ambition in Utah. It meant offending my father, who +besought me not to raise my hand against "the Lord's anointed," but to +leave my enemies "to God's justice"--as he had always done with his. It +meant a breach with many of my friends in the Church who would blindly +resent my criticism of the political apostles as an encouragement to the +enemies of the faith. But the part that I had taken in helping Utah to +gain its statehood made it impossible for me to stand aside, now, and +see all our pledges broken, all our promises betrayed. I had to offer +myself as a sacrifice to hierarchical resentment in the hope that my +destruction might give at least a momentary pause to the reactionaries +in their career. + +It is needless that I should relate all the incidents of that wild +night. The theatre was packed with people who joined me for the moment +in a sympathetic protest against the disgrace of Utah. President Lorenzo +Snow, his two councillors and several apostles were present, and I spoke +without any reservations on account of personal relationship, my own +candidacy or the possible effect upon my own affairs. I appealed to the +people to prevent the sale of Utah's senatorship to McCune by Apostle +Grant and the Church reactionaries; and by turning the light of +publicity upon the methods that were being employed in the legislature, +I made it impossible for the hierarchy to sway enough votes to elect +McCune. The men who had pledged themselves to the other candidates +could not be shaken from their support without a national scandal. The +election settled for the time into a deadlock, in which no candidate +could obtain enough votes to elect him. + +Apostle Heber J. Grant started to write letters that should counteract +the effect of my speech, but President Snow forbade him to continue the +controversy and sent word to me that he had forbidden Grant to continue +it. I did not know why President Snow wished me to feel that he was +friendly to me, but I was soon to learn. + +The deadlock in the legislature continued, in spite of all the efforts +of the Church authorities to break it. Our political workers, summoned +one by one by messengers from Church headquarters, had gone to +interviews from which they did not return to us--until I had left only +Judge Ed. F. Colborn (a famous character in Kansas, Colorado and Utah), +and an old friend, Jesse W. Fox. One night, about a week after the +meeting in the theatre, we three were sitting alone in my rooms, when +the door opened and someone beckoned to Fox. He went out. Judge Colborn +opened a window to see Fox getting into a carriage with a man from +Church headquarters--and we knew that our last worker was gone. + +He returned only to tell me that President Snow wished to see me--that +if I were willing, the President would like to have me call upon him, at +half past nine the following evening, in his residence. And I understood +the significance of such an invitation for such an hour. I had been +too often in contact with the power of the Prophets to doubt what was +required of me. I was curious merely to know what form the ultimatum +would take. + +President Snow was then living with his youngest wife in a house a few +blocks from the offices of the Presidency. I drove there in a carriage +and ordered the driver to wait for me. President Snow opened the door +to me himself, received me with his usual engaging smile, and ushered +me into a reception room that was shut off, by portieres, from a larger +parlor. There, when he had invited me to be seated, he said, winningly: +"I was not sure you would come in answer to my message." + +I assured him that I had not so far lost my regard for the men with whom +my father was associated. "And besides," I said, "if there were no other +reason, it is my place, as the younger of the two, to attend on your +convenience." + +"I did not know," he replied, "but that you thought me one of the +'Pharisees' of whom you spoke." + +I did not accept this invitation to reply that I did not consider him +one of the Pharisees. I explained merely that I had identified the +Pharisees in my speech by name and deed and accusation. "Unless +something there said is applicable to you, I have no charge to make +against you." + +He excused himself a moment to go to an infant whom we could hear crying +in an inner room; and, when he returned, he had the child in his arms--a +little girl, in a night gown. He sat down, petting her, stroking her +hair with his supple lean hand, affectionately, and smiling with a sort +of absentminded tenderness as he took up the conversation again. + +This memory of him sticks in my mind as one of the most extraordinary +pictures of my experience. I knew that I had come there to hear my own +or some other person's political death sentence. I knew that he would +not have invited me at such an hour, with such secrecy, unless the issue +of our conference was to be something dark and fatal. And in the soft +radiance of the lamp he sat smiling--fragile of build, almost spiritual, +white-haired, delicately cultured--soothing the child who played with +his long silvery beard and blinked sleepily. He inquired whether my +carriage was waiting for me, and I replied that it was. He asked me to +dismiss it. When I returned to the room, the little girl was resting +quiet, and he excused himself to take her to her cot. I heard him +closing the doors behind him as he came back. "We may now talk with +perfect freedom," he announced. "There's no one else in this part of the +house." + +He sat down in his chair, composing himself with an air that might have +distinguished one of the ancient kings. "I have sent for you to talk +about the Senatorial situation. May I speak plainly to you?" + +I replied that he might. He was watching me, under his gray eyebrows, +with his soft eyes, in which there was a glitter of blackness but none +of the rheum of old age. + +"It would be most unfortunate," he said, "for us, as a people, if we +failed to elect a Senator. I've had many business and other anxieties +for the Church, and I want this question settled. If we act wisely--with +the power and influence at our command--aid will come to me. I think you +would not willingly permit our situation to become more difficult." + +He must have seen a change in my expression--a change that indicated +how well I understood the significance of this guarded introduction. +Suddenly, his manner broke into animation, and holding out both hands +to me, palms up, he said, smiling: "You must know, Brother Frank, that +I had nothing to do with Mr. McCune's candidacy for the Senate, do you +not? I was not responsible for what Brother Grant did. Before we go on, +I want you to acquit me of responsibility for that project." + +"President Snow," I replied, "I can't admit so much. I, too, wish to +talk plainly--with your permission. Your responsibility is evident even +to the casual observer--to say nothing of one reared as I've been. +Every man in this community knows that when you point your finger your +apostles go, and when you crook your finger your apostles return--and +Heber J. Grant has only done what you permitted him to do with your full +knowledge." + +He drew himself up, coldly. "What I have done," he retorted, "has been +done with the knowledge of my Councillor's." + +The thrust was obvious. I replied: "If my father desires to discuss with +me his responsibility for this indignity to the state, he knows I'm at +his command. And if I have any charge to make, involving his good faith +toward the country, I'll seek him alone." + +"Very well," he said, with a frigid suavity. "We will leave that part of +the question." He paused. "Last night," he continued, "lying on my bed, +I had a vision. I saw this work of God injured by the political strife +of the brethren. And the voice of the Lord came to me, directing me to +see that your father was elected to the Senate." He studied me a moment +before he added: "What have you to say?" + +I answered: "It seems to me impossible. This legislature is strongly +Democratic. My father's a Republican. It seems to me not only +impracticable but very unwise--if it could be done." + +"Never mind that," he said. "The Lord will take care of the event. +I want you to withdraw from the race and throw your strength to your +father. It is the will of the Lord that you do so." + +"Have you a revelation to that effect also?" I asked. + +He answered, pontifically, "Yes." + +"You'll publish it to the world, then, the same as other revelations?" + +"No," he replied. "No." + +"Then I'll not obey it," I said, "because if God is ashamed of it, I +am." + +His air of prophetic authority changed to one of combative resolution. +He explained that one of the other candidates, a strong Democrat, had +agreed to accept the revelation if I would; that the two of us could +give our strength to the church candidate; that the Church would turn +to my father the votes that it had already in command for McCune, and my +father's election would be carried. + +I felt that the thumb-screws were being put on me again. For the second +time I was being forced to the point of denying the Senatorship to my +father by refusing him my support. And there could not have been, for +me, a more vivid and instantaneous illumination of the hidden depths in +this Church system--or in the individual Prophet of the cult--than was +made by Snow's determined insistence that I should break my word of +honor to the people of the state and of the nation, pledge that broken +faith to him, induce all my supporters in the legislature to violate +their covenants--Mormon and Gentile alike!--and upon his mere assumption +of divine authority, direct Mormon and Gentile to stultify and disgrace +themselves forever as men and public officials. There was something +appalling in the calculating cruelty with which he proposed to devote us +all to destruction and dishonor. There was something inhumanly malignant +in the plan to use my known affection for my father in order to make +me guilty of the very betrayal of the people which I had publicly +denounced. I looked at him--and heard him, now, placidly, confidently, +with a renewed suavity, urging me to do the thing. + +"President Snow," I interrupted, "does my father know of this?" + +He answered: "No." + +"I'm glad of it," I said. (And I was!) "This is not the way to work out +either the destiny of 'God's people' or the destiny of this state. It +would place my father in a most humiliating position to be elected--at +the orders of the Church--under the assumption that God Almighty had +directed men to break their solemn promises to their constituents. I +have as high an admiration for my father's wisdom and ability as you or +the Democratic candidate who has offered to withdraw at the will of the +Church, but I should be paying no honor to my father by dishonoring my +pledge to my constituents and asking other men to dishonor theirs." + +He dismissed me with an air of benignant sorrow! + +The deadlock in the legislature continued unbroken. Among my supporters +was Lewis W. Shurtliff, the President of the "Stake of Zion" in which I +lived; he was one of the highest Church dignitaries in the legislature +and was regarded as my foremost champion in the Senatorial contest. +On the last day of the legislative session, at President Snow's +instruction, my father, known as a Republican, was offered as a +senatorial candidate to this Democratic legislature, and all the power +of the Church influence was thrown to him. President Shurtliff's wife +came to our headquarters, that night, and knelt, with a number of other +ladies, to pray that her husband might be spared the humiliation of +breaking his repeated promise not to desert me! We all knew that if he +broke his promise, it would cause him more mental anguish than +anyone else; but we knew, too, that if the command came from Church +headquarters, he would have to obey it. Men broke their political +pledges to their people and outraged their own feelings of personal +independence or partisan loyalty, rather than offend against "the will +of the Lord." The forces of the other candidates went to pieces, and on +the last night of the session my father's vote reached twenty-three. (It +required thirty-two votes to elect.) + +The situation was saved by the action of a number of Democrats who +got together and obtained a recess; when the recess was ended, a final +ballot was taken, and, since no candidate had enough votes to elect him, +the presiding officer, by pre-concertment, declared the joint assembly +adjourned sine die, by operation of law. No Senator was elected. + +But it was the last time that the Church authorities were to be balked. +Since that day, they have dictated the nominations and carried the +elections of the United States Senators from Utah as if these were +candidates for a church office. The present Senator, Reed Smoot, is an +apostle of the Church; he obtained the Mormon President's "permission" +to become a candidate, as he admitted to an investigating committee +of the Senate; and when the recent tariff bill was being attacked by +insurgent Republicans and carried by Senator Aldrich, Senator Smoot +acted as Aldrich's lieutenant in debate, and remained to watch the +defense of the "interests" when his chief was absent from the Senate +chamber. (Not because Smoot was such an able defender of those +"interests"! Not because his constituents would uphold his course! But +because he has no constituents, and is responsible to no one but the +hierarchical partners of those "interests.") + +Every pledge of the Mormon leaders that the Church would not interfere +in politics has been broken at every election in Utah since President +Snow that night pleaded to me that he had had many business anxieties +for the Church and that if we elected the Church candidate "aid" would +come to him. The covenants by which Utah obtained its statehood have +been violated again and again. The provisions of the state constitution +have been nullified. The trust of the Mormon people has been abused; +their political liberties have been denied them; their Gentile brethren +have been betrayed. And all this has been done not for the protection +of the people, who were threatened with no proscription--and not for +the advancement of the faith, which has been free to work out its +own future. It has been done as a part of the alliance between the +"financial" prophets of the Church and the financial "interests" of +the country--which have been exploiting the people of Utah as they +have exploited the whole nation with the aid of the ecclesiastical +authorities in Utah. + + + +Chapter XI. The Will of the Lord + + + +The Mormon leaders were now hurried down their chosen path of dishonor +with a fateful rapidity. A reform movement was demanding of Washington +the adoption of a constitutional amendment that should give Congress +power to regulate the marriage and divorce laws of all the states in the +Union. And this proposed amendment--partly inspired by a growing +doubt of the good faith of the Mormon leaders--gave the politicians +in Washington something to trade for Mormon votes, in the presidential +campaign of 1900. + +The Republicans had lost the electoral votes of Utah and the surrounding +states, in 1896. + +Utah was now Democratic, and its one United States Senator (who was +still in office) was a Democrat. Senator Hanna's lieutenant, Perry S. +Heath, came to Salt Lake City in the summer of 1900, to confer with +the heads of the Mormon Church. His authority (as representative of the +ruler of the Republican party) had been authenticated by correspondence; +and he was received by President Snow as royalty receives the envoy of +royalty. + +Heath negotiated with his usual directness. In the phrase of the time, +"he laid down his cards on the table, face up, and asked Snow to play +to that hand." If the Mormon Church would pledge its support to the +Republican party, the Republican leaders would avert the threatened +constitutional amendment that was to give Congress the power to +interfere in the domestic affairs of the Mormon people. But if the +Church denied its support to the Republican party, the constitutional +amendment would be carried, and the Mormons, in their marriage +relations, would be returned to the Federal jurisdiction from which they +had escaped when the territory was admitted to statehood. + +The sentiment of the country was known to be in favor of giving Congress +such power. A strong body of reformers was urging the amendment, and +the Church leaders had sent Apostle John Henry Smith and Bishop H. B. +Clawson to lobby against it. After consulting with my father, I had +written to President Snow pointing out the danger to the Mormons of +having a lobby opposing such an amendment--for I was not then aware of +the secret return to the practice of polygamy, after 1896. President +Snow replied to me (in a message of guarded prudence) that although +the Church inhibited plural marriage and did not intend to allow the +practice, he was opposed to the interference of Congress in the domestic +concerns of the other states of the Union! + +He made his "deal" with Perry Heath. Church messengers were sent out +secretly to the Mormons in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Montana, +Washington, Oregon, California and the territories, with the whispered +announcement that it was "the will of the Lord" that the Republicans +should be aided. Utah went Republican; the Mormons in the surrounding +states either openly supported, or secretly voted for McKinley; and the +constitutional amendment was "side tracked" and forgotten. + +Utah elected a Republican legislature. Apostle Reed Smoot applied to +President Snow for permission to become a candidate for the United +States Senatorship, and obtained a promise that if he stood aside, for +the time, he should receive his reward later. President Snow had decided +that Thomas Kearns, already an active candidate, was the man whom the +Church would support--since Mr. Kearns' ability, his wealth and his +business connection promised greater advantages for the state and (under +cunning manipulation by the priests) greater advantages for the Church +than the election of any other candidate. And all this may be fairly +said without assuming that there was any definite arrangement between he +Church and any friends of Mr. Kearns. + +Kearns was associated with Senator Clark of Montana and R. C. Kerens of +St. Louis in building a railroad from Salt Lake to Los Angeles, and the +Church owned some fifteen miles of track that had been laid from Salt +Lake City, as the beginning of a Los Angeles line. It was apparently +assumed by President Snow that Kearns' election to the Senate would +facilitate the sale of this Church railroad to the Clark-Kearns +syndicate. The Church had a direct interest in numerous iron and coal +properties in Southern Utah, and many members of the Church also had +private properties there, which the Los Angeles line would develop. +Some of Kearns' friends were negotiating for the purchase of Church +properties, and one of his partners was proposing to buy (and +subsequently bought) the Church's "Amelia Palace," a useless and +expensive property which Brigham Young had built for his favorite wife, +and which the Church had long been eager to sell. + +My father had been in ill-health for some months and he was away from +Utah a large part of the time. President Snow took counsel of his Second +Councillor, Joseph F. Smith, and of Apostle John Henry Smith; and to +the Smiths, he indicated Thos. Kearns as the one whose election to the +United States Senate might do most to advance Snow's concealed purpose. +But the Smiths had other plans, that were equally advantageous to +the Church and more advantageous to the Smiths; they rebelled against +President Snow's dictation, and he ordered them both away on temporary +"missions." + +As Joseph F. Smith was leaving the President's offices, in a rage, he +met an old friend, Joseph Howell, who (at this writing) is a member of +Congress from Utah, and was then a member of the Utah legislature. He +told Smith that President Snow had sent for him, and Smith, controlling +himself--without betraying any knowledge of the probable purpose of +Snow's summons to Howell--said affectionately: "Brother Howell, I want +you to make a promise to me on your honor as an elder in Israel. I want +you to pledge yourself never to vote in this legislature for Thomas +Kearns as Senator. I ask it as your friend, and as a Prophet to the +people." + +Howell gave his promise, and proceeded to his interview with President +Snow. There he received the announcement that it was "the will of the +Lord" that he should vote for Kearns, and he had to reply that he had +already received an inspired instruction, on this point, from a Prophet +of the Lord, and had given his pledge against Kearns. + +The incident became one of the jokes of the campaign, for Howell held to +his promise to Smith (and was subsequently rewarded by Smith with a seat +in Congress), and President Snow was compelled to waive the question of +conflicting "revelations." + +Kearns was elected. But he had had a powerful political machine of his +own, and he had been supported by a strong Gentile vote. He immediately +showed his independence by refusing to take orders from the political +Church leaders. He declined, further, for himself and his financial +confreres, to engage with the Church in business affairs. Many charges +were made that he was breaking his agreement of cooperation with the +authorities, but there never has been produced any evidence of such an +agreement, and I do not believe (from my knowledge of Senator Kearns) +that the agreement was ever made. + +The railroad into Southern Utah was later built by the Harriman +interests in combination with Clark and Kearns; but there, too, Snow was +disappointed. The expected development of the Church properties proved +far less profitable than had been supposed, and the financial prophecies +of the Seer and Revelator were not fulfilled. + +By this time it was abundantly evident that some of the Church leaders +intended to rule their people in politics with an absolutism as supreme +as any that Utah had ever known in the old days. And for these leaders +to maintain their authority--despite the covenant of their amnesty, the +terms of Utah's statehood and the provisions of the constitution--and to +maintain that authority against the robust American sentiment that would +be sure to assert itself--it was necessary that they should have the +most effective political protection afforded by any organization in the +whole country. The ideal arrangement of evil was offered to them by the +men then in temporary leadership of the Republican party. The Prophets +were able to make the Republican party a guilty partner of their perfidy +by making it a recipient of the proceeds of that perfidy, and to assure +themselves protection in every religious tyranny so long as they did not +run counter to Republican purpose. + +For the moment, the Church took more benefit from the partnership than +it conferred. The result of the presidential elections of 1900 showed +that the Republicans could have elected their ticket without any help +from the Prophets. But without the help of the dominant party the +Prophets could not have renewed the rule of the state by the Church +could not have prevented the passage of a constitutional amendment +punishing polygamy by Federal statute--and could not have obtained such +intimate relation and commanding influence with the great "interests" of +the country. + +Throughout all these miserable incidents, I had a vague hope that +they would prove merely temporary and peculiar to the term of Snow's +presidency. He was now in his eighty-sixth year. My father was next in +succession for the Presidency, and he was seventy-three. He had remained +personally faithful to every pledge that he had made to the nation, and +though he had been powerless to prevent the breaches of covenant that +had followed the sovereignty of statehood, I knew that he had opposed +some of them and been a willing party to none. It is true that he had +become a director of the Union Pacific Railway and was close to the +leading financiers of the East; but his Union Pacific connection had +come from the fact that he had been one of the builders of the road +that had afterward merged in the Oregon Short Line; and his financial +relations had been those of a financier and not a politician. In all the +years that I had been working with him, I had never known him to have +any purpose that was not communistic in its final aspect and designed +for the good of his people. + +Up to his seventieth year, he had shown no ill result of his early +hardships. Living the abstemious life of the orthodox Mormon, to whom +wine, tobacco and even tea and coffee are prohibited, he had seemed +inexhaustibly robust and untiring. But almost from the day of +President's Snow accession to office--deprived of the sustaining +consciousness of the responsibilities of leadership--his physical +strength gave signs of breaking. In the fall of 1900 he made a trip +to the Sandwich Islands, to recuperate, and to assist at the fiftieth +anniversary of the Mormon mission that he had founded there; but the +Utah winter proved too rigorous for him on his return, and in March, +1901, he was taken to California--to Monterey. In April the word came to +me in New York that he was sinking. + +I found him in a cottage overlooking the beautiful Bay of Monterey and +its wooded slope; and the doctors in attendance told me that he had been +kept alive only by the determination to see me before he died. There +was no hope. He had still a clear mind, but with ominous lapses of +unconsciousness that foreboded the end; and in these intervals of coma, +as we wheeled him to and fro on the veranda in an invalid chair--in an +attempt to refresh him with the motion of the sea air--he would swing +his right hand upward, with an old pulpit gesture, and say "Priesthood! +Priesthood!" as if in that word he expressed the ruling thought of his +life, the inspiration that had sustained his power, the obligation that +had governed him in his direction of his people. + +On the afternoon of the 11th of April, he was lying in a stupor on a +couch before an open window, with the sound of the surf in the quiet +room. One of the doctors entered, looked at him intently, and said +to me: "I can do nothing more here--and my patients need me in +San Francisco. He can't last long. He'll probably never recover +consciousness. If there's anything imperative--anything you must say to +him--any word you wish to have from him--you could perhaps rouse him"--I +said "No." We had never intruded upon any mood of his silence during his +masterful life; and I felt a jealous rebellion against the idea that we +should intrude now upon this last, helpless silence of unconsciousness. +The doctor left us. I summoned the other members of the family from +the veranda to the bedside. He lay motionless and placid, scarcely +breathing, his eyes closed, his hands folded. In accordance with the +rites of the Church, we laid our hands on his head, while my eldest +brother said the prayer of filial blessing that "sealed" the dying man +to eternity. + +In the silence that followed the last "Amen" of the prayer, he opened +his eyes, and said in a steady, strong voice: "You thought I was passing +away?" + +We replied that we had seen he was very weak. + +With a glance at the door through which the physician had departed, he +said resolutely: "I shall go when my Father calls me--and not till then. +I shall know the moment, and I will not struggle against His command. +Lift me up. Carry me out on the balcony I want to see the water once +more. And I want to talk with you." + +To me, it was the last struggle of the unconquerable will that had +silently, composedly, cheerfully fought and overcome every obstacle that +had opposed the purposes of his manhood for half a century. He would +not yield even to death at the dictation of man. He would go when he was +ready--when his mind had accepted the inevitable as the decree of God. + +We sat around his couch on the veranda, and for two hours he talked to +us as clearly and as forcibly as ever. He spoke of the Church and of its +mission in the world, with all the hope of a religious altruist. From +the humblest beginnings, it had grown to the greatest power. From the +depths of persecution, it had risen to win favor from the wisest among +men. It had abolished poverty for hundreds of thousands, by its sound +communal system. In its religious solidarity, it had become a guardian +and administrator of equal justice within all the sphere of its +influence. It was full of the most splendid possibilities of good for +mankind. + +With his eyes fixed on the sea--facing eternity as calmly as he faced +that great symbol of eternity--he voiced the sincerity of his life +and the hope that had animated his statesmanship. In an exaltation of +spirituality that made the moment one of the sublime experiences of my +life, he adjured us all to hold true to our covenants. I do not write of +his personal words of love and admonition to the members of his family. +I wish to express only the aspects that may be of public interest, +in his last aspirations--for these were the aspirations of the Mormon +leaders of