Teachers Of Mormonism

TEACHERS OF MORMONISM

Propagate Their Doctrines Among Dixboro People

Pastor Pearce's Letter

Enclosed the recent report of the Salt Lake Ministerial Association

   The following letter has been received by the Argus: Dixboro, May 30, 1902.

Editor Argus:

  Two young men calling themselves ministers of the gospel, are visiting the people around here trying, as they say, to enlighten them upon the Mormon religion, claiming they they have misrepresented. In view of what they are saying will you kindly publish free if you can the inclosed communication which I cut out of the Michigan Christian Advocate of May 10, 1902.

  I have been requested to ask you to publish it, and think your readers arounds here would be glad to see it in your weekly edition.

Very truly,

F. E. PEARCE,

Pastor M.E. Church.

   The following report was adopted by the Salt Lake ministerial association, Feb 10, 1902:

   The persistent efforts made by Mormon missionaries to mislead the people of the east and south concerning conditions in Utah, and certain highly incorrect statements made by a prominent eastern politician, render it imperative that an effort be made to counteract these misrepresentations. The gentleman referred to in an interview widely published, said, concerning the affairs in Mormondom:                                                         

"I have been out there intermittently for a little over a year and recently have taken up my abode in Salt Lake City.  I have met a great many Mormons and have nothing but praise for them.  I believe they are living real American lives as regards to marriage. The Mormons had a revelation that they should make no more plural marriages, and they always live up to their revelations.  Those who already had plural wives were not compelled to be considered divorced, but they practically went to the extreme. They do not live with more than one woman, although they provide for the others.  No more plural marriages are made.  I think this speaks well for the male Mormons". 

   These statements, which appear so grotesquely and absurdly untrue that they but create a smile among all who know the facts, may, if uncontradicted, become a serious addition to the large amount of misinformation constantly emanating from Mormon sources.

CONDITIONS AND TENDENCIES.

  "Therefore the ministerial association of Salt Lake City has instituted inquiries to ascertain the present condition and tendencies covering the following four points, viz.:

First. The continuance of polygamous cohabitation in cases where plural marriages had been entered into prior to the issuance of the famous manifesto of the president of the Mormon church in 1890 and granting of statehood in January, 1896.

   Second. Plural marriages entered into since the manifesto professedly "suspended" the practice.

   Third. Present-day teachings of Mormon authorities on the subject of polygamy.

   Fourth. Purpose of the colonization schemes now so vigorously prosecuted by which large settlements of Mormons are being established in Wyoming, Oregon, Mexico and British possessions.

   Correspondence on these points was solicited from well-known citizens, ministers and others in a number of the chief centers of population in the state, and as a result facts in abundance have been brought to the notice of your committee, which more than confirm all that this association has before declared concerning the perpetuation of the vice and crime of polygamy and polygamous cohabitation, and show the utter ignorance disregarding of the facts in the statement referred to in the opening paragraph of this paper.

   SAY POLYGAMY IS PROVEN

   The return coming from parties whose reliability in every case can be vouched for by members of this body show the following conditions prevailing at the present time:

   First. Polygamous cohabitation as evidenced by the birth of children, or the acknowledgement of parties concerned, or concurrent testimony of neighbors, and sometimes by all of these, is proven to continue in multiplied instances in Salt Lake City, Logan, Brightham City, Provo, Payson, Smithfield, American Fork, Price, Sandy, Tooele, etc. in Utah and also in Paris and Montpelier, in Idaho.

   Second. That plural marriages have been contracted since the manifesto was issued is shown by returns giving names of parties in several of the above mentioned places, some of the new plural wives not having come to a marriageable age as early as 1890, the date of that document.

   Your committee does not deem it wise or necessary at the present juncture to publish names and cite instances in support of the avernments here made, but we put the association in possession of the facts, which can be used if the necessity should arise for spreading them before the public.

POLYGAMY IS TAUGHT

Third:  That the Mormon authorities continue to publicly teach and insist upon the rightfulness of polygamy is abundantly proven by public utterances of high officials.