the older generation, whom he represented--and they are the +aspirations of all the wise among the Mormons today, whatever may be the +folly and the treachery of their Prophets. + +Ten hours later, he was dead. + +I cannot pretend that I had any true apprehension, then, of what his +loss meant to the community. I had no clearer vision of events than +others. I felt that I had no longer any tie to connect me closely with +the government of the Church, and I was willing to stand aside from its +affairs, believing that the momentum of progress imparted to it would +carry it forward. The nation had cleared the path for it. Its faith, put +into practice as a social gospel, had been freed of the offensive +things that had antagonized the world. My father's last messages of hope +remained with me as a cheering prophecy. + +At his funeral in the great tabernacle, President Snow put forward +a favorite son, Leroy, to read an official statement in which the +President took occasion to deny that my father had dictated the recent +policies of the Church: those policies, he said, had been solely the +President's. (He is welcome to the credit of them!) Joseph F. Smith +showed more generosity of emotion, now that his path of succession +was clear of the superior in authority whom he had so long regarded +enviously; and he spoke of my father, both privately and in public, in a +way that won me to him. + +The shock of grief had perhaps "mellowed" me. I felt more tolerant of +these men, since I was no longer necessarily engaged in opposing them. +When President Snow died (October, 1901), I shared only the general +interest in the way Joseph F. Smith set about asserting his family's +title to rulership of the "Kingdom of God on Earth;" for, in effect, +he notified the world that his branch of the Smith family had been +designated by Divine revelation to rule in the affairs of all men, by an +appointment that had never been revoked. He has since made his cousin, +John Henry Smith, his First Councillor; and he has inducted his son +Hyrum into the apostolate by "revelation." This latter act roused the +jealousy of the mother of his son Joseph F. Smith, Jr., and the amused +gossip of the Mormons predicted another revelation that should give +Joseph Jr. a similar promotion. The revelation came. So many others have +also come that the Smith family is today represented in the hierarchy +by Joseph F. Smith, President, "Prophet, Seer and Revelator to all the +world;" John Smith (a brother) presiding Patriarch over the whole human +race; John Henry Smith (a cousin) Apostle and First Councillor to the +President; Hyrum Smith and Joseph F. Smith (sons) Apostles; George A. +Smith (son of John Henry) apostle; David S. Smith (son of Joseph +F.) Councillor to the presiding Bishop of the Church and in line of +succession to the bishopric; and Bathseba W. Smith, President of the +Relief Societies[4]. [FOOTNOTE: She has died since this was written.] + +As Joseph F. Smith has still thirty other sons--and at least four wives +who are not represented in the apostolate--there may yet be a quorum of +Smiths to succeed endlessly to the Presidency and make the Smith family +a perpetual dynasty in Utah. + +It is one of the fascinating contradictions of Mormonism that many of +the sincere people--who smilingly predicted the Divine interposition by +which this family succession was founded--accept its rule devoutly. "The +Lord," they will tell you, "will look after the Church. If these men are +good enough for God, they are good enough for me. I do not have to save +the Kingdom." And they continue paying their devotion (and their tithes) +to a family autocracy whose imposition would have provoked a rebellion +in any other community in the civilized world! + +It is "the will of the Lord!" + + + + +Chapter XII. The Conspiracy Completed + + + +The Smiths were no sooner firm in power than rumors began to circulate +of a recrudescence of plural marriage, and I heard reports of political +plots by which the Prophets were to reestablish their autocracy in +worldly affairs in the name of God. I sought to close my mind against +such accusations, for I remembered how often my father had been +misjudged, and I felt that nothing but the most direct evidence should +be permitted to convince me of a recession by the Church authorities +from the miraculous opportunity of progress that was now open to their +leadership. Such direct evidence came, in part, in the state elections +of 1902. + +The Utah Democrats re-nominated Wm. H. King for Congress; Senator Joseph +L. Rawlins was their candidate to succeed himself in the United States +Senate. The Republicans nominated President Smith's friend, Joseph +Howell, for Congress; and there began to spread a rumor that Apostle +Reed Smoot was to become a Republican candidate for the Senatorship +under an old promise given him by President Snow and now endorsed by +President Smith. I had been made state chairman of the Democratic party; +and with the growing report of Apostle Smoot's candidacy, I observed a +gradual cessation of political activity on the part of those prominent +Democrats who were close to the Church leaders. + +Now, our party was not making war on the Church nor on any of its proper +missions in the world. Our candidates were capable and popular men +against whom no just ecclesiastical antagonism could be raised. We were +asking no favors from the Church. And we were determined to have no +opposition from the Church without a protest and an understanding. + +For this reason--after consulting confidentially with the leaders of our +party--undertook to make a personal visit to President Smith's office +to demand that the Church authorities should keep their hands out of +politics. But even while I discussed the matter with our party leaders, +I was afraid that some of them might betray our concerted purpose to +Church headquarters. And my fear was well grounded. When I went to the +offices of the Presidency, the authorities--for the first, last and only +time--refused to see me; and the secretary betrayed a knowledge of my +mission by telling me that I should hear from some one of the hierarchy, +later. + +Two or three days afterward, Apostle M. F. Cowley came to me with word +that my call had been considered and that he had been deputed to talk +with me. We appointed a time for conference in my rooms at Democratic +headquarters, where we spent the large part of a day in consultation. +And since the argument between us covered the whole ground of Apostle +Smoot's candidacy, I wish to give an account of that interview, as a +brief exposition of some of the present-day aspects of the Church's +interference in politics. + +Apostle Cowley and I had been boyhood friends. He had been one of the +older students at the school that I had attended as a child; and I knew +the integrity and directness of his character. He was a stocky, strong +man, with a wholesome sort of face, brown with the sunburn of his +missionary travels in Canada and in Mexico. (He had been, in fact, +solemnizing plural marriages in these polygamous refuges--as we found +out later.) + +As soon as it was clearly understood between us that I represented the +Democratic state committee and he represented the Church authorities, I +asked for an explanation of Apostle Smoot's candidacy. + +Cowley began by admitting the candidacy, which President Smith had +endorsed (he said) in spite of the opposition of some of the apostles. +He argued that Apostle Smoot was only exercising his right of American +citizenship in aspiring to the Senatorship; and he explained that the +Church authorities did not see why the Church should be drawn into the +campaign. + +But, as I pointed out to him, the Church had already drawn itself in. +It had held a solemn conclave of its hierarchy to authorize an apostle's +candidacy. The opponents of Church rule would circulate the fact; in +any close campaign, the apostle's friends would use the fact upon the +faithful; and the Church would be compelled to support its apostle in an +assumed necessity of defending itself. + +Perhaps I was objectionably forceful in my reply to him. With his +characteristic gentleness, he rebuked me by recalling that President +Woodruff had once taken him into "sacred places," assured him that +"Frank Cannon, like David, was a man after God's own heart," and asked +him to "labor" for me in politics. If it had been right for the Prophet +of God to favor me, why was it not right for the Prophet now to favor +some one else? + +My personal regard for Apostle Cowley kept me from showing the amusement +I felt at finding myself in this new scriptural role remembering how +President Woodruff had once devoted me to destruction like another Isaac +on the altar of Church control. I replied to Cowley, as soberly as +I could, that I had never consciously received the aid of any Church +influence; that I had always objected to its use, either for or against +either party; that I could oppose it now with free hands. + +He retreated upon the favorite argument of the ecclesiasts: that an +apostle did not relinquish his citizenship because of his Church rank; +that the very political freedom which we demanded, to be effective, must +apply to all men, in or out of the Church. He asked naively: "What did +we get statehood for--and amnesty--and our political rights--if we're +not to enjoy them?" + +The answer to that was obvious: The Mormon Church is so constructed +that the apostle carries with him the power of the Church wherever he +appears. The whole people recognize in him the personified authority of +the Church; and if an apostle were allowed to make a political campaign +without a denunciation from the other Church authorities, it would be +known that he had been selected for political office by "the mouthpiece +of the Almighty." I cited the case of Apostle Moses Thatcher as proof +that the Church did exercise power openly to negative an apostle's +ambition. If it failed now to rebuke Smoot, this very failure would be +an affirmative use of its power in his behalf; all Mormons who did not +wish to raise their hands "against the Lord's anointed," would have +to support Smoot's legislative ticket, regardless of their political +convictions; and all Gentiles and independent Mormons would have to +fight the intrusion of the Church into open political activities. + +Cowley replied that "the brethren"--meaning the hierarchy--believed that +a Mormon should have as many political rights, as a Catholic; and he +asked me if I would object to seeing a Catholic in the Senate. + +Of course not. There are, and have been, many such. "But suppose," I +argued, "that the Pope were to select one of his Italian cardinals to +come to this country and be naturalized in some state of this Union that +was under the sole rule of the Roman Catholic Church; and suppose that +still holding his princedom in the Catholic Church and exercising the +plenary authority conferred on him by the Pope--suppose he were to +appear before the Senate in his robes of office, with his credentials +as a Senator from his Church-ruled state--all of this being a matter of +public knowledge--do you think the Senate would seat him? Certainly +not. Yet the cases are exactly analogous. We were but lately alien and +proscribed. We were admitted into the Union on a covenant that forbade +Church interference in politics. It is the whole teaching of the Church +that a Prophet wears his prophetic authority constantly as a robe of +office. The case of Moses Thatcher is proof to the world that the Church +appoints and disappoints at its pleasure. I don't believe that Smoot, if +elected, will be allowed to hold his seat, and--if he is allowed to hold +it--a greater trouble than his exclusion will surely follow. For, with +the princes of the Mormon Church holding high place in the national +councils--and using the power of the Church to maintain themselves +there--we are assuring for ourselves an indefinite future of the most +bitter controversy." + +When Cowley had no more arguments to offer, he said: "Well, the Prophet +has spoken. That's enough for me. I submit cheerfully when the will of +the Lord comes to me through his appointed servants. The matter has +been decided, and it does not lie in your power--or anyone else's--to +withstand the purposes of the Almighty." He rose and put his hand on my +shoulder, affectionately. "Your father is gone, Frank. I loved him very +dearly. I hope that you are not going to be found warring against the +Lord's anointed." + +"Mat," I replied, "you have already pointed out that Apostle Smoot +appears in politics only as an American citizen. For the purposes of +this fight--and to avoid the consequences that you fear I'll regard him +as a politician merely, and fight him as such." + +"But, you know, Frank," he remonstrated, "he has been consecrated to the +apostleship, and I'm afraid that you'll overstep the bounds." + +"Mat," I assured him, "I'll watch carefully, and unless he makes his +lightning changes too fast, I'll aim my shots only when he's in his +political clothes. If the change is too indefinite, blame yourselves +and not us. The whole teaching of the Church is that an apostle must be +regarded as an apostle at all times; but the whole teaching of politics +is that all men should appear upon equal terms--in this country. That's +why we insist that no apostle should become a candidate for public +office." + +Cowley took his departure with evident relief. He had discharged +his ambassadorial duty--and given me the warning which he had been +authorized to deliver--without a rupture of our personal friendship. And +I saw him go, for my part, in a sorrowful certainty that the Church had +thrown off all disguise and proposed to show the world, by the election +of an apostle to the United States Senate, that the "Kingdom of God" was +established in Utah to rule in all the affairs of men. I knew that if +Smoot were excluded from the Senate, his exclusion would be argued +a proof that the wicked and unregenerate nation was still devilishly +persecuting God's anointed servants, to its own destruction; and, if he +were permitted to take his seat, that this fact would be cited to the +faithful as proof that the Prophets had been called to save the nation +from the destruction that threatened it! + +Of course, throughout the campaign that followed, the Church's +newspapers and many of its political workers kept protesting publicly +that the election of the Republican legislative ticket did not mean +the election of Apostle Smoot to the Senate. But by means of the +authoritative whisper of ecclesiasts--carried by visiting apostles to +Presidents of Stakes, from them to the bishops, and from the bishops to +the presiding officers of subsidiary organizations--the inspired order +was given to the faithful that they must vote for the legislators who +could be relied upon to do the will of the Lord by voting for the Lord's +anointed prophet, Apostle Reed Smoot. This message was delivered to the +sacred Sunday prayer circles. Even Senator Rawlins' mother received it, +from one of the ecclesiastical authorities of her ward, who instructed +her to vote against the election of her own son; and it was "at the +peril of her immortal soul" that she disobeyed the injunction. Long +before election day, every Mormon knew that he had been called upon +by the Almighty to sacrifice his individual conviction in politics to +protect his "assailed Church." + +The profound effectiveness of that appeal needs no further proof than +the issue of the election. King and Rawlins, the popular leaders of +the Democracy in a state that had but recently been overwhelmingly +Democratic--after a campaign in which they studiously avoided an +attack upon the Church--were overwhelmingly defeated. The Republican +legislative ticket was carried. Apostle Smoot was elected to the United +States Senate; and on January 21, 1903, Governor Wells issued to him a +certificate of election. + +Five days later, a number of prominent citizens signed a protest, to +President Roosevelt and the Senate, against allowing Apostle Smoot to +take his seat. And the grounds of the protest, briefly stated, were +these: The Mormon priesthood claimed supreme authority in politics, +and such authority was exercised by the first presidency and the twelve +apostles, of whom Smoot was one. They had not only not abandoned the +practice of political dictation, but they had not abandoned the belief +in polygamy and polygamous cohabitation; they connived at and encouraged +its practice, sought to pass laws that should nullify the statutes +against the practice, and protected and honored the violators of +those statutes. And they had done all these things despite the public +sentiment of the civilized world, in violation of the pledges given in +procuring amnesty and in obtaining the return of the escheated Church +property, contrary to the promises given by the representatives of the +Church and of the territory in their plea for statehood, contrary to +the pledges required by the Enabling Act and given in the State +constitution, and contrary to the laws of the State itself. + +These charges were supported by innumerable citations from the published +doctrines of the Church, and from the published speeches and sermons +of the Prophets. Evidence was offered of the continuance of polygamous +cohabitation (since 1890) by President Smith, all but three or four of +the apostles, the entire Presidency of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, +and many others. New polygamy was specifically charged against three +apostles, and against the son of a fourth. A second protest, signed by +John L. Leilich, repeated these grounds of objection to Apostle Smoot, +and charged further that Apostle Smoot was himself a polygamist; but no +attempt was made to prove this latter charge. + +Upon the filing of the protest, there was a storm of anger at Church +headquarters; and the ecclesiastical newspapers railed with the +bitterness of anxious apprehension. Throughout Utah it seemed to be the +popular belief that Apostle Smoot would be excluded--on the issue of +whether a responsible representative of a Church that was protecting and +encouraging law-breaking should be allowed a seat in the highest body of +the nation's law-makers. But the issue against him was not to be heard +until twelve months after his election, and every agent and influence of +the Church was set to work at once to nullify the effect of the protest. + +Every financial institution, East or West, to which the Church could +appeal, was solicited to demand a favorable hearing of the Smoot case +from the Senators of its state. Every political and business interest +that could be reached was moved to protect the threatened Apostle. The +sugar trust magnates and their Senators were enlisted. The mercantile +correspondents of the Church were urged to write letters to their +Congressmen and to their Senators, and to use their power at home to +check the anti-Mormon newspapers. The Utah representative of a powerful +mercantile institution, that had vital business relations with the +Church, confessed to me that he had been called East to consult with the +head of his company, who had been asked to use his influence for Smoot. +"I could not advise our president," he said, "to send the letter that +was demanded of him. And yet I couldn't take the responsibility of +injuring the company by advising him to refuse the Church request. You +know, if we had refused it, point-blank, they would have destroyed every +interest we had within the domain of their power. I should have been +ruined financially. All our stockholders would have suffered. They would +never have forgiven me." + +The president of the company failed to send the letter. His failure +became known, through Church espionage and the report of the Church's +friends in the Senate. Pressure was brought to bear upon him; and, with +the aid of his Utah representative, he compromised on a letter that did +partial violence to his conscience and partially endangered his business +relations with the Church. + +Both these men were aware that the Church had broken its covenants to +the country, and that Apostle Smoot could not be either a loyal citizen +of the nation or a free representative of the people of his state. +"I did not like the compromise we made," my friend told me. "I feel +humiliated whenever I think of it. But I tried to do the best I could +under the circumstances." + +The results of this pressure of political and business interests upon +Washington showed gradually in the tone of the political newspapers +throughout the whole country. It showed in the growing confidence +expressed by the organs of the Church authorities in Utah. It showed in +the cheerful predictions of the Prophets that the Lord would overrule in +Apostle Smoot's behalf. It showed in Smoot's exercise of an autocratic +leadership in the political affairs of the State. + +He was allowed to take his oath of office as Senator on March 5, 1903; +the protests against him were referred to the Senate Committee on +Privileges and Elections for a hearing (January 27, 1904); and a contest +began that lasted from January, 1904, to February, 1907. During those +years was completed the business and political conspiracy between +financial "privilege" and religious absolutism, of which conspiracy this +narrative has described the beginning and the growth. + +It is almost impossible to expose the progression of incident by which +the end of that conspiracy was approached--since it was necessarily +approached in the darkest secrecy. But several indications of the method +and the progress did show, here and there, on the surface of events; and +these indications are powerfully significant. + +As early as 1901 it had become known that Apostle Smoot was negotiating +a sale, to the sugar trust, of the Church's sugar holdings. On May +13, 1902, the president of the trust reported to the trust's executive +committee-- + +[FOOTNOTE: See a synopsis of the minutes of the trust's executive +committee, published in Hampton's Magazine, in January, 1910.] + +that he had agreed to buy a one-half interest in the consolidation of +the Mormon factories of La Grande, Logan and Ogden. (The following day, +May 14, 1902, is given by Apostle Smoot as the day on which he obtained +President Joseph F. Smith's permission to become a candidate for the +Senatorship.) On June 24, 1902 the sugar trust's executive committee +was informed of the trust's purchase of one-half of the capital stock +of these three Church-owned sugar companies. On July 5, 1902 the three +companies were consolidated under the name of the Amalgamated Sugar +Company, with David Eccles, polygamist, trustee of Church bonds, and +protege of Joseph F. Smith, as President; and the sugar trust took half +the stock, in exchange for its holdings in the three original companies. + +Similarly, in this same year, the old Church-owned Utah Sugar Company +increased its stock in order to buy the Garland sugar factory, and the +sugar trust, it is understood, was concerned in the purchase In 1903, +1904 and 1905, the Idaho Sugar Company, the Freemont Sugar Company, +and West Idaho Sugar Company were incorporated; and in 1906 all these +companies were amalgamated in the present Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, +of which Joseph F. Smith is president, T. R. Cutler, a Mormon, is +vice-president, Horace G. Whitney, the general manager of the Church's +Deseret News, is secretary and treasurer, and other Church officials are +directors. Of the stock of this company the sugar trust holds fifty-one +per cent. So that between 1902 and 1906 a partnership in the manufacture +of beet sugar was effected between the Church and the trust; and Apostle +Smoot became a Sugar trust Senator, and argued and voted as such. + +Furthermore, it was at this same period that the Church sold the +street railway of Salt Lake City and its electric power company to the +"Harriman interests" under peculiar circumstances--a matter of which I +have written in an earlier chapter. The Church owners of this Utah Light +and Railway Company, through the Church's control of the City Council, +had attempted to obtain a hundred-year franchise from the city on terms +that were outrageously unjust to the citizens; and finally, on June 5, +1905, a franchise was obtained for fifty years, for the company of +which Joseph F. Smith was the president. On August 3, 1905, another city +ordinance was passed, consolidating all former franchises, then held +by the Utah Light and Power Company, but originally granted to D. F. +Walker, the Salt Lake and Ogden Gas and Electric Light Company, the +Pioneer Power Company and the Utah Power Company; and this ordinance +extended the franchises to July 1, 1955. The properties were bonded for +$6,300,000, but it was understood that they were worth not more than +$4,000,000. They were sold to "the Harriman interests" for $10,000,000. +The equipment of the Salt Lake City street railway was worse than +valueless, and the new company had to remove the rails and discard +the rolling stock. But the ten millions were well invested in this +public-utility trust, for the company had a monopoly of the street +railway service and electric power and gas supply of Salt Lake City; and +its franchises left it free to extort whatever it could from the people +of the whole country side, by virtue of a partnership with the Church +authorities whereby extortion was given the protection of "God's +anointed Prophets." + +Joseph F. Smith, of course, was already a director of Harriman's Union +Pacific Railroad, a position to which he had been elected after his +accession to the First Presidency. And he was so elected not because of +his railroad holdings--for he came to the Presidency a poor man--and +not because of his ability or experience as a financier or a railroad +builder, for he had not had any such experience and he had not shown +any such ability. He was elected because of the partnership between the +Church leaders and the Union Pacific Railroad--a partnership that was +doubtlessly used in defense of Apostle Smoot's seat in the Senate, just +as the power of the Sugar Trust was used and the influence of the whole +financial confederation in politics. + + + + + + +Chapter XIII. The Smoot Exposure + + + +Just before the subpoenas were issued in the Smoot investigation, I met +John R. Winder (then First Councillor to President Smith) on the street +in Salt Lake City, and he expressed the hope that when I went "to +Washington on the Smoot case," I would not "betray" my "brethren." I +assured him that I was not going to Washington as a witness in the Smoot +case; that the men whom he should warn, were at Church headquarters. He +replied, with indignant alarm, "I don't see what 'the brethren' have to +do with this!" + +But when the subpoenas arrived for Smith and the hierarchy, alarm and +indignation assumed a new complexion. The authorities, for themselves, +and through the mouths of such men as Brigham H. Roberts, began to boast +of how they were about to "carry the gospel to the benighted nation" and +preach it from the witness stand in Washington. The Mormon communities +resounded with fervent praises to God that He had, through His servant, +Apostle Smoot, given the opportunity to His living oracles to speak to +an unrighteous people! And when the Senators decided that they would +not summon polygamous wives and their children en bloc to Washington to +testify (because it was not desired to "make war on women and children") +some of Joseph F. Smith's several wives even complained feelingly that +they "were not allowed to testify for Papa." + +The first oracular disclosure made by the Prophets, on the witness +stand, came as a shock even to Utah. They testified that they had +resumed polygamous cohabitation to an extent unsuspected by either +Gentiles or Mormons. President Joseph F. Smith admitted that he had had +eleven children borne to him by his five wives, since pledging +himself to obey the "revealed" manifesto of 1890 forbidding polygamous +relations. Apostle Francis Marion Lyman, who was next in succession to +the Presidency, made a similar admission of guilt, though in a lesser +degree. So did John Henry Smith and Charles W. Penrose, apostles. So did +Brigham H. Roberts and George Reynolds, Presidents of Seventies. So did +a score of others among the lesser authorities. And they confessed that +they were living in polygamy in violation of their pledges to the nation +and the terms of their amnesty, against the laws and the constitution of +the state, and contrary to the "revelation of God" by which the doctrine +of polygamy had been withdrawn from practice in the Church! + +President Joseph F. Smith admitted that he was violating the law of the +State. He was asked: "Is there not a revelation that you shall abide by +the law of the State and of the land?" He answered, "Yes, sir." He was +asked: "And if that is a revelation, are you not violating the laws +of God?" He answered: "I have admitted that, Mr. Senator, a great many +times here." + +Apostle Francis Marion Lyman was asked: "You say that you, an apostle +of your Church, expecting to succeed (if you survive Mr. Smith) to +the office in which you will be the person to be the medium of Divine +revelations, are living, and are known to your people to live, in +disobedience of the law of the land and the law of God?" Apostle Lyman +answered: "Yes, sir." The others pleaded guilty to the same charge. + +But this was not the worst. There had been new polygamous marriages. +Bishop Chas. E. Merrill, the son of an apostle, testified that his +father had married him to a plural wife in 1891, and that he had been +living with both wives ever since. A Mrs. Clara Kennedy testified that +she had been married to a polygamist in 1896, in Juarez, Mexico, by +Apostle Brigham Young, Jr., in the home of the president of the stake. +There was testimony to show that Apostle George Teasdale had taken a +plural wife six years after the "manifesto" forbidding polygamy, and +that Benjamin Cluff, Jr., president of the Church university, had +taken a plural wife in 1899. Some ten other less notorious cases were +exposed--including those of M. W. Merrill, an apostle, and J. M. Tanner, +superintendent of Church schools. It was testified that Apostle John W. +Taylor had taken two plural wives within four years, and that Apostle M. +F. Cowley had taken one; and both these men had fled from the country in +order to escape a summons to appear before the Senate committee. + +President Joseph F. Smith, in his attempts to justify his own polygamy, +gave some very involved and contradictory testimony. He said that he +adhered to both the divine revelation commanding polygamy and the +divine revelation "suspending" the command. He said he believed that the +principle of plural marriage was still as "correct a principle" as when +first revealed, but that the "law commanding it" had been suspended +by President Woodruff's manifesto. He said that he accepted President +Woodruff's manifesto as a revelation from God, but he objected to having +it called "a law of the Church;" he insisted that it was only "a rule +of the Church." He admitted that the manifesto forbidding polygamy had +never been printed among the other revelations in the Church's book of +"Doctrine and Covenants," in which the original revelation commanding +polygamy was still printed without note or qualification of any kind. He +admitted that this anti-polygamy manifesto was not printed in any of the +other doctrinal works which the Mormon missionaries took with them +when they were sent out to preach the Mormon faith. He claimed that the +manifesto was circulated in pamphlet form, but he subsequently admitted +that the pamphlet did not "state in terms" that the manifesto was a +"revelation." He finally pleaded that the manifesto had been omitted +from the book of "Doctrine and Covenants" by an "oversight," and he +promised to have it included in the next edition! + +[FOOTNOTE: He did not keep his promise. The manifesto was not added +to the book of revelations until some time later, after considerable +protest in Utah.] + +In short, it was shown, by the testimony given and the evidence +introduced, not only that the Church authorities persisted in living in +polygamy, not only that polygamous marriages were being contracted, but +that the Church still adhered to the doctrine of polygamy and taught it +as a law of God. + +President Joseph F. Smith denied the right of Congress to regulate his +"private conduct" as a polygamist. "It is the law of my state to which +I am amenable," he said, "and if the officers of the law have not +done their duty toward me I can not blame them. I think they have some +respect for me." + +A mass of testimony showed why the officers of the law did not do their +duty. During the anti-polygamy agitation of 1899 (which ended in the +refusal of Congress to seat Brigham H. Roberts) a number of prosecutions +of polygamists had been attempted. In many instances the county +attorney had refused to prosecute even upon sworn information. Wherever +prosecutions were had, the fines imposed were nominal; these were in +some cases never paid, and in other cases paid by popular subscription. +It was testified that in Box Elder County subscription lists had been +circulated to collect money for the fines, but that the fines were never +paid, though the subscriptions had been collected. All the prosecutions +had been dropped, at last. It was pleaded that there was a strong +Gentile sentiment against these prosecutions, because of the hope that +no new polygamous marriages were being contracted; but it was shown +also, that the Church authorities controlled the enforcement of the law +by their influence in the election of the agents of the law. + +The Church controlled, too, the making of the law. For example, +testimony was given to show that in 1896 the Church authorities had +appointed a committee of six elders to examine all bills introduced into +the Utah legislature and decide which were "proper" to be passed. In the +neighboring state of Idaho, the legislature, in 1904, unanimously and +without discussion passed a resolution for a new state constitution that +should omit the anti-polygamy test oath clauses objectionable to the +Mormons; and in this connection it was testified that the state chairman +of both political parties in Idaho always went to Salt Lake City, before +a campaign, to consult with the Church authorities; that every request +of the authorities made to the Idaho political leaders was granted; that +six of the twenty-one countries in Idaho were "absolutely controlled" +by Mormons, and the "balance of power" in six counties more was held by +Mormons; and that it was "impossible for any man or party to go against +the Mormon Church in Idaho." Apostle John Henry Smith testified that +one-third of the population of Idaho was Mormon and one-fourth of the +population of Wyoming, and that there were large settlements in +Nevada, Colorado, California, Arizona and the surrounding states and +territories. + +A striking example of the power of the Church as against the power of +the nation was given to the Senate committee by John Nicholson, chief +recorder of the temple in Salt Lake City. He had failed to produce some +of the temple marriage records for which the committee had called. He +was asked whether he would bring the books, on the order of the Senate +of the United States, if the First Presidency of the Church forbade him +to bring them. He answered: "I would not." He was asked: "And if the +Senate should send the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and arrest you and +order you to bring them" (the records) "with you, you would still refuse +to bring them, unless the First Presidency asked you to?" He answered, +"Yes, sir." + +It was shown that classes of instruction in the Mormon religion had been +forced upon teachers in a number of public schools in Utah by the orders +of the First Presidency. (These orders were withdrawn after the exposure +before the committee.) Church control had gone so far in Brigham City, +Box Elder County, Utah, that in a dispute between the City Council and +the electric lighting company of the city, the local ecclesiastical +council interfered. In the same city, two young men built a dancing +pavilion that competed with the Church-owned Opera House; the +ecclesiastical council "counselled" them to remove the pavilion and +dispose of "the material in its construction;" they were threatened that +they would be "dropped" if they did not obey this "counsel;" and they +compromised by agreeing to pay twenty-five percent of the net earnings +of their pavilion into the Church's "stake treasury." In Monroe ward, +Sevier County, Utah, in 1901, a Mormon woman named Cora Birdsall had a +dispute with a man named James E. Leavitt about a title to land. Leavitt +went into the bishop's court and got a decision against her. She wrote +to President Joseph F. Smith for permission either to appeal the case +direct to him or "to go to law" in the matter; and Smith advised her +"to follow the order provided of the Lord to govern in your case." The +dispute was taken through the ecclesiastical courts and decided against +her. She refused to deed the land to Leavitt and she was excommunicated +by order of the High Council of the Sevier Stake of Zion. She became +insane as a result of this punishment, and her mother appealed to the +stake president to grant her some mitigation. He wrote, in reply: "Her +only relief will be in complying with President Smith's wishes. You say +she has never broken a rule of the Church. You forget that she has done +so by failing to abide by the decision of the mouthpiece of God." She +finally gave up a deed to the disputed land and was rebaptized in 1904. +(Letters of the First Presidency were, however, introduced to show that +it had been the policy of the presidency--particularly in President +Woodruff's day--not to interfere in disputes involving titles to land.) + +It was testified that a Mormon merchant was expelled from the +Church, ostensibly for apostasy, but really because he engaged in the +manufacture of salt "against the interests of the President of the +Church and some of his associates;" that a Mormon Church official was +deposed "for distributing, at a school election, a ticket different from +that prescribed by the Church authorities"--and so on, interminably. + +Witness after witness swore to the incidents of Church interference +in politics which this narrative has already related in detail. But no +attempt was made to show the Church's partnership with the "interests;" +and the power of the Church in business circles was left to be inferred +from President Smith's testimony that he was then president of the +Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution, the State Bank of Utah, +the Zion's Savings Bank and Trust Company, the Utah Sugar Company, +the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company, the Utah Light and Power +Company, the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railroad Company, the Saltair +Beach Company, the Idaho Sugar Company, the Inland Crystal Salt Company, +the Salt Lake Knitting Company, and the Salt Lake Dramatic Association; +and that he was a director of the Union Pacific Railway Company, +vice-president of the Bullion-Beck and Champion Mining Company, and +editor of the Improvement Era and the Juvenile Instructor. + +It was shown that Utah had not been admitted to statehood until the +Federal government had exacted, from the Church authorities and the +representatives of the people of Utah, every sort of pledge that +polygamy had been forever abandoned and polygamous relations +discontinued by "revelation from God"; that statehood had not been +granted until solemn promise had been given and provision made that +there should be "no union of church and state," and no church should +"dominate the state or interfere with its functions;" and that the +Church's escheated property had been restored upon condition that such +property should be used only for the relief of the poor of the Church, +for the education of its children and for the building and repair +of houses of worship "in which the rightfulness of the practice of +polygamy" should not be "inculcated." + +Therefore the testimony given before the Senate committee by these +members of the Mormon hierarchy, showed that they had not only broken. +their covenants and violated their oaths, but that they had been guilty +of treason. What was the remedy? Jeremiah M. Wilson, a lawyer employed +by the Church authorities in 1888 to argue, before a Congressional +committee, in behalf of the admission of Utah to statehood, had pointed +out the remedy in these words: + +"It is idle to say that such a compact may be made, and then, when the +considerations have been mutually received--statehood on the one side +and the pledge not to do a particular thing on the other--either party +can violate it without remedy to the other. But you ask me what is +the remedy, and I answer that there are plenty of remedies in your own +hands. + +"Suppose they violate this compact; suppose that after they put this +into the constitution, and thereby induce you to grant them the high +privilege and political right of statehood, they should turn right +around and exercise the bad faith which is attributed to them here--what +would you do? You could shut the doors of the Senate and House of +Representatives against them; you could deny them a voice in the +councils of this nation, because they have acted in bad faith and +violated their solemn agreement by which they succeeded in getting +themselves into the condition of statehood. You could deny them the +Federal judiciary; you could deny them the right to use the mails--that +indispensable thing in the matter of trade and commerce of this country. +There are many ways in which peaceably, but all powerfully, you could +compel the performance of that compact." + +This argument by Mr. Wilson in 1888 was recalled by the counsel for the +protestants in the investigation. It was recalled with the qualification +that though Congress might not have the power to undo the sovereignty of +the state of Utah it could deal with Senator Smoot. And it was further +argued: "The chief charge against Senator Smoot is that he encourages, +countenances, and connives at the defiant violation of law. He is an +integral part of a hierarchy; he is an integral part of a quorum of +twelve, who constitute the backbone of the Church.... He, as one of that +quorum of twelve apostles, encourages, connives at, and countenances +defiance of law." + +On June 11, 1906, a majority of the committee made a report to the +Senate recommending that Apostle Smoot was not entitled to his seat in +the Senate. They found that he was one of a "self-perpetuating body of +fifteen men, uniting in themselves authority in both Church and state," +who "so exercise this authority as to encourage a belief in polygamy as +a divine institution, and by both precept and example encourage among +their followers the practice of polygamy and polygamous cohabitation;" +that the Church authorities had "endeavored to suppress, and succeed +in suppressing, a great deal of testimony by which the fact of plural +marriages contracted by those who were high in the councils of the +Church might have been established beyond the shadow of a doubt;" and +that "aside from this it was shown by the testimony that a majority +of those who give law to the Mormon Church are now, and have been for +years, living in open, notorious and shameless polygamous cohabitation." +Concerning President Woodruff's anti-polygamy manifesto of 1890, the +majority of the committee reported that "this manifesto in no way +declares the principle of polygamy to be wrong or abrogates it as a +doctrine of the Mormon Church, but simply suspends the practice of +polygamy to be resumed at some more convenient season, either with +or without another revelation." They found that Apostle Smoot was +responsible for the conduct of the organization to which he belonged; +that he had countenanced and encouraged polygamy "by repeated acts +and in a number of instances, as a member of the quorum of the twelve +apostles;" and that he was "no more entitled to a seat in the Senate +than he would be if he were associating in polygamous cohabitation with +a plurality of wives." + +The report continued: "The First Presidency and the twelve apostles +exercise a controlling influence over the action of the members of +the Church in secular affairs as well as in spiritual matters;" and +"contrary to the principles of the common law under which we live, and +the constitution of the State of Utah, the First Presidency and twelve +apostles dominate the affairs of the State and constantly interfere in +the performance of its functions.... But it is in political affairs that +the domination of the First Presidency and the twelve apostles is +most efficacious and most injurious to the interests of the State.... +Notwithstanding the plain provision of the constitution of Utah, the +proof offered on the investigation demonstrates beyond the possibility +of doubt that the hierarchy at the head of the Mormon Church has, for +years past, formed a perfect union between the Mormon Church and the +State of Utah, and that the Church, through its head, dominates the +affairs of the State in things both great and small." And the report +concluded: "The said Reed Smoot comes here, not as the accredited +representative of the State of Utah in the Senate of the United States, +but as the choice of the hierarchy which controls the Church and has +usurped the functions of the State in Utah. It follows, as a necessary +conclusion from these facts, that Mr. Smoot is not entitled to a seat in +the Senate as a Senator from the State of Utah." + +On the same day a minority report was presented by Senators J. B. +Foraker, Albert J. Beveridge, Wm. P. Dillingbam, A. J. Hopkins and P. +C. Knox. They found that Reed Smoot possessed "all the qualifications +prescribed by the Constitution to make him eligible to a seat in the +Senate;" that "the regularity of his election" by the Utah +legislature had not been questioned; that his private character was +"irreproachable;" and that "so far as mere belief and membership in +the Mormon Church are concerned, he is fully within his rights and +privileges under the guaranty of religious freedom given by the +Constitution of the United States." Having thus summarily excluded all +the large and troublesome points of the investigation, these Senators +decided that there remained "but two grounds on which the right or title +of Reed Smoot to his seat in the Senate" was contested. The first was +whether he had taken a certain "endowment oath" by which "he obligated +himself to make his allegiance to the Church paramount to his allegiance +to the United States;" and the second was whether "by reason of his +official relation to the Church" he was "responsible for polygamous +cohabitation" among the Mormons. + +As to the first charge, the minority found that the testimony upon the +point was "limited in amount, vague and indefinite in character and +utterly unreliable, because of the disreputable character of the +witnesses"--oddly overlooking the fact that one of these witnesses had +been called for Apostle Smoot; that no attempt had been made to impeach +the character of this witness; that the other witnesses had been +denounced, by a Mormon bishop, named Daniel Connolly, as "traitors who +had broken their oaths to the Church" by betraying the secrets of +the "endowment oath;" and that all the Smoot witnesses who denied the +anti-patriotic obligation of the oath refused, suspiciously enough, to +tell what obligation was imposed on those who took part in the ceremony. + +The charge that Smoot, as an apostle of the Church, had been responsible +for polygamous cohabitation was as easily disposed of, by the minority +report. He had himself, on oath, "positively denied" that he had "ever +advised any person to violate the law either against polygamy or against +polygamous cohabitation," and no witness had been produced to testify +that Apostle Smoot had ever given "any such advice" or defended "such +acts." True, it was admitted that he had "silently acquiesced" in the +continuance of polygamous cohabitation by polygamists who had married +before 1890; but it was contended that to understand this acquiescence +it was "necessary to recall some historical facts, among which are +some that indicate that the United States government is not free from +responsibility for these violations of the law." + +In short, although Reed Smoot was one of a confessed band of +law-breaking traitors, he was of "irreproachable" private character. +Although the band had been guilty of every treachery, none of the band +had admitted that Smoot had encouraged them in their villainies. Smoot +had only "silently acquiesced"--and in this he had been no guiltier +than the intimidated bystanders and the gagged victims of the outrages. +Although the gang had stolen the machinery of elections and used it to +print a Senatorial certificate for Smoot, there was nothing to show that +the form of the certificate was not correct. Moreover, the band operated +in politics as a religious organization, and the constitution of the +United States protects a man in his right of religious freedom! + + + + + + +Chapter XIV. Treason Triumphant + + + +While these disclosures of the Smoot investigation were shocking the +sentiment of the whole nation, the Prophets carried on the conspiracy of +their defense with all the boldness of defiant guilt. In Salt Lake City, +the office of the United States Marshal and even the post-office were +watched for the arrival of subpoenas from Washington; men were posted +in the streets to give the alarm whenever the Marshal should attempt to +serve papers; and before he entered the front door of a Mormon's house, +the Church sentry had entered by the back door to warn the inmates. If +the Federal power had been moving in a foreign land, it could not +have been more determinedly opposed by local authority. Notorious +polygamists, wanted as witnesses before the Senate committee, made a +public flight through Utah, couriered, flanked and rear-guarded by the +power of the hierarchy. One of these law-breakers (who, it was known, +had been subpoenaed) went from Salt Lake City to take secret employment +in one of the Church's sugar factories in Idaho. When he was discovered +there and served with the Senate requisition, he gave his word that he +would appear at Washington, and then he fled with his new polygamous +wife to a polygamous Mormon settlement in Alberta, Canada--a fugitive, +honored because he was a fugitive, and officially sustained as a ward of +the Church. + +Apostles John W. Taylor and Mathias F. Cowley left the country, to +escape a summons to Washington; and President Smith pleaded that he +had no control over their movements, and promised that he would, if +possible, bring them back to comply with the Senate subpoenas. He knew, +as every Mormon and every well-informed Gentile knew, that the slightest +expression of a wish from him would be the word of God to those two men. +They would have gloried in going to Washington to show the courage +of their fanaticism. They would never have left the country without +instructions from their President. But they could not have married +plural wives after the manifesto, and solemnized plural marriages +for other polygamists, without Smith's knowledge and consent; their +testimony would have placed the responsibility for these unlawful +practices upon the Prophet; and the penalty would have fallen on the +Prophet's Senator. + +They not only fled, but they allowed themselves in their absence to be +made the scapegoats of the hierarchy. They were proven guilty of "new +polygamy" before the Senate committee; and, for the sake of the effect +upon the country, they were ostensibly deposed from the apostolate +by order of the President, who, by their dismissal from the quorum, +advanced his son Hyrum in seniority. But their apparent degradation +involved none of the consequences that Moses Thatcher had suffered. They +continued their ministrations in the Church. They remained high in favor +with the hierarchy. They claimed and received from the faithful the +right to be regarded as holily "the Lord's' anointed" as they had +ever been. They still held their Melchisedec priesthood. One of them +afterward took a new plural wife. It seems to be well authenticated that +the other continued to perform plural marriages; and every Mormon +looked upon them both--and still looks upon them--as zealous priests who +endured the appearance of shame in order to preserve the power of the +Prophet in governing the nation. + +Another crucial point in President Smith's responsibility was his +solemnization of the plural marriage between Apostle Abraham H. Cannon +and Lillian Hamlin, of which I have already written. One of the women +of the dead apostle's family was subpoenaed to give her testimony in the +matter. She thrice telephoned to me that she wished to consult me; but +she was surrounded by such a system of espionage that again and again +she failed to keep her appointment. At last, late at night, she arrived +at my office--the editorial office of the Salt Lake Tribune--having +escaped, as she explained, in her maid's clothes. The agents of the +hierarchy had been subtly and ingeniously suggesting to her that she +was perhaps mistaken in her recollection of the facts to which she would +have to testify, and she was distressed with the doubt and fear which +they had instilled into her mind. I could only adjure her to tell the +truth as she remembered it. But on her journey to Washington she was +constantly surrounded by Church "advisers;" and the effect of their +"advice" showed in the testimony that she gave--a testimony that failed +to prove the known guilt of the Prophet. + +For the Gentiles, there had begun a sort of "reign of terror," which +can be best summed up by an account of a private conference of twelve +prominent non-Mormons held as late as 1905. That conference was called +to consider the situation, and to devise means of acquainting the nation +with the desperate state of affairs in Utah. It was independent of the +political movement that had already begun; it aimed rather to organize +a social rebellion, so that we might not be dependent for all our +opposition upon the annual or semi-annual campaigns of politics. + +The meeting first agreed upon the following statement of facts: + +"Utah's statehood, as now administered, is but a protection of the +Mormon hierarchy in its establishment of a theocratic kingdom under +the flag of the republic. This hierarchy holds itself superior to the +Constitution and to the law. It is spreading polygamy throughout the +ranks of its followers. Through its agents, it dominates the politics of +the state, and its power is spreading to other common-wealths. It +exerts such sway over the officers of the law that the hierarchy and its +favorites cannot be reached by the hand of justice. It is master of the +State Legislature and of the Governor. + +"By means of its immense collection of tithes and its large investments +in commercial and financial enterprises, it dominates every line +of business in Utah except mines and railroads; and these latter it +influences by means of its control over Mormon labor and by its control +of legislation and franchises. It holds nearly every Gentile merchant +and professional man at its vengeance, by its influence over the +patronage which he must have in order to be successful. It corrupts +every Gentile who is affected by either fear or venality, and makes of +him a part of its power to play the autocrat in Utah and to deceive the +country as to its purposes and its operations. Every Gentile who +refuses to testify at its request and in its behalf becomes a marked and +endangered man. It rewards and it punishes according to its will; and +those Gentiles who have gone to Washington to testify for Smoot are well +aware of this fact. Unless the Gentiles of Utah shall soon be protected +by the power of the United States they will suffer either ruin or exile +at the hands of the hierarchy." + +When this declaration had been accepted, by all present, as truly +expressing their views of the situation, it was decided that they should +confer with other leading Gentiles, hold a mass meeting, adopt a set of +resolutions embodying the declaration on which they had agreed, and then +dispatch the resolutions to the Senate committee, as a protest against +the testimony of some of the Gentiles in the Smoot case, and as an +appeal to the nation for help. + +But although all approved of the declaration and all approved of the +method by which it was to be sent to the nation, no man there dared +to stand out publicly in support of such a protest, to offer the +resolutions, or to speak for them. The merchant knew that his trade +would vanish in a night, leaving him unable to meet his obligations +and certain of financial destruction. The lawyer knew not only that the +hierarchy would deprive him of all his Mormon clients, but that it would +make him so unpopular with courts and juries that no Gentile litigant +would dare employ him. The mining man knew that the hierarchy could +direct legislation against him, might possibly influence courts and +could assuredly influence jurors to destroy him. And so with all the +others at the conference. + +They were not cowards. They had shown themselves, in the past, of more +than average human courage, loyalty and ability. All recognized that if +the power of the hierarchy were not soon met and broken it would grow +too great to be resisted--that another generation would find itself +hopelessly enslaved. Every father felt that the liberties of his +children were at stake; that they would be bond or free by the issue +of the conflict then in course at Washington. And yet not one dared to +throw down the gauntlet to tyranny--to devote himself to certain ruin. +They had to prefer simple slavery to beggary and slavery combined. They +had to hope silently that the power of the nation would intervene. They +could work only secretly for the fulfillment of that hope. + +At first, in President Roosevelt they saw the promise of their +salvation. He had opposed the election of Apostle Smoot. When the report +of the apostle's candidacy had first reached Washington, the President +had summoned to the White House Senator Thomas Kearns of Utah and +Senator Mark Hanna, who was chairman of the National Republican +committee; and to these two men he