  At the quarterly conference of Cache county stake, held at Logan, Jan. 28, 1901, Apostle Cowley said: "If you have a man in the priesthood who does not acquaint himself with all of the doctrines of the church and teach the same, both by precept and example, to the families of his district, or if you have a teacher in your Sunday school who would repudiate or encourage the young to disregard a single doctrine of the church, plural marriage and all, turn them out.  They have no business in the priesthood. The social evils and immoralities will never be done away with until the world accepts that principal, for God has spoken it. These revelations received by our prophets and seers are all of God, and we cannot, we dare not, repeal or annul them without making God a liar, and God cannot lie."

   At Sanpete stake conference, Sept., 1899, George Q. Cannon first counselor to President Snow, publicly stated:

"The people of the world do not believe in breeding, but we do.  So the people of the world will die out and we will fill the whole earth.  I admit that those raising children by plural wives are not complying with the man-made laws, but in the sight of God they are not sinning, as there is no sin in it."

JOSEPH SMITH'S ADDRESS.

   Joseph F. Smith, formerly chief counselor to President Snow, and now president of the church, said in 1896, while dedicating a meeting-house in Payson:

   "Take care of your polygamous wives. We don't care for Uncle Sam now."

   In an address to a conference of young ladies in Mammouth, Utah, two years ago, Mrs. Susa Young Gates, the granddaughter of Brigham Young, and an editor and lecturer not unknown in the east said     

 "Girls, do not forget polygamy. You cannot practice it now, but keep it alive in your hearts.  There are four girls to every boy in Utah."   

   The last statement has no foundation except in the lively imagination of the speaker.  The census shows that males are slightly in excess of females here, as in most new states.

   On or about June 4, 19011, at a meeting of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement association, held in the fourteenth ward meeting house, Salt Lake City, Miss Agnes Campbell urged loyal support to the leaders of the church and the doctrines they taught. In this connection she said she was much shocked recently to hear a young lady denounce polygamy and say she would not enter that state if Jesus Christ himself should come down from heaven and ask her to do so.

   Mrs. Eardley, the next speaker, said that "any young lady in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who would make such a remark as reported by Miss Campbell certainly needed the prayers of the Saints."

   At Beaver a few months Elder S.A. White said: "Yes, we believe a man should have one wife today and five tomorrow if he wants them."

   These utterances which might be multiplied indefinitely, show how entirely devoid of truth are statements that polygamy has been abandoned or that the promise of the manifesto or solemn pledge of the Mormon officials to the United States government as a condition of the restoration of the escheated property of the polygamous church is being carried out.

WOULD RE-ESTABLISH SYSTEM.

   The practice and teachings of the ruling powers in the Mormon church are all indicative of an intention to openly re-establish they system whenever it can be done with safety from interference by the United States government.

   The colonizing schemes now being so diligently carried out by the Mormon church officials and people evidently have a twofold purpose.

   PURPOSE OF COLONIZING.

   First. To enable them to practice polygamy where they will be free from the scrutiny and opposition of Gentile neighbors.  For this reason they are migrating in large numbers southward to Mexico and northward to Alberta.  From one neighborhood fifty families  moved to Mexico less than two years ago, nearly all being polygamous, some not long married to plural wives, and having added to the number since, according to common report.

   Second.  The purpose of colonizing in the states other than Utah--in the Rocky Mountain region, and in the territories of Arizona and New Mexico-is that in addition to more easily enjoying polygamous practices,  they may also secure the balance of political power in these sparcely settled states and territories, and so become able to control the election of members of congress especially of United States senators, thus blocking the way of any proposed national legislation hostile to their cherished peculiar institution.

    Nobody that is well informed believes that the priestly oligarchy which rules the Mormon church has any other purpose than to secure by any and every possible means the perpetuation of polygamy.

   The practice of the leaders and their continued insistence upon correctness of the doctrine show most clearly that it still is held as an essential feature of their faith.  This is also confirmed by their bitter opposition to the anti-polygamy amendment to the constitution, and it shows that they are not sincere when they say they have abandoned polygamy.

   Tourists and transient visitors may be cajoled into a belief in the voluntary abandonment of the system, but no one really familiar with the prevailing conditions and tendencies can be mislead by the false pretences in which the Mormon leaders have become so thoroughly expert.

Richard Wake,

R.G. McNiece, Committee.