had declared his opposition to +the candidacy of a Mormon apostle as a Republican aspirant for a +Senatorship. At his request Senator Hanna, as chairman of the party, +signed a letter of remonstrance to the party chiefs in Utah, and +President Roosevelt, at a later conference, gave this letter to +Senator Kearns to be communicated to the state leaders. Senator Kearns +transmitted the message, and by so doing he "dug his political grave" as +the Mormon stake president, Lewis W. Shurtliff, expressed it. + +Colonel C. B. Loose of Provo went to Washington on behalf of the Church +authorities. He was a Gentile, a partner of Apostle Smoot and of some of +the other Mormon leaders in business undertakings, a wealthy mining man, +a prominent Republican. It was reported in Utah that his arguments for +Smoot carried some weight in Washington. President Roosevelt was to be +a candidate for election; and the old guard of the Republican party, +distrustful of the Roosevelt progressive policies, was gathering for +a grim stand around Senator Mark Hanna. Both factions were playing for +votes in the approaching national convention. I have it on the authority +of a Mormon ecclesiast, who was in the political confidence of the +Church leaders, that President Roosevelt was promised the votes of +the Utah delegation and such other convention votes as the Church +politicians could control. The death of Senator Hanna made this promise +unnecessary, if there ever was an explicit promise. But this much is +certain. President Roosevelt's opposition to Apostle Smoot, for whatever +reason, changed to favor. + +The character and impulses of the President were of a sort to make him +peculiarly susceptible to an appeal for help on the part of the Mormons. +He had lived in the West. He knew something of the hardships attendant +upon conquering the waste places. He sympathized with those who dared, +for their own opinions, to oppose the opinions of the rest of the +world. He had received the most adulating assurances of support for +his candidacies and his policies. It would have required a man of the +calmest discrimination and coolest judgment to find the line between +any just claim for mercy presented by the Mormon advocates of "religious +liberty" and the willful offenses which they were committing against the +national integrity. + +I have received it personally, from the lips of more than one member +of the Senate committee, that never in all their experience with public +questions was such executive pressure brought to bear upon them as was +urged from the White House, at this time, for the protection of Apostle +Smoot's seat in the Senate. The President's most intimate friends on the +committee voted with the minority to seat Smoot. One of the President's +closest adherents, Senator Dolliver, after having signed a majority +report to exclude Smoot and having been re-elected, in the meantime, +by his own State legislature, to another term in the Senate--afterwards +spoke and voted against the report which he had signed. Senator A. J. +Hopkins of Illinois, who had supported Smoot consistently, found himself +bitterly attacked, in his campaign for reelection, because of his +record in the Smoot case, and he published in his defense a letter from +President Roosevelt that read: "Just a line to congratulate you upon the +Smoot case. It is not my business, but it is a pleasure to see a public +servant show, under trying circumstances, the courage, ability and sense +of right that you have shown." + +After the outrageous exposures of the violations of law, the treason +and the criminal indifference to human rights shown by the rulers of +the Church, if an early vote had been taken by the committee and by +the Senate itself, the antagonism of the nation would have forced the +exclusion of the Apostle from the upper House. Delay was his salvation. +More to the President's influence than to any other cause is the delay +attributable that prolonged the case through a term of three years. +During that time the unfortunate Gentiles of Utah learned that, instead +of receiving help from the President, they were to have only the most +insuperable opposition. They believed that the President was being +grossly misled; that it was, of course, impossible for him to read all +the testimony given before the Senate committee, and that the matters +that reached him were being tinged with other purpose than the +vindication of truth and justice. But it was impossible to obtain the +opportunity of setting him right. Even the women who were leading +the national protest against the polygamous teaching and practices of +Smoot's fellow apostles were told that the President had made up his +mind and could not be re-convinced. + +The Mormon appeal to his generosity was not confined to Washington. On +his travels he met President Smith more than once--the Prophet being +accompanied by a different wife each time--and naturally Smith made +every effort to impress President Roosevelt with his earnestness, the +purity of his life, and the high motives that actuated the exercise +of his authority. And at this sort of pretense the Lord's anointed are +expert. They themselves may be crude in ideas and coarse in method, +but their diplomacy is a growth of eighty years of applied devotion and +energy. + +The American people are used to meeting prominent Mormons who are models +of demeanor who are hearty of manner; who carry a kindly light in their +eyes; who have a spontaneity that precludes hypocrisy or even deep +purpose. These are not the men who make the Church diplomacy--they +simply obey it. It is part of that diplomacy to send out such men for +contact with the world. But the ablest minds of the Church, whether they +are of the hierarchy or not, construct its policies. And given a system +whose human units move instantly and unquestioningly at command; given +a system whose worldly power is available at any point at any moment; +given a system whose movement may be as secret as the grave until +result is attained--and the clumsiest of politicians or the crudest of +diplomats has a force to effect his ends that is as powerful for its +size as any that Christendom has ever known. + +Among the emissaries of the Church who were deputed to "reach" President +Roosevelt, was our old friend Ben Rich, the gay, the engaging, the +apparently irresponsible agent of hierarchical diplomacy. And I should +like to relate the story of his "approach," as it is still related +in the inner circle of Church confidences. Not that I expect it to +be wholly credited--not that I doubt but it will be denied on all +sides--but because it is so characteristic of Church gossip and so +typical (even if it were untrue) of the humorous cynicism of Church +diplomacy. + +When President Roosevelt was making his "swing around the circle," Rich +was appointed to join him, found the opportunity to do so, and (so the +story is told) delighted the President by the spirit and candor of his +good fellowship. When they were about to part, the President is reported +to have said, "Why don't you run for Congress from your state? You're +just the kind of man I'd like to have in the House to support my +policies." And here (as the Mormons are told) is the dialogue that +ensued: + +Rich: "I have no ambition that way, Mr. President. For many reasons +it's out of the question although I'm grateful for the flattering +suggestion." + +The President: "Then let me appoint you to some good office. You're the +kind of man I'd like to have in my official family." + +Rich (impressively and in a low tone): "Mr. President, I'd count it the +greatest honor of my life to have a commission from you to any office. +I'd hand that commission down to my children as the most precious +heritage. But--I love you too much, Mr. President, to put you in any +such hole. I'm a polygamist. It would injure you before the whole +country." + +The President (leaning forward eagerly): "No! Are you a polygamist? Tell +me all about it." + +Rich. "The Lord has bestowed that blessing on me. I wish you could go +into my home and see how my wives are living together like sisters--how +tender they are to each other--how they bear each other's burdens and +share each other's sorrows--and how fond all my children are of Mother +and Auntie." + +The President: "Well--but how can women agree to share a husband?" + +Rich: "They do it in obedience to a revelation from the Lord--a +revelation that proclaimed the doctrine of the eternity and the +plurality of the marriage covenant. We believe that men and women, +sealed in this life under proper authority, are united in the conjugal +relation throughout eternity. We believe that the husband is tied to his +wives, and they to him; that their children and all the generations +of their children will belong to him hereafter. We believe in eternal +progression; that as man is, God was; and as God is, man shall be. We +believe that by obedience to this revealed covenant, we will be exalted +in the celestial realm of our Father, with power in ourselves to create +and people worlds. It is a never ending and constantly increasing +intelligence and labor. If I keep my covenants to my wives and they to +me, in this world, all the powers and rights of our marriage relation +will be continued and amplified to us in the life to come; and we, in +our turn, will be rulers over worlds and universes of worlds." + +Then--according to the unctuous gossip of the devout--President +Roosevelt saw the true answer to his own desire to know what was to +become of his mighty personality after this world should have fallen +away from him! He saw, in this faith, a possible continuation throughout +eternity of the tremendous energies of his being! He was to continue to +rule not merely a nation but a world, a system of worlds, a universe of +worlds! And it is told--sometimes solemnly, sometimes with a grin--that, +in the Temple at Salt Lake, a proxy has stood for him and he has been +baptized into the Mormon Church; that proxies have stood for the members +of his family and that they have been sealed to him; and finally that +proxies have stood for some of the great queens of the past (who had not +already been sealed to Mormon leaders) and that they have been sealed to +the President for eternity! + +[FOOTNOTE: It is a not uncommon practice in the Mormon Church thus to +"do a work" for a Gentile who has befriended the people or otherwise won +the gratitude of the Church authorities.] + +This may sound blasphemous toward Theodore Roosevelt--if not toward the +Almighty--but it is told, and it is believed, by hundreds and thousands +of the faithful among the Mormon people. It is given to them as the +secret explanation of President Roosevelt's protection of the Mormon +tyranny--a protection of which Apostle Hyrum Smith boasted in a sermon +in the Salt Lake tabernacle (April 5, 1905) in these equivocal words: +"We believe--and I want to say this--that in President Roosevelt we +have a friend, and we believe that in the Latter-Day Saints President +Roosevelt has the greatest friendship among them; and there are no +people in the world who are more friendly to him, and will remain +friendly unto him just so long as he remains true, as he has been, to +the cause of humanity." + +The Smiths have their own idea of what "the cause of humanity" is. + + + + + +Chapter XV. The Struggle For Liberty + + + +As early as 1903, before the Smoot investigation began, the Utah State +journal (of which I became editor) was founded as a Democratic daily +newspaper, to attempt a restoration of political freedom in Utah and +to remonstrate against the new polygamy, of which rumors were already +insistent. I was at once warned by Judge Henry H. Rolapp (a prominent +Democrat on the District bench, and secretary of the Amalgamated Sugar +Company) that we need not look for aid from the political or business +interests of the community, inasmuch as our avowed purpose had already +antagonized the Church. He delivered this message in a friendly spirit +from a number of Democrats whose support we had been expecting. And +the warning proved to be well-inspired. Although a number of courageous +Gentiles, like Colonel E. A. Wall of Salt Lake City, gave us material +aid--and although there was no other Democratic daily paper in +Utah (unless it was the Salt Lake Herald, owned by Senator Clark of +Montana)--the most powerful Church Democratic interests stood against +us, and we found it impossible to make any effective headway with the +paper. + +After the Prophets began to give their awful testimony at Washington, +the Democratic National Convention of 1904 (which I attended as a +delegate from Utah) considered a resolution in opposition to polygamy +and the Church's rule of the state. This resolution was as vigorously +fought by some Utah Gentiles as by the Mormon delegates, on the grounds +that it would defeat the Democratic party in Utah. It carried in the +convention. Upon returning to Salt Lake City I called a meeting of the +Democratic state committee (of which I was chairman) and urged that we +make our state campaign on the issue of ecclesiastical domination, in +consonance with the party's national platform. Of the whole committee +only the secretary, Mr. P. J. Daly, supported the proposal. The others +considered it "an attempt to establish a quarantine against Democratic +success." Some of them had been promised by members of the hierarchy +that the party was to have "a square deal this time." Others had +fatuously accepted the assurances of ecclesiasts that "it looked like +a Democratic year." In short, the Democratic party in Utah, like the +Republican party, proved to be then, as it is now, less a political +organization than the tool of a Church cabal. We found that we could no +more hope to move the Democratic machine against the hierarchy than to +move the Smoot-Republican machine itself. + +But when Joseph F. Smith, before the Senate committee, admitted that he +was violating "the laws of God and man" and tried to extenuate his +guilt with the plea that the Gentiles of Utah condoned it, he issued a +challenge that no American citizen could ignore. The Gentiles of Utah +had been silent, theretofore, partly because they were ignorant of the +extent of the polygamous offenses of the hierarchy, and partly because +they were hoping for better things. Smith's boast made their silence +the acquiescence of sympathy. A meeting was called in Salt Lake City, in +May, 1904, and under the direction of Colonel William Nelson, editor of +the Salt Lake Tribune, the principles of the present "American party" +were enunciated as a protest against the lawbreaking tyranny of the +Church leaders. Later, as it became clear that the opponents of the +Smith misrule must organize their own party of progress, committees were +formed and a convention was held (in September, 1904) at which a +full state and county ticket was put in the field, in the name of the +American Party of Utah. + +We agreed that no war should be made on the Mormon religion as such; +that no war should be made on the Mormon people because of their being +Mormons; that we would draw a deadline at the year 1890, when the +Church had effected a composition of its differences with the national +government, and all the citizens of Utah, Mormon and Gentile alike, had +accepted the conditions of settlement; that we would find our cause of +quarrel in the hierarchy's violation of the statehood pledges; and that +when we had corrected these evil practices we should dissolve, because +(to quote the language used at the time) we did not wish "to raise a +tyrant merely to slay a tyrant." + +In the idea that we would fight upon living issues--that we would not +open the graves of the past to dig up a dead quarrel and parade it in +its cerements--the American party movement began. Its first enlistment +included practically all the Gentiles in Salt Lake City who resented +the claim of the Prophet that they acquiesced in his crimes and his +treasons. But the most promising sign for the party was its attraction +of hundreds of independent Mormons of the younger generation. As one +Mormon of that hopeful time expressed it: "The flag represents the +political power. The golden angel Moroni, at the top of the Temple, +represents the ecclesiastical authority. I will not pay to either one a +deference which belongs to the other. I know how to keep them apart in +my personal devotion." + +This was exactly what the Church authorities would not permit. It would +have destroyed all the special and selfish prerogatives of the Mormon +hierarchs. It would have subverted their claim of absolute temporal +power. It would have set up the nation and the state as the objects of +civic devotion--instead of the Kingdom of God. + +Although we of the American party disavowed and abstained from any +attack upon the Mormon Church as such--and confined ourselves to a war +upon the treasons, the violations of law, the breaches of covenant +and the other offenses of the Church leaders, as the practices of +individuals--these leaders dragged the whole body of the Church as +a wall of defense around them, and in countless sermons and printed +articles declared that the Church and its faith were the objects of our +assault. In other words, though Smith claimed in Washington--and Smoot +continues to claim before the nation--that the Church is not responsible +for the crimes of its Prophets, whenever a criticism or a prosecution is +directed against any of these men, they all unite in declaring that the +Church is being persecuted; and the members of the hierarchy rouse all +their followers, and use all their agencies, in a successful resistance. + +There was no blithesomeness in the campaign. It was not lightened by any +humor. It was a hopeless assault on the one side and a grim overpowering +resistance on the other. The American party, being organized as a +protest, had at first little regard for offices. It sought to promulgate +the principles of its cause for the enlightenment of the citizens of +Utah and for the preservation of their rights. Some of the Gentiles who +did not join us felt, perhaps, as strong an indignation as those who +did, but they were entangled in politics with the hierarchs, or had +business connections that would be destroyed. These men, in course of +time, became the most dangerous opponents of our progress. (The average +Mormon is obedient and supine enough in the presence of his Prophets, +but he is a man of personal independence compared with the sycophantic +Gentile who accepts political or commercial favors from the Church +chiefs and yet continues to deny the existence of the very power to +which he bends the knee.) Of the rebellious but discreet Mormons many +came to the leaders of our party to say: "I think you're quite right. I, +myself, have suffered under these tyrannies. I have no sympathy with +new polygamy. But, as you know, I'm attorney for some of the Church +interests"--or "I'm in business with high ecclesiasts"--or "I'm heavily +in debt to the Church bank"--or "I'm closely connected by marriage with +one of the Prophets"--"and I can do you more good by my quiet efforts +than by coming out into the open. I'd be treated as an apostate. All my +influence would be gone." And in most cases he preserved his influence, +and we lost him. The Church had effective ways of recovering his +support. + +For many reasons the American party looked for its recruits chiefly +among Republicans, the Democracy being almost entirely Mormon. And in +the first flush of enthusiasm some of our leaders laughed at the boast +of the Republican state chairman that, for every Republican he lost, he +would get two Mormon Democrats to vote the Republican ticket. (This was +Hon. William Spry, a Mormon, since made Governor of Utah, for services +rendered the hierarchy.) But the claim proved anything but laughable. +He got probably four Mormon Democrats for every Republican he lost. As +usual the hierarchy "delivered the goods" to the national organization +in power. + +According to our best calculations we got from fifteen hundred to +eighteen hundred Mormon votes. And, during this campaign and those that +followed, I was approached by hundreds of Mormons who commended our work +and gave private voice to the hope that we might succeed in freeing Utah +so that they themselves might be free. After I joined the staff of the +Salt Lake Tribune, as chief editor, these came to my office by stealth +and in obvious fear. I could not blame them then, nor do I now. The cost +of open defiance was too great. + +One woman, the first wife of a prominent Mormon physician, came to me +to enlist in the work of the party. (Her husband was living with a +young plural wife.) We accepted her aid. Her husband cut off her monthly +allowance, and she had to take employment as a book canvasser, so that +she might be able to earn her living. One Mormon who came out openly for +us, was superintendent of a business owned by Gentiles. He was somewhat +prominent as an ecclesiast, and he was a Sunday School worker in his +ward. He reconciled his wife and daughters to his revolt against the +recrudescence of polygamy and the tyranny of the Church's political +control. He carried with him the sympathy of his brother, who was a +newspaper editor. He won over some of his personal friends to pledge +their support to our cause. He seemed too sturdy ever to retreat, too +independent in his circumstances to be driven, and with too clear a +vision to be led astray by the threats, the power, or the persuasions +of the hierarchy. Yet, before long he came to confess that he could not +continue to help us openly. His employers--his Gentile employers--had +notified him that his work in the American party would be dangerously +injurious to their business. They were in hearty accord with his +views; they recognized his right as a citizen to act according to his +convictions; but--they dared not provoke a war of business reprisals +with the commercial and financial institutions of the Church. He must +either cease his active opposition to the Church leaders, or lose his +place of employment.... He retired from the fight. + +Another Mormon who joined us was Don. C. Musser, a son of one of the +Church historians. He had been a missionary in Germany and in Palestine. +He had been a soldier in the Philippines, and he had edited the first +American newspaper there. His contact with the world and his experience +in the military service of the United States had given him a high ideal +of his country; and a feeling of loyalty to the nation had superseded +his earlier devotion to the Prophets. His family was wealthy, but he was +supporting himself and his young wife by his own efforts in business. +As soon as he came out openly with the American party, his father's home +was closed against him. His business connections were withdrawn from +him. He found himself unable to provide for his wife, who was in +delicate health. After a losing struggle, he came to tell us that he +could no longer earn a living in Utah; that he had obtained means to +emigrate; that he must say good-bye. And we lost him. + +Two other young men--the son and the son-in-law of an apostle--came to +me and asked helplessly for advice. They admitted that the practices +of the hierarchy were, to them, a violation of the covenant with the +nation, a transgression of the revelation from God given to Wilford +Woodruff, and destructive of all the securities of community +association. But would I advise them to sacrifice their influence in the +Church by joining the "American movement" publicly? Or had they better +retain their influence and use it within the Church to correct the evils +that we were attacking? + +With awful sincerity they spoke of conditions that had come under their +own eyes, and related instances to show how mercilessly the polygamous +favorites of the Church were permitted to prey on the young women +teachers in Church schools. They spoke of J. M. Tanner, who was at +that time head of the Church schools, a member of the general Board of +Education, and one of the Sunday School superintendents. According to +these young men--and according to general report--Tanner was marrying +right and left. + +I knew of a young Mormon of Brigham City, who had been a suitor for the +hand of L----, a teacher at the Logan College. He had been away from +Utah for some time, and he had returned hoping to make her his wife. +Stopping over night in Salt Lake, on his way home, he saw Tanner and +L---- enter the lobby of the hotel in which he sat. They registered as +man and wife and went upstairs together. He followed--to walk the floor +of his room all night, struggling against the impulse to break in, and +kill Tanner, and damn his own soul by meddling with the man who had been +ordained by the Prophets to a wholesale polygamous prerogative. + +He had kept his hands clean of blood, but he had been living ever since +with murder in his heart. Could these two sons of the Church do more to +remedy such horrors by using their influence to have Tanner deposed, or +by sacrificing that influence in an open revolt against the conditions +that made Tanner possible? I could only advise them to act according to +their own best sense of what was right. They did use their influence to +help force Tanner's deposition, but we lost the public example of their +opposition to the crimes of the hierarchy. + +I relate these incidents as typical of the different kinds of pressure +that were brought to bear upon the independent Mormons who wished to +aid us, and of the local difficulties against which we had to contend. +Washington, of course, gave us no recognition. And we did not succeed +in reaching the ear of the nation. Here and there a newspaper noted our +effort and paid some small heed to our protest, but the overwhelming +success of the Republican party--and the dumb-driven acquiescence of +the Democracy--in Utah and the neighboring Church-ruled states, left the +agitation with little of political interest for the country at large. + +And yet the struggle went on. Animated by the spirit of the Salt Lake +Tribune, the leading newspaper of the community, the American party +entered the city elections in the fall of 1905 and carried them against +the hierarchy's Democratic ticket, with the help of the independent +Mormons, under cover of the secret ballot. Emboldened by this success +we proposed to move on the state and county offices, with the hope of +gaining some members of the legislature and some of the judicial and +executive offices, through which to enforce the laws that the Church +leaders were defying. But here we failed. Outside of Salt Lake the rule +of the Prophets was still absolute and unquestioned. The people bowed +reverently to Joseph F. Smith's dictum: "When a man says 'You may direct +me spiritually but not temporally,' he lies in the presence of God--that +is, if he has got intelligence enough to know what he is talking about." +The state politicians knew that they would destroy themselves by joining +an organization opposed by the all-powerful-Church; and sufficient +warning of this doom appeared to them in the fact that no member of the +American party could obtain any recognition in Federal appointments. +The Church had meanwhile dictated the election of another United States +Senator (George Sutherland) to join Apostle Smoot, and Senator Kearns +was retired for his opposition to the hierarchy. [FOOTNOTE: When Senator +Aldrich was carrying the tariff bill of 1910 through the Senate, for +the greater profit of the "Interests," Smoot and Sutherland did not once +vote against him. Smoot supported him on every one of the one hundred +and twenty-nine votes and missed none. Sutherland voted with him one +hundred and seventeen times and was recorded as not voting on the +remaining twelve. Only two other senators made anything like such a +despicable record.] + +It began to be more and more apparent that whatever success we might +achieve locally, the power of the financial and political allies of +the Prophets in Washington, aided by the executive "Big Stick" of the +President, would beat us back from any attempt to rouse the state or the +nation to our support. + +Smoot was in a happy position: all the senators who represented the +"Interests" were for him, and all the senators who represented the +supposed progressive sentiment of Theodore Roosevelt were also for him. +The women of the nation had sent a protest with a million signatures to +the Senate; but they had not votes; they received, in reply, a public +scolding. Long before the Senate voted on its committee's report, many +of the notorious "new" polygamists of the Church returned from their +exile in foreign missions and began to walk the streets of Salt Lake +with their old swagger of self-confident authority. We foresaw the end. + +Early in December, 1906, Senator J. C. Burrows of Michigan, chairman +of the committee that had investigated Smoot, called up the committee's +report and spoke upon it in a denunciation of Smoot. Senator Dubois +of Idaho followed, two days later, with a supplementary attack, and +censured President Roosevelt for "allowing his name and office" to be +used in defense of the Mormons. After an interval of a month, Senator +Albert J. Hopkins, of Illinois, undertook to reply with a defense +of Smoot that reduced the Apostle's excuses to the absurd. Smoot, he +declared, had opposed polygamy, "even from his infancy;" there was +"nothing in the constitution" prohibiting "a State from having an +established Church;" the old practices of Mormonism were dying out; and +Smoot, as an exponent of the newer Mormonism, was largely responsible +for the improvement. + +This bold falsehood was received with laughter by the members who had +heard the testimony before the Senate committee or read the record of +its sittings; but it was wired to all newspapers; and the contradictions +that followed it failed (for reasons) to get the same publicity. It +was repeated by Senator Sutherland (January 22, 1907); and he had the +audacity to add that the Mormon Church, as well as Smoot, was opposed to +polygamy; that the "sporadic cases" of new polygamy were "reprehended +by Mormon and Gentile alike;" that polygamous marriages in Utah had been +forbidden by the Enabling Act, but that polygamous cohabitation had +been left to the state; and that the latter was rapidly dying out. And +Sutherland knew, as every public man in Utah knew, that almost every +word of this statement was untrue. + +Senator Philander C. Knox, of Pennsylvania (February 14, 1907) took up +the lie that Smoot had been "from his youth against polygamy," and he +added to it a legal argument that the Senate could only expel a member, +by a two-thirds vote, if he were guilty of crime, offensive immorality, +disloyalty or gross impropriety during his term of service. Senator +Tillman (February 15) accused President Roosevelt of protecting Smoot +in return for a pledge of Mormon support given previous to the last +campaign. Apostle Smoot (February 19) declared that cases of "new" +polygamy were rare; that they were not sanctioned by the Church; that +every case since 1890 "has the express condemnation of the Church;" +and that he himself had always opposed polygamy. On February 20, +the question was forced to a vote after a debate that repeated these +falsehoods, in spite of all disproof's of them. And Apostle Smoot was +retained in his seat by a vote of fifty-one to thirty-seven, counting +pairs. + +After this event, no growth of organization was immediately possible to +the American party. Having gained political control of Salt Lake City +and given it good municipal government, we were able to hold a local +adherency; but hundreds of Mormons, who still vote the American city +ticket, vote for the Church in state elections, because, though they +want reform, they are not willing to risk the punishment of their +relatives and the leaders of the Church to attain that reform. And +when the national government granted its patent of approval to the +hierarchy--by holding the hierarchy's appointed representative in +the Senate as its prophetic monitor--nearly all the people of the +intermountain country lost heart in the fight. Thousands of Gentiles, +who knew the truth and had fought for it for years, argued despairingly: +"If the nation likes this sort of thing--I guess it's the sort of thing +it likes. I'm not going to ruin myself financially and politically by +keeping up a losing struggle with these neighbors of mine, and fight +the government at Washington besides. If the administration wants to be +bossed by the Prophet, Seer and Revelator, I can stand it." + +The nation, having accepted responsibility for past polygamy, now, +by accepting Senator Smoot, gave its responsible approval to the new +polygamy and to the commercial and political tyrannies of the Church. +In the old days the Mormons had claimed immunity for their practice +of polygamy on the ground that the constitution of the United States +protected them in the exercises of their faith. The Supreme Court of the +country determined that the free-religion clause of the constitution did +not cover violations of law; and the Church deliberately abandoned its +claim of religious immunity. But now a majority of the Senate, supported +by President Roosevelt, took the old ground--which the Supreme Court had +made untenable and the Mormons themselves had vacated--and practically +declared that violations of law were a part of the constitutional +guaranty! + + + + + + +Chapter XVI. The Price of Protest + + + +The members of the Mormon hierarchy continually boast that they are +sustained in their power--and in their abuses of that power--"by the +free vote of the freest people under the sun." By an amazing self +deception the Mormon people assume that their government is one of +"common consent;" and nothing angers them more than the expression of +any suspicion that they are not the freest community in the world. They +live under an absolutism. They have no more right of judgment than a +dead body. Yet the diffusion of authority is so clever that nearly every +man seems to share in its operation upon some subordinate, and feels +himself in some degree a master without observing that he is also a +slave. + +The male members of the ward--who would be called "laymen" in any other +Church--all hold the priesthood. Each is in possession of, or on the +road to, some priestly office; and yet all are under the absolutism +of the bishop of the ward. Of the hundreds of bishops, with their +councillors, each seems to be exercising some independent authority, but +all are obedient to the presidents of stakes. The presidents apparently +direct the ecclesiastical destinies of their districts, but they are, in +fact, supine and servile under the commands of the apostles; and these, +in turn, render implicit obedience to the Prophet, Seer and Revelator. +No policy ever arises from the people. All direction, all command, comes +from the man at the top. It is not a government by common consent, but +a government of common consent--of universal, absolute and unquestioning +obedience--under penalty of eternal condemnation threatened and earthly +punishment sure. + +Twice a year, with a fine show of democracy, the people assemble in the +Tabernacle at Salt Lake, and there vote for the general authorities +who are presented to them by the voice of revelation. If there were no +tragedy, there would be farce in the solemnity with which this pretense +of free government is staged and managed. Some ecclesiast rises in +the pulpit and reads from his list: "It is moved and seconded that we +sustain Joseph F. Smith as Prophet, Seer and Revelator to all the world. +All who favor this make it manifest by raising the right hand." No +motion has been made. No second has been offered. Very often, no adverse +vote is asked. And, if it were, who would dare to offer it? These +leaders represent the power of God to their people; and against them is +arrayed "the power of the Devil and his cohorts among mankind." Three +generations of tutelage and suppression restrain the members of the +conference in a silent acquiescence. If there is any rebel among them, +he must stand alone; for he has scarcely dared to voice his objections, +lest he be betrayed, and any attempt to raise a concerted revolt +would have been frustrated before this opportunity of concerted revolt +presented itself. Being a member of the Church, he must combat the fear +that he may condemn himself eternally if he raise his voice against the +will of God. He must face the penalty of becoming an outcast or an +exile from the people and the life that he has loved. He knows that +the religious zealots will feel that he has gone wilfully "into outer +darkness" through some deep and secret sin of his own; and that the +prudent members of the community will tell him that he should have "kept +his mouth shut." If there were a majority of the conference inclined +to protest against the re-election of any of its rulers, the lack of +communication, the pressure of training and the weight of fear would +keep them silent. And in this manner, from Prophet down to "Choyer +leader" (choir leader) the names are offered and "sustained by the free +vote of the freest people under the sun." + +During the days just before the American party's political agitation, a +young Mormon, named Samuel Russell, returned from a foreign mission for +the Church and found that the girl whom he had been courting when he +went away was married as a plural wife to Henry S. Tanner, brother of +the other notorious polygamist, J. M. Tanner. The discovery that his +sweetheart was a member of the Tanner household drove Russell almost +frantic. She was the daughter of an eminent and wealthy family, of +remarkable beauty, well-educated and rarely accomplished. Young Russell +was a college student--a youth of intellect and high mind--and he +suffered all the torments of a horrifying shock. Unless he should choose +to commit an act of violence there was only one possible way for him to +protest. At the next conference, when the name of Henry S. Tanner was +read from the list to be "sustained"--as a member of the general Sunday +School Board--Russell rose and objected that Tanner was unworthy and a +"new" polygamist. He was silenced by remonstrances from the pulpit and +from the people. He was told to take his complaint to the President +of his Stake. He was denied the opportunity to present it to the +assemblage. + +Almost immediately afterward, Tanner, for the first time in his life, +was honored with a seat in the highest pulpit of the Church among the +general authorities. And Russell was pursued by the ridicule of the +Mormon community, the persecution of the Church that he had served, the +contempt of the man who had wronged him, and the anger of the woman whom +he had loved. One of the reporters of the Deseret News, the Church's +newspaper, subsequently stated that he had been detailed, with others, +to pursue Russell day and night, soliciting interviews, plaguing +him with questions, and demanding the legal proofs of Tanner's +marriage--which, of course, it was known that Russell could not +give--until Russell's friends, fearing that he might be driven to +violence, persuaded him to leave the state. Tanner is now reputed to +have six plural wives (all married to him since the manifesto of 1890) +of whom this young woman is one. + +Similarly, at the General Conference of April, 1905, Don C. Musser (of +whom I have already written) attempted to protest against the sustaining +of Apostles Taylor and Cowley; but Joseph F. Smith promptly called upon +the choir to sing, and Musser's voice was drowned in harmony. In more +recent years Charles J. Bowen rose at a General Conference to object to +the sustaining of some of the polygamous authorities, and he was hustled +from the building by the ushers. + +But the most notable case of individual revolt of this period was +Charles A. Smurthwaite's. He had joined the Church, alone, when a boy in +England, and the sufferings he had endured, for allying himself with +an ostracized sect, had made him a very ardent Mormon. He had become +a "teacher" in his ward of Ogden City, had succeeded in business as a +commission merchant and was a great favorite with his bishop and his +people, because of his charities and a certain gentle tolerance of +disposition and kindly brightness of mind. + +Smurthwaite, in partnership with Richard J. Taylor (son of a former +President of the Church, John Taylor) engaged in the manufacture of +salt, with the financial backing of a leading Church banker. Along the +shores of Salt Lake, salt is obtained, by evaporation, at the cost of +about sixty cents a ton; its selling price, at the neighboring smelting +centers, ranges from three dollars to fourteen dollars a ton; and the +industry has always been one of the most profitable in the community. +In the early days, the Church (as I have already related) encouraged the +establishment of "salt gardens," financed the companies, protected them +in their leasehold rights along the lake shores, and finally, through +the Inland Crystal Salt Company, came to control a practical monopoly +of the salt industry of the intermountain country. (This Inland Crystal +Company, with Joseph F. Smith as its president, is now a part of the +national salt trust.) + +After Smurthwaite and Taylor had invested heavily in the land and plant +of their salt factory, the Church banker who had been helping them +notified them that they had better see President Smith before they went +any further. They called on Smith in his office, and there--according to +Smurthwaite's sworn testimony before the Senate committee--the Prophet +gave them notice that they must not compete with his Inland Crystal +Salt Company by manufacturing salt, and that if they tried to, he would +"ruin" them. This proceeding convinced Smurthwaite that Smith had +"so violent a disregard and non-understanding of the rights of his +fellow-man and his duty to God, as to render him morally unqualified for +the high office which he holds." For expressing such an opinion of Smith +to elders and teachers--and adding that Smith was not fit to act as +Prophet, Seer and Revelator, since, according to his own confession +to the Senate Committee he was "living in sin"--for expressing these +opinions, charges were preferred against Smurthwaite by an elder named +Goddard of Ogden City, and excommunication proceedings were begun +against him. + +Smurthwaite replied by making a charge of polygamous cohabitation +against Goddard; and after the April Conference of 1905, Don Musser and +Smurthwaite joined in filing a complaint in the District Court of Salt +Lake City demanding an accounting from Joseph F. Smith of the tithes +which the Church was collecting. Meanwhile Smurthwaite had been +"disfellowshipped" at a secret session of the bishop's court, on March +22, without an opportunity of appearing in his own defense or having +counsel or witnesses heard in support of his case; and on April 4, after +a similarly secret and ex-parte proceeding, he was excommunicated by the +High Council of his Stake, for "apostasy and un-Christianlike conduct." +His charges against Goddard were ignored, and his suit for an accounting +of the tithes was dismissed for want of jurisdiction! + +From the moment of his first public protest against Smith, all +Smurthwaite's former associates fell away from him, and by many of the +more devout he was shunned as if he were infected. Benevolent as he had +been, he could find no further fellowship even among those whom he had +benefited by his service and his means. I know of no more blameless life +than his had been in his home community--and, to this, every one of +his acquaintances can bear testimony--yet after the brutally unjust +proceedings of excommunication against him the Deseret News, the +Church's daily paper, referred to "recent cases of apostasy and +excommunication" as having been made necessary by the "gross immorality" +of the victims. When a man like Chas. A. Smurthwaite could not +remonstrate against the individual offenses of Joseph F. Smith, without +being overwhelmed by financial disaster, and social ostracism, and +personal slander, it must be evident how impossible is such single +revolt to the average Mormon. Nothing can be accomplished by individual +protest except the ruin of the protestant and his family. + +In the case of my own excommunication, the issues were perhaps less +clearly defined than in Smurthwaite's. I had not been for many years a +formal member of the Church; and yet in the sense that Mormonism is a +community system (as much as a religion) I had been an active and loyal +member of it. In my childhood--when I was seven or eight years of age--I +began to doubt the faith of my people; and I used to go into the orchard +alone and thrust sticks lightly into the soft mould and pray that God +would let them fall over if the Prophets had not been appointed by Him +to do His work. And sometimes they fell and sometimes they stood! Later, +when I was appalled by some of the things that had occurred in the early +history of the Church, I silenced myself with the argument that one +should not judge any religion by the crudities and intolerance's of its +past. I felt that if I were not hypocritical--if I were myself guided by +the truth as I saw it myself--and if I aided to the utmost of my power +in advancing the community out of its errors, I should be doing all that +could be asked of me. In the days of Mormon misery and proscription, +I chose to stand with my own people, suffering in their sufferings +and rejoicing with them in their triumphs. Their tendency was plainly +upward; and I felt that no matter what had been the origin of the +Church--whether in the egotism of a man or in an alleged revelation from +God--if the tendencies were toward higher things, toward a more even +justice among men, toward a more zealous patriotism for the country, no +man of the community could do better than abide with the community. + +The Church authorities accepted my aid with that understanding of my +position toward the Mormon religion; and, though Joseph F. Smith, in +1892, for his own political purposes, circulated a procured statement +that I was "a Mormon in good standing," later, when he was on the +witness stand in the Smoot investigation, he testified concerning me: +"He is not and never has been an official member of the Church, in any +sense or form." I made no pretenses and none were asked of me. I was +glad to give my services to a people whom I loved, and trusted, and +admired; and the leaders were as eager to use me as I was eager to be +used in the proper service of my fellows. (Even Joseph F. Smith, in +those days, was glad to give me his "power of attorney" and to trust me +with the care of the community's financial affairs.) But when all the +hierarchy's covenants to the nation were being broken; when the tyranny +of the Prophet's absolutism had been re-established with a fierceness +that I had never seen even in the days of Brigham Young; when polygamy +had been restored in its most offensive aspect, as a breach of the +Church's own revelation; when hopelessly outlawed children were being +born of cohabitation that was clandestine and criminal under the "laws +both of God and of man"--it was impossible for me to be silent either +before the leaders of the Church or in the public places among the +people. I had spoken for the Mormons at a time when few spoke for +them--when many of the men who were now so valiantly loyal to the +hierarchy had been discreetly silent. I had helped defend the Mormon +religion when it had few defenders. I did not propose to criticize it +now; for to me, any sincere belief of the human soul is too sacred to be +so assailed--if not out of respect, surely in pity--and the Mormon faith +was the faith of my parents. But I was determined to make the strongest +assault in my power on the treason and the tyranny which Smith and +his associates in guilt were trying to cover with the sanctities of +religion; and I had to make that assault, as a public man, for a public +purpose, without any consideration of private consequences. + +After I began criticizing the Church leaders, in the editorial columns +of the Salt Lake Tribune, my friend Ben Rich, then president of the +Southern States Missions, and J. Golden Kimball, one of the seven +presidents of the seventies, came to me repeatedly to suggest that if +I wished to attack the leaders of the Church I should formally withdraw +from the Church. This I declined to do: because I was in no different +position toward the teachings of the Church than I had been in previous +years--because I was not criticizing the Church or its religious +teachings, but attacking the civil offenses of its leaders as citizens +guilty against the state--and because I saw that my attack had more +power as coming from a man who stood within the community, even though +he had no standing in the Church. I continued as I had begun. After +the publication of an editorial (January 22, 1905), in which I charged +President Smith with being all that the testimony then before the Senate +committee had proven him to be, Ben Rich advised me that I must either +withdraw from the Church or Smith would proceed against me in the Church +tribunals and make my family suffer. I replied that I would not withdraw +and that I would fight all cases against me on the issue of free speech. +On February 1, 1905, I published, editorially, "An address to the +Earthly King of the Kingdom of God," in which I charged Smith with +having violated the laws (revelations) of his predecessors; with having +made and violated treaties upon which the safety of his "subjects" +depended; with having taken the bodies of the daughters of his subjects +and bestowed them upon his favorites; with having impoverished his +subjects by a system of elaborate exaction's (tithes) in order to enrich +"the crown" and so forth. All of which, burlesquely written as if to a +Czar by a constitutionalist, was accepted by the Mormon people as in no +way absurd in its tone as coming from one American citizen to another! + +Because of these two editorials I was charged (February 21, 1905) +before a ward bishop's court in Ogden with "un-Christianlike conduct +and apostasy," after two minor Church officials had called upon me at my +home and received my acknowledgment of the authorship of the editorials, +my refusal to retract them, and my statement that I did not "sustain" +Joseph F. Smith as head of the Church, since he was "leaving the worship +of God for the worship of Mammon and leading the people astray." On the +night of February 24, I appeared in my own defense before the bishop's +court, at the hour appointed, without witnesses or counsel, because I +had been notified that no one would be permitted to attend with me. And, +of course, the defense I made was that the articles were true and that I +was prepared to prove them true. + +Such a court usually consists of a bishop and his two councillors, but +in this case the place of the second councillor had been taken by a high +priest named Elder George W. Larkin, a man reputed to be "richly endowed +with the Spirit." I had a peculiar psychological experience with Larkin. +After I had spoken at some length in my own defense, Larkin rose to work +himself up into one of the rhapsodies for which he was noted. "Brother +Frank," he began, "I want to bear my testimony to you that this is the +work of God--and nothing can stay its progress--and all who +interfere will be swept away as chaff"--rising to those transports of +auto-hypnotic exaltation which such as he accept as the effect of the +spirit of God speaking through them. "You were born in the covenant, +and the condemnation is more severe upon one who has the birthright +than upon one not of the faith who fights against the authority of +God's servants." I had concluded to try the effect of a resistant mental +force, and while I stared at him I was saying to myself: "This is a mere +vapor of words. You shall not continue in this tirade. Stop!" He began +to have difficulty in finding his phrases. The expected afflatus did not +seem to have arrived to lift him. He faltered, hesitated, and finally, +with an explanation that he had not been feeling well, he resumed his +seat, apologetically. + +That left me free to "bear testimony" somewhat myself. I warned the +members of the "court" that no work of righteousness could succeed +except by keeping faith with the Almighty--which meant keeping faith +with his children upon earth. I reminded them of the dark days, which +all of them could recall, when we had repeatedly covenanted to God and +to the nation that if we could be relieved of what we deemed the world's +oppression we would fulfill every obligation of our promises. I pointed +out to them that the Church was passing into the ways of the world; +that our people were being pauperized; that some of them were in the +poorhouses in their old age after having paid tithes all their active +lives; that by our practices we were bearing testimony against the +revelations which Mormons proclaimed to the world for the salvation of +the bodies and souls of men. + +They listened to me with the same friendly spirit that had marked all +their proceedings for these men had no animosity against me; they were +merely obeying the orders of their superiors. And when we arose to +disperse, the bishop put his hand on my shoulder and said, in the usual +form of words: "Brother Frank, we will consider your case, and if we +find you ought to do anything to make matters right, we will let you +know what it is." + +I returned to my home, where I had left my wife and children chatting at +the dinner table. They had known where I was going. They knew what the +issue of my "trial" would be for them and for me. Yet when I came back +to them, none asked me any questions and none seemed perturbed. And this +is typical of the Mormon family. I think the experiences through which +the people have passed have given them a quality of cheerful patience. +They have been schooled to bear persecution with quiet fortitude. +Tragedy sweeps by them in the daily current of life. A young man goes +on a mission, and dies in a foreign land; and his parents accept their +bereavement like Spartans, almost without mourning, sustained by the +religious belief that he has ended his career gloriously. Taught to +devote themselves and their children and their worldly goods to the +service of their Church, they accept even the impositions and injustices +of the Church leaders with a powerful forbearance that is at once a +strength and a weakness. + +Two days later I was met on the street by a young Dutch elder, who could +scarcely speak English, and he gave me the official document from +the bishop's court notifying me that I had been "disfellowshipped for +un-Christianlike conduct and apostasy." I was then summoned to appear +before the High Council of the Stake in excommunication proceedings, and +after filing a defense which it is unnecessary to give here--and after +refusing to appear before the Council for reasons that it is equally +unnecessary to repeat I was excommunicated on March 14, 1905. No denial +was made by the Church authorities of any of the charges which I had +made against Smith. No trial was made of the truth of those charges. As +a free citizen of "one of the freest communities under the sun," I was +officially ostracized by order of the religious despot of the community +for daring to utter what everyone knew to be the truth about him. + +For myself, of course, no edict of excommunication had any terrors; but +the aim of the authorities was to make me suffer through the sufferings +of my family; and, in that, they succeeded. I shall not write of it. It +has little place in such a public record as this, and I do not wish +to present myself, in any record, as a martyr. It was not I who was +ostracized from the Mormon Church by my excommunication; it was the +right of free speech. The Mormon Church deprived me of nothing; it +deprived itself of the helpful criticism of its members. No anathema of +bigotry could take from me the affection of my family or the respect +of any friends whose respect was worth the coveting. In that regard I +suffered only in my pity for those of my neighbors who were so blindly +servile to the decrees of religious tyranny that they turned their backs +on the voice of their own liberty raised, in protest, for their own +defense. + +And it was not by the individual protestants but by the entire community +that the heaviest price was paid in this whole conflict. It divided the +state again into the old factions and involved it in the old war from +which it had been rescued. The Mormons instituted a determined boycott +against all Gentiles, and "Thou shalt not support God's enemies" became +a renewed commandment of the Prophet. Wherever a Gentile was employed +in any Mormon institution, he was discharged, almost without exception, +whether or not he had been an active member of the American party. +Teachers in the Church would exclaim with horror if they heard that +a Mormon family was employing a Gentile physician; and more than one +Mormon litigant was advised that he not only "sinned against the work of +God," but endangered the success of his law suit, by retaining a Gentile +lawyer. Politicians were told that if they aided the American party, +they need never hope for advancement in this world, or expect anything +but eternal condemnation in the world to come; and though few of +them counted on the "spoils" of the hereafter, they understood and +appreciated the power of the hierarchy to reward in the present day. The +Gentiles did not attempt any boycott in retaliation; they had not the +solidarity necessary to such an attempt; and many Gentile business men, +in order to get any Mormon patronage whatever, were compelled to employ +none but Mormon clerks. + +The Gentiles had been largely attracted to Utah by its mines; they were +heavily interested in the smelting industry. Colonel B. A. Wall, one of +the strongest supporters of the American party, owned copper properties, +was an inventor of methods of reduction, and had large smelting +industries. Ex-Senator Thomas Kearns, and his partner David Keith, +owners of the Salt Lake Tribune, and many of their associates, had their +fortunes in mines and smelters; they were leaders of the American +party and they were attempting to enlist with them such men as W. +S. McCornick, a Gentile banker and mine owner, and D. C. Jackling, +president of the Utah Copper Company, who is now one of the heads of the +national "copper combine" and one of the ablest men of the West. + +In 1904, in the midst of the political crisis, the Church newspapers +served editorial notice on these men that, on account of the smelter +fumes and their destructive effect upon the vegetation of the valley, +the smelters must go; and that if the present laws were not sufficient, +new laws would be enacted to drive them out. Men like Wall and Keith and +Kearns and Walker were not terrorized; but McCornick and Jackling and +the representatives of the American Smelting and Refining Company either +surrendered to a discreet silence or openly joined the Church in the +campaign. They were rewarded with the assurance that the Church would +protect them against any labor trouble and that no adverse legislation +would be attempted against them. Today Jackling, of the copper combine, +is a newspaper partner of Apostle Smoot, and he is mentioned for +the United States Senate as the Church's selection to succeed George +Sutherland. The Church has large mining interests; Smoot and Smith +are in close affiliation with the smelting trust; and this is another +powerful partnership in Washington that protected Smoot in his seat and +has been rewarded by the Church's assistance in looting the nation. + + + +Chapter XVII. The New Polygamy + + + +In the old days of Mormonism--and as late as the anti-polygamous +manifesto of 1890--the whole aim and effort of the Church was to exalt +and sanctify and make pure the practice of plural marriage by means of +the community's respect and the reverences of religion. The doctrine of +polygamy was taught as a revealed mystery of faith. It was accepted as +a sacrament ordained by God for the salvation of mankind. The most +important families in the Church dignified it by their participation, +and were in turn dignified by the Church's approval and by the wealth +and power that followed approval. The inevitable mental sufferings +of the plural wives were endured by them as part of an earthly +self-immolation required by God, for which they should be rewarded in +eternity. The very necessities of their situation compelled them +to exact and cherish a super reverence for the doctrine of plural +marriage--since the only way a mother could justify herself to her +children was by teaching, as she believed, that she had been selected +by God for the exaltation of this sacrifice, and by inculcating in her +children a scrupulous respect for sexual purity. There was no pretense +of denial of the polygamous relation. Plural wives held the place +of honor in the community. Their marriages were considered the most +sanctified. They and their progeny were called "the wives and children +of the holy covenant," and they were esteemed accordingly. + +But as the history of the Church shows, plural marriage was always a +heavy cross to the Mormon women; many had refused to bear it, in the +face of the frequent pulpit scoldings of the Prophets; and few did not +sometime weep under it in the secrecy of their family life. In the days +immediately preceding the manifesto of 1890, there was a general hope +and longing among the Mormon mothers that God would permit a relief +before their daughters and their sons should become of an age to be +drafted into the ranks of polygamy. The great majority of the young +men were monogamists. It required the strong persuasions of personal +affection as well as the authority of Divine command to make the young +women accept a polygamist in marriage. And when the Church received +President Woodruff's anti-polygamous revelation, every profound human +emotion of the people coincided with the promise to abstain. + +Only among a few of the polygamous leaders themselves was there any +inclination to break the Church's pledge--an inclination that was +strengthened by resentment against the Federal power that had compelled +the giving of the pledge. Almost immediately upon obtaining the +freedom of statehood, some of these leaders returned to the practice of +polygamous cohabitation--although they had accepted the revelation, +had bound themselves by their covenant to the nation and had solemnly +subscribed to the terms of their amnesty. To justify themselves, they +found it necessary to teach that polygamy was still approved by the law +of God--that the practice of plural marriage had only been abandoned +because it was forbidden by the laws of man. Joseph F. Smith continued +to live with his five wives and to rear children by all of them. +Those of the apostles who were not assured of that attainment to the +principality of Heaven which was promised the man of five wives and +proportionate progeny, were naturally tempted (if, indeed, they were not +actually encouraged) to take Joseph F. Smith as their examplar. It was +scarcely worse to break the covenant by taking a new polygamous wife +than by continuing polygamous relations with former plural wives; and +when an apostle took a new polygamous wife, his inevitable and necessary +course was to justify himself by the authority of God. He could not then +deny the same authority to the minor ecclesiasts, even if he had wished +to. And, finally, when the evil circle spread to the man on the fringe +of the Church--who could not obtain even such poor authorization for his +perfidy he found a way to perpetrate a pretended plural marriage with +his victim, and the Church authorities did not dare but protect him. + +This was polygamy without the great saving grace that had previously +defended the Mormon women from the cruelties and abuses of the practice. +It was polygamy without honor--polygamy against an assumed revelation +of God instead of by virtue of one--polygamy worse than that of the +Mohammedans, since it was necessarily clandestine, could claim no social +respect or acceptance, and was forbidden "by the laws of God and man" +alike. + +This is the "new polygamy" of Mormonism. The Church leaders dare not +acknowledge it for fear of the national consequences. They dare not even +secretly issue certificates of plural marriage, lest the record should +be betrayed. They protect the polygamist by a conspiracy of falsehood +that is almost as shameful as the shame it seeks to cover; and the +infection of the duplicity spreads like a plague to corrupt the whole +social life of the people. The wife of a new polygamist cannot claim +a husband; she has no social status; she cannot, even to her parents, +prove the religious sanction for her marital relations. Her children +are taught that they must not use a father's name. They are hopelessly +outside the law--without the possibility that any further statutes +of legitimization will be enacted for their relief. They are born in +falsehood and bred to the living of a lie. Their father cannot claim +the authority of the Church for their parentage, for he must protect his +Prophet. He cannot even publicly acknowledge them--any more than he can +publicly acknowledge their mother. + +Out of these terrible conditions comes such an instance as the notorious +case of one of Henry S. Tanner's wives, who went on a visit to one +of her relatives, with her children, and denied that they were her +children, and denied that she was married--and was supported by her +children's denial that she was their mother. Similarly, a plural wife of +a wealthy Mormon, whose fortune is estimated at $25,000,000--a partner +of the sugar trust, a community leader, a favorite of the Church went +before the Senate Committee in December, 1904, and swore that her first +husband had died thirteen years before, that she had had a child within +six years, and that she had no second husband. And by doing so she not +only marked the child as illegitimate beyond the relief of any future +statutes--legitimizing the offspring of polygamous marriages, but she +left herself and the child without any claim upon the estate of its +father and publicly swore herself a social outcast before a committee of +the United States Senate, and perjured herself--to the knowledge of all +her friends and acquaintances in Utah--for the protection of her husband +and her Church. What can one say of a man who will permit a woman to +commit such an act of social suicide for him--or of a Church that will +command it? + +Here is a condition of society unparalleled anywhere else in +civilization--unparalleled even in barbarous countries, for wherever +else polygamy is practiced it at least has the sanction of local +convention. And the consequent suffering that falls upon the women and +the children is a heart-break to see. During the days when I was in the +editorial office of the Salt Lake Tribune, scores of miserable cases +came to my knowledge by letter, by the report of friends, and by the +visits of the agonized wives themselves. I shall never forget one young +woman, in her twenties, who came to ask my help in forcing her husband +to obtain a marriage certificate for her from the Church, so that her +boy might have the right to claim a father. She wept, with her head +on my desk, sobbing out her story, and appealing to me for aid with a +convulsed and tear-drenched face. + +Four years earlier, she had become friendly with a man twice her age, +whom she admired and respected. He had taken two wives before the +manifesto of 1890, but that did not prevent him from coveting the youth +and beauty of this young woman. He first approached her mother for +permission to marry the girl, and when the mother-who was herself a +plural wife replied that it was impossible under the law, he brought an +apostle to persuade her that the practice of plural marriage was +still as meet, just and available to salvation as it had been when she +married. Then he went to the daughter. + +"I was terrified," she said, "when he proposed to me. And yet--he asked +me if I thought my mother had done wrong when she married my father.... +There was no one else I liked as much. He was good. He was rich. He +told me I'd never want for anything. He said I would be fulfilling the +command of God against the wickedness of a persecuting world.... I don't +know what devil of fanaticism entered into me. I thought it would be +smart to defy the United States." + +Late one night, by appointment, he called for her with a carriage, +driven by a man unknown to her, and took her to a darkened house that +had a dim light only in the hallway. They entered alone and turned into +a parlor that was dark, except for the reflection from the hall. He led +her up to the portieres that hung across an inner door, and through the +opening between the curtains she saw the indistinct figure of a man. +They stood before him, hand in hand, while he mumbled over the words of +a ceremony that sounded to her like the ceremonies she had heard in +the Temple. She caught little of it clearly; she remembered practically +nothing. She was not given anything to show that a ceremony had been +performed, and she did not ask for anything. The elderly bridegroom +kissed her when the mumbling ceased, led her out to the carriage, took +her back to her mother's house, and that night became her husband. + +She bore him a son. No one except her mother, her father and a few +trusted friends knew that she was married. In the early months of 1905 +she read in the Tribune the testimony given before the Senate committee +by Professor James E. Talmage, for the Church, to the effect that since +the manifesto of 1890 neither the President of the Church nor anybody +else in the Church had power to authorize a plural marriage, and that +any woman who had become a plural wife, since the manifesto, was "no +more a wife by the law of the Church, than she is by the law of the +land." + +She asked her husband about it. He replied that an apostle had married +them. "I asked my husband," she said, "to get a certificate of marriage +from the apostle. He told me I needed none--that it was recorded in +the books here and recorded in heaven--that it would put the apostle in +danger if he were to sign such a paper. I said that that was nothing to +me--that I wanted to protect my good name. Finally, he said it was not +an apostle. Then we had a bitter scene. And he did not come back for a +long time. And he didn't write as long as he stayed away. + +"When he came back he was more loving than ever. I was afraid of having +more children. I said to him: 'You cannot hold me as a wife any longer +unless you write a paper certifying that I'm your wife and this boy is +your child. You may place that paper anywhere you like, so long as I +know I can get it in case you die. Suppose you were to die and all +your folks were to deny that I was your wife--say that I was an +imposter--that I was trying to foist my boy on the estate of a dead +man--in the name of God, then what could I do?' He went away; and he +hasn't come back; and he hasn't written. I don't know who married us. I +don't even know the house where it happened. I don't know who the driver +was. I don't even know who the apostle was that told mother it would be +all right. He made her promise under a covenant not to tell. + +"I don't know where to go. A friend of mine told me you would advise me. +He said perhaps you could make them give me a certificate. I don't want +to expose my husband. I only want something so that my boy, when he +grows up, won't be"-- + +What could I do? What could anyone do for this unfortunate girl, seduced +in the name of religion, with the aid of a Church that repudiated her +for its own protection? She had to suffer, and see her boy suffer, the +penalties of a social outcast. + +Her case was typical of many that came to my personal knowledge. At +the Sunday Schools, in the choirs, in the joint meetings of mutual +improvement associations, young girls--taught to believe that plural +marriage was sacred, and reverencing the polygamous prophets as the +anointed of the Lord--were being seduced into clandestine marriage +relations with polygamous elders who persuaded their victims that the +anti-polygamous manifesto had been given out to save a persecuted people +from the cruelties of an unjust government; that it was never intended +it should be obeyed; that all the celestial blessings promised by +revelation to the polygamist and his wives were still waiting for those +who would dare to enjoy them. + +If the tempted girl turned to one of her women friends, and besought +her to say, on her honor, whether she thought that plural marriage was +right, the other was likely enough to answer: "Yes, yes. Indeed it is. +Promise me you won't tell a living soul. Tell me you'll die first.... +I'm married to Brother I,----, the leader of the ward choir." + +If she asked her mother: "Tell me. Is plural marriage wrong?" the mother +could only reply: "Oh--I don't know--I don't know. Your father said it +was right, and I accepted it--and we practiced it--and you have always +loved your other brothers and sisters, and it seems to me it can't be +wrong, since we have lived it. But--Oh, I don't know, daughter. I don't +know." + +The man who is tempting her knows. He has the word of an apostle, the +example of the Prophet, the secret teaching of the Church. He courts +her as any other religious young girl might be courted--with little +attentions, at the meetings, over the music books--and he has, to aid +him, a religious exaltation in her, induced by his plea that she is to +enter into the mystery of the holy covenant, to become one of the most +faithful of a persecuted Church, to defy the wicked laws of its enemies. +She is just as happy in her betrothal as any other innocent girl of +her age. Even the secrecy is sweet to her. And then, some evening, they +saunter down a side street to a strange house--or even to a back +orchard where a man is waiting in a cowl under a tree (perhaps vulgarly +disguised as a woman with a veil over his face)--and they are married in +a mutter of which she hears nothing. + +Such a case was related to me by a horrified mother who had discovered +that the marriage ceremony had been performed by an accomplice of the +libertine who had seduced her daughter and since confessed his crime. +But whether the ceremony be performed by a priest of the Church or by +a more unauthorized scoundrel, the girl is equally at the mercy of her +"husband" and equally betrayed in the world. Even in this case of the +pretended marriage, the elders of the ward hushed up the threatened +prosecution because the authorities of the Church objected to a +proceeding that might expose other plural marriages more orthodox. + +Hundreds of Mormon men and women personally thanked me by letter or in +interviews at the Tribune office, for our editorial attacks upon the +hierarchy for encouraging these horrors. Strangers spoke to me on +railroad trains, thanking me and telling me of cases. Three Mormon +physicians, themselves priests of the Church, told me of innumerable +instances that had come to them in their practice, and said that they +did not know what was to become of the community. One Mormon woman wrote +me from Mexico to say that she had exiled herself there with her +husband and his two plural wives, and that she felt she had worked out +sufficient atonement for all her descendants; yet she saw girls of the +family on the verge of entering into plural marriage--if they had not +already done so--and she begged us to continue our newspaper exposures, +so that others might be saved from the bitter experiences of her life. + +President Winder met me on the street in 1905, towards the close of the +year, and said: "Frank, you need not continue your fight against plural +marriage. President Smith has stopped it." "Then," I replied, "two +things are evident: I have been telling the truth when I said +that plural marriage had been renewed--in spite of the authorized +denials--and if President Smith has stopped it now, he has had authority +over it all the time." + +To me, or to any other well-informed citizen of Utah, President Winder's +admission was not necessary to prove Smith's responsibility. In the +April conference of 1904, Smith had read an "official statement," signed +by him, prohibiting plural marriages and threatening to excommunicate +any officer or member of the Church who should solemnize one; and this +official statement was carried to the Senate committee by Professor +James E. Talmage, and offered in proof that the Church was keeping its +covenant. + +For us, in Utah, the declaration served merely to illuminate the dark +places of ecclesiastical bad faith. We knew that from the year 1900 +down, there had never been a sermon preached in any Mormon tabernacle, +by any of the general authorities of the Church, against the practice +of plural marriage, or against the propriety of the practice, or against +the sanctity of the doctrine. We knew, on the contrary, that upon +numerous occasions, at funerals and in public assemblages, Joseph F. +Smith and John Henry Smith and others of the hierarchy, had proclaimed +the doctrine as sacred. We knew that it was still being taught in the +secret prayer meetings. Practically all the leading authorities of the +Church were living in plural marriage. Some of them had taken new wives +since the manifesto. None of them had been actually punished. All were +in high favor. And though Joseph F. Smith denied his responsibility, +every one knew that none of these things could be, except with his +active approval. + +Perhaps, for a brief time, while Smoot's case was still before the +Senate, some check was put upon the renewal of polygamy. But, even then, +there were undoubtedly, occasional marriages allowed, where the parties +were so situated as to make concealment perfect. And all checks were +withdrawn when Smoot's case was favorably disposed of, and the Church +found itself protected by the political power of the administration +at Washington and by a political and financial alliance with "the +Interests." + +Today, in spite of the difficulty of discovering plural marriages, +because of the concealments by which they are protected, the Salt Lake +Tribune is publishing a list of more than two hundred "new" polygamists +with the dates and circumstances of their marriages; and these are +probably not one tenth of all the cases. During President Taft's +visit to Salt Lake City, in 1909, Senator Thomas Kearns, one of the +proprietors of the Tribune, offered to prove to one of the President's +confidants hundreds of cases of new polygamy, if the President would +designate two secret service men to investigate. I believe, from my own +observation, that there are more plural wives among the Mormons today +than there were before 1890. Then the young men married early, and were +chiefly monogamists. Now the change in economic conditions has raised +the age at which men marry; it has made more bachelors than there were +when simpler modes of life prevailed. The young women have fewer offers +of marriage, and more of these come from well-to-do polygamists. The +girls are still taught, as they have always been, that marriage is +necessary to salvation; and they are betrayed into plural marriage by +natural conditions as well as by the persuasions of the Church. + +A perfect "underground" system has been put in operation for the +protection of the lawbreakers. If they reside in Utah, they frequently +go to Canada or to Mexico to be married; and the whole polygamous +paraphernalia can be transported with ease and comfort--the priest who +performs the ceremony, the husband, sometimes the legal wife to give her +consent so that she may not be damned, and the young woman whose soul is +to be saved. And this "underground" is maintained against the reluctance +of the Mormon people. They aid in it from a kindly feeling toward +their fellow-believers--and with some faint thought that perhaps these +wayfarers are being "persecuted" but all the time with no personal +sympathy for polygamy. By one sincere word of reprehension from Joseph +F. Smith every "underground" station could be abolished, the route could +be destroyed, and an end could be put to the protection that is, of +itself, an encouragement to polygamous practice. He has never spoken +that word. + +Recently, the way in which the new polygamy is perpetrated in Utah has +been almost officially revealed. A patriarch of the Church, resident +in Davis County, less than fifteen miles from Salt Lake City, had been +solemnizing these unlawful unions at wholesale. The situation became so +notorious that the authorities of the Church felt themselves impelled +about September, 1910, to put restrictions upon his activity. In the +course of their investigations they discovered that he did not know the +persons whom he married. They would come to his house, in the evening, +wearing handkerchiefs over their faces; he sat hidden behind a screen in +his parlor; and under these circumstances the two were declared man +and wife, and were sealed up to everlasting bliss to rule over +principalities and kingdoms, with power of endless increase and +progression. He refused to tell the hierarchy from which one of the +authorities he had received his endowment to perpetrate these crimes. +He refused to give the names of any of the victims, claiming that he did +not know them! + +It is probable that for a long time plural marriage ceremonies were not +solemnized within the Salt Lake temple. Now, we know that there have +lately been such marriages in it, and at Manti, and at Logan, and +perhaps also in the temple at St. George. There are cases on record +where a man has a wife on one side of the Utah-Colorado line and another +wife across the border. No prosecutions are possible in Utah; for, as +Joseph F. Smith told the Senate committee, the officers of the law +have too much "respect" for the ecclesiastical rulers of the state. +Similarly, in the surrounding states, the officers show exactly the +same sort of "respect" and for the same reason. They not only know +the Church's power in local politics, but they see the national +administration allowing the polygamists and priests of the Church +to select the Federal officials, and they are not eager to rouse a +resentment against themselves, at Washington as well as at home, by +prosecuting polygamous Mormons. + +Some few years ago, Irving Sayford, then representing the Los Angeles +Times, asked Mr. P. H. Lannan, of the Salt Lake Tribune, why someone did +not swear out warrants against President Smith for his offenses against +the law. Mr. Lannan said: "You mean why don't I do it?" + +"Oh, no," Mr. Sayford explained, "I don't mean you particularly." + +"Oh, yes, you do," Mr. Lannan said. "You mean me if you mean anybody. If +it's not my duty, it's no one's duty.... Well, I'll tell you why.... I +don't make a complaint, because neither the district attorney nor the +prosecuting attorney would entertain it. If he did entertain it and +issued a warrant, the sheriff would refuse to serve the warrant. If the +sheriff served the warrant, there would be no witnesses unless I got +them. If I could get the witnesses, they wouldn't testify to the facts +on the stand. If they did testify to the facts, the jury wouldn't bring +in a verdict of guilty. If the jury did bring in a verdict of guilty, +the judge would suspend sentence. If the judge did not suspend sentence, +he would merely fine President Smith, three hundred dollars. And within +twenty-four hours there would be a procession of Mormons and Gentiles +crawling on their hands and knees to Church headquarters to offer to pay +that three hundred dollar fine at a dime apiece." + +Mr. Lannan's statement of the case was later substantiated by an action +of the Salt Lake District Court. Upon the birth of the twelfth child +that has been borne to President Smith in plural marriage since the +manifesto of 1890, Charles Mostyn Owen made complaint in the District +Court at Salt Lake, charging Mr. Smith with a statutory offense. The +District Attorney reduced the charge to "unlawful cohabitation" (a +misdemeanor), without the complainant's consent or knowledge. All the +preliminaries were then graciously arranged and President Smith appeared +in the District Court by appointment. He pleaded guilty. The judge in +sentencing him remarked that as this was the first time he had appeared +before the court, he would be fined three hundred dollars, but that +should he again appear, the penalty might be different. Smith had +already testified in Washington, before the Senate Committee, to the +birth of eleven children in plural marriage since he had given his +covenant to the country to cease living in polygamy; he had practically +defied the Senate and the United States to punish him; he had said that +he would "stand" his "chances" before the law and courts of his own +state. All of this was well known to the judge who fined him three +hundred dollars--a sum of money scarcely equal to the amount of Smith's +official income for the time he was in court! + +A leader of the Church, not long ago, asked me, in private conference, +what was the policy of the American party with regard to the new plural +wives and their children. I replied that as far as I knew it, the policy +was to have the Church accept its responsibility in the matter and give +the wives and children whatever recognition could be given them by their +religion. The Church was guilty before God and man of having encouraged +the awful condition. It was unspeakably cowardly and unfair for the +Church leaders to put the whole burden of suffering on the helpless +women and children; and, moreover, this course was a justification to +polygamists in deserting their wives, on the ground that the Church had +never sanctioned the relation. + +This Church leader, himself a new polygamist, answered miserably: "The +Church will not let itself be put in such a light before the country. +That would be to admit that it has been responsible all the time." + +I asked: "Has the Church not been responsible?" + +He replied--equivocating--: "Well, not the Church. The Church has never +taken a vote on it." + +"That," I said, "answers why you have never got redress and never will +get it because you are all liars, from top to bottom. You know you would +never have entered the polygamous relation--nor could you have induced +your wife to enter it--except with full knowledge that the Church did +authorize it. The Church is one man, and you know it. The whole theory +of your theology collapses if you deny that." + +He shook his head blankly. "I don't know what is to become of us. I +don't see any way out." + +I could only advise him that he should join with other new polygamists +in demanding that the Church authorities make all possible reparation to +the women and children who were being crushed under the penalties of the +Church's crime. But I knew that such advice was vain. He could not make +such a demand, any more than any other slave could demand his freedom. +And if the non-polygamists demanded it, the Prophets would deny that +polygamy was being practiced. The children could not be legitimized--for +the Church cannot obtain legitimizing statutes without avowing its +responsibility for the need of them; and the Gentiles can not pass such +statutes without encouraging the continuance of polygamy by removing the +social penalty against it. + +So the burden of all this guilt, this shame, this deception, falls upon +the unfortunate plural wife and her innocent offspring. She is bound by +the most sacred obligations never to reveal the name of the officiating +priest--even if she knew it--nor to disclose the circumstances of the +ceremony. She has justified her degradation by the assumption that God +has commanded it; that her husband has received a revelation authorizing +him to take her into his household; that her children will be legitimate +in the sight of God, and that eventually the civilized world will come +to a joyous acceptance of the practice of polygamy. When the trials of +her life afflict her and she finds no relentment in the world's disdain, +she sees no avenue of retreat. To break the relation is to imply at once +that it was not ordained of God, and to cast a darker ignominy upon her +unfortunate children. Her only hope lies in her continued submission +to her husband and his Church, even after she has mentally and morally +rejected the doctrine that betrayed her. A more pitiably helpless band +of self-immolants than these Mormon women has never suffered martyrdom +in the history of the world. Heaven help them. There is no help for them +on earth. + + + +Chapter XVIII. The Prophet of Mammon + + + +In an earlier day among the Mormons, the ecclesiastical authorities +collected one-tenth of the "annual increase" of the faithful into "the +storehouse of the Lord;" and this was practically the entire assessment +made by the Church; although, by the same law of tithing, every Mormon +was held obliged to consecrate all his earthly possessions to "God's +work" on the demand of the Prophet. The common fund was used, then, to +promote community enterprises and to relieve the poor. The tithe-payer +saw the good result of the administration of the Church's moneys, and +was generally satisfied. He was promised eternal happiness if he paid +an honest tithe, but he was also given an earthly reward--for the +Church admitted him to many opportunities and enterprises from which +the niggardly were adroitly excluded. He was spiritually elevated +and enlarged by giving for a purpose that he considered worthy--the +fulfillment of a commandment of God and the relief of his +fellow-creatures--and the community benefited by having a part of its +yearly surplus administered for the common good. + +But by the time the Church had reached its third generation of +tithe-payers, the "financial Prophets" had made a change. On the theory +that since the Mormons were paying the bulk of the taxes, they should +share in the distribution of the public relief funds, the Mormon poor +were denied assistance from "the storehouse of the Lord," and were +compelled to enter the poorhouses, to seek shelter on the "county +farms," or to take charity from their neighbors. The resulting +degradation of a sublime principle of human helpfulness is strikingly +shown in the fact that in some cases, where the county relief funds are +distributed through a Mormon clerk of paupers for out-door relief, the +Mormon bishop even collects one-tenth of this money, from the wretched +recipients, as their contribution to God Almighty! + +Nor is the greed of the present hierarchy satisfied with one-tenth of a +Mormon's income. Said Joseph F. Smith, at the April Conference of 1899 +(according to the Church's official report): "If a farmer raises two +thousand bushels of wheat, as the result of his year's labor, how +many bushels should he pay for tithing? Well, some go straightway to +dickering with the Lord. They will say that they hired a man so and +so, and his wages must be taken out; that they had to pay such and such +expenses, and this cost and that cost; and they reckon out all their +expenses and tithe the balance." To Smith's inspired financial genius +this was "dickering with the Lord." He wished to collect ten per cent of +the farmer's entire yield--a tithe that would have bankrupted the farmer +in three years! + +Nor is the tithe any longer the only exaction demanded by the Prophet. +A score of "donations" have been added. There is the Stake Tabernacle +Donation, which is a fund collected from the Mormons of each "Stake" +(corresponding usually to a county) for the building of a house in which +to hold Stake Conferences. There is the Ward Meeting-House Donation, +which is a fund collected from the Mormons of every "ward" for the +erection of a local chapel. There is the Fast Day Donation, made up +of contributions gathered on the afternoon of the first Sunday of each +month, at what is called "a fast meeting," for the support of the local +poor; and this is supplemented by the Relief Society Donation, solicited +by the members of the Ladies Relief Society, in a house-to-house +canvass, from Mormons and Gentiles alike. A Light and Heat Donation is +collected by the deacons of the ward, under direction of the bishop, to +pay for the lighting and heating of the ward meeting house; a Missionary +Donation is collected at a "Missionary benefit entertainment," to help +defray the expenses of a member of a ward sent on a mission; and since a +missionary must necessarily be an elder, a Quorum Missionary Donation is +also taken from his fellow members of the quorum, to assist him. So +far as the Church is concerned, he travels "without purse or scrip," by +order of "revelation;" but this inhibition does not extend to the use of +his own money--if he has any left after paying the other exaction's--nor +does it prevent him either from receiving contributions from his +impoverished fellows or accepting charity from "the enemies of God's +people," whom he labors to redeem. And on these terms about ninety per +cent. of the adult male Mormons perform missionary services for the +Church. + +All priesthood quorums have monthly Quorum Dues collected from their +members. On one Sunday of each month, called Nickel Sunday, the Sunday +School members pay in five cents each for the purchase of new books, +etc. On Dime Tuesday, once a month, the members of the Young Men's and +the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Associations pay in ten cents each +for the purchase of books, etc. On Nickel Friday, once a month, the +infant members of the Primary Association pay in five cents each to +the association. Religious Class Donations are paid once a month by the +Mormon public-school pupils for the support of the week-day religious +classes. Amusement Hall Donations are collected from the members of a +ward whose bishop finds them able to build a place of amusement. When a +temple is to be erected, Temple Donations are collected, continuously, +until the work is finished and paid for; and when members of the Church +"go through the Temple," they are required to pay another form of Temple +Donation in any sum that they can afford. Should a need arise, not +provided for by the specific donations given above, a Special Donation +is collected to meet it. Yet in the face of all these exaction's of +tithes and donations, the ecclesiast still boasts: "We are not like the +'preachers for hire and diviners for money.' We never pass the plate +at our sacred services. Our clergy labor, without pay, to give free +salvation to a sinful world!" + +In addition to doing missionary service, paying tithes, and contributing +donations, the latter-day Mormon, if he be obedient to the counsel +of the Church's anointed financiers, must support the commercial and +financial undertakings of the hierarchy. These are officially designated +"the Church's institutions" by the authorities; but they are in no +way the property of the Church. They are advertised as community +enterprises, but they are such only in the sense that the community is +commanded by "the voice of God" to sustain them. There is no voice of +God to command a distribution of their profits. And they are no longer +conducted for the benefit of the community but to exploit it. + +The good Mormon must purchase his sugar from "the Church's" sugar +company (Joseph F. Smith, president), which is controlled by the +national sugar trust and charges trust prices. He must buy salt from +"the Church's" salt monopoly (Joseph F. Smith, president), which is a +part of, and pays dividends to, the national salt trust. He is taught to +go for his merchandise to the Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution +(Joseph F. Smith, president), where even whiskey is sold under the +symbol of the All-seeing Eye and the words "Holiness to the Lord" in +gilt letters; and Joseph F. Smith, at the April Conference, of 1898 +(according to the Church's official report), scolded those "pretendedly +pious" Mormons who "were shocked and horrified" to find "liquid poison" +sold under these auspices--for, as Smith argued, with characteristic +greed, if the Mormon who wanted whiskey could not get it in the Church +store, "he would not patronize Z.C.M.I. at all, but would go elsewhere +to deal!" + +The farmers are "counselled" to buy their vehicles from "the Church's" +firm, the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company (Joseph F. Smith, +president); to take out their fire insurance with the Church's "Home +Fire Insurance Company" (Joseph F. Smith, controller); and to insure +their lives with the Church's "Beneficial Life Insurance Company" +(Joseph F. Smith, president). The Salt Lake Knitting Company (of which +Joseph F. Smith is president) makes, among other things, the sacred +knitted garments that are prescribed for every Mormon who takes the +"Endowment Oaths," to be worn by him forever after as a shield "against +the Adversary;" and these garments bear the label: "Approved by the +Presidency. No knitted garment approved which does not bear this label." +By which ingenious bit of religious commercialism, the sacred marks +on the garments (accepted as a sort of passport to Heaven) have been +increased by the sacred Smith trademark that admits the wearer to the +Smith Heaven. + +The Church's banking institutions, of which Joseph F. Smith is +president, are recommended as safer than others because the money goes +into the hands of "the brethren." Church newspapers must be subscribed +for, because all others are "unreliable"--although the Church's Deseret +News (Joseph F. Smith, president) is one of the most dishonest, unjust +and mendacious organs that ever poisoned the public mind. And so +on, through the whole list of business concerns by which the Church +authorities are to profit. The Mormons, having learned of old the value +of a solid, community support for community enterprises established +in the interests of the community, are still kept solidly supporting +ecclesiastical enterprises administered for the benefit of the hierarchy +or its favorites, at the community's expense! + +The Utah Light and Railway Company (Joseph F. Smith, president), which +was supported by the tithes of the Mormon people, was charging $1.25 per +thousand cubic feet for fuel gas and $1.75 for illuminating gas, just +before the company was sold to the "Harriman interests." (The Supreme +Court of the United States has fixed a rate of 80 cents a thousand as +a fair price for gas in New York City.) The Salt Lake Street Railway +(operating under a fifty-year franchise, obtained from the City Council +by, the power of the Church while Joseph F. Smith was president of the +company) charges a five-cent fare, gives but one transfer, allows no +half fares for children, and pays the city nothing for the use of its +streets. Before the transfer of the Church's sugar stocks to the trust, +the sugar factories paid the farmer $4.50 a ton for his beets and sold +him sugar for $4.50 a hundred pounds; today beets are bought for $4.50 +a ton, and sugar sold at $6.00 a hundred. The price asked for salt in +Utah, where it should be "dirt cheap," is the same as everywhere under +the salt trust. And so on--through the rest of the list. + +To maintain this system of sanctified gain Joseph F. Smith invokes all +the power of his "divine" authority as "the mouthpiece of the Lord." He +protects the sugar trust by preventing the establishment of independent +sugar factories (as for example in Sanpete and Sevier counties in 1905), +just as he protects the salt trust by preventing the competition of +independent salt gardens (as in the case of Smurthwaite and Taylor.) He +issues his edict of protection as "the vicegerent of God on Earth" to +the Mormons; and he excommunicates and ostracizes, in this world and the +next, the Mormon protestant who dares rebel against commercial monopoly. + +He receives between two and three million dollars a year in tithes, +gives no accounting of them, and has no responsibility for them, except +to God and his own conscience. He is able to use this sum, in bulk, +at any given point, with a weight of financial pressure that would +overbalance any other such single power in the community. As "trustee in +trust" for the Church, he has the added income from stocks and previous +investments; and he has practical control of the wealth of all the +leading men of the Church to assist him, if he should call upon them +for assistance. He uses his financial dictatorship to support monopoly +against the assault of Gentile opposition, and he compels the Gentile to +pay tribute as the Mormon does. + +He backs his financial power with his control of legislation. He can not +only prevent the passage of any laws against his favored monopolies, +but (as in the case of the smelters) he can reduce independents to +submission by threatening them with procured laws to penalize them. He +largely controls the "labor troubles" of the State by controlling the +obedience of the Mormon laboring men. He can influence judges, officers +of the law and all the agents of local government by his power +as political "Boss," and the same influence extends, through his +representatives at Washington, to the local activities of Federal +authority. He can check and govern public opinion among his subjects by +announcing "the will of God" to them through the officers of the Church +in every department of religious administration. He is, therefore, at +once the modern "money king," the absolute political Czar the social +despot and the infallible Pope of his "Kingdom!" + +Just as men fight for the retention of a throne and the maintenance of +a dynasty, so he and his courtiers defend his rule and maintain his +autocracy with every weapon of absolutism. And just as royalty, while +possessed of unlimited wealth, has never lacked mercenaries, press +bureaus, and all the sycophantic defenders of a crown, so Smith is +able to command an array of service as great as any ever brought to +the defense of a social system. This singular and enormous power stands +solidly against any movement of domestic reform; and, by its alliance +with the national rulers in finance and politics, it is saved from the +danger of "foreign" intervention. Like every other such absolutism, it +is crushing out the life of its subjects; for, in spite of the industry, +the thrift, and the abstemiousness of the Mormon people, they are +sinking under the burden of imposed exaction's. Although Utah became a +territory in 1853, and had its well-settled towns at that time, and was +organized in a compact social body for the upbuilding of its material +prosperity before any of the surrounding states had received an organic +act as a territory, Utah has now lost its leadership, and the individual +initiative and enterprise of the typical Western community have been +relatively lost. + +In this process of degeneration, one of the most promising modern +experiments in communism has been frustrated and brought to ruin. In the +early nineties, Dr. Josiah Strong, of New York City, viewed the Mormon +system with an interested admiration. He saw that by contribution, and +co-operation, and arbitration, the energies of the people were conserved +and the products of their prosperity more equally distributed than under +the conditions of economic war then prevalent elsewhere. He thought he +saw in Utah a possible solution of some of the social problems of our +civilization. But, a few years ago, he confessed that the Mormon system +was no longer worthy of study. It had been destroyed by the greed of +its rulers. Community contributions were being used for individual +commercialism and the aggrandizement of leaders. The aged and infirm +poor, who had contributed through all the working period of their +lives, were being thrust into poor houses. The ambition of the earlier +Prophets, to make the people great in their community prosperity and +happiness, has been lost in the new desire of the head of the Church +to exhibit that greatness only in his own person. The Mormon people had +become the working slaves of a financial and political and religious +autocracy, and Mormonism was no longer anything but a hopeless failure +as a social experiment. + +It is difficult to say how much of this failure was due to the character +of the present Prophet, and how much to the national conditions that +are threatening the success of democracy in every state of the Union. +It would seem that the conditions were ideal for the production of +just such a man as Smith, and that Smith was by nature fitted for the +greatest growth under just such conditions. He came to power with none +of the feeling of responsibility to his people which the earlier leaders +showed. He considered that the people lived for him, not that he lived +for the people. He regarded the Mormon system as an establishment of his +family, to which he had the family right of inheritance; and he waited +with a sulky impatience for the deaths of the men who stood between him +and the control of his family's Church. It was as if he accepted his +predecessors as exercising their powers, during an inter-regnum, by the +consent of the Mormon people, but saw himself acceding to the throne by +family right and the order of divinity. + +He had no financial ability; he had no considerable property when he +became president of the Church at sixty-three. Nor did he need any +such ability. The continuous inflow of money--to be used without +accountability to anyone--and the wealth of opportunity offered by the +men who wished his aid in exploiting his people, made it unnecessary +that he should have any creative financial vision. He needed only to +move, with his opportunity, along the line of least resistance which was +also, with him, the line of choice. + +He had, through all his years, shown an obvious envy of any member of +the Church whose circumstances were better than his own. It was apparent +in his manner that he regarded such success in the community as an +encroachment upon the Smith prerogatives. As soon as he came to power, +he accepted every opportunity of self-aggrandizement as a new Smith +prerogative. And the system of modern capitalism appealed at once to +his ambition. By the older method of tithes and conscription's, he could +collect only from the devotees of the Church; by the larger exploitation +he could levy tribute upon the Gentiles too. + +And he was aided by the Mormons themselves. They had been brought +together, in obedience to "a command of God," in order that the +community, by avoiding the sins of the world, might be saved from the +plagues that were to descend upon the world because of its injustice. +They were a credulous people, ignorant of the sins of modern finance, +and prepared by industry and isolation to be exploited. Their previous +leaders had observed, as a warning only, the modern aspiration for +vast wealth obtained by economic injustice; but that aspiration made an +instant appeal to Smith's ambition; and it is the peculiar iniquity of +conditions in Utah today that his ambition has betrayed his people to +the very evils which they were originally organized to escape. + +In an earlier time it was the pride of the leader that the community in +the large was advancing and the average of conditions improving. Today +the leader assumes that as he grows richer the people are prospering and +"the revelations of God" being vindicated in practice. He speaks with +pride of "our" growth and wealth under "the benign authority of the +Almighty" and His "temporal revelations"--because he himself has been +enriched by the perversion of these same laws--very much as the "captain +of industry" elsewhere boasts of the "prosperity" of the country, +because the few are growing so rich at the expense of the many. + +Along with this strain of commercial greed in Smith, there is an equally +strong strain of religious fanaticism that justifies the greed and +sanctifies it, to itself. He believes (as Apostle Orson Pratt taught, by +authority of the Church): "The Kingdom of God is an order of government +established by divine authority. It is the only legal government that +can exist in any part of the universe. All other governments are illegal +and unauthorized.... Any people attempting to govern themselves by laws +of their own making, and by officers of their own appointment, are in +direct rebellion against the Kingdom of God." Smith believes that over +this Kingdom the Smiths have been, by Divine revelation, ordained to +rule. He believes that his authority is the absolute and unquestionable +authority of God Himself. He believes that in all the affairs of life +he has the same right over his subjects that the Creator has over His +creatures. He believes that he has been appointed to use the Mormon +people as he in his inspired wisdom sees fit to use them, in order the +more firmly to establish God's Kingdom on Earth against the Powers of +Evil. + +He believes that the people of the American Republic, "being governed by +laws of their own making and by officers of their own appointment," are +in direct rebellion against "his Kingdom of God." He believes that the +national government is destined to be broken in pieces by his power; +that it has only been preserved from destruction by the concessions +recently made by the Federal authorities; and that it can only continue +to save itself so long as it shall recognize Smith's ambassadors at +Washington--and so allow him to work out its destruction in the fullness +of time. + +But with all this insanity of pretension he has a sort of cowardly +shrewdness, acquired in his days of hiding "on the underground." On +the witness stand in Washington he denied that he had had any direct +communication with God by revelation; and then he returned to Utah and +pleaded from the pulpit that on this point he had lied in Washington in +order to escape saying what his "inquisitors" had wished him to say in +order to "get him into a trap." He preaches in Utah that to deny the +doctrine of polygamy is to reject the teaching of Jesus Christ; before +the Senate committee he was coward enough to put the blame of his +polygamous cohabitation upon his five wives. In Washington he claimed +that the Gentiles of Utah condoned polygamous cohabitation and had a +liberal sympathy for the Church; but at St. George, Utah, for example +(in September, 1904), he was reported by a Church newspaper as saying: +"The Gentiles are coming among us to buy our homes and land. We should +not sell to them, as they are the enemies of the Kingdom of God." He is +that most perfect of all hypocrites--the fanatic who believes that he is +lying in the service of the Almighty. + +In the early spring of 1888, I was in Washington, where measures of +proscription were then being prepared against our people; and, early in +the morning, as I walked up Massachusetts Avenue, I saw Joseph F. Smith +approaching me. For several years he had been "on the underground" under +the name of "Joseph Mack"--now in the Hawaiian Islands with one wife; +now hidden, with another, among the faithful in some Mormon village; or +again with a third, in Washington (which was probably as safe a place as +any) presiding secretly over the Church lobby. As he passed me, with +his head down, preoccupied, I said: "Good morning, President Smith." +He jumped as if I had been a Deputy Marshal with such a sudden start of +fear that his silk hat rolled on the pavement and his umbrella dropped +from his hand. He drew back from me as if he were about to take to his +heels. Then he recognized me, of course, and was quickly reassured; but +his embarrassment continued for some time, awkwardly. + +But a short time ago the President of the United States stood in the +Salt Lake Tabernacle (which is "Joseph Mack's" capitol and vatican) and +addressed a multitude that had assembled not more to honor the Chief +Executive of the nation than to pay their almost idolatrous tribute +of devotion to the head of their Church, who was reigning there in +the pulpit with President Taft. "Joseph Mack" no longer fears Deputy +Marshals--he appoints them; and the present United States Marshal of +Utah would refuse to serve a paper under the direction of the entire +power of the United States government if "Joseph Mack" forbade the +service. He no longer fears the proscriptions of legislators at +Washington; they come to him, through the leaders of their parties, +and arrange with him for the support of the trans-Mississippi states in +which the influence of his Church control is determinative. He no longer +hides his wives, at the ends of the earth, and visits them by stealth; +they occupy a row of houses along one of the principal streets of Salt +Lake City, and the pilgrim and the tourist alike admire his magnificence +as they go by. He is still a law-breaker. He stands even more in +defiance of the authority of the nation than he did in 1888, and he +hates that authority as much as ever. But he is today not only the +Prophet of the Church; he is the Prophet of Mammon; and all the powers +and principalities of Mammon now give him gloriously: "All Hail!" + + + +Chapter XIX. The Subjects of the Kingdom + + + +But what of the Mormon people? How can such leaders, directing the +Church to purposes that have become so cruel, so selfish, so dangerous +and so disloyal--how can they maintain their power over followers who +are themselves neither criminal nor degraded? That is a question which +has given the pause of doubt to many criticisms of the Mormon communism +of our day. That is the consideration which has obtained from the nation +the protection of tolerance under which the Prophets flourish. For not +only are the Mormon men and women obviously as worthy as any in the +United States: there is plainly much of community value in their social +life; there is manifestly a great deal of efficiency for human good in +their system and in the leadership by which it is directed; and this +good is so apparent that it appeals easily to the sympathetic conscience +and uninformed mind of the country at large. + +Let me try, then, to exhibit and to analyze the causes that keep such a +virtuous and sturdy people loyally supporting the leadership of men so +unworthy of them that if the people were as bad as the ends to which +they are being now directed, modern Mormonism would be destroyed by its +own evils. + +In the first place, the average Mormon chief is sincere in his +pretensions and self-justified in his aims. Usually, he has been born, +in the Church, to a family that sees itself set apart, in holiness, from +the rest of humanity, as the direct heirs of the ancient prophets or +even as the lineal descendants of Christ. From his earliest age of +understanding, he is taught the divine splendor of his birth and +impressed with the high duties of his family privilege in being +permitted to bear a part in preparing the earth for the second coming +of the Savior. He is taught that, though all the world may be saved and +nearly all the people of this sphere will in some eternity work out +a measure of salvation, he and 143,999 others are to be a band of the +elect who shall stand about the Savior, on Mount Zion, in the final day. + +He is taught that, next to Christ, Joseph Smith, the founder of the +faith, has performed the largest mission for the salvation of the world; +that in the councils of the Gods, when the Creator measured off the +ages of the human race on this earth, to the Savior was apportioned "the +meridian of time," and to Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was given the +"last dispensation," which is "the fullness of times," in order that the +world, having apostatized from the atonement and the redemption, might +be saved to heaven by Joseph, "the Choice Seer." + +He is taught that the disciples of the Mormon Prophet are literally the +disciples of Jesus Christ; that the laws of right and wrong are within +the direction and subject to the authority of the Prophet, to be +changed, enlarged or even revoked by his commandment; that all human +laws are equally subject to his will, to be made or unmade at his order; +that he can condemn, by his excommunication, any man or any nation +to the vengeance of the Almighty here and hereafter; and that he can +pronounce a blessing upon the head of any man, or the career of any +people, by virtue of which blessing power shall be held in this world +righteously and the man elevated to sit at the right hand of God in +the world to come. He is taught that the greatest sin which can be +committed--next to the denial of Christ--is to raise hand or voice +against "the Lord's anointed," the Mormon prophets. And, for morality, +he is taught from his infancy, that he must scrupulously practice those +special virtues of his cult, industry, thrift, purity (except as in +later life he shall be inducted into the practice of the new polygamy) +honesty in business, and charity toward his needy fellow-men. + +Formed in character by this teaching, as a steady inculcation throughout +his youth, he comes to manhood strong of body, determined of mind, +practicing rigidly and intolerantly his petty virtues of abstinence from +the use of tobacco, tea and coffee, proclaiming with fanatical zeal the +gospel as it has been proclaimed to him, and self-justified in all that +he says or does by the large measure of sincerity in his delusions. + +And that is, in some degree, the common training of all Mormons. Every +Mormon boy attends Sunday School as soon as he is old enough to lisp his +song of adoration to Joseph, the Kingly Prophet, and to the Savior with +whom Joseph is early associated in his childish mind. At six years of +age, he enters the Primary Association; at twelve he is in the Young +Men's Mutual Improvement Association; at fourteen or even earlier, he +stands in the fast-day meeting and repeats like a creed: "Brethren and +Sisters, I feel called upon to say a few words. I am not able to edify +you, but I can say that I know this is the Church and Kingdom of God, +and I bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that Brigham +Young was his lawful successor, and that the Prophet Joseph F. Smith is +heir to all the authority which the Lord has conferred in these days +for the salvation of men. And I feel that if I live my religion and do +nothing to offend the Holy Spirit I will be saved in the presence of my +Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. With these few words I will give way. +Praying the Lord to bless each and every one of us is my prayer in the +name of Jesus Christ. Amen." + +At fourteen he becomes a Deacon of the Church. Between that age and +twenty, he becomes an Elder. Very soon thereafter he becomes "a Seventy" +and perhaps a high priest. He takes upon himself "covenants in holy +places." He becomes "a priest unto the Most High God"--frequently before +his eighteenth year. Usually before he is twenty he is sent on a mission +to proclaim his gospel--the only one he has ever heard in his life--to +"an unenlightened nation" and "a wicked world." For, in addition +to being taught that the Mormons are the best, most virtuous, most +temperate, most industrious, and most God-fearing of all peoples--a +thing that is dinned into his ears from the pulpit every Sunday in the +year--he has been convinced by equal iteration that the rest of the +world is a festering mass of corruption. + +Often he goes abroad, to some country whose language and customs he +must learn and upon the charity of whose toilers he must depend for his +maintenance. He goes with an implicit reliance upon God, strong in the +small virtues that have been taught him from the time he knelt at his +mother's knee. He sees, probably for the first time, the afflictions +and the sins among mankind; and he keeps himself unspotted from them, +congratulating himself that these grossnesses are unknown to his +sheltered home-life and to the religion which he holds as the ideal of +his soul. He proclaims his belief that God has spoken from the Heavens, +through the Mormon Prophet, in this last day, to restore the gospel +of Christ from which the peoples of the earth have wandered. He "bears +testimony" to the whole world, and he binds himself to the authority of +his Church by proclaiming his belief in it. + +When he returns home, after years of service, he is called to the stand +in the tabernacle to give a report of his work. He finds waiting for him +a ready advancement in the offices of the Church, according as he may +show himself worthy of advancement or as the power of family or the +favor of ecclesiastical authority may obtain it for him. He marries a +girl who has had a training almost identical with his own. She, too, has +borne her testimony before she reached years of responsibility. She has +taken her vows as a priestess at the age when he was dedicating himself +a priest. She may even have performed a foreign mission. They have both +been promised that they shall become kings and queens in the eternal +world. They are bound by their covenants to obey their superior priests. +They cannot disregard their Church affiliations without recanting +their vows. The only way they can adhere to their covenants with their +Almighty Father--the only way they can demonstrate their acceptance +of the atoning power of the Redeemer's sacrifice--is by yielding such +obedience to the Prophet as they would pay to the Father and the Son +if They were on earth in Their proper persons. To deviate from this +faithfulness is to be marked as a Judas Iscariot by all the Latter-Day +Saints. + +As soon as the Mormon becomes the head of a family--in addition to all +the testimonies and performances which he must give as proof of his +continued adherence--he must submit himself and his household to the +examination and espionage of the ward teachers, who invade his home +at least once a month. They enter absolutely as the proprietors of the +house. If the husband is there, they ask him whether he performs +his duties in the Church; whether he holds family prayer morning and +evening; whether he "keeps the word of wisdom"--that is, does he abstain +from the use of alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee--whether he pays a full +tithe and all the prescribed donations to the Church; whether he has any +hard feelings against any of his brethren and sisters; and finally, +does he devoutly sustain the Prophet as the ruler of God's Kingdom upon +earth. These questions, so far as they apply, are put to each member of +the family above the age of eight years. Should the husband be away, all +the inquiries concerning him are made of the wife. If both parents are +absent, the questions concerning them are put to their children! + +This one branch of the ecclesiastical service is sufficient of itself +to mark the Mormon Church as the most perfectly disciplined institution +among mankind. The teachers' quorum in any neighborhood consists of some +tried elders, usually of considerable ability and experience. With these +are associated numerous young men, many of them returned missionaries. +The fact that they have countless other duties in the Church and many +other and weightier responsibilities, is not permitted to excuse them +from performing strictly this important labor. Perhaps a dozen or twenty +families are assigned to a couple of teachers. They are required to +visit each of these families once every month. And if they discover any +lapse of fidelity, they report at once to the Bishop. + +No one who has not seen them on their rounds will believe with what an +air of divinely privileged authority they enter a home and force its +secrets of conscience--with what an imposing and arrogant zeal--with +what a calm assumption of spiritual over-lordship and inquisitorial +right. Some few years ago after my public criticisms of Joseph F. Smith +had been followed by my excommunication, two teachers, on their monthly +rounds, came to my home in the evening and made their way calmly to the +library where I was sitting with some members of my family. I had just +returned from a long absence abroad, and the visit was an untimely +intrusion at its best; but we observed the obligations of hospitality +with what courtesy we could, and merely evaded the familiar questions +which they began to put to us. Finally, the elder of the two teachers, +a man of some local prominence in the Church, undertook to "bear +testimony" to the wickedness of anyone who opposed the divine rule of +Joseph F. Smith; and when I cut him short with a request that he leave +the house, he was as shocked and surprised as if he had been Milton's +Archangel Michael, after "the fall," and I, a defiant Adam, showing him +the door. + +In addition to the visitations of the ward teachers, some members of the +Ladies Relief Society call upon every family usually once a month, not +only to gather donations for the poor, but to have a little quiet talk +with the wife and mother of the household. These women of the Relief +Society are genuine "Sisters of Charity." In most cases they have +themselves plenty of household cares, yet they give much of their time +to visiting the sick, supplying the wants of the needy or ministering +to the miseries of the afflicted; and if it were not for them and their +noblework, the Mormon poor would fare ill in these days of Mormon Church +grandeur. Outside of their monthly visitations, they have definite +preaching to do. At the meetings of their organization, they "bear +testimony" that Joseph was a Prophet--and so on. They have the quarterly +stake conferences to attend. Their traveling missionaries go from Salt +Lake to the four quarters of the globe to institute and maintain the +discipline of the organization and to teach the methods of its practical +work in Nursing Schools, mother's classes and the like. They make up one +of the noblest bodies of women associated with any social movement of +humanity. And in their zeal and submissiveness they are so innocently +meek and "biddable" that they can listen with reverence to young Hyrum +Smith publicly lecturing the grandmothers of the order for occasionally +partaking of a cup of thin tea. + +Under such a system of teaching, discipline and espionage, how can +the average Mormon man or woman develop any independence of thought +or action? At what time of life can he assert himself? Before he has +attained the age of reason he has declared his faith in public. If he +shall then, in his teens, express any doubt, the priests are ready for +him. "You have borne your testimony many times in the Church," they +say sternly. "Were you lying then, or have you lost the Spirit of +God through your transgressions?" If he reveals any doubt to the ward +teachers, they will overwhelm him with argument, and either absolutely +reconvert him or silence him with authority. The pressure of family +love and pride will be brought to bear upon him. The ecclesiastical +authorities will move against him. He knows that every one of his +relatives will be humiliated by his unfaithfulness. His "sin" will +become known to the whole community, and he will be looked at askance by +his friends and his companions. + +After he has taken his vows as a priest, how shall he dare to violate +them? He knows that if he loses his faith on a mission--in other words, +if he dares to make any inquiry into the authenticity of the mission +which he is performing--he becomes a deserter from God in the very ranks +of battle. He knows that he will be held forever in dishonor among his +people; that he will be looked upon as one worse than dead; that he will +ruin his own life and despoil his parents of all their eternal comfort +and their hope in him. + +While I was editing the Salt Lake Tribune, a son of one of the famous +apostles came to me with some anxious inquiries, and said: "Frank, I +have been working in the Church and teaching this gospel so assiduously +for nearly forty years that I have never had time to find out whether +it's true or not!" + +If the Mormon, in his later years of manhood, dares to doubt, he must +either reveal his disloyalty to the ward teachers or continue to deny +it, from month to month, and remain a supine servant of authority. If +he reveals it, he knows that the news of his defection will permeate the +entire circle with which he is associated in politics, in business and +in religion. If his superstition does not hold him, his worldly prudence +will. He knows that all the aid of the community will be withdrawn from +him; every voice that has expressed affection for him will speak in +hate; every hand that has clasped his in friendship will be turned +against him. And into this very prudence there enters something of +a moral warning. For he has seen how many a man, deprived of the +association and fraternity of the Church, feeling himself shunned in a +lonely ostracism, has not been strong enough to endure in rectitude and +has fallen into dissipation. Every instance of the sort is rehearsed by +the faithful, with many exultant expressions of mourning, in the hearing +of the doubter. And finally, it is the prediction of the priests that no +apostate can prosper; and though the Mormon people are charitable and +do not intend to be unjust, they inevitably tend to fulfill the prophecy +and devote the apostate to material destruction. + +The great doctrine of the Mormon faith is obedience; the one proof of +grace is conformity. So long as a man pays a full tithe, contributes all +the required donations, and yields unquestioningly to the orders of +the priests, he may even depart in a moral sense from any other of +the Church's laws and find himself excused. But any questioning of the +rulership of the Prophets--the rightfulness of their authority or the +justice of its exercise is apostasy, is a denial of the faith, is a sin +against the Holy Ghost. The man who obeys in all things is promised that +he shall come forth in the morning of the first resurrection; the man +who disobeys, and by his disobedience apostatizes, is condemned to work +out, through an eternity of suffering, his offense against the Holy +Spirit. At the first sign of defection--almost inevitably discovered in +its incipiency--the rebel is either disciplined into submission or at +once pushed over "the battlements of Heaven!" + +By such perfect means, the leaders, chosen under a pretense of +revelation from God, maintain an unassailable sanctity in the eyes of +the people, who are themselves priests. These people implicitly believe +that the voice of the leader is the voice of God. They follow with a +passionate devotion that is made up of a fanatical priestly faith and +of a sympathy that sees their Prophets "persecuted" by an ungenerous, +impure and vindictive world. We love that for which we suffer; and it +has become the inheritance of the Mormons to love the priesthood, for +whose protection their parents and grandparents suffered, and under +whose oppressions they now suffer themselves. + +Joseph Smith, the original Prophet, was slain in the Carthage jail; to +the Mormon mind this is proof that he was the anointed of God and that +he sealed his testimony with his blood, as did the Savior. John Taylor, +afterwards President of the Church, was not slain at Carthage, but only +wounded; and this to the Mormons is proof that he was of the eternal +kindred of the Prophets, because, under God's direction, he gave his +blood to their defense. But Willard Richards, a companion of Smith and +Taylor, was not even injured at Carthage; and this is accepted as proof +that God had charge of his holy ones, and would not permit wicked men +to do them harm. When the people left Nauvoo and journeyed through Iowa, +some of the citizens of that state would not harbor them; and this is +argued as evidence that the Mormon movement was God's work, since the +hand of the wicked was against it; but in some localities of Iowa the +emigrants were aided, and this also is proof that the Mormon movement +was God's work, since the hearts of the people were melted to assist +it. When Johnston's army was sent to Utah, it was proof that the Mormon +Church was the true Church, hated and persecuted by a wicked nation; +when Johnston's army withdrew without a battle, it was a new guarantee +of the divinity of the work; and it is even believed among the Mormons +that the Civil War was ordained from the heavens, at the sudden command +of God, to compel Johnston's withdrawal and save God's people. + +In the same way the persecutions of "the raid," and the cessation +of those persecutions--the early trials of poverty and the present +abundance of prosperity--the threat of the Smoot investigation and the +abortive conclusion of that exposure--are all argued as proofs of the +divinity of a persecuted Church or given as instances of the miraculous +"overruling" of God to prosper his chosen people. No matter what occurs, +the Prophets, by applying either one of these formulae, can translate +the incident into a new proof of grace; and their followers submissively +accept the interpretation. + +On the night of April 18, 1905, Joseph F. Smith and some eight of his +sons sat in his official box at the Salt Lake theatre to watch a +prize fight that lasted for twenty gory rounds. The Salt Lake Tribune +published the fact that the Prophet of God, and vicegerent of Christ, +had given the approval of his "holy presence" to this clumsy barbarity. +A devout old lady, who had been with the Church since the days of +Nauvoo, rebuked us bitterly for publishing such a falsehood about +President Smith. "How dare you tell such wicked lies about God's +servants?" she scolded. "President Smith wouldn't do such a wicked thing +as attend a prize fight. And you know that no man with any sense of +decency would take his young sons to look at such a dreadful thing!" +Some time later, when the facts in the case had come to her, in her +retirement, from her friends, the editor called upon her to quiz her +about the incident. She said: "I'm sure I don't see what business it is +of the outside world anyhow what President Smith does. He has a right +to go to the theatre if he wants to. I don't believe they would have +anything but what's good in the Salt Lake theatre. It was built by our +people and they own it. And if it wasn't good, President Smith wouldn't +have taken his boys there." + +And this was not merely the absurdity of an old woman. It is the logic +of all the faithful. The leaders cannot do wrong--because it is not +wrong, if they do it. No criticism of them can be effective. No act of +theirs can be proven an error. If they do not do a thing, it was right +not to do it; and it would have been a sin if it had been done. But if +they do that thing, then it was right to do it; and it would have been a +sin if it had not been done. + +This reliance upon the almighty power and prophetic infallibility of the +leaders prevents the Mormon people from truly appreciating the dangers +that threaten them. It keeps them ignorant of outside sentiment. It +makes them despise even a national hostility. And it has left them +without gratitude, too, for a national grace. Before these people can be +roused to any independence of responsible thought, it will be necessary +to break their trust in the ability of their leaders to make bargains of +protection with the world; and then it will still be necessary to +force the eyes of their self-complacency to turn from the satisfied +contemplation of their own virtues. "You will never be able to reach the +conscience of the Mormons," a man who knows them has declared. "I +have had my experiences with both leaders and people. If you tell them +'You're ninety-nine-and-one-half per cent. pure gold,' they will ask, +surprised and indignant: 'What? Why, what's the matter with the other +half per cent?'" + + + +Chapter XX + +Conclusion + +Of the men who could have written this narrative, some are dead; some +are prudent; some are superstitious; and some are personally foresworn. +It appeared to me that the welfare of Utah and the common good of the +whole United States required the publication of the facts that I have +tried to demonstrate. Since there was apparently no one else who felt +the duty and also had the information or the wish to write, it seemed +my place to undertake it. And I have done it gladly. For when I was +subscribing the word of the Mormon chiefs for the fulfillment of our +statehood pledges, I engaged my own honor too, and gave bond myself +against the very treacheries that I have here recorded. + +We promised that the Church had forever renounced the doctrine of +polygamy and the practice of plural marriage living, by a "revelation +from God" promulgated by the supreme Prophet of the Church and accepted +by the vote of the whole congregation assembled in conference. We +promised the retirement of the Mormon Prophets from the political +direction of their followers--the abrogation of the claim that the +Mormon Church was the "Kingdom of God" re-established upon earth to +supersede all civil government--the abandonment by the Church of any +authority to exercise a temporal power in competition with the civil +law. We promised to make the teaching and practice of the Church conform +to the institutions of a Republic in which all citizens are equal in +liberty. We promised that the Church should cease to accumulate property +for the support of illegal practices and un-American government. And we +made a record in proof of our promises by the anti-polygamy manifesto +of 1890 and its public ratification; by the petition for amnesty and +the acceptance of amnesty upon conditions; by the provisions of Utah's +enabling act and of Utah's state constitution; by the acts of Congress +and the judicial decisions restoring escheated Church property; by the +proceedings of the Federal courts of Utah in re-opening citizenship +to the alien members of the Mormon Church; by the acquiescence of the +Gentiles of Utah in the proceedings by which statehood was obtained; +and finally, and most indisputably, by the admission of Utah into equal +sovereignty in the Union--since that admission would never have been +granted, except upon the explicit understanding that the state was to +uphold the laws and institutions of the American republic in accordance +with our covenants. + +Of all these promises the Church authorities have kept not one. The +doctrine and practice of polygamy have been restored by the Church, and +plural marriage living is practiced by the ruler of the kingdom and his +favorites with all the show and circumstance of an oriental court. There +are now being born in his domains thousands of unfortunate children +outside the pale of law and convention, for whom there can be +entertained no hope that any statute will ever give them a place within +the recognition of civilized society. The Prophet of the Church rules +with an absolute political power in Utah, with almost as much authority +in Idaho and Wyoming, and with only a little less autocracy in parts +of Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and New +Mexico. He names the Representatives and Senators in Congress from his +own state, and influences decisively the selection of such "deputies of +the people" from many of the surrounding states. Through his ambassadors +to the government of the United States, sitting in House and Senate, he +chooses the Federal officials for Utah and influences the appointment of +those for the neighboring states and territories. He commands the making +and unmaking of state law. He holds the courts and the prosecuting +officers to a strict accountability. He levies tribute upon the people +of Utah and helps to loot the citizens of the whole nation by his +alliance with the political and financial Plunderbund at Washington. He +has enslaved the subjects of his kingdom absolutely, and he looks to it +as the destiny of his Church to destroy all the governments of the world +and to substitute for them the theocracy--the "government by God" and +administration by oracle--of his successors. + +And yet, even so, I could not have recorded the incidents of this +betrayal as mere matters of current history--and I would never have +written them in vindication of myself--if I had not been certain that +there is a remedy for the evil conditions in Utah, and that such a +narrative as this will help to hasten the remedy and right the wrong. +Except for the aggressive aid given by the national administrations +to the leaders of the Mormon Church, the people of Utah and the +intermountain states would never have permitted the revival of a +priestly tyranny in politics. Except for the protection of courts and +the enforced silence of politicians and journalists, polygamy could not +have been restored in the Mormon Church. Except for the interference +of powerful influences at Washington to coerce the Associated Press and +affect the newspapers of the country, the Mormon leaders would never +have dared to defy the sensibilities of our civilization. Except for +the greed of the predatory "Interests" of the nation, the commercial +absolutism of the Mormon hierarchy could never have been established. +The present conditions in the Mormon kingdom are due to national +influences. The remedy for those conditions is the withdrawal of +national sympathy and support. + +Break the power at Washington of Joseph F. Smith, ruler of the Kingdom +of God, and every seeker after federal patronage in Utah will desert +him. Break his power as a political partner of the Republican party +now--and of the Democratic party should it succeed to office--and every +ambitious politician in the West will rebel against his throne. Break +his power to control the channels of public communication through +interested politicians and commercial agencies, and the sentiment of the +civilized world will join with the revolt of the "American movement" in +Utah to overthrow his tyrannies. Break his connection with the illegal +trusts and combines of the United States, and his financial power will +cease to be a terror and a menace to the industry and commerce of the +intermountain country. + +The nation owes Utah such a rectification, for the nation has been, in +this matter, a chief sinner and a strong encourager of sin. President +Theodore Roosevelt, representing the majesty of the Republic, stayed us +when we might have won our own liberties in the revolt that was provoked +by the election of Senator Apostle Reed Smoot. Misled by political +and personal advisers, the President procured delays in the Smoot +investigation. He seduced senators from their convictions. He certified +the ambassador from the Kingdom of God as a qualified senator of the +United States. He gave the hand of fellowship to Joseph, the tyrant of +the Kingdom. He rebuked our friends and his own, in their struggle +for our freedom, by warning them that they were raising the flag of a +religious warfare. He filled the Mormon priests with the belief that +they might proceed unrestrainedly to the sacrifice of women and children +upon the polygamous altar, to the absolute rule of politics in the +intermountain states, and to the commercial exploitation of their +community in partnership with the trusts. The one policy that President +Taft seems to have accepted unimpaired from his predecessor is this +same respect for the power of the Mormon kingdom. In his placid but +wholehearted way he has encouraged his co-ordinate ruler, the Mormon +Prophet, and extended the Executive license to the support and +inevitable increase of these religious tyrannies of the Mormon hierarchs +which now the people of Utah, unaided, are wholly unable to combat. + +And the nation owes such a rectification not only to Utah, but also to +itself. The commercial and financial Plunderbund that is now preying +upon the whole country is sustained at Washington by the agents of the +Mormon Church. The Prophet not only delivers his own subjects up to +pillage; he helps to deliver the people of the entire United States. +His senators are not representatives of a political party; they are the +tools of "the Interests" that are his partners. The shameful conditions +in Utah are not isolated and peculiar to that state; they are largely +the result of national conditions and they have a national effect. The +Prophet of Utah is not a local despot only: he is a national enemy; and +the nation must deal with him. + +I do not ask for a resumption of cruelty, for a return to proscription. +I ask only that the nation shall rouse itself to a sense of its +responsibility. The Mormon Church has shown its ability to conform to +the demands of the republic--even by "revelation from God" if necessary. +The leaders of the Church are now defiant in their treasons only because +the nation has ceased to reprove and the national administrations have +powerfully encouraged. As soon as the Mormon hierarchy discovers that +the people of this country, wearied of violated treaties and broken +covenants, are about to exclude the political agents of the Prophet from +any participation in national affairs, the advisers of his inspiration +will quickly persuade him to make a concession to popular wrath. As soon +as the "Interests" realize that the burden of shame in Utah is too large +to be comfortable on their backs, they will throw it off. The President +of the United States will be unable to gain votes by patronizing the +crucifiers of women and children. The national administrations will +not dare to stand against the efforts of the Gentiles and independent +Mormons of Utah to regain their liberty. And Utah, the Islam of the +West, will depose its old Sultan and rise free. + +With this hope--in this conviction--I have written, in all candor, +what no reasons of personal advantage or self-justification could +have induced me to write. I shall be accused of rancor, of religious +antagonism, of political ambition, of egotistical pride. But no man +who knows the truth will say sincerely that I have lied. Whatever +is attributed as my motive, my veracity in this book will not be +successfully impeached. In that confidence, I leave all the attacks that +guilt and bigotry can make upon me, to the public to whom they will +be addressed. The truth, in its own time, will prevail, in spite of +cunning. I am willing to await that time--for myself--and for the Mormon +people. + + + +The End + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Prophet in Utah, by +Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. 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